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cokerpilot posted:I rolled a d4 and got 4 so Doctor Strange Quackles posted:I vote for Captain Marvel. She's cool. Sorry guys, footage has already been recorded. After a couple days of silence I had assumed I wasn't getting any more votes.
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Jan 28, 2024 16:45
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mr_stibbons posted:Sorry guys, footage has already been recorded. After a couple days of silence I had assumed I wasn't getting any more votes. Don't worry about it I will try to vote more quickly next time.
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Jan 31, 2024 05:19
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 Looks like we’re hanging out with Robbie tonight. Every time a character is available for a hangout, they’ll present several options for activities to do during the hangout. Different characters like different things, and you’ll have to take your best guess (or check a wiki) to pick the option they like best. Robbie, being a teenage male, is always up for some video games.  You ever get in a horse chase? What is a horse chase I had a horse with four trick knees. If I whistled a certain way she would stop on a shilling and then run backwards.No way. And what’s a shilling?It does not matter. One time I caught a bug in my mouth mid-whistle. She stopped, gave me a sour look and started running sideways.Oh wow. Could she run sideways the other way?No she was a 3-speed. I knowI’d pay to see a sideways horse chase.Oh? How many shillings?All of em. That’s our nightly socialization done. Last night we promised to meet with Agatha in the library to discuss her little sidequest. The library is currently locked, but it’s nothing that the gifts of the old gods can’t solve.   I’m glad to see you’re getting comfortable with the Words of Power, Hunter. Investigation?A side project, but a potentially transformative one. With my blessing, Wanda was working to uncover what may be the most powerful... Standing in the library. I’ve given you free reign so you could get back on your feet... but I never thought you’d pull something like this.I... What is it you think I am doing exactly? I told you how hard it’s been since we lost Agatha. Instead of letting it rest, you decide to... re-open the wound?Oh Sara, I would never... I never thought of this place like that.Of course you didn’t. And now it’s done. Why should I ever stand in your way.In retrospect, forcing the door with magic instead of asking Caretaker for the key was probably not the best idea.  She may try to mask her feelings, but you know she is struggling with what happened. Why are you hiding from her.For most people, the captivating relationships of their lives are formed over a matter of days and years. And yet we preserverd, together.You still have not answered my question.It may be difficult to understand, but she needs this time. You are right, I do not understand.It isn’t up to me to reveal myself, it’s up to her to accept what happened and allow herself to grieve. When that happens, we’ll see each other again, but not before.I trust you will do what is right for Sara. So... what is it you are looking at here? The Abbey grounds have a great deal of history, many of it’s secrets remain hidden even after all this time.Even to you?Even to me. Wanda had taken to exploring the grounds in search of a strange energy we both sensed. Of course, being the clever girl that she is, her notes are written in an ancient Transian cipher that I’ve only just begun to understand. Have a look at the first entry. And investigation that involves experiments? Why do I feel like you’re going to get me into trouble.Since when has that ever stopped you? Let’s meet out at the altar, I’ll try to do a better job of explaining from there.We’ll get to that in a moment, but I’m going to take a moment to check out the library. The library has a rotating selection of lore interactables that you can take a look at each day.   One of which is the actual prophecy that Caretaker and Strange keep banging on about. I’ll be honest, as prophecies go, this is extremely vague.  Poking around the lore gives us a level of Arcane Knowledge, one of the many progression systems in this game. Arcane knowledge xp comes from picking up collectibles/lore and using words of power in the Abbey, and the rewards provided tie back into the Abbey. Like the rest of the Abbey exploration, it is strictly optional, but does provide some small benefits in the strategic progression if you go through with it. Anyway, we need to catch up with Agatha.  Are you going to make me say it?Humor an old, dead woman.Hocus Pocus. You haven’t lost your touch, dear. The words may be simple, but these plinths won’t appear for just anyone.Each represents one of the basic elements, their power activated only be the elemental rods they would normally be holding.And where are the elemental rods now? Let me guess...That’s right, I want you to find the missing rods and return them here. Hopefully, as I decipher Wanda’s journal, her notes will aid in the search.The way the Abbey sidequest works, every few in game days Wanda’s Journal will update with more hints to find whatever you are currently trying to collect. In practice, the Abbey isn’t that big and you’ll find pretty much everything if you give the place a good once over. But you have not actually told me what the greater purpose is here... what are we doing this for? In fact, I don’t want you overthinking this little project, there’s no rush, and you don’t have to help if you don’t feel like it.But there is one more thing before I head back to the library. An Arcane Key?Just a little something, a token for your efforts so far. Scattered throughout the Abbey are Arcane Chests. If you’ve acquired Arcane keys you can open them for cosmetics and some other resources. We only get a pretty meh red version of Hunter’s suit.  Poking around just past Agatha’s altar, we find the air rod on the edge of the cliff. I could find the rest of the rods right now, but for pacing reasons I’ll hand them in on a slower night. The combat challenges on this side quest are one of the only things in the game that don’t scale to your level, so getting any further would be quite difficult with the resources I have right now. Importantly, every rod you turn in gives you a new key, so I’d like to turn one in now.  The library has a more valuable purple chest, which potentially has some good rewards.  Doing so provides us our first combat item, which is a rather odd way to get it. Combat items can be used once in tactical combat to provide some minor effect. As with most limited use items in RPGs, most players just horde them forever. I personally tend to value items that can get you out of tough spots like this one because they’re much more likely to be used than buffs. It’s much more obvious when you need more redraws to fix a bad hand than when it’s worth using an offensive buff item.  We also get one of my most used cosmetics, this little She-ra helm. Sadly doesn’t work with this haircut, I’ll need to find some different costume choices. With that, we turn in for the night.   Can that really be you Wish I could say the same, mother. Now enough with this deception and reveal your true form.But this is my true form. The way I was when you were just a sweet, helpless little baby. You don’t remember that, do you. Well, I do... bringing you into the world was the happiest time in my life. I had thought the Words of Power would open your eyes. But I should have known my sister and her pet witch would continue to withhold the truth from you...My trial with the Elder Gods. How did you know?I heard you calling upon Oshtur. And I am not the only one...  Time for our morning chores. The first research project finishes, so we now get more cards and more choices. I always forget that you have to research this, everyone get's it as their first tech.  We’ve had several new research options revealed. For our starting characters, their associated research projects are not revealed until they’ve been taken on one mission. Since we took Nico on a mission, we can now see Mystical healing, though we need more artifacts and Nico to start in. In addition, completing a hero’s first research project reveals their other two research projects. Completing the Foundry thus reveals Carol’s other two researches at level 4. I have no other option but to start the Item bench research. Or, that’s what I thought I did, but I will later realize that I failed to actually start it. Whoops.  The card pulls aren’t great, I don’t need more slashes and Photon Beam’s upgrade is pretty marginal, I I pick up a spare Empower and Fortify, a defensive hunter card which isn’t generally that good but helps with some specific missions.   With CENTRAL’s help, I can decrypt these babies in no time, providing us a valuable and fascinating glimpse into Hydra’s twisted little minds Some missions provide Intel Caches as rewards, these can be cashed in at central to provide the Intel resource and Hero Ops. You can spend intel on hero ops to get extra cards for characters without taking them on missions. There are some other uses for intel that will unlock later, but for now more cards are valuable, so there’s no point in hording it.  We also get our first Request. Sometimes heroes have a little dilemma that gives you a choice of rewards. In this case, because my plan doesn’t have Tony taking on a mission for several days, I take the second option-he’ll heal before I need him, and a card and permanent stat boost is valuable.  Our daily sparring is with Blade. I’m still operating under the impression that I have completed all of our research projects, so am bringing him along next mission via author fiat but either way, getting his first research done is very important.  I thought we were past that.We are, but I’m still allowed to be annoyed with you. I expect a bit of pushback from the others... but not from you, hunter.Why not? When have I ever made things easy for you? If I had known it meant this much to you, I would have waited. It was not my intention to defy... or hurt you.Hurt no, defy... maybe. At the same time, I know I haven’t been very open with you about everything that’s happened.You’re right about that, we have bigger things to worry about... like the mouthy alien tormenting Spider-Man as we speak.He did risk himself for us without hesitation, we owe him for that at least. I would just follow the trail of destruction, but maybe there is another way.I’m sure we’ll come up with something. I would be rotting inside that creature’s gullet if not for Spider Man. Time to return the favor.  Can’t believe I’m saying this but... you think Team Spooky’s doing any better?  Well your inflection on that last dactyl was...Stares...perfect. Perhaps a magnetism rune?Against a Level 5 Demon Alien Hybrid? Where did you learn your magic, DemoCon? Hunter’s right. This isn’t working.On to plan C. Well more like D Higher further faster baby 82nd and 5th Guys they’re live. And they’re trending. Not badThanks. Now imagine if you had just asked for our help sooner.No time for an after school special. Patching it through.   Crash  Jeeze, you think he’d at least have tennis elbow or something. SPIDER MAN! WE SHALL SQUASH YOUR BONES AND BRING THEM HOME TO MOTHER   It’s all about the co-workers Hydra’s venom retrieval squad are between us and venom, we’ll need to clear them out while dodging the items venom is throwing at us from the museum roof, which creates a damage zone every turn.  Several civilians are stuck in the danger zone. Our objective for this stage of the fight is to rescue them by playing a 2 heroism “Rescue Civilian” card.  Spider-man does start with a good quick card to get him out of the blast zone. Unfortunately his other starting cards aren’t that great, so Blade and Hunter are going to be doing the heavy lifting. Our starting hand isn’t that great, so I can take down a single grunt before ending turn.  Every other turn, Venom takes aim at one of the trapped civilians. If you don’t save them this turn or play the “Taunt Venom” mission card to make him hit somewhere else, you lose. The upside is that Hydra isn’t immune to the massive damage of projectile AC units-in a stroke of luck the officer is just going to get smashed without I me doing anything.  I’ve a got plenty of heroism banked after turn 1, so let’s just progress the objective.  The nasty surprise in this fight is this trooper in red. Hydra specialists are basically an upgraded version of the officers, another supportive enemy. Right now he’s made the mistake of standing next to an explosive and a minion. Quicks refund a card play if an enemy is ko’d-even if that happens because of an explosive being detonated.  One of many annoying things about Hydra specialists is that if you hit them with melee attacks while they still have block, you get hit for a good chunk of damage. Sometimes it’s worth it, but it is a problem.  This fight can be a bit of a nasty surprise for new players, it’s the first time you’re dealing with multiple elite enemies in one stage, and with your starting cards you don’t have great options to burn through all their health. The best move is to take advantage of Venom-his AOEs do more damage than any cards you have at this point.  On the enemy turn, the specialist stuns Spider Man with his basic attack because that’s a reasonable thing for them to be able to do every turn.  Still, with just a specialist and minions left, there isn’t much pressure on us. I can easily rescue the other civilian and slowly work through the specialists health bar. The only other spider man card that’s really usable is Chain Strike. It’s a fairly normal attack that bounces to another target if it ko’s an enemy.   Don’t suppose you’d let us actually try and help you Eddie? Gonna put that down as a definite maybe.After the nasty surprise that was the first phase of this mission, the actual confrontation with Venom is surprisingly easy. Venom has the same abilities and amount of backup as back in the very first mission we fought him in. If anything, the environment is actually more favorable.  With a vault, and a conveniently placed explosive half of Venom’s health bar disappears before he gets his first turn.  Actually that’s less than half Venom’s health, since he has bleed on him. Bleed is in a weird place in this game. Fights in this game are generally like 3-4 turns, so it doesn’t have a lot of time to work. And it only triggers at the end of enemy turns, so they get their attacks even if they bleed out. So compared to a lot of video games, the damage is really high, every tick of bleed does damage equal to the attack stat of whoever applied it, the same as most starter attack cards. Blade can bleed three enemies with strike+ and Make Em Bleed, which is a lot of damage without spending heroism. But it only triggers at the end of enemy turns, so they get their attacks even if they bleed out. People in the thread have mentioned that some mods reverse this. That probably puts bleed among the more broken strategies in the game. Personally, I’d prefer to balance around a lower power level than that, but it’s fine if you like that.  The theoretical difficulty spike in this battle with Venom is that he’s acquired a second health bar. After the first time he goes down, he’ll spend the next enemy turn clearing all his status conditions and returning to full health. But Hunter’s healing means attrition isn’t much of a threat, and his first health bar wasn’t a problem. WHY FIGHT HEROES? EMBRACE MOTHER’S LOVE. YOUR STRUGGLES ARE POINTLESS AND THEY SPOIL THE MEAT!Is he always like... this?I wouldn’t take it personally. Eddie always gets extra grumpy when he’s hungry. Think he’s bad, you should see Jameson if he doesn’t get this morning bagel.He goes down for real after two more turns.  Is this thing unstoppable?Oh. he’s not unstoppable Not my worst idea ever Here’s a special request from all of New York to you, our slobbiest invader since Thanos EARSPLITTING MICROPHONE FEEDBACK *Screams in pain*  TRULY UNHOLY MICROPHONE FEEDBACK Spider-man, speakers do not work that way. You’re just going to unplug them if you pull them up to the top of the museum.  That was - I was going to say – amazing.That’s what the kids tell me. I think I’ll pass out now.Don’t worry, I know a safe place.
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Feb 7, 2024 18:40
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So Steam tells me I have 389 hours in this game. That's at least three full playthroughs, possibly more like four or five. And I've never seen that particular hang-out conversational branch with Robbie before. There is a remarkable amount of content packed into the conversations of this game.
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Feb 7, 2024 20:27
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Reminds me of Pathfinder WotR. Lots of content there I haven’t seen yet too.
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Feb 8, 2024 02:10
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 Hunter, I was just looking for you. We need your assistance.Who is we That is an elaborate name.You can blame Doctor Strange. Oh, I may have rearranged a few words so it spells out EMO KIDSTell me what you need. How about it? Ready to uncover one of the greatest mysteries about your life after death?Lead the way So about the spell that brought you back to life. It worked better than expected, but there are some... gaps.You are talking about my death. Those memories are lostMaybe not. We think there’s a way to recover them. All you’re going to need is a mystical jumpstart.How would that work?Doctor strange can explain it better than I. But if you want the abridged version, ask Magik. And when you’re ready to begin the ritual, let me know. How does this ritual work? This is the ritual: You focus on the past, Nico zaps you with her staff, Strange chants and waggles his fingers, then you remember. Maybe.So why are you here? There is a chance I might explode?A very small chance. UnlikelyDoes Strange have any other details about the ritual?Ha! Far too many. Of what, exactly?Why, the Knights of Intellect and Dimensional Spiritualism! The Abbey’s local chapter of the Estoric Mystical Order!Right, “EMO KIDS”. So, the ritual? How does this relate to the ritual?Animating your corpus was the easy part. But your essence? Your thoughts hopes, fears, and dreams? That was the slipperiest eel.Does the ritual require eels? The ritual- Doctor Strange. The ritual—how does it work? Just tell me what to expect.Ah, yes. You will focus on recalling what was lost as we do everything in our power to restore it. Simple, really. Will this help me remember? I can’t answer that. When I start, you’ll be the one making the repairs. The rest of us are here to keep you steady.All right. I race through the Abbey Grounds. Angry...Terrifed? It is too late, we were not ready for this fight.  I—I cannot—No!Whoa. We all saw that, right?I have no words to describe it.FinallyWell, how about that. Your final moments are there, just buried deep inside.It did not work. Next time?Heck yeah! EMO KIDS meet every lunar alignment. Or, y’know, whenever we’re free on a slow night.Oh, and we need ingredients. Magik will send a list to your Spark. If you bring enough, we can refine them into more useful mystical objects.  EMO KIDS is our first abbey club, little side story lines with heroes hanging out. Every time you complete a club meeting, all the attendees get two friendship points, and you get one special reward. In the case of EMO KIDS, you get a free card for one of the club members. In this case, we get an easy choice between two of Nico’s rare cards. Witchfire is the bad kind of random-it’ll never waste itself on a minion, but too often it hits a heavy enemy that you’re in no position to finish off. Focusing fire is the name of the game in Midnight suns, and hitting a random target is a major negative. We take Blood for Blood, a solid attack card which occasionally heals someone. Then we turn in for the night.  Spider man would probably appreciate it if you looked in on him, I think he’s quite impressed by you. Spider-Man...Oh, hey Hunter! Didn’t see you there. Everything’s fine. This is completely normal. All the top heroes do it, I’m sure...Do what?Practice their... hero voice. In my case, my Spider Voice. Well, your “Spider” voice is very noticeable.Really? Did it give you pause? Strike fear in your heart as you approached the Spider’s Lair?It struck something.Yesss! That means a lot to, coming from you. And if I might add an opinion of my own, you are much nicer than Kraven.I actually came here to thank you.Thank me? For what? And by the way, does this thanks also involve... pizza? Have to say battling Eddie always works up the appetite. Oh, you want to meet the Spider-Man beneath the mask? Sorry, that’s a no-go. My true identity is a closely guarded secret. Not even MJ or Aunt May know for... Wait... I see what you’re doing there.Sorry Hunter, the masks gotta stay on. I hope that’s not gonna make things weird between us.The Abbey is a place of many secrets. Your identity is safe within these walls. No mask can hid you or them from Lilith. Her gaze can pierce your very soulYeesh, reminds me of my best friend’s dad. And that was before he became a flying goblin. Wait, did you just say “lives”? As in plural?Yes.I am really gonna enjoy getting to know you, Hunter.And we would enjoy getting to know you. The real you.Gotta meditate on it. Check my horoscope. Roll it around in my head. And maybe we’ll talk soon? Cool? Cool. Time for chores. Magik has a request, I go for a rare card because I’m starved for cards, and I don’t what to explain blueprints yet  Holy gift is not what I wanted to see. There are situations where a card is so good you’re willing to spend three card plays to play it twice, but they aren’t common.  No research completes today because of my brainfart yesterday. I start Blade’s research, to make the game function normally.  Our cards today include a new hunter common card, charge, which is okay, but Hunter’s attacks are in a pretty good state. I pick up quick kick and strike., because Blade and Spider Man are mandatory in several upcoming missions.  I have my first Ebony encounter of this playthrough, gaining +25 Arcane knowledge.  The tutorial hero op finishes up, and provides an upgraded one step ahead. I have no intention of playing the base or upgraded version of one step ahead, and don’t really care.  Every victory we have inches us closer to stopping Lilith. And every life we save... Which is a good thing now that we know Hydra has been augmenting their soldiers with this radioactive green gamma shampoo. We’re gonna need all the help we can get. We are finally out of the tutorial, so I have a normal choice of side missions to do before I can continue to advance with the plot. All of these missions provide different rewards, have a different mandatory hero, and provide different rewards for the strategic layer. It’s another unsubtle way the game encourages you to put at least a bit of effort into levelling everyone, because you never know when they’ll be mandatory on a mission that gives you what you need next. Right now I need another artifact so I can pick up another important research project, so Nico is going to be coming along.  Since Robbie is mandatory, and is on cooldown, I let Nico have our daily training.  Nico’s deck can be upgraded a bit as well, upgrading one of her Empowers and replacing a curse with Blood for Blood.  This upgrade progresses another of the seemingly infinite array of progression systems in the game. Doing daily training and upgrading cards upgrades our training level, which improvise the damage of environmental attacks. This might seem like a weird design decision, but there’s a bit of sense to it. Environmental attacks need to progress somehow, to keep up with enemies scaling health. But tying the m directly to hero stats isn’t great, because different heroes have different stats and toggling through heroes to make sure you’re on the optimal character before using an environmental attack would suck. It’s better for them to do flat damage. But they probably didn’t need an entirely separate progression track.  Anyway, with Nico kitted out, we roll out.  The enemies today are an officer, a Shieldguard, and a bunch of goons.  Ghost rider is the obligatory “black deck” in this card game. He has many cards that are powerful, but will cost his health or your cards. Lash, his basic attack is a forceful knockback in any direction at the cost of some of his health. Hunter gets the same effect at the cost of a heroism and a random discard, so really a bit of health is a bargain.  Nico then uses her curse to throw a vulnerable on the hydra officer, which sets up Robbie to go for a ride.    Ghost rider’s starting deck only has two good cards. But one of those cards is Hell ride, which is both very good and very cool.  Hell ride may cost three heroism and your entire hand, but it does incredible damage in the “wide” line aoe that upgraded Photon beam uses. Robbie’s demonic hot rod KO’s the officer, breaks the shieldguard’s shield, and KOs a goon in the back. This is the only card I own which oneshots goons. And it’s an AOE. You draw back up to six cards anyways, so discarding your had only really means that hell ride has to be the last card you use in a turn. It’s well worth the slight awkwardness.  On the enemy turn, the shieldguard stuns hunter then preps for an explosion. The gimmick of this type of mission is a heavier than usual set of reinforcements, adding an extra goon to the usual two minions.  As the reinforcements have conveniently spawned near an explosive, ghost rider can blow most of them up with a lash.   Nico can them smash a surviving goon over the head with her staff. Unfortunately the heal lands on Hunter, who doesn’t need it as much as ghost rider.  I spend a heroism exploding a barrel to take out a minion targeting Ghost rider, just to keep him safe.  Then Nico knocks out the other goon with a swarm.  More reinforcements swarm in next round.  Nico uses Blood magic in counter mode on hunter, to get some heroism and deal with the minions that are targeting her. Then Hunter heals Ghost rider to get him out of the danger zone.  With all that heroism, what better to use it on than another hell ride!  Round four sees an end to the heavy reinforcement waves, and all that’s left to do is pile on the weakened shield guard.  Hunter! I need your help! Magik’s birthday is coming up. I want to throw her a surprise party, but I can’t do it alone.I have no idea what that is.Right, I bet that meant “musket ambush” in your time. With the exception of cake, that is exactly like a musket ambushThat’s why I like you Hunter. You’re creepy, but informative.What do you need me to do?Nothing complicated. I don’t need you to hunt special ingredients for a cake, or anything like that. Do you really need me to do this?I don’t, but... I want them to see more of what I see, that you’re part of the team. It’ll mean a lot coming from you.All right. Let me know what you want.Still figuring out who and what I need, but I’ll message you when I do. Probably tomorrow?Sounds good.Thanks for this. Do you have any questions? It’ll be fun! All your friends showing up at once to wish you the best... Doesn’t that sound fun to you?Sounds like you really like surprise parties. I have no idea why talking about surprise parties gives you 3 friendship points with Nico. Most conversation options only ever move you by one. She's just friendly, I guess. You do not often speak of that time in your life.Why would I want to? It was a childhood of happy memories, before my quite literally evil parents pulled the rug out from under me.But those parties... My parents weren’t throwing them to appease their dark gods. They wanted me to have the happiest birthday.That is all I had. I am good for now.I’m good if you’re good. Thanks for this Hunter. Can’t wait to see the look on her face. That was probably a mistake. I kept having dreams that I was swallowed by Sandman. That’s actually happened, you know.Look man, I get it. It’s not a decision to take lightly. I struggled with it for awhile myself.What changed your mind?  And what about your real family? Don’t you worry about what could happen?Ah, they’re back in L.A. Much as my kid brother Gabe would love this place, they don’t know a thing. Whatever happens here, never gets back there. To be honest, I don’t even think we’re in the same dimension.Umm what? Sort of comes with the territory of being a Midnight Sun. Most of our lives weren’t sunshine and candy before Caretaker recruited us.And now we’ve got a gigantic demonically powered pizza oven in the Forge!Excuse me, would ya...Hey man, it’s okay. We can talk about something else if you want.Yes, please stay. I really thought I had him with the pizza thing.What is it with you both and pizOkay, you wanted it? You got it.  Peter Parker from Forest hills, Queens! Nice to see you finally ditch the Spider face doily peter. We’re all friends here. You got our attention. So what do you got to say, Petey?Umm... Hi? I mean I can’t shoot laser beams, light my skull on fire, or glow like the sun. Like Tony said, ouside of the costume, I’m just boring old Peter Parker. I don’t even have a cool screen nameI have seen you in battle with Venom, Peter. Believe me when I say you are anything but boring. I did not realize you embarrassed so easilyOh yeah, I actually surprise myself at the things that embarrass me.Speaking of... Now that we took care of the giant radioactive spider elephant in the room, we might as well get to know one another. If there’s anything else you’re curious to know about me, ask away. I’m apparently an open book.There’s the option to know a bunch of spider man backstory here, but let’s be real, y’all know who spider man is, and what’s his deal.  So instead, time for more hangouts! Chose between Doctor Strange, Magik, Blade, and Captain Marvel.. Voting open for 48 hours.
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Feb 27, 2024 03:53
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Magik, and what are the guidelines about knowing things from the comics for stuff?
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Feb 27, 2024 04:08
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grandalt posted:Magik, and what are the guidelines about knowing things from the comics for stuff? Not sure what you are asking here. The game operates on something vaguly close to comics cannon, with big exceptions for caretaker and characters close to her. If you want to comment on how this game relates to the books, feel free, I'm not a marvel comics lore expert. Just be careful with this game's own tie ins and the original 90s midnight suns arc for spoilers. I'm going to assume the audience knows the backstory of high profle characters like Iron man, Spider man and Strange, but will cover what the game explains about more obscure characters like the midnight suns and interesting facts I remember.
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Feb 27, 2024 04:35
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I think he means things that could be kind of spoiler but only form comics.
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Feb 27, 2024 05:24
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Magik
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Feb 27, 2024 05:29
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Magik, why not?
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Feb 27, 2024 08:24
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I'll jump on the bandwagon with Magik.
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Feb 27, 2024 16:49
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Sure, let's go Magik.
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Feb 28, 2024 08:47
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Things are moving a little slowly on my end, so lets talk about some more starting cards..png) Axe of Angarruumus; Options are nice, but all versions of the card have pretty poor damage for their cost. And applying debuffs is not really what you want on high damage single target heroics, because those cards are supposed to just kill or put into quick range what you use them on, making the damage reduction wasted. This just isn’t efficient enough to be worth it. .png) Blessings of the Vishanti: Being a skill card that does damage is pretty attractive-you get two heroism without losing tempo. But the damage buff is small. It’s fine in the early game, but as we get better cards, this really needs to be hitting chain or AOE cards to make a difference. The upgrade doesn’t really matter, you aren’t that likely to get one of the buffed cards back while the battle is still up in the air. It’s ok, but it’s also a Doctor Strange skill card, and competition for those spots is ferocious. .png) Agomatto’s Gaze: As I’ve said before card draw is not very good-your cards are replaced for free every turn. Card draw that you can control is slightly better. You will often use this knowing you can get back a quick card that you know you can take advantage of. And the fact that this refunds it’s card play next turn does make it look a lot better, because it’s kind of free heroism. You are losing tempo playing this though-not playing a card which disables enemies this turn means taking more damage, and enemies hurt on higher difficulties, which makes it fall off at higher levels. The damage buff provided by the upgrade is a bit marginal-this only gets back attacks, and there aren’t many chain or aoe attacks that really like damage buffs and lots of quicks which don’t care. .png) Winds of Watoomb: the better class of quick. Knockback quicks splash a bit of damage onto real enemies while doing their job of turning minions into heroism. The upgrade is not a high priority, but nice when it kicks in. It’s more notable as an example how frustratingly inconsistent the Enhanced keyword is-on an attack card like winds, it means the card gains the effect if you have the heroism (before the heroism gain from playing an attack card), but on heroics, it means the card will spend extra heroism up to the threshold to gain it’s additional effects. Overall, Strange is a pretty solid starting hero even though he mostly acts as a support, providing damage buffs and cheap heroism.  Quick kick: A pretty solid quick card, the damage bonus on upgrade makes finishing off real enemies much more plausible, though it can be hard to set up at times.  Chain strike: This card can feel good early, when doing an ok hit on an enemy and taking out a minion is decent. But the damage falls off quickly, and all the upgrade does is take out more minions. Industrial strength minion removal like this is only useful in a couple missions, and there are a lot of more general purpose solutions to those problems.  Spider sense: The base form of this is pretty much unusable, drawing two cards and discounting spider man’s not terribly good heroics. Cards which don’t effect the actual battlefield like this need to be very efficient, and this just isn’t. The upgrade gives it the effect that you would expect from a card called spider sense, gaining a resist stack which will completely block the next attack spiderman takes. Spider sense plus is useable, but is fighting for slots with some very powerful skill cards once you have more cards.  Thwhip: Several heroes have versions of this card which make an enemy skip their action for two heroism. I don’t think any of the are very good, though that’s a bit of a controversial opinion. The big problem is that Thwip and it’s alternates are competing with defensive skills, which block a similar or greater amounts of damage, and provide 2 heroism instead of costing heroism. Thwip does have additional utility, it always stops the enemy you target, it can stop non-attack actions, and prevents enemies from debuffing you while they attack, but that’s not 4 heroism worth of utility. Spider man was one of the main heroes I focused on in my first playthrough of the game, but as I’ve replayed it over a couple of times now, my estimation of him has fallen. He really suffers from a lack of damage, and you can see that even in his starting deck.  Curse: The important thing to consider about roulette cards is how many results are above average and below average. Curse has one obvious low-roll result, applying weak, and one arguable high roll result, stun. The other two, marked/vulnerable are more middling. Vulnerable is an ok card, but there are several strictly better ways to apply vulnerable. Marked is pretty situational, the damage is so low that the curse effect is rarely going to make the difference between making the KO and not, marked-curse is mostly just a way to get a free heroism. With one good result, two below average result and one terrible result, curse is generally below average.  Blood magic: Roulette math, round two! As before, one is very good and one is awful. Applying strengthen 2 is an incredibly powerful effect, two turns of +50% damage on a damage focused hero can blow through most encounters. Likewise, Fast, reducing one hero’s heroic card costs by one, is mostly useless. Spending a card for 3-5 heroism and nothing else is just not a super great use of your cards. The other two options are both situational. Counter can be a decent amount of damage on someone who is going to take some hits, but isn’t usable in every combat situation. Blood magic, which gives a hero lifesteal on all their cards, does require both a hero who has taken damage and has decent attack cards in our hand, but it theoretically a serious amount of healing. On balance this card has similar odds to curse, but is a little better on all results, which makes it just and average card. The strengthen version is really so powerful that there’s an argument to fish for it even if you don’t care about any of the other results.  Swarm: The good roulette card. Sure, it’s just damage, but it’s very good at damage. Highroll Swarm is the highest damage 1 heroism heroic in the game, and the second best is the next level of swarm. Even the third level is respectable, it’s only the bottom result is really bad. Swarm is a key Nico card that gives her her identity as a hybrid support/damage dealer.  Empower: This card asks the question: how much heroism card which just exists to produce heroism needs to make to be good? I’ve generally felt that six or more is the point at which I start caring, and upgraded empower is pretty consistent for hitting that threshold, though it helps if you build around it by packing lots of big scary cards. Nico is another character that I used heavily in my first playthrough that I don’t really rate anymore. In her case, it’s more that she often starts feeling pretty effective especially if you get lucky, and only falls off in the later game.
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Mar 6, 2024 18:11
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It's cool to see the heros posing on the right there 
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Mar 16, 2024 22:44
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Quackles posted:It's cool to see the heros posing on the right there Strange meditating, Nico doing the casual staff-over-shoulders thing, Spider-man just... standing there like a goober.
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Mar 16, 2024 22:50
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TBH, Strange has this thing where, like, while he's meditating, he looks like he's showing off. I think it's just his thing. He's like magic Iron Man.
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Mar 16, 2024 22:51
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 This joke here is that Hunter died in New England before the American Revolution. This is all “America” now, correct? Does that not make me American?Do you have a social security number?A what?Or a birth certificate?What does that mean?It means “don’t try to fly domestic.” That last mission actually got me my first friendship levels with both Robbie and Nico, because I have had hangouts with them before. In this case, one hangout doesn’t unlock until after I take some actions in the Abbey for some reason, so Robbie is up first.  Who did you want me to meet?Hunter of the Abbey, I’d like to formally introduce you to the Hell Ride Gorgeous, right? Even without the extra hell sauce, she’s a beast.She is one of a kind. As are you, Robbie. Sometimes, I feel more like... invisible by day, rattling chains by night. Know what I mean?You are not a ghost to me RobbieMaybe not, but I have a feeling the two of us are gonna haunt the armies of Lilith anyway. All friendship levels provide some goodies, but for the first it it’s just a new combat skin. It also increases our team friendship level, because this game feels that there’s no such thing as too many progressions systems. Back to our regularly scheduled programming  But this is the Avengers we’re talking about, right? They’re heroes! If they are so powerful, why could Strange not help us save WandaLook, Doc’s a good guy, okay. He’s patched up a spider knee or two since I started this thing. Flaming pumpkin bombs are not exactly covered by insurance.I would not trust him to patch a tire.They move into our home, take it over, and then have the nerve to leave us out of every single drat decision that affects us. You two wanna cozy up to Mister Stark and Doctor Strange, go right ahead. Me, I’ll be outside. Most of the air’s been sucked up from here already. Robbie has a dilemma referencing Marvel Comic’s unpopular attempt to recapture the attention they got in the first Civil War event, only to make people even more unhappy than the first time! As much as I hate to say it, I have to side with Tony here. Pre-crime is not something I can get down with. Anyway, we had a reason for talking with him.  Of course! Let’s go.Nico needs help prepping for Magik’s surprise partyAll right! What does she need me to do?She wanted you to pick the team present for Magik.Oh, I got this. I’ll find something unforgettable.  I mean, yeah, Tony can be annoying. But not all of them.Of course.Although, it makes me wonder...Wonder what?Well, what are they thinking about us?When facing a demon, aim for the heart.Always do. or at least her.I have no idea what you are talking about.You have many abilities Daywalker. Lying is not one of them. Admit what you feel about Carol. You owe yourself that much. Perhaps a slightly more subtle approach to meddling in Blade's love life will work. Carol is a formidable warrior. A true hero whose power rivals the Titans of old.Exactly. And she’s so chill about it. Down to earth. Smart. Funny. Able to punch through a tank.Yes, very admirable and respectable traits. I’m not going there, Hunter. Let’s just drop it.Consider it dropped.Oh, and this conversation... it never happened.I will add it to the list. Way of the Fang research finishes, one of th most important pieces of research in the game, excepting possibly being able to pick two cards every day. Trading moves for damaging knockbacks is so powerful  With the Artifact from last mission, I can get started on The Old One Two, Spider Man’s first research. This is also a very important research to complete. It removes the risk of collateral damage from knock back abilities, and turns your other heroes into sources of extra damage to whoever you’re bouncing around.  Another somewhat disappointing set of cards to pick from today. I do get back the inspire I had lost due to save issues, and I also pick up a second copy of hellmouth for Ghost Rider. Two cards that are pretty much useless base, but become quite powerful with their upgrades. Agatha has more sidequest for us, though this one is quick.  If it were not so good to see you again, I might think you were taking advantage of me.Yes, and how you think that was possible? It’s not just any flame we’re talking about here... maybe you’ve heard tale of the demon fuelling the Forge? A fire-breathing demon no less, blazing as hot as the flames of Hell itself. Fortunately, I’ll only require a single ember.I can see where this is going... how do I find it?I’ve enchanted this vessel to protect you from the ember’s heat, you should be able to get close enough to retrieve it through one of the old mine tunnels beneath the Forge. The mine entrance is in a blasted crater out behind the Forge.  Just head down then magic open the door to find the embers. I have the ember. The bottle is not even warm.If it were giving off any heat at all I’d be concerned, given the enchantment on that vessel. Now let’s see if the old girl still works. Essentially yes. Collect reagents on the Abbey grounds, you’d be surprised what we can make use of.And I just drop the ingredients in? Is that not dangerous?Experimenting can be fun, but I’d find a recipe book first to guide your hand. I’m sure there’s an old one around here somewhere. More subsystems. As explained Agatha’s cauldron lets you turn random stuff found exploring the grounds into combat items and some other valuables. The more you explore the grounds by completing the Abbey sidequest, the more recipe books you can find, giving you more powerful options. This is the kind of system that creates some anti-fun incentives-nobody wants to go over the entire abbey with a fine toothed comb for ingredients every day, but is technically the optimal move. I’ve never felt like grinding ingredients like this is necessary and mostly found that I had a reasonable amount of stuff just from incidental pickups when exploring, but if you’re the type of person who needs to always take the most optimal path, it might sour the game. I couldn’t help but hear some raised voices in the other room. You might want to talk to Nico directly.Why? Is she upset?I do not want to speak for her. But she seemed angry about Wanda.I want to grieve too, but none of us have that luxury right now, or else we’ll be grieving the whole world. Thank you for your honesty. I will have to think about how to handle this with Nico.I should perhaps check on Nico while we’re on the subject.  Perhaps I wanted some fresh air as well.Well, enjoy it while you can. I’m sure they’ll be opening an Avengers satellite campus here soon enough.The gods spare us all.Look, the Abbey might be a little rustic, but it’s ours. Was ours. Until these Avengers just swooped in and started treating us like a bunch of outsiders in our own home. And it’s not like Caretaker does anything to stop it, hell she freaking encourages it. Once again, the light option is obviously not going to go over well here, so I'll diplomatically be neutral. Now would be the time.What?Scream. No one will hear you but me.What? You want me to shout, ‘Screw you, Avengers! Go back to your Tower!” If it makes you feel better. You know maybe this all wouldn’t be bothering me so much if they were focusing all their effort on finding Wanda. None of them even mention her, let alone discuss how we’re going to rescue her.. because ‘news flash’ no one plans to, especially Caretaker. She’s probably happy she’s gone.Forget I said that. And definitely don’t tell Caretaker about any of this. Midnight Sun cone of silence, okay. Good vent. Let’s do it again sometime. Later, Hunter.Whoops, a bit late for not talking to Caretaker. Still, we have her friendship level up as well.  So, like Hunter, don’t let this go to your head, but I think you’re okay.You do? Nico, you decided to adopt me as soon as you met me. You’ve been making me feel included, what are you talking about. Caretaker makes me feel like a child sometimes, but you don’t, so, like, thanks.Caretaker sees herself as the matriarch of this team and as a maternal figure she tends to be protective of her ownSeriously, Hunter? Are you suggesting she’s just being over-protective of me?Or just protective.Gah... you know what? Nevermind. I came out here to thank you for putting your trust in me and I’m determined to keep it positive. I need all the allies I can get on this apocalyptic reality show, because I do not want to get voted out of this Abbey or off this world.Reality show? Vote?Just try and not get eliminated Hunter. Vampires?Yes, but an entirely new breed. Nothing I’ve seen before.If it is the kind with chameleon skin, we must act quickly. We cannot let them overrun the Abbey. Not again.My intel doesn’t mention a visibility issue, but let’s circle back to the “not again” part?Ancient history. It was... Unpleasant.So you’re saying “no need to bring this up with Tony.”His room is where the infestation began.Good to know. For me, not him. I see...No, I do not. You already said they were vampires.Vampyres. With a ‘Y”? Pronounced exactly the same as “vampires”. I suppose that was wildly creative for the 16th century monks who first catalogued them.No, it is just confusing.That's why I'm calling them "new breed vampyres" to set them apart. I'll flag anything related to these bloodsuckers and send it to the Mirror Table. We have ulocked the DLC? I’m leaving thsi here so I don’t forget to introduce it, but I’m not planning on delving into the DLC at the moment. I’d like to give all of the starting heroes their time in the spotlight before I go around adding more characters. But in about 2.3 updates I’ll get back to this and we can have a long conversation about the many failings of Deadpool.  And what does Doctor Banner have to say about that?Can’t get an answer from him. He’s gone off the grid, AWOL. Happens sometimes when he’s working something out.What kind of something?The really big kind.Then what now? FaustusOne and the same.Well, I suppose you two do have some catching up to do.Oh you know... Hydra secrets, dastardly plans, the odd bomb launched in my face...How soon before we begin the hunt? You’ll be heading into New York near the Harbor. Faustus is overseeing Hydra operations in the area. There must be something important down there if he’s shown up personally. Stay focused, and try to keep a low profile. If you think Lilith’s forces are corrputed, you don’t want to meet the port authority.    My point exactly...Oof. Dark magic. I can feel it, just like before.Plus he’s boosted the gamma signature. Must be the new and improved, extra evil model.Ah yes. Coming soon to a deserted dock near you...So glad you discovered television.Whatever this thing is, it’s clearly important to Faustus.And Lilith. No, no, please... come, examine the device closely! I think you’ll find it’s not so easy to dismiss this time around.Could we get this lunatic off our comms?I’m sure Mr Stark will get around to it eventually. Hydra has been slightly more intelligent than normal, and the minions are conveniently not standing near anything that they can be knocked into. So I’ll be leaving the minions up for now.  Our first step is to smash this sniper into the power conduit. Hydra snipers are the new enemy introduced in the mission, and they have one job-do damage. I don’t want then to do anything if possible.  With the sniper not an immediate problem, this grunt is our first target. He is introduced to the explosives behind him, and then Magik can finish him off with her quick.  Meanwhile, Captain marvel can use the heroism built up to take down the other grunt by vaulting into him and then following up with Fists of Radiance.  Turn two, the usual pair of minions show up.  The primary threat is still the sniper, and the first play is to put some damage on him. Between the quick, knee strike, and the convenient box, the minions will be taken out pretty easily.  This triggers the sniper’s gimmick-half of the time he takes a hit, the sniper will conceal himself. This makes the sniper unable to be targeted with cards and single target environmental attacks until it’s next turn.  There’s a catch to this defence-the sniper cannot be directly targeted, but can still be damaged by AOE attacks or getting other enemies knocked into him. If the sniper takes any damage while concealed, the concealment is broken. This makes snipers a little annoying to deal with, but if you know how they work you can plan around them. With access to Whip, conceal isn’t much of a problem.  The sniper has a bit of health left, but I can finish him off with little help from the new research I just picked up. Shove lets any hero perform a single basic knockback instead of making a move. A small amount of free damage or movement is really useful in a wide variety of situations.   No! Please! You cannot fail me!Owed you one.One? Mother’s will be done.Typical.    In the second half of the battle, Faustus is actually on the battlefield, but he’s not going to fight us. Instead, I just need to break the block on the shieldguard following him around and play the “Capture Agent” card to take him down before he escapes in a couple turns. It’s basically the same objective as the artifact capture mission from earlier.  This is an excellent map to show off Magik’s primary gimmick- the limbo portal card. This skill is free, not taking a card play, and creates a portal on the map that you can point in any direction. Like, at an explosive barrel with enemies nearby, for instance.  Once the portal is set, the next time Magik knockback's any enemy, instead of moving normally the enemy will immediately exit the previously set portal, maximizing the value of an explosive. This card is why I didn’t want to use Magik before the shove research, as before this research the portal is useless unless you draw a knockback Magik card.   Because some turns are just a hero’s time in the spotlight, I follow up with her starting heroic, Gather. This drops all enemies in an area through portals, dragging them towards the middle. This does solid damage for the size of an AOE, but has a big caveat -unmoveable enemies, like shieldguards with their shields up, are completely immune. Still, taking out a minion and finishing off a grunt is useful.  Then Magik shoves a minion at the edge of the docks into a pier.  This gives her an angle to smash the surviving grunt into the shieldguard while still getting value out of the shove. Optimizing hero movement like this takes a bit of practice, but it’s very satisfying to get right.  Guessing the Darkhold doesn’t have any spells for boosting your cardio. Let’s get this turkey before he makes it to the transport.Captain marvel get’s dazed by the Shieldguard, but I draw a pair of quicks next round, which will wear that off without much trouble.  Let’s show off what that hero combo card I just earned does, shall we?    Hero combos cost 4 heroism, require both randomly selected heroes on the card to be able to act, and does a major amount of damage based on both characters attack stats. The animations that play are unfortunately not bespoke, just a combination of different clips for each hero. It’s understandable, there’s a ton of combinations if you include all the heroes, but disappointing. Now’s your chance! Take Faustus into custody before he can regain his bearings. The one twist on this mission compared to the artifact recovery mission is that capturing Faustus triggers a large wave of reinforcements to spawn. This is much less scary than it first appears-most of the spawned enemies are not going to act on the next enemy turn. You can tell this by their lack of a target indicator over their heads. So the only immediate problems are the grunt and the mostly dead shieldguard.  The one grunt who’s actually acting is standing between Hunter and an explosive barrel (there are so many explosives on this map, it’s so fun.) He can be then shoved into a wall to finish him off. Then I have the heroism to blow up the barrel that those three minions decided to spawn next to.  For the final turn, there’s three enemies left, I have a handful of Magik cards and the Golden Opportunity mission card. This strengthens one hero, and apply vulnerable to three random enemies. Couldn’t have worked out better.    And that’s the mission.   Truly not your day is it?You, You think you scare me? Who was chosen to learn his secrets in the one true tome of creation. Do you really think I could be afraid of you?! YeahWhat do you want to know?Everything AAARHG! Crossbones. Hydra’s black ops division. You should see the file Steve’s go on the guy. Perhaps not. If decades of fighting the undead have taught me one thing, it’s that there’s always an answer... Nice! Let’s get that back to the abbey... or maybe wipe it down first.RIP Faustus. Your bumbling mad scientist shtick was pretty fun for a starter villian, but your not actually threatening enough to stay around.  Things are going pretty smooth, so I’m turning up the difficulty again. See you all next time, whenever that is.
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Mar 26, 2024 03:53
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