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Empty words from Epic. They're practically owned by China and have no platforms for people to speak out.

A hipster sued a newspaper for using his picture in an article called "Why all hipsters look the same". Later was revealed that the hipster on the picture was a different person.

https://wccftech.com/greenberg-pleasantly-surprised-by-how-much-innovation-content-is-coming-from-the-new-studios/ "At Obsidian, there’s the team working on The Outer Worlds, a team that’s working on Pillars, and a team working on another secret thing."

Here is a picture of them when they were older Pretty cool looking

Same here in Sweden, one would think that blinker fluid is more expensive than gasoline.

Someone had to go with the "average Obsidianite"... Gets me a free way to regain sanity through...entertainment This was initial character creation, game hung after it so I had to start over, current character is Middle-Aged rather than Adult, everything else remained the same though.

I guess its more about not feeding China government with money, maybe some morals - if you expect any from corporations...

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/10/thousands-of-dos-games-have-been-added-to-the-internet-archive/

I have a couple of complaints about Deadfire but I'm too lazy to detail all of them. I will cite merely two, and probably not the most irritating two. First, can Aloth not target one enemy with a handful of his mates in the target area? I like boarding battles, but the AI is idiotic. Now, for the impetus behind this post: I like Maia. Honestly, she's not only a cool NPC but also a useful companion in battle. That reposition and shoot is awesome. Essentially two attacks every round for most battles. However, "forecastle" is pronounced "FOLK-SiL." Come on, damn it. She's a sailor! Meanwhile, I finished *a lot* of the game and it's simply brilliant. I really loved the first game, but the alacrity with which the population jettisoned the gods was simply amazing. The new game addresses that really well. Bringing back Eothas is simply brilliant. I'm not using spoirel tags for that because 1, the game has been out forever and 2, Eothas' return is a fundamental part of the game from teh outset. I like the fact that the most 'politically correct' solution *not* always works best. This is truly a phenomenal game. Seriously, any game that steals sleep so I can keep ahead of project deadlines has something going for it. It's addictive in every sense, both good and bad. EDIT: not at my best, but I added a word that makes all the diffrerence to the meaning.

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.

Not "news" per se, but a nice vid all the same!

I had to ask Adam Brenneke on Twitter if this is his new baby.

Dak Prescott's level of play (not style, mind you, but level) reminds me a lot of Kirk Cousins': he and his team will destroy and pile up great stats against lesser teams, but there's a sickening tendency for them to fold in the worst ways against good teams or in season-breaking situations. The key, it seems then, is to ideally never find yourself in those kinds of situations, but that's not really how football works. It especially becomes harder once you actually pay them real money and the quality of their supporting cast starts to drop, and then you start adding in key injuries occurring as the season progresses. ...Uh-oh. In contrast, look no further than the Packers walloping the Cowboys a number of times throughout the years in critical games even while the talent and injury disparity between the two teams has often been absolutely nuts (that 2016 playoff game we had absolutely no business even playing in, never mind winning - we were broken on so many levels that year and that game). I don't pretend to understand how it keeps happening, but it does. Maybe it's time for a coaching change.

I dunno, stealing tech, sabotages, kidnapping, infiltration, info gathering, assassinations, riots...

Run Jesse Run!

Sorry. My brain hasn’t been working for couple days now.

As for lack of marketing, I would agree if they were going for a different audience. I think they're going for fans of Obsidian RPGs, and I think all of those are aware of TOW. As for releasing on the same day as COD, so what? Completely different games with completely different target audiences.

David Tenant reading Vampire Stories for Halloween Although probably not the fan base for it here.. but you never know who might want ot pass it on.

Must be preparing for a career in politics.

I don't think fanboys will ever cease to exist. I used to be a bit like that for Sega Megadrive and PS1 when I was a kid... then I turned 13 and stopped.

That's why I was curious about what part of the Russia thing Gfted1 meant and thanks to him for clarifying. Did they actually change any votes themselves? Nope. Did they try to heavily influence the outcome of the election? Yes. Can we measure how successful that effort was? Not really, no. Did the Trump campaign "collude" with Russia? Insufficient evidence to bring conspiracy charges. Did they try to? Yes. Is that nothing? In my mind no, it's not nothing. PS I refuse to type nothing before the last name of the 15th chief justice of the US

Adding "Woedica's crap dialogue" so that players do understand the lore and story better IS polishing the game. This was done based on feedback of the community who said that it's easy to miss certain points of the story. I think it's one of the best patched additions to the game - after the additional subclasses. There was so much polishing with Deadfire going on after release that I find it rather silly to harp on that specific aspect. This statement - as the rest - is only your opinion. The same as the assumption that one could make a RTwP game as Deadfire a lot less messy and create something that is on par with TB combat when it comes to tactical depth with just more polishing, knowledge and skill. I don't know if there's a company out there which has more experience and more skill with RTwP implementations than Obsidian has, let alone the funds and the willingness to attempt a RTwP game - just to prove your assumtion. Pillars of Eternity - as an IP - is not bound to any specific mode or ruleset as we can see: else we wouldn't have the Tabletop Version which uses - no surprise - a turn based ruleset which is classless and very different from the two CRPGs. Should they continue to bring and improve RTwP if they decide to make a successor (a third isometric, party based Pillars RPB with the Watcher)? I do think so. It would be very weird if they didn't. Does that mean it shouldn't come with both combat modes? No. If we learned anything from the introduction of TB mode it is that now Deadfire game appeals to a lot more potential customers: We saw a surge in sales numbers as soon as TB mode was introduced. If Obsidian would make a PoE3 with the same/similar engine and ruleset and not leave TB mode in - they would bid adieu to a big chunk of customers in spe. Why would they do that? That would most likely be economically stupid. And I'd rather have a realized PoE3 with good RTwP/TB mode than a non-existent PoE3 with perfect RTwP mode. I'm trying to be objective. Again: I don't play TB mode with Deadfire. I started this ride on RTwP and am not willing to change that. But that doesn't mean that TB mode is bad or that people who prefer it are dumb, millenials, console gamers (which intrinsically seems to mean they are bad players) who like to press x - or whatever kind of subjective and prejudiced pablum gets brought forth to make TB and the players who like it look somehow inferior (to prove which point exactly?). Just because one likes cake doesn't mean that pie is the inferior pastry people who like pie are epicurean savages cake would appeal to more pie lovers if it just was done better and had more icing every new pastry in the shop should be cake or at least there has to be more cake in the shop as a general rule one can't like pie as well It's just liking cake then, nothing else.

No, it probably means one of the devs that is working on Encased RPG used to work at Larian and another dev used to work at Iron Tower. Anyway, this looks like every single crowdfunded RPG. It could be good, I hope it is. I don't touch early access, I have no intentions of paying to beta test somebody's game. As far as I'm concerned, Encased RPG is not out yet. I guess the nice thing about early access is that there are plenty of impatient suckers devoted enthusiasts out there that will buy this unfinished game and play it now, so by the time this game comes out for realsies, 3 years from now, or whatever, there will be plenty of data out there with which I can make an informed purchasing decision.

I am d†cking about Black isle games right now and have a sneaking suspicion people just miss the incredible fromage of Baldurgate, because while you can play Deadfire's classes in different and varied ways, and some combinations are noticeably more powerful than others, there are no class/item combo that'll turn you into a Minor God of Cheating while BG2 has tons of these. Not gonna deny, there is certain charm in, say, waltzing into some lich's crypt wearing Sanctuary and robbing him blind while he just stands there, but I still prefer Deadfire's approach. I am human therefore will always choose the path of least resistance, and if the game gives me "LOL in your face, beholder" shield then of course I'm going to use it instead of buffing up to wazoo and kiting that thing around in hard way. Deadfire's (POE1's too) "no win button" policy, however, makes me exercise my imagination and I need that in my old age as it unfortunately deteriorates. Oh, and I jumped back into some old saves of Kingmaker to try out that turn-based mod. It's quite good really, and I can finally see and understand how stuff like Magus class works, but hoo boy does the mod put the spotlight on overabundance of trash encounters. (And I would sooner sign up for cleaning public toilets in the city with epidemic dysentery than play through that dreadful endgame house again).

Ye i agree Boeroer. i find POE 1 and 2 more accessible than d&d / pathfinder. i never played tabletop d&d so playing a game based on pathfinder to me seems really convoluted compared to POE. I played pathfinder a for a little while and it makes me appreciate POEs straight forward attributes, more balanced systems, and commitment to no trap builds.

Good luck George! Looking forward to what he does next.

It should get its own spell in a unique grimoire.

you are the man, thanks that helps a lot so a lot of int and res, got it, should I go perception dex or str on it? I suppose dual wield is good way to pump out focus right?

I haven't been following that "scandal" very closely mostly because it seems stupid and not that hard to square. Or maybe I've just become numb from our president lying daily. China escalates things with the NBA as now All of the NBA's official Chinese partners have suspended ties with the league

I'm pretty sure they've all said that they'll back the eventual nominee but my point was that if Bernie were to drop out now I'd bet money against him backing Biden over Warren or even Gabbard for that matter

I'm playing the "waiting in queue on Destiny 2" game. Apparently there's lots of free players who are only slightly less new than me. And also the moon is haunted.

You usually only "lose" the loot. That may be not worthwhile at all (like Gorecci Street where the looters drop nothing that's exciting) or quintessential for you build ideas (e.g. with Familiy Pride/Bardattos vs. Valeras: Casità Samlia's Legacy and Deltro's Cage can only be yours if you kill both family heads). It is possible to do a pacifist run. You will have to fight every now and then - but most of the time fights can be avoided with dialogue and stealth. A "problem" will be bounties though. You can't do them without fighting. In those cases the nearest thing to not fight is to sneak in and deliver a gouging strike, go invisible, run away, grab a coffee and watch a Netflix show and come back later when the enemy is dead. Repeat.

What do you think of me - sure I have. Doesn't work unfortunately (only initial target receives True Love's Kiss with Clear Out). By the way this also means that stuff like Stalking Cloak's "Bushwack" and Mask of the Grotto Deep's "Shadow Fang" trigger on all the AoE hits from stealth. Stuff like Assassinate and Backstab would, too - if you could only get them as SC Ranger or Barbarian. But if you are a SC Ranger with high INT and MIG and Harley pet (adds 10% dmg to DoT ticks for whatever reason), wearing the Mask, use Lover's Embrace in the main hand and a battle axe with Bleeding Cuts in the offhand and executing Whirling Strikes from stealth it's a death sentence (also because Whirling Strikes DoT is so freakingly strong of course). I lured mobs to one spot (and loud AoE spell taht you can cast onto the groud or explosive will do) and then executed it from stealth. Man... Of course stuff like Fire in the Hole in offhand and Keeper of the Flame in the main hand are even more devastating (superdevastating to be honest). Even two Battle Axes are more effective against "normal" enemies. But sometimes that dmg isn't enough (duration too short) to bring down the really tough nuts wihtout getting overwhelmed. So I was searching for something like Gouging Strike and True Love's Kiss came to mind. I just found it very convenient to be able to "curse" several opponents at once. If I then kill a weakling to trigger the Slippers of the Assassin or use Rust's Shadowing Beyond (on the stiletto) I can remove myself from combat (if there's enough space) and simply wait for the "cursed" enemies to die (which ends combat). Like you could do with a rogue + Gouging Strike. I killed Nemnok that way now at low level (before using Whirling Strikes). Hitting several opponents at once just makes sure you don't have to wait that long and you don't need to repeat that process so often. It's more for solo runs I'd say and I only found out accidentially. But I thought it might be good to know.

That's right.

For @bugarup who enjoys the aesthetics of the game

Lost my Kyra when I tried switching it out with another character. Now all her cards and items are all gone. Is there anyway I can get my character back? I guess it was because it was the same name as another character. Please help ><

Yeah, probably. Just digital version, though. Unless I get it on PS4 for whatever reason. (Probably not though. Probs PC.)

The original post for this build is underdeveloped in some ways – it doesn’t have specific gear recommendations, for instance. I’ve been playing and honing a build based on this one and have made it my own. I wanted to post it with all its details, but I want to give credit to Climhazzard for turning me on to the central mechanic that defines it (pairing Exalted Endurance with Ancient Memory, high might and intelligence, stacking healing bonuses). So I thought I’d post the full build here in this thread. The first decision you have to make is whether to do a no-rest run or not. The chief benefit of a no-rest run for this build will be the ability to use the Blessing of the Dawnstars (+50% healing, gotten in Port Maje), at the cost of giving up per-rest abilities. In the below build I’ve assumed that you will in fact be resting. If you do a no-rest run, that will also affect which affliction resistances you’ll use and whether you want Aegis of Loyalty, since on a no-rest run you’ll probably have a great food buff like Captain’s Banquet up on all your characters which might give them immunity to some afflictions. Here’s my take on the Healing Wall. The Healing Wall =================================== Difficulty: PotD v. 4.0.1 -------------------------------------------------------------- Solo: not intended for solo -------------------------------------------------------------- Class: Paladin (Shieldbearer)/Chanter (Troubadour) -------------------------------------------------------------- Race: Coastal Aumaua (for Might affliction resistance and Might bonus. And you are a cool giant.) -------------------------------------------------------------- Background: Get one that boosts Might or Intelligence. I made mine a philosopher (from Ixamitl) for RP reasons. -------------------------------------------------------------- Stats: Max Might and Intelligence, everything else at 10 Skills: Passive: Diplomacy (for the scaling Captain’s Favor heal on the shield and RP purposes); Active: I went Athletics for the many watcher-only athletics checks in scripted interactions and the great Second Wind, but Arcana might be the best for abusing high might with scrolls, which I don’t like to use. Weapon Proficiencies: Large Shield, Sabre, whatever (medium shield might be useful) -------------------------------------------------------------- Abilities (!=important, r=recommended, (a) automatic) PL 1 (levels 1-3) Paladin (a) Lay on Hands (!) Deep Faith (!) Chanter Soft Winds ® Skeleton summon invocation ® PL 2 (levels 4-6) Paladin Zealous Auras (!) Weapon and shield style ® Inspired Defenses Chanter Wurm summon invocation ® PL 3 (levels 7-9) Paladin Greater Lay on Hands (!) Chanter Ancient Memory (!) Combat Focus Two Fingers of Daylight (could substitute Aegis of Loyalty for either of these) PL 4 (levels 10-12) Paladin Exalted Endurance (!) Mental Fortress Chanter Ogre summon invocation (!) Mith Fyr chant ® PL 5 (levels 13-15) Paladin Practiced healer (!) Iron Gut Clear Head (could sub any or all of liberating exhortation/reviving exhortation/inspired path for the 3 affliction resistances I’ve selected) Chanter Rapid casting PL 6 (levels 16-18) Paladin Inspired Path Chanter Eld Nary invocation Quick Summoning Ogre summon upgrade PL 7 (levels 19-20) Paladin Stoic Steel Chanter Mercy and Kindness (!) Ancient Weapons summon ® --------------------------------------------------------------- Items (!=important, r=recommended) Weapon Set 1: Sasha’s Singing Scimitar (r - +Refreshing Finale, Companion’s Prelude), Shining Bulwark (! - +Defensive Beacon (!)) (Alternative shields: Lathandria’s Devotion, Cadhu Scalth) Weapon Set 2: Watcher’s Blade/Animancer’s Energy Blade, Shining Bulwark Head: Horns of the Bleak Mother or Blackened Plate Helm (better yet, use a regular Vailian Tricorn and have the biggest, bushiest beard you can and look awesome) Back: Cloak of Greater Protection/Deflection (or maybe Badrwn’s Cover) Neck: Necklace of the Harvest Moon or Bone Setter’s Torc (!) Armor: Blackened Plate Armor (! - +Life in Death (!), +Usher’s Visage) Waist: Physicker’s Belt (!) Hands: Gauntlets of Ogre Might/Woedica’s Strangling Grasp (!) Rings: Gaun’s Pledge (!), Chameleon’s Touch or Ring of (Greater) Regeneration Boots: Footprints of Ahu Taka (!) Pet: Prissy (! - +10% healing done) Strengths of the Build: Constant Party-Wide Regeneration: The Core Idea The central idea of the build is to stack constant party-wide regeneration effects. There are three: the paladin’s Exalted Endurance aura, the Ancient Memory chant, and the Life in Death upgrade to the Blackened Plate armor. To support those regeneration effects, we want to maximize might and stack +healing gear, which is why I’ve chosen the belt, boots, gauntlets, pet and necklace we have. We also want to maximize intelligence to make the auras as wide as possible; also, 20 intelligence allows us to use a second chant as Troubadour (I use Mith Fyr until getting Mercy and Kindness at level 19) without any downtime for Ancient Memory. The amount of healing we can achieve with this setup is just massive. (Some of the comments worry that you don’t get good healing until Mercy and Kindness at level 19; that’s not true at all. I don’t even feel the need for Mercy and Kindness once I get there.) As the playthrough goes on, we can switch in and out some of the +healing gear to hit breakpoints; for Ancient Memory’s healing per second, the game rounds up when you get halfway between a point – so if you hit 1.5 healing per second, the game rounds up to 2 per second, whereas if you are at 2.3 the game rounds down to 2, so we might as well drop (say) the Bone-setter’s torc for a while because the +10% doesn’t make a difference. Power Level affects the healing, so recalculate regularly. Since this healing never runs out, this is a perfect healer for a hardcore deadly deadfire PotD run where fights take forever and ordinary druid or priest healers run out of resources halfway through the fights. Resource-using heals Since we’ve stacked +healing gear and might, we can also take advantage of other ways to heal. We have two types of those: per-encounter and per-rest heals. Per-encounter: We have two per-encounter heals, Greater Lay on Hands (which as a Shieldbearer also prevents death), and the chanter invocation Two Fingers of Daylight. (I confess I rarely use the chanter invocation, since I use my phrases for summoning.) Per-rest: We also have a total of five significant AOE per-rest heals (in addition to our own Second Wind): 2 casts of Restore from Gaun’s Pledge, 1 cast of Captain’s Favor from the Shining Bulwark shield, 1 Moonwell from the Necklace of the Harvest Moon (if we are using that instead of or before we get Bone Setter’s Torc), 1 from the Watcher ability Sympathy for the Lost (I always get this one, look up the responses you need to get it). All five are boosted through the roof with all the might and +healing gear. The Harvest Moon Necklace’s Moonwell is almost laughably good on this character; really, all of them are, and I love how fast-casting Gaun’s Pledge is and how useful it is to have a fast-casting AOE heal instead of just single-target with the Lay on Hands. Party buffing and enemy debuffing In addition to providing all the healing your party will ever need, we can take advantage of the large AOE boost from high intelligence and central location in the battle as a tank by getting other constant party-wide buffs. There are four: +1 AR from the Shining Bulwark, +1 AR from Exalted Endurance, stacking action speed from Sasha’s Singing Scimitar Companion’s Prelude buff, and the Mith Fyr chant (until you get Mercy and Kindness at level 19, and frankly you might decide to stay with Mith Fyr at that point anyway). We also get two ways to debuff the enemy. One is the Usher’s Visage upgrade to the Blackened Plate Armor which is an aura that gives -1 AR to enemies. The other is the Eld Nary invocation, which may seem like it doesn’t fit in this build. But since we are using Sasha’s Singing Scimitar anyway for the party-wide action speed buff, we might as well get the Refreshing Finale invocation, for a free empower use every fight (that refunds 3 phrases). Empowering the summons doesn’t do much. But an Empowered Eld Nary is a great fight opener, and then we can still start summoning pretty soon after. Tankiness One of the coolest things about this character is that it is a healer that operates best planted right in the middle of the fight. Defenses, as is typical for a paladin, are through the roof, and the Large Shield modal is very useful. I open fights by telling this guy to run to where I want my front line to be, activate the modal, and then start summoning and healing. He can still engage while casting. With the gear and ability choices I’ve made, he has 5 affliction resistances: might (from race), resolve (Horns of the Bleak Mother helmet), perception, intelligence, constitution (paladin abilities). This guy basically doesn’t get hurt much in my experience, even while planted in front of all the enemies (the summons probably have something to do with that). If he gets hurt more in your experience, go ahead and use a Ring of Greater Regeneration on him. I think that’s affected by all the might and +healing gear too (though I’m not sure about that right now, since I don’t feel the need for it and use Chameleon’s Touch instead.) Summons As Boeroer is fond of pointing out, summons aren’t there for the damage. They are more helpfully thought of as a form of very flexible crowd control: they can distract enemies, fill holes in lines, absorb punishment, flank, get summoned next to casters and provoke the casters into casting on them instead of the rest of the party, and much more. This character has 100% uptime on the summons. The Ogres are the best at that distraction/absorption job (due to their size, their health, and the fact that they can engage enemies, unlike the wurms), while skeletons and wurms will hold us over until we get the Ogres. So with this character you really get three tanks for the price of one (himself and 2 Ogres).