Leaderboard

I know, it's still a few days off, but people being busy and all and I'm sure Ukraine and China are more interesting topics, but still... some things just are part of my upbringing, so Merry Christmas everyone (and a Happy New year to those who are too busy the next few weeks to spend time on social media, which is hopefully most of you) (and if anyone suggests this should have been some kind of flavourless 'Seasonal Holidays' instead, go stow it, Christmas gettogethers with the family is what I grew up with)

While it has to be said that Russians have been surprisingly inept in many of the things they've attempted during the war in Ukraine, we must also acknowledge that they have been remarkably clever and effective in the way they have spread dis- and misinformation apparently all over the world; the aim has been to destabilize "the West" by encouraging all racist and far-right groups and basically everything that works against what is regarded as a democratic Western society. This has worked depressingly well, and part of the reason it has worked so well is that poor education is, unfortunately, quite rife in the West as well. The troll factories in St. Petersburg are effective because so many Westerners believe in fairy tales with trolls in them... (This is not a direct reference to ZeroHedge, btw. Although, as I've said to Darkpriest before, one look at it is enough to tell me that it's rubbish.)

@Mamoulian War https://khpg.org/en/1608811138 Dont forget the Ruskies are also removing Ukrainian literature and language from occupied territory and yet its the Russian language that are the " victims " of the Ukrainians. Sure tell me another one

H̶ ̶A̴ ̴P̷ ̴P̶ ̶Y̵ H̸ ̸O̸ ̴L̶ ̸I̷ ̷D̵ ̶A̴ ̴Y̶ ̸S̴

A joint investigation by Easter European investigative journalists, prosaically called The Firehose of Falsehood. All you need to know about Russian Propaganda in the EU, especially in Eastern block. Surprise-surprise, they talking about Zerohedge portal as well @Darkpriest https://www-icjk-sk.translate.goog/215/Tok-klamstiev-Ekosystem-prokremelskych-konspiracnych-a-radikalnych-pravicovych-dezinformacii-v-strednej-a-vychodnej-Europe-Kto-diriguje-protizapadnu-symfoniu?_x_tr_sl=sk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp Unfortunately I was not able to find English version, so I hope, Google translate does not offend.

My wife and I are not in agreement about Santa for our kid. Since we had our son later in life I got to see friends and family go through the Santa saga with their kids and while most of them didn't really care or mind being lied to about it there were a few that were genuinely hurt their parents tricked them for so long. Santa was not sold to us as real person growing up but as a symbol of the season and I don't want to make him a main focus of Christmas for my son either but my wife thinks I'm killing the joy and spirit of the season by not actively lying about it. I've got no problem exploring the Santa folklore with my son but I don't think I can look him in the eyes and tell him that Santa is a real person who brings him gifts. Maybe I am a joy killer. I'll write a trilogy of books about it but stop after I write myself into a corner with the second book, I think I'll call it the Joykiller Chronicles.

Recently, two of my colleagues talked about their kids believing in Santa (or our local custom, anyway, which is different but similar in terms of results) up until the age of nine or ten, and one said he wasn't certain when his daugther turned eleven, he thinks both sides just pretended for the joy of it, because it's just great to watch the kids at Christmas. Made me wonder if I ruined my parent's enjoyment of Christmas by figuring it out at five. Sure, they still had my brother, and he stubbornly refused to accept the truth for a longer while after that, but it was probably not the same. Well, tangent over. Happy holidays and whatnot.

Thanks, but @Azdeus deserves credit too. I just found a way to reliably reproduce the issue based on a hint from his working posts and some of his comments.

That buff (there's at least two variations of it) is the main way to rather easily beat the entire game while remaining level 1, if one was into that sort of thing (by wearing that Nix ring thus never leveling up). Although I found even with that it was pretty tough going with a few post-game challenges at that lvl. Not to mention costly to get all the ingredients to use it constantly, lol. The funniest thing about remaining lvl 1, imo, was how the summon damage was apparently reliant on or largely based on your chr. level. Thus they became useless in short order as they'd appear, do like 1-3 dmg or whatever and one would just ignore the summon-available music. At any rate, yes, a good/very useful recipe.

(wtf is wrong with quoting, cant write anything in post with quote) just retrain on departure from Maje @Shai Hulud

It works like this: Her Revenge sends out three primary bolts of electricity , each of which procs secondary bolts like chain lightning on a small AOE scale. You can affect multiple enemies, but you'll get the multiple procs even when there's only one enemy present. If you empower it while wearing the LUC, each bolt (primary and secondary) will give you a random tier 3 inspiration, potentially giving you all 6 tier 3 inspirations. Moreover, if you are wielding SSS with the refreshing finale upgrade, it will not only give you back the empowerment point you just used, but will refill your empowerment points completely. So if you draw down your empowerment points by self-empowering to restore wizard spells, you can get them all back if you use your final point to empower Her Revenge. This also works with the Her Tears Fell Like Rain ability as well.

I don't know if Timeless works while paused with the normal pause interface (it should), but it definitely works if you go to your inventory and just switch weapons back and forth. I think that's kind of janky though so I scripted it. Can clear a 40 second arcane dampener hit in like 3 or 4 seconds real time. It's weird to me the game doesn't have any defense against magic besides arcane reflection, making arcane dampener like the most deadly ability in the game IMO (vs the player anyway). For that matter why doesn't suppress affliction work on arcane dampener? This level 3 spell can just remove ALL of your buffs for a very long time and there is no legit defense besides super high will, and even with super high will you get hit sometimes. Oh well, got the outworn buckler swap strategy to counter.

Hey y'all, So based on what I'm reading, this is indeed an issue with the cookie settings our Euro friends have? That definitely helps confirm my suspicions. I'll have our back end developer look into it. Should be a bit easier for him since he is also from Europe Thanks a ton everyone!

3 for 3 Drats! Foiled again!

hmmm. am thinking there is only a handful o' excuses for wearing the cape: 1) you are an opera villain 2) you are, in fact, liberace, elvis, or evel knievel 3) you just suffered a concussion HA! Good Fun!

Happy Festivus. A donation has been made in your name to the Human Fund.

Apart from that gaffe with the missiles that ended up in Poland, Zelenskyi has indeed been remarkably impressive during the war. By contrast, both Putin and Lukasenka look dreadful: lacking in poise and grace, entirely joyless, rigid, mechanical and, from what I can determine, poorly educated. I don't speak Russian, so I can't really comment on Putin's eloquence or lack of it, but it sounds to me that he speaks like a thug, in the same way that Trump does. As if having no education, or poor education. (Trump doesn't have manners, either, whereas Putin can play this game fairly well if he wants to.) I'm extremely keen on the way people speak and what their way of speaking tells of their learning, so it would be wonderful to able to say something about Putin in this regard. But I can't. AND IN OTHER NEWS TODAY: masked Russians throwing sledgehammers onto the yard of the Finnish embassy in Moscow. Apparently this is a response to the "repeated provocations" from Finland's side. News flash: there have been none whatsoever. Historical reminder: it is impossible not to provoke the Russians. Whenever they feel they want to be provoked, they will come up with an excuse for it. I also applaud the bravery of these people, wearing masks and all! I suppose we all know what the sledgehammer is a reference to. Video: https://t.me/moslentaru/17606

The game crashed for me yesterday when I entered a hut looking for the best liquor in the world. Reloaded without all my buffs and it worked ok. All I've got left to do in this act is the Dragon graveyard, the drow quest, Arue's dream quest, the island DLC, and the Ivory Labyrinth. And the Trickster council has finally decided what to do about the Worldwound.

Balls stronger than Adamantium-Vibranium alloy... Zelenskiy visits Bakhmut to award soldiers defending the city... https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-president-visits-frontline-city-bakhmut-2022-12-20/

One more backlog goal in 2022 finished (nr.30) December 20, 13:00 – After finishing all PS4 trophies in Episode Ignis, I have decided to relax a little bit and run around in the main game to finish some sidequests. During that, I have found a meal in an restaurant in Lestallum, with Equalizer buff, which boosts your attack by 2% for each level between your level and the level of the monster you are fighting against. So I have decided to take advantage of it, and went straight to finish the quest involving Melusine superboss, which were added to main game as a free update/DLC. I have defeated her on a second attempt, although she gave me some hard beating when she was under 3% of HP, and almost obliterated my entourage. Thankfully the game offered me invocation of a summon and then, Shiva took care of the rest of her HP pool . After reporting the quest at the Hunter HQ, I have received the trophy, and with that, Final Fantasy XV – July 2017 Update is 100% complete.

Gas pipeline explosion in Russia. Looks big, but I suppose it can't look small. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/blast-west-kazan-shuts-russia-ukraine-gas-export-pipeline-2022-12-20/

Space Dandy 3 Space Dandy speeds to redeem a loyalty card at Boobies and crashes.

Happy Holidays all! Im off from 24 Dec - 2 Jan so Im pretty stoked about that. But that pile of presents arent going to wrap themselves so Ive got to get busy! We just setup the tree on Sunday.

If you have time to read 5k+ words long analysis of the state of Russian forces as seen from Russian perspective. This is very rare sight in the informational space surrounding this war, as it is not spoiled by Russian propaganda. TL;DR. Russia is not prepared against Ukrainian winter offensive.

Russian language was never penalized when used by common people. Period. You are critisizing all year long, how the media is not trustworthy, because they spin their wording to reflect their narative, and you are now trying to counter first hand experience by Russian speaking Ukrainians, who have run away in hundred thousands to Eastern Europe, by linking to news 360, who even though is trying to “offer views from all sides” is in this case just parroting Russian propaganda… LOL But of course, you probably consider the Russian speaking Ukrainians who fled the war and are now sharing their experiences, as a tools of Western Propaganda as well Now be so kind, and answer the question. How you feel about Russian state treating Ukrainian language.

Christmas isn't Christmas for me since I left school. I need the terror and stress of final exams.

Ive never driven on the left, but I think the combination of that and the steering wheel being on the other side, would result in me in a ditch.

The French are questioning the validity of Argentina's third goal, claiming other Argentine players invaded the field:

https://www.gog.com/game/broken_sword_directors_cut Broken Sword free.

Burglary...property damage...violent mobs...all nothingburgers. These losers really need to learn how to be squatters if they want their qq seen and heard.

Have them play Pathfinder: WotR and see who finishes Nenio's quest first.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/12/epic-will-pay-520-million-to-settle-ftc-privacy-payment-complaints/?

I'm in the middle of the 5th crusade and am about to do the Wintersun quest. And I ended up letting a helpful companion die. Oh and two things, a BFT can use the polymorph spells on animal companions which is hilarious. Also an exploit I found in Kingmaker still exists, if a magus uses a touch spell with spell strike and spell combat as a swift action then they do a full attack as a swift action. Those quicken rods just became a real hot commodity. So far I actually like Trickster. The council reminds me of the Black Lodge, the special options are great, and making some drunk king while my god approvingly supplies alcohol is nice.

Yes, but you see, every time you mention russian crimes, you are by law required to mention crimes of similar value from the west, else your post is invalid. If you don't do this, you automatically absolve the west of all its wrongdoings.

Oh, I definitely do not hate Scooter. "FIREEEEEEEEEE!!!!" was the bestest thing ever to dance to many years ago and their other things are very danceable too. It's just that dancing days are long gone, and Scooter, while danceable, are not exactly, well, listenable. So what if I did listen on repeat, maybe I was feeling nostalgic, okay

This is the most hilarious bug I've run into in a while. It sure is a top contender for one of he best, but at least I managed to reproduce it now thank to @Azdeus's testing. Steps to reproduce: Be from Commie-EU-Yurop so the cookie settings pop up. Switch to Incognito/In Private/Private browsing to make sure you have a clean slate. Go to https://forums.obsidian.net Reject the social media cookie (you can reject all others if you want, but this is the one that is causing the issue). Log in Try to post with quotes and multiple lines. ??? Profit (or facepalm if you're the poor sod who has to fix this )! So, while I am not 100% certain that this is caused directly by rejecting the social media cookie - or rather, not accepting it - it is an easy way to reproduce the issues of our posters. It also neatly explains why it is only posters fom the EU that seem to be affected. There was an issue with the social media cookie settings not sticking in the past too, as @Gorgon and @HoonDing can attest to, for which there als are posts in this thread and a solution was sought. There is one really, really, REALLY fun thing you can and should do. Once you got the steps down to reproduce it, reject all the cookies, open up Chrome's dev console by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + I, and try to post from Chrome. You will find this will actually cause posting to behave normally, until a page refresh (going to some other page, or pressing F5). After a page refresh, it will keep eating lines and quotes until you close the development console again. Either way, the moment the scripts seem to realize that the dev console is open (or thinks it is, when you actually close it), it switches to a debug mode where the problem does not happen. If you keep the console open and refresh, the posts get mangled again, but other than some minor warnings about deprecated jQuery functions and content policy header settings there is no error to be seen. Fix for the posters affected is to accept the cookies. Perhaps clear out the browser cache for the forum. At least until it is fixed. Or alternatively, use Chrome and press CTRL + SHIFT + I every time you load a page, but that's certainly really annoying. Edit: tagging in @SChin Edit 2: Same behaviour in Edge, not much of a surprise, same basis as Chrome. Does not seem to work in Firefox from @Azdeus's testing. Can't check now, perhaps later.

King of Seas as a second freebee on GOG winter sale https://www.gog.com/en/game/king_of_seas

Here's a good example of a singer who can absolutely do it live. Saw him in concert only once. Geez he was good.

An oldie from my favourite Faeroese songbird. I know she's a classically trained soprano, but I'm just impressed by what she can do with her voice (and play the guitar at the same time)