Glacier Peak

I think the first three match really well - but who are the love birds? They come as a squad?

Always happy to snag more! Exploration badges comes with interesting background.

I actually just ran that arc on one of my characters yesterday, and there wasn't anyone tough to defeat aside from the Tsoo leader at the end. But I agree with you about Darrin Wade being too high - I just can't think of any other art thiefs in the game! And I have to agree with you on the 11. as well. I keep thinking it's Penelope, but nothing seems to match besides the Psychochronometron thing.

I like that idea! Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't he just an NPC in that last part? I don't think he can be attacked/defeated.

@Grouchybeast We're close! Updated list after others have chimed in with great info. I bolded the enemies I am confident fit the hint. First five are mentioned as a squad (big kudos to @TraumaTrain for the first three): 1. Dr. Hyperbaric from Sgt. Schorr story arc in St. Martial as “Pirate” 2. Rising Vengeance from Sgt. Schorr story arc in St. Martial as “Commander” 3. Steve "Mute" Mutombo from Sgt. Schorr story arc in St. Martial as “Mute” 4. Jane Temblor from Admiral Sutter TF as “Lovebird 1” 5. Fusion from Admiral Sutter TF as “Lovebird 2” Next ones are on isle of yore (Striga Island): 6. Archon Burkholder from Ernesto Hess TF as “the bane of caldera” 7. Heracles from Stephanie Peebles story arc as “the humbler of the son of Hera humble the son of Alcmene” 8. Arakhn from Moonfire TF as “the cyst-maker” Next part mentions getting mean, perhaps changing alignment to villain for these: 9. ??? as “art thief” 10. Night Widow Nocturne (thanks @Ironblade) from either Jim Temblor's or Agent G's story arc as “the widow whose sub is a goner”. Doc Deliah from Faultline as “the Doctor” who introduces you to Agent G, whose final missions you fight Nocturne. 11. Kurse (thanks @LQT) from Jim Temblor's story arc as “deranged little psychic” 12. Chernobog Petrovic as “Lord of Death 1” 13. Veles Petrovic as “Lord of Death 2” 14. ??? as “met on your trek to the gate” 15. Clockwork King from Synapse TF as “went to court and toppled the monarchy” 16. Dr. Vahzilok as “de-tenured Ph.D.” The final hint: Finally, find Freedom at the annual game, And claim the honor of gold medal fame. 17. Freedom Phalanx related... hmm maybe defeating a Freedom Phalanx member

Interesting take! I wish I knew more about the story cannon to figure out the rest of those questions. At the very least it will be a fun hunt for whatever it ends up being.

Ah! Great eye! I'll update.

My observations so far.... On July 23rd, @@Piecemeal posted that he has been working on something since October of last year. He says he started with costumes and textures, but managed to figure out other background systems throughout the game on his own. He notes on a post on July 24th that once his ‘thing’ is closer to testing, he will spill the beans and describe it with a proper introduction (assuming no more rhyming hints? lol). The hints really take off starting August 9th when he posts a cryptic (?) rhyming verse that appears to contain details relating to his ‘thing’ he is working on. To paraphrase and summate its contents based on my deductions, see below: This post first begins by addressing the community’s in game characters. The next sentence implies that there will be a feature which is tied to your alignment, perhaps defeating certain enemies spread across alignments will reward you with something. The next portion mentions a “new army”, perhaps this alludes to the screenshot of the multi-enemy costumed parted individuals. This section also has the most interesting part. Again, total speculation on my part. I think the next part, where it totals seventeen “souls” is a list of characters needed to be defeated to gain a badge. I’m going to go out on a limb and attempt to identify them as best as I can. First five are mentioned as a squad (may be Admiral Sutter TF): 1. Colonel Durray as “Pirate” 2. ??? as “Commander” 3. ??? as “Mute” 4. Jane Temblor from Admiral Sutter TF as “Lovebird 1” 5. Fusion from Admiral Sutter TF as “Lovebird 2” Next ones are on isle of yore (Striga Island): 6. Archon Burkholder from Ernesto Hess TF as “the bane of caldera” 7. Heracles from Stephanie Peebles story arc as “the humbler of the son of Hera humble the son of Alcmene” 8. Arakhn from Moonfire TF as “the cyst-maker” Next part mentions getting mean, perhaps changing alignment to villain for these: 9. Darrin Wade as “art thief” 10. Night Widow Nocturne (thanks @Ironblade) from either Jim Temblor's or Agent G's story arc as “the widow whose sub is a goner”. Doc Deliah from Faultline as “the Doctor” who introduces you to Agent G, whose final missions you fight Nocturne. 11. Malaise or Mother Mayhem as “deranged little psychic” 12. ??? as “Lord of Death 1” 13. ??? as “Lord of Death 2” 14. ??? as “met on your trek to the gate” 15. Clockwork King from Synapse TF as “went to court and toppled the monarchy” 16. Dr. Vahzilok as “de-tenured Ph.D.” Last thing I believe implies completing the speed demon challenge at the Ski Chalet. The final part also implies there will be more ‘challenges’ like this, and the reward will also be a badge. On August 8th @Piecemeal posts “coughs in foreshadowing” in response to a comment about swapping alignment. On August 13th he further clarified that origin will not lock out players from getting the badges for this upcoming content. Also, on this day, he somewhat alludes to playing through the content instead of grinding past it may make it easier to obtain the previously mentioned badges. Again, on this day, he implies that in order to figure out what is needed to be done for those badges, players will need to be aware of the lore in the game. He also goes on to say that in the future the actions that players take will affect the nature of their game play.

Okay so what I am imagining from all the rhymed hints is a new system that tracks badges? Probably way off. I love playing crossword and doing word searches, but I am not grasping the rhyming hints very well. It's exciting though! Thank you for the teasing, hopefully I can narrow it down from everything you have posted so far.

I'm actually really impressed with this, I could've sworn they repainted all of those semi-truck assets. Great screenshot and character costume as well!

I've found doing a couple of iterations of these Masters' works better than crossing your fingers one person doesn't screw it up. The two arena badges which require patience and coordination are also a pain, as you said.

In before someone complains for no reason! (joking!) Thank you so much for the update Jimmy! And thank you to the volunteer Homecoming staff, GMs, and development team. I appreciate the tease and I look forward to continuing to play this great game with this awesome community we've built. Keep it up!

Great idea! Looks like we had similar thought progression. I like the idea of tying them more to Ouro as well. You are essentially going back in time using the Fire and Ice Crystal, so it would stand to reason that those zones have a certain level range.

Interesting idea

I'm seeing this comment and others like it as a common response to my suggestion. I appreciate the feedback. Thank you.

The system exists in this game as well, but requires developer console command access to turn off or on.

Thanks

Very good points. I'll have to rethink my suggestion with this caveat in mind. Thank you

Fair enough. I went in to the dev console on my private server and changed the player flag mechanic to all. That worked. It's the same as how the zone Warburg works. I have experienced the differences you discussed between powers for PvE and PvP. I think that because it's a legacy decision that we are stuck with it. I appreciate the points you have made.

Hi, my suggestion is not an ultimatum. I can enjoy all the game play mechanics you mentioned in your post if these zones were to be modified as I suggested. I appreciate the passion of those who have replied to my suggestion. I love this game too and I'm happy we can discuss how we think the game could be improved.

I am more hopeful there is a middle ground - this is a suggestion not an ultimatum. I pointed out in an earlier post that all of the normal content was removed from these Echo zones, except for their street spawns. So aside from the badges I've collected and the fun ambience of sitting on the tops of the faults in Echo Faultline or wandering through the foggy and aptly named streets of Echo Dark Astoria, there aren't any gameplay mechanics present in these zones that currently draw players in to experience them. I'm advocating for using an existing game mechanic, which is easily implemented by changing the flagging of players, in to Echo zones to increase the number of reasons a player may venture there. I love badging, I love looking at and exploring the intricacies of this game, I love PvP - these are all game play mechanics. My suggestion looks to use one of these.

Well it's a game mechanic that has existed in this game for a long time, so I'm advocating for it to be implemented in Echo zones. Thank you for your post.

My suggestion is to make the Echo zones more active by bringing in a game mechanic which is minimally resource intensive to implement. Going in to the dev command and changing the flag player rules. Badges and chilling/nostalgia are the reasons I and other folks in this thread have mentioned for visiting these zones. I'm advocating for adding another reason to visit them.

Adding Incarnate content to the Echo zone was what my quote was referring to.

This is a fair alternative and I would support this suggestion. I think it would require a tremendous amount of investment of time and resources though, so I'm more inclined to my suggestion which would just require a dev command to flag all for PvP.