Razawere

IIRC- When G left the 14 outside Mirkwood, he left to join the Council in the action at Dol Guldur.

He shows up outside Erebor after Sauron was "compelled" to vacate his hideout and return to home sweet home in Mordor.

As for my take on 3 from 2, is that I have trust that PJ knows what he is doing, though if I ever had time to spend w/ him, I would strongly inquire on the TT changes, specifically Faramir and the un-needed diversion to Osgiliath (!!???!?).

I would love to see bits of the backstory/forestory (post LOTR, contained in the appendix's). After all, Sam takes a boat west and both Gimli and Legolas also make it there building a boat together. Will these things be present? How about some of history of fall of great Numenor and founding of the Kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor--The Kinstrife?

Who knows what PJ will add to the narrative that we know as the Hobbit, but it will surely be interesting and at 48 fps- will look fantastic.

This is my take on ED.

Did PnP RPG for upteenzillion manhours, mostly as GM and campaign designer.

It was apparent from that perspective, even after the purple patch, that the entirety of the combat mechanic w/ the numbers seeded by "creative" slotting through the whole balance off it's axis.

The sheer and savage fire power unleashed from max SO's was beyond the pale.

Something needed to be done.

It was going to hurt and hurt it did.

But like ripping a bandaid stuck off the skin which takes some hair with it causing pain, it it better to pull it off in one quick tug then go the route of slow agony.

Someone got paid to make that decision to yank it hard, and w/ the perspective of history, it might have been the best decision to make given the circumstances at the time.

COH term reaction to the trailer= Mag 1k stun

Know JRRT ME pretty well and have been eager to see what PJ has been up to.
I have followed the Vid Diarys of production and knew that the end result would be fantastic. Couple pts to those not in the groove:

2 Movies comprised of the Hobbit and material included as Appendix's in the LOTR.

Movie 1 is reported to end after the Eagles rescue.

Movie 2 should begin with the company meeting Beorn.

As for critiques to PJ's adaptation of LOTR, lets collectively acknowledge that the most perfect adaptation of LOTR would be basically an audiobook. The "medium" determines how any narrative is presented to an audience; Some things work great in one medium and cannot be as potent in another.

I feel PJ did a incredible job w/ the LOTR adaption as movie, despite the near-unfathamible change in TT w/ Faramir...still do not understand that jarring deviation from the core narrative and what purpose did it serve...if I ever have a chance to sit down w/ PJ and Fran, I would dive deep into this...but I digress.

The Hobbit is being filmed in unique 3d process at 48 frames a sec and should blow everyone away with clarity of images and the new tools in the form of adjustable 3d techniques developed by those mad scientist over in NZ. What I cannot wait to see is the renders and voice of Smaug. Though we probably have to wait a year for that chance at another Mag 1k stun.

I remember reading, in latin class, an account of the process from an observer.

The legion was assemble as a whole.

The order was read and every 10th man was selected, rank did not matter.
IIRC there were several persons doing the counting and they started randomly in the ranks.
The 10th was pulled out of their rank/file and when all accounted for, they were slain at the same time in front of the assemble legion.

Until it is not fun anymore, I will be a participant in the evolving Co-? Universe until it is no longer fun. Or--until it gets broken somehow.

Mention of the TSR ruleset brought back a flood of memories....one stands out

I decided to run a no holds barred uber one off session where it was a classic Hulk has gone totally nutz and there have been massive (100K+) civies dead situation using that ruleset.

Gave the 5 players choice of any 2 each from all the supplements/dragon article statlines for any hero they choose to take for the encounter....no UBER, cheese or godlike's subject to approval, naturally...I wanted a good mix of toons, but it was for fun and as an experiment to see what would happen. I gave the players the foreknowledge that this raged out Hulk had no max limit...and would be very high when they encounter him....though not maxxed...gave them my slightly modified ruleset for Hulk and stats so they would not whine as much if they all got team wiped.

Of course SOMEONE wanted to play a bad guy...Juggie....really bad...he brought comics where Jugs did good...pleaded...lobbied other players...I gave in-one condition, he only got 1 char then. He said thats ALL I NEED.

We had a good mix, though some generic:

Juggs, Iron Man, Wolvie, Havoc, Dazzler, Cloak, couple others I dont remember...Ms Marvel might have been one...LLOONNGG time ago.

Setup backstory simple. Mysterio and buddies ID Bruce hidding out incognito in a suburban track of Dallas-Fort Worth...he works next to a bank they want to rob. Mysterio does an a Illusion of a group of good guys abducting the love of his life who struggles and is accidently killed...all illusion...Bruce freaks-rampage ensues-but this time Bruce is a little more in charge-and wants to die-The ONLY way he can die-is become a threat enough that the powers of the world will be force to unite to slay him.

Flashfwd to the battle- They pull Hulk to the airport...Juggie (stoopid) charges hulk...hulk jumps a bit and cracks the slab of concrete which flings juggie up then down...hulk then jumps up and down a couple times on juggie...who becomes red paste...Iron Man does the big couple alphas then does the uber fastball special w/ wolvie....hits hulk really hard...hulk mad---hulk pull wolvie out of his body and pulls one arm out of socket and tosses it about a mile and the tosses wolvie about 1/2 mile....players look worried...after a lengthy break they begin to get smart...they pull hulk around for a bit and try to lower his lvls...(duH!!) not enuff...they get hurt again....and another break....they finally come up with the plan to dig a hole like a ant lion trap...and pin hulk and let cloak drain hulk to death...and it worked....took a while...but clever solution.

Never ran Shaw under the rules...think the only hellfire member I ran w/ my group was Emma....but that was just non combat...was into other things with that group.

Hail Hydra (or else)

Only one thing to say....

Win in the side pocket!

My pov on this issue is the current shard drop rate "feels" right.

Shards droppage should be at the mercy of the rng...that is part of the arc of the charactor progression, fate is a fickle mistress.

If a reward is automatically becomes expected, it loses some of the luster and in some manner diminishes the uniqueness. For the PnP RPG vets...think monty hall-ish if it becomes common place.

Perhaps it is a matter of subjective observation, most of the playerbase are vets...had stabled 50s for awhile and just now, we get to boost them.

If we had the singular experience of only lvl 1 toon to 50 and then strive for slotting the Alpha slot, we might have a different perspective of the shard drop rate...something to consider.

Couple recent thoughts about the long slog of:

"What to do about the bases?"

As it stands, due to technical pathing, the base raid function is null.

When the pathing was on, it was no big deal to construct a functional base.

It was also equally as easy to add form/decor to it.

If raid pathing was RE-enabled (as an option given to the SG Leader) and the base owners could edit their bases to comply with the raid compliant pathing, one could imagine that it is conceivable to merge the existing PvP system and integrate it with some manner of the unification of the code for MA and Zone Glowie tech in to an "Instanced Zone" as a new "Feature" to the system overall.

Base Owners could set up "scenarios" Set/Housed in an Instance for other teams (or multiple teams including Coalition Members as Allies to the Base Owner)-- to attempt to complete in a time limit or conditions.

Winning team each get a medium-rare shiny on a clickie timer and short cooldown naturally...just enough to be useful for a handful of tuff battles.

This could be a big thing with the amount of Creative Juice in the area--

Another Option...storage....add a Library so U can Stash Like 5 Recipes

Another - Base Item like a Training Center--Put it 3 Temp Power Recipes in it, Member of the SG can Get 1 (Item only Holds one of each Temp Power--Item only works on Temp Power Recipes)

Might require a total rewrite of the editor--lot of resource devoted there.

FOOM!!

Anyway...was a noble effort (ep 1/2) it looks like it is going to be at least interesting.

I found little to totally be negative on...it appears that they are pulling out the stops to do a good encompassing storyarc.


Wait and see what comes next, like reading a comic and waiting for next months issue.
The inclusion of so many bad guys....nice touch...luv Absorbing Man ... one of my faves.

There is a good chance that we will be treated to a "condensation" of things Avengers Related in the run not quite Readers Digest Condensed Book Version---but close....thats a good thing for those casual readers or those unfamilier with the mythos that is marvel.

Blueside--base has the pre-reqs...

Pocket D meet up and team allocate

My buddy gonna load up CoH after 3+ years, he was a vet from day one and was in orig beta. He has a Broadsword/Regen Scrapper he wants to do something with.

I suggested rolling a new toon and Praetoria it it out, but he wants to run some high end stuff.

I am inclined to suggest to him the Khan TF for sure cause he has never run it, and if the winds of fate are favorable, maybe get a PuG CoP trial cause he has never run it either.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Despite the bits that do not quite work right, MA system is a wonderful tool for those who like to express themselves in a creative manner. The MA, though not perfect and flexible enough of a basic tool to endulge everyone's needs, it does allow a nice set of options to impart a narrative. That is also a double edge sword and potential "arms race" between dev and those who choose to exploit the system in regards to reward vs risk and time.

The abililty to create new custom mobs is one of the most intrigueing bits of the MA system. It might not be the dream tool that the creative type would like to have at their disposal, complete with all the bells and whistles, but I have found it does the job quite nicely. The current implementation of weighting powers to derive a percentage of XP as a very nice solution to the problem of exploits on a large scale; Those numbers may need a bit of a tweak though, after all it is a large number of potential combos to deal with and who knows what crazy combo might be the next FAD in custom mob design that could be defined as exploit.

I have gotton comments from the SG members who usually do not pay much attention such things let alone read the official boards or even patch notes (no one has bothered atm that I conversed with). And if pholks like that notice the change is of a high probabilty that something is amiss.