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Went out to vote. Seems we are having a record turnout this time, will be interesting to see what happens this time.

Don't know about the rest of the guys but I found a blonde haired blue eyed Nordic beauty hanging around a horsebarn.

I know it was a jest question, but a little known fact (outside the Nordic countries) is, the viking women were both powerful and influential before the Christianity imposed patriarchal system... https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/vikings-women-home-matriarchs-traders-artisans/ – the Old Norse word víkingar referred solely to men. For this point in history, however, Viking women enjoyed a high degree of social freedom. They could own property, ask for a divorce if not treated properly, and they shared responsibility for running farms and homesteads with their menfolk. They were also protected by law from a range of unwanted male attention. ... A married couple of húsbóndi (an Old Norse word which gives us English 'husband') and hýfreyja (wife) presided over the home as partners. The status accorded to the role of wife is clear from an inscription on the Hassmyra rune stone (Sweden), in which a bereaved húsbóndi claims that "no better hýfreyja will come to Hassmyra to run the estate" than his late wife, Odindisa. Common signs of wives' social status are the pairs of ornamental oval brooches, used as dress fasteners, found in large numbers of Viking-era female graves. ... War in the Viking age was fought at close quarters with swords, spears and axes. Women could not escape such violence, especially if they were part of a group or community under attack, or travelling with a group of merchants who had to defend their wares. However, conclusive evidence for female participation in war as trained and regular warriors is currently slight, despite the recent interpretation of a 10th-century ‘warrior’ burial at Birka in Sweden as being that of a woman. The significance of this burial is still under debate, while in other instances women found buried with ‘weapons’ had actually been laid to rest with everyday tools, such as axes for chopping firewood. It also includes a few bits about viking women as explorers and religious leaders...

After Groznyi and Aleppo, this is hardly a surprise. However, it is heartbreaking. As the saying goes, barbarism begins at home. Child abuse in Russia is routine -- the numbers, if you consult the studies on this topic, are chilling. Given the nature of Russia, its institutions are also exceptionally cruel and conducive towards abuse. An awful lot of "hazing" and extremely serious physical abuse in the armed forces; the 200th Brigade is especially notorious for being internally violent and low on morale. (My understanding is that the brigade has now been largely obliterated in Ukraine, but not sure about this.) All of this takes a very real human toll on the whole society: health and happiness levels plus trust in others plus life expectancy are all remarkably low. Russia is not a happy place. So, not surprising that there is an awful lot of excessive cruelty and, shall we say, lack of what would be regarded as "proper" behiaviour, to the extent that such exists during wartime.

Like so?

Entered a nearby settlement as Pigman™ only to be greeted by the local sheriff to f**k off you pigface, or else... Waited till night, sneaked into town, got to my objective, broke into her house by smashing through the window, knocked her over, skinned her alive and ate her. Aside of Bloodlines' Nosferatu clan, there's nothing quite like playing Pigman™.

It's not just stories now, though. There's lots of photo evidence from areas where russia recently retreated. It's pretty bad.

Finished Elden Ring I'm now a LVL 250 Tarnished Now replaying an old favorite, F.E.A.R. 1. Currently getting 1500-2000 FPS. It's crazy how the game effects and physics break when your framerate is too high. Smoke and fire won't animate and you float forward like a ghost

Tracked one of dem crazy baldies, Oneists they call themselves. Fancy it as some sort of religion, they do. I reckon they're more loopy than a coyote that got in on the wrong kind of cactus. Messin' with spirits and dark magics, it ain't natural. This particular nut job done burnt somebody's house down, hope they weren't still inside. I had every intention to haul her in cuffed and breathin. I was slowly whittling down her sisters, giving them a cozy nap, nice like. It was slow going since she always traveled with a large group, making singling anyone out a chore. Then they all wandered into a church... Well, it was once a church before those crazies defiled it with their black magic. There I was, waiting outside, hidden like, looking for an opportunity when they were to walk out. They never walked out, though. Suddenly a fracas broke out inside. I heard yelling, screaming, gun shots, and all manner of noises too foul to describe. Once the air felt silent I went inside to investigate. Nothin' but dead mangled bodies and blood everywhere. Guess that's what they get for messing with forces beyond their understanding. Well, the bounty did say dead or alive. I wasn't intending on dead, but I ain't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. Weird West can be wonderfully messy. Unexpected stuff can just happen completely changing the situation, possibly ruining a well thought out plan or presenting a serendipitous opening. There are a lot of variables and sometimes they go off script, with or without your intervention.

I'm itching to finally continue as Pigman now anyway though. I think I may stop using the rifle for the moment. There aren't many abilities that are exclusive to the characters sadly, but the 4 freshly introduced for Pigman encourage a more offensive style of play than what I did before anyways. 😄 Whilst this game may not be perfect in any way, I have a feeling it may become as underappreciated as Prey was before (or Creative Assembly's Alien Isolation). Outside a very few exceptions, appreciating the actual key strenghts and core ideas of these kind of games sadly seem to be an aquired taste. I think they may have further limited their audience by switching to the more isometric gameplay -- something I was sceptical of at first myself upon the announcement. It's probably certainly not was most (including me) would have expected when the director of games such as Arx Fatalis, Dishonored or Prey announced a new game. Personally I like this change in pace meanwhile, as it brings the overall feel closer towards several classic CRPG experiences of the 90s, a lot of which overhead/isometric view (the Fallout-y style travel map does the rest).

A German pal sent this to me. A piece on the one General who has as much to do with the Ukrainian armed forces' success as Zelenskyy. Machine translation as follows, with emphases mine:

Hi! First of all, I would like to thank you for the fantastic game you created. I really enjoyed every minute played. However, there are three things I would like to suggest (although there are already similar requests here): Universal Weapon and Armor Kit Considering that the character's inventory has a low amount of slots, a stackable repair kit would be of great use. It is possible that you want to keep the mechanics of specific insect parts for repair, in which case maybe the kit could only repair a percentage of the item, requiring the parts from the original recipe for the complete repair. Anyway, I see this feature as a boost as you explore a lab or are several inches from your base. Note: Maybe this is on purpose, but I really felt that item wear needs a slight adjustment. Even with high items in metallurgy, I still have the feeling that repair is something very constant in everyday life. Vertical lifts with pulley system When playing multiplayer, you clearly notice game crashes, depending on several factors, such as the internet connection, distance and the computing power of the host machine (server). However, crashes are even more frequent when you are close to buildings, especially those that used a lot of structural items. Although the zipline is a great option to walk around the garden, a high support point is necessary, generating in many cases the need to create high towers to serve as a starting point. These towers generate an even greater computational effort, and consequently more crashes in multiplayer. My suggestion is based on elevators, totally possible in the atmosphere of the game, since they would use the pulley system. They could obey the game's Tiers (I, II and III), requiring equivalent materials in the making, and on the other hand, they would offer the benefit of traveling greater distances depending on their Tier (for example). This would eliminate the need to build tall towers, removing the number of building blocks in the garden and consequently the crashes in multiplayer. System: Detach Character My character getting stuck while I'm exploring the garden is commonplace for me. I always end up stuck in a crack. I think creating a "Detach Character" option in my game debug mine would be fantastic. It could follow the same patterns as the other options, applying a cooldown for a new use. Anyway, your game is wonderful! Thank you! 🖖

I finally obtained the ultimate achievement! Black Sanctuary Chanter. Loved this build! You can see all the stats and gear i used in the videos. Here are a few of the fights recorded for posterity. Running the ultimate challenge was my favorite video gaming experience ever. I know im (very) late to the game, and not much activity with pillars 1 lately, but its still a valid Ultimate Run! Love this game! Heres a few of the important fights: I died on Llengrath the first time around, and my file was deleted. I wanted to quit, but for some reason i wanted to get this achievement, so I started all over, then next time i faced Llengrath i screwed up again and forgot to eat any food before the battle, and the game somehow autosaved with the bog cult apprentice running at me initiating combat. So no going back! Ended up winning the fight using alot of kiting on the first try. A miracle! after llengrath everything else was easy. Didnt record llengrath due to massive frustration with the no food autosave, after building a whole new character just to get to llengrath and screw up again. I went into the thoas fight injured and with no food and mopped the floor with him. Used the redeemer sword that 25% chance to kill vessels, then i dropped the instruments of death and hit withdraw and that was it. The other important fights are above. Thanks for tuning in fellow Pillars of Eternity lovers!! Cheers! side note: I really wish i could play deadfire. but its too frustrating with massive lag, im running mac os 12.6 if anyone knows a way to make deadfire run better on mac please share! i have done some research and i still cant make the cuba or nvidea control panel work, admittedly my knowledge of computers is limited and issuing console commands and complicated workarounds are difficult for me. but i will be looking out for Avowed.

awesome ideas

That seems like a big nerf for monks and monk+rogue multiclass especially. Might I suggest giving untrained fists very low pen but high base damage (i.e. 14-19 base damage same as what monks have right now but maybe only 4-5 pen) and have the first level of Transcendent Suffering or UMT give large amounts of penetration to compensate (in this case +4 pen to unarmed attacks).

People are weirder now, almost got into an altercation because I was "taking all the good avocadoes" in a grocery.

Yes exactly. Yesterday Reuters went to these villages and towns and took photos of everything, not just for news purposes but also for war crimes prosecutions. HRW, AI, and the ICC prosecutor's office are also on the ground documenting everything. The photos will tear your heart in two. Children burned to death in their mothers' arms. Young men and boys tied up and shot and buried in shallow mass graves, their hands and feet poking out of the earth. Bodies everywhere. And many bodies, along with streets, homes, and debris, boobytrapped with mines and bombs. In village after village after village. In Bucha alone 300 murdered civilians currently identified with more to come. These are not professional soldiers. These are cowardly psychopath rabble in uniform, the kind that would be groveling for their lives on their knees if they're ever confronted by NATO forces. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/03/ukraine-apparent-war-crimes-russia-controlled-areas

Raising Arizona is fantastic and were very much looking forward to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent coming out on the 22nd. Unless I have to pay for it, then Ill have to wait longer.

You're in good company, I think you might find someone else in this thread for whom it didn't end well...

Ergo Proxy 1-4. I think I watched this a long time ago. As the episodes progress, I kind of remember whats going to happen, but not really. @KP wants Blue Velvet Either way, so far so good. edit: nvm... edit2: @HoonDing That was a lie. edit3: reading through that old thread reminded me how much more anime I used to watch. edit4: @majestic That didn't end well that much I remember.

Elerond can you think of anything worse than using children as human shields? Like I said earlier, just when I think the Russians cant be worse in their military strategy they prove me wrong and do something worse They learning from the Russians Their have been numerous stories of mass rape and civilians being executed At the end of Putins War some of these will definitely be true and thats where the War Crimes charges will come from

"Siege of Avalon" - old and rather janky rpg that was not good enough to catch my attention back in the day. Given that I don't chase new releases anymore, I've found myself dusting off some of those forgotten curiosities and giving them a second chance. Trimming down my hoard of shame a little in the process. It's hard to love, but I'm already pass 3/4 of the game, so even though I have to force myself a little from time to time (no waypoints, no portals, lots of backtracking, terrible UI) I'm pretty sure I'll finish it by the end of the week. Overall - I'm glad I didn't buy it back then (with a competition it had back then, it would be an inevitable disappointment) , but I'm also glad that I gave it a chance now. There is some "indie", janky, amateurish charm to it and I can't help but appreciate it for what it is and what it does. Might give "Weird West" a chance next.

You could also argue it's good he didn't leave the decision making to the army, otherwise Russia might have ended up winning. As in winning fast, efficient and brutally before the sanctions even took hold the way they have now. Edit: And with a lot more headaches for the west than they have now, where it looks like Russia may gain something, but at a cost that far exceeds the gains.

Could you consider to adjust Takedown Combo ability as you've done to Assassin(applies fixed 1 sec)? In addition to this, I'd like to suggest another; I think Taste of the Hunt should be ApplyOnTick instead of ApplyOverTime. Honestly, the AplpyOverTime is a bit broken and meh...

People in the AMPAS voted for it. That's all there is to it. Personally I thought it was a brilliant film and Bong Joon-ha is a fantastic director. Of the nominees in the category that year only The Irishman really rivals Parasite for me.

The ending of the first "season" of Princess Tutu was the strongest part of the anime for me. The second season has a rather dull middle part, a series of three or four episodes that aren't bad, but don't do anything and feel like silly padding at a point where there no longer should be padding, and then it gets pretty creepy. I still am, and most likely will remain forevermore, unable to ascertain what to make of it as a whole. That's an achievement all of its own - It's Schrödinger's anime for me. I laughed at Ahiru's hijinks, I got emotionally invested in Rue's story, and I really ended up liking Edel even though that probably barely seems possible from where you're standing at the moment. The anime generates an absolutely fantastic, dreamlike fairy tale atmosphere. All of that was good, but if you'd ask me if it was time well spent watching, then I have only two answers. Yes, and no. Everything was both meaningful and pointless, a story about storytelling and a story told, a fantastic piece of art and the lowest folk tale. Well, the most flowery nonsense to post won't change that I can't really put into words what Princess Tutu is. I fond every single part of Princess Tutu good, sometimes even great. It's the sum total of everything that exists in this state of being filled with meaning while being completely pointless at the same time. I think that's enough, I wonder if you'll end up watching it all and will have a different opinion. Time will tell. I went over her list of credits twice, there's nothing on it that I've seen in the original except her being Envy in FMA: Brotherhood, but that's definitely not what I'm thinking about. Whatever it is, it's just a nagging feeling that I've heard her before, when I simply didn't. First, I have no idea how I got the episode numbers wrong, I now watched 11 and 12 - the suspicion is confirmed, not that it was much of one. Mild spoilers: Since the show has hinted at there being at least one more person from Earth somewhere with Hitomi finding a music CD at a market, I've been thinking about who that could be and if that will actually matter. I can't really come up with any good ideas so far, and none of the characters introduced so far could be it. No one except the Emperor of Zaibach, at least, because he just appears on a viewscreen and could look like anyone. It's also of course possible that the disc was just transported to Gaia in some fashion, without anyone else. Gotta say I'll be disappointed if that doesn't come up again.

Personally I actually agreed to the deal -- the job that followed I finished in true Thief style, I think the first time in the game I ever went someplace without getting spotted neither going in nor out. 😄 But also later found that in true genre style, it wasn't a necessity, and that there were alternatives, such as the one you mentioned. I staid up all night, pretty much because of the game. Hasn't happened in a while. While they should fine-tune AI as well as camera post-release, there also seems one glaring balancing oversight (which I've first seen brought up by somebody else). Dishonored had its mana pool you needed to activate abilities. Here it's simple action points. In both cases, to a degree, they auto-regenerate (which also meant in Dishonored, that you could "blink" as often as you wanted.) The maximum action points pool is 20. The auto-regeneration fills it up to 5 again, over the course of about 15 seconds. To regain full action points, you need a potion (or sleep). For most abilities, this is naturally a bit of the burden it should be. 15 seconds would be a lot if you're say engaged directly in combat and thus had to wait until the points have recovered. HOwever, not so for instance the rifle's "sentry silencer" ability. Activating it costs 5 AP. Your next shot will not merely be silenced, but cause significantly bonus damage to an enemy. Rifles have decent range. Basically, it's a bit of a sniper thing. Coupled with hiding someplace or camping on a roof, this means time is never much of a factor. You can just camp in your hiding spot and wait for the action point pool to rise up to 5 AP again, and spam this quite powerul ability. Taking out entire enemy camps easily one by one. In their official feature request boards, I've already raised this. If you agree please upvote. On/off option for auto-regenerating action points - Weird West (featureupvote.com)

I have found tweet about a video of official Ukrainian reaction to Belgorod "accident". It was not only denial, but blatant and masterful trolling 😄 And another Ukrainian official response to Belgorod.

The trail led me to a tobacco tycoon. Big money like this usually comes with dirty hands, but he had information I was needin'. The fat cat tried to strike a deal with me. He was wantin' what someone else was havin' and that someone else didn't much want to give it to im. Didn't need to be no fancy head doctor to see I was dealin' with a feller slimier than a yellow-bellied toad. Told im I'd think over his proposition but I wasn't keen on shaking hands with the devil, and that's even if he intended to ever honor his end of the bargain. I chose to find a, shall we say, alternative way to get the information that I needed. Now, I don't take pride in pilfering through another man's property, but given the nature of the feller in question and the things that I found, I don't feel the least bit bad violating his privacy. I got what I needed and I got scarce.

ok I will put it here and slooowlly move away:

I fully believe Palpy would be sinister enough to sneak in an advertisement into a recruitment speech for an evil cult.

Unless they die in battle they go to Niflhel, there are some people debating that if they die in childbirth they go somewhere else, but there are no real sources for it.

https://ianbetteridge.com/2022/04/02/time-lies/

Weekend time is cooked English breakfast time and one my favorite weekend pastimes Today Im have fried eggs, friend banana, tomato, chicken livers and toast 🍳

The simplest way to fix this seems to be to set identical stats for non-Monastic / Monastic / Monk fists, then offload the buffs onto the Monastic Training / Transcendent Suffering abilities, since you can set a base value bonus for damage/accuracy/penetration that applies without accounting for PL. That way both PC and NPC monks will have the same stats for their fists.

I will be curious to hear what you think. I am dipping into it for a while now, and can't get into it.

I'm giving Wasteland 3 a go now to see if I enjoy it, having waited for patching to reach a fairly stable state.

as is lent we do a fair 'mount o' vegetarian fare. today is a soup which tastes much better than it sounds. 4T olive oil two big leaks, maybe three. chop thin 2T (or more) minced garlic 1 head o' cabbage... green is fine. is gonna be a big pot o' soup so am likely missing the value in going with savoy. we slice thin, but if you wanna chop, it won't hurt. 1C dry butter beans. rinse and then soak overnight before making soup. 1.5 C butter beans is ok too. three yukon gold taters. the soup is gonna be more "creamy" if the potatoes break down complete, so dice your potatoes according with the assumption you will likely be looking at 90ish minutes cooking time. 8ish C vegetable stock 4-6 sprigs o' bundled thyme salt lemon parmesan cheese a big pot or dutch oven heat oil and butter in your big pot. add the leaks and cook medium-high until just getting some color. the garlic and cabbage goes in next. stir contents kinda vigorous as you don't want the leaks to be caramelizing at the bottom of the pot. cabbage otta lose a whole lotta water as it cooks-- 8-10 minutes. every remaining ingredient save for lemon and parmesan goes in the pot and then adjust heat after you got contents at a nice simmer; will likely require an hour or so for potatoes and beans to be cooked 'nuff. am not gonna tell you how much salt is required 'cause am not certain. start with 1t added at same time you add stock and other ingredients, but you likely need more. if you are using store bought stock, then maybe less. you may always add salt, but is tougher to remove, so be reasonable. ladle soup into a bowl and give the contents a squeeze o' lemon and a bit o' cheese. serve with crusty bread. HA! Good Fun! ps when is not lent, we add short ribs, which make the soup a whole lot better and also not at all vegetarian. pretty much same directions but season and sear short ribs in you dutch oven as a first step, then set aside. return to the pot along with stock, beans and whatnot. we also substitute at least 1/2 o' the olive oil with butter.

Bagged my first bounty, the varmint had his posse holed up in a gold mine. Yeb done blessed me with foresight cause I happened to have my trusty pickaxe along. No sense in letting those gold nuggets go to waste. I dragged that feller kickin' and screamin' all the way back to Grackle, nice comfy jail cell waitin' for im. I tell ya, that boy had fire in his eyes when Flora slammed the cell door shut. Like 2 burning coals those eyes were, yessir. It might have been better to kill the varmint, far as my own neck is concerned. But I ain't about to let this demon infested land turn me into a monster, no sir. If that varmint ever gets out of those cold iron bars and comes fixin to put some lead in my body, well I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

i know this was from a dream sequence, but it still sent me to the moon

If you were Bokishi, we'd be searching for Ciri in those screenshots.

They were. Fetch quests for the band members to get their musical instruments as weapons. Then you went to the concert

Elex 2 Not exactly a showcase of the xXxBOxXx's capabilities, not that I expected it to be