Techwright

Well...Golden Corral seems to think I do. 🙄 I've told them many times I don't qualify... yet... so if they continue to ring up the discount each visit, who am I to argue? 🤷‍♂️

First off, thank you for such clear statements to aid our understanding these things. I'd like to push one point just a little if I may. What's been said so far is in regards to characters with clear polarization: clear good, clear evil. What happens when there are blurred lines? Many historical freedom fighters, for example, are considered both patriot and terrorist, depending on whose report one reads. They may have even done some terrible things to aid an otherwise good cause. How would grey area characters be handled?

Joshua 6, eh? Clever. It's not a bad pitch. Definitely would fit one of those paranoid "whom can I really trust" -type films. Come to think of it, it could practically be an episode of The Outer Limits. It certainly reminds me of the mind games in the Will Smith episode. I wouldn't mind a modern interpretation of the star-studded Charade, one of my favorite films, so long as they keep Henry Mancini's iconic theme song, even if it is in the credits only. The problem to me is, the movie hinges around a mystery McGuffin, and using the same one for a remake would not have the same impact on audiences, many of them knowing what it was originally. So, to my thinking, a new McGuffin would need to be used, something portable, equally as valuable, and completely inconspicuous in plain sight. I'm not sure what that would be. The film is great, the trailer is rubbish, but it's the only one out there. Perhaps someone will do a modern-edit trailer: I'd be equally happy with a sequel to Charade, something using the surviving characters up against a new challenge. Keep it a period piece, though obviously a new cast.

I forgot to add that Fort Trident was redesigned from a hidden base in Atlas Park, to a base with an entrance just to the east of City Hall. Some of the tweaks to it allow for it to act as a base of sorts to those without a supergroup base. Base building has had some tweaks, but generally remains the same, I think. Others can better speak to that. Still, we've had something like 6 players in the last week pipe up in the General forum to say they were new or returning from the OG game. Considering they are likely the vocal bunch, there's likely several others who've not announced themselves. While it is not a flood of new players, it does represent healthy progress.

I could have sworn I'd seen "Bonesnap" as a named NPC Skull somewhere in the game, but apparently not. Congrats on the name, then, and you've done a great job making him feel like one of the Skulls.

I suppose it depends on when in 2021 you left, We got the Dr. Aeon Strike Force in November of that year. We just got the Labyrinth of Fog zone. Striga Island became co-op.

My earthbender says "you're welcome". LOL. I mentioned it elsewhere, but if you'd let the rest of the team know at start that you have Vengeance, folks like me would be grateful to know that up front and would likely wait a moment for it to be used.

Be grateful the game even exists. There was a long, hard-won negotiation with NC Soft to permit the game's return and under very specific regulations, some of which are known only between NC Soft and the volunteer development team. NC Soft is apparently not interested in returning the game to a paid status, so everything must be done on a voluntary basis. Even payments to keep the servers running is voluntary. The game has already improved in a wide variety of ways due to the development team's voluntary self-sacrifice.

LOL for the collective word guessing. 😁 Good point. ⭐

Hi, Boosie, and Welcome Home! It's always a delight to hear from a new player, and we've had many over 2024. Allow me to reference a thread and a posting where good starter info can be found. Posting on chat terms (we use a lot of them in our chats and teammate selections and this should clarify): A good thread full of information for new players: I would take an additional moment to caution you in regards to creating characters that look or seem like licensed characters elsewhere: DON'T. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it is a common mistake with new players, even with some old players, and it's always a sore spot with them when the dev team has to "generic" the character. There's a clear rule not to build a licensed character and it's needed to prevent lawsuits from those who hold the license. You can, however, create homage character which hold some familiarity to the licensed character, but there's enough change in look, name, and powers that it is clearly separate. Please do ask for help and information at any time, both in the games (there's a Help Channel in chat) and here on the forums. We have a wonderful community ready to welcome and assist.

Perhaps it would be best to send the GMs a direct inquiry, though I understand putting it in a public forum would allow others to see the results. My guess is that it is a hard, fast rule. But if not, I suspect the lifespan of the player base is a good measuring stick. Say, 1934 if you want a clean number. I don't know any players 90 years and up, though perhaps there are. I've heard of one or two in their 80s. Manson died in 2017, yes, but he lived through years of our lives. Sherman and Grant did not. (I'm making a general assumption here. Just pointing that out in case any here lived contemporaneously to the generals and are miffed.) The farther back in time we go, the less we know about a person (usually) which could lend itself to fictional writing. The Roman writer Virgil, for example, had a fictional counterpart in Dante's Inferno. Dante would have known some things about Virgil but the distance of time blurred the real writer enough that Dante was able to create something fictional with what was left. If one was to create a Cimerora story involving Virgil, it is my guess that not much would be said about it. Perhaps not even someone more contemporary, say, an AE mystery arc featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (d.1930) who was still alive during the youth of the parents of a very few of us. However, if one were to create an AE story in which Stephen King (still living as of this post). Tom Wolfe (d.2018), or John Steinbeck (d. 1968) featured, it would, I suspect, be challenged, because they were living during our lifetimes. One other aspect to consider is how the fictionalized version of the real person might be used. Returning to the American Civil War, if Abraham Lincoln, for example, was portrayed as an axe-wielding vampire hunter, a few eyebrows would be raised, but folks would note that he did swing an axe as a rail splitter in his youth, and he's portrayed in a positive light, so functionally he's still good ol' Abe. If, however, he's portrayed as a vicious highwayman, there would be cause for an outcry as it is contrary to his historical "Honest Abe" nature. I'm from the American South, born to it, and if any are unaware, despite cultural improvements in the last 50-60 years, there are residual pockets of culture here where Honest Abe is hated with a white-hot passion. It is quite possible that his character could be maligned in a project by someone, perhaps for the reasons that some hold to these generation-old hatreds. This potential to portray a real person as something they were not is probably the more important of the two considerations, and a reason why the rule may need to be hard and fast. Imagine if you were a player with a famous ancestor whom you found sorely maligned in a work in your favorite game. Would that not be a fight brewing?

I think I may have figured it out. While other flat items I tried were not allowing any FX stacking, "Tech Power" tab/"Monitor Bank (inactive)" does, and is a good thickness for spacing FX slightly apart. I found that I have to change each Monitor Bank to the "Floor" alignment via F5 to get them to stack towards room center, but once done, each will take 1 FX, and the next Monitor bank will space nicely to take another FX. It's a bit of a pain to work through, but it does work.

I did attempt to this time, but those items I used did not affect the results. Instead it looked embedded in the object, or possibly pushed behind it. I've no memory as to whether I did or did not the original time, I'm afraid. Is there something flat with substance with which I might make another attempt?

Well starting in the middle is one of the fundamental features for a work to be an epic. Glad to see someone at MCU was awake for at least part of their college Ancient and Medieval Literature class.

It is definitely a classic. One thing I learned while performing in the play: the villain has a hilarious line that originally had a double meaning. He's incensed that due to repeated and hurried plastic surgery to disguise himself, people are frightened by his looks and are calling him Boris Karloff. This is funny enough, but the original stage cast sent it over the top. The villain's role was originated by ...Boris Karloff.

Some time back I made some great base portals utilizing, among other things, 4 effects stacked outwards from the portal, which resulted in a satisfying 3D effect projecting towards the center of the room. Time passes, the base is expanding and I have to move the portals. Unfortunately, when I try to reassemble them now the effects do not layer. They all inhabit the same layer, which in turn flattens the intended effect, hiding some of the elements in or behind the "solid" features. I've been unable to recall how I got the originals to stack in the first place, and several experiments later, I still haven't figured it out. Is there a step I'm forgetting? Did some update over the last many months do away with the tiered effect? Here is a snapshot of one of the original portals from behind showing the 4 layers of the FX. Were I to show a picture of the ones moved to the new location, you'd only see a single red square and diamond, though all 4 effects are present.

I read that first line and thought it must be some really good, narrated documentary about our nearest celestial neighbor or possibly the Apollo program. 🙃 In 2002, I went into the theater to see a martial arts film. Instead what I saw was an art masterpiece disguised as a martial arts film.

Had I found the thread before the 9 hours were up, I might have referenced "Arsenic and Old Lace" (a play I once performed in) and suggested "13 Bodies in the Cellar", which in German Google assures me is "Dreizehn Leichen im Keller", but that sounds like a mouthful.

The indie game "Farewell North" released today on Steam, and everything I'm reading is very positive for it. I played the demo and it quickly shot to the top of my list for future purchases. If you'd not seen a post I'd made in another thread sometime back, it is a story-driven, quieter-paced game with beautiful scenery and soundtrack. The player assumes the role (in most spots) of Chesley, a border collie intent on aiding his owner past her grief and depression. The game represents that grief by displaying scenery in monochrome until Chesley is successful at some small puzzle achievement representing a breakthrough, at which point color floods the area nearby the success. Get Farewell North on: Steam 👉 https://farewell-north.com/steam (I've heard it does well on Steam Deck, though I don't own one to test on) XBOX 👉 https://farewell-north.com/xbox Nintendo Switch 👉 https://farewell-north.com/switch or the Soundtrack 👉 https://farewell-north.com/soundtrack

So close. Change it to something like Villains In The Rogue Isles Overlords League and you'd get V.I.T.R.I.O.L.

Not a big fan of Discovery, either, though I watched suffered the first two seasons. That's saying something because I was a huge Trekkie growing up. For examples and a detailed opinion of Discovery I'll use a spoiler box as its all just excess details: Don't get me started. 😉 I did like Anson's performance as Pike. That's been the one good consistent in everything I've seen of Trek so far: Pike actors have made him memorable. With the exception of Picard season 1 (which I felt wobbled, but had some really good moments), I've not seen any new Trek past season 2 of Discovery. Part of that is my distaste, but part of that is the subscription model. I only do one subscription at a time, and so far, there's not been enough to justify the budget expenditure. I might consider it soon, though. Strange New Worlds has held my curiosity for a while. I liked Section 31 in DS9. Far from considering it niche, I felt a series revolving around this dark side of the Federation might be fun. I don't know what that might be like, though, when seen through the filter of the Discovery Universe (my term for it).

There's some interesting stuff in your report that I've never heard. I didn't realize the Batallion were consuming wells. I'd just seen them as a generic conquer-all locust swarm. That must really put the Well in a dilemma. On the one hand, it loves to see the use of power, and doles it out to those willing to use it. On the other hand, the Battalions power means its destruction a piece at a time, so... While I'd want to see any Hamidon annihilated, if Praetorian Hamidon were eventually brought down, I'd have to wonder what that mean for the Praetorians who fled to Prime. Would they have to go back? Remain in Prime due to lingering issues in Praetoria? Other?

The use of the word "ash" is a bit of a turn-off, but the recipe does sound good... As a citizen of the second-largest peach growing state in the Union, I'm wondering if dried peaches might work for this. Peaches pair very nicely with cinnamon and honey, though I've never dehydrated them before. I do have a friend who spends much of September drying apples, so I might have to beg of them to test run some peaches so I can try this (then beg some dried apples off them so I can try that as well).

S.N.A.K.Y.?

I hope the pun on words translates to French well. 😄