Grey Pilgrim

Probably much more simple to implement, but maybe not. Would be a much more easy for players to use, though... I do like that idea. Makes me wonder why Castle didn't do it when designing this... or whoever from powers did it.

Okay, the idea is possible to be interesting, though admittedly fantasy and kind of campy. The movie is just... terrible. Nostalgia Critic ripped it pretty well, though I'm amazed he didn't point out the thing I thought was hilariously bad in the original: how "musicians just aren't valued in our world." Seriously? That made me laugh out loud when I saw most of the movie on TV. Groupies do entirely stupid things for bands they love, and scads of people want to learn to play an instrument. Musicians are hardly lacking in value in our society.

Father XMas, changing things like genders or other slight things in a Shakespeare play is part of what has kept those plays around for so long: that movie wasn't the first to do it, either. The Globe Theater did a version of The Tempest with Vanessa Redgrave in the early 2000s, and I doubt that was the first production to play with the idea.

Who knows what you could call Ran. It's basically the Lear plot in feudal Japan, so it's somewhere between a production of the play and an homage of some sort. Shakespeare's plays are, after all, plays, and any play can be quite different depending on who is playing each character, who is producing it, etc. I think plays are kind of in a class all of their own, because of that. Movie remakes will generally have different scripts they are working from, as well as any play or movie based on a book. I know that plays can be edited a little differently, but not as much as the other stuff I mentioned.

I'm guessing someone did not set up those mobs appropriately: the ability is clearly there, from Longbow's behavior (and Vanguard, I think).

Of course, Kheldian special mobs have been an issue for a long while. Cysts should never spawn except when part of a specific mission: the storylines with them clearly show that they're not common and should not just be showing up randomly. I'd say voids are in the same boat, but I can appreciate the opposite argument.

At any rate, the special mobs are a good idea that have never been supported well by the game tech, unfortunately.

I still don't think even six seconds would be out of line for the crit chance. Especially with how laggy things can get in game at times, a little more leeway would be nice, and hardly overpowered, either.

Rather than the Burn treatment, it would be far better if it just cast on enemies in a certain area... that would be somewhat similar to Flamethrower, but different effects (even like Burn being cast on the mobs) could work. I suppose it would still be interesting for a fear effect to be cast on the mobs affected, but maybe not.

No matter what, a patch of any sort is not conducive or reflective of the Blaster playstyle. Blasters should move and don't have too much in the way of mass immobilizes, etc., either, which makes it harder for them to leverage Ignite like they should. Hence my thinking it should move beyond any "Burn" treatment, though the single rush of bigger damage would be more helpful than the long DoT we currently I have.

I think I'd rather keep the current damage than have a lower recharge and damage for those. It's not impossible to get the recharge needed to bring the two close to a ghetto attack chain, especially if you sprinkle Buckshot or other attacks in there. Lower damage means they're going to be doing less damage, even though you have the two attacks up not a whole lot faster overall.

I dunno, though... I'm not thinking right at the moment: are the different recharge attacks balanced out for DPS no matter what, or does the recharge thing make a difference? I'll think about it later when I'm not so tired, heh.

Yeah... hate people like that. I feel bad sitting there or at Starbucks reading or grading for a few hours with just one drink, and they don't get anything.

I do like the sampling you can do while there... checked out a few books that way, though mostly only when they didn't have the book in stock in the store. My wife and I are mostly reserving nook books (either purchased or ones that are past copyright and you can get free online now) for books we aren't sure of, or for light reads. If we know we like the book, it's in physical form, probably.

I find them quite fun and usually play them whenever bringing a character through the 20s... so... your mileage may vary? I find their stories to be decent enough and also a good challenge.

Ouch, dude. Talk about painting with a broad brush. Let me know where you live and I'm sure I could come up with just as many harsh generalities, fyi.

Back to the topic at hand, I would say that the new movie or approach to the source material has to reflect the main themes and ideas of the original. I'd quibble if the LOTR movies did this entirely, but they're close enough that I'm okay with them (same thing for the Potter movies). The better comic book movies do this as well.

It gets kind of tricky, because would you call The Thirteenth Warrior or the book it was based on a retcon, or an homage to Beowulf? There, you're still going for some kind of feel of the original, but not as much.

Heck, I would still say that Ten Things I Hate About You is one of the better "Shakespeare" movies I've seen (and teen comedies, for that matter), even though it's more of an homage to Taming of the Shrew than a Shakespeare movie. Rotten Tomatoes called it one, though.

You do have to throw out some ideas of reality when it comes to a game. You can throw punches faster than most sets let you as well, but that doesn't have anything to do with game balance: most punches in this game are fairly quick for the game, other than the big TF/Thunderstrike style ones. So your statement about "pulling the trigger" doesn't really mean anything for how the game actually works.

Looking at the numbers, I don't see Burst and Slug being out of sync with damage or recharge for other sets' T1 and T2 attacks. As far as I remember, those were all fairly well normalized for all the T1 and T2 attacks.

Another thing is that Assault Rifle is more slanted to AOE than ST damage, which is one of the characteristics of the set. I usually treat Buckshot as an ST attack with AOE benefits, and haven't had any particular issues with dropping single targets with my AR blaster. I would say AR benefits from pairing with sets that can boost its ST damage, but it still works okay as a set.

What does that even mean... that they don't do enough DPS? That Blaster need their damage mods adjusted, or just those powers?

Well, you can DL whatever you want for the Nook at a Barnes and Noble, but I can't remember how their wifi internet works now... if it's something you have to pay for, or if it's free at this point. Either one means you could DL whatever you want, as long as you pass the requirements for accessing their internet.

It really depends on the book, and your preferences. Most of the e-textbooks I have seen are maybe $40-$50 cheaper than a $140 textbook... which might be worth it to some. I don't really see that as a savings or worth it, for a harder to use tool for studying. When you combine that with how much you spend to take a class... I'd rather study easier than save $50 on a book.

I think the tech will get to the point where publishers can make a page look the same on multiple readers (and maybe they'll come up with some kind of standardization form... though I doubt that's coming soon), and help out with the cognitive mapping issue, taking notes, flipping back and forth, etc. But we're not there yet, and I'm guessing costs will still be fairly high for textbooks.

They are, actually... e-textbooks are pretty much as expensive as actual textbooks, and renting them is ridiculously costly as well. Supposedly the costs of textbooks are so high because of their size and smaller print runs, but you don't see much changeup when you go to the electronic format.

I know there is some need to maintain profits, even in an electronic version, so I can understand how prices are somewhat close to paperbacks. But the textbook setup is also messed up.

Interesting article on how e-Readers aren't helpful for a lot of students here. I think the cognitive mapping issue is part of why I detest reading books on e-readers... and the computer, for that matter (I have read many stories on websites). I just have less of a connection to the electronic format than the content on a page. I understand that some people like electronic formats, but I know it's also not really for me, if I'm reading for fun.

I also think we're in a big state of flux with media and electronics, and how they will be distributed, so I'm not super keen on leaping in... even though my wife likes reading books on our Nook.

Assuming the tradeoff is more content to play through, and maybe more proliferation, I'm okay with that. As it is, it's going to take a long time to get the four new powers on all the characters I like to play. I'd rather more content to unlock those powers (and future ones) too.

For the article... I don't really find the level 30-50 stretch too long... the issue is more the lack of new content stuff to do in there. More stuff like Sutter and Mortimer Kal would be nice, that's for sure. Kind of the sad thing about levels below 30 is that you race through it so fast and don't hit all the good content in those levels. XP smoothing sure seemed to even it out nicely for me, so I'm rather surprised they're still looking at the issue, in honesty.

While I can appreciate the math, I'm more in the category of $500-$600 every five years, with maybe a little upgrading to memory and 3d cards in between (I may do this in a year or two for the system I've had 2-3 years now... hopefully will let me dial up Ultra mode a little more). Hence my saying that it's a tidy bit of money.

Now if only I could make tons of money with my writing, or my wife could get a higher paying job... then I might be able to go more expensive. Of course, we need to get a digital SLR camera, and those things are $500-$600 as well. Ouch.

Chad, what other computer games do you play? If you're in to shooters or even something like the new Shogun: Total War 2, you should easily go beyond CoH's requirements. I'm a little worried about what SWTOR is going to require, but hopefully it won't be too hefty.

I wish processor and 3d Card makers would find a way to streamline all their info more... quite a mouthful there to read through, and even know what it means.

That's quite the money you're dropping there, Vanum. Don't think I've ever been able to sink that much into a system in one go at all.

Cool, hope it happens and my account is live then.

It's something of a question on the major networks. Even Fox can't seem to handle these shows well. *sighs* We'll see how it goes, and if this is different enough to warrant viewing.

I did see the pilot for the Tim Allen show, and it MIGHT be okay, depending on how they go from the pilot. The start of it was rough, and I didn't care for one of the daughters on the show, but the rest was amusing enough. It does have a &*^% My Dad Would Say vibe, but I found it more amusing than the few episodes I saw of that show. I wouldn't put it up there with Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother, but it was better than some of the junk that started up this year.

I'll see about Grimm... seems a little similar to a lot of stuff out there right now. I'm watching Buffy right now with my wife, so I might just be burnt out on this whole approach right now. Or that there's that one movie coming out with a detective that does the same kind of thing as this show... and this guy looks a lot like Brandon Routh, too (can't remember the movie name right now).

I also really wish they did not put this in Portland, too. Way too Stephanie Meyerish for that. Blech.

Yup... I can understand wanting a better grade, but students seem to inevitably ask about improving their grade when the semester is over and done: not when, you know, they could actually work with you to improve their grade. I don't think they realize this translates to "even though you have about 100 other students, can you make an exception for me even though my work didn't earn it, pretty please?"

I'm more than happy to help a student with their work during the semester, but after is just... ugh. So far, I have one student asking where she went wrong on her final paper, which earned a B. And a student frustrated that he didn't ever get full points on homework assignments over the semester. Even though he never, ever talked to me about it DURING the semester.

*sighs* If only they would ask for help when they could actually benefit from it.