Techwright

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!

Latest update: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/rosario-dawson-gives-a-disappointing-update-on-ahsoka-season-2/ar-AA1mu9M9 While other sites, including the one that got me looking, are reporting that Ahsoka season 2 has been cancelled, this simply does not appear accurate. Rosario was stating that there's apparently a delay in the process, which is understandable given two details: 1. Disney's current money woes and their aggressive pruning to deal with it. 2. Ray Stevenson's tragic passing. Given that his character was apparently being set for a massive role in season 2, it stands to reason that they'll want to think it through carefully. What I take from this: 1. Season 2 will likely only be delayed, not removed, and will likely be live action. Ahsoka, the character, IS Star Wars to a great many, and it would be akin to ending Anakin's or Luke's story mid-stream. They need to push forward to a clear completion. 2. Considerations as to how to do this are necessary. I'm wondering if one consideration would be if they'd be better switching to high-quality animation to conclude it. It perhaps is more cost effective, and would allow Balan Skoll to be recast (my guess would be with the remarkable Stephen Stanton) without causing a disruption to the viewers. Personally, I feel they need to stay in the live action mode, but everything must be cost-effective these days.

I stumbled across this online supervillain comic by accident. I was doing a search on the goldbrickers, and stumbled across a 1-page comic mid-run of the full 7 years of this comic. I've now read about 125 entries and it's hilarious! Zappit appears to be the creator's online pseudonym, and he has a habit of sticking things into earlier comics that play out later, sometimes much later. (Keep an eye on the blue hair.) Concept: Single dad supervillain Crimson Claw tries to re-staff his minions (due to sudden "retirements"), and fill-out his super team while encountering obstacles like superheroes and the dreaded Parents Night at school. Wish I'd found this earlier. (NOTE: I have screen the website before posting, using URLVOID.com, as well as my own computer's malware checks. While nothing flagged, please use your own judgement and defenses carefully, as with any site.) https://supervillainous.spiderforest.com/?comic=comic-1-work-and-family

Added emphasis. Really good point, Doc! That said, there's still a lot to do at max level, and considering that the game scales your character to whatever level the team/league leader has, a character never really goes out of fashion. Just asks the players with 900+ veteran levels. Looking forward to seeing all the fresh meat new blood in the game. 😁

At the moment she can be swarmed and hard to find, that's for sure. Pro tip: There are two other ways in Atlas park to get a trainer that isn't mobbed by trainees: 1. Back Alley Brawler, trainer and wielder of massive metal gloves, stands in a very small park at the center of a road loop in the far southwestern corner of Atlas Park. For now, there's no enhancement vendor near him, which is probably why he's so lonely (hope they fix that soon). But it does give you a chance to level up when working in his area. 2. Immediately to the east of City Hall is a large building with a Freedom Corp banner. Go in the door facing City Hall and you'll find yourself in Fort Trident, a secret submarine base. (yeah, this far from the coastline. Must be an amazing tunnel.) There's a trainer (it's Back Alley Brawler again. The man gets around.) and both an Inspirations vendor (Nurse Alexa) and an enhancements vendor (Longbow Quartermaster) among the staff on the same level as BABs. By the way, I should warn you: the enhancements vendor here still sells Training Enhancements (TOs) which are the least powerful enhancements in the game. Homecoming has kept them at a few vendors, but they're largely obsolete, unless you're starving for cash. Scroll down past them to see the Dual Origin (DOs) and Single Origin (SOs) enhancements.

Welcome! Don't be afraid to make mistakes and have to start over. In my noobish days on the original incarnation of the game, I had to create and destroy three or four characters until I found one that clicked with me. None of them I consider failures though I removed them. Each one taught me details about the game. I could write a manual for starting in the game (probably should) but l'll give a little help for anyone getting started. I'll just cover the first screen of the character creator, but including some terms and links to help down the road: Starting zone choices - There are two buttons here. I'd advise all brand new players to avoid the "Going Rogue" button until you have experience in the game. Going Rogue (sometimes nicknamed "gold side" or "Praetoria") can be played by a new player, but it can be confusing and isolating without reading up on it. The City of Heroes: Freedom button is probably what you want. Once you get to the tutorial zones for this button, you'll be asked to choose a side: blue=hero/vigilante, red=villain/rogue. Don't worry. If you find you don't like the alignment choice, you can change it later in game. Origins - don't sweat it too much with this. The five starting origins are more of a storytelling concept for your character. (The wiki classifies "incarnate" as an origin, but you need not worry about that until level 50.) The starting five do, however have a couple of things different between them. Each origin has its own unique minor attack in the game, and the attack will deliver a small amount of damage and an additional effect. Technology, for example, has a taser delivering a small amount of damage and also stunning your opponent briefly. Origins also affect the selection of enhancements available early in the game (later game enhancements do no recognize origin, nor do special set enhancements). These origin-based enhancements can be bought at vendors (on the hero side, two are close to the giant Atlas statue in the first major zone after the tuturial zones) or the enhancements can be drops acquired during combat (check your enhancements tray to see them). The two kinds of Origin enhancements are Dual-Origin, and Single-Origin. Dual is the weaker of the two, but as its name implies, two different origins can utilize it. You'll not be able to use any origin enhancement that does not match your origin, so for those, plan on selling them to the vendors, or trading them with friends/teammates, or even giving them to your alternate characters with the correct origin (You can use the mail system to do this. Just address the email to your global name, like "@GlobalSuperguy" and it will deliver back into your email box, allowing any of your characters from any server to collect the contents. Players trade the main currency, a.k.a. "INF", and other goods between their characters this way.) Lastly, origins have an affect on a very few weapons that you can acquire for free from the P2W vendors. The weapons description at the vendor will describe what origin works best with the weapon. More on P2W below. I'd also consider flagging yourself for help when you reach the first zone. The game will have a pop-up with that option. If you choose the blue/hero side as your start, it is not uncommon for seasoned players to hang out under the giant Atlas statue to help out with information, or even provide a generous boost to currency. I'd recommend that if you feel you need to end a character and start again, that you not delete the character until you've created a new one. Then return to the character to be removed, log in, and mail to your global name all the remaining INF and any enhancements he/she has. It will be there for the newly-minted character to grab when you log back into them. One last thing: There are vendors called "P2W" in the game. Find them, and take everything free that they offer, assuming you like what they offer. Some things free have choices. For example, the Experience Boosters have increasing levels of boosts to experience, aka "XP", needed to reach your next rank, but the trade off is that they reduce the amount of currency, INF, collected. A new player may want to use the lowest setting, or avoid it altogether, so that your money making continues unabated. Some of the free items are weapons, and very useful in the game, especially early on. Read each one before taking so that you make good choices. The few origin-specific weapons in the game are found with the P2W vendors. Once you acquire a weapon or ability from a P2W vendor, go to your control tray and click on "Powers". Find the equipment/ability (in the third column) and drag it to a spot in your tray.

That's really quite good! I wasn't prepared for the multiple colors, since in-game Clockwork are pretty much a uniform brass color, but as they are junk scavengers, the multi-colored approach makes better sense.

😉J/K -- would love to see all the servers fill up!

It's a beautiful sight, and this is just one of two Atlas Parks running at the moment. I'm not even including shots of other hubs like Talos or Pocket D. Perhaps a host of people were waiting for Homecoming to be officially recognized as legit? Or maybe it is just readers who saw the news break.

Which is why many let their kids watch over the shoulder. Build the nostalgia factor into each successive generation and a game becomes practically immortal.

I'd prefer a reboot. For one thing, a few of the older cast have passed on, I believe. For another, I got the impression that the writing team of The Pretender did not really have a solid endgame in mind, or even a solidly fleshed out story. The final TV movie kind of hammered that point home by bringing in mystical elements that never existed in the main series. A reboot would allow them to address weaknesses in the original show, and to take our current technological world into account, making Jarod even more amazing. Besides, it might be fun to have Michael T. Weiss return, but as one of the other roles: Sydney, Mr. Parker, or Mr. Raines. I'd definitely want the surviving cast back, though, even if in new roles or cameo roles. Actually, John Gries might be able to return as Broots, but as a grandfather raising a granddaughter, rather than a father raising a daughter.

I'd prefer episodic as well: 40 minute episodes, like The Mandalorian, but with at least 13 episodes per season, unlike The Mandalorian's 8 episodes. Probably creating the concurrent spin-offs like X-Force, X-Caliber, and New Mutants, maybe even an animated show or two, like What If..? in style, to get as many in as possible. X-men collectively is such a huge story that one really cannot do justice with a movie every 3 years, like Guardians of the Galaxy.

I am such a gnome: I love working with goggles. I'm also rather fond of the scarf option under capes, and combat boots, smooth.

Perhaps Brute for Superboy using its ramping up as a representation that he's "not in the fullness of his powers"? Steel's a tough one. I dislike calling him a tank because of the 4, he's the most vulnerable, despite the quality of his armor. Scrapper seems better, but perhaps too weak. Wish there was something between brute and scrapper. Also, you can get a blast ability off the third column pool powers.

I'm still waiting for the day I bust into a side chamber of Orenbega and find a bunch of Thorns sitting around playing D&D.