Hey Blind Mew! This is so cool!

1. Why did you decide to have the first two worlds of this game be all about pirating around and only meeting the Armada twice? It was fun, but from a story prospective it seems to make less sense?
2. why did you decide to make us pay one gold coin to progress in the game. I can understand one coin, but do you plan on adding more of these in the future and if so do you plan to make them cost more money?
3. What do you think about the idea of adding a side world. I love those in Wizard101, and I think that they could add a really fun addition to the game?
4. And, finally, why did you decide to take the risk of having Deacon be in Bonnie Anne's second promo. When I saw that I was shocked, because what if people kill Deacon and then do the promo quest.

Thanks for your time!

Impish Umberto Richmond 65

Hey Blind Mew! Glad to see that you're updating this thread more frequently. I've got a few questions for you:

1.) Was the layout for Yagizawa Village borrowed from Kishebe Village from W101? I can see the similarities when I'm in the river area that has the ramp leading to the houses.

2.) I noticed that the Marco Pollo map that came with the Ninja Pig companion promotion seems to have only been 'torn' into 6 pieces, rather than 7. What's up with that?

3.) Regarding the whole "day/night cycle", what provides light to the worlds? Clearly, we've seen no sun anywhere. Can we assume it's magic? My theory is just that it's Bartleby providing light to each world.

4.) How many registered members did Pirate101 have when it first came out, and how many does it have now? I'm curious to know how much the game is grown.

5.) How excited was everyone when you all found that Pirate101 won MMORPG's Player Choice GOTY?

6.) I've been playing Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag a lot recently, and I have to say that it's now my second favorite pirate game. It reminded me of Pirate101 because both games feature player combat and ship combat, but are executed differently between the two games. I'd recommend trying it out if you have the time (P101 is better though).

Our parents: I think that one of the members of the el dorado crew could have started a mutiny and killed our parents and stole their map piece but the traitor could be controlling the armada so he can rule the spiral. And is the el dorado crew gonna join our crew or no

What exactly were they doing in Grancha? My best guess is that they were searching for minerals or metal to make new clockworks. Anyone have any clue?

Is the brass monkey a reference to the beastie boys song " brass monkey" I think that's what it's called

Blind Mew on Jan 21, 2014 wrote:

1. Other than the fact that it's the central power base for your archenemy and the big bads of our entire story, Valencia makes a perfect travel hub, yes.

2. No, Wizard City was the first world KI ever created. Cool Ranch had started development as a Wizard world, but I'm pretty sure it was conceived after Dragonspyre. Their story shifted in a different direction after some assets had been built, and the world was on the back burner. Once work on Pirate began in earnest, we needed a world - and we didn't want the first world we made to be the starting area. Why? The beginning is a dangerous time, as the princess once said - bettwe that we use Cool Ranch as our shakedown cruise, and work out things like how big battleboards need to be before we build the critical first impression zones. So Wizard graciously gave us their stuff, and we built Cool Ranch. It was a lot of work, but I don't think it has a special "mascot' style place in our hearts, any more than any other world does.

3. That adjustment was entirely a systems thing, one change among many to boost one aspect of gameplay. I hesitate to say more - it's really for Ratbeard to say more (or not, as he chooses).

4. I would indeed. My dad spent quite a while in a wheelchair before he died, and I think for the right character that could be a very cool choice. The perfect opportunity hasn't come along yet. But maybe in Book 16...

5. It's pretty big. And I'm pretty sure it will catch you guys by surprise.

6. Actually, I tend to hint way too much. People know the party's coming, they just don't know what we'll be doing!

Hmm... Now I want to know what's going down in Book 16. But it excites me even more on the possibility of a wheelchaired character. I'm picturing someone like a mouse in a wooden made wheelchair who has a very humble, but gruff attitude. Maybe like a crafter or an old war hero type guy who will give us guidance. I mainly see this going on somewhere dark though, but that's just me. Maybe Blind Mew (the character) has some other disabled friends we don't know of.

Ok, now for my next slew of questions:

1.) How did Kane get his name? King Artorius and Alhazred said Malistaire got his name from "malice" and stare which makes "evil eye" which hints his character design, and Morganthe got her name from "morganatic marriage" which is where the child inherits nothing, which is how Morganthe feels in her motives. When I see Kane's complete design on one of these pages, nothing in his design reflects "Kane" all that much. Now my brother looked up the meaning of "Kane" and found that it is a unique, uncommon name that means "little battler." Could his name have origins from this?

2.) You mentioned that when we meet Queen, we may just very well be sick of her. Could she possible have a very snobby, overconfident, self-concerned, selfish, attitude similar to/close to Morganthe's?

3.) Are there worlds planned for this story arc that we don't know about? Often Wizard101 brings out worlds that are never mentioned before. Does Pirate101 have a similar surprise in store or have all the mentioned worlds we've seen have a spot? (Krokotopia, Darkmoor, Grizzlehiem, Polaris, El Dorado, Rajah)

4.) Is there a specific accent in Deacon's and Rooke's voices? They sound very a like and I was almost lead to believe every Clockwork would follow suit, but Phule has a very "playful-in-a-split-personality" kinda way and Bishop has a creepy-mad-scientist-with-pause kind of voice. But Deacon and Rooke's accents are just very distinct to each other.

5.) On the topic of voices, how do you personally picture Kane's voice and tone? I know you probably have yet to fill out the details in sound and maybe even the recording as we may not actually meet Kane until Book 16, but I've always wondered this. I look at his appearance and I think of a semi-fast-paced hushed, whispery voice with a lot of power and authority behind it.

6.) You may have answered this kind of question much earlier in the story threads, but will we see Kane, physically, well before the end of the El Dorado arc? It feels weird to me that Malistaire and Morganthe introduce themselves in the beginning of their stories, yet Kane is much farther down the line with his. It's like he's there, and not there.

7.) Finally, when Kane reveals his motives for why he's doing all this, is there a plan to present a sense of sympathy for him like Malistaire, or "hatred" (for lack of a better word) like Morganthe? I remember you wanted the Armada to seem more like an "it" rather than a person, but Kane seems different.

Merciless Morgrim on Jan 23, 2014 wrote:

I'd find out quicker if you told us ;)

you would indeded, but that would be telling.

bearkat904 on Jan 23, 2014 wrote:

i am very sorry about those repeated questions, blind mew. i'm thinking that old scratch would look a lot like jack sparrow.

1. will the el dorado story arc be ending with us striking lvl 100 like wizard's 2nd arc?

2. did mustang sally ever date anybody else besides el toro?

3. will we be returning to fort elena for some particular reason? i'm thinking that gortez has helped napoleguin calm that place down.

4. will we delve deeper into catbeard's hidden lair in port regal skyway?

5. were y'all ever planning to do five world arcs (like wizard) or maybe even ten before putting in books to mix the worlds?

6. did the foxes (for example: bonnie anne) come from avalon, albion, or both?

7. will we look further into what king casimir is doing in book 15 or later?

8. will there ever be a bird-themed world in pirate101?

9. where did the helephants and the onis come from? i'm thinking yago because in the tower of the helephant kogasha mentioned that he was from yago but i'm curious if there's anywhere else? mooshu? empyrea?

10. did y'all have no more room when y'all added borrowed worlds like mooshu and marleybone into the game?

11. how did the skeletal warriors get spread around mooshu? its pretty obvious that when malistaire stole the spiral key to dragonspyre from the emperor he conjured up a spell that made skeletal warriors appear to stall the wizards that were coming to the rescue. did they steal ships to invade other parts of the world?

1. That would be a great goal, but I'm not sure the math will work out. As we discovered when we did MB and Aquila, forcing a Book to fit within a given level range is very unsatisfying. The level rewards from each Book are ultimately tied to the length of the Main Story quests in that Book.

2. I wouldn't think so - he's her first love, and her true love.

3. Given that the entire island was pretty much a massive encounter, it'd be pretty difficult for us to swing a return there. We'll try to push it through should the story demand it, but right now the story doesn't seem to lead in that direction. As for calming the place down, the war means that it's up to Marleybone or the Armada to calm it down.

5. I mapped out the world distribution and order for the Main Story very early in this process. As with so many things, we didn't want to be limited by artificial constraints (even the example of Wizard). So, no - I'd say we never planned it that way, and we presumed from the get go there'd be a lot more than 5 world arcs.

6. The Foxes in Marleybone come from Albion. There are also Foxes in Avalon. As to which world (if either of them) is the origin world of the Foxes, I'm content to leave that matter vague for now.

7. When we get back to Valenica, you'll get a pretty good notion of the political situation: Casimir, the Armada, and the rest of it.

8. Is Aquila not bird-themed enough?

9. We used them in MooShu because they were a big part of Wizard's MooShu. As to Yago or other origin points, that will be a lore secret for the present.

10. I'm not sure what you mean by "no more room" - we decided even before the Main Story was outlined that we would showcase Wizard worlds to emphasize our ties to Wizard and the fact that they share the same setting, so no, we weren't running out of room in the Spiral, if that's what you mean. We were also always going to have to make our own territories on those worlds - sailing demanded it, and tech prevents us from having Wizard and Pirate characters in the same space. We didn't have any trouble adding new regions on to those worlds, if that's what you mean. Wizard expanded Grizzleheim in a very similar fashion. Does that answer your question?

11. That's a pretty cool potential explanation! In may places we have intrusions by necromantic forces into the world - Bobby Bones, Miranda, and the western isle in Subata are the examples that leap to mind. It may well be that anytime the attentions of the underworld are focused on a place, skeletons start appearing.

Trimond297 on Jan 23, 2014 wrote:

No, no, no, not that. No way. Not even a single thought about that. My answer to your question is a definite "no", nothing more.

It's just a thought I came up with after seeing W101's Cyrus Drake doing grammar mistake corrections once again, what with the game containing grammar mistakes and all, so I figured in my head "Who would be more suited to a job that's an equivalent to W101's Cyrus' Red Pen?", and that was it. I'm just certain that there may be dialogue text mistakes that many that play the game didn't even know about yet. And, the reason of Majordomo being a suitable choice for that was that he is one polite Monquistan who does well with his writing in his time, among others.

On a different matter, Blind Mew, many Pirates who have promoted Ratbeard to Rat Admiral had a question largely centered about his hand being a hook after clearing that promotion quest. To be honest, I was baffled to see his hand become a hook after going through all that. What part of his promo quest's storyline does Ratbeard had his hand replaced with a hook? There's no part of it that explains why. In hindsight, I think his hand would be just as it was in his previous appearances, left unchanged, not replaced, especially in later upcoming appearances, too.

About the non-combat sigils, I think they need to be more different than combat sigils, in terms of design, appearance, and color. Could that happen? I know it's more of a design thing than a story-related matter, but I'm certain the P101 designers would like to hear that.

One other thing, during the quest "Ode to Brilliant Eagilles" in Aquila, I've heard not a single note from the Lyre when Catbeard was playing it after El Toro said "Catbeard, play the Lyre." just before the Ode began. Could that be corrected so that I could hear the Lyre play it's notes during the Ode? It would be nice to actually hear the Lyre play during that part.

Well, I'll be the first to admit that I have fat fingers, not no offense taken.

The Majordomo would indeed be an ideal candidate for that sort of thing, though I'm not sure his politeness is as genuine as it seems. I expect he'd be a pretty brutal editor...

Ratbeard's hand: this came up a while back, though I don't remember where (I've answered a LOT of questions ). Truth be told, that version of him was designed long, long before the promo quest was written - indeed, he was made before we even knew we'd HAVE promotion quests. When the idea for the theme of that quest hit me, the story didn't easily allow for losing the hand - we managed to cover it for Old Scratch, but the humorous tone of Ratbeard's quest didn't lend itself to dismemberment. Re-working the character would have proved too time-consuming, so I decided to just hand wave it. It is an inconsistency, I do confess it.

All good ideas - I'll see if i can feed them into the process.

We're working on that.

Fishburt700 on Jan 23, 2014 wrote:

Hey Blind Mew! This is so cool!

1. Why did you decide to have the first two worlds of this game be all about pirating around and only meeting the Armada twice? It was fun, but from a story prospective it seems to make less sense?
2. why did you decide to make us pay one gold coin to progress in the game. I can understand one coin, but do you plan on adding more of these in the future and if so do you plan to make them cost more money?
3. What do you think about the idea of adding a side world. I love those in Wizard101, and I think that they could add a really fun addition to the game?
4. And, finally, why did you decide to take the risk of having Deacon be in Bonnie Anne's second promo. When I saw that I was shocked, because what if people kill Deacon and then do the promo quest.

Thanks for your time!

Impish Umberto Richmond 65

Oops - responded too quickly.

3. I've traditionally been against the idea of side worlds, at least in the near term; it always seemed to me that our effort would be better spent on finishing the Main Story. However, I must admit that I've been mellowing on the idea. It's possible.

4. Well, I presumed it'd be ludicrous for a player to NOT promote one of the A list companions as soon as they could. That quest has bitten us twice: Deacon's cameo and the use of Catbeard (I thought the idea of not havign a tier 3 Bonnie Anne by the time you got to MB was unthinkable, but players will always prove you wrong ).

William DarkFlame on Jan 24, 2014 wrote:

7.) Almost forgot to ask, what is the likelihood of Pirate101 ever coming to consoles (PS4/XB1)? This game would be amazing to play on with a big screen TV and with a controller.

8.) Will we we go to a world (in the El Dorado arc) that has yet to even be mentioned or revealed as of right now (like how nobody even knew Khrysalis existed until it was revealed)?

7) I'm not sure - I'm far from technical, so I'm not even really qualified to answer. But I suspect there are some technical and design hurdles that would be pretty steep to overcome. I agree, playing on a TV would be amazing.

8) Hmmmmmmm... that's a good question, but I fear it would be telling.

TheDragonspyrePira... on Jan 26, 2014 wrote:

Is the brass monkey a reference to the beastie boys song " brass monkey" I think that's what it's called

That may have had a role, though there's also a villain in the comic Astro City named Brass Monkey that I'm very fond of. Finally, there was an iron accessory from the age of sail called a brass monkey, a set of crossing iron bars that curl up at the ends and hold a pyramid of cannon balls. They weren't used on ships, and may well be nothing but a legend, but it's another nifty historical reference.

TheDragonspyrePira... on Jan 26, 2014 wrote:

1 if we have two of the map pieces that means the armada basically lost. Why do they keep searching?

2 are we ever going to get the armadas pieces of the map? Kane would probably be the only one to know we're they are. Because of the recent deaths of his elites he would only trust him self, seeing he is all superior and cannot be defeated, but we have to kill him and obviously he wouldn't tell us so when we kill him how will we know?

On a post I saw blind mew said that either raja darkmoor or Krok will be the next world, is it dark and Krok?

- Jack nightgale lvl 61 buccaneer

1. Well, to stack the deck against you, of course. Presuming you want to go to El Dorado (and what Pirate wouldn't?), Kane is counting on you bringing the last pieces to him when you make your inevitable but foolhardy attempt to get his pieces from him. The more pieces he has, the sooner you'll be doing that.

2. Well, it'd be really a let down from a story standpoint to build up El Dorado this much and not go there. So yes, I'd say an attempt to steal them from Kane is something you're likely to do in the future. That'll be one heck of a heist.

3. I never said that. I believe out of a list of worlds, I said that one or two would be visited in the future. I've tried never to state outright what the next world will be. Besides, I would have thought the events at the end of Book 14 make it pretty obvious, though i'm always happy to muddy the waters.