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That show would have been so much better had they stayed away from the time travel nonsense. I HATE time travel story lines.

So I've started watching ST:Enterprise. I am enjoying it, Scott Bakula is fun and it has been easy to jump into the story after a long time not watching ST. I also like that I can kind of keep it on in the background while I do other things. That opening theme song is terrible though.

Edit: Ok wow, this was easy, but I actually don't see it mentioned anywhere how to get it. Been datamining and scratching my head over this for two hours now. It's not a very tricky thing so I'm sure loads have done it, just haven't shared it with the internet. Step 1: Examine the house, doesn't matter if you fail the perception check. I don't know what the ability check here is, so can't speak for it. Step 2: Enter the house. There are two ability checks available here as well. You don't need to do them. Might even be bad to do. Step 3: After entering the house, you notice the bodies. All you need to do now is flee the house, not pursue the arsonists. You can do all the other things if you want, even try to loot the bodies, as long as you choose to flee the house in the end. Step 4: A priestess of Amira (Hylea) will ask you if anyone survived. If you tell her to check for herself [Cruel], you get nothing. If you say nothing (no disposition) or that you're afraid not [Honest], you get a Huana Charm Belt and Amira's Blessing: +2 dexterity to your party until you rest. And if you find yourself having a dilemma... the arsonists drop nothing special.

DS9 was the high water mark for Star Trek IMO. That show was almost always good. It was sometimes outstanding. And when it was Trek was never better. Except the ending. That was kind of a mess. But let's face it, few shows ever end well. In fact the only one I can thing of that really stuck the landing was Cheers.

Got up this morning and took Sunny and Bela for a walk down to Cold Creek and back. We used to follow it all the way to the river but they are both elderly and Sunny has health problems now. After we got back I made them breakfast, 2 cups of Blue Buffalo Wilderness for seniors and two cups of Fresh Pet Select warmed up in the microwave. I made a pot of coffee for myself and we're all now sitting on the porch. They are snoozing and i'm returning e-mails and talking to you fine folks. The sun is shining. The sky is a cloudless azure blue. The air is clear and cool. It's going to be a good day.

Yeah this I totally agree with. Time travel immediately turns me off a show as well.

Actually you and I are in agreement. I also am very happy that Obsidian has tried to create a new combat system that is complex and intricate while at the same time being different from the D&D D20 system (and especially a system that doesn't rely as much on random chance). This is my personal preference, and apparently yours as well. But I believe my conclusion does apply when it comes to the vast majority of gamers out there, almost all of whom are never visitors to this forum. Your point that the only way to get people to appreciate a complex combat system is to keep at it with the games you make is very much valid, except for that developers need to show good profit margins today and not twenty years from now.

No. American games have terrible translation because the developers 1) don't understand the amount of work involved, 2) are not willing to pay for the effort required for a good translation, and 3) are not in any position to evaluate what they get, i.e. as the American developers themselves don't speak the foreign languages their games are translated into, they are unable to realize that the translations tend to be absolutely terrible, utterly worthless. I cannot stress this enough. For somebody who speaks Spanish, Italian, German, what have you, these translations can look so terrible that it actually feels like an insult. Like, dear @Madscientist, if you buy game of computer role-playing and very big adventuring and you see language in game looks like this language, then will that language turn you to a happy customer, or, contrariwise, could it possible even be you will feel the company of making computer gaming is laughing and thinking ha ha that fool boy we have he's money now yippee. It is rare that I claim expertise, but this is one of the few areas where I do. I have been working in this realm for over twenty years, and here I know what I'm talking about. Most (if not all) American cRPG devs simply do not understand what they're doing with their translations. It's a shame, it's an utterly rotting shame, and they should just stop. Forget about the translations: they are so bad that they are not worth it.

With much thanks to @Kvellen for laying the groundwork, I have created my first mod, one that in three different steps reduces the combat tooltip clutter. See mod page for details. When you've done that, I would appreciate some assistance in making it better. Weird strings - I saw references to a courtesan possibly named Nisanga, who gives +1 to all attributes. Can anyone make sense of this? - There are some Magran's Blessing strings that do not seem related to the shield, for example "Boon_MagransBlessing_SE_CritWatcher", again, can anyone make sense of this? I'm hung up on these two because I've been filtering a ton of things that begin with "boon" (generally Watcher buffs), but I couldn't explain what these were about. Additional things to filter While I probably nailed most of the beneficial auras (please point out any I missed), I'm sure there are tons of item buffs that I haven't addressed. Any that come to mind, please mention! Of course, also goes for buffs that slipped through in any other way. Buffs I chose not to filter I elected to leave the following buffs untouched: Nalpazca reactions to being drugged or not, Street Fighter health level reactions, Stalker Companion Bond, and Psion Soul Mind. If you have strong opinions, make them known. Also, being my first mod, I might have unknowingly not observed various NexusMods customs, so feel free to point out errors like that too.

Still got this as well as 99% of the stuff in my link below and also... A GOG or Steam key for Grim Dawn Pioneer Edition

Motherboard. I didn't fix it exactly. More like worked around it by changing the IRQ and a few other things.

That was George Ziets. Avellone isn't even in the credits for Mask of the Betrayer.

Well, that's entirely subjective. I don't think I'll ever get over my love of Tolkien-esque, fantasy worlds, so I didn't think the Dyrwood was bland at all. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by 'awaken and watcher are very difficult to understand and pointless.' Your character is a watcher, and I don't see how either PoEI or II could have existed of you weren't awakened and a watcher. Lady Webb's death did carry weight, though. So did Duc Aevar Wolf-Grin's. When Lady Webb dies, you see the real Thaos, the man you've been searching for all along. It fleshes them both out, and I was sad to see her dead. When the Duc dies, it literally starts fires and rampages throughout Defiance Bay, forcing you to flee the city. That's certainly weighty.

This is actually pretty crazy. A shot-for-shot stop motion recreation of the film. Mad props.

They use D100 though.

wow i've literally never gotten that sequence of events. still learning new things about this game

I am going to go out on a limb and say SonicMage. Maybe Krezack, but not sophisticated enough. I mean, I get Obsidian is an rpg company, but it is weird how many accounts feel the need to play a characterization here.

^ ...the Borg Collective would want you to add your biological and technological distinctiveness to their own?

@Elric Galad Haha, funny you mention threatening presence. At some point last year (around the time I hit myself with the field boots to instantly kill myself through Barbaric Retaliation) I actually rolled in the sickening effect vs engaged targets, combining it with the no engagement vs lower level enemies. I didn't notice any imbalance because once you start to reach PL 7 (with other mods to savage defiance upgrades or other changes to earlier PL abilities) the choices become very competitive for SC Barbarian and most enemies who are dangerous by that point already resist constitution afflictions or resist all other afflictions that would have made the sickening effect more useful. The main purpose at that point was to bolster your accuracy with Brute Force vs mobs. In a team setting, you're actually applying constitution afflictions via other party members in big AoEs, so the Barbarian having this effect can be redundant unless you've worked out something for positioning. "Off-Tanking : reliably absorb damages. The limit is : Barbarian has bad Deflection... Only thing that they might be missing for this role is probably a reasonable Rage cost-efficiency for Savage Defiance." While your points here are valid, the simplicity of Savage Defiance means that if you reduce its rage cost and give another survivability tool, you can overtune the Barbarian to the point of making solo easy. I tested some things regarding reducing the cost and adding in Invigorating Strike as a PL 1 active primary attack ability that grants an all-damage shield (base 5 which scales with PL) and having both was enough to create a full turtle kit that could take on all of SSS and other DLC content solo with little trouble. It's probably better to decide whether you want to introduce another survival mechanic that synergizes with Savage Defiance or focusing on Savage Defiance and its upgrades only. "AoE Damage : Should have been of the class focus, but I would say it is only for Single Class Barbarian (Heart of Blunderbuss or Driving Roar vocal cannon). For MC, Barabaric Blow is meh and Carnage is not enough. I like spamming Spirit Tornado though : Instacast + scaling as a PL1 ability is suprisingly good for a bit of AoE DPS. ...I would advocate for a bit more cost efficiency for Tier VIII... Carnage is good enough as a passive (PoE1 version would cause stupidly overpowered Multiclass), I think it should be supported by active abilities. However, accurate carnage is a tad weak as it is, and could be buffed a bit... maybe ? This should be Barbaric Blow role to support the AoE component Barbarian..." Decreasing rage cost (by 1) for HoF and IoBR hasn't had too significant of an impact in my experience. It makes HoF a little more fun end game since you have some breathing room before and after its use, and IoBR is still competing against vocal cannon shenanigans. Yes, basically buffing accurate carnage to scale with PL and to add an increased carnage AoE component that also scales with PL fixed any issues I had with the passive while not making it feel like it had an overwhelming impact. It just made the passive ability competitive with other options. Barbaric Blow base should probably just get a conservative change like @Boeroer suggests. Give it a push so it triggers carnage on the enemy you hit. With other changes to the Barbarian, it'll synergize nicely, especially if you do what I did and add a PL 8 ability called Aftershock that just procs a second carnage AoE. "- Mobility : with leap and wild sprint, I think barb has what needed. Leap could be used for other purpose though... - Debuffing / CC : should be another focus of the class... Too few effects, debuffing the same stats (not INT, DEX, CON and PER afflictions) and too much Tier 1 that can be easily resisted. Some ideas : Leap is vaguely Okayish for 2 Rage. 6s Dazed could be replaced... One of the Yell upgrade (Roar line ?) could be change to inflict Confuse (or Distracted, etc...). Barbaric blow upgrades could be completely reworked to inflict a debuff... on the whole Carnage AoE. Weakened, Dazed..." Leap is used to sequence break maps and speed run through many locations that normally can't be bypassed. Doing things like leaping past triggers, onto higher terrain (if it's programmed into the map properly) and moving more efficiently to save time during Eothas challenges. I'd say moving it to one earlier PL is about the best change you could give it. Removing or adding more afflictions to it is not needed. I've also messed with reducing the rage cost by 1, but I'm undecided on how powerful it is. On one hand, I love leaping around with such a low resource cost and being able to unload even more abilities, on the other, isn't that kind of the definition of broken? Especially for a 1 point ability? I would caution against reducing the rage cost. Wild sprint is fine. I would focus on the upgrades because they're not worth it atm. What I did was add a charge effect where you get a bonus damage lash for 5s after activating any of their upgrades. Really awesome synergy that doesn't actually break the ability since you run out of rage really fast when doing your thing at mid to late PL anyway. Yell abilities that confuse or distract, in my mod experience, isn't game breaking at all. The move suffers from cast time and recovery. For most of the game using them is iffy at best. Go for it. Crushing Blow and Barbaric Smash doesn't need any debuffing mechanism. If you mess with the conditional bonus damage a little like with the gatecrasher +200% damage vs full HP target (which on testing is not as broken as it seems, especially if you take away the crit damage modifier) idea implemented by @Grape_You_In_The_Mouth in their Barbarian mod, you'll find some solid purpose in the upgrade path. The explosive keg VFX on gatecrasher is just icing. As for Barbaric Smash, you are welcome to increase the crit damage as you intended earlier. I've done the same myself, and found it to meet many thresholds for 1 rounding threats, but as @thelee pointed out it's still less reliable than a fully upgraded Paladin's FoD, so it's fine.

OK, what is/could be the role of Barbarian then : - Off-Tanking : even if not a dedicated Tank like Fighter and Paladin, Barbarian is still good enough to reliably absorb damages. The limit is : Barbarian has bad Deflection, so it's hard to make him into a dedicated Tank. But with High HP Pool, easy access to CON inspiration, AR buff (and Dazing Shout for single Class), Unflichting, I think they're high enough on the tanking ladder (behind Fighter, Paladin, Trickster and dedicated Wiz, etc...). They have a rather easy access to extra Engagement, though I think aggroing too much is probably a bit suicidal (as Vengeful Defeat suggests). Only thing that they might be missing for this role is probably a reasonable Rage cost-efficiency for Savage Defiance. - Single Target damage : Not bad since Barbarian are a martial class and Frenzy helps a lot. But is not and should not be Barbarian speciality. - AoE Damage : Should have been of the class focus, but I would say it is only for Single Class Barbarian (Heart of Blunderbuss or Driving Roar vocal cannon). For MC, Barabaric Blow is meh and Carnage is not enough. I like spamming Spirit Tornado though : Instacast + scaling as a PL1 ability is suprisingly good for a bit of AoE DPS. Although I would advocate for a bit more cost efficiency for Tier VIII - Tier IX (except the blessed Shout ultimates of course), I think it is not a big flaw of the class as a whole. Carnage is good enough as a passive (PoE1 version would cause stupidly overpowered Multiclass), I think it should be supported by active abilities. However, accurate carnage is a tad weak as it is, and could be buffed a bit... maybe ? This should be Barbaric Blow role to support the AoE component Barbarian. But how ? And how it could avoid being a simple "weaker version of HoF" ? Barbaric Blow may have its own stronger version of Carnage (in the range of 100% weapon damage). Not sure of the exact use and values, but after checking the files, I think it's at least technically feasible. So feel free to investigate this possibility. - Mobility : with leap and wild sprint, I think barb has what needed. Leap could be used for other purpose though... - Debuffing / Crowd Control : should be another focus of the class, but is vaguely okayish at the moment. Barbarian has access to some interrupt (good enough for this part), some pushes, a nice instacast AoE Terrify, Staggered, Shaken and the longest Daze effect. Too few effects, debuffing the same stats (not INT, DEX, CON and PER afflictions) and too much Tier 1 that can be easily resisted. Some ideas : Leap is vaguely Okayish for 2 Rage. 6s Dazed could be replaced by something else, from a short Stun to a long Disoriented (Dazed feels a bit redundant with Dazing Shout). One of the Yell upgrade (Roar line ?) could be change to inflict Confuse (or Distracted, etc...). Not really better but still nice to avoid redundant debuff in a party. Maybe Barbarian lack a passive like the old PoE1 Threatening presence Barbaric blow upgrades could be completely reworked to inflict a debuff... on the whole Carnage AoE. Weakened, Dazed, I don't know exactly which ones, but it would be an option.

Add Amira's Blessing to the list! +2 dexterity. You get it from solving the Neketaka burning house scripted interaction in a certain way.

Grim Face (Hearth Orlan, Priest of Eothas) & Co - Part 2 - Intro. - Part 1 The first objective of our adventure was Raedric's Hold. Esternwood inhabitants - undead and Wichts - are Vessels so Holy Radiance burned them in few seconds. Spiders are a little bit sturdier but fell nonetheless. We met Kolsc there and proceed to the Hold. There we took a sewers entrance (buffed with Duc's Own Beefloaf Eder was able to bend the grates). Large group of Guls, Revenants and Skellies at the entrance was taken down with some more food buffs (Darkest Rauatai Cookies, Rauatai Sweet Pie and Ale) and Eder holding grounds at the side door (those Guls have quite nasty ability - Vomit Blood - which might wipe the whole low level party if applied en-masse). The same approach was taken vs another crowd of undead in nearby room and Eder got Fine Brigandine we found there: Loose Brick in one of the Prison's cells stored Minor Cloak of Protection and we also set free Giacco, an unfortunate member of Kolsc's expedition to the Hold. For now Osrya was left alone (we'll come back later anyway), just like the large group of Oozes at the west. To get to Nedmar we had to wear some Berathian priest robes and pass two checks with guards- one of Resolve 12 (courtesy of Hound resting bonus) and then another of Intelligence 12. Got the master key from Nedmar and loot some Hold's chests for Gloves of Manipulation, Blunting Belt and Boots of Stealth. Not bad, not bad at all! We also hit level 4 there: Grim Face (Mechanics>6, Survival>1, Interdiction), Eder (Lore>6, Survival>3, Two Weapon Style), Aloth (Lore>8, Survival>1, Combusting Wounds, Penetrating Blast). Since (if I remember correct) level 4 is max for party pre Caed Nua we next hired Durance (Athletics>3, Survival>3, Lore>7, Stealth>1, Inspiring Radiance, Aspirant's Mark) at Magran's Fork and proceed east to Caed Nua to meet Kana. In Black Meadow fire priest was invaluable vs Forest Trolls and they drop like flies. The wildlife is quite intelligent and knew their main threat trying to focus Durance first and foremost, but with two Priests in the Crew we endure without losses. Kana joined the Crew (Athletics>3, Lore>7, Survival>3, 'But Reny Darel's Ghost, He Would not Rest', 'Come, Come Soft Winds of Death', Ancient Memory, Gallant's Focus) and we sneaked through the courtyard figthing single Will-O'-Wisp to get Whispers of Yenwood (applying Burning Lash to it immediately): Back in Black Meadow Bandits are not a threat for us anymore (The Disappointer being fixed and in Kana's skilled hands is quite deadly). The whole area is clear now except two Forest Lurkers near Galavain's Shrine (I remember them being a pain in our rears back in Gloomy Face run and we'll come back to that shrine later in the game anyway). Happy with his shipment back Tuatanu sold us Azureith's Stiletto with great discount and we headed to Madhmr Bridge to get Hermit's Hat. Local Xaurips come in small groups so went down easy and pair of Trolls even being sturdier than Forest ones fell nonetheless. Next we are going to visit Anslog's Compass and then sanitize Temple of Eothas back in Guilded Vales. to be continued...

too few dragon are not a problem too many dragon are when the slayer competitor brag about killed 3 dragon it feels very weird zombie dragon in bow are pretty clever choice of devs

But in order to experience the frustration you allude to, people would have had to play the game for a while, which in turn would have meant buying it first. So it doesn't sound like a good theory.

I think this is meaningless, although I obviously cannot prove it either way. In all my years of cRPG playing, I have never heard anyone even mention Chris Avellone except on the internet forums. The only person I would regard as a veritable "presence" on this front is Richard Garriott, and that was in the 1980s. Never, ever has anyone spoken about Avellone being a particularly good writer, much less an indispensable one. It was only the internet forums that woke me up to the fact that he has a rabid group of followers/supporters. My sense is that the group is small but very rabid indeed. I have read one post by Chris Avellone himself, and it didn't make me think that there was a good writer there. It only made me sad.

I don't agree to that. At least not for a full party playthrough. Multiclass feels stronger in the early game - especially with front-loaded classes like Rogue, Paladin etc., and also because of two resource pools - but in general single class/multiclass is pretty balanced. One shouldn't underestimate the impact of Power Level and more importantly the faster PL progression which grants access to certain gamechanging abilites a lot sooner (quite apparent with Priests for example). And then you can gain certain awesome PL 8/9 abilities. See Monk (Resonant Touch, Whispers of the Wind), Cipher (Driving Echoes, Shared Nightmare), Wizard (Meteor Shower, Missile Salvo), Druid (Avenging Storm, Greater Maelstrom), Chanter (Eld Nary's Curse), Priest (Seal Symbol of XY spells), Barbarian (Driving Roar, Barbaric Retaliation) and many more. Multiclass is - in my opinion - more interesting though because of the "self-contained" synergies you can play with. Anyway I also think the AI system is pretty decent and you can do a lot with it. Some cases can't be implemented with it very well (decent gunslinging with quickswitch for example) but they are few.

Just saw this. This is just tragic. https://www.tmz.com/2020/01/26/kobe-bryant-killed-dead-helicopter-crash-in-calabasas/

Seems Max is not available((

In other words, what I managed to gather from this thread is that while Picard isn't exactly a great watch, at least most of you were... *drum roll* ...engaged. I'm so sorry

Bored Panda - Studen Loan, impossible to pay stories