Questions about the Roy Cooling arc (spoilers)

I've been accused of just not getting Roy Cooling's arc and its plot and continuity, and I'm willing to concede this may be true. So, in the interest of getting it, allow me to ask the following questions:

1. What is "tech" that MediCorp scientists created, physically? It's referred to as a circuit board once (when you find it on the sinking ship) and as a chip twice (by Roy Cooling himself), but those are not the same thing, and they aren't interchangeable. Finally, what I give to Malta is neither a board nor a chip, but actual digital information - the schematics of the thing. I've been told that the tech may actually be just information, something along the lines of calibration data or software, but then why would it constitute a chip or a circuit board when neither is an information-carrying medium? If this were data, I'd expect it to be a disk, a disc, a flash drive, a memory card or anything else which is designed and made to hold electronic data.

2. Why are MediCorp scientists unable to simply reproduce the "device?" Neither chips nor circuit boards are hand-made, one-of-a-kind custom products that are inherently unique. They require precision machines that need to be programmed to produce them, and these programmes could have been kept. In fact, all Malta need to replicate the device is its schematics. Furthermore, why do I need the device itself in order to get schematics from it? Why would MediCorp scientists destroy their schematics? Wouldn't they have working blueprints or backups or a prototype of some sort? Why would they only ever make one copy? What if it broke or malfunctioned? What if it turned out to be defective? What if they ended up needing several? What if it turned out to not work all that great and needed to be changed and remade? What if it fried and needed to be replaced? I would understand if it involved some kind of space rock that's not found on Earth, but this is never explained.

3. Why are MediCorp scientists unable to replicate the device once they have it? Why, more specifically, when Roy Cooling seems to be able to replicate its schematics just fine to give to Malta? Now, an argument can be made that MediCorp were trying to replicate the physical device while Roy was only replicating its schematics, but then replicating the physical device becomes irrelevant when they're not losing the physical device. They don't stand to lose anything by trading to Malta, because all Malta want is information, and information is infinitely copyable. So why bring up their inability to copy it at all? They act like I'm going to give up the actual device and MediCorp won't have it to install it, which is clearly not the case.

4. Why are MediCorp scientists trying to replicate the device to begin with? They clearly only need one copy, on account of their having only made one copy initially. They have no reason to replicate the device's physical form as they're not losing its physical form to Malta, and apparently replicating its schematics is easy enough for Roy to do it himself. So why are they trying to make copies of it? If they needed more copies, then they shouldn't have burned the formula and just made multiples right from the start. In fact, they should have done that even if they didn't need multiples, just to be fail-safe.

5. Why do Malta want the device? They already seem to have mediport technology of their own, or at least technology that allows them to teleport away, so do they just want to protect that from the Praetorians? Do we WANT their people to be unable to mediport and die? I guess the implication is that if the device can be used to prevent the mediport system from being suppressed, it can be reverse-engineered to suppress it, but that's my own assertion, because this is never addressed. When given the chance to explain it, Roy just says it's unthinkable. The problem is that this implies that we all know what the consequences of Malta getting the device are, but we just don't want to think about it, when I am in fact dumbfounded. Come to think of it, the whole affair of "getting back" the data seems to make the story act like we gave them the physical device and we're trying to get back, and what's unthinkable is us not having the device and our mediporters suppressing because of it. But this is not the case, as we don't give out our device, but rather a copy of its schematics, so what's scary isn't what we don't have, but rather what Malta have, and this is never addressed.

6. Why are Malta bothering cartoonishly extravagant plans? If they're trying to maintain a low presence, then sinking ships and kidnapping famous executives seems like a bad way to go about it. If schematics is all they need, why can't they just hack MediCorp's computers and pull them from there? Assuming MediCorp foolishly erased all backups making this impossible, why not dump the schematics from the device when it first passed through their hands? We know the leader of the Rogue PPD is working with the Sky Raiders. I'm sure he had access to the device at some point, or could have had access to it if he wanted to. Why couldn't he just copy its schematics, send it on its way to Europe, supply that to the Raiders and on to Malta and that way no-one even knows Malta were ever involved. In fact, why did Malta even need the device? Why stage a raid and sink a ship, when they could have sent one guy to sneak aboard, copy the schematics, reseal the crate and leave before anyone knew about it? They end up having the device stolen, sent abroad, stolen from themselves, and then they hold a hostage for ransom for it yet again.

7. Why are Malta even trying to maintain a low presence to begin with? One would assume what Malta is interested is discretion, not uninvolvement, and the best way to be discreet is to use professionals who can be discreet, like their own commandos. We've seen that Malta use commandos for something as trivial as ruining a young heroine's career, banking that they'll be in and out before anyone even knew they were involved. If Malta wanted the device, they could have had it stolen by professionals on any number of occasions. Right at the start, beating the Rogue PPD to the punch, or taking it from the Rogue PPD with their own commandos, or infiltrating the ship with their own commandos. There are options there, and options that would have been far more discreet than relying on incompetent mercenaries. This just comes off as an excuse to not have Malta in the 20-30 games without actually explaining why they aren't there. Not being involved just seems like tying their own hands when it makes them more visible in the long run.

8. If Malta are trying to keep their involvement secret, why do they introduce themselves as Malta? Why wouldn't Peter lie and say he represents The Patriots or some other made-up organisation? Why even introduce an organisation at all? There are really only two reasons to give the name of your real organisation in such clandestine dealings, and neither applies here. Either you want your organisation to take credit for your actions, which Malta clearly don't want here, or you want to capitalise on your organisation's reputation, which Malta shouldn't have to begin with being that they're a secret conspiracy. This strikes me as a rather unwieldy attempt to tell players about Malta, which isn't actually necessary and, to a large extent, ruins both their secrecy and the story's sense of mystery. Players don't need to know who Malta are before they find out "for real," and throwing an unexplained reference to them 20 levels too early could have been a much better approach.

9. How does Roy Cooling know so much about Malta? He even implies he could talk about them all day if we had time, in turn implying that Malta are well-known. Where does this leave Crimson, then, when he claims Malta are almost unknown, even in intelligence circles? Where does that leave his and Indigo's spy game, their need for secrecy and their whole clandestine style operation when Malta are treated as knowns even in the early game? Knowledge of who and what Malta are is supposed to be restricted, to the point where in the above-mentioned hero career destruction, it's expected that no-one will believe the heroine when she talks about masked commandos, meaning that people don't know Malta exists. If everyone knows that, then she could simply claim it was Malta who attacked her, and everyone would believe it. Malta's entire shtick is their anonymity. It's what they need to operate, so how does Roy Cooling know so much about them? This is never explained, and it's a legitimate question.

10. Why can't mediporters be made available to civilians? This is what this whole story is about, and yet the only reason we're given is "but I won't go into that." Why? This is legitimately interesting. What makes heroes any different from the ordinary folk when so many heroes are actually just ordinary folk, themselves? Roy mentions it's dangerous, but in what way? Is it bad for their health? I doubt it, considering they're enabling it for the sick and elderly, exact people for whom health-deteriorating effects would be the most dangerous. Is their some kind of extreme physical stress involved? Again, no, because we're talking sick and elderly here. Is the system somehow getting overloaded? We know there is some kind of bonding process involved with it, as Dr. Steffard explains in Praetoria's tutorial, but again - this doesn't explain why a cop on the force can't have a mediporter whereas a cop who has a super hero ID can. I can understand if the writer just didn't want to freehand what is essentially very important root canon, but someone has to, eventually. Isn't that what the story bible is for?

These are some of the questions which bothered me as I played through Roy Cooling's arc the last few times. I would appreciate any help in answering any of them.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I don't recall the stuff in the arc well enough and it's 5;15 am so I'm too sleepy to look it up, but I wonder if the issue of reproducing mediporters has something to do with material rather than computer chips and such. Not enough riktimantium* to go around, maybe.



* I just made that up.

Well, as discussed in other threads, it really is a very ineptly-written arc, so this sort of thing is to be expected from it, I suppose.

It should have been a level 45+ arc and involved Malta directly and from the beginning. Roy Cooling could have been introduced as working with Crimson/Indigo.

Ever considered that Roy might well... Not know the specific details?

He's told "We need to get the gizmo." He's like "Okay, I'll find some newb hero to do it."

Sam:

I've had my own theory for ages about how the mediport system works, and while I don't have ALL the text of Cooling's arc memorized, it almost seemed to work with it... which is that all 'registered' heroes (the immersion breaks here for villains, forgive me) have a small implant that monitors life signs (or equivalent for cyborgs/mechs/etc). This pings the mediport system on a regular basis, and should the life signs drop to zero, bam, the mediport kicks in.

For ME at least, it covers how in the comics (both sets), a place can be cut off from the mediport system (Protean blocks the signal so BAB can't be rescued, and I wanna say Malta hijacks the signal in the Blue King comic books to abduct heroes on their way to the hospital).

Problem is, it's longstanding canon that Primal Earth's mediport is based on Rikti tech... so... how did the Praetorians duplicate the same thing? (It may be that it's part of Cole's bargain with the Rikti - exchanging tech for supporting their continued assault on Primal Earth. As for how they could catastrophically use it? Well, now every metahuman is 'tagged' - a selective superweapon that could kill you during transport?)

And then of course, why would villains get the same perk? (It'd be a stretch, but Arachnos could provide it to its minions, while freelancers have gotten hold of Malta's hijacking signal and allow them to actually USE it to port to hospitals... Meh.)

Anyway, re: why not everyone has it - with the limited number of resources any hospital has, if EVERYONE had said implant, one large catastrophe could potentially overload the hospital beyond safety limits (even if rerouted to another zone's hospital). But providing it to the handicapped and elderly (or is it to children - I don't remember), okay, that might be feasible.

Dunno if that helps or not...

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I found the arc to be a fun play, even if the logic is questionable at best. It felt, though, like there should be a lot more to the story, and I'm kind of hoping they will release a follow-up to the arc w/ i20. I can't even hope to KNOW what the big deal was with just the information we're given.

The new villain arc was not quite as messed up, story-telling wise, and seemed to reach a conclusion w/ no need for a follow-up, but really it was just promoting the whole Alpha Slot thing in a way that (to me) needlessly deluted the game's canon.

Lets see if I can check some of these off. Also, serial quotes incoming, long post follows.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow I've been accused of just not getting Roy Cooling's arc and its plot and continuity, and I'm willing to concede this may be true. So, in the interest of getting it, allow me to ask the following questions: 1. What is "tech" that MediCorp scientists created, physically? It's referred to as a circuit board once (when you find it on the sinking ship) and as a chip twice (by Roy Cooling himself), but those are not the same thing, and they aren't interchangeable. Finally, what I give to Malta is neither a board nor a chip, but actual digital information - the schematics of the thing. I've been told that the tech may actually be just information, something along the lines of calibration data or software, but then why would it constitute a chip or a circuit board when neither is an information-carrying medium? If this were data, I'd expect it to be a disk, a disc, a flash drive, a memory card or anything else which is designed and made to hold electronic data.

The tech in the story arc is an upgrade that is supposed to prevent *spoilers about anytime after here*

Hero deaths from the incoming praetorian invation. Remember in the other thread where you were asking why people didn't know praetorians were invading? They do, they just dont publisise it, and are preparing in the shadows. They are aware of Tyrant's plan to shut down the Mediporter system so they can kill metahumans and this upgrade is ment to prevent that.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow 2. Why are MediCorp scientists unable to simply reproduce the "device?" Neither chips nor circuit boards are hand-made, one-of-a-kind custom products that are inherently unique. They require precision machines that need to be programmed to produce them, and these programmes could have been kept. In fact, all Malta need to replicate the device is its schematics. Furthermore, why do I need the device itself in order to get schematics from it? Why would MediCorp scientists destroy their schematics? Wouldn't they have working blueprints or backups or a prototype of some sort? Why would they only ever make one copy? What if it broke or malfunctioned? What if it turned out to be defective? What if they ended up needing several? What if it turned out to not work all that great and needed to be changed and remade? What if it fried and needed to be replaced? I would understand if it involved some kind of space rock that's not found on Earth, but this is never explained.

Remember all the villain missions where you go in, steal the item, and remove all the information from the computers so your the only one who has it? My guess is something like that. Likely not impossible to start from scratch and make a new one, but they seem to be more worried about getting it installed and functional before the invation.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow 3. Why are MediCorp scientists unable to replicate the device once they have it? Why, more specifically, when Roy Cooling seems to be able to replicate its schematics just fine to give to Malta? Now, an argument can be made that MediCorp were trying to replicate the physical device while Roy was only replicating its schematics, but then replicating the physical device becomes irrelevant when they're not losing the physical device. They don't stand to lose anything by trading to Malta, because all Malta want is information, and information is infinitely copyable. So why bring up their inability to copy it at all? They act like I'm going to give up the actual device and MediCorp won't have it to install it, which is clearly not the case.

He specifically says he's not sure why it's taking so long to replicate, but he's filed a complaint with FBSA. It's just a literary device to up suspence. You have no safety net, no margin for error. The real tech is on the line and so are the lives of thousands of supers.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow 4. Why are MediCorp scientists trying to replicate the device to begin with? They clearly only need one copy, on account of their having only made one copy initially. They have no reason to replicate the device's physical form as they're not losing its physical form to Malta, and apparently replicating its schematics is easy enough for Roy to do it himself. So why are they trying to make copies of it? If they needed more copies, then they shouldn't have burned the formula and just made multiples right from the start. In fact, they should have done that even if they didn't need multiples, just to be fail-safe.

Proof of concept. Prototype. They didn't make one device to start because that's all they needed. They made one device, because they had a theory of what might work, and wanted an actual device to test. And really who said they burned the copies themselves? It may well have been the people who stole the tech, that's responsible for that.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow 5. Why do Malta want the device? They already seem to have mediport technology of their own, or at least technology that allows them to teleport away, so do they just want to protect that from the Praetorians? Do we WANT their people to be unable to mediport and die? I guess the implication is that if the device can be used to prevent the mediport system from being suppressed, it can be reverse-engineered to suppress it, but that's my own assertion, because this is never addressed. When given the chance to explain it, Roy just says it's unthinkable. The problem is that this implies that we all know what the consequences of Malta getting the device are, but we just don't want to think about it, when I am in fact dumbfounded. Come to think of it, the whole affair of "getting back" the data seems to make the story act like we gave them the physical device and we're trying to get back, and what's unthinkable is us not having the device and our mediporters suppressing because of it. But this is not the case, as we don't give out our device, but rather a copy of its schematics, so what's scary isn't what we don't have, but rather what Malta have, and this is never addressed.

If the upgrade isn't installed in time, supers may well be wiped out in the invation. Thats kinda /exactly/ what the Malta group wants right?

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow 6. Why are Malta bothering cartoonishly extravagant plans? If they're trying to maintain a low presence, then sinking ships and kidnapping famous executives seems like a bad way to go about it. If schematics is all they need, why can't they just hack MediCorp's computers and pull them from there? Assuming MediCorp foolishly erased all backups making this impossible, why not dump the schematics from the device when it first passed through their hands? We know the leader of the Rogue PPD is working with the Sky Raiders. I'm sure he had access to the device at some point, or could have had access to it if he wanted to. Why couldn't he just copy its schematics, send it on its way to Europe, supply that to the Raiders and on to Malta and that way no-one even knows Malta were ever involved. In fact, why did Malta even need the device? Why stage a raid and sink a ship, when they could have sent one guy to sneak aboard, copy the schematics, reseal the crate and leave before anyone knew about it? They end up having the device stolen, sent abroad, stolen from themselves, and then they hold a hostage for ransom for it yet again.

They want other people to be on the hook for this, however, you were too good for the elite group and revealed their involvement. Had you not interviened, there'd be a lot of Rouge PPD with egg on their face when they learn they were responsible for, not only the deaths of near every super, but also doing nothing to see the tech in the hands of civilians. All with malta presence being unknown.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow 7. Why are Malta even trying to maintain a low presence to begin with? One would assume what Malta is interested is discretion, not uninvolvement, and the best way to be discreet is to use professionals who can be discreet, like their own commandos. We've seen that Malta use commandos for something as trivial as ruining a young heroine's career, banking that they'll be in and out before anyone even knew they were involved. If Malta wanted the device, they could have had it stolen by professionals on any number of occasions. Right at the start, beating the Rogue PPD to the punch, or taking it from the Rogue PPD with their own commandos, or infiltrating the ship with their own commandos. There are options there, and options that would have been far more discreet than relying on incompetent mercenaries. This just comes off as an excuse to not have Malta in the 20-30 games without actually explaining why they aren't there. Not being involved just seems like tying their own hands when it makes them more visible in the long run.

Your probably right about keeping malta out of the 20-30 range, but really the best way to keep people from knowing your involved is to be involved as little as possible too. And from the way it's written the story does a fairly good job of making it seem like your efforts are the only thing that revealed them.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow 8. If Malta are trying to keep their involvement secret, why do they introduce themselves as Malta? Why wouldn't Peter lie and say he represents The Patriots or some other made-up organisation? Why even introduce an organisation at all? There are really only two reasons to give the name of your real organisation in such clandestine dealings, and neither applies here. Either you want your organisation to take credit for your actions, which Malta clearly don't want here, or you want to capitalise on your organisation's reputation, which Malta shouldn't have to begin with being that they're a secret conspiracy. This strikes me as a rather unwieldy attempt to tell players about Malta, which isn't actually necessary and, to a large extent, ruins both their secrecy and the story's sense of mystery. Players don't need to know who Malta are before they find out "for real," and throwing an unexplained reference to them 20 levels too early could have been a much better approach.

It seems to me as if malta was using the fact that, to most of the population, they dont have a reputation. With the ability to say just about whatever they want to get this person to work for them. If the target has an aversion to supers, using the natural vitriol you posses for supers would be the best way to turn him, and if you dont expect yourself to be revieled then there isn't a fear of using your orginization in conversation. As it's natural, and more importantly, true. He wouldn't feel as if he were being lied to.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow 9. How does Roy Cooling know so much about Malta? He even implies he could talk about them all day if we had time, in turn implying that Malta are well-known. Where does this leave Crimson, then, when he claims Malta are almost unknown, even in intelligence circles? Where does that leave his and Indigo's spy game, their need for secrecy and their whole clandestine style operation when Malta are treated as knowns even in the early game? Knowledge of who and what Malta are is supposed to be restricted, to the point where in the above-mentioned hero career destruction, it's expected that no-one will believe the heroine when she talks about masked commandos, meaning that people don't know Malta exists. If everyone knows that, then she could simply claim it was Malta who attacked her, and everyone would believe it. Malta's entire shtick is their anonymity. It's what they need to operate, so how does Roy Cooling know so much about them? This is never explained, and it's a legitimate question.

First of all, one government agent does not a well-known orginization make. It's the same thing I feel the need to say when you mention the origin of power arc. Just because one person in the game world says something, it does not mean it's the god-given law of the universe. NPC comments are only as accurate as so far as the NPC's knowledge allows. Second he says they could talk about their motives and twists all day long, but we have a deadline to meet. This implies, not that he could talk about Malta all day, but that it's a waste of time trying to figure them out, and that you need to just act.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow 10. Why can't mediporters be made available to civilians? This is what this whole story is about, and yet the only reason we're given is "but I won't go into that." Why? This is legitimately interesting. What makes heroes any different from the ordinary folk when so many heroes are actually just ordinary folk, themselves? Roy mentions it's dangerous, but in what way? Is it bad for their health? I doubt it, considering they're enabling it for the sick and elderly, exact people for whom health-deteriorating effects would be the most dangerous. Is their some kind of extreme physical stress involved? Again, no, because we're talking sick and elderly here. Is the system somehow getting overloaded? We know there is some kind of bonding process involved with it, as Dr. Steffard explains in Praetoria's tutorial, but again - this doesn't explain why a cop on the force can't have a mediporter whereas a cop who has a super hero ID can. I can understand if the writer just didn't want to freehand what is essentially very important root canon, but someone has to, eventually. Isn't that what the story bible is for?

Likely it has to do with the level of danger an individual finds themselvs in vs. available resources. Registered supers find themselves in much greater danger than others far more regularly, so the limited resources are directed at them. But of course that's just a theory. Also, the preatorian Medi-porter may well be an entirely different animal. There's no need for them to be the same thing. In the Apex/War Witch comics, wasn't it something attached to the dude's belt?

Tl;dr version: This arc, like a lot of the recent "content," is all fluff and no substance. It's a half-hearted attempt to slap a story around fancy new mechanics, rather than using mechanics to support a strong story.

Longwinded ranty version: Malta hasn't been a super-sekrit shadowy conspiracy in....a very long time. First they cut a deal with Recluse. Then they started calling out random villains in the Grandville papers. Then they started robbing pawnshops for fresh brains. Oh, and then they gave their extra-super-sekrit untouchable unfindable could-be-anyone-even-a-highly-placed-intelligence-operative board of directors fancy gadgets and purple triangles so all you really need is a particularly nimble Scrapper or Stalker to rip off the mask* and a cell phone camera to take a picture and hand it to Crimson....oh, and they're posting their evil plans on the internet too.

Dear devs: Sappers and giant robots do not a scary villain group make. If it has an ***, we will find a way to kick it. The only thing that can potentially make for a scary villain group is to create a threat that WE CAN'T FIGHT. This can't be done through mechanics without (rightfully) ticking players off. It can only be done through good writing. World Wide Red wasn't a threat because of the giant robot; the robot meant that we were winning. It was a threat because if we hadn't won, they could have killed us with the touch of a button. Unfortunately that little setback seems to have hurt Malta more than we realized, since they now seem fresh out of ideas and have to resort to moar robots.


*As I was typing this I got a sudden mental image of the Malta board of directors pulling a Zemo and gluing their masks to their faces. Hilarity ensues. Admittedly, it's funnier in my head than game mechanics will allow for.

How Malta is a secret is anyone's guess.

They walk around the streets of Peregrine Island, for crying out loud.
Even if we think that civvies don't "con" any mobs in the world, surely the amount of gargantuan robots spawning in Founders' Falls would cause people to ask questions.

I had much the same questions as Sam (whom remains my favourite poster), including...if the Sky Raiders wanted to make a deal with Malta, easy enough. Why would a Malta boss, even if it's a trap, allow himself to be taken to Sharkhead without backup (yes, a Zeus titan arrives...) and so on?

The whole arc is full of holes. I mean, why is Castillo even fighting me? Three times? The Rikti re-invaded and they "made" the medi-port, so why aren't they changing the medi-port system or scrambling it?
Why is Roy Cooling trusting my wet-behind-the-ears Energy/Energy Blaster with something this important? I realize it's an in-game arc/adventure, fine. Just seems built on shaky ground.

Also, from a rewards standpoint, 5 Merits for defeating 3-4 Elite Bosses (Zeus Titan, Castillo, Castillo and isn't there another?) seems kinda low. The badge is nice though.

I got the impression that the Mediport tech isn't used for the general population because "normal" people can't use or, possibly, survive the mediport process.

Also, I hate Malta.