Techwright

Preventing using AH for storage is a weak argument. With 1000 character slots per server, I can have both a ton of new heroes/villains, AND a ton of mules. This in addition to my bank slot, my AH storage slots, and the ability for each character to create their own supergroup and max out the storage in a lair. If storage is really (somehow) a concern, and there really is a need to bleed off currency, why not enrich the look and feel of the game while doing it? On the simplest level, limit free storage and have the system charge an incremental monthly fee for anything above that. It would need to be encompassing, though, because of the mule and supergroup storage methods. Assuming that can (somehow) be handled, you now have the chance for incremental, monthly paid storage. The simplest way to deal with this is in the bank. One can continue stuffing the bank vault, but everything above a set limit receives a monthly fee, bleeding off currency. If there's no player activity (by account) for 6 months, or the character's currency is completely drained, then the paid vaults are seized and the contents "auctioned to pay the bills", similar to what happens in the real world. So one would have to be careful what gets put into the paid vaults. But take it a bit further. The bank is the simple way, but the stylish way would be to add, or improve, on the city, specifically: Think about it. I'm pretty sure we've something like this already in the port areas, though it's all gray and blah. Instead, if the devs are up to the challenge, we can get sheds painted bold colors, and maybe fencing & retainer walls, even statements of "climate controlled". The player can then designate the size of storage, and auto-pay the monthly fees on that. If they want to store 10,000 threat reports and can afford to fork over the monthly fee, why not? And the city looks richer and a bit more like a real city in the doing.

Well, I played the life out of Firefall, through all its good and bad, but then the new owners got all mysterious and pulled the plug a few years back so... I like the Civ series, but I'll share an unconventional one: Rail Baron Player (hereafter "RBP"). I've not played it since upgrading to Windows 10 a couple months back, but it's definitely on my replay value list. For those who don't know it, RBP, is a computerized adaptation of an old Avalon Hill board game, Rail Baron. That in turn, has some key similarities to Monopoly, but has a different enough format that it is clearly its own game. One moves a "train" around a board composed of historical rail lines, gaining wealth for each successful station-to-station haul (determined by the role of the dice). You're goal is to upgrade your train, buy up key lines, bankrupt other players by forcing them to pay fees for riding your network of rails, all while moving to certain victory conditions. The board game is a lot of fun for 4 to 6 players, and the computer game improves on that by significantly faster game play, as well as offering an optional solo game with competent A.I. players, as well as expansion game boards that cover historic railroads in other countries, state-level railroads, and fantasy railways. The graphics are basic compared to today's possibilities, but they're quite sufficient for allowing the focus to be the game, and not just a beautiful board. There's even an expansion option for creating your own board with rail systems of your design, and an option to print out everything to make your own board game. https://www.railgamefans.com/rbp/rbp.htm Pro tip: If playing the USA map, it's more important to buy railroads that connect east to west, rather than north to south, as the greatest cost threat lies in riding others' railroads for a long haul east to west without your own railroad system nearby. Likewise an east-west rail system that cuts diagonally across the continent is to be preferred above one that runs horizontally east-west.

I'm apparently a rare species who doesn't fully like how Ahsoka was brought to live action. She's terribly slow, for one. Ahsoka's signature style included lightning-fast reflexes. But I do see the strong potential for improvement, so I'm not dismissive. The animated Ahsoka might well be my favorite Star Wars character, so I'd be silly not to give the team a chance to grow the live-action version. If the live series is to have Sabine, eventually Ezra, and especially Thrawn, I'm fully onboard. I don't know how physically fit Lars Mikkelsen might be to inhabit the live version of Thrawn, but I think if that is sufficient, he should be given the first rights to the role, like Katie was given for Bo-Katan. His voice performance was that good. (I still get chills hearing Thrawn seeth at Governor Price "I will DEAL with you later...'Governor'.") If he's unable to do it, I do hope they'll consider Benedict Cumberbatch, and Matt Smith, two men who just feel like they too could inhabit the role. Benny actually would make sense from a Disney standpoint, as the corp has been starting to shift popular actors from one franchise (in this case, Marvel) to another franchise (Star Wars), and it would be a bit like playing an evil Sherlock Holmes, to boot. Matt's younger than the character would be, but he's skilled at playing an old soul, and the makeup effects on Mandalorian have been top-notch, so aging him wouldn't be a problem. And the few times he played a compromised Doctor, he chilled with the performance of a cunning mind.

I find it's easier to take if it is understood to be foundational work for what is to come. Foundations are not the beautiful part of a house, but they are an essential part. Season 1 may seem a desert, but deserts have flowers, if you know where to look. There's still some really beautiful things in season 1. G'Kar's explanation to Catherine about the terrifying mystery at Sigma 957, for one. It's the first time I realized G'Kar had the soul of a poet, and was so much more than a foil for Londo. There's also actor Dwight Shultz's turn as a tortured PTSD vagabond with more backbone than he realized. That was some fine acting. That all said, I do wish they'd firmed up the Minbari physical appearance before filming the pilot movie. The story is foundational, but the look is so radically different as to be distracting. Lastly, I'm glad they remastered the series, but it could really use the same treatment given to Star Trek, The Original Series, and have modern CGI space sequences replacing the dated special effects. What they achieved, and on Amiga computers of all things, was remarkable for its time, and could be preserved as an option in a special edition DVD set, but refreshing the space scenes would really refresh the look of the show.

I still think Disney owes us a Rocketeer trilogy, though I'd be a tad afraid of the (understandably needed) recasting. Perhaps if they put Jon Favreau over the project... I'm curious what propels a film to top 20 status for you. A few of these have worldwide agreement (The Princess Bride for one). Some are known for their cutting-edge movie magic skills (The Rocketeer & American Werewolf being two). But there are some on the list, I'll not name them, that I'd be surprised to find on anyone's top 100, let alone the top 20. And I'm curious why films like Citizen Kane or To Kill A Mockingbird don't appear. "To each his own" as they say, but I'm interested to know if there are criteria beyond a possible statement of "I just like it". Incidentally, The Princess Bride is a classic to me. I've only found one flaw with the film, and it's nit-picky. I didn't like the use of the synthesized music. I'd really love a special edition where the music is re-recorded using a full symphonic orchestra. Well, two flaws: there was no sequel. But I've gotten used to disappointment.

You might consider "The Phalanx" with a Greek motif. After all, it was the Freedom Phalanx that put the city to rights after the rise of mobster rule in the Prohibition Era, and has backed the good of the city ever since.

I really struggled to like "Into Darkness" but ended up hating it. So many points of issue, but one could have been corrected by adding a simple line: white guy Khan: "Admiral Marcus had me surgically altered and gave me a generic name so that no one with any knowledge of Earth history training would recognize me." I mean, think about it: if we have pictures of Gabriel Bell in the online textbooks (DS9), pictures of the rulers of half the planet would have been all over the future web. I never met Napoleon, yet I know exactly what he looked like through numerous pieces of artwork. Yet no mention is made of why Khan isn't recognized, nor why he went from Indian to British Caucasian. One simple line. Okay, I'm confused. I know Viacom split Trek ownership to both CBS and Paramount. But I thought they had worked it out that Paramount would handle the movies and CBS would handle the TV shows. Now ViacomCBS is making the movie announcement, but Hawley (in his statement the OP quoted) is in talks with Paramount? Sorting these guys out is starting to give headaches.

Brilliant episode, that one. I liked how it tied up neatly the full two seasons. Sure there are other stories it clearly points to, but had Disney pulled a Fox and unplugged the show at that point, we'd still have a full story arc. As it is, now we have a new story arc and cast dynamic to look forward to, and the confirmation of a spinoff series for one of the most popular characters in Star Wars. Win-Win.

BBC show? This isn't the one with Doctor Who's Peter Capaldi as Richelieu is it?

If you think about it, Boston Dynamics just made robots more flexible than C3PO. He's still ahead in the A.I. department however. Funny how sci-fi predicts centuries into the future, but is often beat in mere decades. If Chuck E. Cheese weren't failing as a chain, I'd be telling them to contact BD for their next batch of anamatronics.

Get used to disappointment. Baal. Right from his gravity-bending premier episode, I knew we were in for something different. "Todd" was pretty good, too. I would also like to note I have a different view regarding the last seasons of Stargate. It was the overall villain group that weakened the show. I felt the Stargate crew was fine. Sure, there were changes on the core team, but I liked those changes, some of them were fantastic, and it felt more natural to see changes in a core team over time, then to have the full core team onboard until the retirement home. I felt most (not all) of the enemies during that time were poorly written, however, and devolved the antagonists' role to something akin to cheesy 1930's serial sci-fi villains. There's a place for that sort of thing, just not in Stargate. I'd say more, but I'd probably spoil the show for newcomers. I did enjoy it enough, though that I went back last year and rewatched all of both SG1 and Atlantis.

What is with Babylon 5??? One of the best sci-fi shows ever, and yet the whole cast seems doomed to early deaths. I realize she was 65, but in today's medicine, she should have had another 15 years or more. Amazing actress who managed, like so many of the cast, to bring a very human and compelling character out from under alien makeup.

Ace Barnstormer's backstory (MA/SR) has always been one of being a wanderer and later a stunt plane pilot in a flying circus that traveled the globe. His wanderings allowed for him to train in martial arts in Asia. Following the Ritki War he returned to hometown Paragon, and connecting with family friends in the supers biz, he eventually got in on a powered undersuit project retro-engineered from Rikti tech. He wears it under his stunt show costume. The undersuit enhances his speed, endurance, strength, and overall survivability. While this classifies him as tech, his martial prowess stems entirely from his natural training. Were the suit to fail him, he still might prove a formidable fighter, just not as fast or durable.

Independence Point - Stevedores? Brickstown - Bricklayers? Guardsmen? Steel Canyon - Giants? Peregrine Island - Falcons? Explorers? Founders Falls - gondoliers? Fall guys? 😁

I don't recall anything. Pretty sure any franchise would wither and die, though. I mean, a stadium of 30,000 spectators and teammates is a smorgasbord for most of the villain groups who have mass kill capability. I'd not be surprised if multiple villain groups attacked in a single game. We've got the hero combat arenas, which in this town make more sense: smaller spectator groups, and tons of heroes around. To attack that place would be akin anywhere else to robbing a donut shop on the cops' morning coffee break. That said, I vote for calling the hockey team the "Dead Ducks". 😉

The Net. A whole lot has happened and changed since Sandra Bullock's 1995 film. I'd like to see a proper update taking all the latest technologies and futurisms into account. (Yeah, I heard there was a 1-season TV show. Didn't sound good.) That movie was pretty scarily on target predicting potential abuses of the internet. I'd also like to see an update to Max Headroom, again updating the technology and especially pushing futurism, as the concept line was "20 minutes into the future". It too was pretty amazing at predicting things like A.I. with personalities, the internet, ubiquitous networked cameras, and hacking. That said, I fell off the chair laughing during a rewatch of the sequel TV series 20 years (minutes) after it aired, when I saw them use a floppy disk the size of a large pizza. They apparently didn't understand the concept of eventual miniaturization.

Late to the party, but pineapple: bad. Sauerkraut, now, sauerkraut: good. Especially on a ham or Canadian bacon pizza. Mmm. Now I'm craving Happy Joe's Special. Too bad I'm living in the wrong part of the country. 🙁

Now I must go to AE and make a mission full of Lambchops to punch.

Classy, classic, nigh immortal...but not "very old", please. Those are immediate turn-off words, and someone might tune out the rest of your accurate message. At least use "gracefully aged" or "aged like fine wine". 😁 It's like Death By Chocolate, soaked in the finest espresso liquor...and wrapped in the highest-quality bacon. Well, actually...it's better.

Rebuilt my rig last week and can finally play No Man's Sky. Tips from other players appreciated. Might even be open to teaming when I feel experienced enough. COH has the best community, so if some of them straddle time with NMS, those are the folks I want to team with. I also snagged a fun little gem called Founder's Fortune. I've had to pause it while learning NMS, and still playing CoH, but I've had some good times in Founder's Fortune.

Wait, what? He was top dog at another of my favorite MMOs, Tabula Rasa (also an NCSoft product), at least until the whole blow-up of the revelation that he pushed the game for release before it was fully ready, just to get the money to go to space. Sad day, that. Had they hung in there for about another 6 months of alpha and beta, that game would probably still be going like LotRO is.

windows 10 32-bit or 64-bit? If it's fairly new, it's probably 64-bit, but I still see 32-bit hanging around, so it doesn't hurt to check.

Certainly at least pull out the duplicate instances, and retune the dialog to smooth over the vacancy. Of if it must stay in, at least put in new layouts for those duplications to keep things at least appearing fresh. Some of the Council ones even have a statement upon entering, saying the Council has set up an exact duplicate of the previous base. 🙄

I use the Force of Will set often. In fact, for my jump-themed characters, I only have the original jump set on a character who showed signs of needing a defense power from the pool (combat jumping). Force of Will has Stomp, which I use all the time. For my tanks and brutes, it gives another knockdown AoE. For my ranged squishies, it gives a good chance to shake those melee antagonists who slipped past the melee line to duke it out with the back row. FoW also has two ranged attacks, both with psionics as part of the deal, and one is a conical attack. All told that's perfect for giving my tanks a bit of range striking when the team's rangers aren't picking off the sniper out of the tank's melee range. And yeah, for my ranged types, the two ranged attacks are not as powerful as their native stuff, but it's still two more, and with psionics. Finally, FoW has Unleashed Potential, useful for just about every character I have.

Two words: Dave Filoni. If you want two more: Jon Favreau. The movies didn't have them, the TV/internet series does. There's been libraries-worth written about what went wrong with the sequel trilogy, and though I agree with many of the more brutal comments, I'll take the high road and focus on these two. First, no one, and I'm pretty confident in saying no one, know Star Wars better than Dave Filoni, (well, except George Lucas of course). Dave was George's pupil and he learned well. He also has a deep appreciation for the source materials Lucas drew inspiration from: serial sci-fi, westerns, and Kurosowa films. He talks to fans, he understand what they're interested in. Jon understands hero movies, really understands them, and he's got a history of pushing the film making technology to the limits. He did it with Ironman, and he's doing it with The Mandalorian. That new background technology they're using is the death knell of large-scale green screen usage. He's in control, but he's humble enough to not dominate, relying heavily on Filoni for lore knowledge, and happy with bringing in some truly dynamic directors, new and old. (I'm not sure I've ever been this excited with a TV series' directorial team.) And that's another of his strengths: Jon is well-respected in the industry and can ask for the best and get it. There's a lot more to add, but as I said, I'll take the high road. This time.