Lore AMA... coming soon...ish
By
Ace_of_Hearts,
Posted on: 2012-09-05 05:42 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Edit -> First off, I'd like to thank you for doing this. We know that you didn't need to, and are really appreciative that you are so considerate of the fans that you would take the time to answer our lore questions like this. It really does solidify my thoughts of you guys as Class A game designers, and where ever you guys get jobs, you might not find me far behind. 
Was there anything planned for a Boomtown remake?
What were the rocket launch pads going to be used for, and when were they officially abandoned by the Dev team?
Can you show us any images of what the Battalion were going to look like?
What were the next few incarnate slots going to be?
After the Battalion, what was the next "big idea" that was going to come down the road, if you had thought that far ahead?
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus
Im holding out hope that the game gets saved so I dont want to know anything !!!!!
LA LA LA LA LA LA LA Im not listening !!!!
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
1.) Why Statesman and Sister Psyche?
2.) Were there actual plans for a moonbase?
3.) Why redo Dark Astoria and not the Shadow Shard?
4.) Were there any plans to reincarnate States/Psyche or have someone else take over their mantle?
5.) Why was Back Street Brawler's name changed to Back Alley Brawler?
6.) Can we get the truth on the removal and return of the 5th Column?
7.) When Lusca and Kraken names were implemented on the wrong characters, why were those not retconned?
8.) What piece of Lore did you really want to add early on that just didn't fit?
9.) Why was Weaver One never made a part of the game?
10.) Many Praetorian counterparts were never brought to life. Stephan Richter was killed off, Nemesis (as Posi mentioned at HeroCon) died as a clockmaker at an old age, etc. Why did you decide on killing some major characters off and making lesser characters more known?
11.) What was the giant "parking garage" in Port Oakes (in early beta) meant to be for?
12.) Who was the Toymaker (as he was hinted as someone from the heroes past but never expanded on) ?
13.) Was there any plans to make seasonal weather changes in-game? (In Port Oakes, if you got under the map, there was another set of mountains/hills under the visible ones that had snow covering them.)
14.) Was there anything in the Lore that Jack Emmert wanted but after NCsoft took over and he left, were they scrapped?
15.) Why did certain enemy groups get preferential treatment (meaning major story plots; Rikti, Praetorians, etc.) in storyarcs rather than expand others or create "new" enemies to face?
16.) Was Croatoa actually planned as a halloween zone then kept permanently or was that just a rumor?
17.) A bigger-than-giant 5th Column Mech Man was spotted in beta. What was the intention of that if it was never used?
18.) Was Grandville ever planned to be redone? In beta a couple of years ago, something was done where Recluse's tower, and inside the tower was all shiny and clean instead of the dingy grey/blue colors.
pohsyb: so of all people you must be most excited about the veats
Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
pohsyb: I mean you kinda were one already anyways ^_^
Arachnos Commander:
1. Can you publish the entire lore bible you apparently had for Kheldians, pretty please?
2. Why did Kheldians never get power customisation; was it ever going to be on the cards?
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
What's the farthest Issue that was planned for, and what are the story arcs for each of the future issues (starting with I24, since I wasn't on Beta much 
)?
Were there plans for a Moon Base, and if so, what Issue would it have appeared in? Any details on the Moon Base would be appreciated.
Who or what was the Battalion?
Who or what was The Coming Storm? (Might be identical to the above, but asking for completeness' sake)
Agua Man lvl 48 Water/Electric Blaster
"To die hating NCSoft for shutting down City of Heroes, that was Freedom."
What were the speculated plans for the rest of the incarnate abilities?
* Was there a plan to resurrect Statesman? Either as a classic comic book revival or as another character inheriting the name Statesman?
* Mender Silos is Lord Nemesis. Where were you going with that story? A sinister plot spanning all of time, or was it a genuine redemption?
* Battle Maiden joining up with Malta. What were to happen next? Nanite powered Malta Ultra-Sappers Two Kronos Titans merged together?
* Arachnos. With Statesman dead, Lord Recluse reunited with the Red Widow, Scirocco flirting with the side of good, and Ghost Widow's loyalty to Arachnos itself, but not its leadership, something was brewing. What was going to happen?
* Incarnates. Good old Prometheus seemed to get more and more annoyed with us. Were we going to be able Ascend as part as fighting the Battalion? Was that the going to be the Omega power?
* The Rikti. With two failed invasions and the knowledge that they were set up for the first one by Nemesis, what was going to happen? They beat their Battalion, if I remember right. Were they going to make a heroic entrance to help us fight off ours?
Aegis Rose, Forcefield/Energy Defender - Freedom
"Bubble up for safety!"
Quote:
2.) The may not have said anything, but for a brief amount of time, in beta and live, Peacebringers had a power customization option called "Wisps." While the Wisps option was selectable, nothing could be changed.
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Originally Posted by FloatingFatMan
1. Can you publish the entire lore bible you apparently had for Kheldians, pretty please?
2. Why did Kheldians never get power customisation; was it ever going to be on the cards? |
pohsyb: so of all people you must be most excited about the veats
Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
pohsyb: I mean you kinda were one already anyways ^_^
Arachnos Commander:
Thank you all for a wonderful gaming experience. This is the only game I play and will probably stop gaming when this shuts down unless you all manage to get something new together..
I heard there is a petition going around. It probably won't help but I would add my name to it in support of keeping this game alive, but I would mostly like to support you the devs that have made this all possible.. Take Care..
My questions are:
* What were all the planned Incarnate slots supposed to do, in general? Can we get some examples?
* What was your ultimate goal with Rularuu and how was his story going to pan out?
* What were the Battallion going to be like? Did you have any ideas on their looks and abilities?
* Max' personal story heavily hints at an upgrade for Malta with Battle Maiden tech. Elaborate?
* What was in store for future trials with all the Praetorians handled?
* Were we ever going to return and deal with Prae Hamidon? How was his fight going to play out if so?
* Were there any other major storyline changes planned? Anything as major as killing off characters?
* Anything for Arachnos now that Recluse has no rival? Or are they left in the dust by incarnates?
* Any big plans for Nemesis? We haven't heard any plots from him in quite some time.
* Was Ouroboros really bad all along? Were they going to turn on us at any point?
* Be truthful, did you have any plans for bases? Or PvP?
* Anything you ever REALLY wanted to do but couldn't? New ATs? Fix all the things? CoH 2?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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1. Manticore and Ghost Widow both appeared in the original Going Rogue trailer - were there plans at any stage for them to switch sides or become something like Rogue/Vigilante patrons?
2. So what was the real story behind Tyrant and Dominatrix? (Yes, I'm a terrible person for even asking that...)
War Witch said that there were secrets/easter eggs in RWZ that we had never found. What were they?
Why the hell were the free super packs moved from tier 9 to VIP only tier 9 on May 31st when issue 23 launched after they were added as a reward for tokens on March 6th with issue 22 launch?
Almost 2 months I was able to get them with reward tokens before you moved them. I didn't subscribe finally until August 5th and by that time I had 24 tokens unspent from buying points because I didn't want any of the other rewards at all.
Quote:
I always thought it was weird you could change the primary and secondary colors for wisp form but it didn't do anything.
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Originally Posted by Commander
2.) The may not have said anything, but for a brief amount of time, in beta and live, Peacebringers had a power customization option called "Wisps." While the Wisps option was selectable, nothing could be changed.
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Was there ever any discussion of shrink/growth power implementation? Technical nightmares aside...
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@Portland Underground
1: Why did Back Alley Brawler change his hair?
2: If Neuron could, apparently, Engineer purely by super-speed Trial and Error, and gave himself Super Powers even before that, is Synapse a genius as well? Is there a reason he doesn't display this intelligence in our world?
3: Is Nemesis tech(particularly the nearly-impossible to detect Nemesis Automatons) actually steam-powered or is it just steampunk-styled? Is there some crazy super-science/phlebotinum explanation or is he just that good?
4: What exactly where we doing in the Summer movie event? Were we going into some Alternate movie world or engaging in an AE-style Virtual Reality thing or where we actually doing the things in that movie?
5: The same for the Halloween Trial
Anyone Who wants to argue about my usual foolishness can find me here.
https://twitter.com/Premmytwit
I'll miss you all.
Oh, man. I don't even know how I'm going to remember everything I've wondered about. Can't we do "Buy The Devs Drinks And Talk To Them About Lore Stuff"?
Okay, okay, here goes. I didn't play the SSAs or anything on Beta (I didn't even complete DA or the SSAs on Live, I will over the next few months) so apologies if some of this stuff is already answered. Also I numbered them but some of them are really like two or three questions.
1) Praetorian Weaver-1 and Arachnos?
2) What was the deal with Spark Blade (well, and the rest of WISDOM)? Nobody ever had those powers; who created a hero that couldn't be represented in-game, and why?
3) How many of Omega team survived? Were any others Riktified?
4) Were we ever going to see the Rikti homeworld? Like, as a city zone. (Maybe even peacefully!)
5) Were we ever going to be able to travel back in time and help out a fledgling Freedom Phalanx? (DUDE I JUST HAD THE BEST IDEA FOR AN SSA/INCARNATE SA)
6) Was there ever going to be an underwater zone/city? There's always an underwater city. Why didn't we have an underwater city? ...Oh, right, water. Well, fine, the first part of the question stands.
7) I almost don't want to know the answer to this because in my head it's "yes," but were we ever going to run into Aaron Walker (Lightspeed -- a Praetorian contact) again? Praetorian Penelope Yin was in his head and we already know she saved one guy from death... or, there's that obvious Dark Ward snafu...
8) So, okay, uh... what was up with Mender Silos? Like, we got confirmation from him that he *used to be* Lord Nemesis. Fine, whatever -- but already in our time Nemesis is supposedly a decrepit old dude who needs his cyborg mech suits to keep him alive. Silos looks like a thirty-something; is he just an android? Or... like... what's up with that? (Was Mender Silos just a Nemesis Automaton who *thought* he was Lord Nemesis?)
9) Where were the rest of the Menders from? Was it mostly just "random Primals," or did they have cool backstories we mostly didn't see? And hey, what was the *real* story with Twilight's Son?
10) Speaking of mech armor, was there ever a discussion of a Giant Robot/War Mech EAT?
11) It basically looked like Scirocco was finally going blueside. What was going to happen to Arachnos? Were they going to get another lieutenant? Or get replaced as the big bad by Wade (+?). Was a hero going to fall? (Like, really fall, not just develop Super Angst, I'M LOOKING AT YOU MALAISE AND MANTICORE.)
12) How did we stop the Praetorian AVs from teleporting to their hospitals when we killed them?
13) Back Alley Brawler : Robot hands or piston fist gloves?
How exactly would the Incarnate powers work according to in-story description?
"Don't you know dead is spelled m-e-n-t-a-l in CoH? - SapphireShot
1) What's the construction in Steel Canyon and Port Oakes all about?
2) What ever happened to those plans to "knock down the war walls"? Was that something that fed into larger plans of having a connected Paragon much like how Praetoria ended up working? Similarly, why were they left up when villains, Rikti, and other threats seemed to have no problems with getting around them?
3) Praetorian Hamidon. 'sup wit dat, yo?
4) While I can sort of understand Statesman biting it, why Psyche? And why was she replaced by an inexperienced Penelope, who had nearly identical powers and is allegedly a crazy powerful psychic? I remember hearing the intent was because these characters overshadowed players, but Statesman in particular never did anything in the game that perpetuated that idea. Psyche never did either with the possible exception of being "the world's most powerful psychic," only to be replaced by someone similar. Was it just really difficult to write these characters, because the deaths felt entirely unnecessary.
5) Were there ever plans to have the Resistance/Loyalist stuff run all the way to 50, and have Praetoria be a more fleshed out experience? As it stands, the storyline continues on in First Ward and Night Ward, but it doesn't particularly flow from the 1-20 Praetorian experience.
6) Were there any concrete plans to have Scirocco replaced as a patron?
7) What's the deal with Praetorian Infernal? Supposedly Infernal was already from a different dimension, why is there another version of him? Are Praetorian and Primal Infernal from the same dimension, or are there "Praetorian" versions of alternate dimensions?
8) What was the rest of Praetoria like? Aside from the locales we've seen, what was the overall status of the rest of that world? Are other countries like France, Italy, Germany, etc., still around there, or is the majority of the world gone?
9) Tell me 'bout Avilans and Blood of the Black Stream. Supposedly (according to an old version of the "story bible") Avilans were going to be after CoV. Was that concept entirely dropped once you realized you could do wings on existing character models?
10) Were there plans for a Praetorian Epic AT, and did that tie in with the "Primalist" at all?
11) How does the Well of Furies work? (I realize this one is crazy broad, but there are so many details to get into)
12) 'sup wit Ouroboros? Are they as evil and crazy as Dream Doctor suggested?
13) I'm gonna assume Prometheus would eventually double cross us, but what was his deal?
14) What was the point of Recluse's Victory? If the plan was to bring a timestream where the villains win closer or something like that, how does that really "work"? Did it have any effect on events as we know them, or was it just an excuse for players to beat eachother up at max level?
15) Why was there never a hub or a hangout for villains equivalent to Atlas Park? Most of the comparable services and such for villains are in Grandville.
16) Did the primal Hamidon split himself or something to end up in two places at once, the Hive and the Abyss? Or is it supposed to be him at one place or the other?
17) Similarly, why is there such a big difference between Primal and Praetorian Hamidons? The posted RPG story bible described Hamidon as a crazy monster, much like the Praetorian version.
18) Why are there player male Widows, but no NPC ones? Similarly, what is Arachnos "boot camp" like? Are the Widows given claw implants, or are they devices?
19) Whatever happened to that story about Dr. Brainstorm and power proliferation? Was that retconned?
20) How do ghosts work in the CoH universe, particularly with Ghost Widow and Numina? They seem to be able to move through walls and become corporeal at will - wouldn't that make them nigh invincible enemies? Similarly, when they're "defeated", do they feel pain and such, or do they have some reason to stop fighting?
21) How the heck did Positron get his body back just by being resurrected? How did that never happen sooner? With the pre-body Positron and Anti-Matter, how were they alive? Did they both technically have bodies but just couldn't leave the suit, or were they composed of energy?
22) What was the world like outside out of Paragon City? I remember reading that the Rikti invaded other locales. Are there any with nearly the same super hero population, or the same rate of crime?
23) Why wasn't Azuria ever fired?
24) Why was there an Architect building in the Rikti War Zone, and not some place like Pocket D? Also, why were Vanguard protecting it?
25) Why didn't the rest of the world try and stop Recluse once he'd invaded US soil multiple times? Wouldn't that count as an act of war or something?
26) Why weren't Police Drones used in greater force? I mean, those things can just zaaaap anything. Talk about OP. On a similar note, why weren't there Praetorian versions of Police Drones, and which would win a fight: a Police Drone, or an Arbiter Drone?
27) This is more of a technical question, but why were many of the old buildings like Icon put under the map, when buildings like AE exist just fine inside of the actual building?
28) What did you have planned for Back Alley Brawler? Aside from having him hang out in a police station, that is.
29) Were there ever plans to follow up on some of the Valentines tips? On a somewhat related note, were there any characters/NPCs who were in a homosexual relationship?
30) What happened to Outbreak after the tutorials were revamped? Did they finally contain the infection?
I'm sure there are some repeats here and more questions to add for later, I'll edit this accordingly.
Who is/was Primal Earth's "well"? Prometheus mentioned "he" is foolish.
Who were the angels everyone saw popping up?
Why were there no churches or kids in Paragon city?
Why were we not given all of the CoT costume items. I know you gave an answer once, but with the clipping trend it didn't really fit.
Why did we never get the Kheldian sash?
Were we ever going to get a player version of the Black Knight costume?
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Were there any plans for Ghost Widow to at some point "Go Rogue" from Arachnos?
1) I'm afraid to ask but...the Shadow Shard. What is Rularuu? What is the Shard itself? Is it a piece of an alternate dimension Paragon City, a pocket dimension, was it made by Rularuu, is it Rularuu? Where did the Soldiers of Rularuu come from, and what are they? What are the Shadow Shard reflections?
2) What is Crimson, Viridian and Indigo's backstory?
3) What's up with Infernal and Infernal? What is his dimension/their dimension exactly? Does he come from the Primal "hell" while Praetorian Infernal is from the Praetorian "hell"?
4) Battleworld. How did the Praetorians find it?
5) Please to be explaining how the CoH multiverse works.
6) Who is Mender Tesseract?
7) What happened with the Rikti homeworld? The war's been over for 14 issues now, how are they doing?
I'll probably think of more later, and of course I will be nitpicking all answers for plot holes and continuity errors, just for nostalgia's sake.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
When were we going to fight the Praetorian Hamidon (if ever)?
Were the Nemesis "horses" that were in the game files ever going to be used? If so, what for?
Leader of The LEGION/Fallen LEGION on the Liberty server!
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Hey everyone,
I know you guys have a ton of questions about what the planned future of the game was, and me and the rest of the designers are anxious to get that information to you.
One thing we all realized is that finding a job is hard work, most of us have spent our days following up leads and getting our LinkedIn pages in order. A couple Job Faires this week have also consumed up the time we would have set aside to answer your questions for a day.
After talking with John, Sean, Tim, Jeff, and Ryan we're thinking sometime mid-next week (Sept. 12) would be the earliest we could coordinate. We will of course keep you apprised of the situation.
Our answers SHOULD be considered canon when concerning anything to do with Issue 24 and previous. Anything after that is speculative and should be treated as such. We'll note in the answer if it's anything different.
One thing you CAN do right now is start getting a list of questions you want answered together, and post it here in this thread. Now inevitabilities of scale mean that someone is likely going to ask a question that is already covered in lore somewhere. Lore junkies feel free to answer those questions before we get to them to make our job easier.
Also, I'd like to keep this thread as CLEAN as possible. Questions ONLY. Comments are appreciated, but let's put those into another thread. If I have mod rights, I will delete commentary posts in this thread. If I don't I'll just report them and have Zwill delete them.
To the designers: Please don't answer questions in this thread until we have a chance to vet the answers. Unless you want to see yourself get contradicted by someone else.
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