Ramiel's arc, the letter-writer, and you!

SPOILERS!

No, seriously, for those of you who haven't done the DA arcs yet... SPOILERS!

...


So, in Ramiel's arc (which needs a second-pass in the writing department since the Death of Statesplates, because certain characters keep referring to him as though he were alive), the final clue is a letter from "the letter writer", who intones that you may already be working with him.

Well, we find out in the DA arcs that the letter writer is the Midnight Doctor... but you can't access the DA arcs until you've unlocked the incarnate system, right? So how is this possible? Or is it theoretically possible to do the DA arcs and THEN do Ramiel's mission?

Either way, the arc needs a second pass for these things =)

I -JUST- did it and got the pop-up only when i completed Ramiel's arc.

And i KNEW i had that dream guy's name wrong. Was i confusing him with that dude in First Ward?

You can also unlock the Alpha Slot with an unlock voucher from Astral Christy, from gaining iXP in either DA or iTrials, or buying iXP with Threads.

Once the Alpha Slot is unlocked Captain Nolan will become a Contact and players will be able to start the DA arcs.

Since you don't have to have completed Ramiel's arc to get Nolan as a Contact (and start the DA arcs) it doesn't necessarily follow that you'd get the text from Ramiel before meeting the Dream Doctor.

Also, there are other letter's that a player can receive from the letter writer before getting to level 50 and having access to Ramiel's arc, so it is entirely possible that a player may already be working with him before doing Ramiel's arc. This seems to be the reference being made in Ramiel's arc.

You may want to check The Pilgrim's arc, Lazarus' arc, Twilight Son's TF, Tesseract's SF, Mender Silos' TF or SF, Imperious TF, Adair's arc and MacArthur's arc. In some cases you get the letters as clues and in other cases the letters are handed to you.

Well here's the thing: in the "Ramiel" letter, the letter-writer says he "may have just seen you minutes ago". SEEN. As in, IN PERSON. As in, The Dream Doctor himself talked to you and you knew who he was (unlike the other letters which are written as if you have no clue who he is).

Otherwise, if it IS possible, the entire arc is superfluous as it's about you unlocking alpha. And is there any point at which DD says "so now that your an incarnate, go learn about being an incarnate and go unlock your Alpha slot"

"uhm but i already have t4 in Alpha through Hybri-"

"No buts, just go!"

VIP Players that haven't unlocked the Alpha Slot can run the DA arcs while on a team with someone that has unlocked the Alpha Slot.

So, it is still possible that the player has seen the Dream Doctor and worked with them (while on someone else's mission) before running the Ramiel arc.

More of that wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey ... stuff.

That line has been there since before we even found out who the letter writer was. It's not so much for the purpose of preserving continuity if a player does things in a funny order, it's just a piece of narration to show that the letter writer is not perfectly omniscient. He didn't know precisely which path the future would take when he planted the letter there.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the letter is found in the past. In the various letters the Dream Doctor seems to have pretty much forgotten what order your various time travel adventures happen in terms of your personal chronology.

I don't buy that logic on account of the fact that the Devs posted the letters nearly chronologically. NONE of the other letters suggest that you're working with DD yet. They also all tell us to look for him "in the pillar of ice and flame", which has absolutely NOTHING to do with how we find out who he is.

In other words, I don't think the devs knew who the letter writer was or how he was going to be re-introduced until just before I22 at the earliest. Kinda shoody >_>