Techwright

Like my pizzas, I can never have just two ingredients. I'm off to figure out if I can make a cheerleading, cowboy, spaceman zombie.

You know, I think it could work like a energy/energy blaster: shotgun for (limited) range, axe instead of power punching for melee.

Maybe ask Elon Musk? If he's willing to sell flamethrowers, then...

Just finished Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I'm already having withdrawals. I've begun re-watch all 7 seasons and it's proving very re-watchable. There's so many nuanced foreshadowings and subtle references that are now better understood. I also love how they chose to create a solid ending for another Marvel TV series as well. Those who've seen season 7 know to what I'm referring. I'm really grateful they were given the green light for the last two seasons and didn't end with season 5, as had been anticipated.

Mine's nothing so spectacular as what y'all have, though I've had a few in the past. I picked my current background for the serenity it gives me. I took the photo in August 2019 at Cataloochee Valley Overlook, Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the North Carolina side, not far from where I'd gone to photograph a herd of wild elk in the valley alongside Rough Fork Creek. Since their reintroduction to the area, the elk have been wildly popular and cherished by the regional community. I love my home region! Map info on the Overlook spot: https://goo.gl/maps/PutWbjCJmcK3oHeTA

Actually, the Doc Thrax look reminds me of how much I want belted, tunic-length tops as an option.

I love a good chocolate mint on my hotel pillow. If I find one strangely and unexpectedly on my home pillow, well, that's when I grab the shotgun axe...um, call the police.

I'm all for the free mints. The other, not so much.

When I learned how long he'd been battling it, I was stunned. Consider how many grueling hours he put into fight and other action sequences, both training and filming. Sure, the mask allowed stunt men to double for him, but things like the fight scene at the waterfall required his effort. Chad was born and grew up in Anderson, SC not 30 miles from where I was born and grew up, close enough for me to consider him the "hometown hero". He played basketball on a Youth Basketball of America team alongside future NFL player Shaun Ellis (NY Jets/NE Patriots). He attended T.L. Hanna high school, which means he would have known T.L. Hanna's other legend, James Robert "Radio" Kennedy, who was a presence at the school for decades. Radio's life story was made into the movie "Radio" (2003) starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ed Harris. Because of Chad's hometown, I'd had hopes of meeting him one day, and just comparing notes regarding our mutual "home turf". Sadly, that will never be the case now.

Your creativity is really great Dacy! 👍 Unfortunately, it also reminds me how desperately base building could benefit from an expansion in the fonts category.

Then you start feeling aches and pains, you don't move as fast, gain weight easier, probably need glasses...wait, we are talking birthdays, yes?

I suppose Deja View was taken as well?

Pretty sure that was called the "Corrupted Blood Incident". Fortunately, subscription numbers had not reached their peak yet, so the planet survived.

Sorry, forgot to answer this one. I doubled back to check, and no, that doesn't fit either, as seen below. I appreciate the suggestion, however. Interestingly enough, when I checked this particular menu, a gold dot had disappeared. It had previously been on Night Ward, where I have several untapped contacts, and a few minutes later, its not there. This makes me think the gold dots represent something happening real-time. I considered previously that it might be events, like a Rikti invasion, but I've not been able to definitively answer that yet, though it looks like a "no" on that too. Perhaps its a combo of real-time things, like Rikti invasions plus giant monsters events? I've also wondered if somehow its tied into the LFG tool, maybe identifying recruiter locations, though I admit I'm grasping at straws for that answer.

Thanks all for the feedback. Much appreciated. Missions were one of the prominent possibilities I'd considered, but, as you can see from the pic below, it doesn't really match up. Tips are something I'd not taken into account (thanks for that DoctorDitko), but they also don't seem to match up. Since one cannot see their location until accepted, I did accept one, which was in Talos. When I went back to the train/portal lists, Talos was not among the gold dot group (nor had it been previously. This character currently only has 4 gold dots, and 1 mission with 6 tip missions, and they're just not matching up. All contacts had been turned in as well. I did consider the possibility of detective contact bank missions, and I did have one detective waiting to speak with me, but again, he's in a spot that doesn't have a gold dot. Likewise, I wondered if gold dots represented Giant Monster locations currently active, but that's a bust, too. Any refinement of the missions/tip mission idea that might make it fully work, or perhaps another explanation?

Dual Pistols with extreme sports and no one has suggested Double Dare? If that's taken, you could always tweak it Double Dareya, Double Dog Dare(ya), etc.

Gaming technical reasons aside for not having many kids in the city, one must really ask: what caring parent would NOT try to get their kids out of this particular city, or at least to a safe suburb not seen in-game? I mean, I ask all the time why there's still ADULT people living in a city where they're likely to be killed or worse by Clockwork, Vahz, CoT, Banished Pantheon, and Trolls running loose en masse. I'm not even counting every superpowered thug gang, super paramilitary group, and alien invader. Shoot I'm not even considering an "ordinary" street gang like the Warriors. This place is crazy! Who'd let their kid live in the city let alone walk the streets?

This has been annoying me for a while. What are these gold dots at transportation hub menus? I don't even know what to call them, so looking them up has been a challenge. I don't recall them from my time in the original game, though they may have been there, and I don't recall a discussion of them in Homecoming. I keep thinking I have them figured out, then something disrupts the pattern. I'm just wondering if I'm missing out on some good gameplay as a result.

The discussion about potential new grinding/rewards concepts here got me wondering... In theory only, what would a cooperative zone unlocking event look like in a CoH/V interpretation? For example, look to the Ahn'Qiraj zone unlocking challenge in World of Warcraft. In that game, there's a ton of grinding, and questing, if I recall correctly, for the server to fill up quotas to unlock a massive new zone, with several special rewards in the process. But grinding for cloth doesn't seem like a COH/V kind of thing. So just for kicks, how would the forumites envision such a thing working here? Would we need one zone (purple), or two? By two I'd think one unlocked by blueside and that's more heavily blueside but with redside opportunities, and vice-versa for red (this might stimulate redside play). Do we save up salvage, crafted enhancements, or a mix with maybe a few other things? what would an unlocked zone have and look like in COH/V? Looking for creative ideas. (Note, this is strictly speculative. I'd never ask this of the Homecoming team.)

double post

Gladiator? He's Shi'ar Imperial Guard by political alignment, though not Shi'ar by species. He's also known as Kallark.

Time to dig out the thesaurus and find synonyms for "thesaurus". A teammate of Bionic Flea, perhaps? Well, if we're going to dissect the potential parts of a name, rather than pitch names, let me review my list: 1. The "Chocolate in the Peanut Butter" naming scheme: Ace Barnstormer - one of my OG characters. I was frustrated because I couldn't use "Ace", then frustrated because I couldn't use "Barnstormer", and I really wanted a character based on the biplane era. Rather than continue to seek a one word name, I found the solution was actually a cooler name than its parts. 2. Portmanteau - that's just a $5 word for taking 2 or more words and blending them to create a new one that rolls off the tongue. My light hero's name "Lumineon" is an example, using "luminous" and "neon", both references to light. Portmanteaus are actually more common than you'd imagine. Examples pulled from the web include "cosplay" (costume + roleplay), "prequel" (previous + sequel), and "sitcom" (situational + comedy) 3. Puns - I've a water sentinel, an aged hippy whose mindset is more tuned into the Summer of Love than the Year of the Pandemic. So of course I named him "Aged of Aquarius". I've had a lot of laughs from other "seasoned" players with that one, though it's kind of shocking how many players apparently are unaware of the song. Regardless, puns can work for names. "Panda-emic" anyone? 4. L33T-speak? Street-speak? I'm not quite sure how to title this one, but modern culture has produced some rather curious new words and texting methods in an effort to communicate faster in text. My fire/ice blaster needed something modern and different, so he took the name "Grill N Chill" (I should note that it was also heavily influence when seeing a sign at the Dairy Queen, though not truly identical) 5. Street signs, business signs, business names - see the end of point #4. Note, you'll probably want to modify the name slightly, or mix things up by using one of the previous points in combination with this. Mine's similar but definitely a bit different to DQ's sign. I've seen a few "iCharacter" type names around, a clear homage to Apple products, but different enough that they maintain their independence. Not just noble titles but titles in general. My "Cmdr Ray Gunn" uses an old-style abbreviation for "commander" since the full word made the name too long. (From what I'm told the abbreviation is still in use in some parts of the world.) I probably should have used "CDR", but Ray is supposed to be emulating a 1930s serial movie hero, so the older style just felt better.

Quoted for truth. Grinding is a game killer, and that opinion has been widely documented in gaming forums spanning the globe. Now to be constructive, I personally would be more at ease with a reward for constructive effort, something that advances my character, rather than just mindless "go there, kill that" or "go there, collect that". One such example in game (or at least in the original game) was the blue-side awarding of epaulets for completing the 6 Freedom Phalanx task forces. That takes hours, teaming, and a lot of work, but it advances the character. Your character gains influence and experience, and storywise, just helped save the city 6 times over. And he/she/"small furry creature from Alpha Centauri" was not strapped to a corner of the city playing Whack-A-Troll whenever the game finally generated one where you'd already defeated dozens. The cape-issuing missions in the original game could be perceived this way as well, as was the Midnighter's Club access missions. I'd also suggest it should never be a single item, but rather a selection in a "store". If I'm playing a barbarian character, for example, chances are, I don't need a pair of epaulets. So why do some crazy grind just to get them? I won't, you see. But I would be willing to take on the Twelve Tasks of Hercules to gain access to a selection, where I can pick one item, like say a nice pair of bearskin bracers, while another guy picks high-tech gloves with LED filament lighting, and a third acquires a new alligator skin-type to benefit a reptilian character. We see something like this in the original game, but using a specifically earned "currency" doing specific missions and events, for Vanguard rewards at the Rikti War Zone. I'm also a fan of the "packet of rewards" idea, if I can coin a phrase. Going back to the Freedom Phalanx missions to explain. Completing all these in the original game gave these rewards: epaulets, a badge, the title of "Task Force Commander", and nicest of all, a permanent 5% increase to your characters maximum hit points. With this, I may never use the epaulets on my character, but I might be a "badger", happy to show off a new shiny by changing my title, and feel really good about having permanently boosted my hit points. So I'd feel good about this despite being unable to work with one of the four rewards given. And I never felt I was grinding (well except in Synapse and Citadel task forces, but poor task force design is a different matter). Not entirely accurate. Many of the badges, most notably the day job badges, have additional, useful effects that come in the earning of them, such as temporary boosts to health, power, or resistence, or a temporary power such a teleportation to the auction house (which in the original game was useful as an alternate fast transportation method). As previously mentioned, the Task Force Commander badge permanently boosts max hit points by 5%. I believe there are others, though I'm not going to go looking for them all at this moment. I do think an argument could be made for applying some sort of reward on more badges.

Sable Drift is an awesome name! Poetic in sound, and it feels like a special ops code name. Quite a mouthful. I'm guessing you're a fan of the name "The Elongated Man"? Okay, I love doing name design. So just to clarify for my tired, aging brain: what are we shooting for here? Just creating a bunch of synonyms that folks can mix 'n match, or building lists of names to toss to the crowd, or waiting for someone to say "help" and give us their character concept?

I was collecting comics and trading cards about that time. The 1990s were the speculative, collectable era in so many things (glaring a you, beanie babies), and comics were at the top of the list. As I dimly recall, the glut came from two publishing house realizations: there were a bunch of new, impressionable collectors out there (such as I), and Marvel's foil-enhanced covers (originally a rare treat) were selling well to these new collectors. The end result was a speculation disaster. The mainstream comic houses began focusing more on special artwork covers or special effects covers (or both), and less on solid story writing. Suddenly, you'd have large printings with multiple cover issues for the same story (collect them all!), and the newbie collectors would gobble them up thinking they'd be worth something someday. It was a cheap move on the part of the comic houses, and a serious rookie mistake on the part of us newbie collectors. When realization of what happened eventually set in (along with emptied wallets), collecting stopped, and the market more or less crashed. A similar thing was happening at the same time with trading cards of all kinds. I'd noticed that overnight small comic and card shops had sprung up everywhere (my roommates and I did one for a while at a flea market), and there seemed to be at least one card-and-comics trading show within 150 miles any given weekend. Now, my 1-million+ person, east coast region has about 10 comic shops in 100 miles, and most of those heavily supplement with other merchandise, like games. The 1990s saw a lot of indie comic publishers either begin or hit their stride, leading to more speculation, and emptier wallets. Image Studios started at this time. (Side note: I just spotted my copies of the first 4 issues of WildC.A.T.S. the other day. Not worth anything, sadly.) It's interesting that it was from those startups that I collected, not for speculation, but just for a good read. I was into Valiant Comics (many of the characters were reboots of Gold Key characters), and NOW Comics for it's interesting take on Green Hornet & Kato as a multi-generational teamup of Reids & Katos. That said, although there was a lot of trashy stories being put out, there were still some good ones, and there were iconic ones (not necessarily one and the same). KnightFall and The Death of Superman were among the biggest. I personally really got into the X-Men's Age of Apocalypse storyline.