Ask Anything Q&A Planning

I'll echo the sentiment that we'd love to see the story bible released in a downloadable format. If NCSoft is shuttering the IP and don't plan to use it ever again then there's no harm in letting us see all the backstory and lore that we otherwise won't get to, and maybe some details that never would have made it in-game anyway just as flavor.

My one big question that I will be horribly depressed to not see answered:

What happened with Merulina? Like, who was the dark figure that destroyed her? Does her conciousness live on in the Leviathan or is it simply a vessel for her power that has a darker personality? Where was her power until Calystix conjured The Leviathan? If it was back in Pandora's Box then how in the world did Calystix manage to pull it back OUT to infuse the Leviathan? Were there ever plans to have the Leviathan awaken again? Could we possibly have seen it destroyed to release her power so that Merulina could be resurrected to lead a peaceful Coralax kingdom, leading to an underwater zone?

So many questions and it's always been the most mysterious part of the game to me. I want to know MOAR!

Gosh, there's a ton of things I'd like to know, but here's a few off the top of my head:

1) Were we ever going to get a Ghost Widow/Ice Mistral cat fight over Scirocco? Rawr!
...Okay, but seriously, did you have any plans for that love triangle?

2) Can you share some plans you had for future SSAs? I was really fond of them.

3) Did you have plans for Recluse and Arachnos as a whole moving forward? Without Statesman as a nemesis and with Red Widow back at his side, I really wanted to see where he was going.

4) Can you tell us about some powersets that you had bounced around that seemed like they were realistic additions we might have eventually seen?

Slightly tangential, do we know if/when is the Q/A planned?

An open letter to NCsoft

Is there any artwork or backstory of the Avilians that can be released? Any of the planned, but dropped creations from way back? (Blood of the black earth, etc)

Any lore that wasn't implemented but was talked about in years past.

Grar. Was hoping I might be up to trying to compile this together and create a rough draft document, but after a 7 hour drive in hot weather, I feel I might be too exhausted...

Hiya folks,

I've compiled all the questions on this forum so far and put them in a document. Feel free to add to it and pass it along to your friends.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...m5fIVs7Z4/edit

ATTENTION: an old version of the Story Bible (way old, from 2004) was posted by Golden Girl here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BypR...N2M/edit?pli=1

The file is CoHBible.pdf and it has such a crapload of information that I just finished reading it at 7:36am. I should sleep. I still want a most recent version of the story bible to be released, but this old version has so much information on the Rikti and Rularuu that my brain was starting to turn to jelly and come out of my ears. Or maybe I really, really need sleep.

Anyway, take a look at that old bible, and you might find your answer to a lot of questions (for example, what Statesman and BABs found in Boomtown that time).

In Port Oakes, behind the arena on the sea-side of it, there is a ramp being built and some sort of construction. I've long pondered with friends on this - is it the launching pad for the rocket to the moonbase? What were they building there?

How awesome was the Moon Zone going to be: Totally Awesome or Completely Awesome?

Were there ever any plans to do a full balance pass on the (de)buff sets?

If you go through Castle's old "Drumroll" thread, http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...223#post176223 , many of the issues from I6 still resonate. Here's a couple quotes that go almost completely against the devs' current design philosophy:

With regards to FF's final three powers: "Drawing Aggro only applies in Teams. If you are teaming, try to get someone with Taunt to be on your team. So long as you aren't hunting +4's, Taunt should last long enough to mitigate this. As far as situational, that is by design."

With regards to the still current builds of defenders plowing more slots into pool powers (medicine and leadership, generally): "With ED, Force Field Defenders have a greater role in teaming than ever before. It is also arguable that they only have three powers worth slotting."

I only have one request:

Tell me everything that was being planned.

I don't know whether someone else has asked in these terms, but:


* I know that the "matrix room" is around as a glitch or perhaps still just there because it's cool. Also that the Paragon Dance Party map is still occasionally used for Devs to decide winners of costume contests and such. Are there other such locations in the game that we were never able to glitch to or see for ourselves?

* Were we ever going to get loincloths, asymmetrical outfit designs, or fingers?

* ... Is Pigg Diving okay now? Can we do that, and can anyone maybe start throwing models at Garry's Mod or XNALara? To be able to export our characters would be truly the most awesome thing ever done.

Were there any plans for ascension after the tenth incarnate slot, or were there going to be more incarnate slots after Omega?

These are the questions I'd love to have answered. I'm sure some of these have already been brought up, but I haven't had time to read the whole thread.

What would the last four incarnate slots be? Was I right, was one of them tier 10 powers for your primary and secondary?

How did the rest of SSA2, Pandora's Box, play out? Does Back Alley Brawler end up getting Statesman's powers like I guessed?

What were the Battalion, really, other than an alien invasion force? How would we have ultimately defeated them?

Why did the Shivans of Bloody Bay end up at odds with the Shivans from Galaxy City?

Would Sister Psyche ever get resurrected?

Would Ms. Liberty ever succeed in redeeming Lord Recluse?

How did the events of Dark Astoria ultimately affect Scirocco?

What was the real story behind Nemesis? Did we ever really encounter the real him?

Which Nemesis became Mender Silos, and how did he break his own "carbon tether" law?

What were Ouroboros and the various menders ultimately up to?

What were those long-abandoned construction sites in port Oakes and Steel Canyon originally planned to become?

I'm actually on the beta server right now. Who are the contacts for parts 4 and 5? Because they don't show on the list.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Venture I'd never use a nuke in a superhero universe. You nuke a city, you kill 1.5 million people minus one. The last guy not only gets superpowers from the explosion, but ones that let him survive a nuke...and wow, is he torqued off

Let's see, might be asking a few repeat questions but here's what Iw as curious about:

What did the battalion actually look like?

Prometheus always seemed like a figure that we would eventually come at odds with, were we ever going to reach a point we'd fight him? And why?

Were we ever going to meet any of the other banished pantheon deities?

Were they any other 'big reveals' about Praetorian Counterparts we never got to? Like counterparts of Primal characters we never got to see -or- established Praetorians whose Primal counterpart was never confirmed?

What was going to be the next 'big threat' after the Battalion?

Was there any external reason for Malaise's eventual return to villainy?

Was there more planned for the Night Ward crew? (Katie Douglas, Midnight Master, Ward, Whispering Coyote) And if so, what?

Was Praetorian ever intended to go to 50? What would have been the 'final' Praetorian Zone?

What was intended to be the next Incarnate Zone?

What is the story behind Prometheus' 'organization', aka the angels in Ouroboros, Dark Astoria, and Night Ward. Who are they? What is their agenda?

Were there any more Praetorian and/or Incarnate Taskforces in the works?

Would we have ever seen Primal side Devouring Earth at 'incarnate' level?

What would have been the outcome of Marcus Cole's and Dominatrix's trials?

What happened to Praetorian Infernal?

Would we have seen Scirroco ever defect to become a Hero? Who would have taken his place as a patron?

Were there any other survivors from the Omega team?

Would we have eventually seen the Rikti homeworld?

Who was the embodiment of the Well of the Furies? it has been implied we had met them.

Would Praetoria have ever been liberated from the Hamidon?

Statesman and Recluse were the Incarnates fo Zeus and Tartarus respectively, were there any other incarnates of mythic figures we hadn't been told about?

Is Lady Grey an incarnate?

What other existing characters were incarnates but it had not been revealed about them yet?

What was Darrin Wade's planned fate?

Were we ever going to meet other Cimeroran counterparts, like Marathon? (Assuming that was Synapse's counterpart)

What exactly is the deal with the 'past counterparts'? Reincarnation? Or some other reason?

Would we have ever seen a good Recluse from an alternate dimension?

Were there any future plans for Croatoa or any of it's villain groups?

Did Maelstrom survive the TPN trial? If so, what happened to him?

Was the Last Bastion in Praetoria ever intended to be a zone?

What was the plan to develop the Illuminati? Would they have ever had an in game presence and even taken over areas from Arachnos?

What happened to Marshal Blitz?

Were there any more plans for the Shining Stars? What caused Flambeaux to break from them?

Would we have ever seen Grym's world?

Were you guys really going to firebomb Perez Park with Battalion forces?

Why did Maria Jenkins and Percy Winkley both have prompts to 'return to them at 50'? Were there arcs planned for them?

What was 'beyond' Incarnates? Prometheus told us about becoming 'Ascended', would we have ever been able to reach that state?

Was Sister Psyche as permanently dead as Statesmen or would she have made an eventual return in some form?

That's about all i can think of off the top of my head, I could probably come up with more but that's a pretty big list XD