Leaderboard

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Edition Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced Borderlands: The Handsome Collection The Darkness II Sid Meiers Pirates! Carnival Games VR Spec Ops: The Line The Golf Club 2019 BioShock: The Collection Civilization III NBA Playgrounds 2

BBC - Captain Tom Moore finished NHS fundraiser as it tops £12million

Trouble is, some in the US would withdraw from NATO because others aren't pulling their weight, then wonder why Europe doesn't pay any attention to them and won't support them any more and rail about how US influence has dropped without drawing any connection between the two. And the US can always unilaterally reduce military spending, if she wants to. Nobody wants China to be the sole superpower, that's a false dichotomy. It is a potential result of Trump continually taking enormous dumps on former friends and international institutions for naked domestic political purposes though. If people end up actually taking China's side against the US what does that say about the diplomatic abilities of the US? These things don't happen in a vacuum, they happen as a consequence to deliberate US policies. Trump and Pompeo have asterisked off literally everyone who isn't Bibi Netanyahu, many multiple times on multiple issues. The ongoing collapse of US soft power is an inevitable consequence of that. It may play well to elements of the US domestically, but all the extortion, amnerican exceptionalism and unilateralism doesn't play well with anyone outside the US.

I always find it amusing that the US insisting on something clearly political isn't a bad thing when others doing the same thing is. An organisation bowing to pressure for the US is fine, bowing to pressure from anyone else is the sign of a flawed, corrupt organisation. Meanwhile members of Trump's admin are bringing in wheelbarrows of cash to Florida to make sure that the fricking WWE is labelled as 'essential' and not subject to lockdown; which about sums up how things work and the expectations of Trump's America. You can also pretty much guarantee that the people complaining about the WHO now would be incandescent with rage if a similar approach to that they wanted taken with China were taken with the US. Indeed, we can already see that, China doesn't want it called the Chinese or Wuhan virus, the US does, China doesn't want Taiwan mentioned, the US does, and toys will come out of cot when either doesn't get their way. WHO ain't going to call it Wuhan Flu because you call it SARS-CoV2 or Covid-19 or even generic old coronavirus for a reason- it's a coronavirus, not a flu. Flu is a, uh, orthomyxovirus, generically influenza/ flu (for good reason) and while they do share similarities with coronaviruses like ssRNA they are taxonomically different. Ironically the most prominent and deadly example of actual influenza was Spanish (sic) Flu which very likely originated in... the US and definitely didn't originate in Spain. The US had relatively speaking plenty of time to prepare for covid19, the failure to do so effectively is largely on Trump downplaying everything (with a hearty dollop left over for D and other orange man bad types grandstanding on issues where Trump did do the right thing, like banning travel). China's behaviour has- as pretty much always- been awful with a policy of deliberate lies throughout but the WHO cannot simply invade China to get the true picture. They have also consistently been misquoted by Trumpians trying to run interference. Eg they did not say there was no human to human transmission, they said there was no evidence for it at that time (because, basically, China was lying about it- but they also had no particular reason to doubt them given that other recent coronaviruses with animal origin like SARS or MERS do have very low infectivity). The WHO issued a directive saying there was definite human to human transmission in early January iirc, about two months before Trump started taking covid19 seriously. On a broader front and the broader issue, the US cannot complain about China's growing influence while simultaneously withdrawing from everything and anything half way multilateral they feel like because it isn't a tool for the US, Obama derangement syndrome or simple hubris. That just leads to handing China influence by default giftwrapped on a silver platter. One of the reasons there's so little international support for 'Wuhan Virus' is that pretty much everyone international literally literally hates Pompeo and Trump, and the US has already burnt through almost all of the goodwill that could have got support from Europe and others. No one wants to allow Trump the cover of blaming China, and given the low regard China is held in that really says something about how the current US admin is viewed.

Playing Fallout for the first time in over fifteen years, and oh boy, is this game a tough pill to swallow nowadays. To say it's aged badly is an understatement, there's things here that almost feel designed for the express intent of obfuscating basic mechanics and frustrating the player. At the same time it's somehow a lot of fun on that level too - it's fun to do something akin to a post-mortem run of it, to break down all the places where the game could be improved in the modern day and think about all these flaws. It's one of those cases that feel very rewarding as a case study of what not to do. Of course the game still holds in a fair few departments and is overall quite fun in spite of its age. Mark Morgan's score especially does a lot of heavylifting throughout.

You didn't see the crap that got deleted yesterday. Zionist Jews controling mainstream media ruin xcom to steal our freedom.

I haven't played it and neither has my mum.

The Least Unstable Coil will grant you multiple inspirations with an Empowered "Her Revenge" because every lightning strike triggers the enchantment (for whatever reason) so I'd advise you to pick that invocation. It's very good anyways. A Bellower can stack his bonus PLs from collected phrases (up to 7) with those of Empower - which can lead to pretty spectacular damage numbers (I mean if you want to maximize the outcome of that one empowered invocation - and invocations in general). Of course he can't refill as quickly as Troubadour, but the impact on individual invoctions is bigger. Eld Nary's Curse is most likely the invocation that profits from PLs most. It becomes very very strong. But the buff of the Bellower is actually too short to cover all the jumps from Eld Nary. The last ones will have a bit lower damage. Still the PLs determine the number of jumps - so it's great nonetheless. Don't forget White Worms. It does very high damage with enough PLs. Because its base damage is quite high. It's great if you focus-fire one enemy down and then use it for great impact. Doesn't need to be empowered to be good. If you want more sturdyness: the Old Siec chant works with Invocations - so you can get good health from damaging enemies with Eld Nary or Her Revenge etc. If you make your Herald a Steel Garrote he can drain twice: from his passive and your chant. If you add a Furyshaper with Blood Ward: even thrice (your Furyshaper and you: twice).

Greetings fellow spacers, The next time you launch The Outer Worlds, you should see Patch 1.3 ready for downloading and installing! The patch has been released for players across all platforms, and it is required in order to fix specific issues and apply any changes included. If you do not see this update right away, please know that it may take some time to populate and become available. Changes/fixes that are included in this patch are as follows: Top Community Requests: Added a setting to adjust the size of text throughout most UIs Updated font colors to improve visibility Updated NPC corpses to remain interactive even when they have no items to loot Added support for ultra-wide monitors (loading screens & cinematics) Added the ability to toggle sprinting so the player can continue moving without holding any buttons Added functionality to see beacons for inactive quests while viewing maps Added an option to show the HUD reticle only when aiming down weapon sights Audio: Fixed an audio inconsistency with skill button presses Design: Fixed an issue where the Extra Paranoid flaw debuff could become permanent after fast-travelling out of a restricted area Improved the quality of item drops when killing Manti-Queens Fixed an issue where corpses would consume Adreno from their inventories Increased the rate of casual clothing items dropping in containers and in townie NPC inventories Fixed an issue with some SuperNova effects being removed when entering conversations Fixed the effects of Encumbrance not working correctly with the Confidence Perk Fixed an issue where the player could become immune to melee damage after dodging through Raptidon spit Fixed the Level 40 Inspiration unlock not working correctly after level transitions Fixed an issue that caused players suffering from Hunger, Thirst, or Exhaustion to die instantly when using the Electro-Charged Surface armor mod and equipping a melee weapon Quests: Fixed an issue where players could not speak to ADA if they neared the end of the game without any companions Settings: Added a setting to invert the X-axis UI: Fixed an issue that could cause players to be permanently stuck in the Modding UI at a workbench Locked doors will now show the name of the corresponding keycard if the player doesn't have the skill or mag-picks required to pick the lock Fixed the player's level being incorrect in the Vendor UI Fixed an issue where gamepad users could become permanently stuck in the inventory menu Fixed an issue that could cause the image of the player to briefly disappear from the inventory screen Fixed formatting issue with colons in French localization Fixed the AoE Radius stat on flamethrowers displaying as 0 Fixed an issue with Japanese and Chinese characters not displaying correctly when the language is set to Korean Fixed an issue with nonfunctional UI prompts when modding items with a single mod slot Fixed an issue in the Japanese localization of Vending Machine text Fixed an issue when trying to break down items directly from containers Added an option to trigger the Idle Camera from the Pause Menu Fixed the Chromatic Aberration setting not saving Fixed Adreno not auto-equipping in the Medical Inhaler correctly if the player was completely out Fixed the tutorial for the Emergency Medical Inhaler repeatedly being marked as Unread General: Fixed a rare crash when starting a new game Fixed a potential crash after using all of your Adreno and picking up more Fixed an issue causing duplicate stacks of Adreno to persist in the inventory Fixed a rare crash when transitioning between levels Fixed an issue where certain delayed events could occur in a new playthrough after being triggered in a previous playthrough Fixed a rare crash when opening the Inventory Fixed an issue where players would be instantly killed when fast travelling off of a ladder To continue to report issues you come across and to share suggestions for the game, please visit the Technical Support forums for The Outer Worlds and search to see if a fellow player has already made a thread about it to help reduce duplicate threads. If you find a thread that matches your issue or suggestion, then please feel free to leave a comment and include any details you would like to share. If you are not able to find a similar thread, then please share it with us on our forums and then visit our publishing partner, Private Division, and share this issue with them through their support website. This will help ensure that your specific issue or suggestion is in their queue and will allow us to prioritize requests to provide the fastest possible turnaround time. Thank you all for being so awesome, and have fun continuing you exploration through the Halcyon Colony!

Hey everyone, I am almost finished up with a MOD that adds numerous new items into the game to give more variety. Need some ideas on armor. Let me know what your ideas are as far as abilities an armor should have, and if it should be light, med, heavy etc. Did you have a build but couldnt find the right armor? Let me know what you were missing. I already have models in mind for the armors but ANY input is appreciated.

I haven't played Forbidden Sanctum yet, due to restartitis, so I wasn't aware that it featured a Sanguine Plate clone. I'll beeline there in my next game!

Also don't forget Mari Crudia as food: it not only gives you +15% duration for all benefical effects but also +2 INT which means another 10%. You need a lot of INT for Vanishing Strikes. Maybe also wear Cabalist's Gambeson (+10%) and Strand of Favor (+1 INT, +10%) together with other +INT items. More Power Level (Prestige, Stone of Power, potion) also gives more duration.

I'll make you famous!

uuuh https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Crimson_Panoply woosh

How about some red colored plate armor that grants fury when hit? I really miss that from POE 1. More seriously, perhaps some armor for druids and/or ciphers that would reduce the ridiculously long cast and recovery times for their spells?

Did someone mentioned Ooblit pet yet ? Thta's the semi-obscure item one should know about when going SC Assassin as Main Character. It provides +3s on all beneficial effect on "bearer" which is especially interesting with Unbending and Vanishing Strike.

Nope, OP stated he will use Community Patch, so fast weapons are optimal if no special attack is used. But sure axe + fast weapons full attacks is optimal.

i feel like there definitely needs to be more brigandine - all my tanks feel samey because they all seem to converge on plate armor or Reckless Brigandine. -Done deal. Will have a new tank armor with brigadine base done today. Will be caster orientated and keyworded. Cleric or Wizard focused as I just don't see a Druid wearing heavy armor, (Trying to make themed based items mostly) Everything has lore so the "Battle Ships Hull" heavy armor will have it's own back story involving the color pink and a female child, if you have a name in mind for the story just let me know. I think the recovery penalty will be dropped to 50% via some special detail in the story. If I can find a way to prevent color override I will but could also combine husk and humility into a new pink robe!! there also needs to be magical clothing- Have 2 built already, maybe even 3. Might need to see if I can change colors on them. Aside from "Pink" what colors should 0% robes or 0% clothes have to spice things up? Lastly - more keyword interactions! There's tons of keywords everywhere. I have already created new items using various keywords such as: Rejuvenation, Ground, Decay, Plants, Restoration and Punishment. Most are accessories right now, a couple armors. But still more to create. Have 38 items right now. Would like 50 before I release it and then will work on spreading them around to various vendors but they will all be available from a single vendor on the first release.

First couple of seasons of 24 are pretty good. After that it very rapidly succumbs to threat inflation and scenario repetition. It was still (mostly) entertaining though even when it was stupid.

Not really socialist though are they? Businesses are private, land ownership is private, natural resources belong to the land they sit on. You can own property, own a business, own a multi-billion dollar corporation and get rich selling cell handsets and base stations to the world. What the Scandinavian countries have is a really high tax rate that is used to fund a social welfare system that is very beneficial to a small and mostly homogeneous country and population that is mostly centered in one area. Nothing at all like Venezuela or the USSR or their ilk is it? In fact it's fair to say they are EXACTLY like the US except they pay a little more in tax and get better value for it am I right? Sort of like a mini-USA only no Wal-Mart. Hey, they are happy with it and I'm happy for them. Of course that does not exactly work in a huge, heterogeneous, and exceeding complex country like the US where one part of the country is so different from another they might as well be different peoples. Or where the tax rate is already over 38% for the people who pay taxes and they are getting nothing like that because and enormous military, bloated bureaucracy, entitlements, and aging population, numerous population centers with a huge diversity of challenges, etc. I could go on. Americans look at other countries and wonder "why can't we do that?". The answer is "Because we are different, have different problems, a different culture, and are just different." If things weren't the same they'd be different.

Sure let's skip the violations of human rights, being rape capitol of Europe and other minor inconveniences. Scandinavia is a paradise to live 👍

Looks like a fun Xcom Police Squad game People are super weird.

guy if you believe that Nazis spend time commenting on gaming forums you obviously never met one xD

i feel like there definitely needs to be more brigandine - all my tanks feel samey because they all seem to converge on plate armor or Reckless Brigandine. Also in general, i think there should be "caster-enabling" heavy armor, even if it's not ideal, i think there's a lot of game design space here. I'm thinking of a slow, ponderous "battleship" combat (slow, ponderous, heavy-hitting) caster approach - the full +55% recovery penalty but maybe some bonus concentration or bonus spell keyword PLs to reward or enable the slow casting. ok, maybe even like a "crit on spell cast removes next recovery" thing. Not a lot though (at most two), just to provide some options because in general Deadfire tries to open up a lot of options, but heavy armor + casting is definitely one they don't even seem to try to enable. there also needs to be magical clothing. I hate that for my +0% recovery partymembers, after customizing their aesthetics and color choices, after like an hour of playing the game they are all looking nearly identical by wearing robes. One thing i miss about PoE1 is being able to take some clothing that I like the look of and manually enchanting them into something custom and nifty. I would even accept existing robes just re-branded into some variety of clothing. Similarly, I would also prefer armor to not be so eager to override your color choices - especially annoying with robes since even the neon-pink characters my daughter helps create end up looking the same when wearing Effigy's Husk or Humility. Lastly - more keyword interactions! There's tons of keywords everywhere, and I think it makes for more interesting game design if those keywords are used or referenced. Not just the standard fire, frost, etc. keywords, but priest or druid keywords, even monk or chanter keywords (e.g. some pacifist themed-armor that grants +1 or +2 non-offensive invocation PL).

yes, the one to the far right (all the "per encounter" abilities) with infinite use is the spell you steal. you can't steal more than one. don't quote me on this, but i believe grimoire imprint works like cipher "transfer" effects (where you debuff an enemy and gain a linked, simultaneous buff). so if you imprint one caster, and then try to imprint another caster, nothing will happen, you'll just stick with the first one until the original enemy dies or the effect somehow ends. it's not like poe1 where i think you could steal more than one spell (in poe1 i think you could get up to three).

What's your take on the most socialist countries in the West are always topping democracy and happiness indexes? Not meant sarcastically btw, serious question. How do you explain socialism "bad", when countries that are the most socialist (within a capitalistic system) do so well? Would we do even better if we abandoned our system and became "mini-USAs"? https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2019/03/20/northern-europe-dominates-happiness-rankings-once-again/#62e1f2902bd3 https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-social-mobility-index-2020-why-economies-benefit-from-fixing-inequality https://www.eiu.com/topic/democracy-index In before Skarpen "but barnevernet"

In other news. Remember when Bernie Sanders was praising Mauduro and saying the "American Dream" was more likely to be realized in Venezuela? Well, Venezuela, the country with the worlds largest oil reserves, has run out of gasoline: https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Oil-rich-Venezuela-is-running-out-of-gas-15204464.php Hooray socialism! I remember when the Soviet Union was the worlds largest producer AND importer of wheat and there still wasn't enough bread to go around.

I think so. You can always switch to a large shield with modal against ranged enemies - if the already high deflection of Paladin passives + Wizard buffs isn't enough.

Hope you asked them to explain communism since those answers are generally worth a laugh or two

Too many too early on for just random trolls. Also too many different accounts with too similar writing style. It's one of those situations where the teacher knows only one person has actually written the essay and everyone else copied. And they need the obvious crazies. The obvious crazy gets moderated, but that leaves the "tame" ones unmoderated and makes them acceptable (or ignorable for example by you). But it edges the discussion towards where they want it. Extra win, in their own community, each banned poster proves them right: the SJW mainstream is silencing dissenters! And if Cambridge Analytica has taught us anything, it is that Orson Scott Card was right and public opinion on the internet would be shaped through fake arguments.

I hadn't problems with White Worms lately. But that was during testing sessions. I didn't do a proper playthrough lately. Maybe the upgrade is bugged. Maybe that's it. I don't take it because I think it's not worth the ability point. SC Furyshaper can be build towards Barbaric Retaliation with Battle Axes, Panther's Leap and Blood Storm. Because Blood Ward is the only ability that drains health from every tick of all DoTs (including chants). That means if you land with Panther's Leap, then retaliate with Bleeding Cuts and Blood Storm you will apply so many DoTs in parallel that Blood Ward keeps you alive against almost anything. Also the PL-9 shouts will drain a hell of health if yoi spam them, especially if you have Old Siec and Ward active. That also means that Brand Enemy will drain health with every tick as long as it's active. You can spam it to all enemies if you want and drain health with every tick of it (with Blood Ward). Cipher's drain a ton with Disintegrate. Wizards drain double with Corrosive Siphon... and so on. SC Furyshaper is my personal favorite atm.

If you play with a party you can import a mercenary with gear.

Using two fast weapons allows doing more attacks but for less damage and in the end the dps will be the same. If you want to optimize your character you should use a fast weapon in your left hand with a normal one in your main hand, while spamming full attacks (Gambit). A great combo is Magran's Favor with modal activated in your MH and Rust's Poignard in the OH.

a clever quick solution if you don't have masks and don't have skills/supplies to craft one. HA! Good Fun!

ok, just tested it. it's apparently as i suspected. the initial cast of the spell counts as one spell effect, and then each falling fire projectile counts as another spell effect, so you trigger least unstable coil twice upon initial cast, and then repeatedly retrigger it as the spell continues. it's not completely obvious that it's doing so because as you accumulate more inspirations, it becomes more likely that you're just refreshing the duration of existing inspirations, but it's definitely happening. i didn't test it with meteor swarm, but did confirm rain of holy fire and also tested magran's might, but i have no reason to suspect meteor swarm is different. glad to know least unstable coil isn't just busted with chanter! it's arguably even more busted on priest or wizard because empowered rain of holy fire and meteor swarm create many more procs for the coil, and both wizard and priest have arguably stronger ways to exploit e.g. a brilliant trigger. (only downside is that the interaction comes much, much later than an AL1 or AL3 chanter invocation, but then again least unstable coil will only be available late for most people)

Ney, it still works as before. Attacking doesn't break invisibility from vanishing strike.

Well Offensive Parry is melee and it triggers all the time as long as you are getting attacked (no recovery or anyhing). And of course you can also strike with WotEP in an AoE. For cleanup you can switch to a normal great sword. If you use FoD with Ring of Focused Flames you can switch on the Great Sword modal which does +30% dmg. In combination with FoD-lashes and Zandethus Fury you can achieve good damage. But the bulk ofthe melee dmage comes from Offensive Parry. The good thing is that you can deal melee damage WHILE casting offensive spells. Blood Mage because it's very powerful to be able to spam the most powerful spells more than once or twice. Like Death Ring for example. You can cast it till it's empty and then use Blood Sacrifice to fill it up again while the Steel Garrote's draining (and Exalted Endurance) fill up your health again.

I only remember that he attacks Wizard's Eye because he has true sight and can see invisible objects. But Wizard's Eye can't be harmed. Since it has very bad stats though (I guess) he keeps attacking it as he thinks it's the weakest link in the party. You can then just wack at him all you want while he's fruitlessly pummeling the Eye.

It's very good in general - but especially good in my opinion as Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with Whispers of the Endless Paths + Offensive Parry. Offensive Parry triggers on every melee miss (like a 100% Riposte basically) and it dazes the enemy, thus automatically unlocking the draining effect for the Steel Garrote. You can cast spells while dishing out Offensive Parries at the same time which heal you and damage foes. The constant draining also means that Blood Sacrifice is not a problem since you are healed up most of times automatically. If not: Lay on Hands/Exalted Endurance/Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon do the trick. Usually the drainig + healing is so strong that I can run Sacred Immolation + Alacrity with not problem. It's a fun and powerful combo defense- as offense-wise. The only thing that messes it up (that messes most Arcane Knights up) is Arcane Dampener. By the way (not related to Arcane Knight) : Offensive Parry (and Riposte) also works with Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming.

Great news everyone! The iranians have developed a device that can detect the virus: https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/04/15/2244140/irgc-unveils-coronavirus-remote-detector

@Boeroer it will take time till PoE3 will be developed or even announced. But I think Josh won't abandon this series. I believe it was planned to be a trilogy. Today there is no chance cause of sales numbers. Maybe not even Josh knows it 😄 But I strongly believe that he will never ever abandon PoE like it is now. There will be a time when he can't get it out of his head and develop something in his head, as an idea, a little spark. And this spark will grow time after time. He will prove his self to Microsoft that he is worth to be supported and together they'll create PoE3. It's only a matter of time. I really believe that

Radiant Spore is not on the list.

Deadfire is an open world game, so is Skyrim: a game where you can go everywhere and won't get restricted in your travels. That means you could end up in a place where enemies are way too powerful for you - or too weak. That's why Skyrim has scaling and Deadfire has, too. Else a majority of the encounters could become unfun. But those problems with difficulty etc. are not my personal problems with open world games. They focus on exploration and that's a fine thing to have in general. But what I don't like is that it's nearly impossible to tell a coherent story/follow a plot in a somewhat cosistent way. I mean unless you stick to the default path through the game. But if you do that: why have an open world in the first place? So... as soon as you leave the trodden path it is inevitable that the main story/plot comes to a halt and you'll have some kind of sideshow. That also means that often players (me as well) get the feeling that the main story isn't really that important. Without the main plit in your head you might get the feeling that you are lost somehow. "Where to go next? Hm... no idea, doesn't really seem to matter that much, does it?" I believe it's incredibly hard for designern and writers to create an open world game experience without sacrificing consistency and urge of your plot. PoE didn't have that kind of open-world approach: you could visit all places only after you unlocked them. E.g. you can only go to Raedric's Castle if you first go to Easternwood - and so on. And on top of that you had three acts that were seperate from one another. Deadfire keeps this only in citites where you have to unlock the districts by traveling to the adjacent ones first. But the world map is free with the only exception that is Ukaizo which is the seperate endgame. This might also be related to the overall quality of the plotline, but Deafire's plot feels a lot less compelling than PoE's (and even that one didn't give you an overwhelming feeling of urge, but was fine with me). I think open world does play a part in this. Skyrim has the same problem, at least for me: what am I supposed to do again? Like: ultimately? I tend to forget... "Look, here I can become a member of the Brotherhood, cool. It's fun to get assignments to stab random people from behind and..." On the other hand pure dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder drop the player into a place (a room or a forst or whatever) and there's only one (or two) way out. You fight your way out of the dungeon (or into it in pursuit of X) and usually there's puzzles and fights and all - but you can't go left and right that much. You are focused on the main goal. Funnily enough those games often have very little story and plot - maybe because they don't need them to create motivation and tension. The setting itself does already provide this. And of course such games are so much easier to balance. Usually fantasy RPGs are somewhat of an interactive story though. So plot, story, motivation - those are important. Else it's more like a combat simulator or a tactics game. See Battle Brothers: open world, focus on tactics/combat and no overarching plot/story, only some "random" goals to achieve and contracts to fulfill. And it works just fine - but it's not a game like Deadfire or Baldur's Gate or Plainscape: Torment or anything like that. So I would argue that the current "open world hype" is bad. An RPG has to be advertized with that or else player are gonna say "Wut? How 2000!" - even if it hurts the overall experience. A somewhat open world is okay - let's say open "stages" of the game world. Like open acts. Too much railroading like in Legend of Grimrock would hurt the replayability I guess - too much open world hurts the story and the feeling of progression. Something in between would be fine. It would be easier to write for, it would be easier to balance (no scaling of encounters needed) and it would be more exiting - especially in the first playthrough. Maybe one could even do a game where the first playthrough is not open world but you would unlock areas like Berath's Blessings and then would have a more open world in additional plythrougs..? Hm... getting interested while I write this...