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My nomination for the coolest desk lamp of September goes to:

Not to mention a Russian grenade launcher. Clear evidence of the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids...

If you have to tell yourself how awesome you are, you probably aren't

I'm playing on Xbox and noticed that when the bird is making the caw sound while perched at any location, the volume of the caw seems to be very low. As a suggestion, I think the volume should be increased considering the size of the bird. I think we should be able to hear the bird throughout the yard. If you are closer to the bird, the volume should be louder. Love the game, thanks for all your hard work!!

Let's hear what God-President Reagan has to say about that. Or sing?

Yeah, might as well chime in. I think I might have dodged the bullet that is having to inject insulin last year. At least for a good while. Last year in January I went to the doctor and got a full blood work up to check if anything might be wrong. Turns out there was a physical reason for me being tired all the time and having hyperphagic episodes. Most of my blood work was okay except for some minor indication of liver damage and an HbA1c of 9.1. Blood pressure was pretty bad too, but not as bad as Azdeus'. That didn't come unexpected though, all of my family on my mother's side has type 2 diabetes and the family on my father's side all have high blood pressure. I just had to pick the best combination for myself. Got a nice little leaflet telling me that I should change my diet, a prescription for Metformin (500 mg, twice per day) and a referral for an internal medicine specialist for some follow up checks including an ECG. Luckily those came up negative except for a minor enlarged heart, a common side effect of long term high blood pressure (or being an athlete, which, let's face it, I'm not. Hurlshot might have Athlete's Heart though ), so some medication against high blood pressure was added and told to come back after a three month observation period. I began with a low carb diet and interval fasting (of the 16/8 kind, I start at 11 - the exact time our work cantina starts with lunch and end at 7), added some regular excercise and three months later was back at a healthy HbA1c of 5.3 where it's been sitting ever since, the liver values are within normal range now as well. My fasting clucose levels are around 85 to 95 mg/dl and it's been well over a year since I had more than 130 mg/dl after a meal, even if I splurge by having something that amounts to a carb overdose (i.e. pasta and a sugary dessert or pizza). I dropped the low carb diet after the initial three months and replaced it with something a little easier to sustain. Resting blood pressure is down to 110/70 (pulse 60), without the medication now. I feel fine. Better than in a long while. Except for never... and I really mean NEVER feeling as if I had enough to eat. That's probably in part due to the strict regimen of really only eating one normal meal per day (a workplace necessity, while we have a really good cantina you don't get special diet food there obviously), some fruit in the afternoon (mostly berries, avoiding high sugar fruits like grapes) and an evening snack that I actually really measure with a kitchen scale. 50 grams of bread, 100 grams of protein and whatever vegetables of the low carb/low calorie variety I feel like having. I imagine that this constant need to walk over to the fridge and eat everything at once is what recovering addicts feel. Just with unhealthy food instead of alcohol or other drugs. Well, can't be helped. I could have listened to my doctor before it got to that point but hey, where's the fun in that? Can't have me doing something without a bloody boot up my arse first. Meh. I wonder of that ever goes away? Probably not. Anyway, good luck getting your diabetes into remission LC. edit: Forgot to mention, I'm still taking Metformin. Not sure if I still need to, but I can't get free blood sugar testing strips without being on diabetes medication. Stupid commie healthcare. ^^

Hi All, I've decided that since I have a lot of ideas for the game and am a big fan I wanted to create a forum for all my ideas and thoughts. Critiques are always welcomed. Thanks,

Hello I am overly impressed with the building but some minor suggestions to get it out there. I have built in the tree all the way up... I know a few people that have. I also have built a "elevator" of sorts to get up in only 18 seconds when running up takes around 1 minute give or take. Just asking not demanding but please don't get rid or mess with features of both build height and or "elevators" cause it is a super kool dynamic and ingenious way of enjoying the game. I really dont want to lose the progress I have made if it gets patched. Also if you do read this and are not gonna be implementing a build height just a suggestion for the mechanics of building so high would be nice to tweak and look at. See again I've started building between some cross sections of the tree and I've noticed 2 major things. 1 the tree is not solid at a certain point. I dont know how hard it is to make it solid or if you guys have plans with the tree in the future but it would be nive if it was solid. 2 when dropping planks or anything for that matter at a certain point it falls through your floor and plummets to the bottom. That would be a nice fix as well. Either way it is an amazing game cannot wait to see what else you have in store for us! I know its probably been hard both with a small crew and the covid virus but you guys have done exceptionally well!!

Fun fact: My first video card was a Voodoo3 3000. I remember playing UT99 in STUNNING 800x600. Back then I also didn't suck at FPS... I wasn't great, but I didn't suck, like I do today. Good times. P.S. UT99 is still the best competitive FPS ever.

That url from the video really exists: https://www.nightcity.love

Sorry I've tried and even killed every worker ant I could find and still no eggs so I just gave up. I obviously missed one somewhere and I don't even think I can get through the entire map in one in game day to find the stuck ones. Just very very frustrated with this one part of the game. Other than this issue I love the game enough to buy it off of steam even though I have game pass but my vid card is one of the ones with the issue where you have to force the game to run in dx11 to stop it from crashing every 5 minutes.

According to the picture anyway. The God-President himself has giant laser eyes with which he blasts commie robots. xD

That is not re-defining patriotisim. That is pretty much what it is. Mark Twain once said "Patriotisim is loyalty to your country all the time... loyalty to it's government only when it deserves it". I think you'll agree it has not been very impressive over the years.

yep, that's annoying. Also the scaffolding, it shouldn't show through the plank floors, and items set on the plank floors shouldn't show through underneath.

Fake it until you make it. Or never do and become management.

For that fantasy RIP... Terry Goodkind passed away yesterday. "To exist in this vast universe for a speck of time is the great gift of life. It is our only life. The universe will go on, indifferent to our brief existence, but while we are here, we touch not just part of that vastness, but also the lives around us. Life is the gift each of us has been given. Each life is our own and no one else’s. It is precious beyond all counting. It is the greatest value we can have. Cherish it for what it truly is . . . Your life is yours alone. Rise up and live it."

so i finally heard this night before last when i played. Here's a clip for anyone else that hasn't heard them yet

sean connery being the obvious #1, no? HA! Good Fun!

Yeah, it's not that bad tho', playing with a Vega 64, the 3080 ain't gon' be no problem

not accurate, but would make more sense than the actual story not petrified, 'cause petrified would be too tame? instead, is an accidental pinocchio kinda/sorta bit o' blame it on magic wackiness. ... the forgotten realms suck. HA! Good Fun!

Does this apply to programming too?

Here I was thinking that maybe now would be the time for me to finally take the plunge and try VR. After watching the Battle Sister trailer, I'll wait some time longer.

Man, and america looks crazy already with their pledge to the flag and singing the national anthem every morning, etc. That's some pretty good fascist brainwashing already.

I'd like to take this moment to suggest that we re-define patriotism to mean wanting the best from and for your country and its people. When I criticize my country, it's not because I hate it or its inhabitants or want all of us to forever be stuck on some kind of hundred year old-plus guilt over something that occurred before even my parents or their parents were born - it's because I, a citizen that is also a human being with some measure of self-awareness, empathy, and the ability to take criticism without needing to always be 100% defensive about it, can reflect and honestly say that we (like literally every other nation that's ever existed past and present) didn't do or handle something right, and hope that we will not make the same kind of decisions in the future - especially in situations where there is no pressing need to do so. It's also possible to help those who have been disproportionately negatively affected by our nation's historical decisions without having to cop up to some kind of personal guilt, just as it's possible to make the decision to generously help other people even when they aren't strictly in dire need of it. Believe it or not, some people are capable of being empathetic and unselfish without necessarily needing to be driven by guilt. I would not necessarily count myself among those people most of the time, but the nasty assumption that everyone who acts seemingly unselfishly is doing it just out of guilt is just that - a nasty assumption that says more about the person making it than the people it's being lobbed against. (e): You'll also note that this "definition" of patriotism (that will never be mainstream) isn't necessarily (and really shouldn't be) at the complete expense of all other non-citizens, because I'm personally at least taking into more account than simply material worth. Genuine ethical and moral failings can be just as dangerous to a nation's worth and well-being (if not more so) than simply minor or even moderate economic or power shortfalls.

I did a test last week about building items durability and how many hits will destroy each piece. I found my Mint Mallet did no damage to my structures but did not test it on traps. Building Durability YT Video

Dragon Age Inquisition's loot system is annoying the crap out of me. It's one of those games I feel is trying too hard with loot. You have three tiers of loot, 4 rarities, customizable upgrades, and loot progression that goes alongside character level. Then, if you're a mage, you have to sort 3 damage types for your weapon because this will be on the test. Which means you're constantly finding utter crap. And you have to navigate the slow menus one item at a time just to make sure it's crap. And even when it's not crap, you're now going into another slow menu to take off the upgrades from your old equipment to put the upgrades on the new one. Your equipment basically has their own equipment submenu that requires accessing through a special location. And if you want to keep your entire roster's equipment up to date, you need to do this process like 10 times. Because you never know when you'll need to take someone off the bench. Customization is desirable because it's supposed to reduce the doing of all this. Find something you like the looks of and you can keep it by upgrading. Find something with stats you like and you can make it look cool. Here we're just adding more loot, more stats, more junk, more menus. I'm not even saying that games need to stop doing loot. They just need to loot to not be an obligation. It needs to be an interesting game system. It should have the value of a good skill tree, representing a play style. And only upgrading when it changes substantially or when you want a player to try something out different. Not just be ups. Soulsborne games are great at this. Even many games with too much loot show they know how... in their endgame. But games don't need the earlier filler. If the end game is where the interest is, the whole game needs to catch up.

you managed to beat @HoonDing to the punchline. tragedy is, you are serious. HA! Good Fun! ps perhaps @Hurlshot could join the commision and give pointers to the fed regarding how they would possible implement and enforce such silliness. fed provides dollars to states for education-- is their leverage. state and local education departments will actual need develop means o' implementing . as such hurl may aid in creating a scheme which improves historical patriotism in the classroom and somehow measures such. is amusing to imagine the resulting standardized tests but only if trump ain't reelected. fact something is impractical and unconstitutional is not an obstacle for trump and barr.

The blood sugar meter the hospital gave me, the meter device itself and the lancets can be bought almost anywhere and are retail $25 for 100. But the actual test strips that go into the meter are almost nowhere to be found that I've been able to discover and (retail) would cost $100+ per 100. Thus I am forced to depend on the hospital pharmacy/prescrip. to get the strips (they're much cheaper that way w/insurance etc. but it's just weird one aspect is widely available but the other is not). Since I'm a newbie I was testing constantly for a while. The pharmacy gave me a hard time when I wanted to refill because I'd used the 100 strips up faster than expected. I was all like "well how else am I supposed to gain knowledge of what my body does re: meals/foods and insulin dosage." I mean, I understand the needles, drug abuse and all that, but what, is there some worry about abuse of test strips by patients? I suppose I could sell them on the black market since they apparently can't be bought legitly almost anywhere. ...I'm suspicious of a deal between the company, insurance, and the hospital or something. 😛

Unwilling and incapable are two dramatically different situations. I will bend over backwards trying to help the incapable kid find some success. There is always a path forward, it just might not look like it did for the rest of the class. Special education teachers basically live in this world. They are all excellent at celebrating the small successes instead of focusing on the failings. Unwilling...eh. If a kid wants to space out all period, there is only so much I'm going to do to try and engage them. People need to own their education. I'm bummed when a kid fails because of lack of effort, and I will extend plenty of opportunities to jump on board the learning train, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Heck, it gives me more time to focus on the kid who needs and wants the help. That all being said, I do see it as my job to engage the students. If a good chunk of the class is not picking up what I'm selling, then it is on me to shift gears. I swear some teachers just assume it is the students job to always be attentive, no matter how boring they are being. My attention span is a pretty good indicator. It is not long. What were we talking about again?

My general rule of thumb is to take every performance figure given by the manufacturer themselves with a 55 gallon drum of salt. That goes for Nvidia, AMD, Intel, et al. There's no point in getting a 3080 for 1080p gaming at all, unless you are a MLG 420 BLAZE IT PRO GAMER and the difference between 200 FPS and 230 FPS will mean the difference between hitting and missing that 360 no scope sniper shot in CS:GO for you.

It's been a long time since I was at school and such, but I don't remember the "Vikings" being described as blonde burly men as much as I remember the romanticists describing them like that. The material I remember reading did point out that vikings "imported" alot of foreign people here though, so it would follow that they would look mixed. Except the more northwestern people that is that didn't have readily available coastal access. Then again, I read/watched Asterix alot, so when I think of the traditional viking look I generally think Asterix anyway.

Speaking of BG2...

that'll never happen. YOu can build material free in creative, but not the other modes. no way you should be able pull a multi-level base with pallisades and traps from creative and use it in mild/medium/woah! modes.

Windows 10 needs 4 mininum to run and it does so extremely slowly on 4. I don't know if you're old enough to remember dial up internet, but that's how 10 behaves on 4gb Ram. Very slow and clunky. open an app go get coffee then come back to see if it's open, then you do an action, drink your coffee and look to see if it's done. 8gb is the recommended to run Windows 10. You have the min recommended. This means the game is taking up the 6gb, and windows is struggling to run with what's left (which is less than the required 4gb). it's not a good scenario. 8gb is fine if all your doing is word process, spreadsheets, emails, and surfing the web. If you're playing games you need the extra RAM for windows to do what it needs and the game to do what it needs to do without tanking each other. like @tecknotot said, 16gb is the minimum you should have for gaming now days. That is if your motherboard will support it.

Nearly all fights are manageable on solo (even PotD) if you are playing an SC Assassin or Assassin/Paladin. All you need is high INT and MIG and PER, Smoke Veil and Gouging Strike (and Brand Enemy as Assassin/Paladin is very good). Lover's Embrace if you want to speed things up. I like to use it as a single weapon. Boots of Speed and/or Zealous Charge You just go in stealthed, hit with a Gouging Strike with Lover's Embrace (follow up with Brand Enemy at once because hits from stealth have a 80% recovery bonus, BE has no recovery), activate Smoke Veil (doesn't break on DoTs) and quickly retreat where you can't be seen. Wait until enemy dies and repeat. Some players might call that cheese but I don't. All three effects work as intended and it can be a lot of fun because IF you mess up your timing or your positioning you are dead. The challenge is to figure out positioning and timing and observing the enemy and not applying brute force or stacking ultrahigh defenses. It plays as a stealth game then. There are fights where you can't retreat (mostly Water Dragon). But I'm able to kill him very quickly with dual daggers and Toxic Strike + Gouging Strike + Ring the Bell + Arterial Strike and then Escape and run around a bit. Then Marux Amanth's Worthy Sacrifice. One class that can fight digsite etc. heads-on is Arcane Knight. I especially like Steel Garrote/Bloodmage with Offensive Parry from Whispers of the Endless Paths (obvisouly not available at digsite) but all Arcane Knights are great in the early levels (and later) because they come with passive defense buffs which stack with the wizard's active defense buffs which some of are also accessible very early. A Stell Garrote/Bloodmage with Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff is great in the early game. But Goldpact is also very nice due to Gilded Enmity which helps a lot.

Didn't read entire thread but in terms of Minsc/original question: I never disliked Minsc, per se, but I had no use for him in my party, and while sure some of his lines are nostalgia-iconic, I didn't want to listen to him screaming, either. I think I ended up killing him at some point because he was mad at "me" or something. eg, I preferred others in terms of story/chr choices and in combat. Edit: my reference comes largely from BG1, I didn't finish BG2. I did like the picture of Boo.

jesus warning, adult language!

I have really enjoyed it and there have been several very funny posts " feed Imoen to the bear " and informative ones as well from a technical party selection and " best practice" around classes So just to answer Gromnirs question, its not even remotely stale until we lose interest in making comments which are either interesting, comical or both

the Shrek inspired sexual fantasy is inverse. he should be in the donkey costume and she in the dragon costume

I've been playing Grounded for quite a bit now and I'm loving it. I enjoy the hunting/ gathering aspects of this game and slowly building a cool base. One thing I thought of to make dusk/ night time exploration more eventful would be to add Crickets to hunt. They act like ladybugs only instead of specializing on defense, Crickets will run/ jump away making them harder to catch, (fitting for a night time opponent). Based on what I understand, enemies use a flat nav surface to move around the game world, if jumping long distances were to work right then maybe the cricket could have a choice of jump point destinations that it will leap to in it's area. That would help avoid odd destination glitches that could arise from a jumping target. Cricket armor could give you a jump boost and reduce fall damage when collecting the full set.