Cheesegrater28

Definitely got a Black Ops vibe from it. Just to be that guy, it also made me think of the Kino movie reels and Maxis trying to get that zombie on the Der Riese radio to follow his directions. Could be a 935 experiment or maybe someone coming back after a cure. There was something about going from a forest to one tree that made it seem like someone was getting brainwashed or coming back from it.

1. Would never happen. Sledgehammer only did it this way since they thought having zombies was going to be a big surprise that motivated people to get the season pass. They gave us the bot survival mode on the disk. Treyarch wouldn't waste their time trying to incorporate a different coop mode on the disk and then giving us zombies in DLC. If they did, people would be pissed. 2-3 would also never work in the mode. I could see them making characters and weapon skins purchasable, but game features wouldn't work. And even if they did come up with a way to make it work, no one would buy them.

It is impressive and fascinating that the opposite tends to be true: from the dialogue and commentary in World at War to the fact that the teddies, as well, have been around since before Black Ops, the idea that a complex story was well underway by the end of World at War is undeniable. Reposted to this forum for proper categorization of content. I agree. For starting out as a mini game with no named characters, by the time they got to Der Riese they seemed like they had the meat of the story line set up. Bo1 did a great job of building on it while adding to WaW's story through the radios. That's why I'm still hoping that they knew what they were doing in BO2 and where they wanted to take the story. That somehow, like BO1 did with WaW's story, I'm hoping the next game can do the same for BO2's by giving us more details about Broken Arrow and the Flesh and other things. That the final cutscene will somehow make sense without wiping out the history they've already made in the mode.

The whole storyline is hugely based on theories so its impossible to say whats "canon" and what isn't since Treyarch originally made up the story as they went. So who's to say they don't make it all just two kids playing and start fresh so that none of it mattered. Even in Tac's thread a while ago, They Are, They Exist: Zombies Knowledge, taking basic events we think are factual to the story line can still be hard to say for certain they went down exactly as so. Something as simple as Peter being the body at Shino, and later his grave there, could still change. Out of no where, in the next map, Peter could be alive and be the one behind the Tranzit collars or something insane, and his death was all just a ruse since we never saw it. Or, again, its all in two kids minds. Unfortunately, unlike Der Riese and Moon, the vagueness of Black Ops 2 and the Origins ending made it more difficult to theorize and figure out what is happening in the storyline. Especially since it all might not matter. So who knows where they are going with it. As far as this thread, I'd say MotD and Origins are part of the story line. Just not in the same way other maps are. MotD shows that there is a place where souls end up after they die and time goes on without them. That's the purpose of Stanley Ferguson's recording. They died, were stuck in this place and the world carried on without them. And I think it sets up what Origins is supposed to be. Its Maxis' hell. Maxis died at the hands of Richtofen in the 40s, went somewhere, and then ended up in the machines on Moon and later Earth. Origins seems like his hell. His research with 935 during a war unleashed an ancient/alien apocalypse and it ends with Richtofen killing him over and over. Thats his cycle, much like Weasels was to get killed by the others over and over. Then Maxis got out but didn't reach Argatha, as Sam says. He left his after death hell and ended up in the machines back in the real world. Somehow the O4 end up getting stuck there sometime after Moon. That's what those two maps represent to me. Couldn't tell you if they are Hell, the Aether, Argatha, or Pee Wee's Playhouse, but they seem to represent a separate after life place that's parallel with the real world. I know its just a theory and that's not what your really looking for, but that's the best theory I've heard that keeps all the maps relevant. Time travel that's changing events and it all being in two kids' heads are both theories that make past maps and events not matter, which I'm not a fan of. Also, in the OP you mention the Earth being destroyed in the 60s. Like most things in the story, its hard to say exactly when the Moon rockets were launched. Could be 60s, or might be 2000 something.

I think the universe merging with another is a strong possibility. There's something out of place on each of the N4 maps. Including Die Rise's loading screen saying Province 22 though we look like we're in Shanghai. I don't think Marlton is from there simply because the biggest back story we got from the N4 was the one between Marlton and Russman and how they worked together and had a falling out. So it wouldn't make too much sense to set that up and then make him a different Marlton from another universe. Its always a possibility but one I don't see adding more. As for the bus route, the bus driver lists a ton of places so who knows where it took Russ and Stuh between Nuketown and Tranzit. But I also think that the honking of the bus on Nuketown is to indicate them leaving that map as Marlton is still there. He missed the bus and we see him meet up with it later.

Fair enough.

You'd still have the Zombie Coop mode for regular wave surviving. And you're going to have a campaign mode along with MP. So why not keep the zombie theme throughout. Making the campaign about the zombie story line lets you try new things. Almost every CoD campaign has the same kind of missions. Vehicle of some sort, sniping here and there, some stealth with up close kills, a turret mission, and some new tech played with. Imagine playing these missions zombie style. Having a sniper mission just like 28 Weeks Later. Trying to cover survivors escaping while picking off zombies in the crowd. Or a vehicle mission where you're driving down a crowded street with zombies jumping on the car while trying to escape pursuing soldiers. Or a turret mission where you're working a machine gun in a helicopter covering a scene like World War Z's with zombies climbing the walls. These are familiar missions to CoD. And the mechanics for these missions is already there and working. Adding zombies to them would give them new life. Then adding a handful of wave missions here and there and maybe some bosses, and you have a really good campaign. Tying in some of the groups mentioned in the Zombie background already, and you can have a really good story to go with that campaign.

I think if you had a regular campaign style CoD and let some of the missions turn into a wave survival, then that would be really fun. Have players fight through the map like any other CoD. Then once they reach a checkpoint, they have to fend off zombies for maybe 20 waves in a closed section of the map. Once they get to round 21 or complete some objective like beating a boss or building something, you open up the map so they can go further. It would be really interesting because you could have most of the campaign be about fighting some groups like Group 935 or the Flesh or something else. Then you also fight crazy zombies and creatures that are just running lose like any outbreak, kind of like the Buried cutscene showed. But you have the storyline about how the characters we are playing start to gain the attention of whoever is in charge. So if its Maxis or Sam and they think we are becoming a threat, then some of the missions turn into a brief Zombie survival where they are toying with us, throwing in the points, wall weapons, perks, and box. Making us play the game they play with the other groups. It would also be really fun to have to reach higher rounds to continue the campaign. And once we reach that checkpoint and can continue, then we could unlock that section for the regular zombie coop mode. I think a campaign that takes place mainly right before and after Moon would be perfect. Something that shows the side of a Majestic 12 black Op or something. Maybe give us a look at Broken Arrow right before the Nuketown outbreak. Answer some of those questions by letting us play as a new character who maybe sees or learns about what happened with Marlton and Russman. Then continue the storyline of the players trying to stop the outnreak and some of these groups behind the scenes. We might fight the Flesh one mission and then fight Group 935 the next. And we could learn about the things hidden in the BO2 maps like why are the Tranzit zombies wearing collars and maybe expand on that. Like one group actually has control over the zombies and use them to attack us while we fight off the regular guys.Focusing a campaign on that side of the story would let us to learn a lot of the BO2 secrets while still keeping a lot of the other zombie questions unanswered. Maybe even throw in a flashback mission of Peter getting caught and trying to fight his way out before getting killed. Or a flashback of the Verrukt marines fighting their way to the asylum. This would allow a little more glimpse into something we already know and maybe let there be a new 935 scientist villain getting introduced. But you gotta keep the story on the outside of the main one. Then once we beat the campaign, we unlock the major Zombie Coop map, like we once did with Nacht, that has the O4 or BO2 4 and continues the main story line from their points of view.

I really think Treyarch needs to go in this direction with a zombie campaign. If not, then go back to using historical settings like WWII or Vietnam again. CoDs campaigns are always alright simply because the game has great controls and nice "blockbuster" moments that keep it from being like other FPS. But the campaign's stories have become so cliche and rinse and repeat. Advanced Warfare would have been a really good campaign had we not just had two mediocre ones in Black Ops 2 and Ghosts that were too similar to this one. So there's a constant feeling of I already did this. A zombie only campaign is perfect. It can still be a regular campaign that lets players fight AI humans like always, Have 935 or other secret groups set up that we have to constantly fight. Then mix in zombies and other things like hellhounds here and there. Maybe even have some boss areas like George and Brutus or something bigger. Now you have a campaign with a fresh storyline for the series, instead of the cheesy bad guy double cross or some family tie in and you can have new gameplay elements to use since CoD rarely has bosses anymore and the new enemies keep the game from being a constant walk down this space and fight the same wave after wave of guys hiding behind something. Then you can have fun with the story line for zombies we have. Try to keep a lot of the questions still unanswered while expanding on some aspects of it and giving a different perspective on it by letting the campaign be a parallel one to events described before. Then you still have a zombie Survival mode set up as the coop mode. One that has new weapons and perks that got more work put into them since the campaign might have had some. Then you also have your MP mode as always with darker themed maps and maybe some fun new gadgets and weapons picked from the campaign. If Treyarch did that, and then IW focused on its own modern era setting and Sledgehammer focused on the future like AW, we'd have a really good 3 year cycle set up that keeps all the games feeling new and exciting.

I'd be really happy if we got the same amount of content as BO1 with more work put into it. 2 good maps and the nice extras like DOA and the secret files that added a little to the story, on the disk. Finally add the decent custom mode they said we'd get in BO2 to add extra life into the maps. Then some good DLC maps that move the story along and always add something new to the game play. If they did BO1 in two years, I'd be happy with that same content backed by an extra year of work. I'd be very happy with that. If I let my hopes and imagination fly, I can come up with a few scenarios where I'd be blown away. Most important thing I'd love to see but don't expect to, is if they did a campaign taking place in the zombie universe. I've been on about this ever since BO2, probably to the point of annoying, but its something I really want for myself and think the franchise would really benefit from. A horror twist added to the campaign involving zombies and other 115 creatures would really add some change to the campaign story and gameplay, more so than the exo suits did. Most of the game could still be centered around fighting soldiers, like The Flesh or Group 935 troops, but also involve clearing waves of zombies and maybe some interesting boss characters here and there. Imagine starting the game fighting the zombie outbreak at area 51 where we see the O4 group teleport out of there. Then we are attacked by soldiers sent by the group behind the collars on Tranzit and we have to fight our way out of the base. Then we spend the game as a Majestic 12 commando fighting across the out broken world trying to save the planet and stop these other mystery groups behind the scenes. A campaign like that would be both interesting and different enough from past CoDs, without straying too far from what CoD is. And also help keep the IW and SLH campaigns fresh when they come out. Then we'd have a good campaign that also allows extra work and material to be put into the zombie mode and still have MP which would be on some interesting maps with possibly some 115 type gadgets and killstreaks added. 2/3s of the game dedicated to zombies? I'd bet money it never happens, but would be very excited to lose that money.

Yeah, the final cutscene is just so out of place that it must be just kids playing. But then I still can't accept that since they leave so many other things open in the story line. Just frustrating to think about and kind of killed the next game speculation since the ending is so vague. Its either kids playing, which means the story is meaningless, or a giant bowl of "What the hell is going on" with very little explanation, which doesn't give us much to talk about in the off season since any theory is stomped on by that final cutscene. But I do like your take on the Templars. Reminds me of the Exorcist Beginning movie where the crusaders built the temple around that spot in the desert where Lucifer landed to hold in the evil. Would love to just some some answers to the story in the next game, but we will most likely never get anything. I'd give my left nut if the gave us a cutscene at the Dice Summit in Feb. Something that hints at where the story might be going and lets us talk about it for the year. Again though, highly doubt it.

I completely agree about the map taking place in "hell" like MotD does. I did a theory on this a while ago and the main thing I have trouble trying to explain is the Cutscene. Why they are the same age and have American accents is very tricky to try and theorize about, other than its all really a kids game or its not them. But one of the biggest things in the map that point to it being a hell like map are the radios. To me, they are the same as the Weasel's journal. It shows Maxis thinking he's living a past event, but is slowly piecing things together much like the Weasel did. So I think this place is his hell just like MotDs is Weasel's. And just like his nightmare ends with the other three inmates killing him like in real life and restarting the cycle, Maxis' nightmare ends with Richtofen like he did in real life. This might be the event of when Maxis first discovers 115 and leads to the forming Group 935, hence the Giants and 115 everywhere. Or maybe its just a combination of events torturing him in a WWI setting, which he probably fought in. Then Sam tries to guide him out of there. But she tells us her father was so close. So maybe he did enough to free himself from the place but never made it to Argatha. That's how he ends up in the electronics on the Moon and later maps. The 4 heroes could have ended up there after Maxis lets the world fall apart, or maybe they just died on Moon. Perhaps even teleported there on purpose. The opening cutscene makes it look like Richtofen just got there, not knowing whats going on, so the other three could have been trapped here for a while since they died before Richtofen. I agree with you that the purple eyed zombies are probably controlled by something else and they are guarding this place that's a door way to Argatha. Its also weird that the doorway is a shrine to the O4. Maybe the heroes are supposed to travel to Argatha to stop Maxis and the purple zombies are his trying to stop us. Or maybe just a defense the Argathians can't control, like how the zombies still attack us even if we are helping whoever is in charge. So I think something other than Sam wants them to make it to Argatha. And if this is the case, and this storyline continues, the next game could be really interesting. An Argatha setting could produce crazy maps like MotD and Origins with interesting enemies, and maybe allow us a chance to stop Maxis and still save the world. This could even allow for old maps to be put back in the storyline and upgraded, since they could be versions of the players hells they have to get through. One really interesting twist would be if they gave us a continuing boss to fight over the course of a couple of maps. A physical boss. The Weasel was aided as well when he escapes his hell. So imagine if something pulled him out of MotD to use him to fight us. A mutated Weasel, like George, voiced by Joe Pantoliano would be classic. Each map EE could involve us having to fight a newer version of him, like he's Maxis' goon, or whoever is in charge. Would be awesome if he was just dropped in as we complete steps towards each maps EE.

Very excited. Zombies in the next CoD is something most of us felt like we knew was coming, but there was always that little doubt and what if. Hearing its coming is great news, but as you say, It being the first thing we hear about is even better news. If they are starting the zombie talk this early, they must be very confidant in the zombie experience they've been working on. This Summit can't come soon enough.

The one good thing about this wait is that the Sledgehammer Game seems like it really benefited from the three year cycle. I only got to play the MP briefly but it was the most fun I've had on CoD Mp since Black Ops. Even on the 360, the game looks and feels awesome. And the Coop is just a MW3 replica, but the tier system this time added with the Zombie EE at the end pushed me to complete all the maps. And it wasn't torture to do so. And it was also amazing that they were able to keep that EE hidden till the release of the game. So if Sledgehammer is able to finally put CoD back on the right track, it gives me hope that Treyarch is going to redeem themselves big time from BO2. And I'd gladly wait the extra year if it means we will get an outstanding Cod/Zombie game. I haven't bought AW yet, but if the DLC looks good, I might get it with the Season Pass. Hopefully the DLC will be worth it and make this next year of waiting go by a little faster.

I still think they should do a zombies only game. There's no reason they can't have MP. Just do a zombie themed campaign which will allow for a an expanded Zombies mode and then use the setting from the campaign to make MP maps. You still have three game modes. The Zombie Campaign will allow Zombie Mode to get the attention it deserves from developers and allow them to keep MP mode but use the creepy setting of the campaign and maybe some new interesting MP modes that make use of the zombies or creatures in the game. Imagine playing Team Deathmatch with random zombies and hellhounds spawning around the map.

One tweak I'd like to see to the game is to change how points are earned. We all know that to maximize your early points you need to shoot the zombies a couple of times and then knife them, after you let them break down the windows so you can repair them. I even spend time herding them to try and maximize every bullet since some zombies in the back of the lines can give 100 pts before they are knifed. And even though I force myself to maximize these points each game just to make sure I give myself the best set up, I absolutely hate doing it. After a few times playing a map, the starting room becomes such a chore for me. But at the same time, when I first started playing Nacht back in the day, before early points became so important, I used to love picking zombies off in the distance. Buying the single shot rifle and popping heads as the emerged from the fog and trenches. Even trying to time the use of the explosive barrels was fun when a group was coming. It made those rounds fun. Instead now I'm a greedy turd and the maps are designed to get them in the windows as fast as possible. So most of the time, everybody is just siting there waiting. So I'd like to see them maybe decrease melee attack points and boost points for single head shot kills, at least for the first 5 rounds. Maybe even add points to the team if no barricade was taken down each round. Make those few rounds about keeping the zombies out for as long as possible. Even if the team is in a hurry to do other things other than staying in the start room, popping the zombies in the head as soon as we see them and getting the most points for it is a great way to speed up the beginning of the game if we are trying to get other things done. Even make us buy those 200 starting room guns. Would also help in random games where some players are waiting for the zombies to knife them and there's always that one jerk that runs up to each window and shoots them. Just one of the small gameplay changes I'd like to see.

The only way free roam would work is if Treyarch did a Zombie Campaign and then had a separate Zombie Mode with it. Tranzit is the closest thing they have to a free roam style map and it feels very empty. You could pack more onto that map but then how often would players want to play that map and redo everything. As the map gets bigger and the steps become more and more, the repetition factor of zombies gets drawn out. I feel like anything much more complex than Origins would need to be a different kind of mode because on maps like that its hard to play it and not have to do missions and steps and just play zombies. However, if they did do a zombie campaign, I think a free roam style of game could work. Almost like Fallout or Borderlands except instead of one giant map you could have several large ones that involve the players teleporting around the world fighting zombies, humans, and bosses. The point system might not really work but players could be bounded by missions. Like if they ignore Sam or whoever is in charge for long periods of time and go off on their own, they will constantly be rushed by zombies. But if they do the tasks they are given by whoever then they are rewarded a new box location that supplies guns and ammo, a new teleporter, or a new perk machine. And in a game mode like that, the perks and weapons could be upgradeable. Then the large sections of that could be broken down to the traditional zombie mode.

WAW is my favorite all round CoD game by far, but Black Ops had my favorite zombie experience. The only downside about BO1 was the wall weapons but everything else was better. The bosses, the EEs, the story, the PaPs, the WWs, the new perks each DLC, the zombie content that came with the disk, and the map layouts were all better in my opinion. BO improved all the right things from WAW, but BO2 struggled to get the new things going and working till the end of its DLC period.

Money Delight: You can find it right behind the OJ, Soda, and Purple Stuff for 4000 points. Lets players do more with their money. Instead of having a bank, players can drop money like equipment to give to other needy players. Since chalk outlines have already been shown to be easily interchangeable, this lets players swap any two chalk outlines on a map for 6,000 points. Players are aloud to shut only one open door, not barricade, on the map for 10,000. If another player shuts another door, any other REshut door will open. Once the player who shut the door goes down and loses the perk, the door reopens. Forces players to keep the perk slot dedicated to MD so they don't purposely go down after buying the door to get a different fourth perk. Also lets players move the box to any box spot they want for 4,000. And lastly, double point drops also make this player's weapons more powerful during the double points duration.

Yes. That's why I said no Blundergat from the box, so teams can't have more than one. And the leaderboard is up. I didn't get to make a run at it yet so its blank. Needed a slow day after my trip. I'll probably make a late night run at it tonight and post a score tomorrow along with any one else's scores as well since the challenge has started. I can check XBox scores by myself to make sure they are clean. We can try to work on a system to check the PS3 scores as the week goes on. Like maybe I'll post it and anyone can check it or someone trustworthy with a PS3 can volunteer to check the top PS3 scores toward the end of the challenge date. So just because I post a PS3 score, that does not mean its been fully checked yet. Hope everyone is honest.

Thanks for the feedback guys and hope we can get some good teams to make it interesting. Just to give everyone a heads up, I'm going to be away from the internet Monday till Friday evening, so in case anyone asks a question I won't be able to answer. Didn't want you to think I ignored it. Friday night I plan on giving this a run around 11pm ET just to set a starting benchmark. Its going to be my first time playing in months so its not going to be that high of a score. But if anyone is interested in getting their names on the top of the leaderboards for the first couple of days, feel free to hit me up Friday night for the trial run. Then Saturday I'll post the score, make sure the rules are clear, and begin taking other team's scores updating the leaderboard every couple of days till the end date.

I get the feeling Broken Arrow is probably the name of a facility and not the group in charge. Kind of like how Langley is a government building and the CIA is the group. You wouldn't say that the CIA is not a viable FOB. So Broken Arrow could just be a main facility being used by a group like the Majestic 12 or someone else. And the one thing that has always bothered me about that radio message is the fact that it seems like it has to be before the Moon rockets. You wouldn't burn files and evidence if the planet was just bombed and zombies were everywhere, as shown in the Buried cutscene. And even if that one group was so determined to still hide the evidence as the world was falling apart, why would Saber 10 still feel the need to blow that place up, as if its the only spot with zombies. If the world was covered with zombies and that place might have info about the outbreak, it would be the last place I bombed. I would search every inch of it for info and maybe a cure. So to me, that message seems like its gotta be recorded before the Moon rockets hit the Earth. And if that's the case, the only two outbreaks we know of right before the Moon rockets hit are the one at Area 51 and the one at Nuketown. Two places right next to each other. So maybe the people at Broken Arrow were responsible for that outbreak, or at least thought they were. I had a long theory about how Nuketown might have been the location of Broken Arrow and the reason its blown up is because the Saber 10 bomb was dropped on it. Marlton was there and we hear the bus Russman is on leaving. So it does kind of fit. And we know that there was a large supply of 115 in Nevada, so its highly likely that the Nuketown/Nevada area was still doing 115 research and continuing what Group 935 started.

There's really no way of knowing exactly what went down. He could have simply grabbed the gun in one of the scientists hands forcing them to shoot him and the other screamed "NO!". There's really no way of knowing. What can be said is that no matter who shot who, Maxis knew he was dead once he tells Sam to kill them all. So in that way its kind of a suicide no matter what. How he ends up in the computers is a whole different story on its own since he most likely didn't even know about the Moon base till he was there, so planning on getting shot and taking the computers over before hand seems unlikely.

Kind of poor timing since the Olympics were just announced, but was planning on posting this on Saturday. I figure I might as well still post it and maybe let anyone interested try it as a warm up to the Olympics. I personally haven't touched my XBox in months so I know I need to get in game shape for the big summer tournament. Anyway, here is the challenge. The Challenge is for 3-4 player teams and is done on Mob of the Dead. Teams have 2 hours and 22 minutes to get as far as they can. That was enough time for Andy Dufresne to Shawshank his way out of prison. Players can keep playing after the time if they want, but once the game clock hits that time, their Rounds and Total Kills will be recorded. If the players break the cycle within that time frame, then they get a 5 round bonus. So ideally, you'd want to let the Weasel escape around the 2:21 mark. But doing the EE might not be worth the time so its each team's call. Just to be clear, the challenge ends at the 2:22 mark in the game. So teams need to come up with a way to time themselves since I'll be using the theater mode clock. Feel free to check your score yourself using theater mode to make sure submissions are as close to accurate as possible. Teams don't have to do the EE if they don't want to or think its not worth the time vs the 5 extra rounds. The only restrictions are that players can not use the Death Machine or the Blundergat from the box. You can use the Blundergat from the Warden's desk. And they cannot use the Golden Spork. And the obvious rule of no cheating and glitching. All other weapons, perks, and pack a punch are fair game. The Challenge will officially start Saturday the 31st and last till June 13th, right before the Olympics are getting ready to start. The team with the highest round will win the Challenge and receive their names on the Golden Rock Tomahawk Trophy - Perfect for Shaping Rocks. Teams don't need to sign up. All players need to do is submit a game that's watchable in Theater mode. One person needs to have a watchable version of the game in their theater mode. Then just message me the name of that player and total length of the video so I can find it. If its an Xbox player, I'll shoot them a friend request and watch the video to make sure the rules weren't broken. Its been a while since I've done this, but I'm pretty sure the player doesn't need to accept my request. Just don't deny it till after the challenge is over. If its a PS3 player and they are in the top 4 scores, I'll have another PS3 player check their game to make sure its clean. Top 4 teams will be listed at the end. Highest Rounds win and teams with the same top round will have their total kill count break the tie. No more then 1 player can be on two of the top four teams, and a player is only allowed to be on a max of two teams at the top. Winner's get the Trophy and their score recorded as the benchmark for the challenge in case future players want to try it. So when submitting the game to be watched, also include the Players and a Team Name. The Leaderboards Just message me your data that will fill the leaderboard info. XBox scores I can check myself but we will need to come up with a system to check PS3 scores. I'll post them for now, but they are unofficial until we find an easy way to check them, since I don't have a PS3. Your rounds and kills should be recorded at the 2:22:00 mark in theater mode. Teams will need to find a way of timing themselves during gameplay, but the score should be recorded from theater mode since that's the clock I'll be using to check games. If you did finish the EE just send me your real score with a message saying you "BROKE THE CYCLE" and Al escaped. Then I'll add the 5 bonus rounds to your score before posting it to the leaderboard. Hope everyone enjoys the challenge and hope it sharpens the rusty players for the real Tournament coming up.

Nice post. I completely agree about Tranzit occurring right after Moon. Always thought so but didn't really think to use Richtofen's quote to prove it. The quote about searching for decades could easily mean the decades before the Moon rockets. Maxis is shot in the 40s. I think he was shot by one of the two other scientists with him, possibly grabbing their hand while the gun was pointed at his head or just knowing he would be shot once he told Samantha to kill them, but in any case, he knew he was dead once he said that line. So from the 40s on, wherever he went he had plenty of time to escape from that place, kind of like how the Weasel escapes the purgatory he is in. Al was killed in 1933, then stuck in the hell that is MotD, and sometime after 1942 he escapes. So Maxis, being smarter and familiar with some of these details, could have easily done the same thing, escaping back to the Earth and Moon where he has some control over electronic devices. I think after he was killed and found a way back, he was somehow behind the Ascension project. And he was the one who had the rockets sent up to the Moon base. Same rockets from the Ascension loading screen. If the secret groups like Majestic 12 or the Illuminati were contacted by Maxis, a highly regarded scientist that did a lot for Group 935, they might have been willing to work with him, thinking they were furthering their own agenda. But his laugh after he blows up the Earth indicates, to me, that he was planning that the whole time. So we know the guy lied to the old group and he also lies to the new group. Destroying the Earth, activating the towers, and opening the Rift were all something he had been planning since he was freed from his afterlife. So he could have been planning it for decades. And lastly, if any of this is true, I would say Origins was his Alcatraz. He relived a big moment in his life, which was discovering 115, and the moment always ends with Richtofen killing him, just like how Richtofen was behind killing him in real life. And he never reached Argatha, but he was able to escape his hell like Al, with the help of Samantha from the MPD. His radio messages on Origins are like Al's journal messages in MotD. He's piecing it all together. Thats why on Origins, Sam keeps telling us we are getting so close and we got farther then her dad did. He didn't reach Argatha but he got out. Then somehow the old 4 end up getting stuck in Maxis' hell till they reach Argatha.