Techwright

I still remember hitting that room back in the OG game when Tsoo sorcerers were more potent adversaries, and discovering that the room was practically wall-to-wall Tsoo sorcs. It took the PUG team of nascent players 3 hours and an unknown number of wipes to clear that room and complete the mission. Not one member quit, and we got it done. Two others come to mind: The gaseous green rooms populated by the Vahz in one of the early TFs (Posi 2?, Synapse?). After repeatedly seeing unthinking teams wipe in that room I've taken to calling out "ambush room" every time I see the green haze. The teams fare much better when someone alerts them. The final room in the Sewers Trial. I've experienced multiple wipes with teams that didn't understand their roles. One street one: the Hellion building fires. I've seen several hero wipes from those who don't understand that the glass-breaking boom is an early warning to clear the building's area before a lethal explosion.

Welcome Home! One thing to help a new player: a long, but partial, list of acronyms. We use a lot of 'em in chats: I'd also recommend asking for someone who leads teams and leagues often to give a good breakdown of the terminology given on the Looking for Group channel. There's a lot of shorthand used in giving a "proper" invitation to join a pick-up group (PUG), so that players know what they're getting into. Supposedly. @Snarky can tell you what happens when "supposedly" doesn't work. 😁

Fantastic actor. I really need to see Archie. So glad they gave him back the role of the Grand Inquisitor for the recent Star Wars: Tales of the Empire. His was the best part of Season 1 of Star Wars: Rebels. And as one born in the revolutionary hotbed called the Carolinas, I'm delighted to add that his fictional villain in The Patriot was magnificently every inch the villain that SC natives know the RL model, Banastre "Bloody" Tarleton, to have been, just with a much more satisfying end. Boo! hiss!

Ah, there's a difference then between us. I'm one of those poor, cursed souls who is made very nauseous by 1st-person game action. It makes my quarterly Halo game nights with friends a real trial. I'm glad you're able to work with that setup though. Different strokes for different folks.

While I understand your Star Wars acknowledgement, I'd point out that the discussion was TV-to-movies and Star Wars went the opposite route, movies-to-TV. The early TV works were sub-par, everything from live Ewok movies to Saturday morning droid cartoons, as well as a certain holiday special that was so abyssmal that it became curiously cool. All of those early works were apocryphal to Lucas' canon vision. It wasn't until the 2003 Genndy Tartakovsky Star Wars: Clone Wars that we started getting things considered partially canonical, and not until 2008's The Clone Wars 3D animated series that we got full-canon stories on TV and later streaming service. Either of those would probably be where I'd start a comparison. While I have a litany of issue with the Bad Robot Star Trek movies, I do find the first and third quite watchable, and I enjoyed the actors in the roles, especially Karl Urban fully channeling DeForrest Kelly. The second film was abyssmal, and a disgraceful misuse of all actors involved. Really, magic blood and precision space-quadrant teleporters? Did Abrams even understand how destructive just those two overly-fantastical elements are to anything fundamental to Star Trek? At very least, very very least, add a line from Khan saying the Admiral's group had him surgically altered to appear as a pale Anglo-Saxon in order to keep anyone with any knowledge of history from recognizing the great dictator of 1/4 of the late 20th century Earth. Sorry. Rambling. That film is a massive sore spot. As to Firefly, yeah, I was in a tepid rainy-day mood when a pair of friends dragged me into a theater showing of Serenity, but was ecstatic by the end. I still remember turning to the friend who pushed seeing the film and asking "Why did Fox cancel this thing???"

Yeah, I've that issue on several characters and I think the only thing worse was having to tag Sally twice for the badge, and having to compete with everyone else to get it done. I've still got early-created characters waiting to complete that. And while I think on it, THANK YOU to whomever changed the requirement from 2 hits to 1 hit. It's made a notable improvement.

Personally, I always tag the indoor Observant badge next to the Rikti War Zone portal, then pop thru the portal and grab the badge hidden under the hall in front of the blond sister (I forget her name at the moment). It's easy and a no-threat location. I'd make the 8th a run to the T.U.N.N.E.L. portal next to the Atlas Park tram and go to Night Ward to get the badge entering the mansion door. It also unlocks access to the Midnighters' Club so two birds, one stone.

Actually, I'm surprised we've not gotten a Sportsmaster / Casey Jones set of some sort. Mostly melee strikes with sport bats, clubs. etc, but also things like boomerangs, billiard balls, and lawn darts for range strikes and bowling balls, Indian clubs, or horse shoes for ranged knockdown.

Out of curiosity, you don't have an issue with the controls covering the lower 1/3 of your character? I tried that once, personally found it highly annoying and visually distracting, and switched to the current method I posted back on page 1.

I'm probably overlooking the obvious, but I'm drawing a blank on the reference: "the Elmo map"? We're talking the furry little red guy hyped up on sugar? I'd never given a favorite map much thought, but possibly the fleet map on the Admiral Sutter TF, assuming "TF" = "mission" in this case.

Don't forget VI, and the Next Generation's First Contact. The 2009 reboot Star Trek was also a success, whether the new cast and new timeline were liked or not. There's also Maverick, a movie take on the James Garner/Roger Moore TV series (actually two series, as Garner returned for a year to a new Maverick series before opting to exit the show due to over-saturation of his presence in the public at the time). Wikipedia calls the movie a box office success and, as of a decade ago, the 6th highest grossing Western of all time. Although it wasn't a reboot per se, or very successful in the first-run theater, I'd argue that Serenity, the movie continuing Firefly aged like fine wine and was ultimately successful for introducing a legion of fans, myself included, to the Browncoat fandom. Fox's tinkering couldn't stop the signal.

This is why I say Marvel plays fast and loose with shapeshifters. Juggernaut's strength and healing, not just his shielded armor come from magic, not mutation. So while Morph could adapt the look, he should lack the strength and healing aspects, since he's mutation, not magic. That is a favorite trope in the science fantasy genre. I think of Doctor Who where the Doctor has repeatedly been a participant in the creation moments of his enemies, such as rescuing a child Davros. Glad you mentioned Polaris:

I suspect Peter Jackson would nix the idea of a trilogy. Lessons learned from the Hobbit trilogy. He might, however, agree to do a trio of movies on individual topics. The lore is rich, even without the Silmarillion in WB's fold, and adaptations of something like The Children of Huron, the fall of Numinor, or the staggeringly huge conflicts of the First Age might appeal to Jackson. I do believe you're correct about there being very little written in the LotR books. However, it was mentioned that there was more in the appendices, and Tolkien appendices are prodigious at times. I've personally not read the appendices work(s) regarding this topic, so I'm not certain how much is there. Even if it is a short story in size, that still leaves a lot of room for interpretation to fill in. It's also important to note that Tolkien as he worked out Middle Earth often had conflicting viewpoints on material not in the published books, such as the origin of orcs/goblins. As a result, we have written materials recording his considerations. That too, leaves room for interpretation, and I'm unsure if the material regarding this topic fits in that category.

Which I did mention, though admittedly I said "a couple of..."

Atlas powerset confirmed!

After that discussion about base coding, I hesitated about posting this, as I've not much hope for a base construction tool redesign, and realize this following wish is "pie in the sky" but... I've been experimenting with the free game Palia. I have to say, I'm very impressed with their base system. Not only is your home/base actually important to running your complete game, the method for setting up the base is very impressive as well. As you can see in this shot, rather than the blue or red boxes around objects that our system uses, they use a grid system looking much like a tartan pattern. There are colored lines and zones to help you know exactly how the piece you're working with aligns with everything else in the room. Want to know if that shelf your hanging aligns with the shelf at the far edge of the wall? Just trace the line, and you're assured. No spitball guessing. I found this accuracy gauge particularly helpful with hanging lighting, especially from rafters. Any flat surface, vertical or horizontal has these "tartan" grids (minus certain items that have a specific game function, like the two pastry tables in the center left of the shot) and can have items placed on it, though the piece itself defines whether it is a vertical or horizontal piece. I couldn't place this chair on the wall, for example. This grid extends outside, allowing you to place flowers, crops, and structures along the ground. Rotation of the pieces is very easy. Stacked pieces can be moved as a single unit. Within the building it means that when I filled a bookshelf with pottery (top left in the picture), I was able pick up the bookshelf, move it across the room and everything moved with it. I can then move the individual pieces once the shelf is placed again. Likewise outside, there's a similar but separate function that will give you a top-down look at your property, allowing you to click on any building or item and move it to another part of your property. All items inside travel with it. If Palia's system has any drawback, it's that most items do not work in a clipping kind of way. So creation of something new by merging two or more elements is not really possible with the exception of yard flowers. Any of these features I'd consider a wish-list suggestion for any future overhaul of the base system. For an in-motion discussion of how this all works, check out this video.

Summary: Warner Brothers, now owners of the rights to Middle Earth stories (though not The Silmarillion) have announced that Andy Serkis, Peter Jackson, Phillipa Boyens, and Fran Walsh are returning to Middle Earth to produce a new film: The Hunt for Gollum. Weta has been mentioned, so perhaps their props and art departments will be involved. It is speculated that the film may release December 2026, the 25th anniversary of The Return of the King. This presumably is a film expanding on Tolkien's writings talking about a massive hunt by Aragorn and the Rangers (should be a band name), and Gandalf at times, to track the movements of Gollum. If you want a summary of that hunt, and the events that occurred during it, see the second video "the complete travels of Aragorn", which I've set to 12:39, the start of the events. It's discussion will end at 15:24. Aragorn's hunt for Gollum actually takes place during the early events of The Fellowship of the Ring. The movie compresses the timeline, but in the book there are many years between Bilbo's disappearance at his 111 birthday party, and Gandalf's return to the Shire to test the Ring in fire. Frodo in the book is actually in his mid-50s when setting out for Rivendell. It will be interesting to see if this movie aligns with the timeline of the books and appendices, or if it will try to align with Jackson's previous movies, despite those being made by New Line Cinema, rather than Warner Brothers. From the book path for Aragorn during this period, there are strong hints about the characters that might appear in this new film. Lothlorian, the land of Galadriel and Celeborne, the Realm of the Woodland elves (and therefore Legolas and his dad Thranduil), Rivendell (suggesting Arwen, her twin brothers, and her dad Elron), even Bree Town and the Prancing Pony Inn (suggesting innkeeper Barliman Butterbur) could appear in this film. The path also crosses Beorn the skinchanger's territory, and while Beorn is, we believe, passed on by this time, his descendants, including his son Grimbeorn, another werebear, definitely occupy the area. I am cautiously optimistic. The problems that came with the Hobbit movie trilogy largely stemmed from demands of a New Line Cinema executive, and with the franchise now moving to Warner Brothers, Jackson may have more clout to keep the tale closer to Tolkien's intent. Even so, Tolkien's writings will need to be greatly fleshed out to make a complete movie. So long as the ridiculous demands of executives stay at bay, I've hopes for a decent film.

If it was truly a flop due to timing (and I have grave suspicions about that due to the number of no-name films that became blockbusters simply by friends telling friends), then the film might weather better in the test of time. There are several films that were box office failures but are now considered classics.

Makes one want to wonder what would happen in an Amalgam comic if Krypto spotted Squirrel Girl...

I'd always thought American Graffiti was his big breakout as an adult, so I always assumed it was his connection to George Lucas. Of course, glancing back at the movie, I see Francis Ford Coppola was producer, so...six degrees of separation from Roger Corman.

It helps that I've seen the entire Rebels series 3 times and, thanks to watching reactor videos, specific moments an untold number of times. 😉

Okay, first off, I always wanted to see Nathan as Green Lantern, but I never expected him as Guy. He always seemed the cocky flyboy of Hal Jordan, and I believe he actually voice the character in a couple of the animated movies. It's not entirely unlike his Firefly character. If he had to play another, I'd have anticipated Kyle, but I'll try to keep an open mind. After all, Nathan is great at aimin' to misbehave. Second, regarding the apparent return of the red tights: I notice they also brought the stooge Otis back, so maybe these are homages to the Christopher Reeves era? Regarding Nicholas Houlte as Lex: while I cannot see it, I do recognize Houlte as having some acting chops, so I'll cut him some slack. Just, please, no more interpretations of Lex like Jesse Eisenberg was asked to play. Lastly, magenta death ray in the background. I'm assuming based on the color that the baddie is Brainiac? That seems a character to build up over multiple films, maybe not as many as Thanos, but the big B doesn't seem like a one-and-done character.

Regarding your hidden content: there was some. It was mostly off-screen and referenced by exposition, however it did play an important plot point in the fourth season:

I remember watching, as a young teen, Battle Beyond the Stars and at the end saying "What did I just watch?". This from someone who was just fine with Battlestar Galactica, Jason of Star Command, the campy Buck Rogers in the 24th Century TV series, and who was about to discover the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who. Apparently Corman's work was something of an acquired taste. I did like the cast, the music (Horner rocked), and some of the other stuff in BBtS, and have watched it twice more in the years since. It's quite possible I've seen other Corman works, especially the ones named for Edger Allen Poe works. Our local ABC affiliate used to have "Shock Theater" on Saturday afternoons, and I'd watch all of the horror films it put on, though time has robbed me of most of those memories. I've long known of the infamous Fantastic Four film, and knew it was done on a thread of a shoestring budget, but had forgotten just how threadbare it was until re-seeing that blurb. Despite it having more cheese than a Wisconsin tourist shop, I do have to give credit to costume/makeup team for making the Thing's face look exceptionally comic book accurate. Reading through a list of his works, I think the thing that most surprises me is the number of really big name films he's appeared in as an actor, probably most as cameos, but still, he's in The Godfather Part II, The Howling, The Silence of the Lambs, Apollo 13, and several others, even to Looney Toons: Back In Action.