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Does Millennium City have a subway system?

poptartmaniac#8493 poptartmaniac Posts: 246 Arc User
edited January 2020 in Champions Pen and Paper RPG
So I know this question may seem insensitive, but I was thinking of how MC was built, what it stands for, where it is, and how advanced technology is in champions earth because of super humans. Then looked at concept art from the pen and paper that someone sent me (Lost that picture tho :c ) and wondered if the city had a monorail or a subway system of some sort, and the devs didn't put it there in game cuz it'd be too much work or they didn't think of it. Maybe something mentioned in the books?

this question has come up so many times in RP lol.

Comments

  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    edited January 2020
    In fact Millennium City has no subway. Real-world Detroit has none either, and never has. However, as described on p. 36 of the Millennium City source book, the most effective and popular form of public transportation within MC is the extensive "People Mover" maglev monorail surface train system, with four lines and over 40 stops covering the entire city. There's also the Detroit River Gondola (MC p. 25), cable cars crossing the river between MC and Windsor, Canada. Sixty cars are suspended over the river at any one time, each seating eight people and making the trip in about 4.5 minutes. There are also conventional buses and taxis, equipped with Vehicle Control Chips like all the personal vehicles licensed to operate within Millennium City. These allow a central computer to track them, shut them down if necessary, and take direct control of their driving on the Millennium Highway, aka "the Loop," which runs all around the outer edge of the city.

    Can't speak to the thinking or priorities of the CO devs, of course. ;)
  • jaazaniah1jaazaniah1 Posts: 5,425 Arc User
    It's always seemed strange to me that in the game there is no airport or railway station. Maybe those are supposed to be across the water? I want to throw airlines and locomotives around!
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  • jonsillsjonsills Posts: 6,315 Arc User
    The airport, known as Detroit Wayne County Airport or DTW in our world, is located about 23 miles away from downtown Detroit, well outside the playable area of the map. As for rail yards, I'm not sure where they are in Detroit, but it seems plausible that in Millennium City they've been either relocated or replaced by some other cargo-delivery system (this is, after all, a world with relatively cheap controlled gravity - perhaps we just never noticed the skytrains flitting by overhead!) - the redesign of the city seems to have been oriented more toward aesthetic appeal rather than actual functionality.
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  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    The Wayne County Metropolitan Airport (known locally in MC as "the Metro") is one of America's busiest airline hubs, as it is in the real world. But super-scientists based out of Millennium City developed passenger- and baggage-screening technology that's far more sophisticated and efficient than any in reality. The system examines every piece of luggage brought into the airport, and travelers breeze through scanner checkpoints without having to so much as take their keys out of their pockets. (See MC p.35.) At the time the city source book was written (2003) this system was unique, but other American cities were studying it hoping to duplicate it, and I'm sure more air-traffic hubs on Champions Earth are using similar tech by now.

    I can't find any mention of passenger or cargo railroad service for Millennium City, but I would bet it's better than ours.

    John is probably correct about CO's design priorities. Transportation isn't the only thing in CO MC which looks to have skimped on logic in favor of pretty. :p

  • jaazaniah1jaazaniah1 Posts: 5,425 Arc User
    Okay, got the above, but what's the point to having a Strength of a Gazillion and not having something like a railroad engine to toss around? Plus, a rail yard would make for a great place for a piece of new content (yeah, right!)
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  • pantagruel01pantagruel01 Posts: 7,091 Arc User
    jaazaniah1 wrote: »
    Okay, got the above, but what's the point to having a Strength of a Gazillion and not having something like a railroad engine to toss around? Plus, a rail yard would make for a great place for a piece of new content (yeah, right!)
    Trainstopping? There's both regular rail and light rail in Vibora Bay.
  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    edited January 2020
    Mega-Destroids would be cool to throw around, too. And much less likely than train engines to spark complaints of infrastructure destruction. ;) Even if the game had trains, the devs would still need to animate them to be throwable.

    But think about it: if you were rebuilding a city after it was devastated by a super-battle, how much stuff throwable by supers would you want to include? :p
  • mordray001mordray001 Posts: 218 Arc User
    More importantly, how many companies with such vulnerable equipment would allow it to be so vulnerable that anybody with super strength can just pick it up and walk off with?
  • pantagruel01pantagruel01 Posts: 7,091 Arc User
    bulgarex wrote: »
    Mega-Destroids would be cool to throw around, too. And much less likely than train engines to spark complaints of infrastructure destruction. ;) Even if the game had trains, the devs would still need to animate them to be throwable.
    The game has a train object (see the alert) and it seems to be possible to flag random terrain objects as destructible and throwable (long ago there was a bug where Juryrig's roof was throwable).
  • sistersiliconsistersilicon Posts: 1,687 Arc User
    I guess in the Champions MMO Universe, the Big 3 automakers still had enough lobbying pull to suppress mass transit in Millennium City. :wink:

    Honestly, though, it was probably a development decision. In the Marvel days, New York City would have been a major zone, so it would have had subway stations, functional or not. Once it became a Champions game, though, Cryptic had to shift from “subway” to “people mover that was close enough to Paragon City’s monorail system to be uncomfortable”, at which point they probably decided to scrap the whole thing. MC was one continuous zone anyway, so the people mover would have been merely decorative, not a fast-travel system like CoH’s monorail.

    (In CoH lore, Marcus Cole called a secret meeting with city leaders to deter them from a subway to an elevated train system like Chicago’s because he knew Paragon City had been built above the lost city of Oranbega, and feared what would happen if a construction crew tunneled into it. Whether that was the development chicken or egg to why CoH had an monorail instead of a subway, I don’t know.)
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  • Sorry for the late reply, had no power cuz of earthquakes where I live.

    thanks all for the amazing responses.

    Honestly figured it would have a subway or a monorail like Paragon. cuz i'd imagine the city would be quite large in compared to what we can access in the game. with that said i'd love more MC zones, like paragon, would be super fun. (But that's obviously not gonna happen.)





    Ps. i want to throw train cars around too ;-;
  • if any of you could answer, there is another question a friend brought up, and since we're talking about the city's functionality.

    The hospital in CO, Mercy, looks quite small for a city hospital. Does the lore mention the hospital at all or others in MC?
  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    The following is the description of Millennium City Mercy Hospital from p. 85 of the Millennium City source book.


    Mercy Hospital, the largest and most advanced medical facility in the state of Michigan, ranks as one of the world’s leading hospitals when it comes to dealing with superhumans and their unique physiologies, physical ailments, and traumas. “MC Mercy,” as it’s familiarly known to staff and residents, is a destination hospital for patients across the country, both those with the money to seek specific treatments or those whose particular illness attracts the attention of Mercy’s brilliant medical staff. Apart from dealing with superhumans, Mercy conducts extensive research in cutting-edge medical subjects such as molecular genetics and gene therapy, and also has perhaps the nation’s most effective and advanced Virus Control Center.

    Every week, it seems, researchers working at Mercy Hospital announce some new breakthrough in modern medicine. Recently the hospital made the headlines for its groundbreaking work in providing diabetics with internal insulin monitors and dosage controllers — small subcutaneous “discs” that automatically release insulin into the wearer’s system when sensors in the disk detect lowered insulin levels. Other doctors report promising successes in research projects focusing on the use of noninvasive hypersonic surgery techniques, the construction of cybernetically-controlled exoskeleton-like harnesses that would allow paraplegics to “walk,” and the development of the next generation of artificial hearts

    While the advanced research projects get most of the media attention, visitors find the primary care facility equally astonishing. A 14-floor building with wide corridors and lots of natural light thanks to glass panels in the cunningly-designed angled walls, the hospital is almost entirely computerized without sacrificing the “human touch.” All of the medical staff carry handheld computer pads with attached lightpens, and all of the equipment and medication carries barcodes with safety features to prevent misuse. In the emergency room, advanced sensory equipment performs several basic blood tests and other standard procedures automatically, allowing nurses to process patients quickly without having to rush. Robots also handle the basics of supply management, placing automatic orders when cabinet monitors detect low stocks of bandages or gloves. Other computers automatically process pharmacy orders.

    In the individual patient rooms, the beds come equipped with ventilators, intravenous infusors, defibrillators, and similar equipment, minimizing the need for centralized emergency services and for moving patients around the building. Each patient wears a “wellness monitor” that constantly checks his pulse, blood pressure, and other vital signs. The monitor notifies nurses or physicians automatically if specific changes occur. All nurses carry miniature phones so the switchboard computers can easily track them down if necessary. Even the waiting rooms are high-tech, with Internet access and video players in every seat to make long waits for family members less stressful.
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,915 Arc User
    As someone who's studied the map in ways Tacofangs never wanted it to be studied....

    Millennium City has cars, boats, and various aircraft. The north edge of the map s actually a raised highway... albeit an odd sort that has a raised platform under it and not an over pass.... despite being taller than most buildings in MC... Several places have helipads, and we see certain groups doing air patrols via helicopters. Then there's the river with it's docks, cranes and connexes. Which is interesting because we SEE dozens of trucks around town, but never moving(probably an engine limitation large complex vehicles just don't render right I imagine). We have a wide variety of water craft, that usually don't move... Also more wrecked ships than the Bermuda Triangle!(most were probably wrecked in the Battle of Detroit)
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  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    Well, given that the Battle of Detroit officially happened in 1992, that would be really slow cleanup for the City of the Future. :-1:

    That's a plus for the tabletop version of Champions vs the MMO... pure imagination has unlimited budget and drive space. :p
  • interv3nti0n34interv3nti0n34 Posts: 1 Arc User
    hello
  • markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,915 Arc User
    bulgarex wrote: »
    Well, given that the Battle of Detroit officially happened in 1992, that would be really slow cleanup for the City of the Future. :-1:

    That's a plus for the tabletop version of Champions vs the MMO... pure imagination has unlimited budget and drive space. :p
    Now that you mention it... A few years ago I did a panorama of MC. I was rummaging in my saved files and noticed it a few days ago.

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  • Thank you all for the responses!

    And those are some awesome views.
  • galactickirigalactickiri Posts: 92 Arc User
    Bearing this in mind, I think it would have been cool to have some subway stations; via either by a building door or street staircase. Goes down to an abbreviated version of the Praetorian Underground in CoX. Subway lines with adjoining service tunnels and access ways. You can quick click through from Chinatown...say...to over by City Hal or the Cryptic building, or the Japanese mall (not sure what it's actually called, but you all know what I mean).

    An adjacent click door takes you to a train, that drops you off at the rail line section in Vibora. Another has a stopping point at a train station near Westworld- I mean, the robot cowboy thing in the desert.
  • bulgarexbulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User
    A fast-travel vehicle for getting around MC would be a nice touch, although most supers have their own modes of transportation; and there's the Superjet for long-distance transport. As mentioned above, officially MC doesn't have a subway (many large cities have alternative public transit), but the official monorail system would have been nice to institute in CO. Thing about a train for long-distance travel is the realism of the time involved. Millennium City is in Michigan, Vibora Bay is in Florida, while the desert zone is in New Mexico.
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