Techwright

The descriptions sound promising, though it feels like Bond is a lot more present than I was suggesting. I was thinking more along the lines of a comment or perhaps, as I mentioned, a shadow on the wall. There's also the question in my mind as to how permanent these 00s are? If the writer is unwilling to kill any of them, seeing them as a cash cow, it kind of defeats the purpose. Not that they should be quick kills, though. 00s are supposed to be hard to kill. One other thought occurred to me when reading this: It would be interesting to see how a 00 rises to the role. We saw a tiny bit of this in Casino Royale when Craig's interpretation made the two kills that got him the 007. But what happens before that? What moves a candidate from naval commander into the preparation program for 00, and then prepares them? And would it be reasonable to assume there's an entire replacement team trained in the wings and just waiting for the call to the big leagues?

First, I'll add my two nickles to the pot (not the pennies. I'm saving them now that they're about to be extincted), and say that I, too, have great misgivings about Amazon taking the reins. To what you said, @ThaOGDreamWeaver: I laughed because this is exactly what a dear and slightly kooky friend has confused himself into believing for years: that "James Bond" is a title bequeathed and that a variety of men have bourne it. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) I've told him until I'm blue in the face that different actors portrayed the same man to the end of Pierce Brosnan's era, and that Daniel Craig's was a reboot of the same character. Love my brotherly buddy, but he's stubbornly persisted. Now I'm seeing the idea as a possibility going forward. 🤣 Okay, with a major change, here's what I'd like to see: the other 8 Double Oh's. (There's not a 000 is there?) Let James Bond take a rest for a while, while they figure out how to handle the character going forward. Refer to him throughout this new production, maybe even as the shadow on the wall at times, but have the spotlight specifically target the rest of the 00 class of fighters. This does a couple of things: Gives us opportunities for ensemble stories: two or three 00s for big missions (not all of them at once), and a rotation of characters, movie to movie Allows for multiple movie shoots at the same time (Movie 1 gets 002, 005, and 008. Movie 2 gets 003, 004, and 009) so the release dates become closer, more like an MCU lineup. Allows for male or female agents, any ethnicity within the British Commonwealth, and any mix thereof on the team. Should allow for cooperation with allied, foreign agencies more often. Think "Felix Leighter" but in other countries besides the USA (though that's fine, too). Some of the 00s have specialized connections to key individuals or agencies where their teammates may not. And most especially: allows for sudden death. No 00 will be immune. That raises the stakes significantly, if you don't know they'll make it to the end credits. And the cold truth is, no matter how emotionally attached the audience gets, there will be another person stepping into that 00 number and role, maybe even in the same movie.

Ah, so "bleeding edge" tech, then. I'm assuming we're talking the 32GB GDDR7 variety. Passmark lists it as the top mark in current benchmarks, but doesn't yet list a price. Amazon doesn't have it yet, of course. Do you do pro competitive gaming or something? 'Cause that's just...wow...both cost and anticipated performance.

Isn't that mostly 006 in Goldeneye?

I'd not planned on posting this one, but I keep getting private chat compliments. Apparently, it makes an impact that I didn't anticipate. So, here's COLD FORGE, my Ice Blast/Fire Manipulation Blaster.

Whoa...what kind of video card are you shooting for? The only cards I know priced at that level I'd call "bleeding edge" stuff: top 5 or 6 cards available on PassMark's benchmarked chart. Okay, some of the Quadros are off the scale in pricing, but they don't benchmark well, and looking at their stats, I'm not really sure what the spike in price is justified by.

This makes weird sense. One question: are holiday weekends bound by Thursday to Monday? I could have sworn I'd seen some reporting in years past where Wednesday was a starting point. In similar fashion, what happens if the holiday falls on a Tuesday rather than Monday? Or if there's a double "holiday": say Christmas Eve (unofficial but often taken) on the Monday and Christmas Day on the Tuesday?

👍👍 YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES! 🏆🏆 I'd actually considered writing this up myself. I can't tell you how many times I've been in the thick of a tense fight, crossed some significant point threshold, and suddenly got several pop up messages about "X wants to talk to you" splayed right over my area of vision, forcing me to clear all of them before continuing the fight. I've much desired to be able to move and resize these, just like I can the Map.

Agreed, though I suspect you were never the kid with those old tin airplanes that had wheels so you could push them around. 😉 I've not noticed this. Is it an actual foot print in shape, or just a water disturbance? If the latter, you might be able to say there's an energy discharge of some sort (anti-grav wave, downward air draft, etc.) that creates the disturbance when they float over the puddles.

I too like the idea and the thought that it might serve as a temp power. How about this: START vendors sell you 30 charges of Scavenger Tool Kit-Tech (more on that in a sec). While you still hold even one charge, you gain an ability to target fallen enemy tech (before it disappears) to search for usable parts. You're given a percentage chance of finding such. If you find such (with another chance of finding more than one), it goes into a special salvage tab. When you've salvaged X amount (let's say 5 components), you can then use a charge of Scavenger Took Kit-Tech to build a device to either support or fight alongside of you for a specific period of time. This form of salvage would likely need to be soul-bound. Perhaps set different salvage component amounts to build bigger constructs. Personally, I'd find it hilarious to stun and drop a Freak tank, then go happily rummaging through his cybernetic components for what parts I need. "Ah, perfect! You don't need this do you? Didn't think so." As this requires some effort to construct a pet, it might be seen as a "poor man's" Signature Summons. Not sure what the pricing difference at START might be, though. Also, I described it as Scavenger Took Kit-Tech, because I suspect the same concept could be used with a magic design as well. Extract magical essences with Scavenger Tool Kit-Magic from Circle of Thorns, Carnival, etc. to create magical constructs to aid you.

Good question! I didn't hear about this, so thanks for the heads up.

While I could wish for more Steve Rogers, the 616 Universe's Steve Rogers had a surprising, but ultimately satisfying wrap-up. I'd not really wish to tread on that ending. But we're in the multiverse phase, so we'd probably be looking at a similar-looking, but different Steve Rogers, and who knows what that character will be like?

Saving the base design: we think alike. There was, however, a discussion a year or two back where I'd brought this up. The context was the idea of having the skilled builders offer to design nice-looking stock bases for those with no design ability, then share to those in need. If I recall correctly, a comment made was that the whole base coding was a mess, hastily put together apparently, and to alter that coding to accommodate this would be a nightmare. One can still hope that someday a way might be found. Renaming SG without deleting base: this one surprised me. I might have been under a rock, but I don't recall this being an issue. I sent an SG rename request in a couple of years ago, and the GMs handled the rename for me. My base at that time was a pretty modest thing, but I don't recall any losses to it.

While I get it, I have to agree with others that it just starts a fight. That said, I'd be game for such a display only displaying for the league leader. That way they can make a private message in hopes to motivate the person to join. Taking it further, I'd really like to see an auto-support function kick in. When one forgets or refuses to click the green button, they are dropped from the league, just as they would be as the league enters the event, but with this version, a pause takes place and the game asks the league leader if they'd like to proceed, or if they want to back out to recruit replacements.

Okay, I'll pitch one, but it's a curve ball. Currently, we have that Mini mode for prismatic aether costumes. I'd like a new version where the mini mode is placed on different kinds of pets rather than the player's character. While it might be hilarious to be a mastermind with robots the sized of wind-up children's toys, or an illusion controller with mini phantoms, I was thinking more about the value of the mini mode for making it easier to see around the tall pets, like some of the MM demons, or (and I realize this is likely different coding) the Incarnate Banished Pantheon lore pets. With a pet mini mode, I'd be able to see better in BAF runs when my pet is constantly stomping around me in the chaos of two teams holding down a lane during the escape phase. It'd also be useful in tight spaces, like the blue tunnels. Cute and practical.

Ahem...

And for Winter Soldier, that's 2014 dollars, which were 33% more valuable than today. So had it come out this past weekend, Winter Soldier would have made $126,681,034.85 against a budget of $170,000,000. (2025: $226,635,788.39) Brave New World's budget, though, I'm not going to be able to put down cleanly, at least for the moment. On the one hand, it is publicly stated by Marvel/Disney as $180,000,000. But there's a lot odd about that. First, it's a lot lower in today's dollars than Winter Soldier, for example. (Additionally, Captain America: The First Avenger is generally considered the least expensive of the series and it comes in at $196,429,698.72 in 2025 dollars) Second, there's been, from what I've read, extensive reshoots. Reports just 8 months ago were stating figures of up to $100 million for just one major reshoot. The stated budget previously was $275 million before reshoots. In trying to be fair, I'll point out that several of these reporting sites sounded more like ones who like to egg on a train wreck, and likely had very light insider knowledge with much more guess work. Some of you have ties to the films industry. Can you tell me definitively if a company states what the budget for a film was, must it legally be a straightforward, honest statement? Or is there a lot of tricks and wiggle room used in the reporting? EDIT: Apologies if you see any duplicates of this post. The connection to the forums went crazy when I clicked the save button. I think I've cleaned them all up though.

I can't point to chapter and verse, but I do seem to recall comments made that the Miller/Fish bit was supposed to be a double reference. I've not gone looking for the NPC for a while, but if I recall correctly, the in-game Miller looks more like Matt Miller than it does Hal Lindon.

Nanna, Nanna, Nanna, Nanna,

That seems reasonable. I've seen The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, so I'm aware of the characters named. (I liked about 50% of that production. The "You're free" scene with Bucky was amazing.) Most of the ones you named as poor or unlikeable I agree with. Iron Man 2 I apparently had a greater fondness for, but it definitely needed something else added to it. And yeah, Winter Soldier is usually in people's top 3. Middle of the pack is surprising, but intriguing. Still not sure that I'll see it in theaters, but if it goes to D+ quickly, as I suspect, I might resubscribe to see that and catch up on some other things.

I was hoping they'd call it "Coulson". Death with resurrection is his super power after all.

*Grabs the two pennies* They've stopped making these. They might be valuable someday. @tidge is on target. I wish this event was just called "Valentines" or something like that, and one of the other two events had "Spring" added to the name, but it is what it is.