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Freespace 2 up for grabs for free on GOG! If you like space sims and never played it, you have missed out one of the best space games!

12 people in the next debate as Gabbard qualifies

Emperor has spoken

https://www.gog.com/news/interstellar_sale_space_games_up_to_85 Freespace 2 free for 2 days. One of the best space sims ever.

"Man or Innsmouth-Man?" - Nietzsche, Also sprach Shub-Niggurath

@Skarpen - Fair enough, I misunderstood you. I guess it depends on how you define "catastrophe" though. The world won't end in 10 years, or 20, or 30...but the consensus seems to be that we're in for a tough beating.

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).

Somewhat funny to see people slam her for melodramatics or label her as deranged when they idolize Trump.

To be fair, that game was such a mess, that its performance would probably not be improved even if the God himself would touch the source code

There's nothing, then a glimmer... Then you're dead! Build Name : The Glimmer Man Class : Swashbuckler (Fighter/Rogue) Subclasses : Tactician/Assassin Introduction : Pure sniper build using the interraction between invisibility and Brilliant Tactician. Firearms ensure that you can use Smoke Veil instantly and avoid any damage. If you don't play with Berath's challenge activated then Smoke Veil will just end the fight - use it at max range, run out of the enemy's sight, then restealth and come back to finish the target. The build starts working as soon as you get Smoke Veil. Game Version : 5.0 Difficulty : PotD Solo : Yes (or keep your party out of the fights) Race : Island Aumaua Culture : The Living Lands Background : Scientist Attributes : 21Mig/3Con/15Dex/18Per/18Int/3Res Skills : max Arcana (for Spearcaster - required for Dorudugan) Equipment : weapon - Dragon's Dowry (Eccea's Arcane Blaster vs pierce immunes), helmet - Acina's Tricorn, necklace - Charm of Bones, armor - High Harbinger's Robes, cloak - Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak, gloves - Woedica's Strangling Grasp/Gloves of the Dungeon Warden/Killer's Gloves, Ring1 - Ring of the Marksman, Ring2 - Ring of Focused Flame, Belt - Sash of Judgment, Boots - Footprints of Ahu Taka Abilities (required) : Disciplined Barrage - Disciplined Strikes+Escape, Backstab, Smoke Veil, Dirty Fighting, Fighter Stances - Conquerer Stances, Penetrating Strike, Fast Runner, Arms Bearer, Confident Aim, Two-Handed Style, One-Handed Style, Weapon Specialization, Quick Switch, Fearless, Armored Grace, Uncanny Luck, Tough, Improved Critical, Unbreakable, Weapon Mastery Temporary Bonuses : Sharksoup, Nature's Resolve, Alchemic Brawn, Alchemic Guile, Alchemic Wits, Adratic Glow, Rabyuna's Boon Other Recommended Abilities : Gift of the Machine, Effigy's Resentment: Sagani, Savage Cunning, Infamous Captain, Cauldron Brew - Might Pet : Harley (10%dmg/3acc ranged) How it works : Invisibility + Brilliant Tactician Observations : Persistent Distraction doesn't work with ranged. Deep Wounds (and all dots) will keep you in combat preventing Brilliant Tactician from triggering. Deathblows could work in theory (use sparcrackers) but in practice is not worth the effort. Belt of Magran's Chosen is good too, but the blight it summons can prevent Brilliant Tactician from triggering, making you waste more time. Sometimes enemies get stuck in a loop preventing the combat from ending - staying out of their sight and becoming invisible again will usually fix it.

Wonder what he thought that would mean Speaking of that, Trump's press conference is off to an incoherent start. Yeah, that didn't get any better. Amazing how he can't avoid boasting

It applies unconditionally.

Well, not to insist but I think it's relevant to point that Conjurer summoned familiar provides a stacking +1 generic PL (unless Stacking rule changed from the last time I checked).

I just came here to post that its free to grab as well, but I am not sure if I ever played it or not

Why would we need Ukraine to dig up dirt for us? Maybe he thought they wouldn't snitch? Seems like there are many other apparatus that could have been used. Anywho, what time do we light our soiled undies on fire and throw them over the WH fence?

From what I gathered from the study, they only considered abstracts. If the abstract made no explicit or implicit reference to AGW, then it was cataloged as "no position", according to the following criteria: Explicit endorsement with quantification — Explicitly states that humans are the primary cause of recent global warming Explicit endorsement without quantification — Explicitly states humans are causing global warming or refers to anthropogenic global warming/climate change as a known fact Implicit endorsement — Implies humans are causing global warming. E.g., research assumes greenhouse gas emissions cause warming without explicitly stating humans are the cause Article bodies weren't considered for the study. The second part of the study, where they e-mailed a subset of authors so they could self-rate the papers brought the AGW endorsement up to ~63%. Still a far cry from the 97% headline, and it's important to note that this was with only a 14% reply rate from authors. Don't get me wrong, I'd still agree that this constitutes "broad" consensus. But playing fast and loose with figures is a hard no for someone who 1) portrays themselves as a scientist, and 2) is purportedly trying to fight scientific misinformation.

The article claims 97% "consensus", but if you actually go to the referenced study, only ~33% of of the articles endorse AGW in the abstracts, while ~66% were found to have "no position" on it. It is only a 97% consensus when they looked at which amount of authors whose studies endorse AGW... who then also agree that humans are the primary cause of anthropogenic global warming. In other words, do you agree that human-caused global warming is caused by humans? 97% say yes. The author dismissed these observations as a result of authors "not wanting to state the obvious" and abstracts being "valuable real estate". He even threw in an appeal to authority (to himself, ofc), in case you weren't suspicious enough. This kind of numerical misrepresentation shouldn't go unchallenged, even if one agrees with the author's position. This is the kind of stunt you'd expect from FOX and CNN, not scientists.

Yes, I discovered it also a few days ago. Also if you stay invisible all the time the damage of Gouging Strike is increased - I suppose the sneak attack bonus is also applied (besides of Ajamuut's Cloak bonus).

Again, people being hypocrites doesn't make climate change less real. It's as if you're unable to see the scientific consensus (instead listening to "smoking isn't harmful!" equivalent of scientists) because of your focus on people who don't matter. Why is the mass body of scientific work irrelevant to you? I agree that fearmongering is bad though. That won't solve much, and only create barriers between people. I like the ones who go at it in a positive creative way (warning, some facts/fearmongering, but still a pretty cool invention): www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/30/can-a-burger-help-solve-climate-change/amp

I have been living in my Cape Town flat for 3 months but I haven't been able to play any games on my new rig because there was a delay in the fiber connectivity Anyway this was connected on Tuesday and I have been updating all outdated updates and soon I will be playing, I had many choices but I decided to start on Rage 2. I am very excited as I have missed out on gaming

"O Fortuna!", from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana

They're not all scientists and even if they were what's 500 against the entirety of all scientists who disagree with them.

at least maxwell lord had to suffer the scanners kinda nose bleed when he used his powers. HA! Good Fun!

Not really A small anti-climate change activist group writing a letter to the UN doesn't really mean much of anything and has even less to do with the scientific consensus on the issue.

After 3 years long break, I have finaly finished my Grand Campaign of Crusader Kings Complete from GOG. In 2015, I have started as one of the smallest counties in Kingdom of Hungary, as a Count of Gemer. Due to carefull planning of marriages, I have became 31 years later the new Duke of Nyitra, and 6 more years later in 1105, the almighty King of Hungary. After that, I have slowly expanded my realm to the east and south, with occasional special marriages, to get the possibility for my children to inherit other Counties and Dukedoms. 347 years later, after I've defeated Golden Horde, Bulgars and other heathens, and had few struggles with infidels of Byzantium, I had became King of another 7 countries. I've became King of Hungary, Bohemia, Khazaria, Burgundy, Croatia, Georgia, Sicily and Rus. My kingdom had 102 direct vassals and 197 counts, dukes, bishops, and archbishops under my command. Some of them rebelious some of them loyal, but the Kingdom overcame few of their revolts and had a potential to grow more but the end of the game in 1452 came faster than I thought

For whatever reason, Rodgers always plays like a god @Dallas (and hasn't ever lost there, including in his SB win). Hoping that stays the case, .

Oh its definitely a matter of taste. I do not like the way the system feels. And it's not that it's too complicated for me, it just doesn't captivate me and putting builds together doesn't excite me the way it does in D&D 3.5 / Pathfinder. Having a history with the latter is probably a factor, but it's not the deciding factor. And I should probably have been clearer re. my "packing a punch" comment -- I understand and agree that certain builds are very powerful, but I wasn't necessarily talking about builds, specifically, I was talking about how the combat feels on-screen. Animation plays into this, the way spells and abilities behave plays into this, etc, etc. Same with the inspirations / afflictions system -- I understand it's not bad design, and yes, it's straightforward in the way it functions, indeed just like the attribute system (which I'm not a fan of either), but it's not fun to me. So yeah, convoluted was the wrong way to describe it, which makes me 2 for 2 on not explaining myself well but I guess that's what happens in rant-like posts. It's just frustrating. I really *want* to like Deadfire, but in the end I just don't. And if I ever beat it (and I'm close -- level 20, finished most of the base game content, finished Beast of Winter and I'm in Forgotten Sanctum now) it's because I really pushed myself to do so.

Legally middle age starts once you hit 28, apparently. That's when in the architects' association/guild they told me I wasn't eligible anymore to vote for the young engineers committees. My reply was, now that you called me old, I wouldn't have voted for you anyway.

Unbroken/Trickster with Whisper of the Endless Paths. Also works als Devoted/Trickster if you don't want to focus too much on your disengagement bonuses but want better PEN in general. Depends on how you want to play this. The main idea: Be a tanky guy but dish out a lot of damage via retaliation Whispers of the Endless Paths: Offensive Parry. Triggers on every miss. Riposte (stacks with Offensive Parry) Defender Stance + Hold the Line + Persistent Distraction: unlock Deathblows on lots of enemies passively or Mob Stance if you don't need to hold a lot of engagement. You can also switch for more flexibility. Either Patinated Plate (max armor option) or Nomad's Brigandine (+deflection and good AR - good mix) or Casita Samelia's Legacy Breastplate (medium armor but great deflection via Intimidate, can retaliate as well, also comes rel. early) or Gipon Prudensco (variant with lightest AR and focus on leaving engagement on purpose in order to trigger disengagment attacks with ultra high deflection bonus which then get reflected - leading to crazy dps - but risky due to low AR) One Dozen Stood Plate (focus on terrify + forcing enemies to disengage) later Champion's Helm (more riposte) or Mask of the Weyc (nice deflection boost of +50 at the start of battle) crank your deflection as high as you can (max RES, Entonia Signet, Cloak of Greater Deflection, Bracers oGD, Superior Deflection, Refrshing Defense, Mirrored Images also Escape which lasts quite some time with highest INT and +1 PL and so on...) max INT and Tactical Barrage for longer durations, bigger cone and +1 PL standard MIG, CON, DEX, bit higher PER. You can also lower DEX and put more in MIG Use Repulsive Visage with Defender Stance and Overbearing Guard: enemies will get terrified and will break engagement: you attack with mighty PEN and dmg bonus and knock them prone. Your team members should help you with abilites which lower the accuracy of the enemies (Chillfog, Miasma, Devotions otF, Disponent Blows). Thisall produces more misses on the enemies' side. You can play this stationary (heavy armor) or with a lot of running around (triggering disengagement attacks). I presume you like the first one better. This can be you main tank if you also bring a large shield + modal. Switch to that if you get shot a lot/cast at a lot and things don't go like you planned. This build is great against all sorts of melee attackers but not perticularly good against ranged and casters. So I play him in a front line of three (all three not full tanks). Here's a small test session with the Casita-variant: small video

Pretty much all there is to see in Toronto But is the largest city (and thus most relevant) in Canada. Seems people here really want it to be seen as a world class city, but we're on the tier of Chicago rather than NY. All considered, it's not a bad place to live, although it is getting ridiculously expensive to live in due to a lot of reasons, things like preferences for single family dwellings, demand (although some people are stupid in how they MUST live near the core). Prices aren't as bad if you go into Etobicoke or Scarborough (two former cities that were eventually merged into Toronto), but the problems there are your jobs will likely be downtown and public transit offered there is a joke. A lot of immigrants ended up here, so at the very least you can usually find food from all over the world here (yet, no place has good doubles).

I live in a little podunk town just outside (literally adjacent to) Charlotte North Carolina. There's not much to say about the podunk town, on account of it being a podunk town, it's small and quiet and fairly rural, so instead I'll focus on Charlotte. Charlotte was named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the county of Mecklenburg, where the city sits, was so named for the same reason. Charlotte became Queen of Great Britain roughly around the same time the city was founded, thus the moniker "The Queen City" (Cincinnati can **** right off with their claims of being The Queen City). Charlotte sits at the very southern edge of central North Carolina in the Piedmont region. Because of several atmospheric effects beyond my understanding we get a fairly steady amount of precipitation year round. We're far enough away from the Atlantic coast that we're generally unconcerned with the hurricanes that ravage the Caribbean Islands and the east coast every year, and far enough from the Appalachian Mountains to not get their winter effects. We have long hot summers, with July and August being particularly brutal, as temperatures regularly go into the 90s (thankfully almost never into the 100s) and we get Florida-like humidity most of the time during those 2 months. Spring and autumn are AMAZING. March, April, May, some of September, October, and November are generally extremely comfortable. Winters are quite short and very mild. We average about 4 inches of snow a year. Some years we get none, some we may get a foot, most of it melts very quickly anyway. We do get a nasty ice storm once in a while. It's not unusual to see me out there in early December and late February wearing flip flops, shorts, and a t-shirt. Winter wear is mostly long pants, and a hoodie. Breaking out a heavy jacket and a proper winter hat is fairly rare for me, though I spent 30 years up in the frozen wastes of Connecticut, so I'm more used to cold winters, the natives wear proper winter attire more often down here. Charlotte lies just east of the Catawba River (I live on the other side of the river). Lake Wylie lies to the southwest of the city and Lake Norman, the largest man-made lake in the state, lies to the north. Charlotte is the second largest city in the southeastern United States at roughly 900,000 people (Jacksonville, FL is #1), our metro area is roughly 2.5 million. Downtown Charlotte (called Uptown, for some reason) is almost entirely ultra modern, with lots of giant glass buildings and skyscrapers. A good portion of the outer parts of Charlotte have a decidedly medium-sized town feel to them. The city is fairly spread out (and constantly looking to consume Matthews to the south) with only the downtown area and a few of the more centrally located areas being heavily congested. There is a metric ****ton of parks scattered around the city (and many more just outside it). The city is home to the Carolina Panthers (NFL) and the Charlotte Hornets (NBA). Note: Pictures not mine

I actually prefer it when your characters can die and I have to reload it. Even though it's a hassle or whatever. It just means that i failed so i need to try again and do it better.

I would almost certainly reload my save, like I did in Baldur's Gate II, for instance. So, in this regard, P:K does not differ from the greatest classic in the genre. I don't see a problem here, at all.

To me, that's a total non-issue. I don't see a problem at all in what you say.

Ahem, why was it a mistake? An obvious mistake, even? Are you implying that things depending on skills should be either impossible (because you just aren't skilful enough) or trivial (because you have enough skill and there's no check)? That sounds foolish.

Ok, thanks for that. I bought D:OS from Steam, installed it, tried it for ten minutes, found that it was completely uninteresting, got my refund (for a game that had been played for less than an hour) and never looked in that direction again. I have played maybe a total of five different titles within the past 20 years (that'd be BG, NWN, PoE, P:K and IWD, sequels included), and of those five, I would say two were a waste of time (IWD, NWN). The other three were good and enjoyable.

That's a fair question, but given that there's essentially no discussion anymore, does it matter?

Good for you! You are wrong, of course... Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a great game that knows what it wants to be. Deadfire is nice, but it can't decide if it wants to cater to a casual or a hardcore audience.

Original Jurassic Park cast to return in next film.

Nihilistic is a must and I vote for middle aged psychiatrist or philosopher and name him Nietzsche and be done with it