You know, Blind Mew, if the momentum from the huge Books that were waiting to get solved & pushing the story in later Books were weighing you down, why didn't you decide to just shave some of it off by solving some mysteries that were left dangling in optional to some side dungeon zone updates? Would've been better to let some o' that momentum go that way while harboring the original outline Books 16 through 20 would've had intact.

Still, if you wish to let all that go to end the 1st arc at Book 15... so be it.

My greatest wish about arc 2... I hope the outline to it will go as planned, not have it end sooner to lose all the momentum it will gather & leave it to be finished in side content updates. Just not too much, though. Some is fine. Leave the important momentum in it. I also wish that arc 2 will have proper build-up, arc 2's Big Bad will have our many battles with that Big Bad before going into the Big Bad's last battle that should contain multiple forms, & a proper grand finale to arc 2 that should be well worth creating, not a shortened one.

With arc 2 now inevitable, at least give it the proper space & time needed to make it as grand as it can be, not shorten it. If you feel the set amount of Books to arc 2 wouldn't be enough to make you happy while the outline would be a bit longer than planned, then extend the arc by a few more Books. I wouldn't mind if it got extended to give you more time to shape the proper finale to it. Don't shorten it, extend it, if you feel you need more time & space on it.

All I can hope for arc 2 is to have at least most important questions, elements & mysteries that weren't solved concluded by the time arc 2 gets near enough to concluding it before the grand finale. Leave the minor ones to be solved in side content updates later. I don't mind that. Least we need are past mysteries solved before we get to the real finale & proper quality time with the next Big Bad. That's what we all need.

Take heed on these lessons, Blind Mew.

Time to say 2 years worth of questions

1. Would you ever consider having a skyway or world as a dungeon (You would enter the stormgate/skyway and it would say "Ahoy pirate, you're about to go into a dungeon")

2. Was the machine originally going to be longer?

3. Will we ever have another world like Avernus where we are only there for a few seconds?

4. Will we ever make a return to Avernus?

5. Will there ever be an island with a skyway inside it (I heard rumors the Machine was originally going to be like this?

6. If we go to Polaris, would it be pre wizard101 Polaris, during Wizard101 Polaris, or post Wizard101 Polaris?

7. Would there ever be a Valencia part III (most likely in Andalusian Skyway)

A facetious question: I once wondered whether Queen had skates on under her skirts, having now seen how swiftly and smoothly she moves ( hardly seeming to walk ), does she actually have wheels instead of feet?

In Calabria skyway I saw the polaris stormgate.Are we by any chance gonna go there?Since we still never heard of the napoleguin since we freed him(Discluding Barnabus Promotion)

Another thing is Where are the pieces we need to get after kane's defeat?

Thank you Sir Mew for that wonderful run down of what might have been. What delightful concepts (Kane & Able....Brilliant!) and though I am saddened to not experience them I trust you enough to know that you have many such delights in store for us. I truly hope funding increases and you will be finally unfettered to spin stories without constraint to delight us for many a year to come.

Some more questions, for if you have the time:

1) I've noticed in the machine core Bishop had 0 lines, is it possible the 2 bishops were just showpieces made haphazardly by Kane?, and the real one is still alive?

2) I'm sure this has been asked before, but would it be possible for Gracie to have the know-how to reprogram a clockwork, or even learn how they were constructed to make finer versions for the royal navy?

3) Can we expect a new type of Armada foot-soldier in the coming books?

4) A small hint on what lies in the 3rd Valencia Skyway? or maybe just what animals call it home

5) If companions promotions were around the length of Scratch's second promotion, although short, would it cut down on the amount of resources used to make a promo quest?

I know you posted your answer about the promotion quests' states, in terms of how many companions would get take up too much time to do them in story updates, but, I'll just ask you this...

With the gold promotions placed in to many companions, even those that were supposed to get promotion quests, would we consider them placeholders until they got their promo quests, like giving them a stand-in until their proper canvases gets painted for them?

I mean, I don't want them to derive from KI working on story updates too much, since, upon reading that post, I see that they take long to implement, & still, I really don't want them to stop. If more places would rather be added in favor of more promo quests, I understand.

Now, I have another question...

I thought we would undergo another series of long adventures before going to the main story adventures, like those in arc 2's certain small pre-main world adventure story quests in W101(those which their short length I'm not likely wanting them to in P101), & the one with St. Fido's Church's hauntings(which should have a better explanation why Captain Kid & Governor Shrewsbury were haunting it in the 1st place), so, why were they omitted out in Book 15? I was looking forward to doing some favors before going back to Valencia. Hope we get to see these kind o' adventures again in the 2nd arc. I really want them to come back as the main staple in P101's story.

There's these other questions I didn't think about asking yet...

Since Wizards go to Khrysalis, shouldn't that world have Skyways of it's own? I'm at least interested to know which Skyway's name Khrysalis' central land & Isle of Arachnis takes place. And even if more lands besides those in W101 in that world are mentioned, which is likely someday, would we get the chance to explore them?

1 more question...

Will we get to see preview quests to arc 2 before arc 2 begins, akin to how W101 did it with Celestia? Would like to see them, to get the anticipation going.

wizardrocks969 on Jun 22, 2016 wrote:

Do you already have an idea of how you want the second arc to play out or you're still not sure yet?

And in your explanation in what would have happened in books 15-20, you said we would get Kane's pieces and Erika's piece to have all 7. Actually, that's 6 pieces. 3+2+1 is 6. (3 being how much pieces we had, 2 being how much pieces Kane had, and 1 being Erika's piece) You still didn't tell us what happened with out mother's piece of the map.

Either way that original plan sounds amazing! I'm really sad we'll never get to see Able though, he sounds to be a pretty cool character that would rival Kane.

TWBT, as he will say it to answer that question.

You're right. He left out the other part in the outline, where would our mother's Map Piece be located in-between. That would've derive a bit from the plan, unless Kane found that piece by the time we're done with building G's plan to defeat Kane. That would make it 3+3+1=7, yes?

I agree with you on that, & I am also sad about not going to see Able, too. Maybe once arc 2 gets underway & done with the proper pacing, buildup & grand finale arc 1 would've had to begin with, I'd think & talk about doing another partial reboot, this time, to arc 1's book amount, especially to Book 15...

Blind Mew on Jun 21, 2016 wrote:

(continued)

As I was saying, I need your help.

This game has an amazing community of players - I will forever be humbled by your support, your loyalty and your patience. And the truth is: the more of you we have, the more content we can create. We're probably going to be painting on a smaller canvas in any potential future updates, but I want that canvas to be as big as possible. That's where you come in.

Go out and recruit new players. We'll keep reaching out as well, but we need your help. Tell your friends how much you like this game. Grassroots evangelizing was a big part of Wizard's success, and it can work for Pirate too. If even half the people reading these words bring in just one player and help them get through the first chapters, so much becomes possible. You want more content, and we want to produce it. The best way to get that content made, and made quickly, is to fill the skies with new ships.

Okay, so maybe this post isn't as long as I originally thought it would be. There's a lot more to say, but I figure this is a good point to open it up for conversation. Any questions?

Well, I love this game. But I honestly am disappointed by the short run in Valencia Part 2. It felt nerfed and I did not like it at all, even when the fights were challenging. The way you originally wrote the story for Book 15-20 was perfect. I would've loved to have done that version. I mean a robot named Able?! That would've been epic. I also want to be able to run on the golden streets of El Dorado. Not to mention the two islands we cannot visit in the Calabria Skyway. I thought that it was strange that there are pictures of one of the islands on the Pirate101 site and we cannot visit it... yet. It seemed incredibly important.

That being said, I did love the ending of Valencia Part 2. It was epic. My favorite scene is actually the eye dissing Kane. I laughed. Loved it. I also remember a Princess Bride scene back in Florenza that went something like "Wait, so if I do this for you, you'll hurt him bad?" "Yes, hurt him beyond your wildest dreams." "DONE!" Made me miss the movie actually.

But here's the biggest question - I would love to help get more people into this game. But what else can we do to support the game? Buy crowns, buy memberships, gift certificates, gift cards? What does the game need for it to be flush with funds to make better expansions, longer ones, next time? I mean there are crown players, membership players. It's quite confusing to know what we need to do to show our support for the game.

Thanks.

Thank you so much for sharing the original outline for the story with us, Blind Mew. It sounded brilliant! I would have loved the story of rescuing Gazpaccio and helping him build Able (nice double pun!), getting to know and probably trust Able and then the heartrenching moments when both Able and Gazpaccio are killed by Kane, and evil seems to win. That would certainly be the suffering prophesied to us by the Serpent Fates in Aquila.

It must have been very difficult to give that story up. And I would have really loved much more build-up to Kane, and much more interaction with the Resistance. But, 'tis done. And you know, the story we have now is still excellent. Gortez' bold plan to get us into Valencia made perfect sense (avoiding the 'reception committee' that I strongly suspected might be at the end of the Avernus gate otherwise, Kane being doubtless sensible that way), and we got the realization of what it truly means to have 'friends in high places'. The side quests, though rather few, gave a very good impression of both the beauty of Valencia and the rottenness beneath (and delightfully silly stuff too, like the lukefisk quest). The mainline quest was tight and dramatic -- perhaps too tight, but certainly working well as a thoughtful, driving story. Though brief, our interaction with Gazpaccio led us not only to pity him, but like him (although he is candidly ashamed of his greedy actions and how he believes it ruined Kane, he has an appealing sweetness and even innocence to him) -- so when Kane murders him, we are not only appalled, but grieving too. That's good - we need that.

(continuing...)

If you guys need to spread the word of Pirate101 to the players, why not air some of the older commercials again, or make a new one altogether? That way millions of people can take notice and possibly start playing.

And, referring to one of the answers in "Well, I asked for it!":

Queen being both "devious" and having "impeccable fashion sense"! I love it! I can see I am going to enjoy this villain very much!

(Now, if you will excuse me, I am inspired to make some drawings... )

Thanks for answering my questions, Blind Mew. However, I have a few more questions to ask of you about this Book, and Valencia in general.

1: What exactly is the "Core Concept" of Valencia? Is it the Italian Renaissance culture and architecture and the vast Villas, or is there something else I'm missing?

2: I can't believe nobody noticed there's TWO unused Villas instead of one. But anyways, my question: Perhaps if we go back to Valencia, or if you expand Valencia Part 2, you could get rid of these villas and perhaps make something more unique? The villas all look the same and repetitive anyways, so this would spice things up a bit. Of course, I'm probably just doing this because I'm a crazy huge fan of Valencia and would love to see many elements in it.

3: Why would you put in a Transportaler in Florenza, even though there's supposed to be one of them in each world?

4: Any plans to add new places in Aragon and Calabria as you go on?

5: Not Valencia-related, but I recall you saying if all goes well, we could be returning to Dragonspyre's Avernus Skyway for some plot-related things and a possible expansion. Perhaps we can still expect to see one?

6: There's a LOT of your art images on Google and in the housing furniture piece "The Art of Valencia" that we haven't seen in this Valencia, such as a city that looks taken over by Clockworks, a Unicorn Musketeer, Crab NPC art, Villa Tortellini, and so on. How'd those get out on Google, anyway? Perhaps we could expect all of these at Andalusian Skyway?

7: How many Skyways are there in Valencia? 3 or 4 or even more? Or would that be marked as "TWBT"?

8: So you said the Great Machine is meant to have more than one entrance. What else could possibly be in there, and why would we want to go back in there? Would that be telling?

That's all I got for now. Thank you in advance.