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Went on a second date. There won't be a third. Need to find a nice way of telling her

It's not exactly surprising. If you go from importing 90% of your cars to making 90% of them yourself (specific figures made up) it's theoretically great for your economy which is why 'bringing the jobs home' is an attractive election slogan. Making lots of weapons is great for your economy too, hence why everyone is so keen to make and sell them. Russia has a lot of specific advantages that mean it cannot be smothered economically around producing almost all the raw materials it needs itself; sanctions encourage them and in some cases require them not to export as much and to make more value added stuff at home. They also have the advantage of having had obvious western enmity for years and learning from the like of Iran in how to cope. End of the day sanctions don't really do anything apart from being an annoyance, if they worked North Korea and Cuba would be obedient US clients and they aren't. (Nominal gdp figures are rubbish anyway. If Britain made and sold Big Macs at a million dollars a pop and sold precisely two of them it would be better for its GDP than Russia selling 1.8 million at a dollar each, and it would look like Britain was doing even better if they stuck prices up 25% and still sold the same two big macs. Practically the 1.8 million Russians are doing better though; hence the use of Purchase Price Parity GDP where Russia is ahead of the UK and 4th overall per the new data (currently 6th on wikipedia's list). Of course, for most actual people the relevant measure is GDP PPP per capita...)

For the next patch, can we please fix the ridiculous relationship between prestige and security in the taxing system? If your prestige goes up alone, it should not lower your tax collected. Perhaps, it should instead compare security to the total number of turns which have passed, representing more and more bandits appearing over the time they have to travel there for the opportunity. The lower the security, the more bandits that should appear; the more time has passed, more bandits looking for an opportunity arrive.

Finished Skald. Not sure I liked the ending, but, oh well, it wasn't bad enough to make me dislike the game.

Putin couldn't get the Ukrainians to surrender on the battlefield so he's demanding they surrender at the negotiations table? What an ass. LOL

Never said I'll never play it. BG3 is a very unique game for me in that it is a game I soooooooo very much *wanted* to love, because of how much I love the first two games. So that's why I spent so much time on the Larian forum talking about the game, and the things I was unhappy with, in a desperate hope someone at Larian would give my feedback some consideration and the final game at release would be at least okay. As such, launch day for BG3 was a bitterly disappointing day for me. But I feel that in time my strong negative feelings toward the game will soften and I'll be open to playing it. I also feel, very strongly, that given the many, many core elements of the game (TB combat, all the cinematics and voice acting, the whole tadpole system, origin companions, to name the main ones), that I detest, it is reasonable for me to not pay anywhere near full price for the game. So I'll wait and get the game when it is around 50% off, give or take.

And which is better tactician/beckoner or berserker/beckoner for this build ?

There was more to it then that. He also wants remainder of Zaporizhzhia and whole of Kherson before talks even start. It's likely a response to the Ukrainian summit in Switzerland, but even so he clearly he has no problem with a long war.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjll01220yeo This story confuses the heck out of me. Is Wells Fargo evaluating employees by how often they jiggle their mouse? Why is that an important metric? The whole "try and look busy" philosophy makes no sense to me. Did you get your job done? Great, then it shouldn't matter how long you were jiggling your mouse.

I still can't get it to work because I don't have time to play mod wack-a-mole. But I did watch a 30 minute video that showed off the archetypes, so here are my thots. Kinetic Sharpshooter doesn't seem to have much synergy with base kineticist and has to pay for Archery feats. It doesn't gather power and instead pays burn up front. I'd have to get around to actually checking it out, but right now I'm not optimistic or very interested. Arcane Deceiver isn't actually an Arcanist, it just hangs out there. It loses everything from that class, including spell casting. It's a 6th level spontaneous Charisma caster who draws from a very limited spell list and has a selection of subclasses that I'd say are on the same tier of feature as the sorcerer bloodlines. Notably it doesn't get bonus spells from attribute scores, doesn't get to metamagic their merged spells, and can't merge spellbooks or do the Lore Master import. I think it may be able to attempt a bluff check to not use a spell slot or something depending on subclass, but I'd rather just have more spells. Perhaps the most surprising is that the fused spell interface doesn't appear to be that much of a cluster ****, the only thing is that attack roll spells seem to be an auto-hit instead of using the roll, which means less Arcane Trickster shenanigans until at least level 14 (with respec). Mantis Zealot has some cool powers, but it's very dependent on a specific new weapon type so will be tied to how good those are. Which I have no idea of right now. Bladebound gets a pet....at level 12. Not sure if the pet takes up a slot or works as a summon. Not going to knock off Arcane Rider, Scion, or Sword Saint. Living Grimoire gets locked to their book (mechanically a cold iron light mace with scaling +× bonuses) and uses Intelligence instead of Wisdom. Chelaxian Diva gains some sonic damage abilities and can increase their Bard song DC, but most impressive is a song with a 60 foot aoe that is haste but gives bonuses that are a fifth of bard level. Doesn't lose anything particularly great either. Inciter is an upgrade. You get sneak attack and rogue talents and can share some of that via inspired rage. On top of that you can debuff enemies in the area of inspired rage. Titan Fighter is designed to dual wield 2-handers. You "lose" half the feats to get the Ranger's 2-handed combat style, which means you can do dual wielding without investing in Dex. Maybe it gives Mutation Warrior a run, but it could also be a decent dip to get Sword Saints the ability to use a fauchard in one hand. Drunken Master can't be Chaotic or worship the Chad god but has an ability called "Cayden's Trick". 0/10, buggy as hell. Some abilities seem cool and now you have a way to use all the booze instead of bulk selling. Sable Company Marine is another straight upgrade. It gets a better pet earlier and that alone makes it a good dip. You have to wait 2 levels until you grab favored enemy, at which point it progresses normally. Bloodseeker loses all Slayer Talents to grab special magic powers (most of them copy existing spells). It also gets a bite attack and has a capstone that gives +6 Profane bonuses to Str, Dex, and Int. Not bad, but it's locked to evil and most of the spells are best spent on buffs.

It depends what you mean by online? I generally dont take anything seriously I read on SM around topics like economics or politics. And economic predictions are often notoriously proven to be untrue because of the different ways you can measure an economy But BBC is a good source of information and I consider them generally credible The article seems accurate but there are few considerations, most Russian economic data is classified and then growth is relative to GDP size The UK for example is the 6th strongest economy in the world with nominal GDP of $3.5 trillion and Russia is the 12th strongest with nominal GDP of $2.1 trillion. https://www.forbesindia.com/article/explainers/top-10-largest-economies-in-the-world/86159/1 So growth matters but other metrics are equally important to understand overall economic strength. The entire African economy is a $3 trillion economy, I find this type of data in the link below really interesting when you looking at economic strength and growth. For example if South Africa somehow gets a 20% growth thats $80 billion, which means our economy would become $480 billion. So its possible to think "South Africa is doing better than the UK because of its 20% growth "but the UK is a $3.5 trillion economy " https://www.visualcapitalist.com/breaking-down-african-economy-by-country/ So GDP growth matters but its relevant to the size of the economy

I wouldn't hate pirate theme if it's a new game, but when first time playing POE and 2 back to back, personally I just thought "They thought adding guns was a genius idea (it was) and when all out on it". The gameplay was great for me but "sold less" is something objective, probably what we (people are still here after these years) like just doesn't matter that much. It's been repeated too many times but if POE2 and DOS2 were listed side by side it's not a hard choice for a "new" player. Same thing for BG3. After all we're talking about why it wasn't as successful, not whether or not I think it's good. If we put Deadfire, WotR and DOS2 together, I'd say people just like full 3D and being well-designed in specifically RTwP combat won't save it. I took a quick look at steamdb and both WotR and DOS2 have a 10x more currently playing compared to POE or Deadfire. Even DOS has a higher number than both.

I know, BBC is BBC and not necessarily correct etc., but at least I thought it worth raising an eyebrow when they claim Russia's economy is doing better than Western economies atm... 3.2% annual growth as of June 2024 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nn7pej9jyo I can remember Western officials and commentators describing the sanctions as “crippling”, “debilitating” and “unprecedented”. With adjectives like these filling the airwaves, the situation seemed clear. There was surely no way that Russia’s economy would withstand the pressures. Faced with the prospect of economic collapse, the Kremlin would be forced to back down and withdraw its troops. Wouldn’t it? Twenty-seven months on, the war rages on. Far from being crippled, Russia’s economy is growing. The International Monetary Fund predicts that Russia will record economic growth of 3.2% this year. Caveats aside, that’s still more than in any of the world’s advanced economies. It runs counter to most things I hear online

Even Exogate tracks relationships between randomly generated staff. Sometimes it feels that every genre does better generic npcs than rpg games do.

This crap again? It'll take a month and russians will be shooting at Ukraine once more. Waste of time.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-pledges-a-cease-fire-in-ukraine-if-kyiv-withdraws-from-occupied-regions-and-drops-nato-bid/ar-BB1odPGs I am not sure how updated this is or accurate but it seems to be? Putin is prepared to end the invasion of Ukraine and has a list of demands that include giving up the Donbas and NATO aspirations and then " demands for peace that the Russian leader listed included Ukraine's non-nuclear status, restrictions on its military force and protecting the interests of the Russian-speaking population in the country. All of these should become part of “fundamental international agreements,” and all Western sanctions against Russia should be lifted, Putin said "

Unfortunately the Russian citizens are out of money to buy more of it

FemHawke was awesome.

They can always just sell more oil.

Yes, that thing. That was incredibly dumb.

I have noticed that all spoken character dialogue has a distinct echo to it after the patch. Is there any chance we might see a fix for this going forward?

Nice. I found the rumour dudes annoying.

I might just reinstall FO3 again... if nothing else, to try out the "Fat Man" in that cave Thanks for the heads up

DA2 had its dark moments, but most of them were hidden in optional lore tidbits you wouldn't come across if you didn't know where to look (like origins of Kirkwall city). Now Inquisition, that was a lukewarm bowl of unseasoned oatmeal, but even it had memorable moments and companions were the highlight (though I still think Varric had no plausible reason to be there). Sometimes I remember those moments and briefly think of replaying DA:I, but then remember vast empty plains littered with respawning groups of three dudes, lootless titanium bears with homing systems, random collectibles and...yeah, nah. From what I saw about BG3 companions + extrapolating from D:OS2, I'd probably want to toss them all into Skaen's blood pool as soon as possible.