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I resigned my job, I'll be starting a new driving job in January. 3 1/2 years of over the road trucking has me really burned out. The new job will be southeast regional, I will never have to drive further north than Virginia and Kentucky nor further west than Tennessee and Mississippi. I'll miss driving to Texas, I always liked going there, not having to venture into the north, specifically the northeast, is a huge plus, though. This won't completely eliminate winter conditions driving, but it will seriously reduce it. More importantly, with a 5 on 2 off schedule I'll be home every weekend, so I can have something remotely resembling a life again.

Well, almost all of my complaints would be summed up by the bottom part of this picture in the same twitter thread; The problem is that they're enabling it and help in legitimizing these things.

Just had a cup of coffee with Janet and discussed next year's business. Two of my big properties were three year leases and they are coming to term next year. She advised a few way to incentivize renewal and I took her recommendation. There is also some changes in the Farm/Ag exemption for TN before those leases expire if renewed that need to be prepared for. I empowered her to handle maintenance since I'm not going to be around to do it myself. Details, details, details. I'm officially homeless now. Just a PO box in a packing store. I am stopping in Dyersburg to visit my stuff in storage and take a few things back to WI with me. Then it's a long drive to a cold place but a warm welcome when I get there.

Diseases Looking through the gamedata files, I found something interesting... unused disease-related Affliction Types: Bedfellow Mites (AFT_Bedfellow_Mites) Chest Worms (AFT_Chest_Worms) Red Lung (AFT_Red_Lung) Scurvy (AFT_Scurvy) Stone Creep (AFT_Stone_Creep) The Hack (AFT_the_Hack) The Pox (AFT_the_Pox) The Rot (AFT_the_Rot) Weeping Fever (AFT_Weeping_Fever) (To clarify, AfflictionTypes are gamedata objects that define affliction "categories" and includes ID references to the afflictions that they govern. The primary ones being the Attribute Afflictions, e.g. AFT_Might which contains references to Staggered, Dazed and Stunned.) While our "disease" Affliction Types each contain several references, almost all of the afflictions that would correspond to those IDs are missing from the gamedata files. Luckily, one of these afflictions remain... Red_Lung_Stage4_Death We can from the name alone tell that Red Lung (and likely more of the diseases) would have ended in the death of the afflicted party member. Looking closer at the Red_Lung_Stage4_Death affliction, it seems to cause a "blood splurt" visual effect, then outright kill the afflicted character. Here is the effect in action: It's a shame that there are no traces left of what the previous, non-fatal stages had for symptoms, though I could however find their names in the string table! Stone Creep, Early Stage Stone Creep, Middle Stage Terminal Stone Creep The Pox, Early Stage The Pox, Middle Stage Terminal Pox The Rot, Early Stage The Rot, Middle Stage Chronic Rot Weeping Fever, Early Stage Weeping Fever, Middle Stage Terminal Weeping Fever Red Lung, Early Stage Red Lung, Middle Stage Terminal Red Lung Bedfellow Mites, Early Stage Bedfellow Mites, Middle Stage Chronic Bedfellow Mites Remedies Looking further, I found seven unused item names, descriptions and icons for "remedies" related to our diseases! Six of which corresponds to a specific disease, and one (Lichen Tablet) which seems to be a general cure to any stage 1 disease. Lichen Tablet "A medicine made from special fungi, moss, and algae native to the Deadfire. This unassuming capsule remedies most all sickness, so long as said disease is in its early stages." Rymrgand's Bane "When burned, Rymrgand's bane releases a therapeutic smoke. Cures Red Lung." Potent Incense "An pleasant aroma emanates from the smoldering sticks. While not strictly medicinal, the smoke repels bothersome insects. Treats Bedfellow Mites." Rose Draught "Pungent, sour, and bitter all at once. This brew is difficult to keep down, but its healing properties cannot be denied. It is used to break fevers and settle nausea, allowing the patient to recover. Cures Weeping Fever." (I don't have good enough english or reading comprehension to connect the remaining three items with their descriptions.) Aromatic Rub Astringent Salve Thistle Tar Remaining descriptions: "A poultice made from medicinal plants. This stinging pulp soothes lesions and sores while safely dissolving necrotic flesh. Cures the Rot." "This botanical ointment is spread about the chest and neck. Its fumes are technically toxic, but have the benefit of treating breathing ailments before any noticeable harm comes to the patient. Cures the Hack." "The smell from this goop is harsh and greasy. It is used to clear parasitic infestations deep in the skin. Removes the Chest Worms affliction." "Toxin" and "Fungus" Not directly related to the abovementioned diseases, but while searching I also found two unused items grouped suspiciously close to Antidote's name and description in items.stringtable Antitoxin "A few drops from this vial introduce cleansing materials into the body. The process is painful, but useful for purging foreign elements from the skin and blood. Cures afflictions of the "Toxin" type and imparts immunity to toxins for the duration." Fungicide "A necessity for any healer in the stagnant wetlands of the Deadfire, where a single prick of the skin can cause blooming fungal infestations. Apothecaries produce a steady supply of this harsh, stinging liquid to supply travelers and adventurers. It rapidly destroys fungal spores and growths, both topically and internally. Cures afflictions of the "Fungus" type and imparts immunity to fungus for the duration." (Note that this Fungicide uses a separate string table entry from the FS quest item Fungicide) Looking at their descriptions and comparing to Antidote's, it seems that at one point "Toxin" and "Fungus" existed as keywords alongside Poison!

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

bellower PL bonus is very good, even for early phrase invocations. when i had a SC bellower they were actually party damage leader for a huge chunk of the game. esp on PotD, you can have extremely non-linear outcomes where the extra PL digs you out of underpenetration thresholds, on top of the multiplicative damage bonuses and accuracy bonuses and debuff durations. (and even if less optimal, getting extra duration on buffs or summons can be useful; mostly for high-level summons where only troubadours and bellowers can consistently get 100% uptime) troubadour is overall solid, but bellower is still very effective. with ez brilliant at your disposal, the benefit of the troubadour becomes more marginal.

Tactician/Troubadour is an interesting choice because with Brilliant and Brisk Recitation you will get phrases count tangibly faster and will be spending a lot of time on casting invocations. Slightly slower would be going for Tactician/Belower, but you will get a PL boost. But I don't remember Damage over Time invocations available for a multi-classed chanter; so the benefit from Belower's PL would be very marginal. Devoted/Skald - has the problem of Devoted running out of Discipline; After that it becomes as if you had lvl 15 chanter/0, compared to a level 20 single class chanter. Yes you have higher PEN with weapons, but if the plan is to cast a lot, that that benefit is mushy. Between these options I would recommend: Tactician/Troubadour: if you plan focus on high-cost invocations, and gonna use both offensive and supportive. Tactician/Skald: if you plan to use mostly offensive invocations; and especially if like lower-cost ones. Note: you might want to maximize the melee hit count per second here. Clear Out with WotEP again a bunch of enemies is great here. Alternatively you could go rapier (with modal on, in main hand) and dagger in offhand; these go well with full attacks Mindstalkers like multi-classing with rogue for access to strong full attacks, and thus generate huge chunks of focus. This especially benefits ascendants, as they get to ascended state faster, and while they are spamming powers their guile is conserved for later. Trickster/Beguiler doesn't appear similarly efficient to me. I would recommend: either looking for Tactician/Trickster if you need those Vissage, Gaze of Adragan and long staying power or going single class Beguiler, if you need a lot of spam for cc powers and Phantom Foes. or going single class Ascendant, if you want to capitalize on higher-costed powers; and have a priest with Salvation of Time in party or going Assassin/Ascendant or Streetfighter/Ascendant, if you want to deal a lot of damage via AoE powers; but can live without Driving Echoes and 1000 Cuts Tactician / Kind Wayfarer with dual-wielding setup is a great heal battery. But it's mostly great if you have party members nearby. Aside from that I don't see much greatness here. Trickster/Chanter can be a fun crowd-controller. He will be of great use for majority of fights. But might feel a bit lackluster vs enemies with 4k+ hp because he will run out of guile. --------------------- I think before choosing MC, you will have to decide what do you want him to do: deal damage? crowd-control? cast occasional buffs? And what do you find more fun for MC? how flexible you want him to be? do you have a cipher in party that will be casting Phantom Foes and potentially Ancestor's Memory (for longer fights)? do you need Driving Echoes and 1000 cuts? will you take a priest? (because of Salvation of Time) That said, how about?: melee MC: tactician/skald melee tactician/trickster: Eder, never running of Repulsive Visages, Gaze of Adragan, Unbending, and having access to Enfeeble and Confounding Blind ranged single-class priest, or melee tactician/priest (if you don't use nerfed Brilliant): Xoti, later on Vatnir ranged single-class ascendant: Ydwin. Cipher is needed for Phantom Foes to trigger tactician's Brilliant. Plus she will get access to 1000 Cuts, Driving Echoes, Time Parasite, Shared Nightmare (great for AoE powers and weapons); and will have her Ascended state extended by priest and last slot going to Tekehu (watershaper or tactician/watershaper) or Pallegina (tactician / kind wayfarer) Note: some of proposed companion subclasses are non-standard, and would require modding.

Yes. Unlike PoE, in Deadfire Persistant Distraction is enough to unlock Deathblows - if enemies are not resistant/immune to DEX afflictions, not immune to engagement (Fleet Feet or Alacrity for example) and if you can engage (see MIG afflictions, Grog pet, game options or Debonaire passive).

Persistent Distraction alone unlocks Deathblows, right? Because all PER afflictions cause Flanked on top.

Rogue/cipher is fun to play, and after lvl13 with Borrowed Instinct it is fairly tanky ass well accurate, giving more chance to crit with Ryngrim' repulsive visage (great defensive spell in melee) for exemple. Rogue/Chanter get also a big arsenal to disable ennemies, and unlock Deathblow with facility (persistent distraction and The long night combined). Phrases are just refreshed slowy than cipher focus. But as melee, I suppose you want to use weapons more than spells, in this case these one are great backup solution! I'm using a fighter/chanter only to chain-kill my skeletons, otherwise for my concern, fighter and paladin are suffering from the lack of fun-play.

Speaking of untargetability, I had a funny thing happen to me in Splintered Reef the other day. I think one of the Fampyrs had a wall of draining active on some of my summons and then activated Shadow Leap - which gives untargetability for a very limited time. Because of what I assume was WoD boosting the duration, the fampyr ended up with 50s of Shadow Leap untargetability... so I had to wait for it to wear off before I could finally end him. After having broken the game in small pieces with a SC Assassin under perma-Vanishing Strike, I did appreciate that the game gave me a taste of my own medicine .

Maybe there are high level wizards (Concelhaut, Arkemyr, Fyonlecg...) who could cast Temporal Cocoon on the PC, allowing all classes to become invincible.

The difference is effects are "linked" : as I wrote in other topic (How to stun a might immune part II) there is a way to target him when Stasis-Shelled but not for remove only the Untargetable status ; when Targetable, casting Arcane Cleanse doesnt affect this effect. It is like Withdraw and Potion of Refuge : you cant dissociate the Stun effect and the Untargetable one. Casting Wall of Draining before will prolonge both effects. For self, the only other ability similare to Temporal Cocoon is Martyr's Memories from the amulet Tears of Saint Makawo, with on top the No-damage-taking effect ; but it is combat-only so it is cleared after. Immunities doesnt affect those spells like Not So Clever Hound said just before!

@Lexx we missed you yesterday in the first ever Obsidian Forum MW5 coop romp. Chill is the better pilot and the better shot. I am the better jump-jet-jumper and punch-other-mech-in-the-face-puncher.

I just tested to be 100% sure and yes it is implemented the same way: so Might Immunes will get the full effect including the Stunned-like effect (which is uniquely called "Stasis Shell" in game). Actually Constentin just explained it in this thread, lol.

Thanks for the clarification! I'm trying another run as a SC bloodmage, fully buffed with the grimoire switching trick. I'll be sure to try out this spell too, for the cool blue color as well as the untargetable effect.

Yes, you really need to if you haven't already. That stuff's worth standing ovations. Think of what you will of Jean Claude van Damme, at least he can laugh about himself, unlike some of his, uhm, brethren in terrible movie making.

law ain't the problem, 'least not they way some people appear to believe. is US and KY laws which s'posed prevent the kinda thing described in the linked article, which is precise why management is insisting it didn't happen the way employees claim it did. however, if your employees is poor, uneducated, have suspect proof o' citizenship, etc., then chances are as a practical matter is ok to treat your employees like sh!t even if doing so is illegal. assume for a moment no tornado actual hit the building-- just another false alarm tornado warning which happens frequent in various parts o' the US. week elapses, maybe ten days, and imagine more than a few o' the folks who left work w/o supervisor approval are fired, ostensible for reasons not related to leaving work. now what? the fired employees is gonna hire lawyers to try and get management to give 'em back their sh!tty jobs? is less a law problem than a culture issue. try and make people care 'bout workers at mayfield consumer products, or any one o' hundreds o' poultry processing facilities or thousands o' business which require low skill labour and subject employees to grueling conditions. is also simplistic to think US management is always populated by evil capitalists who care nothing 'bout workers, but they is in the unenviable position o' trying to keep businesses running when efforts to automate production is villainized as antiworker while simultaneous needing compete 'gainst foreign manufacturers where labor costs is a fraction o' what is bare minimums in the US. low skill manufacture and production is not like service industries, and is hardly an ez way to make a buck. if management is evil is in part 'cause the current system makes evil far more likely to produce positive quarter reports. laws ain't gonna fix core problems. we already got the laws to prevent what happened at mayfield. HA! Good Fun!

Multiverse-hopping Michelle Yeoh? Sign me up!

I saw that mod, but you can already merge with Toybox if you want to play one of the ones it doesn't work with.

Best Witcher game is unironically that card game with Queen Meve.

A lot of people absolutely hate that though. Games seem to handle this 'problem' three different ways. 1) Have a hard mechanic that is rigorously enforced and not at all generous. That would be something like the Spirit Meter in Mask of the Betrayer. You have to consider very carefully whether to rest, and how to manage it, and it's pretty easy to mess it up especially at the beginning. You might also include games like Age of Decadence here, where 'urgent' secondary quests fail if you leave a location having not completed them. 2) A soft mechanic, like Fallout 1 (yes, post patch, prepatch it was way more aggressive). You can do all the content within the time limit pretty easily, you only get in trouble if you try farming random encounters or really don't pay attention. 3) Just don't have a time limit, everything stands still until you hit the next plot progression point. The issue from a game design perspective is that people are conditioned to the third option as it's far and away the most popular- while people love having the 'urgency' of being told they are racing against the clock they hate having the urgency of actually racing against the clock, and that's true for a lot of non gaming stuff too. Practically, there's very little difference between post patch F1 and TW3 except not being able to perpetually farm random encounters in F1. You can deal with the monster contract of Shady Sands' radscorpion infestation as easily within the time limit as [Temerian Hamlet's] Nekker infestation; you won't hit F1's time limit unless you're deliberately messing around or trying to defog the entire map on foot. But what was the #1 most hated thing about MotB? The Spirit Meter, by absolute miles. I liked it, but it's pretty clear objectively that a lot of people really, really, didn't; plus I'd still buy MotB if the Spirit Meter wasn't there. When you're making a commercial product those people count, because they won't buy. Hence making the timers a lot more generous in the F1 patch. On the positive side, at least TW3 isn't Bioshock, and point out that the whole thing's gamey then continue on blithely with the exact same gamey stuff.

Not sure, but there's a nice, cold draft coming from my window right now. Almost windy in here... Devilman Crybaby is a trip even at regular speeds, so yeah, I can imagine that being even weirder. Yes. The way I see it it's best to go straight to cutting out the festering wound, and afterwards it's time for the TV anime version of Magic User's Club, based purely on the presumption that Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle is better than either ViVid Strike! and Magic User's Club. The first two episodes weren't exactly my cup of tea especially with the changed voice actors and so close to finishing Cardcaptor Sakura, but they weren't bad. Best to make sure that's well and truly behind me. That gives the following schedule: Speed through Vivid and Vivid Strike! as fast as possible, watching the two Nanoha movies which at least are a sequel to StrikerS, not a spinoff, and then Mahoutsukai Tai!. Yep. Much fun lies ahead.

That's right! I somehow overlooked that part (although I thought I did thoroughly read your post) and (re)discovered it on my own... oops. I guess I should spend less time playing Deadfire and more time reading through the posts... Or should I?

Yes, I noticed that in the post about Least unstable Coil proc, this is below the list

I was just glad there was a game that let me do what I do irl.

It was pretty much mostly the traps. I really liked the traps.

I think the open world, especially given how large it is, does TW3 a disservice. Giant open worlds full of icons are fine when there isn't a ticking clock, but TW3, in theory, always has a ticking clock to (in theory) drive you forward. In the prologue I am tracking Yennefer, I'm only a couple days behind, there are signs of a battle, she could be injured or in trouble, WE NEED TO FIND HER QUICKLY! Gameplay wise, I'm going to go ahead and **** around in the boondocks for a few days. It doesn't make any sense. Later on it's, in theory, a race against The Wild Hunt to get to Ciri. THE FATE OF THE WORLD IS AT STAKE! We need to hurry and track her down as quickly as possible... But first I'm going to make some coin doung a Kikimore contract for some backwater yokels. Monster contracts would make sense, I am a Witcher, after all, it's my job, if the ticking clock wasn't there. But narratively the ticking clock is there. What I'm trying to say is that the narrative and the gameplay are at odds with each other. If you are the type that can tunnel vision on the main quest and then this isn't really an issue. For a lot of people like myself, we can't help but get distracted by all the side content, especially given how well written much of it is, and this completely ruins the pacing of the story and the narrative as a whole. Sometimes a more linear game is better suited for a given story.

For a moment there I took that as you somehow selling an apartment you don't own

because the build is optimized for a no-rest run i suspect that what OP is talking about is the special buff you get before going to fight the dragon in the Ashen Maw

i would suggest this, you can do your own spin on a solid fighter/chanter (with tactician you may have lots of excessive song generation at which point i recommend giving bellower a try) and i find that the obsidian-created chanters are mostly a bit underwhelming for off-tanking for various reasons (konstanten has terrible intellect, tekehu doesn't get summons, vatnir comes late and is a bit squishy and only has squishy multiclasses, the latter is true for fassina, pallegina is ok but has mediocre intellect [though ultimately saved by being able to be herald]).

If they are right and they don't affect gameplay, what's the problem ? Their attempt to calm the jihad.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-12-15-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-to-include-metaverse-of-nfts Oh for ****S sake. Why? Didn't they get the hint from when Ubisoft unlisted their nft bull**** video?

Since you're going for an off tank type role I'd suggest adding a main tank character to go along with that. Eder as a Fighter/Rogue with Kapana Taga and Cadhu Scalth + all the engagement talents and heaviest armor you can give him is a real solid tank. You can spec Pallegina the same way though. I currently use as a Crusader with the same setup and it works well. The difference between her and Eder is she doesn't have stuff like Riposte and Persistence Distraction (these are both real nice on tanky Eder). However, she does offer better party support via lay on hands and inspiring beacon and the auras and things. Pallegina as a Herald is great support too but she won't have the engagement slots then so if you do that she's more of an off tank at that point. Beyond that you can go whichever way you want with your companions and it should work fine. I really do recommend having a main tank on Potd though because having someone to soak up all the engagements can really help protect your backline. One tip I'd suggest as well is to give everyone large shield model and carry a large shield/hatchet (or other 1h) as a backup setup. On fights where enemies are teeing off on you with guns or ranged weapons that can be an initial life saver until you get things under control. The Torkar bounty fight in Dunnage for example is brutal if you don't start it off with large shield + modal on as those gunners will just rip your softer party members apart. But with that modal you can absorb the initial volleys and then get things under control. Such a setup also works really well on ship boarding fights where there's a ton of ranged enemies. You don't have to stick with it on all the time - just to survive those initial volleys.

I've never heard of this game, and watching that trailer I had exactly this same reaction. Prolly not a game for me.

I love you man, I legit have not been able to fix this for 6 months I have tried everything. THIS WORKED thanks bro!!!!

Ah cool, thanks for the clarification! Do you know if Stasis Shell is implemented in a similar way? I always skipped these spells because I assumed that the targets I really want to "lock away" might just have the according immunities/resistances and that in the worst case I would just make them untargetable ..

1.5x speed isn't even that fast. I had watch Devilman Crybaby at anywhere between 2x and 3x speed - boy, that was a trip. Yeah, I suggest that instead, . You, uh...you gonna go straight into that one after ViVid as well? (e): Was looking at the soundtrack for Samurai Ran...no English titles, so I put it through Google translate real quick. Uh...can you identify a theme?

Hello, I decided to get back to the game after 2 or so years and I'm very interrested in your build. So far only 2 things aren't clear for me 1) What's Mogran's blessing ? (couldnt find relevant info about this) 2) Could you give me a quick and dirty leveling progress skill wise, while working toward the end build ? I know some are more suited for leveling. In higher difficulty it's quite unforgiving and 1 misplaced level can mean the difference between life and death ^^ Cheers

Don't think we'll ever get a Dead State 2, but I'd love a similar styled game. Or a similar styled post apoc game. Closest to DS2 was probably Dead Age 2, which was one of the better spur of the moment purchases I've made in the past year- but it's really not all that similar to Dead State.

Me three unless Mitsoda ever makes Dead State 2

Are you using the Sandals of the water Lily because of Bitter Mooring? Often, this spell immobilize myself and then I take the damage from the spell.. Since, I use the Sandals too.

As it's that time of year once again....

lol never said that cheesing it wasn't possible. but i believe that all assets created should just be built with the assumption that players will want to build on it. base building is a core aspect of the game and i shouldn't even have to ask to be able to build on the surface of the sandbox. it should be a rule of their asset creation. it should have just been there.