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PSA to the clowns who make this forum software (who I know will never read this, but nevertheless): your lack of a plaintext/bbcode mode is bad and you should feel bad for removing it.

is not the kinda thing we typical share, and no doubt first-world problems is fair rejoinder, even so... three weeks past we call home insurance policy provider on property X 'cause we received notice we hadn't paid bill, though we never received bill. were explained to us that the bill were mistaken sent to our mortgage company, which is funny 'cause mortgage on the property were paid off a couple years past. fine. whatever. nothing to get twisted up 'bout. what does Gromnir owe? $1600 and change. ... last year it were $1200. why the increase o' $400? apologies sir, from the info i may access on my computer i cannot say, but i can send you a new bill which includes a breakdown o' charges-- with that you may call back and discuss your bill with anybody available as long as you provide the policy number. *sigh* send the bill. when should Gromnir expect it?( we didn't actual speak to the lady in 3rd person... and we didn't refer to self as Gromnir. am not that kookie.) 5-8 business days. 5-8 business, even with holidays, is not three weeks, but fine. whatever. am retired so no reason to get riled over the little stuff. open envelope and "itemized" bill includes a return envelope and a sheet o' paper which displays policy number, our address, insurer's mailing address and $1600 due july 22, 2020. ... HA! Good Fun!

good thing 'bout living in an area with near perpetual drought conditions is we usual have an excuse for letting the everyday autos get a bit dusty w/o facing social stigma or personal guilt. am recognizing our mercenary self-interest and utter hypocrisy in using drought to avoid car washings, particular as we would never allow the grand national or lesabre to be anything other than gloriously shiny. is transparent rationalization on our part to distinguish 'tween the good autos and the workhorses when it comes to task o' car washing. once august comes around, chances are we got daily brush and forest fires resulting in greasy ash befouling our vehicles... ... in our defense, with current temperatures near or beyond 100F daily, and a driveway with a whole lotta western exposure, we needs wash vehicles extreme early in the day. water and soap pretty much dries instantaneous past 'bout 9:00 am. morning is when we do our bike rides and dog walking, and we cannot walk dogs too early 'cause o' skunks and snakes and other critters which is also plentiful during the immediate pre and post dawn hours. is perhaps the only thing we got in common with those who has served. ... have also had what amounts to all night guard duty and am intimate aware o' how inexplicable difficult it is to stay awake when the world is dark and quiet and you must do naught but stand and be aware for hour after hour after hour. well that were off-tangent. anyways, no Gromnir car washing but good for hurl even if greta would likely chastise him for doing so. HA! Good Fun!

China and Russia already do transactions in their own currency when possible. The question is whether other countries will use Yuan or Roubles in future for 3rd party transactions as they do with USD today; which they won't. Yuan value is overly manipulated for Chinese benefit too much (USD is now too for US benefit, but it's already the reserve), Rouble ain't anywhere near powerful enough even for gas priocing. If the USD imploded the Euro would take its place as default, though there would be a lot lot more transactions in 3rd party currencies. Sure, but with all respect due to Iran, DPRK, Syria etc they are not overly important in the greater scheme of things, and the umbrella has gone over as a reaction/ response to US actions. Iran wouldn't be anywhere near so much in China's camp if Trump hadn't abrogated the JCPOA, indeed part of the point of the JCPOA was to get Iran integrated into the western (european mostly) economy and away from China/ extremism. China already gets a significant amount of oil from Iran. Saudi and Russia fight over oil quotas occasionally, but generally cooperate. The recent glut was a response to declining US influence as well though, with Saudi going after US shale oil every bit as much as it was going after Russia, which is why Trump got grumpy at them. Saudi under MbS is haemorraghing money way worse than Russia is, indeed Russia actually has more foreign currency reserves than it did in 2014, when some thought it was 6 months from bankruptcy, despite sanctions and lowered oil prices. But, both are big producers going through limited reserves pretty quickly. Turkey is mostly irrelevant for similar reasons to China, only even more extreme since they're smaller and have less economic clout. Turkey's neighbours hate it, and that is barely any exaggeration. They have good relations with the Azeris, some of Libya and Qatar. Greece, Armenia, Cyprus, Syria, Iraq and to an extent even Iran loathe Turkey. Everything else for Turkey is playing off Russia and US/ NATO against each other militarily and trying to gouge Europe while judging how far things can be pushed without making a final break with anyone. Turkey also has the bubbliest of bubble economies with the lid held down by funny money construction boom shenanigans from, iirc, Erdogan's utterly unqualified son in law finance minister. At the moment after the clashes in Ladakh, definitely yes. India has been cancelling Chinese deals and banning their software etc over the last month, and under Modi/ Trump the US focus has shifted from bolstering India's great enemy Pakistan towards India. The anti China sentiment in India has been stoked somewhat by distracting from Covid too, but it is very real. It hasn't really been de-escalated, it's more that China realised they'd shot themselves in the foot acting against an opponent that could and did effectively respond; China . Modi and the BJP are nationalists, they love having external enemies and while Pakistan is more convenient China works too. If the US 'disappeared' the biggest economic power would be Europe, and China would end up facing essentially an ASEAN type military alliance because they're so unpopular with their neighbours. I'd even suspect a military ASEAN would end up including Russia, since they're at best friends of convenience with China, and India.

I'm on the third and final chapter now. It starts off with the all hope is seemingly lost portion of the story.

Good Guys 1 Bad Guys 0

After Boy Was Abandoned at Hospital, Peter Was Asked to Take Him for a Weekend-And Kept Him For a Lifetime

Topping Soil With Rock Dust Could Suck Billions of Tons of CO2 From the Air and Increase Crop Nutrients – Study

Yep. I'll be watching Star Trek: Lower Decks the moment I can. The I will most likely come here to complain about it. Le sigh.

I don't know about where you live, but if I and four of my friends stood around in place for days in front of (or in) a store, periodically looking in to see if the inventory changed, we would probably get the authorities called on us

My only recommendation, from what I know, is to use hard tubing, as the soft variant degrades and gets stained. This does increase the cost as you need fittings for any bends you may need (although I have seen people bend hard tubing with heat to various degrees of success).

You're not the boss of me. I even went and liked it. What are you going to do about it? Huh?!

fine AND prison time does not change fact it were criminal. because is possibility o' imprison, and not just a fine, you get criminal. point out fine is also possible is not helping you and fact you believe it does amuses us. fine does not make less criminal. however, is hard to keep track o' your substantive edits. the defamation bit were indeed an amendment to the earlier holocaust denialism act. read 55. none o' which changes at all the extreme polish efforts to chill free speech both through civil and criminal. ipso facto, given the following "I seriously don't think someone from a country that achieved like 25% of worldwide cases and deaths should instruct people on what works and sharing a know-how like an expert. " and subsequent defenses o' the bit o' manifest ignorance, skarpy free speech comments is not deserving o' consideration based on his own admonitions. HA! Good Fun!

Article 1. The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation Act of 18 December 1998 (Polish Journal of Laws of 2016, item 1575) is hereby amended as follows: 1) Article 1: a) item 1a) shall read: a) Nazi crimes, communist crimes, crimes committed by Ukrainian nationalists and members of Ukrainian units collaborating with the Third Reich, and other felonies that constitute crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, committed against persons of Polish nationality or Polish citizens of other nationalities between 8 November 1917 and 31 July 1990. b) item 2 shall be followed by item 2a, reading: 2a) protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation 2) Article 2 shall be followed by Article 2a, reading: Article 2a. Within the meaning of the Act, crimes committed by Ukrainian nationalists and members of Ukrainian units collaborating with the Third Reich constitute acts committed by Ukrainian nationalists between 1925 and 1950 which involved the use of violence, terror or other human rights violations against individuals or population groups. Participating in the extermination of the Jewish population and genocide of citizens of the Second Polish Republic in Volhynia and Eastern Malopolska [Lesser Poland] also constitute a crime committed by Ukrainian nationalists and members of Ukrainian units collaborating with the Third Reich. 3) Article 45a shall read: Article 45a. Investigations concerning crimes referred to in Articles 54–55a are initiated by a prosecutor of a branch commission. 4) Article 53n is hereby repealed; 5) section 6b shall be followed by section 6c, reading: Section 6c Protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation Article 53o. Protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation shall be governed by the provisions of the Civil Code Act of 23 April 1964 (Polish Journal of Laws of 2016, items 380, 585 and 1579) on the protection of personal rights. A court action aimed at protecting the Republic of Poland’s or the Polish Nation’s reputation may be brought by a non-governmental organisation within the remit of its statutory activities. Any resulting compensation or damages shall be awarded to the State Treasury. Article 53p. A court action aimed at protecting the Republic of Poland’s or the Polish Nation’s reputation may also be brought by the Institute of National Remembrance. In such cases, the Institute of National Remembrance shall have the capacity to be a party to court proceedings. Article 53q. The provisions of Article 53o and Article 53p shall apply irrespective of the governing law. 6) Article 55 shall be followed with Articles 55a and 55b, reading: Article 55a. 1. Whoever claims, publicly and contrary to the facts, that the Polish Nation or the Republic of Poland is responsible or co-responsible for Nazi crimes committed by the Third Reich, as specified in Article 6 of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal enclosed to the International agreement for the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis, signed in London on 8 August 1945 (Polish Journal of Laws of 1947, item 367), or for other felonies that constitute crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, or whoever otherwise grossly diminishes the responsibility of the true perpetrators of said crimes – shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to 3 years. The sentence shall be made public. 2. If the act specified in clause 1 is committed unintentionally, the perpetrator shall be liable to a fine or a restriction of liberty. 3. No offence is committed if the criminal act specified in clauses 1 and 2 is committed in the course of the one’s artistic or academic activity. Article 55b. Irrespective of the regulations in force at the location of committing the criminal act, this Act shall apply to Polish and foreign citizens in the event of committing the offences referred to in Articles 55 and 55a. HA! Good Fun! ps underlined were added by Gromnir

were kinda funny reading the mueller op-ed, 'cause he still can't bring himself to talk like a person as 'posed to being a lawyer. all those "russiagate" folks don't seem to be aware that the mueller report found considerable evidence o' obstruction, and the op-ed stressed how there were no sustainable basis for legal conspiracy charges 'gainst the trump organization, but for all intents and purposes mueller tried once again to get people to understand there were definitely collusion 'tween russia and trump org given any ordinary understanding o' the term. 'ccording to mueller, russia were looking for dirt on hillary and were active working to help trump. trump org were active encouraging russia to help and made it known they would welcome aid from russia. however, in part due to trump bumbling incompetence (Gromnir editorializing and not a mueller specific point from the op-ed) there were not enough intentional entanglement and organized planning for a finding o' conspiracy. mueller report did find much evidence o' obstruction and there were also a pattern o' collusion... just not enough coordinated collusion to merit criminal conspiracy. most o' the media lies concerning russiagate is based on successful gaslighting by barr and trump. btw, two fed judges has condemned barr's summary o' the mueller report as implausible given any reasonable reading of the mueller report. were deemed impossible for anybody with any meaningful legal background to read mueller report and to have concluded as did barr. sure, the media gets stuff wrong all the time, but the above is major stuff and somehow media getting it right has been inverted and perverted so that +30% o' the country sees what should be media vindication by mueller as the opposite. @Darkpriest every scotus case is precedent worthy, but scotus is free to ignore scotus precedent. lower fed courts should read as binding. however, Congress has actual repudiated most treaties with indians, so is not too many additional situations where mcgirt will apply. mcgirt didn't says that wherever the US has broken a treaty, the natives get their stuff back, or anything even close. mcgirt were viable specific 'cause Congress never actual broke treaty. have already addressed land ownership. mineral rights is part o' property law. have no idea what you mean by estates and infrastructure is overboard. am s'posing if oklahoma state built a road or ferry on 47% land, then charge natives a toll could be inappropriate. build the road or ferry itself on land which had previous been sold to state is not gonna result in a new issue. already discussed our concerns 'bout consequences. most money issues will be addressed. tribes in ok have already made clear they is willing to make deals to address basic monetary issues. what ain't ez to predict is where mcgirt touches fundamental rights. will need be handled individual, which will take a whole lotta time and money and effort. HA! Good Fun! ps if one wishes to review our comments on mueller report will see 'pon initial reading, two things struck us. 1) were no way to read barr's summary as anything other than intentional misleading. 2) a side-by-side comparison with nixon misdeeds made trump look far worse particular all the obstruction stuff and mueller explicit observation he believed trump were not truthful in his interrogatory responses, which in and of itself were highly unusual. have been genuine baffled by the degree to which trump admin misrepresentations and far-right media efforts to gaslight were so successful. is just no possible way to read mueller report as some kinda exoneration, and yet...

Making the battle shorter, does also make it "easier" without trivializing it because it becomes less tedious. This is why I'm going to go back and suggest reducing defenses (AR mostly, but you can also reduce other defenses) more so than reducing HP. The net effect is similar (Dorudugan dies faster), but the "psychological" effect is that more party builds and character setups will be capable of doing a not-frustratingly-low amount of damage with a not-frustratingly-low hit rate. (Maybe for the rare person who plays megabosses on normal difficulty, you can also provide a small HP nerf as well.) Dorudugan is the megaboss that reminds me most of the classic WoW raid bosses of old, and not in a good way. A huge HP sink and a very minor technical dimension that once you can get down you do ad nauseum with little challenge (in fact, Dorudugan reminds me a lot of a boss like Thaddius in WoW--pay attention to some icon or visual effect on your screen, and then run to a specific location). I'm not sure what you get from having the player do this over 30-45 minutes instead of, say, 20 minutes. My separate (and slightly related) suggestion of making the special fire attacks and vacuum attack more frequent (in concert with making Dorudugan killable in a fraction of the normal time) is based on the idea that the battle would be much shorter and thus more viable for various parties, but also much more "intense" whereas right now you have fire attacks spread out with a long series of melee attacks which--by necessity by the length of the fight--you have to metagame into being trivialized, which not only limits party viability but also means once you have metagamed it properly it's just a long tedious sequence that is relatively uninteresting.

I personally wish in inns and such you were allowed to bring your own food and drink (maybe paying a corkage fee), because especially later in the game I might have food or drink bonuses that I prefer to what's nearby (especially in SSS) but it's a little annoying to leave the area each time I want to rest. This matters extra on Rymrgand's challenge because sometimes the travel time to outside (e.g. Nekataka) might cause food to decay. Also it's a little odd that you can't rest in a lot of cities, but you can wait in place for endless amounts of hours. Clearly the rest restriction harkens back to the Baldur's Gate days, but back then you also couldn't wait in place. RPG logic... (other RPGs are also violators of this logic)

If I do go through with a custom water loop, I'll make a new thread and detail the process with pictures and such. It won't be flashy, I care not for fancy lights and such. I figure it might be helpful and/or interesting for other people that have never done a custom loop to see a fellow n00b do it. At the end they can draw their own conclusion. For example; that came out alright and didn't look so hard, maybe I'll try it, or, yikes, that looks horrible and that Keyrock guy it terrible, screw that.

Diet pills. That was the secret sauce we used on watch. Coffee works well and is the stuff of life all around. But it's benefits are short lived and you build up an immunity to it. But diet pills last the whole six hours and de a fair job over caffeine.

It's expensive and time consuming depending on how complicated you want to make it, but the end result looks awesome. I used to follow Singularity Computers on YT, he has awesome guides.

Mate, stop with the logic, yes? This is the internet... some people are immune to logic (if not to covid19). Yes, the whole "you're from country x therefore you are not entitled to contribute to a subject" is... yeah. Insert your own thoughts here, welcome to the internet

Thanks for the detailed and comprehensive reply it really is a minor disturbance, not one I’m going to keep dwelling on. I actually just figured out how to use the food I’ve been crafting and acquiring. I had forgotten there was a “Rest” button (on my setup it’s Z right now, that’s not the default) and usually before battles it’ll let you rest and eat. your answer definitely makes sense now that I think about it so thank you. Actually pretty logical, all things considered

I was a bit confused because of the "dragging food over my character" part. Mechanically: In Deadfire you can either get bonuses from food which requires camping - or bonuses from the inn which requires taking a room. You might think about it as camping with bonfire and your own food vs. board and lodging. Both provide resting bonuses. You can't have multiple resting bonuses so it's either/or. You either rest in a camp or in an inn. Why? I guess purely because of those mechanical reasons. Of course you could argue that one might eat their own food in their chamber, but it would have been more complicated because of conflicting or stacking bonuses etc. You could rationalize the current solution by saying "usually you can't consume your own food in an inn" or "food is already included when resting in an inn" or something like that. If that works for you then fine. If not you'll just have to live with this disturbance of your immersion.

Deadfire, methinks. I didn't find the way to use my food either when I wanted useful buffs in SSS instead of default crap. 'course, inns IRL do not appreciate when you bring your own food, but I don't think this level of realism is really needed in the game.

a fun bit o obscure political calendar trivia which could become important in january. new senate is sworn in january 3, 2021. new Presidential term begins january 20(?), 2021. might have exact date a bit wrong, but is a minor detail and we didn't bother to double-check. a new senate could convict trump, preventing him from ever holding future office, even if biden gets elected. HA! Good Fun!

Well, they have TIbet and Vietnam and several wars with India. Probably as bad as the US, just more focused in their neighbourhood.

Grom is still funny. He actually expects non Amerikans to take his silly lectures seriously when he and his fellow patriots can't even get things right in his own country. EPIC FAIL. Next, a Russian will lecture me about democracy. LMAO

No they're not. Your country wouldn't have got to the point where masks are needed, if you followed the rules to stop transmission. You didn't, so masks are needed now. But if you'd followed the rules they wouldn't be. The factors countries with successful responses all had in common simply do not include compulsory masks. The US is not in the state it is because people refused to wear masks, it's in the state it is because none of the necessary factors for control were consistently applied. Having to have compulsory mask wearing to minimise spread is a sign of and response to failure. Your argument is effectively that because the US didn't stop smoking and got lung cancer chemotherapy is necessary for anyone who wants functioning lungs. Nope, if you have a bit of self control and don't smoke then you don't generally need chemotherapy. And ironically, it's Trump HCQ prophylaxis argument in different clothes.

It is still a bit of a mismatch to compare a homogeneous country to the situation of ethnic groups within larger demographics. I honestly can't understand why the need for the comparison.

I used to be a coffee addict when I was younger. A typical 20 hour work day would involve 14-15 large Bavarian beer stein sized mugs of coffee. On the odd day off it would be replaced by copious quantities of Irish Coffee (and rum and vodka and whisky and gin and tequila and... you get the picture). Probably why, when I did my first real medical checkup (besides the one I did for my permanent residency) a bit more than a year ago, the doctor just burst out "why are you even alive???" and wouldn't let me leave her office before I had swallowed some tablets and had my blood pressure measured once more. Hypertension is there to stay unfortunately, but I consider myself blessed not having to worry about stuff like cholesterol figures or diabetes (the blood tests showed I had the health of a fine young 30 year old otherwise)

China maybe, Russia doesn't have the clout and doesn't have a realistic route to get it back either even without the US as a factor. Russian international power is almost entirely oppositional, from offering an alternative to the US (and having a big nuclear arsenal/ UN veto/ hydrocarbons and other raw materials). China, well, they've been busy alienating every single one of their neighbours except Russia and even there the relationship is arms length except when it comes to opposing the US. Their foreign policy is exactly what you get when you come up through a regimented system where orthodoxy and obeying the rules designed to propagate The Party are paramount. The reality of world politics is that the vast majority of countries will happily take Chinese money while their views on the CCP vary from dislike to loathing- and that reality always triggers CCP members because they've grown up with that being near literally unthinkable and with a massive cultural chip on their shoulder when it comes to western nations. Even minor or imagined slights see toys ejected from cots, and that isn't conducive to long term international success. The world is naturally multipolar, if the US declines or collapses it will be China, the EU (assuming it didn't get dragged down by the US) and at some stage India with the big influences, with Russia retaining a role as a spoiler. It's doubtful even combined that they'll have the influence the US has had recently though.

I hate that I'm their exact brand of perfect sucker. I don't like much of anything they've put out and yet I always come back for more just because it says Star Trek.

Wearing masks wouldn't stop rest home deaths, unfortunately. Even proper medical masks w/filter only reduce exposure risk, by the nature of rest homes there's constant uncontrollable ongoing contact between residents and carers; even worse if there are a lot of already more vulnerable old people there. We had two outbreaks in specialist dementia rest homes which accounted for ~3/4 of our death toll, and most of the infections occurred after the oldies were out of the rest home and in proper hospitals (and that was also where most of our infected health workers came from too). You couldn't even reliably test most of those patients, trying to shove a swab up someone with dementia's nose or throat or take a blood sample is a non trivial undertaking. We also had panic about mask availability. Pretty sure that's just a consequence of having, well, media. If you listen to the media we would be simultaneously opening our borders while reducing quarantine times, and not letting anyone in; should have gone into lockdown earlier and simultaneously opened up earlier with fewer restrictions and more restrictions; behaved like Australia because their economy was less effected and not behaved like Australia. And yes, we were simultaneously using too many masks and not saving enough for a rainy day. No, it isn't. As always, stuff you agree with = data, stuff you don't agree with = anecdotes. If you follow the social distancing rules properly you don't need to wear masks, full stop. The problem is that people in places like the US won't follow the rules, the rules aren't consistent, people aren't informed properly or practice freedum or whatever. They won't wear masks, but they also won't do anything else. Stay 2m apart, wash your hands, don't go out if you're coughing or sneezing. If people had done that you wouldn't need masks. Much of the reason for masks being advocated is that Asian countries have had successful covid strategies. They weren't using masks as a mitigation factor though, they were countries that got a major scare with previous outbreaks like SARS, had proper plans in place and where mask use and basic prevention tactics was cultural. They had well communicated rules, a populace that understood the issues and was willing to take the steps necessary to deal with outbreaks (or in China's case, a military willing to make sure they did even if they didn't). Those are the factors common to all countries that have dealt successfully with the virus. Cultural level mask wearing was common to some successful countries, but by no means all.

That is also a good option and if you can get the US$1.00 deal will assure you that your kids are into the game. You know kids, right? One day they love it, the next day they forget about it.

In a sense yes. Wasn't it major misstep, considering how things went Reasons to say it was mishandling things It lead workers in elderly care centers not use masks, which has caused most of the covid caused deaths in Finland They focused in their decision making to hospital quality masks and it wasn't until end of May when they started to look if home made masks etc. would work to prevent spread. Their inability to explain their decision making early on lead to unnecessary panic about sufficiency of mask storages And why it was not major misstep Our hospitals never actually run out of mask, even though they used about million in day in worst weeks (in normal year our hospitals don't use million mask in a year) Total death toll is quite low 329 (from which bit over half has been in elderly care centers) and it is not certain that mandatory masks would have saved those elderly care centers, as they happened early on and centers had masks in their hospital quality masks in their storages, but their leadership keep them for some reason behind lock even with government recommendations to use masks in any interaction with elders. Infection rate never rose high as people just stayed home, so not using mask never ended to matter

"Someone wrote to ask about my plans for the fall, and it too me a moment to realise they meant 'autumn' , and not 'the collapse.' " "You say that like there might be a difference."

Christopher Tolkien was awesome, and sought to understand, preserve and present his father's work. Brian Herbert on the other hand exploits it. I wonder if he's involved with the film? Hope not.

assuming nice horse-friendly dirt roads, which is impassable when is heavy rains, +3 days. assume ~20 miles per day. unlike gd, we has less romanticized notions o' equines. spent a large part o' our youth shoveling horsesh!te. grandfather wanted us to understand horses and guns ain't toys, so he had us spend hundreds o' hours doing care and maintenance o' both to teach us respect... or something. horses is useful tools, but they require a great deal o' care and they is not like big dogs. is there exceptions? sure, but if you want an animal friend, go to the local pound. "if you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. this is the principal difference between a dog and a man."-- mark twain. quote works just as well if you replace "man" with "horse." HA! Good Fun!

Just got off our Friday call. It is official, our offices in Ft. Pillow are being closed. All West Tennessee offices are being consolidated to the big building in Memphis. But we are also officially going to be a virtual office. Meaning that while my office might be in Memphis I will not need to go there regularly. Right now they are saying once or twice a week but maybe I can shave that down a bit. The upshot is this saves the tax payers quite a bit of money. Being a taxpayer, I like that! So as terrible as COVID is maybe some good will come of it and more and more people learn to function remotely. Edit: Memphis would be a long trek by horse. How long would it take a horse to go 65 miles? Don't know but it's enough to make me drop the idea of giving up cars.

Fallout was fairly niche too and look how that turned out.

Not sure but am not talking about the main load to the Menu. And 15-20 seconds load between areas is ginormous. Also please stop mentioning SSD's. That does not really solve any of the two points from the OP. Also I finally got my flashbacks. We had to use a mod in PoE1 to disable the autosave. Cannot believe they still did not implement it in Deadfire.