Techwright

To ask about their car's extended warranty? I've not encountered GM Conviction before, at least, not in that guise. What's their function as a GM?

Corrected that. 😉🤣

For those still learning the lore, there will be spoiler talk in this thread. Not everyone may bind it behind a curtain. Is there anything in the game lore that says that Nemesis has been introduced to, or is at least aware of...

I had much the same line of thinking. Bringing him back at the same level of power, same everything...no. To me that leaves two options, both of which I find intriguing: 1. Bring him back in either a powerless or lower-powered status. @Scarlet Shocker gives a good powerless description so I'll not dwell on that. "Lower powered" to me has plenty of story options. For example: The game introduces a new NPC hero that integrates into the ongoing story. His back story is a mystery. He has no memory and limited power, and for some reason is not recognized by anyone, though a sense of familiarity persists. Like any player, he works his way up the skills ladder, and we encounter him periodically in this process with his story gradually opening up. Eventually, a major story both unlocks his memories and recognition by those around him. However, he's not the elite power of old. Instead, this time, he's taking the "slow" path towards Incarnate power, avoiding the trap of the "fast" path as before. His rediscovered memories are his real asset. He may rejoin the Phalanx, but in an advisor's capacity, and more likely as an auxiliary member. 2. We get him back but in a flashback zone like Chimerora. Something like 1930s Paragon City at the start of the Freedom Phalanx. He's every bit as powerful, but young, and rough around the edges with experience. This also gives us a chance to meet and interact with his wife: Lord Recluse's sister and Ms Liberty's grandmother.

I'm game for it. If I understand correctly, you're basically saying a player could gain the temporary use of a War Walker similar to getting the nuke from Warburg?

Actually, given the scenario you've presented, I could see an EB being controlled, but at a diminished capacity representing a stronger, on-going resistance to your control. That would also mean a shorter control time. Perhaps it is converted to fight at a Boss level to show that resistance? My concern is what happens in a scenario where your teammates have wiped out every NPC on the field except the Big Bad? How does your character contribute meaningfully at that time? I've even recently been teamed with PUGs where one or more players has an "I Win" power that destroys every NPC in a grouping in one blast, possibly two if the other player next to them has a similar ability. That doesn't leave much opportunity for the Manipulator to react. Perhaps if the archetype had a rez power that could resurrect one or more controlled characters that fell in battle, it might negate the concern?

It's been a long while since I did a Sutter TF. Am I correct in saying the airstrike originates via machinery? That is, is it airships or satellites dishing out death and destruction? If so, that doesn't really strike me as Incarnate in nature, and I realize there's likely a certain irony to that statement. The Incarnate system has long been acknowledged as flawed. Why continue that pattern, though? When it is on target with the lore, the Incarnate system is supposed to represent a person-altering experience. My character may have started as a tech-origin or nature-origin character (and I have many of each) but once he's started on the Incarnate path, the lore is indicating that he's modifying himself, not the tech or gear. Electrical, ice, fire, and dark blasts are coming from himself. Pets arrive to serve because he has gained an overwhelming will (read as target-specific telepathic or techno-telepathic control). That sort of thing. That said, perhaps there's a way to modify the power and ability of Airstrike to make it appear as originating from a character and not an airship or satellite. Not that he calls forth airships, but that he, with Incarnate power, violently disturbs the forces of nature in the surrounding atmosphere unleashing their energy in a hail on the target. Now, separating this theoretical Airstrike from the Incarnate system for a moment, if the goal is just to have the ability added to the game, put it in the pre-Incarnate list of abilities and make it a tech-based ability using a backpack drone with micro-missiles (think Iron-Man tank missile). That allows for a flying device small enough to work in a hallway or cave.

Knowing the movie is practically a guaranteed hit and cash cow, their agents were asking too much, which must have been substantial when you consider the price of making CGI dragons.

A man walks down the street brandishing just Brawl, people know he's not afraid of anything.

Yet another Disney live-action treatment? Disney has gone to the Armenians. Wait, I think I got the phrase wrong. Regardless...I'll tell you one animation-to-live action Disney treatment I'd like to see: The Black Cauldron. My 6th grade (roughly 12 years old for those outside the USA) student teacher read the book by Lloyd Alexander to us, so the animated movie a few years later was interesting to me. But clearly it was not so to a great many others. Giving it a live-action treatment, possibly expanding it into a couple of movies or a mini-series for D+, and holding it close to the book series would give them a chance to correct their mistakes, introduce something that literally two generations now have not learned about, and maybe, just maybe, invoke a nostalgia feeling in Gen-Xers that will make the animated version meaningful again.

I suppose it depends on your definition of "cheese". We Americans call that yellow stuff that can be sprayed from a can "cheese" even though...wait...sorry. wrong notes card. There are a lot of Halloween films I'd consider terribly cheesy, and quite a few Valentines Day ones as well. I'm now picturing The Rock in a cheesy Halloween movie: "What did you get trick-or-treating, Charlie Brown?" "I got a Rock." Yep, it works!

Hey, if I was going to make $50 million for doing the movie, and apparently get $20 million per movie on average, I'd be happy to act in a stale, cookie-cutter fashion that movie studios like for each and every movie as well.

This one's a curiosity. It shows the whole central lowlands as one big inlet of the ocean. One of the other shots at least showed the trees.

I'm puzzled. I could have sworn the costume creator had a bisected option (that is color 1 on right side, color 2 on left side) for at least chest and legs, but I've been unable to find it anywhere when I went to redesign a characters costume. (Qualifier: I'm aware there is a mask-type option for the face.) Have we never had it? Was it an option that was removed? This feels like it should be a costume element 101 kind of thing.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to switch to decaf.

That's an interesting idea. I wonder how restrictive that might be for making continuity for the rest of the MCU. EDIT: By that I mean, The Bat film was permitted for tax purposes because they agreed to never let anything of it see the light of day. Would that be the same for CA: BNW, and would it paint the MCU in a corner, being unable to use certain characters, story elements, etc. I'm guessing the insane reshoots and price tag are seen as necessary because this movie might be perceived as a tentpole for the lore for all the future MCU stories. Sort of the way Age of Ultron directly affected the stories of Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok, and through those Ant-man and the Wasp, Infinity War, and Endgame. (Maybe a couple of others.)

Anything to liven up the Tiki Club would be appreciated. Even the band just seems to be going through the motions now.

Haven't seen those reports yet, but you'd think after decades of expensive messes that Hollywood would realize that the first test group should be the same-sized group of viewers to read the script and give feedback. Until you hit 80% likes or higher, don't go into production mode. That, or give it to a literate 5-year-old child. That's just basic Evil Overlord List #12: One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

Thirty years is usually when the "everything old is cool again" kicks in. Just look at the wave of 1980s nostalgia that kicked in about a decade ago. We're just holding down the fort until the new generation joins us at age 16.

Make it a good-quality bratwurst or knockwurst and I'm game for it! (No catsup, but yes to a good stone-ground mustard.)

Did you have more in your collection than the 14 that Baum wrote? I did much the same as you, but at age 10. I went on to read some of the books written by others and considered canon by fans. Unlike you, I didn't own the books, I had to check them out from the library, so I sometimes had to wait until another kid finished a book, but it was worth it. I was utterly amazed when the movie Return to Oz came out, combining elements of books 2 and 3. The Wheelers, Tick-Tock and Jack Pumpkinhead were just like I'd imagined them. Disney, at least in the 1980s and 1990s had the rights to produce all the Oz books, or at least Baum's 14, and I was baffled that they didn't do so in the wake of the Harry Potter movies, when several other movie series attempted their own book runs. The Oz books are far darker at times than the Judy Garland musical would suggest, and IMHO, would have made excellent movies for the generation brought up on Harry Potter.

It's a good look for something deceptively simple in its composition. Use of the ankh symbol was surprising, until I realized there are no zodiac signs in the costume creator, a remarkable oversight for images with a lot of potential. (Maybe that can be added, devs?) Have you yet run into anyone in-game who doesn't get the name reference? I've been running the Aged of Aquarius for a while now and have been surprised multiple times by those who've no idea what he's referencing. Makes me feel...well...aged.

Side note: you just reminded me of one of the more interesting player-driven aspects of the old MMO Tabula Rasa. They had Friday Night Fights, where players would square off using that game's equivalent of brawl and try to defeat their opponent using only it, and some fancy dodging footwork. I found it surprisingly entertaining. Let's just say they now go by the name "One Punch Man".

"How you can see those characters relate to each other just with position, expressions and costume coding." Not to mention lines. My two years of being an art minor in college long, long ago have mostly atrophied, but I still retain enough of my art composition training to realize this still could be used to teach the next generation of young artists. Every line in this either points to the central two characters (even the "line" created by the storm troopers' helmets), or frames in the two characters by narrowing the broader space, much like rings on an archery target. In this case it is the diagonal lines started by the support beam in the upper right corner, the single rafters' beam to the left of Mon Mothma, the light/dark divide on the floor, and the diagonals behind the troopers. With a paining or a relief, I'd expect this kind of structure. The artist, as Bob Ross used to say, has complete control of the composition, but I'm always amazed at the movie camera achieving it, as there are creations not made by the photographer, namely the building in this case.