RDU Neil

This is where we'd disagree. It is a killing attack... I'm killing the target, and the SFX is disintegration ray. That is classic Champs/HERO. To start over-engineering it to say, "Ok, that has to be this other more cumbersome build" is an example of exactly the issue I have with pushing HERO too far into complex simulation. Eventually everything is a Transform... Transform Character into Dead Character with a bullet in the heart... etc. The question is whether you want things simple " Cool... you have  3d6RKA Disintegration Pistol!" and let the story dictate the SFX interpretation, "Sure, you can zap a hole in the wall!" 
 
... or... you begin down the road of, "Well... for all the things a Disintegration Pistol can do, you at least need a Multipower with RKA and Transform and... blah, blah blah"... which, to me, is where things can quickly go from "fun and clever build" to "over-engineered nightmare of a points kludge"   The taste for that varies. I tend to the KISS side of things. 
 
 

I'm with dsatow on this one... if the thickness of an object is relatively very thin, just make an educated reduction in the normal DEF and go with it. No need to over think it. All this is too much detail for a game to really address, because it really doesn't help the game play... just the programming code for a simulation. 
 
Now, if you really WANT to overthink it, the "thickness affects defense (not just Body)" issue... the fact that HERO really doesn't handle this well... is part of the bigger issue that "relative size of attack vs. target" isn't accounted for/dealt with at all in the game. Size matters, a lot (and thickness is just a variation of size) but in HERO, size, most importantly, relative size, is not a calculable factor. They use some stat changes to sort of reflect size differences in changes to STR and Def and perception, etc., but they don't even begin to accurately reflect the significant differences size makes.
 
Is the Energy blast a half-inch beam or a two inch wide beam or an 8 inch wide beam? That matters a lot in terms of how much damage it does. Is a larger beam more defuse, or just more power? Is a smaller beam more focused and therefore more penetrating, or simply weaker?

Let's take that tin foil vs. 1/2" thick sheet. If I'm Giant Man, at full size, that 1/2" thick sheet is basically tin foil to me, so now has its DEF gone down... or is my STR just so much that I ignore it?
 
Thus, "thickness" and all that is still just relative. There needs to be a standard that is the point of reference (let's say "relative to normal human size") or whatever, but then you have to figure out what that means.

All this is supposed to be generalized in the interaction of "number of dice of attack vs. DEF and BODY"... and for the most part, that works just fine... but if you want to get more complex, for a better simulation, you might need to do something like,
 
Attack = Xd6... you get those dice from a combination of 3 factors... raw power, size of attack, density (including shape) of attack vs. the strength, thickness and density (including shape) of the defense... and now we are just getting closer to basic physics, and doe we really want to go there? I certainly don't.
 
Ultimately, these thought problems bring me back to, "What am I trying to do here? Oh yeah, run an entertaining action adventure game... so the answer is whatever quickly and intuitively approximates what I need in the moment."  Now, if what you are trying to do is create a physics simulator..." 
 
It would be nice if HERO has some general rules on "relative size differentials" like a simple scale of Normal and One Size Level Up or Down, Two Size Levels up or down, etc. Give some generic "+d6 per size level difference" or whatever. It should probably be a lot more, but HERO has always had low, linear changes matched to large exponential changes (see STR chart) which I've never liked, but seem to keep some semblance of game balance. Something like this would be a nice general rule, good for a game, that was not resulting in physics simulator complexity.

This is where we'd disagree. It is a killing attack... I'm killing the target, and the SFX is disintegration ray. That is classic Champs/HERO. To start over-engineering it to say, "Ok, that has to be this other more cumbersome build" is an example of exactly the issue I have with pushing HERO too far into complex simulation. Eventually everything is a Transform... Transform Character into Dead Character with a bullet in the heart... etc. The question is whether you want things simple " Cool... you have  3d6RKA Disintegration Pistol!" and let the story dictate the SFX interpretation, "Sure, you can zap a hole in the wall!" 
 
... or... you begin down the road of, "Well... for all the things a Disintegration Pistol can do, you at least need a Multipower with RKA and Transform and... blah, blah blah"... which, to me, is where things can quickly go from "fun and clever build" to "over-engineered nightmare of a points kludge"   The taste for that varies. I tend to the KISS side of things. 
 
 

This is where we'd disagree. It is a killing attack... I'm killing the target, and the SFX is disintegration ray. That is classic Champs/HERO. To start over-engineering it to say, "Ok, that has to be this other more cumbersome build" is an example of exactly the issue I have with pushing HERO too far into complex simulation. Eventually everything is a Transform... Transform Character into Dead Character with a bullet in the heart... etc. The question is whether you want things simple " Cool... you have  3d6RKA Disintegration Pistol!" and let the story dictate the SFX interpretation, "Sure, you can zap a hole in the wall!" 
 
... or... you begin down the road of, "Well... for all the things a Disintegration Pistol can do, you at least need a Multipower with RKA and Transform and... blah, blah blah"... which, to me, is where things can quickly go from "fun and clever build" to "over-engineered nightmare of a points kludge"   The taste for that varies. I tend to the KISS side of things. 
 
 

Considering that the main portion (the cabin) is completely hollow: nothing. UT sheet metal and a large ount of glass, and that the trunk is also completely hollow, I think a case can be made that the car has easily taken over half its BODY. 
 
But this gets tricky:
 
The _car_ is quite dead.  So is it at - 10 BODY? (negative starting BODY in some rules sets)?  If so, then it has taken over 100 percent of its BODY.
 
But it can still provide cover! 
 
Well of course it can: it lost BODY; it's PD is still fine. 
 
Maybe it's Bleeding: totally useless and effectively dead as a car, but repairable?  (in this case, no; not really). 
 
All this thought and examination work against our goals, though: while it's possible to develop a model using the rules (more or less), do we want to stop the game and run the math every time the environment takes a hit, or just go with what feels right? 
 
And that is why I suspect most of us just "wing it.".

Now we are getting into the classic "How do you stat a Tank?" discussion... where statting it "realistically" for heroic games makes them hideously powerful compared to traditional Champions supers... because traditional Champs had the unrealistic source material of comics, where the Hulk would casually destroy twenty tanks before breakfast, but wasn't turning people to red mist with a casual shrug. 
 
I've always said the biggest thing HERO ever did was to expose the ridiculous inconsistencies of super-hero comics source material by creating a logical, calculable simulationist system that highlighted these things.

Perhaps going back to older edition Growth or Density Increase would give a good starting place if you're wanting to model increase in DEF to scale with increases in mass and BODY.
 
Old-school DI (only because I know the old rules by heart; I'd have to look up the new ones): Every level of DI doubled the mass (you'd have to wing it to make a "thickness" calculation: twice as thick?  Likely twice the mass, right?) and provided +1 BODY and 3rPD and 3rED.
 
Old-school Growth:  Every doubling of the mass provided +2 BODY and +1 PD and +1 ED.  Twice the BODY and far less defense.
 
I would postulate (perhaps incorrectly) that the BODY difference is related directly to the fact that in Growth the physical form is no more dense; there is simply more of it.  Much like making something thicker: you're increasing the volume taken up by the material, but are not increasing the material in the present volume.  Likely this is why the DEF climb is much lower as well: the increase in mass allows for some sort of "reinforcing" of the DEF, but as the density hasn't changed, the change is not drastic until the mass is _considerably_ higher.  Making the material _more dense_, however, has a radical effect on DEF in relation to mass, and I submit that this is because the physical properties of the matter in question have actually _changed_, as opposed to simply increasing the amount of it.
 
I don't know if there's any point in pursuing this line of thought; it was just something that occurred to me.

You two are not alone. 
 
I have a strong suspicion that this is how we _all_ handle it, guided by whatever logic crutches make us feel good about our decisions.

A review of all the RDJ improv in the MCU

For fun, let's do the math on Cap's age:
 
For the record, I've seen the movie twice and, for me, everything (the car outside, the house, their clothes, the music, general ambience and a still young Peggy - looked like she had grey streaks in 1970 when she'd be 50+) points to the fact that he used the "return Pym particles" (already established by Tony & Cap's trip to 1970) to jump further into the past to 1946-ish.
 
In approx. 2013 (Winter Soldier) he declares himself to be 95.
 
Out of ice
1918 - 1945 = 27
2011? - 2023 (2018 + 5yrs after snap) = 12
1946 - 2023 = 77
 
On ice
1945 - 2011? = 65ish (trying not to count some years twice
 
Physical age = 116 (approximately)
Actual age = 181 (approximately)
 
If, for some reason, you believe he stayed in 1970, just subtract 24 from both of the above.

I loved Endgame for what it was: an almost perfectly executed resolution to an epic superhero story arc that included one of the darkest cliffhangers in movie history. And I know it was almost perfect because of how hard people have to work to find something to complain about. Mantis and Shuri didn’t get enough frames in a film that included literally every major character in the MCU? Thor was overweight?  Paradoxes resulting from time travel? This was a superhero movie that literally made people weep with joy!  

Steve Rogers didn't go back to the 1970s. He went back to the 1940s, to be with Peggy after WW II, picking up his life where he left off when he was frozen. That's clearly the era depicted when we see them dancing together at the end of the movie. For a man a hundred years old (born 1918), I thought he looked pretty good.
 
Cap's shield in the MCU isn't the unique alloy from the comics, it's "just" vibranium, and no more "indestructible" than any other vibranium. Granted, that's still very tough. MCU Cap has also been knocked flying before when his shield was hit with powerful explosions. Besides, the shield being shredded is a classic image of Avengers defeat, including during his fight with Thanos in the Infinity Gauntlet comic series; not to mention a callback to Tony Stark's vision in Age of Ultron.
 
 
True. However, "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." Odin's own words during the first Thor movie.

As hard as it may be to believe, you are not the universal arbiter of importance. I'm not saying they needed more screen time. I thought Shuri being in the battle made perfect sense, and I don't have a strong opinion on Mantis. If all you're saying is that it wouldn't have made sense to spend more time on them away from the battle, given their place in the story, I have no problem with that. But to just flat say that the characters are unimportant is dismissive of the people out there who do care about those characters. Those characters are important to them, and their view of the movie matters just as much as yours.

They are not important to you. You aren't the only person the movie was made for.
 
And as far as Shuri being combat capable goes, she's a princess in a country where rule can be determined by martial prowess. It's pretty likely that she has extensive combat training.

My impression was that, while Dad Bod Thor may have been played for laughs, the subtext of it was that Thor had suffered so much profound loss, with no way to resolve in a satisfactory way, that he had kinda given up and sunk into a deep depressive state post-snap.  He lost his parents, his brother, half his Asgardian brethren, Asgard itself, and many mortal friends and allies.  That's some serious PTSD!  So I was fine with it, and I am also a huge fan of comic book Thor.  

The difference being that all life everywhere was about to disappear and remade in Thanos' image.
Combat-ready or not, there's not much to lose by being in the battle.

i'm still thinking Mysterio is full of crap.  Special effects wizard and all.

We saw it last night. Quite awesome. I felt my bottom lip tremble once, and there were some desultory sniffling around the auditorium a couple of times.

Based on the quantum bubble theory they are going with in the MCU, every possible universe exists, so in the "main MCU" Thanos did all the bad stuff and got his head chopped off by Thor. When they went back in time they created a new timeline, where Thanos discovers them and comes to the future... and that one, he and the armies are dusted, so that alternative timeline loses their Thanos and he isn't there to continue conquering and getting the stones (so they really made THAT timeline better, most likely).
 
The real confusion comes with Cap's old man appearance. As the previously posted article goes into, there are certain assumptions you have to make, depending on your theory, and none of them seem good... except that I do feel that Cap was around, living quietly, making a life with Peggy while all the crazy stuff of the first 21 movies happened... My personal theory is, if you ask him, he'd say that the hardest fight he ever managed was NOT fighting, NOT interfering, because he knew how it all worked out. Cap's growth from almost blindly self-sacrificing to a level of enlightened self-interest, juxtaposed to Tony's arc moving from selfish hedonism to ultimate self-sacrifice.

The beauty is in the writing. There are infinite ways to explain/justify/argue about what Cap did and the implications... but by not telling us, having Cap keep it to himself... it simply allows the viewers to apply their own POV. I mean, this is crazy comics world... so many possible over-convoluted explanations... pick the one you want... we'll never know and that is just fine.

IMO as soon as someone appears in the timeline, it changes the timeline and creates a new reality.

I disagree up to a point, and agree up to a point.
 
One, his assumption that they went with the "David Lewis" method is incorrect. They went with the multiple universese/quantum bubble theory instead. You can't change your own past, but you can be an event in an alternate reality that shapes it so it plays out differently.  Hulk's explanation stands.

The part I agree with, is that they made a mistake with the Hulk/Ancient One discussion, where Hulk says they can return the stones and that gets rid of the alternate reality. That doesn't work. Them simply showing up changes that reality and makes it different from their own, whether they take the stones or not, return them or not. Returning the stones doesn't alter the fact that their very presence in the past causes a branching reality.

Also, going the quantum bubble route, every possible universe exists... so there are universes where they go back and get the stones, but lose and can't return them, as often as there are ones where they do return them. The "erasing an alternative time stream" is where they went wrong, because even that act would create branching universes where they succeeded in erasing the alternative and where they didn't. Every decision, action, thought... every quantum possibility is a different universe that exists somewhere. If they'd avoided the whole "erase the bad timeline" discussion, they've have been solid.
 
So, I feel they did make a bit of a mistake with the time travel, but not the mistake he laid out in the article.

This. So much this. "Dad Body Thor" isn't there to be funny, it's there to be tragic (okay, with a layer of funny on top). It's there to show you that Thor is broken emotionally. I thought it worked pretty well.
 
 
I wholeheartedly agree. To me, it felt believable and organic, and also like she was "growing" rather than "changing". She's still the product of all the mental, emotional, and physical trauma that she went through, but with the example of her new family, she's learned how to channel it in a positive direction.

Exactly. Did anyone have a problem with all three of the big guns (Cap, IM and Thor) easily finding each other and getting their "Big Three" posing moment?  Same thing. It is a standard beat in these kind of comic homage splashes. 

This this this!  Contacts, for me, are the player spending some points to put an NPC into the world who has a generally positive impact on the PC. It is way more than simply a resource... it is an indication of something important to be part of the story.

I really think you're overthinking it; a maneuver should only be built/paid for if a PC really wants to do it perfect EVERY single time. If there's going to be a roll requirement.... just use Breakfall, maybe with a negative modifier, and a Half Phase Action.

Keep it simple. You can solve this situation without extra work.