Techwright

This especially caught my eye. I'd been aware of the supers coming over from Praetoria, but it suddenly occurred to me that the normals have come in droves as well. The story potentials from that! Here we have a city (Paragon) that has been repeatedly battered and the population diminished as people either die or move away. Suddenly, we've got a massive refuge population streaming in. There should be stories of the reaction to that. The nation and the world at large may be somewhat sympathetic, but reluctant to allow these new untested individuals to spread out. Like Tom Hanks in an airport, they may be restricted to Paragon City. Housing quickly fills, tent cities become a necessity, and with monsters like the Vahz roaming around, that becomes a liability. Organizations associated with control (Council, Malta, etc.) suddenly give illusionary offers of control to those who used to enjoy it under the Emperor. What's needed are new, permanent homes, businesses, and community centers that offer a degree of protection that tents cannot, and make the situation easier to police for the PCPD and heroes. Suddenly Faultline and Boomtown look like potential. Maybe they don't become skyscraper cities again, but instead a mix of "multifunction buildings" (the current buzzword in my rapidly-growing region): retail and restaurants on ground floor, professional offices on second floor, and a few stories of apartments and condos above with lots of walking and biking paths, and parks between the multies. Setting aside the labor element to just focus on the concept, that would be interesting. We know Boomtown has a deep Hero Corp connection. What if that unknown you mentioned turns up in a hidden vault, an "evidence locker" if you will, that Hero Corp had (and possibly failed to properly notify the city). Alternatively, "unearth" suggests deep down to me, and that suggest Oranbaga. I occasionally mention that I feel the big O gets overused in the game, but it would be an interesting wrinkle if the vault is not of magic artifacts, but of advanced science artifacts that the CoT retains for some reason: either just to keep these things away from others, or more likely because it is of a technology so advanced that their magic has yet to unravel its secrets. Kind of a twist on Arthur C. Clark's advanced science perceived as magic concept. Here, the magic is trying to decipher a science beyond it. I'm glad for your input. Honestly, when I first saw Boomtown all those years ago, despite being stunned by its appearance, I was puzzled at the choice of buildings leaning against others without collapsing into massive piles of rubble. I was in NYC hours after the first attempt to destroy the Towers back in spring of 1994 and I remember WCBS radio commenting that they were clearing everything south of Canal Street because, at the time, it was thought the Towers would topple like giant trees. Tragically, we learned less than a decade later that they'd go straight down. So that was why I was puzzled to see these pillars, rather than piles, mostly. Point. Two chopsticks way up. Though I'd note the first was uncontrolled by the good guys, the toxic dust cloud would be a tragic byproduct. The hero wrecking crew though, would try to keep the situation from again spewing clouds of asbestos and other toxic products across the city again.

I would add that long before the film premiers, telling the world you're going to legacy all your films and start again, then moving right in to constant discussions about how this new vision is shaping up, has got to be a bad promotion strategy for the film as well, even if they did mention it will be something of a bridge into the new vision. People probably don't pick up on that light note and focus on "this thing is legacy before it is even premiered".

Has there been any feedback as to why that is? Ezra's antics? Interest in other things during the same time? Potential pariah status due to the DCEU being rebooted and this seen as part of the (largely) tepid previous DC movies?

At this stage in the game's timeline, how far are we past the events that turned Baumton into Boomtown? Clearly enough, at least, to begin some reconstruction. I ask, because, shouldn't we be detonating those incredibly dangerous skyscrapers immediately? Dangerous not only due to falling, but due to many being used on their more stable floors as hives of scum and villainy. Would it not be better to turn them into piles of rubble to be removed at some future point as reconstruction gradually proceeds? Send leagues of heroes and anti-heroes in to chase out the villains and drop the buildings. Scores of gravity and time heroes should be able to help in a cooperative effort in keeping the collapse to a minimum, reducing dust clouds and such.

I am truly surprised they made it past the telephone sanitation stage.

So this Quick Play, was it complete enough to play, however short a game? I've never been into this type of gaming but for a CoH one, I'd make an exception. We've so many brilliant creators in this game, I'd not be surprised if there were enough for a team to complete the CoH RPG, or rather, reforge it as a CoH Homecoming RPG.

New game's formal announcement. Set in "never before seen" western parts of Pandora, and introducing new tribes, named enemies, and storyline. I've not seen the second film yet, but the game's pitch, of Na'vi children kidnapped and reared to think like humans, is a novel twist.

Hmm... Nice work, especially Revengeance Ryzing

Is that because of the attitudes of other players? or something else?

Don't you wish we could put up an announcement upon a character's first login stating that this game is the journey and not the destination, therefore choose wisely?

Popping back into this thread to say I finally had enough time-out (thanks to a summer flu...ugh) to watch Dune Part One, and I really loved it. Not to say that it was perfect. I'm still scratching my head over why Liet Kynes was portrayed as a female. The switch didn't bring anything to the role, that I can see, and Frank Herbert was portraying a society that had largely (but not universally) slipped back into patriarchical ways. I will say that Sharon Duncan-Brewster did an excellent job in the role. Likes: 1. Ornithopters - fantastic job of making these as believable as helicopters. I found myself constantly wanting to ride in one. 2. Jason Momoa did a surprisingly good job at Duncan Idaho. If they continue making movies might we see the ...references...to him again? 3. Josh Brolin owned the role of Gurney Hallick. As much as I liked Sir Patrick Stewart in the 1984 version, I think this one is better. 4. Light-colored, thin clothing over the still suits. Finally! Someone gets it. Black rubber in the desert is a big no-no, whether it houses a water still or not. That said, I found various scenes curious where Fremen were moving around without their masks on. 5. Oscar Isaacs proved a wonderful Duke Leto. 6. Before watching, I'd not heard who was playing Baron Harkkonen. When I heard Stellan's voice I was in shock. I genuinely expected a more portly actor to be cast. Still, it proved a great choice. 7. Dr. Yueh - I read the first 3 novels nearly 40 years ago. I do not remember a description of Dr. Yueh's treatment methods, but watching him check pressure points with his own hands, reminded me of how the Mentats came to be. If it wasn't in the books, it certainly felt organic to them. 8. Scale - budget definitely helps. Everything seems vastly bigger than the first two interpretations of the book. Dislikes: 1. Mentat appearance - it's too clean The stain on the lips is from the juice they drink. It shouldn't look like a clean-edged tatoo. I can't recall from the books, but wasn't the wild-haired eyebrows part of it as well? The eyes rolled back while computing is a weird bit. I'm not sure if I like it or not. 2. Shadout Mapes was barely used - she had a larger role in the book, and even in the early productions. 3. Piter de Vries' death was barely seen. It doesn't appear to be given the weight of the book and previous productions. Losing a Mentat was a costly and potentially devastating thing for a great house. 4. Saudaker fall too easily. For the greatest warriors (known) in the galaxy, they fall too easily. I'm not really all that happy with battles as well that show standard swordplay but mark the shields in red for a slow kill. There were other interpretive choices and additions to the work that I scratched my head over, but nothing lore-shaking, at least that I can think of. Overall, I think my comparison different interpretations of Hamlet was spot on. This is yet another for Dune, and a very good one so far. Looking forward to Dune Part Two.

Hey, it could be worse:

Not sure. They certainly had no problem showing a fully-stocked bar in places, including base parts. One gets around it by drinking from a ceramic mug? That seems a bit odd.

Since 2020 there's a new strike force which a lot of blue-siders are temporarily crossing over to play. There are new story arcs from John Houston (rogue) and Dr. Stribbling (vigilante) There's new powersets like symphony control and the recent storm blast, as well as Dominator Illusion Control and Sentinel Seismic Blast & Stone armor. Issue 27, Page 4 marquee features And depending on how early or late you stepped away in 2020, there were a pair of story arcs added to Issue 27, Page 1.

Could it be done as a toggle? That is, @Oklahomantoggles on an option to receive "Ask to join", then toggles it off when quota is met. Spammers don't get to annoy beyond that point. To reduce the problem while it is on, add a timer function to the "Ask to join": can only send an ask every 30 seconds. That way, if someone thinks they've not been noticed, they can re-submit but not at a spamming rate. And like the timers in Incarnate modifications, it will post a message stating they have to wait for the timer to expire.

Time need not be slow only. Just spitballing here but remember that scene from Avengers: Endgame, where Scott undergoes first attempts at time travel? Now imagine hitting an Outcast with a time bolt of some sort and it throws the Outcast into a personal time flux for damage. The Outcast is temporarily replaced with a Baby New Year graphic, followed by an old man graphic (or perhaps just one per bolt, randomized) before returning to the Outcast for a damage result of being violently pulled back and forth in time. Oh, and he's much more vulnerable to other attacks while appearing as an infant or old man. For NPCs without a human look, the graphic is just reduced in size to suggest infancy. A second type of time bolt creates a time fracture where the NPC is fractured in a appearance, or briefly duplicated, showing time pulling against itself into multiple personal timestreams for the NPC: something their body cannot handle. While this creates two of the NPC temporarily, briefly allowing greater firepower from them, it also has an accumulative damage taken affect when normal time is restored.

Frankly, for the role-playing element, I'm surprised there's not steins, bottles, and martini glasses. Bottles especially since that can cover a multitude of hard and soft beverages.

Studio 55 in the Imperial City zone.

You'd think an official YouTube channel would get the audio sync right. Still, it is interesting. I wonder if they'll continue the B5 universe this way? I'd love for them to finish out Crusade, then turn attention to the Psi War, and maybe go back to the past to show how Valen led the Minbari in the war of their time. My favorite comment from those below the video: "I'm disappointed that Zathras is in this. I was hoping they'd have Zathras instead."

Only 100 needed? That sounds, well, pathetically low to summon something at the status of a GM. I just tackled another 500 Skulls yesterday for the "Kill Skuls" badge. Not to make life a drudgery, but a higher count feels more like a summons for a Giant Monster or Arch-villain. I presume 100 is tied to 1 player. Is it also triggered by 1 team? That would make it sound even easier.

I'd thought to mention that, but didn't, probably because I was also thinking about the cape symbols at the time. Glad you brought that up!

Citizen-X has an awesome look, @wei yau! Maybe I missed it, but I'm surprised I've not seen the look over at the costumes thread.

...and the problem for that is that Disney orders a sequel be done and in the can in a certain period of time rather than let the writing crew ruminate over creating a truly organic extension to the story. "Just duplicate the favorite bits from the original" seems to be the mantra of the Disney execs. "As long as little kids see it has character 'X' it will sell." Well, yes, they do, but few are the sequels that are still talked about a decade after release. (Full disclosure: former Disney Store castmember here.) One exception to this was Pixar's The Incredibles II. They had years to think on a good sequel, but the results were tepid at best, though certain scenes were quite good. My guess is they'd kept it as a back-burner thought for too long, and eventually realized that Craig T. Nelson wasn't getting any younger, so they suddenly made it a front-burner project, rushing through it like I described above. The results were sub-Parr. (And it was painfully sad how ancient Mr. Nelson's voice sounded. I love his acting, and have wondering if a little more time and care, possibly with a voice coach could have returned his voice recordings to a 50-ish Bob Parr.) I long for a proper third movie to redeem the situation, possibly using Respeecher to handle Bob Parr's voice.

Same scenario for me. Lifelong fan (dating back to first runs of Super Friends where he guest starred), though I only collected a limited amount of comics regarding The Flash in the 1990s. So, it's good to get thoughts from a similar viewpoint. "...in the dreadful Flash movie". Do you mean the Justice League movie? Ezra, even before all the front-page news, never felt like Barry Allen to me. But then DC, like Marvel, has a multiverse where anything is possible, including a few Barry Allens that don't feel like the typical Barry Allen. Looking more at the mechanics of the movie character rather than the performer: does he still run like a speed skater? 'Cause that Zach Snyder decision really didn't sit well with me, especially how long it took to start running. The whole running style looked goofy. Out of curiosity, how did you feel John Wesley Shipp compared to the ideal Barry Allen? Regarding the problematic CGI: Marvel was in the spotlight recently as a key executive was let go, apparently in part due to the sub-par CGI of late. Reports were saying that CGI studios brought in to work on the MCU were overtaxed with ridiculous deadlines pushed leading to poor-quality results. I suspect that story may be broader than just Disney/Marvel, and may have been present in this movie, though if this movie was delayed by COVID issues, you'd think they'd be given a chance at a second look at their designs. That said, the film may have been in the can already.

Welcome Home! I'm sure others can give you more technical answers, but with the changes in Homecoming (it is not a static game by any means), Training Origin enhancements are gone (rumors of a few vendors still marketing them exist). Dual Origin is now the stating point, and Single Origin enhancements, as Snarky pointed out, at their lowest are marked level 5, which means you can start slotting them at level 2. 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. For my personal play style, I've determined that level 38 is that tipping point where vendored Single Origins have less oomph than crafted enhancements, so personally, that is the moment I stop upgrading the SO's and go to level 40 crafted enhancements. I mentioned this recently on another returning player's thread, but travel has changed for the better in Homecoming. You still have the train stations and the T.U.N.N.E.L system (swirly portals usually near train stations, but not always). 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. 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. 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. Access to the time zone, Ouroboros, is no longer restricted to level 14 and up. 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.) 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. In case you don't recall these, P2W vendors appear in key zones. The three training zones have them. There's one in Atlas Park to the 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. Another change to the game is in the Atlas Park area. If you look to the buildings to the left of the Atlas Statue, a new building has replaced the old Architect Entertainment building. This building houses access to the "secret" Fort Trident sub base. Within you'll find all manner of things: Back Alley Brawler is trainer there. All the Blue-Side Task Forces have a setup option there, there's crafting tables, BOTLER, at several other things. Take a look around when you have a chance.