Techwright

Fascinating. Functionally in a full fight, what might be the advantage over just standing still while using the ability? It doesn't seem like it would be akin to enemy teleport, where you might pluck one linchpin character from a mob and defeat him without the mob going into action.

He is. Siege, or any other android, needs no face or even head. The sensors that act as eyes could be installed anywhere and not look like eyes. As Snarky points out, humans crave that interaction, and therefore build a head or face. I actually prefer faceless in a villain robot precisely for that reason: the inability to read gesture or emotion, the anonymity is unsettling. It's like Star Trek's Borg: they were far more terrifying when they didn't have a queen, but were a swarm working to an unseen hive mind. A queen (or spokesborg Locutus) gave them a face, a head, something we could kill. If Seige had been constructed without a head and plate for a face, he'd have been far more unsettling, even terrifying. We'd lose that sense that if you hit the face, if you destroy the head, you defeat the enemy. Without it we're left guessing where to strike.

Just finished watching the season finale of Andor and it is AMAZING. The story took us in directions I never expected. If you've not seen it yet, there's a tag scene in the credits. I'll post my thoughts later when I have a chance to re-watch it. There's a lot of material to unpack.

Actually the wings looks kind of cool, like an alternate universe infused with European fairy tale elements. Something Portal Corp might find. The pink skirt looks like she's promoting a second-hand charity store, so yeah, pink skirt is sillier.

I'm hoping this thought (in the hide box above) is what is revealed. I can think of a couple of expansions on it:

Does this mean we can get day jobs as Uber drivers? I mean, you don't want to hire just any old cabbie to take you to the Super Secretman Cave. I'm not sure that I'm not going to be saying something that hasn't been in snippets of my conversations all the way back to the original game, but here goes: 1. Overhaul the look of the city. More a blend of architectural style of the last 150 years, and definitely less Brutalism (I am not a fan). Completely redesign Skyway, and the road patterns have to make sense. I've been pitching ethnic sections to the city (Little Italy, Chinatown, Czech Village, etc.) since back in the OP. Some of the NPCs could tie into the themed areas, such as putting the Tsoo into a southeast Asia neighborhood, or the Warriors hanging out in the Greek streets. 2. Ditch the machines that exchange salvage for temporary power and defense boosts. This is a city and the concept is cutting away from a prime opportunity. Convert the salvage into a script currency of some kind, recognized by shop keepers all over the city, and use it in coffee & donut shops or bodegas, at hot dog stands and automats (vending restaurant) to buy consumables that will give you a brief boost (no more than an hour). This will give a richer, integrated experience to the city, and probably help those doing roll play. There should probably be special care given to drinks from the bar, though. Too many at a time, and you begin to have negative effects. Same with sugar. The guy camping the ice cream shop should experience an energy burst then a severe crash at some point in combat. 3. More elites hitting the streets. I'm thinking like Hogger in WoW. Now I'm not saying a big announcement with a 20 minutes fight, like the Nemesis zone invasions, but an elite leader either camping a spot or occasionally appearing and moving around. Either way, with an elite escort. For example, Dreck appearing among the masses in the Freaktown at the back of Crey's Folly for a time, or Chernobog on Skulls business moving from building to building in Perez Park, He goes in and disappears for a short time, then he exists and moves to the next building. All under elite guard. Add another layer and street sweep looking for clues as to where someone is holed up / moving. Sweep enough, and it triggers the target's appearance. 4. Speaking of street sweeping, I'd like the option to do a Null the Gull switch from telling NPCs "you con gray to me" to having every street villain always seen as within color range of me. Sure, it might be blue or green, but make it at least a bit of a challenge (voluntarily) moving through the streets. 5. Really pie-in-the-sky here, but breakable everything within instanced missions. My tank would love to put his fist through a wall where a goon leans against it on the other side. Also of interest would be missions were you are not permitted to cut loose. You'll have to fight a bit more discretely if you don't want the brownstone on the historic preservation list to have its walls punched out.

Have you seen the crazy theory out there about Luthen?

Has it really been 44? Wow. I remember watching this premier (and only) night. I also remember thinking: what off earth am I watching? Very bizarre. Perhaps this is what caused Harrison Ford to hate his role so much. The hilarious thing is that The Mandalorian has been adding bits of the holiday special into official canon, but making them cool, like the disintegration rifle. I've got to believe that is Dave & Jon trolling George.

I'm continuing to watch the Andor episode 11 reactions as they're slowly being released, and I've got to agree with one reactor I just saw: the cello interpretation of the Andor theme in the last shot of episode 11 was just outstanding, and really captured the emotion of the moment. That's one of the rarely spoken bits of modern Star Wars: those shows that are not blessed with a John Williams theme or score, are nevertheless blessed with creative composers who clearly realize whose shoes they're having to try to fill, and are bringing their "A game" to the shows.

Answering in the hide box. EDIT: forgot to add the following thoughts to my ep. 11 post:

Vanguard, yes, I see where you are coming from. That makes sense as an opening move, though an expensive and dangerous one, even with the conditions you name.

I wonder, does this need to change? I've seen multiple cases over the years where a PUG league is quickly formed and the make-shift leader leaves one or two poor souls isolated, and therefore not hitting that 10% if the GM is taken down rapidly. Why does it remain distinctive to the team when a league is clearly intended?

Use the Foot, Luke.

Perhaps it was intended as a road/bridge to a relatively nearby island? We've been told that there are other Rogue Islands than the one seen, and that originally the gameplan was to add these as expansion zones. I'd not be surprised if, in an alternate world, the developers would have finished the road/bridge and opened another island zone. I'd always assumed that, if a moon base ever came to the game and a launch area was added to the game, it would either be its own zone, far afield of any city life, or if built in the city, it would be shuttles, a la Star Trek. Considering all the retro-engineering work on Rikti technology, I'd find it believable in context. The last thing you want is a rocket exploding and crashing on the city surrounding the launch pad (not to mention noise ordinances).

I had two phenomenal English teachers in high school who steeped me in vocabulary and gave me a love for it. It is somewhat rare, therefore, that I encounter a word new to me that isn't some disposable pop-culture term. Today I learned "lagniappe" and I love it. Thank you!

Really? Could have sworn it said: THE HERO WAS BRAVE AND STRONG AND WILLIN’ SHE FELT HIS CHIN THEN WED THE VILLAIN -- Burma~Shave I can't even type that, and you want me to translate?? Sorry, he's busy sorting out the errors in the Evil Overlord's plans.

Street sweeping is one of those area I've always felt lacked something to hold attention. I'm not happy about that, and I'm really wishing I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure what the solution to that might be. In games like WoW, street sweeping is essentially roaming the fields targeting everything that can be fought and it is far more fun and rewarding than here. Perhaps if there were nests of elites to fight through (the Freak village in Crey's Folly seems a natural place to put this) or a chance at truly rare drops, or perhaps even setting all to within 4 levels of the player's avatar, it might change how I look at it. As it is, I get far more reward from running task forces, so why sweep?

Or learn the new ropes. Much has changed, especially transportation.

Yes, I've done it a couple of times, each time was deliberate, and was done because the concept and look were so stuck in my mind that I just had to let them out. Each time though, I altered the look of the power to give an illusion that I'm working with a different set. I'm more likely however, to create a very similar powerset, but place it with a different AT, like blaster vs. sentinel.

Andor finally addressed one of my few issues with the program, yet created another. First though, responses in orange... Now a few comments of my own:

That was pretty much my thought. When I heard that Overwatch was a superhero gig, I was intrigued, but pure PvP drained all interest. I'm fine with voluntary PvP and have done so before, most notably in WoW.

Ah, that's actually a valid point. NCSoft is not one to sell an MMO when they tire of it. Also, surely Sony is not thinking of putting an MMO version out in 3.5 years? Unless tactics have changed, I hear it takes twice that long to develop a new MMO properly. Then again, if they're using the materials from their last Horizon game, that might shave off time.

WOW! That is an iconic name I didn't expect to see passing any time soon. There've been some very good voices brought to animated Batman roles in recent years (Jason O'Mara and Bruce Greenwood spring to mind), and I'm consoled a bit by that, but Conroy will always be the definitive voice of this three-decade era, just like Olan Soule was the definitive voice for the animated "Bright Knight" era in the 70s and 80s.