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Thanks guys. We got him as a puppy. He was the runt of the litter and nobody wanted him, so he was all alone in the pet shop. My wife immediately fell in love with him (although, yeah, back then she was not my wife yet ). It was a gamble, because we didn't know how the cat would take to him. Pretty well, as it turns out, so a couple of months later we had a young Westie with all the fun mannerisms of his breed who was mostly socialized by a cat who adopted him. It made him borderline untrainable and no matter how hard we tried and added some cat mannerisms added into the mix. They're already a notoriously stubborn breed, and since the cat never once did what we told her to do, neither did he. He peed like the cat, and after he was done, he would take a step or two forward and start scratching the ground with his hind legs. You know, to cover it like the cat does in her litterbox. It was adorable. He eventually started to leave his marks here and there (even though we had him neutered, no idea where he picked that up, but he only ever did that outside) in the normal way male dogs do their business, but that was only for marking. Yeah, he did, tumors aside, he was in really good shape for his age. We only needed the vet a handful of times. The funniest one was when he was lying in a corner, whining and being miserable. That was a Sunday evening and we called the emergency vet hotline, brought him to the vet, the vet pressed a little on his abdomen to see what might be the cause for his discomfort, and then he farted loudly and everything was fine again. 300€ for flatulence. The other stuff were vaccinations and a minor injury from an ill-fated attempt at playing with another dog, and one time he ate dark chocolate that fell out of a bag. That one was a close call, but we noticed it early enough. Vet gave him something to throw up, and Simon then proceeded to take a giant dump right in the waiting area as a thank you. Like I said, he hated being at the vet. Heh. Yeah, can't imagine ever not missing him. He was a happy and super cute little dog who tried his best to be a cat. Speaking of the cat, she's been nervous for a while now. She used to play with the dog and they'd chase each other, and recently always went to check on him. She misses him and is constantly chasing my wife for attention at the moment. Back when they were both a lot younger, she'd sometimes jump on the table to steal some food and throw it down to him.

About 35 hours in, felt like writing something. Not sure how long this game is, seems like there's still lots more Overall impression is "kinda ok". Probably wouldn't play this if I wasn't interested in the DA world. Story setup felt interesting, like I said before, but after that it's felt a bit meh. Some of the factions in the game world have been changed, and IMO in a boring way. Can't avoid change, I guess, but the Qunari just feel like basic baddies now and the Crows like a vigilante group. Apparently this mostly relies on stories from non-game DA products, but doesn't save them from being boring choices. Main baddies are boring, hoping they'll shape up by the end. Most of the NPCs are either immediately on your side, or your enemies, without too much in between. Dialogue is the usual Bioware fare of quipping and one-liners. The main difference is there's no massive interrogation trees with important characters anymore, most of dialogue is either in party banter or in specific quests for them. Lots of just text stuff around to flesh out things, like in most RPGs. Exploration is quite parkoury and 3D. There's always things to fiddle with, or loot to get. It's quite smooth overall, but you can spend 30mins trying to reach a chest without figuring it out. But it does feel meaningful, in that what you find ties into the rest of the game fine. Combat grew on me a bit. At the start it felt like I was just dodging 90% of the time, but it feels quite smooth now. I don't play that many games with actiony combat like this, so not sure how other games do it. I'd still prefer the more party based approach of older DA games.

No, as I wrote, I'm pretty sure I just suck at the game

If you wanted exacting ID checks for voting, a drivers license or a passport would have to be free. If it isn't, then you have just excluded people living in poverty from voting. This is a common republican tactic, putting up extra barriers with a specific demographic in mind. Of course illegal immigrants can't vote.

Greetings Watchers! Patch 1.3.8.0.87471 is available to all who opt in on the Public Beta Branch. To opt in to this current update, use the Public Beta branch in Steam. In your Steam Library Right click on Pillars of Eternity, and select "Properties" Select the "Beta" Tab, and click the Drop Down for labeled "NONE" - Select "public_beta" Close the Window, and you should have a download ready. Attempting to play the game should automatically trigger the download. -- Patch Notes-- General: GOG achievements now unlock properly. Steam/GOG Kickstarter and Backer reward items should once again be granted properly to new players. Steam Linux is now supported and will be included in future patches. Epic Game Store users will now properly receive their Royal Edition digital content rewards. Game saves are now listed with priority given to the most recent, regardless of the method used to create them (Quicksave, Autosave, or manual). Visual and Audio: Fixed an issue that prevented character selection barks from playing in certain cases. (Eder has once again found his voice) Grimoires will now correctly hide while reading scrolls. Certain cutscenes and maps will now perform better in 4k. Fixed a remaining edge case that would cause characters to t-pose in very specific cutscenes. Fixed a number of dialogue nodes that would trigger a brief "knock" sound when displayed. Removed unintended echo effects on act introduction audio and developer commentary. Ferry boat in Oldsong is no longer partially submerged. Several variant forms of Woodskin have had their VFX aligned correctly. (Spell Holding, Spell Bind, Adragan & Delemgan variants, etc...) Delemgans, Adragan, Pwgra, and Menpwgra have had missing visual and audio effects updated on many of their spells and abilities. Characters that are immune to poison won't bark about being poisoned when attacked by poisonous attacks. All animal companions will now play footstep audio. Hiravias' Spiritshift FX will now properly play when he leaves spiritshift form. Taena's centec VO will now play correctly in both contexts that it can be heard. Quests and Dialogue: Fixed softlock when hiring Aldwyn and using his services at Brighthallow. Fixed softlock when using Aldwyn's services in the Salty Mast after hiring Lyrinia. Obtaining a quest reward from Simoc in the Sacrifical Bloodlines quest and then killing him will no longer result in a second copy of the reward item on his corpse. After being awarded Alia Braccia in Hearthsong killing the High Monk afterwards will no longer grant a second instance of the reward. Killing Ranga before the potion is acquired will now correcly fail A Mother's Plea. You are no longer able to mention Leaden Key during the Forgotten Army Quest finale if it hasn't been priorly discussed with Aloth. Abrecan will now still accept the letter he sends you to retrieve, even if you already possess it when he first tells you about his request. Krivi's rewards in Od Nua cannot be obtained multiple times by selecting similar dialogue nodes. Now only one outcome is permitted. Anamfath Leader in Twin Elms will continue The Child of Five Suns quest even in the case of Vincent Agosti being dead after being spoken to prior. Failing the Athletics and Dexterity checks in the Durgan's Battery scripted interaction will now properly apply the Concussion affliction. Accepting Tealdor's Bounty relating to the Disciples of the True Flame and leaving the conversation will not prevent players from asking later on about the Bounty for Laenric. Giving Dunstan the final pieces of the Blade of the Endless Paths while he is defending the keep will now correctly reward the player. Accusing Grynde of being a ripple sponge addict for reward can no longer be repeated infinitely. What happens to the ogre Crothar no longer affects Korgrak's quest states. Combat and Mechanics: Fixed a case where the Shadow Step ability could cause a crash. Shadow Step ability is no longer treated as a modal and can now target ground locations. Spellsword Wizard AI will properly activate Second Wind instead of Deleterious Alacrity of Motion when low on Endurance. Party AI will no longer attempt to activate Second Wind in cases where their Endurance is low, but also capped due to low Health. Party AI will no longer select charmed or confused allies as targets for their hostile abilities. As in PoE2, Party AI that are commanded by the player to move to a location will not attempt to move from that location for a brief period. (They will still attack during that time if possible). Trap Accuracy no longer counts the accuracy modifier on the trap's attack twice in its calculation. Fixed an issue that prevented Constant Recovery from scaling in the same way that Veteran's Recovery does. (Constant Recovery is now superior to Veteran's Recovery at all levels, as expected). Ryona's Buckle's Tenacity Accuracy bonus will now properly activate and deactivate based on the wearer's current Endurance (vs. Only checking endurance at the time the belt was equipped). Iron Circle's Adamant damage reduction now properly deactivates when the wearer rises back above 26% Endurance. Killing Bolt traps now target Fortitude, matching its spell counterpart. Killing Bolt traps no longer mention slash damage in their description. Chain Lightning Traps in Breith Eaman now properly deal damage if they strike a character. Binding and severing Abydon's Hammer will no longer permanently increase the user's Might attribute. The Lady's Hand has had its effects reworked to use a trigger that can be better seen on the character sheet when active. The Black Sanctuary shield will now properly apply its endurance recovery effect when casting Withdraw. Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer will no longer cause traps to recursively trigger their effects. Elryn's Jacket Eyestrike effect (and similar events that respond to hostile actions) no longer trigger from beneficial "attacks". Powder Burns modal (and similar effects) no longer harms allies located in the AoE's bonus area from intellect. Fulvano's Blunderbuss Spellchance: Charm can now properly trigger and charm targets. Knock Down will now respect suppression when trying to determine if there's an active knocked down status effect preventing stand up. Enemies can no longer move around while being proned by Concelhaut's Crushing Doom. Izali's Boon stealth skill bonus now correctly clears after a rest. Scroll of Minoletta's Bounding Missiles now uses the correct spell description. Scroll of Boiling Spray range now matches its spell counterpart. Scrolls of Restore Endurance have had their range increased to match their spell counterparts. Hirelings from the Salty Mast will continue to provide their boons when using their services at the player's stronghold. Skyward Kick no longer triggers a vertical launch when it would miss with additional effects. Skyward Kick will no longer cause targets to remain prone permanently. Players affected by multiple Unconscious effects will no longer be able to move around while Unconscious. (Similar cases with other effects should also be fixed). User Interface and Interaction: Weapons can now be equipped to the first weapon set by double-clicking them in the inventory. Right-clicking on a creature will now display its bestiary entry (if it has one). Fixed some cases where the Retrain Character UI might show white portraits. Best of damage type icons now display correctly in the character sheet UI. Fixed a case where Burial Isle visions might prevent the user from canceling actions. Containers that aren't associated with a major faction, but will trigger an attack response from interaction, will now appropriately display the stealing cursor. Trapped chest in the Abbot's Quarter's during the Rising Tide quest can now be looted correctly after being disarmed. Pickables and similar interactions can no longer be looted multiple times using queue'd actions. Removed erroneous description from Guardian Spirit ability on Ancestor Pendant. Setting an invalid name after reaching the end of character creation will no longer allow you to finalize character creation. Character Creation attribute totals only display culture bonuses after the culture screen is reached. Localization: Several Talents that were missing localized text in various languages have been localized. Known Issues: v1.3.8.0.87471 is currently unavailable for OSX (We hope to include OSX in an update to this patch cycle before it goes live). We are still investigating the issue where in very rare cases the spell cursor might display the incorrect icon. A change included in this patch should make this occur far less frequently, but the core issue seems to be Unity related. We'll continue to seek alternative solutions in a future update.

Hello all! If you have the time, I need your advice. I am a Youtuber who’s mostly known for making educational videos on the tactics of Baldur’s Gate 3. I've recently made some fairly popular videos on the PoE series, including a Deadfire Class Tier List video featuring Thelee. Now I am turning my attention towards making a similar video for Pillars of Eternity 1. Just like last time, I need your advice. I have just shy of 1,000 hours in PoE, which is enough for me to have an informed opinion, but still just one perspective. So, I am offering my draft of the list to peer review. I’ve outlined the list below. I can't include my reasoning without this post being to long, so feel free to ask questions. If you have any thoughts or challenges to offer, I’d appreciate your input. Please note though that the finished Tier List ultimately must represent my opinion. I will alter the list if my opinion is altered. The List: Game Breaking Tier: Priest, Druid Overloaded Tier: Cipher, Monk, Wizard, Chanter Bread'n'Butter Tier: Barbarian, Paladin Niche Tier: Fighter, Rogue, Ranger

The final results take two weeks here because of Special Votes, which we have a lot of (more than 25% of total). That's people voting out of electorate, from overseas, registered too late; and we also allow on day registration. All of those have to be manually checked, and generally skew enough to change the result by a couple of seats since specials always bias Left, which has been significant in a 120 (ish, often have overhangs from Maori Party winning electorates disproportionately) seat parliament. Last election despite being a 'landslide' the specials meant three parties were needed for a coalition rather than two.

You still do that with voter rolls though, since you can only vote at that location. Extra layers sometimes just add more exploitable gaps rather than more security. It might, but it'd also theoretically gives people the ability to create airtight frames of innocent people if they're able to access your DNA profile.

It was a surprise and revelation to me too. Here in IL a state ID costs $20 / 5 years (free if youre over 65) but I do agree that every single person over 18 should be automatically issued a government ID card. Hell, imo, we should be getting a DNA sample at birth too. Unsolved crime would disappear in a generation.

Some of the extreme damage from old posts is due to an Argenta bug, where a certain ability would not raise damage according to the modifier provided by the stat (+1, +2, +5 etc) but by the stat itself. An Argenta with (I think Perception) 95 would multiply damage by 95 instead of times 5. It is still strange though how for a game with surprisingly few actual worthwhile choices when leveling up, it is easy to make all the wrong ones. And not getting the exact weapon you need at the exact time you need it makes a lot of difference as well - there just isn't a lot of worthwhile loot. The vast majority of weapons you just trade for reputation. Argenta progresses between something like 3 boltguns throughout the whole game, and only her alt weapon slot makes any difference between builds. Again though, there may be just two heavy bolters and two flamers worth equipping. Most likely, if you messed up anything it is colony projects, locking you out of two or three items worth buying. Again, most items you get from the factions are again just bloat.

Oooh, so THAT's his name.

Shame they didn't include the four characters in the article. Would be interesting to know what we would pick had we been part of the study.

Why so concerned with voter fraud in the US, Bruce ?

Regardless of the results, Trump will declare victory in about 12 hours. And after the votes are counted and if Trump doesn't have the electoral college, there will be months of lawsuits trying to force recounts or disqualify voters. So maybe over a thousand.

As a bunch of people already stated, in California you have a voter roll, so you just show up to vote. I'm not a precinct manager or anything, so I don't know the details. Why would someone risk fake voting as me? Voter fraud is investigated and that would be a pretty easy case to solve. The idea that there are statistically relevant numbers voting fraudulently is a just a big red herring. Florida did a big investigation in the last election and spent a bunch of money to catch like 12 people. Driver's licenses and passports are not free. I don't even have a valid passport right now. The only documents in the US people are really expected to have are your birth certificate and Social Security card. But you shouldn't be carrying those around. The artist formally known as Gorgon already explained that though.

Here in Commie-Land, you're automatically added to the electoral roll based on your primary residence. You only need to register to vote if you're living abroad. Whenever there's an election, your local municipal government sends you the necessary information via mail, i.e. when the election is held, where to go to vote and the slip of paper with your electoral roll number on it that @Lexx mentioned. You just show up to vote, hand over your slip, are handed your ballot paper in return and off to vote you go. These people also check your ID in case they don't know you - so when you're living in one of the larger cities, for instance, you'll probably need an ID on you. As I am from the suburbs I never had to show my ID to vote. Kinda pointless when you're on a first name basis with the guys checking the ID. Then again... we also usually have enough votes counted to call the elections a couple of hours after the polling stations close in most cases (i.e. a confidence interval of < 0.5% which is enough for most elections - except maybe the presidential one in a really close race), and only need a couple of days for an official final result. Quite baffling how long some nations need to get their votes counted.

May also have been a way for the Bioware execs to guarantee this is the end of the road for the franchise. Bioware creative director Epler has repeated in multiple interviews that there will be no DLCs/expansions for DA:V, and that this is because the game is "story-complete." He's even confirmed that the DA:V devs have shifted to the next ME game, and only a small team will be kept to work on a limited number of patches and updates. Me thinks Bioware is done with the DA franchise.

Sure, anyone can go with it. But if they ask for your ID and it doesn't match, you're f'd.

Noooo, just let it end already. You should have it with you, but I never needed to show it. You have a slip of paper with a number on it, your name, address, and the location where you go to vote. You bring that there, they check their lists, mark you down, then you get the voting paper, walk to a booth, fill it out, deliver it back, done.

I understand - but even when it's all about survivability I'd still not pick Antelope - but Boar. Defenses comparison (incl. Antelope's +10 to all defenses bonus): Deflection Bear: +0 Boar: +5 Antelope: +9 Fortitude Bear: +14 Boar: +14 Antelope: +10 Reflex Bear: +4 Boar: -4 Antelope: +28 Will Bear: -10 Boar: +0 Antelope: -2 And now the boar has endless regeneration on top. Imo that's the better package in terms of survivability, especially in the early game. Of course the Antelope has higher combined defenses than the Boar, but it pumps it all into one crazy Reflex defense - which is not so great for overall survivability imo. I can see one case though where this focus on Reflex might be great: If I'd want to build an Animal Companion who does not need to worry about friendly fire Reflex spells too much (a Wizard's Fireballs for example), the Antelope + Defensive/Strengthened Bond might be my pick. Should add up to ~123 stackable Reflex at lvl 20 if I'm not mistaken. I don't know. I picked bears for survivability in combo with Stalkers rel. often - and it worked quite well imo. But ofc. then the Bear then starts with an additional +1 AR because of the Stalker passive. With Resiliant Companion (taken right away) he will start with very decent AR (11 believe) and he feels quite sturdy - compared to a Wolf at least (which is my second favorite AC). Hm... now I wonder if I should try to build a Stalker/something tank + Bear AC. With Shining Bulwark shield (+1 AR for the Bear), maybe Furrante's Breastplate (-10% dmg received for the Bear)... What second class? Chanter (healing + dmg shield chant - bonuses would also work for summons)? Cipher (Pain Block +2 AR)? Shieldbearer (Exalted Endurace +1 AR etc.)? Ancient (2 Sporelings+Wild Growth AND 1 Bear + Nature's Balm's +2 AR)? Beastmaster tank sounds pretty nice for a change. Shining Bulwark doesn't fit the theme though. Edit: Argh, Nature's Balm and Wild Growth are on the same spell level.

I have no idea what they do when they arrive in person as I've never voted in California but I think they get mostly get their ballots mailed to them and then they mail them back or have drop boxes like we do in Colorado. But please, please refer to my first post. Do you really think hundreds of thousands or millions of illegal immigrants, for the first time ever, are going to put themselves under extra scrutiny and risk serious charges from the government just to go vote? While also having at least the names of just as many people who registered but they know aren't going to show up to vote, otherwise they'd be found out real quick, in a state where it doesn't even matter? Why is this an issue? Is it the principle of the thing or something? I don't get it but I'm genuinely curious. It has never happened in recent history and I have no idea about the beforefore times but I doubt it. If this is now moving to the swing states next then I'm out because please read my first post.

How to get on the voter roll.

It's a solution to a problem that literally doesn't exist and any extra burdens you start adding have a chilling effect, especially on the groups mentioned. Plus our country has a history of this kind of thing so it's just a new spin on an old classic.

The entire Dragon Age series is a mirror image of Bioware's existence. Which is one of following market trends. Origins (initially announced as Dragon Age in 2004) was pitched as a "back to the roots" project. Not late into their careers, like an aging Rock band would. But rather barely two moons after Throne Of Bhaal had shipped. Why is that so? Because the only thing consistent with Bioware games is/was their authors. Everything else was up for grabs, targeting whatever's currently hot. Neverwinter Nights? Multiplayer. Jade Empire? Console action-adventures. Mass Effect? Gears Of War. The Old Republic was clearly meant to be a World Of Warcraft Killer -- and Inquisition went bigger becuz Skyrim. And even BG wore its RTS influences on its sleeve (in particular Warcraft 2 at that time, which James Ohlen et all were big fans of). "We want Call Of Duty's audience" is one of the most infamous quotes in RPG history -- as if id Software would announce to target (or at least try hard to not alienate) Monkey Island fans next.

Hey, maybe Bioware's execs let EA's execs write Veilguard out of gratitude, judging by general opinion on its story Anyway. All this talk of DA made me reinstall Origins, which I don't think I need to spend more time with, since it's one of very few games I collected 100% cheevos for, but here I am. I love how things make sense in it. It's also less brown than I remember it.

i don't doubt it might be outdated (that section probably hasn't been touched since 1.x), i'll add it to my queue for next update. yeah, though for me the damage of the animal companion isn't very important. i mean, it's important for ranger's overall dps in general, but overall i get more value for most situations just as a source of engagement (with protective companion), so survivability is more important to me, unless i'm ghost heart. yeah it's not bad, that's why i specified it's better mid-late game when you get some scaling. IME AR is just really hard to make relevant in the early to early-mid game in PotD, which is also the hardest part of the game. IIRC a bear companion will have 8 AR at game start (5 + 2 bonus + 1 default fine bonus). Against even a lower-pen attack (like 6 PEN) thanks to PotD scaling you actually get 0 survivability bonus compared to a non-bear (thanks to the +2 PEN from difficulty). it'll protect you a bit from overpenetration (esp crits) but not by much. and then against harder enemies, forget about it, even with zealous endurance or a tier 2 constitution inspiration you may still get 0 DR. it's only really as you keep scaling up and enemies start capping their scaling (or vs spell-based-scaling scaling up too slowly) and/or you get tons more reliable sources of AR boosts or PEN debuffs that it really helps alot. (edit: same goes for players, really. even when you first get heavy armor it's underwhelming the protection versus the cost because of how asymmetrically weak heavy armor weaknesses are. in terms of early armor, it's the exceptional medium armor you can steal from dark cupboard that imo starts having a real impact on survivability and almost exclusively because it covers its weaknesses better than heavier armor)

There was also 'never any mandate' to use Frostbite for Andromeda or for DA2 to have such a short development cycle. And Bioware did exactly what it wanted with Anthem too! (Funny thing being that just makes both sets of execs dumb; the Bioware ones for consistently making bad decisions, the EA ones for not intervening in the bad decision making. At least EA execs imposing the bad decisions could have the Bioware ones being competent but overruled)

Meanwhile, prepare to have more cavities and rotten teeth for your kids: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Donald Trump would seek to remove fluoride from water if elected

Great job with the fixes, you’re the best. Continuing to show love to this game is priceless for me. Thank you for keeping up with these improvements; I’ll start a new game to test everything thoroughly, this deserves it. (づ￣ 3￣)づ

The principle in the US, unlike in most of the developed world, is that people should not be forced to have a form of ID. So if not everyone has to have an ID, and not everyone, additionally, has easy access to a form of ID, due to specific socio-economic constraints, requiring ID to vote is a targeted form of suppression. Essentially if you require ID to vote you should provide ID to all who are eligible to vote.

Manga artist Kazuo Umezu aka Kazuo Umezz passed away Oct 28. Works included The Drifting Classroom, My Name is Shingo and Cat Eyed Boy. https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/obituaries/20241105-220631/

Its not an unusual voting requirement to have ID checks on the day of voting, I always assumed this was normal and I am sure if you ask anyone on this thread who votes outside the US they are required to produce ID. But I might be wrong and maybe its not expected in other countries? I see there are several states that dont require ID checks https://thehill.com/homenews/4969868-states-require-aid-vote-in-person/ The remaining states and Washington, D.C., do not require any documentation to vote at the polls: California Hawaii Illinois Maine Maryland Massachusetts Minnesota Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New York Pennsylvania Vermont Its not about principle. ID verification is used to check you are who you say you are on the voters roll Its one way to ensure you dont have a type of voting fraud

I know it wasn't directed at me, but you don't have to use more than a couple of the grey cells to figure out its a reverse uno on the law that introduced id requirements. Unregistered and illegal migrants can vote if ID isn't required (and they usually vote democratic). Same shenanigans when people in power resort to gerrymandering (i.e. vote rigging) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

Quincy Jones