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NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity touches down on the Red Planet.

Picked up Horizon Zero Dawn with the Steam sale on it. Then made the mistake of starting it up at about 22:30 last night to test it out, see how the tutorial played.... Then I realised it was around 0415 and decided I should probably call it a night.

After getting frustrating with sinking a ton of time into normal triple crown runs only to lose them near the end due to bugs or silly mistakes I decided to try to blaze through the game on a pacifist run. My first thought was that such a run was possible with 1 kill (Zihaa) and Slippers of the Assassin/Strand of Favor cheese. To take out Zihaa I figured an Assassin/Bleakwalker was the best option (and I thought it was a hilarious combo for a pacifist run). It worked mostly according to plan, but I ended up with a few extra enemies collaterally defeated (Furrante, and I think some enemy friendly fire on Ashen Maw bridge), but also along the way I realized how much Shadowing Beyond trivialized the game. So I started again with a SC Rogue/Trickster(which fits well, but doesn't really matter), and was able to blaze through the game on Triple Crown + Solo and beat it with 0 kills. Build: - 16 Resolution for Ashen Maw - Max int to make invisibility last longer - Enough perception and mechanics to stay safe from traps - Enough stealth to do the starter island and later the Hanging Sepulchers - Smoke Bomb then Shadowing Beyond then Enduring Shadows - Diplomacy for Blow the Man Down and to get the Fonferrus - Hylea's Bounty is nice of course Nothing else matters as far as I can tell. One nice part is that you get some good +diplomacy and +stealth items without having to go out of your way. I did all of the starter island then went straight to Hasongo, both of which can be easily resolved with stealth. After Hasongo I went Straight to Ashen Maw, and by the time I got there had Shadowing Beyond to get past all the enemies on that map. After getting shunted back to Neketaka I used diplomacy/stealth to do Blow the Man Down/Symbols of Death/A Dance with Death, siding with Furrante. For some reason letting Aeldys get hanged doesn't count as an enemy defeated, but convincing the council to hang Furrante does. I couldn't figure out how to get the ending where Aeldys agrees to takes Nissa's Voyage; I'm guessing there's a skill check the wiki doesn't mention or maybe I needed to do some of the tasks for her earlier. Then straight to Ukaizo. The Guardian didn't show up (sadly I went through the scripted options to get through Ondra's Mortar too quickly to see why not), and like every other unavoidable combat on the critical path the final fight on the Promenade can be escaped from using Shadowing Beyond/Enduring Shadows. Anyhow, I thought it was fun and I haven't seen much discussion about pacifist runs in Deadfire. It's also a fast and easy way to get the triple crown and solo achievements without feeling too cheesy. For some reason I can't get my screenshot to upload here, but you can see the character with 0 enemies defeated about to down the stairs to confront Eothas on my Reddit post if you want a modicum of evidence.

Got half my family vaccinated, rest will be done by end of week. Only my expendable ass has to wait until summer

Except on halloween...

" Imaginary Friend" episode of TNG which is one or two more kid episodes from being rechristened Enterprise School for Children Why did the producers decide that the viewers wanted to see the stories of the kids on the Enterprise? While strange to believe that's what someone would feel the show needed, at least this episode worked. Probably because the conflict wasn't really between a kid and the Enterprise crew with loads of psychobabble layered in. By making the primary conflict between the girl and the alien, the Enterprise crew managed to not look as bad as they did in previous episodes and the episode was fun, if minor.

The difference being that Russia has actually invaded their neighbor in the recent past and grabbed a massive chunk of territory. Regardless of whether that's right or wrong, it does tend to make folks keep their itchy hands near their guns.

SU:

It will get prolonged and the ticks will increase (as if it had longer duration from the start). So yes, it will keep escalating upwards. Keep in mind though that Toxic Strike is a poison ability and several enemies - including some bosses - are immune.

Considering the fact that Divinity Original Sin 3 will ... oh wait Baldurs Gate 3 will be really bad, I am looking forward to a POE 3.

Thanks, you guys are awesome! The DR is starting her on a new drug, Vetrotyl (something like that). It’s a cotisol blocker. It’s supposed to be taken with denemarin so now there will be two pills hidden in the peanut butter. I’m sure she won’t mind. She said we should notice a difference pretty quickly.

Guns keep people further from each other than masks?

A long time ago I heard a saying (paraphrased): "The Marines take the beaches, the Army holds them". It articles seems to me to be a structural and technological pivot. Smaller forces but more highly armed with missiles and (as yet non-existent) unmanned vehicles. Since China will be our next war it makes sense to plan accordingly. Or we could wait for global warming to sink all their manmade islands. According to the experts, that amount of sea level rise will happen in our lifetimes.

The way I see it the Marine Corps is returning to its roots. Beginning in the cold war and even in the war on terror it has morphed into something it was never intended to be. Basically a second army. Only smaller and not as well equipped. It was always intended to be a light highly mobile rapid reaction force. A weapon launched by the Navy.

Russia has habit to test their neighbors state of readiness periodically. By organizing their war games close to borders, intentionally intentionally violating air and sea areas. Publishing some politicians hubris how Russia should take back its old territories. And they also like to build up military bases close to borders and claim that they aren't there even though you can see it from the border. Above things are what Russia constantly does to Finland, so now that Ukraine isn't anymore Russia's close ally they also get to enjoy such hilarities addition to all the unrest caused by Russia's intelligence operations.

https://www.universal-sci.com/article/discovered-bacteria-strains-aid-martian-crop-growth

The United States Marine Corps is about to reinvent itself

This thread has a perfectly good discussion going, nobody was complaining about anything. You really have no reason to be so unpleasant to the OP. His post was perfectly fine. If it rubs you the wrong way, don't respond. Everybody will benefit.

I felt similar to you about all of the complicated PoE lore. I wasn't all that interested in learning yet another universe's history and theology. I played all the way through, skimming over the more esoteric stuff. I found that PoE2, while still heavy on the gods, is much easier to follow. It turns out that I learned a lot of the lore from the first game in spite of myself. You seem to remember it pretty well, so I think you might enjoy PoE2 more too.

I am hoping we see another Pillars of Eternity. I much prefer the first one over the second - mostly because the way the second one opens - it's pretty "urgent" to take care of the "walking statue" - so it seems odd when you sail around and pick up trivial quests like, "Can you drop off this letter at that island over there because I don't have the time?" "Oh sure. I mean it's not like there's this world ending 500 foot statue just walking around. Let me go ahead and be your mail-person."

I mean the easy answer is find out what people liked about NWN1 and NWN2 and what people disliked. Gear a game that combines the best while trying to avoid what was disliked.

Obsidian, you guys do great work. The world building in Pillars of Eternity is nothing short of phenomenal. And, the choices presented to me in my Tyranny playthrough left me wringing my hands in agony about how I wanted to proceed in more than 1 playthrough. Games like these aren't just flippant 'titles,' but instead are masterpieces I'll always return to--they are cherished trophies in my video game collection. Which is why I decided to make an account and write to you today. I've felt a bit alienated with some of your more recent projects and long for a return to high fantasy in a detailed isometric format. Remember how many of us donated to crowd fund the first creation of Pillars 1? We are your base and your biggest fans. Please remember us when making goals for projects in the future. What I loved the most about both PoE 1 and Tyranny is that they were games for everyone. Conservatives, liberals--real life identity conflicts, or lack there of, didn't matter at all. It was about the world and its lore and problems. They were glorious. Please consider expanding upon the worlds you handcrafted in those two titles. Thanks for reading; have a Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy New Year.

Sailor Stars episode 3