Techwright

I don't believe so, but I thank you for the challenge as it has made me review the situation with greater care and with new pictures, leading to a completely different understanding. You'll find with this corrected understanding, that you got one part of it right. I on the other hand, got...one part of it right. Electrostaffs (staves?) were a combination of blunt weapon and electricity. Any time you see someone punched with one of those, it could have a stun effect from the electricity, and if enough is applied it could electrocute, but it didn't pierce, at least none that I saw, and I've seen them many times, mostly with General Grievous' guards. Most seen in Star Wars are double-ended in their electrical use. There is a version of electrostaff used by the Emperor's Guard, but they are a different group considered a class higher than the Praetorian Guard, and not present in this fight. I'm also unclear if that version is single or double ended. I'm going to need to put the rest into a spoiler box:

That's actually a huge turn-off for me, and goes back to the point I made about a genuine lack of care about the source material. Gorn: Yet another redo on the species? Okay, first, I understand and accept that it was necessary to update them from The Original Series (TOS). Roddenberry had a shoestring budget and a tight deadline, and technology could not portray what was probably needed at the time. So they weren't portrayed in Deep Space Nine, though it was mentioned that they were playing baseball with the Federation, having made peace with them. That implies they're roughly humanoid still. Then they're given a visual overhaul for Enterprise, and it was glorious, if a little disconcerting that they didn't look close to the TOS version. They were more animalistic as well, but not terrible. Then we got the Altered Universe versions first in an unused clip in the movies, which returned to a humanoid look, and second in the Star Trek video game. The game couldn't decide on one look, and instead went for several. They were a bit like the Enterprise Gorn in framework, but again, very visually different with a lot more spikey bits. And they're more animalistic than either of the previous versions. Star Trek Online got into the act and their Gorn return to the humanoid look, but add a crocodilian face. Now I'm hearing that they've been redone yet again, and I'm seeing it too, as I went and looked at a "making of" video. They do look a bit more like the Enterprise version, but there are still notable changes. Based solely on that video, so I may be mistaken, they sound like Alien xenomorph wannabees. I'm very annoyed at one comment on the video delivered by the co-showrunner/executive producer who said "What I like about the Gorn is that they are not every other iteration of representation of the human 'other' in alien skin. They're evil." Two issues with that: 1.) It is canonically established by episodes in The Next Generation, that the reason there are so many humanoid species in the galaxy (and possibly beyond) is that there was a progenitor race that seeded their DNA into the evolutionary matrix of planets around the galaxy. This means, in Star Trek sense, that even humans are not the template, but are a primate species with the DNA code of the Progenitors. All humanoid species arise because of this. They don't all have to be mammalian. The Gorn were seen as one of these, as were other reptilian races such as the Cardassians or the Reptilian Xindi. With the Progenitor code affecting the outcome of planets, multiple intelligent descendant species could arise on the same planet. Earth had two, and oh hey, the first one was reptilian, not primate. The Xindi had six. At least one other planet has been portrayed with these multiple variants of the Progenitors. The derogatory comment about "every other iteration" has no merit in Star Trek canon. 2.) The Gorn were hostile, not evil. From their first appearance it was shown that their aggressive behavior was because they felt violated by the Federation. In Deep Space Nine, they're playing baseball with humans. They're not evil. Vicious in warfare, yes, evil no. Having so many interpretations of the Gorn leads to a problem: if viewers don't recognize the reptile, and it looks menacing, it becomes natural to assume its a Gorn. If you really want an evil, vicious, different looking reptile in your show, the galaxy is a big place. Why not just create a new species and run with it. The Gorn are not the only reptiles in canon. One other thing: Kirk would not have stood a chance on his own on a planet with no obvious weapons against an adult of this version of them. A few of the many faces of the Gorn: I'm confused by the "Balance of Terror" reference, and more confused when I went looking for answers. EDIT: I should point out that in Star Trek there really should be only two times that a species gets a redo: 1) The Great Bird, Roddenberry, wanted to redo it. In nearly all cases, this was because of budget concerns in the original series. The Klingon look changed in The Motion Picture because Gene finally had a budget for good prosthetics. Romulan changes were similar. 2) The look changes because it really did need a one-time makeover, and Roddenberry had never gotten around to it. The Gorn fit this bill. In such a case though, the species should not be changed so much that they're not recognizable, and that they function differently. Fast Gorn that are not humanoid is exactly what I'm pointing out. If Kirk without weapons on a desert planet could not outrun or match them in fighting, they shouldn't be the final design. I will accept a 3rd, reluctantly: Returning to the original series look. This worked for both Deep Space Nine and Enterprise when stories were crafted around Klingons with the Original Series look. In context, it works well. But with 2009's Star Trek, the future Romulans returned to the unmodified forehead look. This made little sense because there was no explanation like the virus that affected Klingons. Hence my reluctance. It was still an Roddenberry-authorized look, just without context. On the plus side, they could wiggle their eyebrows.

Not lightsabers, but a polearm weapon of some sort. I'm not certain they've been seen in Star Wars before. The closest comparison I've found, so far, is a weapon with the Praetorian Guard in The Last Jedi. That weapon is called a vibro-voulge, and though very similar in nature, it has a distinctively different design. What I was puzzled about is that three Praetorian Guards all carry the same weapon. When The Last Jedi came out, the talk was that Praetorian Guards all carried different weapons, and that they were picked in part for their highly specialized skills with their weapon of choice. EDIT: see my major corrections to my comments in posting lower in the thread. For the same reason that the heroes of Star Wars are named "Luke" and "Ben" despite being from a different time and galaxy. George Lucas, in keeping with the serial sci-fi of the 1930s to 1950s on which he based Star Wars, made a design choice to often incorporate names and concepts from the real world. This has the added benefit of connecting the viewer to that fantasy world.

/AngryCat_necro-thread_rant 😉 I was a Trekkie once, until I took a Bat'leth to the knee. Okay, more seriously, my current distaste for modern Star Trek is due to what I perceive to be a growing number of bad story and lore decisions that reflect a lack of genuine care for the source material or the fans. It started as far back as several Voyager episodes, and though I stuck with the franchise through the Chris Pine era, and both Discovery seasons 1 & 2 and Picard season 1, I haven't felt inclined to waste further coin or time on what I perceive to be an unchanging situation. I've not heard the reports of Strange New Worlds, though having seen the initial trailer, it may be the only thing within Star Trek that interests me, and that is largely because Anson Mount is amazing as Pike, the one shining spot in Discovery season 2. Please understand, I'm not one of those who seeks to gripe. The world has enough of those. Star Trek has been in my blood since the early 1970s. I was a first gen viewer of Star Trek: The Animated Series. In middle school I could name all 78 episodes of the original series (The Cage had not been formally canonized yet), tell you the plot, and name the guest actors. I had hundreds of dollars of Star Trek books. I didn't cosplay, and couldn't afford to attend the early conventions, but I was as best a Trekkie as I could be. That should give you an idea of how badly I feel let down. 😞

You seem to have a thing for purple, light green, and shade colors. Conqueror, Saturn, and Starscourge all stand out. Starscourge is a pretty great Warshade name.

Good luck with that. They still haven't given us the P2W vendored, limited-ammo, regen Nerf gun that lets you regen teammates.

Ohhh, boy. One almost needs a roll of a 20-sided die to guess what the title of "The Spies" actually means. As to the rest of that hidden content:

What are you going to pair with Storm Blast when it goes live? It should pair nicely with Mountain Dew Charged Orange Storm or Mountain Dew Typhoon.

Oh boy, we're about to get an increase in necro threads, aren't we? And I'm all out of popcorn. Sadwright.

I agree the TFs need an overhaul: cut the fat, add interest. Anything longer than a standard hour, give it the Posi treatment and make it a two-parter. The OG MMO came out at a time when MMOs were new and marvelous, and people were willing to sacrifice massive chunks of time to play them. Now we've lives (well, maybe not Snarky), and more limited time. Island hopping without new content: streamline the geysers. Rather than flopping around with a chance to miss, make it a sure thing to travel by geyser action from point A to point B, and increase the speed as well. Island hopping with new content: Introduce an optional ship system, something that moves from island to island as if you were piloting a boat. Yes, we have jetpacks, but a ship can act as a sort of island itself, allow another gameplay possibility (next up). For that matter, why not pilot tiny islands? Making better use of the space with new content: Introduce occasional creatures that fly/float in the void between islands. Make them larger than your standard human size, maybe elephant sized. Let them travel in small groups/pods (void whales if you will) set them as elite bosses and make it possible to fight them from the decks of proposed ships. Have one that is a giant monster rank. Making better use of the space with little to no content change: Create move vertical distance between islands, not all on a similar plane. This is a weird place anyway, so why not have weird gravity. Have a few islands upside down. You'll walk/fight on the surface as if it was perfectly normal, but it is inverted. Go crazy: have a few do a slow tumble in position, but always a player who arrives to the surface will perceive it as "normal" and everything else as weird. Improvement with new content: Retool the look of the islands, especially key ones, to be much more individually distinctive. One thing that's always annoyed me is that its easy to get turned around because all the elements between the islands is fairly homogenous. I'd like something distinctive that immediately lets me know what island I'm viewing. Improvement with new content: Introduce an event to the Shard. Shard creatures swarming comes to mind as one example Do villains have standard access to the zone like they do the RWZ? I don't recall. If not, find a way to make it so, but not for PVP (unless a small arena within the zone can be designated for such).

The idea has merit. That would put Indy into the 1920s and early 1930s, the pulp fiction era. Exploration of the interiors of continents and remote islands was still a thing, and the era had a lot of mystery exploration stories, such as some of the Doc Savage books (though Savage leans towards the superhero genre). Though we'd have to get new actors all around, a younger Indy story could develop secondary characters more like Dr. Jones, Sr. It could also provide first introductions to Marion, Sallah, and Marcus. I'd be interested in seeing them tackle cultures not seen in an Indy work before: Scandinavian (Thule?), Inuit, Polynesian, and aboriginal Australian spring to mind as a few examples. Japanese, as well, which might dovetail nicely with the established films seeing as the country would eventually become the eastern end of the Axis forces.

Just realized something and I've seen no reaction comments anywhere concerning it:

I think it does help. Thanks. I was unaware there was any option to rename an SG, even by support ticket.

I'm curious to see what opinions there are out there regarding any future for the Indiana Jones franchise once Harrison Ford hangs up the hat and whip this year. In your opinion should: The franchise be ended. Another actor be cast as a middle-aged Indy during the 1930s/40s. Another actor be cast as an aging Indy in the 1950s. The franchise explores Indy's professional start with a younger actor portraying Indy either in grad school or right after he gets his doctorate. The franchise reboot the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (youth to teen years) in a way that is fully canon. The franchise be expanded with stories focused on other characters from the franchise (Short Round, Salah, the goddaughter, etc.) Nothing on screen, but instead make canon games, audio stories and books. Some combination of the above Something else (please describe) You'll notice I've left the Indy multi-verse option off the list. 😛

Well at least you're not a berliner (donut) like a certain 1960s president. "Accent from the movies" - you mean the Received Pronunciation British accent that seems to keep showing up with German officers? I did a German survey course once under the tutelage of a friend of mine. I was fascinated with the cultures, but didn't click with the language, unfortunately. Ironic, seeing as English is largely a fusion descendant of Latin and Germanic languages. Just a limitation of mine, sadly, or maybe I'm a "Latin lover". 😉 If I do ever learn another foreign language beyond Spanish, I think I'd like go all in and learn one of the lesser spoken ones, like Scots Gaelic, or Cherokee. The idea of helping to preserve a language has a certain appeal to me.

Which is why I picked Spanish to learn. It is much easier SO-C-K-S 😉

First thing I thought of. I'd love to have a Giant Man/Longshadow-type character, but those passage ways are rough for ordinary scales. There's a reason the giants are opponents only, and only found in tall spaces. (That said, I still want a day where we time travel to Dec 7, 1941 and get to see Atlas fighting on the bridge.) Besides, (and I realize I'm both reaching far into the distant past and also not skilled in game design) didn't the original developers run into significant problems with the hit box when dealing with giants? I think it was in connection to Rularuu, but that's been more than 15 years past. They may have completely solved it.

Pondering something, and wondering if we'll see a progression of this part of Ahsoka's story reaching all the way back to the Clone Wars:

(adding orange answers to the hidden contents) I'm debating whether to watch it or not. I like Photon, Nick, and Goose. I'll not list all my dislikes, except to say [EDIT, EDIT...EDIT, EDIT, EDIT] Okay, maybe some flaming. I'll cool my jets. If I watch it, it will be for Photon, Nick, and the Lovecraftian humor that is Goose. I could watch a whole movie focused on just Photon. She was one of the better bits of Wandavision. (I'd really like Jimmy Woo back for the fun, if so.) More importantly, if I watch any Marvel show I don't care for, it's in order to gain MCU continuity before the next big project I do want to see. On the bright side, with the outcome of this movie, every Avenger might get his/her own cat to take into battle with them.

Most see her as the first spy, since she shows up first. They're trying to identify the second, if there is one.

That makes sense. The city where I grew up had two distinct names and stages. The first stage and original name was during the early days of the USA. The area was used as a summer home in the mountains for the rich of the Carolina coastline to escape the muggy heat. The second stage and second name was when many finally decided to stay in the area and incorporate. Thanks. Reading through that, beyond the origins that I sought, I noticed there was no mention of Atlas during the attack on Independence Point. Considering the detail otherwise given, that's a major oversight of the wiki. I'm also intrigued by the Sand Kings and the Storm Korp. (Shouldn't it be "Sturm Korp"?) I'm not sure how it could be done, but the idea of another connection to the past, similar to Cimerora, to participate in the desert guerrilla warfare with Dream Doctor and the Sand Kings sounds like it could be a fun new zone.

I've only animation to go on, I've not read the comic books, but in animation the former Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, is killed in an explosion involving the scarab. I think he was trying to activate it. Anyway, the scarab did become active, but damaged. It's why Jaime was initially able to control it, when, as you find out in the story, scarabs were meant to be parasites, completely compromising a host, rather than being a sometimes uncooperative symbiote.

Where do we even buy rouge in Paragon City? I feel like the old way would have had more significance since alignment changes were earned and not instant back then, but yeah, it might be fun.