Rylas

I had to double check that the post date wasn't from the 1st. But it looks like augmented reality is getting another step closer.

Long time Protectorite, but I usually don't wander into the Protector threads. Riverdancer tipped me to this hot topic, so I thought I'd chip in.

I'm in agreement that non-shift 50's need to try to limit themselves to BAF and Lambda if possible. They're still popularly run trials, so there's no reason they can't limit themselves a little. The time it takes to get that first level shift is so short, we're not talking about a long term ban or anything. Even on a run of bad drops I think the longest it takes me is a couple of days of playing.

Now, if you absolutely can't find a BAF or Lambda that day, it's unreasonable to expect someone not to try to make some advancement. But that person should be aware that they're costing the team a certain amount of efficiency that's going to be felt.

When it comes to the rest of the trials though, I think it's fair game for anyone with at least 1 level shift to join. It's up to the person forming the league to make sure the team has enough to accomplish the task. If you're seeing too many +1's and not enough +2/3's, then speak up. There's enough reasonable players on this server that people will do what they can to help.

Side note: I can't remember for sure, but I thought there was a level penalty for those who didn't have anything slotted at all (in regardes to Incarnate powers). So that someone with no slots filled would be -8 to the level 54 mobs. Am I mistaken? Is that still the case? If so, then I would go so far as to say anyone without at least a tier 1 alpha should avoid any trial out of common courtesy.

And that's my 98¢.

The last Total Recall was pretty far off from the book. This does look like it will be closer to the source. Keep in mind though, when it comes to short stories, you do have to embellish it for the big screen.

My guess:

(New) Total Recall will be to We Can Remember it for You Wholesale as Bladerunner is to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

Here's a more detailed and personal story involving the Route 29 Batman. This guy deserves a medal.

Ok, last question, I swear. Does this have to be landscape, as the dimensions suggest, or is portrait orientation okay to use? I only ask because most posters are portrait.

Just to clarify, do these posters need to relate to CoH directly (e.g. contains CoH characters, landscapes or content), or can they just be "super-themed" in general. Like fiction inside of fiction?

If there was ever a "zombie-like" event, I think it would be more like the 28 Days Later. They're not undead, but people have stopped being... well... people. But unless the infection takes a while to incubate, controlling the outbreak might not be as difficult.

If, like in 28 Days Later, the infection is nearly instant, well, it might spread fast at first. Eventually media coverage would allow for people to set up blockades before the infection reached their location. At first a lot of people would be lost, but you could catch up to the diseases pace since zombie-like behavior isn't intelligent. It would have to spread on foot, and that buys people time to protect themselves. And, unless they're smart enough to eat food, the infection would die out eventually as zombies die out.

BUT! If the infection took time to incubate. Say, a 24-48 hour period, well, you could have a global pandemic much more easily. You'd have people infecting people before anyone saw the first zombie. Then you'd hear about a few weird cases here and there. In different cities. People going crazy and attacking others. But it could still take a day or two before someone connects the dots. At that point, you've got a contagion you can't keep track of because so many people have been exposed at this point who seem perfectly healthy. And worse, you've got a planet of 7 billion in mostly concentrated areas. It'd be pretty bad.

I think I've been thinking about this too much...

TL;DR:
I'd go ElA over WP if you plan on playing a lot of end game content.

Short Story Long
On a purely SO build, I'd probably consider WP the stronger player for most of the game's content. Superb regen numbers, with some mixed in mitigation in both defense and resists. It's big downside being that it's aggro aura (a big part of your regen) is weak at holding aggro. So as long as your throwing out taunt on occasion, you're good. Electric does well, especially in the low levels where Res comes to fruition sooner than defense and regen mitigations. Later in the game though, Res numbers, even with a heal and temporary regen boost, can succumb to overwhelming debuffs that Defense builds can avoid more easily (depending on if they are from attacks rather than from auto-hit powers).

On an IO build, Electric will start to outperform. Even just moderate Defense (32.5% S/L) will bring out a large improvement in survival. Make that moderate defense for S/L/E/N and you'll be out performing WP in pretty much all the content. The high resist with the regen boost from Energize are more than plenty for anything making it past your defense bonuses. Also, I tend to favor End Recovery powers like Energy Drain over higher Recovery numbers.

I found a high def build for WP was very durable. But in end-game content where the soft-cap gets raised, ElA gains an edge with all the resistance numbers. Now, the new Dark Astoria content has brought more NE damage to the end game, so this could be an attempt to bring some balance to the end game. Time will tell.

And that's my 98¢ on the topic.

Wow, I didn't see that coming. I thought they would drag out the whole Shane/Rick tension much longer than that. Glad Rick did what he had to do, though. Hopefully we won't see him festering on the fact that he killed Shane for too long.

While I didn't think Carl was so much dumb as just being a kid (in regards to last week's zombie) I did find it somewhat stupid that he couldn't just say "Hey dad, get down!" or at least yell out "WALKER!" this week. Seriously, who wouldn't say something?!

Oh well.

Great episode all around. I had heard about the "anyone can become a zombie when they die" from the comic books. So I wasn't all that surprised. I can even believe they haven't seen it happen until now. Things get hectic when you flee a city full of zombies, or so I would assume. But it would be nice if they could give some reasons behind it the new discovery.

The new Tsoo look is too good not to have.

That is all.