Leaderboard

For me, I really need a time period with decent plumbing and toilet paper. Also, antibiotics are nice.

Why We Can’t Stop Longing for the Good Old Days WSJ but no paywall on this article for some reason. @Gromnir has hit this point a few times and it made me think. I was reminded of it again reading this piece. People pine for a "good old days" that, objectively speaking, were not all that good. But, individual frame of reference goes a long way to color your idea of what the "good old days" were. Especially if it's within your lifetime. Just curious though. If you could live anywhere and at any time other than this one, where do you go and why? For me it's a no brainer. I'd choose the life of a free trapper in the pre-civil war American west. Settlers had been drifting west the entire 19th century but after the end of the Civil War Manifest Destiny really hit the gas and f----d the whole thing up. I'd have loved to have seen it before that.

1929 checks those boxes LOL! Actually here’s how I know there’s no such thing as time travel. Nobody was short selling US steel and Standard Oil in August of ‘29.

I'd be dead without modern medicine, but if I was able to control all variables? Maybe hunter/gatherer I suppose. If not, I'd like to be born in about 40 years. Either we've advanced quite a bit or things have gone all way to post apocalypse. Either way, win/win.

You could say the differences are... exponential!

A vaccine usually gives better immunity over natural exposure especially for respiratory tract diseases as the lungs/ airways give poor natural immune responses. In terms of antigens, if it's an attenuated (or dead) virus the antigen is the same as natural, in the case for SC2 all the approved or nearly so vaccines use encoded pieces of the spike protein either via mRNA (Pfizer/ Moderna) or it being stuck into a different viral vector (A-ZOxford/ Sputnik) which is deliberately designed and won't (necessarily) be the specific antigen segment(s) targeted naturally. SC2 is not a slow evolver, it's a fast one. It's a ssRNA virus, they all evolve rapidly because ssRNA is inherently the most unstable genetic option- single stranded gives no redundancy, RNA is less stable than DNA. It isn't as fast evolving as its relative ssRNA virus influenza, but flu is an extreme outlier there due to the way it is assembled in segments. Spike had no known mutations for months, but the new UK variant has (iirc) 8 substitutions from the original spike, which probably explains its extra infectiousness. Since all the vaccines target spike due to it previously being stable mutations there are a big deal as they potentially reduce the induced immunity. 'Natural' herd immunity is not a viable strategy, but not because it's a slow infector. It isn't as fast as measles but again, that's a big outlier in terms of infectivity. Bit simplistic but, herd immunity works when the virus cannot find enough non immune people to continue spreading, so the R number drops, eventually below 1. That's ~65 to 70% for standard SC2, and probably a bit more for the new strain. IIRC the immunity for common cold coronaviruses lasts a few years, so using that as an estimate if something like 25% of the population was infected per year you'd never actually reach herd immunity levels because you'd not reach 75% immunity- those infected in the first year would be losing immunity as those infected in the 3rd were gaining it. That makes sense, because most viruses don't 'die out' naturally due to herd immunity, even those with 'permanent' immunity like chicken pox or mumps. They percolate in the background, occasionally flaring up when immunity levels drop enough. Vaccine based immunity should last a bit longer than natural since the immune response is stronger, but how long and how consistently long is a very open question; but with vaccines you can at least theoretically get to (effectively) 100% immunity (in this case the highest possible seems to be 95%) per smallpox and nearly polio.

Yes. Just tested it.

Action economy is a thing when you have plenty resources but only that much time to execute your abilities. With Cipher and Chanter it's often the other way round: not enough resources (yet) to cast something (at least the expensive stuff). Hence my Psion/Troubadour dude which I really liked because: if focus is down you'll have phrases - and once those are down you'll have focus again. With the help of cipher's Lingering Echoes and decent INT I could paralyze-lock most enemies with Killers Froze Stiff and squeeze a cheap Soul Shock in between - and so on. For me there's two main motivations to go SC Cipher (mostly applies to Ascendant because he has max focus while ascended - but also Beguiler because he can cast stuff without actually losing focus): Shared Nightmare which leads to a huge, huge AoE increase and Driving Echoes which turns a good fellow nuker caster into an awesome one (for example). Stuff like Missile Salvo is just so much better with +8 PEN. Shared Nightmare is also fun when you use AoE weapons like mortars, WotEP, rods etc .: the AoE of those will also grow with Shared Nightmare.

This is a bad thing ?

I gave up before enough focus for onepunch, it still looks beautiful:

earlier, armor from Arkemyr's vault works the same way as SoF, just needs proper upgrade

My signature can change on a daily basis due to poor writing, so not a good thing. Of course the idea behind a lot of this stuff is to invalidate votes so I guess it works for that.

I gamed so hard I avoid COVID 19. I think of that as accomplishment.

Oops, X4 is the one I played. I can't keep track of all these algebraic equations. I have no way to compare it to X2 or X3 unfortunately.

As an Englishman, I can only whole-heartedly agree with this:

I watched Wonder Woman 1984 last night. It was a decent 90 minute movie spread out over 2 and a half hours. And Cheetah kind of got the short shrift didn't she? I'd give it a B-.

Did you mean Ectopsychic Echo @AndreaColombo? Because you need an enemy to anchor Antipathetic Field to. Can't see how Ringleader would help there. And no: you can't anchor Ectopsychic Echo on a charmed/dominated foe.

Okay tried it. Sap works on party members/ on Cipher. Not sure why I never tried it on my own Cipher. 🙂 Really nice. Now I have another way to use Antipathetic Field in Boss fights. Thanks for the input in this thread. I think I understand now why it did not work on summon in the past: it is because once you use Sap on a friendly target, the target still has a green circle and not a yellow one, even though it technically is confused. This also means that your sapped Cipher will not suffer from friendly fire, which is very nice tbh.

Sadly that does not work.

Could a Rogue Sap the Cipher? Never tried it. Worth a try. I tried to use Sap on a Summon once to see if I could use Antipathetic Field on the Summon afterwards, but this didn't worked.

Natural immunity and immunity from vaccination is not usually same. Also level of immunity isn't necessary same. Immunity against SARS-CoV-2 last at least 8 months, but for some individuals antibodies created during infection disappear in weeks and they are able to get infection again. SARS-CoV-2 is also slowly evolving virus and at least for now all new strains use same spike protein, which means that same vaccinate work against them at least with good efficiency SARS-CoV-2 also don't seem to spread fast enough in population that there would ever be natural immunity against it, as prediction scenarios estimate that it will take close to 50 years that 70 % of current world population has had infection, during which there will already be new generations of population that also needs to be infected. So without vaccinations it seems that SARS-CoV-2 would become another seasonal flu and as it deadlier than most flu trains it would most likely significantly increase yearly fatalities from the 'flu' So in order to prevent SARS-CoV-2 and its future mutations become permanent fixture in our global disease we would need to do our best now to eradicate it from the earth through vaccinations. Full eradication at this point will probably decades of vaccinating children against it in order to keep 'herd immunity' level high enough long enough to ensure that it can't cause new epidemics or at least prevent new pandemic from it.

A Berserker/Wizard can confuse you with Confusion. You could use thelee's poison, apply it to your weapon and attack yourself with Rhakan Field Boots. I guess?

I would also add that Thunderous Report from Kitchen Stove fills your focus almost instantly if you hit 2+ targets which makes multiclassing with a martial class greatly redundant. On Ascendants in particular I feel that it is somewhat abusive. You start every single fight ascended and with Time Parasite and Borrowed Instincts you quickly start spamming Amplified Wave faster than enemies get back up.

I think they're twisting words to further their agenda and achieve outcome they want. Even if what they want is good, which I'am doubtful of as we know WHO is a buyable entity, the method is amoral. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the natural immunity and vaccine immunity gain for the same lenght of time? Which early findings estimate to about 3 to 6 months. And some countries estimate reaching vaccination level of 70% in about 3 years. So the math doesn't look good for gaining immunity through vaccination. Unless the supply rises significally, which doesn't seem plausible right now.

WL3's setting is great, the quests are rather entertaining, the overall storyline is somewhat, uhm, yeah, forgettable, and the only "unexpected" thing that happens in the end feels contrived and afterwards the game doesn't even pretend to acknowledge it. Did Bioware release any new operations or is it just the same they had for years now?

A shame. I would have loved some opinions on X4 (I played X2, but just couldn't get into X3, now gathering dust on my Steam account) My most negative surprise this year? Borderlands 3. Four attempts to start up a game. Never made it past level 2 on any toon. It just feel dead and soulless My most positive surprise this year? Xenonauts. Succeeding on a budget where Firaxis for me failed badly, catching the atmosphere of the original X-Com: UFO enemy unknown The game I played the most and probably overall enjoyed the most (i.e. no surprises) was Nier: Automata Honourable mention: Overcooked 2 (in coop mode) Played other games, but they are either multi year spanning mmo or so old that some of them runs on Commodore 64 emulators

can you hit yourself with fugue spores poison attack?

I think they're being cautious in their wording because they don't know exactly how long antibody protection lasts through natural immune response. It may be that (without a vaccine) as the pandemic cycles through the population over several years, immunity may start to wear off with the first infected and the cycle may start all over again. With vaccines, you can deliver immunity at a much more rapid rate, which gives you a chance to squelch the propagation of the current strains. That doesn't mean it won't pop up again at some point.

You can confuse your character with the Tactician subclass + Powder Burns/flanked, definitely best with resolve resistance.

Pretty much this. For Antipathetic Field (and Mindblades) to be effective "at will" in bossfights you need someone to generate targets on the opposite site of the boss with stuff like Magran's Belt. Also Flail Modal comes in handy here. As for recasting Death of a 1000 Cuts: It just triggers the instant damage effect of the spell and increases the duration. Not really worth it. You can extend the duration by other means. Death of a 1000 Cuts is also nice to give Disintegration and Soul Ignition some immediate impact. Fast spamming Death of a 1000 Cuts against a horde of enemies is pretty easy thanks to Time Parasite. In cases were you face only one or just a few foes: That's where Magran's Belt comes into play again. It generates targets for Time Parasite too; thus Blade Cascade is not really necessary to let you spam shred spells. Obviously a Frostseeker Build or any melee crit monk build can spawn tons of adds with the belt. As an single class Ascendant you really want to bring a Priest, someone who debuffs Fort via Willbreaker and someone who abuses the Belt to it's fullest. Maia as single class ranger is perfect for this with Twinned Arrows. She also brings Enfeebled to the table. Against Bosses: Death of a 1000 Cuts + Disintegration + Antipathetic Field (+ Mindblades) Against 2-3 foes: Death of a 1000 Cuts + Mindblades Against > 3 foes: Death of a 1000 Cuts + Silent Scream Death of a 1000 Cuts is always the catalyst. As for Mindblades, you can influence the numbers of enemies with WoT and/ or Ringleader (same is true for Temporal Cocoon); thus increasing the impact by reducing the number of active foes. Single class Cipher (especially Ascendant subclass) is such a flexible an fun class. EDIT: Death of a 1000 Cuts it also a super nice counter spell thanks to interrupt on hit.

boeroer mentions driving echoes, but also i would argue reaping knives and death of a 1000 cuts are real fun powers, but a little niche or require quite a bit of setup to really take advantage of it. i think SC psion is the best argument for an SC cipher, because the extra power levels increases psion focus generation quite a bit over multiclass. it's not hard to get PL11 (PL9 normally, +1 from prestige, and +1 from numerous possible sources) which gives you +50% focus generation over an equivalent PL8 (PL7, +1 from same source) multiclass psion (6/sec vs 4/sec). at the same time though, psion/caster multiclass is just extremely effective/efficient with action economy and resources. so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A really nice CC/debuffer can be the Skald/Furyshaper with a Morning Star (Willbreaker). You will lower Will via Fear Ward (-10 terrify) + the Willbreaker (-3 per hit, stacks) and Fortitude via The Long Night's Drink (-10 from weaken) + Body Blows (-25) + Spirit Frenzy (+10 from stagger). With Brute Force and the significantly debuffed fortitude the crits come easily, giving you good phrase generation. At the same time stuff like Killers Froze Stiff and Ben Fidel's Neck (the -10 to all defenses stacks with the aforementioned debuffs) are really cheap for a Skald (and target Will mostly). Such a guy is a blessing for every party member that has abilites that target Fortitude (Cipher with Disintegration for example or some great Wizard spells) or Will (like Priest, Cipher with Deceptions or other Chanters). Also don't underestimate the Fear Ward: it's very impactful. If you also have a guy in the party who can abuse disengagment attacks (like an Unbroken/Trickster for example) you will smile. Losing wards is no problem if you have a Priest: cast Withdraw on the ward. It will still work but will be untouchable.

I never even hesitate for a second to change my difficulty settings in a game if I'm feeling exasperated or aggravated with something in the game. In the IE games I always activate and use the cheats console. By definition there is no such thing as "cheating" in a single-player game. It's my game and my time and my enjoyment. I'll play it as I want.

It is a matter of numbers. It is exceedingly unlikely that unforeseen side effects could kill millions, even with an experimental vaccine. The latest estimate of rona IFR is 0.6-1.3%. If the required prevalence to reach herd immunity through exposure is ~70%, do the math on how many would kick the bucket. This rests on the premise that 100% of the population are susceptible to rona -- there are reasons to believe that's not the case, but assuming that a certain fraction of the population would present some sort of previous resistance and making decisions based on that is risky. We may learn in time that it was not the "best strategy" full stop. But there seems to be a broad consensus among scientists that it's the best strategy now based on our limited understanding of what's going on. And we can't very well afford to keep restrictions up, literally. I'd have to agree though, WHO amending definitions of scientific concepts to fit a narrative is dumb. But we live in a dumb world full of dumb people.

Pretend I'm on Twitch and this is my exaggerated "I really didn't need to see that" reaction the first time I ran across this guy.

Do they? The market's comprised of several oceans, each overlapping with one another. Some might agree with your point of view, yet others distinctly do not. A multiplayer FPS person might have no interest in story, worldbuilding, characterization, depth, etc., but all these things are what make the brands of CDPR for instance one of the leading developers worldwide. It's what once brought BioWare to the forefront of the scene. That's the same ocean Obsidian works in. It's like saying cineastes making realist dramas should include more action sequences because that's what "the market" wants to see. I think you can speak with most RPG players and they'll usually point at elements precisely like worldbuilding, characterization, depth of plot, choice and consequence as being the elements that make the game *more fun*, not less so. It certainly is the case for me.

I think the saddest thing would be not getting an end to what was supposed to be a trilogy. Deadfire is very unsatisfactory as an ending. So many unanswered questions. Maybe avowed will answer those? But I doubt they would confuse new players by having it be a sequel to deadfire. If we never get a POE3 then I hope avowed or an eora based game eventually does answer those questions

Edit: Ok wow, this was easy, but I actually don't see it mentioned anywhere how to get it. Been datamining and scratching my head over this for two hours now. It's not a very tricky thing so I'm sure loads have done it, just haven't shared it with the internet. Step 1: Examine the house, doesn't matter if you fail the perception check. I don't know what the ability check here is, so can't speak for it. Step 2: Enter the house. There are two ability checks available here as well. You don't need to do them. Might even be bad to do. Step 3: After entering the house, you notice the bodies. All you need to do now is flee the house, not pursue the arsonists. You can do all the other things if you want, even try to loot the bodies, as long as you choose to flee the house in the end. Step 4: A priestess of Amira (Hylea) will ask you if anyone survived. If you tell her to check for herself [Cruel], you get nothing. If you say nothing (no disposition) or that you're afraid not [Honest], you get a Huana Charm Belt and Amira's Blessing: +2 dexterity to your party until you rest. And if you find yourself having a dilemma... the arsonists drop nothing special.

Ignoring that they're quite unlikely to rely on funding campaigns post-aqcuisition, Kickstarter did an excellent job for PoE. Deadfire, meanwhile, got stuck with Fig, which in my opinion severely hurt its visibility as no-one even knew that platform existed.