Techwright

It's going to be a few days before I can go, but I've already been hearing statements like "greatest Spider-Man movie ever" and even "greatest superhero movie ever". (I tend to think the latter is a lot more subjective, but we'll see...) For me, if the story is solid, if the ending lands well, if the writing provides impactful characters, then they can use stick figures in crayon on flip pages, and I'd watch it. That it is also "gorgeous", is delicious icing on the foundation of a great cake. I don't know why Hollywood so often doesn't get this: solid writing is the foundation of everything in movie making. I would have thought the contrast between Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan would have made them realize this, but here we are, 40+ years later... I'm glad the reports are so positive, though. The first movie was a treasure. It deserved a solid follow-up, and it sounds like they not only matched it, but possibly exceeded it.

Newest alt... His name comes from "Full Thunder Moon" an alternate name for the July full moon, so named because of the storms from around it's date. Thundermoon is a tech gravity/storm controller hero, using a discovered alien tech belt powered by two luminescent tech spheres he's taken to calling "moon pearls". The belt allows him to focus the natural gravitational pull of the moon or any similar gravitational source to a localized area, causing gravitational anomalies and storms.

😶 Have you... have you a shrink on your contacts list? I hear they have comfy couches they let you relax on. Verrry comfy. Just a thought.

"How to avoid dying 90% of the time" Why does no one ever give out the secret for not dying the other 10% of the time? That's where the real money is.

Those who naturally can...do. Those who can't...buy team inspirations. 😛

I've been in the game since early 2005, and I've just started taking a polar opposite approach. With most of my characters now 50 and earning a decent living, I'm buying inspirations...from the AH. Specifically Team Large inspirations. I didn't previously know about those who didn't use them, but now those suckers are going to be inspired whether they like it or not.

No mention of the inferior steel nor the fire that was burning trapped in the hull? It's not just this game. They've done that with others. One I dearly loved despite a host of behind the scenes fighting, was Tabula Rasa. The game had merit, but office politics messed with the game souring a lot of players and at least to a point, kept some significant bugs in play. (I heard those major bugs were resolved after I bowed out.) I'd love to see that IP licensed and revitalized. And while I found the game only moderately entertaining to my personal tastes, I've heard there are those who played WildStar that want the game returned to some playable form. There's probably others I've not realized.

Those who play both gold side and either red or blue: do you create gold-side characters that are the multiverse counterpoints of your Prime characters? If so what are their similarities and differences? I suppose you could extend that question to those creating characters for any dimension visited by Portal Corp. I've got one pair so far: Praetorian: Ace Ramjet Prime: Ace Barnstormer Similarities: both tech melee, both with similar basic costumes. Lore-wise, they're both the "same" person. Differences: Physical: Ramjet is obviously beefier, a result of a different, more aggressive technology applied to him by the harsher Powers Division. Ramjet is a brute class super strength/invulnerability, whereas Barnstormer is a scrapper class martial arts/super reflexes. Costume: Ramjet has added padding reflecting his more aggressive confrontational style. Lore: Barnstormer acquired his skill traveling the world, studying with masters. His speed, strength, and durability, though, were enhanced back in Paragon City by means of retro-engineered Rikti technology embedded in a powered under-suit to his costume. Ramjet, due to the Hamidon Wars, never traveled. His body was enhanced by a painfully-grafted cybertech, though he too possesses a powered under-suit to complete his enhancements. Personality: Barnstormer is all about personal liberties. Ramjet is fine with personal liberties to a point. The moment they interfere with the established societal structure, they end.

I'm guessing you've a character named Jimmy Jetpack that uses rocket boots.

😉 As I think back over the years, it occurs to me that the best PUGs I've been on have probably been those where two of the team members are introduced as parent and child, with the parent usually asking for the help and indulgence of other team members. Everyone straightens up, show courtesy (whether they feel like it or not) because of the child present, and provides encouragement and guidance. It usually spills over into a bit of fun in the conversation. I could wish for PUGs to be like that regardless of whether a kid was announced or not. It might just add people to my go-to friends roster.

My toolkit: illusion/storm controller = As to my portfolio, I run mostly ranged powers: controllers, blasters, corrupters, and a few sentinels. I do have 2 decent tanks, 1 good brute, and 2 scrappers with potential. The rest are just experiments and variety for interest. I play a limited amount of melee because, for me anyway, I've trouble, even with taunt, of getting NPCs in melee range with either a team of range strikers or some chucklehead who delights in running into a herded group and hitting some major AoE knockback. I'd much rather be a part of the action than just a taunt for the team. If I had to narrow it for a core team of 8 (including my "toolkit"): 1 energy/energy blaster, 1 dark/dark corrupter, 1 storm/storm corrupter, 1 fire/ice blaster, 1 ice/cold dom. controller, 1 mace/invulnerable brute, 1 water/willpower sentinel

👆👆 This. Life is so much better without general chat, though I don't kill it, per se, I just relegate it to a mostly-ignored tab. On those extremely rare occasions when I learn through other channels that something important was just mentioned, I can just click on the tab to see the replay. In regards PUGs, I don't see the problem like I used to in the OG, and most certainly nothing like I experienced with PUGs during my time in WoW. If anything, the PUGs I travel with are mostly silent or say a polite "ty" when someone whips out a team transport. For some reason it takes a lot to break the ice these days.

Seriously, I feel your pain. (Do the vampirically-challenged have pain?) After many, many, many Posi 1's with people charging the door and wiping the team...repeatedly...I've vowed to only do a P1 when a new character needs it for the badge. Otherwise, forget it. (Some of those knuckleheads knew it would trigger and deliberately did it.) YMMV, as they say. I'm glad you've had little in the way of problems with this. Truly. As I mention, like the Snark-meister, I have had enough problems with this, that it has ruined that part of the game for me.

I played DC Universe Online twice: once when the game opened, and once again back in either 2017 or 2018, before I discovered in 2019 that CoH had returned. While I did like some things, such as speedsters being able to wall run, I disliked others, most notably the highly repetitious dialog by street-level thugs and the inability to equip my character with the right costume options up front, and for quite a few ranks. I still have nightmares about that one section where all the street demons are saying "the wrath of a hero...delicious!" It's worse than Mark Twain's "Punch, Brothers, Punch". Costumes, at least initially, were a pain to assembled because they came from drops, and you might go through quite a few unusable parts until you found a good one. By then, you might already be level 30.

I've been a lifelong theme park fan and after several delays, in part due to under-powered tech, I finally got around to "unboxing" Planet Coaster, which I picked up with several DLCs on a deep-discount sale quite some time back. Way back in the day (Sherman set the Wayback Machine to 2001), I was considered one of the better Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 themed ride creators in the official forums, and I tackled the first day of PlanCo gameplay in similar fashion. Well and good. However, I made the mistake of going to YouTube for additional instruction and inspiration and I've been quickly overwhelmed and utterly gobsmacked by the level of detail some of the great players have put into their creations. One instruction video I viewed went into intricate detail regarding what should be considered in a true park representation, right down to the measurements for office space in the headquarters building. After this and several others, I felt simultaneously both challenged and terrified to the point of throwing in the towel. 😱 I've opted for challenged. Fortunately, I've learned some of the best parks take anywhere from a year to 18 months to design and build. Not sure if that means working 1 to 5 hours a night, or 80 hours a week, but it does mean I have time. I should have a decently-themed kiddie coaster by then. 🤪 One of my favorites by the experts so far has been Brickburgh. The level of detail is just incredible.

Got any chocolate-covered, raspberry jam filled ones? Talos and First Ward with a level 5: sounds like the OP discovered the Tunnel System in Atlas. If so, I recommend the sights and fresh sea air of Peregrine Island. I hear they even have the carnival in town.

This is a level 50+ character. I'll double-check on that Steel Dancer. It sounds like a most reasonable explanation, and I have put in a lot of 10-stack bids.

As of reading this, I'm seriously temped to make a character, and try to gain every exploration and history badge in the city without deliberately fighting anything, just run around avoiding all. Leveling would be by badge xp rewards only, then maybe move him to the red and gold sides and continue that. No P2W bonuses or powers, no other frills. I wonder if they'd grant a badge for completing that adventure? 🤔 Of course, folks would start enlisting their friends or their alt accounts to clear a path, so that might not reflect a true achievement.

Are you referring to the characters movements or to the lightning in Storm Blast? or both? Personally, I do like that mimed slamming motion our characters use, and I find the lightning animation on Storm Blast to be IMHO some of the best this game has offered. I did some color experimentation and found a color duo that really pairs well with the animation. I find I really hate it when the game registers a miss because this animation just looks fantastic when hit is registered and an NPC is toss off his feet with the resulting blast.

I can't recall the last time I was in the Market forum, but this fits. I was doing a little crafting, selling, and stocking of supplies this morning and ran into the "full" notice. No big deal. However, it is the first time I've actually looked at the numbers. Selling + Bidding + Bought = 203 All = 197 Now, I'm guessing "full" to the system is 200 (I almost never max out so I've never really focused on the number), so why did the message not trigger at 200, and why does "All" reflect a number that is 6 slots below what the others in total show? Is there a bug in the system?

What server, @savair? That might help the helpers.

Okay, that name just invokes hilarity. Not going to use it myself, but someone could have a lot of fun with it.

Okay, 3rd worst game ever.

List/describe games you perhaps absolutely loved at one time, but something completely wrecked them. I can tell you two that I absolutely loved, but became terrible games because of the development teams involved. I'll put links throughout so those not familiar with them get a better feel for them. The first was the MMO Tabula Rasa. Great concept: you're one of a few plucked from the Earth when it is overrun by an alien invasion. Trying to survive with a coalition of remnants from other devastated worlds you realize the only hope for re-population is to use your alien buddies' perfected cloning technology. With a growing clone army, you begin to push back planet by planet with hope of retaking Earth some day. Nice look for its day and age, though the graphics are quite dated in 2023. Some cool original gaming concepts, several of which have surfaced in other games since. The problem was the development team headed by Lord British (known in this game as General British.) Turns out, he was seeking the funds to become (briefly) an astronaut like his dad. Once he had them, he more or less left the team hanging, and NCSoft completely botched it from there. All kinds of bug issues including mid-level zones you had to work with that were almost unplayable. One of them was ironically called The Mires, and it was true because you couldn't move more than a foot ever 30 seconds leaving you incredibly vulnerable for 5 levels or so. Incredibly frustrating game because the potential was unmistakable, but the in-house fighting of the developers (NCSoft and Lord British had a court fight over this, or so I heard) resulted in a game getting cancelled far too early. I really do believe this game could be rebuilt for today and succeed, but then, we at CoH Homecoming know something about how the company likes to hold tight to otherwise-abandoned titles. The second was Firefall. (also see cinematic trailer.) It was the only game that got me to stop played OG CoH. Great concept: Due to an unknown factor in the first hyperwarp jump of a starship, a hole between realities is rent and something ghastly falls through onto Earth, spreading like an inky kilometer high blanket killing 95% of the planet. The survivors discover a technology running in their area is repulsing the threat, and they begin manufacturing more of this technology but with limited manpower and resources, it takes time. The game only opened a new zone with this technology occasionally. Great archetypes and concept: single character, but can wear any archetype as a battleframe. Advancement is related to skill in using the archetype, rather than focused on the person themselves. Cool mode of flight & fight. Some great zone events not unlike our iTrials, but far more dynamic. "Street fighting" handled much, much better, and a major factor in gameplay. Mining for minerals using rocket piledrivers, called thumping, was one of the great bits of fun. "Thumpers" enraged the altered wildlife, flooding the field with lethal creatures. The higher the class of rocket miner, the greater number of threats appeared. Something of a tower defense mini-game. Great look to the game, and fun crafting system. The problem was the executives. One in particular, spent money like water and on ridiculous promotional things the game didn't need while development still needed funding. They even got John Cena to cosplay one of their main character. Funding dried up, game was playable but only a handful or two of (admittedly massive) zones were open. They opted to sell and sold to the worst company: a Chinese speculative company that had no idea how to finish the game but promised the world to us. Each patch and rollout after that broke the game worse than before. Then the entire American development team was fired in a day. It continued downhill from there with some of the best PvE zones I've ever played breaking and not being repaired. So much potential. So much stupid in control. Nothing but a wreck on cheap life support at the end.