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...went ta the oldest grandkid's first Spring Hockey practice today fer the "traveling team"...li'l bugger's first year playin' goalie an' not only did he make the team but he's gonna be the Starter...jus' like Papa was when I was a wee lad...costin' me a small fortune cuz I said when he was 4 that we'd pay fer hockey an' now that he's 8 I's already regrettin' me big yap...Grandkid's be still better, though; feed 'em full o' sugar an' send 'em back fer theys mother ta deal with...revenge be sweet!!... ...WHO LUVS YA, BABY!!...

CON inspiration and CON affliction are both just two sides of the same coin. But that thread was specifically about how those conspire with effects that add a set amount of health (mainly those amulets that grant +health), and how the game doesn't handle the math right. I actually don't remember which way the interaction goes, it's pretty obscure (but had an application in letting you infinitely restore health in e.g. woedica's challenge). But the Dorudugan thing shouldn't be the same thing here, I doubt he/she/it has a specific health buff. Given the closely-aligned numbers involved in Shai Hulud's post outside BPM (87.4% of health to 88.7% of health, back down to 88.3% of health), I half suspect maybe it's some funky rounding with the difficulty health boost (which, thanks to this thread I now realize is a multiplicative bonus on the enemy's total health), which we only really notice here because of the massive numbers involved with dorudugan's health pool. edit: i speculate that it has something to do with the difficulty adjustment mostly because back in that thread i think Boeroer had specific numbers and MaxQuest had an equation that matched the game to a T, so I don't think CON adjustments alone causes the health healing weirdness. edit 2: also want to underline that this concern is probably mostly for solo, since if you have reasonable uptime and reasonable party DPS, even with dorudugan healing some tiny % of health every time the CON effect wears off, it'll get overwhelmed by what is a 12.8% multiplicative party damage bonus against it by virtue of good uptime on the con affliction.

I'm more or less aware of this. There are indeed strange rules that apply to current health while max health is changed (mostly through CON buff). There was even a thread about it (started by @thelee if I remember well), but I wasn't able to find and necro it. The topic was more about CON Inspiration though. In general it isn't gamechanging, but in case of Megabosses, well, it is. And yeah, it's hardcoded. Gotta love this BPM SC Ranger permanent CON Debuff I guess.

"Defund the police"... all the myths and urban legends around it https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/05/19/7-myths-about-defunding-the-police-debunked/ Edit: For those who wants more pictures and less text, the paragraph headers. If you believe in any of these, find the matching paragraph in the site linked to Myth #1: Defund Means Abolish Myth #2: Defunding Will Lead to Disorder Myth #3: Police Protect the Public From Violence Myth #4: Community Programs Won’t Work Myth #5: Most Police Work is Focused on Crime Prevention Myth #6: Police Officers Do Not Need College Degrees Myth #7: Defunding the Police is a Knee-Jerk Reaction With No Research

Once again, the coveted author tag is mine.

I got bored with it pretty quick. That being said I never really enjoyed DOS so I might not be the one to comment. Something about larians writing annoys me. Also 3D environments are annoying, much prefer static environments. Rotating the camera is a pain.

Monk/Priest is very nice as well. I once played a Berath/Helwalker monk and it fit thematically and was quite strong as well. Helwalker bonuses helped make my castings more impactful so it was nice synergy. And when I was done casting I could smash heads with a big summoned greatsword. Better than pure Monk? I don't know. PL 8/9 Monk abilities are obviously quite impactful. It was fun though, and more interesting I think than spamming Wotw.

At least 130 hours. Like @Humanoid said, at this point it is not really worth jumping into EA at this point, though if you really, really want to play it, buing it early will grant you Digital Deluxe upgrade for free. As to game itself, it is complicated. It is less of a Baldur's Gate3 and more of a Divinity: Original Sin2 smashed with 5e D&D with a dash of influence of Dragon Age. So far the result seems rather conflicted. I enjoyed my time with BG3 more than I did D:OS2, but I also found it more frustrating - D:OS2 just wasn't my cup of tea, while BG3 very much could be but than it does something silly. At the very least it is shaping up to be easily the biggest budget proper RPG we ever got.

Yes, but way back in 2020, so my experience is probably not particularly relevant to the current state of the game. Have to say it was a decent experience even back then, with the caveat that my most frequent thought about it was "I wish this was more like Divinity and less like faithful D&D". So no regrets, although there is the catch that I used a VPN to buy it for less that full local retail price. However with the game launching as little as four months time, I don't really see the point of jumping into it now. Surely it'd be better to play the game completely fresh on actual launch?

lamplighters dev diary #5. turn-based combat one aspect we found intriguing in part 'cause o' what is not detailed-- The Stress System Being attacked in combat is stressful. In The Lamplighters League you can use the stress of your enemies to your advantage! But you also have to pay attention to your own Agent’s stress levels as well. Let’s dive into the rules! What is Stress? Every time any unit is attacked, they will accrue a point of Stress. Note: Hits AND Misses both accrue the same amount of Stress. So even missed abilities have some effect! Stress is represented by the pips above the unit’s Health Bars. When a unit reaches maximum Stress, they will Stress Break. Stress Breaking When a unit Stress Breaks and hits max stress, something happens! For Enemies: Some enemies Flee and will cower for a turn. Some enemies go Berserk and attack a nearby target – friend or foe! For Player Agents: Stress Broken Agents will lose 1 AP their next turn. More effects to be revealed later… am getting how stress is a fatigue mechanic, and am curious, but we would like more info. HA! Good Fun!

Gundam: the Witch from Mercury is back and it has improved a lot. Much less happy high school scenes and 200% more deaths, war crimes and ptsd. They also confirmed a dark fan theory that was literally written in front of everyone's faces. Then you have definitely watched enough to decide if this is for you.

They did mention some interesting stuff in the news, like Ukrainian air defense ammo stockpiles, some mention of the casualties. That said, nothing to earth shattering especially if you do waste spend your time following the war closely via analysts and OSINT types.

well there really is nothing interesting in those files AFAIK. Nor nothing most people don't know about already so I am not that surprised not many people talking about it much

I don't think the disease model of addiction is a particularly fruitful way of viewing the problem, although there is obviously a semantic component to the question as well, i.e. how do you define the term disease. Often, what ultimately creates an addiction is a desperate attempt to cure or at least come to terms with or escape the original, underlying dis-ease (sorry), i.e. some sort of intense psychological suffering. This is one reason why addictions are so very difficult to overcome: often the first thing that happens after some sobering up is the intense reoccurrence of the original problem, and this is generally where people relapse, because the suffering is so intense. (Hence the AA joke about how it's not necessary to try to get in touch with your emotions, as they will get in touch with you, just you wait.) I think it was Jung who pointed out that neurotic behaviour tends to be a substitute for real suffering. So, for instance, if there's something in your psyche that would like to manifest but is too painful for you, you may, instead, bite your nails or go on the internet or whatever, and once this has been repeated enough times, the neurotic behaviour itself has turned into a serious problem without the original impetus never once being addressed or even experienced properly.[*] Anyway, I agree that the fact that many drugs of addiction are illegal produces a completely unnecessary extra layer of crime and suffering and almost never helps anyone overcome their addiction. It's an effing big problem. [*] Curious fact about humans: they often react to interior problems in ways that only exacerbate them. Think of the husband who is so utterly terrified of losing his wife that he becomes jealous and starts behaving like such a príck that he ultimately makes his fears come true: no longer willing to tolerate awful behaviour, the wife will in fact leave him.

That stuff is so wild to me. I can't even imagine to just blast someone dead if they drive their car onto my driveway for a second.

Yep exactly.

Causes of Crime - Explaining Crime, Physical Abnormalities, Psychological Disorders, Social And Economic Factors, Broken Windows, Income And Education - JRank Articles SEE! If we gave everyone UBI and UFD we could greatly reduce crimes and the prison population.

Solasta has the most fun tutorial with them all in the tavern sharing stories.

I understand. One of the problems with the War on Drugs is that many of the policy choices are made by people who prefer to remain unaware of the kind of circumstances some people have to deal with on the seedier side of society. I mean, if your childhood experience contains plenty of fatherly rape and spitting upon (this example directly from Maté's book), then you're likely to enter young adulthood in a state of constant and serious suffering, which means that your capacity for sound judgement is seriously impaired, which means that if there's a strong bodymind anaesthetic available, your chances of trying it and becoming addicted to it are going to be quite high. As you well know, a vast proportion of people with drug problems are people who were dealt an awful hand long before they had a drug problem, but as things like this would require multi-level intervention, the punitive approach is a lot easier, even if it ends up wasting more resources and producing more suffering than the alternative. All in all, I think it's heartbreaking. It's yet another sad example of the Matthew principle in action.

Yes, you make some good points here and my research and every interview I have ever listened to reveals the same outcome. Defund the police was never implemented properly or it has been abandoned but there is reason it has been abandoned It created real problems with police budgets being cut and police were retrenched in certain Democratic controlled cities. For some advocates of Defund the police I believe they were genuinely well meaning with the objective that budgets cut could be allocated to other city projects that could help with crime prevention But that wasnt the outcome and crime increased in the US in most of these cities that tried to implement these changes so irrespective of the reasons it failed because citizens felt less unsafe. So its not just politicians saying " defund the police is bad " it had real consequence on levels of crime that were attributed towards it Here is a last link about this, it highlights many of the systemic failures with the overall program https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2021/07/20/democratic-mayors-defunded-their-police-while-spending-millions-on-their-own-police-protection/?sh=4fd3018d86b4 And I know we wont agree on this but its unfair to call the US police a paramilitary force. But I am not suggesting that police shouldn't be held accountable around there actions and illegal police activity must obviously be prosecuted

I thought the same.. comparing them with ISIS kinda washes down what ISIS actually did. But when writing that on reddit, I got downvoted into oblivion.

Essentially the same goes for the War on Drugs: there is overwhelming evidence that it is extremely counterproductive and that an awful lot of misery, crime and waste of human resources could be avoided simply by spending all those huge sums of money in a more humane way, but it just doesn't happen, quite possibly because being punitive "sells better on election day it seems". The Canadian doctor Gabor Maté has a book called In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction. It's good, but the view it gives you of the North American approach is really quite depressing.

"Russia is basically ISIS, only with snow", said the Ukrainian soldier known as Operator Starsky. Now, I probably wouldn't go that far, but that is a marvelously pithy phrase, so hats off for that.

Not a lot. Just enough to know that, if you want to compare results, you need something to compare it to. I found very little information from the US other than than the opposite, most communities invested more in their police than in alternatives and crime prevention (October 16, 2022). Because having more para-military forces around just sells better on election day it seems. https://abcnews.go.com/US/defunding-claims-police-funding-increased-us-cities/story?id=91511971 "Overwhelmingly, cities, counties, police departments across the country are not being defunded in any way," Ray said. "In fact, many of them have increased their budgets. Part of the reason why the 'defund the police' narrative has stayed around is because police officers say it and elected officials say it." I.e. it never happened, so you can't really prove if it had or would have any effect... I checked some Canadian results, but not a single noteworthy community even attempted alternatives (i.e. prevention, counseling, community projects etc.). Don't get me started on my own little corner of the world, where it's hard to shake the feeling, that the federal police are the Sturmtruppen of the conservative party (the Australian Liberal Party). There is a decade of other, more pressing mess(es) that needs cleaning up before getting anywhere even near some much needed police reforms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Commission_into_Aboriginal_Deaths_in_Custody (yes, that's almost 500 people dying in their cells) Edit: It's not really a surprise, that one of the last two conservative state PM's got kicked out of NSW in the last election. Some gratifying humiliations too in some local NSW by-elections, flipping colours in areas that had been staunchly conservative for like half a century. Only one conservative state PM left in Tasmania. Let's see if it lasts.

#LightTheBeam

Any type of monk can kill Dorudugan, but not with (just) melee damage. The idea is to stack enough resonance stacks then blow him up. The easiest way to kill him with any type of monk is to use Enduring Dance to generate wounds, summon the Dichotomous Soul to keep him busy and use Essence Interrupter or Frostseeker to damage/build stacks of resonance on him. (Of course you need specific equipment for this encounter in any case). The votary can also facetank him using FF and eventually blow him up but, if the health bug is also present in the vanilla version, it's better to use the "classic" way to kill him. The assassin/FF can also use the "classic" way to kill Dorudugan. The other possibility is to use Vanishing Strike and then Gambit with Mohora Tanga in the main hand while invisible, (but probably less reliable). PS. A FF/troubadour would have the easiest way to kill Dorudugan of any class.

A Ukrainian pal had some family who remained for some years in Crimea following the annexation. They told him that much of the propaganda from the Kremlin-sponsored TV programming in years past has a pretty big focus on the "decay" of the West and the "decay" of European moral values, particularly in regards to transgender issues and gender roles*. Given the current Trumpian crusade against transgender rights it's hard for me to ignore the weird parallels in their values. *Can provide a Youtube link by PM on request, as the propaganda video he shared with me seems to me too skeevy for a PG13 board.

But from all the available evidence we would have to conclude that they do care. After all, they support Ukraine more than anyone else in the world. What else could they do to demonstrate that they care? Economic and other considerations are there as well, but it would be quite wrong to conclude that economy is the only thing that matters -- and even if it were, that is currently demonstrated in a way that also supplies care to the Ukrainians. So it's much more complex that you try to make it sound.

Since book burning was fashionable in the 20th century... is internet burning going to be a thing in the 21th century?

1.2.0 Public Test - 4091 to 4094 Changes Coziness level up audio has been changed. New Buildings: Wasp Paper Lamp and Wasp Paper Partition Wasps only apply poison by default now instead of an arrangement of poison, venom, and bleed. Bleed is still applied if they have been buffed by Wasp Drones. Charged Spicy Staff projectile launches correctly. Wasp Queen land attack is now blockable. Broodmother jump back attack is blockable. Wasp Queen normal attacks do slightly more damage. Fixed stuffed creature scaling that was undone with the 1.2 public test build. Growing muscle sprouts now only gives 2 muscle sprouts by default. Muscle sprouts can Green Thumb grow into larger sprouts that can be chopped into 2 muscle sprouts each. Cozy meter hides the fill bar at level 5 instead of level 4. Less wasps spawn during base attacks. Fixed a client crash that could happen when crafting.

Also, some of the more famous (and most loudest) republicans are paid by Moscow, so it's in their interest to support a winning russia.

It is easier than this, you can just spam Psychovampiric Shield (or even Telekinetic Burst for a Psion) [EDIT] unless you are not talking about spiritualist any more

I recommend using the standard array or point buy, if you want a reasonable challenge. If you just set the stats at what you want it gets pretty easy.

One Slovak journalist have published this today (Google Translated).

Got gold on all the races in Dragonflight, the reverse ones have some "fun" design choices, like a tree being around a blind corner or through so much foliage you can't see a branch that'll hit you, heh. Fun use of time, also trying to knock off the last raid...amazing how people stand in front of a charging laser beam.

This. I really enjoyed Trine 1&2. Trine 3 was so bad I didn’t bother even trying to finish it. Gave 4 a miss because of the bad aftertaste of 3 Btw. Those games are more fun in coop

The release date of Stray Gods (formerly, Chorus) has been announced - August 3rd, 2023. I like the writer (David Gaider) and the concept was interesting enough to back it on Kickstarter (a visual novel with mostly-sung dialogues). https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/dragon-age-writers-musical-rpg-stray-gods-has-an-august-release-date

Wartales is out of Early Access.

I prefer MC monks. SC monks are a bit dull. Once you get Whispers on the Wind your fights are mostly using that as much as possible. Transcendents are really good. Particularly FF / soul blade. Have more accuracy than SC monks with a bit of work, more versatility, soul annihilation fulfills a similar role as resonant touch but can be used more often, you can disintegrate things, etc. Needs community patch for FF to build focus. Brawlers can be quite good if you like tanks. FF / unbroken probably being the most tanky. Wanderers can reach high amounts of accuracy. Probably won't surprise you I like FF / ranger. You can even play ranged with Instruments of Pain, but pretty sure FF attacks don't benefit from driving flight. You can use Long Pain Fists with normal fist attacks though, using animal companion and dichotomous souls to keep things off you. Works well as shattered pillar with the community patch, you can generally maintain enough damage and crits to keep up the long pain fists. Have also played votaries, cantors, ravagers, and sages, all of which have their selling points, but my favorite is probably transcendent. If you're willing to go through the blood mage deification process (buff self, blood sacrifice to near death, drink potion of final stand, put up walls of draining every 30 seconds), then helwalker / blood mage is insane. Blood sacrifice creates wounds, and you can spam it endlessly since you won't day, then use citzal's spirit lance and stunning surge on groups. Or spam raised torment, skyward kick, etc. Or you can play it as a caster just using helwalker for the +10 might and +10 INT.

Well, drug and alcohol addiction are mental diseases like any other. You wouldnt deny some mentally challenged person their meds, so why deny an addict? Then they wont need to steal stuff or sell their bodies to fund there habits.

to be fair, the old trope were closer to demogorgon. grendel were one o' the firstest bogeymen in literature and he were a vaguely anthropomorphized fear o' that which lurks just beyond the longhouse door-- something monstrous and indescribable. as a species we became more "civilized" and less afraid o' the unknown birthed by the darkness. we realized hic sunt dracones were less scary than our neighbors. whether is climate change, nuclear war, or handguns, chances are you see mankind as the origin o' the mostest likely nightmares you will need confront. not surprising, our monsters changed from unknowable and indescribable to something much more familiar... and human. the motivations and appearance o' our monsters became recognizable and describable. nevertheless, the old terrors were never genuine dispatched and they crouch in the midnight corners o' our collective unconscious. like it or not, we all got a monkey brain and on a fundamental level we know there is monsters waiting for us in the darkness. HA! Good Fun!

For my co-op run, we just let the dice fall where they may: used the randomly rolled stats they give you without once touching the re-roll button. The one difficulty hump we hit was early on and I suspect that was because we skipped a sidequest ( ) which I suspect meant we were one level short of what the coming encounter was balanced around.

Here is the only safe link, I have found about the ”news” above. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/04/17/7398225/