Techwright
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Posts posted by Techwright
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I didn't really take to the trailer. I like Glen Powell, what few performances I've seen, but it felt like Arnold's Running Man only in a token sense. I've never read the source material, so I have only the 1980s movie to inform my opinion, and I liked it's over-the-top craziness in a dystopian world. I've even seen it as somewhat prophetic at times, notably the digital facial replacements. We're not quite there yet, but we're well underway.
One of the things that irked me was the 1 vs the planet concept. I liked Arnold's version which had much more to do with comparing a modern "civilized" and "sanitized" audience to the Roman coliseum: people getting entertainment from horrific murders but keeping their hands clean in the bleachers. So you're saying the 1 vs the planet is closer to the source material?
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5 hours ago, Oklahoman said:
This quarter, of the 15 failures, 5 were due to "Itchy Trigger Finger", 7 were due to regen ticks after the kill order, and 3 were due to... basically me making a bad call.
On a positive note, MAG TRIPLE THREAT improved by 1.39%. If it were an enhancement, that would be a huge gain.
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On 6/29/2025 at 4:15 PM, gameboy1234 said:
If you log out next to the Base Portal or the Hospital, you can get progress towards those badges instead of the Vanguard one. Or even not "next to," the distance those two work at is pretty large. Thus it's important to actually check which bad you're getting before you log out. This can happen even through walls, as the Day Job check is just distance, and doesn't consider line of sight.
I know from past experience that some places in the game have a spot where two (or more?) day job buff bar icons can simultaneously appear. The entry to the Vanguard hospital is one of these, having both the Vanguard day job and the Hospital day job simultaneously appear on the buff bar. A discussion the forums had many years ago seem to suggest both would earn in that spot, but is that still the case, or would it default to one or the other?
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In other fiction, I've always found the best villain groups to be the ones who figure out that bigger isn't always better. It's the swarms that make it challenging. While we kind of have this with the Clockwork king's minions, I'm thinking a high-tech, nanite or micro-machine swarm enemy might be a fresh approach. Settle them into the destroyed zones like Boomtown where there's abundant raw resources for them to use to propagate. A hive mind would make sense, though not necessarily as the ultimate big bad of the group. While nanites might be challenging to swat, these would swarm and form into forms that could attack. This would not necessarily look like any creature we're familiar with, but could use not only the human wireframe, but beastial wireframes as well, like spider, serpent, and quadruped. We'd fight them to disrupt their collective form, but like Freaks, if we smash the forms, some of the little blighters will swirl around until they can regroup to create a few remaining forms. As their story progresses, things get uglier when they figure out how to control organics, leading to some opponents being compromised human-hybrids, or cyborg-hybrids, such as the Arachnos spiders. As they potentially disassemble and reform, it keeps us guessing, as we're not sure what form(s) they'll be taking.
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On 7/1/2025 at 6:01 PM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:
- Harris Dickinson (...who?)
Haven't a clue. Looked at IMDB for his work and the only two names I recognized are The King's Man and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistence. To be fair though, Sean Connery had a body of work before Dr. No, but the only real standouts were Darby O'Gill and the Little People and The Longest Day. So maybe going with a relative unknown can pay off.
As to New Bond, I think there's going to be a lot of Brits really put out, miffed even, if the actor is anything other than a Brit, or at least from the Commonwealth, like George Lazenby was. I've seen discussions on this many times over the last 20 years or so, and I get the impression that not casting a Brit would trigger a riot likely to overthrow the government. I'm fine with that status quo, so long as popular American characters remain with American actors. I'm thinking of future Indiana Jones works (you know Disney won't end that potential cash cow, but just rest it for a while) and Jack Ryan stories.
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On 6/18/2025 at 7:10 PM, Sakura Tenshi said:
Scenes like this just seem increasingly silly to me as time goes on. I mean, yes, those are also Nemesis Automatons, but this also isn't the first or only of such things like this in the game.
Hey, if those are Nem Automatons, I too would stay in the ship, just in case they decided attacking me furthered the goals of Nemesis.
Now Sky Raider jumpbots: I thought there was a discussion years back where the jumpbots, especially the named, leading jumpbots were either mentally the scanned memories of Sky Raiders (possibly deceased) or like at least one other robot-using villain group, they put the brains of Sky Raiders into the robot (presumably after the human body was too injured to survive).
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On 6/30/2025 at 9:48 AM, BZRKR said:
This made me think of something. Do the streets and roads have names?
It's been quite a while but I could swear that a few of them actually had names, though possibly only mentioned in the contact mission stories. Some streets would seem to be obvious, like the Croatoa street running between the tram station and the university. I tend to thing of that as Salamanca's Main Street.
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Hmm...interesting question. I can think of 3, but to understand why, it might help to understand Major Ray Gunn a bit better. So, here's his bio:
Gordon Rodgers, a dedicated fan of old time serial movie sci-fi, is living his dream. Calling in several markers, he was able to obtain a powered undersuit, the latest in retro-engineered Ritki technology. In addition, he bought the rights to Ray Gunn, a nearly forgotten "space ranger" serial movie hero. Combining these, he rebooted the Ray Gunn franchise, becoming the living embodiment of the character. He purposefully targets villains that draw parallels to his character's adventures. Clockwork, Pumicites, and Sky Raiders he refers to as "killer robots", "alien monsters", and "space pirates". He's probably pushing it by calling Trolls "green men from Mars", and definitely wacko for calling the Banished Pantheon "space zombies". Still, his exploits are gaining fans, and his small franchise of products is taking off. In truth, he cares little for the money. He just wants a new generations to appreciate the great old heroes.
So in summation, he's wealthy, but not Bruce Wayne levels of ludicrous wealth. He's quirkily adapts the 1950s "pure" heroes (no real angst) personality, and is happy to retool himself into the living embodiment of one of those on-screen heroes. And he's willing to make a buck off of it. I can also say, despite the goofball antics, Major Ray Gunn can seriously focus and get down to business when needed. It's a bit of a Booster Gold vibe, I guess, though I didn't intend that.
So, Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillon first come to mind, though they're a tad old for the role, which I envision as 40-ish in age. After recently seeing Glen Powell in Twisters, portraying both the outlandishly wild and very serious sides of his character, I think he might do nicely.
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Coyote flight has been tried before to disastrous results.
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On 6/30/2025 at 9:51 PM, Lazarillo said:
Hmmm, on that note, feels like maybe there should be a "foot entrance" to KW from IP. There isn't, though, AFAIK, or am I wrong?
It really does look like there should be one, but its the War Walls. There are city divisions between the playing areas, and presumably they, too, have the walls as obstacles to some really good routes.
9 hours ago, Krimson said:How does the monorail work going from Steel Canyon to Croatoa? Does it bypass Kallisti and just go over the water?
Or under the water via tunnel, but yes, it does seem to bypass KW.
8 hours ago, Darmian said:The ferries are all on the East side of Paragon. If you were to add one to KW then you may as well go ahead and add one to IP as well, given the layout of the map.
I'm all for that same ferry making two stops: KW and IP. Just as long as the IP stop is on the western bank. We've far too many connections on the eastern bank largely leading to the western bank being ignored.
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20 minutes ago, Krimson said:
Danny Seagren was 78 in 2021.
Right. Same tactic as with Nicholas Hammond. Don't put them in the Spidey suits but have them visible on the streets. Basically a Stan Lee cameo, but with those guys instead.
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3 minutes ago, JKCarrier said:
Ah, it could have been glorious.
Scene: Tom, Andrew, and Tobey swing into battle. The camera pans down to show three older gentlemen sitting on a park bench, watching them.
Nicholas Hammond: Huh. Three Spider-Men. That's something you don't see every day.
Shinji Tōdō (fiddling with his bracelet): Should we...?
Danny Seagren: Nah, the kids got it covered. Hey, anyone up for schwarma...?I assume Shinji Tōdō was from the Japanese version? I'm aware of such, but have never seen it.
It would completely break the movie, but I'd laugh if they had Danny Seagren rub his chin in thought and a thought balloon would appear.
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Clearly he had a thing for the woodwind section when you consider these alongside Mission: Impossible:
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2 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:
There was a Spiderman movie... came out on general release back in about 1975ish... it was weird, set in LA and the fx were very sub par even for then.
Did that lead into The Amazing Spider-Man TV series of 1978-79 by any chance? The one with Nicholas Hammond (one of the "Von Trapp" kids from The Sound of Music)?
When Spider-Man: No Way Home came out, a public comment was made that "all the live-action Spider-Man actors were in it". I immediately thought, if Nicholas Hammond isn't in it, at least for an on-the-street cameo, that statement isn't true.
Come to think of it, they didn't have the guy from The Electric Company either... (catchy tune)
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On 6/24/2025 at 5:43 PM, The Trouble said:
Air Support
Thermal/Beam Defender
I see you correctly have the green to starboard and the red to port. 😉
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Sometimes, the people to mourn are not the actors playing the heroes but the composers who give energy and style to the heroic work.
Lalo Schifrin died Thursday, June 26 at age 93. If the name doesn't jog the memory, undoubtedly his most famous work will: the iconic theme song to the Mission: Impossible franchise of TV shows and movies. Actually, I think "iconic" might be a gross understatement. It has been adapted several times by composers as mighty as Danny Elfman, Hanz Zimmer, and Michael Giacchino. It even was so iconic that it forced out none other than John Williams when he refused to work with the theme on the first of the movies.
This AP News article does a great job of enlightening one to Schifrin's work beyond Mission: Impossible, which includes several legends he worked with and shows he composed for.
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8 hours ago, DougGraves said:
I have not seen it. I will have to check it out.
To be balanced, there still is a lot of the light-show Jubilee in the series, especially early in the season, but without giving away too much, she has an unusual encounter which enlightens her to her full potential, and by season end, the big bads are getting a painful lesson in what "leveling up" can mean.
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Point out some in-game places that you wished had specific names.
I'll lead off by suggesting the 3 warehouse locations in Skyway where the Supertroll rave events occur should have names, especially the one where Babbage also shows up. While from an RP standpoint, it might be nice to have signs on the buildings giving a company name, I'd be fine with chat identifying them with something as bland as Troll Rave East, Troll Rave South, and Troll Rave West. Rather than wait for another player to fumble around with the location system, just announce Babbage as near Troll Rave East, or TR East. Thought about this tonight when a player announced Babbage as "near the South tram station" when it was really next to "Troll Rave East". (Someone eventually put up the coordinates, but not before a handful of people had been milling around the station searching for Babbage in traditional locations.
In addition, the warehouse Babbage often appears at near the bend in the war wall could probably benefit from a name as well.
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On 4/2/2025 at 7:09 AM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:
Iceman. Chris Knight. Doc Holliday. Nick Rivers. Jim Morrison. Ray LeVol. Mad Martigan, Greatest Swordsman Of All Time.
And Chris Shiherlis, Greatest Ponytail Of All Time. So, so many iconic roles, it's hard to choose just one.
And I just rediscovered another while perusing random videos: Col. John Henry Patterson in The Ghost and the Darkness. Can't believe I ever forgot that one. Of the key seven at the top of the cast, four have died in the past two years.
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Just learned of this: Ahoy. Apparently, this will be a team Age of Sail warship game, though there will be a solo captaincy combat option as well. By "team", I gather one creates a character, goes through training ("Seamanship") to run a "real" sailing ship and learn the articles of war to which players will be bound (presumably this starts as midshipman), then works one's way up the ladder of success. Friends can join the same ship and assume the roles of officers under one friend as captain.
"Ahoy is a skills-based experience, where seamanship should be easy to learn, but hard to master"
Sea Trials - Closed Alpha - targeted Quarter 1, 2026 - Closed Alpha players will be aiding in the testing of the Seamanship portion of the game. It doesn't sound like combat yet, unless there's target practice.
Arena - Public Release - targeted Quarter 4, 2026 - This will be the battle stage. Demonstrated were British vs. Continental Navies, but there were 3 other flags available. There's suppose to be 4 modes of this stage, with more opportunities to come, both sea and land, as well as new ships in the future:
- Sea Trials - Peaceful Sailing with friends
- Beat to Quarters - Two teams, multiple ships
- Naumachia - Every captain for themselves
- Dominion - Capture and hold the objectives
Open World - "Future Vision" - TBA - the gist is that they want to make the entire Caribbean an explorable and colonizable content: "trade, smuggling, piracy" were a few points named.
Side note: I must give them credit for smarts for using Boccherini's musical duet as a sure way to motivate Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World fans to join the game. (full name of piece: Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid (Night Music of the Streets of Madrid), Opus 30 No. 6 (G. 324))
Also, the sea chanty sung by El Pony Pisador at the end of the video is really quite catchy:
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This looks promising...
Denis Villeneuve has been named as director for the next Bond film, setting the stage for all that comes. Villeneuve refers to himself as "a die-hard Bond fan".
But first he'll complete Dune: Messiah.
(As the last Bond thread was locked a few months back, I appeal to all to keep the discussion classy.)
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13 hours ago, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:
(Yes, I still miss those three. And the B5 banter generally.)
There were times I felt like G'Kar and Mulari were written by Shakespeare. Their comedy, their tragedy, and their growth across the seasons, was some of the best fictional television I've ever seen. It's too bad some folks can't look past crazy hairdos and alien makeup to see the human nature the characters are meant to reflect.
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On 6/16/2025 at 7:35 AM, ThaOGDreamWeaver said:
Just wanted to share something I ran across.
If, while studying as an undergrad at MIT, you complete courses in Sailing, Pistol Shooting (Air or Rifle), Archery and Fencing...
...you will unlock an official, genuine, MIT Pirate Certificate.
This is real, not an April 1st special, and designed to promote the range of Phys Ed options at MIT.
More of this, please: I don't think gamification works for everything, but people do respond well to fun small rewards.
What's the best examples you've run into?
Pistols and Archery don't really sound like Phys Ed stuff (this from a former camp archery instructor), that is, unless you're doing some sort of running action with them. Most archery ranges uses a 45 lbs draw as their maximum, paired with close targets, which I raised an eyebrow at when I was investigating archery ranges in my area at which to practice. The camp I instructed at taught 9 and 10 year olds using 45 lbs bows. Adults who could handle them were offered 60 lbs bows, which is what we two instructors used. Admittedly, I had some great biceps after 10 weeks of summer, but I was pulling that string 4 hours a day 6 days a week. I don't really see that action as Phys Ed. Now if we had a safe training possible in a "run and gun" style, that might be Phys Ed, likewise a biathlon for guns. (Now if the course was offering "Medieval archery", I might see that as Phys Ed, as the longbow archers of that era frequently had bows of 180 lbs draw weight in order to penetrate armor, and it was their daily job to train. That...is a workout.)
Gamification: Best I can think of may never see the light of day, sadly. I've a buddy who is a genius coder and health nut, and came very close to releasing an excellent fitness website that did a great job of aiding people wanting to improve their health. He enlisted me for insights as I'm exactly the kind of person the site would target, and I pitched the idea of taking a page from gaming and giving multiple rewards in the fitness program: Long term goal rewards (I'd probably compare this to security levels in COH), but also a variety of smaller rewards for meeting short-term goals. The idea was to get the dopamine pumping to keep the more challenged "in the game" during spots that were harder to hit the long-term goals. Sadly, the project has been tabled indefinitely, as he finishes a couple of other concepts and brings them to market, including a new, affordable concept in personal alert buttons, those "help me, I've fallen and I can't get up" things. This one's got some concepts that would make it useful to healthy people leading active lifestyles as well. Sadly, the chance to bring this to market, disrupted the fitness program design.
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1 minute ago, Glacier Peak said:
Watching the show made me feel like she was a mcguffin that could do anything the show wanted her to do, but the manufactured drama made the character confusing to watch.
By any chance, do you mean a "Mary Sue" rather than a "mcguffin"? I've always understood "Mcguffin" to mean an object that affects the plot or subplot, like the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings or the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Okay, when double-checking myself, I learned the "object" could be a person, like Private Ryan in Saving Private Ryan.)
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