Caretaker's Plot Discussion Tunnel to Oblivion

[The Caretaker]

I can't guarantee you'll have any less questions than when you arrived, but here I think we can have some (possibly) meaningful discussion about plot going forward, within the limits of my ability, without giving away the farm.

 

I will try to be diligent about checking in on this once a week.

[Xiddo]

Thanks for opening up this chat!

 

As a big fan of the Freaklok, who got very excited with the sniff we had in the new arc, is there a big plan going forward? Is that more likely to end in a TF/SF or arc situation? It feels like it might impact things like Market Crash etc.

If you can’t be that specific: Is there a plan to finish off the story? 🙂 Piecemeal’s arcs and character are great, and I hope their vision can be completed (also can we get a badge 😉)

Edited May 5, 2023 by Xiddo

[The Caretaker]

Piecemeal is getting a story that sets up maaaajor plots in the world plot going forward, and soon. That story will be closing out issue 27.

 

Freaklok will be getting a full suite of stories in Kallisti Wharf and colliding/colluding with a lot of other factions in the process.

[Glacier Peak]

Folks have been discussing how a lot of the new story content has been laid on thick with dialog and exposition. Some players express appreciation for it, others say it's annoying or too verbose. Is this something that will continue the trend or take a different route regarding player story telling?

 

Thank you for taking the time to make this thread by the way!

[TerroirNoir2]

15 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Folks have been discussing how a lot of the new story content has been laid on thick with dialog and exposition. Some players express appreciation for it, others say it's annoying or too verbose. Is this something that will continue the trend or take a different route regarding player story telling?

 

Thank you for taking the time to make this thread by the way!

Several future arcs will be entirely transmitted via mime.

[starro]

At live shutdown the Red Widow was resurrected during an updated spring event but under the control of Lord Recluse.  Anything chance more with her ?

[Xiddo]

Where are we up to Hero One? Next year is the 20th birthday of CoH right? Be an awful coincidence if the Rikti decided to rear their heads…

 

I know the live team had some stuff they were working on around Scirocco… every now and then the cut scenes they made are shared on here. He’s obviously in a weird place where we know he’s a goody two shoes, recluse knows, Mot knows, but he’s still sat there glaring in GV.

Edited May 6, 2023 by Xiddo

[The Caretaker]

9 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

Folks have been discussing how a lot of the new story content has been laid on thick with dialog and exposition. Some players express appreciation for it, others say it's annoying or too verbose. Is this something that will continue the trend or take a different route regarding player story telling?

 

Thank you for taking the time to make this thread by the way!

 

There's a phenomenon with all writers in trying to achieve balance.

 

If we say too little, a potential snark-laden commentary about plot holes and careless writing stalks our minds. If we say too much, we're trying too hard to cover every base and justify everything. 

 

We're getting better in that respect. I think Valeria, Houston and Stribbling had the balance about right. 

 

TBH I find it hard to apologize for making someone read, you can always blow through it and wiki it later.

[The Caretaker]

6 hours ago, starro said:

At live shutdown the Red Widow was resurrected during an updated spring event but under the control of Lord Recluse.  Anything chance more with her ?

 

Can't comment about her future, but Cobalt made a grand effort to fix those Valentines arcs for a reason. 

[The Caretaker]

5 hours ago, Xiddo said:

Where are we up to Hero One? Next year is the 20th birthday of CoH right? Be an awful coincidence if the Rikti decided to rear their heads…

 

I know the live team had some stuff they were working on around Scirocco… every now and then the cut scenes they made are shared on here. He’s obviously in a weird place where we know he’s a goody two shoes, recluse knows, Mot knows, but he’s still sat there glaring in GV.

The Rikti war as you know it would be officially concluded as of Nemesis' big reveal, but Primal Earth is in a bad place globally from the damage. 

 

Luckily Hero Corps had established outside of Paragon, globally, and the rebuilding has started in earnest with the help of Vanguard and the Traditionalists too. The Honoree offers limited anecdotal support from behind the scenes because his War Tribunal conditioning was experimental and his temperament is not stable.

 

As for Scirocco, we believe no plans the Live team had were good for him. Their gunning for Arachnos' throat and ripping them apart was narrative and technical blunder.

 

As such, groundwork was already laid in Buzzsaw's arc for what Scirocco could start doing with his conscience: Informant work. It's how Vandal got pinched and ended up in the Zig for you to talk to. 

[Bionic_Flea]

7 minutes ago, The Caretaker said:

It's how Vandal got pinched and ended up in the Zig for you to talk to. 

 

Vandal got pinched?  Or was that Dr. Vahzilok?

[Glacier Peak]

58 minutes ago, The Caretaker said:

 

There's a phenomenon with all writers in trying to achieve balance.

 

If we say too little, a potential snark-laden commentary about plot holes and careless writing stalks our minds. If we say too much, we're trying too hard to cover every base and justify everything. 

 

We're getting better in that respect. I think Valeria, Houston and Stribbling had the balance about right. 

 

TBH I find it hard to apologize for making someone read, you can always blow through it and wiki it later.

I would say it's the right balance. I have intentionally soloed all of the new HC arcs since launch because teams don't have patience anymore to read through. I mentioned in another thread about natural pauses in story telling - back in legacy 2004 days, players stopped fighting because they had no endurance or needed to recover health so they'd take a knee and Rest. Or their travel power was way slower and they needed to take multiple transit points to get to the mission door, so teammates had ample time to read the clues and NPC dialog as it showed up in their chat. 

[Glacier Peak]

42 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

Vandal got pinched?  Or was that Dr. Vahzilok?

Both are met in the arc Caretaker is referring to. 

[SeraphimKensai]

I know it never got finished, but I'd still like to see someone take a stab at developing the arrival of the Battalion with the Coming Storm line since it's mentioned in game already.

[starro]

3 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

I know it never got finished, but I'd still like to see someone take a stab at developing the arrival of the Battalion with the Coming Storm line since it's mentioned in game already.

I have always hoped during the game shut down that whoever resurrected COH would address this too, but keep 1/3 of the original story, modify 1/3 of the original story and 1/3 new stuff from out of left field that makes everyone say whaaaat???

[The Caretaker]

1 minute ago, starro said:

I have always hoped during the game shut down that whoever resurrected COH would address this too, but keep 1/3 of the original story, modify 1/3 of the original story and 1/3 new stuff from out of left field that makes everyone say whaaaat???

This is the approach.

 

Battalion has already been observing for years with sleeper agents, and you've been fighting them since forever, though not as much recently. 

[starro]

Oh, i am so excited for the future.  I cannot believe content is coming and not just powersets but story.  TY TY TY for making an old COH player's day.

[lemming]

One thing I really appreciate on some of the new arcs have been the ability to shortcut, especially if you already done the arcs a few times.

Investigation in Skyway, skipping M1dway, etc...

 

I do like the verbose stuff though as an option.

[TerroirNoir2]

6 hours ago, The Caretaker said:

As for Scirocco, we believe no plans the Live team had were good for him. Their gunning for Arachnos' throat and ripping them apart was narrative and technical blunder.

THIS!

[Lazarillo]

12 hours ago, The Caretaker said:

We're getting better in that respect. I think Valeria, Houston and Stribbling had the balance about right. 

To be honest, I found Valeria kind of a confusing mess.  Some of that I chalk up to maybe being intentional, because time travel to/from times we might not have traveled to ourselves, was involved?  But the very note that I'm just sort of guessing that is part of the reason it'd maybe be nice to see that, I dunno...cleaned up a little?  I typically like Nictus stuff, but this one didn't do much for me, FWIW.

 

On a sort of related note about overabundance of narration, btw, I'm curious because when the Doc Aeon SF was released, I (and a couple other people) brought up the idea of creating a "SSA mode" for it, since verboseness, particularly in TFs, is kinda hard to follow, and I don't recall who (mighta been Cobalt?) said it might be worth looking into, but I haven't seen/heard any sort of further murmurs either way.  Is that still something even on the table, or is the idea just solidly nope-d at this point?

[twozerofoxtrot]

So when do we find out that the purple clone teased in The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok and Dr. Aeon Strike Force is a Penny Yin-derived, Omega-level Paragon Protector (who of course goes insane and we have to stop)?

[EmperorSteele]

I know people want the story to advance; heck, I'm one of them... but everything is clearly leading to the final boss of everything being the Puking Guy in Pocket D, and I'm not sure any of us can survive that challenge =(

 

[The Caretaker]

21 hours ago, Lazarillo said:

To be honest, I found Valeria kind of a confusing mess.  Some of that I chalk up to maybe being intentional, because time travel to/from times we might not have traveled to ourselves, was involved?  But the very note that I'm just sort of guessing that is part of the reason it'd maybe be nice to see that, I dunno...cleaned up a little?  I typically like Nictus stuff, but this one didn't do much for me, FWIW.

 

On a sort of related note about overabundance of narration, btw, I'm curious because when the Doc Aeon SF was released, I (and a couple other people) brought up the idea of creating a "SSA mode" for it, since verboseness, particularly in TFs, is kinda hard to follow, and I don't recall who (mighta been Cobalt?) said it might be worth looking into, but I haven't seen/heard any sort of further murmurs either way.  Is that still something even on the table, or is the idea just solidly nope-d at this point?

I'll probably go back and take a look some time at Valeria. That was my first writing assignment.

 

The synopsis: It closes the temporal loop opened by Requiem being in the past with Shadow Cysts. The Shadow Cysts by their very definition were world-ending threats and Requiem brought at least ten of them back in time. If even one was missed, it would flood the Earth with Nictus at a time when humanity had no chance to fight back. Instead what I tried to do was close the loop by having the player delete every last one of those possible cysts by spiking the newfound 'network' with a sort of vorpal bomb.

 

The only change to the timeline once this was complete is that everything happens exactly as it did before, but the Nictus have been stewing in the knowledge that Cysts are possible (without appropriate resources to make one) until the Council recruits Arakhn.

 

It also attempts to shed light on the question of "What imbued Romulus with Nictus power?" by explaining that the first cyst is a coalescence of the three Nictus Essences from the ITF finale. Where THEY came from is still to be disclosed to the player. 

[The Caretaker]

13 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

So when do we find out that the purple clone teased in The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok and Dr. Aeon Strike Force is a Penny Yin-derived, Omega-level Paragon Protector (who of course goes insane and we have to stop)?

In Kallisti Wharf, for sure.

[The Caretaker]

9 hours ago, EmperorSteele said:

I know people want the story to advance; heck, I'm one of them... but everything is clearly leading to the final boss of everything being the Puking Guy in Pocket D, and I'm not sure any of us can survive that challenge =(

 

I'm looking into the status of his planned replacement.