Luminara

Ask Jack Kirby.

It's a gold mine. No, it's a placer deposit on a gorgeous sand bank with glistening nuggets lying in plain sight. Enhancement conversion is a huge equalizer, and the biggest key to making inf* on the market. Once you figure out what sells, and presuming you have converters to burn, people throw inf* at you. The comparison between lucrative now and lucrative six months ago is really just drops in the bucket, and it's actually a boon, even if you're trying to make a profit, because it also means you're paying a little less for the things you can't acquire through conversion of typical uncommon and rare IOs. The ceiling might be lower, but so is the floor. That said, I also play solo and focus on story arcs, so I'm rarely hurting for merits. A bad streak of conversions, or being too impatient to wait another hour to fill an enhancement slot, that's really all that slows me down on making inf* or kitting out a character with "the best".

They had a big boost in understanding and manipulation from Rikti tech. Portal technology isn't vastly different from teleportation, the way it's portrayed.

Force field technology, the emergency medical teleportation system, everything going on at Portal Corp., most of the advanced science shown to be part of the foundation of the game world was reverse engineered from recovered Rikti technology. It wasn't available for use during the reconstruction.

Check the Guides and Market forums for primers on how to make inf*. You can make more than you'll ever need with almost no effort (just crafting, dragging, clicking and listing), and buy the ATOs you want, or any ATOs and convert them to the ATOs you need. Every character I've leveled past 20 has at least one full set of ATOs, and the only merits I've spent were buying converters. You can do it!

It was, indeed. One of my masterpieces, I'm glad someone other than me remembers it. 🙂

Brutalism is mostly concrete and rebar, so it's cheap and comparatively fast to erect. Those two factors are important in the perspective of a post-war economy. If you need to put businesses back into the economy, house people quickly and keep costs under control, it's as good a way to do it as any. The only really viable alternative would be having the military forces construct sub-urban housing units (United States post-WWII) and low-cost urban apartment units (Britain post-WWII), but that wouldn't have been large and impressive to fly, jump, run or teleport through. Brutalist architecture is also relatively solid, compared to a lot of other options. That's another important factor, from a psychological perspective. People would want solid buildings, thick walls, concrete over their heads, rather than glass and steel, because they represent safety and shelter. And knowing that the Rikti weren't gone, safety and shelter would be critical factors in the rebuilding efforts. In the context of a post-war reconstruction effort, Brutalism makes sense. It may not be pretty, but it checks all of the boxes better than anything else does. In the post-post-war era, now, newer architecture is warranted... though I loathe having to say that. Praetoria and AP play merry hell with framerates on my $350 laptop.

I was almost entirely dedicated to defenders on the original servers. You can do almost anything with a defender. Tank, scrap, blast, control, turn water into coffee, the possibilities are endless! Here, I haven't gone past 20 with a defender. I will, if for no other reason than to recreate what I had "back in the day", but my lovely Legionette, my Staff/Willpower brute, captured my imagination and sent me into an Amazonian frenzy. I'm not touching anything but melee until I finish the Sisters. Sticks and stones and fists breaking bones!

I was thinking of the similarity to stalkers, with the crit from Hide mechanic, Placate, but more junk in the trunk (strong team buffs, easily capped Defense to everything, more ranged and AoE potential, etc.).

You should meet Night Widow. You'll like her. Not my Night Widow. Stop looking at her, find your own. 😛

These, and there's also Physical Perfection in the Energy Mastery APP. +12.5% Recovery. It's not huge, but with Agility buffing that and Stamina, it might be enough.

Tier 1 - 1/6 ignores ED. Tier 2 - 1/3 ignores ED. Tier 3 - 1/2 ignores ED. Tier 4 - 2/3 ignores ED. Core offers the highest individual bonuses, Radial spreads the bonuses out amongst more things and has a lower ceiling. If you're really struggling and a slotting change won't improve the problem (+5 boosting frankenslotted Def/End IOs can really make a difference), Core would add 30% beyond ED (45% * .66 = 30%) to whatever you're looking to improve (Endurance Modification or Endurance Reduction). So Cardiac Core or Agility Core. They can both be created and swapped to find out which is more effective, but you won't see the full strength until T4.

Enjoy what you have now, be prepared to lose it and start over, and hope that doesn't happen. There's nothing more you can do, or should. When, if, the time comes, preach from the mountain tops. Until then, whisper. You can wink, nod and nudge if you like. No, not at me.

That is a really good idea.

By several million years. An axe is a combination of two simple machines, the lever and the wedge (which itself is an adaptation of another simple machine, the inclined plane). It may seem basic when viewed from the perspective of modern culture, but it's not. The fist is the first and most basic weapon. Before we learned to use any machine, we learned to use the fist, and we learned that before humans, in any form, evolved from other primates. Without the fist, we wouldn't have survived long enough to evolve from primates, or develop the six simple machines which formed the foundation of nearly all mechanical devices throughout human history. Lacking claws or large, sharp canines or cutting molars, we had only our fists and brains to defend ourselves from other predators, or to feed ourselves, and our brains didn't develop until millions of years later. The most basic weapon would be the staff. Not staves as they're known today, but instead, simple sticks used for crude swinging. The stick is a lever, the first simple machine we figured out, and by using that lever, we could transmit greater force than we could through sheer muscle power, and extend the range of the blow. Next was the hammer, which, prehistorically, was a knobby stick (club) (the ability to attach a rock to a stick to make a hammer came later, when we had learned how to use materials to make cordage). This machine transmitted significantly more force than the lever alone, and localized it to the specific area where the target was struck. It's essentially a fist on a lever. Then the axe came along, when humans realized that a tapered point narrowed the focus of the transmitted force. It did more work than the hammer, and acted more specifically (it was a better killing instrument), and required less physical strength to perform that work. But if the dispute is about which is the most frequently used or typical example of a comic book superhero, the fist is still the most basic. Nearly every superhero punches, but I can't think of any who use an axe. Swords, staves, bows and arrows, hammers, plenty of other weapons, but outside of Conan and similar comics (barbarian or medieval themes), I can't name a single hero who uses an axe. It's an atypical weapon for heroes, because it's mentally associated with extreme violence and murder. Axe murders have been surprisingly frequent in the last ~200 years. Axe-wielding superheroes, not common at all. Yes, I've seen Infinity War and End Game. No, I don't consider that as sufficient evidence to rank the axe as the most basic anything.

Throw some Googie up in that place! Glass! Sweeping points! Starbursts and rocket fins! ❤️

Unless they're AoEs.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier sold me on Cap. It's the first time Marvel really made an effort to show just what he was capable of doing, and they did it beautifully. Seeing him in action was one of the biggest thrills I've experienced from watching movies. The scenes on the Lumerian Star, the way he destroyed a jet in 20 seconds, the final fight, it was just astounding to see a guy doing with his bare hands what Iron Man needs an entire suit to accomplish. Starmunch. He's nothing but an irritation in every scene. He's not heroic, he's not interesting, he's not even amusing. All he seems to bring to the franchise is being the idiot who makes other people roll their eyes and shake their heads. I was delighted when he disintegrated. If he hadn't thrown his idiotic temper tantrum, Stark and Co. would've disarmed Thanos and the snap never would've happened. I'm going to have to give this one to Toomes (The Vulture). There was motivation beyond simplistic greed or vengeance or insanity, solid character development, and he was relatable. He wasn't some pouting man-child monologuing about revenge, or a power-hungry plot device, or a deliberately over-powered villain who existed just to bring "the team" together, he was a guy. Just a guy. He was worried about his family, he was worried about his employees and their families, and he crossed a line that he never really thought about crossing before. He took one step down the dark path, found himself taking another step, and another, until he knew there was no going back to find the right road, and had to embrace what he'd become. Toomes never felt like he was just written as a bad guy, or existed so Spidey would have someone to fight. He felt real. Zemo, or whatever his name was. He wasn't convincing, his motivations were transparent and dull... the character felt like a plot device, not a character. Hollow and obvious. Karen Gillan. She stole every scene, and showed fantastic range and versatility. Her character's journey from villain to hero was one of the best parts of the entire anthology of films, and I honestly don't think anyone else could've pulled it off as perfectly as she did. Runner-up would be Scarlett Johannson. That woman is astounding. I don't think there's any role she can't play. I've been watching her films since Ghost World and I haven't been disappointed once. She's done an absolutely incredible job with the Black Widow character (who is among my favorites). I'd rank her as my favorite, but Nebula's story across the MCU was just too deep and compelling to rate second place, and that pushes Karen Gillan to the top. Chris Pratt. He's got no range or versatility, at all. Every line he delivers sounds like it was crowd-sourced from Imgur and Reddit, with an attempt to put his own "funny" spin on it. He's riding his appearance and playing the same character in every movie (in and out of the MCU). It's a toss-up between Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Black Panther and Captain Marvel. The Winter Soldier was just so well done, it's one of my all-time favorite movies. The direction was perfect, the acting was amazing, the plot and story were tight and engaging, and the film felt like it had weight, meaning. It's not a great superhero film, it's a great film, period. You could take all of the superhero elements out of it and it would still be a really good movie. Intrigue, drama, comedic moments which don't overwhelm the tone of the film or come at the wrong moment, solid character development... it's got everything I enjoy in a film, plus Cap, Black Widow, The Falcon and Maria Hill kicking ass left and right. Black Panther surprised me. I expected a superhero film. But it was so much more than that. It was a film about integrity, family, responsibility, and it addressed racism without being accusational or morose. There's more heart and honesty in any given scene in Black Panther than I've seen in any ten other films. This is one of the movies I watch when I'm in a good mood, when I'm in a bad mood, when I'm bored or just can't find something else to watch. I love it. Captain Marvel... the story wasn't quite as tight as I like in a movie, but seeing Danvers transition into Captain Marvel... wow. I felt like I was playing Co* for the first time again when I watched it. It still leaves me breathless. The sheer power of the character, the way it's portrayed, I've never seen anything more astounding in a superhero film. The performances were almost all fantastic, too. I thought Larson could've put a little more work into her emoting, but I'm not going to dislike a film for that. And I'm aware that there's been some controversy over Larson, but I'm also capable of distinguishing between that and the movie. The movie earned a spot on my favorites list. I just can't say that any one of these is better than the others. I like all three of them equally, for different reasons. Neither of the Hulk films were particularly good. They each have their merits, but overall, they were missing something. Thor wasn't as good as it could've been, either. He isn't even Thor until the end, so it was mostly comedy, rather than a superhero film. Iron Man 3 doesn't have the same feel as the other two, which puts me off a bit. But I'm going to have to say that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was probably my least favorite. Other than Karen Gillan's performance as Nebula, there wasn't anything memorable or noteworthy about it. That's frustrating, because I adore Kurt Russell, I've been impressed by Dave Bautista in his other works, and Pom Klementieff and Sean Gunn really threw themselves into their performances. The film didn't shine, though. The story was weak and the action was too comedic to take seriously. The comedy itself was mistimed and overused. I know they're supposed to be the class clowns of the MCU, but most of it wasn't amusing to me. When the most interesting part of a movie is an almost mute CGI twig, that's not a good thing. A very, very, VERY close second would be Thor 3. It was just too goofy, and I really disliked the way the writers threw everything out the door when they made that script. Thor breathing and talking in space? Asgardians being gods, instead of extremely long-lived people with high-tech gadgets? A boozy Valkyrie? My face still has bruises from all of the face-palming that movie caused. It all but ruined the entire Thor franchise for me, and the character in the subsequent films. But as a Hulk film, it wasn't bad. Still goofy, but better than the previous Hulk films.

Not much, though cutting and splitting wood seems to alleviate the symptoms... not malicious activity, I actually need firewood. I haven't stopped! I was kicking Rikti butt at 5 a.m. this morning. Itchily kicking, and actually using Kick occasionally (that pause at the end is obnoxious) for kicks, but still kicking.

Grav/TA is, no reason /Ice would be any less capable.

System Shock 2. I'd played a lot of different types of games up to that point. Text-based adventures, arcade games (Donkey Kong Jr., specifically. it was the only arcade game at the corner store near the trailer park), Nintendo (we couldn't afford one, but other kids in the trailer park had them), board games, playing pretend with my siblings and friends, D&D. They were just games, stuff to pass the time when I couldn't read a book or play outside. I'd moved to 3D games in my mid-20's. The first time I saw Quake running in demo mode at Best Buy, I was hooked. Rebuilt my computer to meet Quake's specs, added a Matrox M3D and threw myself into 3D first-person shooters. Played a hell of a lot of those. And RPGs. Any 3D shooter, and absolutely anything made by Black Isle or Bioware, I'm spending whatever money I have (not much when minimum wage was just over $5/hr.). I'm walking through Best Buy and I see... the most beautiful face I've ever seen. SHODAN. I have no idea what she's supposed to be, but it's advertised as a 3D FPS, I like the box art, so I buy it. Impatiently wait for the installation to complete, go through the settings to ensure that I had all of my keyboard and mouse controls set up just right, and... Oh, it's a hybrid RPG/3D shooter. That should be interesting. I'd never played the original System Shock, so I had no idea what the story was about. At that time, I didn't care, I just wanted to get my game on. And then I did care. There was something going on behind the action. There was a motivation behind what I was doing. The game world wasn't just a place for me to stand while I shot at things, it was a setting. The e-mails and audio logs weren't something I could skip, they were vital elements. The visuals became a secondary concern for me, for the first time. The shooting and sneaking and ammo management, it was all extraneous to the story. I was playing a novel. And SHODAN wasn't a helpless maiden in distress, she wasn't my sidekick, she wasn't the antagonist, she wasn't a plot element, she was all of these things, and more. She was the story. That was when I realized video games could be more than mindless entertainment. They were works of fiction, as compelling and interesting as the books I'd spent reading when I was supposed to be getting an education. As much as the movies I was just beginning to appreciate. As much as serial television shows. It opened a door that I never realized existed, or cared about. Art wasn't something that interested me when I was younger, it was boring stuff for people with money, not something of concern for a minimum wage nobody. But art in fiction... that mattered to me, especially at that point in my life, when my social anxiety disorder was growing worse. And it changed me. I began to see the deeper meanings and interpretations in the things I was reading and watching. I began to understand the power of words. I began to comprehend things I never had before, because of my inability to comprehend people. Fiction, stories, could be something I never imagined, they could be art. Years later, someone mentioned to me that the most basic definition of art is "Something that evokes emotion. Something that moves you." SS2 did that for me. SHODAN did that for me.

Eastern, U.S.

Okay. I'll take a 2 a.m. - 8 a.m. shift at any base. And if I have a panic attack and die of asphyxiation, I'm coming back to haunt all of you who didn't volunteer. 😛 😓