New efforts!

[JanessaVR]

NPCs rarely moved quickly enough for players to notice, but in PvP you could fire projectiles at targets capable of moving at or exceeding the visual speed of the projectiles.  They could even outrun them (but you could not outrun the attack's effects: effects hit you at a predetermined time if the power successfully rolls tohit (or is autohit).  The visual representation was independent of that.

Actually I thought it was hilarious to "outrun" attacks on occasion.  A few times I managed to run halfway across a zone before a "homing" attack caught up with me.  In fact, on one occasion, I actually managed to make it to a zone exit and zoned before it could hit me.  But then as I zoned into the next zone over, it "caught up" with me and knocked me down.  I thought it was hilarious.  As I told my friends "I almost outran an attack, but it followed me to the next zone!"  Fun times...

[Arcana]

I say it would not have been difficult because the fx system already supports doing that. A good example is the Peacebringer power Proton Scatter. It seems to fire a separate projectile at every target in the cone. However, the fx system doesn't actually support a power firing more than one projectile at once, so it fakes it. The power actually has a fixed 2 second hit time that does not vary with distance. Each of the pseudo-projectiles in the fx follow a track that takes exactly 2 seconds to get to the target, regardless of start and end positions or if the target is moving. So it would be a matter of applying that same code to projectiles that do have a variable hit time.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but those aren't actually real projectiles, are they?  I always thought effects like that were actually stretched geometric FX.  Instead of a projectile flying through space, you were seeing an effect moving like a wave through an invisible object that connected the caster and the target.

[Vee]

Fiddled around with a sr/dark tank. Named it "Just Silly". My attack chain would be Soul Drain, then Shadow Punch until Soul Drain recharged. Could throw in an occasional Siphon Life to cover for the 5% or just let the regen handle it. Can't believe it never occurred to me to make one of those when the game was live. Only problem I see is the lack of a taunt aura + relative lack of AOEs would mean I'd have to constantly switch targets with my one-attack chain if trying to hold aggro.

[Battlechimp]

Fighting American had much larger issues than simply being "another shield-throwing character".  He was pretty much a blatant rip-off of Captain America in every way.  If CoH could get away with an entire Claws powerset then I think we would have been fine with shield-richoteting (from a purely legal perspective).

There was a reason why he was so much like Captain America.  The Fighting American was actually created by Kirby and Simon, who created Cap in the first oace.  He was their way of going "this is what Captain America should be!" When Timely, or was it Atlas comics, I can't remember and too lazy to look it up, took over Captain America.  . Well for like an issue anyways...  Leifeld bought the rights from the Kirby estate.  And then he  made him Cap...but with stripes in different places... think it was Lifeld who gave him the shield.  If you look at the few issues he put out, its very obvious he was using old art that didn't make it into the Heroes Reborn run he did for Marvel

[Battlechimp]

Right. Most of the super strength characters, especially Superman, cannot lift the things that they lift, because the things would fall apart in their hands. Pick up and throw a bus? No, you'd pull the bumper off the bus and throw it, or whatever other part of the bus you tried to use to "pick it up". Just as a quick example.

There was  a professor at the University of Minnesota that used to teach a physics class based around comic book physics. Apparently looking into what actually would happen with things like you mentioned :)

[Aggelakis]

Only problem I see is the lack of a taunt aura

Evasion (AOE toggle) has taunt for Tanks and Brutes.

[pinballdave]

There was  a professor at the University of Minnesota that used to teach a physics class based around comic book physics. Apparently looking into what actually would happen with things like you mentioned :)

The extreme example being superman pushing a planet out of orbit

The other extreme thing I pondered was the Flash's cosmic treadmill for time travel

[Arcana]

Fiddled around with a sr/dark tank. Named it "Just Silly". My attack chain would be Soul Drain, then Shadow Punch until Soul Drain recharged. Could throw in an occasional Siphon Life to cover for the 5% or just let the regen handle it. Can't believe it never occurred to me to make one of those when the game was live. Only problem I see is the lack of a taunt aura + relative lack of AOEs would mean I'd have to constantly switch targets with my one-attack chain if trying to hold aggro.

You taunt them all around you, then slide slowly backward so they aggregate in front of you, then you shadow maul them.  Not as good as a real PBAoE, but not bad either given SM's relatively good damage and even better DPE.  Shadow Maul was actually a highly underrated attack; curiously its lesser temp power cousin Sands of Mu was considered an exceptionally good attack for a temp power.

[Arcana]

The extreme example being superman pushing a planet out of orbit

When you consider that Earth was once struck by an object the size of Mars, which completely vaporized its entire surface and created the moon, and the planet is still in orbit around the Sun, it suggests the forces required to push the Earth out of its orbit requires an event that doesn't just place massive requirements on Superman, but also on the Earth itself.

[LaughingAlex]

When you consider that Earth was once struck by an object the size of Mars, which completely vaporized its entire surface and created the moon, and the planet is still in orbit around the Sun, it suggests the forces required to push the Earth out of its orbit requires an event that doesn't just place massive requirements on Superman, but also on the Earth itself.

Superman can withstand multiple supernova's, so he could probably do some pretty nasty things to this little planet without to much effort.  I'd think so, anyhow.

[JanessaVR]

The extreme example being superman pushing a planet out of orbit

Ha - that's nothing.  Invader Zim took Mars on a joyride through the solar system.  :)

[Kaos Arcanna]

Silver Age Superman was stupidly powerful.

Heck, even in the 1980s the Pre Crisis Supergirl once altered the orbit of the moon with just a kick. She wasn't even trying that hard.

[Ohioknight]

Superman can withstand multiple supernova's, so he could probably do some pretty nasty things to this little planet without to much effort.  I'd think so, anyhow.

Yeah, the problem is that a planet is a big pile of stuff just held together with gravity -- any acceleration even remotely on the scale of a fraction of a G and the whole thing falls apart or turns inside out -- it's like trying to push a water puddle

It would be rather hard for Superman to do much to the planet -- he could punch his way through it at high velocities a number of times, but the damage would be almost entirely local -- even Silver Age Superman couldn't really do much more than the effects of a few several kiloton blasts unless he skimmed along under but near the surface at some high fraction of light speed for a while.  That should make things rather nasty for the biosphere, but probably wouldn't disassemble the planet or anything.

[Vee]

Evasion (AOE toggle) has taunt for Tanks and Brutes.

Ah, missed that as it wasn't mentioned in the mids power description, only in effects. And I never liked shadow maul, animation time annoyed me.

w/r/t Supes moving the planet, I'm reminded of the Superfriends episode where GL moved the Earth out of the way of a meteor shower, then forgot to put it back in its orbital path.

[LaughingAlex]

Yeah, the problem is that a planet is a big pile of stuff just held together with gravity -- any acceleration even remotely on the scale of a fraction of a G and the whole thing falls apart or turns inside out -- it's like trying to push a water puddle

It would be rather hard for Superman to do much to the planet -- he could punch his way through it at high velocities a number of times, but the damage would be almost entirely local -- even Silver Age Superman couldn't really do much more than the effects of a few several kiloton blasts unless he skimmed along under but near the surface at some high fraction of light speed for a while.  That should make things rather nasty for the biosphere, but probably wouldn't disassemble the planet or anything.

Yeah he'd have to pick the thing apart piece by piece and throw each piece away from it to actually destroy it.  Which he could given his speeds are also stupidly insane.

[darkgob]

The other extreme thing I pondered was the Flash's cosmic treadmill for time travel

The answer to every Flash physics question is "because the Speed Force".

[Kaos Arcanna]

The answer to every Flash physics question is "because the Speed Force".

I loathe the Speed Force.

As though having a guy who could run faster than light wasn't already overpowered enough, they gave him the ability to steal and boost speed from others. By rights there should be no one but possibly another speedster that a Speed Force user should not be able to defeat.

[Shibboleth]

Silver Age Superman was stupidly powerful.

Heck, even in the 1980s the Pre Crisis Supergirl once altered the orbit of the moon with just a kick. She wasn't even trying that hard.

There was a comic I owned as a kid where Earth and Rann got swapped between their respective Solar Systems. There is a panel where Superman is shown pushing against a mountaintop because he has to shove the Earth a short distance to meet the zeta beam that will send it back to its proper place.

[Arcana]

There was a comic I owned as a kid where Earth and Rann got swapped between their respective Solar Systems. There is a panel where Superman is shown pushing against a mountaintop because he has to shove the Earth a short distance to meet the zeta beam that will send it back to its proper place.

Ironic, because pushing on a mountain is possibly the worst possible option among a number of impossible options.  Continents, and the mountains on them, float on Earth's mantle.  What does that imply about their structural integrity, relative to the rest of the planet?

[Arcana]

I loathe the Speed Force.

As though having a guy who could run faster than light wasn't already overpowered enough, they gave him the ability to steal and boost speed from others. By rights there should be no one but possibly another speedster that a Speed Force user should not be able to defeat.

I believe one of the reasons why the Quicksilver scene in Days of Future Past works is that while it is humorous and well-choreographed, the entire scene works subconsciously as a sort of "break" from the "conventional reality" of the movie.  We're dealing with two of the most powerful people on Earth in the X-Men universe; a man who could literally kill everyone on Earth with the help of Cerebro, and someone with the raw power (albeit confined to metal) to manipulate matter on an almost unlimited scale.  We're put in a position to accept the fact we will rarely if ever see them cut loose with their ultimate potential because of various character and plot devices.  We know the powers they have are ludicrous in their potential, but its practically a downer to have them.

For a brief window of time, clearly set aside by everything from staging to accompanying music, we're put into a time capsule where we see what happens when someone really has these powers, taken to its logical conclusion, in a relatively joyful way.  We laugh, but the scene isn't really *that* funny, rather its joyful.  Quicksilver is showing just exactly what it means to be faster than everyone else.  And even at the relatively pedestrian speeds compared to "can run at the speed of light" the ability to be that fast is almost god-like.

That's why I was always a little disappointed with power creep in comics.  There's a certain payoff to going bigger, but the costs to story telling are more fundamentally damaging.  If you can move anywhere instantly, everything bad that happens that you didn't want to happen is basically your fault.  Or you're an idiot.  The Quicksilver in the Days of Future Past movie was fast, but at the rate time apparently flowed for him during his kitchen scene while the bullets were moving at maybe a few millimeters per second, a laser beam would be moving about two hundred thousand times faster.  So even if he could move a thousand times faster than that, trying to dodge laser blasts would be like a normal person trying to dodge someone firing paintballs in his direction at over five hundred miles per hour.  As fast as he is, we know why he wasn't still around in the Sentinel future.

I just wish some time between his internment and his adulthood Erik Lensherr took a physics course.  He'd have given the Sentinels a real run for their money.