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"Rooting for the tree to survive..."

Just curiosity getting the better of me. One day I was logging in, checking posts from new accounts that needed approval (for those who don't know, a new account needs 5 approved posts to their post count to get out of moderated status, something that catches a shockingly large number of spam bots, which most people never get to see). Then I started reading a number of threads, trying to cover those where tempers sometimes flare up a bit or to add some oh so clever snarky remark. Not to boost my post counts, because posts in WoT doesn't count. Then I tried to remember, how did I even get here in the first place and what has kept me here for so many years. I don't even remember how many years it has been anymore I remember lurking on the Interplay forums, trying to gather enough courage to register and participate (edit: I was playing a lot of Fallout, PS:T and BG2 at the time), but then the proverbial **** hit the fan before I got my finger out of the warming embrace it was placed in. Lo and behold, the guys from Black Isle had started a new site and a new forum. Lurking for another 2 weeks, I finally bit the bullet and registered (and got a lot of funny remarks for my member number which the forum software showed next to your avatars at the time, 666). I remember getting into some at times vicious flame wars with Bioware fanboys at the time, who were mightily upset that Obsidian were doing Kotor2 and NWN2. Still surprised I didn't get banned then, I was not being gentle *cough* *cough* No sir (some of them got dragged away, frothing at the mouth while yelling obscenities at me). Watched people come and go. Mostly active in the gaming section and the game specific forums. I was way more a gamer then than I am today. Sort of sad when it feels like a novelty posting in the what are playing now thread I think what keeps me coming back is the sense of "community". Something reassuring about old, familiar faces. People whose quirks you know. So much stuff got rehashed and discussed to death that subjects like religion doesn't even happen anymore. Most people knows where other people stand on such subjects. Good thing we can get the little odd global crisis and end of the world scenario so there is something new to discuss (total nuclear war has been cancelled because of lack of participation). Anyway, just and old guy reminiscing. Hanging around because I like you guys and girls. Not because of any particular game, thread or subject (not anymore that is). So, why are *you* hanging around these forums?

To post a bit more on topic: I think I came back after Sarge posted in one of our BIS/Interplay diaspora forums that tarna had died. My account still worked, so I logged on to pay my respects. Stuck around, unlike way back when. Why? That's a good question. I was on the verge of saying because all the other places died off, but that would come out wrong. It's not like I'm here because this is a leftover and there's no place else to return to (although Gorth inadvertently killed off the Winterwind forums with a post I think Josan misunderstood a bit in a rather emotional moment). It felt a bit like going home for the first time in years. Like all the other threads of this kind this one made me browse through files that I've kept for 15+ years. Like tarna's MtG card, from a time when he ran his own forum (tarna's Coffee Shop) and was active at Ashford City. 'Twas tarna talking about Andy (the quote on the card, I mean), one of the more persistent trolls of our age, in a thread long, long gone now where he claimed that Viet Nam is actually spelled Veit Nam and everyone's just getting it wrong all the time. Funny, I remember that thread clearly as if it happened yesterday, but I can't for the life of me remember what Andy's full user name was. It wasn't just Andy, I think. Or was it? Does anyone of you know? Guess TNO was right. Time does indeed lay waste to all things.

Your lawyers and my lawyers. The dark alley at 2am. Pistols only...

is fitting that a bad scene from a bad movie offers our best answer to gorth's query. HA! Good Fun!

Got banned from everywhere else.

Sand/Hades, Keleverin, & Tarna. You should have been around for Tarna. Hades was the troll. But they were good dudes and all way too young to go.

Well I haven't been here as far back as you guys, for the better as I doubt I would have had anything of value to add back then (I'm unsure if I still do), but I mostly joined for the discussion on the "spiritual successor" of the Infinity Engine games and trying to talk some sense in to people regarding it. Nowadays I don't go outside of the Obsidian Community section, but then again I don't play games nearly as much as I used to. As for why am I still here...Why not, there are a lot of interesting people around here with their own opinions and it's nice to hear a different opinion.

Partly I'm still here cause I'm a mod, partly inertia, partly because I still very much enjoy Obsidian's games. The heyday of the boards to me was when people like metadigital, allanschu, llyranor/nickiam, dark_raven, darque, thepixiesrock, musopticon, baley, launch, hades or schmart were around. That's when I had a lot of fun just posting, both here and at the other place. Things were fun, felt fastpaced, and hijinks were had. Among the leftovers from that time are people like me, Gorth, Gromnir, kirottu, Guard Dog, hurlshot, Amentep, humanoid, malc, shadysands, numbersman, gorgon and others I'm not remembering. A lot of these have been around as long as I have. Some were even regular posters in the BIS days, where I only lurked. Anyway I am old, and I have an enduring emotional connection to this place and Obsidian itself, so I am here. Also, sometimes I get loot from Obsidian, which nowadays is a source of angst for my kid, because he wishes he could get Fortnite stuff from Epic Games. That's certainly a perk.

I came in with KOTOR II. I was around on the old Black Isle forum but only a little. I was in the NWN forums all the time with Volo, Gromnir and others from BI. When I got here and saw a lot of familiar names is was cool. Most are long gone now. What keeps me? Interesting conversation. There is a pretty broad range of opinions here. Half the posters are from outside the USA and that is a plus. I like hearing about what's doing elsewhere. And an ousider's perspective on the US is always interesting. Most forums self segregate into opinion echo chambers or a bomb throwing range. That never happened here. It's pretty rare.

It started off pretty innocently. I was a big fan of NWN and registered when I heard they were developing the sequel. But I didn't really join the community until I finished KotOR II and was like...this is the ending? What the heck happened? I immediately logged into Obsidian's forum to find answers, and was surprised to find them! Then I found a thread on the TV show LOST, and found even more answers. Plus some guys were talking hockey. Honestly there are some real oldie but goodie threads that just pulled me on. Look at this crazy one: More than 16 years later and we finally have BG3.

It sounds to me like they need to offer better incentives to come to work then tbh. Why the hell should someone risk getting the rona and work 40 hours to take home a paycheck that doesn't even cover rent?

If someone is wondering where the weekly rip of Discovery is, well... I watched the current episode and it was such a nothingburger it's not even worth mentioning. Burnham decides to violate a direct order and now she's no longer first officer. Again. Because it's not like this is essentially the way this show started. Right? Except this time she's in luck and with the Federation being unable to be picky she's not going to prison (whether or not she actually started a war this time remains to be seen...). edit: Oh, right, the reason she violated the order was because the burn might not have been instant but originated somewhere. What a suspenseful turn of events there.

I didn't realize Spine of Thicket Green could be stolen. I can't believe I have been buying it till now!

We were talking about this a little while back. Actually I think the specific discussion was whether any president ever “dodged“ the draft. I looked it up: Let's see, Hoover was a Quaker and never served in the military for religious reasons FDR missed WWI was was SecNav before becoming President. No draft in his day. Truman served in the Army and National Guard as an artilleryman in WWI Eisenhower was a career military man and the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe in WW2 Kennedy was a naval officer and PT boat commander in WW2 Johnson was too young for WWI and too old for WW2 so he never served but there was no draft. Nixon was a Navy officer and served in the Pacific in WW2 Ford was also a Naval Officer and served in the Pacific in WW2. Carter was a Navy man and Submariner. He served in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets in the '50's Reagan was an enlisted man in the Army when WW2 started. He was later commissioned and served in the Army Air Corps. George HW Bush was a Navy fighter pilot during WW2. Bill Clinton was given draft deferments for college. When his number was coming up he used influence from Democrat Senator William Fullbright to get an ROTC appointment he never reported to. He didn't actually "dodge" the draft. But he came real close to doing it. George W Bush used family influence to get in the Air National Guard. Barack Obama missed all the wars. The draft was over. He never served in the military. Donald Trump got four deferments for college and failed the draft physical during Vietnam.

The game can be very punishing right from the start, though I'm told you can get godlike at some point. I invested into psionics and gave up when deeper into the game I couldn't beat two raiders despite kiting them literally through the area and abusing LoS. Didn't have the burst to blow them up, so both they had a chance to heal and when I eventually got cornered I got oneshot with a single grenade. Soo yeeah, I'd look up a build guide or something.

Orderered the MSI GeForce RTX 3070 VENTUS 2X OC (don't feel like I need a better GPU since I use a 1080p screen anyway). I read afterwards that the temperatures can get really high on it, but apparently undervolting the GPU (never done that before) removes that issue. I hope it arrives before Cyberpunk does! Will be a decent upgrade over my good ol' gtx 970.

Sierra was infamous for pulling supreme **** moves in their games, and I say that as a huge fan of the company. Sierra was my childhood. Maybe unwinnable states and ludicrous moon logic were a way of artificially inflating game length? (As well as the hint line thing) These days, developers inflate game length through pointless collect-a-thons and generic copy/paste quests. *glares in Ubisoft's direction*

So long as you're playing the right build, yeah.

There is absolutely no way to know Clinton’s level of involvement with Lawrence. Other than to note they were friends. Did Clinton do him a favor here? A phone call from the admin to the Pentagon could easily have gotten him in without too much attention paid to his record and without Clinton’s name attached to it. I don’t know. That is speculation.But as for saying it never happened at all is like saying “There are no rats in the barn. Oh, except that one”. Now I will admit my memory of this whole thing, upon which my first post was entirely based, let me down here. I remember the story, the outrage that came from it and that there was truth in it. Not the specifics. I should have googled before posting not after. It was 23 years ago after all. But let me be clear here my recollections right or wrong are entirely mine. I was no more a fan of talk radio then then I am now. I don’t need someone to read the news to me and tell me what it means. I can formulate my own opinions.

Men discover mysterious metal monolith in Utah wilderness, immediately touch it.

I know. I realized this from this thread too. I had been buying the Spine and the Ring of Focused Flame almost every game until recently.

Perfectly reasonable puzzle in Secret Files - taping a cell phone to a cat's back, feeding it salty pizza in order to make it go inside and record a conversation on the phone. Then again, after Mystery of Druids, sort of glad I didn't have to poison the cat.

Some people check the news while having their breakfast. I browse these forums. The general gaming forum is fun and I get most of my gaming news from there... it's sort of a curated news site commentated by people I know not to be bots, hype bandwagoneers or 12-year olds. And I enjoy reading random stuff here in WoT -- learned a lot over the years. It's nowhere near as hectic as other online communities, but it's not dead by any means. Obs being one of the few -if not the only- devs whose games I've consistently enjoyed over the years is another reason, obviously, though I don't really participate in the new subforums because of my policy of waiting 6-12 months from release before playing new games.

Proposal to Allow Non-Veteran Presidential Burials at Arlington Draws Pushback There is a pay wall. I read the WSJ though. The gist of it is the Democrats and Vets are in a twist about a proposal coming from the "Pentagon" (meaning Trump indirectly) to permit non-veteran Presidents to be buried with honors in Arlington. Ironic considering his derisive comments about the people buried there. Of course the same goddamned Democrats were mute when Bill Clinton was selling Arlington burials to non-vets as political favors. Politics today though is "it's not wrong if we do it". Personally I think military service should be a requirement to be President. How can you be the commander in chief of something you don't respect or even understand?

It's one of the easiest to steal items in the game. I guess because it's very helpful to have it on Motare o Kōzi and devs didn't want the player to make it too unlikely to have it by then.

I started playing The Division 2. I figure it is a good idea to get used to seeing Washington DC as a battlefield, given the current trajectory of the country. So far so good!

And sold out instantly! Good grief...

Fuddruckers is my top burger chain. It's probably a good thing tharlt the closest one to where I live is some 70 miles away, otherwise I'd be fatter than I already am.

Yeah my Mum had Parkinson's disease and it totally sucked. She used to be an artist but was unable to continue. Plus the decrease in dopamine can cause depression and other emotional symptoms. One positive thing that has been introduced for people with Parkinson's disease are stabilizing writing devices that help reduce the tremors. https://www.designer-daily.com/arc-a-self-stabilizing-pen-for-people-with-parkinsons-disease-52284

A fun CC/damage hybrid I played recently is a Troubadour/Psion. The idea is that while one resource pool (phrases/focus) is refilling you can cast from the other one. No fuzz with regenerating resources: it's purely automatic. Pick Killers Froze Stiff, Phantom Foes, Ben Fidel's Neck, Secret Horrors, Mental Binding and so on. For the damage part pick Thrice She was Wronged, Soul Shock or whatever you like. You will have nearly no casting downtime. With Killers and Mental Binding I could paralyze-lock one enemy 100% and the rest for a good amount of time, too. If enemies cluster around the tank then I can cast Soul Shock almost non-stop after some levels because the focus regeneration is faster than the spending of 10 focus and the recovery time. Should focus generation stop because I got hit there's always my phrases. Healng can be done with Ancient Memory, Pain Block and Two Fingers of Daylight. You can even revive. I wasn't too impressed with the idea first but after playing it I have to say it was one of the most fun character concepts so far. It may be though that the basic idea doesn't work as well in TB mode. But I think it's still valid. I don't like Barring-Death's-Door- and Salvation-of-Time cheese. The fun of breaking the game only lasts a short while for me.

While not as... self-sufficient as a BDD Priest, I propose you have a look at an Assassin/Bloodmage. One issue with the Priest, is that the Turn Based action economy is not great for dual-casters IMO. You cast either a wizard spell or a priest spell in a given round. +25 Accuracy from Assassinate is nothing too sneeze at, also for CC. For nuking additional +4 PEN and +50% Critical damage is quite devastating.

A sequel to the Keanu Reeves Constantine is coming out it seems. I think I'm one of the few people who liked the movie.

306 "landslide" HA! Good Fun!

Torment: Tides of Numenera companion portraits.

Wait ... there's a Tremors YouTube channel? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN58od6cW9NuNzYzk0x9ofg/videos I guess there's a new dvd Tremor's movie? Never mind that tho. Burt Gummer for President! And if you're bored/have time to kill: