Jump to content
The Beta Account Center is temporarily unavailable ×

Techwright

Members
  • Posts

    4666
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    14

Everything posted by Techwright

  1. Yes, it is a problem. Montoya does not look like she spends much time in the police gym, and this is a character that may someday be The Question, a character called to fight on occasion. I thought at first it was just a stylistic choice, but then I saw scenes of her standing next to another main female character and realized the latter was drawn much more athletically. While I accept that a multiverse will spawn Earths where things are very different, I understand and respect your assessment. I'm about to start episode 8, but much of what you said I'm seeing for myself. I suspect that the key to writing a multiverse variable that people connect with is to show restraint in the changes, and any drastic changes (such as, say, the single change of a world where where people are the moral polar opposite of the established universe) be kept to a minimal. But that's just an opinion.
  2. Thank you, @Dynamo-Joe. More episodes down. One thing that has caught my eye is surprise appearances in the show. Two that I'd never have expected are... Episode 5: Episode 6: Episode 7:
  3. I'd be all for that, except for the annoying NPC AI that kamikazes all the time. Sending a player on two extra missions as punishment for that just sounds like it would sour the player when the fault was that of the AI. Now if it was equal, say X gets you 1,2, & 4 / Y gets you 1,3, & 4 ...that would be acceptable and not feel like punishment, unless 2 or 3 were more difficult than the other, and the more difficult one was issued because the NPC died. If completely equal, it is just different flavors. Alternatively, you could reverse the negativity by having your Y scenario be a reward scenario should the NPC survive. Missions 3 & 4 are bonus rounds. Unnecessary to making sense of the core storyline, but rich in XP and other rewards. If they're made to be optional as well, for those speeding through a storyline, that also makes them a positive.
  4. If the idea was ever seriously considered, it would be a simple matter of adding another island somewhere in that vast stretch of water. It wouldn't be the first time an MMO revealed some island previously unseen. Then the land mass could be made big enough to hold Hami. The only real question I have is zone drag, which is why I understood Hami is located in its own zones. Having a Hami raid has the potential to be problematic for normal hero PI activity. I suppose one solution could be to create an island for the Hami, have said Hami appear when the conditions are met, but have that whole island actually be an instance. While Hami is present, moving onto the island will shift one into the instance, much like swimming south in PI zone will eventually move you into the northern waters of Talos Island.
  5. I see what you're saying and I'm puzzled by the description you posted. The original game shut down in November 2012. So it should have been at most slightly more than a 1 year gap. There's been much discussion in the past on these forums about where Homecoming is in the timeline. The general consensus (beyond "timeless") is that lore-wise, we're only months out from the shuttering point of the original game. Perhaps the Homecoming development team has made an official ruling on the timeline and I didn't get the memo. Even so, time is wonky in the game. For every character it is really about the individual story, so although a level 50 went through the Skul hunt events of Eagle Eye's missions years ago, from a level 10's perspective, they are new and fresh events. I do think it is time to address hazard zones altogether. The standing one's have felt static and normal, not hazardous for some time (uh, that is, real world time. This is giving me a headache.) But yes, I do feel that a Galaxy City hazard zone, especially for high level, would be appropriate.
  6. Have you seen the announcement of Planet Coaster 2 for later this year? Channel5 Gaming gives a good detailed look at the improvements to the franchise:
  7. That really needs a big spoiler warning. I'm already through the end of episode 4 and this video was giving me major spoilers less than 2 minutes in. Okay, so I as I said, I've now finished episode 4. Had they led with any of the last 3, it would have been better than the episode they chose to be the premier. Episode 4 was smartly written and does a good job of showing how the corruption within this Gotham is working. Episode 2 thoughts: Episode 3 thoughts: Episode 4 thoughts:
  8. No certain idea either, but I suspect this is the case. If so, it makes a certain sense. Not everyone uses the code chart, and many of those don't even know how to go about it. This would cause a lot of problems and frustration in trying to find a name. Many who put together teams still haven't figured out the concept of clicking on a character's name in chat and selecting "invite to team", and instead type out the characters' name. Not sure why that is. If they have not figured that bit out, it's likely an umlaut would frustrate them and they'd move on to a name without one. It may not be proper, but casual typing in chat without such a character is common, and forgiveable, but precision matters to the programming when identifying a name to invite to the team, which is the same reason why one would need to know if "Ir0nMan" had a zero or a capital O in their name when inviting them.
  9. Does anyone know if this lack of promised "untouchable" has been reported as a bug at some point in the past?
  10. I've just finished the first episode and pretty much agree with everything said. I don't think I'll spoil anything to say that Hamish Linklater sound a lot like Kevin Conroy, but the performance was a bit understated. I think "lackluster" is probably harsh, but lacking a better word, then lackluster it is. Character visual appearance won't be much of a secret so I'll say I don't like Alfred Pennyworth being the proportions of the classic Penguin. Alfred is ex-special forces, for crying out loud, and while that doesn't guarantee a trim figure, it certainly should make it more likely. Other characters' changes didn't feel organic to me. I'm not opposed to different takes on a character, after all DC has a multiverse, where eventually most everything can happen, but I just don't feel those changes connected to me, the viewer. This brings me to my next point which is JJ Abrams. Until I saw the titles, I didn't know he was attached to the program. Why franchises continue to hand over their babies to this man after he wrecked both Star Trek and Star Wars eludes me. Had I a property beloved by the world, his name would be the second to last on my list of collaborators, with Rian Johnson first. (Otto Preminger would be third were he still alive, but that's more to do with him being a royal pain below the utility belt, rather than turning out any inferior product.) Abrams involvement has me concerned for the series. Lest you think I completely despise the man, I will say I liked Fringe. It feels like when he does his own original stuff he's fine, great even, but touching others' toys he breaks them. Now some non-spoiler positive things before I get to spoilers: 1) I liked the overall design. Enough of a reference to the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, without losing it's own self. 2) I liked the titles. While it lacks the impact that B:TAS's opening had, it still has a great look and reasonable score. 3) I liked the quirkiness of of a world combining a low-tech 1930s map board with a high-tech Batmobile. It will be interesting going forward to see this juxtaposition, to see if it holds up, and to see what technologies remain rooted in real-life 1930s and which are closer to the 2020s. Spoiler Talk: Overall, I'll give this opening episode a 3 of 5 ⭐s. While it wasn't horrible, this isn't the episode I'd choose to reel fans in to a new series. I will, however, give benefit of the doubt and continue on. Perhaps the series shall improve.
  11. Was teamed with a league fighting Lusca this evening, and got to thinking: with the following exceptions: Croatoa Sally Hamidon Tackling any non-Sally, non-Hami GM with an understaffed team Tackling any non-Sally, non-Hami GM with an under-ranked team Instanced GMs has there ever been a time when the team or league just fails to destroy a GM on the streets? Perhaps wiped repeatedly, perhaps unable to dent it. If so, which GM and what happened? If not, is it really all that fun to go through the motions when you're certain of victory? Would you prefer a chance, even a small one, at failure due to the GM's efforts? Would that make the victory sweeter? This is not the first time I've had the thought. I've had it with Lusca, Babbage, GWW, and all the Kronos robots. The last ones feel like they should probably be thrashing a league a lot harder, but most of the time, at least in those fights I've been in, the numbers of those fallen are minimal to none, despite multiple Kronos next to each other. I noticed a couple of changes in Adamastor and Paladin that make the fight more interesting, even if the results are (seemingly) guaranteed. Actually, since I mentioned Paladin, with the fights to halt the assembly of a Paladin I have been on teams that were defeated, simply because a Paladin was formed, but then we thrashed it. I'm not sure that counts as a true failure. For my part, I don't mind an occasional loss against something titanic if it is a hard-fought battle, and there's a chance for success. It's that last bit that's important. One of my first introductions to this happened back in WoW a short time before expansion The Burning Crusade came out. I had some time off and was playing a character into the wee hours, when Stormwind was unexpectedly assaulted at the gate by a titanic demon from the upcoming expansion. For the next two hours, it was a bloodbath unlike anything I'd ever seen. The area around the gate and bridge were white with the skeletons of failed attempts to bring it down. Word was spreading and a host of top-tier players were waking and logging in to join the fight. One of the best experiences I ever had in gaming. Unfortunately, we were fighting it with the supposition that it was beatable, even if incredibly hard. People eventually stopped fighting when the realization sunk in that no matter what players threw at it, it was designed to win. That soured the effort some, but while hope remained, it was a glorious experiment.
  12. So...Devouring Earth in space.
  13. You are surprisingly well-versed in the details of this horror. I am profoundly grateful I no longer live in pig country, and that this discussion is in cyberspace.
  14. We had a dog like that back in our childhood. It was Christmas Eve, the dog was in our fenced-in front yard for a little while, as we were in the living room doing traditional Christmas things. Dad was reading aloud and we suddenly heard a loud electrical sizzle and ZOT! immediately followed by YIPE! YIPE! YIPE! YIPE! Away to the window we kids flew like a flash, when our Dad highly annoyed at being interrupted bellowed "Sit down! He's fine!" The dog had been attracted to the Christmas lights wiring we had strung across the front bushes, and decided to sample some. No worries, the dog was indeed fine, just, um, shocked. He never messed with those decorations again,
  15. So I goofed in saying "server" rather than "shard" (I knew better, but was using a common slang for shard among many on these forums), but wouldn't that make the "Victory" in the OP's post a shard, rather than a server? And why "Victory" when it was a shard of the original game? Victory is mentioned briefly in that 2020 thread you linked to, but in passing, and in regards to the OG Victory. I'm curious to know where the current Victory is mentioned, if there actually is one in the works.
  16. Who is 48? RDJ? He's 59. Unless...he's holding at 48?
  17. I've seen Coleman's mustard on store shelves, but never realized it was hot. It just looked like standard French's mustard, which I ...tolerate. (I much prefer a classier mustard.) Now understanding there's heat to it, I shall have to bring some home, after acquiring the appropriate toxic stickers to apply to prevent anyone else opening the fridge from a troublesome ending. That said, I've a certain 20-something's niece who has gone out of her way to thumb her nose at my choices in mustard, proclaiming her devotion to plain ol' French's. I might have to swap the contents of her's sometime. 😈
  18. I freely admit I'd not heard of any issues with the process elsewhere, just that it existed. Speaking purely hypothetically, rather than individualized MM pets, perhaps it would be more practical to implement alternative skin sets for these. Using the thugs as examples, a costume setting would be added that allowed a skins pick of original street thugs, gangsters, bowler derbies and turtlenecks, etc. In theory, this should work similar to Illusion powerset's customization of illusion characters, with the big difference being that Illusion merely mimic's the player's character's look, and the suggested MM pets draw from a stock skins set.
  19. Me, too, though that's not saying much. I miss a lot of details in the announcements. @Phanto: would you be so kind as to point us to your source of information? Other than improved performance in the "eastern" parts of our globe, I'm puzzled why another server would be added, as we've servers still at lower populations.
  20. Look at you, understanding bright and cheerful! You go, ghoul! I get the humor in that, but that's trading one extreme for another. I'd not say that an Arachnos base needs to be as bright as, say, Fort Trident (though it does make sense for effective operation, no matter how much your army likes black uniforms), but the current design seems to have a misunderstanding of good use of low-light environments. It needs to take a page from other games with darkened or low-light corridors and make better use of atmospheric lighting. I find that would raise the creepiness level, and thereby the interest. We even have a later-designed, in-game example: the ghoul tunnels of Praetoria: Borrowing a few internet examples:
  21. And the villain's ultimate scream of frustrated defeat would have no one better to perform it. I just saw the Comicon reveal again. I don't know why I missed it before, but the Russo brothers did indeed say RDJ's Doom is from the multiverse so maybe the MCU Doom (that is, Earth-199999) will follow-up after RDJ's performance, and then we could get fan's dream casting.
  22. I just saw that interview. It is the first time I've seen this show. I see a lot of comedy, and I may lightly chuckle, but these guys had me gasping for breath from laughing so hard. I do agree the questions were really good, but I was a bit disappointed that such good questions were asked when the respondents were beyond the ability to pair it with a good answer. Speaking as one who is from the state which invented the hottest peppers on the planet I...completely distance myself from those Low Country weirdos. LOL. Among my circle of friends I'm known for taking hot food better than most of the others, but I'm not crazy. I'll max out at about 5,000 Scoville. I've had Thai food prepared at supposedly a 7/10 per the waiter's rating (I really think the chef made it an 8/10), but I've never had Tom Yum (as the local Thai restaurants spell it) that altered my reality. That's insane. To me, heat should always be in balance with other flavor elements, or there's no reason to prepare the food, just guzzle the sauce. 30 years ago, my roommates and our gang had a low-key version of this going on. There was an Asian buffet in town known for delicious fried wonton nearly the size of golf balls and for a particularly hot "Chinese" mustard (mustard with horseradish). We used to getting heaping plates of both, slather the sauce on the fried meatball and chow down, trying to see who could clear the plate without beverage and who wouldn't. Good times, and really, really clear sinuses.
  23. You know...Alan Tudyk would make an awesome Doctor Doom. 😉 That's just it. Doom doesn't take off the mask, at least not so the comic reader can see it (I add that I stopped collecting around the turn of the millenium, so that may have officially changed). I want that Doom, the mystery of what and whom is really behind the mask. You may have the best actor behind that mask, but the mask should stay on, or at least the face hidden except the eyes. It's like "V" (the vigilante, not the aliens). And that actually tells something about a great actor: can they sell a performance with less visual? Anson Mount was the best part of an otherwise terrible The Inhumans, and the reason was that he had to act through Black Bolt's crippling mute-ness. I was very impressed with his effort, and therefore thrilled when they announced him as Christopher Pike in Star Trek.
  24. Here it from some of the YouTube reactors who were in the room.
×
×
  • Create New...