Olantern
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Posts
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Joined
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There are a lot of arcs I like, but here are some I like for emotional reasons. I believe all the following have been mentioned already:
"O Wretched Man." I particuarly like Wretch's speech (in a clue) at the end. There's a pretty nice video of this story floating around out there someplace, by the way.
"The Red and the Black" combined with "The Horror of War." Sefu's ultimate fate always affects me. Even my villains end up liking him. Aside from being emotionally engaging, "The Red and the Black" is also notable for having a great title and for being one of the few hero vs. hero stories I've ever seen that makes sense (if you're playing it with a hero).
The conclusion of the Praetorian Responsibility branch, if you choose the Loyalist ending (the Resistance ending falls kinda flat for me).
Overall winner: "The Terra Conspiracy." While the gameplay is, to put it politely, not the most exciting, I really like the story here. This arc is one of the major reasons I consider Hamidon the most evil of all our NPC villains, a guy so obsessed with his own agenda that he literally erased his girlfriend's identity so that she could be a mere extension of him. I did a Kid Eros story about this called "Echo and Narcissus" a while back, but the computer that held all the screenshots died, and I never got them all moved over when I replaced it, so it has gone unpublished all these years. For that reason, I consider Hamidon's Praetorian retconning into a mere appurtenance to Tyrant (which also managed to garble the timeline of "Terra Conspiracy") one of the great errors of the Going Rogue era. -
I'd rather they didn't change them, but I don't think it's some kind of world-ending mess if they were to do so. Cripes, is there ANYTHING people don't consider an outrage? We're talking about some goofy throwaway characters, for heaven's sake. But now I realize that Making A Point is more important than that. (I forget, after all, I'm writing of the people who think City of If You're Not Part Of The Solution, You're Part Of The Problem, Sheep! (aka Praetoria) is a wonderful story.)
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This wins the prize for ugliest flying vehicle ever, and possibly the one for ugliest vehicle, period, ever.
Yeah, it's probably only a matter of time before Batman gets one, "Because my dark quest for justice requires me to drive something ugly." -
Personally, I'm expecting my subscription (i.e., VIP status) to enable me to keep what I've already got, plus whatever's listed on the "overview" page, and that's it. I wouldn't say that's "worthless," but I do think I'll be expected to pay for any other new content. I have little faith that these "Being Subscribed Merits" (what I've taken to calling the points and rewards and whatnot) will enable me to keep up with anything near what will be released, not because I think a tremendous number of purchasable services or goods will be released, but because if it were not so, there would be no financial reason for the game to change from a subscription to a microtransaction model. Unless prices are MUCH lower than I expect, of course the net cost to me will be higher. How else could this change in business model possibly be expected to increase revenue?
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Quote:I strongly agree. While I understand the part of the idea of the game's design is that "you can't see it all on a single character," the fact remains that you can see all the 30+ content on a single character, while there's so much to do in the 20's that it makes the teens look like a "content desert," even after the addition of Praetoria.Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim
Also, can you please, please, please stop adding content to the level 20 range? That range has more content than the level 30-40 stretch at this point, and much of it is the newest in the game (and what isn't new can be pretty decent). I guess you are adding this in to continue the story from level 20 in Praetoria, but it still makes little sense with where other game content is. The level 30-40 range could really use some new stuff, and some level 40+ material would not go amiss either.
Please, please, please add something to the 30's or 40's the next time you feel the need for new arcs or zones. -
In the interest of adding nothing whatsoever to this discussion, I'd just like to say that my genie who was ordered by his master to fight crime (and was my first character, too) has a name that I intentionally wanted to make sound Silver Age-y. So there.
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I rather like that as a redesign of Superman's outfit (aside from the "s" looking a little clumsy).
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Quote:Thanks.Originally Posted by Flarstux
If Wikipedia can be trusted, two more after Dance: The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.
Cripes, another ten to fifteen years? I can barely keep everything straight as it is ... -
Okay, I didn't read the entire thread, but how many more books of this thing are there going to be after A Dance with Dragons (supposedly coming in July)? I was under the impression that that one was going to wrap up the series, but now that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm not sure I can sustain interest in this thing if it's just another Wheel of Time (author dies before series wraps up) or Aubrey-Maturin (author gets really tired and falls off in quality as series nears end) thing in the making.
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A combination I enjoy that plays rather differently from its AT brethren is the sonic/devices blaster. This combination is so control-heavy that it hardly ever gets attacked, let alone defeated, and while its damage doesn't equal that of a blaster with a more modern secondary, the damage is still nothing to sneeze at.
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Quote:I may have to make a density-controlling character called "Lord Dord" now.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Just to illustrate, I give you dord
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Quote:Same.Originally Posted by Tenzhi
I've always felt like an old man, but I've always enjoyed various "kids" movies, too.
In my 20's, I went out with more than one woman (also in their 20's) who said, "You know, you seem really old." This was always quickly followed by an embarassed look and something to the effect of, "Um, but not in a bad way."
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Quote:For me, the test of whether something is good is whether, even if I've guessed that stuff early on, I'm still interested enough to want to see/read the rest. A case in point is one of my favorite books, Elizabeth Redfern's The Music of the Spheres. I figured out the murderer and the murderer's motive on the second page, but the book was so entertaining that I read through to see the characters and how it was revealed.Originally Posted by White Hot Flash
I'd rather have this than a movie where you've guessed what happened and who did it 10 minutes into it.
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On the subject of this thread, some movies seem to get more exposure in some places than in others. For instance, I saw a preview of Adjustment Bureau with every single movie I went to for the nine months preceding its release. My parents, who go to many more movies than I do but have a different chain of theatres in their town, apparently didn't see a single preview for it.
I have nothing to say about Super 8, except that I, too, think of the hotel chain when I see the title. -
The words "comic book lifestyle" creep me out, and I'm someone who likes comics. I expect this'll be yet another "look at what trainwrecks these people are" show. I can hardly fault the network for doing that to geekdom, though. All reality shows have more or less that same premise, regardless of their milieu. I never knew there were so many flat-out irritating people on earth until the reality TV boom.
Personally, I can't imagine why anyone would care about a reality show set in some guy's comic store. When I read the thread title, I thought, "Coming soon: a reality show set in O'lantern's kitchen!" Yes, soon, we will all be on reality shows.
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Saw it. Enjoyed it. My favorite parts were the White Queen's '60's hair and the "mod" hotel room Magneto used in Geneva.
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I did pay for an Incarnate booster pack already. It was called "Going Rogue."
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I've been considering writing an all-new arc, but I doubt I'd have anything ready in the timeframe you're looking for.
For now, "Urban Renewal," arc #255713, is a remake of the i0 "Stop the Nemesis Macro Assemblers" mission into a multi-mission arc. It includes standard Nemesis as well as a bunch of "new" Nemesis troop types. Everything has a bio, and there are plenty of clues and dialogue. I've recently updated the costumes to use pieces from the new pack, too. For those with particular interest in steampunk as such, pay particular attention to the Mohocks and the character names in the final mission.
Two warnings: first, this is a fairly challenging arc and meant to be so. Yes, there's a story, but I really created it as a challenge to myself to make a difficult arc without using AV's or overwhelming power settings on the enemies. (I was hampered in doing the latter by the fact that I did the first version before custom power settings were available. I think I've taken out all the odd, overpowering things like Build-up in the last few passes, but if I've missed something, please let me know.) You will find some fairly unusual mechanics here, ranging from chained objectives to invisible patrols to enemies that heal or buff one another to the danger of Nemesis vengeance-stacking in mixed groups of standard and custom enemies. Watch out when facing the Macro Assemblers themselves on a large team without control; as the original story implies, they can turn into an army fast if you're not careful.
Second, I've occasionally had issues with objectives not spawning properly on the final mission, though I haven't had this problem for about six months now. Ideally, I'd be able to use mayhem/safeguard-style on-map pointers to direct you from one objective to another here, but that isn't an option. For now, be aware that you may have to hunt around to find objectives that are spawned by completing other objectives. If you play this mission and an objective doesn't spawn, please send feedback identifying the objective.
I'm currently doing my first revision of the arc content in over a year. Over this week, I'll probably be adding more "decorative" objectives with the arc space added since then, like additional dialogue from patrols or an optional clue or two, as well as tweaking powers on the new enemies I added over the weekend. I welcome any feedback that isn't "don't use Nemesis because he's unrealistic" or "you shouldn't use ambushes and custom enemies." Thanks. -
This thread made me want coffee.
And a new chair. -
Neat.
I think we may have determined the original source of those flying doves in John Woo Gun-Fu. -
He might be vulnerable to a suit of armor made out of comic book editors.
(I originally meant that simply to do a riff on the snark we regularly see for the comic industry around here, but then I got to thinking ... Picture this armor. Ew.) -
Quote:The second half of Astro City's "The Dark Age" story (for which I've been waiting for three fricking years now) will now be replaced with ten pages of Batman giving a speech about how Killing Is Always Wrong and "no one else can understand his dark, painful quest."Originally Posted by Unknown_User
More news, Wildstorm universe characters maybe intergrated into the DC Universe reboot.
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Quote:Yes. It's built into the Victorian Steampunk jackets in the same way the vest is built into Baron-with-Vest from the Magic Pack, except that the ascot is not colorable (primary color colors the jacket, secondary color colors the vest underneath, leaving nothing to color the ascot or the faint, goldish trim of the jacket.Originally Posted by Agonus
Now as I understand, the ascot "piece" in question is the permanent part of the jackets?
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Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to beta testing of this pack, so here's my feedback now:
Objective feedback:
1) Speaking of the jackets, I want to provide a bit more detail about what I see as a bug with the sleeves. The issue is that, like most of the pieces in this pack, the jackets and sleeves each have what I'll call "masks" that give them a particular finish or tint. The problem isn't so much the existence of these masks as that the masks for the jackets don't match the masks for their corresponding sleeves.
For the best example, consider the Classic Steampunk jacket and the Classic Steampunk sleeves. The "vest" is metallic, but the shirt under it has a vaguely white "sheen" to it that makes it look like a Goretex-like material. The sleeves have a similar mask, but the white sheen is much more intense than that of the jacket. This not only makes the sleeves have a different "finish" from the "shirt" in the jacket portion of the costume; the stronger color tint in the mask means that the sleeves cannot be made to match the jacket. I've only been able to get the colors to match using white and the very lightest greys. Even then, the sleeves are noticeably shinier than the "shirt" because of the difference in "masks."
To see the problem more clearly, try making the "shirt" and sleeves both a dark color. The colors AND finish will differ wildly. Even using the desaturated colors in the far right column of the color palette, the sleeves and jacket appear noticeably different colors, with very vivid whitish highlights on the sleeves and little or none on the "shirt" of the jacket.
This problem also exists for the other jacket/sleeve pairings in this pack, though I've been able to get sleeves and jacket to look very close on the Victorian Steampunk jackets by adjusting the colors of each separately.
2) The backplate Wonderful Wind-up Wings is visibily separated from the character's back even on unadjusted physique settings.
Subjective feedback:
1) Versions of some of these items without the intensely-colored "masks," such as a version of the Beaten Brass Backpack without the brown "brass" tint, would be nice to have.
2) Alternate versions of several costume pieces, in which the primary and secondary colors adjusted different aspects of the pieces that are now fixed in color (such as hair on Hats, ascots on Jackets, and buttons on Gloves and Boots) would be appreciated. For an example of how this could be made to work without requiring a third color tint for each piece, consider the various coloring options for the Warrior With Pad boots from the Martial Arts pack, which simply apply the primary and secondary colors to different parts of the same boot when selected. (Note to players reading this: Yes, this would mean you'd have to have your hat and hatband or your gloves and buckles the same color in order to be able to tint your hair or buttons, but I, personally, wouldn't mind.) -
Quote:I love this one. Crab Spider outfits that have a strong theme that isn't "Arachnos" or "Dark Lord of Dark Darkness" are some of my favorites, partly because they're rare, hard to do well with the tinted colors of the pack, and, I'd guess, hard to think up for most people.Originally Posted by Rock_Crag
Also, photo-op with Black Scorpion in Pocket D during the Beta Test. I think my Longbow costume annoyed him because he vanished a few seconds later.
If I could get an image-hosting site to behave for me, I'd post my Ouroboros Mender Crab Spider outfit. -
Obviously I haven't seen it yet. I don't really understand the nerdrage about this movie at this point, though, based on the previews, I do have one minor criticism: the hair and costumes don't look very early '60's to me.
I still might go to see it, and I rarely go to see things in the theatre any more. -
Quote:I can't really think of anything throne-like offhand that a low-level character could enter; the closest possibility that came to mind that hasn't already been mentioned is the Midnighter Club, which appears to be out of the Test character's level range.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I'm looking for something I can do on the cheap, which generally means without involving other people. The character in question is on Test and hasn't the resources to make a base, plus I'm not really sure what to do with it to make it look less like... Well, a square cave. The base editor is just needlessly cumbersome to use, too.
I'm mostly looking for something in the overworld that I can run to and take a picture, preferably villain-side (though hero-side is not out of the question) and let that be it. All things considered, I could pick something simple, like Villa Montose or hightown Mercy, but I was just wondering if there were a better spot.
If you're just looking for something to run to on the villainside that conveys power and authority, don't forget the possibility of turning on your Steam Jet and hopping up to the clock face on Mercy Island.