Techwright

Petless masterminds? That's like Diet, Caffeine-free Mountain Dew. What's the point?

Had an interesting discussion with a coworker who has a review YouTube channel and is following the Loki series. We had a crazy idea that I'll explain, but it's based in a scene from Endgame, so let me post that first as a refresher: Now with that refresher, let me post our thought:

As I have cat allergies, it is dogs for me. The latest died a couple of years ago, and it was quite hard, but I've lost many over decades, and recovery happens faster now. It still aches at times, especially because my current circumstances do not permit another dog. Hopefully that will change soon. Perhaps the best thing to suggest from my angle is what my sister does. She keeps 3 cats at all times (that's not what I'm suggesting), but after the previous trio had all passed on, she ventured to contact a cat rescue society and volunteer one night a week with them. Helping other cats, and helping folks find a cat for them eased her pain. She's got another three cats now, but continues to volunteer once a week.

😲 Are you kidding me?? (Hmm, it's not April 1.) I don't think that's common knowledge. I've participated in a host of TF's where someone (or worse, more) dropped and the team didn't recruit a replacement because it was assumed we could not.

Normally I love PUG'ing. There have been a few frustrating problems of late, every single one of them related to poor communication. 1. Not getting informed up front as to how much we clear or what speed we're moving through stuff. 2. A few with speed or stealth whipping through a long maze, getting to the main target, then standing around expecting those who know they're super obvious to all NPCs to somehow run the gauntlet to them without fighting their way through. 3. Changing the difficulty level or announcing a "Master of..." run after recruitment has finished, and without consulting the team. 4. Squishies deciding they're Tank of the Year material and rushing a mob, usually the mob the rest of the team with tanks and brutes is not targeting at the moment, then, if somehow still standing, dragging mob 2 back to the team at mob 1, often passing through mob 3 in the process. Lerooooy Jenkins! 5. Very similar to #4, impatient teammates deciding the tank can handle it and deliberately rounding up mob after mob and taking them to the tank, before the team has cleared what the tank can truly control. I might be able to think of another, but outside of those, most PUGs I've been on have been fun.

If I may suggest, I suspect a lot more happened that episode than we were led to believe. I suspect reveals in the future episodes may have us wheeling back to #3 to see the moments we missed something important. For example:

what did the great server crash of 2021 inspire you to do? Same thing I do every night, Pinky...

I do need to correct something...

Responding and adding to that...

Looks like they've improved the hands somewhat over at Champions. I know the CoH "mittens" have taken a lot of flack over the years, but they're worlds better than those hideous claws that CO used for hands for their opening decade.

Water sentinel that never stopped living the dream: still visits San Francisco wearing flowers in his hair, still sings on hillsides with a cola in his hand.

EDIT: stupid me. Need more coffee. I meant to say COH:Rebirth. Guess it's that, Thunderspy or withdrawals y'all.

I wonder how many secretly opened a backup Reunion account? 🤔 Desperate times, desperate measures. Anything for a CoH dopamine fix, I suppose.

Thanks! Perhaps that should be a suggestion then, that a badge be added for destroying X amount of drop ships during an invasion. Might refresh the event a bit.

There's a lot of creative interpretation here of a simple animation, and that's just the top 100. If you wish to see what the original simple animation was, you'll find it here in the challenge video:

Foxtrot and Foxtrot Classic might be good. Personally, I used to love the Geech comic, but that might just be because it lampoons small town (presumably Southern) culture, my kind of folk. I've not seen it in years so I've no idea what the current team is turning out, but I used to love Dick Tracy, except when Chester Gould got on that "Moon Maiden" kick decades back. That got very weird. I'm glad his successors dealt with that. But I've book collections of some of the earliest stories and they read quite well. I don't see Flash Gordon, The Phantom, or Prince Valiant...rats.

A question made by someone and quickly drowned out in the heat of a Rikti Invasion fight just returned to mind: can the drop ships be destroyed in a Rikti Invasion like the solo one is during an MSR? If so, is there a badge for them separate from the MSR drop ship badge?

Invulnerability/Street Justice Just a ton of fun, though I'll admit I don't have many tanks and that there may be a powerset combo untapped that I'd like better.

Eng/Eng is my main, so it'd have to be that. I love the ranged/melee versatility, and that most opponents end on the ground unable to fight the repeated blasts. That said, my fire/ice rocks and he's not even reached his zenith. There'd be a lot of weeping and scratched eyes if the "one blaster child only" goon squad attempted to pry him from my protective embrace.

It need not be a true Gorgon. The game already has the wireframe for the Snakes of Mercy Island, and the higher ranks have metal bands and chestplates with designs that have a Greek look. A few simpler modifications to the Stheno skin, for example, could yield an AV without snake hair. It says in the lore regarding the Snakes that it is suspected that their bite can mutate a person into a Snake. What if the proposed AV, in addition to having a massive single target hold were also able to single target strike and turn a player character against teammates for a time? I believe that mechanic already exists in the game.

Thanks!! After testing this out, I'd add that any global name with spaces won't display the notes window with this /playernote function unless it is put in parenthesis.

Right. Exactly why I could wish it be a 2nd or 3rd choice in a WST. "Fun" and merrypessimist's "annoying" are subjective, and no amount of forum discussion will resolve that. The "does not launch from the LFG interface" make sense, though I'd think that might be a simple thing to add. The "no longer canonical content" I've acknowledged in my OP, (and I'd add if it is in Ouro, it is canon, but no longer present, just history) but surely those cannot be the only reasons? I mean you have the Cavern Trial which some can finish in 30 seconds or less, and it qualifies, so why not a task force that still issues a badge that still visually matches up with the others in the big 6.

A realization today regarding the implications of episode 2's ending...

Only problems I had with the website involved Avast anti-malware being overly aggressive.

It's been a long time since I ran the full gold side story, and the memory has dimmed, so what I suggest might not be doable. Would it be possible to run a post-20 TF/SF in gold side that was launched as a time-travel story? Go back in time to accomplish/try to accomplish some goal? For example, retrieve some important McGuffin lost to the DE's advances, or attempt to alter the timeline at a crucial point, failing within the played-out story (of course, so the gold side story is maintained) but retrieving said McGuffin as a story-wise consolation prize? It might almost play like gold side's version of Omega Team, launching into the worst of the initial fighting before the Praetorian truce with Hamidon that the gold side plays within.