Techwright

Yeah, I need to go back and rewatch The Young Indiana Jones Adventures. I've not seen anything more than a clipping or two since it premiered. But what I meant about canonicity, and didn't have the spoiler box due to using my mobile, was...

*Looks up "saveloy"* ... 🙄 Why didn't you just say "hot dog"? 😛

Not to steal from @Turric's good list, but I maintained a couple of lists of Arthurian characters back when I played No Man's Sky, and used the names for system naming. Probably the biggest list I worked with was the following: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arthurian_characters

My mind read that with the voice of the Pigs In Space announcer. 😄 Flow Pew Pew, NRG/NRG blaster, perhaps?

The interesting thing is that the ending still leaves The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles potentially canonical. I suspect Lucas may have had a role in that. I'd define that better, but I can't seem to find the spoilers box icon on my mobile.

First off, WELCOME! The game does a reasonably good job of walking you through startup. Obviously, you'll need to pick a character with all the details that includes. In my opinion, that suggests two ways to play it: 1. Make a rushed character, get into the game and begin learning by experience (failure is not truly failure if you're learning from the experience). If you like the character, keep it, and visit the ICON store to improve the character's costume. (You'll need INF or vouchers to pay for the changes) You can even rename the character at the loading screen. If you don't like the character, set it aside and start a new character. This is what I did way back in 2004-05 when I started in the game. The experience with a few "failed" characters paid off later in successful characters. 2. Make as best a character as possible before getting into the action. Many players spend a lot of time choosing the right components for the character, especially in the costume designer. It's quite robust and one of the selling points of the game. At any part of the character design, you can go back to previous screens and change your decisions, so feel free to experiment. NOTE: on one screen you'll be given two buttons to select which of the three sides of the game you start in: One button for blue/red (hero/villain) another for gold side (Going Rogue, aka Praetoria). I highly recommend newbies stay away from Going Rogue until they're very comfortable in the game. Going Rogue can be run by new players, but there are elements of it that could be confusing and isolating for an untrained player. Don't worry, you can visit it later, or create new characters once you're skilled. Next you'll be given the option of going through tutorial zones or skip them and jump right into the fray. For first time players I recommend the tutorial zones. Galaxy City tutorial zone gets you into the experience quickly, while still providing plenty of opportunity to learn and even chances to improve the character at a trainer. It also allows you within the zone event to choose your alignment (blue/hero, vigilante, red/villain, rogue). (Don't worry, you can later change your alignment fairly easily in the zone called Pocket D.) You move past the trainer to enter the endgame of the zone (click on the destruction behind him to change screens) where you face your first "big bad". I definitely recommend this zone for newcomers. Regardless of the starting zone, seek out the P2W vendor. P2W vendors have a wealth of both free and purchasable items. I strongly recommend taking the time to go through and claim every free item from their list. P2W vendors have both free weapons and free starter enhancements for your character, among other goodies. Enhancements are like the armor with stats in other games. We use these instead of armor, freeing up our avatar forms for costumes. Note that some enhancements (not those at P2W vendors) are specific to your character's origin, so keep that in mind when trying to use enhancements that are rewards that drop into the tray. Not all can be used. Most can be sold to vendors for INF, though. Note that some of the P2W vendor weapons have bonuses based on your character's origin, so choose carefully. I definitely recommend accessing the P2W vendor next to the trainer in the Galaxy City tutorial. Getting those weapons and inserting those free enhancements will aid you with the "big bad" and it's minions, though they're not critical. By the way, once you acquire the weapons, click on "Powers" in your tray to get the full list and drag the weapons from the right-hand column down to open slots on your tray so that you can use them. When you finally enter Atlas Park (blue side) or Mercy Island (red side), the first zones each side that are not tutorials, you'll be offered a chance to flag yourself as a new player, one needing help. I highly recommend doing so. Our community is by and large very friendly and many will want to aid you in your understanding of the game. Some have a habit of gifting you generous amounts of INF. INF is the primary currency in the game. While it has a different name in each of the three sides of the game (red, blue, gold), each name begins "INF": influence, infamy, information. Use INF to trade with various vendor types, with other players, or with the auction houses (AH for short) that appear in game: Wentworths for blue side, Black Market for red side, and I forget the name for gold side, but you get the idea. In Atlas Park, you'll start down the steps from Ms Liberty the first trainer in the non-tutorial parts of the game. You'll usually see a crowd around her. To her left and right, by the edges of the fountains, are vendors selling Dual Origin (aka "DO", can be used by two origins, weaker) and Single Origin (aka "SO") enhancements. Behind Ms Liberty is the statue of Atlas, and to his left, next to the fountain is a P2W vendor. Should you wish a faster rise in the ranks, visit her and look under "Boosts". In exchange for a loss of collecting INF you can bolster your experience gains (XP). I recommend caution with this starting out as you'll need to make money to buy enhancements every few levels. You'll see in chat several abbreviations used in Atlas Park for recruiting. If you see "DFB", this is "Death From Below" an instanced dungeon, if you will, where a team of new characters work their way together, earning fast experience gains including a bonus at the end of the instance. If you wish to join a team, just click on the recruiter's name and ask to team. They'll send you an invite if the team hasn't filled up. You may run DFB as often as you can get on a team, but the XP earned is diminishing with each level. Another abbreviation is "DIB" which confuses players at time due to its similarity. This is "Drowning In Blood" another teamed instance, but you'll need several levels earned before you can run it with them. Of course, there's other ways to earn XP: street fighting, and taking missions from contacts. Matthew Habashy is usually the first of these, and he's not many paces past the P2W vendor. Matthew's story overlaps with the Galaxy City tutorial zone story, making it the perfect next step. Never fear to ask questions. Best to ask in the Help chat, General chat, or Broadcast chat, though. Some of the other chats, like Looking for Group chat are considered exclusive to their task. I wish you all the best in the game!

Just curious: Does the officially-recognized status allow us to move forward from pages of Issue 27 into a true Issue 28?

How long have you been away? Some of the powerset proliferation has been going on, so there may be choices worth trying that arrived after you left, such as Storm Blast that premiered in April 2023 with Issue 27, page 6. It's a primary for blasters, corruptors, and sentinels, and a secondary for defenders.

If you ever decide to protest the use of "If you could...?" threads, how would you go about it?

I'll add a small comment about L33T: there are players with Freakshow characters. Though I don't use L33T, I find it highly acceptable to use a name like Fr3@k3r with those characters, and would do it myself, should I ever be so inclined to build a Freakshow character.

Right, I gotcha. I was just noting that I liked ice enough that the interest lapped over into polar-opposite power choices. I've got ice/ice ones like Polar Cola Man (ice/ice controller) and Ice Maker (ice/ice corrupter). I've only got ice/ice in ranged characters currently though, although I did have an ice tank back on the OG game. Perhaps it's time I revisit ice melee.

Personally, I find ice intriguing and have several ice characters, including a couple of fire and ice ones. I am guessing Snarky would lobby for dark.

Why do you ask, FFFPH? 😉 For my part, I prefer to add another word rather than try any L33T speak. It tends to bring out creativity. Barnstormer failed, so I created Ace Barnstormer, and actually prefer it. Ray Gun was taken, but Major Ray Gunn gave me inspiration for possibly my best rounded character in concept and story.

Very thoughtful of you, but don't we have some sort of Valentines event coming up? I realize it is not as impactful as the Winter event, but still. I do agree with the snow. Frankly, I'd be all for a random day here or there where the snow returns, as if we just got a small snowstorm. I could get onboard with this one. Might fit reasonably well with missions involving the Tsoo, or the Korean hero team.

Newbie tips (with links to Wiki info): ENHANCEMENTS: Read up on Enhancements. Acquire them by battle-won drops (no pick up necessary), vendor purchase, trading with other players, or purchase through one of the Auction Houses (called Wentworths on blue/hero side, Black Market on red/villain side, and...I forget the gold/Going Rogue side terms.) Enhancements 3 levels higher than your current level can be used, and certain enhancements cease to function after 3 levels lower than your level, so be prepared to replace them or use the Upgrade button. UPGRADE BUTTON: Homecoming has added an Upgrade button in the enhancement manage screen, and as long as you have the corresponding INF (cash) you can upgrade anything slotted to the highest level your current rank permits. INF (cash) is the main currency in the game. Each game side has a different word for it, but it's the same stuff under the hood. GOING ROGUE: It's probably best to not create a character for gold/Going Rogue side until you've played in the red or blue sides for a while. Gold side is fun, but it's morally gray choices combined with low population (it's more of a solo area, though you can team), and isolation from the other sides for many levels due to story reasons can be rough on a new player. TRAVEL OPTIONS: Homecoming has improved on the various means of travel between zones in City of Heroes. There's quite a few ways including some hidden paths. The most obvious ones are the monorail/train/tram stations, ferrys, helicopters and similar air and aquatic craft, and the doors in the edges of zones, particularly zones with War Walls (the game will eventually explain these walls). The Homecoming Development team aided players by creating the Fast Travel "button", a type of accolade that you can drop into one of your powers trays. It acts as a pop-up menu, allowing you to access a variety of travel abilities that would normally take up several spaces in your powers trays. To acquire the Fast Travel, you have to tag all the explorations badges in a zone. So if in Atlas Park, find all the exploration badges there, and in addition to the badge for accomplishing all that, you'll unlock the Fast Travel feature. UPDATE: I believe this has been changed to acquiring 10 exploration badges from anywhere to unlock the Fast Travel feature. You'll find it under "Accolades" in your powers listings. It is dark green. Simply drag it to a spot on your powers trays, and click it to access it's special menu LONG RANGE TELEPORT: Upon opening the Fast Travel, you'll find several travel options including Ouroboros Zone travel and the "Long Range TP Zone Check" at the bottom. This latter one, when moused over, highlights sub-menus menus such as Paragon City and Rogue Islands. These in turn have their zones listed. Every time you find an initial exploration marker in a different zone, it will highlight and unlock that zone for you allowing fast travel to it via a teleportation. Be aware that there is a recharge time. OUROBOROS: There's a special zone, Ouroboros, that links to several other zones (including the only means to get to some obsolete zones via a portal in the back) and occasionally to story-specific zones. Access to the zone used to be level restricted but no longer is. Ask in Atlas Park for someone to drop an "O-Portal" to allow you to get in, and get your own power tray access to Ouroboros, which is another way people travel quickly through the game, popping into the O, and exiting to one of several destinations. (Be sure to grab the badge while there. The marker is at the top of the structure.) The Ouroboros access will add to the Fast Travel button once earned. ALTERNATE TRAVEL: Other features under the Fast Travel may be grayed out, and will unlock either through something earned, such as Day Job badge rewards, or by acquisition from the P2W vendors. P2W VENDORS appear in key zones. The tutuorial zones have them. There's one in Atlas Park to the right side of the Atlas Statue, by the fountain. Another is in Pocket D. While you're visiting the P2W vendor, you'll likely want to grab everything free from them under the category "Prestige Powers". Some are "either this one or that one" choices so be sure to read the descriptions. There's some nice fighting powers there to help a novice character. You may also wish to grab the free Prestige Enhancements, which, though not as powerful as the Single Origin enhancements sold at standard vendors, do provide some nice procs up until level 22. Lastly, you'll likely want to look at the Temporary Powers at the P2W vendor. There's many useful things, like jetpacks, that cost the game currency INF, but there's also free experience boosters under Temp Powers/Buffs/Experience Boosters. One hour each, and you can requisition up to eight at a time. Although jetpacks cost something, I like to keep one as an emergency travel spare, just in case my travel powers are ever interrupted. FORT TRIDENT: Within the first major blue-side zone, Atlas Park: If you look to the buildings to the east of the Atlas Statue, there's a building with a large Freedom Corp banner. The door directly across from the City Hall is actually entrance to the "secret" Fort Trident sub base. Within you'll find all manner of things, including Back Alley Brawler who acts as a trainer. It's not far from the Atlas statue, making it a good trainer for those occasions when you can barely see the Ms Liberty trainer due to a mob of trainees. Near BABs (as he's nicknamed) is both an enhancements vendor and an inspirations vendor. All the Blue-Side Task Forces have a setup option there, there's crafting tables, B.O.T.L.E.R., and several other things. Take a look around when you have a chance. BABs TIP: Back Alley Brawler also serves as a trainer at the edge of a very small park in the southwest corner of Atlas Park (the man gets around). However, there is no enhancement vendor nearby this one. HAZARD ZONES: Atlas Park has War Wall doors to two hazard zones: Perez Park and The Hollows. New players should take the term "hazard zone" seriously. These are meant to be more challenging, and should be approached in a group if you're new, preferably with a seasoned vet or two to help level the playing field. The Hollows has one of the more interesting storyline payoffs in the early game, as you hunt down an Outcasts leader: Frostfire. Due to their nature, one cannot just enter the hazard zone doors. You have to click on one of the guards just inside the entrance area to confirm you want access. There are other hazards zones in the game, including some PvP zones.

They've still got Jude Law's Skeleton Crew out there, too, yes? Unless it got the budget axe?

So no season 4? While I look forward to a movie, a season is at least 4 hours of material (probably a bit more), so a movie feels like we've lost an hour or two of content. Of course, if the content lost is a creepingly slow tale of a doctor being set up for destruction, then I'm fine with the lost of an hour.

It definitely has a lot of corners and hidden spots to sort through. You may have already found them, but I'll point out two: 1) The plus sign & arrow to the right of the word "Recipes": with the arrow you can expand to 3 trays (use the arrows by the tray's number to sort through trays), and with the plus sign you can add even more trays. They'll appear at the top left. Right click on them if you want to change their shape, then drag into position. 2) Click on the word "Powers" then go to the top of the pop-up and click on Combat Attributes. There's a wealth of information to sort through there. Find something you'd like to see always? Right click and select "monitor". The game will drop a tiny window in the center of the screen which you can drag around. Additional selections will add to the window. I personally find I like to monitor my Influence (currency), Threat Level, and Level Shift, all found under "Base".

Yes, I did that once. But I'm more inclined to alter the goggle style.

I was previously unaware the cool backpacks existed. I now require one to be added to the costume backpack settings.

Noticed it too. Hopefully it is carob.

Just finished watching it for the first time, and I agree with your assessment. Oh, I could be nitpicky: the big motorized chase was probably far too long, a certain kid just happened to be eating ice cream right in the perfect spot for trouble, etc., but the problems reported to me before seeing it never really seemed to fully add up. Mutt's story actually felt real. My own uncle nearly shared it, twice, and close friends of our family went through it, much like the Jones. Well, okay, just a touch, but she strongly reminded me of Vash from the Star Trek franchise, and Vash long preceded terms like "Mary Sue" and the other charge "woke". I'm pretty sure I've seen this stereotypical type before in other earlier works, I just am drawing a blank at the moment. I think, if anything, that would be the charge I laid against the character: stereotype. Effects were good, de-aging effects were really good. Easter eggs and call-outs to the other Indy movies were excellent (I loved the elbow moment), and it was very gratifying to see the old cast back for one more romp. I do wish they'd brought Short Round in one more time, but I guess we cannot have everything. Mads was a great villain, and Toby was an awesome addition to the cast. His performance as one slowly losing his grip was remarkable to watch. I'm ashamed to say I never recognized Antonio Bandaras. I only realized it when seeing the credits. Curiously, I found the music good, but, and I hate, hate, hate to say anything even remotely negative about John Williams, it felt a bit like it was walking through it's paces, rather than breaking new ground while reminiscing. The end credits felt slow, maybe a tad ponderous, but perhaps the Maestro was using the music to imply the age of Indy. Just guessing. Overall, I enjoyed it. It's not first or second place, but I might place it slightly higher than Temple of Doom. Might. It's a tough call for me.

I can't believe you mentioned all that and not a certain small, big-eared, big-eyed green frog-gulper. My mom's best friend is a sweet little old Swiss lady who'd never watch any sci-fi but is absolutely bonkers for the little guy, and has numerous representations around the house, from plushies to plant pots, even a little mechanical one that waddles around on the floor terrifying the cats. I swear, if they made an urn like him, she might just want her ashes stored there when the time comes.

Hey, look on the bright side: we could have been affiliated with EA.

Hey, don't drag the 9 year old down to that level!