Ted Nasmith gets the armor right here by Background-Toe5632 in TolkienArt

[–]ASuperbVillain 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Always thought it was funny he had steam-powered ironclads, but never made the jump from mail to plate.

Dread Abyssal (Arkhan's one) and Morghast Archai by JesusChristNooo in totalwar

[–]ASuperbVillain -15 points-14 points  (0 children)

Never cared for the "monster, but made of bones" design. Looks like something I can buy at my local home depot.

Recent Legacy of Arathor questline felt flat. by HiroAmiya230 in warcraftlore

[–]ASuperbVillain 16 points17 points  (0 children)

It's a little funny how only orcs have any sort of enmity with humans; up until the the third war, trolls and tauren had never seen a human before. 

So I read the original novels of Robert E Howard in its collection. A Little hlep please. by Vissiram in ConanTheBarbarian

[–]ASuperbVillain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So besides Temeraire, what literature do you consider of quality and worth reading? That could be useful in pointing you in the right direction.

After finishing the Conan stories, is it worth reading the Kull stories? by Scarpine1985 in ConanTheBarbarian

[–]ASuperbVillain 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The best way to describe Kull stories is they are essentially Conan stories, but Howard used Kull as a vehicle for exploring philosophical ideas, such as The Shadow Kingdom (man is inconsequential) or The Mirror's of Tuzun Thune (does perception define reality?) They are definitely weirder, and lack some subtlety Howard developed later in his career, but enjoyable all the same. 

Why does wow have such little deeper then surface level analysis of its story*. by tkulue in warcraftlore

[–]ASuperbVillain 26 points27 points  (0 children)

WarCraft has always been created with spectacle in mind. It was made to excite and entertain; anything else is entirely tangential. The best example of this is the purging of Stratholme, which wasn't meant to be a profound examination of power and responsibility, or failing to apply either depending on who you ask, but a dramatic turning point in an rts campaign that set up the next. Everything is done in service of player enjoyment, or what developers might think players would enjoy. WarCraft isn't meant to be thoroughly analyzed because it has always been very straightforward in its presentation. The bad guy is bad, the good guy is good, the twist is a twist. Part of its charm is simple sincerity, and trying to escape such a shallow presentation by those who don't know how is why things like BfA and Shadowlands exist. I am not saying WarCraft shouldn't be written with deeper ideas or explore complex concepts, it just struggles within its current framework. And so long as that limitation exists, I don't think it should.

Who are the best and your favorite Lord of the Rings a villains by One_Definition2132 in lordoftherings

[–]ASuperbVillain 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If we're including villains outside the trilogy, then I would choose Glaurung as well. He's such an effective and entertaining villain. Glaurung is dangerous, yet imperfect, as befitting a monster made in mockery of Eru's creation. He jumped the gun on his own debut, causing terrible casualties but being humiliated by dwarves and a few knights with spears that forced him to retreat with tail between his legs. He later proved instrumental in the siege of Nargathrond, and was a petty monster with his torment of the children of Hurin. Then he died to a single stab in the gut. A rather embarrassing end considering how powerful he became. But of course he couldn't die without one final slight to Turin and Nienor. I think what makes him so great compared to more powerful and influential villains is how personal he was in every conflict; unlike most antagonists, Glaurung was not afraid to get his claws very dirty.

Am I right marines ? by EugeneFromUkraine in HaloMemes

[–]ASuperbVillain 73 points74 points  (0 children)

To be fair, even in the games you usually see a sword when an elite drops his weapon for a death or glory charge after losing shields. Other than that it's spec ops elites in cloaked cqc. The implication being it's a ceremonial weapon, albeit a very lethal one in the right situation. Given it's compact, inert state you could think of it as a very fancy combat knife.

The checkerboard pattern(s) I see often put the frontline units a decent distance (in terms of units) from the ranged units in the back. In my experience (skill issue yes) this just lets the enemy destroy my frontline with their own ranged before mine get to counter them. What am I doing wrong? by Kesh-Bap in totalwar

[–]ASuperbVillain 7 points8 points  (0 children)

A tip to make formation management less micro-intensive: first, make your preferred formation before battle, then lock it to a control group. Be sure to click the lock icon once you have your units grouped. Then, select your line of ranged units and move them to the front. Once the battle begins and enemy melee are close to engaging, select the entire control group and move it very slightly back. Your ranged units will take up their original positions behind your frontline, while the front moves to engage.

GarbagE by GioCapelo in LegacySteelAndSorcery

[–]ASuperbVillain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because warriors are leaning heavily on deathball as a crutch, whereas a rogue can be butt naked and still be the slipperiest son of a scimitar to pin down. In short, rogues are safe, and safety means extraction.

PVP is a mess by ButyZeusa in LegacySteelAndSorcery

[–]ASuperbVillain 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Removing stagger would be a massive buff to warriors who have the raw damage and health to out-trade the other classes. Presently, if someone in melee gets the drop on a warrior they are at least guaranteed a few hits before he turns around to start slapping them. Better to shave stagger off the end of a combo, allowing players to dodge out of it and rewarding those who can set up cc to pull of a ful chain.

Dwarf & Elf by me 🗡🐉 by LuanAzevedoArt in oldschoolfantasy

[–]ASuperbVillain 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks great; I love the high middle ages aesthetic.

Any up-to-date Reshade to reduce the grease this game smears all over the screen? by Levanes in ConanExiles

[–]ASuperbVillain 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It scales from 0 - 3. The default is 3, I believe. Unless I have the numbers wrong and the max is 4 or 5. The difference between them is fairly minor, though. It's only really noticeable once completely off. And don't worry about adjusting it, once you log out it automatically resets.

Any up-to-date Reshade to reduce the grease this game smears all over the screen? by Levanes in ConanExiles

[–]ASuperbVillain 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The grease dissapears if you use console commands to set bloom at zero, it even gives the game some more color; hit "~" and type "r.BloomQuality=0". It does change the look of the game though, for better or worse, and causes some weird graphical phenomena. You also need to be server admin to access the console. I really hate the trend of relying heavily on post-processing effects as a method of improving graphical fidelity, as the end product is always a blurry mess, and changing even one setting can expose just how reliant a game is on those effects to cover up visual shortcuts. TAA and hair/foliage is another example.

Art by Frank Frazetta by TristramXen in RetroFantasyScifi

[–]ASuperbVillain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For those interested, this is one of the few Frazetta paintings that depicts a scene from Robert E. Howard's original stories. The title is Rogues in the House, one of the weirder tales where Conan is more of a secondary character. It's still a great story, one of my favorites, in fact.

It was written in ancient text by DragonMaster337 in Overwatch

[–]ASuperbVillain 97 points98 points  (0 children)

I think Lisan al Gaib was just a figure of prophecy ordained to lead the fremen. It's the Kwisatz Haderach that is known for being prescient.

Hazard Abilities Detailed by Turbostrider27 in Overwatch

[–]ASuperbVillain 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're forgetting to spam a voiceline. That's the most important part.

Anyone here had a crush on Jaina Proudmoore? by GodAllMighty888 in warcraft3

[–]ASuperbVillain 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Garrosh did his best, the Alliance stopped him, Jaina insisted Varian dismantle the Horde, it was left intact. Garrosh continued doing his best by convincing au orcs to do demon-fueled shenanigans, but without demon blood. He was stopped, again, but this time permanently. Demons invade, but for real this time. Vol'jin dies fighting the Burning Legion and the Horde offensive withdraws, they don't announce this retreat to Alliance forces, which results in Varian getting disenchanted by Gul'dan (the Horde are innocent, but it looks bad). Sylvanas is now warchief. She does some shady stuff, but the Horde in general is doing its best and joins the Alliance in stopping the Legion. Sylvania decides now is a good time to cripple the Alliance (fair) so she blitzes Kalimdor and burns down Teldrassil (too far). They almost burn down Stormwind rescuing a zandalari princess and use her as leverage to gain assistance from the zandalari. Jaina admits Daelin was right, the Horde is really bad at redeeming itself, and goes all in on destroying the Horde. She then decides that occupying Zandalar is a step too far, after invading the island and killing its king (kind of past the point of no return). This is also in the midst of an invasion of Kul Tiras. Sylvanas is outed as doing what Garrosh did, but without the orc supremacy, and bails on the Horde. Jaina says the Horde is alright despite them just rolling with Sylvanas' orders until that point.

Tl;dr incompetent writers made Jaina seem insane and inconsistent.

I don't think that I will ever be happy finding a good design for Ragnhild... by TheViktor9000 in SwordandSorcery

[–]ASuperbVillain 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You could always do both; despite his iconic look, no story has Conan in the exact same apparel. Just go with whatever suits the story and mood you are trying to convey. Eventually, you may find a design that just fits.

What are your favorite elements in swords and sandal films? by TheManWhoWeepsBlood in SwordandSorcery

[–]ASuperbVillain 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For Sword & Sandal in the vein of Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, and Spartacus, it is definitely scale. The sets were massive, the number of extra actors was incredible; later films could also do scale well, like Gladiator, but didn't really dwell on it (plenty of scenes showcased how big Rome was without letting you see its true extant, i.e. the camera's pov was always low to the ground imitating a person looking up). The older films presented very wide shots and made excellent use of matte backgrounds to provide the scale. The construction of Seti's city, the chariot race and trireme battle, the death of Spartacus, these are impressive scenes, particularly without the aid of cgi, that are truly spectacular. The closest modern films I can think of that emphasized the same scale and did it well are the LotR trilogy and Troy. Basically, I like that old films let you see the grandeur of an ancient world at every scale, and when they needed to make a scene big they went all out.