Expanding Portal Corps missions (more lore, experimentation, etc.)

[Greycat]

6 hours ago, tidge said:

 

All I know is:

 

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• There is an implication (from History, Exploration) that Superadine originally had an extra-dimensional source
• There is a "Fixadine" drug from Praetoria
• Praetoria's Malaise has a different sort of chemical concoction in his Brickstown sewer mission
• The King's Row Skulls arc calls out that the Skulls are making Superadine
• The Family arcs imply that they are distributing it, but this doesn't appear to be part of the lore for either the non-Primal family or the high-level Family

 

So... No. If there is a deeper tie to early Gold side or somewhere else, I've missed it, and I want to say (bias!) that it must be easy to miss.(*1)

 

So, you have to go plaque hunting.

 

The gist of it is that 'dyne does more than just buff you up and make you green. In some *very* rare instances, it lets you see and travel between dimensions - and, as I recall, drives you insane. During a raid, the Phalanx and/or Regulators learned about this and hushed it up... one of the *other* people who knew about it (again, from memory) was Dr. Webb - the founder of Portal Corp.

 

(Scholastic badge, Just Said No to Superdyne, both touch on it.  Also -

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Dr._Brian_Webb

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Scholastic_Badge

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Portal_Corporation

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Just_Said_No_to_Superadine_Badge - monuments 2 and 4  )

[tidge]

Oh I know that from the plaques, which is why I actually would like an instanced mission that offers more information... mostly because teh plaques are so completely disconnected from the lived experience of Trolls in Paragon City.

[tidge]

3 hours ago, Rudra said:

Even the Vahzilok zombies have full dialogues. It pretty much depends on if say patrols or non-boss spawns are supposed to have dialogue for the mission and what the game decides to pull as the minions in that group. Hells, in one Vahzilok mission I've done, the "boss" leading the attack was an embalmed cadaver on multiple occasions instead of a Reaper because the boss at that time is a minion and the game pulled the cadaver from the pool of minions available.

 

For me it is cognitive dissonance that the Zombies (and the Carnie Strongmen) who get dialogue are obvious mistakes. Those hoverbots have no real backstory, and things like Nemesis windups and Malta 'bots do... so when the Hoverbots start chatting.... it creeps me the #### out.

[Vic Raiden]

The game doesn't care what kind of enemy says what, just that there's enemies from this specific faction chatting. Who exactly they are is completely random... which it shouldn't be, because seeing an Arachnobot and an Arachnos Drone talk about their wages just feels Recluse-damn wrong.

[sbloyd]

I used to have an android character that made a big deal about that sort of thing.

[Rudra]

7 hours ago, Vic Raiden said:

The game doesn't care what kind of enemy says what, just that there's enemies from this specific faction chatting. Who exactly they are is completely random... which it shouldn't be, because seeing an Arachnobot and an Arachnos Drone talk about their wages just feels Recluse-damn wrong.

To the best of my knowledge, the game can't pick specific minions for things like random spawns or patrols. And the Arachnobots (or at least most of them) and the Arachnos Drones still have Arachnos personnel in them. Just those people's heads with the rest of their bodies discarded because it is punishment, but there are still living Arachnos personnel operating them.

[Chris24601]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

To the best of my knowledge, the game can't pick specific minions for things like random spawns or patrols. And the Arachnobots (or at least most of them) and the Arachnos Drones still have Arachnos personnel in them. Just those people's heads with the rest of their bodies discarded because it is punishment, but there are still living Arachnos personnel operating them.

And this is why, whenever I put something together in Architect, I create a custom group filled with whichever minions are supposed to be able to speak and use that group for any patrols, rescues, etc.

 

Oh, and regarding the military in the Shadow Shard; I forget where I dug it up, but that’s actually Vanguard (who is responsible for all extradimensional threats) before the RWZ update gave them spiffy purple/grey costumes.

 

Another interesting tidbit of Shadow Shard lore is the Stormwatcher badge (added for issue 19: Alpha Strike) that gives a bit of hint of what the LiveDevs future plans were at that time they first introduced Incarnate content…

 

Stormwatcher
It was here that Earth's explorers first encountered the mysterious entities of the Shadow Shard. Their threat was implicit and the need to keep them contained became a driving force in the establishment of Tempest Sector. As a representative of Paragon City, you have joined the fight to prevent the denizens of the Shadow Shard from extending their range into your home dimension. Some see their discovery of Primal Earth's dimension as inevitable; a "coming storm" which could rival the Rikti Invasion in destructive potential.

 

Those quotes around “coming storm” weren’t added by me for emphasis. That’s the original text.

[Rudra]

23 minutes ago, Chris24601 said:

And this is why, whenever I put something together in Architect, I create a custom group filled with whichever minions are supposed to be able to speak and use that group for any patrols, rescues, etc.

 

Oh, and regarding the military in the Shadow Shard; I forget where I dug it up, but that’s actually Vanguard (who is responsible for all extradimensional threats) before the RWZ update gave them spiffy purple/grey costumes.

 

Another interesting tidbit of Shadow Shard lore is the Stormwatcher badge (added for issue 19: Alpha Strike) that gives a bit of hint of what the LiveDevs future plans were at that time they first introduced Incarnate content…

 

Stormwatcher
It was here that Earth's explorers first encountered the mysterious entities of the Shadow Shard. Their threat was implicit and the need to keep them contained became a driving force in the establishment of Tempest Sector. As a representative of Paragon City, you have joined the fight to prevent the denizens of the Shadow Shard from extending their range into your home dimension. Some see their discovery of Primal Earth's dimension as inevitable; a "coming storm" which could rival the Rikti Invasion in destructive potential.

 

Those quotes around “coming storm” weren’t added by me for emphasis. That’s the original text.

Rularuu was going to play a part in the Coming Storm. If I remember correctly, Rularuu is supposed to be unleashed on Battalion and devour him before being resealed back in the Shadow Shard. However, the Coming Storm of Ouroboros and the Shadow Shard struggle aren't the same.

[Chris24601]

29 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Rularuu was going to play a part in the Coming Storm. If I remember correctly, Rularuu is supposed to be unleashed on Battalion and devour him before being resealed back in the Shadow Shard. However, the Coming Storm of Ouroboros and the Shadow Shard struggle aren't the same.

I know that’s what the plan turned into, but the development of lore was ongoing throughout the original run.

 

Ex. Statesman and Recluse weren’t Incarnates until the concept of incarnates was invented. The concept of Incarnates grew out of a need to develop monetizable endgame grinding.

 

One thing I’m admittedly a bit concerned about is taking the LiveDevs post-shutdown statements about future plans as gospel truth for the future.

 

It’s not. It’s a snapshot in time of their future plans that would have to be adjusted due to scheduling, budgets, manpower and programming limitations, demands from above, etc.

 

This bit added in Issue 19 was another snapshot; a foreshadowing of plans at the stage Incarnates were first introduced. Do you think it was an accident the initial adversaries trying to keep you from finding the Well in Ramiels arc are Reflections identical to those you find in the Shadow Shard.

 

Now, plans change. All the time. But that’s actually part of my point.

 

Those LiveDev plans got changed radically. They were made literally impossible by the shutdown. Even if they HAD gone forward, at its prior pace we have no idea how much of those future plans would still apply by the time they actually reached live several YEARS* down the line. People have better ideas and change direction all the time.

 

I would like decisions for the future to be based on what Homecoming’s Devs can reasonably produce and what they think makes sense, not slavish devotion to a roadmap that was largely based on finding ways to monetize the game to keep ahead of the shutdown beast.

 

For example; given the current resources, perhaps scaling back The Battalion and making the Oncoming Storm into a cascade of theats piling up all at once (i.e. Battalion + Praetorian Hamidon + Rularuu + … you know, one threat per power origin would be cool) instead of a singular ever power scale escalating Crisis (followed by an even BIGGER Crisis) would be healthier for City of Heroes now that it is no longer beholden to the abusive demon of monetization.

 

It’s something to think about anyway.
 

* Other than Issue 23, it was roughly 6 months between Issues once Incarnate content came online. With four Incarnate slots left to be released after Issue 24 and added at the typical one per issue… the end of the original Incarnate advancements would have been at least two years out past when it was shutdown.

[Greycat]

 

23 hours ago, Chris24601 said:

I know that’s what the plan turned into, but the development of lore was ongoing throughout the original run.

 

Ex. Statesman and Recluse weren’t Incarnates until the concept of incarnates was invented. The concept of Incarnates grew out of a need to develop monetizable endgame grinding.

 

Weeeeeelllllllllll..... yes and no.

 

Incarnates were, along with Coralax, Nictus, Blood of the Black Stream and Avilans (still not sure about that spelling) mentioned as Epic ATs *waaaaaay* back. Actual ATs in and of themselves.

 

 How far back?  Nov 13, 2004.  

 

Quote

 

Originally Posted by Jack
I'll drop a hint: the name of an upcoming Epic Archetype.

Incarnate.

Heck - I'll do another....

Coralax.

Happy Saturday!

 

 

... that "Jack" being Jack Emmert.

 

I want to say the next mention of them we had was a stone tablet kind of showing them as a "lost origin," and that kind of fizzled. And then, of course... we got what you describe. (And that would have *kept* branching... presumably as long as COH ran, from Incarnates to Ascended to ... I forget the chain, now. But it was, and still is, so... un-COH.)

 

So, yeah. Lore and plans for lore *absolutely* change, but Incarnates have been planned as *something* since the start.

 

(Yes, I've been interested in Epic ATs for quite some time...)