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Replaying Allen Wake on the Xbox. This thing is still fun.

Look, our very own @Gorth is famous

Hey Everyone! I was trading emails with Azdeus and he said I should come see you guys. It has been a while hasn't it. The beginning of last year I think. I didn't even realize how long until I signed in and couldn't remember my password. I really hope all you fine folks and your families are doing well! 2022 and the first half of 2023 were a pretty rough time for me. I was dealing with lymphoma but with the help of early detection, some really great doctors and medical folks I'm almost as good as ever. Please don't ignore symptoms. If you feel off please see a doctor. After that experience I decided to retire. Much earlier than I was planning but life is beautiful, and short. It's meant to be enjoyed. Gwen (her real name) and I are still together and doing well. I don't know why I didn't want to use her real name online. It probably made sense to me at the time. I am so lucky to have met her. She is semi-retired as well and we are currently wrapping up a road trip to visit all the national parks in New Mexico. Eventually we will visit all the US & Canada national parks. 21 down, 90 to go. And forever to do it. Bri is graduating from college next week and we will be there to cheer for her. She is an amazing young lady with a bright future. So proud of her. I made peace with my brother I'm happy to say. I never really understood what the resentment was about but dealing with a serious illness changes your perspective on things. That's pretty much it. I do miss talking to you guys. After a career in tech I'm doing retirement decidedly low tech. I barely even use the internet anymore. I hope all of you are happy and healthy.

Just to continued a conversation from a blog post... @kanisatha Thanks for the heads up. Sadly, I only have two of my old boxes of Avalon Hill games that survived more than two decades of constant relocation left, being "Flat Top" and "Wooden Ships & Iron Men". I always hoped those would some day get good computer game adaptations. The former being especially "taxing" by the sheer amount of literal paperwork involved. For some good free PC games designed by Gary Grigsby, the current IP owner (Matrix Games) have made "Pacific War" and "War in Russia" (WWII games) available for download for free. Even if designed in the Dos era of PC's, they ran on Windows 11 last time I played them. Took a moment to mentally separate SGS from an old favourite of mine, SSG (Strategic Studies Group), who made the first 4X game I played in the mid 80's, "Reach for The Stars". Sadly Microprose is no longer what it once was. They made some great strategy games besides flight sims, going back to the early Commodore 64 days and up to the PC era. Edit: Being part of my gaming experience on both C64, Amiga & PC Today I play a few older Paradox titles, like Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis 3 and Hearts of Iron, as well as a few of Matrix Games titles, "Gary Grigsby's War in the East" and "Gary Grigsby's War in the West". I will check up on the SGS games though edit2: Something I didn't mention is, I still play a lot of the old C64 and Amiga games on emulators. Mostly a few SSI games on the C64 and an Amiga version of the Battlemech board game (yes, turn based on a hex pattern map, doesn't get better than that!)

When the IDF piles up dead civilians, at least they have the out of saying they had to use inaccurate weapons because the US was mean.

Yes.

Manor Lords - I don't profess to actually understand detailed mechanic workings, it's all too obscure/inconsistent/glitchy perhaps, but you do stuff enough times and you figure out what works. Hence, I have reached the point where I can restart, get to 600+ population, and then get bored. At least in terms of sandbox. On the one hand, I appreciate I can grow at my own pace. On the other hand, when there is no reason to keep growing (especially since the multiple-region stuff isn't it) outside of "town painting" a region, no risk or buildup left to do (I can literally walk away for hours and it runs itself with no problems) apparently for this game, 600 or so is the magic "I'm done" number. I've barely tried the combat. It sounds way too buggy with perhaps too dramatic a difference between too easy and irritatingly rushed.

The reaction to Israel not getting a couple of shipments of JDAMs is getting hilarious. You'd think without those bombs, the IDF will be annihilated by Hamas.

New "Iontronic Memristor" Could Revolutionize Brain-Like Computing Using Only Salt and Water - The Debrief

Joyfully began the new Obsidian Community Blog feature ... 20 years people! https://forums.obsidian.net/profile/666-gorth/

I have now reduced difficulty in Troubleshooter to Easy, down from Hard. I am not mentally prepared to figure out the min maxing required to finish DLC 2 on hard. Or normal for that matter. I may go down to story difficulty, since at 300 hours, I am only interested in seeing where the story ends

Can we have a proper hockey thread now?

This is a bit simplified. They only really "split" by the time Dishonored 2 and Prey were being developed in tandem. But even then, people switched places (I mean, Colantonio is from France himself). Also, even Redfall lists almost two dozen people from Lyon in the credits. Or, to let Raf Colantonio do the talking (note his huge follow-up post to this also). But in general, what happened in Austin is a good example of destroying studio culture. Arkane have been a very specialized company since their very inception. This naturally included what people they at all hired. And now they were tasked to do a multiplayer, open world CoOp shooter kind of game. It's akin to Hollywood encouraging Sofia Coppola to do the next Furious movie. Why? Becuz popular. In fairness, this started under ZeniMax. I personally didn't get much Arkane vibes upons Redfall's release. And had looked up the game's credits before it became public what happened. By watching the credits as well as checking people on Linkedln, it was apparent that a lot of people were brought in from all over the open world gaming action industry. This included Anthem's OW lead designer, and numerous other people who prior worked on Mafia, Destiny, Saint's Row et all. Some of those joined as late as a year prior to Redfall's release. So Arkane lost people that were hired specifically for the type of games they were specializing in, those people quit and left. To hire new ones just for Redfall. However, if it weren't for people working on a Marvel IP in Lyon, they may be in trouble now as well. Not sure if posted already. But 'd love if Arkane had gotten a chance at that announced Indiana Jones game rather than MachineGames. For a start, perfect fit for their type. See Thief's grave robbery missions, with fantastic in-universe maps for all your archeological needs. Secondly, Indy is still strong enough an IP, even if the last movie disappointed. Is it really the CORE of their very type of game that's not blockbuster worthy? Or is it rather their package? Until Baldur's Gate 3 came around, party-based tactical RPGs were seen as a niche as well. Turn-based ones even moreso. The notion was: No matter the rest of the game or what you're aiming for as an OVERALL EXPERIENCE: If you include THIS feature, you're going to go niche.

I am not surprised. This is Arkane Austin - they have done Prey and its DLC and Redfall. Prey is an acclaimed, if not particularly profitable, and Redfall is a flop, that allegiedly drove away about 70% of staff that made Prey. So it's not even the case of "abandon Refall and work on something else", as the folks who made Prey are mostly gone and you have a live service oriented studio, that clearly didn't come together very well (not aiming on judging individual devs of course - **** happens). Tango is what surprised me. Sure, it probably didn't break the bank, but they made THE game that delivered some positive buzz for XBOX. Even if it somehow a perfectly sensible move (like keeping the talented devs and putting them to work elsewere, but shutting down the studio now when the founder is gone) it is still a terrible look.

New York Times: RFK Jr. says "[parasitic worm] ate part of his brain".

guys ive tried to confirm If wounding stacks with your methods. It is pretty hard to do so tbh I cant tell the difference

This is a bit out of my league guys. I'm going to have to take your word for it. Thanks anyway

Wounding lash uses pre-DR damage. It takes 25% of it. And multiplies by (1 + mig_coefficient). ahh I thought it did 25% of the after DR damage but that bypassed the DR. I hate the descriptions in this game for items so misleading. Im still not convinced it stacks though. its pretty hard to tell if it does

I just checked my combat log. The wounding is doing nearly as much damage as the original strike how is that possible? it says hit durance for 4.7 slash damage +2.6 corrode affect durance with drawn in spring 7.1 raw damage over 6.3 sec wtf??

can you check with tidefall to see if it does the same in the combat log?? I just checked all my saves I must have sold it to a vendor so I can t do it. I

It hasn't always looked like this. Like I said I've seen tidefall wounding affect displayed numerous times in the combat log. It is not doing that anymore

I'm pretty sure it's not stacking I've seen tidefall on previous playthrough say Tidefall 2.4 sec Tidefall 1.6 sec Tidefall 0.8 sec It is not doing that this time (with drawn in spring anyway) Each attack with the dagger is just resetting the countdown timer I'm certain it is not stacking

Just opened up another playthrough and checked drawn in spring. Wounding defeintely is not stacking. Combat log just shows the timer counting down and then getting topped up again with every strike. Eg Drawn is spring 3.4sec And then when you hit Drawn in spring 5sec You should check the total damage done. You hit twice one of your companions and you check the health lost. If the health lost is equal to the damage from the logs then the wounding stacks. just checked as far as I can tell it is not stacking. Its also very hard to tell hitting a companion because your companions health resets so quick. It also shows it very plainly in the combat log that it is not stacking (when in combat vs enemies) it would not reset the timer of the previous wound if not the case.