Techwright

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?

Ah, yes. No doubt inspired by the Leroy Jenkins tactic.

I don't know how many Posi 1's I've run and never heard this simple, effective-sounding technique. Thanks! I'll try to get the next team I work with to try this, though I feel herding cats on fire is easier.

Bing AI's interpretation of my Fire/Kinetic controller Chili Fuego. This one turned out much better than I'd hoped. I did forgo the red fingerless gloves which, with the sneakers, kind of add to Chili's signature offbeat mix of formal and informal, but I might revisit this one when I have more time. I tried to show the pics with the imps closest to in-game ones. Some of the "rejects" were human-sized, and a few were hilarious like the imps with black suits and Spidey masks. Last used description: Jim Lee comic style Hispanic male with hair in a pony tail with goatee, with thin rectangular red-lensed glasses, with short-waisted white jacket with rolled-up black-lining sleeves over a scarlet dress shirt with green necktie with black slacks with green tuxedo stripe with red canvas sneakers with fist throwing fire with action combat pose with three small fire imps standing in ring of fire

Answer: a reasonable amount of attention for certain items. It's very rare that I sell salvage. When I do, it's just that I've collected so much of one kind that I just need to get it out of stock. With such, I don't consider price. I also don't sell it to the black hole that is NPC vending, realizing that putting it on the AH will eventually aid someone else. Most of the salvage I collect either goes to my crafting/AH character, or restocks the supergroup shelves to fuel any character's use of the supercollider for temp buffs. Recipes are different. Whites I'll usually vend to NPCs, but if I have the time, I'll double-check the corresponding finished enhancement on the AH to see if it is worth my while to craft. It's almost never worth my effort to sell white recipes on the AH. The NPC vendor usually has the better price. Yellow recipes go through an evaluation process I'll not get into, but in simple terms, I'll see if it is financially feasible to craft, possibly convert, and post to the AH. I learned to my surprise a while back that this can be rewarding for low level set pieces, though not usually as much as high levels. Oranges are usually sold to the AH or if the market is poor regarding one, then to the NPC. I only rarely craft below-50 oranges, finding the high-end salvage requirements negate the value of many of them. Purples never get sold. Ever. They are ...my Preciousss. I'll sell holiday extras, if my characters all have at least one.

I'd really like to know how you got it to create "Fury Wings" (game's name for 'em) on the helmet. That's been one of a crazy number of problems I've been trying to solve to do Major Ray Gunn.

Maybe I'm just too tired, but where are you getting next year for CoH (not CoV)? I'm counting on fingers (I did say I was too tired) and still getting 20 on April 28 of this year. Unless you're considering a completed year before each is counted?

That sounds about right. That equals slightly more than 4 days equivalent for the character to be offline. Unless your day job in real life is CoH, your first character, playing 4 hours or so a night will finish 1 badge every 5 days or so. While this may sound frustrating to some newer players, be aware that the Homecoming team dramatically shortened the time period. With their introduction in Issue 13 of the original game, Day Job badges were earned every 30 days. So it would have taken years to earn them all. I believe there was a reduction before the end of the original game, but not as short as it is these days. Many thanks, HC team! And, of course, once one is an alt-oholic, You can take some time every several days to rotate the characters you're not currently playing into a new Day Job. They'll earn while you play another character.

I'd forgotten the reward on that one. I'll have to start parking my high-level characters there. (New players: Psi attacks are more prominently found in enemies at higher levels, though it can be found elsewhere.) +Movement Speed. Quoting the wiki: Before a character earns this badge: For every 2 hours logged out, a character gains 1 minute duration, up to a maximum of 2 hours duration. After a character earns this badge: For every 1.4 hours logged out, a character gains 1 minute duration, up to a maximum of 2 hours duration. Seeing as Praetoria is a start for characters, and that those characters are unable to cross into the red/blue sides until missions around level 20 (though they can access Pocket D), I'd put a priority on matching any day jobs normally acquired in the red/blue sides at levels up to 20. They may have already done that, admittedly. I've only one gold-side character at the moment and haven't investigated. I'll have to correct that. Thanks. This is a good spot for helping our new players (and reminding old ones of the details) by inserting a link to the wiki's extensive list of Day Jobs/Accolades and their rewards. For the uninitiated, an Accolade occurs when your character has earned the required two Day Job badges, and gains its own reward. A good point made regarding the benefit to NPC allies. Useful on those missions where one has to keep a wandering rescue alive. Regarding the XP bonus, do you continue to do that once they reach 50, in hopes of advancing veteran levels?

Bing AI again. This is an attempt at my Invulnerability/Street Justice tanker, Streetwise Hercules. Bing rather annoyed me this time, refusing to give me action poses other then stances with a raised fist. I tried a number of different wordings for it. It never once attempted the bicep bands, and had no idea what to do with the wrap glasses nor the belt. Curiously, it was much more accurate with the fingerless gloves request than any previous attempts made with other characters sporting them (it's my go-to glove style). I could also not seem to direct it in the look of the punching fist, though it did manage to stumble in the direction I wanted once or twice. I once tried the word "knuckles" instead of "fist" which led to the otherwise awesome Jim Lee comic style picture, top, second from left. I wasn't expecting brass knuckles, though thinking about it now, I'd totally use such a graphic were it in game. I do like the "vs. werewolves" one. It comes close to capturing the attitude I was seeking.

I've completed all Day jobs on a few characters and realized this morning that I'm not utilizing all I have to the fullest. I normally park in base, so I have a full change of monitor duty teleports all the time. I realize each will have their own preference, but which day jobs do you consider important enough to park in for charges? Do you do a rotation of them, and which ones?

True, and in a warehouse or Atta's cave it's great, but some of us don't like being the pinball of the blue caves.