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Story Thread 4: This Would Be Telling

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AuthorMessage
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
AoS Sheldon on Feb 7, 2014 wrote:
"Yes indeed, though lately "I don't talk schedule" is certainly on the rise. If anyone can guess where I got my favorite catchphrase, I'll be impressed."

That would be telling... Reminds me of the Prisoners - My dad loved the show and made me watch it with him, is that where it is from?
Indeed it is! Though there's only one Prisoner.

Well done. I hop you enjoyed the show - it's arguably some of the best TV ever produced.
First Mate
Dec 13, 2009
431
"I like quests."
"Felix, it's quest-tions. You should get your ears checked." Kai snaps. "I have some questions, if noone minds."
"1: Were you ever working on Wizard101?"
Felix is staring at you through the monitor. "Hey, you look funny. Go get surgery."
The elder one slapped him. "Act better to the nice game players. Now..."
"2: Will Kingsisle still be open in 12 years?"
The younger one snorts. "Kai, these questions are about-"
"3: I think there should be an assassin's brotherhood in Valencia, sort of like Assassin's Creed."
"4: Do you play Assassin's Creed?"
Pirate Overlord
Mar 10, 2009
6204
Blind Mew on Feb 7, 2014 wrote:
@GBalance101

1. What is the basis of the Armada? I've heard about Armadas in history.
An Armada simply means a big fleet of ships. The name for ours is drawn from the Spanish Armada, one fo the more notorious ones from history. Not giving it a qualifier (like Spanish or whatnot) gives it a faceless, impersonal, and powerful vibe. As for the Clockworks themselves, we wanted a faceless "stormtrooper' the pirate could fight with a clean conscience, and we wanted them to be creepy - thus the masks and the strange movements. Their most direct inspiration (visually, anyway) were the scary robots from the Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace", with a strong dose of "The Robots of Death" (a classic Dr. Who episode) for spice.

2. Did you meet Ryan the Relentless?
I did - working with him that day was an awesome experience.

3. Your catchphrase: That would be telling. Am I right?
Yes indeed, though lately "I don't talk schedule" is certainly on the rise. If anyone can guess where I got my favorite catchphrase, I'll be impressed.

4. Fact about yourself?
I am a proud Texan.

5. Why does Avery give us a raft for our first ship? As you put it, that death trap with the planks that groan like a sick yak.
There's a few things going on here - at a meta level, we had to follow RPG convention and have you start out with a small, weak ship so that you'll be encouraged to upgrade and be happy when you get a bigger ship. At a story level, we liked the joke and thought it served as a nifty reminder, right of the bat, that this isn't Wizard - Avery tricked you, because pirates are tricky. Can you imagine Merle Ambrose deceiving the PC like that right off the bat?
"If anyone can guess where I got my favorite catchphrase, I'll be impressed."
Since you enjoy British TV.......From The Prisoner?
Bosun
May 06, 2009
371
As always, I love the new thread. They do seem to fill up fast though. And to help fill up this thread, I have some questions. Hopefully, the answers to these questions aren't "That would be telling."

1.) Gracie Conrad recently got a spot in the Rogue's Gallery. I really love the new backstory to her and I'm glad you found a way to make "Grace" and "Gracie" work logically. In the Gallery though, it mentioned that she went to Strathclydesdale College in Albion. Does this mean Marleybone has strong control in Albion, dispite the rebellion? And if we are to ever go to Albion, is it possible we will see Strathclydesdale College? Lastly, is the name "Strathclydesdale" a pun on an existing college?

2.) Will we every learn more of Captain Conrad?

3.) I'm sorry, but I still can't get over Gracie Conrad looking different in Celestia and Marleybone. Is there a reason there was a model change from the Brown-furred, pink shirted Grace in Celestia, to the Black-and-White furred, white shirted Gracie in Marleybone?

4.) I aspire to be a novelist one day and I have many story ideas that I want to write within my life. One story I really want to write that I've thought about since 7th Grade is heavily inspired by the stories of Wizard101 and Pirate101. I like the ideas of a First World being broken apart and islands scattered about, and a tree as the center of it all. My central villian is even inspired, motivationally, by Malistaire, Morganthe, and Kane. But I fear this might cause some kind of plagarism, which I totally don't want to do. The central plot, characters, and villian are much different, but I'm still hesitant. What is your opinion on this?

5.) How do you typically outline your stories, if you can tell? I have a vision of what I want for my stories, and I already know how I want to end it (is that weird if you haven't even started it?) in my head, but I haven't outlined it yet. Is that completely necessary?

Thanks!
Bosun
May 06, 2009
371
This is an extension to my 5th question. Do your outlines look something like those outlines they teach kids about in grade school? Like:

I. Title of Questline/World
1. PC wakes in cell
2. Breaks out of cell
a. cannon ball hits wall of the cell
3. Afterwards, PC meets Boochbeard

Is it something like this? I don't normally do outlines like this. I like to have a general concept and stick to it. I'm also artistically incline so I'll sometimes draw visual representations of what I want, like how the art team makes concepts for the programming team based on the writers' thoughts. I can see how an outline keeps you focused on the main story line, rather than not having one and simpling rambling on and loosing sight of the main idea, and to worser extents stumbling on your own tail. Any advice would be most appreciated.
Bosun
Nov 03, 2012
365
All Right Mew, Let's see if you can answer this one:

We meet Boochbeard and Gandry in the beginning of the game. In fact they are on the character list. (The thing where you can learn about the main characters.) Boochbeard's ship is even in the backround of the Pirate101 website. However, we only meet him once. And that was very briefly. We also see pictures of him in various boss houses. Normally in skull island. Lastly, he and gandry both make special appearances. Like the battle with Tyson in cool ranch. But we never actually converse with him again. My question is, will we ever get to talk with him or meet him again. If he's supposed to be a main character then how come we never see him. Is he fated to just be the guy that gives us tutorial tips all the time? If so, I find that really sad. I enjoyed Boochbeard and Gandry and hope that they are going to appear again.
Bosun
Nov 03, 2012
365
Chrissy Th'Blesser on Feb 8, 2014 wrote:
"If anyone can guess where I got my favorite catchphrase, I'll be impressed."
Since you enjoy British TV.......From The Prisoner?
Sorry Chrissy, AoS Sheldon beat you to the punch
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@Duke Of Westminster

1.Was dueling diego a hint to pirate101. I mean in the minigames they are all wizard themed and then a pirate themed game out of nowhere. It even has skull island in the backround.
No - Dueling Diego was made before Pirate101 was even a gleam in our creative eyes. I think it was done to give Diego some more fencing to do.

2.Are there going to be any different type of quests other than fighting, running, talking. I much enjoyed paying you that gold coin because it was a little different then what we had been doing. Maybe if fishing is implemented into the game then there can be fishing quests. Or maybe a smart villain wants to test his\her luck in a boardgame and challenges us to face him\her. So we have to beat him\her in a quick minigame. Just throwing ideas out there.
No, our quest engine doesn't really support more than that (though we do have a 4th and 5th - Use Item and Kill and Collect), and ultimately I don't know that it needs to. Our challenge is using those basic goals in very different ways - Kabuki dancing, giant mech fighting, scylla and charybdis, that kind of thing. I have a gag (as we call them) coming up in Book 15 that I'm still not entirely sure we can pull off as first written - but if we can, it'll be the coolest use of talk to and explore goals I've ever seen. You're right, the introduction of other systems could open the doors to new quest types, but even then, under the covers they're basically the same goals (fishing would just be a bunch of Use Items, say), but used in a different way.

3.Lastly, I just want to complement the person at KI who does all the musical scores. Job well done! A lot of people don't notice it but if it was taken out then they would see how much worse the game would be. I especially like the cool ranch one. I often find myself tapping the rythym.
Thanks! I'll pass that along. We are blessed with amazing music and awesome voice talent - they really bring Pirate to the next level.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@The Purple Captain

1. how old is our pirates i'd like to think they were sixteen I mean they are driving.
Sixteen is the upper limit I'd put on the pirate's age. The lower limit is 10 or 11. Beyond that, I feel no need to be specific.

2. where does ensign Emmett come from he's like my cutest and strongest companions he sound like he was in marelybone but i haven't seen otters there.
He is indeed from Marleybone. There are more Otters there, in Skyways we have yet to visit.

3. how did jack russel escape the ship wreck or is everyone alive but in a dungeon like it said in the beginning?
I've always imagined pirate crews as fluid - you sail with Captain Whoever for one job, then shift to a different ship for a while. So Jack wasn't on the ship that wrecked - he parted ways with your parents shortly before that. Dead Mike is the only Presidio companion that was there when your parents perished - the mutiny got him, too.

4. how did you get the idea for all the questions.
Which questions? Character creation? We had a set of things we wanted you to decide - class being the most important. We also knew we didn't want more than 3 questions. The other two we set up in such a way as to infuse as much Spiral and pirate flavor as possible.

5. Seeing as you only hear your mother speak is it possible boochbeard is your father?
It's possible, I suppose... Though I wouldn't bet on it.

6. are there plans to add like pet eggs in the future because waiting for eggs to hatch is the bane of my wizard existence.
That'd be more of a systems based thing - upgrading pets is outside my purview. If we were to, though, I'd hope we've learned some lessons from Wizard.

7. we see aliens in puppet shows (i find it funny) will we ever see a space themed world?
They're primarily a joke, and a very oblique nod to Celestia. A space themed world is a bit too much, I think. The closest we'd get might be a planetary romance (think John Carter's Barsoom), but even that might push our limits too far.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@The Purple Captain (continued)

8. does everyone get rooster cogburn because you said there was possibly a plan to give him a quest promotion and would everyone get to experience it?
Everyone can, if they finish the quest chain. I'd love to give him a promotion quest, but the limits to our bandwidth might not make it possible. We're on the hook for a lot of promotion quests now.

9. so there are the foxes of Albion but are there like other foxes in the spiral like arctic foxes?
Maybe - Arctic Foxes would be pretty cool...

10. will jack ever loose his mask did he get like a scare where it is?
I'm not sure I understand - you mean his eyepatch?

11. who will fight Kane with us? will egg shen go like "captain this is personal" and auto join the battle?
Don't know yet - though your suggestion certainly is a good one.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@Musketeer592

...could you give us pirates a treat and tell us the first letter to the next world we will be in...

Are you kidding? You can deduce the answer if you really look closely at the end of Book 14 - in fact, Jack really got on my case last update for giving too much away!
Ensign
Apr 05, 2010
9
Hey, I was wondering that since we are already probably going back to Valencia that if you could add a clockwork or armada child as a companion. It could be a test for a new troop for Kane's army that goes wrong or something of that nature.
Petty Officer
Apr 15, 2010
83
(Hey blind mew thanks for answering my last questions here are some more)

1. will we ever get Timmy as a companion like if we were to go back to tumbleweed?

2. the guys in fort elena the awesome cute penguins will we get one ever?

3. who designs spells and such?

4. how were the five classes made up?

5. Is it possible that since the clockworks don't live that they could rebuild the elites but without there memory yet secret meetings and other things burned into there brains could deacon come back?

6. horses in the amber horde and horses in cool ranch? which came first?

7. who of all the talking companions have the hardest lines to write?

8. can we trust avery? i don't well.... not fully.

9. could we maybe do something like the Presido go in steal get out piracy things like that?

10. who was the first el toro did it go back behind Don Rodrigo's mentor?

11. how did the starter companions get get imprisoned what did they do?

12. the monkey bishop privateer's get will he promote to a bishop or stay at initiate?

thanks if ya answer stay gold
Pirate Overlord
Mar 10, 2009
6204
Duke of Westminste... on Feb 10, 2014 wrote:
Sorry Chrissy, AoS Sheldon beat you to the punch
Yea I saw that after I hit enter. SO honestly I did not cheat and check the submissions. I saw his challenge and just answered and then read on. I just didn't get up early enough that day . Congrats Sheldon.
Petty Officer
Jun 02, 2013
79
ok blind mew 1i almost cried when you ansered so harshly i mean i could almost hear your voice screeming at me 2 will you at least tell us if im right about the skyway thing 3 i dont know what book im in im a level 24 musk stuck on buck bronkoes cave! thats all i know about where i am! ps sorry if i hurt your fellings some how o and DO NOT leave polaris out musketeers rule
Petty Officer
Jun 02, 2013
79
hey blind mew will musketeers get a mokisyidor explorore companion i love them and will they ever rebuild the outpost
Commodore
Feb 02, 2013
838
1) if i recall correctly only the bison and banditoads are native to coolranch, so where did the birds come from

2) what was the age range KI was expecting for p101

3) When will KI host a tournament

4) Will a clan or guild system be implmented
Commodore
Feb 02, 2013
838
forgot to add this one

5) Was el dorado built as a city or as a tomb/prison to contain something that may or may not have caused the great calamity
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@ThatOneValencianSwash

1.top 5 movies and why
Ooof, that's a tough one. This list would change on any given week, and it's hard to sift through so many - as any of my co-workers will tell you, I'm a sucker for movies, and will give even weaker ones the benefit of the doubt. There's also the whole issue of what are the 5 best movies ever made vs. what are my 5 favorites. Tough call. So, as of today, here are my 5 favorites (these are NOT in order). Also note that some of these may be age inappropriate - parental guidance is required:
  1. Lawrence of Arabia - a stunning spectacle, amazing characters, and visuals that put your eyes out. The one uninterrupted distance shot of the Bedouin taking Aqaba is one of the greatest single shots in the history of film. This movie made Steven Spielberg want to make movies; you can see why.
  2. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - I absolutely LOVE spy movies that play like real espionage, instead of James Bond adventure movies (Tailor of Panama is another fine example). I also love things that are British - the fact that this film uses silence as dialogue is marvelous. This move has such nuance, and so many layers of subtext in every scene that once you know the ending you will look at every scene differently the next time you watch it - it's Sixth Sense times 10 in that regard.
  3. The Incredibles - Best superhero/comics movie ever made. The Dark Knight is a close second, but this one is amazing. I love it for the joy, for the awesome fights when the supers cut loose, and for the awesome retro stylings of the evil boss's lair and the music.
  4. Star Wars: A New Hope - I beats Empire on this list because it had the heavy lifting to do of building the setting - it had to do more with less. This move made me want to make movies.
  5. Raiders of the Lost Ark - the closest thing to a perfect movie I've ever seen. It transcends the sources it's imitating and becomes something sublime.
Continued...
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@ThatOneValencianSwash

2.have you ever considered the orphans in marleybone to become pets like the crawlies and coral widows?
No. I don't want to put little kids in combat - the pirate is young, but not that young. Now I think they'd make a great housing item, but not a companion.

3.best possible scenarios you would write in p101 and one's you hope you never have to write.
Not sure what you mean by this - every book has parts that write themselves and parts that are an absolute nightmare to write. Judging by the outline, the future will be no exception. I think I'll leave it at that - to get more specific would take us way into spoiler territory.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@BearKat904

1. the title of this story thread drove me completely barmy! this would be telling? are you going to reveal something big or small, or did you not have any other titles to place?
It's just a joke - in fact, it's a slightly modified version of a title suggested by one of the posters in the last thread.

2. you were talking to CanaanBC at the beginning of this thread and her first question was the amelia earheart npc. will this npc that you are speaking of come into play in the next major update or in the future?
In the future.

3. in the background of the website, i see captain avery, louis lebisque, and i think i see duck holiday and lucky jack russell. speaking of duck holiday, has avery known holiday for quite some time or is that even not holiday?
You need not take promotional art too literally - I'd never thought that Avery knew Duck, unless they got acquainted after you first take him to Skull Island. Duck's career has heretofore been limited to Cool Ranch.

4. some monquistans are hanging from a rope, going down to reach the surface. has avery ever recruited any monquistans?
See above. Avery's history with Hooktail implies that he's worked with some before, though I'm honestly unsure if there are any in his employ now.

5. will we be returning to cool ranch in the future? mooshu (besides the valencia stormgate)? aquila? marleybone? avernus? monquista?
Yes to all If you mean for a small side jaunt, a quest goal or two or part of a side or promotion quest. If you mean a whole Book's worth, the answer is maybe.

6. will there ever be ship pvp?
That's a question for Ratbeard and the systems designers. i sure hope so!

7. where exactly did snakes and spiders come from? they seem to be all over the place! i think that the spiders came from either dragonspyre or khrysalis. snakes: probably aquila or skull island.
Well, they both came from the First World, and were so common that they ended up on lots of fragments. Your guesses are pretty good.

continued...
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@BearKat904 (continued)

8. will there be a reference to the flying dutchman?
Pretty likely.

9. my goal in life is to become a famous author and/or film writer, maybe write an epic fantasy series consisting of heroes, villains, and a little something called SOURCERY. if i were to become successful, will y'all make a reference to my novels?
They'd have to come out pretty soon, I think. Also, I'd have to read them and if i dig them, then definitely maybe.

10. maybe another goal in life is to become a kingsisle employee. how do you become one?
Watch the web site, apply, and give a good interview. Interviews are incredibly important. If you want to be part of the creative team, submit a good sample, and make absolutely sure you read the instructions of any test we give you.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@Koi the Fish

I think you cheated my witchdoctor put of a Coin in port regal then for a quest after that you sent me to flotsam??? I think where you are will you be rich because a lot of people are past port regal and could I get all your loot?

Cheated? Never! The information I gave in return for that coin was perfectly usable. As for being rich, you'd be surprised the kind of expenses I'm operating under - transportation fees for a blind Cat all over Skull Island get expensive.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@Koi the Fish
Sorry forgot to add if we could have like characters roaming around actual houses for gold.that would be nice

I agree. It's something that gets raised in conversation pretty frequently, so I know we're looking into it. That just makes i a question of bandwidth and priority.
Captain
Jan 26, 2012
646
@Kai Alcot

Hi, Felix. I'm fond of quests too.

"1: Were you ever working on Wizard101?"
Nope. I was brought in to be creative lead on Pirate101, and that's pretty much been the whole of my duties since I got here.

"2: Will Kingsisle still be open in 12 years?"
Hard to say - always in motion is the future, as the little green guy said. However, given Wizard's enduring popularity, I wouldn't bet against it.

"3: I think there should be an assassin's brotherhood in Valencia, sort of like Assassin's Creed."
Hmmmmm... There's definitely room for secret societies in Valencia, but I'm not sure how well such a brotherhood would do in these changing times.

"4: Do you play Assassin's Creed?"
Nope. Since the kids came along I don't have time to play much of anything. I hear it's cool, though.
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