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Damn straight. I'm going to miss having a garden this year. It's hard work but I always found it peaceful

Hating our politicians is what we do best.

you don't have to do an all-MC or all-SC party, you can mix and match. just saying. that being said, I would not read too much into your experience on the first island; on the first island with PotD the battles are extremely hard and a bit overtuned... but in a way where certain builds can absolutely stomp or suffer and it doesn't reflect accurately for the rest of the game, where everyone gets more options and your gear becomes better. for example, an SC druid with charm beasts/hold beasts pretty much wrecks the digsite but that's more an accident of how the encounters in that area are designed and not truly representative of their typical power level (at least until you get greater maelstrom). Similarly, a debonaire will absolutely wreck gorecci st with their charm ability, but that's also not representative of their typical power level.

My first thought was

I got a free pass for all archaeological sites in Greece. I think should I feel the need I'll take a non-virtual stroll.

No, Venezuela is not a good example. Nor is Cuba, although you could argue 50 years of near total blockade has done more to hurt Cubans than the actual politics. From worldpopulationreview.com.com Failed Socialist Countries The largest of the failed socialist countries is the Soviet Union, which fell in 1991. Following World War II, the United States helped rebuild Western European countries, all of whom were free marketing economies that rebuilt rapidly by establishing the European Union and trading with one another. On the other hand, the Soviet Union seized government control of Eastern European nations, all of which became socialist states. These included: Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Belarus, and Ukraine. While East Germany reunified with West Germany and joined the thriving EU economy, the rest of the Eastern European countries faced economic hardship after the Soviet Union fell. Many of these countries remain the poorest European countries today. Additionally, both Cuba and Venezuela are currently socialist states facing their own economic crises deemed a result of socialism. Successful Socialist Countries Some argue that there has been no completely socialist country that has been successful, only countries that have seen success in adopting socialist policies. Bolivia is an example of a prosperous socialist country. Bolivia has drastically cut extreme poverty and has the highest GDP growth rate in South America. Other countries that have adopted and enacted socialist ideas and policies to various degrees, and have seen success in improving their societies by doing so, are Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.

Just when you thought Djokovic was the most hated man in Australia.... https://doublebaytoday.com/latest-polling-shows-more-australians-want-scott-morrison-deported-than-novak-djokovic/ Polling company Newspoll interviewed a random sample of 5,600 Australian voters, asking who they’d like to deport more. “It was a tight contest, but 52% of respondents chose Scott Morrison,” says Newspoll’s Lyle Sims. “That’s 4 percentage points more than Novak Djokovic.” The result will come as a major wake up call for the coalition, just months out from the federal election. I stand corrected, Scott Morrison might be the most hated man in Australia. The upcoming election is going to be interesting. One can always hope he's gone for good and the Australian Liberal Party gets relegated to the history books. Stories to scare kids with in the future.

They forgot the other Senior Engineer who has nothing else to do chiming in to criticize the indentation.

This thread is widely based on the data from [MECHANICS] Power level compilation thread from @thelee, but I aimed to deal with specific cases that diverge from general rules, and possibly discuss about how to correct the most annoying exceptions. Basically, there are 4 kinds of scaling : A - Scaling from weapon quality (Unarmed Scaling is close enough to belong here, even if it has a couple differences). +1 PEN, +15% additive damages and about +4 Acc per quality level. B - PL scaling from Weapon Attack Abilities such as Rogue Strikes. 5% multiplicative damages and duration for each PL above Ability Tier. C - Intrinsic non Weapon Attack Ability Scaling, purely based on Ability Tier. For Each Tier above 1, the ability gets +2 Acc and +0.5 PEN. D - PL scaling from non Weapon Attack Abilities. 5% multiplicative damages and duration, +1 Acc, +0.25 PEN for each PL above Ability Tier. Also +1 bounce and +1 projectile for each 2 PL above ability Tier. So : - An Auto attack will get A so it keeps up with enemy defences. - A Weapon Attack Ability will get A and B so it keeps up with enemy defences and get benefits from PL. - A non Weapon Attack Ability will get C and D so it keeps up with enemy defences and gets benefits from PL. The A, B, C, D values are balanced so that all abilities scale about the same. The benefits from A+B are roughly equivalent to C+D. (It doesn't mean A is equivalent to C and B to D ; D provides strictly more benefits than C). All the above would be great design (and for most part is) if not for some exceptions... So here we go. 1) Passive Abilities don't benefit from PL Apart for a couple of specific case (Carnage and Sneak Attack), Passive Abilities don't get scaling from PL as Active Abilities, even for similar effect. They do get scaling from their Ability Tier. So they get scaling C, but not D, making them subpar especially for Accuracy and PEN. For example, rooting pain gets +1.5 PEN and +6 Acc for being a Tier IV ability... but nothing more. => Note that Balance Polishing Mode address this, giving +1 Acc, +0.25 PEN and +5% multiplicative damages per PL to all class passives. I didn't add +5% multiplicative duration because Passive abilities can be applied repeatedly, so I considered they didn't need it. 2) Non-Attack Weapon Abilities get double Scaling All weapon based abilities are not "attack" as Rogue Strikes are. But all of them benefit from Weapon Scaling. The problem is that their Acc and PEN scales as if they didn't... Active Weapon based abilities which are not "attacks" benefit from Weapon scaling (A), intrinsic ability tier scaling (C) and PL scaling (D). Basically, they scale a lot. According to my testing, following abilities are concerned : - Heart of Fury - Whirling Strikes (BPM removed Accuracy and PEN component by accident) - Whispers of the Winds (gasp) - Swift Flurry - CP version of Forbidden Fist - Cleaving Stance Following abilities are NOT concerned : - Clear Out and Upgrades (they are Weapon attack + an AoE attack, that's why the main target is hit twice...) - Flagellant Path and Upgrades (they are implemented in their own specific way) - Furious Call (same as Flagellant Path) - Heartseeker (also implemented in its own specific way) To give numbers Heart of Fury with a legendary weapon and PL 10 gets : - +4 PEN, +60% damages, +15 Acc from Legendary - +3.5 PEN, +16 Acc for being a Tier 8 ability - +0.5 PEN, +2 Acc, +10% multiplicative damages from PL scaling So yeah, that's +8 PEN !!! Passive Weapon based abilities which are not "attacks" benefit from Weapon scaling (A) and intrinsic ability tier scaling (C). They don't get (D) from PL because Passive Abilities don't get benefit from PL... According to my testing, following abilities are concerned : - Riposte - Barbaric Retaliation - Heartbeat Drumming - Vengeful Defeat This leads to undocumented and above average PEN and Acc. 3) About Unique items (general case, refer below for weapons) All the previous also applies to Unique Items abilities, with following specifities : - Most abilities from items counts as Tier 1 abilties, so they don't get any benefit from C - Items use "untyped Power Level", a Power Level that doesn't depend on Class / Multi-Class. All lvl 20 characters have 9 untyped power level. Single Class may have a little edge, but only due to Prestige. Only untyped PL bonus can rise this number (Potion of Elevation, Nature Godlike, etc...) Active abilties from items do get scaling D for PL (sometimes B for Weapon attacks). Basically, they don't scale too bad. Passive abilties from non weapon items get absolutely no scaling. Their PEN is set in stone, their damages are meh and their Acc is about 10 points lower than active abilities at max level. For example, the PEN of Boltcatchers electricity attacks is always 7. I think this should be addressed, as for class passive abilities. 4) About Unique Weapons The funny thing is that unique weapons also get scaled based on weapon quality (scaling A). Passive abilties (such as Frostseeker's Garland Rake) get only scaling A which is decent. Active abilties which are weapon attacks (such as Mowdyr's Bottom Up) get scaling A and B which is... the same as other Weapon Attack abilties. Active abilties which are not weapon attacks (such as Frostseeker's Garland Breath) get both scaling A and D (a bit like abilties from point 2) ). Which is a lot. That's why Thunderous Report deals so many damages with so high Acc and PEN. This is possibly a bit strong, but since Passive bonuses are often more interesting than Per Rest / Per Encounter abilties for weapons, I think it is mostly fine. Don't hesitate to correct me if you spot any inconsistency !

Ok, so for all passive non weapon item effects that has a roll, I've decided to add +10 accuracy and +2 PEN (when applicable). This is meant to allow them to keep up with similar effect since they have aboslutely no scaling. This is about equal to the Accuracy and bonus PEN of a level 1 Ability with endgame scaling (but much less than an average Tier ability with endgame scaling, or lower than a Superb/Legendary weapon bonus). Basically it is the same as the scaling Active effect from non-weapon item abilities get, except no bonus damages and you get it from the start. Usually, it leads to 9 PEN, which isn't specially high on endgame. It would still help them vs enemy defense. It isn't possible to implement actual scaling since they are not abilities. Similar solution here, I've added a static bonus based on the ability Tier to the secondary AoE of these abilities. Basically I added : Tier 3 Torment Reach : +10 Acc and +2 PEN Tier 5 Raised Torment : +15 Acc and +3 PEN Tier 7 Power Srike : +15 Acc (raw damages) Tier 9 Inspired Strike : +20 Acc (raw damages) (Note that Upgraded abilities get intrisic scaling from their new level and PL scaling from the unupgraded version, the better of the 2 worlds. That's why I gave good bonuses to Raised Torment and Inspired Strike) These bonuses are close to regular scaling. I couldn't give them normal scaling since they share the scaling attributes from the main attack (so they already got +5% multiplicative damages and duration). I know I'm a bit obsessive about these weird scaling issues. But I've seen too many Abilities and items wasted in CRPG because they become obsolete due to absence of scaling. PoE 2 has a very good scaling system. It was simply not systematically applied, which is just a little bit sad !

I don't understand. Current situation is: Lifegivers get a passive +2 PL to Rejuvenation. When they shift, they get +5 PL to Rejuvenation on top (-> +7 PL in total). When the spiritshift ends, they suffer -5 PL (-> -3 PL in total). Or is that not correct?

Yes. Lifegivers could keep their +2 PL, but it would be fixed. That is, one might drop the bonus while shifted, as well as the post-shift malus. I don't think that the bonus and malus make sense if spirit shift is treated as a lvl 1 spell.

They do. But as a man of culture (archaeologists, educators, architects... dunno who else) I can apply for a free pass. So until June 2024 I am covered. Then I'll have to see if they let me get a new one. They used to not charge any Greek citizens on reason that people have a right to their cultural heritage. But they changed that because it apparently wasn't an economically viable policy (read: if you give people services for their tax money, what money will you squander on your party friends?)

The Forward Party. I agree with all of his political positions: But ESPECIALLY I want to line my pockets with UBI and UHC. If he can get around to it I will also accept UFE (universal free education / student loan forgiveness) and UFH (universal free houses / mortgage forgiveness).

Was your initial post about Venezuela in response to Raithe's image? I imagine it probably wasn't, but it did come across that way because the two posts were so close together. Anyway, in the US we have quite a few socialist programs to deal with housing, food, and medical care. They just tend to be local and small scale, particularly compared to the profit margins and big business models that dominate housing, food, and medicine. So yeah, I don't think anyone outside of the extreme ends of the political spectrum is arguing for a full central planning socialism system in the US. But I sure would like a decent Universal Health Care system in place before I get too old and my maintenance costs start to skyrocket.

Interesting way to look at it.

@melkathi Whatever you decide dont play that mode, its boring and pointless. If you cant kill civilians and enemies whats the point of playing any Ubisoft game. Play the game like its suppose to be played

Yang was right the entire time.

I never actually played that. I appreciated Troy Total War. But I generally never liked AC games. Not my genre.

Right, additional one(s) at lvl 1. My main concerns about this solution are that these might not be cancellable and to a lesser extent that it will require an ability tree display change, and these ones are super tedious to do with Gamedata files. That's why for now, Cooldown seems better. But I think this would be a good choice too. I'll think about Livegiver later. I'll prefer to keep traits from the original design, but they might require a rework indeed. BPM doesn't address the Grimoire Imprint bug in general. There's too many broken things with it to do anyway, one more won't change drastically. I have to check if their per encounter charge are reset when shifting again. These abilities seem granted on Shift, in this case their count might be reset anyway. Casting/recovery time aren't possible to add easily on a Modal. And Modal is required so the Shifts are cancellable. Now it's time for experimentating ! @Boeroer can we say we are trying to actually implement SPIRITCAPSLOCK ?

A nice definition of socialism... (from a comparison to communism) https://www.thoughtco.com/difference-between-communism-and-socialism-195448 Key Similarities Communism and socialism both grew out of grass-roots opposition to the exploitation of workers by wealthy businesses during the Industrial Revolution. Both assume that all goods and services will be produced by government-controlled institutions or collective organizations rather than by privately-owned businesses. In addition, the central government is mainly responsible for all aspects of economic planning, including matters of supply and demand. Key Differences Under communism, the people are compensated or provided for based on their needs. In a pure communist society, the government provides most or all food, clothing, housing and other necessities based on what it considers to be the needs of the people. Socialism is based on the premise the people will be compensated based on their level of individual contribution to the economy. Effort and innovation are thus rewarded under socialism. What tends to work better (compared to the above) What Is a Social Democracy? Democratic socialism is an economic, social, and political ideology holding that while both the society and economy should be run democratically, they should be dedicated to meeting the needs of the people as a whole, rather than encouraging individual prosperity as in capitalism. Democratic socialists advocate the transition of society from capitalism to socialism through existing participatory democratic processes, rather than revolution as characterized by orthodox Marxism. Universally-used services such as housing, utilities, mass transit, and health care are distributed by the government, while consumer goods are distributed by a capitalistic free market.

Entirely personal view... I find the guy disgusting and hope he gets deported. Unhappy that the Victorian government didn't narrow down the exceptions to the vaccine requirements better. Thaat being said, I think even the Serbian PM may have second thoughts about how great a man he is, as it looks like he may have given false Visa declarations, having traveled around while being Covid positive. Not only that, but being seen mingling with people with no distancing and no mask (and no vaccination) 24 hours after having receive his positive test result. I.e. knowingly exposing other people to the virus.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Stone Ocean 8-9: Fu Faitazu and Maririn Manson JoJo and Erumesu look for a tractor. Later they relax playing baseball with D'arby Mirashon.

Tamako Market, episode 9. Okay, looks like it finally happened. Not only do I have nothing bad to say about this one (much like the others), this episode was fantastic from start to finish. Looks like this wasn't a complete waste of time, after all. It's a little late, but if the remaining three episodes and the movie are about as good, then I might even walk away with an overall positive impression. Huh.

Hey, when it finally comes out in 20 years, maybe your motivation will return.

Judging by the portrait, in Expeditions: Rome, you can play a hobbit wizard: If you can't come up with a character name, just play a woman. They don't get names. Though I am pretty certain that randomly generated nickname is calling me a bitch: You start on a boat. Which seems to be every other game these days. With teenage Caesar as a tutorial npc. Someone should have told them that a Teenage Werewolf in Expeditions: Rome does not make for a good movie title. At least my boat has pretty green eyes: And it seems I have my own patreon already set up:

I wouldn't call it cheating to use SC, there are MANY other things that come very close to actual cheating as @Not So Clever Hound pointed out. Also as @Boeroer pointed out, at the end of the day it is all about finding a party composition you find strong and enjoyable at the same time, but personally I find this especially fun with single classes, but once again certain multiclasses will work very well throughout the entire game. At the end of the day this is the kind of game where, if you enjoy it in your first playthru, the likelihood for rerolling to try out an idea you may have gotten, is very high.

Behold the Eurojank: Marvel in the glory of its stiff and clunky animations!

This is beyond funny now. Actually this is kinda funny ... since the announcement of the game, lots of cool sci-fi stuff came out, which now made me really hate the "space ships are ships in space" trope. I'd rather have more realistic space ship designs, with less windows and stuff like that. In a way, space ships should be more like submarines, and Star Citizen doesn't have that at all. So tl;dr - I'm kinda not even motivated anymore to actually play the game due to the super unrealistic ship designs.

An impressive feat of engineering, the Apollo Guidance Computer (the computer built for the Apollo that landed on the moon) Weight: 32kg, power consumption 55 Watt (yes, fifty five) and 2 Kilo Words of memory (a unit I haven't seen since Computer Science classes back in University)!

I swear to god, with every new chapter of One Piece, the "plot" gets bigger.

i guess i'm lawful neutral