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You know, even when the actual blind people comment on this one, that "This is the dumbest ****, I've ever witnessed", you know there will be enough entertainment for the next few days... My favourite quote of the day. "Now that the 'blind playthrough' battle is won, we must next go for 'short stories', as I have some vertically challenged friends and it's a major concern in their communities."

One of the fighter trees in the DLC had the roll ability that was bugged when I played it (something like 5x damage instead of 5+ and the character was invincible when rolling). So my dragon tactics consisted of retraining my three fighters into that tree and rolling on the dragon until it died. Yeah, okay, that game did have its moments.

To me that felt like a belated "**** you" to critics. It focused on the complete and utter failure that was not accepting the RGB options. You die, everyone you know also dies, and fifty thousand years down the line someone will make the right decision anyway, meaning all of those deaths were for nothing. It made it abundantly clear that the story was ultimately the writers' and not the player's. Their vaunted "creative integrity" took precedence. A position which I'd otherwise defend if the result wasn't so... lackluster. I wasn't excessively bothered by the endings, pre- or post- Extended Cut. I thought the story was inadequately developed by that point and as a consequence the ending felt abrupt and unsatisfactory. But it didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the game, let alone the trilogy. The "reject" ending though -- that felt like writers doubling down on their inability to escape the narrative corner they had painted themselves into.

50? Are they scaling back?

So after watching the latest Mandalorian episode I'm wondering .... will it ever be possible to take Stormtroopers seriously? It's like they are a joke and made a joke on purpose. Why does the imperium even deploy them if they are so god damn useless? Like, how incompetent needs the enemy to be in order for sending Stormtroopers against them will give you any value? They can't hit anything with their rifles, they can't hit anything with a damn laser gatling, they can't even hit anything with a god damn mortar and its splash damage, and on top of that they fall down dead if something touches them on the shoulder. It's driving me mad.

Nerd Commando is covering a bigger amount of games which naturally leads to a somewhat superficial understanding of the mechanics of each game (one only has so much time at hand to deep dive into every game). So just forget what he was recommending. You can totally dump RES and go with no armor on PotD if you know what you are doing. High RES is very good if you are going for max deflection or if you expect to get hit frquently and fear the interrupts. Besides that it's of not much use. High DR is good in the early game but not really important later on. The DR values of armor doesn't climb nerly as fast as the damage enemies dish out and your own health pool - so the more you advance the less important it becomes. And yes, you are being impatient. Key to an easy early game is accuracy on PotD. Enemies' defenses are higher and since your starting ACC is low in comparison to the later game every point has high impact. the right class (Fighter, Monk, Rogue, Ranger who all start with 30), good starting PER but also one-handed weapon usage (+12 ACC), accurate weapon like spear (+5), Priest's Inspiring Radiance (+10), Blessing or Zealous Focus (+5), Weapon Proficiency (+6) etc. are very good in the early game, especially in combination they make a big difference. Combine that with good debuffs that make it even easier to hit the enemies, for example Chillfog (lowers deflection)! That one of the best early spells - I'd say the best. Also always use flanking (-10 deflection). Meaning attack from opposite sides. Makes a big difference at first. Then it's not hard anymore. Pike Bleak Walker is not a crap build by the way. It's nothing superspecial but not crap either.

tss, I am 33 and I am want to retire too xD

All of the various fallouts from Covid seem to have altered many people's thinking on how they want their life to be, sometimes quite dramatically. I myself expected I would work until age 70 or death, whichever came first. But now, at age 53, I am already planning for early retirement as soon as that is financially viable for me.

Just got to the fight myself. In my run, I set the background as having pledged to Galawain and betrayed him (I always do it on purpose to get him to buff the dragon fights.) Right before the fight ensued, our dude Galawain tugged at my soul to let me know I was about to taste his vengeance and what have you. Jadawhatever then had the "Galawain Wrath" buff. So the name of the buff/debuff is not addressed to the dragon, but to the Watcher (if Galawain is angry with the Watcher, Galawain's Wrath buffs the dragon; if Galawain is pleased with the Watcher, Galawain's Favor weakens the dragon.)

Acorn tops have little uses and are currently a wasted resource while also having the same drop rate as the extremely widely used acorn shells. Acorns should drop 2 shell pieces so as to reduce grind without devaluing the resource due to its still limited spawn while Tops should be given more uses so as not to be equally rare as Shells but while essentially being garbage.

This is a suggestion to disable the HUD markers for arrows that the player fires during a combat encounter. Basically, while a bug is in combat protocol, any fired arrows would not have the large locating markers attached. Once combat programming is cleared, the markers would return. WHY the suggestion: When firing multiple arrows at an enemy, the HUD becomes very cluttered with all of the arrow markers, making it difficult to even spot the enemy in some cases. It would just be more tidy and attractive to eliminate them during combat. What is more, the markers are rather unnecessary until the player is attempting to retrieve them. The majority of the time, retrieval would not be taking place during combat.

Phoenix Point writing: "The Pure are planning to attack a Synedrion research facility! We have to stop the attack!" "OK, we are here. What's the plan to defend this place?" "Kill all the attacking Pure. And to be sure they can't attack Synedrion in the future, also kill all Synedrion defenders. Can't attack someone if they are already dead." "God, Boss! Your logic is infallible as always!"

The released footage wasn't too bad but there wasn't much of it shown. For the teaser trailer when they gathered the fans in New Orleans for the big reveal to say "Yes, we're basing it on Vampire the Masquerade, not Vampire the Requiem" : If you're somewhat curious on it, there is the World of Darkness Documentary which covers the creation, the journey through the 90's, the tv show, the strife, suing the fan-club, CCP's buyout, and general stuff. It's free on Amazon Prime in the UK at the moment, don't know about other regions.

The Courier was the best thing about FO:NV. They are that stranger in the wrong place at the wrong time, which kinda makes them fit any one protagonist of any wild west story when a stranger shows up. And waking up in your grave is "cool" and better than the usual Elder Scrolls "You were a prisoner of the Imperium" (and who may even have been about to chop your head off), which also gives you a lot of freedom, but kinda, thematically predisposes you against one faction.

The "Chosen One" or demigod trope is also irritating. Also having a PC that has a history you can't control. Particularly if that history makes them special in any way. From a narrative viewpoint the Courier from FO:NV is the best RPG video game protagonist. They have a back story that is completely opaque. They have travelled and can be expected to have the skills they start the game with, whatever you choose them to be. They can be young or old, good or evil, altruistic or selfish, it all fits. The Lone Wanderer you have a backstory, a relatively set age, and a motivation to enter the main story that are all pretty much chosen for you. Ditto with Nate/Nora in FO4. These are young adults who were well established in life. To roleplay them you are sort of limited by who they are. Yes, I know you can do anything you want but from a narrative perspective you can't. There is nothing special about the Courier. They were not a vault dweller, nor a hero necessarily. They were a regular Waste lander doing a job and got caught up in a larger game. Then did what they did.

NWN 1... all of it and Undertide. Starting in a "school". It's been done to death

It's mostly about experience of the player and meta-knowledge. No bad build is not 100% real, you can make pretty lame chars - but it's rel. hard. But there are some builds that - especially in a good partY combination - are def. way better than others. Most likely you just need a bit more practice. It's called "Path of the Damned" for a reason. And be assured: the difficulty drops a lot once you completed Act I. Funnily enough Act I is the hardest part of the game for most.

Using the Engoliero in my playthrough now. It seems that the Sated bonus stays on until you rest or the next combat encounter starts. Every time a new fight ensues, the bonus seems to revert to a penalty until your fist kill.

Everything comes to an end eventually. Similar things happened to the Roman Republic. Even murdering Caesar didn't stop it from happening. Still, 200 years is not bad for a social experiment

All the best mate

Good luck, Guard Dog

Oh man, best of luck GD! And please, please don't wait so long if something like this ever happens again

My covid test came back negative, so my boss can rest assured that my sneezing is infact because of the cold weather. Other than the nice experience of a temperature drop and rain, nothing going on except for trying to find something to eat besides whiskey.

Scar tissue cutting off a nerve is much better news than pretty much anything else it could've been! Hope your local hospital is treating the pandemic seriously...

The whole franchise takes a dark turn if you consider the possibility that the "heroes" may just be murdering hapless cosplayers rather than the elite shock troops that they quite obviously are not...

Going in the hospital for an overnight stay on Tuesday. Ugh. For the past few months I've been having this problem that I've tried to ignore. It starts with tingling in my fingers and progressed to numbness in my hand, then later my whole arm. Finally it got to the point I could not ignore it. So I saw my doctor and then a neurologist. Turns out I have scar tissue putting pressure on my radial nerve in my arm. I was in a pretty nasty car accident over 11 years ago. One of the injuries was a compound fracture on that same arm. Which ended up with a couple of pins in it. Now scar tissue inside causing problems. I was acrually relieved. When the doctor said I needed a nerologist the mind conjures up terrible possibilities. The truth was not THAT bad. But a overnight stay in the COVID factory? Ugh.

After going over the Engwithan Titan fight a few times - I realize it can't be compared to the Giant Cave Grub fight I had yesterday because the mage there uses Arcane Dampener. I was able to reproduce that death with video and it's obvious to me now that my buffs are suppressed when the Titan drops me on my head.

ME3 wasn't significantly rushed though. The main complaints about it would not have been fixed by Bioware having more time- the ending/ Starchild was not due to not being given enough time (mostly it was a botched way of explaining important concepts to the player) and the shoehorning of MP into the war readiness (or whatever it was called) and initially not being able to reach the max level of it without playing MP (or microtransactions, presumably) wasn't a time constraint thing. K** L*** wasn't a time constraint thing, someone actually thought he'd be 'cool'. I say it every time the subject comes up but ME2 was simply awful from a narrative perspective and the only thing which moved the story forward significantly was locked away in the last DLC. Apart from the companions 95% of ME2 might as well have not happened so far as overarching plot was concerned. That was the fundamental problem with ME3, it had to do everything plot wise and there was no practical foundation laid by the previous game. The things people complained about story wise would have been far better received if they hadn't come out of the blue but been set up previously. The 'traffic light' ending was almost identical to the end choices in Deus Ex, and they were well received there. And K** L*** was... well OK, irredeemable most likely, but at least if he'd been set up in ME2 he would not have been so jarringly awful. A decent comparison would be Game of Thrones' last season, though it would have to be acknowledged that there was a big writing change for Bioware when Karpyshan left whereas Benioff&Weiss were constantly there. It wasn't bad because it was rushed, it was bad because the writers did a bad job setting expectations and executing what they had set up, while the more technical side and the actors were as good as ever, mostly, and delivered the best they could from the production direction given. They could have had another extra season or 4 more episodes and it would still have been rubbish, if left as written. Then again, ME3 was a pretty good game with deeply flawed aspects, mostly writing, while GoT's final season writing was a black hole of mediocrity which sucked every bit of enthusiasm for the franchise out of public consciousness.

^ I had to uninstall FreeCell from my phone a few months back because it was ruining my life. FreeCell instead of sleeping, FreeCell instead of working, FreeCell instead of eating, etc, etc. These days I'm playing Picross on the phone instead because at least it has a finite amount of content so I find it easier to impose a measure of self-control when playing it. On the PC side, I was saddened to hear that the most anticipated game of the year was delayed once again. Yes, the Iberia expansion to Euro Truck Simulator 2 is now definitively postponed to next year. I spend most of my time in Italy and Southern France so an expansion to an adjacent region is pretty much perfectly suited to me. With that in mind, I finally sprung for the older Beyond the Baltic Sea expansion, which adds Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and a little bit of Russia. It was never a high priority for me due to the region being somewhat isolated: I really dislike driving through the oldest regions of the game - i.e. Central Europe - because of how badly the maps have aged, and to access the Baltics means interacting with the tired old Poland map, which was added with the first DLC way back in 2013. But I grit my teeth and took a job hauling some low value junk from northern Italy to Lithuania, to experience a journey that looks great at both ends but is utterly drab in the middle bit. Oh well, it's not something I'll have to repeat often. Since then I've just been taking short distance jobs wholly self-contained in the new expansion regions. Once I'm sufficiently satisfied with exploring that side of the sea, I'll start taking jobs that take me back across to the Scandinavian map, which despite being the second expansion is actually one that does hold up very well. I think I'll just hang around in the north until I get access to Spain. Some observations: + No toll roads in this region that I've seen, excellent. France is really bad with them. + I'm often allowed to travel at 90km/h again, after being almost permanently shackled to 80 in my regular stomping grounds. - Being that far up north makes the lack of seasons in the game more glaring than elsewhere. It's permanently mid-summer in the game no matter where you are, but seasonal variations in daylight and weather, etc, are more noticeable by their absence up here. - The font on road signs in Finland seem kinda small, and speed limit signs being on a yellow background is weird and harder to read too. Is this a snow thing? Yellow road markings are fine and interesting though. - Kaliningrad sucks. Border controls, weird speed limits, and apparently Russia has these weird roundabouts where vehicles already in the roundabout must yield to vehicles entering it. Like, what? Do you understand the concept of roundabouts, Russia? EDIT: Not my screenshot but here's an example of what they do. Utter madness. At least fuel is about half the price it is anywhere else. P.S. To pre-emptively answer the age-old question of which DLC to buy, I would say the biggest factor is adjacency, and how you can leverage it to avoid Germany. Buy France and Italy, or buy Scandinavia and the Baltics. I don't have the Black Sea expansion and don't intend to buy it just yet because it doesn't fit all that well into the rest of the map due to the ex-Yugoslav countries not being implemented at all.

I had more issue with the combat than going through the same cave a dozen times in DA2. The biggest problem IMHO was that every single battle, boss battles included, was essentially the same. You meet an initial group of enemies, or a boss. You fight said enemies until a trigger point where another group of enemies spawns all around you literally from nowhere. Lather, rinse, repeat. The only variance was that sometimes there was also a second wave of enemies that would spawn all around you. This also made strategic group formation essentially meaningless. There was no way to set up a meat shield wall to protect your squishy members when enemies would just spawn behind you. Those factors made combat in DA2 get REALLY old REALLY fast for me. When my reaction to a combat encounter is "*sigh* Let's just get this crap over with" then that is a failure of combat design IMHO. To make matters worse, there was a ton of combat.

I'm pretty sure once the people who came up with the Starchild in Mass Effect 3 shed this mortal coil they'll be replacing Judas Iscariot, Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Iunius Brutus as the people Lucifer gnaws on in the ninth circle of Hell.

[BUILD GUIDE] The Bleeding Arcanist Subclass: Blood Mage Concept: Sturdy, impossible to interrupt, versatile, no rest solo Blood Mage who can win 99% of fights with the most explosive and rewarding barrage of high level spells (thanks to Rekvu’s fractured casque + Vaporous Wizardry Grimoire), but can also enter cheesy god mode for Mega Bosses and such (through his Blood Mage abilities + Wall of Draining + potion of final stand etc). He also has tons of skills & utility so it doesn’t feel like a very restrictive power-build, and scales nicely throughout the game. Works with latest update as of Dec 2020. POTD Solo: YES, completed with a lot of flex/forgiveness on how you want to play (upscaled: untested but probably OK with all the no-rest buffs and an optimized spell list & strategy at all times). Companion: Nope ----------- For lots of veterans this will likely be a no-brainer and sorry if I sound like Captain Obvious, but I wanted to post this build as I haven’t seen this one consolidated anywhere, and I’m having so much fun with it. Really brings back the feeling of power and adaptability that a solo Sorcerer could give in BG2, or solo Mage in Arcanum for example. It also plays a bit differently than your typical SC Wizard in POE 2 because you have a lot more spells to cast and you don’t take the Empower abilities… which is liberating. You can really approach each battle differently while keeping a nice feeling of power (until a random Nemnok acolyte transforms you into a piglet). After experimenting and reading a lot of different posts about wizard builds, I settled on the single class Blood Mage because it is very straight forward: maximum class power/ability levels, no empower, blood sacrifice hurts, bloodied enemies are a pain, but if you work around those issues you have virtually unlimited spells which is really strong. Then I tried to mitigate the tradeoffs: Go for low Might = you will hurt yourself a bit less, without much impact to your damage output + you can spend the points on more relevant attributes. (for Might lovers, believe me… dump it here). On the other hand, pumping CON a bit brings some nice sturdiness/peace of mind to this build, which also bolsters experimentation (you're not a glass cannon, just a cannon ). Rekvu + Vaporous = 50% more spells, no interrupt , turning most fights into a total spellfest! Very little opposition can still stand after some crazy self-buffing, 3x back-to-back Wilting Winds (of Abi Dalzim or whomever) + 2x Missile Salvos (possibly Combusting Wounds augmented). Your Vaporous Grimoire comes with the answer to the Injury issue: chain-cast necrotic lance outside of combat on your toon (spell comes with the book) and you will inflict the Acute Rash which has very little impact on your combat readiness (can use Voidward to mitigate, not needed at high level). Cherry on the cake, you can exploit the different buffs available to a no-rest run for your full benefit, and end up with insane stats and permabuffs (more than making up for the Acute Rash minor injury). If any other injury comes up: pop a luminous adra potion/bath, cast necrotic lance, done. Finally when you need even more firepower, you can still rely on high-level, matured cheese strategies: wall of draining, potion of final stand, Brilliant proc from shroud of phantasm, blight proc from belt of magran’s chosen… and other shenanigans. Immortality and chain-casting Missile Barrage until the end of times. I won’t detail neither the benefits of a no-rest run nor the top spells/abilities for a solo generalist wizard because all those have been explained in a better way in other threads on this forum. Combusting Wounds is still your friend with many spells especially Minoletta’s and especially early on. You shall always buff yourself to oblivion at the beginning, queuing spells or using the AI (pick all your buffs, just because you can). Pick spells + Shield style, Scion of Flame, Secret of Rime, Farcasting, Rapid Casting, Tough, Prestige. Medium Shield modal, Flail modal (reflex debuff). On spell strategies, the fun of this build is to be able to experiment with different synergies. Happy to answer any question. Couple of key things: don’t go 100% fire or whatever, diversify (elements + what defense you attack and what synergies you have with other spells). Example High Level Rotation for a big group: self-buff (Infuse, Arcane Veil, Deleterious, Displaced, Eldritch) + 2x Chill Fog to group everybody + Combusting + 2x Wilting Wind back to back + 1x Kalakoth Rake + 2x Missile Salvo on your own face = oh wait everybody already died 10sec ago . If things are going to drag on, throw in a wall of draining, carefully aimed parallel to your flank (usually) to hit most enemies. Maura’s tentacles are awesome too and can completely replace figurines (never used a single one with this build). Sometimes in melee heavy fights I just pop buffs + Piercing Sigil + Cloak of Death with the occasional Piercing Burst and Torrent of Flame. You don't even have to aim at anything. If someone is casting something nasty, pop Thrust of Tattered Veil to interrupt (or a good ol' Killing Bolt ). ----------- Berath’s Blessings: in the end it doesn’t matter, but I like to take some that help in Port Maje which is basically where you struggle the most and where you have the least options in PotD if you want to avoid 100% sneak. Mix with some that are better in the long run e.g. reduced enchanting cost. If you like pure power, +2 attributes is a must. ----------- Race: Human (maximize accuracy and damage output when it really matters / when you have to cheese) Background: The White That Wends. ----------- Key Stats: MIG 4 base (+ Berath + Gift from Machine +Alchemic Brawn + Items) CON 16 base (+ Berath + Alchemic Brawn + Items) DEX 16 base (+ Berath + Alchemic Guile + Items) PER 19 base (+ Berath + Effigy: Sagani + Alchemic Guile + Savage Cunning + Cauldron Brew + Items) INT 15 base (+ Berath + Alchemic Wits + Items) RES 8 base (+ Berath + Alchemic Wits + Rikuhu’s Blessing + Eviee Pet + Items) ----------- Skills: If you exploit the no-rest bonuses to their fullness you will have free extra points everywhere, plus the free Berath ones if you enabled them. It will be BOTH a spellfest and a skillfest! I typically spread around a bit for skill checks, with a focus on Mechanics, Athletics, Diplomacy, History (giftbearer cloth) and a bit of survival. Mix of story stuff and power play. ----------- Important Gear: Rekvu’s Fractured Casque: crucial with Vaporous! Grimoire of Vaporous Wizardy: crucial, +50% spells per encounter! Keep Illuminating Discoveries, Iron Clasped, and Nina’s Teachings grimoires close, if only for a change of pace. Miscreant’s Leather: great action speed which drives DPS, great style. Contributes to making you eventually invulnerable to Reflex attacks (even your own ) Firethrower’s Gloves: perfect Kuaru’s prize: perfect Griffin’s Blade + Nerian’s Ward: my go-to set for versatility + power + survivability, but Magran’s Favor and Sun & Moon are of course really good (don’t help Minoletta’s spells though). Potions: Major Healing, Final Stand, Ascension, Compassionate Soul Essence, Deftness… nice mix. Rest of gear: whatever floats your boat. Boots of Stone, Ring of Prosperity, Sandals of Waterlily, Burglar’s Gloves, Ajamuut+Lover’s Embrace+Rakhan Field Boots if you run out of ideas… Just keep the uniques to have options, especially if you haven’t played PotD a lot. If you come across items with immunities, hold on to them. + Captain's Banquet/Hylea's Boon, Trainings, Dawnstar Blessing etc ----------- Let me know if you have a different experience somehow, but I guarantee that you will have fun if you roll this build, if only for taking advantage of the wizard's roster of spells to its fullest extent. Now I'm starting to play an Ascendant + Priest of Skaen (legit Brilliant + BDD + SoT, without procs or weird mechanics) so if anyone has any tips, please shoot! Cheers.

I liked it because Bioware was finally moving away from their stupid formula.

The fundamental problem with DAI and ME:A was far too much samey content, until you noticed that the games themselves were fine. Inquisition was at least better than DA2.

@Slotharingia: He is quite obviously wrong, and not only for the reasons you rightly point out. But apparently, given his somewhat superior references to armchair thinkers and undergraduates, it is unlikely he is going to accept it. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-like-repetition-in-their-lives

So, let me preface this by saying I'm aware of the FOV slider and the third person options. My friends and I play together a bunch and, unfortunately, one of them suffers from motion sickness. That means First-person games are usually off the table, despite them comprising most modern co-op games. When we found out Grounded had some options in that regard we were quite excited -- but unfortunately it seems that they weren't quite enough to help my friend play without nausea. It rapidly got to the point where he couldn't play with us at all. As a result: this is my humble request for slightly better options in that regard. Perhaps a bigger FOV is necessary, or a slightly more zoomed out third person mode, I'm not entirely sure. I don't suffer from motion sickness so it's hard for me to give advice. I will say, though, that we've recently played Raft and despite it being a game about bobbing on a plank of wood in the middle of the ocean, combining sea sickness and motion sickness all rolled into one, they've somehow managed a combination of settings under their motion sickness mode that has completely eliminated my friend's nausea in one fell swoop. He can even play in first person. It was the happiest I'd seen him in ages. As far as I know they'd worked with people who suffered from motion sickness to develop it and it seemed to hit it out of the park. I have no idea how they achieved this since there are still huge waves he sees that bob us around on the water and everything. Sorry about the tangent - my point is that both he and the rest of our friend group would appreciate it immensely if you could offer some more expanded tools for combating motion sickness. He'd like to enjoy the game as we did, and we'd like to subject him to the terrors of the Koi and the eternally-jumpscaring tadpoles. If nothing else it would make your game more accessible to a new group of players. I understand it won't be a priority or anything - we can be patient - but regardless of what you decide to do I appreciate your consideration and thank you for developing this delightful game. We had loads of fun with it while we could, at the very least.

alright! Here we go again.

Some other games from fig.co returned a lot more than 100%, one even 300%. Of course deadfire was the biggest game and its failure will have a big impact on the reputation of fig investments I reckon. I don't know if it bombed in a big way. In Josh's post mortem talk he said somethiong along the lines of "was a disappointment compared to PoE - but not a disaster". But maybe I remember that incorrectly. It is a great game but I have to say I still like PoE more. Why? Can't relly put a finger on it... PoE was more addictive to me for some reason. I had to uninstall it in order to let go - else I'd still do playthroughs with build idea no. 12436534645. Deadfire is still installed but I don't want to play it anymore.