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Rings of Power S2. 5? episodes in. Since it's free here for the time being, doubt I'd have paid for prime to watch it after S1. It's an absolutely massive improvement over S1, which lifts it to being ok, more or less, and I'm not regretting the time spent watching it which I- more or less- did for S1. I'm still going to complain a lot of course, but they are far more minor complaints at least and moderated a lot by the improvement shown. So it's still got the flaws of S1, but they're less prominent and mostly more... excusable, I guess. Many conversations still sound oddly circuitous but not bafflingly obtuse, there's still some feeling that everyone is a stage actor declaiming to the audience in front of static backdrops rather than being in a 'real' world but a lot less pronounced and less frequent (ie, the world feels a lot more lived in*), there's a load of slightly illogical minor drama for drama's sake** rather than it being basically all there was and you still find it difficult to credit the elves as being thousands of years old when Elrond and Galadriel act like they're teenage siblings half the time. The pacing is also still off a bit too due to too many threads- Eregion, Khazad-dum, Lindon, Numenor, Pelargir, (Adar/orcs); and the still not very good at all and extremely pointless seeming Gandalf and hobbits odyssey. Despite the number of threads a lot of things feel like they're happening far too quickly because there's too little time for things to develop. But it is, at least, reasonably engaging. Overall, if it continues the trajectory from S1-->S2 then S3 should be really rather good. *though it is still quite bad, which it really ought not to be. Spend millions on CGI, don't spend a relative pittance on extras to make the world feel like it has actual people in it is a baffling decision. **big exclusion: Celebrimbor acting like he got pithed between scenes specifically to up the drama..

decade garbage light novel fantasy replaced by garbage light novel isekai

Is isekai still the genre of the day? Gosh, that's been going on for a while now, hasn't it?

Well, or you're in a black metal band.

D4 Paladin is something new, throwing lances of holy light is always fun.

It's the only good thing about the game, if one likes the 3(.5)E ruleset: ToEE combat is quite the faithful implementation of the tabletop combat system. The writing's also an absolute highlight. I very much recommend trying the opening vignettes for the neutral and chaotic evil parties, they might just be the best way to start off with an evil party in a game ever made. Because nothing tells you how EVUL your group is like burning churches for no reason or casually butchering peasants.

By that standard I would say Baldur's Gate3 has as many or as few trashmobs as you want, depending on difficulty level you pick and your skill and willingness to abuse some of game's systems.

I always thought of trash mobs those that are defeated with ease, and who's only role is to have you do stuff, without ever standing a chance of putting up a fight. Such as the cultists in Chaos Gate who die the moment a space marine as much as points a bolter in their general direction.

It can be as many or as few as you want/need. 3 is very standard, can be four can be two or one. Probably more, but can't think of an example. For a symphony orchestra 1 piccolo flute, and two concert flutes are a pretty regular sight. Different compositions may call for a variety of of flutes and sometimes doubling may be required (multiple instruments playing the same part for balance reasons, though if the performance uses amplification that shouldn't be of a concern as things can be balanced by an audio engineer.) If you have pieces that call for a very unusual instrument, you might have a specialist who will play just that instrument when needed, and a more conventional flute section for the rest. I assume you refer to Game Awards? Didn't watch the actual show.

June 2020 and:

May I ask how would you define trashmobs? I would as repetitive encounters that offer little or no tactical variety that seem to exist to pad out the experience. I would say Pillars of Eternity had quite a few of them, Pillars2 not so much if at all, Kingmaker was drowning in them. Combat variety is BG3 is crazy good. There is plenty of encounters that have unique type of an enemy that will never appear in another part of the title. I do think it is slightly undermined by combat's poor balancing - so if one found an overpowered approach it will probably play the same no matter how one will approach the encounter. But no I don't think the game has too much combat, and it definitely isn't repetitive. Though I know you don't like combat to begin with, so it might not matter either way to you

I've read all the suggested methods of how to fix this bug and IDK how I even got it in the first place. I avoided spireton until after the negotiations between AC and order. Got them to work together and auntie even agreed to give the archive to the order so Ruth asks to liberate spireton. I fast travel and 3 order dingbats are standing outside "ready" to attack on my order. I tried telling them to wait and turned the turrets off. Tried says let's go now and every time it's the same. They help then walk away back to the original spot they were hanging out in. Talk to him and he asks if I'm ready to attack now okay so it then suggested get the lift going and a random dude might appear to kill. Nothing I rode that lift so many times. I tried completing another quest off planet nothing. Saw body found fast traveled back nothing. I've wasted 6 hours in the last few days running around in hopes it'll finally work. Insult to injury I read the new patch notes and it claims it's fixed. Well I'm here to tell you that's not the case. I don't want to wait till the next patch but I have a feeling I have no choice. Anyway does anyone have anything else to try. Also no red enemy visual with the nray. Gary hasn't killed someone in a wall. Tried everything posted online so please don't say one of those. Thank you!

I like this conversation. A number of people who dislike things I dislike, dislike things about BG3 I would be bound to dislike, were I to play it. So I guess I can skip it.

Every class that doesn't rely on Full Attacks can make good use of a single pistol. So Cipher and Chanter are good picks for example. Monk doesn't profit much from pistol and especially not a single one. Fighter, Barbarian and Paladin: same. Babarian's Blood Thirst (no recovery after a kill) doesn't work with reloading weapons.

The ride is the point, not the rap

IDK anything about PoE TT. But I'm curious. How Cipher powers and Chanter powers works in TT?

Imagine how cool, a Mount & Blade style game where you play in the unvierse of Pillars as a RPG/RTS hubrid. Or A Total War : Pillars of Eternity grand strategy game. Or a looter shooter like Borderlands. Or a survival craft game like Minecraft, where you enter a mysterious Island, or a 7d2d style survival game, where you play in a cursed land, or a Diablo-like ARPG. So much potential. What you guys think?

I am unable to debrief with Tristan about Virgil. No matter what I try there is absolutely no new dialogue. I went back to the Arbiter Training Facility and when I use my N-Ray vision, I can see Virgil inside of the, now sealed, viewing room completely inaccessible. All of the protectorate soldiers from Settle Things With Virgil are still there and dead though. I don't know exactly how much time y'all thought Tristan needed to process this situation, but I sure do doubt that you intended it to be weeks in-game.

At first I just couldn't get past the 20+ years old look of the game, and especially how the UIs look and function, but then I learned that it uses 3.5e rules, so I've now added it to my Steam wishlist. For some reason I was certain it was a 2e game.

Sadly, there isn't much of anything for me in these latest reveals from the Game Awards. Oh, well. Another year waiting on a good game for me. At least Solasta II is looking good, and I'll eventually get around to trying Avowed.

@Theonlygarby, @Hawke64, I agree with you both on BG3. I'm not as negative on some of the issues, and so I'm able to handle playing the game, but your critiques are spot on for me. The painful battles are especially surprising, because I was told repeatedly by the TB fanatics on the Larian forum that the battles are few and not trash mob battles like in a RTwP game. Well, they lied as far as I'm concerned. Trash mob battles are aplenty in BG3, and I'm able to get through them without driving myself crazy only because I'm playing with a party of six and on a mix of low and normal difficulty settings. The UIs are horrible. The hotbar practically useless. Party movement a huge pain. And yes, the story is everywhere.

Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand If I haven't mentioned it, there is a built-in photo mode and I was playing on quite low settings. The screenshots are spoiler-free. Alas, I could not "donate" 5 inches of steel in its eye socket. The priest had an "accident" shortly after. The most annoying boss battle in the game, as the boss was flying around the arena, getting stunned almost always out of reach, somehow preventing me from gaining Momentum (used for abilities). Thus, it was 10 minutes of slowly chipping away its health bar. Somehow, I did not have this issue with the other flying enemies and was able to stay close.

I have finished Atlas Fallen: The Reign of Sand and liked it. Aside from the loot, 1 very annoying enemy type, and the inability to tear human NPCs apart, the game is excellent. Review:

The issue is that the developers' expected playstyle is you, firstly, scouting ahead, then sticking your party in the most favourable positions, so the combat is over on turn 2. I considered it my failure if I ended up in combat at all. As you've mentioned, it is disorientating/unpleasant to play, and the game is more of a immersive sim and generally allows to progress without it up to the end of Act 2. Then it is nigh unavoidable setpiece battles which I loathed. Still managed to Thunderwave a main boss into the nearest chasm, thus skipping its monologuing at the party, and it is the high point of the game for me. The visual environment design is quite generic, but I am unsure how orignal one can be in Faerun with the uncanny valley of "too realistic to be cartoonish" and "too stylised to be realistic". Every companion is a possible PC (was worse in DOS2, especially with the developers' favourite NPC) and the quest design is more sandbox than, e.g., Owlcat's. Thus, the first batch of quests are disconnected from each other while also providing a sufficient story hook for the party. The main (but optional) conflict/quest line there is druids vs goblins. Yes. Just yes. It gets jollier if you see the game as a sandbox immersive sim and actively try to push the limits of the system. Playing it as an CRPG was decidedly unfun. Also, the amount of lootable containers combined with the clunky UI quickly dissuaded me from touching anything that is not a chest or a corpse. In terms of story, I am somewhat familiar with the setting, so the only surprising things for me were Larian's homebrew (e.g. a certain Githzerai-like Githyanki). At the start, you are saving the druid leader who is not working for the goblins and is there to assassinate the goblin leaders. He will return to his post as soon as your party accomplishes it. The devil (not a demon) does have a deal and it is his introduction. You can help 1 friendly individual illithid, but the other ones are enemies. Still, if it is too stressful and unpleasant to try again and you are confident that there is nothing you like about the game, saving your time and looking for something else might be a better option.

Peter Greene