Golden Girl

I'd probably go with another inherent power in the Fitness pool, so you could slot it with new strength enhancements for lifiting bigger things, as well as for damage and accuracy - which would also let people respec it into their existing avatars without needing to remake them, and fit in well theme-wise with the existing 4 Fitness powers - but there could be a problem with Super Strength, as that would kinda have to have the ability to lift and throw as a default setting, unless they remade and renamed that power set to remove the more obvious strength parts of it - keeping the powers similar - renaming the set something like "Brawling" or "Power Brawling" would free up the "strength" power title for the new Fitness slot.

Not to most people

I'm not sure they'd need to totally swap it out - it'd all depend on what exactly they wanted to do with any new engine, and if it could be done as an add-on/recoding of the current one.

For example, one of the most requested features that the curent engine cant's handle is to be able to pick up objects and throw them - but would that need a totally new engine, or could it be done with a major upgrade to the one we have now?

Computers can never, ever be living creatures - they'll always just be tools for humans to use, upgrade or throw away as required.
A machine can never have emotions or original thoughts - they'll always be souless devices, even the novelty ones made for the sci-fi freak market.

That's good - I like the comic the way it is, and Statesman still makes a little in-game cameo at the exit area at the end of the tutorial, so any new players should still be generally aware of him, which will give the first SSA a bigger impact if/when they decide to unlock it.

A lot

Well, we are, comapred to computers dressed up in rubber masks

In other words, "never" - a machine is still a a machine, no matter how fancy the software is

Or what?

Well, it did tank, and Jack must understand that

Going by the last thread where he explained his "theory", it's probably better if he doesn't

I could support that kind of team

It could be another expansion - War Witch and Hero 1 have also been very quiet - and the last time that happened, they were world building on Praetorian Earth

Because it needs a massive increase in required content and developer time and resources to support more than one game-wide reality.
Meta-story events are a plot points that shape the entire game world for every single player - fora good example, look at Galaxy City.
Even if players skip the tutorial ro start in Praetoria, Galaxy City is still destroyed - that's the default status for the zone in the meta-story - there's no option to play in a reality where it didn't happen, because that would require to much extra work to support it.
If the destruction of Galaxy City was optional, then they'd need another co-op tutorial zone - and then they'd need to phase out all the refugees in Atlas Park - and then they'd need to create new low level arcs to replace the current ones, which all revolve around the fall of Galaxy City - then they'd need to create an alternative version of Twinshot's 3 arcs to avoid the impact the fall of Galaxy City has on their storyline - and then we get content where the Battalion arrives - but there'd have to be 2 versions, to cover for the fact that Galaxy City mightn't have been destroyed by their Shivan scouts.

And the same goes for Statesman - the next time Ms. Liberty appears in some content, is she affected by his death, or is she carrying on as normal because he's still alive?
Is Positron now the leader of the Freedom Phalanx, or is Statesman still leading them?
The next time we encounter Recluse, is he still plotting the downfall of his former best friend, or has Statesman's death changed him in any way?
If Hero 1 is cured, is he happy to see the man he planned the world saving Alpha and Omega Gambit with again, or is he sad that he never got the chance to meet Statesman again before his death?
Is the friction between Manticore and Statesman growing worse because Statesman is still putting some blame on him for his part in the death of his daughter, or has the death of Statesman changed Manticore's vigilante outlook?
Does the death of Statesman affect Prometheus' plans and the Well of the Furies, or is it business as usual, because he's still alive?

The meta-story advances quite slowly, but when it does advance, it must have a game-wide effect - there have to be certain basic truths about the game world that form a solid base for the developers to continue to advance the meta-story.

Here are some more meta-story events:

The Council defeats the 5th Column.
Recluse starts Operation: Destiny.
Rebuilding starts in Faultline.
The Rikti invade for a 2nd time.
The Vanguard becomes a major world organization.
The Menders of Ouroboros arrive.
Sister Psyche and Manticore get married.
A time portal is opened to Cimerora.
The Midnight Squad starts looking for new recruits.
The 5th Column returns.
Tyrant launches his invasion of Primal Earth.
The Well of the Furies "wakes up".
Prometheus shows up at the Ouroboros Citadel.
Galaxy City is destroyed by Shivan meteorites.

None of these are optional, because each one has advanced the world storyline in some way, and later content has followed up on them, because all the story arcs, TFs, Trials and other content need to be based on a single game-wide reality.

The game needs more witchery - and warlockery too, I guess

You mean the episodes just before the whole studio headed off for the holidays, and just after the whole studio came back from the holidays?

Second Measure said that they've got stuff planned as far ahead as I28 - but that was last summer, so they might be up to basic planning for I30 by now

That's not a meta-story event - it's a problem that comes up and then gets fixed, returning the game world to its normal state - like the Arachnos invasion of Atlas Park, or the spirit world problems in Croatoa - experiencing them or not experiencing them doesn't change the game world.

Because the meta-story needs a single reality - Statesman can't be dead or not dead depending on if you ran certain bit of content or not - just like there's no option for Galaxy City to survive, or for the the 5th Column not to return.
The meta-story needs game-wide events to stay coherent, not optional outcomes.

That's an....interesting take on the game - totally insane, but still interesting

Actually, it makes huge difference - we're getting power sets and costume parts way faster than ever before - the development cost of that increase has to be covered - we're still getting regular free Issues with free powsets, zones, story arcs and QoL changes - what we're paying extra for are the extra releases between Isuses.

It's to list all the backstory for different groups and people - that doesn't mean that it can't be tweaked or rewritten as the game evolves.
It's also useful for them to cross-reference it with paragonwiki so that they can see exactly what they've told the players about each group and individual.
A good example of this is Praetoria - while the basic elements of the Praetorian lore were pretty much unchanged in GR, the details are almost certainly totally new - like I'm pretty certain that the original Praetorian info in the lore bible didn't mention anything about the Hamidon.
But because we'd been given so few details about Praetorian Earth, the devs had a lot of scope to add new ideas without changing the basic set-up.

Well, that thing's certianly ugly, but it looks more like a monster than a human - so the thread title should really be "Our Subhumans are Ugly"