Techwright

At least they don't sparkle.

What image generator did you use?

Thank you for the clarification.

Curious. The article lists 42,000 players, but then we have Number Six's comment from yesterday that tallies up to over 71,000 computers (or more accurately, operating systems) being used. Are the majority playing on two computers?

I've stated it multiple times on the forums: I'd love to see ethnic neighborhoods added to Paragon City: Little China, Little Italy, Little Greece, Czech Village, etc. With their Hmong origins, I've felt the Tsoo were a natural for a Little Asia neighborhood. So I attempted this look. For the sake of the A.I.'s feeble understanding, I made some compromises. Instead of a "Little Asia" I went with "Little China". Rather than waste limited text, I went with "ninja" for a general description. As always, A.I. struggles with proper rendering of fingers and swords, and some of the rejects were hilarious. Even so, some of the finalists have these problems. It was unavoidable. Also curious, the system had a hard time figuring out what a ninja looked like who wasn't in black. Some of the rejects look liked they formerly attended Ringling Brothers' Clown College. I've yet to figure out how to get the figures to quit mugging for the camera and get into a real action shot. Lastly, initial shots of the Little China were overrun by cars and pedestrians, so I placed limiters up front. Other than that, this wasn't so bad. Description: Low-population, 4 cars, street-level Little China district at night in New England big city, with male ninjas wearing a variety of dark colors with Asian tattoos on their chests, wrapped forearms and shins, holding a kitana and a tanto and wearing paddy hats and Asian demon masks, in action pose (for the top left shot, I edited out the sword info and opted for "in martial arts action pose".

I don't recall surfers.org specifically. I did spend an inordinate amount of time on BBS systems in the first half of the 1990s.

You always have nice use of color. I always send a private tell complimenting appearance, clever name, or great biography. The last admittedly I don't read unless I'm first hooked by name or appearance. I've had it happen often enough, often when I never would consider it, like shopping the AH, sometimes with characters I didn't think really looked that spectacular, and it always brings a smile. So why not make someone else's day?

Vazh: Ah, your mother's a hellion and an outcast...and a milquetoast mook...and she's got the big feet of a Tsoo...and a pretty pathetic Skull, and...

FFFF is correct, @tjjano33. If any reader is relatively new and attempting it in Atlas Park, when you grab the Observant badge in Vanguard's building, just use the nearby portal to hop over to Vanguard's war zone base and grab the Vanguard Operative badge right in front of Borea, then portal back. It's a quick and easy ninth with no threat for low ranked characters. The tenth should be easy, too, and there are several ways to get it. Here are just three: Get someone to drop an Oroboros portal near Ms Liberty. The badge at the highest point in Oroboros will make a nice, no-threat tenth. You'll need the steam jump or it's alternate from the S.T.A.R.T. vendor near Atlas. Take the T.U.N.N.E.L. portal (that glowing swirl at the foot of the Atlas Park tram station) to the Night Ward. Jump over the maze go up the ramp and enter the rambling old house. As soon as you step inside, there's a badge there (and it gets you into the Midnighter's Club immediately without having to do the Montague Castellon mission arc, which is the other way.) Or one can take the T.U.N.N.E.L. or the tram to Talos Island, and if there's not a fight at the top of the hill, grabbing the badge near the hilltop should be easy. Just don't dawdle as there are level 20+ goons on other parts of the hill. I'd wondered when reading the release notes if we'd have to go back and edit old, formerly helpful comments just in case the diligent researchers were confused by the out-of-date info. Seems so.

I'm intrigued by the Windows 8 RTM and Windows Server vNext in @Number Six's chart. I've never seen either.

Ah...so you were the other one. 😉😂 J/k, I was pretty invested in that game despire the office politics that brought it down, and despite the aptly named The Mires zone. I actually wrote most of the wiki on the Palisades zone. I miss everything that was good about that game. I think I've mentioned all the weird stuff before. Well, there was this... I joined right before the first Winter Lord event, I think it was. And lacking even hover, I went hunting WL's on the rooftops of Kings Row by running up the fire escapes, verifying the roof, then running back down the fire escape. Next building. Run up, verify, run back down. Rinse, repeat. If I spotted one a few separated roofs away, it was a mad dash back down the fire escape, booking to the correct building and running up the fire escape in hopes of getting it before a flyer spotted it. Really got digital leg exercises in on that event. It didn't really occur to me to switch to street level searches.

Regarding @ThaOGDreamWeaver's spoiler box:

I've honestly never heard of it until now, but I'll give the same advise I give to all friends who ask me what computers to buy: check out the PCMag.com reviews once you've narrowed down choices. I've been reading their reviews since 1984 (maybe before, that's the first I recall) and have had good insight from them over the years. Of course, you may already know and utilize their info. They do have a write up on the Azeron Cyborg. PCWorld's review makes an interesting note regarding the compact version. See the second to the last paragraph. As one who has an arthritic parent, I'm thinking based solely on that paragraph that the compact version might be more trouble than you'd want.

I'm curious why that emoji for Evan Peters. Granted I only know him from his work in the X-men and MCU franchises, but I found him rather fun to watch. I really hope Cameron Monaghan has a juicy role. While I was not a fan of Gotham, his work in it and his motion capture/voice work for as Cal Kestus in Star Wars games has me believing he's not even tapped his full potential yet. The plotline has me concerned. The description makes no sense in context with the canon ending of the second TRON film. It's 14 years out (hard to believe) so I shouldn't have to toss a spoiler box out, but I will. I will say the plot summary seems to suggest that in the story of TRON, each world's denizens, when they cross over into the other world, become power players. Also, how can you have a TRON story without TRON? Legacy underused him, admittedly, but even if, as he stated, Boxleitner is done with the TRON franchise, one could always recast.

Saw that starting at 0:13, and immediately thought of this:

An attempt to interpret Dr. Nightlight. On the one hand, some of the result were rather cool, I'll hand it to the A.I. for that. On the other hand, there were lots and lots of problems I had to fight the A.I. over this time: 1. I sacrificed a freebee to see if the Bing AI understood what I meant by "Geritt van Honthorst art style". Van Honthort is among my favorite painters, as is all the Dutch art school known as the "Candlelight Painters" for his ability to bring a feeling of life and warmth to candle-lit scenes. Bing A.I. clearly understood, as evidenced by the single pic of a character holding a candle in the last row. However, I could not get Bing A.I. to take what it clearly knew and apply it to the other creations. Very frustrating. 2. Bing A.I. has a real problem with creating too much light. I tried a variety of words to try to scale it back, but in scome cases, it chose to shine more brightly. This was exceptionally frustrating as Dr. Nightlight, by concept, is suppose to be a sole light source at times. Everything in the shot should reflect his light and the A.I. was constantly putting in alternate light sources (some without sources, just light) that was dramatically reducing the night vs. light impact. 3. Dr. Nightlight is supposed to not have his visage seen. There should be no chin or nose definition, only the glowing eyes. Think Star Wars Jawas. The A.I. seemed to balk at this, and even with a full hood was trying to put eyes or nose in. Only a few times did I achieve the effect and of those, even less with the glowing eyes. 4. Costume elements: Almost from the start, the A.I. refused to give me a black chain mail vest and a black silk Corsair's sash. It did relent once or twice, and I've have examples here, but by in large it read "chain mail" and interpreted as "full medieval armor" giving the character a faceplate, breastplate, grieves and many other features. Rarely did it give out the sash either. It liked to use leather belts. Lots of leather belts at times. Eidolons should be so lucky. It also started shredding the cloak edge unbiddened. I thought the good doctor was turning into Ragman for a moment. There were a few that got closer to what I asked than the rest. I've included those amongst this selection. Most recent description: Geritt van Honthorst art style, black background, floating athletic male hero all in matte-finish coal-black, hood hiding head in complete darkness except for eyes glowing gold-white, cover-the-shoulders clean-edged cloak, tight very black chain-mail across torso, round very bright glow from center of chest, loose black silk sash around waist, matte-black tight knee-high boots with knee guard, black elbow-length gloves, faintly backlit by candlelight

Ramiel had more than one task given to him for his return.

Ah, makes sense. And I've seen a reference to this before, though not the word: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., episode 1: Maria Hill: What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward? Grant Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Hill: And what does that mean to you? Ward: It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out "shield."

Some of y'all have some very strange ideas of "secret identity" clothing. Just sayin'. Here's Grill N. Chill, and here's his off-duty "I'm headed to the club to hear some hot jazz" look. I utilized the old comic trope where the character's out-of-costume look still has his color scheme worked in.

When it first came out, I saw several people take Ninja Run as their only travel power. It has a modestly good jump and run. It won't cover great distances as quickly as the big guns, but it frees a space up for another power selection All of my characters get Ninja Run. I find it is just too useful, despite that weird one sticking out without a weapon (on many). I have only one problem with it, and admittedly it is a big one: I can't leave it on in a fight without it causing rapid endurance drain. That's unfortunate, because it is very useful in a fight. My Martial Arts scrapper, for instance, can really do some spectacular NR moves combined with combat, and I find the flow of combat is smoother. So I leave it on in brief fights. Other S.T.A.R.T. (formerly known as P2W) prestige travel powers are allowed to be slotted, and I've pitched the idea before in suggestions that it either get a single slot for an End Reduction enhancement or that it be tied to the functionality of sprint, benefiting with whatever you put in Sprint's enhancement slots.

"Backronym"? Since they provide opportunities for the win, I was going to suggest Always Come Out On Top, or just Come Out On Top, but some NPC vendors might take offense at being call A. C.O.O.T., especially the long-tenured ones. "Ya know, newbie, if you really want your best start, go talk to the ol' C.O.O.T. vendor."

I've never used Discord. I think I may have signed up once about a decade ago for something or other, but that clearly went nowhere. What I need I get from the forum. That said, I was surprised to learn Discord was the dominant social media. I'd been heavily playing No Man's Sky a year ago, and the Reddit for it was hopping: lots of pictures, useful info, and generally great chatter. I tried out the CoH ones, including one for Homecoming, and they're largely ghost towns. Granted, we're 4,000 or so compared to 200,000+ players on NMS, but still...

It always amazes me that game prices are $60 today. In the early 1980s, console cartridges were ...$60 (well, actually new ones ran from $40 to $60), and even $40 in 1982 was like $128 today. This Gen-Xer bought a couple of dozen over 7 years. Also sank a ton of quarters into arcades. I probably should have sunk that money into investments or towards my first car. One makes sacrifices for the desire, and not necessarily from disposable income. Not wise sacrifices, mind you.

Yes, if Lore is to be separated out from General Chat, it really should go under the same banner, especially since Mission Architect and Roleplaying are both found there. After all, both categories pull from the lore.

Not to pick a fight, but why were Silent Sentinel and Rookie badges switched?