Electric Jesus

So here's a concept I had regarding the swords. I've had this idea for a bit but I think it could actually apply to these swords. Let's say there are many potential parts you can use to build the swords, but whatever combination you choose affects how you use it. Let's say you can grab either a fast-swinging, high mobility hilt with lower damage, or a high-damage slower one. Then you choose one of several element crystals to use. Let's say electricity has high damage in concentration but fire deals damage over time. Then finally you choose its rechargable power. This can be a redeemer-like effect or a GravSpike effect, among others. So based on these many combinations, you can create a large variety of swords that suits your playstyle. Want a slow but powerful electric sword that can be thrown like a redeemer? No problem. Want a faster fire-based AOE strike sword? Cool cool. That way players could even have the same element in their sword but have it play very differently to the next player's. You would naturally build them, and acquire each part in a unique way, like in Origins. The difference being that you build it how you want. This might not necessarily be speculative, but I think it would be cool.

You're right about the raygun, my bad, don't know what I was mixing that up with. Although I don't think Porter created the original Raygun as he is an American, and he is merely responsible for those variants that adopt his name. (Mk2 and X2.) Also for the record quite a lot of lovecraft's creatures are from space, so alien and lovecraftian are not mutually exclusive. Also sorry about the text, apparantly that's the default on mobile? I'll try to fix it. I do agree with you @Stop Mocking Me0 asthere are naturally many different interpretations of "hell" or "demons" in real life, and zombies has already acknowledged the more conventional christianside of that. It's interesting to see what other religious / mythological / fictitious elements they are going to pull into the Zombies Canon, as it looks like (hopefully) some degree of lovecraft is working its way in. By the way I wasn't implying that the skull on the table is literally the skull of the boss, just that it's more or less the same type of creature in an aesthetic sense. It's fiilling in that abomination archetype in the same way a Cthulhu boss would.

Well, two things actually: I feel like perks are returning obviously, and they wouldn't dramaticaly change the manner in which you get them. But I'm thinking they intentionally DIDN'T show them because they're aesthetically / stylistically very different. Like if for example the machines had the MotD flicker effect, they wouldn't want us seeing that for obvious reasons. Or alternately they could have just made the machines look cooler and they don't wanna spoil it. Secondly, and on a similar note, they show the brief shot of someone firing the PaP'd AR. In this shot the player is doing a 180 while priming the gun, to turn and fire. My theory is that they literally JUST PaP'd it the second before, and pulled the gun back out (hence the priming) but they cleverly cut out the footage of the player actually looking at the machine. Why? Because it's different in some way? Alternately they could jist be reloading or something, but whatever, it's food for thought.

His skull is on that alter with that ball on so quite possibly yes in the future. well technically Cthulhu's skull is large enough for a family to live in, but that looks like a smaller version of roughly the same. I think the current boss for SoE is basically supposed to be just that, more or less. It's interesting that people connected the SoE creatures to Extinction, as those Cryptids aren't actually aliens at all, but ancient subterrainean creatures that existed even before the dinosaurs. Naturally ancient underground advanced species screams Vril, but it's a but different in zombies. Bear in mind that the MPD was on the moon before humans had ever even been into space. People talk about Vril and aliens as if they are one and the same, which they very well could be. I'm not getting into that whole deal now though. The Raygun is already rumored to be initially invented by Aliens, so we've already seen the American wonderweapon program advancing due to extra-terrestrial influence, although that isn't exactly ancient, although I believe it's the earliest "confirmed" indirect interaction between humans and aliens within the story, apart from the potential Shangri-La ancient aliens. Additionally the MPD could have been on moon for years before it was discovered. There are creatures of Lovecraft that dwell in space of course, although as I said, the zombies universe may merely be paying homage to them aesthetically, without "them" actually being there. Anyway, I'm really dying to see a shot of a character transforming into the weird tentacle beast power-up from 3rd person. I'll post a few pics of the lovecraftian imagery from the trailer in a moment. Still, I'm getting a more demonic type vibe than an alien one from Shadows of Evil.

UPDATE: So I'm giving credit to MrDalekJD for identifying that image, and it turns out it's part of the album art for a band called Holy Mountain, and their song Ancient astronauts. hmmmmm.

Remember guys, things like the Grandfather Paradox don't exist in the multiverse. If you "change history" you're instantly creating a new timeline. Changing history can involve anything from choosing to wear a black shirt instead of a red one, or murdering your future self. Either way you're creating a new universe more or less. This isn't back to the future / the butterfly effect. When Richtofen kills his older self, he is surely changing the future, but ONLY FOR HIMSELF. The existing timeline doesn't just enstantly get wiped blank. It still exists, and treyarch can choose to continue from the end of buried, the farthest in the future we have yet seen chronologically. However, the origins 4 are creating an alternate version of that same universe ALONGSIDE that timeline, not writing over it. This is the nature of the Multiverse. (So don't worry, it isn't all gone. :p)

I'm 99% sure this is basically going to be a random power-up machine guys. Notice how the first one basically activates Zombie-blood? The second literally spawns a random power-up? The last one causes a mini-nuke to go off? These don't act exactly like normal power-ups, but I'm sure treyarch wouldn't make a "spam me for infinite max ammo" machine. It probably gives you a more brief, yet fancier power-up alternative on command.

That is not dead which can eternal lie.And with strange aeons even death may die. Alrighty, So I'm hearing a lot of people call the new special zombies "Aliens," but I just don't think that's the case. Naturally, as this map is "connected to MotD" in some way, my initial thought turned to something more demonic. I think that most people saw a resemblance between these creatures and those of extinction, but I believe they were more so inspired by Lovecraftian horror. "Lovecraftian horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that emphasizes the cosmic horror of the unknown (and in some cases, unknowable) more than gore or other elements of shock, though these may still be present. It is named after American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937)." You're probably familiar with some of the creatures of Lovecraft or at least their general style. Here are a few notable examples. These are kinda "extreme" examples but I think you can see how they bear resemblance. Also take a look at the first image posted by @Matuzz in his thread over here. http://www.callofdutyzombies.com/index.php?/topic/179422-hd-screen-shots/ Look at the skull on the table. Need I say more? Within the Lovecraftian fiction, The Great Old Ones are malignant entities that possess great power and are physically present on the earth. These are linked to Christian Gnostic ideology such as the concept of the Demiurge. My thoughts are that since Lovecraft fiction has its entire creation myth separate from christianity, and MotD already embraces the more conventional model for hell, these creatures are demonic in nature, aesthetically and behaviorally drawing influence from Lovecraftian Imagery. As a bonus, may of you know that TheSyndicateProject hosted the San Diego panel at which these trailers were first displayed. He claimed in his Zombies Twitch stream the previous day that he already had loads of "Forbidden information." He also posted a snapchat, in which he simply said something to the effect of "You don't know anything. Only the cursed survive." So I'm thinking he is "in on it" as they say. Anyway he uploaded to his channel the SoE trailer, with roughly 20 seconds of his commentary before it began. During the transition from him talking to the actual trailer, he flashed on the screen THIS IMAGE: This to me already matches the Lovecraft art style, but for the life of me I can't tell what this is actually depicting. Syndicate said in the video description: "The Marked Ones wouldn't want you to miss anything." If we've got any scavengers out there who can dig something up on the image. It's good to be back.

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/technology/ocumetics-bionic-lens-could-give-you-vision-3x-better-than-20-20-1.3078257 Not directly related to the game, other than the implication in the Ember trailer that these are used in BO3, but The fact that these are very real and much closer than Black Ops 3 predicts is exciting. As it relates to the actual game, I kinda figured the whole idea here is that your soldier's HUD is actually visible to him as the numbers are projected for him by the contacts. Seems like an interesting retroactive explanation for a feature we take for granted. Any thoughts on the matter / other "real" BO3 technology?

This is confirmed info from youtubers who went to Treyarch studios to alpha test the game.

(Not officially promoting Drift0r but the dude's incredible. Check him out.) So here's what it's looking like. You can create all your classes like normal, change class mid game, whatever. But in addition there are 9 Specialist characters to choose from, and you choose your character each game and can't change mid game. Each one has either a weapon and an ability, and you can only equip one or the other. This doesn't interfere with your classes. Anyway the abilities and weapons are supposedly designed to be a midpoint between killstreaks and normal weapons. You get the ability roughly one to four times per game, as they "charge up" at different rates based on how you play. Some examples include one character's weapon being a minigun arm, and his ability being a "glitch" that rolls your character back in time a few seconds (instant retreat.) These don't interfere with your class at all, but one of the main points of this is the visual differences between characters is recognizable. Remember in BO1 how you can always know when someone is a sniper because of their ghillie, or flak jacket because of their bulky body? You're supposed to be able to see them and adapt to the knowledge that they may have that weapon / ability. Will edit in list of revealed Specialists momentarily. RUIN - His special weapon is a pair of "Gravity Spikes" Which are an area of effect insta-kill. he stabs them into the ground and sends out a shockwave that kills people around him. His ability is Overcharge, which gives you roughly 3 seconds of double to triple speed. XERATH - Her weapon is The Annihilator. It's a 6-shooter that is a one shot kill. Her ability is Combat Focus, which is like super hardline. Double or triple score to scorestreaks for a few seconds. Best used just before assaulting an objective or whatever. OUTRIDER - Her weapon is a Sparrow Compound Bow with explosive arrows. The arrow pick someone up and carries them along its trajectory until it hits a wall and explodes. Can hit people in a line and score multkills. Her ability is Vision Pulse which gives you just one pulse of threat detection in which you see enemies through walls. REAPER - This robot's weapon is a minigun called Scythe. His abilty lets him roll back time for a few seconds to basically instantly snap him back to a few steps back in time, like an instant retreat. You can basically kamikaze a hardpoint and still survive if you time this ability correctly.

I love the little things this implies, like HUD in multiplayer is actually visible in our soldier's eyes because of the contacts, and even regenerating health impossibly quickly. Heh.

I absolutely agree with @Amantha77 because the entire theme of BO2 was "they will always need men like us" and all that. This doesn't look like we're going to see exos at all, but instead actual cyborg-like body replacements. In the cover pic only the dude's arms appear to be metal, so no robo jumpy legs. This ain't AW. But maybe we're going to see a larger scale menendez style attack where our soldiers' bodies are EMP'd or hijacked. I highly doubt any characters in zombies will have this. In MP it could be that all players have it, with much more subtle changes than AW. I'd imagine exo powers like overclock or stim could work still, but no mobility enhancements. Maybe our guns will be extensions of our bodies.

How do we solve the issue of everything being blown up? Blow up more stuff! You'd be a great politician.

But it's just the fact that an ending exists that makes reaching it an obligation. The same thing happened with the more side-quest-y easter eggs of the black ops games. You could never get into a public game of Shangri-La without people ritualistically summoning you to the eclipse switches. Of course you really don't have to. But you don't have to do anything in Zombies. The box, points, the power, wall guns, hell even the first door out of spawn, are all optional. Everything you do in the game is out of desire or necessity. You NEED to get the power on to survive. You WANT to hit the box, explore, upgrade, etc. but end the game? Maybe you want to. More often than not, people felt obligated to. A true side quest, an objective, in a game that otherwise has no resolution. Obviously it's implied that that's the "thing to do." Easter eggs aren't so hidden lately, more like multi-layered. It's lost the charm of the hunt. The actual endgame itself isn't an issue. It's just so in-your-face. I liked the origins and MotD endings for what they were. The build-up to them is what didn't exactly intrigue me, but in BOI non-game-ending ones did.

I'd hate to break it to you @Stop mocking me0 but in zombies, one side is always OP. The zombies win every time.

That's a pretty good point. That would explain their target prioritization, like how they ignore downed players when a larger "threat" is still in the area.