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Story Thread 2: Electric Boogaloo!

AuthorMessage
Developer
Lucas Walker on Jun 1, 2013 wrote:
I remember Captain Avery stating that the Armada clockworks are heartless, soulless, and ruthless. Does this also mean that they're emotionless or did they at a point have emotions like fear, joy, sadness, etc.? For example when a melee unit lands a critical strike on the an Armada clockwork, the clockworks seem afraid. Is this just because every MoB in the game including pets and players have a scared animation?

Another reason I question this is because of the fact we destroyed or "killed" Deacon. When we first encountered Rooke, he referred to Deacon as his brother. Not colleague or partner, but brother. Does this mean that the Elites consider each other family? Rooke also appeared angry about the fact we damaged Deacon to beyond repair.

One thing I noticed questing through Marleybone in Test Realm and in Live Realm was that Gaspard DeVole seemed to dislike Marleybone and somewhat seemed to enjoy the fact that Marleybone was losing the war. I was pretty confused by that. I understand that he still considers Valencia his home, but I don't understand why he would in a way root for the Armada. Seeing what they've done to the realm, Valencia, shouldn't he hate that the Armada is winning? The whole war is really Marleybone Vs. Valencia, but Marleybone Vs. Clockwork Armada.

Thanks for answering all these questions we have!
1. The elites certainly seem to display emotions, just as they seem to be capable of independent thought and acting under their own volition. Whether they have emotions or just a very decent semblance is, I suspect, a philosophical question that may not be answerable. I'm reminded of the interview the Discovery astronauts give about HAL in 2001: a Space Odyssey. As for the lesser Clockworks, no, they're emotionless.

2. All of the Elites were constructed by Kane - they consider themselves siblings with the same maker/parent. They also consider themselves superior beings, just as Kane does. Destroying one was unthinkable, and an affront to all of them.

3. I don't think Gaspard was rooting for the Armada necessarily - I think he just doesn't like the place. He does fight for MB's victory, after all.

Happy to answer, as time allows. if I find my duties force me to take a long hiatus, I'll let y'all know.

Developer
Elemutation on Jun 2, 2013 wrote:
Before I get to the questions, I just gotta say, fantastic work on the new update! The story was exciting, had so many twist and turns, and overall was just breathtaking. great work guys, and it was totally worth the wait. now to my questions:

1.Limb loss: With dead Mike (or in my case S.M. Arson, since I have Gaspard), they lost they're left arm when they reached their final promo without having it explained in the quest. I figured, "Hey, they're zombies, limbs come off", and just let that one be. BUT, with Ratbeard reaching admiral, he lost his left hand, which was not explained either. With someone that is that important, (and living) I think there should be some explanation. I just want to know if there are some story facts that I am missing or if the designers thought it would be cool to give him a hook hand (which just makes him look like the generic, cleche' pirate).
2.Aquila to Krok: Now, this one may seem really out of the way, but I noticed that when we get the rosetta stone, the three languages were Krokotopian, old aquilan, and new aquilan. I know that in history, Greece (under Alexander the great) conquered Egypt, which was around the grecco-roman period. So, did AQ conquer Krok in the past? And if so, Did Valencia (being more roman at that time than ittalian) do something to mess that up? And also, Ulyssess said something anout an old empire, does this mean that AQ was almost brought to ruin at one time and the current Aquila is the aftermath of some kind of renisance?
3.Companion dialogue: I first noticed this when I did the mag. 7 promo. I have both duck and buffalo, and I noticed that the dialoge was exactly the same for both quests, except for when the mag. member spoke. so, does this mean that when you write story dialogue for the universal grants (ratbeard, bonnie), and then write dialogue for the specifics (presidio 5, kraken skulls) to make it fit in with the rest of the dialogue? If so, is this to save time?
Keep on writing!
-F.R. holystone
1. Yeah, I was figuring Mike/Arson just fell apart. We did bring Old Scratch's limb loss into the quest. Ratbeard kinda got away from us. It just didn't fit the theme of his promo, and I was too in love with the idea of the quest to change it. So forgive me a little hand waving here.

2. In addition to Alexander's conquest, Greece and Egypt shared quite a relationship in ancient times. Most of the names we use for ancient Egyptian cities (Thebes and Heliopolis, for example) are actually the Greek versions of the existing names. Many Greek philosophers said outright that their knowledge was a pale shadow of Egypt's wisdom. As to the Rosetta stone, it implies a close relationship between Aquila and Krokotopia sometime in the ancient past. I expect they were conquered vassals of the Old Empire, which later fell due to the hubris of King Minos.

3. Doing 5 promo quests was simply beyond our bandwidth for this update, so all of the Mag 7 do the same quest with different dialogue. We've done this before - the first promo for the 3 MooShu monks dealing with the Iron Monkey is a shared quest, and the companions who go after the Conundrum Machine also share the same quest, differentiated by their dialogue. It is to save time and other resources - sharing quests means we need fewer enemies, unique places, etc.

As to their quest chatter, yes - every time a MooShu, Presidio, or Kraken Skulls companion speaks, we have to write 5 lines and show only 1.

Developer
thatonevalenciansw... on Jun 2, 2013 wrote:
Like the thing with selena gomez do you plan to make any collab thingamijigs like the one you did with selena and the jonas brothers p.s. if you do i would reccomend not making any celebrity collabs because i think doing a 3rd celebirty would offically make kingsile affiliated with tmz(p.p.s. i hate tmz)
Those aren't something we in content can engineer - we take advantage of opportunities as they arise. I'm unaware of any that are in the works at present.

Developer
Line Mountain on Jun 2, 2013 wrote:
A few more questions rolled into my head:

1. Why was Marco Poilio buried in Valencia? If he was from Cool Ranch shouldn't he have been buried in Cool Ranch instead?

2. We've seen that Old Scratch can bring dead things back to life for a short while. If he can do that for anything then why he didn't resurrect Marco Poilio's spirit in Valencia?

3. What happened to the previous King and Queen of Monquista when Gortez won the war there?

4. Just to write one quest line how long does it take?

5. How did One Eyed Jack lose his eye?

6. When asking for travel papers to Aquila I noticed that Gortez has the Monkey's Paw. How did he get it from Donkey Hotey?

7. How where the Dragoon's and Battle Angels concieved?

8. What role does Phule play in Kane's court? Is he like a 'Court Jester' or more of a distraction for the player?
1. Pollo had spent pretty much all of his adult life in Valenica. He launched his expeditions to MooShu and El Dorado from there - he created the Map while he lived there, and was a luminary of Sevilla University. It was his adopted home, and thus he was buried there.

2. You never managed to get close proximity to his remains - see a previous anser about his tomb and sepulcher.

3. I presume they were driven into exile somewhere. Either that or they're cooling their heels in calls in Zenda.

4. Depends on what you mean by a quest line, and how many quests are in it. The whole process involves brainstorming and outlining, followed by the dialogue writing. Depending on the length of the quest, it can take a bit of time. The entire main line for a Book can take about a month to write, from conception to final polish.

5. Depending on when you ask him, he has several different stories about that.

6. Sanza gave it back to you after Hotay bungled his wish. You gave it to Eleanor and Gortez.

7. When the plot for Marleybone was first taking shape, we decided very early on that we needed new Armada enemies - the amount of combat we wanted demanded we use more than just endless swarms of Musketeers and Marines. We wanted them to use hybrid missile/melee combat styles, because it enabled very exciting animations. As for the themes, we looked at what the exisitng troops lacked - a super heavy assault clockwork that would essentially function as "Rooke Junior" and would be very scary, and a graceful, finesse based light commando. Once we hit on the idea of giving them the Da Vincian wings, making them angels became obvious, and making them look female made them even cooler and more distinct.

8. His role is not yet totally clear, but court jester is a good guess.

Developer
Happy Michael West on Jun 3, 2013 wrote:
Hi Blind Mew, I was just wondering, would you care to tell us the real name of "Mr. G." decoded from the Rosetta Stone by Meowiarty?
You really think I'm going to drop G's name and spoil the cliffhanger? That would be telling.

Developer
CaptainFlint193 on Jun 3, 2013 wrote:
Ok, I can't help but ask a few more questions....

1. I believe you made an error - your Professor Nickelmass idea. Sounds utterly brilliant (Azteca, anyone?) but the original character was QUATERmass, not Quartermass. I don't blame you though - I made the same error for at least a year....
2. In a previous story thread, you said you'd like to visit Azteca post-Xibalba comet. What would you have us pirates do over there?
3. Darkmoor - comments and/or lore that teases us so that we are both satisfied and frustrated?
4. I was REALLY surprised Colonel Smeagle's quest wasn't originally a storyline quest. I thought we hadn't done any properly Isle of Dogs-centric quests in 'The Dogs of War'. And we got some Albion references...awesome! Any thoughts?
5. I am REALLY into learning about the places merely MENTIONED in Pirate. Any certain areas that have been mentioned that you'd like us to explore? (Gibbonia, Albion, Kent, "the mines of Orryx", Rajah, etc).
6. Would you ever consider doing an Australia-based world? I would love to see Kangaroos, tasmanian devils, etc in a properly Pirate Down Under (Hey, that could be a book title!) adventure.
7. Are there any upcoming worlds that HAVEN'T been mentioned in-game?
8. How do you guys come up with the book titles? 'The Dogs of War' sounds amazingly tense, while 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Cyclops' sounds properly long, since Book XIV was enormous....
9. If there were one EXISTING book you could go back and change story-wise, which would you pick and what would you change and why?
10. I feel like we still have MUCH to atone for - starting an entire war, although now somewhat atoned for, seems to have a lot of loose ends.
11. I was surprised there was no Captain Hook reference in Marleybone!
12. Are there any new trainer quests in the current update?
1. I know it's Quatermass, but the pun still works, doesn't it?

2. Don't know for sure yet, but I'm certain that there's a lot of treasure hidden under that rubble. And, seeing how fascinated Kane is with the ancient Aztecosaur ruins on the Isle of Doom, I expect you might go there just to thwart Armada operations.

3. Heh - you know my methods too well. A few thoughts about Darkmoor - there will be surprises, and you'll be there looking for something pretty unexpected.

5. I'd love to go to all of them, but sprinkling tidbits will have to do for now. We're not done with that, by the way - you'll see more echoes and tastes of them going forward.

6. Australia would be awesome - having "civilization" been founded there as an old Marleybonean prison colony would be a fantastic link.

7. That would be telling.

8. The Dogs of War is a Shakespearean reference (Julius Caesar), which got echoed in a 1970's novel about mercenaries in Africa, and a Pink Floyd song from the early 80s. Given the content of the Book, it was an obvious choice. As for Book 14, the title is a pun on the fantastic and amazingly funny play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

9. I'd see if we could expand and spice up the first Book in Cool Ranch - it never had the cool hook that the others did (El Toro, the Bison spirits, the Seven, Captain Blood, etc.).

10. You're right.

11. We can't refer to everything, you know. Besides, I'd rather save him for some future Skull Island content, if we get the chance to do some.

12. That's still to be determined. I do think we're due for some, however, and I still think the Trainers are underutilized overall.

Developer
Ethan the baron on Jun 3, 2013 wrote:
Thank you blind mew for the answers I have a few more questions

1. We have been introduced to two new type of clockworks battle angels and dragoons i noticed the dragoons have the same sound effect and battle style as rooke when we fight him but were both of these clockworks already made or did the armada just now create them and why did they choose to make female armada clockworks instead of just keeping them male like the rest was that intentional or is their a reason behind it.

2. Were the pirate's mom and father famous pirates because many people know them from many worlds.

3. The armada have gained the map piece from marco pollo and egg foo yung. We have gained catbeard's, clark's, and argo's map piece their are two left one from erika the red which im guessing is the bear and our mother's how are we going to get our mothers if she is dead? and also if erika is a bear doesnt that mean were heading to grizzleheim i know it probably would be teeling but am i correct.

4. Coolster asked why didnt kane just finish us personally so we stop picking off his elites one by one and now im thinking why doesnt he hire someone or send an elite like bishop or phule to capture us and give him the map pieces he is going to need them if he is going to get to el dorado why does he keep letting us ruin his plans.

5. So the armada is using the golden wheels for the grand design why? and why does the armada want to go to el dorado so badly im pretty sure its not for gold because they could easily tax people of valencia or hie pirates to take it so is their something specifically they are looking for thats in el dorado an artifact for the grand design is the el dorado plan and grand design related to the plan

to be continued...
1. I expect the Angels and Dragoons are a relatively recent development, and that they were held in reserve until there was an actual war - they're too valuable to waste on skirmishes.

2. Not necessarily famous, just well traveled and very busy - there can be a lot of people on a ship's crew, so lots of folks can claim to have sailed with them.

3. The question in the case of the Pirate's mother is not necessarily finding her, but finding where she put her piece of the Map. It's certainly not farfetched that she would hide something that valuable. As for Erika, a trip to Grizzleheim does seem logical, but there's no guarantee she's there - historically, Vikings were known for their long voyages. Also, if she learned people were hunting down Map pieces, Grizzleheim might be the last place she'd want to be, as it'd be the first place Map hunters would look...

4. He's not letting you ruin his plans - he's playing a long game. Sending Deacon to hunt you down didn't work, so why try again? Besides, from his point of view, his map pieces are as valuable to you as yours are to him. Why not simply wait for you to get the rest, and just be ready for you when you come to steal his? Besides, as I've said before, he's busy. With what? I expect you'll find out in good time.

5. The Armada is definitely interested in the Golden Wheels. Why? That's a very good question, and a very important one.

Developer
Ethan the baron on Jun 3, 2013 wrote:
continued...

6. we are very clever pirates and have managed to get through very difficult situations and i know this sounds crazy but why dont we just sneak into valencia as we have done before and go into cadiz fight some armada ships and dock sneak all the way to kanes HQ and fight more armada troops since it will probably heavily guarded and steal kanes map pieces or just finish him off also to break off the leadership of the armada and then leave fighting more clockworks until were back in skull island its crazy but possible

7. When we do manage to kill kane will that be over for the armada considering their will be no one left to lead the armada or will an elite like bishop or the female clockwork finish what kane started.

8. Why do the mag. 7 get a prmotion but they dont really speak at all after we recruit them i know they seem important but why do they recieve a promo and dont speak.

Slick Cody Jones privateer lvl 57
Merciless Ethan Jenkins swashbuckler lvl 64
6. My, you are ambitious, aren't you? To get the other pieces of the Map it may come to something like this eventually.

7. That would be telling.

8. Good question. Ultimately, it's because every class gets a different one, and because we love the characters too much. Having them chatter during quests would get pretty unwieldy: we already have close to 20 characters doing that!

Developer
thatonevalenciansw... on May 30, 2013 wrote:
i thought of one question per chapter or well what i count as a chapter
1.how did sarah/the other tavern cellar compainions get the will?

2.why did gortez build that kingdom for himself? did he really go crazy? or was it part of a plan?

3.why only the monkey's iCOUGH*hateCOUGH*(which is ironic because irl i am spanish)get to wish and not all the other guy's in the spiral get to wish...even if their soul's arent "pure"
4.ok technically this is not in chap.4 but it is in the puppet show,am i the only one that thought that catbeard actually lost the map one day while sailing on marco or as i will call him mark for short's ship one day and accidently lost it and it blew to capn.guun's hideout while he was eating people from cool ranch...specifically tumbleweed.before it was proven that was not the case?
5.are we gonna see anymore new armada troops after battle angel's and dragoon's?
6.is one of the things we did already in p101 the storm friar cluck mentioned? or is it something else completley?
7.will we ever see napouleguin again?
8.EPIC DOUBLE QUESTION TIME.why does in the puppet show(probally missaid that) bill has el toro's sounds and did wyatt chirp die the same way wyatt earp died due to the fact he is based of him
9.uhh,AHAH uh no,you know what blind mew i dont have anything to question about ch.9
10.if a few other ships can go to the other parts of mooshu(specifically marleybone and the armada)WHY CANT WE?!?!(without breaking mooshu law of course)
11.same thing with 9
12.can you give us a hint to when the next time bishop will be in pirate101 as a npc/boss
13.i like snakes,i kinda dont like hurting snakes even though they think the snake egg is from He-double hockey sticks or as the greece called it the underworld,and i kinda want one as a companion once i get to aquila so how many crowns does the compainions from aquila that are snakes cost?
Sorry i missed this one earlier

1. We don't need specifics here, do we? If it's ever important, I'll have them give more detail.

2. Gortez really went crazy. He was so tired of the fake, false "civilization" in Monquista that he decided to build his own new world - that worships him, naturally.

3. Because that's the way the Paw works - it was made from a Monkey Saint's hand, and likely only works for adherants to their religion, which is too pure and perfect (in their view, anyway) to accept non-Monkeys.

4. Since I don't follow what you mean here at all (marco? eating people?), I'll bet you're the only one.

5. Probably.

6. The storm he referred to was metaphorical: Santa Rana's plot to crush the people of Santo Pollo and unleash the Armada in Cool Ranch. Thanks to you and El Toro, that storm was averted.

7. Very likely - he's too funny to just put down. He showed up in Book 8, but the way, not Book 7.

8. Not sure what you mean about Bill having El Toro's sounds - if their music cue is similar, it's likely just because both of them are heroes in an Old West/Spaghetti Western milleu. As for the second part of your question, Wyatt Earp actually died happily in his old age. Despite all the gun fights he got into, he was never so much as grazed.

9. No worries.

10. What do you mean by the other parts of MooShu? There are no foreign ships in Khotan or Subata Skyway that I'm aware of. If there are, I'm sure they got the same permit the Yakooza got for you (only not forged). If you mean the Imperial Skyway (the one we never let you access, they don't let them access it either.

11. Again, no worries.

12. No hints. But he will, rest assured.

13. I have no idea on crowns shop pricing. I'd ask One-Eyed jack.

Gunner's Mate
May 02, 2009
253
I have a question that allot of us have been wondering about. How come scorpius in companion form is drastically different then his boss form in terms of appearance? I understand that bosses usually take on a different look than their companion forms do but still. Thanks in advance.

Gunner's Mate
Dec 16, 2009
212
Hi Mew, a few questions(just noticed you made a second story thread Yay)

I have a keen interest in the creation myths of the spirals and have a few questions about them.

1)The Cthonic Powers- Is that just a throwaway Aquila reference or can I expect it to play a larger role in the lore? I would expect it to be lore oriented especially considering that the character depicted appears in several cameo's in almost all of the preceding puppet shows.

2)Marco Pollo's letter to Merle Ambrose indicated that what he found was incredibly dangerous and powerful. I would imagine that it would be considering the Celestians took the time to unmoor El Dorado's gate from the fabric of the spiral. Could it be that the Storm Lord sunk Celestia for a reason?(rather than the current accepted theory that the Storm Lord is just a jerk lol)

3)Celestian computations mixed with a power source that was clearly Aztecan in nature...I can't wait to see where you are going there. I have also been researching the wizard Celestia quest line and it seems that Celestians were masters at building constructs and magical artifacts... Whoever this toymaker is it is clear he has ancient knowledge.

All in all I must thank you for a great storyline. Very immersive and I am enjoying it immensly.

Gunner's Mate
May 02, 2009
253
If it's not too much trouble, I personally would like to hear more about old scratch, as he's one of my favorite companions in the game and it would be interesting to see/know how he got to where he is today (i.e. to being the lord of the hoodoo house and even what kind of person he was when he was living). Thanks in advance.

Pirate Overlord
Mar 10, 2009
6204
x Sits back with a satisfied yet unsatisfied sigh x . Mew, you are Such a master caster of stories, puns, lines and information. You set your hook with such delectable bait and allow us to savor the smell and look at it from all sides and discover all the intricate designs yet you skillfully twitch it out of our grasp every time we are 'oh so close enough' to snatch it up and devour it and truly discover all it's mysteries. You will keep us circling your 'craft' with just enough hope in our hearts that someday we truly will taste the whole, delectable treat that is your homespun feast crafted just for us. Thank you for the delicacy of the journey that artfully flavors the destination.

Ensign
Dec 22, 2011
19
Blind Mew on Jun 4, 2013 wrote:
You really think I'm going to drop G's name and spoil the cliffhanger? That would be telling.
I had a feeling you would say something like that. Oh well, it was worth a try, thanks though!

Lieutenant
May 06, 2012
131
Blind Mew on Jun 4, 2013 wrote:
1. Yeah, I was figuring Mike/Arson just fell apart. We did bring Old Scratch's limb loss into the quest. Ratbeard kinda got away from us. It just didn't fit the theme of his promo, and I was too in love with the idea of the quest to change it. So forgive me a little hand waving here.

2. In addition to Alexander's conquest, Greece and Egypt shared quite a relationship in ancient times. Most of the names we use for ancient Egyptian cities (Thebes and Heliopolis, for example) are actually the Greek versions of the existing names. Many Greek philosophers said outright that their knowledge was a pale shadow of Egypt's wisdom. As to the Rosetta stone, it implies a close relationship between Aquila and Krokotopia sometime in the ancient past. I expect they were conquered vassals of the Old Empire, which later fell due to the hubris of King Minos.

3. Doing 5 promo quests was simply beyond our bandwidth for this update, so all of the Mag 7 do the same quest with different dialogue. We've done this before - the first promo for the 3 MooShu monks dealing with the Iron Monkey is a shared quest, and the companions who go after the Conundrum Machine also share the same quest, differentiated by their dialogue. It is to save time and other resources - sharing quests means we need fewer enemies, unique places, etc.

As to their quest chatter, yes - every time a MooShu, Presidio, or Kraken Skulls companion speaks, we have to write 5 lines and show only 1.
I just assumed ratfink or one of the ninja pigs cut ratbeard's hand off.
Quiet Zachary Armstrong

Dread Pirate
Jun 13, 2011
2037
Book 13 was a huge war adventure that I enjoyed, Blind Mew! It was absolutely amazing! It was struggling to turn the tide of the war against the Armada in Marleybone, but it was all worth the adventure. It was exhausting to get in the midst of the war and free Catbeard from prison. With Rooke finally gone, Kane's efforts will dwindle further! I'm certain he won't be pleased about Rooke's total defeat. What is your best bet for Kane's reaction, Blind Mew when he hears about Deacon and Rooke's destruction? Very displeased?

I'm relieved that Gortez of the Opposition finally won the war against the former corrupt Monquistan King Fernando and Queen Isadore. Maybe now, with Gortez as the new King and Eleanor the regained Queen of Monquista, I'm sure there will be a lot more peaceful times in Monquista, thanks to Napoleguin and Pirates. They got the Nobles finally straight, but I'm sure Gortez and Eleanor will get everything under control while the Aqulian adventures roll on. Long live the new, uncorrupted Crown of Monquista, or should I say, "The Order of the Opposition"! A little joke, mind you. Don't worry. Maybe that means Monquista finally has a true Hero of the Realm on their side thanks to the Pirates who stood against corruption, and are finally welcome to return anytime. I wonder, what became of the former corrupt King and Queen, Fernando and Isadore? What became of them when their reign of tyranny was finally over after all those long years in Monquista, Blind Mew? I've hopes they won't plot revenge against Pirates, will they?

I'm also excited for Book 15 to come out very soon, but for now, I'll glady enjoy Book 14. I'm hoping the wait for Book 15 won't be way too long, will it? I hope it will be quite shorter than Book 13 and 14's wait.

Ensign
Jun 29, 2009
3
I have a few questions myself...a little late to the party, though :(

1. I really like the class/creation-specific vocal companions, i.e. the Kraken Skulls 5, the Presidio 5, the starter 5. Are there plans to introduce more companions like this in the future?

2. For the starter companions, will you ever find out how they were captured by the Armada? Subodai mentions being sold to the Armada, but you never really find out about the others.

3.Who is your favorite companion in the game? I'm a little curious.

Lieutenant
May 21, 2009
113
Blind Mew, I have a few more questions if you don't mind...

1. When are we going to see those 'linear notes' on Marleybone and Aquila you mentioned a while back? I assume either they are really long or you are hard at work on Book XV.
2. If you could design a promotion quest for a promote-for-gold companion, who would it be and what would you make us do to get them to the next tier?
3. Are we going to get any class-specific storyline companions in the vein of the MooShu Five, the Magnificent Seven, the Kraken Skulls Five and the Presidio Five?
4. Out of curiosity, to get through the Stormgate to El Dorado, aren't we going to need a windstone? I can imagine going to Darkmoor to get it since I believe it shall be in the storyline but not for a map piece...
5. I'm personally a bit of an Anglophile and am trying to write a work that parallels Great Britain. Any books you can recommend to get a feel of what Victorian life was like?
6. I loved the secret agent hook in the 'Kidnapped' quest. It seems like you put a lot of hard work into Marleybone.
7. I feel there are a lot of important worlds out there that just don't fit into the storyline (Polaris being the primary example). Will Polaris be visited, or it is just a plot generator with the whole Napoleguin and Polarian War and Fort Elena fiasco?

Bosun
May 06, 2009
371
Blind Mew on Jun 4, 2013 wrote:
I will say this - you're not completely right, but on some points you are, or very very close. Your guesses are very educated - kudos.
Ooh! That's so exciting! I didn't think I was actually very, very close on some points. But you know the bad thing? I'll never know where I'm very, very close on until the update comes! Boo...Well as the Polarians say "C'est la vie!" That aside I have more questions to ask. Mostly about the future:

1. Why did Catbeard call Argos "not the sharpest knife in the drawer" or something in that context? Argos has to be one of the pretty wisest guys I've seen, yet. He also didn't seem anything away from bright.
-P.S. Might I suggest using "Adventurerer" and "Navigator" in is coming Promotion titles?

2. Do you have any plans where something bad will happen to the Toymaker? For some reason, I feel he will be either captured or, to the worst of scenarios, killed by the Armada. I can't expect the Armada not to notice us back in Valencia after our last voyage. I also asked you if one of our Companions could "take the bullet" for us and die or leave for a short period of time. You said, while suspenseful as it might be, many players wouldn't float well with the permanent lose of their Companions. Now I ask, could you do this same senario where someone takes the fall, sparkshot for us with an NPC? In other words, the Toymaker? Unless he is to become a Companion and I just can't see that...right now.

3. Also why Toymaker? I like the name, but I'm just curious as to why that? Has Tinker or Tinkerer ever popped up during development for him?

4. Can we expect the Book 15 Puppet Show to tell of the origin of the Armada, each of the Elite's purpose, why Kane "fell out" with or betrayed Valencia (particularly the Toymaker. I mean with a name like that, it's obvious he built Kane and "raised" him)? Hmm, why do I sense do I sense the answer?

5. One area in Valencia has already been released to the public, placed into the Valencia picture show and used on one of the $20 Giftcards, but we never went to it in this story so far. It was this sort of this Venice looking area with a gray dome with the Armada signs on it. I'm guessing that is Cadiz. Will we be going here anytime soon?

6. A few Valencian sketches and finished areas have already been released (or leaked more to speak) to the public that we don't go to yet. With Aquila's cliff-hanger in mind, should the wait for Book 15 be much shorter than Books 13 and 14?

7. The Great Wall of MooShu and Mount Mooji- never mentioned once, but could you see these areas somewhere in MooShu? If you guys can add the Lunden Eye to Airdale Docks in Marleybone, I would be shocked if these never came to MooShu.

8. Have you ever thought about creating a rival for our Pirate? Just for comical reasons? Some Pirate about our PC's age who just wants to show he's way better at being a Pirate than us?

9. What is or where are the Obsidian Mines of Orryx? I looked up Orryx and got Oryx which is the genus of four times of antelopes. 3 of them are in Africa and 1 on the Arabian Peninsula. Could it be in Zafaria or Mirage?

Lieutenant
Jul 09, 2009
151
Thanks for answering my previous questions and if you don't mind could you answer a few more?

Compared to the other Storyline companions, Monkey King is sorta left in the dust. No fancy critical music or different animations for super, mega, and epic critical strikes. When he promotes can we expect him receiving a power because he's my favorite companion due to his facetious personality and dry humor. (Reminds me a bit of myself).

Are we going to take stops at all the realms the PC could be raised? Grizzleheim and Krokotopia are the only realms left. I ask this because I really would like to meet the PC's foster parents. Would they be upset with us leaving and what exactly led to the PC deciding to leave?

You said every companion will promote at least once. Does this include companions like the Gorilla mercenary, Fin Dorsal, and the animal companions?

Who is your favorite story involved character that everyone gets regardless of class or choices made at the character creation?

Ensign
Dec 11, 2008
3
I have a few questions:

1. In a puppet show, avery mentions that the clockworks were originally created by "some genius in valencia".
would that "genius" be the same person who is making the clockwork birds?

2. Are windstone at all related to spiral keys? they seem to share a very similar function.

3. Might we learn anything about what monkey king did to get a mountain droped on him in his next promo quest?

4. Was the name "Isle of Dogs" inspired by the "isle of Man"?

5. The last time I saw phule, he was in a prison that was being quickly ransacked. Was there any chance he got out?

Commodore
Feb 29, 2012
892
I have more questions.

1. Ok, some of the main storyline companions seem to have no background detail at all. Louis LeBisque for example, his promotions consist of mainly getting the new weapon. All I know is that he's from Valencia. I just kinda wanna know if the companions we know nearly nothing about (Louis, Egg Shen, Kan Po, Wing Chun, etc.) will have promotions that go into their pasts a little. -shrug-

2. Why did you decide to bring Meowiarty into the mix of things? Not saying it's a bad thing, I've always liked Meowiarty, but why him of all cats? You could have gone with Katzenstein too.

3. In Aquila, the Satyrs have purple skin if memory serves me right. Why this instead of the usual skin color of the wizard satyrs?

4. In Bonnie Anne's new promotion we get to learn a little more about her family. Is it possible that next time she promotes we'll continue the whole thing with Guy Fox and the Radicals or is that something we won't deal with?

Developer
flash33 on Jun 4, 2013 wrote:
I have a question that allot of us have been wondering about. How come scorpius in companion form is drastically different then his boss form in terms of appearance? I understand that bosses usually take on a different look than their companion forms do but still. Thanks in advance.
Hmmmmm... There often is a little visual variation between the "monster" and companion versions of an entity, but I wasn't aware of this one. I'll look into it. This would also be a good question to ask Ratbeard, seems to me.

Developer
Eric Stormbringer on Jun 5, 2013 wrote:
Hi Mew, a few questions(just noticed you made a second story thread Yay)

I have a keen interest in the creation myths of the spirals and have a few questions about them.

1)The Cthonic Powers- Is that just a throwaway Aquila reference or can I expect it to play a larger role in the lore? I would expect it to be lore oriented especially considering that the character depicted appears in several cameo's in almost all of the preceding puppet shows.

2)Marco Pollo's letter to Merle Ambrose indicated that what he found was incredibly dangerous and powerful. I would imagine that it would be considering the Celestians took the time to unmoor El Dorado's gate from the fabric of the spiral. Could it be that the Storm Lord sunk Celestia for a reason?(rather than the current accepted theory that the Storm Lord is just a jerk lol)

3)Celestian computations mixed with a power source that was clearly Aztecan in nature...I can't wait to see where you are going there. I have also been researching the wizard Celestia quest line and it seems that Celestians were masters at building constructs and magical artifacts... Whoever this toymaker is it is clear he has ancient knowledge.

All in all I must thank you for a great storyline. Very immersive and I am enjoying it immensly.
1) They're real, all right, but I don't expect they'll have that prominent of a story role going forward, at least not to the main plot. They'd be a fun source for antagonists in promo quests, though... As for Cthulhu's frequent appearances, those are primarily for the pure funny of it.

2) The whole reason El Dorado ended up the way it did will be one of the key revelations of the plot up ahead. As to the implications that might have on Celestia, it's a little early for me to say too much about that.

3) Yes, Bishop's Lab is full of all kinds of information - the puppet show is just the beginning. There are more twists and game changing revelations in store.

Developer
flash33 on Jun 5, 2013 wrote:
If it's not too much trouble, I personally would like to hear more about old scratch, as he's one of my favorite companions in the game and it would be interesting to see/know how he got to where he is today (i.e. to being the lord of the hoodoo house and even what kind of person he was when he was living). Thanks in advance.
An interesting question. I love keeping that kind of stuff vague, because what you guys imagine is often far cooler than whatever I'd dream up, but this is the kind of thing that could easily get touched upon in Promotion Quests. That'd definitely be the place for it.