Lore AMA: Difference between revisions

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'''Q) What did the Khalisti Wharf TF entail? (Randy Jarvis)'''<br>
'''Q) What did the Khalisti Wharf TF entail? (Randy Jarvis)'''<br>
A) Answer hazy, ask again later (Matt because he couldn’t find someone to answer this right now)
A) Answer hazy, ask again later (Matt because he couldn’t find someone to answer this right now)
'''


'''Q) Since Arbiter Sands had hooked up with Mynx romantically were we ever going to see him switch sides and become a hero?'''<br>
'''Q) Since Arbiter Sands had hooked up with Mynx romantically were we ever going to see him switch sides and become a hero?'''<br>
A) It was a possibility that we considered but had nothing set in stone. At the time I had planned on exploring deeper into the Valentine’s Day themes in future Valentine’s Day Tips. (John)
A) It was a possibility that we considered but had nothing set in stone. At the time I had planned on exploring deeper into the Valentine’s Day themes in future Valentine’s Day Tips. (John)
'''
 
Q) Was Ouroboros ever going to be expanded to let us visit the WWII era? (Eldritch_Knight)'''<br>
'''Q) Was Ouroboros ever going to be expanded to let us visit the WWII era? (Eldritch_Knight)'''<br>
A) The problem with past time period is art assets. Doing eras like “1940’s” involved a ton of environment work to remove/replace “modern” things like phone booths and street lamps. In the end it was decided that if we were going to do environment work, it would be for something blatant and obvious, like the moon. (Matt)<br>
A) The problem with past time period is art assets. Doing eras like “1940’s” involved a ton of environment work to remove/replace “modern” things like phone booths and street lamps. In the end it was decided that if we were going to do environment work, it would be for something blatant and obvious, like the moon. (Matt)<br>
A) If we had the urge, we likely would have tried to steal natural cliffs and shorelines from the Cimerora / First Ward terrain, bunkers from the Striga and RWZ sets, and done an “Omaha Beach” style outdoors map. It would have been one of those hodgepodges that came together because of a one-off idea (like the Lost Ouroboros map). Cities and anything else would have been too involved. (Tim)
A) If we had the urge, we likely would have tried to steal natural cliffs and shorelines from the Cimerora / First Ward terrain, bunkers from the Striga and RWZ sets, and done an “Omaha Beach” style outdoors map. It would have been one of those hodgepodges that came together because of a one-off idea (like the Lost Ouroboros map). Cities and anything else would have been too involved. (Tim)
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'''Q) Was there going to be a payoff with the Penny/Clockwork King relationship? If so, what? (@kaosarcanna)'''<br>
'''Q) Was there going to be a payoff with the Penny/Clockwork King relationship? If so, what? (@kaosarcanna)'''<br>
A) Answer hazy, ask again later (Matt because he couldn’t find someone to answer this right now)
A) Answer hazy, ask again later (Matt because he couldn’t find someone to answer this right now)


'''Q) Just how advanced were Nemesis’s automatons supposed to be?  Some seemed clanking and comically robotic, while others like James Harvan were disturbed and upset to learn they were machines. (@Dr. Reverend)'''<br>
'''Q) Just how advanced were Nemesis’s automatons supposed to be?  Some seemed clanking and comically robotic, while others like James Harvan were disturbed and upset to learn they were machines. (@Dr. Reverend)'''<br>
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For example, if a level 50 hero gave a level 10 hero 1,000,000 influence, the level 10 hero would receive only 100,000. The other 900,000 would lost in the exchange. The idea behind this was people were still willing to do favors for the level 50 hero, but less so when they realize that the favor is actually benefiting this level 10 that they never heard of before. (Matt)
For example, if a level 50 hero gave a level 10 hero 1,000,000 influence, the level 10 hero would receive only 100,000. The other 900,000 would lost in the exchange. The idea behind this was people were still willing to do favors for the level 50 hero, but less so when they realize that the favor is actually benefiting this level 10 that they never heard of before. (Matt)


'''Q) Were synthetic intelligences sentient and if so, what were the ethical implications of them being bought and sold at the market? {@Quinch}'''<br>
'''Q) Were synthetic intelligences sentient and if so, what were the ethical implications of them being bought and sold at the market? {@Quinch}'''<br>
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'''Q) I remember weather was once mentioned but was presented to have had no actual gameplay purpose. Do you think that it could have ever have been implemented? (@RobotoHQ)'''<br>
'''Q) I remember weather was once mentioned but was presented to have had no actual gameplay purpose. Do you think that it could have ever have been implemented? (@RobotoHQ)'''<br>
A) It rains in Statesman’s death scene. We could have made it rain on maps, but streets would not get wet and it would end up looking odd. (Matt)
A) It rains in Statesman’s death scene. We could have made it rain on maps, but streets would not get wet and it would end up looking odd. (Matt)<br>
We began doing weather for dramatic moments in cutscenes, as Matt has mentioned. First Ward also had a few environmental effects like flying dust. The main challenge with precipitation like rain or snow was that we needed new tech to keep those effects from rendering inside buildings like Wentworth’s. We also needed a lot of time to properly mark those places. Additionally, there were some more minor concerns with what the rain would look like at super-speed, and how much the extra particles would tax the player’s machine. Frankly, I don’t think we would have found the time to implement it, especially with all the new powersets coming in. (Keetsie)<br>
A)We began doing weather for dramatic moments in cutscenes, as Matt has mentioned. First Ward also had a few environmental effects like flying dust. The main challenge with precipitation like rain or snow was that we needed new tech to keep those effects from rendering inside buildings like Wentworth’s. We also needed a lot of time to properly mark those places. Additionally, there were some more minor concerns with what the rain would look like at super-speed, and how much the extra particles would tax the player’s machine. Frankly, I don’t think we would have found the time to implement it, especially with all the new powersets coming in. (Keetsie)<br>
B) Fake Tim Sweeney did figure out a pretty cool way to make snow appear though, during last year’s Winter Event. I think it was basically a PbAOE. (Hosun)<br>
A) Fake Tim Sweeney did figure out a pretty cool way to make snow appear though, during last year’s Winter Event. I think it was basically a PbAOE. (Hosun)<br>
A) We could do full screen space camera effects, which is how the snow appeared on the screen near the Winter Horde in the last Winter Event and the rain appeared in some Dark Astoria missions. We hadn’t discovered (back then) a good way to systemically tell the difference between indoors / under a bridge and outdoors, so we didn’t want to use it in areas where it wasn’t magically generated (and hence snow was fine indoors) or only had outdoors. One of the things I had uncovered before the shutdown was a way to do this easily - so it was plausible. We would have never had puddles, though.
A) We could do full screen space camera effects, which is how the snow appeared on the screen near the Winter Horde in the last Winter Event and the rain appeared in some Dark Astoria missions. We hadn’t discovered (back then) a good way to systemically tell the difference between indoors / under a bridge and outdoors, so we didn’t want to use it in areas where it wasn’t magically generated (and hence snow was fine indoors) or only had outdoors. One of the things I had uncovered before the shutdown was a way to do this easily - so it was plausible. We would have never had puddles, though.



Revision as of 20:49, 12 June 2014

Overview

The Lore AMA (Ask Me Anything), or "Loregasm", is a series of documents document created by Positron to answer questions City of Heroes players had about the game's story following the Sunset announcement. In the thread announcing its creation, Positron stated that anything it contains "SHOULD be considered canon when concerning anything to do with Issue 24 and previous. Anything after that is speculative and should be treated as such. We'll note in the answer if it's anything different." On September 18th, 2012, Positron posted a link to the first Lore AMA as a Google Doc in a City of Heroes forums thread.

In an interview of Positron and War Witch at OnRPG discussing the closure of the game, Positron stated that he would do yearly AMAs as long as people had questions:

MeticulousMeta: There are still a lot of questions after the Lore AMA. Is there any chance of getting another?

Matt: I’ll make a deal: I’ll do AMA’s about CoH lore every April 28th until the questions stop coming in. I’ll give more details as we get closer to that date, and I can’t promise everyone who should be involved will be.

After taking questions in a now closed Google Doc, the first of the yearly AMAs was announced at OnRPG on May 3rd, 2013, and released as another Google Doc.

This page contains the text of the documents as they appeared at release. A list of the questions linked to by topic and developer can be found here: Lore AMA/Sorted.

City of Heroes AMA 1 (2012)

The first Lore AMA was linked in a forum post by Positron titled "Loregasm" and includes a key of the answering developers' initials:

City of Heroes AMA (part 1?)

That's a link to the doc, in case these boards get shut down, and because I don't want to clean it up for our forum posting format (if someone ELSE does, feel free to pad your postcount).

Some answers are not satisfying. Some answers are made up, and that answer only exists in that doc. I tried to get everyone who was involved in the stuff at the end to answer the questions as best they could.

MM: Matt Miller (Positron)
JH: John Hegner (Protean)
JAH: Jeff Hamilton (Arbiter Hawk)
SM: Sean McCann (Dr. Aeon)
RG: Ryan Greene (Viridian)
TS: Tim Sweeney (Black Scorpion)

If there is a miracle and somehow CoH is saved, we reserve the right to change any and all answers given in the doc, to maintain suspense and surprise.

The Lore AMA itself at its time of release (September 18th, 2012) is as follows:

City of Heroes AMA 2 (2013)

After taking questions in an open Google Doc, the first of the yearly AMAs was announced at OnRPG on May 3rd, 2013, and released as a closed Google Doc. In most cases, the name of the dev giving an answer is listed after the answer. The devs that answered are:

Editor's Note:

This is the most likely list of developers who answered AMA 2, as there are multiple devs with some of those first names.

Some questions do not have a dev name, and it can be assumed that they were answered by Positron unless the context indicates otherwise. Several questions were unable to be answered, and are marked as "Answer hazy, ask again later (Matt because he couldn’t find someone to answer this right now)." It is unknown if they will be taken up at the next AMA, or if players will have to re-ask those questions.

The second Lore AMA at its time of last revision (May 7, 2013) is as follows:

City of Heroes AMA 3 (2014)

An unofficial thread was started on the Titan Network forums for gathering questions. Positron was contacted and said: "I plan on doing it a bit differently this year. Doc will only be up for a short window." On April 17, 2014, at 8:45 AM PDT, Positron posted a Google Doc that he left open for only 24 hours. Positron also put in some general rules for asking questions, largely prohibiting questions not related to the game's lore:

Following the initial 24 hour period, there were 76 questions. A copy of the document seven minutes before its takedown for answering can be found in a Google Doc. Positron noted in a tweet on April 23rd, 2104, that all question for the 2014 AMA had answers.

On April 28th, 2014, the tenth anniversary of City of Heroes, Positron released the answered questions as a Google doc.

The third Lore AMA at its time of last revision (April 28th, 2014) is as follows:

City of Heroes AMA 4 (2015)

See Also