RemusShepherd

Whoops, my mistake. I haven't read X-men since the 1980s.

I think it should be noted that comic-Shaw and movie-Shaw have almost nothing in common. The comic-Shaw was a fat man who led the Hellfire club in the 1980s. The movie-Shaw was Kevin Bacon in the 1960s.

Comic-Shaw could only absorb kinetic energy. We know almost nothing about movie-Shaw's powers, but they appear to be quite different.

Spider-Man's Dexterity was Amazing. His strength was only Incredible.

Not many people had both high Strength and Dexterity. I think Colossus' dex was Typical (6).

No, no, I caught that they didn't want him to answer the question. It was just so stupid an excuse for going after a Time Lord that I thought there must be an additional reason that I missed.

I mean, the Doctor has committed genocide more times than I can count, he's tied people up with chains made of dwarf star matter, he's locked people inside of mirrors and cast them into literal hell. You don't tangle with a guy like that without VERY GOOD REASONS. His name doesn't seem to be much of an excuse.

I'm still waiting for the episode where the bad guy says, "Wait, did you say you were the Doctor? Oh. I surrender, then. You win. Please don't hurt me."

Cloak by himself *might* be able to take the Hulk. But only because Cloak's powers are totally freaky. None of the others could do more than tick Hulk off.

If I were in that fight, I'd have chosen Professor X. And maybe Rogue.

Beta Ray Bill and Captain America have also lifted Thor's hammer. It's not whether you're strong enough, it's whether you're worthy. I expect Cap will get a chance to pick it up in the Avengers movie. They've set everything up in the movies for that kind of scene.

As for Sebastian Shaw, I remember his stats in the old Marvel Universe pen and paper RPG game. That game rocked, although it was unbalanced as hell.

Shaw had a type of absorption power that allowed him to heal damage up to its power level, which I think was Unearthly (100). So if you hit him with 100 points of damage or less, it just healed him. If you hit him with 120 points of damage, he'd take 20 and heal 100, effectively healing for 80. You had to do 200 points of straight physical damage before you started hurting him. This is more than most people were able to do -- Spider man's strength was only Incredible (40), for example.

The Hulk started at Unearthly (100), and when he got mad it progressed in stages up to 5000 (I forget the power level name).

So yeah, the Hulk would take a few shots that Shaw would laugh off, and then when Big Green started getting mad Shaw would start to feel it. If the fight continued Shaw would end up as a smear on the ground. (If, that is, the Hulk killed people, which he does not. 'Worthy', remember? )

I had a character in the Marvel game that had Shaw's absorption power at Amazing (50) level, except my power fed into strength instead of health. I got into a fight with Rhino -- he hit me a few times which charged me up, then I knocked him across Manhattan with a single blow. God, I loved that game system.

If you're talking about the last page of the new Catwoman magazine, they weren't dry-humping. Batman's pants are down.

But that's only moderately misogynistic. Although the reader sees more of Catwoman's breasts than her face, she at least has a real job (as a thief) and some initiative of her own.

What they did to Starfire, on the other hand, is creepy and ugly and wrong. She's a sex doll with power blasts. And it's leading to eviscerations like this:



DC screwed up on a lot of their new 52, but this mistake is going to cost them. Badly.

What? But the new Starfire is the comic industry's perfect example of a strong, self-assertive woman. She fights well and has sex all the time. What other ingredients do you need for a strong female role model? Innocent waif, [censored]-bucket; to the comic industry it's all the same thing.

/sarcasm off.

Yeah, I'm with you. This comic is going to haunt DC, in the same way the 'women in refrigerators' meme does. It's super-misogynistic.

There are dozens, dozens of ways. Don't look at MMOs, however. They are limited by historical design considerations. Future MMOs may break out of the old mould and start taking more ideas from pen and paper role playing games.

Some systems I know off the top of my head. (I won't mention the games they're from.)

*

XP - Level - Class
Each class has fixed abilities that are parceled out by level.

XP - Level - Skill
No classes; players choose whatever skills they want from skill points granted each level.

XP - Skill
No classes and no levels. Xp translates directly into skill purchases.

XP - Class - Skill
Each class has fixed abilities, all of which are available at level 1. Skill in those abilities is purchased with xp gain.

Quest - Level
No XP system. Characters gain levels and abilities when they perform certain quests.

Quest - Skill
No XP and no levels, but skill points are given out for quests that are used to purchase abilities.

Fixed - Equipment
No xp system, no change in abilities. Money is the primary measure of how powerful a character is, and equipment purchases allow customization, added abilities, and power increases.

Dynastic
Each character has fixed abilities from creation to death. Death is permanent, however players get to create a successor for a dead character and that successor has increased abilities based on the power level of its 'father'.

*

I always thought that superhero games should use a Quest-Level system. Spider-man doesn't get more powerful just because he punches Electro out again. He gets more powerful when he impresses Iron Man and receives a new spider suit in return.

If I understand this, my characters with the Sands of Mu veteran power have unlocked it, but they won't be able to use it until I purchase it from the PR market. So I should expect a lot of grayed-out icons the next time I log in.

That's good info, but it leads to more confusion. I thought the PR program and the out-game Market were the same thing. Now apparently there is not only the in-game market and the out-game Market, there is also an in-game PR 'market'. I wonder if it ever occured to our devs that they might profit by consolidating this. Or anything, ever.

Didn't log in last night. Too busy. Might do so tonight, although I'm seeing reports on this forum that the dust hasn't settled yet from the big change.

Okay, I see how simple that is.

I get one Reward Token for every Veteran Badge, which is every three months, except some months come with extra badges which used to be Veteran Rewards but are now things I have to purchase except on characters which already have claimed them which made the badges go away unless they still count except for the ones that don't and never did.

Meanwhile, neither the Reward Token nor the Veteran Rewards should be confused with Reward Merits. The Tokens are used in the Market, not the in-game market but the market I'll find somewhere once I'm in the game but not yet in the game. Reward Merits are used by Merit Vendors, but vendors are not markets and have nothing to do with veterans. Probably. They're also in-game, meaning inside the in-game part of the game, not in the not yet in-game game where the Market is (unless you're looking for the in-in-game market).

Then I apply these Tokens -- the Reward Tokens, of which I should have approximately one for every Veteran Badge I own if they count and haven't been claimed, to re-buy Tiered abilities that I may already have claimed. Each Tier costs from 1 to 7 Tokens and may unlock things that I already have, unless all my controllers have suddenly vaporized because hey, that's what controllers sometimes do.

Once I've re-purchased everything I already had, or maybe still have, I can then buy higher Tiers that nobody yet has because this is the first chance anyone has had to shop at the out-game in-game Not-Veteran Reward Not-Merit Token Market (not-market).

Right, got it. Clear as mud. Thanks for helping.

(Note: This should be taken as a good approximation of how newbies will see this system. Except that I'm a lot more knowledgable than a newbie.)

A dress never slowed down Maidman.