Techwright

Yep. ThatGuyCDude is correct. I've successfully put out fires with water powers, ice powers, and storm powers that have water/rain in them (not the lightning storm powers). I do wish violent air powers like gust or the tank's handclap powers would work as snuffers, but sadly, they don't appear to.

M&R brings the escorted NPC along as well? Does it do it for any escorted character or just some like Dr. Todd? That would indeed be marvelous if all escorted NPCs responded to the M&R teleport. Also, it is more than just the Multifaceted Badge, is it not? That's part of it, but it looks like the Between Realities Badge gives you the accolade power, and Multifaceted is just one stage in the process.

Tanks back then could taunt every opponent on a floor and still stay alive to herd them all back to the team for mass slaugh arrest.

I was looking at this recent video on robotics technology, and the segment on "Vision 4 Rescue" got me thinking. One of my buddies is something of an understated genius and is deep into developing what hopefully will become a new low-cost, one-button alert system, currently in wristband format, though other designs, like neck wear are anticipated. I encouraged him to look into possibilities beyond just the elderly needing assistance, and among those things discussed was a low-cost solution for hikers summoning help in national and state parks when they are lost or injured. The problem is that his technology utilizes cell tower emergency bands to transmit, and there are large sections of the parks where cell tower don't reach. The national park service and he have been considering options. That brings me back to this video and its rescue equipment discussion. It has a drone in the kit and refers to it as a mobile command center. I'm now wondering if such a drone could be kept at ranger stations and launched with gear that will act as a mobile emergency band relay, allowing his technology to be utilized deep in the national and large state parks to pinpoint requests for help, and possible find the lost faster. I've relayed this to him for consideration.

Watching the boxing robots, I feel we're one step closer to needing Magnus: Robot Fighter. By the way, having re-watched part of the video in your March 8 posting, I'm not sure I'm really going to be enthusiastic about A.I. androids wearing very human features and synthetic skin. I realize it might be important in certain areas, for example, a possible overhaul of the Disney World Hall of Presidents show, but for day-to-day service bots, I'd much prefer there to be a clear distinction. I don't have to be coddled and live in a world of illusion that this thing working in front of me is a person. There's lots of examples, both real and in sci-fi projects that show something merely in the arrangement of a head is sufficient for humans to interact with it, for example, the glass bubble on the Robot in the 1960s and 1990s interpretations of Lost In Space.

I had not considered the possibility of placeholder voices being used for the trailer. I didn't even realize that was a thing, but it could indeed be a good explanation. It may also explain why the Joker doesn't seem to have that on-the-edge-of-insanity element to the voice. Though I still think the trailer is a bit toned-down from previous Lego Batman antics, re-watching it now to hear the voices again, I do have to admit that the last gag of stepping on a LEGO after declaring mastery of the dark was pretty funny and a nice bit of self-deprecating humor from LEGO.

Where'd you get a casting list? IMDB insists it has not been given a page for the game yet, and the official website does not appear to list the voice actors. I'm fine with this. It feels slightly toned down from the antics of Lego: Batman 2 and 3 which I thoroughly played. Two things concern me: 1. I'm not really gravitating to the voice doing Batman/Bruce Wayne. Please tell me that's not Troy Baker. It doesn't sound like his former performances of the role. Troy had a great voice for the overly-dramatic, tongue-in-cheek take on the Dark Knight in previous Lego games. Will Arnett in the movie version fit the bill as well. This voice doesn't seem to connect to the character well. 2. While I enjoyed the games, I absolutely hated the keyboard control setup, and that I couldn't change it to something more comfortable. Hated it enough that if I find this game has the same control setup, I'll pass on buying the game.

And you'd have to take the lesser travel power first, such as hover before taking flight. You'd also be unable to take the Homecoming travel power sets like Sorcery or Force of Will. I can't recall the exact layout, but I think that some of the things in the START vendor you'd have had to earn in the original game. Certainly many of them were not available in the earliest versions of the game. My first two original game characters in 2005 were deleted experiments. One, I recall, was an ice/invulnerable tanker, so that was at the beginning. The third creation (and the first one I stuck with) was a martial arts/super reflexes scrapper. I took that character all the way. I've been able to completely recreate him in Homecoming, though I can't speak to the what changes were made by the OG development team along the way. The current version uses column 3's Weapons Mastery. I cannot recall whether that was available in 2005 or not, though I believe I had the shurikens from it by 2011.

This is where acquiring something like 3rd column/Weapons Mastery powers (web grenade, caltrops) or S.T.A.R.T. vendor Temp Attack powers with stun or other delay abilities (plasmic taser, hand grenade, stun grenade), can become quite useful for halting a runner(s).

As I think it over with this, if you know there's going to be an escort, before going in, get the teammates to check their toggle powers to see if there is something that has a stealth element. I've been at fault a couple of times. It's not necessarily that I forget that I have an AoE active (especially since there's visual to it), it's that I play 60 characters, and swapping between them, I don't always remember which toggle has a negative effect on a given mission. Even with all these considerations, you'll still have challenges from the NPC. The one in the Katie Hannon Task Force for example: if she even thinks any one of you needs a buff, she stops to give it to you...all of you, one at a time... which can really mess with the team's efforts to drag her backside out of the cave.

Complete waste of 3 great actors and a beloved franchise. Much like another beloved '60s franchise also mauled by a '90s movie. *cough*Wild, Wild West*cough*

You've just given my MM animal tamer an idea. Where's my flock of birds?

I'm still learning KW. What's up with the roving band of about 30 members of The Awakened in Flagtown Memorial Park? The size of the mob and the fact that they're wielding psy powers, a bit more challenging than some other types, had me wondering if there was a roving GM in their midst, like Scrapyard. They don't, not that I can see, but I can't help thinking such a large group has a connection to something else. Are they triggered by a mission event, or do they trigger something if attacked?

Thank you for relaying this. So sorry to hear of another worthy member of the OG game passing. I didn't know KinImp3, probably because I played on two other servers. Did she ever return to the game, either to Homecoming or one of the other offshoots?

Yes, some magic is fine. I can't think of a supers comic brand that has multiple titles that doesn't tap into magic at least once. But as CoH tried to point out with its design, there's 5 (at least) origin concepts affecting a superhero universe design. As to "new kinds of magic", I've always thought "cosmic" should be a category. Basically, it would be the fulfillment of Bradberry's oft-quoted idea of magic being science advanced to the point of looking like magic. The late MMO Tabula Rasa had this. Players could uncover sigils called "Logos" that would, upon discovery, bind to their character's nature, unlocking new powers and potentials. This process looked like magic, but the game story revealed that Logos were relics of an ancient society's discovery of some of the fundamental science on which the universe was built.

Are you saying Indom waits until the two GM's tackle each other before the league engages? I've been on many War leagues on Excelsior, sometimes several times a day, but they always tackle the GM's individually, and far apart from each other.

Well, I just went over to Steam to view SoH, and it's saying it unlocks in 1 hour. The game looks reasonably good, more like a Champions Online minus the claw hands, but I went back to re-read my opinion of the demo from 22 months ago, and was reminded that there were a great many problems to address. I didn't really find it playable back then. That and I ended on a note that suggested the game was heavily angled towards magic origin, even to creating cybernetic opponents that were magic based. This, as I said, doesn't hold much appeal to me, as I feel the market is oversaturated with magic MMOs as is. If I want such, there's pages of magic MMOs on Steam that I could pick from. Still, they may have been more aggressive at fixing issue than I suspected. I'll keep a wait-and-see attitude rather than outright rejection.

A developer I cannot speak to. I don't keep close tabs on a lot of them. I'd definitely want an open-world approach. Sure, keep the war walls in place if you must. They're part of the lore now, but give us a larger view, those areas beyond the war walls, the views from the tram, etc. I'd want the ability to enter buildings without necessarily entering an instance. I'd want the city more fleshed out: corner diners, ethnic neighborhoods, bodegas, variations in architecture, neon, parking meters, trash trucks, etc. I'd want breakables. If I hurl an opponent into a wall, the wall should show damage. I'd want the city to be a starting point, not an end-all. No major city functions without outside interaction, and criminals won't be content to stay in the walls. At some point, I'm going to be called upon to leave the city to hunt clues or antagonists. That's not just to other parts of the state, but to any part of the globe. Imagine a mission where you're sent to Europe to aid Hero One or Asia to track a Tsoo supply line. I'd want opponents to be mobile and alert, not grouped, stagnant, and ignorant of the visible fight at the other end of the hall.

Still, it will be a faster full release than Star Citizen. 🙄

Stamp was also the butler Ramsley in the first Haunted Mansion film playing opposite Eddie Murphy. Admittedly, not the greatest of his films, and a role oddly handled by writers and director, but Stamp was still memorable. I'd forgotten it, but looking down the IMDB list for Stamp, I was reminded that he played Chancellor Valorum in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. Valorum was the character who was forced out of the Republic chancellor's post by the secret galactic manipulations of Palpatine/Sidious. I first encountered Terrence Stamp onscreen in the Superman movies. I remember thinking it odd (still do) that he was playing this over-the-top comic book villain, when it was so clear from his bearing, despite having to deliver several campy lines, that he should be filming Shakespeare. I assume Stamp was classically trained, though I've not read it. He certainly had that bearing that actors like Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, and Derek Jacobi all bring to the screen. And yet I can't find any filmed works of the classical playwrights in his list. It's a shame really. He would have made an excellent Prospero or King Lear.

What is, then?

I don't know, Tyger, Pink Monster's powersets are Water & Marine. She may indeed have "pours". 😁

I can't recall the last time, if ever, that I saw the two giant monsters of the War of Croatoa actually clash. Normally, a league of heroes dispels them long before they meet, but this morning, a confused league fell apart and the clash of titans actually happened.

Ah, so if I remain indefinitely in the alignment, say Hero, it will keep on working?