RemusShepherd

Ah, I see what you're saying. You're not talking about the themes or the backstory, you're talking about the characterization and the choice of main POV character.

I agree with you, there. The comic book focus is on the Hulk; the TV show and movies focus on Banner. (But they have to because of the constraints of live action filming. The 'Planet Hulk' animated movie focused exclusively on Hulk.) In the X-Men, the focus is usually on Prof. X; the movie focuses on Magneto more. (And the earlier movies focused almost completely on Wolverine.)

The choice of narrative focus warps the entire story, so that even if the backstory and theme is the same it may have a different meaning. Focusing on Banner leaves the Hulk as a mindless monster that needs to be cured. Focusing on Wolverine leads to stupidities like X-Men 3.

Wait, waitasec. Which part of the Hulk's backstory are we talking about?

In the comics, Banner was irradiated while saving Rick Jones from a nuclear bomb test. In the TV show he experimented on himself trying to unlock hidden reserves of human strength. So in that respect, yes, the movies were closer to the TV show and I think that's a good thing.

But the movies kept the feel of the comics. Hulk is one of Banner's multiple personalities, arising from the trauma he recieved from his abusive father. That is one aspect of the Hulk that Ang Lee presented perfectly and I love his movie just for that. It's much better than the 'all people are strong and green when angry' backstory of the TV show.

In my opinion, the movies both did a very good job of modernizing the comic book versions of the Hulk. The only thing I want them to add is the fact that Hulk is always a hero because Banner is a good man. Maybe we'll get Captain America's speech in the Avenger's movie.

"Back in my day, we had a name for people like you."
"What was it?"
"Hero. I've been watching you, Hulk. No matter how scared they are of you, or ho much they hound you, you always manage to do the right thing. That's a hero in my book."

The X-men, on the other hand, departed from the comic's backstory much more. All they kept was the essential theme of mutants as outcasts. (They couldn't really lose that theme, just as they couldn't lose the anger=strength theme of the Hulk.)

It was a narrative decision. If they had Eric throw something at Shaw, we would have seen that Shaw (as an old nazi) was a mutant early in the film. The writers preferred to leave that as a surprise, so that we got to know the main cast first and the villain later as a young businessman, which is how he spent most of the movie. The narrative goal there was to not confuse the audience with too many characters too quickly.

In addition there's a character point being made. Shaw dominated Eric for most of his childhood, which is one reason why Eric felt resentment toward him. If they had shown Eric attacking Shaw just after they met then their relationship would have seemed more even and would have had less emotional impact.

The writers handled this absolutely correct. Shaw appeared to be a crazy background character until the story got on its feet. After we get to know him, the early scene makes perfect sense.

It occurs to me that we have not yet seen a picture of the new Power Girl.

You're not reading him right. He said that 1 hydrogen atom = 1.5E-10 Joules, a.k.a. 1.5 x 10^-10 Joules. You need 10^10 hydrogen atoms in order to get to 1.5 Joules. (That's still not much -- about 1x10^-14 grams -- but it's a lot more than one atom.)

Look at Hawk's chest. It's approximately three times as wide as it is tall.

Liefeld occasionally produces stupendous art, but most of the time he just sucks at proportions and posing. On top of that he has a reputation for missing deadlines and being a diva. How does someone like that keep getting jobs at the top of the industry? Sigh.

The dramatic tension in a good Superman story is not whether he'll survive. Of course he'll survive. The question is whether or not he'll be able to save everyone else.

Sadly, Hollywood never clued into that, and now it seems that DC has forgotten it as well.

You do know that episode of B:TB&B was an homage? They lampooned the old, crazy 'Superman is a dick' comic covers, and they took the powered armor straight from Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, in which Batman won the fight. (1) They even replicated some poses straight from Miller's pages.

For a fanboy, that was an awesome episode. I'm not sure that non-fanboys got it, though.

(1 -- Yes, Batman beat Superman in that comic, but he had the help of Green Arrow, some Kryptonite, and a nuclear device.)

Okay, that is awesome. I don't know how Hasbro is going to market this show to both little girls and 30-something men, but it's going to be interesting to watch them try.

Until that video, I would have said that the best pony music video was this one, because the lip-synching is near perfect. Also there's this video, which is much shorter but which takes the concept of ponies as Avengers and gallops with it.

Expect more of this madness when the new season comes out, unless the change in creative team totally screws the show up. (I give it a 50/50 chance at this point.)

Less button clicking means more time attacking. Now my defender is not only able to buff an entire league, she'll also be contributing a lot more damage than before. Considering she lives at the damage buff cap thanks to Fulcrum Shift, her contribution is going to be pretty significant.

This character was awesome before the change, and she just got a big buff. Awesome + Buff = Overpowered, usually.

But I'm a lot more excited about how this change affects MMs. I have a Ninja/FF on mothballs -- he may be playable now. And I always wanted to try a /Thermal of some kind, but the buffing requirements made me cringe.

D. While the other players are running around, I'm mopping up in their wake, and making the area safer for my teammates to run around in. It doesn't always work out very well but it's the best use of my time. My incarnate MM is Thugs/Traps, BTW, with Superspeed as her only stealth.

Okay. I started out by asking for clarification, and here I've got it. Thanks.


Given those rules, I have to agree with you. I cannot think of any addition to the game that would be *impossible* to implement in the old code. I think that for a lot of changes it would be easier and wiser to start fresh, but I can't think of any addons where a new codebase would be necessary.

I think your criteria is too high, though. You could twist the existing code into almost any other game without starting over, but that doesn't mean it would be a good idea. You could make CoX a racing game, a minecraft-like sandbox, a side-scrolling arcade game, or a linear single-player RPG by bolting code onto the existing system. But in each case starting over would be the easier path.

I think growth powers are the best example. For them to work, you'd have to add hitboxes for every environment objects in every zone and mission map, so that overlarge characters would not clip every time they enter a corridor or walk under a bridge. Even then you'd need to handle partial powers (if a character who can normally grow to 20 feet can only grow to 8 feet because there's a ceiling, how does that affect his melee damage or resistance?) and a host of problems with power activation. It *might* be possible with the current codebase, but it would be messy and an insane amount of work. Much easier would be to create a new codebase with hit planes on every mesh, and model the physics of cramped spaces with a link to a new partial power expression scale. Bonus points if you wed that physics system into a destructible environment, because giants break things.

Yep, it could work that way. Alternately you could have skeleton-based animations (I believe the current game uses keyframed meshes, yes?), tag limbs on meshes with what seems suitable (a dog's jaw would be used as a fist in most cases; some kicks would use the feet, but for a lizard mesh you might have the tail for 'kicks') and let the model skeletons figure out how to make the action work.

Note that such a skeletal mesh system would tie into the physics system that lets growth powers and destructible environment work. If you implemented these features separately in the old code, it would take you three times the effort. If you start with a new codebase you'll spend less effort (although none of them would be 'free'.)

I suppose both answers can be true. Many of these features *could* be implemented in the current system with very large outlays of manpower and money. But they would all be *easier* to implement in a new system, with a codebase designed to facilitate them.

(I take back 'vehicles', by the way. I just remembered how Anarchy Online did vehicles. If we followed that path then CoX could have vehicles tomorrow with very little effort, although they'd kind of suck. )

Because of Sturgeon's Law. If you look at the unfiltered output from the world's artists and writers, 99% of it is pure crap. If you filter it through an authoritative gatekeeper you cut that down to only 90%. We recognize those authorities because they increase the signal of good art by tenfold.

Even in the age of the internet, self-published works are never going to get the same respect until there is a recognized authority reviewing and selecting them for quality.

That didn't used to be true. We are currently in a transitional stage. When it all sorts out, there may or may not be services that only the big publishers can provide. (Connections to distributors, for one.) I'm less optimistic about the role of agents in the future.

Your grammar's a little broken, there. Are you saying that every suggestion you've seen could be implemented in the current architecture?

Because stretching powers, growth powers, swinging movement, destructible environment, four-legged player meshes, and vehicles all would seem to require a new codebase.

If you're saying that *no* significant change can be implemented in the current code, then I'd probably agree with you. That why we need to start fresh.

If you're looking for *lighter* fare, stay away from Gaiman's adult books. American Gods is a terrific novel but very weighty. The sequel, Anansi Boys, is a bit lighter. But you'll want to stick to Gaiman's YA novels like The Graveyard Book and Coraline.

Good Omens is lighthearted and highly recommended.

Most of Pratchett's is light, but some is lighter than others. The Discworld books are really several series intertwined together, and most people like one of the threads more than the others. There are the Rincewind novels, the City Guards novels, the Witches novels, and probably other arcs that I've forgotten. I recommend the Rincewind arc as the lightest fare; start from the beginning with 'The Colour of Magic'. The City Guards are a bit darker. The Witches arc is darker still, although some of the books that feature Tiffany are meant for YA and are more joyful.

Pratchett also has some non-Discworld books, mostly YA. 'Only You Can Save Mankind' is science fiction and a bit of a mindscrew, but fun.

Superhero comics and epic fantasy prose are two different genres.

In fantasy, mortality is often presented as a special thing. Mortals die, but they also experience highs that immortals never do. Mortals become mythic; immortals simply endure. So a mortal vs. immortal match is more even than you might otherwise think.

In superhero comics, everyone is already mythic. So any matchup becomes a strict comparison of powerlevel -- modulated by the requirements of the story, of course. The needs of the story explains why Batman didn't get vaporized by Darkseid, but no amount of plot armor could help Batman win the encounter.

Different genres have different rules, and tropes mutate when crossing genre boundaries. What applies in fairyland does not always work in Gotham, and vice versa.

That seems a little high.

If you can write a comic script in the right format, you can probably hire an artist for $100/page if you're not in a rush. So a normal sized 20-page comic might run you $2,000. If you're paying more than that then either you're not writing the script yourself, or you're rushing your artist, or you're being taken.

I'd suggest you just make your own comic. My first comic contained a lot of my characters from CoH, and although the art started out very rough I got better eventually. You might go the 3D rendering route also.

Unless you're trying to make money off of a comic (and you couldn't, if it were attached to this game), don't bother hiring an artist for a comic. Make it for your own enjoyment. The world is full of content consumers; it's always better to learn how to be a creator.