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Hey guys. I'm still alive and kicking. Just really busy with work. After taking a crash course in 5G technology and network architecture (which is extremely cool by the way) we've hit the ground running on optimizing systems that are already deployed. I've moved out of my place and right now I'm living with G in La Crosse. Things are still going great with us. My house in TN is in contract and looks like we're closing next week. The buyer offered the asking price but had a list of things they wanted completed as a condition. I don't have time for that so I've been throwing money at that problem. I've made the trip twice so far to follow up on that. One hang up is my property there was not a single plot but two separate plots. The house was on a 24.5 acre plot but a year after moving in I bought an additional 2 acres that abutted the river. I never combined them but listed the whole thing for sale as one property. That has created a paperwork hassle. The realtor probably should have caught that but, live and learn. So the buyer is getting the 2 acres for $1. Janet, my lawyer, said that should not be a problem. I've talked to G about buying/building since she is leased in her house for six more months. Undeveloped real estate here is dirt cheap. I mean really cheap compared to other places. Cross the river into MN and it get seriously expensive quickly. Buy dirt and build is the way to go I think. Problem for later I guess. I'm inclined not to make a big move until the economy tanks, interest rates go up and the real estate market corrects. It has to. Once mortgages become more expensive the prices drop fast and a cash sale can get you a good value. Hope everyone had a good T-Giving. Congrats LC on the new place! Take care of that shoulder Azdeus. You ain't as young are you used to be!

Meanwhile, somewhere in Sweden...

Easy peasy. I havent been Christmas shopping in a physical store for a couple seasons now. Theres almost nothing I cant order online and get delivered overnight with no shipping charge.

Edit: And yes, I know that isn't actually the fully correct story, but the focus is on the picture..

Fun Evangelion fact I came across randomly: Asuka was originally intended to be the protagonist of the show, and it was only by the meddling of one storyboard artist Yoshiyuki Sadamoto who was working with Anno that complained that since it's a mech show about performing critical world-saving missions, it should naturally be a boy protagonist since a girl wouldn't really care about piloting a robot or doing well at an important job. He had also apparently worked with Anno on his previous projects and later admitted to being tired of girl protagonists, which spurred him to complain about it. Apparently, this argument was convincing enough for Anno to change the entire design of the show, consequently leading to the creation of Shinji...who was instead designed after the titular character of Nadia, . And how is it, then, that Asuka ended up being a lot more "traditionally masculine" than Shinji, right down to the exact detail regarding how much they cared about their jobs - did Anno do that specifically to troll this artist? Cardcaptor Sakura, episode 67:

Just one more week till my next much needed mini-dosage of Real-Time Tactics.

... Every time I show up to turn in a quest, the building is closed! Seriously I've seen this on so many playthroughs. I can't remember a time when I arrived in Queen's Berth and they were just readily opened for business. No matter the Republics are going to crap, they must be on a 25h work week + RTT. On the flip side, as long as you're not advancing too much in their quest line, you have a (tedious) infinite XP loop with the door of Lueva's office being lockpickable infinitely. But at +60XP a pop, arm yourself with patience...

Personally, I found PoE2's system the absolute best I've ever played for a cRPG (better than BG, DOS, PoE1, and even Pathfinder). It feels just right and smooth. The problems, IMO were: 1) PoE1 didn't have such a great system when it was released and it took several years of patching to get to a good place. People might have feared the same would happen from PoE2 [I really didn't like PoE1 the first few times I played, but after patching was done, I managed to finish it) and probably didn't know about PoE2 superior system. 2) The Pirate setting is not something I particularly associate with fantasy nor I like that much. I skipped all of Piranha's Bytes [the makers of Gothic] "pirate themed" games for that reason. It's not because it's "too modern" (I loved Arcanum). 3) The Naval management system was very simplistic. 4) I would have preferred moving around with Teleports, flying (Wings/Transformation spells, Flying spells, magical mounts). Comparing that to a "mundane ship" you can see how unappealing it really is.

Quick suggestion for vehicles: boats/rafts, bicycles, tricycles, wheelbarrows & hitches. i think it'd be useful to be able to attach stems & storage containers to wheelbarrows, & also be able to hitch wheelbarrows to tricycles. moving supplies would be incredible this way. also it would be amazing if we could carry a tool that allowed us to drag stems along with us while we're in the water. perhaps bikes wouldnt be able to hitch wheelbarrows but be faster than trikes which could hitch while not being as fast; both still be faster than running; stamina on a bike/trike perhaps is the same as running but takes a penalty when something is hitched to the trike? a small boat/canoe/kayak would just be swell especially if it could also drag supplies. my most out-there suggestion is for rubber bands that allow travel back up a zip line. so if you have enough elastic resource on your way down, it attaches at the end giving you one trip back up. that or maybe a kind of peddle-pully system that relies on stamina?

Meanwhile, in an alternate universe, the protagonist of Evangelion:

It's crazy how excited I was, compared to how little I care now

Nerd-Lord doesnt have any trigger discipline with his element guns.

We did that to ourselves once, another player found a bag of beans and used them all at once, and she managed to spawn 5 mummylord lairs at the same time.

I think it is about coherence, the priest faith protect him and tis allies, but he can comdamn who he want, a cipher can reveal an allie potential, echoing with this mind, because he know him, but he can also desintegate them if he want, where a druid can call lot of insects to disturb and sting this ennemies, like in ancien Egypt, ect . Sometimes I would to target someone whith a spell I cant, that was boring me, but this was not as a lack of consistency in my opinion. No? Edit : the Relationship system could have an impact in this sens I think, an allie with a very negative relationship also targeted by On Ennemies spells could give a very consistent dimension to the dialogues options!

You too are waiting for the final content patch for Troubleshooter on the 3rd of December?

Dune Fantastic movie. But I knew almost everything that would happen, so it was not as interesting as it could be.

am actual surprised by how much we enjoyed the first two episodes. the main character, in spite o' being sooper skilled and smarter than everybody is hapless and entitled to a degree we would typical find off-putting-- is good reasons why we shouldn't like her, but we do. hawkeye is doing an almost comical mumbly-grumbly weary warrior bit. he wants to get home for christmas? *groan* we like him too. sue us. admitted, we got no problem with smaller scope than save the universe, and pacing feels fine as there is a fair amount of action and when plot isn't being advanced, characters is being humorous and generally likeable. so far the guy being set up as the Big Bad is meh, but we liked him in better call saul, so am gonna give it some time, and perhaps he ain't the big bad at all. am not familiar enough with the kate bishop and hawkeye comics to recognize what might be spoiler fare. regardless, hawkeye ain't taking itself sooper serious and am ok with that, but eventual the plot elements is gonna need build to something more than increasing complex efforts to be fixing kate's predictable blunders. so far is the marvel show we has most enjoyed since daredevil and jessica jones and such an observation is in spite o' the absence o' a vincent denofrio or david tennant villain to aid in the story development, though admitted those two didn't show themselves in the first couple episodes (killgrave at the very end o' episode 2 for jessica jones) and we were already invested in both titles. HA! Good Fun!

Midnight Mass talk, beware of spoilers.

This is Naoko, whom you're calling a nightmare: Meanie doesn't mean it, I promise!

The more I play the game and the more I use my Quest 2 the more I keep thinking how awesome the game would be in VR.... is there any hope of that becoming real one day?...

Some dude named Touya, as if you haven't been reading our CCS praising posts and know full well who that is and just want to bother me? Man, today my colleague who I badgered into watching Sailor Moon a while back resumed watching Sailor Stars during lunchbreak. It was the first episode after the filler arc, and while he used headphones I kind of watched along and laughed like an idiot all the time. The season is such a riot at times. Usagi not knowing what the ring is supposed to mean, Ami being hyper-embarrassed about fangirling harder than the others, Minako doing whacky things because she's Minako... ... Sigh. Someone invent brain bleach already, I want to re-first-watch this.

Hi. I’m going to start the Beat of Winter DLC and I’m going to take Vatnir with me. I’ve chose for him to be a Zealot because I already have enough chanters and a full priest in my companion list, and, based on his sub-race and starting armor, the game sets him up as some kind of "living on the edge" build. I’ve come up with this configuration, but I would like your inputs about it. Thank you. LEVELING: Backstab Escape Withdraw + Two Weapon Style Dirty Fighting Spiritual Weapon Combat Focus + Riposte Bear's Fortitude Arterial Strike Triumph of the Crusaders / Devotions for the Faithful + Persistent Distraction Spirit of Decay Secrets of the Rime Barring Death's Door + Deep Wounds Rapid Casting Uncanny Luck Salvation of Time + Improved Critical Slippery Mind Shadowing Beyond Minor Avatar + Deathblows Tough Active Skills: 10 combined points into Alchemy and the remaining into Stealth Passive Skills: All Religion Proficiency: Battle Axe, Hatchet, Spear, Stiletto GEAR: Head: X Neck: Precognition Armor: High Harbinger's Robes, Legendary + Slow Grind / The Bloody Links with Feed the Chain Ring 1: Ring Greater of Regeneration / Chameleons Touch Ring 2: Kuaru's Prize Feet: Footprints of Ahu Taka / Boots of Stone / Slippers of the Assassin Waist: Girdle of Mortal Protection Hands: Woedica's Strangling Grasp Cape: Nemnok's Cloak / Cloak of Greater Deflection Trinket: Whispers of Neriscyrlas Weapons: Stalkers Patience + Rust Poignard Xoti’s Sickle with Urgent Harvest + Acoltyte’s Frostbyte Summoned Battle Axes Pet: Nalvi How to play: Attack from Stealth or start with Minor Avatar; when near death cast Barring Deaths Door if Nemnock's Cloak doesn't do it for you followed by Salvation of Time and attack until its dead. If BDD ends use Escape or Shadowing Beyond rinse and repeat. In you run out of BDD use Withdraw.

I'm living in the shadows of obscure abilities. But the only things I manipulate are the Gamedata files.

It's stupid because it's only relevant for that one particular quest where you have the option to steal Tawenu's contract by sneaking into the building. Because of this you can't directly fast travel into the building and it's always closed at night.

Ah, well, that wasn't about carbon. Regardless of one's perception, hydrogen is made up of one electron and one proton no matter where we are in the universe (and regardless of which isotope of hydrogen we're talking about). This is about as basic and immutable as we can get. If it had but one proton more, it would be helium. All you need to do is agree on a common concept of representation. Now, that might be really difficult, but scientists already expended a lot of effort on defining all measuremeants we have based on natural constants and ratios thereof, and for good reason. Everything else is fun speculative fiction. There are several proposed solutions for non-carbon based life, and they all have the same problems. None of the proposed elements that could change (i.e. different solvents, or different base elements) work well enough. It's not impossible, but a good deal less likely than carbon based life - and that's just by any basic definition of life, i.e. microbes, not complex life forms. In terms of purely hard science fiction the most likely thing to be found are non-green plants, that's not exactly what we imagine, is it? If you apply the duck test to above statement, it comes out as time travel. The how, when, what and why is relatively besides the point, but makes this particular twist all the worse. Sure, there's the idea of block time, the concept which I think is what the film/short story is based on, and the idea that time isn't real but is an emergent property, making it "not real" in a physical definition sort of way, which means absolutely jack sh*t in terms of reality. Block time is a neat mathematical concept, but that's about it. Like tachyons. Tachyons are mathematical solutions that show up that would work - but have no basis in reality any more than if you use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the hypotenuse of a triangle, then look at the math and go "hey, in theory there could be triangles with sides that have negative length!" because x² is always a positive value (unless it's i, but have you seen a triangle with a complex number as hypotenuse somewhere in reality? ). Wow, that went on a tangent. Alls I'm saying is that I can understand why people enjoyed Arrived for what it is. For me, the ending ruined the entire experience. If there was any way to have perceived that in some other manner, I would have never watched it. Major spoiler:

Coincidentally, I just got 4 new tires for my car this weekend. All weather and rated for 65k miles, set me back $649.00 though.

Aoba is DIO by the way. And Toji is also Daru and some dude named Touya from Cardcaptor Sakura. Doing a dive on vas is always a trip. I'm pretty sure any fan theory someone would come up with would be more normal than anything JoJo would actually do.

That is working correctely with the Balance Polishing Mod.

Version 1.5.2 uploaded (a bunch of small rework, slightly de-nerfed WoD, some effects can't be extended, various tweaks to Priest, Druid and Wiz spells) : Deadfire Balance Polishing Mod at Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com) It seems that Nexus Mod Description has intense editing problem. I had to go through BBC mode to actually change the text, and even then it was seriously lagging. Anyone experienced similar difficulty ? I'm finally satisfied with Entropy (and SC Druid as a consequence)

Does anyone know how the hit-to-crit bonus are stacking? I suspect that is calculated in the same following order than recovery bonus do, in term of priorities between armor, weapon, items, consumables etc multiplicators. But then, do the berserker 30% HtC override the 25% one from Intuitive? and for the Merciless Gaze potion, does effect is replaced by the potion of Perfect Aim (25% against 15%)? Or by the eponym spell, like for the Magnificient escape cape, stacking with everything except rogue's Escape?

They stack in a multiplicative manner. Think about it like this: If you have multiple sources of crit conversion they will get rolled one after the other - until a conversion happens or until all sources got rolled. This is basically how it's done in code. You can calculate the overall chance of stacked conversions rel. easily by multiplying the chances NOT to convert (CNC) - and then substract them from 1 like so: Berserker (0.3) + Dirty Fighting (0.1) + One Handed Style (0.15) --> 0.7(CNC)*0.9(CNC)*0.85(CNC) = 0.5355(CNC) --> 1 - 0.5355(CNC) = 0.4645 --> ~46% crit conversion chance overall Afaik there is no suppression when it comes to conversions since the stacking isn't linear and you can't reach 100% via stacking - so no need to limit it.

The first thing a lot of people seem to be reaching for is the stat system. I have to say that's a good point. it's really arcane, but I have to say I quite like it - it forces difficult choices, which is often good, but the game seems to be difficult choice after difficult choice when it comes to gear and stats. Sometimes it's hard to know which gear is better for a role. I love the setting, but the "Follow Eothas" story is ... uninspiring ... and conversing with gods ... makes it the world seem less mysterious than it should, imo.

most of dyrwood looks undistinguishable from most other generic fantasy setting other than adra white march improved somewhat deadfire is the best crafted in recent years

I've said this myself, but for me the conclusion is that I am so very glad Obsidian went with a brand new system because the existing D20 D&D-based systems just plain suck. Kudos to Obsidian for creating a new system from scratch. Yes the DO:S system represents simplicity, but strongly disagree that it somehow also provides gameplay depth. I find the D:OS system to be mind-numbingly shallow, superficial, and often just plain silly. It is precisely its shallow simplicity that makes it popular with so many of today's gamers who can't handle or don't want to be bothered with anything complex or sophisticated.

(PLEASE understand I only speak for myself and don't state this post as a general rule for everyone) I'd love to see a Pillars of Eternity 3 but I have to say there is something about PoE 2 that needs to be understood as of why it didn't perform so well. Maybe Obsidian figured it out, but I have to say that I am an avid RPG and C-RPG gamer, and since PoE 1 (that I have finished once), I also have finished Pathfinder: Kingmaker (Almost finished a second time), Divinity Original Sin (finished twice), Divinity Original Sin 2 (Finished twice as well), Solasta (finished once I might do another run) and I am awaiting for Baldur's Gate 3 and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. However I have to say that I tried playing PoE 2 multiple times but I always ended up not going so far and I was always wondering why is that. Is it the setting? I actually do not dig the setting all that much to be fair, playing pirates or corsair or, ... I don't know that is something in PoE 2 that makes it feel a lot more like a game taking place in the 18th century instead of 14th that I usually don't enjoy as much. Is it the main reason ? I doubt it but it might add on to other reason why I wasn't pulled too much into playing PoE 2 compared to the other games mentioned above. I wasn't extremely intrigued by the narrative plot starting in PoE 2. You're supposed to follow a god by the injunction of the other gods but it didn't feel you had anything too special about you. You died you're a watcher you can speak to dead people, ... it's nice but, ... I don't know it doesn't feel like you were empowered, nor are you looking to find something on your own volition. You're just told to but don't necessarily want to so I guess it failed to give me a drive. A god killed me, I'm resurrected by a different one just to spy on that one god that woke up, ... the rest of the world seems to be ok I had no sense of urgency to drive me. In PoE you survive an incident that killed your early companions and you want to understand what's going on and what's up with you (that event kinda does both drive empowerment since you're the only survivor so you feel special and urgency since you're feeling bad and need care quick). In DoS 2 you are a special kind of wizard (Empowerment) and have to escape a prison (Drive and urgency). In Pathfinder: Kingmaker there is a spy you want to pursue and kill as he lies to try to frame you (Drive) and you have to race him (urgency) to become lord of the land (empowerment). In BG3 you are afflicted by something and you want to find a cure (Drive and urgency), but you quickly see what affects you also gives you strange power (empowerment) In the Witcher 3 you are playing a famous monster hunter (empowerment) in the search of a mysterious Wizard and your (adoptive) daughter to save her (drive and urgency since you fear she's currently in danger). I am only speaking about the first few hooks in the narrative because I think they give you a reason to get into the world and the narrative, then other plots or narrative hooks appear but the first few ones are extremely important IMHO to sink into the world and the rhythm of the game. I do think this is the main reason that prevented me from really digging into the game especially since then you get to the big city Neketaka and then the initial narrative hook wasn't strong enough (for me) I was just walking down that huge city aimlessly doing seemingly unrelated quests one after another until I simply lost interest in the main quest and stopped playing. Then, there is the game mechanics. So unlike BG3, Solasta and Pathfinder adapting an existing system that many players already know and love, players will have to learn a new system. Which isn't a problem per say but you lose out on the dedication of some fans of those system. D:OS and D:OS 2 have their own system too and did perform extremely well so why would there be a difference between PoE and D:OS? I think there is the problem of: 1. Immersion: In PoE, all stats are all over the place, some like, some don't. I'm not here to give a judgement but stats don't affect your character as most player would expect (Muscle wizard, low/average strength but intelligent Barbarian etc.) . And while some might find it fun, interesting, (I didn't hate it I still finished PoE 1), I still think that plays against PoE 2's immersion and how you relate/envision your characters. 2. Simplicity (no to confond with depth, D:OS 2 has a simple stat system but with a lot of depth in it's gameplay) Stats in PoE are so strange and their impact isn't well represented you usually don't know what to do unless you look up guides or spend a lot of time reading everything and even then, ... Which is best between +1 Might giving extra 3% damage or Dext giving +3% action speed ? I think PoE system is too complicated at first sight and it really removes a lot of room for experimentation because You're never sure what you're doing. I think the devs wanted to make a system were all stats are desirable for most characters to avoid the min-maxing but in the end there is still a lot of min maxing but it's really confusing to get into and in the end all my DPS, no matter their class, were always full perception/might. I really find it breaks the immersion and diversity of the builds you come up with. and the tanks/support were all resolve/constitution/int. So I only had 2 builds for all character I wanted to make. And all of that simply to play with a few percentage of effectiveness without adding too much depth in the combat system (not saying PoE combat doesn't have depth, just stats don't contribute all that much to its depth but make everything confusing and unintuitive at first approach). In the end to summarize (TLDR): Unlike many other recent C-RPG that I have played and finished, to me PoE 2 failed in a few aspect ending up with me trying several time to play the game but never got past Neketaka (first big city): - Initial plot line didn't drive me in, I didn't feel too involved nor empowered as a person. and it felt more like a coincidence and they could just send someone else to do the quest. - The setting didn't feel like a medieval but more like a renaissance game (I don't dig renaissance), and I wasn't interested to be a pirate/corsair. - The overall stats/game mechanics felt too obscure and unintuitive making every decision feeling like I am unsure and doing something wrong. I spent too much time thinking about it for no reason. (it was already something I was feeling in PoE 1 but PoE 1 it didn't have previous 2 issues mentioned.) The accumulation of all the above was too much and I simply never really played the game. I am sure other players will have different reasons and some player won't have any issue with the "problems" I mentioned but since the game didn't perform too well, I think it's interesting to understand why some players didn't dig PoE 2 as much as PoE 1 or many other C-RPG of the same era. Yours Truly, Valdarr