Kitsune9tails

Can we get a "Beast Claws" option? Yes.
Will we get a "Beast Claws" option? Yes.
Will we get it within the next 12 months? Probably not.

Each new generation should have a new generation of heroes.

I don't think that you need to reboot every 10 years, but you should keep the 'flagship heroes' to their roots while allowing them to live in the world that is around them and remain relevent. In addition, when times change, you should create new heroes that symbolize the beleifs and struggles of those times, and deliberately compare and contrast them to the old school heroes.

For instance, the Death of Superman arc.

It's no Kingdom Come or Watchmen, but it examined what Superman really is...his morals? (Steel) His powers? (Eradicator) and even poked fun at the reboot idea with Superboy/Superman. It then reintroduced the character at a more beleivable power level, but the core character remained the same...a Kansas Farm Boy with enough power to change the world, and enough ethics NOT to.

The Broken Bat storyline was similar. It looked at what Batman was and what he was supposed to be through Azrael and Robin and Nightwing, gave the grim and gritty times a grim and gritty surrogate that they thoroughly deconstructed, then gave us good old Batman back.

And I have nothing but good things to say about the Byrne and Simone runs on Wonder Woman.

IMHO, every few years they should introduce new characters that symbolize issues that were not in the headlines a few years ago, and give them their run in comparison to the flagship characters.

Let the best man/woman/whatever win.

[QUOTE=Grae Knight;3973281]How does it create that perception?? [QUOTE]

You'd have to ask the newbs (not meant as an epithet) that question. I just see the results in-game: lots of level 25-35 players asking where 'the next raid' or 'the next trial' is.

Whereupon they are told by various people that there are no more until level 50, and that you have to be VIP for those.

The reply to that is usually silence.

You know what DfB is?

It's Superadine.

Sadly, just turning off DfB xp/kicking people out at level 8 solves one problem but creates another.

Problems I have directly observed with DfBabies:

- No idea how to communicate or what to communicate about. They still only have access to Help and Local. So they can ask in Help, where their question can get 'drowned out' (or replied to with a Tell that they don't know how to respond to). Or they ask in Local, where no one knows the answer because they are also all DfBabies.

- They don't know how to get to high level areas, so they stand around in Mercy, where their choices are another DfB or grey street mobs or Contacts they don't know how to find, who if they find them, will direct them to zones they don't know how to find. Asking about this in Help gets them laughed at, of course.

- No travel power; they haven't needed one. Now getting to the next mission is sloooow. "Air Superiority is a travel power, right?" And when they get there, the xps are slooow. And the Boss is tough, because...

- Pool Powers: Lots of DfBabies ignore taking more attacks or shields because they don't need them and can't use them. They take Leadership or other powers that sound cool because why not, having no idea when a situation is when they will be useful.

- No Inspirations: Sure, they have them, but have never used them. They won't even have the tray up, so they won't use them when needed. They have no idea that a heal is just sitting there waiting for them, let alone something that has a subtle effect like accuracy or defense.

- No Enhancements: No idea what to do even if you direct them to the enhancement screen, let alone that these are loot drops, that they can use some and not others, that they are more powerful than Gear in other games. That they can be bought or sold. That they wear out.

- Cannot get teams. Because everyone else is DfB-ing, because

...so you step out of fun, fast, Death from Below into this wierd, noisy yet silent world where you can't find teammates, Bosses are tougher than the Arch Villains you just fought, there is no loot, getting anywhere is slow, and there are buildings and chasms between you and your next 'quest' where you will be told you are too high level and sent to someone else you can't find.

...

Twinshot and Doctor Graves do not help with this.

You level past them, and even if you don't, they don't teach you how to get teams and their intro missions are almost devoid of xp. At least they do teach you that there are such things as glowies you sometimes need to find and to read dialogue.

...

Here is my suggestion:

During the Tutorial, you need to be given a choice before zoning into Atlas/Mercy; go to Twinshot/Doctor Graves for training in how to use your powers, move around the world, etc or go to DfB for training in Raiding.

When you hit EXIT to exit DfB, you should be given the choice of training missions again.

Even better would be a choice that directed you to a series of demos/cut scenes that directly showed you how to use the UI, explained about travel powers, Enhancements, stores, the Market, etc. But that will take time.

...

SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE

Naturally anything that is done will create lots of angry players who will ragequit the game (most of whom are free or preem so the bean counters won't notice, but it is still bad for the game).

The current situation is no way to retain Freems, let alone get them to VIP up.

As it is, they are going to DfB to 50, then go charging headlong Leeroy style into the first Raid they can find because they can LFG up for it. And this is without a clue as to Ouroboros, the Alpha Slot, etc which they can't get because they are still Freem aaaaghh ra54gequit.

Here are my problems with DfB:

There is no compelling reason for players to play other content. I love the story, I would play for the story alone. But to a new player, when you go from DfB to any other content, your xp goes to a crawl. Merits don't make up for it.

This leads to players playing the same mission over and over. DfB is fun, but eventually the fun tanks, and then what? Slower, less lucrative missions that have a 'story' that you have missed most of.

This will cause freebies to leave the game rather than VIP up. And that is a problem.

If things like DfB are going to be the core content of the game, then fine; we need more variety stat. If they are not, then we either need to up the rewards for whatever the core game experience is (Monty Haul) or nerf DfB.

IMHO: DfB should not award xp if your base level is too high, whatever that is (I would think 8; otherwise you level completely past King's Row).

The fact that there is a 'logical' explanation for something does not make the 'logical' explanation automatically true.

If we were/are going to put together an actual proposal for the Devs, I'd like to suggest that any solution change at least 3 powers. That way, any balancing doesn't 'miss' everyone who chose to skip that particular power.

So I would think that we would want to propose minor numbers changes to the first two powers (the must takes) and the Rename/Mechanical buff turning Build Up into some sort of Berserker mode.

The main question at this point I would think is how much (5 seconds, 10 seconds 20 seconds) of a Burst advantage Broadsword should have over Katana, and against what rank (minions, lieutenants, boss+) targets.

What I am taking away from all this is:

If you are leading a trial, and do not positively know that every person in the league knows what to do because they have done it successfully before, multiple times, in your personal presence...

...explain everything as if everyone had their hand up saying, "I have never done this before" because there is someone in the league who has not done it and has no clue and is afraid to say it.

You should only relent in boring the vets with these instructions (and really, they can just tab out to minesweeper or whatever) if everyone on the league swears to you "I know I know let's get on with it already".

...is that a fair assessment?

I myself am brand new to Trials, despite being a 7 year vet here.

I have no problems with BS being buffed.

I also have no problems with it being the weakest Scrapper primary.

If it is made exactly as good as the second weakest set, doesn't that still leave it the weakest set?

You can see where the logic goes from there: straight into Power Creep, unless the true aim is to make all sets exactly equal by some metric, in case we should state that metric up front so that all proposals can address that.

Indeed. I am going to organize a team of four global friends specifically to explore that place and click on everything.

OP, you are fine. Cast ye in the name of Incarnates, ye not guilty. And all that.

I am not sure an Ant-Man movie can work.

I have an idea, but it is essentially a high budget 50s-style horror movie and a bit dark (essentially, Ant-Man versus Swarm) compared to the rest of the successful Marvel movies.

I do think, however, that a Wasp movie with Hank Pym as a major character (essentially the co-lead)would be great.

A bright young lab assistant, the rich daughter of the labs' major financier, is attracted to the brilliant and heroic but essentially mad (to the point of Multiple Disassociative Personality Disorder) Head of Research at a lab rivalling Stark Industries.

The first part of the movie plays like a murder mystery/love story: top researchers are being killed and their work stolen. It's clear Hank is both a suspect and a potential target. Janet wants to marry him, but he nobly refuses; he realizes he has problems. This is where the movie makes a gentle point about how women should deal with potentially abusive relationships (besides just running far, far away): Janet draws some very clear lines in the sand and sticks to them. She loves him, but is clearly ready to walk away if she has to. Hank is considering medication, but afraid of what that will do to his genius.

Swarm is the Big Bad (again). An aged Nazi scientist that Hank plays chess with (when he isn't playing with Magneto), he helps Hank with his experiments in cybernetic animal communication. He also steals the data on a previous experiment in transferring spider DNA to a human.

In one of Hank's bouts of madness, he is startled out of a suicidal rant by Janet ingesting a dose of the DNA stuff that has been prepared with Wasp DNA. She gets some headaches, wristaches and backaches but is otherwise fine: the DNA bonds happily with her own, but the amount is so dilute it doesn't DO anything (as the lab assistant, she knew the dose was too small to be toxic, and also knew that Hank didn't know that).

When Janet learns of Swarm's plans to become immortal by transferring his consciousness into a swarm of bees (and using the DNA transfer process to make humans subservient hosts as well) he traps her in an supercollider during an experiment intended to discover new particles. She ends up shrunk (and naked; got to have some 'nude-but-too-small-to see-anything/peekaboo Fanservice).

At insect size, she realizes she has antennae, stingers (that shoot out of her wrists like little toxic crossbow bolts) and wings. You get some mild body horror and humor here "You turned me into a fairy!"

He manages to figure how to reverse the shrinking, and shrinks/unshrinks himself to prove to Janet it works.

Swarm dies, but has managed to transfer his consciousness already.

Janet is fitted with a costume made of Unstable Molecules and has a montage of various costumes.

Swarm still needs the DNA stuff to be able to control humans, however, so he attacks the lab to get it, (after attacking other nearby hives to add them to his colony in some cool CGI scenes that scare local humans) leading to some cool 'scientists versus bugs/barricading the lab' scenes.

Janet has some cool scenes learning to use her powers, and heroically saves a number of coworkers. Ultimately, she destroys the DNA serum, making herself his only viable target, and leads him out into the desert for a final confrontation she clearly cannot win.

Cue a giant-sized Hank stomping on a man-sized Swarm.

Giant Hank nearly goes on a nearly Hulk-like rampage/power trip when confronted by the military vehicles that have shown up to investigate the shenanigans at the lab. After a short Giant Man vs Wasp "fight" scene, she talks him down and gets him to agree to get some therapy, and they kiss.

Roll credits.

Obligatory cameo by the Avengers, showing up late to the 'stomp Giant Man' party.

Cut to black.

Well done!

...but probably isn't since I just made it up...

DR. PYM: Mister Stark, it's too dangerous. You shouldn't go yourself; just let JARVIS run the suit. You know he can do it.
STARK: What, and miss all the fun? Besides, JARVIS isn't a 'he'. He's an 'it'. He may be a better conversationalist than, say, you are, but he's not really sentient. Nobody can make a sentient machine yet.
PYM: (mostly to himself) I'm sure there's a way.
STARK: (claps Pym on the shoulder) Well, Buddy, you ever figure out how to make a machine that has fun, gets mad, and chases women, you let me know. I'll make you a rich man.
PYM: You'll be the first to know, sir.