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My dad and stepmom are finally recovering after a little over two weeks of being sick from this. My dad had it the worst and there were a couple of days where it got pretty close for him (he stopped breathing one of those nights) but since the hospitals in AZ are overfilled he didn't really have many options other than toughing it out and hoping to either pull through or pass quickly. Of course I didn't know about any of this until a day or so ago once he was feeling better.

y'know, our personal experience suggests trying to educate individual racists into having some kinda epiphany is offering an extreme low rate o' success. in fact, in rl, we never accuse a person o' being a racist if our intent is to have a constructive dialogue. self-aware racists who is knowing they is racist and believe they is justified in their racism will surprising often be offended when you suggest they is racist. who knew? those persons who behave racist but just don't realize their actions is bigoted, will near certain react poorly to an accusation o' racism. "react poorly" is an understatement. in the US, racism is inexorably linked to iconography o' nazis and kkk, so when you suggest a person is racist, the christian woman who insists she can't be racist 'cause she once dated an italian man who, during the summer, got skin as dark as Gromnir, is gonna be mortified by suggestion she is a racist. there is the possibility for salvation. maybe mom and dad are the kinda everyday racists who think most minority problems would go away if "those people" were more diligent and worked a bit harder, but if their daughter, little cindy-lou who, goes to school and realizes the minority kids is not so different, then next generation has a shot at real change. rare does Gromnir suggest trying to fix a problem by addressing effects, but racism is kinda such an issue, though am not saying we only address effects. today we may address the effects o' racism by reducing income disparity and health care gaps 'tween white and minority populations, but am thinking we tend to go 'bout it the wrong way. eighteen year-old white kid from backwater arkansas has never gotten a break... evar. his parents were poor. his grandparents were poor. as far as he knows, his family going back to adam and eve were poor. tell some o' these kids how they is privileged and they get angry. now go ahead and suggest racism and privilege is mundane and matter o' fact for all white folks whether they realize or not and see how poor white kid reacts. explain to the kid who can't get a decent job, but is killing himself working crap jobs such that college feels like a pipe dream... and everybody keeps telling him college is needed. tell the white and underprivileged they need wait for help 'cause we need first fix generations o' white privilege. is not winning strategies. long term and real solutions come from cultural changes which start with kids. gotta take a +15-year approach which is unsatisfying for those suffering today and for political types who need show immediate results to get elected next year or a few years from today. short-term we are able to address income disparity and health care issues and many other problems, but we gotta be savvy enough to frame the debate so as to not further polarize an already horribly divided nation. we give gd a hard time 'bout the confederacy. as we have noted, more than once, we believe the confederacy deserves to be given a nice and final immolation, but we always stress need for education. the ordinary southerner who venerates the confederate battle flag do not see themselves as racist. sure, there is more than a few who fully acknowledge and embrace their bigotry, but is not most. the ordinary white southerner who loves what the confederate flag represents *groan* were taught in school how the civil war were not fought 'cause o' slavery. schools taught these confederate loving folks that slavery were bad and it were a terrible thing, but that most slave owners treated their slaves like family members, or perhaps beloved house pets, and that even so, the real fight were 'bout liberty and self determination. you got generations o' southerners who, right or wrong, honest believe the narrative they were taught in schools, and is much easier to embrace such a narrative when the alternative is that you has believed and perpetuated a lie and an injustice for near all your life. point at confederate flag and says anybody who venerates is a racist forces all those southerners (and a few northerners) to make a hard choice which is punishing in its polarization: either gotta admit that all those people shouting at you that you are an ignorant racist is correct or side with an increasingly vilified defense o' the confederate battle flag, which is often perpetuated most aggressive by modern day kkk and nazis. we push folks to embrace an extreme and then act surprised when those people become extreme. oh, and human is animals. when an animal is afraid or hungry or angry, it often runs away, but humans is pack animals, so if we are in groups and we is hungry and afraid and angry, we lash out at the weak, particular those weak not part o' our group. such behaviour is an ugly reality and is all twisted up with racism and stupidity and fear and base animal instinct which regardless o' fact we may split atom and travel to the moon, will always be a factor in our interactions with other humans... human animals. HA! Good Fun!

It's a Zoom day ... with about 45 minutes not in a digital environment! In the interim, doing some OBS announcements about Grounded and behind the scenes board stuff on a grey, rainy Canadian prairie day ...

For further information, it seems like attachments are tied to posts, and can only be removed by editing the post...which can't be done past the edit window on the post the attachment is attached to.

At long last I can be the hick salvagers in the Starcraft intro.

Hi everyone, I'm amazed by all the work done here, i'm one of those silent readers that goes through the whole forum for years without posting a thing But for once i had to intervene slightly, One thing that surprises me is that i don't see anything about companions classes. And i did a quick search on nexusmod and i dont find something up to date for them. Im pretty sure you guys must have a good reason no to implement this (difficulty, coding whatever). Pillars is a lot about immersion with your companions and its big part of the fun, and for a "community" patch i am again surprised that nothing is about how to "balance" your companions and for them to fulfill some roles or precious abilities (SoT, Ancient Memory, etc.). Here is my suggestions if you have any interest in them : (only those who matters on a RP perspective or which counts to my heart ) Eder : Fighter choice : Unbroken, devoted. (doest fit quite much as Eder is the one that sticks to you from PoE 1 ; the two names of those subclasses quite well define his relation towards the Watcher. Rogue choice : Eder is the kind of guy that travelled a lot and did go through tough situations, ambushes etc, a streetfighter subclass would fit aswell. And why not a Fighter/cipher (ascendant) subclass, Eder travelled with the Watcher all along ad could have been "touched" by all those things and have some enlightment regarding spirits. Pallegina : Crusader : Devoted & Tactician, she is damn cold heated at some points and could easyly counted as a tactician and also she is stubborn on others so she could be this kind of monomaniac devoted Serafen : Berserker seems a bit obvious according to his wild cipher subclass, and loss of control of himself. Multi class new option Cipher / Ranger (Stalker, he is in people minds so it could fit). Pets are not something irrelevent for sailors, crews used to have a lot of cats on board not only for rats but because they were incredibly useful to predict weather, so Serafen could have a panther or something. Tekehu is very unique he is fine as he is Aloth : Blood mage, (i mean on his crusade against the Leaden Key he can have accept to tend on dark magic to reach his goals, or specialised in any magic) Subclasses : Trickster could fit him and ofc Tactician could fit him aswell on the fighter side. Maybe even priest ? a pact with a God to reach his end why not ? Xoti is pretty unique and well there is enough topics about her i won't give my opinion on her. Maia Rua : adding a cipher (ascendant) multiclass possibility could be terrific, she speaks about the innate feeling she had on shooting a captain from X yards distance, if thats not some cipher 6th sense, what is ? And i'm done here, on your hard and great work i really all thank you for what you have done. I have one final question as im about to start my final run of PoE2 : does this patch disable steam achievments ? Wish you luck in your creations. Malanir.

Another Bossfight in Dark Souls 2 successfully behind me. Smelter Demon. The biggest issue with this one was small area, where you could get easily stuck in between wall and the boss, so in ttal it took me 15 tries to down him. Bossfight was straightforward and not complicated to learn. I just had some issues dodging and blocking his fire attack. It was OK when I had destroyed on way to him all the water jugs and cast during transition to his third phase the Fire Resistant Pyromancy (Flame Sweat? don't remember the name ) Still during last few seconds all water on me evaporated, so I got burned really hard Still in the end victorious, and that's all what counts

What exactly did I write that made you think that I was suggesting the violence seen in the video was justified? Was it the part where I said violence should, in general, be condemned? Was it the part that I said to be wary of people pushing agendas? Or the part asking for the context that would at least let us understand why there was violence?

Sigh.

Hello friends! For the first time, Obsidian will be offering an official summer internship program! There are plenty of positions open, from Audio Design, Concept Art, Community Manager, and more! For more details about the program itself, and to see all of the positions open, visit the Jobs > Internships page today!

Well, the reasons for this are : 1) This is a balance mod. Changing Companion subclasses is not tied to balanced since Vanilla Classes are supposed to be as powerful (albeit less specialized) than subclasses. Note that I have tweaked Wildmind and Paladin of the Five Suns since they felt underpowered. 2) You don't need a mod to change subclass. A Console command is sufficient, as described in the link below : I think all mods disable achievements. EDIT : For some reason, I thought they did, but they don't. I plan to release it on Nexus the day after tomorrow. No idea for Vortex, but I think Community Patch doesn't work with Vortex, so I think my mod won't work either (and I recommend using CP anyway). Maybe @Boeroer can confirm ? The thing is, this is my first mod ever, so I'm not very experienced with such things. I have very few available time to work on Vortex compatibility (consider I've more or less sacrified actual playing while creating this mod ) Thank you ! I wasn't much into using mods either since rule changes mods tend to powercreep too much for my test. I was convinced by the CP that some mods could feel legit. I don't think there will be further patch though, that's also the reason why I felt "I had to do it myself" if you see what I mean

Grounded is now available to download through the Xbox Insider Hub or through Steam! Download the demo today to experience a single day of life in the backyard! When: June 16th through June 22nd Where to download: Xbox Insiders - Search for Grounded through the Insider hub on either your PC or Xbox One. Steam players can find the demo on our Steam store page. Additional Info: Post bugs here Post Suggestions here Survey: After you have a chance to play the demo, please take some time to fill out a survey and share your experiences with us. Xbox Insiders will be sent a link to a survey while players playing on Steam can access the survey here. Thank you everyone and have fun out in the backyard!

What a wonderful thing to share Kryo0s - I know the team has been very grateful for your taking the time to share this! I suspect you will not be disappointed

General VAT goes into the Consolidated Fund or equivalent in- so far as I'm aware- every single country that charges it. Consolidated Fund = general spending, not ringfenced for a specific purpose. (Actually ringfenced spending is quite rare, despite the number of specific levies made by governments. Almost all of them go into general funding...) Sweden's health care system is ~11% of GDP (~5k USD /c). The US health care system is ~17% (~11k USD /c), so roughly 50% more expensive. [source: OECD] Multiple other reasons besides that too. Without a unified negotiating body purchasers such as individual hospitals have far less leverage when negotiating prices. Lots of low grade payola and influencing results in lots of unnecessary prescriptions, which drives overall costs up. Little downward price pressure on many drugs because if you need the medication your alternative is literally dying, in some cases. Awful regulation that allows gouging and an institutional dislike- sometimes due to what is essentially bribery- of using generics even when they're both legal and significantly cheaper. Some of those are still present with 'single payer' systems as well though of course.

Eye Of The Beholder trilogy for free at GoG.

I personally do not use mod but I am here to say that I appreciate your work greatly. I think Pillars of Eternity Deadfire really needs balance patch like the one you are trying to do.

Ah i have an extra question, can this mod be used via Vortex ? (utility engine for most game mods on Nexusmod). Nvm i just finished reading the previous post about your mod and figured it wasnt released on nexus mod yet, only the old community patch. So here is the question : Will it be possible to use your mod with Vortex once it's released ?

Thanks a lot Thelee for the quick answer, i realised before that i didnt get an achievments for solo and i was wondering maybe there was one for TCS and megabosses etc. I played 450 hours on this game and im about to do a final nice companion run and side with Valian trading company i never did get with them cause many companions leave you if you take their side... i did countless rerolls and never killed the 4 big mega boss. and my solo SC assassin did DLCS but couldnt be a match for those 4. I hesitated to mod my game due to steam achievments and your answer makes me get the community patch Also as it may be one of my last posts on this forum once i finish my last run, i have a special attention towards you Thelee, You are by far my favorite contributer/poster here, you managed to do the Ultimate though you always tend in favor to "what can give you fun" when people asks for build and you make us ask ourselves the true questions of how enjoying the game. In addition of your great knowledge, gamefaqs. And for that i'll be forever thankfull to you To be more specific maybe half my time on this game were pointless abandonned solo runs trying to make stuff work, 50% time spent like that was fun but the other 50% was tedious and quite frustrating... Untill i realise i wouldnt even get an achievment for it... And then i faced some of your posts about what we really want when we build a char and it changed my view of this great game. Thanks again. (Ofc Boeroer is the Godfather here with his sidekicks (Kaylon, Elric Galad, and all those i forget about, i ofc looked a lot into your posts aswell)

nope. there isn't an ultimate steam achievement. it's a whole other thing. people complained a lot in poe1 days about obsidian making nigh-impossible challenges steam achievements (some people just like to get to 100% achievements - full disclosure that is literally the only reason why I did the ultimate in poe1), so obsidian didn't put any of the really hard stuff as steam achievements for deadfire.

The Wild at Heart demo

am also glad to hear shady's dad recovers, but am thinking we is kinda simpatico on not wanting to go to a hospital if we get covid-19, particular if we feel we require breathing assistance. we do not wanna go thorough interminable er triage only to discover there is little the med folks may do for us save make us feel more comfortable, which is actual impractical given a few o' our medication issues. am having a hard time seeing our self consent to a ventilator. so... hospitals is not too strained here in norcal at the moment, but if they become such, am certain gonna be less likely to go to hospital even for potential life saving measures. given a few o' our health issues, we has had a pretty good run. all things considered, am less afraid o' death than am o' dying in a hospital. will opt for the "dad move" if such a situation arises. HA! Good Fun!

That sounds like a classic dad move to me. Glad to hear he made it.

so, you are retreating to a trumplike, "some people say," defense o' an argument nobody hereabouts made? you are using the vol transitive property for argumentation? conflating blm and antifa is a nice trick too, but notion you is justified in knocking the stuffing outta an argument some rando yutz somewhere in cyberspace made 'cause those unnamed clowns has affiliation to otherwise diverse groups and such groups has found support 'mongst a few obsidian board members? ... well, ok then. HA! Good Fun!

is good to know you are here to defend against an argument nobody has made on these boards, least not that we may recall. am thinking "potential misleading " is a bit o' an understatement, but regardless, folks now have the actual table and data from which to be drawing their conclusions. HA! Good Fun!

I remember getting rather annoyed by Smelter Demon, but I'm not sure why, since he looks very pedestrian in that video. Strange Telephone (2019). Reminded me of Yume Nikki, which I never played much of because I didn't really like it...but better. At the very least, I finished it. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/e8fo9ecnw5xxgov/xDSEjcnuGo.mp4 Yes, this is an actual game that I played.

Those are some smart puppies:

Hi ! I just played Grounded Tech Test on Xbox One X for an hour and a half and I am here to say I had lot of fun. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the game to be honest, and I did although I played solo. Behind what seemed to be a game that relied entirely on the concept, I've been pleasantly surprised to found a good RPG demo. I hope the content will be substancial and that the narrative and the sandbox aspect overlap well in the final version. Anyway, I'm glad it's coming soon on Game Pass, and I can't want to play with my friends and my girlfriend (arachnophobia mode was a great idead ^^). Obsidian doesn't disappoint !

Technically this belongs in the metal thread, but I'm not sure it would get the exposure it deserves there. Nanowar of Steel really outdid themselves with this video. So let us all join in making a joyful noise and praise Odin, Lord of Furniture:

agreed. nevertheless, is one o' the many less than obvious costs of fixing US busted health care. regardless, question were asked 'bout how we got to this improbable place and answer is less sinister than some may imagine, but worse 'cause it is everyday ordinary. US income disparity got worse and fewer people were able to pay hospital bills. indigent population got worse, but not so significant as to cause a serious need to shift billing. accounting logic had hospitals raising prices o' procedures to help cover losses from previous unpaid bills, which common sense predictable led to even more folks failing to be able to pay hospital bills and yet hospitals continued with same busted logic in an attempt to stay ahead o' the debt. so now we got this improbable bloated system which is nevertheless seeming self-sustaining. obvious there will be a breaking point, but we ain't quite hit it. shady is correct in that something needs change sooner. problem is the fix is gonna be bad for a whole lotta people regardless o' what efforts is taken to mitigate, and there is not enough discussion 'bout mitigation efforts. charlie fox. HA! Good Fun!

No Mr. Leone. Just vodoo. It's a prequel so not all characters make an appearance. So far so good, though I didn't get much farther then the demo. They are just as subtle with their Once Upon a Time in the West "inspiration", as Desp1 was with Trilogy of Dollars.

TIL we come in packs. Tonight, I howl at the moon. But seriously, being black or white or whatever doesn't automatically mean that you are good person... or a bad one. I don't know what the point of posting that was.

If you own Witcher 3 on other platforms, you can get it on GOG Galaxy 2.0 for free, if you have it connected to your respective accounts. https://www.gog.com/news/own_the_witcher_3_wild_hunt_on_pc_or_console_claim_a_free_copy_with_gog_galaxy_20

but those are screwdriver heads not drill bits

We adopted two calico kittens yesterday and they are lil rascals! Already playing and chasing each other around the house and Ive had to institute countermeasures to keep them from gnawing the mouse and power cord cables of my laptop. Also became litter box trained in one day, which is something I really appreciate about cats in general. Just drop them in the litter box and...BOOM...they are trained. I humored myself by making a "cat trap" (empty cardboard box) and theyre both in it right now wrastling with each other. Its freaking adorable.

Sałatka Jarzynowa Potatoes, eggs, carrots, peas, pickles, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and paprika. The key is getting the balance between sweet and sour just right. Add more pickles if it's too sweet. Add more peas or carrots if it's too sour.

I decided to treat myself to a Cheese Fondue this weekend, it is the perfect meal for cold and melancholic days stuck inside due to the lock-down