Techwright

For me, in game, it's all about the considerations for theft and also in regards killing and the legal system. I realize there's going to be an irony to that, as, external to the game, Batman is a vigilante but doesn't kill. Hero - in my thinking, there are actually two levels to Hero: Top Tier: I will not steal. I will not kill. Render unconscious, possibly break a few bones if absolutely necessary, but in the end, turn the guy alive over to the authorities. Second Tier: I will not steal. I will kill or permanently maim, but it is not my first choice. I only do so in one of two conditions: Immediate threat to lives and/or a threat of permanent injury Under state-sanctioned conditions, such as war Vigilante - I will steal only if deemed necessary, such as the need to resupply or the taking of evidence to be analyzed more closely in my lair. I do not take for my own pleasure, but as a means to an end goal. I will kill or permanently maim for three conditions: Immediate threat to life and or permanent safety Under state-sanctioned conditions, such as war When I believe the state of point #2 is so corrupted or paralyzed that it cannot make clear, good sanctions, resulting in an extended threat to those lives in point #1. Rogue - I will steal for my pleasure and profit. I will kill or maim if my heart doesn't intervene. It is not my real objective, so if I can accomplish goals without extreme violence, I will. If I've an employer who orders me to kill/maim, I will do so. It is on him, not me. Villain - The day I plundered and murdered your village was a rather pleasant Tuesday.

Then this is opportunity. Pedro's time to step up. Look, I agree: Pedro didn't strike me as Reed Richards either. Still doesn't. But the role that people say an actor cannot play is exactly the role many an actor dying to be a great actor craves. The one where he/she is not typecasted or otherwise pigeon-holed. Do I think he's right for the part? Not from what I know of his work, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt to see if he can show a range I'd not anticipated in him. I'll be very happy to be wrong in my initial opinion, and am hoping the director gives him enough leeway to succeed. One thing I've been wondering since the trailer and its family pitch is if Pedro demonstrated a "family man" vibe that resonated with the director and producer.

Looking at the video and there's so many questions: 1. Is there even a functional Avengers team anymore? They've done a good job disassembling them. By my count at least 7 are now dead, 8 if you include Coulson. Another handful have left for deep space or other dimensions. I can think of 5 as possibly active, none of which, with the exception of Hulk, pose anything significantly more threatening than a team of super soldiers and elite assassins. One of those is Spider-Man, whose life is so altered that I'm not sure he's even part of the team. Theoretically, they should be able to pull in some non-Avenger allies, like She-Hulk, and Black Panther 2, but they'd be in the same boat as the Thunderbolts: not functioning at a trained team level yet. 2. What on earth did they give USAgent for a shield? It looks not much better than his homemade one was. 3. What's happening with all the construction at the former Avengers/Stark Tower? I know the Thunderbolts now occupy it, but it looks like they're adding a missile silo onto it or something. 4. How on earth are the Thunderbolts supposed to stop that? They've got a specific set of skills and that ain't it. It's more Doctor Strange's turf, and he just did some dimension hopping. (Wong is where, exactly?) While I find such a mismatch intriguing, I've a fear they're going to resolve this by Picard'ing the situation and talking the villain down. That would kind of take the wind from the movie's sails. 5. The most important question: Why did Red Guardian shave his head? (and leave his beard unkempt?)

Knowing Fillion's sense of humor, he probably was on board with the bowl cut from the start. I'm puzzled by the color though. Guy's supposed to be a deep auburn. Perhaps it's just this clip but he looks more like a blonde, and if it is a strawberry-blond, they need to buy more strawberries.

No doubt the Scourge of Savile Row, it seems. 😉

Congratulations!

There's dark roots at the hair part. Not a real red head. (We natural gingers tend to notice these things. 😉 ) Using dark roots to imply dyed hair: that's a level of design sophistication I didn't previously realize AI had reached.

First off, Welcome Home! Victory is our newest server, merged in from its previous solo status. As a result, the population is still getting started. If you need to have plenty of options in the time available to play, you might wish to look into transferring to Excelsior (the most populated server) or to Everlasting (second most populated server, and the main home to the role-playing crowd). Not to knock Victory or any other server. I'm just conscious that many players do not like to spend long looking for a team to join or lead. If you've not found the transfer process yet, go to the page where you select your character, and look for the 2-arrow button in the top center-right of your screen. That will guide you through the transfer process. Please note there are a limited number of transfers available each week before the amount resets, but there should be more than enough to jump around to different servers at least once and back to Victory if you don't find a server to fit your needs otherwise. Sounds like you're already into either "blue side" (hero/vigilante) or "red side" (villain/rogue). That's good. We've got a "gold side" (Praetoria) as well, but it can be a tad complicated and confusing if you're new, so I'd suggest holding off on that for now. But not never. Praetoria has a great look and some fun storylines delving into the concept of "gray" morality. I'd also suggest holding off on archetypes Peace Bringer, Warshade (both collectively known as Keldians), Arachnos Soldier and Arachnos Widow. These were deliberately designed to be a bit more challenging, so it helps to be more familiar with the game before choosing one of these as an alternate character. You're already level 8 so you may have seen much of this already, but I like to to aid new players by posting a list of common abbreviations we use in chat : Likewise, you may benefit from a list of slash commands used in the chat box. Personally, I use "/ah" all the time (except in missions or super bases) to access the auction house without having to visit the buildings. Lastly, you may want to peruse @WuTang 's "new player" thread of a year ago, where other helpful tidbits were dropped:

Why would you want an old casket filled with dirt from the mother country?

I've not looked into that previously. I realize it is a temp power, but why would one choose that, and waste candy canes in the process, rather than buying a permanent Renewal of Light from the START vendors for only INF 1,000,000? Is the temp version perhaps on a separate timer and usable when the permanent one is on cool down?

First point - yes, thanks for that correction. Second - It would not be necessary to show the population after a point in which Kirk came into the picture. It could be shown at a point preceding Picard entering the Nexus. Possibly even in the astronavigation room as either a "duckblind" video of the society pulled up on the screen, or a cut-away with perhaps Data narrating over it with info from a previous "duckblind" operation. Regarding the Nexus - yeah, that was a "don't look too deep" moment. It would have been better had they written the parameters to be "return to the moment you entered or any point after that." Not only that, but Soran should have been trying to use the Nexus to return to a previous point in time when his family was alive and safe, then guide them down a different path. Picard should have chosen a point where he could have warned his brother of the coming fire, then dealt with the rest. I do appreciate the choice of killing brother and nephew though, gut punch that it was. Robert was already known as something of a luddite so a lack of proper fire suppression in the home would be in keeping with his nature. As to the nephew, it was needed to reveal a deep vulnerability in Jean Luc: the need for a family heir to provide emotional stability. It provides the temptation to stay in the Nexus. As one who is a RL uncle and without children, I deeply connected to that. There were other problems, I felt, such as putting a nice, but unseasoned and ultimately incompetant captain to a ship with a legendary heritage. Considering Star Fleet has the Kobayashi Maru, as well as, of course, the rank system, the captain's flaws should have been laid bare before he made lt. commander. But it's all script anyway. I do agree Generations is better than the Abrams/Kurtzman "garbage", though I did find some enjoyment in certain parts of movies 1 and 3 of their works. Into Darkness was Trek's The Last Jedi: utter dreck and the waste of some fine actors and special effects crews.

How was this composite achieved? I've a few "sets" in my characters to which I'd like to give a group shot.

Dinos...again. 🙄 Why do people never suggest something not overused...like red pandas? I mean the guys are little monsters. Their cuteness power is one of the great stun affects out there. I've seen whole tour groups of people rooted in place talking baby talk in the direction of the red panda that whammied them. Goodness knows what that combined with teeth and claws will do if they ever make it past the zoo fencing. But no, they're never considered. Even if anything with fur were considered, it would be a honey badger.

Well, you did say it was the early days. I'm sure you've learned better since then. 😛 Just a small note to be clear, as one or two comments had me wondering if I'd been misunderstood: my OP comments are not meant to imply that I only run my empathy character on high level content or with an exclusive group. I run all my 50s on PUG content all the way down to the Synapse TF or the Frostfire mission. It probably accounts for 95% of my gaming experience. About the only thing I'll avoid is Death From Below, and even then I've stepped in once or twice when I realize a team lead is having a bad recruiting night.

I can't see this one without thinking that Bowie was both trying to stay in character and not scare the kid.

I admit I cannot recall the last time that I had to use Invigorate, but EDIT: the wiki does say within Architect missions and with a 10 minute recharge.

Invigorate from the Day Job reward Master Architect Badge, earned by getting both the Professor and Architect Day Job badges. This is a rechargeable power with max 30 charges at a time. Log out either in a university or the Architect Entertainment Building to recharge. S.T.A.R.T. vendor (aka "P2W vendor") powers Return to Battle and Renewal of Light. These are on the same timer.

"Goodbye World, that's the song that their singing"? Also, I'm not quite certain what the focal point of that picture is. Can someone point it out? 😉 Alright, a tad more seriously, just a tad, I had some fun looking up real life locations for the Baxter Building and cross-referencing them with the RL location for Avengers tower. It turns out, they're really close. So close, in fact, that I'd not be surprised if the MCU folks made them the same site. As the Avengers movie's Battle of New York City showed, Avengers tower was directly behind Grand Central Terminal. That puts it on the footprint of the real-life MetLife building in Midtown. If you're standing where the Avengers first assembled, looking at Grand Central Terminal, then the Baxter Building is suppose to be immediately to your left of the GCT. The location I was told was "[East] 42nd and Madison". While there are 4 corners, of course, and I wasn't told the specific one, the standout corner is the northeast one, closest to the GCT, and on the footprint of the real life One Vanderbilt tower. This also places it a stone's throw from the "site" of Avengers Tower. It makes me wonder just how much of the battleground locations of the Avengers movie might be shown in this movie as kind of an easter egg. That, of course, is assuming they stay with the comic address for the building. One fan theory I've heard is that the Baxter building will actually be on the same footprint of Avengers (Stark) Tower, and that either (A) it is the building Tony tears down to build Avengers Tower (though in a different universe?) or (B) if the F4 cross over to Earth 616, they will make Avengers (Stark) Tower their headquarters. Not sure about that last bit being accurate. I suppose it depends on what time in Earth 616 they do cross over into, as the Contessa in Thunderbolts has already revealed she was behind the purchase of Avengers (Stark) Tower to convert to the Thunderbolts lair.

Agreed. I love the innovation!

Fun to watch, and the video was clearer than many I find on YouTube. I love that its a first time experience for the one guy. The explanations might prove useful to others. I can't remember the last time I viewed/participated in a team that pulled the shadow clones. Pretty much any time I run a Posi 1 now, the team opts to rush the shadows. My old favorite from the days of the original game was to have the team stand around the corner at the top of the stairs, have one player snipe an opponent then run back behind the team in hiding. Nothing quite like that "Surprise sucker!" moment when it rounds the corner and we dogpile it.

👍 I was watching a YouTube reaction to Arrow the other day, and Green Arrow used something very much like those as a throwing dart to disable a guy's shoulder. Makes great sense to have a pouch of those handy.

I'll usually do T2 Alpha, saving enough that I can immediately do a T1 on Judgement and Interface upon unlock. I always make certain I leave enough for a T1 on the next unlock. Then I'll set all to T3 before working on any T4. As to Alpha Shard system, I've never really understood it, finding it is slow and superfluous for me. I earn rewards in the Threads path far faster, so I'll probably only make one tier with what Shard stuff I earn, but have on occasion completely ignored the Shard path.

Did a very quick search on deterrents for vultures. Short of finding the carcass that attracted them (as you explained that you did), I rather like the suggestions of hanging wind chimes and/or reflective tape, both of which disrupt their senses and make them uncomfortable. The question is whether you or your desired animals would also be uncomfortable. Use of naphthelene flakes (mothball material) sounds almost as interesting, but would require repeated applications, and personally, I'd not want both house and yard to constantly smell like mothballs. Not mentioned in my reading, but a few options I'd personally find interesting: firing a shotgun (presumably using blanks) into the air: uncomfortable for avians, and therapeutic for me. Probably traumatizing for cats and cattle, although I expect they'll get used to it after a few hundred times. Attaching a loudspeaker to the roof, cranking up the volume, and playing the best bagpipe music album you can find, classical or modern. This should have the desired flight effect, and can be both stirring and soothing if one is a human with at least a drop of Celtic blood in them, or is a highland cow. Note that it might stir cats into fighting mode, so you may wish to secure felines in advance. I can personally attest to this tactic's power. My old college pal and I used to cruise the city in his F-150 truck with the tricked out sound system hunting drivers who'd decided that their own car systems should be enjoyed by everyone 5 blocks away from the traffic light where they'd paused. So many sweet memories of looks of disgust as those mobile sound systems were disrupted and trumped by my cassette of "The Best of the Scottish Highlands" blasted from his marvelous speakers. We managed to quickly clear several streets of noise pollution on any Friday night venture. Vultures should be easy by comparison.

I've now seen multiple confirmations of that, so thanks for the first alert, @BrandX. With "the universe-collapse plotline" I'm going to guess...

I've been using the free version of WeMod for a few years now. Steam never had a problem with it, and it's been great for using mods and cheat codes to speed past the dull or weighty parts of other games. I even used it extensively yesterday. This morning, however, it totally change. Now it requires a login level I didn't need these past years, and it suddenly limits a free player to 2 hours a day max. I guess the advertisements that came with the free version just weren't working for them or something. Everything drives towards getting you to pay for it now. That's not going to happen for me, even if I have to shelve a few games for now. I'd like to find a free, safe alternative, and am wondering if the CoH community has experience with any and can make recommendations (or perhaps warn me clear of trouble)?