Techwright

Am I missing something? What's with the sudden (apparently) uptick of licensed character duplicates tonight? I've seen Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cheetah, Hawkman (and I think I spotted Hawkgirl in a crowd), Sue Storm, and others. I wondered at first if there was a supergroup involved, but no SG listed on those that I checked. None of them except one had a clear knockoff of the character's name, Most had partial references or clever references. I'm all for homage characters, but last I checked, duplicating a costume and powers took it from homage to violation status. I will say one of those had different powers, but an obvious name/costume. I'm used to seeing one or two occasionally, but the unusual volume of them had me puzzled.

Are the owl references on redside? I honestly don't recall owls mentioned anywhere. That's an interesting travel power suggestion, though I would add that, until they allow attacking from a flying carpet, the owl should be given the same limitations as the flying carpet or jet surfboard. Chest symbol seems the best way to go. I suspect it has the least animation needed, if any. (I suspect the animation is handled in other ways and the graphic is just loaded up. I heard a rumor recently that there was only one animator on our volunteer dev team, so the less pressure on them, the better. I'd love to see several new chest symbols, not just an owl. In the case of more costume animation, a couple of the face masks that @UltraAlt posted seem good inspiration, rather than make a full owl head/body. But again: one animator. Honestly, I'd thought you'd ask for swimming dog options first. Not sure why. On this we agree. My very first character (didn't last long) back in 2004-2005 was an attempt at a polar bear look on a hero. The results were less than adequate. I've wanted some decent bear stuff, at least a chest graphic, ever since.

Dollars? So we'll be playing for real money? I can get behind that. Wait, is that US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, East Caribbean, Bahamian, Bermuda, ... Joking aside, I wonder if we ought not develop an INF currency icon.

I'm not even sure it's a "jogger". It doesn't have power jogging action, it has "power stepping action". Wait, it also says "No batteries needed"...so is it really "power"? And how is it a "Villain Chasing Machine"? Just what villain would you chase in a non-powered, non-jogging, stepping machine? The Slug?

Might I ask what is off-putting? I've not played STO in years, and I did leave due to some frustrations with the game, but largely I enjoyed it. I'm curious to know if the problems were similar to what I saw.

I brought another of my Original Game creations back to life: Originally a controller, Thistle Wyld has been reinterpreted as a plant control/thorny assault Dominator, and has had slight adjustments in name and costume. From left to right: Original Game first costume, Original Game last costume, Homecoming modifications

I believe they had something like this for the theater posters. And those were universally changed, not just server changes. So, at least at one point in the OG, the tools existed for changes. Clientside billboard mods shouldn't need to be approved, but then, some folks post videos. Is there a disclaimer if something appears on one of them that may be problematic?

In my experiences, there are speed runs and there are speed runs. By that I mean there's events where everyone knows to take shortcuts, but still fight some of the time. Alternatively, there are those speed runs where one or two know all the extreme shortcuts and don't really allow any fighting. The other 6 or 7 players are relegated to little more than standing inside the door and gain very little XP from the event. I've done many speed runs where we still fight part of the time. The cloaked speedster might be off on level 4 looking for the McGuffin, but we slower, more conspicuous types still manage to drop several of the first floor mobs before the goal is met. I'm fine with this if it is announced ahead of time. I've been on a few of the other kind though. With those, so far, it's never communicated in advance that only one or two will run the show, and no thought is given to XP, just the end rewards. Those I might tolerate on a first run for a character, just to get the badge, but not subsequent runs. This is a game. I log in to play, not to be a token figure. I'd also add that the longer the TF, the more agreeable I am to doing a speed run. The shorter TFs, like Posi 2 or Yin TF, I'm happy to take the KM approach. I'm also agreeable to certain instances being run in speedy fashion even on a kill most TF. For example, the "rescue Dr. Todd" mission during the Moonfire TF: I favor using a team teleport to the exit once we secure Dr. Todd, due to the chance at mission failure as well as the NPC's ability to get stuck or confused.

What about duplicated zone cases? Granted, that would be a rare situation, and nothing different if it is only a location being sought, but if the zone is maxed and they leave (which is essentially the base hospital), "returning" might mean entering the alternate zone. Would specific characters/items that they were hoping to interact with (say, an ambush) still appear in the duplicate zone?

I have never seen a 100 millimeter inf. I'm actually curious now.

It's worth a look. I think I'll run the character again through Yin TF a few times this week to see if I can duplicate the issue. I'll watch the combat logs as @lemming suggested. This discussion has actually made me quite curious if it was a single factor, or multiple just weirdly timed, and of course whether it's player or NPC related. I accept from the discussion that if it is "player" created, it most likely was a bug.

Honestly, I'd pay good INF to a P2W to get a chainsaw or a blow torch. I've been wanting to pollard that forest for decades now. Eden, too.

As one who sometimes has to use ignore due to others' behavior in chat functions, I'm liking this thought. Nine times out of ten, I just am trying to get past a problem, not trying to silence them forever, and the pop-up might just serve as a good reminder that I left someone in a time-out that I should have cancelled anyway. I've only had two problems necessitating more serious action in the past. One, back in the original game, was essentially a stalker, and one in Homecoming made a point of logging into a second account to confront me about my choice to mute them on their primary account. The rest I'd consider as temporary time outs. Were I to receive such a pop-up in a league, I'd immediately check my ignored list to see if I could remove the ignore. If I need to use ignore still, I might just negate it for the duration of the league, then renew it.

First, apologies. Yesterday was not a good day and this bizarre incident capped it off. I made my statement and left without considering that I'd not given enough information. I'd not mentioned the TF involved, but yes, it was a Yin TF. The character I was using was a level 50 Sentinel Energy Blast/Energy Aura. The powers that all dropped simultaneously were: Kinetic Shield Entropy Shield Power Shield Maneuvers (from Leadership pool) Nothing else dropped at the same time. For example, I use hover a lot on this character, and it remained functioning. I keep tabs on my endurance at all times and it was not discharged. In fact, I was watching every control like a hawk the last half of the TF trying to figure out if I could match the power shut-off to some visual of a teammate's power being activated. This problem occurred only when standing next to the team (I'd moved far away towards the end), and occurred in areas where no Freaks were, such as the Council sections of the task force. At least one person was using some sort of team bubble, and possible other domes/bubbles. Hard to tell in all the fireworks going on, and they were using a coloring that made it almost invisible (I'm actually grateful for that). I'm not saying they were the one at fault, it was just the most obvious possibility, and as I've not played characters that do a lot of that, it increased the likelihood in my perception. If I understand the description presented for Dimensional Shift, that one can only hit opponents locked in the "bubble" by entering it first, that does sound like the weirdness I encountered, at least in part. Does it give one an error message if on the other side of the bubble and swinging at an opponent within? It says nothing about de-toggling player powers, though, and the two effects always seemed simultaneous.

I played the game for a while, but it felt off. Like making Mom's legendary coffee cake using a synthetic sweetener instead of sugar. I was also not a fan of the "spam a minor power to eventually charge greater powers". I much prefer our delivery system. Oh, and as much as our "mitts" get derided, they appear far better than those ugly claws that game calls "hands". YMMV. I did look at the opening several minutes of the video, but at over 40 minutes, I'll need to see the rest later. It does look interesting however.

Had a TF today that I encountered something I'd never seen before. Not sure why I've never encountered it in all this time (not like this anyway), and honestly, I'm not sure what the power was. Clearly I've never played it. I think it has something to do with domes or bubbles. In the chaos of battle it was never clear. I just know two things immediately happened: 1. I suddenly couldn't hit anyone. Not that I had bad aim, the game was telling me there was no target though I was standing right next to them. 2. All my defensive toggles went down simultaneously. All. Of. Them. This happened repeatedly throughout the entire TF and when I asked courteously that whomever was using it, if they could not use it in close quarters combat, I got silence...and several more rounds of it. I ended up fighting far on the edge to keep my defense toggles active, notably reducing my effectiveness for the team. A. What is this monstrosity thing, and why does it affect teammates drastically? Honestly, the way it was used on this TF, I'd rather face a mission of Malta Sappers. At least it's the enemy de-powering me, rather than an ally. B. Why does it not come with a required course, test, and 20 hours of range practice time before allowing operation?

That looks Kraken-like, which might fit with the seas around Chimerora. I read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at some point after I saw the Disney movie. I was surprised to learn that Verne didn't create a single giant squid, he created a giant cuttlefish swarm. Slightly smaller in physical size than Disney's creation, but many more of them. Perhaps the challenge could be to create a Swarm Giant Monster, where (unlike the multiple Titan Robots) the members of the swarm cover each other, rather than fight independently. I'd find it upping the challenge if I'd not hit just one but have to watch my back and sides for the others. I don't know if it would be possible to have a creature grab and throw a hero/villain, but it would change things up if they had a chance to snag any within arm's reach and fling them away for distance and smashing damage, maybe even lethal.

It's too bad they didn't make the curtains toss-able like the items grav powers throw. It might get a little visually confusing then, but less of a navigation hazard. If you're referring to the ones that are mostly black, I'd not been thinking of these, but yeah, I actively avoid them. The dark-on-dark is just ridiculous. Even my Dr. Nightlight can't illuminate them, and I tried to tune his look for bright white light.

I had a returning member of my SG ask me the other night why "that guy" was constantly kneeling in Orobouros. He was talking about Sovereign, of course. I've actually never heard the reason. I assume it is some kind of recruiting tactic, but maybe he's place saving his memorial spot? 😉

I'm surprised no one has pitched "Headless Barbie". I can't tell you how many plastic Barbie dolls I saw without their plastic heads. It's like a rite of passage for little girls (or maybe their little brothers). We do have a headless costume option after all... (And no, I never liked the Barbie franchise, so I won't be making one.)

That's a great line, and while I was specific to the game (at least I hope it came across that way), it's a positive thought for moving forward in the real world, too. 1) You make an excellent point about research posted to underground websites. While I'm not sure there's a way to completely eradicate the research as a result, there would be a way to routinely purge and prune heavily to try to keep the information to a minimum. 2) The viability of the Dr. V's research - while it is not complete, and you give good evidence of that, it is advancement (if I can use such a word in this ghoulish instance), which could help others to understand and advance the areas of science. While an organ replacement without maintenance might not be possible today, it might in the future, in part based on the research, and that is where it touches on the "needs of the living". 3) Law enforcement condemning the Doctor is a good start, but it needs to be greater. There should be some sort of address by the medical community and society in general, especially since not all society perceives law enforcement in a positive light. 4) Consider the in comparison the victims of a serial killer. Should their names and the record of their lives be forever a sub-point to the killer? Perhaps I overstep in this discussion. I don't wish to bring the real world fully into this topic, but the parallels are unmistakable. Art (in this case a video game) does imitate life after all. 5) Not any singular name, though I'd be for a memorial in the city with a list of the names. More like "Victims Memorial Research" with "victim" being substituted for something more positive in a group sense. Perhaps something like "Candle Vigil Memorial Research", or something like that. Stupid name, I couldn't come up with something better than referencing the oft-done candle vigils, but hopefully it makes the idea understood. Personally, as a player in this virtual world, I think I'd favor @cranebump's thought: ...but I do like seeing the alternate viewpoints and hopefully the underlying reasons.

SPOILERS Just finished the Agent Watkins arc, and the ending reminded me of something. Watkins notes that medical advancements sometimes happen due to tragedies. He's in part referring to the Vahzilok research which in the arc is said to be nearly complete, though halted due to heroic "interference". The situation reminded me of an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, where a holographic reconstruction of an alien war-crimes doctor is utilized, very reluctantly, to save the life of one of the crew. When the "doctor" points out that the computer has all the research the original collected through horrific, criminal research on those enslaved, and states that the work is done and therefore should be utilized to save lives, the hologram and the research are instead erased, and a decision is made to never again use the research. Which brings me back to this arc. If you've played the game, you know how horrific the doctor and his disciples have been to those they've kidnapped. But the fact remains that the research has been documented. Is it better to: A) destroy the research as an outgrowth of a horrific series of tortures and events, or B) recognize that the research results are viable and needed by the living, condemn the doctor and his cult, wipe their names from ever receiving credit, and rename the research to something that memorializes the victims? (I'm making the assumption here that the research will be reviewed to make certain of it's validity, before using it in future, legitimate research and treatments.) I'll offer a "C" option here, in case someone comes up with a notable third option.

It's at this point, when you realize you're not going to receive Super Trolls to tackle due to his jerk behavior, that one should switch to "If that's the way it's going to be..." mode, and have the team wipe away any chance he has of getting a standard Rave Troll. Might make him think a bit more next time. Probably not, but that and inviting everyone to pelt him with snowballs for 10 minutes might ease the pain.

I'm sure someone out there has a 20 Mule Train. 😛

After several false starts, I'm finally on my way to making changes to the bare-bones bases of both of my small supergroups, Men Of Action, and Action Heroes. I'm nowhere near the skill level of others I see here (yet), and I can already see things I should have done better, but the results of our custom teleporter room had me excited enough that I had to share. Thanks to @Dacy for all those helpful videos, and to so many others of you who have posted all those helpful base-building reads in the forum. I'll probably have a lot of questions in days to come. Short vids to show the kinetic elements of the build: Portals Sign