cranebump

Dang them. Dang them all to heck.

Know what? After loving my goofy AR/TA blaster, I tried playing a TA/Archery Def solo, and it. Just. Sucked. Why? Because, compared to Tac Arrow, which has one location-based AoE, Trick arrow has 3, including one I find essential when soloing - Glue. Just having to lay down the damned glue patch was enough to drive me off the thing. (I imagine you can probably make macros and all that, but, man, just let me click and shoot [like Tac Arrow, pse]). It's plenty soloable, but I just don't have the patience for it. I hate the fiddly bits (which is why my wife challenged me to play the antithesis of my playstyle, thus saddling me with a gd mastermind...which I now have to get to 50...solo...). [sigh]

That was my assumption, as well. Because what the OP describes really is just...I dunno, pointless? Unless after, having ran everything to death, you're developing a stable of characters to hop on any TF or Mish at a moment's notice. I wouldn't know. I get them to 50, and most of them tend to sit there after that. Though I did pull a tank off the shelf the other day to run through some AE content that I assumed would be a challenge, and I just didn't want to multiple faceplant. (turned out to be correct on the challenge, so it was good to have the character there).

It really does seem rather silly to doorsit your way to 50 multiple times, just to stash the character away, but, as it has zero effect on what I do, I couldn’t care less. Of course, if you want to avoid sitters don’t take them on, or stop farming.

I have enjoyed most melee sets I’ve played (with Street Justice probably being the fav). Only ones I’m not a big fan of are psi melee and kinetic melee (“and herrrrrre’s the windup….” [obnoxious sound effect]).

Well done (again). I ended up running the whole thing on +0/x4 by accident, and lordy, lordy.

Design Notes: Focuses on Tarixus, and unlockable content with a pair of missions. The undead archmage hovers near Potter's Field. He is an NPC in the Henri Dumont Arc. Guiding question was, What happened after things went south for Dumont? Level range is 25-30, to mirror location (Shark). Particularly interested in how this one works for teams. It solo'ed at about medium diff for my exemplared MA/SR scrapper. There are parts I definitely did not waltz through, though my namesake hero isn't all that powerful (he mainly exists to I could slap the gold Storyteller title on him.:-) Some gnarly customs. Be Wary. And strongly suggest you have insps/temp powers/maybe some allies/pets for the finale. Trivia: References to Shakespeare (mish titles); the musical group The Godfathers (Birth, School, Work, Death). Incidental callback to Mobius's Autumn Wards (incl. cameos). Other stuff:

Yes. Using the base builder. Create an SG in Atlas, inside City Hall. Then enter shining column outside, and you'll be in your base. Open up the editor and start working.

Aaron Sorkin screenplay. Most of what he writes is very good. The Lucy documentary (not Sorkin) was decent, as well. Ball was one of the greatest physical comedians of all time. A genius. Never thought the Honeymooners was funny, at all, but I thought Gleason was great in the Smokey and the Bandit Films. He did a decent dramatic turn in Nothing in Common. His impact on entertainment is huge, however. This cannot be denied. On the greater subject: It's hard to rate humor, as what's considered funny (or appropriate) changes over time. I still find Cheers to (usually) be funny, though actually mean-spirited, at times. Modern comedy? There's just not many I bother with. They all seem of similar bent, and whatever they think is funny, I (mostly) don't. And man, oh, man - I'm really, really, really, really just so tired of workplace comedies. I never found The Office funny (I guess I'm the only one), so anything that resembles it tends to be a turn off (though Abbott Elementary seems okay). I do find Ghosts (American version) to be pretty funny. Haven't seen the Brit version.

After taking care of my latest Devil Bat issue (actually, he has MANY issues), and doing a final publish of an new AE arc. I'll be back on the horse this Fridayin the early AM, around 7ish, EST. I know most people don't have the luxury of Fridays off, but if you do, and you waste your mornings like me, hit me up. I'll either be running the evil MM (Will Fade), or the sterling hero (Jim Steele). Ride on!

Any AT I play.:-)

The Industrial Revolution, like others of its type, will also put a lot of people out of jobs. I do think this is different. It’s dealing with emulating our intelligence, to the point where it may be indistinguishable from our own someday (perhaps even superior?). We’re ultimately always creating extensions of ourselves, from old style telescopes extending our eyesight, to dish washers that replace our hands. Ultimately, we’re saving time. But to do what? If we can create devices to emulate the fruit of our creativity, what then? Where then is our time spent, when everything we could do is done for us? I realize this is personal for me, having always been writing and creating (mainly as a hobby). I won’t have to use anything like ChatGPT to do that for me. But others will. They’ll use a machine to provide an outline, and their novel will be written for them. Then, they’ll ironically take credit for doing nearly nothing. Yeah, that’s the extreme, pessimistic view. Until, or if, we see such a thing, I’ll live in hope that our collective wisdom proves to be enough.

Probably enjoying the great vending machine coffee and tootsie rolls.

Next toon=Bran Stoker.

I guess once it's able to roll dice, I'll no longer be GMing anything.

I have it on my Friday morning agenda.:-) Did some tweaks to Asa Ronan earlier, and am working on Potter's Field (mainly trying to figure out how to bring it to a close).:-/

The comments were about CC effects and the DP group (the PPD Stingers). When I checked their powers, it looks like I had designed them to be viable all the way to L25. Rather than tweak every group, I bumped the lvl range to 15-20. I assume that, since the group grinded their way through at 15, a bump in PC powers was the simplest fix. That said, because the mish includes Vazh, which top out at 20, I had to maintain that as the max level, rather than ramp up to, say, 20-25. You never really know how things will actually go until tests, but I do test all my arcs extensively, albeit solo. So team feedback is invaluable. Hopefully, this will keep the arc challenging, but not over-powered. As a general warning to anyone not familiar with AE missions, however, I would advise always having some insps available before going in. Custom enemies can be a bear, but part of the fun, we hope (if I can speak for others here) is dealing with and overcoming these unique threats. Which means you might run into stuff you don't usually find in the regular game. That can be a fine line to tread, though, so feedback is key to ensuring that the "E" in AE is just that, for all involved. Thanks again. Let me know if you rerun it, and how it comes out. Or anything else of mine you may run across. I always hope to get better. Shine on heroes (and skanky-ass villains),:-) C

Man, TN, you're dead on when you wonder what would this look like at x8, etc.? I ask that every time I run an @Darmian arc (well...I mutter it...usually while I'm flat on the floor, or running away like a cretin).:-)

First off, let me thank steel frost, FourthSurvivor, Heat-Transfer, and Fate Evaness for running Of Guns and Asa Ronan. I am hopping on it today, and will check on the customs. I may just push things up to 20 to make it more reasonable for teams. Bear in mind that I design with soloists in mind, and I usually expect exemplared toons, IOs and such. That said, the challenge should be tough, but fair. It sounds like some things may not be, so I'll make a pass at it, for sure. Thanks much. If you run anything else I've designed, be sure to hit me up. The key word in AE is Entertainment, and I definitely don't want to take away from that. Thanks again, Crane

Last predictions I saw on this was around 2028-2030. But those predictions were at least 20 years old, and we seem to be moving faster than anticipated.

I’m aware of this. I should have added that this shows the limitations of the AI. It produces generic, soulless text. As one should expect from a machine, I suppose.

Reran Veluta Lunata. She does NOT sound like this at all.

I went to Brick for the Vig mish, chose the response, “Why don’t you call the police?” then received no mission. I guess the contact took my advice.

Seriously. I was gonna ask ‘em, “What’s your hurry?” My advice. Run AE story misses. Slower pace due to lower XP, and many contain new creatures.

Obviously this: Or, well, THIS: