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I raise you Finland with Russia AND Sweden as its border pals.

Binary extremities aside, it's not NATO that is right now flattening neighbouring country's cities, bombing civilians, abducting kids and trumpeting that genocide against Ukrainians is a good and even neccesarry thing via their propaganda channels.

Prussia doesn't exist anymore, Sweden and Germany got civilized (though you'll probably disagree as is expected per Europe's traditions ), while that Xzar's and mine neighbour still is homicidal, imperialistic, entitled, delusional and dangerous madman. P.S.: I imagine perspective is quite different from the safety of Sheep'n'Hobbit land.

Must have been horrible having such neighbours on your land borders. With much sympathy, Æthelred Unræd

Insect, cease your meddling. My experiment must continue. Neil Breen Simulator 2072

Russia will permanently shut down a consulate in Finland and two Finnish consulates in Russia. The delightfully infantile thing about all this is how the Russian foreign ministry words itself: "Finland bears all responsibility for the current situation." So there is no Russian aggression in Ukraine, Russia is not turning its back to large parts of the diplomatic community, Russia has not done anything wrong, but its pesky little neighbour is being a nuisance and continues to do completely unacceptable things that deliberately provoke and annoy the Russian people. Let's face it, friends and neighbours, Finland is geographically effed in a serious way: on this planet, it is almost impossible to have a worse country right behind your longest border.

The animal is definitely a cat. It refuses to enter in the water:

System Shock (2023) - It's a very faithful remake of one of the most important games in vidya game history. There are some quality of life improvements, though you're still going to be playing inventory Tetris, and the visuals are vastly improved, I mean, of course they are, the original is 29 years old. But yeah, the game looks great, it's got a pixelated art style, but not 8-bit pixels, or even 16-bit pixels, much much higher definition that, and the game makes fantastic use of light and color, it's wonderfully vibrant. At its core, it hasn't been changed much. It's still brutally unforgiving and Citadel Station is a maze of corridors to travel through, as it should be. You're going to get killed, numerous times, there is a rogue AI trying to murder you, after all. I very much appreciate how you can set different difficulties for each facet of gameplay. I kept all of the settings on normal difficulty except I cranked puzzle difficulty up to hard, since puzzles are my jam. I see that you are still receiving transmissions from Earth. We'll have no more of that Anyway, you sh... *static*

And now an interview for CNN with the president (of Serbia). Tomorrow I will wake up and read that we are in NATO. This is like the twilight zone.

Hey @BruceVC if you would like to support SA developer, the new STASIS game has been released today https://www.gog.com/en/news/release_stasis_bone_totem_with_a_special_offer

All I can think of is:

warhammer grimderp problem are not just come from low effort setting book but extreme toxic community at least before warhammer become much more popular because some half decent video game a lot could have changed but worst part seems to remain

Europe's peaceful for some time (well other than the Yugoslavian wars that everyone seems to forget right now). Probably having failed states on your border like 90s Somalia or Afghanistan or ones in a civil war (CAR's is still going huh) would be much worse.

Australia sure*, but we get on pretty well with the Chinese. They'd never bother invading when our politicians would happily sell the place to them wholesale in the name of 'investment'. *well, not absolutely sure. They do have a notable predilection for sucking up shamelessly to the US in a manner that would make even Tony Blair embarrassed so it may well be that as main motivator rather than actual fear. One of the reasons we get on with China a lot better than Australia does is that so long as we have our anti nuclear policy we'll never be seen as a US stooge- same most definitely can't be said for our trans Tasman cousins.

Well, "Ukraine noise" is kind of deafening from where I am, so. You know. In other Kafkaesque news, russia puts Ukrainian army chief Zaluzhny on wanted list. That blunt American senator should be happy about the company methinks.

Thats nothing, try having the Vikings as your neighbours...the Vikings !!! Gorthfuscious you may not believe this but Piers Morgan and other commentators have also raised reparations due to the terrible carnage inflicted on the Saxons by your ancestors Watch this video from 9:40 onwards ...its happening I tell you. Our shared objective is gaining momentum

I would tend to agree since I've made the same tweak for my PoE2 mod, but this small mod is less ambitious. It is fast cast in PoE1 though, a feature it does not have in PoE2. And it can work situationnaly. Which is okay since you don't really have to spend ability point to get it. The possibility to cast a situationnal Druid/Priest spell basically comes for free, and you'll have Electrical damages talent most of the time. I won't try to balance all abilities, just classes. I don't think Nature's Terror is an issue for druid as a whole so I won't tweak it. PoE2 Maggots do 0 to full damages depending on target health. PoE1 do 10 to 20 damages depending On target health. It is smaller but significantly stronger and easier to use. True about priest. That said immunity is less of a concern because of scrolls. Scrolls have an easier time replacing situational abilities that you won't cast every battles than party buffs you want to cast every time. So I agree with the concern, but won't make it a priority. But I basically buffed every other classes. That said my concern about casters was mostly about boss battles where they have more juice. I isn't possible to change without changing the whole system (with fewer but per encounter abilities, as in PoE2) Sure but please keep in mind the relative low ambition of the mod. It is mostly aimed to make class balance more well rounded, not to address everything (I just can't "invest" that much)

If I remember correctly, the werewolf is to be encountered somewhere in the late-game. Finished Hob. It looks good and the changes in the areas are quite original - a lot of them literally rise from the ground, but the fixed camera angle, poor collision detection (worked more often in my favour in combat), and the somehow simple combat are disappointing. The worst aspect is the story and its presentation - there are no spoken dialogues or written texts, the characters just gesture vaguely, then a quest marker appears. Maybe. When it does not, trying to guess how to progress, when you also do not know the objective due to the lack of dialogues, is somehow unpleasant. The map takes some time to get used to and still does not cover the dungeons, but it is serviceable when it works. Additionally, there is one unique boss, the rest are regular foes with armour. Occasionally, it is not clear when killing everything on the screen is required to progress. The most reliable indication is an inactive mechanism in the room. If it is still inactive when everything is dead, then the battle was optional. The character development system is present - the health can be improved, the sword can hit harder, the glove can charge faster. There are also outfits that change the stats, but I was unable to unlock them - they required both to be found, then to be unlocked with XP points, which seem to be better spent on the glove.

oh you sweet summer child there is only one werewolf in the game, and I think you didn't met him yet if I read well where you are in the progression

Definitely would be some welcomed changes. Although POE did balance classes better than dnd , the casters still end up with so much power. I do like nerf ideas. Also i know this probably wouldn't be included but for me the other reason Priest are top tier class is they counter all enemy CC/debuff. I know there are a few abilities from other classes that counter stuff but there is not enough. I also know that Lore/Scrolls also are viable for countering CC. It would nice if the counters to CC were spread out more in actual abilities. Basically add or modify other classes to have prayer like abilities. Small example would be ranger Heal Companion. maybe it could suppress or just remove status affects and also heal. Its hard to compare to POE2 but they added a buff along with the heal. Or maybe it could remove a certain set of CC like a prayer. Also its funny how Druid is S tier which I agree it is (i still remember the great Druid/Rogue who can do more melee dps posts lol, poor rogue , couldnt out dps a caster class in melee rip) but there are no nerfs proposed. There are small nerfs i can think about for wizards like Chill Fog , which seems to strong for level 1 spell. It needs to either be longer duration between ticks , or a higher tier spell, or a different status than Blinded. I just started a new run so i will have to get back into the swing of things to think about other stuff.

Moscow under attack

Decided that this gen's actual mid tier cards are likely to be crap, so picked up a 6750XT for cheap. So it's now guaranteed that the 7700/7800XT will be the apex of efficiency, value for money and computing power.

Back to trying to finish off all of Wing Commander 2, sort of sucks wingmen only die when the plot warrants it, but eh. The voice acting is...wow.

here is some socia-cultural 'study' which I find pretty decent on eastern europe if anyone is interested

Nature's Terror should be Foe Only. Infestation of Maggots AOE should be big (like in POE 2)

Altered Carbon. Went in blind and liked quite a lot. Good solid cyberpunk science fiction, even if it borrows quite a bit from Blade Runner and sometimes from Fifth Element, but those aren't bad places to borrow from. It appears I'm so used to stupid asspulls in TV that when things that happen actually make sense within setting's rules and story's framework it feels so unexpectedly good. First season: bad guys are exceptionally easy to loathe with a burning passion, protag's of my favorite flavour - an irreverent, sarcastic ass who doesn't take things too seriously, poignant stuff (mostly) doesn't sink into cheesy sentimentality, and one episode's culmination even had me loudly cheering. Second season...eh, story still tight and engaging if predictable but shows importance of the cast. New actors, protagonist's in particular were just...not very interesting to watch. Netflix apparently canceled it but it's a good thing, because its series inevitably decline with each season, and I bought the books anyway.

They actually teach you how to pet the cat/monkey companion:

Alone in the Dark Prologue

Stylised graphics, including pixel art, is significantly easier to read, it looks good longer, and provides lower system requirements. On the other hand, highly detailed, including "realistic", styles age rather quickly and are much harder to process. The mitigation usually includes various forms of "eagle vision" (Assassin's Creed) or "Witcher's senses" (The Witcher 3). I think, one of the Tomb Raider reboot games (haven't finished any of them) had the option to disable the paint on climbable walls. Curious how it mixed when the initial design was based on the not-subtle "hints". I suppose, if it was possible to completely disable visual junk (grass, foliage, non-interactive items that look similar to interactive ones), it would be preferable. The closest I can think of (again, haven't played) is The Last of Us 2.

It is much more interesting to me than running as an Aragorn-knockoff and slaughtering orcs in Shadow games. Gollum is an interesting character with a unique skill. With a strong vision and direction it could make for an interesting, narrative experience. Not an easy sell, even if pulled well, that’s for sure.

Watch out for the werewolf.

Don't expect to feel good about yourself while playing. Ventrue are scum. Tremere are scum who do blood magic. Do a Malkavian run on your second playthrough, so you can appreciate their insight. Feel free to go full combat. You don't get around fighting some boss fights anyway.

The Tarnishing of Juxtia. The game is gorgeous. Juxtia. The first boss, Tralium of the Valley, defeated. I think, the statues might be trying to say something.

Just my unnecessarily large and largely empty home complex. ...I've played enough to notice a few bugs/glitches in the demo. Hopefully those are fixed in full release. Still a chill, relaxing game perfect for my brain right now. ...it's still not May 25th.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/kosovo-leader-snubs-us-call-to-back-down-in-standoff-with-serbs-1.1927127 Serbia needs ATACMS.

Mmm, I think you are just not hearing about it over the Ukraine noise. They are still very much active in their usual stomping grounds, directly and indirectly. I'm sure that once the Ukrainian issue resolves itself one way or another the news will start picking up other topics. It does them no good to dilute the public attention when it's already teetering as it is right now.

Try having Germany/Prussia or Sweden as your border pals (Denmark used to have a land border with Sweden). The sad reality of European history, it hasn't changed (much) how things have been done the past 2000 years.