Caretaker's Plot Discussion Tunnel to Oblivion

[twozerofoxtrot]

16 hours ago, Crasical said:

is Helix, from the Crusaders arc, a Kheldian?

 

I'm not a Kheldian loremind by any means (actually, I deeply hate them), but after sitting in on several of @TwoDee's Praetoria TED Talks, I'm fairly sure Kheldians don't exist in the Praetorian universe due to being destroyed by the Battalion or some other force.

[Glacier Peak]

3 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

I'm not a Kheldian loremind by any means (actually, I deeply hate them), but after sitting in on several of @TwoDee's Praetoria TED Talks, I'm fairly sure Kheldians don't exist in the Praetorian universe due to being destroyed by the Battalion or some other force.

Something something trans-dimensional beings, moves faster than the speed of light, able to swap between forms without dropping toggles now.... but seriously, I've not seen one in any of the gold content I've run. 

[Drakwatch]

Any thoughts on Back Alley Brawler's investigations into the Superadine surge? The problem was pretty much solved during Eagle Eye's arc, but Veles did technically escape. Plus, since BABs was taken down by Deadlock, he may have found something that Eagle Eye and the player didn't. Also, Deadlock is still lurking around looking for the next hire. I'm sure Back Alley Brawler wouldn't want let that be after getting beaten by him.

[Drakwatch]

1 minute ago, Drakwatch said:

Any thoughts on Back Alley Brawler's investigations into the Superadine surge? The problem was pretty much solved during Eagle Eye's arc, but Veles did technically escape. Plus, since BABs was taken down by Deadlock, he may have found something that Eagle Eye and the player didn't. Also, Deadlock is still lurking around looking for the next hire. I'm sure Back Alley Brawler wouldn't want let that be after getting beaten by him.

Actually, it just occurred to me that there's some contradictory text on if Veles escaped or is behind bars:

• Skull Buster badge description: "You formed the New Regulators and put a stop to the Skulls' Superadine Ring in Kings Row. You destroyed their lab and put one of The Petrovic Brothers behind bars, leaving the Skulls scattered and weakened. "
• Eagle Eye's debriefing: "Great work! The Facility Manager is already being treated at Crowne Memorial Hospital and The Skulls' Superadine Lab is already being put out by the Fire Department. Veles and Morana may have escaped, but without their lab The Skulls are going to have tough times ahead. You've done it, Character, you busted The Skulls Superadine Ring!"
• A Skull Shaped Mask souvenir: "Though you defeated Veles he was able to escape when he revealed that the Royal Refinery Facility Manager was being held hostage somewhere in the burning structure. Once outside you watched as the Superadine went up in smoke, and the Lords of Death went down in flames."

Whether or not he's in jail just leads me to believe there's more to be heard from the Skulls and the Petrovics'.

 

[lemming]

On 5/19/2023 at 11:43 AM, Crasical said:

So the warriors in the new Noble Intentions Arc didn't seem entirely sure: Is Tunnel Rat actually part animal? If she is, is it a random mutation, or one of the gene-splices from the program that created Bobcat?

 

Also, another Praetoria question: is Helix, from the Crusaders arc, a Kheldian?

Pretty sure Helix isn't a Kheldian.  I got the impression she's a scientist with a cloaking suit.

 

Tunnel Rat, according to her info when we first meet her in Praetoria has spent most of her time in the tunnels hence the keen senses being adapted.  (Though she also wears a respirator which you would think would interfere with that, especially since it's because she was damaged from the various chemicals.)

[Crasical]

13 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

 

I'm not a Kheldian loremind by any means (actually, I deeply hate them), but after sitting in on several of @TwoDee's Praetoria TED Talks, I'm fairly sure Kheldians don't exist in the Praetorian universe due to being destroyed by the Battalion or some other force.

 

2 hours ago, lemming said:

Pretty sure Helix isn't a Kheldian.  I got the impression she's a scientist with a cloaking suit.

 

That is what I'd thought, but the thing is, Helix just straight up has Peacebringer powers. 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=praetorianresistance.helix

 

[The Caretaker]

4 hours ago, Drakwatch said:

Any thoughts on Back Alley Brawler's investigations into the Superadine surge? The problem was pretty much solved during Eagle Eye's arc, but Veles did technically escape. Plus, since BABs was taken down by Deadlock, he may have found something that Eagle Eye and the player didn't. Also, Deadlock is still lurking around looking for the next hire. I'm sure Back Alley Brawler wouldn't want let that be after getting beaten by him.

 

Flinch reply:

"Inscription

In March of 1986, with the mystical aid of the Midnight Squad, the Back Alley Brawler managed to track local Superadine distribution to a secret lab beneath this building. Little is known about the lab's contents. It is simply known that the Back Alley Brawler and the Statesman swore their comrades to secrecy after the battle."

 

I would want to explore this unresolved lore as the reason for the attack - Deadlock being an agent of the Family.

[GM Impervium]

Oh yeah, the whole thing with [redacted] and the creation of [also redacted].

What I'm wondering is why States and Brawler let [redacted] go as far as they did, knowing what they knew.

[lemming]

32 minutes ago, Crasical said:

That is what I'd thought, but the thing is, Helix just straight up has Peacebringer powers. 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=praetorianresistance.helix

I'm going to guess just a cloning of the power from a dev standpoint rather than storyline

[The Caretaker]

19 minutes ago, lemming said:

I'm going to guess just a cloning of the power from a dev standpoint rather than storyline

Occams developer

[Lazarillo]

34 minutes ago, lemming said:

I'm going to guess just a cloning of the power from a dev standpoint rather than storyline

Good luck Wayback-ing the old archived forums to find the answer, but I'm damn near certain this was actually confirmed at the time.

People asked why there was a Kheldian in Praetoria and got a dev response basically saying "uh, duh, she's not a Kheldian, those are just energy blasts that she gets because she's an NPC and they get unique stuff that players don't".

[dtjunkie]

7 hours ago, Drakwatch said:

Actually, it just occurred to me that there's some contradictory text on if Veles escaped or is behind bars:

• Skull Buster badge description: "You formed the New Regulators and put a stop to the Skulls' Superadine Ring in Kings Row. You destroyed their lab and put one of The Petrovic Brothers behind bars, leaving the Skulls scattered and weakened. "
• Eagle Eye's debriefing: "Great work! The Facility Manager is already being treated at Crowne Memorial Hospital and The Skulls' Superadine Lab is already being put out by the Fire Department. Veles and Morana may have escaped, but without their lab The Skulls are going to have tough times ahead. You've done it, Character, you busted The Skulls Superadine Ring!"
• A Skull Shaped Mask souvenir: "Though you defeated Veles he was able to escape when he revealed that the Royal Refinery Facility Manager was being held hostage somewhere in the burning structure. Once outside you watched as the Superadine went up in smoke, and the Lords of Death went down in flames."

Whether or not he's in jail just leads me to believe there's more to be heard from the Skulls and the Petrovics'.

 

 

If you complete the Skulls Superadine Arc and then do The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok you'll find Veles in prison. He says, "The Lords of Death are still out there, <Toon Name>. ... as is my sister"

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by dtjunkie

[The Caretaker]

13 hours ago, dtjunkie said:

 

If you complete the Skulls Superadine Arc and then do The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok you'll find Veles in prison. He says, "The Lords of Death are still out there, <Toon Name>. ... as is my sister"

 

This was a conscious decision made because in the Marchand arcs in brickstown there's a breakout at the zig and the Petrovich brothers are busted out as a diversion. Because of that, it was decided to put them right back in when it was over.

[starro]

I am pretty sure the Zig is an AirBNB at this point with all the people checking in and checking out all the time.

Edited May 22, 2023 by starro
terrible grammar, turrible

[The Caretaker]

On 5/21/2023 at 4:21 PM, starro said:

I am pretty sure the Zig is an AirBNB at this point with all the people checking in and checking out all the time.

You know, for all the plot holes I've tried to fill, this is the one that just needs to exist, or your efforts would just be too effective.

You'd have whole gangs dismantled from the inside out by level 20... which was exactly how the original writing was done, levels equalling time, and gangs replacing other gangs as the low ones disappeared, you having done them in effectively.

 

Then Clockwork came back at level 41+ for Tina Macintyre, which was fine as an alternate dimension... but then CWK came back in full force at 35+ for the LGTF and that mantra was given the handwave of a lifetime after that.

 

I have a handful of ideas for making releases from the Zig a little less like a meme, but it's not ideal to involve Chris Jenkins in every story.

[starro]

we have a game with jailbreaks (many of them) built into the game..... I kinda love it.

[Greycat]

On 5/7/2023 at 6:36 PM, The Caretaker said:

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.

 

Headcanon for this Kheld fan was that we *had* to get to a certain technological point before they really started moving more openly. We *know* the Nictus were around since ancient Egypt (Shadowstar) after all, but ... well, there's a difference between "This 'copper' stuff is really shiny!" and splitting the atom (Or Portal Corps letting people dimension hop - "Portal Corps! We'll get you there... for certain values of 'You' and 'There.' " )

 

As far as other stuff....

 

Honestly, I hope you do take up the Blood of the Black Stream. I know they can't be an EAT as they (and Incarnates and Coralax...) were initially planned, but there's *storyline* there, and it kind of leads to one of the things that's bugged me since live. Just ... hanging storyline hooks. We got a comment at some point - want to say from Posi - that was along the lines of "we want our new writers to do their own thing, not try to write what someone else did!" .... which, ok, fine, but it left a lot of incomplete things. And that was *really* frustrating.

 

(I'll point to my old "EAT at Posi/War Witch's" for example... https://web.archive.org/web/20120907022352/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=239822 )

 

Any possibility of turning some of these things into content? I'm thinking something like ... in one of David Wincott's missions, you run across a few artifacts. Having those unlock side missions later on just to explore things they pointed to, I'd think (a) would be fun and (b) have a side effect of encouraging people to run the earlier missions to *get* to run that content.

[dtjunkie]

Question and spoiler regarding Laura Lockhart.

 

Spoiler

When will I get to meet Laura again?

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by dtjunkie

[Crasical]

So what's Arakhn up to these days? How's that love triangle between her, The Center, and Requiem going?

[VulnaviaPhibes]

Just wanted to pop in and add my opinion: the story/lore of city of heroes has always been my favorite part. The extremely high quality of writing has always been what set this game apart and made it truly special, and I'm overjoyed to see the homecoming team carrying on that tradition. You guys are doing incredibly! Much love. ^_^ ❤️

[Glacier Peak]

On 5/24/2023 at 1:55 PM, dtjunkie said:

Question and spoiler regarding Laura Lockhart.

 

  Hide contents

When will I get to meet Laura again?

 

 

 

 

 

Such a great conclusion to that story arc. I loved playing that arc afterwards and getting a satisfying lore based ending. 

[laudwic]

15 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

Such a great conclusion to that story arc. I loved playing that arc afterwards and getting a satisfying lore based ending. 

Also, one heck of a good use of Ouroboros (sp).  I very much appreciate whomever gave us that alternate ending for that NPC.  

 

I agree with the person that originally asked the question, this is one NPC that should reappear. With Homecoming adding content, please consider having that NPC appear again in a meaningful way if you have the badge.  Thanks!

[The Caretaker]

On 6/1/2023 at 12:18 PM, laudwic said:

Also, one heck of a good use of Ouroboros (sp).  I very much appreciate whomever gave us that alternate ending for that NPC.  

 

I agree with the person that originally asked the question, this is one NPC that should reappear. With Homecoming adding content, please consider having that NPC appear again in a meaningful way if you have the badge.  Thanks!

When she reappears, I plan to make it count.

[laudwic]

1 hour ago, The Caretaker said:

When she reappears, I plan to make it count.

 

I really like your use of the word 'When' instead of the word 'If'.

 

Thanks for all the additional content, I've enjoyed it very much.

[Jiro Ito]

Quote

Fusionette is one of the Nuclear 90; 90 children from around the world all born in one year with an unusual mutation that gives them natural magnetic nuclear fusion reactors for hearts, and the ability to channel energy from their internal reactor for a variety of super powers. Like many of the Nuclear 90, Fusionette has decided to use her powers for the betterment of mankind as a hero. She's focused on her energy blasts and has recently developed the power of flight.

 

Will we see any more of the Nuclear 90?  A villain maybe?