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Well, I asked for it! Blind Mew's Musings return

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AuthorMessage
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@ AnneRadcliffe:
More minor questions, but things I have been curious about since test realm: the portrait gallery in the Ulpian Library ... ...Just wondering if they were a clever nod to historic figures.

If they are, it wasn't my doing. Our artists are very clever, and likely had specific paintings they looked at for reference, but I must admit I hadn't gone far enough into the world-building for Valencia to figure out who the people in the portraits are. These details tend to spin up as they're needed, and I'd use the portraits as inspiration.

@ValkoorTheVictorious:
In a nutshell, did you draw a lot of your P101 story writings from a profound interest in comics?

This is a very interesting question. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and comics were definitely a big part of my upbringing - my 6th grade English teacher sneered when I bragged that comics were where I'd learned most of my vocabulary, but stopped sneering when she started grading my vocabulary quizzes. Todd Coleman hired me and Hawkules my assistant writer because he'd grown up with us in middle school and high school, and "our brains had all grown in the same Petri dish." So that influence is definitely there.

Now, I don't know how direct that influence is in Pirate101 - I expect we were drawn to the same bits of literature and history that comics creators have been over the decades - Cagliostro was a real person, to cite but one of your examples. The entire game is a soup of references to our favorite myths/books/movies/historical figures/you name it. Lucius Fox is a direct reference to Nolan's batman movies instead of a comics version of him, for example, and Desdemona is Othello (look to the names of her father and true love to unravel that one).

We put all these references in for several reasons - we think they're funny (of course), but we also do it to pay homage to our favorite things.

to be continued!
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@ValkoorTheVictorious (continued):
But I do have one other motive. Before I got shanghaied into the games industry, I had always figured I'd end up a social studies teacher - I wanted to teach high school history. So from my first job writing game lore all the way back in the fall of 2000, I've been careful to pepper everything with fun references. I figure if the stuff I write can get one player to read one book they never would have read otherwise, my entire career is worth more than just my paychecks.

Long answer short - I'd say much of P101's story and the comic universe share some common ancestors, but there's definitely always been enjoyment of it in our lives.

@Silly Purrate:
Will world updates be coming more frequently after valencia 2?

If all goes well. It would be difficult for them to be less frequent...
Pirate Overlord
Mar 10, 2009
6204
Than you SO much Blind Mew for putting the questions in with your answers. I know that it increases your workload to do this and the dot connecting area of my brain is beyond grateful.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@JohnThePirate:

1- Can you tell us a bit about The Andalusian Skyway? Or at least describe it in a few sentences?

It's a very stormy place. It's also the center of Valencian shipbuilding.

2- Now that Kane's Golden Brain was taken by the machine, Where did it go?

What answer other than "That would be telling" do you expect here? Though I will point out that while the second part of that question may seem the most salient, the first part also bears some careful examination...

3- We haven't heard a single mention at all about Cadiz. Are we gonna see Cadiz someday?

Possibly. I will say that if we return to Valencia, there are other places I'd go first.

4- About Valencia City... It looks pretty fancy and well designed. I really got sad when i heard that we can't go there yet. Any future plans to go there for a storyline quest or something?

Well, I wouldn't have put it in the Skyway if I didn't want the story to ever go there...

5-Are we going to find the rest of the map pieces hided by Kane?

That would be telling.

6- I can tell that the queen is up to no good from her laugh. Is that Andalusian Skyway related?

Again on the telling. If all goes well, we will definitely find out.

7- Are we going to get more Valencian Companions in the future? I was really expecting to get a few from side quests.. At least one of the unicorn royal guards

I'm hoping to make more companions available if all goes well.

8- I know that would be telling but are we going to see Krokotopia someday? it's one of my favorite worlds

That would indeed be telling. I also don't talk potential future worlds.

9- Marleybone was epic and a great success for Kingsisle. Are we going there again sometime in the future for Albion and Kent?

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Marleybone is definitely my favorite of the worlds we've done so far. As for Albion and Kent, I would love to go there someday if all goes well, but without the stakes of the Armada War I don't know if they'd hold up...
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@JohnThePirate (continued):

10- Now that after Phule helped us to get into The Machine Core. Where did he go? Are we going to see him again someday? Or at least defeat him?

I love Phule too dearly to simply let him fade away - he's too fun to write! If all goes well and new arcs begin, I imagine we haven't seen the last of him.

11- So Polaris next? I Wonder how good it will be. specially the skyway and how it will look. i can imagine it...

Telling, and I don't talk future worlds. Man, everybody sure seems to think Polaris is the next world. That would, of course, be telling. If all goes well, we shall see.

@TheSpiderBozz:
1. Do you think we will go back to Valencia after Arc 1?

If all goes well, I'd definitely like to. We have unfinished business with some clockworks there...

2. Can we expect new packs in the near future?

If all goes well they're definitely a priority.

3. After the creepy cutscene with Queen rising and laughing like a madwoman, are you gonna try to do any more creepy things? Or was it a one time thing?

I'm very fond of creepy - I got my start writing scenarios for Call of Cthulhu way back when. It's not a place I intend to go to too much, but I'm definitely not afraid to if the story demands it.

@Trimond297:
As time & new story updates go on, would there be time to shave some momentum away in the 2nd arc through some side content updates time to time?

If new story updates go on, this is definitely a strategy I'm looking at. Balancing main with side content will be tricky, but I've come to appreciate the idea more than I used to.

@WinterGoddess:
Wow! I never really thought about trying to map our plot to a consistent timeline. The different play rates different players have make it too tricky, and I don't ever want to make an absolute statement on the timeline, because it might bite me later - you can expect any time references in the game to be deliberately vague.

That said, for purposes of fiction your assessment seems just fine to me.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@CaptainBlackWolfBowman:
Would it be possible, in the next 3 monthly newsletters, to write an entry for each of the 3 remaining Kraken Skulls companions (Barnabus, Emmett, and Louis)?

Funny thing, I was just talking to Jack about the Rogues' Galleries. There three have definitely been neglected.

@Trimond297:
If you've time, would you reply to my past question on whether or not Book 15 can be possibly rebooted?

I understand the desire for something like this to happen, but it's practically impossible. If things go well I want to look forward, not backward to stuff we've already done.

That said, if things go well and new content happens I do want to revisit some elements that fell out of book 15, and give some characters that deserved more screen time their close up, but that's not a reboot: the events of Book 15 will still have happened.
Petty Officer
Nov 05, 2012
96
will the imperial skyway ever make a return in pirate? I was thinking that if the "lost islands" in florenza skyway ever have to become side quest material, we could be summoned to the imperial skyway and have to be sent as an emissary to Valencia city, since we did have quite the impact on valencia as a whole. we could clean up the rest of the armada, rescue king casmire, blah blah, blah. also what's gonna happen to cadiz without kane? can we go there now since he's dead? I would love to go there and have it be the place where I could finally get a valencian warship! man I have wanted one since I saw what rookes destroyed one looked like, I have fan pics of one to! so if we get to cadiz... what are the chances of getting a valencian warship there? (please be SUPER high!)
Bosun
Dec 28, 2012
361
piratical505 on Aug 19, 2016 wrote:
will the imperial skyway ever make a return in pirate? I was thinking that if the "lost islands" in florenza skyway ever have to become side quest material, we could be summoned to the imperial skyway and have to be sent as an emissary to Valencia city, since we did have quite the impact on valencia as a whole. we could clean up the rest of the armada, rescue king casmire, blah blah, blah. also what's gonna happen to cadiz without kane? can we go there now since he's dead? I would love to go there and have it be the place where I could finally get a valencian warship! man I have wanted one since I saw what rookes destroyed one looked like, I have fan pics of one to! so if we get to cadiz... what are the chances of getting a valencian warship there? (please be SUPER high!)
Blind Mew does not reply to post within this thread. If you want him to reply, copy it over to "So about Book 15... (Spoilers)
Admiral
Jul 07, 2013
1124
anecorbie on Jun 22, 2016 wrote:
Well, to quote El Toro "That's absurdly complicated!"
I'm glad we didn't get to spend much time with Gazpaccio, as seeing him die at Kane's hands was heart wrenching enough. I think I like this installment better - good choice there, Mew.
Actually I would have liked the original story. How Biblical sounding....

Virtuous Dante Ramsey
First Mate
Sep 13, 2010
402
DuranteRamses87 on Aug 21, 2016 wrote:
Actually I would have liked the original story. How Biblical sounding....

Virtuous Dante Ramsey
i wish i had 4 million accounts with memberships so i could yar this 4 million times
Admiral
Jul 07, 2013
1124
AndrewDeathblade11... on Aug 24, 2016 wrote:
i wish i had 4 million accounts with memberships so i could yar this 4 million times
That would be AWESOME!

Virtuous Dante Ramsey
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@ValkoorTheVictorious
No I didn't lose track of your questions, sometimes I'm just slow to answer.

A while back it came to my attention that Captain Avery had an interesting first name. Well, more specifically that his name, Horace, meant Timekeeper in Latin. At the time that proved thought-provoking & I had wondered if it was merely a, "this would be cool to go along with the game's ticky-tocky story", kind of thingy. Or was this merely a case of happenstance. Or...or...hopefully, perhaps was this done by intentions?

No, his name of Horace had no greater significance than that it began with H. Captain Avery is a nod to Henry Every (or Avery, depending on how the writer decided to spell it), and we didn't want him to have exactly the same name. So we went with an H name that we liked.

Did Phule, or his name, come from Asprin's series of books? I know there are many nods to many Sci-fi works, in the game & I was just wondering if this was one of those? I had also read somewhere that in biblical terms phule can interpret as "tribe/family". Is there any significance within the character Phule & the use of that name?

Again, no. We were punning on a fun misspelling of "fool" to match Rooke and Kane - at one point Queen was going to be named Queene, but that just didn't scan right to my eyes. If Aspirin did have an influence it was completely subconscious. As to the other meaning of phule, I had no idea that was true. A nifty coincidence, but no, not an Easter egg.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@TheSpiderBozz
1. I have noticed many similarities between Pirate101 and Star Wars, most notably in the Armada. Was this intentional, and if so, are you gonna do more?

I think the biggest similarities are thematic, at least from the Han Solo direction - rogue vagabond ends up finding heart of gold and facing down evil monolithic power. The fact that their troops are all wearing white masks with black voids for eyes had more to do with Venician carnavale than Star Wars. As to more direct references, they're fun little grace notes to weave into the story. I expect there will be more - we didn't use them all up at Beachhead!

2. So, early on in the game, we passed by Dragonspyre for a bit to get to Aragon skyway. Do you plan to bring us back to the red skies of Dragonspyre, or was it just a small throwback to Wizard101?

It was just a fun nod to Wizard. Though there is a stormgate in there whose destination remains unknown, so we may not be done with that skyway yet...

3. Are you planning to make El Dorado a long-ish world, or is it just gonna be for the final battle of arc 1?

Well, the original plans were still hazy - El Dorado was far enough away story wise that we hadn't dug too deeply into scope yet. There would have been at least some exploration, though - it would have been more than just a big fight or two. As to what I may be planning to do with El Dorado in the present tense, that depends on how well things go, and it sure would be telling. I also don't talk worlds.

@FoxyTheKid:
THIS IS JUST A THEORIE I USED INFORMATION I KNEW TO PUT IN THIS THEORIE AGAIN THIS IS FAKE ALL OF THIS POPPED INTO MY BRAIN! But what do you think?

Mins the all caps! I cannot confirm or deny any of this. But I will say that questioning everything is always a good impulse.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@andrewdeathblade1115:
1. First letter of the next skyway?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

2. When the old Book 15 was coming up, you said we'd visit 2 out of the 3 in the El Dorado arc: Krokotopia, Rajah, and Darkmoor. Does that still apply? I'd prefer Krokotopia and Rajah, but at least if we go to Darkmoor we might get a cool ship.

The change in plan has upended a lot or original designs. I don't talk worlds, and again - it's best not to get ahead of ourselves.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@TheFearlessdevil:
Mew, did you play any Star Fox games? What did you think?

Can't say I ever did. I hear they were good, though.

@AndrewDeathBlade1115:
Why were Boochbeard and Gandry looking for us?

Because Kane was. Now why was he looking for us? That's a good question.

@AnneRadcliffe:
Why is Martin Chambers' ship named 'The Pretender'?

There's no deep dynastic meaning at play here - it's another music joke. Martin Chambers is the drummer and a founding member of the Pretenders. That's why he's got brass in pocket, see. To build the puns there i had to use my... my... my... imagination.
First Mate
Sep 13, 2010
402
Blind Mew on Aug 26, 2016 wrote:
@TheFearlessdevil:
Mew, did you play any Star Fox games? What did you think?

Can't say I ever did. I hear they were good, though.

@AndrewDeathBlade1115:
Why were Boochbeard and Gandry looking for us?

Because Kane was. Now why was he looking for us? That's a good question.

@AnneRadcliffe:
Why is Martin Chambers' ship named 'The Pretender'?

There's no deep dynastic meaning at play here - it's another music joke. Martin Chambers is the drummer and a founding member of the Pretenders. That's why he's got brass in pocket, see. To build the puns there i had to use my... my... my... imagination.
i suppose kane could've been looking for us for two reasons
1. he knew our mom went to el dorado and wanted to get her map piece through us
2. we fit the description of some hero prophesied to defeat him
First Mate
Sep 13, 2010
402
Blind Mew on Aug 26, 2016 wrote:
@TheFearlessdevil:
Mew, did you play any Star Fox games? What did you think?

Can't say I ever did. I hear they were good, though.

@AndrewDeathBlade1115:
Why were Boochbeard and Gandry looking for us?

Because Kane was. Now why was he looking for us? That's a good question.

@AnneRadcliffe:
Why is Martin Chambers' ship named 'The Pretender'?

There's no deep dynastic meaning at play here - it's another music joke. Martin Chambers is the drummer and a founding member of the Pretenders. That's why he's got brass in pocket, see. To build the puns there i had to use my... my... my... imagination.
alright so you spoiled the W in Westminster approximately 84 days before the release of Marleybone and Aquila. if all goes well, we get the next storyline update in june, rignt? so spoil the letter of the next skyway in late March?
Lieutenant
Jan 18, 2011
140
Blind Mew on Aug 26, 2016 wrote:
@TheFearlessdevil:
Mew, did you play any Star Fox games? What did you think?

Can't say I ever did. I hear they were good, though.

@AndrewDeathBlade1115:
Why were Boochbeard and Gandry looking for us?

Because Kane was. Now why was he looking for us? That's a good question.

@AnneRadcliffe:
Why is Martin Chambers' ship named 'The Pretender'?

There's no deep dynastic meaning at play here - it's another music joke. Martin Chambers is the drummer and a founding member of the Pretenders. That's why he's got brass in pocket, see. To build the puns there i had to use my... my... my... imagination.
To answer why Boochbeard and Gandry was looking for us: I have to bring up an event that happened in Wizard101 that seemed too coincidental. In the Five B.O.X.E.S. Event, There is one questline where we travel back in time Pre-Pirate101 storyline where the Maestro was trying to sell Boochbeard and Gandry to Deacon because Maestro knew that those two would be the ones who will free the orphan pirate (us). We ended up overhearing Maestro talking about it to Deacon and as a result, we pretty much set it up for when Pirate101's storyline took off. This should be noted that in one of the early Pirate101 commercials Gandry mentioned looking for "The one who will change everything".

Answer complete! You're Welcome Blind Mew
Ensign
Oct 28, 2012
4
First Mate
Sep 13, 2010
402
winter goddess on Aug 31, 2016 wrote:
To answer why Boochbeard and Gandry was looking for us: I have to bring up an event that happened in Wizard101 that seemed too coincidental. In the Five B.O.X.E.S. Event, There is one questline where we travel back in time Pre-Pirate101 storyline where the Maestro was trying to sell Boochbeard and Gandry to Deacon because Maestro knew that those two would be the ones who will free the orphan pirate (us). We ended up overhearing Maestro talking about it to Deacon and as a result, we pretty much set it up for when Pirate101's storyline took off. This should be noted that in one of the early Pirate101 commercials Gandry mentioned looking for "The one who will change everything".

Answer complete! You're Welcome Blind Mew
oh i knew about that whole crossover thing but never looked into it. i guess that explains why kane was looking for us too.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@Trimond297:

So, I have to ask you this, is this the case with the "False Victory, Act 1 False Ending" bit? Some sure seem to think so.

It would be foolish of me to rule out ever having an enemy return, especially when there's an "out" by which they could return. That said, if we do get to go forward I'm done with Kane as big bad for the foreseeable future.

Plus, I may need to ask you, think we may see some incomplete palaces as lesser villains' lairs in the 2nd arc along the way?

Interesting question. It's a neat device - I see no reason not to, if the story naturally leads itself in that direction.

@CaptainBlackWolfBowman:

1. Why are Louis' promotion quests so similar to each other? They have almost the exact same goal- going to Lucius Fox to upgrade his weapon.

They just kind of turned out that way. Some of the crew members just naturally spin off big promo quest plotlines - I'm thinking Subodai's big Khan arc, which wrote itself, while other characters seem perfect just the way they are: sparking plots off of them turns difficult. Louis was like that. When we first came up with the idea for promotion quests we had to create a LOT of them in very short order. Louis' quests ended up being simpler.

2. In a past post, you stated how you mainly only play musketeers- does that still hold true?

Yeah, it's just the way I think. I also really dig the AoEs.

3. Will the side companions all classes recruit, such as Ju Hao and Rooster Cogburn, get speaking promotions, or will it just be paying to promote?

I'd love for that to happen, but as came up previously, it's getting hard to have full promo quests for the characters who we're already committed to - adding to that list is a tricky prospect.

@Trimond297:
will there be planned trips to past worlds while the story goes on time to time?

Absolutely (again, if all goes well). We've already done it quite a bit if you look carefully.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@Trimond297:
That's a lot of questions you have there. And I'm not in an easy position to answer them yet.

Don't count your arcs before they're hatched - we're still deep in "if all goes well" territory.

@MaxDegroot:

1) Cadiz!! I fully expected us to visit there, but we never did. Will we, eventually?

I did too, but things had to get compressed. I'm not sure about future visits - if all goes well, it'd definitely be a fun place to go, but the defeat of the Armada has taken away a big reason to go there.

2) Weak Valencian Steel. I thought this would be a part of the plot to defeat Kane. No?

No, not really, that was just a nifty side plot. It wasn't that all Valencian steel isnecessarily weak, it was just that the steel in question was too weak for the task it was used for.

3) Will we ever meet Erika the Red?

If all goes well, she's an obvious loose endto pick up...

4) The seers below Delphi. They erased early memories. What was the purpose of that? So we could ignore the differences of how our parents died?

That was an idea that sprang up while the quests were being written. It was a price you could pay without another boring quest goal to go kill and collect something, and it was so deep, so personal, that it really acquired stakes. I really dug the idea, and how dark it was. Given the players' reactions, it had exactly the intended effect.

5) Why do all of the shops in Marleybone have sharks hanging from the ceiling? Even ones that supposedly sell fruit!

That it the ancient principle of re-use. We only get to build so much - 5 different MB shops would make 5 other environments fall of the list.

@Piratical505

Throughout the last couple of worlds we have seen a decrease in witch doctors as enemies or even npcs.

Good point. I may have developed something of a blind spot to witch doctors. Our default "age of sail" setting and the lack of outright magic in Valencia definitely set the stage for this, but that's not good enough. I'll look to do better in future.
Ensign
Jan 14, 2014
26
"3. Will the side companions all classes recruit, such as Ju Hao and Rooster Cogburn, get speaking promotions, or will it just be paying to promote?

I'd love for that to happen, but as came up previously, it's getting hard to have full promo quests for the characters who we're already committed to - adding to that list is a tricky prospect."

Well, If that ever could happen I think you should at least focus on those starter companions that don't speak beyond the recruitment from the class trainer place, when you first visit them. Like Chantal, Fan Flanders, or Carcarius for example.
From reading their rogue gallery bio I don't understand why their promotions aren't spoken and with quests, some could really neat story info, they don't even ever talk during your travels until the current end of the Story.
Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
Ricardo6802 on Sep 10, 2016 wrote:
"3. Will the side companions all classes recruit, such as Ju Hao and Rooster Cogburn, get speaking promotions, or will it just be paying to promote?

I'd love for that to happen, but as came up previously, it's getting hard to have full promo quests for the characters who we're already committed to - adding to that list is a tricky prospect."

Well, If that ever could happen I think you should at least focus on those starter companions that don't speak beyond the recruitment from the class trainer place, when you first visit them. Like Chantal, Fan Flanders, or Carcarius for example.
From reading their rogue gallery bio I don't understand why their promotions aren't spoken and with quests, some could really neat story info, they don't even ever talk during your travels until the current end of the Story.
Because they're side quest companions, not main quest companions. You don't have to recruit them at level 4, you can recruit them at any time ( although they are too good to pass up. )
Ensign
Jan 14, 2012
11
Blind Mew is there going to be an Arc 2
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