Luminara

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. 😛 😓

The blisters are just blisters, filled with lymphatic fluid, it's not the body producing more hell oil to torment itself with. Nothing to draw out but the lymphatic fluid, and since it's not from an infection (clear, rather than discolored pus), it's better to let the body reabsorb it.

Skip the wiggle, remove the bonus accuracy, remove the weapon skin and recycle standard blast animations with the effects moved to the hand(s). That's actually easier than adding a weapon skin. Finger guns require fingers, though, so that wouldn't be possible without a lot of extra animation work and reskinning of character models because all we have are fists and mittens.

Eeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhh. It would be really easy for the one-handed weapon animations, that's just changing a skin, but there'd have to be additional tweaking done to move the emanation point, and it would still look odd to swing a wand like a sword or mace. It could also be done for the two-handed weapon animations, with work to move the skin into both hands instead of one hand, but would look even weirder. The two-hand animations just weren't designed with one-hand use in mind, or for ranged particle effects in most cases. For the ones which do display ranged particle effects, like Serpent's Reach, it would really look odd using them with a wand, even a two-handed wand. Another thought occurred to me, though. The Blackwand has a draw animation. That could be used as a third animation for transposition in sets. It would actually be a lot easier to just insert the model into the character's hands for non-attack powers. Buffs, debuffs, turning on toggles, powers of that sort. No projectile in most cases, so no particle emanation point to move and less concern about how goofy some of them might look because they're the less frequently used powers. Some of those powers would also be candidates for altering to attack animations, like the Force Field buff animation (leaning forward slightly, one arm extended, casting the buff), and might be the better options to pursue for making the last one or two animations. Bottom line is it is feasible, and as I keep saying, comparatively easier than making entirely new animations, and there are some ways which would be easy easy and some that would be easy but not as easy, but there's also the question of time and resource availability. Any of these ideas can work, but the people doing these things are still learning how to manipulate the necessary tools, and doing it in their spare time, and trying to fix problems and deliver new content as well. It's going to be a back burner project, if it's a project at all.

So is carburetor cleaner. Oh. Right. Inner monologue is reminding me to tell everyone not to use carburetor cleaner as a poison ivy remedy. I was cleaning the carburetor from one of my chainsaws. Pertinent information.

Immediate gratification is a natural human desire. Math isn't, for most people.

Lich My Boots, Take It and Lich It, Ghost Away, Ghost Stuff It, Revenant The Wheel, Ghoul O' My Dreams, Ghoulrilla... So much pun in the graveyard. I haven't checked any of those, by the way.

Accelerate Metabolism, Heat Loss, Energizing Circuit, Lifegiving Spores, Painbringer, Chrono Shift, temp buffs, blues... lots of options.

Don't the Carnies do that? I'm sure the Carnies do that. That's two animations which could be ganked for the Blackwand, then. The fire-breathing Carnie animation and the default Blackwand animation. Two or three more and it would be usable as an alternative for entire sets.

He meant do them with a support character. "Slot" the character/archetype, not the powers. Being able to floor an enemy's hit chances, or dumping 20% or more -Res and/or -Def on them, makes up for a lot of what's lost when enhancements are disabled. Doing it with multiple support characters means no-one needs enhancements.

Toxic is the most heavily resisted. Smashing and lethal are the most commonly resisted, meaning the most likely to be resisted, but it's typically in smaller amounts, and not terribly noticeable beyond spreadsheet analysis. It's rarely more than a minor annoyance at having to use one more attack. Many are listed on the wikis, but the easiest and most direct way is with something like Power Analyzer. I think there's a temp version of it, perhaps available at the P2W vendor... can't log in to check, though.

Sounds like a frondly character. You should gourd for it. 😁

Okay... a lot of itching. So... much... itching... I've got my big person pants on, I can take this. 😣

It's not really about personal challenge. It's a result of standard MMORPG design with role specification and content designed to be completed within the boundaries of those role specifications. If your class role doesn't fit within the design of the content, or the content is easy enough to be completed without your class, you can be excluded. And in those MMORPGs, that means you don't get the loot, you don't get the new abilities, you don't get to play the content, you don't get to make new friends, etc. So people expect to have a specific role and purpose within a group, and apply that expectation to this game. They're afraid that they'll be denied something if they aren't given specificity within the group and the content.

The problem they're currently facing is not that they don't bring anything to high end teaming, it's that they bring too much at every level. Yes, you can take 8 of any archetype and blitz any content in the game. 8 blasters, all at or above the Defense soft cap, all dumping insane amounts of damage. 8 brutes, 8 scrappers, 8 tankers, you name it, 8 of anything turns into a spiked, flaming, acid spewing wrecking ball with a weapons-grade plutonium core, and they don't really need anyone buffing them... they don't even specifically need debuff, or controls, because they have access to those, too, in *PPs. But support archetypes have been doing that since Issue 0. It's only with Incarnate abilities and IO sets that the rest of the archetypes are catching up with them. And what 8 of anything else can do with billion inf* builds, the right *PP powers and T4 Incarnates, 8 support characters can do with one to three powers apiece... unslotted, without a single IO set bonus, *PP power or Incarnate ability. That's the problem. They're too powerful, not lacking in utility or versatility or power. They're game breakers, by design. They can't be improved without making them even more grossly overpowered in standard content, and nerfing everything to compensate for support archetypes being overpowered isn't feasible. The problem has to be addressed in the end content, tweaks and changes to make support more desirable, or changes to specific mechanics (which was attempted with the Purple Patch), because the problem can't be addressed in any other way without creating even bigger problems. Support has been taking a steaming dump on team dynamics since the game was released. Pinball Wizards. Repeat Offenders. People like me. And the perceived lack of value in end-game content... I don't view that as a problem with the game, or with support archetypes, or with IO sets, or with Incarnate abilities, I view it as a problem with the way the content was designed and implemented, and, frankly, a relief, because I enjoy support archetypes, I enjoy being versatile, I enjoy having that much power at my disposal, and I enjoy knowing that I can finally, after all of these years, play the characters I want without feeling like I have the burden of a team's performance resting entirely on my shoulders. Yeah, support archetypes may feel that they're not needed because of IO set bonuses and Incarnate abilities. But they're also not unwelcome, and they're free in a way they weren't before, thanks to those bonuses and abilities. No-one's actually necessary or specifically wanted for end-game content, it's an even playing field. No-one is pigeonholed into anything in the end game. No-one has to feel like they're personally accountable if something goes wrong, because everyone is equally capable and powerful, and accountable. That's something to celebrate, not complain about. Other MMORPGs are designed so everyone is only barely capable of surviving, everyone has to be perfect, everyone has to have split-second timing, and every "role" is expected to do exactly one thing and nothing else, because the fate of every encounter as part of a group is wholly dependent on it. But we aren't machines, we shouldn't be required to play like machines to succeed. Here, we aren't treated like machines, we have the freedom to play in different ways. A support character can forego spamming controls, or buffing constantly, or being a "healer". A support character can jump into melee and start hammering away with attacks, or stand back and blast, or pick up stragglers, or use that nuke that they've rarely had a use for in the rest of the game, or just entertain the team with jokes and humorous observations. Co* is where support characters can play, not work a second job. Yes, it means some people will be dissatisfied because they don't feel like teams need them, but they're overlooking the fact that teams don't need anyone or anything. Support archetypes are no more or less needed than any other archetype... but they're also no more or less welcome. Realizing that will go a lot farther toward solving the perceived problem than changing the game ever could.

It took 10 years of working 40-80 hours per week, averaging less than $8.50 per hour, to pay for what I have now. I'm not doing that again. And, honestly, I love where I live. I'm not going to let a little itching drive me away. This is my home. I'll spend the rest of my life here, I'll die here and this cabin will be my mausoleum. A mausoleum covered in poison ivy not long after I die, but I don't think I'll mind so much then.

Several of the blast sets have alternate animations. They're just recycled animations with different effects attached. Can't do that with the Blackwand and similar powers because there's only that one animation for each of them. Only one thing to recycle. It would be like using Archery's Snap Shot animation for every attack in Fire Blast. That can be done, and it wouldn't be any more difficult than it was to recycle other animations for Fire Blast, but it would look really odd and not many people would be satisfied with it.

Good. If you're breaking things, you're learning how to fix things. Keep doing that, take the lumps and don't stop. And, while you're at it, I need an army of ducks. With laser-targeted defense systems. And a duck pond. Get quacking.

The majority of the standard content wasn't considered particularly challenging when all we had were SOs and Hamidon enhancements, despite ED, GDN, the Purple Patch and numerous other changes to create a semblance of challenge. I know, because I was one of those dipsticks out there creating challenge for myself by playing a character with 0.55 damage scale attacks, post-ED, post-GDN, post-Purple Patch, no +Def, no +Res, no range to keep me safe, no status protection and no -Res, and not even slotting my attacks with Damage enhancements, taking on GMs solo and winning, without IO sets, without Incarnate abilities, without temp powers, without anything but my knowledge of game mechanics and the determination to succeed. That same content was ~3 years old when the Invention system was released. And 6.5 years old when the Incarnate system landed. None of the existing content was ever going to become more challenging before these systems were released, because the problem has never been IOs or Incarnate abilities, or the base mechanics, or balance issues, it was the age of the game and the experience of the players. What IOs and Incarnates accomplished was not to make the game less challenging, because that challenge was gone before either of those systems were implemented, but instead, to offer the opportunity for everyone, regardless of capability or experience, to rise to the same level. This is the nature of MMORPGs. The longer people play, the more they know and the less challenging they are. Changing SOs won't make anything more challenging. Making bigger hit point piñatas won't make anything more challenging. Nerfing IO sets or Incarnate abilities won't make anything more challenging. Shoehorning newer content mechanics into older content won't make it more challenging. Challenge comes from the facing unexpected and unknown, from moving forward, not backward. Challenge comes from blindly stepping into something and trying, failing, getting back up and trying again, until you succeed, and succeed again, and again, until you've turned the challenge into commonplace. We did that long before IOs were on the drawing board, before Incarnates were even an idea in the head of one of the developers. IO sets and Incarnate abilities don't obviate the challenge that older content offers because that challenge was met and matched a very, very long time ago. The challenge is in the newer content, as it should be. We can't roll the clock back 16 years. We can't unlearn what we've learned. We can only move forward. That's life, in the game or in the real world.

One of my most memorable experiences was as a Rad/Energy defender. Struggling team sent a /tell, I joined, they thought they were getting a "healer", I turned an entire mission map of Freaks into popcorn, entire team learned the value of KB.