i25 = Coming Storm

Unless I'm understanding things wrong, the Shivans in Bloody Bay are different from the Neo-Shivans (the ones who crashed into Galaxy) in that they aren't affiliated with the Battalion. Sometime after the events of Bloody Bay (which actually took place in 1989, so before the game was released, even though we didn't have access to the zone yet) the Battalion took over the Shivan's Well (which may have been Shiva itself), and gained control of their species. For some reason the Shivans already on Earth were disconnected and not affected by it, though. (Honestly it's not entirely clear how all of that works),

The relationship between the two types of Shivans is explored a bit in the Drowning in Blood trial... but yeah, long story short, the original Shivan meteors had nothing to do with the Battalion.

Calling something "Revisionist history" tends to imply intent.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Hmm. I seem to recall the (initial) shivans always being called "advance scouts," with the DIB events being - well, close enough for them to know about it, but they managed to be separated from the (for lack of a better term) "hive mind."

*shrug* Never claimed to remember it perfectly.

See my Guides and Tutorials

I think that's from the mission given by Mender Silos in the Ouroboros introduction arc. You're sent to some point in the future (from when the arc came out, anyway) to where the Shivans have crashed into Atlas Park as forward Scouts for the Coming Storm. The original Shivan models were used for that, since the devs hadn't made the Neo-Shivan models yet. Though obviously that "future" has been altered somewhat.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if that arc has been changed since Freedom launched?

Actually, I think it's had a huge effect on them - they talk about how they used to travel thoguh spce with their "mother", listening to her "song" - which implies that Shiva was their Well - but once the "Dark Father" forced her to become his "bride", they could no longer hear her "song" - and as Wells are like the "soul" or life force of a species, that means that once Battalion consumed Shiva, the Shivans became a species without a soul or life force.
And that explains why they're so static - they can communicate with humans, but they've shown no interest in trying to form any kind of connection with the various groups in Bloody bay, or to try leaving the place - they just wander around, and attack anything that comes close to the meteor fragments, which are the only memory that have of their lost "Mother" and "soul" - they're a race with no drive or ambition, and they're also aware of it, but they can't seem to do anything about it - like all they have left is an endless sadness that they've lost their life force, which makes them one fo the msot tragic groups in the game.

Life finds a way

Having multiple alternate-universe versions of Statesman went out of style when he-who-shall-not-be-named left. Instead, we're going to get an entire race of Mary-Sue Yin.

The only change to any of the missions is that you're level 15 for the Shivan mission instead of 25. Some of the text has changed, though: Mender Tesseract no longer assumes you went through Outbreak/Breakout for your tutorial and Silos mentions that the meteors hit Galaxy City and the future you're going to was the one they originally foresaw.

That would kill two birds with one stone. I like it!

Not only will it debut at the 'end of the world', we'd also have our very own Christmas Invasion!

With the poo storm surrounding Cryptic over the last few days, I'd distance myself from them in any context.

The battalion stole it

You've not tried the new Incarnate arc or the Magisterium Trial in the I23 beta yet, have you?

I won't give away any details, but I will say that of the 2 sides in GR, one of them ends I23 in a better position than the other

There are some semi-spoiler-ish pictures here from the end of the Trial:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...6&postcount=80

People who prefer their salutes with minimal elbow movement shouldn't click the link

Night Ward should get you close to 40 - so there'd only need to be one more zone to make a 1-50 yellow side path - something featuring the DE would be ideal as a lead in to as a Trial against the Hamidon to finally confirm the freedom of Praetorian earth, and prove our total superiority over Tyrant to the Praetorians.
On the MoM Trial, Desdemona, Penny and Aurora all mention getting Praetoria to help Primal Earth against the Coming Storm, so I'm pretty sure that even with the new story focus in I25, Praetoria will still continue to play a part.

The so-called "beta server" is clearly a Resistance lie, meant to weaken our resolve against inter-dimensional assassins eager to destroy the last hope for mankind.

We see your vile propaganda for what it is: the vanguard for the Coming Storm!

You even dress like a villain. C'mon, you're not even trying!

Im wearing spandex, not leather

Or were you referring to the gold stars?

I am referring to the black cape. You know, the superhero equivalent of the black hat. Also, you are standing in the rubble of Nova Praetoria. Not exactly subtle.

I hope you feel good about destroying humanity's last beacon of hope in the multiverse.

Fiend.

I'm with Bill here. If these guys can't proof-read their actual in-game content so that it comes out without so many illiterate, horrible text errors, do we seriously expect any of their official correspondence to pass by an editor on its way out?

No, I will never stop banging on about text errors. Maria Jenkins' "ask about this contact" has typos in it from 2004 that whoever added to her backstory didn't bother to fix.

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.

Well thats put a downer on my day!

The first children of Zeus sprung, fully formed, from a cut in his forehead. Why do you think Statesman - the Incarnate of Zeus - wears the front-only helmet? It's a contraceptive.

...I don't think I want this zeus helmet, after all.