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Out and about at the Portsmouth Comic-Con. It's only it's second year, but it seems to be doing well and it was on May the 4th, so lots of Star Wars. General practice run before trying London Comic-Con in a few weeks with a few tweaks and tidyups now that I know how this works...

Boeroer and Gromnir, I agree with you both very much. And Gromnir's point about the pitfalls of adapting from one system to another are exactly my issue as well. The gameplay mechanics that work well for RT don't for TB and vice versa. So adapting the mechanics developed for one to the other will always leave the latter in a less than desirable state. So in my view, the only way a developer can offer both RTwP and TB as equally well-balanced options in a game is by independently developing separate, parallel sets of mechanics for the two modes. And I'm not convinced any developer will be willing to throw that much in resources into their game. Boeroer is correct in the assesment that for Deadfire this was somewhat possible because Obsidian had already invested in tinkering with TB mechanics for the game, to which I would also add that it likely serves as an experiment for them for future games and as such provides some useful value. But I just don't see this being a thing for Obsidian or other developers going forward.

18:09]draego_:it prob has lots of bug fixes to [22:03]Aarik D (Community Manager):so many bug fixes [22:12]Helmino:@Aarik D (Community Manager) hope is not only bug fix [22:14]Aarik D (Community Manager):Turn that frown upside down my friend, many cool things coming! From the discord chat

Thanks for the feedback. I'm collecting and will do some rework once I'm finshed with the first iterations of all passives... Next is Ranger (down below as usual): PS: classes' passives are done - exept for a few lvl-0-passives. For example there are some subclass-passives like Sharpshooter or Assassin - and the Wildstrike passives. Those will be next. Then I'll finish all the general passives (Martial Caster, Quick Summoning and so on).

Made something in 7 days a couple weeks ago and was finally able to release it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1731998436

I haven't played Deadfire for some months as well. I mean besides firing it up to test some stuff every now and then. Can't say if that's purely because of the TB-induced bugs to RTwP or just because I got bored in general. But surely the TB messup didn't help. I am indifferent to the "TB vs. RTwP" topic. I like both. For example I liked the TB game "Blackguards" (but don't like D:OS I and II). And of course I like PoE and Deadfire. So - the combat mode itself is not something that drives me off or attracts me. But somehow I don't want to play Deadfire in TB again. I feel an objection to learn anew the mechanics of a game whose RTwP mechanics I already studied in depth and length. Maybe I'm alone with that, no idea. So, for me TB mode only brought disadvantages. Still - I can understand why that mode was introduced. There are players that stick to one certain system. They like TB and loathe RTwP and vice versa. They use those systems as indicators whether they will like a game or not. Those people won't buy Deadfire until it's TB. So in order to sell more copies of Deadfire adding TB can make sense. That, and the fact that turn based mode was worked on for Pillars since PoE came out. So they didn't start from scratch. Maybe there wasn't super serious work before they decided to release it - but work has been done on it before. So when sitting together and brainstorming about ways to increase sales I can imagine somebody saying "Hey we have some TB stubs and it works works quite ok so far. Why don't we finish it and polish it up real nicely to be able to sell to TB fans?" And doesn't that make sense? Sure, not good for me and Gromnir and others who dropped the game after TB was patched in - but as I already said: we already paid for the game and all DLCs - so it's understandable that Obsidian favors getting some new players over losing a few older ones (not thinking that they planned to lose players with it though. It just happened - but I guess one could have guessed so given the history of "patching" things. )

The only spell that I miss when not making him SC Priest ist Call of Rymrgand I think. That one is very nice. I only made him a Rogue/Priest because I already had a SC Priest Xoti in the party at that time - but I was impressed and surprised by the damage he put out with his spiritual axes (+ Deep Wound + Bleeding Cuts). Those are actually very good weapons that work especially well with a Rogue. But it also means lenghty buffing and summoning etc. first.

You can't reach PL 20 and take Prestige with a multiclass though, can you? On a mildly related note, do you like Vatnir better as a Rogue/Priest or pure-class Priest? IIRC, Priest of Rymrgand has a couple very good high-level spells.

You need to start a new game in order to pick the turn-based mode. I think I saw somone modding the turn based mode in an existing game, but I can't find it, and anyways the attributes works differently between the modes.

There are not many lashes on spells. Blighthearts' lash is an exception (and thus that's a good weapon for a damage dealing caster). Most lashes only work with weapon attacks, some even only in melee (Turning Wheel for example). Crippling Strike and Barbaric Blow have no lashes. They simply have additive bonuses that are based on the weapon's base damage. Lashes are usually damage attachments like "+20% damage as burn" or "+10% damage as crush" - so basically when it's a different damage type than the one your weapon actually has. Examples: Firebrand, Spiritual Weapons of Priests (Vatnir as Priest/Rogue with dual Spiritual Battle axes and Bleeding Cuts does actually pretty high melee dmg), Dragon's Dowry, Modwyr, Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff and many more. Effort has a wounding DoT lash but it doesn't stack with itself which is kind of bad (not like Tidefall in PoE). Examples for abilites with lashes: Flames of Devotion, Lightning Strikes, Turning Wheel, Wildstrike... Rogues, Barbs and Fighters have no ability that adds a lash to an attack (excapt Rogues have Deep Wounds which works like a DoT lash). Ciphers also don't. Rangers only if you count Wounding Shot. Casters in general don't have weapon lash abilites except Druids with Boar form (wounding damage while shifted) and Firebrand and Priests with spiritual weapons - but I counted that as weapons above. Everybody has access to multiplicative dmg bonuses for their abilites through Power Level though.

Somewhat yes - but the thing is, for the most part PoE design doesn't take advantage of being a real time game - a vast majority of mechanics aren't affected by move from RTwP to TB. It's not lets say Starcraft, which all gameplay revolves about being done in real time. There are some mechanics which are causing major problems. The question is, will Obsidian come up with solution and if they do, is it a solution which consumes a lot of tinkering with individual system. We will find out next week :-).

You're just saying that because he voted for the Iraq war, he likes **** Cheney, he is against Medicare For All, he is ostensibly in favor of continuing the war on drugs and he's hosted by Comcast. But really, they are nothing alike!

Why give a dagger a wounding bonus and not a greatsword? I rather take a hit from a small blade than from one that can slice me in half. Trust me the wounds from a spear and a sword are larger than the ones from a dagger. The only thing that would make sense is to have dagger strike repeatedly in a shorter amount of time. A dagger requires very small space to operate effectively and can be used to stab quickly in the gut or overhand. Of course more effective only vs low protection enemies. I think daggers could be made to work better if they are fitted solely to stealth builds, which are not very effective in this game. If you have stealth you have an easy time to find a weak spot in enemies armor and can therefore strike with impunity. Because of stealth you don't have to deal with deflection nor with enemy weapons so range is not an issue. so to have a stealth attack strike multiple times for decent damage and leave a person crippled if they survive would be good. Then in straight up fight have daggers lose their penetration value and give -10 or higher or so to deflection for the wielder. Have the rogue switch to actual hand to hand combat weapons while not in stealth. I think that would be really cool and intuitive. Of course if you go that route then you could debate how an unarmed monk fighter makes sense. It doesn't. They would lose to any and all armed enemies in real life. You can't block a sword with your arm. Well you can. Once.

Tomorrow morning I am driving to Cape Town from Durban to start the next exciting chapter in my life, the drive is about 1000 Miles and we drive through numerous provinces with spectacular scenery. Take a look at this one mountain pass we may drive through on route https://princealbert.org.za/swartberg-pass/ We will do the drive in 2 days and typically spend 1 night in one of the numerous quaint Karoo towns, the Karoo is a semi-desert that also has great views and unspoiled landscape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoo This is where we will probably stay tomorrow night https://beaufortwest.net/

Yasil Puig is pretty cool: https://www.mlb.com/cut4/yasiel-puig-met-a-fan-before-surgery In other news how about them Rays?!

Watched True Detective season 3. A pleasant surprise, after the mediocre season 2. Mahershala Ali with yet another great acting performance.

Why not? I haven't yet subscribed to the update stuff every week/month pattern companies like to push - I update if performance feels sluggish or something doesn't work well anymore or if it's been like a year or more. No I'm not worried about security that severely. Plus half the time I feel like updates just makes programs worse (function wise) instead of better. If it was just security fixes/improvements, fine, but it's never just that. There was a specific reason sticking to 61 tho...I think it was something to do with the way bookmarks were handled/filed/created or something along those lines. When I built the new rig I did install latest Firefox on that one, and immediately noticed some interface changes that drove me batty. So I went back.

Then One Handed Style without using an offhand weapon would be inferior. So you would need to give a lower One Handed Style bonus - and things become more complicated. My "simple" approach for Deadfire would be to give dagger, stiletto and club bonuses of some sorts (e.g. wounding dmg or a bigger additive modifier or whatever) in situations where it makes sense. Which translates to giving them those bonuses with certain abilities: mainly attacks from stealth/invisibility, higher Sneak Attack bonus, higher crit chance with Minor Threat, better Assassinate and Backstab. Something like that. Maybe a single simple bonus in certain situations would be better to keep things simple. Maybe there are other abilities of other classes that make sense to get the bonus when being very near to the target. Don't know. Or just keep it as it is. It's a fantasy game after all. It's ok if weapons are balanced if you don't have special "situations" in your game (in combat) to take into account the "real" properties of those weapons.

The Talos Principle I have seen about 1/3 of the game so far and it is truly amazing. Some puzzles that look impossible at first are solveable if you truly focus and use your brain. If anything, this game has tought me that no matter what people think or say, I am still an intelligent person.

Playing Imperator Rome. There is definitely a learning curve but not too bad if you have played Paradox games. If you are familiar with Stellaris or EU you'll pick it up. Lots and lots of detail that you can micromanage as much or as little as you like. It's pretty, bug free, and fun. It isn't perfect. I leans on some crutches you don't want in a RTS and if you are a TW fan you will miss tactical battles. But over all it's a very pleasant time waster. Being a Paradox title you already can guess the game we are playing today will look nothing like this a year from now..

Stacking some mediocre additive dmg bonuses (Devoted) with a lot higher additive dmg bonuses (Assassin) will not result in jawdropping dmg numbers (per hit). Except maybe if you'd use an Assassin/Ranger who uses Assassination + Backstab + Takedown combo with an arquebus (very tedious setup though). You need to combine the high additive dmg bonuses the Assassin gets with a multiplicative one. That's abilities with very high PL bonus (meaning low level abilities), lashes and DoTs (wounding, Bleeding Cuts, Deep Wounds etc.). So, stuff like Bleak Walker + Assassin + high base dmg lash weapon (Dragon's Dowry, Cromoprismatic etc.) or wounding weapon (Oathbreaker's + Bleeding Cuts) works better than Devoted + Assassin. Simply because the lashes/the DoTs will take the already high dmg roll and multiply everything. While a Devoted will add some whimpy Weapon Spec and Mastery and a bit more crit dmg which is all just some little chunks of weapon base damage. Example: A) Weapon base dmg of 20, +250% base dmg modifier vs. B) dmg of 20, +200% base dmg mod and a +30% lash: A) 20 * (1+2.5) = 70 B) 20 * (1+2) * 1.3 = 78 Although B's lash is "only" 30% vs. A's 50% additive bonus the overall dmg is still higher. So, tl;dr: combine additive dmg bonuses with multiplicative ones - it's more effective than stacking lots of additive ones. Besides that: Devoted is good because he adds PEN. Much more important than his increased crit dmg. But an Assassin already has very high PEN with Assassination. So this doesn't complement very well except against the highest of AR values.

Don't know why expected more from someone that entered the thread with "This is laughable" and has continued to badger every person with a perspective remotely similar to the OP.

a bit confusing 'cause you disagree with us, then immediate agree with our main point. the deadfire mechanics were based on rtwp. change those mechanics after years o' development and months o' post release content additions were not the way anybody would choose to design a game to take advantage o' both rtwp and tb. "didn't translate well" is the problem we identify... and the source o' wormerine understatement. to wit, am also gonna suggest the results is worse than you suggest. sure, many folks has kinda taken a grin and bear it approach to the way in which tb broke any number o' mechanics and features, but isn't hard to find many instances o' deadfire fans, such as Gromnir, who have not played deadfire since january. game has been out a year and 1/4 o' that time, from the moment tb were added, we ain't bothered to do more with deadfire than check and see if specific mechanics were indeed still busted post patch. the boards may be misleading at times. is fan feedback. cannot immediate name another game which, faced with months o' unplayable, we would keep posting on the developer boards. am betting many o' the less dedicated fans o' deadfire who were similar annoyed by tb problems is long gone. fact you don't hear from them is hardly surprising. HA! Good Fun!

Hope you will enjoy it at least as much as I did.

Ah, that makes sense. And it's perfectly reasonable. I imagine it's just a can of worms bug-wise. It's just so unfortunate On a side note, great profile photo, completely forgot about the Laughing Man.

"They did Melo dirty."

Die Ventrue scum. Remember Carthage.

TB mode is coming to PoE? Hmm, maybe that's the tonic I need to finally install and play! RTwP combat was a total kludge for me and I quit during beta.

The basic outer shell of my house is done: The inside is mostly empty: I'm eventually going to divide this lower level into rooms. You can see my bed off in the corner, I'll move it later once I have the layout complete. This second floor (first floor if you're British) and the mezzanine are going to remain one giant open room. I'll probably add a ceiling in the future and use the upper floor just below the roof as storage, with a ladder to reach it. I'm also definitely going to add some columns for decoration (and support). All manner of debauchery is going to take place in this giant, two-tier open room, so I'm going to make it lavish as ****. Naturally, I have a sweet-ass throne up on the mezzanine where I can look out over the giant open space.

“Star Citizen is a playable game,” Roberts insists. “It has more functionality and content than a lot of finished games.” I mean, he's not even wrong. I also enjoyed the "ignorance of crowds" pics interspersed. I predict a 2025 launch after Roberts has sold a technically-not-bankrupt CIG to Activision and they re-start the project barely using any assets at all. It'll then be forever immortalized as a "killed in the crib" myth with gamers everywhere wistfully musing about "what it could have been".

FYI, the forum update means we can finally just copy/paste twitter links! Huzzah!