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Story Thread 3: The Search for Plot

AuthorMessage
Developer
Duke of Westminste... on Dec 19, 2013 wrote:
Hey Blind Mew. This is off topic but I just realized i missed the free crown giveaway and I was wondering if you would ever put that back on. I'm so sad that I missed that.(Wipes off tear with handkerchief)

Anyway I saw two wind lanes in mooshu that go into a big door and I was wondering if that was the imperial sky way and if we would ever go there.
Re: more Free Crown Giveaways - that's more of Jack's department.

**Edit by One-Eyed Jack** Sorry to hear you missed the giveaway! It's unsure if we'll do another Crown giveaway, but stay tuned to our social media outlets. If we do have another giveaway of that magnitude some day, we'll be sure to announce it the same way. **Edit**

Those lanes do indeed go to the Imperial Skyway. We have no plans to go there as of yet.

Developer
The Undead Obeah on Dec 22, 2013 wrote:
Blind Mew, I thank thee dearly for shedding light upon mine burning questions. Now, because I'm a sucker fer yer enigmatic hints, I have some more questions who's answers shall probably drive us bonkers!

1) Would the destruction of Azteca affect Skull Island in any way?

2) By any conceivable chance, might there be a Prague, Salem, or New Orleans in any of the worlds? (wait for it…)

3) I Love the Ophidians (and maybe have been routing for Troy a bit) and I must ask: WHy aren't there more Ophidian Companions and might there be a slight chance that we might pick one up during a trip back to Aquilla?

4) Is it just me, or am I the only person who has the feeling that the Machine is larger than what we see in the Aragorn Skyway?

5) On a side note, that Aztec-ish Shark in Vadima's Sanctum makes me suspicious…

6) Before the launch, I for some reason distinctly remember a screenshot with a pirate i front of Queen Eleanor within the Opposition Stronghold with what looked like Old Scratch holding a cannon. Was he a scrapped Companion concept or might my mind be playing tricks on me?

7) How mush do you enjoy playing around with us here and why?
  1. Perhaps a little - pretty indirectly, I think.
  2. There's always a conceivable chance. One of these cities has a very good chance of appearing, one a so so chance, the last is unlikely.
  3. Aquila was such a big story that we ended up with a lot of cool potential companions, and I agree - it's a shame that using our usual standards, so few were given away. So, yeah - I'm looking for ways to get more of them into circulation.
  4. It's pretty big...
  5. You'll find out more about him in good time.
  6. I think that might have been a trick of the view angle - I'm pretty sure we never had anybody set up like that, even for promo art stuff.
  7. I love it! I've been making MMOs for 13 years now, and interacting with players is one of my favorite things to do. The taunting with vague hints is just a side benefit.As you may have noticed, I'm also very fond of discussing our sources and processes too - liner notes, as it were.

Developer
jude680 on Dec 22, 2013 wrote:
hey blind mew why is milo graytail promotion quests about a yum factory
We set up Yum-Yum fruit in the puppet show as being a relatively rare commodity, because they only grow in MooShu. Even though there are lots of them flying around the Spiral, in theory there's no a huge supply at hand because they're going bad, and they're lots of effort to catch.

But they're also potentially really valuable. Most Yum distillers have their output limited by how many Yum-Yum they can catch - somebody who could grow their own would be at a huge advantage. So, the idea of somebody having a breakthrough and growing them outside of MooShu struck me as a pretty cool plot point - and the impact such a development might have on the existing networks of smuggling, etc. The idea never made it into the standard side quest lines, unfortunately.

When we decided to give all the talking companions promo quests (a decision that came terrifyingly late in the dev cycle, by the way), I thought it was a perfect chance to revive the storyline - and Milo seemed an ideal companion for the story, him being a Skull Island rat and all.

Developer
Fiery Luke Silver on Dec 22, 2013 wrote:
I find this Q&A very interesting I have some questions myself
1. Why did we stop at lvl 65? Example: If you make a new world and add 10 lvls, the cap would be 75. It bugs me to just see that extra 5 lvls there, because I am so used to wizards being 60,70,80 etc.

2. Why do we have to find another way into Valencia if we already have a way in, it just bothers me that we have to go through another set of quests to find another way in when we already have one.
  1. Don't think of things in terms of Wizard world-based updates. We looked at the length of the stories and the number of quests, and decided that 10 levels felt to few and 20 felt like too many. 15 suited the xp curve better. Future worlds will follow the same basic process.
  2. Well, the whole thing about your first trip to Valencia was that you were sneaking in - getting through Avernus Skyway was commonly regarded as impossible. Kane now knows that that isn't the case. So, from a story standpoint, going back that way is asking to get caught or seriously blown up. From a dev standpoint, why do the same thing twice? The new way in gives us the chance to do something cool, and gives me the chance to make more new quests. The longer a given Book is, the better - right?

Dread Pirate
Jun 13, 2011
2037
Blind Mew on Dec 23, 2013 wrote:
Unsure as of yet - the "music budget" of themes that gets set up for an update is set pretty late in the process. But having a "Kane theme" instead of a generic location combat theme is a very good idea.
A bit off topic for this, Blind Mew, but I wish to have boss combat music themes in all worlds, both on land and skyway in the game. Battling bosses with only regular combat music in land and sky doesn't give out the epic feeling I was hoping for. I hope for this to happen soon. Also, I hope for boss enemies to have the label "Boss" on them like W101 did, because I couldn't really tell normal enemies from boss enemies.

Community Leader
Since you answered my question regarding Valencia politics (very thought-provoking, I might add), I've had another running around in my head. The setup of the current Valencian skyway suggested to me that there might be between three and five skyways that simply surrounded the machine, but now I've been thinking that there's a lot more to Valencia than meets the eye. Perhaps this is a question resulting from some missed storyline detail or ignorance otherwise, but I'll ask anyway: Is the machine the geographical center of Valencia? If not, what is its proximity to the majority of the world's locations? Obviously, the side of the machine we see has an even more ominous and dark background, while the distant sky actually has some brightness to it - does this mean that the center of Valencia is darker and more littered with clockworks than the skyway we first visited?

Thanks!
Swordroll

Swordroll's Blog
https://www.swordroll.com/
Pirate Overlord
Mar 10, 2009
6204
Trimond297 on Dec 24, 2013 wrote:
A bit off topic for this, Blind Mew, but I wish to have boss combat music themes in all worlds, both on land and skyway in the game. Battling bosses with only regular combat music in land and sky doesn't give out the epic feeling I was hoping for. I hope for this to happen soon. Also, I hope for boss enemies to have the label "Boss" on them like W101 did, because I couldn't really tell normal enemies from boss enemies.
Lol I just consider anyone that can consistently or potentially kick my or my crew's tush as a Boss.

Dread Pirate
Jun 13, 2011
2037
Chrissy Th'Blesser on Dec 25, 2013 wrote:
Lol I just consider anyone that can consistently or potentially kick my or my crew's tush as a Boss.
Joking aside, were you baffled to tell regular enemies from boss enemies that still don't have their "Boss" labels on their stats during their battles? Well, I was, and still am. I was really baffled that boss enemies were still considered to be regular enemies. I hope they include "Boss" labels on boss enemies real soon!

Bosun
Nov 03, 2012
365
1.Blind Mew, will the battle standards ever be available in regular gear?
2.Are there ever going to be more side quests in Skull Island?
3.In the backround of the pirate101 homepage I see Avery Louis LeBisque and Boochbeards ship. Does this mean anything?
4.On the sneak peek with the aquilan bridge is that Zeus in the background?
5.Are our pirates ever going to meet a real wizard? Not a witchdoctor but a wizard city wizard.
6.Lastly, it says that Madame Vadima might have been from pigs wick but got expelled for researching black magic. Does that mean that technically witchdoctors are wizards?

Pirate Overlord
Mar 10, 2009
6204
Trimond297 on Dec 26, 2013 wrote:
Joking aside, were you baffled to tell regular enemies from boss enemies that still don't have their "Boss" labels on their stats during their battles? Well, I was, and still am. I was really baffled that boss enemies were still considered to be regular enemies. I hope they include "Boss" labels on boss enemies real soon!
Yea it will be a nice touch. I'll agree with ya there.

Pirate Overlord
Mar 10, 2009
6204
Greetings Sir Mew. I was just running my youngling Swashbuckler through Ratbeard's promotion and Ratty mentioned that Fowl also stole his parrot. As a former breeder and custodian of many a parrot I know how long they live and how attached you get to them. Any chance of Ratty getting reunited with his beloved parrot? That would be so amazing to have him have his parrot on his shoulder and possibly have that birdy help in in an epic. (Yea I know, I am really dreaming here ) The main thing tugging at my heart is how much Ratbeard's heart will be truly healed with the reunification of his beloved parrot. (Imagines a scene from Lassie Come Home with a similar tear jerking greeting with a loving parrot and a gruff Ratbeard that everyone sees through) Lots of writing fodder here. Whacha think?

Ensign
Dec 23, 2012
35
Ok so if the armada are in some ways like robots or tinker toys is it possible for them to be rebuilt if they weren't to badly destroyed
If so could they go back and try to rebuild Deacon (Rooke is obviously quit dead )

Ensign
Jul 01, 2009
6
OK so I'm sorted of this and that about people wanting it to immediately go to a new world when it most likely seems like its going back to either MB or Monquista since while we there the skyways didn't give as many options as Mooshu or skull island. We could simply go back to Aquila to finish a certain dungeon then go to a previous world or brand new world to continue for El Dorado. Even if we did get to El Dorado there are still many thing i feel will be controversial like if pirate101 and wizard101 actually did intertwine towards the total end. It does seem Pirate101 is trying to catch up to wizard101's level which is about 30 lvls away now, but we should still have worlds like pigs wick that are secondary but still have awesome dungeons (waterworks in Crab Alley). But I still would also want to know if lady elite could possibly be a companion because her luminescent beauty for a clockwork amazes me. I also NEED to know if more HUMAN enemies will soon be created instead of them being NPCs because it is saddening that we never get to fight humans. Also is it possible that you could hint us to the story line after El Dorado? Thanks

Gunner's Mate
Dec 31, 2009
267
Blind Mew on Dec 23, 2013 wrote:
I'd say that's a coincidence. Although a very cool one.
What could Deacon be, then? Surely, by your perspective, he couldn't be a knight. (Or could he?) The two spots for Bishops are taken up by Bishop and Phule*, and I doubt Deacon at all fits the spot of a rook. If Deacon thus serves as a knight and were (based on fan wishes) to return, would this be more obvious? Was he meant to be a knight-ish clockwork the entire time, but overlooked by lack of obvious details? I'm still quite shocked that the archbishop counterpart was a mere coincidence.

Wishing you well,

DSD

(*Phule. In a bishop chess piece, the split top part is considered to be a jester's cap, called a fou in French, translated in English as fool. This proves him as a bishop, by research. By role, I'm not quite sure.)

Bosun
May 06, 2009
371
Blind Mew, I was just curious on something.

1.) Is it at all possible that there will be future Books with no new worlds in it and instead features multiple chapters on just going back to a previous worlds, fleshed out with new skyways? You've hinted before that one book will feature only Valencia (and I'm starting to get a hunch that that may just be Chapter 15). I'm also wondering how travels back to previous worlds might fit in. You did say Chapter 18 will be a dosy, which leads me to believe we have something of a much smaller scale (but still large) Marleybone-Aquila plan going on.

2.) Also, would you ever at all making El Dorado have a 2-Part ending like Wizard101's Khrysalis? That would be pretty interesting to see.

Gunner's Mate
May 02, 2009
253
I have a question regarding the Majordomo; how come when we get ready to depart to Monquista he asks us not to mention his name there? Is it because the Crown (at the time) isn't too pleased with some of his actions or what?

Bosun
Nov 03, 2012
365
flash33 on Dec 28, 2013 wrote:
I have a question regarding the Majordomo; how come when we get ready to depart to Monquista he asks us not to mention his name there? Is it because the Crown (at the time) isn't too pleased with some of his actions or what?
The monquistans think all other races are savage and uncivilized. So it's embarassing for him to be talking with us. Either that or the queen and king have such a short temper he's worried that if they found out that he sent the smelly intrusive pirate then he would be exiled to Zenda.

Ensign
Jan 31, 2011
4
Might there be a story segment where we and our crew are cursed ala Pirates of the Caribbean:Curse of the Black Pearl?

Bosun
Jan 02, 2012
302
DS Devereaux on Dec 28, 2013 wrote:
What could Deacon be, then? Surely, by your perspective, he couldn't be a knight. (Or could he?) The two spots for Bishops are taken up by Bishop and Phule*, and I doubt Deacon at all fits the spot of a rook. If Deacon thus serves as a knight and were (based on fan wishes) to return, would this be more obvious? Was he meant to be a knight-ish clockwork the entire time, but overlooked by lack of obvious details? I'm still quite shocked that the archbishop counterpart was a mere coincidence.

Wishing you well,

DSD

(*Phule. In a bishop chess piece, the split top part is considered to be a jester's cap, called a fou in French, translated in English as fool. This proves him as a bishop, by research. By role, I'm not quite sure.)
Perhaps you're overextending the chess metaphor?

Ensign
Sep 13, 2009
34
I was wondering if there is any plan for the future for a port siege. Like those powerful turrets in the tumbleweed skyway I was hoping we might eventully have to face a port like that in the main quest. I think it would be very fun to take over a complete port with four towers. I got this idea the other day when I was questing in Puerto Mico and saw four aquila galleons that were as big as the port itself. And on a side note if we will ever have any nautical dungeons were there will be a sigil outside the skyway and we get to enter and have to take over a port or destroy a turret etc. Please tell me if this will be too hard on a technical view or if it's a good idea.

Gunner's Mate
Dec 31, 2009
267
Row4n412 on Dec 30, 2013 wrote:
Perhaps you're overextending the chess metaphor?
I often fear that I am, especially with my more recent findings. The discoveries regarding name relations seem to be more solid, and I'm trying at the time to combine chess tactics with historical evidence surrounding the time period, two things that I equally stink at. I think my trying to condense the Court to the board may be crossing the line a little, but the counterparts and tactics surrounding them are just magnificent.

Ah, well. More to obsess over between updates shouldn't do harm, right?

Developer
Trimond297 on Dec 24, 2013 wrote:
A bit off topic for this, Blind Mew, but I wish to have boss combat music themes in all worlds, both on land and skyway in the game. Battling bosses with only regular combat music in land and sky doesn't give out the epic feeling I was hoping for. I hope for this to happen soon. Also, I hope for boss enemies to have the label "Boss" on them like W101 did, because I couldn't really tell normal enemies from boss enemies.
Again, I don't know if we can manage boss music for every boss - but a label strikes me as a very good idea. I'll talk tot he systems designers about that.

Developer
Swordroll on Dec 24, 2013 wrote:
Since you answered my question regarding Valencia politics (very thought-provoking, I might add), I've had another running around in my head. The setup of the current Valencian skyway suggested to me that there might be between three and five skyways that simply surrounded the machine, but now I've been thinking that there's a lot more to Valencia than meets the eye. Perhaps this is a question resulting from some missed storyline detail or ignorance otherwise, but I'll ask anyway: Is the machine the geographical center of Valencia? If not, what is its proximity to the majority of the world's locations? Obviously, the side of the machine we see has an even more ominous and dark background, while the distant sky actually has some brightness to it - does this mean that the center of Valencia is darker and more littered with clockworks than the skyway we first visited?

Thanks!
Swordroll
Once we return to Valenica a lot of this will become clear. I'm actually quite pleased with how that first Skyway turned out - the visual metaphors reinforced the story nicely.

Developer
Duke of Westminste... on Dec 27, 2013 wrote:
1.Blind Mew, will the battle standards ever be available in regular gear?
2.Are there ever going to be more side quests in Skull Island?
3.In the backround of the pirate101 homepage I see Avery Louis LeBisque and Boochbeards ship. Does this mean anything?
4.On the sneak peek with the aquilan bridge is that Zeus in the background?
5.Are our pirates ever going to meet a real wizard? Not a witchdoctor but a wizard city wizard.
6.Lastly, it says that Madame Vadima might have been from pigs wick but got expelled for researching black magic. Does that mean that technically witchdoctors are wizards?
  1. Many more will become available, through several vectors - this should be happening fairly soon.
  2. Yes.
  3. Maybe...
  4. Nope. Who is it? You'll find out.
  5. Meeting a wizard101 wizard is a goal I've had for quite some time - I want to make sure we can do it right.
  6. They both work with magic, but they do it in very different ways. Think of it kind of like an acupuncturist and a Western surgeon. They both know a lot about anatomy and health, but they come at it from very different directions.Some magicians can dabble in both, but you can only get really powerful on one of the two paths.

Developer
Chrissy Th'Blesser on Dec 27, 2013 wrote:
Greetings Sir Mew. I was just running my youngling Swashbuckler through Ratbeard's promotion and Ratty mentioned that Fowl also stole his parrot. As a former breeder and custodian of many a parrot I know how long they live and how attached you get to them. Any chance of Ratty getting reunited with his beloved parrot? That would be so amazing to have him have his parrot on his shoulder and possibly have that birdy help in in an epic. (Yea I know, I am really dreaming here ) The main thing tugging at my heart is how much Ratbeard's heart will be truly healed with the reunification of his beloved parrot. (Imagines a scene from Lassie Come Home with a similar tear jerking greeting with a loving parrot and a gruff Ratbeard that everyone sees through) Lots of writing fodder here. Whacha think?
That's a neat idea! Tough to implement, but a neat idea. Ratbeard's doing pretty well, and far as his overall character arc is concerned - some of the others need a bit more attention, I think.