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  1. not a scandal, but funny on multiple levels. HA! Good Fun!
    6 points
  2. https://wrath.owlcatgames.com https://www.pcgamer.com/pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous-announced/
    5 points
  3. set the wayback machine for 2003 https://www.nma-fallout.com/threads/briareus-speaks-out.152662/#post-3024645 fallout was not a good seller. ps:t, given the investment by interplay, were likely worse. were fallouts and ps:t bad games? if they were good games, they shoulda' sold, yes? am not sure what is a good game. am knowing there is games we like. am knowing there is games we like less even though we believe such games were well-made. is games we marvel at their popularity given flaws we see in the title. am not sure what is a good game, but am certain developers wanna be part o' creating such. the problem is game developers cannot make good games or bad games unless they also make games which is profitable enough given the needs o' the developer/publisher. we got no problem saying deadfire were a better title than poe1 in all but a few aspects. sadly, in spite of fact obsidian writers had more time and were better organized when creating the deadfire narrative than they did for poe, mistakes were made with deadfire storytelling which were inexplicably unseen until too late. even so, we do not believe our narrative concerns were what significant hurt deadfire sales. as such, is not difficult for us to say w/o equivocation that deadfire were a better game than poe, and we thought poe were a good game. apply transitive property. the thing is, and we stated this earlier, being a better game is not what deadfire needed for increased sales. ironic and counter-intuitive as it may seem, designing deadfire to be better than poe were the fundamental design flaw which doomed deadfire sales. those folks who didn't like poe combat weren't gonna see refinement o' poe combat as an improvement. those folks who didn't like obsidian's take on a class-based system were not gonna see further distancing from 2e and 3e d&d as an improvement. obsidian made deadfire for those who liked poe. obsidian improved poe. a reasonable mistake, but in hindsight, a fatal mistake. tragedy is even now am not certain obsidian realizes what went wrong. deadfire is a better game than poe. poe were a good game. truth is better and good is not particular helpful labels save for those folks arguing on the arse-end o' developer message boards past point which any o' this matters. rage at capitalism or greed or whatnot, but first goal has gotta be to generate 'nuff revenue to make the next game a reality, and the game after the next one. obsidian hubris were in thinking good and better were meaningful. aside: "exploration" is a trap. have been banging this drum since bg2 release and am certain we will continue playing to a deaf audience, but exploration is a complete unwinnable battle for developers. single biggest complaint o' bg1 other than too easy/too hard were the lack o' depth o' encounters on all those wilderness maps. spent hours mowing fog o' war to reveal extreme brief encounters. suckage. "do better bio!" bioware listened to fan appeals and instead o' a whole bunch o' pointless hobgoblin, zombie and gnoll encounters on mostly empty wilderness maps, the developers focused instead on adding depth and density to map locations. planar sphere and umar hills and de'arnise keep became the norm. 'course after release o' bg2 the biggest complaint other than too easy/too hard were how folks missed bg1 style exploration. ... poe and deadfire developers faced same exploration conundrum, but reversed. given finite resources available, poe developers focused on adding depth to a limited number o' maps, which meant reduced 'exploration." complaints result. deadfire solution obsidian came up with were to add many island encounters and to provide ship combat to be making the inevitable world map exploration less tedious. unfortunate, the ship combat were unfulfilling, but even if the resource sink o' ship combat had been avoided altogether, such would not have changed the complaints 'bout all the rando mini encounters scattered 'cross the world map. "do better obsidian!" exploration is a trap feature. developers will never satisfy fans 'cause no matter what they do, some significant % o' fans will always complain 'bout the developers efforts. personal, we prefer depth and density over the breadth o' exploration, but for every Gromnir there is at least one person who wants exact opposite. doomed. advice: pick whichever approach seems most appropriate to game and setting and do best possible but ignore inevitable exploration complaints from fans. exploration balancing is a fundamental unwinnable battle for a developer to fight. HA! Good Fun! ps in times gone bye, briareus were a black isle developer, which is why the nma crowd didn't dismiss his observations out of hand as sacrilege and/or heretical.
    3 points
  4. Greetings, Watchers, We are excited to announce that Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - Ultimate Edition will be coming to Xbox One and PS4 on January 28, 2020, with the Nintendo Switch version release date to be announced early next year. This console version will include all the major updates available for the PC version, and will also come with the three expansions: Beast of Winter, Seeker, Slayer, Survivor, and Forgotten Sanctum. You will be able to digitally pre-order Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - Ultimate Edition through the Microsoft Store and PlayStation storefronts later today. A physical version will also be available in the form of a Standard Edition and Ultimate Collector's Edition courtesy of THQ Nordic. For more details regarding this release, visit the Versus Evil announcement post here. Cheers, The Deadfire team As always, feel free to reach out (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or on our forums) and let us know your comments, your critiques, and what you love about the game. We enjoy reading everything that you share!
    2 points
  5. Athkatla and Sigil are probably my favorites. What I like about them is that they feel "down to earth". They get the feel right, the density, the ambience. And there's a feeling of danger to them. You get the feeling of "city life". As a sidenote, and nostalgia talking here, but one of my strongest memories of the Baldur's Gate games is the feeling of... relative safety when nearing an inn in the middle of the night, seeing the light spill out and hearing the tavern music play from within. You'd survived the wilderness, finally the safety of an inn... but, you still never knew what could happen. It really vibed with my pen and paper experiences at the time, as well as reading stuff like the Prancing Pony segment of Lord of the Rings. Huge nostalgia. But anyways, I think Neketaka was fantastic overall. I liked the districts, I think they felt nice and different. I liked that there was something like the little scripted interaction bit (The Narrows I think it was called?). I liked that you could get "stuck" if you take the elevator down to the old city. And locations like the Luminous Bathhouse were just cool, though I wish some of the locations had been used more and more "in-depth". But yeah, it was superfun to explore. I don't think it really nailed the "city atmosphere" personally. I think part of it is the music in those areas. I like the PoE soundtracks, and I liked the town tracks on their own, but they never really sold the idea of a city in my mind. I wish Neketaka's music had just a bit more tension to it, and with something connecting it to the culture and people of Neketaka. The tracks feel a bit lacking in identity for me. Anyways, another city I loved was Vizima in the Witcher. That whole game oozes atmosphere and the various parts of Vizima are no exception. I know lots of people like Novigrad from Witcher 3 but Vizima in the first game is where it's at for me.
    2 points
  6. Today I ordered some new toys, new beds, dental chews, and pig ears for the dogs for Christmas. I ordered a wine, cheese, and other stuff gift basket for my brother and his wife. I bought a $120 gift card from the Microsoft/X-Box store for my Nephew. A $120 gift card to Macy's for my niece. I ordered a cookie platter for my Vet's office, mailed cards to my colleagues from work and their families plus a few other folks I feel compelled to keep in touch with for one reason or another. Sent checks to the four charities I support and ordered some toys on Amazon for Toys for Tots. I can check all things Christmas off my to-do list! I am Ho Ho Hoed out. The chickens will get a present too: cottage cheese. They go freaking nuts for that. Now they freak out when they see me carrying anything that looks like it might be a cottage cheese tub. Including a coffee cup.
    2 points
  7. I don't mind Corbyn unlike a lot of people here but I can't bring mysel to vote for Labour. Tony Blair was associated with them and he is still free when he should be locked up! Maybe i'll vote Green party. The planets going to hell right now.
    2 points
  8. I dislike if it's too big. Like... all the ones you mentioned.
    2 points
  9. literally when I was doing the similar-but-easier Ultimate challenge for PoE1 it was so tedious I started a completely different and parallel game of PoE1 just so I could play the game "for fun" instead of staring at my paladin very slowly grind out enemies for hours at a time (it also proved to be useful in doing advance research of areas, so there was that). Deadfire Ultimate wasn't as tedious, but only because once I got scordeo's edge fights were pretty fast and dynamic... also this time around I had a Netflix subscription so I could watch tv shows while my character was buffing for minutes at a time I actually made it through six seasons of Frasier just from watching it during buffs and rehearsals.
    2 points
  10. I don't think there will be many more. While I never thought that it's impossible (we know by now - since PoE and the story that QA complained that the Adra Dragon was impossible to beat - that Obsidianites aren't masters of their own games and thus can't really estimate what's possible and what not - which is fine... I don't think I could play a game extensively that I developed myself) I always said it's incredibly tedious. Several challenges by themselves add quite the tedium (Woedica's, Abydon's, Hylea's) - combine them all and I'd rather hang on my nostril hairs than trying to complete that challenge. So... hats off!
    2 points
  11. Now this is funny as hell! https://politics.theonion.com/one-eyed-man-who-kamala-harris-locked-up-25-years-ago-q-1840182471
    2 points
  12. whew! just wanted to confirm that my run finally got validated. i don't know what i'm going to do with the patch... frame it? it's funny, i think obsidian managed to both overestimate the difficulty and underestimate the difficulty at the same time (e.g. staff writing notes to je sawyer that this challenge was fundamentally impossible vs the fact that there are so many patches and entries on their plaque, but i think i'll be merely the fourth to have done it, after six months of the challenge being out).
    2 points
  13. No Dragon Age: Origins? TTON Is Torment: Tides of Numenunuonumuonera
    2 points
  14. I agree 100% to this statement. I'd also add "open world", "your choices have an impact" and "companion relationships" and "crafting" to that list. More or less. Not that they are bad - but it often seems devs are trying too hard with those. In the hopes that such tags on the game make it sell more I guess.
    2 points
  15. Dungeon Siege 1. The days of quality character creation options! :P Had an urge to kill monsters while listening to the great soundtrack. It's still fun in that mindless/simple way, except the clicking on the ground constantly to make the party move every 5 inches is super-wearying, vs. being able to just hold the mouse button down to keep them running. On the bright side, I installed from ancient disc and it still works on Win10 with no "help" at all. There's also a mod to let you play the MP map/world in single-player (used to be able to then one patch disallowed it) which is great since that was better than the campaign.
    2 points
  16. Just my 5 cents: somehow i've started another (4rd or 5th, don't remember exactly) playtrough of PoE 1, instead Deadfire, which i've completed only 1 time and i don't want to return on these islands. It's some kind of weird magic - technically, almost every thing and aspect in Deadfire is better or comparable to PoE 1, but sadly, game couldn't touch my heart.
    2 points
  17. is this tested? I always assumed it was just going to cast the Arcane Veil effect, not be a separately implemented passive item buff. sweeet jebus. could a wizard/priest of wael do arcane veil as well then (they don't clash?) for a stonking +100 deflection? in such a case a conjurer should flee by casting arkemyr's brilliant departure-... oh wait, oh no
    2 points
  18. As the health system for PoE 2 was changed, I did a "no rest" solo run, where I tried to stack as many bonuses as possible. I thought it would be good to make some kind of guide on the various bonuses that can be aquired in the game and to share my experience with them. 1. Permanent bonuses: These bonuses are permanent and do not get removed when you rest or respec. Berath's Blessing - Bonus Skills: +2 to all class skills -> choose at starting a new game Berath's Blessing - Champion Stats: +2 all attributes -> choose at starting a new game Training: - Carlo: +1 Sleight of Hand, +1 Diplomacy - Coel: +1 Bluff, +1 Streetwise - Elias Zelen: +1 Explosives, +1 Mechanics - Geirvard: +1 Arcana, +1 History - Granis: +1 Athletics, +1 Survival - Kae: +1 Metaphysics, +1 Stealth - Mark Van Der Bij: +1 Alchemy, +1 Religion - Marofeto Liano: +1 Insight, +1 Initimidate -> learn for 3000 Gold from various trainers Couldron Brew: +1 to a choosen attribute -> brew potion in Outcasts Respite Gift from the Machine: +1 MIG, +5% Max Health -> import PoE 1 save, regain it in Hasango Effigys Resentment: - Durance: +1 CON, +5% Max Health - Devil of Caroc: +1 DEX, +1 Penetration vs. Kith - Eder: +1 MIG, +2 Deflection - Mahena: +1 MIG, +5 defense against might affliction - Grieving Mother: +1 RES, +5 defense against intelligence affliction - Kana: +1 INT, +5 defense against dexterity affliction - Pallegina: +1 RES, +1 Shock AR - Sagani: +1 PER, +2 Accuracy for >4m targets - Aloth: +1 INT, +5 Reflex - Hiravias: +1 DEX, +1 Slash AR - Zahua: +1 CON, +5% Beneficial effect duration -> import PoE 1 save, regain it in Hasango Ability: Chorus of the Lost (Distracted & Hobbled = Foe AoE: 2,5m radius) -> pick "Eothas! Stop!" in cutscene Ability: No Pity of the Lost (Distracted = Foe AoE: 2,5m radius; Steadfast Inspiration on Self) -> pick "Search for your Soul." in cutscene Ability: Sympathy for the Lost (Distracted = Foe AoE: 2,5m Radius; Heal 35[base] = Ally AoE: 2,5m Radius) -> pick "Reach for Lost Souls." in cutscene 2. Per-Rest bonuses: These bonuses get removed when you rest, but they do not get removed when you respec your character. 2.1 Resting/Food bonus: There are many rest and food bonuses, but only one can be active at a time. The best bonuses are: Hylea's Bounty: +10 All Defenses, +2 All Skills, +25% Max Health -> import PoE 1 save with Hylea Ending, gives food item that can be used 3 times Captain's Banquet: +20% Damage with Spells, +20% Action Speed, Immunity to Intellect/Perception/Resolve afflictions -> craft/find ingame or from Scavenger Hunt Codes Mohara Wraps: -20% Recovery Time, -30% Hostile effect duration, +4 MIG -> craft/find ingame Shark Soup: +2 MIG, +1 Power level, Immunity to Constitution/Dexterity/Might afflictions -> craft/find ingame 2.2 Brothel bonus: There are 2 brothels in the game - only one bonus can be active at a time. By choosing a bonus from Dunnage an existing bonus from Neketaka gets replaced. Neketaka: - Aenalys: +2 PER, +1 explosives, +1 metaphysic - Ymir: +1 CON, +1 Insight, +2 Reflex defense - Rubyuna: +1 DEX, +1 MIG, +2 RES - Konstanten: +2 CON, +1 PER, +1 INT Dunnage: - Irwena: +1 All Skills, can not be engaged by lower-level enemies - Cabin boy: +1 DEX, +1 PER, -20% hostile effect duration 2.3 Other Per-Rest bonuses: Adratic Glow: +1 empower, +1 class ressource -> bath in Luminous Bathhouse Luminous Adra Potion: +2 all skills -> brew potion and drink it Wardstones: - Immunity to Sigil of Atrophy - Immunity to Sigil of Darkness - Immunity to Sigil of Death - Immunity to Sigil of Nightmares - Immunity to Sigil of Pain -> use the wardstone, the immunity is active until you rest Rikuhu's Blessing: +2 RES -> pray at shrine on Poko Kohara Alchemic Brawn: +2 CON, +2 MIG -> drinking from the pool at Outcasts Respite Alchemic Guile: +2 DEX, +2 PER -> drinking from the pool at Outcasts Respite Alchemic Wits: +2 INT, +2 RES -> drinking from the pool at Outcasts Respite Dawnstar's blessing: +50% Healing done, +2 Religion -> let the Dawnstars in Port Maje bless you, can only be aquired once Good Food, Better Friends: +2 CON, +5 All Defenses -> eat with adventurers behind an Eoten Encounter, can only be aquired once -> Patch 2.0: replaces food bonus Nature's Resolve: +10 Accuracy, +2 RES -> eat mushroom in map event on Tikawara, can only be aquired once -> Patch 2.0: no longer available (needs confirmation) 3. What removes/replaces Per-Rest bonuses? Resting!!! -> Obvious, right?! 3.1 Semi-forced rests: searching ruins/shipwrecks on the world map -> this removes all resting bonuses, this can be nullified if you save before searching a ruin/shipwreck, then reload your savegame and then search again -> Patch 2.0: searching ruins/shiprecks/burial sites no longer removes resting bonuses Bent Bough Forest (on island with Fampyr's Crypt) on the world map -> one option removes all resting bonuses, just use one of the other options Shrines on the world map -> praying at a shrine removes all resting bonuses, just don't do it -> Patch 2.0: only shrine on Neketaka and Crookspur remove resting bonuses, praying at shrine on Poko Kohara is fine 3.2 Forced rests: Repairing weapons from PoE 1 - repairing Whispers of Yenwood - repairing Blade of the Endless Paths - forging Whispers of the Endless Paths -> these actions remove all resting bonuses, there is no workaround for preventing this (except avoiding the option) Quest "Dirty Laundry" - infiltrating the bath house, while doing the Quest "Dirty Laundry" for the Vailian Trading Company -> this removes all resting bonuses, there is no workaround for preventing this (except avoiding the quest) Arrival on "Ukaizo" -> removes resting bonuses, but there are only 2 fights 4. Bugged bonuses: Zealous Focus: +5 Accuracy -> unsure how I got this, picked this up while questing in Neketaka (while soloing as Non-paladin class) -> Patch 2.0: I haven't picked this up this on my new playthrough, seems to be fixed broken item bonuses: - Duskfall: +1 Penetration when attacking the same target as an ally - Pets: various bonuses, many of these do not get removed -> these do not get removed on unequiping the item Path of the Dawned: +15 Accuracy, +15 All Defenses -> in some encounters (or on the world map) you get this bonus for your character (only if you play on PotD difficulty) -> Patch 2.0: I haven't picked this up this on my new playthrough, seems to be fixed Constant Recovery: health regen -> Patch 2.0: got this on a herald once, but after some time it disappeared ... so its not permanent
    1 point
  19. I'm not sure if seconds are tracked internally or not, but very short durations are usually very beneficial on tb since they just get rounded up to 1 round. A very good example is the fighter's knockup from the upgraded knockdown, while in rtwp it is less than 2 seconds even with goodish Int, on tb it gets rounded up to 1 round, which is almost the same duration of the distracted debuff which is really long with good Int. This gets even sillier if you delay your turn both distracted and knock up will end at exactly the same time, not only can you permanently knock up an opponent (or several with wotep) but with delayed turn the distracted will end each turn, so if you play a tactician you will lose and regain brilliant each turn in a 1v1 or if you can knockup several opponents with wotep and kiting them so they#re clustered, gaining 2 resources per turn, more than you can spend with an ability that costs only 1 discipline! Ooblit is also insanely good with tb and SOT, doubling SOTs duration (originally it's 1 round, you can however get it up to 2 rounds with real good Int, so then ooblit wouldn't double it but just add 50% which is still really good ofc. Draining wall also is quite good since on TB it is really easy to reposition and make the enemies walk over the wall or even use pull of eoara to pull them over it and then they'll walk back over towards you again proccing another tick. I haven't really seen any wasted durations so i would assume it is always at least one round added. One thing which is really iffy with not maxed Int is effects not procced directly by you however, for example brilliant cloak can totally proc during an opponents turn and run out before it's your turn, which is why these days I always max int even on tb.
    1 point
  20. If it continues to run fine, then at that point, it might be wise to look at the SMART data for your hard drive (although I would've expected a chkdsk to have been performed by Windows at some point automatically if the drive were dying). Most likely, though, it sounds like a Windows update or driver issue.
    1 point
  21. Early on I preferred Baldur's Gate (B1) to Athkatla, because it was "seamless", like it was literally one large fort town divided into nine maps, so the city felt "truly" big. Over time, Athkatla has sort of become my gold standard because of how dense each area is - I remember going into random houses and being surprised at interactivity I could find (like that whole Katana sword thing in the Temple District, or the items in one of the random nondescript-yet-heavily-trapped houses in the Bridge District). I don't think any game has met that high bar since; PoE1 and Deadfire were kinda there, but I basically have no incentive to go into random houses in these games, just the ones attached to a task/quest or ones that initiate a task/quest. Though I think Deadfire did the best job (of any of the mentioned games so far) of giving me an incentive to go to random districts, because they didn't concentrate all the best magic items on one vendor. Can be a little annoying, but I like the wandering. Other contenders I'd like to include: Imperial City (Oblivion), really felt legit huge, even though I mostly just spend time where the stores are DC, all of it (Fallout 3). Not just the small pockets of settlers and merchants, but the entire ruins. I thought this was and is an absolute blast to experience. And there's a real "they made art through adversity" feel here, because the game engine couldn't handle large outdoor areas, they had to break up DC by sections of metro tunnels that connected them, but I ended up loving this aspect of it, made it feel like a real city with real transport routes; whereas Boston in FO4's subway stations went nowhere and were just self-contained mini-dungeons, you could actually study the metro map in FO3 and get out at certain points to different parts of DC (or the DC suburbs).
    1 point
  22. I find some UI choices unfortunate. Especially the tutorial UI is too intrusive. That said, I don't truly agree with the comparison that Phoenix Point is unpolished compared to XCOM. XCOM 2 built on XCOM and Enemy Within and still had issues. XCOM and Enemy Within had a lot of issues. Off the top of my head, Raptors shooting through the floor. There were a lot of clipping issues with the gun camera when the soldier was in cover or too close to the target. Phoenix Point does have issues, and some of those will never get fixed. For example that projectiles have a path but no mass. A bullet missing the target and just scratching a sleeve is realistic. But a rocket should not miss because the trajectory took it through the gap between chin and shoulder.
    1 point
  23. missed opportunity. is no accusation that cnn knowing reported inaccurate but rather that the claims from others cnn accurate reported were so unbelievable that cnn had to know the claims were untrue when reported. is a ridiculous lawsuit, particular as nunes is a public figure. therefore, nunes mighta' well have accused cnn as being the mother#@%&ers o' fake news. HA! Good Fun!
    1 point
  24. WOT adds four more cast members.
    1 point
  25. Surprised you didn't get disqualified due to use of external playing aids like Netflix! I'm reminded of my old Angband-playing days, where the True Final Boss of the game is not Morgoth, but Boredom. Just endlessly grinding for the perfect set of gear, fleeing instantly at the first sign of trouble, until you get the full list checked off and can make the final attack run. There's a similar thing in play for Nethack, but Nethack play is FAR less boring than Angband play.
    1 point
  26. I nearly won the PoE Ultimate with a dual sabre Barb (3 DEX, 3 RES - wichts were my nemesis ;)). That wasn't supertedious after the early game. But Blood Thirst was lvl 7 (not PL 7) and once you got Heart of Fury it was quite ok.
    1 point
  27. Congratulation @thelee, well deserved.
    1 point
  28. I need a pick me up today. Time to go with a tried and tested jam that never fails to put a smile on my face: Bonus points to Dschinghis Khan for doing a proto-Stanky Leg decades early.
    1 point
  29. Only true about some selected titles. China can be a profitable market but it's an odd one. Many movies won't be released there, and those that do, they don't get a lengthy run time. They can make an impressive profit though.
    1 point
  30. What's TTON? Sorry, I'm ignorant. I will buy all the "classical" RPGs that look promising. I hadn't heard of Serpent in the Staglands, so I went to check it out just on Youtube, and it looks rudimentary indeed. Not for me, but thanks for the tip. As for the entire list of "classical" RPGs that I have truly enjoyed, that's BG2, PoE, Deadfire and P:K. I have also played BG, IWD, IWD2, Temple of Elemental Evil, NWN and NWN2, but they are all somewhere between somewhat unsatisfying (IWD) and poor (BG, NWN2). Let's forget the Ultimas and the Phantasies of yesteryear, shall we.
    1 point
  31. it's actually extremely weird. The game still tracks the per-second duration under the hood, but then rounds at the very end. all durations less than 6s in RTwP become 1 round all other durations are rounded down to the nearest 6s increment chanter chants are specifically adjusted to have more meaningful durations for TB mode. This means there's a huge range where effects just last 1 round, from 0.1s to 11.9 s. It also means that intellect has non-linear returns. For example, with no PL Scaling, the difference in duration on "Eldritch Aim" between 13 intellect (11.5s innate duration that rounds down to 1 round) and 14 intellect (12s innate duration rounds to 2 rounds) is massive, but then you need a gigantic amount of additional intellect to make a further difference in duration (you would need 26 intellect to get up to 3 rounds, which is possible but not exactly a number a causal build can hit; though with PL scaling a three-round Eldritch Aim is pretty easy to hit, and a four-round Eldritch Aim becomes feasible). I think @Raven Darkholme did some initial numbers in a video somewhere and concluded that 15 intellect is a good "all purpose" target for durations, due to how base durations tend to cluster around multiples of 5. But for great success, you should actually find the abilities and spells you care about the most and do the numbers to see what you need to get an extra round or two of duration (keeping in mind that PL Scaling gives you multiplicative returns). PS. I actually don't know how effects like Wall of Draining or Salvation of Time or Ooblit work in TB mode (I have only slightly played around with TB mode). The game might literally track all effects internally as seconds even in TB mode and so those effects (which give +1s/tick, +10s, and +3s to effects, respectively) might give you partial round durations that can be combined with other partial rounds to give you additional round of duration on things. At least, that would be much better than the possibility that Wall of Draining and Ooblit do nothing whatsoever or that Salvation of Time has "wasted" effect beyond 1 round.
    1 point
  32. There is that. But by voting for not evil you are also voting for not Trump. Actually you and I can vote any way with a clear conscience. The outcome of the election in our states is a foregone conclusion. Hell the actual names of the candidates does not even matter.
    1 point
  33. I agree with the OP. From in-universe perspective, employees are assets, assets' gender is irrelevant as long as they perform their function. Thus NBs should be able to change their legal and social gender, because it would be just one record in a database, nothing more. Though, it would not work with trans*people, because if "medical treatment is a privilege, not a right" and HRT and surgeries are not cheap (just like IRL), it would mean that low-level employees are unable to afford them (and can eventually succumb to depression), high-level employees can get through transition fast and issue-free enough to not consider "trans" as an identity. From out-of-universe perspective (technical), as gender identity =/= gender expression, just adding the pronoun "they" would be sufficient. There are not many instances, where the avatar's gender is mentioned. For NPCs it's pretty much the same. There was one NB character in an Obsidian game (DLC) and the player could not misgender them anyhow (could murder, but for unrelated reasons), so it is definitely possible to implement. And the protagonist of the Saints Row series could count as a good example, though "good" as "fun to play as", not "close to actual experience of the social group".
    1 point
  34. Disabling them in BIOS will do just fine.
    1 point
  35. If you summon your familiar you can't summon Essential Phantom (I mean you can, but what was the point summoning the familiar then?). And this (for me) is the biggest flaw of the Conjurer: you are specialized on conjuring/summoning stuff but can't have your class defining familiar and a phantom at the same time. And yes, you lose access to all the illusion spells. Those are not only some really nice self-buffs but also very good stuff for (melee) wizards in general, like Dazzling Lights (lvl-1 access to Daze=-4 PEN but also great to lure enemies from stealth), Miasma (not only lowers Will like crazy as I said but also drops enemies' ACC by 10 through -10 PER, stacking with other ACC debuffs like from Blind from Chillfog or Curs of the Blackend Sight), Repulsive Visage, Enervating Terror and Wall of Many Colors - amongst others. Besides that you'll give up on all evocations, too. You will never be able to cast a Fireball and friends. This may not have been your go-to spell in the first place since you are a spellsword. But skipping them all? And then there's the recovery malus for all other spells that are not conjurations. All in all it's not worth the potential +2/+3 PL on some of the conjuration spells that do actually profit from it (like Death Ring or whatever). Now - if you never planned to summon a phantom then my first point is not a big deal - but given the synergy of phantom + summoned weapons it's just another drawback. And what makes the single class "Spellsword" worthwhile is - as I said above - the possibility to reach Piercing Sigil and Cloak of Death (and getting to Draconic Fury earlier which is also a beast - and here th +10% recovery time would also hurt). They don't stack too well so you shouldn't use them at the same time. But those are pretty cool for a melee wizard. Especially if he also uses Offensive Parry with Whispers otEP. By the way Draconic Fury's lashes don't work with the AoE of Spirit Lance or WotEP. I agree on the INT: it's still important. Self buffs and summons do get influenced by INT and so does AoE of Spirit Lance or WotEP etc. A nice trick for melee wizards: once you get the Mask of the Weyc you can use Wall of Draining to prolong its +50 deflection buff. Since it comes from an item and is passive (automatically starts once combat starts) it stacks with everything, making you basically untouchable if you also use self-buffs like Mirrored Image etc. Offensive Parry will trigger nearly 100% of times then. My recommendation for subclass would either be vanilla or Blood Mage. Blood Mage + Corrosive Siphon is a pretty nice combo. You can spam it at some point since the healing you receive from multiple opponents will be way higher than the damage you get from Blood Sacrifice (given your defenses are good so you don't get pommeled too hard). I seriously don't recommend any wizard subclass besides vanilla or Blood Mage for any build (besides some really special weird builds or the occasional Evoker who hopes for double casts). Their drawbacks are worse than their benefits if you are looking at a whole playthrough. It would be different if all spells from grimoires could be cast no matter the subclass and if the limitations were only for "learned" spells. It would also be different if their special abilities such as Conjure Familiar (can't stack with other summons, can't choose the familiar) or Form of the Fearsome Brute (look at the armor...) etc. weren't too weak. And yes: Arcane Dampeners will screw you. You could counter with Thrust of Tattered Veils - but it's an evocation.
    1 point
  36. i would kindly disagree here. It is true that conjurer doesn't get as much of a benefit from the +2 PL as a few other subclasses, there are still a few spells that get decent benefit (e.g. corrosive siphon), but more importantly their unique summon that gives you a guaranteed, stacking +1 PL bonus, along with some random other bonuses. you do miss out on illusion magic, but you still get arcane veil; but most importantly the survivability of a conjurer comes from reach (qstaffs and pikes) or range (kalakoth, black bow), not from evasion. i think the bigger deal is that a single-class wizard isn't going to help out too much for a dedicated spellsword; my argument that the conjurer doesn't suck is simply because you get a bunch of other stuff at +1 PL as well, which may not be "on theme" for a spellsword (though i think slickens and frozen pillars and even binding web are decent complement). and citzal's enchanted armory at AL9 isn't worth the payoff for a spellsword, except on lower difficulties, simply because the survivability of standing behind a tank while using a reach/ranged weapon is almost infinitely greater than relying on an autoscaling breastplate that won't help significantly defend against the boosted PEN of potd and maybe even veteran difficulty. that being said, if you're set on a single-class wizard, an enchanter might be a better choice. you get access to illusion magic as well, and the spells you miss out on (transmutation, evocation) are more likely the ones less "on-theme" for a spellsword. The +10% recovery penalty doesn't even hurt you too much because summoned weapons don't have any recovery. the class bonus is a little less good than the conjurer, but might be worth the tradeoff to pick up more "on-theme" magic from the illusion school. 1. intellect does influence how long things are summoned for 2. intellect will boost the AoE of kalakoth's minor blights and citzal's spirit lance, so can be relevant. it will also influence how long the debuff of black bow will last for. you can forget about resolve, unless you are going to go with boroer's suggestion with a shield. the way defenses work (especially on PotD) you have to invest in a lot to get good returns from them, which sorta necessitates a shield (which itself obviates the ability to use most of the summoned weapons). arguably you can worry less about constitution because you have Vital Essence at AL2, which is an easy way to get Fit (+5 con) for a real long time. you can also pick up Tough earlier as a single-class, which gives you a massive health boost. perception can be important, but a wizard can just cast Aware if they're having trouble landing some abilities. Has really short duration early on, but scales generously all the way to level 20, and can be extended with a Wall of Draining to last an entire fight. that sorta leaves dex, might, and intellect as important stats. Personally I would never dump intellect below like 15 for most caster-y classes and only go down that low if it can be justified (a conjurer can sorta justify it because many of their spells last so long innately). Dex is the king stat for offense - it makes your spell casting faster (still matters for a spellblade/sword-type because a faster cast time means less chance of being interrupted) and increases your net damage close to 3% per point (whereas might--because it's an additive bonus with so many other bonuses--is closer to 2% on average); so even though you can boost dex easily with Fleet Feet or Deleterious Alacrity of Motion it's still worth investing in a lot (versus perception or con). that being said, if you do want to use something like concelhaut's corrosive siphon or a draining spell like ninagauth's missiles, might is more important because it's more important to get more out of those spell casts instead of doing them slightly faster. if you put a gun to my head to decide right now, i would probably do a stat spread like 15m 10c 18d 9p 15i 8r, with any racial bonuses added in on top of that, and then choose whatever +1 stat from background you want that gives you might, dex, or intellect. yeah, this is a real fun way to play. if you don't want to do 2h sword, there are shields that do some retaliation attacks (not as much damage though) for an even more defensive build. just be careful about arcane dampeners
    1 point
  37. Yes, it is. It's like the Engwithan Titan on Poko Kohara. Only that it's burning.
    1 point
  38. My first advice is: Don't take Conjurer. It locks you out of to many good spells while the benefits are meh. Summoned weapons' quality scales with char level, not Power Level, so the additional PL won't do much for summoned weapons except longer duration. The whole concept is viable because you get some nice self buffs - but mostly because of high level spells like Minoletta's Piercing Sigil or Cloak of Death. I played a melee wizard with lots of RES and focus on defenses (buffs like Mirrored Image + Safeguard etc.) + Offensive Parry from Whispers of the Endless Paths. While there might be other class combos that rock Offensive Parry even more - it is cool to deal melee damage via retaliation while casting a lengthy spell. It works quite well - but only once you get up your buffs. But it was fun. Obviously you can also use the summoned weapons like Spirit Lance which is strong. Never forget Essential Phantom when you have a potent weapon/armor setup - the phantom usually does pretty well and if you summon it while holding Spirit Lance in hands it will also have it. One summoned weapon that's very powerful but usually not worth investing in is Concelhaut's Draining Touch. It has the highest base damage of all one handed weapons, it deals corrode damage, has ok PEN, targets Will instead of Deflection (cast Miasma first to drop Will into nothingness) and also drains 20% of the dmg as health. And while it is my no.1 weapon for the Essential Phantom (where it will stay until the phantom vanishes) it's usually not that useful because it vanishes after a successful hit. But there's a trick: Don't pick the spell at level-up but rather get a grimoire with the spell in it. Cast it from the grimoire. Now switch to another grimoire which doesn't have the spell before attacking. Now you can hit with it as often as you want - it will stay until the end of the fight. If you get a shield for the offhand you can be more tanky - if you choose a club with modal for the offhand you can drop Will even further (by 25 - together with Miasma that's -65 Will). Crits are common with this method. Also in this case: Essential Phantom is great, even though it can't use weapon modals.
    1 point
  39. That was my initial impression of this whole vaping phenomena. Just the fact that it doesn't make everything smell horrible seems to be an improvement over traditional smoking. But then you hear about exploding pens, toxic oils, and a massive spike in dumb teenagers doing this, and now I'm not so sure. The research isn't really there yet. We've got a pretty solid laundry list of all the crap that cigarettes will lead to, but vaping is basically rolling the dice with your health.
    1 point
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