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our current dogs don't dig much, except to get free o' our yard. 'cause o' the small dogs, we needed put chicken wire 'round all our fencing 'cause they could easily squeeze 'tween the bars. the little dogs were not diggers, so we thought we were golden with the chicken wire solution. came home one day and the dogs were loose. after a moment o' panic, we resolved to set out to look for 'em before it got dark and then noticed they were standing right behind us. clearly they were close by and saw us come home... followed us from the garage to the back gate w/o us realizing. the dogs dug their way out o' the yard at the gate, so to discourage future escapes we broke up a bunch o' unglazed ceramic tile and placed the shards at the gates where the dogs had so recent made their way out o' the yard. before the chicken wire were up, the dogs could leave the yard at any point along the fence line, and did. inexplicably, after adding the chicken wire, the dogs has never attempted to get out o' the yard by digging anywhere but at the gates. lucky for us. the busted-up ceramic tile solved our digging/escape problem, but is just weird the dogs has never attempted to dig anywhere but at the gates. clear doomed to never reach the top o' the food chain is our dogs. HA! Good Fun!

I'm starting to think it was just a perfect storm of negative factors that led to such drop in sales. A critical miss.

Achtung; Naughty word

Deaf man sues porn site over no closed captioning. https://www.tmz.com/2020/01/16/pornhub-sued-class-action-deaf-demand-closed-captioning/ Don't want to miss out on any of that scintillating dialogue.

I'm distinctly reminded of Sir John Hackett reflecting on the words of Arnold Toynbee and what he called "the Military Virtues": Granted from what people in the real-estate profession have said of Trump it's doubtful he's any good at being a real-estate mogul anyways. For as much as Trump claims to idolise figures such as Patton one would have to try very hard to convince me that had Patton lived long enough to meet Trump he would not shatter his jaw within ten minutes of being in his presence.

Precisely. It would be extremely good if people were more careful with their wording and/or understood the terminology they use (preferably both!). The OP's first words in this thread were "We all know kickstater is fancy scam", which, as far as I'm concerned, is an excellent way to undermine one's credibility right at the start.

Again, there's an elephant in the room regarding Deadfire's dip in sales that no perception of quality can account for, I feel. The dip the franchise saw in performance wasn't a 10-20% or a 50% even, or a lack of continued interest or whatnot. From what I understand, the first game in the series has already sold about 2 million copies whilst the new one has struggled to make it to 400k. That's a 70-80% drop right there, and one for a game that, despite assumptions of the contrary, is generally rated quite positively across all user aggregate websites out there, including a 7.8 metascore, an 84% Steam user approval and a 4.4/5 GOG rating. Moreover, let's consider some notorious sequels to popular franchises: Dragon Age 2: roughly 2 million copies sold by August 2011 (down 50% from its predecessor) Mass Effect 3: roughly 1.5 million copies in its first month (100% up from its predecessor), roughly 6 million total (down from Mass Effect 2's 7 million) Mass Effect: Andromeda: an estimated 2.5 million copes sold across its lifetime (down 60% approx from Mass Effect 3) BioShock 2: 3 million copies (down 25% from the 4 million sold by its predecessor) Fallout 4: roughly 14.9 million units sold (up 50% over the next highest-grossing Fallout game, Fallout 3) Batman: Arkham Knight: 5 units sold in the first four months (down 17% from Arkham City by the same point) And more. It's arguable that all of these examples were met with much more vitriol from the gamer community and proved to be way more divisive if not outright trashed by the fanbase than Deadfire, yet the latter's drop far exceeds even the worst ones here. What's more, some games that were deemed disappointing relative to their predecessors even went *up* in sales relative to their previous entries as well, which goes to show how much the insular jabber of the diehard community often matters in these things. To be fair, Deadfire is a smaller game and thus likely more exposed to such talk - but again, when the talk wasn't even that negative to begin with, it's hard to point out to it as a major factor in the drop in sales.

Many apologies, but I have just been playing through the game a second time. I have noticed that after the early game, even with level scaling, difficulty does tend to.... taper off a bit, even on POTD. In particular there seem to be a number of encounters that are unexpectedly easy, in particular when a large number of lower level enemies were used to try to buff difficulty. This has got me thinking, as a person who DMs occasionally for pen and paper games, whether it would be worthwhile to tune up those encounters in particular (rather than say increasing the strength of all enemies e.g. via the difficult table, which would be perhaps excessive at low levels, or increasing the strength of enemies used in multiple contexts). I recall a number of mods for e.g. Baldur's Gate 2 that did this, quite fondly. Sword Coast Tactics and some other thing that I can't recall. As such, is there any way to edit the location and number of enemies on various maps, or swap out the level or type of individual enemies? Heck, if I could even find the area-specific intended levels (to force scaling for specific areas), I suppose that might be helpful? PS: I realize I could turn on more God Challenges or what not, but I just feel a number of these encounters need.... tuning up. PPS: is anyone noticing that Unbending Trunk seems to heal much more than 33% of all damage taken? This may be contributing. My, and my enemies, health still seem to actually increase from using it. PPS: There also seems to be insufficient scaling (and baseline growth) of human enemies in particular. They peak at Gorechi street and sortoff.... go downhill from there.

Fair enough. I liked Aloth in both POE games, so you'll get no complaint from me.

I can tell you, that I like him more than I like Sagani and probably more than Palegina, but less than Kana My favourite NPC so far is Aloth. He went from bad to above average in my eyes in the last few hours

More Pillars of Eternity. I have moved more around Durgan's Battery, got asskicked twice (once by golems, once by Meztla ) and then kicked her ass myself. After a while and two new Soulbound weapons, I have moved back to Caed Nua and finished 3 more bounties. Someone is planning to attack my Stronghold, so I am planning to defend it by myself

Someone rolled a 1.

Slightly different take on the topic, but here goes: With Cloak of Minor Missiles (+5 Burn/Shock DR), Wyrwood Ring (+5 Freeze/Corrode DR), Blunting Belt (+5 Slash/Pierce DR), and Crush-Proofed Armor, you can have +5 DR to all damage types but Crush, which is +3 (there is not +5 Crush in the game) for maximum DR with minimal slots allocated. Deckhand's Uniform (+9 Deflection/Reflexes), Munacra Arret (+12 Will), and Father's Teeth (+18 Fortitude) for insane defenses. Little Savior can bring these up by 5. Noteworthy for not requiring ring slots (of keen interest to Wizards). Cloak of Comfort's +5 All Defenses stacks with other bonuses, so something as simple as Ring of Protection (+9 all non-Deflection defenses), Ring of Deflection (+9 Deflection), Little Savior, and Cloak of Comfort can be a whooping +19 to all defenses. Alternatively, you can save a lot of attribute points and gear slots by purposefully tanking (pun not originally intended) Deflection, as shown in concept by mosspit's The Untank. While Barbarian is a natural fit (and using Sanguine Plate to get around Maneha choosing Barbaric Yell at level 1 works wonders), this concept also works well for off-tank roles like Melee Ranger, or even bulky Rogue (Reckless Assault becomes pure upside). To add on to Boeroer's comments on Deathblows/Deep Wounds spell Rogues, because of their natural synergy with AoE Blunt/Pierce/Slash spells, they make great use of gear that procs them such as Sabre of the Seas, The Grey Sleeper, Echoing Misery, Swaddling Sheet, Siegebreaker Gauntlets, Nidhen's Finger, White Crest Armor, Bittercut, and The Colored Coat. The ones listed are AoEs, fixing one of the Rogue's "problem areas", and some, such as Nidhen's Finger and White Crest Armor, can make for extremely powerful openers as you inflict the entire enemy force (in some cases) with Deep Wounds. As mentioned in Boeroer's Zeblastian Hurtstacker Wizard's Phantoms can use Spellbinds on Rings, making them the ideal choice for things like Ring of Searing Flames, Ring of Unshackling, and Sigil of the Arcane. A Paladin with Outworn Buckler, and two party members with Little Savior can grant the whole party +15 to all defenses.

I... have no idea how to respond to this.

Doing the same but at a super slow pace as my wife doesn't care for the show

Binge re-watching Cheers on NetFlix. That show was brilliant.

Not detrimental at all

Yep, I'm still definetly on team disband copyright.

Rodgers has been quietly not that great this year, but he's still the QB left in the playoffs that scares me the most in a late game pressure situation just because I have lived through the slasher film horrors of him ripping the beating heart out of the chest of muh Boys... multiple times. The mental scars have not healed.

God Eater 3. There was an update/free DLC with post-game content (3-4 missions for one of the companions, 1 "new"* aragami). So far so good, though I detest the character's VA - it is truly horrible and, probably, meant to be this way (the character is a child). *it looks like a reskin of an existing aragami. Tried Disco Elysium. I failed to find where to rebind the controls or to toggle highlight for interactive objects, thus played with the Tab key pressed. It is not what I had hoped for, but maybe the game will get better - it is praised for its writing, not mechanics. Though RNG in non-combat skill checks is an odd choice that inspires heavy usage of the F5/F9 keys.

Spain, you say?

yes. The untargetability of knock-up lasts for one second, and then they spend one second standing up, for two seconds total out of commission. Yes, you can't do anything to them while they're untargetable, but it means an extra second to gear up for an attack or let a resource recover. You can see me using this on the un-interruptible Oracle of Wael as part of my ultimate run below. (note - as a plus, this worked especially great for a tactician because while they're untargetble they don't count as being in combat, so a tactician (or a party with a tactician) against a solo perception-immune enemy would be repeatedly triggering Brilliant, which is actually better than just one prolonged Brilliant, since just activating Brilliant gives you resource back)

am agreeing on qbr, particular as it disproportionately favors mobile qbs as 'posed to pure pocket passers. nevertheless, instead o' a long-winded analysis o' the past three seasons from rodgers, which wouldn't be uncharacteristic o' one o' our posts, we thought a bit o' shorthand were warranted. can't recall speaking to a packers fan for any length o' time who hasn't expressed a degree o' concern regarding rodgers over at least past two years. such fans is often quick to find reasons why rodgers is having difficulties, but there is recognition o' diminished performance from the league mvp qb. HA! Good fun!

our understanding is the case were settled. do you have additional info? considering how the similar case against wapo were initially dismissed, is more than a mere possibility that whatever the "maga hat boy" team were given could have been little more than enough to recoup costs. tough to count this as much o' a win w/o more info. speaking o' washington post, and to avoid the double ‘You’re a bunch of dopes and babies’: Inside Trump’s stunning tirade against generals we can post a few quotes for those blocked, but might be pointless. at this stage in the administration, the revelations is not shocking while at same time being a gut punch for any but true believers. HA! Good Fun!

imgur will offer different versions of the link. I prefer the BBCode version.

You should feel free to move the discussion to this thread

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the Kickstarter scam par excellence: Star Citizen. Which, funny story, is not a scam at all but rather a case study in how crowdfunding success can completely bog down a project. Ironically, I'm sure it will be a wildly successful commercial product... at some point in the 2030s. In any case, how many actual demonstrable scams have come through Kickstarter? Seems one of those words that people throw around so often that it's become almost meaningless.

Armor is the most important defensive value in Deadfire. Even one point can make a difference. If you can bring the enemy to multiple points of underpenetration (-2 or even -3) you'll see a massive increase of survivability. With a pet that reduces armor recovery penatly (Abraham for example) and Armored Graze a heavier armor won't slow you down terribly - and also your passives as a Streetfighter should help a lot with your overall attack speed. The reason is that damage maluses (like from underpenetration) go through a series of obscured mathematical operations (search for "double inversion" in the forum) which finally leads to a situation where the actual damage loss is way higher than the 25%/50%75% description suggest. WAY higher. You could immediately feel it IF you manage to let the enemy underpenetrate. A problem with the streetfighter is that he wants to get flanked but flanking implies a -1 AR debuff. So thicker armor indeed. Shield is not needed if your Herald can give you enough passive healing via his two auras (Ancient Memory + Exalted Endurance) and has some Lay on Hands for you. Greater Lay on Hands will even give you +2 AR but has double cost - don't know if that's worth it since it won't stack with Exalted Endurance. Deflection is nice but you don't need to bring it to stellar highst in this case. Just enough so that you don't catch a hell lot of crits - because crits have 1.5 times the PEN of a normal attack which will hurt you (not the additional dmg bonus but the removal of underpenetration). Once you get Refeshing Defense and Unbending your survivabilty problems should come to a full stop. Also Unbreakable is a good passive in your case because it gives you +2 stackable AR which is a big bonus. And the base duration is 30 secs. Sure, you will have to go down to get this bonus but I find that once you free yourself from the irrational fear of a knockout this is no problem since you can rest nearly everywhere and always. If brought to legendary then better armors than the Garari Cuirass (which is a good armor in itself, just too thin for your task) could be: Devil of Caroc Breastplate: 7 (base) +4(comes ledendary) +2 (Self Mending, if under 50% health) = 13 AR when bloodied --> great mix of AR and offense, also gets you +2 Discipline and +2 Guile The Bloody Links: 7 (base) +4 (legendary, have to enchant yourself) +2 (Crimson Steel, if under 50% health) = 13 AR when bloodied --> as DoC Breastplate, but less offensive capabilities Patinated Plate: 9 (base) +4 (comes legendary) +2 (Bronze Juggernaut, against melee only) = 15 AR in melee --> this is the armor with the highest AR against melee weapon attacks. Also its stunning retaliation helps a ton with survival. This will slow you down a lot but make you a lot more sturdy. Also get a Blunting Belt (+1 pierce/slash AR, stacks with everything). Depending on the enemy (which damage type he enemy delivers) you can exchange that with a belt that does +1 crush AR instead (like Maker's Own Power or Ngati's Girdle). You can also use a Dragon Pendant since it gives you +1 burn/slash AR. So with Exalted Endurance + Blunting Belt/Ngati's Girdle + Dragon Pendant you'd have +2 pierce/crush AR and +3 slash AR on top of the armor. Alco check consumables for AR bonuses. I don't remember if food stacks with Exalted Endurance or Robust from Greater Lay on Hands (then Aedyrean Mead would be your best friend) but others here will def. know. But there are other consumables which give even more bonus than +1 or +2 ---> like Potion of Spirit Shield (+3) which you should really consider taking in tough fights. I guess I would try the Breastplate (with the Helm of the Falcon - they look great together and the helm is good for a Great Sword user). This is a very good offensive setup due to the speed bonuses both items give you - while being reasonably thick for somebody who gets surrounded often. And only if the problems contuinue I'd try the Patinated Plate.

Blue Heron chick looks like a dinosaur.

Chanter+Priest+Cipher, needs two preservation items on the Chanter, one shield and one other: Chanter: chants Dragon Thrashed Priest: casts Withdraw on Chanter --> Chanter doesn't stop chanting and gets +100 to all defenses because Withdraw counts as stun effect Cipher: casts Defensive Mindweb --> everybody gets the Chanter's ridiculous defenses Barbarian+Chanter with Firebrand and Blood Thirst on the Barb Chanter: summons Skeletons, sends them to the front line Barbarian: summons Firebrand, hits Skeletons who stand near enemies --> Skeleton will get killed, Carnage damages enemies, Blood Thirst gets triggered also works with Barb alone if he takes Rymers' Summons as talent Barbarian+Wizard Wizard: casts Combusting Wounds Barbarian (need high INT): triggers Heart of Fury while dual-wielding --> creating tons of hits which all apply Combusting Wounds also works with Barb alone if he uses a Ring of Searing Flames Island Aumaua Wizard with Quick Switch and Coil of Resourcefulness equip 4 blunderbusses and suse Penetrating Shot cast Combusting Wounds fire all four blunderbusses on enemies with Combusting Wounds (applying 6 instances with each shot) add some missile spells and a Wall of Flame if needed Wizard + Cipher Wizard casts Combusting Wound Cipher casts Ectopsychic Echo Chanter with one handed single weapon get +12 ACC for all offensive chants Wizard + Chanter with White Worms and Blessed Was Wengridh: deactivate "gib" in the game options Chanter: lure enemies to a spot Wizard: cast Wall of Flames + Combusting Wounds --> kill enemies Chanter: lure more enemies to that spot where the corpses lie --> again Combusting Wounds, then use White Worms lure more enemies there: White Worms --> corpses can be used over and over again. You can clear whole maps with this one alone. don't reload in between or the corpses are gone an tank + Wizard with Blast and Kalakoth Minor Blights: tank engages enemies Wizard: summon Blights cast Pull of Eora cast Combusting Wounds shower enemies with Blights --> each hit from Blights (including AoE hits) will also trigger a Blast --> tond of hits that will all apply Combusting Wounds Rogue with spell binding gear (and scrolls): get Deathblows --> also does +100% dmg with spells get Deep Wounds --> does raw damage also with crushing/piercing/slashing spells pile up spell binding gear --> Flames of Fair Rhian, Sun Touched Mail and so on, everything that gives your rogue offensive spells get some scrolls --> especially of spells that deal pierce, slash or crush damage like Twin Stones or Concussive Missiles for Deep Wounds cast those spells on enemies who have two afflictions --> deal +100% damage with Deathblows Paladin + Fighter + Priest, get Munacra Arret and a marking weapon: Paladin is a Darcozzi Paladini with marking weapon, Coordinated Attacks and Inspiring Liberation (+10 ACC+10 ACC): cast IL on fighter Fighter uses Disciplined Barrage, wears Munacra Arret (and or Spirit Spiral, can also use Enigma's Charm) Priest casts Devotions (+20 ACC), then Inspiring Radiance (+10 ACC) Paladin attacks Dragon with marking weapon --> Fighter casts charm on dragon --> Fighter gets +10(Munacra Arret) +10(Inspiring Liberation) +20(Dispciplined Barrage) +20(Devotions) +10(marking) +10(Coordinated Attacks) +10(Inspiring Radiance) = +90 Accuracy on the charm which will crit-charm every dragon besides the one that is immune (Llengrath). Also works with Knockdown to knock a dragon over very reliably. But charm helps a ton with all the ads. Enigma's Charm doesn't have +10 ACC so its hit chance is slightly lower but it's 1/encounter. If you get Shame or Glory and Cladhaliath (with marking) or clone one of them with with the Helwax Mold you can give a +20 marking bonus instead of +10. Also works very well with a Cipher instead of a Fighter: no knockdown, but you can cast anything on the enemy. Especially if you combine Borrowed Instinct with Tactical Meld (on the Paladin): +30 ACC on top 6 Priests: Priest casts Devotions all Priests cast Aggrandizing + Inspiring Radiance all Priests cast Minor Avatar all Priests cast Shining Beacon with +10 INT, +10 MIG and +90 ACC (+10 from PER, +60 from Radiance, +20 from Devotions) --> delete even the atoms of the enemies from existence variant with one Wizard or Druid for CC and nuking: also nice if enemies are vessels then Radiance alone will evaporate everything (if not fire immune) Paladin with Outworn Buckler + Chanter with Little Savior: Chanter summons Skeletons, chants Blessed Was Wengridh + Comrades Paladin kills skeletons and triggers Inspiring Triumph Chanter keeps summoning if skeletons are all down --> endless flow of Inspiring Triumph --> party has stackable +5(Buckler) +5(Little Saviour) +10(Wengridh + Comrades) +7(Inspiring Triumph) = +27 to fortitude/will/reflex and +17 to deflection at all times with no per-rest resource costs spells etc. like Shields for the Faithful can stack on top Surely there's more but I have to go...

Thanks for the kind words! And I understand. I don't write down everything about my characters, just what I feel is what I need to get the game started, and then I let the character develop a bit more while playing the game. I often rewrite parts of the backstory after this point as well. Personally, I am very dedicated to the roleplaying aspect, and I try not to metagame anything. I play on the Story Mode difficulty, because the story experience is more important to me than challenging combat. I, or I should say Alendra, struck a deal with Llengrath and helped the Alpine Dragon instead of fighting them because I felt that's what Alendra would do. While doing Berath's quest A Servant of Death, Alendra wiped out the Ethik Nôl; personally, in fact. She found them and their sacrifices so offensive that she told Edér, Aloth and the others to stay put while she went off to end them all by herself. It was rather simple, actually, as I am playing on Story Mode and was rather overleveled for the area. As for viewing it from a story perspective, I've been having a slightly difficult time justifying Alendra's combat prowess with her young age, but then I had the idea that since she's Awakened, maybe she remembers some of the combat skills and combat experience of some of her previous lives. She also wields Oidhreacht in her off-hand, and that stiletto supposedly gives the wielder memory flashes of the techniques and maneuvers performed by the original wielder, who was an elite duelist. Fun fact, Oidhreacht means "inheritance" in Irish Gaelic, and so I pretend that the original wielder of the weapon was one of her ancestors through House Davar. As for the pregnant woman in Blood Sands, I pretend that Alendra DID NOT kill her and only knocked her out with the blunt back side of Steadfast, or used her Cipher abilities to tranquilize her. But I digress! When I went to fight the next target of Berath's quest A Servant of Death, I didn't do it. Alendra thought that High Ovate Erona was not a bad person and did not deserve to die, so she decided to spurn Berath and walk away from the mission he gave her. I intend to never finish that quest. But there are things that I do "metagame". An example is Ryona's Breastplate, the only soulbound armor in the game. I was always annoyed by the fact that only three classes could bind with it, and that neither was a Cipher. And, I mean....why is it only Paladin, Chanter and Monk? There's nothing in this Ryona's backstory that indicates she was one of those classes. And the wiki states that she was to appear in Deadfire as a ghost, and her class would have been fighter! Anyway. I specifically wanted Alendra to wear it, in part because of the fact that it's the only soulbound armor in the game, but also because the green color of the armor matches pretty much perfectly with the eye color Alendra has in her portrait. So I downloaded a mod that makes it so that Ryona's Breastplate can be soulbound to all classes so that I could do so on Alendra!

I never have defined my character as skillfully as OP (I hate writing my own bio, having to do the same for my character would be just as grueling). However, I do find it necessary to define who my character is (past, personality, personal believes and goals) to enjoy most Obsidian RPGs. That was the main hurdle I had to overcome when moving from Bioware games to Obsidian's. Never played or really knew about table-top RPGs at the time, so creating your character, outsided gameplay stats was an abstract concept for me. Something I complained about was that I didn't have a character I would care about - while was invested in the conflict of Bhaalspawn, hero of Jade Empire or KOTOR, or Shephard, I found it difficult at first to care about blankslates of KOTOR2, NWN2. By the time I played Fallout: New Vegas, I read more about roleplaying, and decided to do a bit of an experiment, and defined my character before starting the game - and found the experience to be immensely engaging and satisfying. PoEs are probably first games I really tried very hard to roleplay, though it is still challenging for me not to metagame (for example I killed Llengrath in PoE1 because I didn't want to miss on the hardest fight in the game, even though reaching a mutual deal, was what my character would be more willing to pursue). When playing Outer Worlds I never felt a need to define who my character is, and I think that is one of the main reasons why it felt more like Bioware RPG, then Obsidian's - most decisions I made were based on what I personally believed was a better choice, rather then being based on my character viewpoint. Being able most of the time to find the morally superior middle ground only reinforced that playstyle.

Have you a BG1 save game to import into BG2? Black Isle has an interesting [possibly Fallout related] easter egg in the Baldur's series... but it's split across all three games; BG1, BG2, BG2:Throne of Bhaal.

I started Disco Elysium. Looks quite good. One funny thing: at the crime scene, very early on in the game, there are these two troublemaker kids. One of them peppers her speech with words from a language that not a lot of people in this world speak and that is meant to be clearly alien (not as in extraterrestrial) in the game. I happen to speak that language rather well, so I'm one of the very few for whom that "exotic" bit isn't exotic -- I just happen to note that the pronunciation is off.

they dont take themselves too seriously and that is a pleasant change in the genre.

This is a very polished game - there are a small amount of scripting errors, that's about it. Virtually no broken quests, no crashes, etc. They clearly opted to produce a polished game with plenty of 'depth' in each area instead of a 'large content' game, and there's no reason not to play now if you are interested. The game should please anyone who liked Age of Decadence, although it's a very different beast, in fact. It will also please anyone who wanted TTON to be good (or, I guess, if you enjoyed TTON). It knocks most games out of the park without hesitation in terms of atmosphere and style. For me, the closest experience is actually the way I play P&P - the feeling of saying 'alright, I'm going to play a cop who's been beaten up one too many times by life and now decides to weather the storm through florid performances of SUPERSTAR coloured by disco nostalgia', then finding all the skills and choices that support this, seeing the entire game shaped through that, and then, the game throwing me enough new information, choices, emotional moments, where said character goes through some kind of change - perhaps to a more sombre man who begins to accept his failures, perhaps to a paranoid apocalypse obsessed cop, etc. It is pretty great.