Talk:Flashback

Question

Is it possible to have multiple challenges in the same category? (ie individual player will not die AND individual player will die once at most)

I don't think it is. The settings for those categories are in a pull-down menu, so you can only select one at a time. When you start the actual flashback thread, you'll get a set of icons in your status area that indicate which options you selected. For those options with the pulldown, there are counters next to the icons. For instance, if you selected the option to not allow any deaths, you'll see the icon for the "death limit" (my verbage since I don't recall the exact name) and next to it will be the number "0". If you die, it counts down to "X" and you get the "CHALLENGE FAILED" message on the screen. --Eabrace 15:26, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Category

What category should this article be in? When inventions came on board, a new category was made for them. Is this system far-reaching enough that it deserves similar treatment?--GreyDog 14:35, 15 November 2007 (EST)

Yes, I think a new category - linking to all Oroborous content, all Flashback content, all relevant badges, etc, would be a useful distinction.--PaxArcana 05:08, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Deaths

I was under the impression there are two sets of defeats: Individual (up to 5 defeats per character for a total possible of 40 defeats) and Player (up to 5 defeats per team). I haven't actually verified this in-game, as I just logged out of the game before checking here, but cityinfoterminal's list indicates both. Aggelakis 04:18, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Time Limit Badges

I'm noticing that the time limits for Gold, Silver, and Bronze are not always 0:30, 1:00, 2:00. For example, the limits for The Clockwork Captive (level 14) are 0:45, 1:00, and 1:30. --Eabrace 21:11, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Did they standardize the time limits for the arcs when I wasn't looking? At the moment, I'm looking at the limits for The Clockwork Captive and they're 0:30, 1:00, 2:00. Or are there other factors involved in the actual time limits like size of team, notoriety, etc.? --Eabrace 08:28, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

I believe each story arc's time limits are based on how many missions are in it.--GreyDog 16:02, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

o.o how many and kind.. I've been thinking that we might want to include the 3 times on given for missions on the Story Arcs page, but doing that would require altering the template. --Sleepy Kitty 08:32, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

What's confusing me is that the time for the same arc seemed to change between Nov. 30 and Dec. 14 (I'd accidentally miskeyed the bronze time, though.) To make matters more confusing, I'm looking at the screen again, and they're back to :45/1:00/1:30. . . --Eabrace 11:33, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

OK, this is just crazy. I started taking notes on all of the different arcs' time limits. I went to Ouroboros and cracked open the Aspect of the Pillar. Every arc in the 1-15 range was showing :30/1:00/2:00. I jumped back to my base and opened the Pillar there. The first arc I checked was The Clockwork Captive - :45/1:00/1:30. When I hit back and check the time limit on the other arcs, now they're all reading :45/1:00/1:30. I closed the Pillar and opened it again. The first arc I clicked this time was Flux the Outcast - :30/1:00/1:30. They're all reading those values now. Apparently, the numbers you see are determined entirely by whichever arc you look at first after opening the Pillar. If you don't close it and you change arcs, the time limits don't change. For fun, I closed the Pillar, reopened it, selected the :45 limit on The Clockwork Captive and accepted the settings. I got a 45:00 timer under my status window. I quit the TF, reopened the Pillar, and this time I selected Flux first. I clicked back, clicked on The Clockwork Captive, selected the :30 gold time limit, and accepted the challenge settings. I got a 45:00 timer again. So, in conclusion:

• timer values are not refreshed when you open a new arc without completely backing out of the selection menu
• the actual value on the timer when you accept the settings is driven by the arc, not by the number you see displayed in the Pillar interface
• the actual value on the timer that you get may not match the value you thought you selected

Bug report sent. (Not as good as if I'd found that the timers could be manipulated and exploited, though.) --Eabrace 12:08, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

(Oh, and I originally started looking into this because I was thinking we could keep track of the time limits for each arc in this article to avoid mucking up the story arc pages.) --Eabrace 12:11, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

o.o well.. that is possible to, but that would cause this page to balloon... err.. wait.. @.@;;; someone already added the list of arc.. no wonder the page is so hideously large.. 2/3rds of it is a arc listing..

>.> anyway, the reason I'd do it on the arc pages instead of here is largely because there are 2 arc pages, so the blow to page length is lessened.. Of course, as we record the various times, I'd imagine we'll see a certain amount of repeat numbers, so there might be a more space saving way to shuffle them.. >< as it is, it looks like we'll have to individually start and quit each story arc 3 times to get the actual numbers. --Sleepy Kitty 12:22, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, that "someone" was me. Go figure.  :)

I wanted to document the list of what was available and this seemed like the most obvious place to do so.

• not all of the items in the list are arcs, and there have been a few requests to document which are arcs and which are not
• the CoV Story Arc page cuts off at level 20
• people have started asking why they aren't earning the challenge badges for running certain flashback content (i.e. accomplishment badge missions) and have even filed petitions in some cases; having the list in the same place as the list of badges available just made sense to me
• not everyone looking for the list of Story Arcs is doing so because they're running flashback content; on the other hand, anyone who wants the flashback badges is going to need to know which content is going to work
• some content isn't where you'd normally expect it to be; for example, some level 25-30 content is in the 25-29 band and some is in the 30-34 band

That and there was an in-game conversation that went something like this:

Me: Think I should add the list of available content to the flashback article, or would that be overkill?

PW Global response: No, not overkill. That's the kind of thing people will look for.

Feel free to move the list if you think it works better somewhere else, but I don't think the Story Arc pages are the best place to document anything for flashback.

On the gold/silver/bronze times themselves, you can get all three times at once for each arc. You just have to close the pillar interface window prior to selecting each arc.

--Eabrace 23:33, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Flashback, Pillar, Arcs?

Shouldn't we list the various arcs on the Pillar of Ice and Flame page instead, more like a contact page with links to various story arcs? - Snorii 14:30, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I agree with Snorii, that would make the most sense. - Frankie1969 20:26, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Or maybe the Aspect of the Pillar page, since that is where you get the missions. - Snorii 15:17, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Badges: Not for non-Story-Arc flashbacks

Single-mission flashbacks - i.e., "Retrieve the Loa Bone" (Villain, levels 1-15) - do not appear to be giving any credit towards challenge badges. Can anyone confirm if this is WAI, or a bug? --PaxArcana 06:18, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

I suspect it's working as intended since things like "no defeats allowed" would be much, much easier on a single mission than an entire arc and the time limit options are far too high for most single missions. Would seem to me that if there's a bug here, it's having the ability to actually select limits on badge missions. --Eabrace 19:36, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

It's working as intended. There's an in-game help text somewhere in the Flashback screens that specifically says something about how non-story arc missions don't count for badges, but you can still use challenge settings on them if you like. -- Sekoia 09:37, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Is it possible to get a list, if there is not already one out there, of what missions are Story Arc missions and which ones are just badge missions. -- Digitizer

o.o anything in here is a story arc, and grants the badges. At this time, task/strike forces do not grant them, the option is only there to make them more 'challenging'. --Sleepy Kitty 10:15, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Actually Altering Timeline?

I recently got access to Ouroboros and the Flashback system, and I was hoping to find some information about whether or not doing Flashbacks actually changes anything, or if the character is just exploring different timestreams. As in, when the player/party is "experiencing the world created by that player's actions", will the original outcome of a mission be taken into account, or does the flashback system actually change the variables? I am hoping that the Flashback system allows us to repair failed missions and unexpectedly unpleasant outcomes of dialog choices, but I am not really sure how to check. If this is known, I definitely think it belongs on this page. Firefairy 17:13, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Nope. The Flashback system is nothing more than a way to play (or re-play) missions that you have outleveled or never got in the first place (by choosing different contacts). And for playing story arcs that you have unlocked after you have passed it's level range (i.e. Slot Machine). It doesn't take any previous actions into account as far as I know. It is exactly as you would experience the content in the outside world of CoH at large. Hope that answered your question. —Thirty7 17:36, 19 January 2012 (UTC)