BrandX

Originally Posted by Johnny_Butane

Here's another question:

Why should we be forced* to take a power that is more or less made obsolete by the power we actually want just to get that power we want?


*Yes, you have the option to Grant Ivis. Setting aside arguments about the GI's merit, it's still a power pick wasted on a power you may not even want and will never use. That's wasteful and a stupid, un-fun choice to make players decide on the lesser of two evils.

IMO the prerequisites on pool powers are unneeded and are just an annoying restriction that doesn't add any fun to building a character. They should be removed on ALL pools and the only restrictions be the number of separate pools you can dip into and the level you can take the powers.


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Originally Posted by SlickRiptide

I was sort of half-pondering this question while I was getting lunch. An answer popped unbidden out of my sub-conscious that seemed completely appropriate but that probably shows my age. heh.

If you took the Tarot Card Aura from the origin pack and modified it into a Zener Card Aura, that would shout "Psychic", IMO, without actually saying anything limiting about the origin. Zener cards are the symbol cards that were all the rage for doing ESP experiments several decades ago. They look like this:



I think I'm going to have to figure out whether Jay's thread or one of David's art threads is the more appropriate place and register a suggestion.

Originally Posted by SlickRiptide

Well, just to reiterate, since I sort of half-derailed the train myself - My primary beef with swan and costumes like hers in the context of this thread is that it doesn't say anything substantial about the character or her story.

If we look past the scantily-clad side of things, and just examine the costume bits, we end up with the name "Swan", the ersatz wings (which I do, in fact, think is a pretty nifty costume bit) and the hairstyle with the feathers in it, which is her other signature costume bit.

Basically, the whole things says "I am a beautiful, graceful, poetic bird and I don't mind showing that to the entire world."

Which, again, tells me something about her self-image but doesn't REALLY tell me anything about HER. It certainly doesn't say "I'm a psychic who will fry your brain/control your thoughts/telekinetically toss you around/cast a magic spell to render you immobile" or whatever it is that she actually does. I'm not sure that she even flies, which is the one thing I would expect her to do given the costume.

If there's something to take away from this dicussion, in the context of David's OP, it's that nifty costume bits aren't necessarily enough to define a character all by themselves. At least not if your goal is to "tell that character's story" as opposed to simply represent a genre of costumes, which I've already intimated is what I believe Swan actually represents.

Originally Posted by Eva Destruction

I also guarantee you that that caveman liked big butts and he could not lie. So where are these big butts, if we're just acting out biological imperatives by shoving large-chested virtual women into skimpy outfits?



I've said it before and I'll say it again, to anyone who thinks that "comics do it so this game should do it too" I only have two words for you: Rob Leifeld.

Originally Posted by Forbin_Project

Don't need Swinging cuz it looks stupid when there's nothing to swing from as anyone that played that other game knows so I hope the devs maintain the standards of quality and resist the urge to add that power.

Originally Posted by Dr Harmony

I've been playing the reverse, an Electric Melee/Fire Armor scrapper.
Its not a durable build, despite Fighting and IO bonuses, and probably not suitable for AV's, but its packs ridiculous amounts of area damage, and has been a blast to play through 8 person missions with.

Its also quite a rare combination, I've yet to meet another one.

Originally Posted by Amy_Amp

Because a Crimson Spider comic won't sell nearly as well as a Spider-man one will.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Sorry for the shotgun replies



This something I find to be a BIG failing of the game's theme, and is something sort of inherent in MMOs in general - everyone always stands around doing nothing. I get that technical limitations mean we can't expect our contacts to move around, OK, I get that. But can't we put them in more appropriate places just the same? Take, for instance, Efficiency Expert Pyther - why is he standing on a terrace with a Bane Spider welding ten feet from him? How is it efficient to conduct your business outdoors and away from all forms of communication? Wouldn't it make sense for him to be inside an office? Or how about Peter Thermai? He even talks about "his office," so why is he never in said office? Harvey Maylor runs a newspaper, so where is his Jay Jonah Jameson's office?

Or how about the fat afro white boy in Independence Port. He's supposed to be a weapons dealer and manufacturer, so why isn't he in a machine shop, or a lab? He's standing in front of a warehouse, supposedly housing weapons, so why couldn't he be INSIDE it? Or how about Dr. Steven "Science" Sheridan? What the blue balls is he doing next to a hazard zone checkpoint, back up against a fence next to the hospital? He's not a medical doctor. Wouldn't he have a lab set up where he works IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE? And why is Crimson standing under a giant statue's crotch? How did he get out to that little island outcrop without getting that ridiculously obvious red suit of his wet? Shouldn't we be meeting on a park bench or in a crowded restaurant or somewhere a little less conspicuous? That damn red suit alone on that little island within line of sight of the ferry is like a lighthouse in the night.

I would honestly love to see most contacts move either indoors in their own places of business or dwelling, or otherwise moved to places that make sense.

Originally Posted by The_Demon_Hunter

^^ All of this ^^

Seriously and with all due respect, I know that the current art team sees things that they would have designed differently if they had done it, but we're at a point where the game now has a history and a legacy for long-time players.

Look at what DC is going through online right now as they prepare to overhaul the looks of their characters with their planned September relaunch/retcon/reboot/non-reboot (depending on the title and who you talk to) because of how much they're changing some characters from their known looks. Superman in blue jeans and a t-shirt in flashbacks isn't exactly winning hearts and minds of long-time fans on the internet. Neither is the "armored" look he's going to have for modern stories.

And be careful who you approach about Harley Quinn's new look.

It's a case of fixing things that aren't really broken. Updating costumes would have worked, but there are a lot of people think that DC went too far into the 90s Image design vault for the changes.

In a lot of ways, that's what many people here are going to be concerned about. I think that's where people were at with the CoT stuff we saw. At this point, the looks of all these groups are established for the people who have been here a while. Why change it any of it so much? Update it. Make it higher-res. Streamline it if needed. But drastic changes to existing NPCs and factions? Probably not a good idea.

So yeah... at this point it would take far less time to tell you the ones that don't have the right feel, and to be honest, there aren't many of them IMO.

Originally Posted by Nericus

List I wrote of all the links I can remember from the Marvel movies for the Avengers:

1. Iron Man 1: we get a glimpse of a half built Captain America shield in Tony’s lab, bonus scene after the credits introduces Nick Fury

2. Hulk 2008: deleted scene on blu-ray has Hulk smashing a glacier in the arctic and you can see Captain America in the ice, however this is a deleted scene and does not fit with the Captain America movie. General Ross however reveals that they have the super soldier serum in cold storage due to the project being mothballed. The serum container had Dr. Erskine’s name on it and it sure looked like the serum used in the Captain America movie. So it is possible that Steve’s blood samples after the project helped them to recreate the serum or a near copy of it, however Blonsky wasn’t given the vita rays and possibly not even the correct dosage of the serum hence why he went crazy and wanted more and more and more power and more fights. We also see that some of the weapons like the sonic tanks came from Stark.

3. Iron Man 2: we learn that Howard Stark helped found SHIELD and that perhaps he isn’t the bad person that Tony thinks. We see an unfinished Captain America shield in the case with Howard’s name on it (also I think there was a Captain America comics #1 in it). Tony finishes his father’s work and creates the new element (allegedly called Synthetic vibranium) that his father couldn’t. Bonus scene after the credits: the hammer of THOR in a crater.

4. THOR: Dr. Jane Foster’s mentor talks about SHIELD and how he knew a brilliant scientist that was pioneering gamma ray research until SHIELD got ahold of him and he hasn’t been seen since. Clearly that was Bruce Banner. When the Destroyer arrives one SHIELD agent asks if that was something Stark built. Bonus scene after the credits: Nick Fury opens the case to reveal the tesseract/cosmic cube.

5. Captain America: the red skull finds the tesseract and states it was the jewel of odin’s vault and then he mentions the legend of Ygdrassil the World Tree as he finds the tesseract/Cosmic Cube. Red Skull is convinced that the cube is from the gods and harnesses its power to an extent to power his new weapons. (disintegrator guns also known as death rays back then). Steve Rogers becomes the first and only successful test subject of the super soldier serum as Dr Erskine is killed and the last known vial of the serum was smashed. Steve then has blood samples taken in an attempt to recreate the serum as Dr Erskine knew the formula but never wrote it all down so the secret was lost with him. We see serum in 2008 Hulk so apparently they did recreate the serum or else a close copy of it but without the vita-rays that Steve Rogers received the serum wont work properly. Steve obtains some of the Skull’s special ammo and Howard analyzes it with explosive results…..this study may be what leads him to start working on the arc reactor and his attempts to make synthetic vibranium but he was hampered by the tech of his era, which also fits with the fact that the tech of the era could barely handle generating enough vita rays to finish the super soldier process on Steve Rogers. Howard Stark builds assorted shields and costume for Cap, but Cap settles for the vibranium disc shield that Stark built. Howard apparently was working on other shields as we see some unfinished shields in Iron Man 1 and 2. Howard’s search drone at the end finds the tesseract/cube but the search for Cap fails. Nick Fury greets Cap and tells him how long Cap was asleep in the ice.

Originally Posted by That_Ninja

Because this is the Ultimate universe, where big changes are fine. Hell, they killed off half of the universe and revealed that all mutants are not the evolution of humans, but just experiments like the super soldier program.

Originally Posted by Siolfir

It'd be nice if the Placate magnitude was high enough to affect EBs - it works like any other mez, albeit one not affected by PToD, and it's only mag 4. Assuming you've got sufficient DPS to eventually wear them down, it can be easier to survive against an AV than the downgraded EB version, just because you can actually use Placate. Then again, if you just pop a lot of reds and hit the damage cap, you can tear through EB hit points fast enough that it often doesn't become an issue.

On top of the magnitude issue, while most debuffs that Stalker primaries have are ignored and don't remove the Placate from the affected mob, some cause it to "break".

Originally Posted by Forbin_Project

/unsigned

I'd much rather they stop listing the prestige earned altogether. The days when it actually meant something haven't existed for years. All it does now is encourage elitism and snobbery.

Originally Posted by Blackdragon1686

THIS. I hate swan's look. To this day I'm unsure what her powers are... I think I recall in the game she's some sort of light blaster, but in the comics she was more like a controller. As well, it doesn't convey her story or anything else.

Edit - Hopped over to paragonwiki... she's a mind/kin troller. Again... nothing about her costume suggests that... and her origins are fairly vague to start with.

Originally Posted by GreenFIame

I just think people don't no how to play them, they not like most Melee toons, Hide comes in Handy is also a key part of playing them, Also Assassin's Strike and Placate. There survivability is good and if no one believe me, then stop playing this game you Noob. They can stay alive much more better then any Scrapper and other melee toon. Again you just need tp no how to play them, ask people and get some advice on builds and other Techniques.

Originally Posted by Wicked_Wendy

Add in the fact that beginng with Issue 21 anyone can start any of the non-epic ATs in the new combined tutorial zone and based on the result of a sort of morality mission they either leave a villain or a hero. And as long as they have a 20 level on the red and blue side..they can start all 14 ATs there. So it will soon be possible to start a Warshade in tutorial and wind up a villain at zone 2. So it becomes even more unfair that a BRUTE that leaves the tutorial at level 2 and heads to Atlas park can just automatically start picking epic powers at 41 but a BRUTE that becomes a villian has to run an arc from a Patron to get access to those powers.

It just makes sense to do away with the special arc and let them simple start picking powers at 41. I do like your idea... Lets say that Heroic Brute wants thepatron powers rather than the ones assigned an heroic one then run a special mission and earn them and visa versa.. much better than running a whole arc for them.