I've seen lots of questions in the Story Questions Thread about the possibility of Armada troops or even the Elites joining the PC as Companions. When I see player posts speculating about what the future plot holds (always a fun pastime), these grants are assumed - Rooke will join us after betraying Kane, or Kane will be granted after El Dorado.

I'm here to tell you, I don't like the idea - the way I'm looking at things right now, I don't see it happening (at least for a looooooooooong time). I'll tell you why:

There many different types of villains out there: the bumbling bully (Popeye's Bluto), the nemesis (he's just like you but evil: think Belloq to Indy Jones), the evil genius (Hannibal lector and so many more). One of my favorites is the Force of Nature - monolithic, unstoppable, and unfathomable: you're scared of them because you can't empathize with them. The shark from Jaws is the most extreme example of this, but another one that I dearly love is the Borg (pre Hugh and I, Borg: the season 2 and 3 Borg). That's really what I was aiming for with the Armada.

They're tougher than you, they are relentless, you have almost no window on their thought process, and they don't care what you think. We're deliberately trying to keep them as "other" as possible, to emphasize their creepiness and maximize their potential as enemies.

To give a re-programmed Armada clockwork as a companion would take some of that mystique away. The worst thing they ever did to the Borg was to give them an empathetic identity, and then a queen. I want the Armada to be nothing but an enemy.

A disclaimer: if a really cool idea strikes me later on, I could change my mind. But for the foreseeable future at least, I don't like it. No sir, I don't like it at all.

Blind Mew on Mar 25, 2013 wrote:

I've seen lots of questions in the Story Questions Thread about the possibility of Armada troops or even the Elites joining the PC as Companions. When I see player posts speculating about what the future plot holds (always a fun pastime), these grants are assumed - Rooke will join us after betraying Kane, or Kane will be granted after El Dorado.

I'm here to tell you, I don't like the idea - the way I'm looking at things right now, I don't see it happening (at least for a looooooooooong time). I'll tell you why:

There many different types of villains out there: the bumbling bully (Popeye's Bluto), the nemesis (he's just like you but evil: think Belloq to Indy Jones), the evil genius (Hannibal lector and so many more). One of my favorites is the Force of Nature - monolithic, unstoppable, and unfathomable: you're scared of them because you can't empathize with them. The shark from Jaws is the most extreme example of this, but another one that I dearly love is the Borg (pre Hugh and I, Borg: the season 2 and 3 Borg). That's really what I was aiming for with the Armada.

They're tougher than you, they are relentless, you have almost no window on their thought process, and they don't care what you think. We're deliberately trying to keep them as "other" as possible, to emphasize their creepiness and maximize their potential as enemies.

To give a re-programmed Armada clockwork as a companion would take some of that mystique away. The worst thing they ever did to the Borg was to give them an empathetic identity, and then a queen. I want the Armada to be nothing but an enemy.

A disclaimer: if a really cool idea strikes me later on, I could change my mind. But for the foreseeable future at least, I don't like it. No sir, I don't like it at all.

now i have heard TONS of armada companion ideas too and most of them are the cleche "re-programed robot" but i was thinking more along the lines of an armada scientist. now this idea has some depth, so i am sorry if it is lengthy.
The next time the PC returns to Valencia they meet a unicorn scientist who has a mechanical arm (he also is about steed's age) who is working with the resistance. He explains that he helped design the armada soldiers as a revenge outlet (lost his arm in the polaris war) and feels responsible for all that the armada has done. He says that as a safeguard he designed every soldier to have a function that makes them terminate themselves if their programing is manualy altered, no mater how slight the change, meaning that reprograming is out of the picture. He also says that that this design could work to the resistance's advantage. The PC works on a whole side storyline (similar to rooster cogburn's) to find parts to a new model the scientist is working on. after those quests,the scientist joins the player as a companion. he is a witchdoctor who doesn't deal a lot of damge (he attacks by firing projectiles from his techno arm) but his best stat is his health. He also has two abilities that alow him to summon out an armada marine or sniper as a minion, similar to old scratch (each minion's level is equal to half the level of the scientist, so he wont be too unstopable). the armada minion's armor color matches the PC's flag colors. The minions will probably not be called armada marine or sniper, but i havent worked out all the details.
If this does make it into the main story, the scientist would be the smart, sarcastic guy that can hack int armada tech. I know the idea is way out there, but it would be pretty cool to have someone on my crew who has technological know how.

Talkin The Plank on Mar 28, 2013 wrote:

I understand what your saying. However, I'd still like an Armada-type companion at some point. If you don't like the "reprogrammed" clockwork, what if the pc comes across the workshop of Pirate101's version of Noonian Soong (to continue the Star Trek analogy) and activates a clockwork that was developed separately from the armada (maybe has a different look, even) which is even more intricate. It's creator, perhaps seeing what happened with the armada, figured out a way to program empathy (or maybe some version of the 3 laws of robotics) hoping to avoid a similar problem. This was, the armada doesn't lose it's mystique any more than the borg did because of the existence of Data: they just aren't the same thing.

Barring that, I would think of the Armada similar to the aliens from Independence Day ("What is it you want us to do?" "DIE!") We build an armada soldier out of spare parts and turn their own technology against them. This way, you don't become friends with an armada soldier, you have a husk of one that you're using against his own people. Maybe even have a little bit of a threat that your armada companion could turn on you at any moment if it gets a whiff of its old programming. It would be a dangerous gamble to have it so close to you, but at the same time necessary in your plan to take down Kane. We can already destroy the peons of the Armada, so the threat isn't from the individual but from the collective. This might be the next logical step from dressing up like a clockwork in Valencia, but, again, even more risky since you could never really trust it.

I think you slightly contridicted yourself. That second paragraph sounds a bit like it's stating a reprogrammed Armada drone. If it is going to follow the 3 Lwas, it wouldn't turn against you so there's little to worry. Plus if it's using different programing to the Armada, then it is practically, as you said, a different robot. I do like the idea of a never-been-programmed-and-is-practically-brand-new Armada husk that we fill with our own programming using details from the original creator (if he/she is even still alive) or his/her apprentice. This Armada man would have no relation or stored information of the Armada thus it is just a soulless, living, bot following your command and could not turn on you until another Armada Marine/Marksmen/Sniper/Eliteman reprograms it to function as the Armada intends it. (like the Clockworks of Marleybone)

This would also give an indirect allusion to the movie "9" where the Scientist built a War robot that had no soul and thus after beating the war it was designed to end, turned on human life and destroyed it. Then the Scientist creates nine rag-dolls and converts parts of his soul into each them, finally killing him after 9, so that life may continue and that they could stop this war robot, the Machine. So again, yep, the Armada would keep it's unwavering threat, and we get a handmade, very shappy-but-holds-it's-own Armada drone.

But I doubt Blind Mew will go for it lol.

On a side note, in a story sense, couldn't we just make a program the would kill all of the Armada? Or a better yet a virus that would make them attack each other and eventually they would collasps? I mean it's a major hole in the story but it's easier right? Oh, wait, but we're Pirates and we know as much about reprogramming as the Armada knows how to love. lol

Cunning Finnigan S... on Mar 28, 2013 wrote:

I think you slightly contridicted yourself. That second paragraph sounds a bit like it's stating a reprogrammed Armada drone. If it is going to follow the 3 Lwas, it wouldn't turn against you so there's little to worry. Plus if it's using different programing to the Armada, then it is practically, as you said, a different robot. I do like the idea of a never-been-programmed-and-is-practically-brand-new Armada husk that we fill with our own programming using details from the original creator (if he/she is even still alive) or his/her apprentice. This Armada man would have no relation or stored information of the Armada thus it is just a soulless, living, bot following your command and could not turn on you until another Armada Marine/Marksmen/Sniper/Eliteman reprograms it to function as the Armada intends it. (like the Clockworks of Marleybone)

This would also give an indirect allusion to the movie "9" where the Scientist built a War robot that had no soul and thus after beating the war it was designed to end, turned on human life and destroyed it. Then the Scientist creates nine rag-dolls and converts parts of his soul into each them, finally killing him after 9, so that life may continue and that they could stop this war robot, the Machine. So again, yep, the Armada would keep it's unwavering threat, and we get a handmade, very shappy-but-holds-it's-own Armada drone.

But I doubt Blind Mew will go for it lol.

On a side note, in a story sense, couldn't we just make a program the would kill all of the Armada? Or a better yet a virus that would make them attack each other and eventually they would collasps? I mean it's a major hole in the story but it's easier right? Oh, wait, but we're Pirates and we know as much about reprogramming as the Armada knows how to love. lol

They were two different scenarios, but I suppose I could have been more clear. The point is, I think we should get an armada companion at some point. We discussed it on this week's podcast (available now!) and I think there is a lot of potential for compelling drama if handled in a thoughtful way, which I don't doubt the team is capable of.

I am glad that the Armada will not constitute one of our companions, as I agree that doing so would lessen the mystique and fearfulness of these excellent villains. Besides, they despise us!
One thing I am noting in this thread, however, is that the Armada are assumed to be like robots. So, speculating here, I don't think so. Yes, they are described as 'mechanical men' or 'toy soldiers', and we have seen for ourselves that they are indeed heartless, souless, and ruthless. However, although highly intelligent and masters of strategy, they are not logical. They show a number of -negative- emotions: spite, resentment, fury, pride, etc. Do they show positive emotions? Does Rooke feel grief for the loss of his 'brother' (interesting choice of words)? And what about the fey behavior of Phule? His role for Kane's court, while showing traditional roots, does not seem to be the most logical of choices, unless the notion is to be something like the Fool in _King Lear_ - being able to discern the truth almost as an outsider (though if his role is primarily to provide entertainment, I'd hate to see what sort of things Kane and his court would find amusing). Perhaps they are at least as magical as they are mechanical. And while electricity seems to play a role in maintaining their lives (broken down Armada soldiers fizzle and spark), is that not ultimately true as well for how our human nervous systems work?
Virtuous Anne Radcliffe

Were you not paying attention in the armada puppet show kane is the first of the armada clockworks their was no older armada clockwork though bane would be a cool hidden secret that no one knew about not a clockwork but an even bigger villian than kane.

As for the whole no armada companion i know it is hard and not easy to put in especially an elite clockwork so here is what i think and if youve seen other message boards i think this is like the hundredth time ive said we should only have one armada companion for every class the Deacon why him he was your biggest foe (other than kane of course) who had benn hunting you down from day one that you started. There should be a quest main story of course where the creator of the armada or someone who had a big rivalry or dispute with the armad who has reconstructed deacon but gave him a mind of his own so he wouldnt be controlled this time from kane the pirate is called back from his duties of searching for the pieces of the map from Avery and says he has found a way to gain an edge over the armada by turning them good but when kane finds out deacon is back he hires a bounty hunter and his crew that had feuds with the aramda to capture deacon and he doesnt send armada troops so they dont suspect the aramda is behind this and the pirates think the bounty hunters just want to get abck at the armada. The bounty hunters take deacon back to valencia when they reach kane the pirate is right on their tail deacon fights with you as an ally to battle the bounty hunters and deacons replacement who kane had after deacon died teh pirate defeats the bounty hunters and destroy deacons replacement and also collect one of the pieces of marco pollos map that deacons replacement had with him after the pirate, the crew, and deacon return in skull island they find out rooke had killed the man who found out how to reprogram armada troops and destroyed the evidence to make sure it can never happen so after all that deacon decides to join the pirates crew so he can make up for all the horrible things he did as the armadas puppet and says he will never stop fighting with the pirate until he dies and asks for foriveness to the pirate and everyone else. So by the end of that return to skull island you get deacon and recover a piece of the map and go to your next world for the next piece. I think this would be a brilliant idea for the storyline and i think it will make many players happy and it would be a great way to get more people to join the amazing and probably one of my top 3 games ive ever played pirate101. and this way you only get one armada companion so you dont make it to difficult to get quests for more am=rmada companions so what do you think blind mew and talkin the plank like my ideas and please tell me if you like it it would make me happy whether you say yes or no

find me in the game
Slick Cody Jones privateer lvl 50
Merciless Ethan Jenkinsswashbuckler lvl 44
that is all peace!!!!!!

Ethan the baron on Apr 3, 2013 wrote:

Were you not paying attention in the armada puppet show kane is the first of the armada clockworks their was no older armada clockwork though bane would be a cool hidden secret that no one knew about not a clockwork but an even bigger villian than kane.

As for the whole no armada companion i know it is hard and not easy to put in especially an elite clockwork so here is what i think and if youve seen other message boards i think this is like the hundredth time ive said we should only have one armada companion for every class the Deacon why him he was your biggest foe (other than kane of course) who had benn hunting you down from day one that you started. There should be a quest main story of course where the creator of the armada or someone who had a big rivalry or dispute with the armad who has reconstructed deacon but gave him a mind of his own so he wouldnt be controlled this time from kane the pirate is called back from his duties of searching for the pieces of the map from Avery and says he has found a way to gain an edge over the armada by turning them good but when kane finds out deacon is back he hires a bounty hunter and his crew that had feuds with the aramda to capture deacon and he doesnt send armada troops so they dont suspect the aramda is behind this and the pirates think the bounty hunters just want to get abck at the armada. The bounty hunters take deacon back to valencia when they reach kane the pirate is right on their tail deacon fights with you as an ally to battle the bounty hunters and deacons replacement who kane had after deacon died teh pirate defeats the bounty hunters and destroy deacons replacement and also collect one of the pieces of marco pollos map that deacons replacement had with him after the pirate, the crew, and deacon return in skull island they find out rooke had killed the man who found out how to reprogram armada troops and destroyed the evidence to make sure it can never happen so after all that deacon decides to join the pirates crew so he can make up for all the horrible things he did as the armadas puppet and says he will never stop fighting with the pirate until he dies and asks for foriveness to the pirate and everyone else. So by the end of that return to skull island you get deacon and recover a piece of the map and go to your next world for the next piece. I think this would be a brilliant idea for the storyline and i think it will make many players happy and it would be a great way to get more people to join the amazing and probably one of my top 3 games ive ever played pirate101. and this way you only get one armada companion so you dont make it to difficult to get quests for more am=rmada companions so what do you think blind mew and talkin the plank like my ideas and please tell me if you like it it would make me happy whether you say yes or no

find me in the game
Slick Cody Jones privateer lvl 50
Merciless Ethan Jenkinsswashbuckler lvl 44
that is all peace!!!!!!

What I meant was an earlier model, the idea the genius had and based it on basically.
He bought his own from marleybone built it studied it then designed his own.

Sorry for confusion.

Ethan the baron on Apr 11, 2013 wrote:

Oh then I apologize and I think that would also be a good idea to incorporate but I would still like an answer to my idea from blind mew or any other community leader or even one of you players if you like my idea and agree deacon should be the only armada companion
Slick Cody Jones privateer lvl 50
Merciless Ethan Jenkins swashbuckler lvl 49

DEFINITELY! If not a companion you could get his attire, including his cane.

Blind Mew on Mar 25, 2013 wrote:

I've seen lots of questions in the Story Questions Thread about the possibility of Armada troops or even the Elites joining the PC as Companions. When I see player posts speculating about what the future plot holds (always a fun pastime), these grants are assumed - Rooke will join us after betraying Kane, or Kane will be granted after El Dorado.

I'm here to tell you, I don't like the idea - the way I'm looking at things right now, I don't see it happening (at least for a looooooooooong time). I'll tell you why:

There many different types of villains out there: the bumbling bully (Popeye's Bluto), the nemesis (he's just like you but evil: think Belloq to Indy Jones), the evil genius (Hannibal lector and so many more). One of my favorites is the Force of Nature - monolithic, unstoppable, and unfathomable: you're scared of them because you can't empathize with them. The shark from Jaws is the most extreme example of this, but another one that I dearly love is the Borg (pre Hugh and I, Borg: the season 2 and 3 Borg). That's really what I was aiming for with the Armada.

They're tougher than you, they are relentless, you have almost no window on their thought process, and they don't care what you think. We're deliberately trying to keep them as "other" as possible, to emphasize their creepiness and maximize their potential as enemies.

To give a re-programmed Armada clockwork as a companion would take some of that mystique away. The worst thing they ever did to the Borg was to give them an empathetic identity, and then a queen. I want the Armada to be nothing but an enemy.

A disclaimer: if a really cool idea strikes me later on, I could change my mind. But for the foreseeable future at least, I don't like it. No sir, I don't like it at all.

I'm with you on this one.

Blind Mew, so if you say no Armada companions, you mean no Armada companions? *sigh*

Blind Mew on Mar 25, 2013 wrote:

I've seen lots of questions in the Story Questions Thread about the possibility of Armada troops or even the Elites joining the PC as Companions. When I see player posts speculating about what the future plot holds (always a fun pastime), these grants are assumed - Rooke will join us after betraying Kane, or Kane will be granted after El Dorado.

I'm here to tell you, I don't like the idea - the way I'm looking at things right now, I don't see it happening (at least for a looooooooooong time). I'll tell you why:

There many different types of villains out there: the bumbling bully (Popeye's Bluto), the nemesis (he's just like you but evil: think Belloq to Indy Jones), the evil genius (Hannibal lector and so many more). One of my favorites is the Force of Nature - monolithic, unstoppable, and unfathomable: you're scared of them because you can't empathize with them. The shark from Jaws is the most extreme example of this, but another one that I dearly love is the Borg (pre Hugh and I, Borg: the season 2 and 3 Borg). That's really what I was aiming for with the Armada.

They're tougher than you, they are relentless, you have almost no window on their thought process, and they don't care what you think. We're deliberately trying to keep them as "other" as possible, to emphasize their creepiness and maximize their potential as enemies.

To give a re-programmed Armada clockwork as a companion would take some of that mystique away. The worst thing they ever did to the Borg was to give them an empathetic identity, and then a queen. I want the Armada to be nothing but an enemy.

A disclaimer: if a really cool idea strikes me later on, I could change my mind. But for the foreseeable future at least, I don't like it. No sir, I don't like it at all.

I know what ur trying to say and everything but we always have bad guys that turn into good like ratbeard, catbeard, and some others. I think we should atleast give the armada a chance too. (like a side quest cause i know some people dont like a armada as a companion). It would be like an armada sniper or a battle angel or something like that. (Not the people from the elite court because that would just be waaay wrong). I know everybody is going off on the reprogramming idea and i think i like that idea too (basicly like a change of "heart" but of course they dont have hearts so thats when the reprogramming idea comes in XD). Plz take consideration in the idea that i have or any others i would be cool.
Krystal Everhart Lvl. 64

Blind Mew on Mar 25, 2013 wrote:

I've seen lots of questions in the Story Questions Thread about the possibility of Armada troops or even the Elites joining the PC as Companions. When I see player posts speculating about what the future plot holds (always a fun pastime), these grants are assumed - Rooke will join us after betraying Kane, or Kane will be granted after El Dorado.

I'm here to tell you, I don't like the idea - the way I'm looking at things right now, I don't see it happening (at least for a looooooooooong time). I'll tell you why:

There many different types of villains out there: the bumbling bully (Popeye's Bluto), the nemesis (he's just like you but evil: think Belloq to Indy Jones), the evil genius (Hannibal lector and so many more). One of my favorites is the Force of Nature - monolithic, unstoppable, and unfathomable: you're scared of them because you can't empathize with them. The shark from Jaws is the most extreme example of this, but another one that I dearly love is the Borg (pre Hugh and I, Borg: the season 2 and 3 Borg). That's really what I was aiming for with the Armada.

They're tougher than you, they are relentless, you have almost no window on their thought process, and they don't care what you think. We're deliberately trying to keep them as "other" as possible, to emphasize their creepiness and maximize their potential as enemies.

To give a re-programmed Armada clockwork as a companion would take some of that mystique away. The worst thing they ever did to the Borg was to give them an empathetic identity, and then a queen. I want the Armada to be nothing but an enemy.

A disclaimer: if a really cool idea strikes me later on, I could change my mind. But for the foreseeable future at least, I don't like it. No sir, I don't like it at all.

Then you might want to rethink Phule Blind Mew. If you didn't want the Armada to like us, why does HALF of Phule want us to undermine the clockwork court?

noahdd on Jul 10, 2013 wrote:

Because he supposed to be half and half. Half totally spiteful against enemies of the armada, other half likes trying to encourage you.

Well, if Blind Mew says that the Armada isn't supposed to be helping us, why would they encourage us? Blind Mew, answer us this; If the Armada is supposed to despise ALL pirates, then why is Phule encouraging us to undermine the clockwork court? He is a CLOCKWORK after all.