Patch Notes for June 17th, 2025 - Issue 28, Page 2

[VulnaviaPhibes]

Okay, final review, this time for the blueside arcs! I think the overall quality was good, if not as interesting or compelling as the redside plots.

 

Kogan's arc was by far my favorite, it felt like an underdog story in a way that few arcs do, largely because of the easy-to-fail optional objectives like recruiting the Freakshow, interrogating Orbital Fracture, evacuating the actors, and speaking to the press. The fact the success and failure here was based on your cleverness and thoroughness as a player made the consequences feel especially real. I appreciated the little role-play options as well, to counter-play your character against Korgan's ruthlessness, to embrace it, even to decide how your character triangulates with him and Blackwing politically. They were a very nice touch. The fifth-column commander having unique dialogue for fighting a woman was nice as well. Well, not nice. You know what I mean. It felt authentic to have him spew misogynist invective at me. Not to mention the little details on Blackwing's procedures, evidence admission, the news ecosystem. I know I have now made three posts gushing about attention to detail but it's so incredibly rare in an MMO especially and I want to emphasize how much I appreciate it. It's what makes these arcs so memorable.

 

Zeigler's arc was appropriately ominous, towards the end, though I wish more of that mood and atmosphere had been cultivated earlier, more of a slow build-up and less of a twist, though I suppose that's subjective. I understand wanting to make it feel very ordinary at first but I felt like the veil wasn't pulled until it was slightly too late to give the final reveal the build-up it required. The secret ending was nice though– I like that it ties all the Nictus business together. And finally I appreciated the characterization of the coming threat. My worry when I first heard of them was that they would feel... less significant than previous grand-scale villains, Enormous, but not thematically interesting. I like that you've made them unique in how they relate to humanity and what they mean for the future. It feels less like infiltration and betrayal and more like emergence from ignorance. The world has always worked this way, but we could only ever see a small fraction of it, so we couldn't put the pieces together.

 

Alexander's arc was. Adjective. It felt deeply anticlimactic to me. Where was the drama of the Midnighter Club being put to fire and the sword? Where was the drama of the big reveal? We didn't even get to talk to Botis before we fought him, which could have been a perfect opportunity for some build-up. It felt more like an information-gathering mission for the finale than the finale. I think it also suffers for a certain lack of... personality? Alexander is stoic and honorable, but that feels like all he has going for him. Who is he as a person? What is he like? Is he trying not to reveal anything about himself to us? How does he relate to us? How do he and Infernal know one another? How about Frostfire? Why is Frostfire stopping his work to give us a dry lecture on the different kinds of mutants a propos of almost nothing? If he's concerned about the treatment of the Awakened, what is he trying to do for them? How do the broadly male chauvinist warriors feel about working for a witch? How does the witch feel about working for them? I think her only lines are variations on "get them!" And the Words of the Warrior... I just didn't find it sufficiently believable. The fifth column lines in Kogan's arc were a blend of real evil stuff that fascist types believe and sillier takes on the same, toeing the line between insightful and parodic, but when it was silly I felt like it was on purpose– the writer was mocking what had just been said before the commander said his next realistic piece. The Words were just too broad, departing too often from the specific kind of AM Radio conspiracy rant that they're parodying to make general conspiracy jokes and not drilling in tightly enough on the "I have hot blood! I am an animal! Big men kill the enemy!" sort of stuff that it's ostensibly making fun of. It was one of my favorite parts of the arc because it did have personality to it, but compared to Zeigler's arc and especially Kogan's it fell flat.

 

Having replayed Erin West's, I'm even more impressed with it by comparison. The sheer amount of characterization it gives to the fairly flat Tavish Bell! The fact that if you give Ms. West your pronouns as they/them you don't have the option to ask ignorant-questions about your nonbinary teammate's identity, the way the final monologues all interlink with one another logically regardless of which or how many companions you have. It's just *chef kiss* delicious. I'll be heading back to replay Mr. Dapson Esq.'s arc as well, since I'm certain I missed some easter eggs.

 

I suppose the only fair final verdict is that the Homecoming team has been putting out a pretty huge variety of missions and story arcs, in terms of subject matter and in terms of quality. Where they're good, it almost always seems to come down to Personality and Attention to Detail. My favorites, like Erin West, are stuffed with both, while my least favorites, like the redside Striga arcs, feel very dry and bare-bones.

 

And my final words:

@Velvet Violet, you are absolutely incredible. ❤️ I would love to follow you to any future projects on other games, or in other media.

 

With love, at last, Vulnavia

Edited June 27 by VulnaviaPhibes

[twozerofoxtrot]

3 hours ago, VulnaviaPhibes said:

Who is he as a person? What is he like? Is he trying not to reveal anything about himself to us? How does he relate to us?

 

Not as a critique of your review but rather to inform, Alexander is introdiced to the player in the original version of the game as an anti-Hero for the Redeemer badge and then during John Houston's arc as the deuteragonist we see more of him and he's somewhat characterizedby his reactions to the Warriors and the player. 

 

My assumption going through this arc was that they didn't flesh him out more because we've already experienced the character throughout the game.

[VulnaviaPhibes]

3 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

My assumption going through this arc was that they didn't flesh him out more because we've already experienced the character throughout the game.

 

Thank you, that's a good point! ^w^ I went back to read those arcs since it's been a bit of a bit!

 

I do like that Lukas Morakis is an established character from when we first met Alexander, that's good conservation of detail! But I feel like the arc still could have done a bit more to flesh the guy out. He only has two lines in John Houston's arc (if we don't count "..." and "wait a minute!"), and his character there is only a light expansion of what we know from the Redeemer mission– making his interest in honor and fairness more global and political, rather than just personal. Which is fine, since so much other stuff is happening in that arc, and his role in it is more symbolic. In this, though, we spend five missions with him as our primary point of contact, and I don't think we come away knowing anything more about him than we did at the start: that he's honorable, brave, fair in his dealings, opposes the evil ways Odysseus has embraced, and believes in a more positive version of the Warriors credo.

 

You're totally right that we already have a decent sense of who Alexander is from previous missions. I just hoped that giving him the spotlight would mean we'd learn more, is all.

Edited June 28 by VulnaviaPhibes

[Story Archer]

On 6/19/2025 at 6:44 AM, Faultline said:

 

It's been running out of memory in Excelsior and Everlasting; the max memory will be increased on Tuesdays' patch.

 

Is this the best place to track the status of the badge tracker? It's actually my favorite addition to the game, but I've only seen it work once (on Excelsior).

[Shocktacular]

Hey, nitpicky detail here, but...

... the text for the "Tourist Trapped" badge says:  "Many who visit the Wharf take a paddle boat out to Turtle Rock Island as a "must see" location. Known for its curious rock formations, incredible views of the Wharf, and the once-a-day alignment of One Statesman Tower with the rising sun, tourists end up here taking photos more than any other place in the Wharf." (emphasis mine)

The position on the horizon that the sun appears to rise from shifts slightly from day to day, so a perfect alignment wouldn't happen more than once or twice a year (once if it's on either solstice, twice otherwise).  I know that this is nitpicky, but I'm an astronomy teacher, so this bothers me a bit. 😛 

 

Edited to add:  It's also possible that the angle between Turtle Rock Island and One Statesman Tower is such that, at Paragon City's latitude, the alignment with the rising sun will not happen at all.  I'm going to be working on this over the next few days (otherwise, it won't leave me alone 😛).

Edited Friday at 11:45 PM by Shocktacular

[Derek Icelord]

The Justified Ends badge is supposed to be awarded for completing Robert Kogan's arc, regardless of which dialogue choices you make in the missions, correct? I just finished his arc and no one on my team got the badge (everyone was there from start to finish).

[Jacktar]

4 hours ago, Derek Icelord said:

The Justified Ends badge is supposed to be awarded for completing Robert Kogan's arc, regardless of which dialogue choices you make in the missions, correct? I just finished his arc and no one on my team got the badge (everyone was there from start to finish).

Yep bugged at the moment but being looked at for a quick fix.

Not sure if it will award retrospectivly or will require a rerun.

Watch this space …….

[lemming]

2 hours ago, Jacktar said:

Yep bugged at the moment but being looked at for a quick fix.

Not sure if it will award retrospectivly or will require a rerun.

Watch this space …….

I think Voltor was told it would need to be run again for the badge once fixed.

[Shocktacular]

On 7/2/2025 at 10:37 PM, Shocktacular said:

Hey, nitpicky detail here, but...

... the text for the "Tourist Trapped" badge says:  "Many who visit the Wharf take a paddle boat out to Turtle Rock Island as a "must see" location. Known for its curious rock formations, incredible views of the Wharf, and the once-a-day alignment of One Statesman Tower with the rising sun, tourists end up here taking photos more than any other place in the Wharf." (emphasis mine)

The position on the horizon that the sun appears to rise from shifts slightly from day to day, so a perfect alignment wouldn't happen more than once or twice a year (once if it's on either solstice, twice otherwise).  I know that this is nitpicky, but I'm an astronomy teacher, so this bothers me a bit. 😛 

 

Edited to add:  It's also possible that the angle between Turtle Rock Island and One Statesman Tower is such that, at Paragon City's latitude, the alignment with the rising sun will not happen at all.  I'm going to be working on this over the next few days (otherwise, it won't leave me alone 😛).

Okay, I got a map of Kallisti Wharf, drew lines from the island to the tower (center to center and either side), and measured the angles.  The flattest angle possible is between the southwestern corner of Turtle Island and the northern side of the tower, which measures 131 degrees from North (pointing slightly east of southeast).  For the Sun to rise in alignment with the tower as seen from Turtle Island, it must have an azimuth of 131 degrees when its altitude is 0 degrees (on the horizon).  Whether this alignment is possible or not depends on the latitude of Paragon City. 

 

I haven't seen an exact latitude, but we know that Paragon City is in the state of Rhode Island and has the Atlantic Ocean to the east.  Based on an actual map of Rhode Island, this means that Paragon City would need to be somewhere between the city of Narragansett and Point Judith.  The latitude for this area is 41.4 degrees north (with a more specific location, I could add more digits after the decimal, but this covers that region).  

 

The Sun rises at it southernmost azimuth on the Winter Solstice, which is on or around December 21st.  From that latitude, the southernmost angle the Sun could ever rise at is 121 degrees azimuth.  I checked other locations in the state of Rhode Island and multiple calendar dates and could not find any location at which the Sun would ever rise at the required 131 degrees azimuth.  Therefore, the sunrise will NEVER align with One Statesman Tower as seen from Turtle Island.  Sorry. 😞 

 

This was good practice for my astro-knowledge, though. 🙂 

Edited yesterday at 06:43 AM by Shocktacular

[Shocktacular]

Another thought occurs: The Sun will appear to align with the tower by appearing directly above it once a day every morning, since it appears to travel southward as well as upwards from the point on the horizon where it rises (the exact time will vary somewhat throughout the year, but it will always be in the AM hours).  Therefore, I suggest that the text for the badge be changed to say "the once-a-day alignment of One Statesman Tower with the morning sun" instead of "the rising sun".

 

I'm also going to work out which dates (if any) the Sun will appear to sit exactly at the top of the tower, as well as what time of year (if any) that the Sun will be blocked by the tower, but to do that I'll need to measure how tall the tower is, the distance between the tower and Turtle Island, and any difference in elevation between the base of the tower and Turtle Island (if anyone already has those numbers, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know what they are).

This is fun!  I like doing this stuff!  I'll post again when I've got it figured out.

Edited 10 hours ago by Shocktacular