Chyll

This is incredibly true, and I've been saying this to my in game friends forever.

I believe one of the most underdeveloped portions of the game is animations. Power customization opened so much creativity with characters, and the start of animation customizations promised even more... And it never happened.

I get that it has to be challenging, technically, to choreograph the timing and position of multiple animations to support the same power, but the payoff would be immense.

And that isn't just for blast sets. No power set should be limited by it's animations. It is the effects of the power that matter, not the tool.

<rambling, chants, incense, visions, and fantasies>




Say, you choose one of the blast sets - will that use one of the standard 2-3 hand firing animations? Or......

• Magician? How about one of the couple different Wand Animations (weapon customization follows that)
• Or, maybe wand isn't your style - here are staff options...
• Or, perhaps a book in one hand while the other crafts shimmering runes (a la demon summoning)
• Ah, a scientists are you? Perhaps this hand device (more weapon customization), or forearm panel, or
• Maybe holographic panels and buttons hovering around you...
• Mutant, or robot? maybe your body channels the energy - so an aura flares around you and then fires out (picturing the robot from Thor)

... the list could go on, and on, and on, and on...

Actually, blades or sword options could be available for none melee classes - as a magical focus for blasts or buffs (more customization options). It is the effects of the power that matter, not the tool.

And... frankly the whole AR, BR, Arch, DP tied to weapons is pretty silly. Any Blast set should be able to choose a weapon as its animation set. Any mutant, or wizard should be able to use BR effects from their hand, chest, third eye, or Wand of Emission. It is the effects of the power that matter, not the tool.

And the same applies to melee defense sets. Shields? Any defense set should have it as an option. It is limiting to have it any other way. It is the effects of the choice that matter, not the tool.

The punch sets? Sure keep some signature visuals for some differentiation (if that is really important), but build an array of punches and kicks and let any punch set have access. No rational reason the SS who loves that elbow strike from StJ can't have a chance to show a more gritty style.

You could have an origin based crafting system - mutiple birds with one stone there: the time/inf sink that some people desire, application of origins to game that others have asked to see, and variability in animations throughout the game.

Or, the painfully obvious,... sell animation sets like hotcakes off the market.

</rambling. collapses>

*mumbles* The power matters, not the tool.

Thank you. I missed it.

Another option is that they are two groups, and Merle could be in the one that is/was in Randall's...

Or, he is comes in through another route (though I suspect this is less likely)...

It will be fun to see.

Given the already announced casting of the Governor, that last bit is right out the window.

I have expected to see him in and around the Governor's crew, however.

We may disagree, fundamentally, on this point. The story only ever needs to be what the author wants to to be... But, you are right that while the author need not pander to entertain, it is beholden on the author to keep the story engaging if he wants to keep an audience.

Oh, believe me. It is not 'cute'... at all...
(My personal sub-title is "No One Gets to Be Happy".)
((edit: while not at that level... the movie The Road, comes to mind, as a comparison.))

Related to this, I think the TV producers have stumbled some in this post-Lost world of TV with some of the changes in pacing and plot line introduction (CDC/Jenner & Sophia as the prime examples). It feels like they may be getting it back in order with what I have seen the last 4 episodes.



And, as an aside, it occurred to me that TV Andrea is going to be particularly upset about Shane coming right on the heels of Dale like that...

Yes, and no. My point was that your questions and issues with understanding zombies are valid, and that of the... thousands?... left alive many of them probably have dealt with the issues and available information as you have suggested. Not every single group of survivors would have experienced the same things, heard the same rumors and stories, etc. etc. This is realistic and acceptable to me...

...In no small part because this provides an aid for the progression of the story that supports:

Exactly.

True enough, but that does not invalidate the premise of the situation as presented. The interest of the audience fall subservient to the interest of the author telling his story.


If the show is presented as a mystery of the conditions of being lost and needing to get home, then, yes, knowing about the island and how they got there and their options to get home are critical to telling that story.

But I - personal opinion - do not think this story is about the how/why of zombies. It happened. It is done. This is the new world and they have to make their way in it. They are a month or so in (at a guesstimate) and are starting to learn 'the rules' for long term survival - some learned the hard way and others will be 'taught' them by other survivors with different perspectives and experiences. I have read far enough into the comic to reach that conclusion, and have seen no signs that the author intends differently: that is, AFAIK, this is just the story of Carl and Rick in zombieland.

(Granted, the show may move things in a different direction.)

This has not been my point. And I apologize if I have failed to communicate beyond this inaccurate interpretation.

And this is a semi-"ah ha!' moment.

This story is not about zombies. At all.

Frankly, I don't care.
Yes, it is reasonable to think that.

Is it reasonable to assume that everyone heard every rumor? Or that there were louder or more distracting rumors - it's just a disease, it wears off, it is a stunt, there is a vaccine, hallucinagen in the water (the list could be pretty long)? Or how many people listened to the official line? Or that things fell apart quickly enough that communication of fact and rumor collapsed before word got out?

The dead were walking. The Dead were WALKING!! You have enough gibbering fear to break most people. Worrying about the how, why, or when would go right out the window.

Of the list of niggling annoyances, this isn't even near the top for me. And I'd say it seems that the characters maybe are starting to come out of their state of shock and can start to approach things as rationally as seemingly expected before now.

See zombie, kill zombie. They know what they need. And I think that anything else the average joe wouldn't think twice about.

It is completely realistic that there would be a range of experiences and knowledge that people would have. Some would "know everything". Others wouldn't, for a variety of reasons.

I accept that this group of characters falls into a group that does not know much, yet, and the writers clearly are sharing their learning process with us.

That makes sense, and is probably a far better interpretation... it just hadn't been been what jumped into my mind (as it were ) at the time.

A whole new line of thinking for me.

I had actually been thinking those flashes were in Rick's head, and the stress of killing Shane had him thinking about walkers and their threat - perhaps thinking about Shane turning, etc.

And therein is our difference in perspective. I think my, and others', posts have answered that question more than adequately for my Story-Logical Detector 2000(TM) to register a rating of "Acceptable".

As I recall, one of the basic premises is that the concept/genre of zombie apoc doesn't exist in the 'reality' of the story. Hence, no one really knows what to call them, knows any of the sub-culture memes, or has any previous basis of opinion or idea on the topic beyond what the last 4-6 weeks taught them.

In additional, these are 'average janes/joes', for the most part, who never gave an iota of brain processing to how to survive a world ending situation, or that 'whatever bad is happening' was actually 'the end of everything we knew' until it had ended. They got through on luck and are now developing the mindset/skills you seem to assume they took into the events with them at the start.

Of course, I agree completely that these things happened. And someone would have figured it out. That doesn't mean it happened, or was made clear, or broke through the general stunned 'what the heck is happening?!' filters of every individual group of survivors.

It is perfectly acceptable/logical that this group may be one of the ones 'slow on the uptake', as it were.

On that I agree completely, and do not understand why he
a) didn't believe it, so kept it to himself or
b) believed and and kept it to himself or
c) kept to himself whatever else it may have been that Jenner told him


Emotional shock? No, there clearly wasn't any of that going on.

Maybe... but that ignores the issue of who survived and who didn't in suchsituations (given the variability of time until rising), we do not know what the mass media communication may have been on this topic (remember that the last any of these survivors heard was to gather at Atlanta and that was clearly quite out of date), and the common perception getting totally overwhelmed with images of the dead eating ppl.

Suffice to say our conclusions differ completely.

Maybe, or the comic just got it out of the way early because it wasn't really fundamental to the story. The new format and plot structure offered another plot development opportunity.

I beg to differ, good, sir. Your statement is clearly erroneous, and it's misleading nature is unfathomable to those of a more refined taste and social standing.

I don't know... they are presenting a presumption on the part of the characters that there 'must be a bite somewhere' or 'maybe a scratch'. There is an assumption, given credence by a lack of empirical study (what, stop to inspect the walkers chasing them or the one just laid out?), that the condition is only transferred via infected walkers.

And frankly, I think this is hardly a stretch at all. The time at the farm is the first things have been relatively calm and stationary. Not running for their lives has actually provided them the opportunity to stop and look and think. Neither do I have any sense that they have been exposed to much death other than when zombies have been around until now to make that comparison.

Haven't you learned that only GG gets to be right about anything.

Well, that is a far different question than asked.

Still recommend a start with [Possess], regardless, as no aggro generated.

Thanks. I wished I could do that as soon as Zwill posted earlier.
As I said, I was fighting at the time, and only caught the last half of the post. That was the origin of my ire and disappointment. It was based on incorrect information and I apologized accordingly.

Cool. I feel mildy special now.

I'll take your word for it.

But in 4+ years, this is the first time I remember hearing of this begged request.

Really, I hope ppl enjoy it. I don't get it. I probably never will (the similar effect with the new Christmas item (whose name I already forget) could not even keep me entertained enough to earn both badges). And the price point seems far too high. (ridiculously)

My seemingly mis-reading Zwill (or failing to read everything) just brought out my curmudgeon. (Again. He seems to be out a lot lately - the curmudgeon, not Zwill... not that Zwill hasn't been out, or couldn't be... or won't be, 'cause he could. Probably will. Just perhaps not with my curmudgeon)