Techwright

Interesting. I don't recall that, but it was likely during one of the times I'd moved my subscription monies over to another game. I tend to think BaBs might be associated with a task force to end a drug empire, like ArchVileTerror mentioned. It's pretty much his full career.

What might a task force look like for: 1. Back Alley Brawler? 2. Luminary? 3. Castle? 4. Swan? 5. (Add your own)

^ this. That said, I tend to see the following on some of the task forces... Positron Pt. 1 - 1/2 hour experienced team, 1 hour inexperienced. Woefully inept: 2 hours (it's all about the assault on City Hall. Separates the stooges from the aces.) Positron Pt. 2 - 1/2 hour experienced team, 1 hour inexperienced. Synapse - 1-2 hours experienced team, 2.5-3 hours inexperienced Penelope Yin - up to 1/2 hour experienced team, up to 1 hour inexperienced Moonfire - 30 to 45 minutes experienced, 45-75 minutes inexperienced (note some teams like to take more time to clear if they're working on their vamps and wolvie badges) Citadel - 45 to 90 minutes experienced, up to 2 hours inexperienced (greatly depends on stealth usage) Manticore - 30 to 60 minutes experienced, 1 to 2 hours inexperienced. Numina - 30 minutes to 45 experienced, 45 to 1 hour inexperienced (I've seen this as short as 20 minutes. Depends on how well-coordinated the team is) Dr. Quarterfield - pain, boredom, endless slogging...add 3 hours.

I think what A Cat was shooting for here is that perhaps the comparative needs to be done against the newer games rather than CoH. Since we don't know the newer games you have, I'd suggest checking the games on the site Can You Run It? which will provide both minimal and recommended requirements for the games. Then compare those against your choices. You may find that none of your choices might run a particular game, something we'd not be able to advise upon without full data. Some odds and ends thoughts below, and my apologies if anything sounds like I'm talking down to you. I always follow a maxim from a college teacher I had which begins with "Since the class is so large and there's a wide range of knowledge levels in play, I always assume I have to start at the level of the person who knows nothing..." 1.) If you're old computer is more than a decade out, keep monitor cables in mind when working with a new video card. You may have to acquire a conversion cable if the new video card doesn't have the ports for the old cable. 2.) Consider other features besides the game's need. Work toward future-proofing your computer, that is, if you're going to wait another decade before swapping, do your really want USB 2.0 ports or should it have USB 3.1 ports or...? 3.) The units come with Windows 11 Home. Is that sufficient for you? If your current computer is Windows 10 Home or Windows 7 Home, it probably is. Personally, I always get the Pro versions, but I do a bit more than many other folks do. Just putting it out there for consideration. 4.) To better understand video card, and to compare, I like to nose around in PassMark's Videocard Benchmark. For your aid, I've gone ahead and pulled up their comparison of the 4 cards in your list: As to your 4 choices, referring to them by the video cards, the GTX 1660 and the GTX 1660 Ti are nearly identical. They currently sit in positions #90 and #89 respectively, with the "Ti" getting just a bit more oomph. That said, it also has 50% more in memory clock speed (affects frames per second, resolution, basically the smoothness of your graphics). It's unit is $100 more and with that you also get another 240 gigs on the SSD. If you've got the money, I'd personally cease considering the "vanilla" GTX 1660, and consider the "Ti" model worth that extra $100. Now that I put that out there, I'm going to blow away the "Ti" option. The GTX 1660 Super but has 75% more memory clock speed than the baseline GTX 1660 and 16.66% more than the "Ti". PassMark currently ranks the "Super" at #75 and the "Ti" at #89. A quick glance at the two computers seems that they're largely the same except for the video cards, so the question is, do you want to save the extra $50 and STILL acquire a video card 14 ranks higher up on the video card list? Unless there is some other difference between these two computers that I'm not considering, then at $50 cheaper, the GTX 1660 Super computer is clearly the better value. (Note, I'm not considering aesthetics. Some people consider this when buying. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.) That leaves a comparative between the GTX 1660 Super and the RTX 2060, or rank #75 vs. rank #57. The comparison site suggest the "RTX" is about 9.4% better at handling 3D graphics. I'll leave the research on these two to you, but it basically boils down to do you: (A) want to save $150 or (B) acquire the best video card since we're uncertain how long the problem of acquiring affordable video cards will continue? Actually, that's too simplistic. One of the things you need to consider is the operating system. The more expensive "RTX" system only uses Windows 10 according to the sales site. The "Super" computer uses Windows 11 Home. This won't be a concern for about 3.5 years, but as Windows 10 support ends on October 14, 2021, it might be worth considering.

Feels like that should be a "caption this" shot.

I have to relay an observation others made. It could prove a big spoiler, so...

*looks left and right* I do it all the time. For CoH, I use it to check out new features, especially those with a bit of a time sink (I really wished I'd checked out the Dr. Q TF this way first!), or to get tips and tricks. And there's the videos @Dacy puts out for base construction and to show off those wonderful base results. For other games, it's often to evaluate whether I want to play, though in the case of a few I pick up, its to learn how to play when it proves more complex than I thought (looking at you, Empyrion 🤨 ) Ah, you've been taking lessons from Snarky, I see.

I suspect they're going for the Die Hard effect, but yes. Clint has always been knocked for being the human in the Avengers (really? for being human?), but its exactly his humanity (injury, fear, depression, despair, desperate hope, family man) that makes him perhaps the most relatable Avenger. He's the "everyman". He's been through so much that I'm almost willing him to retire at the end of this, and enjoy his well-earned family life. Now THAT is an interesting thought...

Aspire to @Snarky, perhaps. "Take over"? No, you have an Everest to climb if that's your goal. 😛 More seriously, let me just take a sec to thank those that go out of their way to post vids on YouTube. Their view count is not that high, but they're plugging away at it. A good many companies block Twitch and other gaming sites, but leave YouTube open because their own company posts, or they use videos from YouTube for training, etc. In my case, this lets me watch videos on a 24" screen during my lunch hour, rather than a small smartphone. I watched someone run the new Aeon SF this way, just to acquaint myself with it before I ran it.

At least the postage was a lot cheaper then. Then we got play by Bulletin Board System, and oh, wow! The Rikti invasions in Atlas Park on that thing! Stuff of legends.

I suppose it depends on the clipping. I've endorsed the use of clipping elsewhere in a costume tips thread if the two items are synnergistic, creating a look not possible normally, though I usually see this only on head gear.

I've not run a stopwatch on it, but I'm pretty sure Meteor is actually slower to strike than Rain of Arrows is currently. It's very useful at tenderizing those tough but cheaper cuts of red meat. Actually the KB is not really a problem. I've slotted KB to KD on a lot of my characters, including practically everywhere on one of my primary toons, my energy/energy blaster. I'm not thrilled that the devs chose KB as a default over KD, especially seeing how far the opponents are flung leaving the team to run around like headless chickens trying to control the situation. Also I'm not thrilled to lose one of my enhancement slots to that KB-to-KD, but que sera sera. No if there was one thing I was focused on, it would be coming up with a useful scenario in a team or league where I could utilize meteor with its long animation start in something other than a first strike and not have the opponent mobs wiped out by said team or league before the meteor hit. Currently only a first-strike seems to have consistently effective results. I've not consistently tried Bopper's tactic, which sounds worth doing, but I don't think it solves that late-to-the-party, no opponents left thing.

Not to mention the farther you push the slider, the more clipping you have by costume parts. I was making a Kris Kringle-type the other day and had problems with the long beard clipping the chest coverings when I went for max girth. I was a fan of the character Guido "Strong Guy" Carosella back in the initial run of X-Factor in the 1990s. His distinctive power top/shrimpy legs look was always something I wanted in-game. For that matter, why not have asymmetrical body type as well? Snarky mentioned different tops, bodys, but I'm thinking more like jacked-up main arm, smaller secondary arm. Might allow more creativity in the "monster" department. Lastly, why are necks so limited? the ability to go wide gives me a chance to make a Sontaran, and the other guy a chance to make a proto-MODOK. Taller necks might also work. Anyone for Giraffe-Man?

It was an option in the pay store back on live. I think it came out the issue before color was offered as a pay option. So many people didn't like that it was pay only, that the devs eventually offered a work-for-it solution that people grudgingly accepted: kill 5,000 boars to unlock it. This explains why there are no more boars in City of Heroes.

For whatever holiday(s) this season that you decked out your character(s): Christmas, Hanukka, Kwanzaa, New Years, Boxing Day, even a Thanksgiving leftover. Did I miss any? Or maybe it's just the season in general: show us your holiday spirit! Character: Coal Bringer (seismic/earth blaster)

Any chance of getting the winter look to the Excelsior Cosmic Platform? I thought it was really special last time around.

Time Stone. With it, everything else is eventually yours. It's inevitable. Oh, already-created in-game powers. Drat. (I must go back and fix that.) The power to slot ninja running. I only need one good endurance reduction. okay, okay... more serious. Maybe stealth. It's just too practical for speeding missions and task forces.

You clearly haven't been standing near a base portal when others start appearing around it.

Ironic since MCU Clint has one of the best quips in the MCU with his "no one would know" comments regarding Quicksilver's peskiness.

With Seismic Blast, I started off using meteor like I did some of the other flashy tier 9 powers: as often as I can. This...didn't work. Meteor has such a long wind-up before the pitch that teams were wiping out mobs before the meteor hit. I've even seen this when the meteor was activated with mobs at 75%. Big splashy nothingness. To add insult to injury, I've seen what appears to be mobs leaving the field of impact and not being affected. There've also apparently been mobs entering the field and being impacted. Well, that's a plus, I guess. This appears to be unlike other powers with a delayed hit where the hit decision is made by the computer at the moment the player fires off the power rather than visual fulfillment. This latter always made sense to me because back in the original game, connection speeds were different, and results would have been skewed if the player had to wait until the visuals fired. All that left me feeling that meteor was highly unpredictable...unless used as a first strike weapon. It does work well, very well, if the mob is standing oblivious to impending doom. I'm still working out when best to fire it if a tank or brute is taunting and herding. Obviously a tight group is a prime target, but is often down to 75% or more as the other teammates chip away at them. That refers back to paragraph one. I've also chosen to add the knockback-to-knockdown conversion enhancement. While I admit the far-flung mobs are hilarious, and they currently entertain the teammates, I can see that tiring quickly and tank-y types decrying the destruction of their beautiful herding efforts. That's all me. I've got to believe...I'm hoping...that someone has learned a different way of doing things that is more effective and usable at most any point in the fight. With half of the powerset powers at minor or light, having the extreme-damage power be so (seemingly) conditional makes it feel like I'm not contributing as much as I could.

As to the hidden contents: agreed. The in-story name alone confirms it. That said El Aguila was a very interesting guess, and Marvel has already had characters that are created by flip-flopping comic details around. I'd not put it past them to create a hybrid character. I like Kate, let me be clear on that up front. But I don't like mouth-running characters, nor hyper-impulsive characters whom the writers let bend the universe to their solitary will to accomplish what they want. Kate has both of these traits in measure. I want to see growth on her part. Let some of that caution, quietness, and world-weariness that Clint holds settle upon her. It need not, and should not, be the full burden. Just enough to get her to quiet down and think before leaping. In exchange, her youthful enthusiasm can rub off on Clint, restoring some of his zest that he lost due to repeated emotional traumas.

I've been pondering that the early release of the teaser must be deliberately to tie into Spider-Man: No Way Home's upcoming release. I'm really not clear what they hoped to accomplish. On the surface, releasing even a teaser for the sequel to one of the two most popular Spider-Man films would seem to undermine publicity for No Way Home. I would have thought they'd release the teaser after the (presumed) success of No Way Home: ride the wave of success, as it were. Then again, it could be hedging their bets. If somehow No Way Home proves underwhelming, (which I don't see, but then I've been surprised before), then this would be a way of reassuring fans that something monumental is still in the works. Weirdly, I'd re-watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse just two days before the sequel teaser dropped. The teaser looks okay. Something about the city-scape animation right before the appearance of 2099 seemed visually flat, but the opening scene was everything I expected from a sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse . Time variance was a subtle point in the first movie. Peter B. Parker was older than the deceased Peter Parker, as was Spider-Man Noir. The clues are still subtle in this teaser, but it appears that time variance across the multi-verse will play at least a somewhat stronger role in the second film.

Two retain the Christmas spirit, and even the medporter accepts my protection. (My Shadow Fall's Christmas colors remained on two when I changed back to my standard outfit. I've no idea why medporters respond to Shadow Fall.)

"Buster", eh? 😉 Maybe they use personal force fields instead of spacesuits? 😆 Half the fun of pulp space sci-fi is embracing just how gloriously ridiculous it is when viewed through the lens of a post-Mercury Seven world. The other half is probably the shock of realizing some of the concepts and looks pitched have actually come true: