Random MPQ Thoughts

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  • Michael1957
    Michael1957 Posts: 630 Critical Contributor
    AXP_isme said:
    What happens to any bacteria or similar in or on Antman's person when he shrinks down to the quantum realm. At that stage some of the scales involved would become smaller than the plank length and then... 

    Tbh, I have enough problems wrapping my head around quantum physics anyway. This particular rabbit hole isn't going to help. Maybe just forget I asked - suspension of disbelief and all. 
    But time travel made complete sense without any questions, right ? 🤣
  • ZootSax
    ZootSax Posts: 1,819 Chairperson of the Boards
    Michael1957 said:
    AXP_isme said:
    What happens to any bacteria or similar in or on Antman's person when he shrinks down to the quantum realm. At that stage some of the scales involved would become smaller than the plank length and then... 

    Tbh, I have enough problems wrapping my head around quantum physics anyway. This particular rabbit hole isn't going to help. Maybe just forget I asked - suspension of disbelief and all. 
    But time travel made complete sense without any questions, right ? 🤣
    Well, obviously.  Time travel is in the same reputable science books with Gamma Radiation creating hulk's and VitaRays making Captain America's....
  • Loosie
    Loosie Posts: 397 Mover and Shaker
    OJSP said:
    sambrookjm said:
    If we can have a Triple Bagman node in the Simulator, how about a triple Deadpool node as well?  One 3-star, one 4-star, and one 5-star!
    We had a 3* Deadpool, 4* Deadpool and, I think, Bag-Man in a Gauntlet node before. So, I don't see why not?
    There also used to be a 1* BW, 2* BW, 3* BW node in Simulator. 
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,348 Chairperson of the Boards
    I could be wrong but were not the original first run Civil War stores for Cap & Iron Man exclusive stores? They cost 30CP I think?
  • MadScientist
    MadScientist Posts: 317 Mover and Shaker
    Back when Gambatt was a thing (a 0/0/5 Gambit passively generated 3 red and purple AP every round for those too young to remember) I played much more different characters than today and I used lots of active powers instead of relying on passives like I do nowadays. Actually, that was pretty fun.
  • AXP_isme
    AXP_isme Posts: 809 Critical Contributor
    Time travel I think of as a narrative device. It's a lazy, largely consequence-free way to either add convolution or give the story a do-over. It's a lot like the multiple-universe approach in that you don't have to be bound to a particular course of events or set of outcomes, you just choose something/somewhere/sometime you like better and start there instead.

    In the same way I'm not so bothered by characters who are 'magic'. The writer waves their hands, there's some improbable turn of events and hey-presto some collection of powers is born.

    Antman, on the other hand, bugs me more (no pun intended). If it was alien science - fine, if it was some unrepeatable experiment resulting in weird outcomes - fine, if it was meddling by some entity we're not destined to understand - also fine. Superior science that's not really science though... not happy about that. 

    I know it's silly but it just irks me more than it ought and far more than it deserves. Writing it down makes me feel silly but it still gnaws away a little bit. 
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,348 Chairperson of the Boards
    I agree on time travel but it is such an established Deux Ex Machina that writers always fall foul of it regardless of good intentions.
    The Marvel definition of "magic" was always quite interesting in that the Sorceror themselves has no actual powers but they can learn to tap into the natural mystical energies that exist in the universe by intense training, research and study. So most mystical characters in the Marvel Universe are not creating random acts but are in fact following something akin to a "science" in that it can be learned and applied for predicatable results. The exception to this is of course so called "Chaos magic" and Scarlet Witch is probably the guilty party there. Too many times the writers would just have Wanda wave her hands and randomly something would happen that saved the day/benefited her - there never seemed to be any random consequences that made things worst despite Wanda "never being able to control her powers" (yet seemingly always able to achieve what was required).
    Nearly all Silver Age Marvel heroes that have any sort of "science" involved in the origin of their powers are complete nonsense. Peter Parker radioactive spider bite? Dead from blood poisoning. Bruce Banner Gamma bomb? Dead by incineration. Captain America untested drug? Probably dead by violent rejection by his body. The Fantastic Four? Lol. I mean even Iron Man is dubious. I know there was some sort of rambly attemp to explain where all Ant-man's loss of/extra mass went to/came from involving other dimensions blah blah blah but I think it is better just to ignore it, suspend disbelief and carry on.
  • AXP_isme
    AXP_isme Posts: 809 Critical Contributor
    Definitely with you on the suspension of disbelief thing.

    I always look at gamma bomb / radioactive spider / exposure to cosmic radiation / drug that can never be recreated... as basically 'magic' (not magic in the sense that you describe but more in the Deus ex machina sense). They're just a device to get a certain set of powers to a certain character, any explanation associated with it is just window dressing. 

    I'm going to stop now. I can't justify this. It's just silliness from my own mind. I don't need to burden other people with it. 
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,348 Chairperson of the Boards
    No actually I do think you have valid points when writers go overboard trying to make this stuff make actual fact based sense. Don't do that, it doesn't work. I have seen the "Science of Super powers" in various places and the result is nearly always "Yeah, this just can't happen this way...".
    Marvel used to publish Handbooks which attempted to explain these things with a nudge of "real world" science.  I liked these things of course because it was fun to try and understand how things worked but it often fell apart. Like having a characters superhuman strength anchored to a scientifically measurable unit. I mean there is an X-Men issue where Sasquatch of Alpha Flight throws a Boeing 747 (or similar) across an airport and I was like, fine he is a big hairy monster why not? But then you find out that he can only lift 75 tonnes! Wait, what? That airplane must weigh 3 times that amount!
    The whole thing really needs to be "Marvel science" which does not relate directly to anything that we understand ourselves. I guess the physics in the Marvel Universe are just "different". That I have no issue with - of course when people are bitten by radioactive spiders they get superpowers, well, d'uh!

  • rainkingucd
    rainkingucd Posts: 1,433 Chairperson of the Boards
    That's one of the things I loved about the original X-Men.  The "science" of their mutant powers.  Things like Cyclops metabolises solar energy, stores it in his body, concentrates it, and then "releases" it via his eyes.  It kept it in a "suspension of disbelief" plausibility zone.  Him, Iceman, Beast, Angel all made sense for a mutation allowing a specific growth / change in the body.  Marvel Girl and Prof X didn't really make sense in that same style, but I always found it interesting nonetheless.
  • AXP_isme
    AXP_isme Posts: 809 Critical Contributor
    So how much vitamin D do I need to take before I can shoot lasers out of my eyes?
  • rainkingucd
    rainkingucd Posts: 1,433 Chairperson of the Boards
    AXP_isme said:
    So how much vitamin D do I need to take before I can shoot lasers out of my eyes?
    *ahem* "Cyclops (real name: Scott Summers) is a mutant capable of generating concussive force-based, red-colored beams from his eyes"

    https://x-men.fandom.com/wiki/Cyclops

    Sadly, no lasers for Cyclops.  

    Or the more fun / memeish one:

    ...1983's Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, which was an attempt by Marvel to definitively explain the workings of the Marvel Universe. The Handbook describes Cyclops's eyes as being, "...interdimensional apertures between this universe and another Einsteinian universe, where physical laws as we know them do not pertain." Further, it says that the universe is filled with particles that, "generate great, directional concussive forces when they interact with the objects of this universe."

    https://www.cbr.com/x-men-cyclops-optic-blast-punch-dimension/
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,348 Chairperson of the Boards
    ...but then we have the times when Marvel completely forgot that Cyclop's eye beams are not lasers...


  • AXP_isme
    AXP_isme Posts: 809 Critical Contributor
    I love that second explanation. His eyes are portals to another universe from whence flow particles of a violently concussive nature.

    Boom! It's not science, it's just magic. We're not done yet though, not just magic, but magic lasers. Why stop there? These are magic lasers that aren't actually lasers. Now on with the story...
  • sambrookjm
    sambrookjm Posts: 2,166 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2021
    Neither a best nor worst moment...but a strange one nonetheless.  Was playing the Black Widow PvP with Okoye/iHulk (DON'T JUDGE ME! :) and had a very green starved, but purple heavy board.  I got to 11 purple very quickly, and for the first time that I can remember, I used Deceptive Tactics and did not set up any matches.  I seeded the green for iHulk's passive.  A few turns later, down goes the opposing team.
  • Michael1957
    Michael1957 Posts: 630 Critical Contributor
    sambrookjm said:
    Neither a best nor worst moment...but a strange one nonetheless.  Was playing the Black Widow PvP with Okoye/iHulk (DON'T JUDGE ME! :) and had a very green starved, but purple heavy board.  I got to 11 purple very quickly, and for the first time that I can remember, I used Deceptive Tactics and did not set up any matches.  I seeded the green for iHulk's passive.  A few turns later, down goes the opposing team.
    Did the same thing it’s a great strategy 
  • Michael1957
    Michael1957 Posts: 630 Critical Contributor
    Idea for the next 5* meta. Power kit includes the following power “ All passive powers on enemy team suspended for x number of turns “with a countdown tile . A massive paradigm shift in the game . 
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    The problem with that is all AI's passive abilities are rendered useless for x turn at the start of the game. The AI is already dumb enough and you still want to deny them passive abilities at the start of the game. Poor AI.  :'(  The dev better give the AI cascades early into the game if they do this 




  • Michael1957
    Michael1957 Posts: 630 Critical Contributor
    HoundofShadow said:
    The problem with that is all AI's passive abilities are rendered useless for x turn at the start of the game. The AI is already dumb enough and you still want to deny them passive abilities at the start of the game. Poor AI.  :'(  The dev better give the AI cascades early into the game if they do this 




    No, it’s an active power , not passive to start the game . Maybe a cost per AP power , such as use X AP to create countdown X tile , naturally with a cost requirement minimum.
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,348 Chairperson of the Boards
    So...if you don't choose them yourself then team-ups are assigned randomly, right? Just...this weekend I got, totally randomly assigned a Falcon and a Winter Soldier in my team-ups! It would have been perfect if Cap was the third but alas no. Even so, pretty weird coincidence or...Game algorithm?!?

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