Leaderboard

You "don't like people or characters that don't like themselves and wallow in self pity" but the only character you liked was Grieving Mother? What?

It's okay if stated by an Orlan.

Jeez. He said he liked her accent. You responded to something nobody said or even indicated. Besides that: you are entiteld to your own opinion about Pallegina, but your characterisation is shallow and lacks empathy. Pallegina is like an exemplary mobbing victim. Abused by society, not wanted by her father, injured her mother at birth so she can't bear more children, can't have children herself. Of course she carries some loathing and has problems. I worked in a children's home for abused kids for 13 months when I was young. Couldn't sleep well until I became inured enough to not constantly think about their fate and what they went through. If those kiddos all turned out to be like Pallegina then that would be a great thing.

I would always include Serafen as SC Barb at first and try to get Fire in the Hole asap, because that thing is just too good to let it pass in my opinion. Then either drop him (quest is finished anyway) or let him go up to PL 9 with Driving Roar and Blood Surge which is a game changer for any party. But the way to PL 9 can be a bit rocky. If going for RDC: Maia is pretty great with the Red Hand arquebus as a Scout. Single target sniper like few else. The is immune to engagement so you can fly in, apply Takedown Combo and flee whenever it's necessary, while Maia fires some Debilitating Strike with Sneak Attack from afar with deadly accuracy and can follow up with an immediate Deathblow. Super mobile with Escape and Evasive Roll. If you have the Precognition amulet: ouf. Edér (with Berath's Blessing: Can I pet him anyway?) is nearly always the Swashbuckler tank with Cadhu Scalth, Reckless Brigandine, Kapana Taga, White Witch Mask, Mob Stance, Persistent Distraction and Adept Evasion. Riposte, too. He's pretty fast that way and does good melee dmg although he's tanking. I even leave on the club modal for massive Will debuffs via Riposte. Persistent Distraction debuffs most enemies around him (use Defender Stance until Reckless Brigandine and Kapana Taga become available). You can cast all kinds of AoE spells on him while he's holding off mobs. The Wall modal and Cadhu Scalth make sure he takes very little damage - if he's ever got hit because of Adept Evasion in the first place. He would be superb as Trickster but you can't have that. He always was good enough for me though. And the additional pet slot is really nice! Aloth as SC Wizard: I'd put into Rekvu's Fractured Casque and cast Necrotic Lance on him outside of combat. Once he's got the Acute Rash he's immune to interrupts which includes those from Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardry (3 spell uses instead of 2 per tier is huge). Then cast his stuff. I stack him up on Power Levels (Stone of Power, Firethrower Gloves and so on) and later focus on empowered spells. For Huana: I love Tekehu as SC Stormspeaker with Sure Handed Ila and dual mortars, Deltro's Cage, shock spells such as Returning and Relentless and later Avenging Storm (PL 8). Blinding Smoke from hand mortar will not damage anything, but it will trigger a big cone attack that hits a lot of enemies several times. You always get a lot of hit rolls. And those all trigger Avenging Storm (!). Fire in the Hole has an integrated jump with Chain Shot which includes the AoE which also leads to a lot of hit rolls, all triggering Avenging Storm. It's absolutely devastating for all kinds of mobs. Best thing is basically that you have an unlimited amount of Avenging Storms. But also the "Her Revenge" and his Crackling Bolt and Chain Lightning are nice. Too bad he can't wear the Deltro's Cage helmet: it would be easy to hit yourself with one of the bolts or chain lightning and then profit from a big shocking lash. I also give him the mantle of the seven bolts as emergency cast option. Vaillians: Pallegina as Herald with Exalted Endurance and Ancient Memory. That's everything you need as a Herald. That's always really good. Rest can be done as you like (two handed, dual wielding, whatever). Xoti: SC Priest. No special sauce. The lantern is a nice stat stick. Add sandals and ring and she's piling up power leveks nicely. The monk subclass is pretty underpowered in a normal party. However: there's a nice companion build in the list that focuses on Xoti as a Priest/Monk and it sounds pretty fun. That monk subclass is best if it's played as a kill stealer. Don't want to dwell on the sidekicks. Lots of options there. Just wanted to say that Mirke as dual mortar Shadowdancer is just hilarious. Powder Burns grants buffed up Sneak Attack and recovery all the time (see "Heating Up"), Stunning Surge crits with might Force in an AoE for nearly endless supply of Mortification, for single targets there's the Long Pain or a regular blunderbuss. And all that kaboom with the Stance of a drunken lunatic. Also nice with Pukestabber - I mean obviously.

It generates and it is super easy to manage how much wounds you have any given momen with thunderous blows (instacast, no recovery) and blood sacrifice( sub 1sec cast, no recovery)

Star Trek Bridge Crew. I'm having fun playing solo but I bet it'd be even better with 3 Trek friends. I wonder what Billy Shatts is up to

Dogs are awesome. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/coronavirus-dogs-being-trained-diagnose-21885979

They treat their own with a bit more restraint. ba-dum *tsk*

Okay, so here what I plan to do with druid (already coded and tested for Greater Blights and Call of the Primordials) : General Principle (also appliable to other classes) : Scaling may happen at levels 5, 9, 13, 17. Each scaling add +4 Acc, +15% damages, +1 PEN for weapons (spell-like abilities are unaffected) and +1 AR in addition to +3Acc/All Defenses that every creatures get. This is identical to already scaling creatures such as Pets or Animated Weapons (or summoned Weapons and Armors). But since some summons start very strong, they may not get all the scaling levels. There would be 5 categories : - Some summons will scale at levels 5, 9, 13, 17 (full scaling, for a total of +16 Acc, +60% damages, +4 PEN and +4 AR) - Some summons will scale at levels 9, 13, 17 - Some summons will scale at levels 13, 17 - Some summons will scale at level 17 (theoritical for the moment) - Some summons will not scale at all (for example Ryrmgand Incarnate is strong enough and do not require any scale. It might be interpreted as if the base stats of the creature already include Fine / Exceptional / Superb / Legendary weapons and armors. However, the main goal is balancing the various abilities. So low level summons may also get fewer scaling levels. In addition, I may change other stats of the Summon Spells or Summoned Creatures for various purposes. Side note : the changes will not affect the Bestiary creature that the summoned is based on. Ondra's Whip, Watery Double, Lashing Vine : no changes. I think these abilities are balanced as they are (and they all scale at levels 5, 9, 13, 17 ). Summon Sporelings : Will scale at levels 13, 17 only. These summons are already very tanky for their spell Tier, with very good duration. They are subclass-specific so I feel it is legit if they are a bit stronger, but full scaling would probably be too much. All Blights Summons : Will scale at levels 5, 9, 13, 17. I think these spells needed a bit of a buff, so full scaling felt suitable. In addition, since each Tier of Blight summon basically gives +1PEN, AR and damages (as well as a new ability), their stats would be very similar if Minor Blights scaled more than normal and greater ones. Higher Tier summons should be stronger than lower Tier counterparts, that's why I gave max scaling to all of them. Call to the Primordials : Scaling will depend on the Ooze : Greater Black Ooze will scale at levels 9, 13, 17. Adra Ooze will scale at levels 9, 13, 17. Magma Ooze will scale at levels 13, 17. Bog Ooze will not scale at all. (The difference is based on the base level of the creature, but they all end up with 11 PEN) Call to the Primordials nerfed to summon only 2 Oozes. This spell already feels too strong so I want to seize the opportunity to make it more in line with other summons. Fire Stag : (already scales at levels 5, 9, 13, 17) (minor) Change its fire shield so it procs on damages as other fire shields, and not on Hit/Crit. Set Engagement limit to base 3, so it can be more focused on being a decoy. Adjust base damages to 13 - 19 with PEN 8 (equivalent of a sword with +2 PEN and fast attack rate), so it feels potent for a summon of this Tier. Remove the possibility to abuse Barring Death Door for multiple self-destructions. Possibly adjust the self-destruction effect (maybe no friendly fire, also proc if the creature is killed ?) Aspect of Galawain : (already scales at levels 5, 9, 13, 17) Adjust base damages to 13 - 19 with PEN 8 (equivalent of a sword with +2 PEN and fast attack rate), so it feels potent for a summon of this Tier. Wolf would get higher base damage. Adjust armor base 5 AR -> base 8 AR, 25% recovery -> 0% recovery. Bear would get +2 AR. (they would basically get the equivalent of Spiritshift armors) Add a Prone on Hit effect to its base attack (EDIT : only Interrupt on Hit since the beast has very high attack rate) so it feels like a living Concelhaut Crushing Doom (or Animated Pike and its plentiful Knockdowns). This is meant to be similar to pet's takedowns since the ability is already based on Ranger's pet. Please tell me what you think of these changes, especially if something feels too powerful.

^ For a while there I thought it was Torchlight III. The art styles seem similar.

I have grown more and more anti-corporate and pro-union over the years, and it seems like there's a solid section of the population that feels the same way that doesn't feel like the Democrats represent them to any meaningful degree (and, of course, considering the Republicans would be a joke)...among for other reasons. So no disagreement from me there.

I think if the Ds dropped their position/focus on guns and went to somewhere around to where say Sanders/AOC are they'd probably initially lose a lot of funding from former patrons who would flip Republican and lose voters from socially progressive upper class folks like a South African that posts on this forum. It's hard to say what voters they could draw in, I think a lot of dems would stay because they vote blue no matter who and could probably draw in people who feel disappointed by the current options (how much is anyone's guess tbh) so just shooting from the hip I'd think we see the more affluent democratic areas go red or purple while other areas shift favorably to democrats or double down on the blue. Long-term (assuming we don't bake the planet first) this would probably end up stabilizing similarly to how it is now with most of the same problems. Frankly I think parties and elections are a losing battle for left-wing minded folks and they should return to militant unionism that was more effective at getting gains and less susceptible to getting subverted.

I've been brought up in a non-Roald Dahl household. Today, I have read "The Witches" for the first time ever. I think I'm traumatized now.

This is the day that that Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Day off for me, so I'm chillin' and getting ready to go to bed. Whatever your creed, or lack thereof, I'm wishing you a happy and healthy day!

Rofl, you are really something else...

Entropy: It's 100% hit to crit which is cool and abusable - but 3 hits on a single trget in combination with the rather long casting and recovery time make it meh. I agree it's too weak for a PL8 spell which means you can't even achieve some sort of self-contained multiclass synergy with it (e.g. with Skald or with Swift Flurry, Stunning Surge etc). Wicked Briars? It's strong if you ask me. It's basically a piercing Chillfog with hobbling instead of blinding. About the same base damage (considering PL scaling) but more PEN (also considerung PL scaling) and it lasts longer. The Hobbled effect is weaker than Chillfog's Blind - but honestly I think that Chillfog is too good anyways. Can gain +3 PLs from Spine of Thicket Green, +4 if you're an Ancient. I also "stacks" with spells like Plague of Insects + Insect Swarm + Infestation of Maggots + Venombloom and it also works well with Combusting Wounds. Wall of Thorns: better than Wall of Flame imo? Blights and Aspect of Galawain: true. Especially Aspect of Galawain is ridiculously bad compared to some other summons. Fire Stag: you can abuse it with Darring Death's Door (or Lay on Hands of Shieldbearer), giving it unlimited uses of its pretty potent self-destruct. Maybe there is a solution to that where one could buff it while taking away that cheese. Nature's Bounty: potential party-wide buff of +2 MIG, +2 PER and +20% action speed for 30 secs (Alchemy works) - multiple times if multiple quick slots - is very good. But you are right that it's weird. I actually never use it because I simply don't like and use consumables. Maybe just giving every party member in the AoE the buff directly (but longer) would have been better. Bypassing that additional hassle of having to drink a potion. Sun Lance has dual damage which is quite unique. A tad more damage would be cool or more PEN (I mean it's a "lance"). Its range of 20 meter is rather ridiculous. Last time I checked it worked with Instruments of Pain, giving it an absurd range of 120 meters. So I suspect it's somehow tagged as melee which might lead to some obcure synergy effects. Maybe one could hint that in the tooltip or so if one doesn't want to remove that weirdness. While I'm against blanket buffs for druid spells I have other "problems" with certain ones: Taste of the Hunt: should be allowed for Shifters while shifted. It's a weapon-attack and not a classical spell. It also fits thematically with Shifter. No idea if that's possible but I guess you just have to remove the "spell" tagging. Wildstrike Frenzy: not enough reason to go single class when using Spiritshift. Would add higher lash or additive passive dmg bonus to be able to compete with multiclass synergies. Nature's Terror: the effect is cool, but the overall effect is weaker than Relentless Storm (mainly due to the rel. small AoE) - it is a tool for melee druids. Still it has the same casting time and recovery. If I had to choose if I cast a big Relentless Storm that stuns (even though it doesn't last as long) or a small Nature's Terror with frighten effect (which both take the same time to cast) I personally would always pick the Storm. It needs to be cast faster (have shorter recovery) to be a real competition to Relentless Storm. Touch of Death: the idea is nice but very narrow use case for PL 9. I would add raw damage if the target is not near death. Basically like Abjuration (if enemy has higher level: gets raw damage, else: destroyed). Would be ok for me if the raw damage is high enough to outright kill weaker enemies that are not near death. It's PL9 single target spell. It should be good to justify to give up Maelstrom which is effing ridiculous (-ly good) compared to Finger of Death. That way you could kill weaker targets that are not near death while it's still a great spell against bosses. I personally would also make it melee range (0.8 meters) and not 1.5. It's a "touch" spell for me, not a really long finger. I would also reduce casting time to instant like a fist attack. I would also add the auto-hit-feature like for Minor Missiles or Thurst of Tattered Veils. It's really hard to miss when simply trying to touch an enemy. Maybe somebody now says that's too strong, but you have to go into melee against a boss a single class Druid and you already whittled him down to near death. You could have cast a Maelstrom instead which is more useful in 90% of cases anyway. Tornado: compared to Maelstrom this is way too weak. Why ever take it? It needs something additional, something more unique that fits the Tornado theme that sets it apart from Maelstrom which is simply about dealing (massive) damage. Knock Up is not enough. Maybe pulling the enemies tightly together lilke Pull of Eora or something - or throwing them all over the place like an AoE-Force-of-Anguish or a Clean Sweep. Messing up their movements patterns pretty nicely. And shorter casting time! 6 seconds is ok for Maelstrom given the huge effects, but Tornado: should be faster. Sounds like power creep, but I think (SC) Druids deserve it.

To the best of my knowledge, it's a random string of letters and numbers on each ship. Maybe later, when my economy is booming, I'll order 4 or 5 of the same ship built at the same shipyard or wharf and check if the numbers are incremented or random.

Pig leads police officers on 45-minute pursuit before capture

What we do in shadows - awesome!

Tank: Swashbuckler Eder Offtank: Contemplative Xoti with focus on offensive Wizard: Aloth or custom/or Geomancer Maia if you go to Ukaizo without faction Trick of all Trades/Heal: Theurg Tekehu MC: Pala/Cipher with WoteP Just a suggestion

@thelee thanks for the feedback. That's kind of what I was thinking but wasn't sure. I will definitely test it out. I've read, what I think is, your FAQ also and just wanted to say it's very good, thanks for the work on it.

I start playing a space sim and all of a sudden everybody wants to hop into a schlongpit and be a pilot or captain. On a serious note, I have reached nearly the same point in X4 where I got to last time (that unlocked a couple new starting scenarios), and now I've got a decision to make. So, at this point in the story I'm going to have to sacrifice a ship. That's not an issue, that's what the Kestrel scout is for. The issue is, what do I fly after the Kestrel goes bye bye? I have a Vulture freighter, but I have assigned that ship to be a subordinate of my Sunrise Flower Farm, so basically that ship operates on its own, resupplying that station and selling off wares as needed. Along the way, the pilot and crew gain experience and get better at their jobs (I've also upgraded the ship a bit, to be faster and have better shields, and will do so in the future again). I intend to leave the Vulture as is, so I will need to buy a new ship. I have enough money right now that I could buy a fully decked out Buzzard, like I had in my last run; I could instead afford a stripped down Peregrine gunship or Osprey frigate, then upgrade it later. They are fairly close in price (the Osprey is slightly more expensive) and essentially the same amount of firepower when maxed out. The difference is that the gunship is much faster while the frigate has a much beefier hull and a larger cargo hold. I'm leaning toward the Osprey frigate, since the cargo hold is big enough that I can use it as a makeshift freighter while I have little to no weapons. Eventually it will become a proper warship, but until then the cargo room will be great for trading.

I wouldn't say useless or even awful (looking at the German localisation), but it wasn't all that good. You can tell that the translation studio didn't have all the context it needed. I guess you'd have to know the lore and play the game first (and I mean thoroughly) in order to be able to translate it properly. If translations take place in a vacuum (so to speak) you'll end up with weirdness, especially in a complex fantasy (or scifi) setting where you have oozes, sporelings and whatnot. Can't say anything about the other langages, although I heard from some Russians that the Russian one was quite poor as well. I personally wouldn't have done any localisation but gave the community good mod support for coming up with their own ones. Localisation is such a pain in the backside - it also prevents adding content later, precise tooltips and descriptions because you have to fixate all that (and keep it vague) before the game goes out to the translators. I would also include good mod support for adding custom VO.

I hope for PoE3 to like tie it up. Either smash the wheel and send gods to abyss, or restore the wheel and ascend as new god of rebirth. Any fantasy trillogy without godlike transcendence just doesnt cut it. Or... it is time of Beta Protocol with best of Deus Ex, Cyberpunk and Splinter Cell. The world is ready.

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

They'd still hunt you down, theft like that is a serious issue when you're little people.

Seeing the fault module name is "atidxx64.dll" this should be related to your gpu, are the drivers up-to date? if yes, maybe a revert to a previous driver could be required.. (happens alot with gpu drivers) and disabling AA could help,...see this thread (not related to this game but similar issue, so could possible help) https://answers.ea.com/t5/Battlefield-4/Recent-crashes-due-to-atidxx64-dll/td-p/2746836 Hope this helps,

Ozon layer repairing itself: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/as-ozone-layer-repairs-itself-global-wind-trends-are-reversing/

Who cares about some hypothetical ceiling? The game is very profitable despite not being on Steam. Also if that 15M ceiling is based on Fallout 4, I would rather they not chase that dumpster fire.

That's the plan. I hope to eventually post Ultimate Edition builds (including updated versions of previous Companion Builds I posted in the past) for every Companion and Sidekick. May take some time though, since some theorycraft builds still need testing, and I'm running low on time these days. I'll need one more play through at least to fully test some builds I have in mind.

I absolutely disagree. I found the satire to be quite witty and poignant, and never intrusive when the story required to take itself seriously. I don't recall ever feeling the silliness took me out of the experience or undercut an otherwise grim and dramatic moment - heck, the tone was often outright sardonic. A lot of the humour had a very gallows quality to it - you laugh, but you can't help see how they so often mimick the increasingly absurd reality we live in. In comparison BioWare's never felt this brazenly political and declamatory.

Allow me to introduce you to the Board's Early Retirement Program.

That's not true at all. The safe road was to churn out D&D clones in a standard fantasy setting, giving people another Baldur's Gate experience.

kinda/mostly agree, but am thinking it is a mistake to equate chosen setting with complexity. is nothing 'bout doing a star wars game or even a dress-up barbie game which would preclude or limit complexity. setting and notions 'o type is not gonna handicap the degree o' depth possible in quest design. nevertheless, we agree with larger and more fundamental position that josh were talking o' design o' game, specific quest design, rather than larger and primogenial concerns. thus am of the mind to observe how the tendency in this thread to conjure up questions 'bout the riskiness o' a game based on setting or whatnot is misplaced. oh, and complete aside, the riskiest move concerning kotor2 were not getting their release schedule extension from lucasarts in writing, although "risky" is not the word we would use. pejorative modifying an observation 'bout diminished capacity and/or intellect would be how we would describe the risk o' such an oversight. HA! Good Fun!

Pretty sure the "playing it safe" was more about the kind of quests and their complexity and not the games setting. And yeah, later Oblivion games don't feel as "free" anymore as before. Just check out all the permutations in Beyond the Beef, which Sawyer pointed out. This quest is BIG with lots of different options. I have yet to see anything like that in the Outer Worlds. It's exactly how he says... risky quest, very bug-prone, can cost you lots of (development) time. So instead you go with "the usual quest formula", which maybe has some choices and different consequences, but is never super complicated at its core.

Again, depends on what you mean with "risk". Developing a Star Wars game might not be much of a financial risk but Josh is clearly talking from a design perspective, and in that sense a lot of things could either go wrong or be underestimated due to an initial optimism going into the project. I'm not a dev myself but I've seen similar things all too often in film production, where certain time schedules were set under the assumption that the scenes or shots in question could be resolved in said time, which didn't account for many foreseeable obstacles and complications. I've ran into the situation of shoots that should've ended at 10pm extending all the way to 5am all too often, and often paired with a schedule that required us to be on a different set at 8am that very morning. As Josh alludes to, an overambitious schedule can lead to a failure in planning which in turn could lead to overtime, which means a *lot* more money when working with unionized workers, which could also lead to burnout, vice recividism and so on, so forth. In a way, KOTOR 2's a pretty good example of this too, far as I know - Obsidian started with an ambitious plan which to my understanding got even more ambitious through production, but which eventually led to a lot of content scrapped because they ended up having to rush to meet deadlines and so on. The end result was a pretty broken, unfinished game that required fan patches and the likes to be the game we recall today. I reckon what Josh refers to as avoiding "risks" is to avoid situations in development that could threaten to become quicksand, the way naval combat in Deadfire became and so on. Though I could be incorrect. That said I feel the question and answer have relatively different connotations of "risk" too. I might be mistaken though, as I've heard people complain that in terms of game mechanics and systems The Outer Worlds feels pretty safe as well, but still, I feel like the question and usual criticism stems a bit from the narrative elements not being risky, not involving unlikable or controversial characters or major narrative subversions or big genre reinventions or whatnot, and it's not really what Josh responded to. I can get that criticism even if I reckon Tyranny for example is a pretty subversive game all around.

It helps if people stop making references to dried up 20 year old games all the time. Losing all our experience etc is reasonable. It allows the game to change. I hear people fear change but they need to get over it. How stupid would it be to start at lvl 14 with brand new skills, spells and power level scheme in a new game. Game has different mechanics so it makes sense to start from lvl one. Not everyone will want to play poe2 with the same character. Some people want to try new classes and builds. Poe2 is different game pls let it sink in. There is multiclass etc to try out. People dont want to play exactly the same char from poe1.

Apart from maybe Rekke, whose story feels like it has yet to be told, I really don't want to see any returning companions. Fresh characters are always better. I don't mind having a bunch of people just hanging around at your base, but their dialogue needs to be updated with new comments and conversation options regularly. Hanging around inside the ship in Deadfire was boring because people always said the same things.

I would like to see new faces when it comes to party members. Cameos of Aloth, Edér and so on are fine, but please give us new, "fresh" companions - I mean if you're going to make PoE3 in the first place.