Techwright

Power creep, players with improved skills, faster outleveling of opponents...stuff happens, and over time I've noticed that many of the hazard zones are more that in name than in function. Seemingly, players enter the zones only to deal with Giant Monsters and Arch opponents, or to fulfill some condition of a task force, or to fulfill some condition for a badge. What ideas might you have for revitalizing these zones? All reasonable ideas entertained, even if ultimately not feasible. This isn't really a suggestions list, or I'd put this in that category. This is pure brainstorming. If somewhere down the road any discussion inspires the devs, that's fine, but not asking for formal suggestions. One idea that crossed my mind was to change the level ranking of the hazard zone characters. No longer would they be something like levels 7 to 12. Instead, take a page from the Ritki invasion events and make the hazard zone residence always within range of the player. So the lowest NPC would be green, while purples might exist as well. This might make the hazard zones interesting to upper level players, and might create some interest for those entering the zone to accomplish other goals. Taking on the Kraken in Perez Park, for example, would now mean to watch your back lest you get too close to a mob of Skulls or Vahz. This might generate a bit more interest in the "go there, kill x of that" missions in the Numina task force, though it would likely be uneven with similar "go there, kill x of that" missions in none hazard zones where NPCs remain grayed out. Your ideas?

This one practically screams for a black and white cover

And does your travel power involve clacking two coconut halves together?

Mixed heights. It depends on the character's backstory. Control Tower is maxed on the slider, but then it's in his name, Tower. Most of my characters run between 5 foot 10 inches and 6 foot. I've got a Central American character with a bit of a cool Don Johnson Miami Vice look going on. I deliberately made him slightly shorter, trying to match the strikingly uniform height of the Central American neighbors around me. And then there's the Flea Circus. I've several characters reborn from the Flea Circus Super Group I was a part-time member of back in the original game. I deliberately set them at the low end of the slider, as did everyone involved in the FCSG. Seeing circus characters running around in miniature seems to make folks smile a lot.

Perhaps that's what's needed: an evolution and clarification in their story line where they no longer see the peak of human ability as an end-all, but instead train to the limits of human ability, and are rewarded by their gang with equipment at "legendary" status to push them farther up the food chain. So then the equipment reward ceremony and training is their equivalent of incarnate status. And hey, tiny shards of the well found where the well should have been? Those are "augments". Natural origin heroes and villains seek them out. Why can't the upper levels of the Warriors have stories of seeking those as well?

I've not seen Luminara's video, but in lore context, wouldn't the Warriors frown on guns as beneath their physical perfection creed? They use bows, but it does take some physical training to draw some of the more powerful bows. A female Warrior AV though, would be a welcomed addition.

Mound Builder (Earth Dominator) -- If you really want to get deeper into his back story, I spent way to long on creating it a while back, along with his Paragon Universe city of Future City, IL over here:

Retooled the look of Control Tower (Illusion/Storm controller). I've removed his normal storm aura for clarity in this shot. He was originally created back in 2005 to be a member of the Flying Circus Super Group, and other than his 8-foot height, he looked pretty much the same as my Ace Barnstormer (picture earlier in this thread), also from the FCSG. I needed Control Tower to have more of his own identity, while still maintaining a similar uniform.

In the very early days, I used to see them as a challenge because I'd not fully adjusted to game play back then, and several of them hit stunningly hard. I had to learn to not play a planted-foot fighting style. They do seem more sedate now. I think it's because by lore, they focus on being the pinnacle of natural human perfection, rather than pushing beyond that using other means, like the Hellions do. Perhaps if they were given a bit more of a tweak to that human perfection concept: like some have trained to a faster attack, and others dodge/weave better, or have mixed martial arts skills. It might not break the lore if they were given a natural means to temporarily boost their powers, like say drinking the juice of an exotic, rare berry or herb.

I keep coming back to the ill/storm controller. I like to call him my "Swiss Army Knife". Toss in the Incarnate powers and a good third set layout, and practically any situation that comes up, he's got an answer for. The crazy thing is that, although I'm quite happy with his setup, I'm not one to tweak every last percentage point of power and ability from him, but others must be out there who do that. I can only imagine just how amazing are the ill/storms 'trollers of players who do work to that level.

Ever have one of those nights where your subconscious works so hard on a problem that it wakes you up? Yeah, that happened Friday night. I went back and re-watched portions of all 6 episodes to see if the ol' subconscious was onto something. I may be 100% wrong, but it is a rather interesting knitting of characters' comments, and visual clues. It's somewhat long, too, so sorry about that, should you choose to read it. First, a brief observation about Agnes: My subconsciousness' crazy, incomplete theory. Be aware there may be some comics character names dropped you might not yet have heard:

I don't recall the Justin TF. Guess that shows how often I've run it. But I do recall the Dr. Q TF, and that one made Synapse seem fun by comparison. If I may, with our present development team, how challenging would it be to make those adjustments mentioned in the thread? Reduce the JA TF by announcing all clickies in one instruction, allowing the team to fan out to get them. And condensing Dr. Q's TF missions to something that would complete in 1 hour rather than 3? Toss in Numina to the discussion as well. While I rather like the Numina TF, because I see taking on the various factions as a timing challenge, I could see it being reduced by issuing orders for 2 or 3 factions at a time, allowing the team to split up to handle them, like they already do. I'm just curious, since it would be condensing or reducing, rather than adding new content.

I've a few trade paperbacks I've not looked at in years, but one that I never owned stands clear in my mind over 30 years later. That would be Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. My family was on vacation, and were given the use of a friend's house while they were away. On the coffee table I found The Dark Knight Returns, and I couldn't put it down. Up until that moment, most everything I'd seen regarding Batman was from the campy era, mostly the old Adam West show and Superfriends, but there were a few other animated series as well, and some comics clearly directed at kids, too. I'd known the original Batman was darker than Adam West's version, but I'd never experienced it. The Dark Knight Returns unleashed the possibilities, and the general public's understanding of Batman shifted a year or two later when the first Michael Keaton film was released.

So this show just got dragged back into the spotlight, and not in a great way. I don't want to get into the politics of the situation. These forums are a friendly retreat from most of that, and I'd like to keep it that way, please. However, I do want to ask a question about the character itself: should the character of Cara Dune be recast, or should Star Wars just allow the character to go her separate way? Technically, the end of season 2 gives the perfect out for the character. It's pretty apparent season 3 will heavily focus on the Mandalorians and their struggles. Cara could be stated as going back to the marshall's office, never to be seen on screen again, or turning in her star in order to wander again, nevermore to be seen.

Best episode yet, and I thought episode 5 was pretty awesome. Just got done watching it and several reactions on YouTube. IGN theory thoughts:

Actually, I'm beginning to strongly believe:

How was I unaware one could do that?? Do the police drones neutralize them, or will they survive to unleash chaos? And lastly...does Castle still stand and preen or does he actually fight? 😉

More likely level 30.

Who currently controls the rights to these? I've not collected in many years, so I see I need to brush up.

Me three. I've been a very disappointed gamer before when I learn games I'm just begging to play are only 1st person perspective. I struggle through the occasional Halo night with friends because I really want to be around them, but I'm usually the first to quit due to pseudo motion sickness. Do any of the VR systems have complete wrap-around peripheral? I might give that a go, though I'll likely still have some issues.

Sounds like an ad for Warburg. To be fair, they never "always fight" me. They fight me, they die. They might come back as one of the Vahz, or a desiccated corpse for the Banished Pantheon, but then they fight me. So, two times tops, not "always".

The Vambrace duo were from an earlier iteration of the Phalanx, yes? Like 1950s to 1970s? Who's up for a little more time traveling? Actually, were we to ever do that, I'd be interested to see story arcs related to the family of Stateman: his wife (Recluse's sister) and his daughter (Ms Liberty's mom)

I thought that name sounded familiar. Was to have been rolled out with the Asian supergroup. Something in the back of my mind says that Rose Star was in beta, but was pulled for some reason. Spark Blade as well. I do seem to recall that they did launch the full team in the Asian server rollout, though with the failure of that project, they ported Foreshadow and Mirror Spirit to the western game and didn't follow through with the others. Rose Star is briefly in the trailer for the Asian server which came out in January 2006. Watch for her at 01:35. Spark Blade, of course, is very prominent in the trailer. trailer:

What superhero comics, that are not properties of Marvel or DC should be ported over to the big screen, even if they are somewhat obscure? I note that last bit because several of the Marvel properties were not household names until the MCU treatment. I'll kick off with some Valiant Comics characters. XO: Man-O-War (think Ironman with a living armor), Magnus: Robot Fighter (think COH tank with the ability to destroy robots with his bare hands), and Turok: the Dinosaur Hunter. Of these, I think only Turok was given treatment elsewhere in a video game. I also think Turok might be the strongest choice if only one movie was to be made, as it would appeal to the Jurassic Park fans. Magnus' story is set in a distant future where mankind has given over all mundane tasks to robots, which have gradually grown stronger while humans, lacking challenge, have grown weaker. It has elements that remind me of the Will Smith/Alan Tudyk film "I, Robot", as well as those that remind me of a dark-natured "Wall-E". XO: Man-O-War would, I guess, appeal to folks who like Iron Man or Master Chief of Halo. I'd also love to see someone make an MCU styled crossover series of the old pulp-fiction heroes: Doc Savage, The Shadow, Green Hornet & Kato, maybe even The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician. A Doc Savage/Shadow crossover was done in the comics years back, and it was quite entertaining to see their two polar-opposite natures clash: Doc with his high standards and "rehabilitate them" outlook on dealing with criminals, contrasted with the Shadow's whatever-it-takes and "put 'em down" attitude.