Mantis = Al-Vaskei?

[randomperson1]

Haven't been on here for ages, but when I was I had this fan-fic idea for one of Pure's "sponsored" teams. Remember?

http://wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?p=39016#post39016

Anyway, I noticed the similarity between this and the new team "Mirage" - was this based on Al-Vaskei? I'd be happy if it was.
Thanks.

[Task]

8 ) I noticed that too.
I think it was.
There's certainly a high degree of similarly. I tells ya, if I was the one that dreamed up Al-Vaskei, I'd be pretty chuffed! Getting some of my own concepts in my favourite game, what's better than that?
I hear that the Qirex in Pulse is very similar to the "Quantax" fan-fic from Pure, as well.

[infoxicated]

Maybe subconsciously there was a link, but it wasn't as if I copied and pasted the idea.

Mirage had originally been called Mantis and they were based in Mexico. Colin had wanted a team to have a green livery, but everything the graphic designers had come up with for Mantis to that point hadn't been green. So I spent an afternoon scouring flags of the world to see if I could find a flag that was predominantly green and that made sense for a WipEout team to be based there. The United Arab Emirates was one that fitted the bill

Around about the same I saw an advert on TV for a center of excellence for sports based in Dubai, which gave me the idea for this a center of excellence for AG pilots. I'd also been thinking that, since most of the early environments that I saw of Pulse were glass sky scrapers, in the future, whoever controls the world's supply of sand is going to be as wealthy as the oil barons of today.

Hence the "sand baron" Sheik Mani Zayed, with the MAGEC pilot training academy coming from the ideas above. As a result, the Mantis team was renamed Mirage, but the ship kept the name Mantis because the craft had already been designed by Egg to look like a sort of praying mantis.

So, Mirage was as well thought out as most of them are - it wasn't just a copy of the fan fiction. Maybe it had stuck in my mind that the idea of a team in Saudi Arabia had been proposed before, so if that's the case then that's the link.

[infoxicated]

Whilst doing a bit of research for the latest backstory updates I stumbled across the site for the centre of excellence of Dubai Sports City that gave me the idea for MAGEC;

http://www.dubaisportscity.ae/

(Lets hope their sports centre of excellence is a little more excellent than their Web Design Centre of Excellence, 'cos that site contains quite possibly the worst implementation of hierarchical navigation I've ever seen. ;) )

[Lance]

You'd think that the Emirates could afford better design talent. Saaaaaay, you wouldn't be interested in living in... naah, probably not?

[Colin Berry]

I really wish we'd kept the name mantis :(

[infoxicated]

Me too - then the Team Allegiance stats wouldn't be ****ed because the game is still reporting it as Mantis when the server is expecting Mirage.

Huge mistake, that.

But then, so were barrel rolls - I guess we cant win 'em all.

[eLhabib]

tehehe ;)

[RJ O'Connell]

Upon first glance at the Mirage and realizing that it most likely would be a team based in the desert, I thought Saudi Arabia since their flag is all green with the white sword and scripture - the EXACT same colours as the Mirage ship. I guess I know not to judge a...uh, Mantis by its shell. ;)