So Ms. Liberty is now Positron's Grand-daughter?

And the devs try saying Sister Psyche isn't blatantly sexualized.

You only ever saw him in Independence Port - that's hardly a huge change you'd notice, unless you logged in every day on the Longbow ship there

There was me thinking that he was in Maria Jenkin's arc as well ... and also in Fort Trident - not to mention being the poster boy for the entire friggin' game.

I must be getting forgetful.....

And how often did you run MJ''s arc?

Until SSA1, one of the main complaints about Statesman was that he hardly showed up in the game

GG actually has a valid point here. States rarely showed up in game or did anything. The only times the player hereo interacts with him are when you run an STF, save him from Praetoria at nearly the very end of the game, or chit chat with him at Fort Trident where he just puts Positron down for making B.O.T.L.E.R.

That's a grand total of three times. And villains only see him in the LRSF at the very end, and at the end of VEAT arc. But that's only if you're a VEAT. Statesman is the face of the game in advertisement only. Once you enter the game, you're pretty much left asking "Who's this guy, and why should I care?" Unfortunately, rather than expand on his character and give him depth, or lend a hand to newbie heroes, or really just anything, the devs decide to just kill him and replace him with Positron and Ms. Liberty. Hell, in the very SSA story arc that he was hyped up to die in, he doesn't appear until the very end of the fifth episode. And that's only for his death which, even then, the player isn't involved at all in.

Back in the day MJ's arc used to be the pinnacle of the game. Along with my SG we regularly played for hours every night - with the aim of getting characters up to 50 whilst doing that very arc.

So .. yes, I've ran the MJ arc on numerous occasions - many more times than you have I'll wager.

The point about Statesman not appearing in the game is pretty redundant. None of the sig NPC's do - and they were never intended to.

The game is all about the player - us essentially.

Statesman and the other signature NPC's are there to reinforce the feeling of belonging in a world of superheroes.

Game immersion basically.

Statesman was very much at the focal point of that game immersion, and it worked rather well.

Take away that focal point (for whatever reason) and you lose the focus of the entire game - however subtle that loss may be.

It may be just me but the loss of Statesman is something that I find doesn't benefit the game in any way.

I just checked and the souvenir for A Hero's Hero is entirely intact. With several mentions of Statesman and not a single mention of Positron.

So, as far as I can tell, only A Hero's Epic has been changed.

That's correct - "A Hero's Hero" is a "historical" arc now, and timeline-wise, it now takes place before the tutorial.
"A Hero's Epic" happens after the death of Statesman, but before the Praetorian war.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

Heroes now talk to Positron, who's been researching Incarnates.

I thought "researching Incarnates" was just the excuse he used when Numina caught him downloading videos of scantily-clad heroines?


It seems that some people will go pretty darn far to maintain their cover stories.

And now I'm in pain from accidentally inhaling Pringles while laughing.

Lessee, we've got "going out on patrol," "researching Incarnates"... how many other euphemisms have NumiTron got going on?

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)

Exqueeze me? Where did you get the idea that this is General Forum Belief or that there is anything in the game that supports this theory? Less confrontationally stated, "What in-game lore is there that you think is suggestive of such a relationship?"

Handing her Excalibur is not such lore, in and of itself. We don't know the circumstances of that exchange, that I've ever heard, anyway.

As far as the copy-and-paste retconning, I'm sorry to say that I don't really expect better than that these days.

Wait....what?

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I recall seeing a lot of posts to that effect a couple of years ago. ("A lot" here means perhaps five to ten; it isn't like the subject comes up that often. And keep in mind the inherent vagueness of "I recall.")

I listed the in-game lore that people suggested implied such a relationship. Personally, though, I agree with your statement that it's a huge, improbable leap from "handing her Excalibur" to "he's her father." All in all, I'm inclined to agree with you that people were seeing things. Sorry if I didn't make that clear in my first post.

I knew it! Praetorian Penny's been the real enemy all along!

That...is kinda brilliant.

My thoughts exactly

More, like, it fits until Sam and Venture start poking holes in it ^_^

No, I'd actually like that. It does make a certain bit of sense provided the copy didn't know it is a copy. It feeds off existing content, such a the old "A Hero's Hero" arc with only minor changes and it builds on existing content - the mission where Anti-Matter creates a perfect duplicate Praetorian Clockwork Statesman that fails because we stop it before it's properly programmed.

This is also a real play-through of Automatic Villainy, in the sense that this time, the plot is not a ruse. You have a Statesman copy that's so perfect it thinks it's the real deal, but it's not quite perfect enough to match the man in all aspects. If we claim that Tyrant granted the copy a portion of his power as he does with his other followers, then the copy can even wield the Statesman's true powers and even respond to spells tied to these powers.

This would also explain the man's erratic behaviour in SSA1.5 and his dumb death, as well as open the door to a whole other story of how the copy went through a crisis of fate when it started to realise it was not a real creature but just a simple machine. It would actually justify the copy wanting to die, feeling it doesn't belong in this world, possibly unable to fight its programming to sabotage Earth's defences against Tyrant, with Primal Cole's real memories bleeding in and mixing with its software.

This has the potential to take a HORRIBLE story and wrap a much better one around it, in the process redeeming the horrible source and indeed turning it into a positive plot point. It also leaves the door open for a lot of psychological drama and quite a few existentialist questions and it presents the opportunity for a story that I really like. I like it enough, as a point of fact, that I may want to draw from the idea for my own use.

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.

It also ties nicely into a Praetorian story arc where they build a perfect replica of Tyrant himself. I think it only fails because someone (*looks guilty*) reprograms it to go haywire and kill people. So it's already established that Tyrant has the technology to pull something like that off.

Well, if you ever shape this idea into an AE arc or fanfic, please share. I'm kinda interested in seeing where you'd take it.

And the writers would be able to declare that they meant to do that all along. I mean, no. No, I never come up with a reason later to fill the plot holes left from me just winging it after about the third session when I GM table top games. I have my stories plotted carefully every time I sit down, honest.

I agree with the idea of leaving references to States scattered thru out the game. Who's death are we supposed to have an emotional reaction to in the SSAs if there's no trace left of that person in the game?

Is it better or worse that she knew Manticore was right off screen watching her and no doubt thinking naughty thoughts VERY LOUDLY?

To be fair, Lady Grey is quite a looker.

Oh, Rusty. Now that you know the truth I will be forced to do a little scrambly dance in your brain.