ketch

No need to research at all. Directions go out over broadcast nearly every single time the event rolls around, which only makes it more surprising when I see someone broadcasting the wrong set of directions. Besides we've had a year now for people to become familiar with this.

True, not every team can pull it off. Low level teams, especially, will have difficulty. Even balancing against zone population could be difficult considering population v. participants.

I'm sure people will continue to go round and round about the banner events as they have in the past. In my experience, I've seen it taken down by a single team and possibly one or two strays. Of course, there are still people that don't understand the easiest way to handle it and group up on a single banner before they're vulnerable.

As for the ToT mobs, being unable to target them until they've finished their spawning animation means they almost certainly get the first hit in. I believe there was also a recent change that prevents powers from being interrupted (due to an AE exploit) that may be affecting them. It seems that they'll always get that shot off no matter how quickly you hold them.

Are you certain of this? I hadn't specifically tested SO for the -recovery and -end, but I can attest that Jolting Chain never passed -recovery/-end beyond the first target during beta.

You can reduce the recharge time, but just like Mind Link you'll need to use multi-aspect enhancements to do it. That and a healthy dose of global recharge. Of course, without the power boost backing it up I don't think it's a goal worth shooting for.

Are we talking the final mission for access to the Midnighter's? If so talking to the Latin student wouldn't constitute any kind of fight and wouldn't need to be dropped.

Man, there's an age gap going on here. Weezer was cool back in the 90's... a good 15 years ago.

I respec'ed out of Link Minds when I noticed that the defense wasn't be affected by Power Boost so I can't check right now to see if the Psi resistance can be enhanced. I'll maybe make a mock build with my second build to check it later tonight. It would certainly be nice if it didn't and we could get the flag turned on to PB Link Minds.

Neither concept was there a priori, however, they both developed for the survival of the species.

How then do you explain Broca's area, Wernicke's area, or the Sylvian Fissure; and the fact that damage to those areas causes severe limitations in developing and producing speech? Is speech contained in them? No, not at all. However, they are a product of an evolution that favored communication.

Could are moral judgments not be affected by such a similar biological underpinning? Yes.

Bear in mind that I am not suggesting that morality pops from the ether of evolution, but is simply influenced by biology to a degree. This is the difference between thinking that all my moral judgments occur internally in a vacuum and recognizing that they are shaped by many factors. But perhaps, I'm detecting a bit of determinism v. free will arising here, as you seem to want the value of human choice.

Note that I did not indicate feral children developing speech. They do, however, have means to communicate with grunts, groans, gestures. Other species also communicate through vocalizations. So while specifically stating speech is unnatural, we can make the argument that communication, on the other hand, is natural.

One could say that it is naive to think any thought does not derive from a biological source, the brain. Of the myriad thoughts that wander through our brains each day, how many of them reflect a biological grounding? Recall the old saying "men think about sex even 7 seconds". Even though it's false, it does reflect that we think sexual thoughts everyday. Even thoughts that are not blatantly sexual often derive from a primitive source and a desire to be attractive to the other sex... seeking shelter, nourishment, and safety are all natural underlying impulses. It has been argued that humans have self-selected many types of behaviors that would become the foundations of morality. Empathy and co-operation are both things we value, but also things that increased our likelihood of survival. When the survival of the self was tied with the survival of the group these took precedence over more basic desires.

There is room in this philosophy to recognize instinctive thoughts, learned behaviors, and cultural influences. Going back to our language example, the basic vocalizations of a feral child are far from being or even becoming a language. Yet language exists, here in our natural world based on those fundamental sounds that we all produced, unnatural as it may be. A simple need gives way to a complex system.

Of course, recognizing the source of some thoughts does not absolve one from the responsibility to act or not act on them. An impulse is not a full moral decree. It is only (and in some matters, not even) a part of it, the remainder is learned. Knowing that my sexual thoughts are natural does not excuse me to attack women. When I reach a moral judgment I consider my own desires, the desires of others, my perceived moral obligations to my community and the world. Recognizing the natural instinct to procreate doesn't make me an immoral monster, but it does let me come to terms with a desire that has been denounced by religious institutions.

Ultimately, I am still the agent of choice in my moral judgments. I lack the pomp, however, to say that they are not influenced by biology, society, and my own quirks.

First, remaining true to one side doesn't mean I (as the player) lose access to any content. The character loses access. I, the player, can still take part in the a Posi TF or LRST, but I may have to switch to my other characters to do it. To me that's not a terrible inconvenience. You could say alignment locks you out of tasks the same way level does.

In my game experience, the penalty to switch sides is much worse. In order, to switch one degree it requires two days minimum. To return to my alignment burns another two days. That's potentially two a-merits I could have earned, easily a LotG +7.5 Recharge or Miracle:+ Recovery, both items that sell for around 100 mil.

Given peoples different modes of play, A-merits will have different value. If you marketeer maybe 100 mil is chump change. Perhaps you only use SO's and have no intention of working towards an IO build. However, I like playing and building characters for performance so those a-merits are worth a great deal to me.

If we want to draw a parallel between language and morality, consider this. Speech is a natural method of communication, but what is the default manner of speech? Is it natural to speak Japanese? Sure, if you live in Japan. A group of humans that develop in isolation will develop their own means of communication i.e. feral children. It is natural to try to communicate however, but a single method of communication is not.

Likewise, there may be a general moral sense as their is a general means and desire for communication. This would suffice to explain and our sense of empathy and why there are some taboos that are nearly universal. However, that means there is still a large part of morality that is learned and relative.

Perhaps, in the interest of discourse, you could expand on why you think this.

You see, I find it really overly optimistic and rather dumb to assume otherwise - why would a person free of consequences maintain an upstanding moral character?

The point I danced around was the oft debated "three strikes" rule. A third felony charge means extended prison time. A drug possessed in quantities above a certain threshold becomes a felony. An individual selling illicit substances can be incarcerated for extended periods without committing a violent crime. To the point: there are individuals serving long term prison sentences that have not committed violent crimes.

An individual with multiple DUI's will only be charged with misdemeanor offense until they cause significant injury, property damage, or death at which point it becomes a felony offense.

To me there is a dissonance there.

So reinstate prohibition? Outlaw tobacco? Prohibit caffeinated beverages? After all coffee is "the most widely used psychotropic beverage in the world".

Approximately 1/4 of the prison population is imprisoned on drug related charges. How many of those do you think are marijuana, a substance that has had a far smaller destructive influence on our society than alcohol?

How will young heroes learn with you doing this? You've basically come along and kicked the training wheels off their bikes.

I'm doubtful Contagious Confusion is the cause. It's been rumored to cause aggro before, but in my testing has never done so. In fact, I left my illusionist confusing one of the GM's on monster island for nearly an hour without ever drawing aggro. With a recharge of about 3 seconds, it should have fired about 720 times in that hour. Even with a bug occurring <1% of the time, it would have likely appeared in that sample size.