Lothic

I suppose if you were completely new to the Peacebringer concept that the name of the power "Light Form" might confuse you into thinking it was a completely separate shapechanged form just like Nova/Dwarf. At least that seems to be the mistake that might have been made here. *shrugs*

To be honest over the years I've found that between Light Form and the other various human-form PB shield toggles that Dwarf Form is almost redundant, especially as a level 50 incarnate. But before level 50 I suppose it can still be useful.

Yeah and the fact that movie only earned about -half- of its estimated budget means that the ONLY people who probably saw it were the comic book hyper-geeks. Obviously there aren't really enough of those to go around...

I actually liked Scott Pilgrim myself - but clearly it was a movie that no "average civilian" went to see and because it did so poorly at the box office I suspect the "lesson" the studios learned was that they'll never do something like narrowly focusing a movie like that again.

I know there probably isn't an overwhelming number of people who care about these costume powers but I'm glad the Devs are continuing to offer these in the Paragon Market.

Many of us have very little opportunity to attend the cross-country "meet and greets" where these codes often make their first exclusive appearance. I'm usually willing to spend a few points on them (directly to NCsoft) after other lucky people get the chance to have these for free for a while.

Well it did just occur to me we did get something almost like this suggestion for males in the Barbarian costume set:



Too bad that didn't get ported to females...

Fair enough. Still one does have to wonder (no pun intended) why such a basic superhero-ish item like this has been left out of the game thus far.

I'd love something like this but I strongly suspect they don't want to give us a costume item that would make making outfits like this:



any easier in this game.

I consider it a standing challenge for any "book" based movie (comic or otherwise) to be a good enough movie on its own that a person coming in off the street can sit down and enjoy it without knowing the "details" that the book's enthusiast might know. We both know that a major motion picture studio will probably never make a comic book movie that ONLY comic book hyper-geeks would understand/enjoy.

To be honest if this new Judge Dredd movie turns out to be a genuinely good movie regardless if it strictly follows the source material or not I'll probably be satisfied with it. I've done my best over the years to not let comic book movies "upset" me like that anymore.

It turns out that the Devs rarely if ever completely "delete" costume items from the source code. Yes they have made many items "unavailable" in the game, but the code behind these things linger to this day because it's usually safer to just leave them abandoned in place maintenance-wise.

As to why the Devs often chose to "replace" items instead of just adding new versions of old items I think they get stuck into the mindset that "players want new things" without realizing that we mostly just want "more" things, not just new things. Sometimes it might just be easier from an implementation point of view to replace stuff instead of adding new stuff. For whatever reason it can be very annoying.

These are both very valid concerns.

But again I'll point out that a software app (i.e. this MMO) can only be patched or updated for so long before it finally becomes more cost and time efficient to effectively "start over" with some sweeping global revamps. I suspect that the longer this game survives the more likely some kind of massive overhual/upgrade will be necessary to not only keep it competitive but to facilitate its continued operation and maintenance.

As for the ever constant reality that some people are playing this game on "lower end machines" I agree that the Devs need to remain mindful of that. On the other hand what constitutes a "low end machine" is always advancing as time goes on as well. While it's reasonable that this game remain workable on say a 5 year old PC, it's going to be much less reasonable for this game to be shackled to working on a PC that was brand new in 2004. The threshold of what should be considered "minimum requirements" should always evolve upward as time goes on. Case in point sooner or later what we call "Ultra mode" today will eventually be the baseline lowest common denominator and the code/graphics need to evolve with that eventuality.

People used to say the same things about power customization, capes, wings, animated tails, and so on...

I'm not assuming that fully updated character models and/or costume items will happen instantaneously. But if I've learned anything from my 8+ years of playing this game it's that it's not really worth assuming that these things will -never- happen either.

The Devs of this game are going to have to come to grips with some major fundamental realities that will have to be dealt with. Ironically it's the very long term success of this game that's forcing people to consider the possibility that it's starting to look "dated" or "out of step" with its competition. I still love this game and hope to be playing it for years to come but even I'm going to wondering/worrying more and more about it looking well over a decade older than most every other game like it.

The Devs (like Dink) have done a great job keeping the Old Girl going, but minor, piecemeal patching/updating will only go so far before sweeping changes will be needed to keep the game viable into the future.

Yep I'd have to agree that all of these movies had a certain degree of "Meh" about them. Not sure all of them would make my top 10 "bummer" list but they would definitely all be on my top 50 list.

I suppose we could indirectly thank him for the "dark matter" aura in this game too.

As far as I know Mids is up-to-date for I23. I don't think they've changed things yet to account for all the I24 changes.

With that said given the amount of time I24 has been on the beta server already I would estimate (given the long history of how these things work) that I24 will probably be live before October 1st, or at least before this year's Halloween event. So I guess it really depends on whether you want to wait a few more weeks or not.

For what it's worth I think it's kinda cool that Karl Urban is doing this. He's clearly a good actor and even though he's played hard-line sci-fi action parts before for some reason the idea of the guy now playing Dr. McCoy being bad-a$$ is geek-tastically ironic.

Thanks - I had hoped to convey both the good and bad about it.

It's definitely one of the most specialized playstyle mechanics in the game. It's not meant to be a "scrapper-lock max-DPS button masher" that'll let you simplemindedly kill everything without thinking. More than most other styles it really requires character builds which are completely dedicated towards making it work. You almost have to play a -END character more like you would a Controller/Dominator with a unique kind of MEZ ability.

I suppose one could argue that its hyper-situational nature is a major disadvantage. I'd be the first to tell you that characters specialized in -END are probably never going to be great farmers or top DPS producers. But if you want something unique that plays differently than most other AT/powersets then it's certainly a viable option. You basically don't need to have massive DEF, RES or even DPS output when that big, nasty AV you're attacking has had his END floored and is just standing there waiting for you to finish him off.

Nope - can't really accept a blanket conclusion like that in this case.

Admittedly it's clear that the overall "mitigation advantage" of -END can be harder to benefit from on a case by case basis. Because of its highly binary nature (in that you have to drain a target down to "zero END" to see significant mitigation) there are oftentimes only a few fleeting moments during the course of combat where you've managed to drain a target of all END -before- you've killed it outright.

In my experience with a Ele/Ele Blaster I've come to accept that the -END mitigation specifically helps in situations where I'm soloing boss-level (or higher) critters. Basically minions and lieutenants die long before -END does anything noticeable to them and in most teaming situations the team tends to collectively kill things before the -END plays a useful role.

It's hard for me to agree that the -END mitigation tactic is universally "broken", but it is definitely a highly situational tactic that only really shines in relatively limited situations. Not only is it situational, but it usually takes a fully dedicated build to make it as fully workable as possible. You can't just have one or two sources of -END and hope to see it make a major difference. You have to design your build with as many -END and -Recovery options as possible. It's an "all or nothing" thing.

You have to be willing to accept the various disadvantages of -END and frankly many people either end up not liking the playstyle or don't want to do what it takes to make it work. On the other hand it is cool when it does work, and as a "soft MEZ" it's probably one of the best control mechanisms in the game as long as you keep a given critter's END floored.

Sounds like he/she just wants a mainly Human-form only PB build with Dwarf tacked on as sort of a "shapechange vanity" power without any of the Dwarf powers slotted up.

Seems like a bit of a waste to me if that's the case but a generic Human-form only PB could probably waste a single power choice on something like that without too much setback. Still if I just wanted Dwarf form to "show off" I'd probably make a special "not intended for real combat" build for that.

Well it's not technically a "bad" idea. But it's one that probably wouldn't beneficial enough to enough people to make it worthwhile for the Devs. There are plenty of cool QoL things I want but I know full well I'd probably be just about the only player who'd use them so I resign myself to knowing they'll never happen. *shrugs*

Yeah I like the idea for the powerset but it would need a better name. When I saw the "litter" word used I imagined that this would be the powerset Catgirls would use.

Maybe something like "Pollution Affinity" or "Nature Disharmony" would work.

Yes I was aware of the "Kheldians can have Air Superiority in I24" change and I have seriously considered it. As I implied my single-form PB already heavily relies on Incandescent Strike and Radiant Strike as key damage-dealing powers.

I may eventually fall back to a build with Air Superiority but I want to at least "experiment" with the new Synergy concept and all the buffs you get when you have all the Fighting pool powers together. That and the new Cross-Cut power may prove to be a worthwhile alternative to Air Superiority alone.

Just in 2010 you say? Please...

I'm no comic book historian but I'd have to assume that in the multi-decades long history of Superman and Wonder Woman that they've "gotten together" in various storylines dozens of times. It's the most obvious superhero pairing imaginable. If you were to ask anyone "What two superheroes would mostly likely be a couple?" I'd bet even a four-year old could guess these two together in a heartbeat. They are like the Brad and Angelina of the comic book world...

Let's just say that learning about this "latest" plot twist in comic book land was hardly a shock in the least.