El D

Never said they weren't looking to gain the attention of folks who already read the comics or who had passing recognition the characters, just that the 'I read X comic run back in the day' folks are not nearly as numerous as they like to pretend, nor are they the primary niche these films are chosen for or marketed toward. Heck, your example of 'I never read the comics but I could recognize X' is itself a much broader selection of people who see these movies, and that still isn't the majority. The actual majority the movie decisions and marketing is focused on is the much larger amount of the audience who had never picked up a comicbook and probably never will, who didn't have any prior knowledge of most of these characters are beyond appearances in MCU content, yet who are still willing to see superhero films. The folks for whom the MCU adaptations are, by and large, the formative, interest-building versions.

'People who read X comic run' is a much narrower section of the pie chart that is 'audience of superhero films' than any longtime comic fan ever wants to admit. The Infinity War saga was over twenty years old when the first GoTG film released, from back when comics were firmly considered 'esoteric weird nerd stuff' consigned to convention diehards. Even then the Guardians were obscure. Amongst the general public 20+ years later? They might as well have been made up just for the MCU. Given that Gunn's MCU versions have been the basis for most of the Guardians' multimedia appearances afterword, arguments could be made that in some fashion they still were (especially given how different they are).

Yes, Star Wars and Marvel Comics - two media franchises celebrated for lacking any sort of moral agenda or political commentary before the 2000s. Captain America, famously non-political superhero who never punched out active world leaders of opposing nations. Star Wars, where the Empire of the original trilogy are lauded for being 'generic bad guys' with no political, cultural, or historical context whatsoever. Ignore the accents, the costumes, the names, and the entirety of the Vietnam War. The flaw with the MCU post-Endgame is that they stuck with the wrong part of the original brand strategy. They should have continued to restructure and consolidate like at the end of the whole arc, rather than going back to separately introducing even more moving parts that 'will appear again!' next time. The initial build up to the Avengers worked because there weren't nearly so many building blocks to keep track of and the stakes weren't increasingly dire every time. 'X will return' makes sense when the audience can count on one hand how many characters are gonna show up and the current threat is plausible most of them would not be involved. It doesn't when they're wondering where 15 other heroes who know the title character are during yet another massive conflict. If more of the films/shows had been condensed, with established heroes working together with the new ones to rebuild a post-Blip Earth, it would have been a lot easier to maintain interest and keep a cohesive direction.

Regarding the old school costume pieces being player options, the quibble there is most of them aren't actual costume pieces. At least not in any player-functional sense. A lot of original NPCs are all single-piece models. AFAIK there is no separate pieces for 'top and bottom robe' for the original CoT, for example. Or the original Skulls, where the entire outfit - jacket, shirt, tattoos, skull mask, pants, boots, and even skin - are all just part of a single texture map. A lot of NPCs have warped, custom rigging, where multiple costume pieces are all linked to a single anchor point and cannot be used separately (and clip horribly with anything not part of the 'intended' outfit). Or parts that can't be recolored at all (5th Column, Council, Arachnos pre-VEAT, various signature NPCs). 'Swhy Homecoming has so many of the old mobs as costume powers that outright replace the player model, because that's the only way they're near functional for player usage. Don't get me wrong, I fully agree that actually having access to those items as functional options would have been - and still would be - cool and allow for a lot of fun concepts in ways the character creator still doesn't offer. It's just getting them player usable that's the trick. If they'd been player options from the get-go we probably would have gotten updated versions rather than replacements, but that would have required the original devs to have designed them with 'players will want to use NPC outfits' in-mind. Which would have required a lot more work for the graphics and art team (reasonable hurdle!) but also been a design choice that Jack Emmert probably wouldn't have run with (much less reasonable hurdle).

They changed them because the enemy mobs from launch all looked incredibly dated after all the other graphical improvements to the game. Plus using actual player models for enemy groups allowed much easier modification for story arc content and provided functional costume pieces to sell for player use. 'This boosts the overall graphical quality of our game, allows for more content opportunities, and gives us more stuff to put in the cash shop' is a no-brainer for an MMO.

So long as they get Michael Gross back along with Kevin Bacon I'm on-board. Burt is the face of the franchise by this point, even if the movies after the first three aren't all that great (which is saying something, considering the direct-to-video dip in quality after the original...). Sucks that Fred Ward isn't around to be involved, but I'll take as much of a main cast reunion as we can get.

I don't agree, though I do get why wanting something closer to the original version would leave the film version as disappointing. I think if T'challa had actually been part of the movie as the intended counter to him it might've gone better but that's all musings at this point. The MCU does try to course correct via fan response (look at Iron Man 3 and Mandarin for example) but no idea if/when that'll happen here. With the way the MCU has advanced and was originally constrained via film rights, available characters, and chosen arcs, there's only so much room to adapt stuff in by this point. Like, as cool as an Invaders team up would have been, it's a bit hard to shoehorn Namor and the OG Human Torch into the background of Cap's first movie, especially considering they weren't even on the board when the initial MCU films were made. Thinking about it, a more traditional Namor appearing in First Steps would make a lot of sense, and jive with the way the MCU seems to be using multiverse content anyway (Loki, Deadpool, Fox, etc.). Also he'd get to pine after Sue in a context that works a lot better if Namor is, like the FF, an already accepted part of that world's politics and history.

That still leave the 'appeal to modern audiences' bit - which is actually kind of important when wanting to put butts in seats, considering the modern audience is the only one buying tickets. Some things need to get adapted out or adapted differently, otherwise we would've been left with Ant-Man as a domestic abuser, Iron Man fighting Fu Manchu the Mandarin, and Namor looking like Spock in a green speedo. Don't get me wrong, I'm 1000% on-board that comicbook films have finally come around to treating the source material more earnestly rather than as 'inspiration' for drab, edgy, or realistic alternative takes - it's just that some aspects from the original comics weren't going to work at all for various reasons. With that in-mind, I think First Steps is actually doing pretty good. They're embracing the 60s roots of the Fantastic Four in ways that none of the prior film adaptions did, while still keeping the structure of the family and their overall story intact. Also Galactus actually looks like Galactus rather than a space cloud. That shouldn't remotely be a hard call to make, but given how some adaptations go it still gets them points.

Yeah, most everyone in CoX has mitten hands - which thankfully include thumbs or we wouldn't even have the texting emote. That said, Arachnos soldier models do have individual fingers. Give them the peace sign, as a symbol of Lord Recluse finally mellowing out.

You know, a misappropriated Superman/Doctor Strange mash-up gormlessly hawking a product deliberately designed to dull the consciousness of its consumers having been made by AI is just spot on. Especially considering the amount of artistry using AI takes. Which, to be explicitly clear, is none. Really embodies some of the issues plaguing CoH's playerbase, too. Had this been an actual creative effort devoid of shamelessly plagiarized material - say an AE arc made in-game or a real piece of fan artwork - it could have been an almost poetic remark regarding the way some players mindlessly steal from their favorite IPs and regurgitate warped, watered-down versions of things they enjoy without regard to the creative process that made them in the first place, then scream and complain when said superficial counterfeits are rightfully taken away. Instead it's just AI, so rather than being a commentary on those issues it just exemplifies them.

The main issue with any system like this is that most of it can already be accomplished in-game. You make a Fire Armor character? They're weak to Ice. You make Invulnerability? Weak to Psychic. Bespoke weaknesses beyond the scope of powersets or archetypes - like needing to be in-contact with water or consume a magic item per day or whatever - can be roleplayed out. The same goes with various NPC connections. Your character has a special relationship with an NPC? You can write whatever AE arc you want to run for it. Your character owns a bunch of corporations? Slap them in a fancy suit at the Tailor and make fitting a supergroup base (and play the market so you have a lot of inf). Codifying these with a system would make the free-form DIY approach CoH already allows much, much narrower, as I don't imagine any mechanic-based arrangement would allow for the sheer amount of facets some people put into their characters. How many drawbacks or perks would even be allowed per character, and how many of one would be required to earn one of the other? What exact benefits would they even provide that the combination of costume options, badges, IOs, AE, and base building doesn't cover?

I was reading old school as in 'pre-Sunset' since the Family and the Skulls had their original versions replaced with updated models and power options in the final issues on Live. Seems like a really fun way to keep doing future revamps and upgrades to villain groups while keeping the original incarnations around occasionally rather than entirely shelved.

Alignment has nothing to do with a powerset embodying its particular theme, though. Powerset theme is composed solely of mechanics and SFX. The Demon Summoning powerset compromising it's core gimmick of 'You summon demons' by using pistols or an assault rifle is a broken core theme, regardless of the alignment of the character it happens to be on. Beyond that, basing prospective changes on whether a powerset is inherently 'heroic' or 'villainous' is a non-starter - that's a purely personal bias. As far as the game is concerned, any powerset is a heroic one if the player clicks the 'I'm a hero' button at the end of character creation. Nixing that nonsense as a basis for AT and power design is why we have Empathy on Corruptors and Pain Domination on Controllers and Defenders now.

Not opposed to increased customization when it comes to weapon models and attacks, but mix and matching from outside set boundaries breaks any reason for there to be thematic differences in the first place. Sure, a player might be able to conceive of their own concept for a Thugs MM that makes sense with the Demon fire whip attacks, but the purpose of each set is to emphasize its specific theme rather than half-ass multiple ones. It's far more likely that any unique MM attack animations, like the aforementioned fire whips, would be used in expanded ancillary power pools instead. Hell, having MM primary themed ancillary pools structured like the Patron Pools would be amazing alternatives. Demon Mastery could have two whip attacks, a fire armor/healing flames, a debuff power, and a demon summon (succubus or some hordelings, maybe). Thugs could offer dual pistols, Ninjas could have Archery, etc. Allows more mixing and matching but in a format that fits the game's established power design.

Always found it suspicious when posts like these coincidentally lack any details on the powersets, costumes, bios, or anything about the character beyond the 'perfectly acceptable' name. It's possible the GMs were overzealous against a giant fiery bird with the name Eternal Phoenix, but if OP was running around as Eternal Phoenix the redheaded psychic in a green and yellow costume... Yeah, that's a rightfully earned bonk with the Generic Bat. Also the conspiracy that the GMs generic characters because they happen to want to take certain names for themselves is certainly a statement, especially considering how many fantastic names are actively being used by player accounts. The Everlasting name release thread and Post Your Best Costumes Here thread would just be a shooting gallery of folks wondering why their posted characters got wiped if that were the case, but since that isn't happening I have to admit I've got doubts.

I'm not opposed to demon mob modifications, but not for changing Bat'zul. Use the image in OP as inspiration for female Behemoths/Hellfrosts or incubus/Boyfriends from Hell counterparts to the succubus/Girlfriends from Hell. Bat'zul is the leader of the hordelings, so he's got that specific appearance for a reason and should remain the kaiju-sized fusion of Audrey II and a rotisserie chicken he's always been.

I understand why the initial power was made as just 'hero summons Longbow chaser and villain summons Arachnos flyer' but yeah, allowing customization options for this would be really fun. There's a whole host of in-game model options for it, too. The aforementioned military helicopters and jets, a scaled up magic carpet, one of those Carnival of Light portals, a circle of fairy mushrooms or a glowing henge from Croatoa, a Rikti assault suit... Heck, get silly with some of them, like summoning the Golden Roller or a police call box.

Looking at CoH's powersets and requiring any explanation reliant on real world physics and science is just going to keep causing this disconnect because it's a video game. Any connections to the real world are verisimilitude, included to make a point about the game's lore, the plot of a story arc, and/or the nature of its community. To the point about 'no evidence of no contamination' there's no evidence that radiation powers in CoH do cause any ambient effects like real world radiation does either. As far as the game goes, it's very explicit about when and where the radiation effects are active via the neon green glow and the bubble SFX and also about what that does (Energy damage and -Defense, usually). Where that stops, the radiation stops. There's no post-mission text that pops up for radiation powersets saying a hazmat team arrives with Geiger counters and gives iodine pills to all the defeated bad guys and rescued hostages. Not that that wouldn't be an interesting take for a character, but that's purely up to an individual player to choose for themselves. Including the real world effects of powersets can be a fantastic source of drama and I have a friend who had a radiation defender with this exact gimmick of 'and now all those guys go to the hospital with radiation sickness' but that's all that is - a personal story gimmick. Any 'game canon' explanation beyond that would just be the same as any other baked-in handwave for the other powersets. The game ignores the 'real effects' of radiation the same way it ignores how a super strong Tanker can flip giant mechs like pancakes but not rip the head off every human enemy they fight with the same uppercut.

Prefacing this that I didn't agree with Jack's approach to on-going design for CoH (or his particular methods of interacting with CoH's playerbase), but categorizing him as 'one single lone developer who forced his personal vision onto the game' is bit of a stretch when his position was 'lead dev for the entire game whose whole job is to execute their vision of what the game should be.' We were always playing Jack's vision of the game because at the time he was the head dev in-charge of development. CoH was his sandbox, for better or worse, and he was within his capacity as the lead dev to modify how it worked (RIP to all the OG regen scrappers and freakshow herding dumpster diving tankers). Also, the Invention System has been around for going on 10+ years now. That's the vast majority of the game's playable lifespan. No IO's ED was a thing for about a year and a half and pre-ED was also about a year and a half. I know gamers love to hold grudges but the majority of the game has been with ED in-place along with wide swathes of better content and character progression. I was around back at launch so I get the formative memories and emotional attachments to what first drew folks into CoH, but I also remember what CoH played like back in 2004. I much preferred 2012 CoH to that and prefer 2025 Homecoming to that, too. IO CoH's game design of 'any decently balanced team is a steamroller on cocaine where everyone can contribute something' is a lot more fun than 'watch the tanker herd the whole map, watch the blaster blow them all up, repeat' (or 'watch tanker use energy transfer, kill the mobs and die themselves, get rezzed, repeat').

Not all that many, I expect. I had forgotten this was added entirely, despite the fact that it's been in the game for over a year now and that I even ran the first parts of Piecemeal's Vahzilok/Freakshow content back when those came out. Having read through the Pay Phone on the wiki I'm not really struck by the need to run the arc, either. Personal Story Arcs are basically post-credit scenes. They need to be concise, punchy, and immediately get player investment, especially considering they're committing the MMO cardinal sin of 'the player character ceases to be the dynamic focus.' This one doesn't seem to do that. A drawn out flashback focused on canonizing in-universe explanations for game changes from 15+ years ago via an OC NPC using super special techniques to accidentally Forrest Gump themselves through past updates and game lore along with a handful of cryptic hints that may or may not even be relevant for who knows how long is not in-line with the prior Personal Story arcs. Having the particular lens for all this be Bile also doesn't help. He's certainly written with a distinct personality and funny dialogue, but there's a lot of it and considering all the divergent content involved and the dense dialogue trees it doesn't make the arc come across as any more engaging. It feels like Bile's commentary is trying to hype up the player and explain why they should totally be interested in the series of random interactions and lore links, when the moments themselves should have been the hooks. A Personal Story focused solely on the fall of Galaxy City and the fallout of the Shivan attack could have revealed the same teasing hints and been much more direct about it. Hell, they could use one of the umpteen characters actually present in Galaxy's Last Stand for it. Put the player in the shoes of Coyote as he navigates the chaos to rescue people, sees civilians disintegrating, and takes on a giant monster Neo-Shivan. There'd be something poetic about one of the contacts from Outbreak helping to introduce the modern end game and still fighting the good fight after all this time (especially for Coyote, considering why he was put in the game to begin with).

Certainly possible! Though remembering how... 'intensely focused' Jack could be on his particular vision of the game and its lore, I always figured he either really didn't like Atlantis as a pop culture 'fish people society' concept or just went 'Well, I'm already using Mu and Oranbega - Primal Earth don't need anymore ancient humanity magic societies.' @JMacClear glad to see you got the concept up and running! Or swimming, in this case. I dig the organic sea-life inspired take with the guy's costume. Hits that visual 'Atlantean' look while still being unique.

If HC does something with Galaxy City, it needs to be something new - just bringing back the old starting zone would probably leave it as another mostly empty blueside map, initial nostalgia burst aside. As it is, even if underutilized Galaxy's Last Stand at least offers the most modern tutorial showcasing game mechanics that neither of the original tutorials do. Overall, I have doubts that any of the 'destroyed' blueside zones will ever get major revamps by this point. Between the amount of work it takes to redesign an entire zone map, then set out NPCs and mob spawns, write dialogue, mission arcs, plaques, badges... It's a lot. Then multiply that by the sheer number of 'this area of Paragon has been in total ruins for 20+ years' zones and it turns from Mt. Everest to Olympus Mons. It'd be a big ask for a fully funded staff working full time. All that said, I fully support something being done with Galaxy City, I'd just expect it to be more manageable, content-wise. Some new mission arcs or a big task force could easily work, whether that takes place amid the ruins against the Neo-Shivans and advances the Coming Storm or involves Ouroboros to flashback to the original Galaxy City and teaming up with Galaxy Girl and Dauntless (and/or some of the other Galaxy heroes honored with statues - Cassiopeia, Wayland, M1). Ouroboros flashing back to historical heroes and city zones 'before they fell' could actually be a really neat way to do a pseudo-revamp and tell a lot of stories CoH has never really touched on in the process.

A guarantee?! That changes everything. Let's get this accolade in the game right now! I've even found some art for a badge icon, to save the devs some time.

Not sure how many folks here are keeping up with Daredevil Born Again, but as of the latest episodes (5 & 6) it seems like a fantastic continuation of the Netflix series. Every article claiming Disney Marvel was going to water things down - level of violence, religious content, dialogue, fight choreography, even the presentation style - seems more and more unfounded. It's possible a lot of that is due to the revamping the show went through to get the main actors back on board and happy with the direction of their roles and the series, but I'll happily accept 'it's good due to course correction' over 'they were stubborn and it tanked.' Slight spoilers -