I would guess it's because without his mission, nobody would have any idea who he was. Wade is a pretty minor figure in the game, after all. So the arc that he gives (and his brief appearance in Mercedes Shelton's redside arc) are about the only ways to learn who he is and what his goals are.
There are so many ways that the continuity is messed up at this point (the current favorite example is that you can get a taskforce from adult Penelope Yin at the same time you're doing the Faultline arcs, where she's still a kid). I don't particularly see a problem with keeping Wade in game. (I honestly don't see why Statesman and Sister Psyche needed to be wiped out of all the older content, too, but that's another issue).
Jack Emmert didn't create Darrin Wade.
More seriously, even if the devs do plan to eventually have him disappear from the game world, it's likely that they decided to save that work until a later Issue so that they wouldn't be changing too much at once (less margin for error that way).
As far as him continuing to hand out missions after killing Statesman, that still takes place before WWD chronologically. If you create a brand new villain right now, and by level 30 play up through WWD and Darrin Wade's arc, the timeline is consistent since you don't even know what he's up to until later in WWD (which won't open up to your villain until after you've passed Wade's level range as a contact).
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Not true, this is another example of how level ranges enforce continuity. Young Penny's level range is 15-19, but adult Penny won't allow anyone below level 20 to run her task force. Yes, it's a pretty big time jump, but it's roughly consistent.
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Originally Posted by Guinefort
There are so many ways that the continuity is messed up at this point (the current favorite example is that you can get a taskforce from adult Penelope Yin at the same time you're doing the Faultline arcs, where she's still a kid).
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"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
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This is basically true for States and Psyche as well from the perspective of any new player. Other than Who Will Die? and Silo's pseudo-TF/SF they don't appear in game.|
Originally Posted by Guinefort
I would guess it's because without his mission, nobody would have any idea who he was. Wade is a pretty minor figure in the game, after all. Wade is a pretty minor figure in the game, after all.
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Originally Posted by DarkGob
More seriously, even if the devs do plan to eventually have him disappear from the game world, it's likely that they decided to save that work until a later Issue so that they wouldn't be changing too much at once (less margin for error that way).
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Originally Posted by DarkGob
As far as him continuing to hand out missions after killing Statesman, that still takes place before WWD chronologically. If you create a brand new villain right now, and by level 30 play up through WWD and Darrin Wade's arc, the timeline is consistent since you don't even know what he's up to until later in WWD (which won't open up to your villain until after you've passed Wade's level range as a contact).
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Thanks for the answers though. Glad to see I didn't just miss a Redname comment in all the drama related to the SSA.
"Mastermind Pets operate...differently, and aren't as easily fixed. Especially the Bruiser. I want to take him out behind the woodshed and pull an "old yeller" on him at times." - Castle
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Wibbly wobbly timey wimey.
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Originally Posted by Oldeb
I thought Paragon Studios switched to a release date timeline with I20?
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"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
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/This. CoH chronology isn't always consitent, but it's long been my impression that the chronology is generally based on character level and not real time. I think this is most evident in Tip missions, where certain NPCs undergo character development (i.e., Desdemona is a villain in the 20-30 level range, but by the time you're level 40 she's reformed and become a hero)|
Originally Posted by DarkGob
As far as him continuing to hand out missions after killing Statesman, that still takes place before WWD chronologically.
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That's why I was surprised to see that although the SSA#2 is clearly a sequal to SSA#1, you can access the first arc in SSA#2 10 levels earlier than the final mission of SSA#1. That seem weird to anyone else?
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Faultline takes place before WWD. They removed references to Statesman (in Agent G's what-could-happen scenarios) and Psyche (formerly chief among the people who were mentioned mentoring Penelope Yin in the final debriefing; thankfully, they didn't just search/replace that and have Penny tutoring herself).|
Originally Posted by DarkGob
As far as him continuing to hand out missions after killing Statesman, that still takes place before WWD chronologically.
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Oof. I just hate how the whole thing was handled.
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That other game has to mash all the good stuff into the last level and then release an expansion with a new last level to mash all the good stuff into. The TARDIS couldn't unravel all the timey-wimeyness of the CoH story so I'll put up with some weirdness for new non-incarnate content.
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Originally Posted by Red_Raccoon
That's why I was surprised to see that although the SSA#2 is clearly a sequal to SSA#1, you can access the first arc in SSA#2 10 levels earlier than the final mission of SSA#1. That seem weird to anyone else?
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Not to mention they never explained how some of the signature heros and villains can be in multiple locations at the same time, ie Miss Liberty is in 3 locations now, Atlas Park, IP and Ft Triton.
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Originally Posted by Cinder_Flux
Not to mention they never explained how some of the signature heros and villains can be in multiple locations at the same time, ie Miss Liberty is in 3 locations now, Atlas Park, IP and Ft Triton.
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Why does it need to be explained? It isn't like "you" can be at two places at once, so as far as "you" are aware, they just happen to be there when you show up there.
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Originally Posted by Cinder_Flux
Not to mention they never explained how some of the signature heros and villains can be in multiple locations at the same time, ie Miss Liberty is in 3 locations now, Atlas Park, IP and Ft Triton.
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It's sort of a hack to get around the way that NPCs stay in the same place every hour of the day and night, rather than moving around the way actual people do.
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Originally Posted by Cinder_Flux
Not to mention they never explained how some of the signature heros and villains can be in multiple locations at the same time, ie Miss Liberty is in 3 locations now, Atlas Park, IP and Ft Triton.
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As others have mentioned, removing Wade gives a real "who?" situation in Who Will Die, so it's kind of important to keep him in the game for something. I think it'd be nice to see him Praetorian-phased for folks that finish WWD7, though. Or heck, WWD5, really. Change his arc in Ouroboros to make him a phone-only contact and it's a seemingly simple fix.
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Consideration: Dimensional portals do not necessarily allow travel to the same point in time in the two connected dimensions. This explains why Sutter happens before the war breaks out, even though the war has apparently already broken out. It also explains how you can travel to Praetoria through Pocket D after the Magisterium trial and everything's doing fine. And how we end up killing Mother Mayhem multiple times.|
Originally Posted by Oldeb
I thought Paragon Studios switched to a release date timeline with I20? Otherwise the Sutter TF is a huge problem, what with fighting a battle in an invasion that won't start until you're an Incarnate.
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Heck, it even explains the Maria Jenkins retcon! The original Hero's Hero arc was Praetoria's distant future, where the Praetors ruled unopposed, eventually destroying Hamidon, but at the cost of turning their own world into a post-apocalyptic nightmare! But due to interaction with Primal Earth, their past was altered! Even the accusation that both sides "shot first" is explained this way.
...that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
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Same could be said of States and Psyche. Why should anyone care if these two random heroes get killed if we never see them anywhere else in the game except for their cameos in the tutorial?
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Originally Posted by Lazarillo
As others have mentioned, removing Wade gives a real "who?" situation in Who Will Die, so it's kind of important to keep him in the game for something. I think it'd be nice to see him Praetorian-phased for folks that finish WWD7, though. Or heck, WWD5, really. Change his arc in Ouroboros to make him a phone-only contact and it's a seemingly simple fix.
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Except that the Faultline arcs are all clearly taking place in pretty rapid succession, Penelope shows up as a kid at the end of Agent G's arc, and there's discussion of what's going to happen to her. It wouldn't exactly confuse anyone, but that's still pretty chronologically inconsistent.
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Originally Posted by DarkGob
Not true, this is another example of how level ranges enforce continuity. Young Penny's level range is 15-19, but adult Penny won't allow anyone below level 20 to run her task force. Yes, it's a pretty big time jump, but it's roughly consistent.
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States and Psyche are still a part of the game's overall lore. Their profiles are included as part of background information on the game's setting on the official website. References to their presence remain in the game itself as well. Ms. Liberty's still States' grand-daughter (hilarious copy/paste typoes notwithstanding); history plaques still reference their deeds; other characters have stories that coexist with theirs. They're front and center in tie-in materials as well like the novel or the comics. |
Originally Posted by Xzero45
Same could be said of States and Psyche. Why should anyone care if these two random heroes get killed if we never see them anywhere else in the game except for their cameos in the tutorial?
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They don't get any in-game development, but they never did, so in that regard, there's no less reason to care about them now, either.
Wade, on the other hand, is a random guy with a penchant for hammy dialogue and a fine appreciation for the color purple. And without his arc, that's about it. Interacting with him villainside is the only thing that fits him into a role as anything other than a deus ex machina.
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But 25 levels later she's a child in the LGTF!|
Originally Posted by DarkGob
Not true, this is another example of how level ranges enforce continuity. Young Penny's level range is 15-19, but adult Penny won't allow anyone below level 20 to run her task force. Yes, it's a pretty big time jump, but it's roughly consistent.
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WWD has pretty much shattered what little semblance of logical chronological progression existed in this game. They could hardly have been more pants-on-head about it if they'd tried; the past few issues, storywise, have mostly succeeded in making the overarching "plot" needlessly opaque to new players and borderline nonsense to old ones. So, uh, good job striking that balance, I guess?
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He was a deus ex machina regardless of having an arc beforehand. He beat Statesman purely because he spent 20 years off screen studying States, and he showed zero intention of ever wanting him dead to begin with. He came out of nowhere, killed him, then left. And despite having an arc, no one actually cared about him before the SSA, either. Darrin really needs to at least be phased out if you've run SSA 5, 6, or 7.
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Originally Posted by Lazarillo
Wade, on the other hand, is a random guy with a penchant for hammy dialogue and a fine appreciation for the color purple. And without his arc, that's about it. Interacting with him villainside is the only thing that fits him into a role as anything other than a deus ex machina.
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Different strokes, I guess. I rather enjoyed his arcs. It established who he was, his attitude, what his goals were (even if the "how" wasn't). I'd always looked forward to getting to work with him again, since back when he was introduced, he even gave the "Let's talk again when you're a higher level" spiel once his arc was over. He comes out of nowhere for heroes, certainly. He's supposed to. But for the sake of the players, the arc's a good way to establish him, to my mind.|
Originally Posted by Xzero45
He was a deus ex machina regardless of having an arc beforehand. He beat Statesman purely because he spent 20 years off screen studying States, and he showed zero intention of ever wanting him dead to begin with. He came out of nowhere, killed him, then left. And despite having an arc, no one actually cared about him before the SSA, either. Darrin really needs to at least be phased out if you've run SSA 5, 6, or 7.
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Though I said before and will say again: I agree he should get phased. He just shouldn't get completely removed the way States and Psyche were.
Was there a reason Darrin Wade was not removed from the game along with Sister Psyche and Statesman following the events of Who Will Die? The events at the end of the SSA don't leave him in a position to be handing out missions or having other people send you to talk to him any more than Statesman.
With all the attention on Psyche and States I don't remember if Paragon Studios ever commented on why he was kept unchanged. I find it hard to believe they simply forgot about him seeing as he's the only NPC involved with all seven parts of the SSA and "Who Will Die?" could have better been titled "The Rise and Fall of Darrin Wade."
"Mastermind Pets operate...differently, and aren't as easily fixed. Especially the Bruiser. I want to take him out behind the woodshed and pull an "old yeller" on him at times." - Castle