The Admiral on Oct 15, 2013 wrote:

Hey Blind Mew! Good to see you back! Thanks for answering my questions! I hope you don't mind answering a few more. Thanks in advance

1. Is there anything you can tell us about the Class trainers that we don't know about?
2. Speaking of Class trainers, are there any more plans to add more trainer quests?
3. Also, who is your favorite Class trainer?

1. Not at this time. I hope to give the Trainers more interesting tidbits, but to have them play out slowly.

2. Yup, There aren't nearly enough in the content we have now, in my opinion, and we will still need them going forward too.

3. I like the Commodore's humor the best, I think Mordekai looks the best, and I'm a big fan of Morgan LaFitte. I'd say Vadima is the easiest to bring in to quest lines, judging from all the use we've made of her.

The Vagabond on Oct 16, 2013 wrote:

Hey Blind Mew! It really is great that you're back on the boards, and I truly hope things don't get to CRAZY for you and your co-workers.

1. Ol' Fish Eye sailed with Catbeard AND Erica the Red. Would we at some point in time have to go talk to him about Erica's location or something like that?

2. Can u give ANY kind of response to the question of a new book appearing by the end of the year?

3. In a much earlier post, you referenced the possibility of 'Samoorai Yak', the character. Is that possibility becoming more and more likely?

4. Is there dissention in the Armada's ranks? What with Phule seeing so much potential in us back at Pollo's tomb, it would appear that some clockwork has something sneaky goin' on in the sidelines...

5. Have there, or will be, any references to DC or Marvel comics? For some reason, I can easily see the Sandman from Vertigo as a captain wandering the paths between realms......

It truly is great to have you back again Blind Mew, happy piratin'!!

1. Not a bad idea. But Ol' Fish Eye's been stayin' put for a while. He may not know much abotu what Erika's up to right now.

2. The only response I can give is to refuse to respond.

3. Hard to say. That kind of thing, once it's on our radar, gets tagged as "low hanging fruit" and then we let it simmer for a long time and finally grab it when we need it.

4. The Elites are a very interesting bunch - there's definitely some dysfunction goign on between them. Also, bear in mind that Phule's a bit... off. Hopefully we'll get to see a bit more about his

5. Direct references we have to be careful of. Now things that resonate, nods and allusions and homages, those we can do. There are lots of place we look to for those, and comics are not a typical one. A Sandman analogue would be very cool, but I'd expect a wizard to meet him before a pirate would.

katreeny on Oct 21, 2013 wrote:

Blind Mew,

Thanks for the wonderful feedback - and evil hints!

My questions:
1. You've hinted that getting back to Valencia is going to be "adventurous" - does this mean we might get to *ahem* commandeer an Armada ship?

2. Considering how many near misses we've had so far, where we've escaped the Armada by the skin of our teeth, is there ever going to be a situation where we don't escape and have to be rescued (or have to break ourselves out of an Armada prison - that would be fun)?

3. It seems to me that the elite clockworks we've met all share a certain arrogance. Would that be something they got from their maker, Kane?

4. New skyway, 'C'... Cadiz? Or am I being a bit too ambitious there?

5. Steed says at the end of the first Valencia mission, "The people must know" - does this mean that most Valencians think the Armada is benign or even good?

6. Will we ever see a reward posted for our capture? It seems like something the Armada might do in its territories.

1. That would be telling. It'd also be pretty cool...

2. Another great idea. Hard to engineer, but it'd make a heck of a dungeon.

3. Absolutely. Kane sees himself as the most perfect being in the Spiral. His greatest creations also think highly of themselves.

4. All I can say is that it does not stand for cookie.

5. You're on to something here - this is an idea we're going to explore at length. The relationship is complex.

6. Another good idea. You're worth quite a bit, i expect.

Doctor Z on Oct 24, 2013 wrote:

1: Will we see more of bishop? He is my favorite clockwork yet

2: is there a chance we will meet captain blood again?

3: wouldn't catbeard know of the powers that rest in el dorado? Why hasn't he told us?

4: what happens know with the war between the armada and marley bone?

1. Yup.

2. I dunno - his defeat was such a huge deal, I'd hate to undo it.

3. In theory he'd know quite a bit. That's a good question.

4. It's at a stalemate now, and is likely to stay that way for a long long time.

Elemutation on Oct 24, 2013 wrote:

I am not hoping for confirmation on this, but I at least want to know if this theory has any major or minor relation to the GRAND DESIGN!!! it may be a bit lengthy, but IMO is worth reading.

As we all know, Kane and the Clockworks were created for the purpose of ending the Polarian war. Kane was most likely a high ranking member of the armada, or was at least in the war. He seems to sound like he he has "Ideas, thoughts and emotions" like the other elites. I believe he had an epiphany after the war ended, and this is what it was. He realized that the clockworks were the ultimate peacemakers, being able to end the polarian war almost on their own. He also saw that the worlds of the spiral were constantly fighting, and this was mainly due to diversity and different cultures. He looks at the clockworks and saw perfection. complete uniformity, and although the goons were not as advanced as Kane, the species would be able to evolve. Although they possessed "emotions" they did not cloud their judgement (i.e.: Rooke being upset about Deacon's downfall, but ignored the PC in mooshu to continue business). He decided that the clockworks were the future, all the good traits the species of the spiral had, with all the negatives corrected. He wanted to reform the spiral, in a way he saw as perfection. He first saw several roadblocks in his plan, such as the past civilizations may influence the future clockwork community. So he decided to destroy all other traces of spiral culture, with the prime example being the drill crusher in Granchia. He also saw one major issue. with the different climates and terrains of the worlds of the spiral, the clockwork communities may reform several cultures that may induce war. He had to mike THE SPIRAL ITSELF uniformed. He heard of the legend of El Dorado, and believed it's power could do what he wished. He had to keep relations with the other worlds of the spiral, as to not stall troops from their search for the map pieces. otherwise, progress would stall if something were to happen like the war with Marlebone. He also had to handle those who could not be reasoned with, such as the pirates. All this work would soon become too much, so he had to create others like himself so they could handle problems with like a being, and not a machine, and thus, the elites were born. I will continue with my theory about the events from the game's being onward.

F.R. Holystone
lv 65

We have a lot to reveal about Kane's origin, his motivations, and his ultimate goal. I'm hoping to keep those revelations as surprising as possible.

That said, your theory is very thorough, and very well thought out. You're heading in a good direction, but still missing a few critical pieces. I won't hold that against you - after all, I'm still hiding those pieces!

Disloyal1 on Oct 25, 2013 wrote:

Was being curious today and wanted to ask some questions.

1. Will we ever see the brass monkey again? I'm sure he will pop up in some random dungeon.

2.Will we ever get a back story on Louis le Bisque. He is a great companion and I want to learn more about him.

3.If we ever got to fight Kane could you guess how hard the fight would be?

4. Do you think Doctor Noh would be a good Main quest companion? Why or Why not?

5. I know this is kind of a random question but how come Deacon does not drop any special gear like the rest of the armada?

6. Will we ever fight one of our class trainers for like a test?

1. He's too fun never to see again.

2. Yup, we will.

3. Given how much we've built him up as the ultimate bad guy, it'd better be pretty hard!

4. Well, the fact that he isn't now means we already decided he would not be, and that he can't be in the future - too hard to backtrack on those kinds of things, especially once people have paid crowns for him. As to why, he seemed a very specialized guy, and there were other companions we wanted to give away more than him.

5. That's one for Ratbeard.

6. That'd be a heck of a fight! Don't know yet.

Blaze Carter on Oct 29, 2013 wrote:

I really liked the promotion of Ratbeard to rat admiral, how did you guys come up the idea to use the story of A Christmas Carol, Its amazing!

and the voice of Mr. Barks, in the trade legation, mooshu, is that the same voice as Avery?

Blaze

Very early in the process of developing Marleybone, the Art Lead and I decided we wanted an older version of London visually - Dickens' London instead of Victoria's. From there, the creative group started wracking our brains for good Dickensian references to use. Clearly, if you're doing any Dickens at all, you MUST do A Christmas Carol.

Originally I'd figured to make the Christmas Carol a side quest. Then the idea occurred to me to make it Ratbeard's promo - Ratbeard himself is so surly and Scroogelike the idea was too good to resist. While trying to break the plot down, I kept getting hung up on how to have three ghosts visit Ratbeard, and then I had a real epiphany: turn the quest inside out - you're the ghosts. The thought of Old Scratch as the Ghost of Christmas Future made me laugh uncontrollably - it was too good to resist.

Then, of course, we had to figure out what the meat of the plot would be. It was hard to do, and it quickly became clear that this would be a looooong quest. But I think it was worth it.

As for Mr. Barks, I don't think so.

Blind Mew on Oct 31, 2013 wrote:

1. That would be telling. It'd also be pretty cool...

2. Another great idea. Hard to engineer, but it'd make a heck of a dungeon.

3. Absolutely. Kane sees himself as the most perfect being in the Spiral. His greatest creations also think highly of themselves.

4. All I can say is that it does not stand for cookie.

5. You're on to something here - this is an idea we're going to explore at length. The relationship is complex.

6. Another good idea. You're worth quite a bit, i expect.

Heh! Two "that would be telling", two "great idea", one "you're on the right track", and one "yes" - that's a pretty good score!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how you bring it all together - based on what you've done so far it will be awesome.

In the meantime, I have my own theory about our parents - I think Gaspard is closest: that the Armada is responsible.

I suspect even then they were looking for Pollo's map. Kane was fine with leaving Pollo's piece with him, and then in Granchia. (Pollo's epic journey had to have been before the war against Napoleguin, based on the hints we have). Kane knew exactly where it was and could collect it at any time.

Part of Deacon's responsibilities were tracking down the rest of the pieces. He tracked one to our parents, and came after them. Once he had them (but not the piece for reasons no doubt to be explored later), he used his living agents to spread multiple stories of how they'd died. Each of the origin companions heard a different story - except Gaspard who (my theory) was the only survivor from the actual attack. But no one believed him because it wasn't long after the war against Napoleguin so the Armada were still seen as allies.

We were harder to track down - Deacon never found out who our parents left us with. I think once he found where we were, he made his sweep on whatever pretext he could use, which is where the game starts. Of course we don't know where Mom's map piece is either... But we're a key to it.

He used us as his stalking horse to get past Blood's defenses and find Clark's piece. Much more convenient for him to have us taking the risks. He did try to negotiate with Blood, but that ended... badly.

I'm guessing Deacon hadn't traced all the pieces when we destroyed him, since there was no evidence there'd been any Armada activity in Aquila, and there is that stormgate to Aquila in the Aragon Skyway... We know Mom's piece hasn't been traced. We don't know if they've tracked Erika the Red's piece or not.

Us starting that war with Marleybone really threw a wrench into Kane's plans, I think. He didn't have all his pieces in place when it blew up, but that's not going to stop him. And now he's going to be really mad at us.

For some reason I don't think our encounters with him are going to be terribly civilized.

katreeny on Nov 1, 2013 wrote:

Heh! Two "that would be telling", two "great idea", one "you're on the right track", and one "yes" - that's a pretty good score!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how you bring it all together - based on what you've done so far it will be awesome.

In the meantime, I have my own theory about our parents - I think Gaspard is closest: that the Armada is responsible.

I suspect even then they were looking for Pollo's map. Kane was fine with leaving Pollo's piece with him, and then in Granchia. (Pollo's epic journey had to have been before the war against Napoleguin, based on the hints we have). Kane knew exactly where it was and could collect it at any time.

Part of Deacon's responsibilities were tracking down the rest of the pieces. He tracked one to our parents, and came after them. Once he had them (but not the piece for reasons no doubt to be explored later), he used his living agents to spread multiple stories of how they'd died. Each of the origin companions heard a different story - except Gaspard who (my theory) was the only survivor from the actual attack. But no one believed him because it wasn't long after the war against Napoleguin so the Armada were still seen as allies.

We were harder to track down - Deacon never found out who our parents left us with. I think once he found where we were, he made his sweep on whatever pretext he could use, which is where the game starts. Of course we don't know where Mom's map piece is either... But we're a key to it.

He used us as his stalking horse to get past Blood's defenses and find Clark's piece. Much more convenient for him to have us taking the risks. He did try to negotiate with Blood, but that ended... badly.

I'm guessing Deacon hadn't traced all the pieces when we destroyed him, since there was no evidence there'd been any Armada activity in Aquila, and there is that stormgate to Aquila in the Aragon Skyway... We know Mom's piece hasn't been traced. We don't know if they've tracked Erika the Red's piece or not.

Us starting that war with Marleybone really threw a wrench into Kane's plans, I think. He didn't have all his pieces in place when it blew up, but that's not going to stop him. And now he's going to be really mad at us.

For some reason I don't think our encounters with him are going to be terribly civilized.

"For some reason I don't think our encounters with him are going to be terribly civilized."
Lol the ultimate understatement. Very well said.

Chrissy Th'Blesser on Nov 1, 2013 wrote:

"For some reason I don't think our encounters with him are going to be terribly civilized."
Lol the ultimate understatement. Very well said.

Why thank you!

We've been busily upgrading ourselves from "nuisance fugitive" to "target", and now somewhere along the lines of "infernal nuisance" - I wouldn't be surprised if every clockwork has standing orders to capture if possible, kill if not.

Not to mention that big reward Blind Mew mentioned...

Why would Kane be polite to scum like us? We're fit only to be crushed beneath his boots - and by now he's going to want to do the crushing personally if he can.

Fun times, me hearties, fun times...

Chrissy Th'Blesser on Nov 2, 2013 wrote:

Agreed. What totally cracked me up was Bonnie Ann's ghost.

True , they are all 3 great ghosts, its not so hard for Scratch thou, he is already a ghost

Scratch: What did you say Cap'n my Cap'n?
Me: Nothing

Blaze

Blind Mew on Oct 31, 2013 wrote:

Very early in the process of developing Marleybone, the Art Lead and I decided we wanted an older version of London visually - Dickens' London instead of Victoria's. From there, the creative group started wracking our brains for good Dickensian references to use. Clearly, if you're doing any Dickens at all, you MUST do A Christmas Carol.

Originally I'd figured to make the Christmas Carol a side quest. Then the idea occurred to me to make it Ratbeard's promo - Ratbeard himself is so surly and Scroogelike the idea was too good to resist. While trying to break the plot down, I kept getting hung up on how to have three ghosts visit Ratbeard, and then I had a real epiphany: turn the quest inside out - you're the ghosts. The thought of Old Scratch as the Ghost of Christmas Future made me laugh uncontrollably - it was too good to resist.

Then, of course, we had to figure out what the meat of the plot would be. It was hard to do, and it quickly became clear that this would be a looooong quest. But I think it was worth it.

As for Mr. Barks, I don't think so.

I loved Bonnie's and Old Scratch's involvement in it.. especially since Ratbeard and Bonnie are always bickering with each other. And it was great to see Lasko again.

Do you think Lasko will end up making more appearances in any future promo quests for Ratbeard?

C.K. Hawkins

I was wondering if we would see Avalon in this game? I'm extremely curious about where Dalia Falmea is from. It isn't quite fully explained in Wizard101. It's thought to be that Dalia is from Weirwood, but it's a very small area and does not explain her height. So someone brought up the point of Pirate101 possibly bringing and expanding Avalon. It would help us find out more about where Dalia comes from. Or at least understand her more by visiting the world especially the Weirwood kind.

Thank you.
-Kelsey