Techwright

30! You're lucky if your game wasn't a slide show back then.

Decided not to resurrect the old Obi-Wan Kenobi thread, but it can be found here, if needed. Just got around to watching the How It Should Have Ended vid on the mini-series Obi-Wan Kenobi, (released about 4 months back) and like Pitch Meeting with Mando 3, they're absolutely savage in their humorous criticism. What surprises me is that nearly the entire work focuses on two scenes from one episode. Imagine what it would have been like if they did a blow-by-blow take on the series. They didn't even get around to addressing the laser gate faux pas. They even managed to take another stab at The Last Jedi in the closing moment.

So it's basically the game's version of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.

So...curious now. Of those who actually paired Storm Blast with what they suggested, how well did the pairing work? Did you try something else as well and find it better or worse?

Exactly. Villainy comes in a variety of flavors, which probably makes it hard to fully cover in CoV. Everything from insidiously pulling strings behind the scenes to overt, beastly violence. Good comes in two flavors: really good and ... just alright:

Anyone else look at that raver and see a young John Travolta? Maybe it's just that 70s Man is in the shot affecting my perception.

It's an interesting idea. I'd personally be very impressed if you end up with very low damage-dealing numbers, and you might want to consider that a victory. Frankly, I'm concerned with the possibility that you put a lot of time and effort into Bunni 3.0 only to have another unexpected damage points event at, say, level 45 or so.

Pitch Meeting released it's take on The Mandalorian season 3 this week, and Ryan George was absolutely savage in his humor regarding Mando 3's shortcomings.

Storm Seller the rainmaker extraordinaire (pun on "storm cellar") just hit my roster tonight. Storm corruptor.

I agree with you regarding DA fog, but how about the atmosphere used in that Halloween event? The one with the 4 flags? Dark, somewhat foggy, but more clearly visible.

Is anyone playing Sea of Thieves? If so, a question: Can PvP mode be toggled on and off? The game looks interesting. It's on sale on Steam right now, but I can't seem to find a clear answer to whether it is toggle-able for PvP. I'm never interested in pure PvP games. I have been interested in condition-based PvP games. Back when playing WoW, I used to love the PvE/PvP toggle, and I often participated in joint actions invading or defending. Most of the time, however, I was not flagged for PvP. I've been reading around trying to resolve this, and I'm getting small literary works for what should be a one or two paragraph answer. I'm being told it is both PvP and PvE, but then being told it is something of a unique design, and that if I want to kick back and fish (PvE) go ahead, enjoy yourself, but there are others that just might want to prey. That's not a PvP/PvE setup in my thinking. That's pure PvP with someone stupidly acting like there's a PvE element. Obviously, there's probably a better explanation out there, but I've yet to get a clear, concise answer.

Thanks much! I can work with that.

Back in 2005, when I was a complete noob, not only to CoH but also MMOs in general, I learned of a technique that allowed a team lead to drop off the other 7 members inside an instance, then go recruit 7 more and bring them in. Did I mention I was a complete noob? I had no idea what an exploit was at the time, nor how illegal they were. I did this "technique" twice bringing in a total of 22 players, myself included. It was the Atta cave mission, and the game adjusted accordingly. the whole cave (one of the wide ones fortunately) was literally wall-to-wall Trolls. I cannot believe we didn't crash our computers or at least slow them to a slide show, but the fight was epic. EPIC! *Deep sigh of contentment* I was SO embarrassed when someone finally explained game exploits to me. I did report it once I understood. It's probably long patched, but oh, how I wish I could (legally) duplicate that event with the power of modern computers running it.

Adding my voice to the MA pitch. It is absolutely beautiful to have a scrapper run at a 6+ NPC mob, use Ninja Run to low somersault over their heads, land on the other side and immediately sweep into a Dragon's Tail, then follow through on any remaining standing target with Eagle's Claw. Poetry in motion. This is why I have repeatedly asked for a single enhancement slot to for endurance reduction to neutralize Ninja Run's end drain. Lacking that, I have to switch it off when I should be continuing its use.

That's not a bad idea and really fits with the Rogue Island theme, but do you really want a bunch of ghost pirates just standing around and putting up a very modest fight? Now if they did it with ghost pirate ship canons blazing and ghost pirates storming the beaches with guns blazing and cutlasses swinging, that would be something.

Wait...pardon, it's late and my brain is slow...are you saying "toggle off" as in one just has to toggle it back on (annoying but doable) or are you using "toggle off" as slang for it's gone, kiss your hard-won prismatic currency goodbye because you died? If it is an on/off process, like switching costumes, it's annoying but doable. If it is a complete loss, I can see why Snarky won't touch it, and I don't understand why it even made it into the game. While I'd love a larger character, I'd think larger would have problems in a lot of the instances, especially the caves. I've got my brute, Fightanic, at the top of the standard scale, and though I love working with him, I hate those caves, except maybe the ones used in like the Atta the Troll mission.

Well, there are snakes. The devs could possibly put them on a plane if you wanted something different.

Figured as much, and appreciate the spoiler-free approach.

And now we have a tantalizing name drop that might just be a foreshadowing for Ahsoka. It comes courtesy of the brand new game Jedi:Survivor and is mentioned so casually, that one might overlook it. But since the Cal Kestes story is considered canon, it might be worth keeping in mind. I'd also note this name drop ties in with a visual drop that occurred in the latest season of The Bad Batch. Dave Filoni's design work, I'm sure. As it has a bit of a spoiler for the game, just a tiny one (I'll leave the massive spoiler that came attached to it unsaid), I'll drop it here:

WOW was the second great MMO for me, and the one truly addictive. I stopped somewhere in the era of the Warlords of Draenai. To this day, I love the PvP model (instanced or flagged, I never tried the Arena mode), and its one of the few games in which I genuinely loved PvP. Specifically Warsong Gulch. Ah, the tales I could tell around a tavern fire...but I will spare you. It was while playing the game that I first heard of gaming addiction, and my experiences with that game began to match up to the description, so I severed ties. I still think very fondly of my gnome ice mage who loved to insult the Horde, even to his own peril. The greatest compliment paid to me in Warsong Gulch came when the entire Horde side broke off pursuing my teammates and all crossed the field just to do in that goggled pipsqueak pest that kept freezing their team to the ground. I definitely made myself a menace. On the opposing side I was very fond of Tauren, and had several. But I realized I was having to do a lot more in the game with each expansion, and spend hours each day just to feel a sense of full accomplishment, so it was best I left. It took a while, as I was always thinking of ways to improve what I'd left behind, but the game's talons gradually released me. I'm glad to hear you found your way out as well. It's fun, but it can suck the life from you.

Ok, first, that was really well done. It definitely answers two questions (and full disclosure, I've only seen through Discovery season 2 and Picard season 1) : did Kirk's friends visit his grave and what did it take to recover the saucer section. It's pretty obvious to me, with the lore of the Federation, that they'd want to do their best to remove all trace of their presence from a world which one day would be explored by its developing system inhabitants. It does not show (and this was not pertinent to its theme) the recovery of Kirk's body. To keep the Prime Directive, the Federation would have to do that as well, lest a developing culture have even a remote chance of discovering a grave alien to their species. Maybe I just need another cup o' joe to get the little gray cells working, but I'm not understanding the transition from Spock to Spock. What is the purpose for the latter one, which appears to be younger? It seems this isn't their only short film. I'll have to view whatever else they have. One wonders if there might come a day when a officially-recognized hobby group like this can buy licensed use of a Respeecher voice of Nimoy for use in such a video, much like one can acquire rights to music for YouTube videos.

As a humble desktop tech, seeing no Vista thrills me. There's still some common sense left in the world.

I've not read anyone else's comments, so apologies if anything I say has been beaten to death previously. I have 2 villains and 1 anti-hero out of over 50 characters. So I'm playing redside maybe 5% of the time at most. I've done a lot of solo work redside but I don't find it as enjoyable as teaming. I'll play redside if a there's an event called out that interests me, but much of the redside doesn't appeal to me. It's not so much the villainy, I think, as the look. It's designed to look dark and seedy, mostly. I also hate how dark the Arachnos base instances are. It's not just this game, but I'm finding that any game I love that is overly dark tends to eventually turn me off. It affects my real world mood. It's the reason I stopped playing Lord of the Rings Online. The portrayal of growing darkness the closer one comes to Mordor just really ended up depressing me in real life. Back with CoV, it also seems puzzling: why would a supposedly world-class villain put up with dark and seedy? Wouldn't you want the rewards of your villainy? Glitz and glamor? Even the casino seems gone to seed. Yeah, I get that Arachnos' favorite colors are black and red, and they'll not paint the base in dulcet Easter egg pastel colors, but perhaps more radiant jewel tones? I'm also one who having a real-world good sense of direction, surprisingly gets easily confused by a maze casually referred to as a city layout. So Mercy Island makes a terribly place to start. The atmosphere/weather, of course is the same problem. I've mentioned this before: even if everything built by sentients is black, gray, and red, why is the sky that way? It should be like it is every place else on earth: a variety of gloomy days to sunny days, and, with the islands in the Atlantic somewhere between Rhode Island and Bermuda, I'd expect the weather to be leaning toward sunnier. Now if there's an island with an ancient evil that darkens the specific zone, like Dark Astoria has happening to it, then that would make sense in context. I don't really have anything negative to say about the missions, but they also don't really stand out to me either. My feelings are more on the positive side of "meh". I would note that there's not a lot of choice in how one plays their villain, at least not that I've seen. I'd love to have a character that's more likely to set up another for a fall rather than wholesale slaughter, insidious vs extreme violence, but that's not really possible with the design of this game. Blueside, we end up joking about "arresting with extreme prejudice" for the violence we must unleash. Redside could actually be a way to explore unique mission play-throughs and outcomes, not just "go there, kill that, rob this, take hostage". I'm not sure I could list out all the things that might make me play redside more, but an increase in the number of SFs would help. Especially SFs that can be done in under an hour, or be fractioned out, like the Positron TFs. Real Life has changed over 15+ years, and there are more demands on my time than there used to be. A new island to explore might be of interest as well. There were indications back when CoV was released that they had plans to reveal more islands in the archipelago, and if it brings the possibilities more in line with Paragon zones, I'm for it. Change: weather, external appearances where sunnier weather is placed. More color and fresh appearance especially in areas/buildings that are supposed to reflect wealth and status. Brighten the instanced Arachnos bases (or make it a toggle with Null the Gull)

I quoted Sir Myshkin for a succinct summary of what several of you have indicated so far. Notification by "zzz" as a request for aid. Honestly, I'd not even thought of that, and you're right, I probably stopped thinking of that back in the Original Game. Personally, when I think of "zzz" nowadays, it's with consideration to letting the team know that they're down a member for the moment. This mind-think goes back to the OG, where it was possible to be in a big fight and have several team members get mezzed at once. It would let the others know that a potential wipe situation was developing. useful for those fighting in first perspective who might not have seen the effect take hold of teammates. Additionally, a tank could use it to alert the team that he/she/small-furry-creature-from-Alpha-Centauri would not be able to maintain aggro.

Huh. Curious. I was sure he was trying to design a new Projectile Vomiting powerset but died of dehydration before it could be perfected.