Techwright

Perhaps using the frames of the Will o' wisps and Sprites in Croatoa? That is, if NPC frameworks can port over to player setups.

Are you referring to those occasions on a mission where a talk bubble suddenly appears over a teammate's head, and you've nothing in your chat window because they're talking in a chat that you don't have open in the chat box?

I've wished for this for a bit. Glad someone put it into print.

Malta sappers, though I have to give dishonorable mention to Night Widows with their blind abilities. I don't think I'd mind it so much if the blind didn't last as long as it does. Repeated hits just add to the frustration as well: *Blinded* Hah, hah! I have a yellow inspiration. Blind solved! No multi-minute wait for me! Bam! *blinded* Oh, for the love of ...

I'd just posted a news blurb regarding radioactive wasps in the Off Topic forum, when it suddenly hit me: could Crey's Folly offer more than it already has? For the new players, Crey's Folly is considered a hazard zone (though perhaps mild by the standards of today's players), where the Crey corporation basically ended an entire city sector due to a massive environmental event during the Rikti War. It has been taken over by a myriad of villain organizations, and yes, insect swarms are common. But, other than ramping the difficulty level up a bit, the opponents are exactly the same as elsewhere. Can they be more, though? Crey's Folly is essentially a toxic soup. Those (presumably) living in the environment could undergo the comic-book treatment of long-term exposure to radiation and toxins: mutation. Could a subset of each villain group represented in CF, looking just the same (so no need for new modeling), be given a couple of powers oddball to their normal nature? Since I mentioned the radioactive wasps, imagine swarms, maybe not all of them, hitting with radioactive powers, possibly stronger than the stings with which they now annoy. Essentially it would be a "third column" powers setup for the NPCs. It would only be for the CF crowds, though, unless there's similar toxic zones I'm forgetting, possibly on red side. If I understand correctly, this, from a development point, would amount to cloning the normal opponent, and activating a few additional powers, not unlike some opponent creation in the AE. I could be lacking understanding, though, I admit. Add a few badges in for clearing out these mutates, and CF might have more business than usual.

Hollywood B-movie writers, we have the inspiration for your next script... (article source) AIKEN, S.C. — Radioactive wasps, yes, you read that right, were found at a nuclear facility in South Carolina. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Energy, just before 2 p.m. on July 3, Radiological Control Operations discovered a wasp nest on a post near a tank at the Savannah River Site in Aiken. Officials said the nest was sprayed to kill the wasps. The nest was probed and discovered to be 100,000 dpm, which is a moderately high level of radiation. The wasp nest is considered "onsite legacy radioactive contamination" and not related to a loss of contamination control. Legacy radioactive contamination is lingering radioactive contamination resulting from past activities. The Department of Energy did not list any other cause for the insect's contamination. After the wasps were killed, they were bagged as radiological waste. Officials said the ground and surrounding area did not have any contamination. The incident did not cause any impact to other activities and operations at the facility. About the Facility The now 310-square-mile site was built in the 1950s to produce the basic materials used in the fabrication of nuclear weapons, primarily tritium and plutonium 239, during the Cold War. Cleanup and environmental remediation began in the 1980s after it became an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site.

Hmm...I can't recall. Is it "I" before "X" except after "C" or ... 🤔 Nice homage.

So, the first Avatar 3 trailer has dropped. Looks like the moon world of Pandora is not so unified after all. First earth, then water. Can you say "Fire Nation"? I get the initial feeling this is going to be Jake's Empire Strikes Back moment. If so, 4 will probably be his "Robert the Bruce and the spider" moment, with the fifth film being the victory. I'm curious to see how Spider, based on bits in the trailer, can breathe without the mask for any notably length of time. And hey, James Cameron better speed things up if he wants to get all 5 films in the can. Neither he nor Stephen Lang are getting any younger.

While I'm very fond of speedsters and even faster, portal creators (imagine portaling across the planet any time to visit friends), I think I'd have to go with a healing ability that not only keeps me looking and feeling like a 22-year-old (and long-lived), but I can also heal others. I'd probably make a living offering my services to health insurance companies as a major cost saver to expensive care, but only in non-life-threatening situations, and only because it keeps a roof over my head while I help people. My gift would be used pro bono for anyone who is at death's door and struggling to survive. There would be other pro bono cases as well. Imagine being able to regrow lost limbs, reverse dementia, correct genetics with harmful effects, restore the faces of burn and cancer victims, etc. There'd probably be a downside, just like the Flash has hypoglycemic issues if pushed too hard. More dramatic heals would probably be exhausting, slowing the number of heals in a day, and one would be limited just by physical presence in how many people could be visited in a day. I'd probably need days off due to the strain, and that creates angst since you suspect someone might die who is within range of being helped. It also makes one a mark for kidnapping by the powerful who'd want to hog your ability for themselves. Just make sure if given a choice, you pick the healing factor and not the claws.

AE story material.

I am not really sure what they were shooting for with this one, but other than paint and a white-guy afro, this doesn't really feel like the tone of Bob Ross at all. Apparently, I'm not alone in this view. The comment section of the video appears to be 100% against it. I'd be curious to see other players' thoughts, especially if they're well-acquainted with the Joy of Painting series. Side note: It says this is "created in Fortnite". I've only known of Fortnite as a game (which I've never played). Is it also a game engine?

I ran the Numina TF again and snagged Scout's last comment with a screenshot. It reads "I am sorry for what I must do. Destroy me if you can please". That says to me that he's not in control, but is lucid enough to invite his death.

First, I'm intrigued by the idea. Yul Brenner, Christopher Lee, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kurt Russell, Richard Roundtree, and Jodi Foster are brilliantly cast. Jeff Daniels, Tim Curry, and Dustin Hoffman are intriguing choices for the roles assigned. While I can't quite see it as a natural choice, they're each amazing actors able to morph into a radically different role, and I'd very much like to see how that might play out. The creator seems to be leaning toward 1977-79 in their timing choice as some of the cast choices, Scott Baio and Mark Hamil, would have been too young for the roles in the early 1970s. Charles Bronson is...well...it might work. Certainly he's a tough guy actor. I've not seen enough of his full body of work to know whether he can portray the feral savagery of Sabertooth as well as the dangerous aspect. Likewise Lou Ferrigno as Juggernaut. I suppose it depends on how Juggy is portrayed: just big tough thug, or with more of a mind to the character. Lou has shown acting range beyond just savage yells and grunts (see his role in the fan-show Star Trek Continues, episode "Lolani"), so I'd prefer to see more out of the character with him in the armor than just savage yells and grunts. Faye Dunaway I'd probably have cast as as Emma Frost, instead. She strikes me as having the right balance of icy intelligence and great beauty. Margo Kidder, Gene Wilder, Jane Seymour, Henry Fonda, and Farrah Fawcett feel miscast. Jane actually feels more like she could pull off Jean Grey than Farrah. Gene Wilder feels more like a Fox than a Toad. 😉 😁

Scout was turned into a War Hulk against his will. Here's some of the dialog from the TF mission recorded to the unofficial wiki: Scout's final words Debriefing Such cruelty! That poor man has been trapped in that living prison for a lifetime. His passing is a blessing upon him. His dying words ring true in my ears, it is the Woodsman we seek. We must find him, but I cannot seem to pinpoint his location. Task Force, you are truly a boon to Paragon City. Additionally, and the wikis do not record this, Scout has a speech bubble upon being found that says something like "I hope you can defeat me", implying he's forced to fight, likely in the programming of the machine.

Yes, the Boomtown towers have always been a point of curiosity to me as the game came out in a post-9/11 world where we could actually see how the (horrific) physics work. That said, I've heard MMOs take about 7 years to develop, so maybe Boomtown was crafted before Sept. 2001. I know with the Feb. 26, 1993 attack on the WTC towers, the fear was they'd fall intact outwards, like trees toppling, and perhaps that viewpoint influenced design choices like Boomtown buildings leaning against each other.

Why not? Are we approaching this from an outsider's viewpoint, that Praetorian Cole can be redeemed, and would we (both the players and characters) want to try? or can the story play out from Cole's internal viewpoint: that his view (possibly) hasn't changed, he just needs to play a longer game to get what he wants, and if that means masquerading as Statesman and kissing up to the Prime Earth Phalanx, then so be it. He's practically immortal, so he can insidiously shape things over time by influencing the up-and-coming generations.

Hmm...thank you for the correction. I have no memory of that, sadly, and it was long time ago I played the storyline, so clearly I need to repeat it. I appreciate the correction.

This may be spoiler talk for new players who want to read lore as they progress. I'll not encapsulate all in a spoiler box but...you have been warned. Besides that found in the Numina TF, do we have any additional lore on Scout, the unwillingly coerced hero we encounter? We know from the TF that he operated in the early part of the 20th century, which makes me wonder if there's lore associating him with the foundation of the Freedom Phalanx, or at least operating as an independent when Statesmen and others were doing the same before 1932. As his disappearance was many years ago, Scout apparently has been "imprisoned" for decades. Also, until I really looked at the text of the Numina TF, I'd always gone on other lore statements that Nemesis created the War Hulks from his own fallen soldiers, but with Scout's story, apparently Nemesis can coerce others to be the core of a War Hulk as well, much like certain other villain organizations that use cybernetics. That rather changes the idea of destroying a War Hulk in a role-playing sense. You may be destroying a Nemesis soldier, or freeing an unwilling victim from a terrible fate.

I really think it more important to bring the Hunt for Darrin Wade to the forefront of story crafting, rather than a return of Marcus Cole/Statesman. That has got to be one of the biggest hanging threads from the original game. Marcus Cole might have been a bit of a jerk at times, but I still feel having the opportunity of destroying his killer (er, bringing to justice, stripping his powers) is a tough fight every one of my heroes would willingly take up. There's also got to be some consideration for the sentient Well. It allowed the process to happen because it lusts for power-play displays, and Darrin Wade made a big one. I'm not sure it would grant Marcus Cole the power back even if Cole were brought back, unless a greater power move was made. Far more likely, story-wise, to somehow bring Marcus Cole back, and knowing the dangers of sudden Well power, him opting to take the slow Incarnate route back to power. I kind of like that thought. It has story potential. I agree with @El D regarding having past Statesman material. I've long wanted a late 1920s/early 1930s setting and story arc probably before or leading to the July 4, 1932 assembling of the first generation of the Freedom Phalanx. But I'd be happy with anything in the 1930s and 1940s. Statesman would have his older costumes, and Dark Watcher's backstory might be expanded as well. Regarding the whole Tyrant as Statesman II thing: I'm not opposed to it, but there'll have to be some great writing to explain his change of heart. I'd be more inclined to accept a "resurrection" where Tyrant's soul is swapped with that of Statesman's, essentially bringing back the hero in a living copy, but yeah, great writing would be needed for that, too (maybe using CoT body-swap magic?)

I'm actually not surprised at the rapid decay. (I realize there was a real-world need for war walls due to the limitations of games in 2004, but since we're reconstructing it as lore...) If you think about it, the war walls are a concrete project on a scale bigger than the Hoover Dam, and erected in (I think) less than half the time. Likely heroes with qualifying abilities helped speed the process, but that much concrete...well, the wall core probably is still drying, the quality of the concrete may not be the best due to the rush, and villain groups are forever attacking it. I'd not be surprised one day to find the Prime Clockwork on top of the concrete trying to disassemble the metal energy grid posts.

I believe I understand what your saying, except that doesn't explain the "negative space" created by the square between King's Row and Perez Park, or the large variance of the western wall to the colored western border of Skyway City, or the large gap between Kallisti Warf and Galaxy City, or many of the other spaces, large and small, that do no line up with war wall patterns. What does work in a lore-kind of way is to say there was limited time/resources, and therefore war walls were built on a condensed area of each zone, with tunneling, or reinforced tunnel-like road construction between each protected part of a zone. It's a bit like historical forts or castles: the area of control is much broader, including farms and parts of the city outside the walls, but when the invaders show up, everyone abandons all that and flees to the walled areas. The problem, of course, is that Paragon City's fort structure has had only limited success, and that is declining, clearly, as Rikti have found ways to drop the energy barrier defenses long enough to launch zone invasions (not to mention other groups' invasions).

Airwolf definitely, though unless they set a reboot in the 1980s, I'm not quite sure how a mach 1 helicopter would fair in a world of GPS targeting, lasers, precision spy satellites, fifth-generation fighters, and drone swarms. However, I can absolutely see a modern Airwolf getting the stealth technology look and treatment. As to Manimal, it only had 8 episodes, which was considered a failure, and apparently that consideration continues to this day. It has a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though a more generous score of 6.5/10 on IMDB, despite our generation of long-time fans. If they ever do bring Manimal back, then I hope they also look to bring Otherworld back, which also lasted only 8 episodes. The show had such potential, though it could use a little tightening. If you've not seen it, the premise was a touring family in Egypt accidentally activated a technology that should not have existed, sending them to a parallel Earth (apparently of a different map, though) where the civilization is Fascist, several decades advanced over home Earth, and all the family has to go on are legends of a marked path that past home Earth travelers used to get to a return portal. There's a lot more than that, but that's the fun of the, unfortunately short, show.

So tempted to ask how you breathe and find nourishment up there 😁, but, yeah, Automan was clearly a horrible knock-off of TRON. Thank you so much for reminding me of that show. I needed to use up the last of my bottle of brain bleach before it past expiration date.

I tried it out, and it does help a couple of my characters. For that, a big thanks! That said, I dislike that there's no way to see it in the costume setup screen. I basically have to buy it, then buy each color change, exiting the tailor screen each time until I find the right match. That's a mere annoyance for a 50 with more INF than they know what to do with, but is problematic for a first timer with INF issues. Also, why was this granted and the flame not also added to the "Vanguard w/ Jetpack" backpack? That item has been screaming for a flame ever since it was released.

I am not superstitious at all, but I confess that having previously heard that superstition, when Malcom died, I immediately wondered if it was the start of another trio of celebrity deaths in a short time span. There could yet be more, of course, but I'm not wishing that on anyone.