Yolanda Baker

[Techwright]

What's the backstory on this character in Skyway? She's got the purple ground circle, like Security Chiefs, the City Registrar, and other informational types, but doesn't offer anything.   She doesn't look like a tribute character, and the wiki doesn't know her purpose.  Was she added to the OG game, for future content that never materialized?  If so, can we get some content for her?

 

https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Yolanda_Baker

[ZorkNemesis]

Very likely she is someone another contact sent you to as part of a mission, such as delivering a package or getting local information.  Purple rings usually indicate things like that as the Security Chiefs never give missions but the missions involving them often have you picking up a detail from them.

[Aberrant]

There are a lot of NPCs in the game that pre-launch were intended to be Task NPCs (ones you visit during another contacts' mission), but due to time constraints in the run up to CoH's launch a lot of missions were cut as they weren't complete. The contacts intended to give out these missions were either removed or given common missions and arcs shared by other contacts, but their Task NPCs seemingly were not removed or reused. Yolanda Baker is one of these abandoned Task NPCs. Source: Lore AMA 2014: a question about Trashcan from the Crucible, being misinterpreted as referring to Task NPC The Can Man by Positron.

 

Interestingly, in the leaked Story Bible file every task NPC from that era has a full contact background as originally they were all meant to be mission contacts. There's even ones for the contacts that were cut (these contacts also have in-game models defined, such as: Model_JoshuaStutz, and can be found in the contact listing in Architect Entertainment). At some point I intend to put these backgrounds up on the wiki for those that care. 

 

Yolanda Baker's description from the Story Bible is as follows:

Quote

Yolanda Baker

Occupation: Investigator

Location: Skyway City

Background: Yolanda Baker calls herself an investigator, but she's no ordinary private eye. She's more like a freelance discoverer of things. She's written books, found missing people, traveled to lost cities, and even helped save the world. Yolanda often describes herself as 'pathologically curious,' and the primary objects of her curiosity are the villains that threaten Paragon City. Her two most intriguing subjects are Vahzilok, whose true identity she longs to learn, and the Circle of Thorns, which both frightens and captivates her.

The other launch Task NPCs with no purpose that I'm aware of are:

• Andre Jimenez
• Betty Abbot
• Carlos Herrera
• Charlie
• Corey McCann
• Evan DiTomasso
• Hiro Takashi
• Janelle Irving
• Jesse Hobart
• Shelly Knowles
• Wanda Travis
• Wendy Klein

And others added later:

• Albert Maurer
• Colonel Taggard
• Operative Luong
• Representative_Manzini

I say as far as I'm aware, as I found a launch-era mission a few days ago in Skyway City that no-one had documented before, so I can't be sure they're all unused!

Edited November 27, 2020 by Aberrant
Added AE info. Added links to the other NPCs and later added NPCs. Added source.

[Techwright]

On 11/27/2020 at 11:49 AM, Aberrant said:

 

I say as far as I'm aware, as I found a launch-era mission a few days ago in Skyway City that no-one had documented before, so I can't be sure they're all unused!

Such a wealth of information, thank you!

 

What's the previously-undocumented mission?

[Aberrant]

9 hours ago, Techwright said:

What's the previously-undocumented mission?

From Pavel Garnier in Skyway City - Arrest {{Outcast Boss}} and his crew, a 90 minute timed mission with temporary power rewards (only usable up until debriefing), wherein Outcast invade an auction house (offices) and take hostages. I unfortunately missed the Unnecessary Solicitation, Entry Popup and Failure Debriefing, as I only realised it wasn't documented half-way through, but it's otherwise complete. It's notable in that it's the only way (that I'm aware of) to receive the similarly previously-undocumented Tear Gas temporary power, outside of the (improved) variant found in Mayhem/Safeguard raid missions.

 

Unsure if this was just missed by those that were wiki-updating back on live, or if the mission wasn't actually available and was enabled during I25. 

Edited December 8, 2020 by Aberrant