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Yup, that's what I meant in the past. There is no reason to throw all that stuff into the ukraine thread, thus attempting to devalue its issues. It can pretty well be its own thread, or the general politic thread if it's recent events. I'm sure nobody around here, from the evil west, would protest or cry about it. Hell, we'd probably chime in with how terrible event x is or was.

Definitions taken from Merriam-Webster. Yes, this post does indeed pertain to the discussion at hand. In which way I'll leave to the reader to figure out. This one is for @BruceVC, but it is problematic because it only defines the less revelant section (1) of the above definition.

Well I must say that an angel romancing Camellia sounds intriguing. And interesting.

That was the only reason I clicked on it. 30 seconds into it going ???, I saw your note after. I have been smeckledorfed.

I gotta say, as a Jets fan I hate when teams tank. My Jets earn their ****ty records the old fashion way: trying to win and being absolute dog water.

Still some way off but... https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/exclusive-dredd-2-happening-karl-urban.html

if you want a deep dive answer on passive skills, you should check out this old-ish post from @Noqn i think the skills to pay attention to are ones that are player-only (scroll down to third post). normally you can choose what character to do a check in storybook moments, but sometimes you have no choice and are forced to use the watcher. in these cases, you probably want to prioritize one of the passive skills with lots of checks and lots of harder checks (like metaphysics or even athletics--which despite being an active skill gets used alot in interactions) for your main character to exclusively invest in. and according to Noqn, for other passive skills you're reasonably well off just distributing points, though i don't totally agree with that analysis.

I don't know, maybe? Since it (probably?) affects russias economy and military, it might affect the war in ukraine, I guess. Not sure how this is related to the what-about arguments, though. My remarks were not about threads being off-topic, by the way. I really don't care about that at all. On every second issue, Z countered with something bad the west has done, that's all that was driving me, nothing else. "Russia shelled a hospital" - "oh, but the west" "Russia shelled a kindergarden" - "oh, but THE WEST" "Russia is shelling the energy grid" - "OH, BUT THE WEST!" Get what I mean? Yes, the west can suck, we know about that. There is no reason to post that after every ukraine war story. If you want to talk about the west so much, put it in another thread or whatever, nobody will be mad, as repeatedly said multiple times now. That said, I'm not going to comment on this again. It's been too annoying already. Do what you must.

It's interesting and not pleasant at all to see(*) new (for me) evidence of Putin's sustained efforts to create a fantasy Russian empire that is in denial of everything that it doesn't enjoy about itself. For instance, already back in 2014, Putin signed a law that criminalizes "spreading false information about the activity of the USSR during the years of World War Two". This is ominous in itself, but it becomes much more ominous once you realize what constitutes false information. For instance, Russia officially denies the mass rapes conducted by the Red Army, which means that any historians who are interested in even studying the subject face really serious trouble. [And yes, I know about Japan. I know about the Allied in Kanagawa in 1945. Etc.] (*) Has to do with the documentation concerning my current work project.

And this is the official Russian media that some people claim " is the same as the Western media " around spin and propaganda

Wow! Astonishing. @Mamoulian War and here's some intelligent discussion from Russia. This is not shocking anymore, even if it perhaps should be.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/oil-prices-fall-2-25-as-chinese-demand-worries-linger/ar-AA14yQ2V Oil price is down nicely to $82 and its primarily because of less demand from the likes of China and there ridiculous and draconian attempts to control the virus. OPEC + understandably cut oil production from the 1 November because they predicted that there will be less demand but this hasnt created the panic buying and oil price to rise Vatniks cheered this thinking that this was about support for Putin's War but end of the day Russia's attempt to blackmail the world and the West with energy, both gas and oil, has failed and will continue to fail because Russia energy contribution is not as important as Vatniks believe Russia's ability to influence energy prices will become more and more irrelevant as the world adjusts and finds different markets, it will always matter because it is an oil producer but the main reason for energy price fluctuation is global supply and demand. Its not about Putin sabotaging pipes or their own type of " Western sanctions " on oil supply Chinas appetite for oil is much more relevant to the overall oil price than what Putin's hopes he can control Its a pity @Darkpriestisnt active at the moment. I would love to hear his ZH predictions now. He has constantly told us that in the third or fourth quarter ( we now at the near the end of the fourth quarter)we going to see price of oil and gas skyrocket and how this would " crash" Western economies and this is all because of Western sanctions on Russia Thats been proven to be clearly untrue but thats the risk with economic predictions that are based on ideological views and not data

Icewind Dale is the closest thing to a dungeon crawler I've played from start to finish/the middle of the second expansion. I can see the difference in combat (TB and RtwP) and camera perspective (FP and isometric), but not the underlying systems, progression, and story. I thank everyone for the input. Wishlisted both at the moment. Completed Ender Lilies. The game is amazing - from the combat to the graphics to the story. I've defeated the final boss #1, collected the McGuffins required to face the final boss #2, and on the second attempt was able to hold it stunned almost the whole last phase. For some reason, reaching the last ending unlocked the difficulty options and I was able to turn off the collision damage, which had annoyed me quite a lot. Though, the only things left to do are collecting lore items, some upgrades, and leveling the character to the max. Granted, the first two things require quite high platforming skills and good reaction time, which I don't think I possess, so might return to it later.

Mike F***ing White

I second @Not So Clever Hound's recommendations. FF is a common abbreviation in this forum for the Forbidden Fist monk subclass. It features a very powerful attack, the Forbidden Fist attack, which enfeebles your foes, reducing their health and preventing them from healing. This attack provides a curse which causes you damage over time, but heals you and gives you a wound when it expires. The key to the subclass is having extremely high resolve, which causes the curse to expire extremely quickly so it heals you for more than it harms, allowing you to spam the FF attack and quickly gain wounds. However, the subclass works best if you use the Community Patch mod, which turns the FF attack into a weapon attack rather than a spell-like ability. If you use mods, by the way, there's a mod that allows you to play as a Fampyr.

Just finished Horizon Zero Dawn on PC. That came with the base game and the DLC. Steam shows my playing time to be 80 hours but I know for a fact about 10 of those I was alt-tabbed out. Pros: Robot dinosaurs. Fun combat. You can purchase maps that show you were collectables are. Fun game world. Cons: The whole premise is built on a whole bunch of plot holes. First time, experimental tech doesn't work exactly as expected right out of the box but apparently in HZD all experimental tech does. But whatever. It was fun. I could see myself replaying it a bit for the gameplay or buying the sequel if it comes to PC. 7/10

With the Angel Path? Yes. With the build? You do not want to fall as Paladin, so lawful good it is. That particular Neoseekers build is made to provide one of the easier Unfair experiences and it assumes that you know a couple of things, like the reason for having both Paladin and Hellknight levels: because smites stack. Smites also stack with Mark of Justice, which will come from either Seelah or a mercenary. Unlikely to matter on the lower difficulties, of course. It also assumes you know how to make the two handed version of Gravesinger and how Archmage Armour works (i.e. only by casting it on yourself with a scroll or potion).

There are other options. 4 girls and 3 guys in total.

am not gonna speak to romance, but as much as am disliking camellia as a character, is also our opinion she is one o' the three most effective companions with the additional advantage she is highly versatile as well. at earliest levels, whether ranged or melee, camellia is unimpressive from a damage output pov. dex focused characters who don't have sneak attack lack the damage potential o' high strength 2-handed weapon havers. 'course camellia has hexes, so from an action economy pov, her value to the party may nevertheless be significant even if she isn't killing stuff as quick as other companions. protective luck, chant, fortune and evil eye is all hexes available early and they represent serious difference making potential even if you do not resort to exploiting chant to extend the duration o' those hexes outside of combat. later in the game the metal curse is worth your consideration. you need take an additional spirit to acquire the metal curse, but particular on higher difficulties when every point o' ab or dc is essential, the metal curse hex is a major boon. tanky, dual wield or ranged? is also skald potential. if you are playing core or lower, crazycakes makes for a decent tank. taking fencing grace as early as possible, as well as outflank and improved critical feat(s) will result in significant damage output increase for even a tanky camellia and camellia is the best tank companion... sorta. animal companions should not be viewed insular and discreet from the humanoid companions which is responsible for adding 'em to a party, but such is what inevitably happens. from a practical pov, a few o' the animal companions is gonna be your best tank options for most o' the game. 'course as an angel oracle, depending on the build, you may be your party's tank by taking advantage o' stacking charisma bonus cheese. assuming you don't need camellia to tank, then is best to consider other uses. dual wield or ranged... or skald. hexes is fantastic, but perhaps you got ember in party? skald is a viable option. with a 13 charisma, camellia only needs three more charisma points to cast all her skald spells; is plenty o' headgear which will get you those points. reckless stance and inspire ferocity stack and are untyped. what that means is that your camellia skald will be boosting party-wide ab by +10 with sixteen levels o' skald and that +10 will stack with morale, sacred, competence or any other source o' ab boost. if your party includes numerous animal companions, then the beast totem and animal fury rage powers is also essential as you will be adding a considerable number o' natural attacks to all party members, but is likely animal companions will make the best use o' those additional opportunities. additionally, the bard spell list provides nice personal and party buffs, including early offerings such as unbreakable heart (do not sleep on this spell as it is a life saver when facing a few swarms,) mirror image, sense vitals, haste, displacement and good hope. with one level o' spirit hunter and at least 16 o' skald, you do have three additional levels with which to customize. all skald levels from 2-20 is fine, but consider the level dip into demonslayer and possibly loremaster. after considerable hours invested in wotr, am thinking a camellia spirit hunter is best designed as a dual wield melee fighter. is admitted a glass cannon build. camellia starts with a high crit-range weapon, so if you go with party-wide outflank and you have a bunch o' melee combatants, then you should always be considering how best to exploit critical hits. with the outflank teamwork feat, when camellia or a fellow companion crits, all adjacent comps with the outflank feat receive an attack o' opportunity. at early levels you won't see the advantages o' outflank, the ever ready mythic ability and the improved critical feats, but as your party receives more attacks, the crit opportunities also rise. camellia cannot out tank an angel oracle and most o' the animal companions make for a better tank option, so am not seeing the point o' trying to be a middling secondary tank. going with a full dual wield camellia generates additional attacks of opportunity for your party, and each such opportunity represents considerable damage. even so, is a situation where camellia won't appear to be pulling her weight until the mid point o' the game. neoseeker, which you already mention, has a decent ranged build for camellia, but is not a sooper high damage build, particular early. regardless, is ez to see camellia as underwhelming earlyish, and by the time she becomes useful, Gromnir has ordinarily sent her to join luca brasi. HA! Good Fun!

LoG 1/2 definitely not, they are just what they are, fun dungeon crawler with simple story. No interactive story at all in LoG 1. LoG 2 is still on my backlog, so I cannot comment on that yet, but probably closer to LoG1 than to IwD. Lionheart is a mixed bag. It is IMHO pretty close to IwD and BG, but unfortunately, after leaving New Barcelona, you had just left the best, what the game has to offer And LoX, hmm I had my share of fun, despite not being able to finish it yet. It is little bit simpler story than IwD, and if I remember correctly, it has interactive elements in it, which are at least on par with it. And If I can give you an advice, if you give it a chance, unless you are very experienced person with TB combat, and you know exactly what you are doing during level ups, play this game on Easy difficulty. I started it on normal, and the game beat the **** out of me on numerous occasions. Even if you want to continue in the main quest, you have to go through every quest and encounter, which is available to you on the map. and to stay on thread topic, I have started to encounter first content from free DLC update in the Final Fantasy XV paid DLC Comrades Namely my first Chocobo According to FAQs, Bahamut was the the final boss of the 1.0 version of DLC, so it looks like, I am still somewhere in the middle of the simple story of the whole DLC. I am missing only one trophy from the original DLC, but there are still three new trophies from the free DLC DLC

Sure, that's absolutely fair and in isolation I tend to agree. But the focus here is on the supposed mechanical "fix" to the highlighted rogue class issue offered by the base 5E mechanics - if the powers that be want to encourage lower level campaigns then "either multiclass or level to 13" is hardly a satisfactory solution.

Implying 4 shots at close range and no single vital organ of the target hit in 4 attempts... making up for it with the sheer amount of ammunition (and lives) spent sounds like the Russian army alright

If you were tanking you'd still be starting Zach Wilson.

Was sort of disappointed it wasn't a cover of the Mansell piece

In case you don't recognize them (and I am not going to blame you), these three are the guys that bully Usagi before Makoto shows up and gives them a well deserved smack down. The show accomplishes that by making her throw the basketball back at them so hard it turns into a CGI ball and the guy with the orange hat just keels over from the force of the impact. The others get an off-screen smackdown because, uh, the stuntwomen had a day off or there wasn't any budget left for them doing another scene where Makoto fights. I get that you probably can't find a trio of super buff dudes in 2003's Japan for your shoe string budget show that will let themselves get beaten down by a girl on screen, but seriously, those three twits up there, that was the best you could do? Edit: also probably unfair to complain about, but Makoto's actress isn't tall enough, but she looks the part better than I previously thought going simply from her in costume in the opening sequence.

One potential reading... One could argue the first definition as well: just because you care nary a thing for someone's thoughts or well-being doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself by dunking on them when they readily present the opportunity, though that's admittedly a near constant with BruceVC.

Between Rodgers' broken thumb, potentially broken ribs, and the season being 99% mathematically lost at this point, I'd say so. Start Jordan Love, see that he probably sucks, lose most or all of the rest of our games, get a nice draft pick, try again next year. If Jordan Love sucks, we finally know for sure that he doesn't matter and it's the Aaron Rodgers' show for the next couple of seasons...if he shockingly doesn't, then...well, that's a good even if difficult problem to have.

Luckily you dont care or youd have to charge BVC rent for your headspace! r00fles!

Interesting story. According to Russian investigation, A man responsible for mobilization commits suicide at his supervisor office shooting himself with 4 different weapons not aiming at vital parts of his body. And his wife writes to Putin, that he should investigate his dead, as he surely wanted to show the shortcommings of mobilization by performing self-execution… Not a single thought had been made, that this maybe could have been something different, than a successful suicide attempt https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/11/28/7378346/

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/100-mile-strike-weapon-weighed-ukraine-arms-makers-wrestle-with-demand-sources-2022-11-28/ "The Boeing plan requires a price discovery waiver, exempting the contractor from an in-depth review that ensures the Pentagon is getting the best deal possible. " In crisis, there is opportunity

Perhaps on a proportionate stage to a war, but this place is irrelevant and not sure why we need slavish obedience to threads being on-topic. Are random fires in Russia relatad to Ukraine's issues ?

Disease has probably been a scourge of all armies throughout history, but Russia does things its own way in this, too. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1596819562443726848.html or

The Chinese are getting restless, adding to Xi's headache. Recent incidents has led to riots (something generally unheard of outside Hong Kong) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-63772365 There is one subject at the forefront of Chinese people's minds, and many are increasingly fed up with it - prompting widespread pushback against the government's zero-Covid restrictions. This has come in the form of residents smashing down barriers designed to enforce social distancing, and now large street protests in cities and university campuses across the country. --- Add to that a not insignificant demographic problem with gender balance, where there are now 37 million more male Chinese than female. Generation of men growing up with no chance of ever finding an opposite sex partner (the one child policy led to, especially in rural areas, girls being killed to make room for boys). Guess what happens when tens of millions frustrated young men are getting angrier and angrier... they need more than Taiwan to attack

@kanisatha a word of warning re: oracle-angel, 'cause am not sure if it is mentioned at neoseeker-- spontaneous casters no longer benefit from the accelerated spell book advancement for spells known/learned. for an oracle-angel your caster level for spells known is not mythic level + oracle level; is oracle only. from a practical standpoint, this is likely o' minimal concern and as a first-time player you may not even realize there is a newish "handicap," but it is worth observing how prepared caster angels now have a noteworthy advantage compared to spontaneous casters. HA! Good Fun!

Yup. Tried to play Gromrock2 couple times, and it just never continues. I really liked the original. Maybe the sequel is just too big. Grimrock1 had a comforting simplicity in just delving deeper and deeper into the dungeon.

I remembered something I read before I watched the first episode of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon a while back. Motoki is eventually going to propose to Makoto. Which I thought was a nice gesture by the writers (considering Makoto is the butt-monkey of the team way too often), but this Motoki is a total moron who is constantly duped into accepting the silly home made arcade passes by the girls, so I'm no longer sure it was that nice a gesture. Man. I hope he gets something useful to do, or at least something to say that's not dumb. Sheesh, he just asked a turtle to go on a walk. Edit: Usagi has a pyjama party with Ami and Naru. Rei didn't want to come because she's Rei. Rei also had the good sense to tell Usagi that she should not force Ami to do things she does not want to do. In theory, this is a decent episode, but it's a bit too early. Ami being intentionally bad at school because she thinks that will make her more relatable to Usagi is pretty painful to see. It also shows the biggest downside of the series. It's live action, and no matter what you do, some things just do not work with actors, and Usagi's exaggerated mannerisms when talking to Naru are amongst them. The girls do their best, but that is also somewhat limited. Well, so far the series was rather entertaining, but I hope the next character focus episode will be better. Also, just when I thought the episode is not going to follow THE Sailor Moon formula, Nephrite and Beryl show up. Edit 2: Here is an image of Rei making her psychotic killer face looking supportive at Ami:

@Gromnir: Regarding that "Banner Over the Citadel" / "Kill the Giants" quest bug upon loading a save, I am now fighting for Drezen and the quest has appeared in my journal properly and in its proper place. Interesting to see what happens, if anything, once I complete the quest.

I enjoyed the first Grimrock, but it is more about puzzles than story or characters. I'd say they are still not even Icewind Dale level when it comes to story. You are pretty much alone. Lords of Xulima was pretty good and had a better quest/story progression. It was a bit cheesy. I own Grimrock 2 and never seem to be in the mood for it, so take that for what you will. edit: oh, I am hooked on New Vegas still. I am in the middle of the Old World Blues DLC. I had played the Sierra Madre (Dead Money?) DLC back in the day, so I skipped that one. But the rest of the DLC is new to me.

Thank you so much! I had a feeling soul blade would work, or pretty much cipher in general, and monk is an interesting choice. I’m sorry but what are you referring to when you say FF? I know a said melee but what do you think of chanter? It has all though spooky summons?

@xzar_monty, I have very similar criteria for my PC choice, for me including wanting to have at least decent melee capacity. Because it's my first time through I did some online browsing and ended up going with the 'Oracle Angel' build (half-elf; lawful good) from Neoseeker (side note: Neoseeker is usually my go-to for help with all the games I tend to like playing; the Fextralife wiki is pretty helpful too). It's a pretty good build: lot's of ways to smack down demons even while also being a tanky melee character. And Angel seemed like a good mythic path to take my first time through. I'd prefer to be more neutral good than lawful good; wonder if that will be possible with the Angel path. Re. romance, the choices seem rather limited: Camellia or the queen. Are you guys all recommending Camellia? She's kind of a lightweight in my party.

Ah, yeah that does better address the root issue. Adding a ModScriptHook with SucceedOnlyOnce set to true and the following script: if { IsQuestCompleted(companion_qst_pallegina) and IsInActiveScene(8c9c23e0-6463-49aa-be47-0ceb2431a35d) } then { ActivateObject(8c9c23e0-6463-49aa-be47-0ceb2431a35d, False) } I guess with this solution the Conversation doesn't have to be edited, which is nice for compatability

Yes, it's not a narrative game, just as EoB. There's no dialogue (options) to speak of too. The game has nice ambience, a great theme music, a premise in the form of a render intro, a pretty cohesive world for a dungeon crawl -- all setting the mood nicely. And then it's largely a Game Of Dungeons. Er, and Puzzles, actually. Real ones, unlike the focus group tested to auto-solve stuff in Skyrim et all. There is a narrative framework, and it works pretty well. Your party in Grimrock 2 is for some yet unknown reason ship-wrecking on an island -- and there's seems a purpose for that which is up to you to discover (a lot is told through documents/letters you find). Also, the atmosphere is excellent throughout with day/night-cycles, good ambience sound (some of those shuffling sounds of creepy crawlies in the dungeons made my skin crawl), and a big variety of different locales (swamps, crypts, forests, overland, castles,..) Here's a bit of early gameplay. Oh, and let me add another bonus point for Solasta. Making the light (you can also cast) influence fights against vampirish characters is just awesome -- e.g. they get -10 hp on each turn if they are in the light. Even though they can be lured out of the dark and into the sun during daytime a bit too easily. Thinking about it, that mechanic could make an awesome vampire / ghoul themed CRPG in an on itself.

Those mothers are actors. They were already identified from other putin videos, shortly after this video released. Weird how they thought nobody would recognize them... or they simply don't care?

Would be great to hear your opinion once you've got a bit further in the game. So, what kind of character did you create? I am playing a slayer. Two criteria that I used: I wanted to play a frontliner because I am the boss and I want to lead from the front -- so it had to be a class with good attacking bonuses and a fair amount of hit points. I also wanted to play a class that has Persuasion as a class skill, because I am going to do the talking and I want to be good at it. This narrowed down the choices quite a bit, and from what was left, I thought slayer was a nice one.

My experience is with RTwP, not turn based. But you should consider any combination of rogue (assassin, trickster) and cipher (soul blade), also Monk (forbidden fist, Helwalker). They would all fit thematically and be very melee oriented. And you’d keep a lot of flex on weapons and equipment options. Trickster/Soulblade and FF/Soulblade are usually MVPs in their coterie. Lots of good builds for those if you search this forum and others, or just go with whatever abilities you think sounds fun.

I would love it, if there would be jumping spiders roaming the backyard. They could be friendly and tameable, but instead of taking the usual approach of feeding them, it would be fun if you could befriend them using the emotes (dancing etc). Maybe mimick what they are doing 4 times or something like that.

Was expecting

That is not a unique feature of watchers though. Many people in Eora have old souls (you can meet some of those in the Sanatorium or the White March for example), not only Pale Elves or Watchers. But Pale Elves seem to be special in that most (or all of them) get born with continued souls which won't get fractured by the Wheel/Rymrgand. Usually the process of rebirth takes away some essence to feed the gods. Usually people with old souls don't remember their past lives (one exception: Thaos). Only if you become "Awakenend" you will remember (bits) of your past lives. If you manage to deal with it: maybe you can remember all of it. But that doesn't make you a Watcher, only awakened. A Watcher is able to fold/look into the In-Between. Being a Watcher, being born with an old soul and being Awakened are three different things. It may be that Pale Elves enjoy a special treatment because nearly all of them are dedicated to Rymrgand? So that he leaves their souls untouched when they pass the Wheel? But yeah: according to the lore above a Pale Elf Watcher should have been a Pale Elf in the past as well.

Well, I made my own Pallegina and Tekehu now, screw them. I welcome Anigellap and Uheket to the team!