Techwright

I'd second this. As a seasoned player of both the original game and the homecoming variant, I'd recommend running such a trial using DFB teams (Death From Below) which are pretty constantly being recruited in Atlas Park, at least on Excelsior. I recently couldn't decide on a weapons character (which weapon, which archetype), built the 3 likeliest and ran them each through DFB a couple of times to get them to 15 (it's remarkably quick these days using DFB). By the end of it, I had a good understanding of each and could make my choice. As a blaster fan, I approve! 😁 Who cares what the Brute Squad thinks? 😜 That said, if you go that route for a first character, consider Energy/Energy as a training possibility. As I'm about to get a lot of grief for that comment, I'll note that the very thing people hate about Energy is the thing that can aid a solo player: a built-in knockback on all powers. Keep your opponents at bay. The Secondary power set is more melee in nature, and that also aids in dealing with those who get too close during soloing. You can always get the conversion enhancements (knockback changed to knockdown) if you choose to do a lot of team work, and you do have a second build available to your character (see it at the trainers) which would allow you to swap between a solo build and a team-oriented build of your design. I'd also suggest checking out the sentinel archetype. Ranged attack somewhat less than blaster, but with survivability approaching some of the melee classes. Sentinel is a polarizing archetype, I'll note that up front. Some hate them, but many show up in teams, so there's definitely an interest there.

Just finished getting the badge for the Ghost Ship. I seem to recall a discussion on the forums not long back that noted the Ghost Ship was boring. After dealing with 50 ghosts for the umpteenth time, I have to agree. Perhaps its the recent storm characters that have me thinking, but didn't the ship go down in a violent storm? Fix the boredom by introducing chaos. Have storm powers, water powers, even ice powers and dark powers appearing randomly around both the ship and its ghost crew attacking heroes and scattering NPCs. Not necessarily every power in each of these power sets, but definitely ones that can harm or impede heroes from taking out the ghosts. If the ship appears in the day, darken the sky, or at least use the dark powers to darken the area around it's journey. They perished in the storm, make the storm a part of the haunting.

Had to look it up, as I never played it. I can see why, as it is not really in my range of interests. From what I saw of game clips on YouTube it looks like a cross between the crazy humor of the Evil Dead movies and the apocalyptic vehicle fights of the Mad Max movies, with a liberal dose of coulrophobia. I like Mackey, but I'm on the fence about seeing this. I'm pretty sure I can name at least a dozen games, both active and deceased, that I'd have thought would make the screen first.

I realized something today when running the weekly and getting hit with a surprising amount of sleeps and other entanglement: I wasn't notifying the team once I ran out of inspirations to overcome impeding effects. Then I realized it had been quite a while since I'd seen the "Held" or "Zzzz" notification from team members on an untold number of PUGs. I used to see it often, especially back in the original game. Assuming I'm correct and the practice has fallen out of use, why? I'm guessing it is not just a single reason. For me, personally, I don't usually encounter some form of impeding effect that I've not already countered in the build, and when several do happen it's just so unusual to run out of the needed inspirations. I keep a stock in my mailbox just in case more are needed. So when, like today, I exhaust both supplies, I've grown slack and it doesn't occur to me to warn the team that they're a man down for a bit. As a teammate, would you want a player to alert you when they have a crippling effect on them that they cannot quickly overcome? Or does it no longer matter?

It's an interesting thought, but how might that work with our five origins concept, specifically the Natural heroes? Anything beyond your definitions for Street Hero would seem to exclude the Natural origin. Full disclosure: although I have a few Natural heroes, I never really saw it as a viable origin. In comics, natural heroes eventually use tech, either a little or a lot, which means, to my way of thinking, they're automatically tech heroes. Maybe not Iron Man, but even the Green Hornet comes armed with a gas gun, a Stinger taser, and a tricked out ride. Despite my misgivings at this origin, I'm still interested to see how it would be interpreted in any hypothetically future work.

@Trike: the pictures on those first 2 of 3 postings didn't come through, unfortunately. Your third posting did, though. Different storage location?

12. Backup

Let me be clear, because perhaps my original wording was not. My comments were meant with an in-game view only. I deliberately posted the message about avoiding the real-world politics as I was attempting to have a little fun and NOT trying to drag real-world sentiment into this. I'm not truly offended by any of it. It is just a game. I was trying to look at it as might one of my characters. As such, I accept @cranebump's explanation: in the game there are unsettling viewpoints held and they have access to billboards. That there may be real-world comparisons was also not my point. I really was indeed curious about the first billboard though. I'm not clear why it sounded like visually-different Rikti hiding among humans.

Thoughts on @biostem's thoughts: Thoughts on @ThaOGDreamWeaver thoughts: Random observation from the episode:

Two billboards, two questions: 1.) Left billboard - what was the background story to this one? It feels like it's suggesting shapeshifters, but the only one I'm aware of was Protean. 2.) Why do we have this billboard? It's wrong on so many levels. I gather it's a reference to the Rikti War, but we've got a lot of aliens on the side of the planet, not the least of which are hero warshades and peacebringers. While I understand the "protect our homeworld" pitch, this one is just a vicious, unfocused attack, made worse by abusing a specific nation's patriotism and dragging it into a global pitch. Can we get a redo? (NOTE: none of this discussion reflects real-world politics. Please keep it that way. Well, I do think real Earth should be for humans, and dolphins, can't forget them, but still...)

That whole picture is an in-game billboard? I'm drawing a blank as to where it is. I recognize the icon logo, of course.

I don't see it often, but I personally appreciate the tank that can aggro those last couple, get them to follow him, then hit the next crowd. It's even better if the team realizes what the tank is doing and snuggles close to the tank to aid in that draw, rather than stand there like lunks slugging it out. It's rare though, as I said. And should the team be targeting through the tank or brute, it should be easier for the tank to gain that aggro. Admittedly that's become a rather antiquated mindset though. To be honest though, I also rarely see the tank-led attacks these days. Most PUGs of my acquaintance are the "everyman for himself" variety, and the tank often gets stuck in the middle somewhere. I find it is simply good form to stay in until the lead exits. Once they do, everyone should rush out. The player who feels they have to clean out the room at that point is well-intentioned, but holding up the team. That said, there's still a judgement call. If the lead is being obtuse about a point of obvious departure, chances are a couple will bolt the instance at that point anyway, and others will follow.

That is a remarkably impressive cast!

Which made me wonder if the OG devs had the other two in the code somewhere, or possibly could be recreated from what's available. Worst case scenario, if one could not be recreated, perhaps make that one the mission/task force assigner. Thanks but I'm not after information. The suggestion was for "Page" as in an update or expansion. Like "Issue 27, Page 6".

I did a search in this forum for the W.I.S.D.O.M. super group and saw nothing. So, either there's content under a search term I didn't use, or... A suggestion: Have at least one Page of future content focused around the Korean supergroup W.I.S.D.O.M.. This hopefully would bring the final two characters, Rose Star and Spark Blade into the game, and give all four content together. Bonus points if someone manages to pull off a good task force involving all 4 characters.

I was just reminded of another that I loved back in my youth. I've not seen it in 30 years, I think, so I'm not sure how it holds up today, but there's an early 80s action movie variously called ffolks, North Sea Hijack, or Assault Force. It stars Roger Moore, James Mason, Anthony Perkins, and Michael Parks. It was directed by Andrew V. McLagland, a director known for Hellfighters, Wild Geese, and a sizeable list of movies and TV episodes to his name, especially westerns. McLagland is son of Victor McLagland, who was part of John Ford's acting troop and often paired with John Wayne. Perkins plays the leader of a group that takes a trio of North Sea oil rigs hostage, and Mason is the admiral who recruits the highly eccentric but very skilled Moore to lead the charge to retake the rigs. While it leans towards a stock action film of its time, the movie stood out to me for Moore's performance as a lethal eccentric, and for using Perkins as the villain.

New poster! Welcome to the forums!

This is actually the first time I've seen a name for the child, though I don't follow new canon books and comics, so that may be the origin of it. I've known of no source stating that the kid will be back. The team that put together the Sequel Trilogy has a bad habit of deliberately writing in people and events with no context. It's apparently instruction passed along by JJ Abrams whom I'm told has a writing style like this, leaving the audience to fill in the gaps. In other words, it just wasn't something with a context to come later, it was very much a "make your own story" effect. I was told once that Abrams had a term for this writing technique, but I've forgotten it. This "technique" was one of the most despised elements of the Sequel Trilogy, leaving us with no context for characters that should be important like Sith Lord Snoke, the Knights of Ren, and Captain Phasma. The boy-with-the-broom is another such character, though in his case, I suspect his presence was to show that all efforts to corral and control the Force would ultimately fail. It simply is beyond the control of mortals. Having said all that, the announcement of the post-Sequels movie featuring Rey and the Skywalker Academy does seem to give opportunity for bringing broom boy back. I know that for some, speculation immediately went to her friend Finn, the ex-Stormtrooper, within whom, it was strongly hinted, dormant force powers exist. In light of the overwhelming fan displeasure at the Sequel Trilogy, it is heavily rumored that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were given a mandate to create backstory context for the characters and situations in that trilogy, which they seem to be doing via current Disney+ works. It's not a stretch therefore, to think that mandate might carry over into the new Rey movie to tie up this dangling thread.

I'm definitely down to see that then. I wonder what "Uncle Denis" is voicing? It would be crazy fun if in a romp like this, they got Denis and nephew Ewan McGregor to do scenes together.

There's a difference and the Shadow Council is where we get a confirmation:

Anything that develops an appreciation of gold side would be welcomed.

Just learned of Versy today, an A.I. that uses text to generate environments. The first thought I had upon seeing it was: I wonder if something like it could build the instances for a CoH 2.0? Procedural generation based off typed input, either keyed in advanced by the development team for specific storyline missions and task forces, or selected by players from a menu of word for on-the-fly generation of radio/paper missions and the A.E. creations. Here's the little blurb that clued me into it, along with a few graphics to aid the explanation. I've set the link to start at the Versy description:

I think one of my favorite animations is not from the primary powers. It's the ninja run. I use it with several characters, and it, combined with a slight jum.p can get a martial arts character to flip over several in a mob, then sweep their legs for a very satisfying display. That said, I don't like that it sticks one arm out regardless of whether there's a weapon or not. I'd rather have an option to sychronize both arms. For wish-fulling game design? An elastic attack set, revamping current animations when it fits. For example, for the set, retool the whirlwind power look to display around the character with extended spiraling arms. A "lash out" attack, could be a straight-lined energy power attack redrawn with an elastic arm and an enlarged fist.

That was more 1990s wasn't it? I started collecting in 1992 when Image Comics launched and the look was definitely a part of that launch.