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Eh, I am curious how OW2 will do. My impression was, that Bethesda's Fallout76 fiasco generated a lot of buzz for OW, and a lot of "Fallout In space, Bethesda killer etc." headlines, in spite of devs trying really, really hard to communicated that it is not on the scale of Fallout: New Vegas. The game did get a good critical reception, and it sold reasonably well. We will see if it was a one off, or if the audience returns for the sequel.

Hi, and welcome! Melee or ranged? I personally would recommend ranged if it's your first run. It does a little less potential damage (=focus generation) but doesn't need to move as much to reach enemies, doesn't need to be very sturdy and is most often inherently better positioned for casting spells. Ciphers don't have their own attack abilities (like for example Rogues have) so they use auto-attacks almost exclusively (except if they pick up something like Envenomed Strike or Runner's Wounding Shot - which I wouldn't recommend). So you are pretty free in the choice if weapon. Some weapons do very good dps but achieve this with a raw damage-over-time lash (see the hunting bow Persistence). Those DoT lashes (as all[!] DoT damage) do NOT generate focus for you so you can leave them for party members who don't have to bother with focus. Non-DoT elemental or physical lashes (burn, freeze, shock, corrode, pierce, crush, slash) can be found in weapons, too. They are multiplicative damage bonuses which makes them very potent. And they also generate focus! Because of this a Cipher should use a weapon with a lash. You can find some who already have one or you can enchant your weapon with an elemental lash. A Chanter with the phrase "Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr" will add a burning lash to the Cipher's weapon attacks. This means additional focus, too. So I would recommend to bring a Chanter. Since a Chanter can also pair that phrase with the "Sure Handed Ila" phrase (speeds up ranged weapons basically) that's another reason to bring a Chanter (for a ranged Cipher). Official companion Kana Rua is fine. A Priest is very helpful for every party, so bring one. Concentrate on accuracy buffs (Blessing, Devotions for the Faithful). Also pick Inspiring Radiance! Its accuracy buff stacks with everything. Official Companion Durance is fine. Also Durance isn't bad with an arquebus (pick the Priest of Magran talent "Inspired Flame" (+10 acc with arquebus) and Weapon Focus Soldier to get to fighter-levels of accuracy. It also profits a lot from Kana's Sure-Handed Ila. I also pick the Gunner talent for Durance often. This all makes him a decent shooter for the times when his spell slots are empty or when you want to spare spells. Ciphers often target the Will and Fortitude defenses of enemies with their spells. A Wizard has some awesome spells for lowering both (see for example Miasma of Dull-Mindedness, Ryngrim's spells and so so on). So a Wizard can help. The official companion Aloth is fine. Having a dedicated tank is helpful, too. You want to bind as many enemies as possible to that tank so they don't swarm your backline. The official companion Edér (Fighter) can fill that role well. So you already have 1. Cipher (mc), 2. Edér (Fighter), 3. Aloth (Wizard), 4. Durance (Priest) and 5. Kana (Chanter). For the 6. spot you are totally free imo. You could use the official companion Hiravias (Druid) or Pallegina (Paladin) or Sagani (Ranger). The potentially most powerful (in the long run) of those is Hiravias. But all of them work well. Paladins can use a marking weapon (Blade of the Endless Paths, Spectacular Septum, St. Garam's Spark etc.) + Coordinated Attacks (paladin passive ability) to boost a single ally's accuracy by +20 points (fully stackable with everything). That could be your Cipher. Having +20 acc for your Cipher can be a very good thing. Ciphers usually shine in fights against many weaker enemies but struggle in boss fights - because bosses are hard to hit and have thick armor. Both lowers the damage you do considerably. Low damage means low focus. Low focus means your Cipher stinks. To prevent that high accuracy is the key. So I would recommend Pallegina as "marking Paladin" - or even better a custom adventurer, a Darcozzi Paladin with Inspiring Liberation. He/she can combine marking weapon, Coordinated Attacks and Inspiring Liberation to a +30 all-stackable accuracy bonus for your Cipher. But Pallegina also works fine and you will have a companion quest and proper banter. I personally would make the paladin an offtank and give the Spectacular Septum (pollaxe) first and later pick up the Blade of the Endless Paths (estoc) and keep the pollaxe as backup for pierce-resistant or -immune foes. However: Coordinated Attacks + Marking require the Paladin and Cipher to attack the same target AND be nearest to each other. This can be a challenge for a melee paladin + ranged cipher. If the cipher isn't nearest to the paladin but another party member and that party member also attacks the same target he/she will get the accuracy instead. To prevent this the paladin could be a ranged one and use a pistol (see St. Garam's Spark) and just stand side by side to the cipher and shoot at the same enemies (and also profit from the chanter's sure handed Ila speedup). I would then make Kana an offtank. Now the Cipher: the best overall performance would be with the war bow "the Rain of Godagh Field" - but it comes rather late. Fortunately there's another good war bow named Borresaine earlier in the game that you could use in the meantime. But reloading weapons are also not bad. They don't have as high dps on paper, but against bosses they provide more penetrating power which makes them viable in those encounters that are usually hardest for ciphers. You decide which you like best on "vibes". Both paths are viable and good. I wouldn't recommend blunderbusses though because they don't work well against bosses and have trouble to perform well with lashes against mid- to high armored foes in general. They are awesome against weak foes, but that's not an area where the Cipher needs improvement. One Eyed Molina's Spike Flinger (soulbound arbalest) might be a great option after the latest patch because it got fixed and is now very strong once fully leveled. And you can get it super early if you saved some coin. Attributes: MIG:+ CON:ø DEX:++ PER:+ INT:++ RES:- Important talents are Weapon Focus (which fits your main weapon of choice), Marksman, Gunner (only if reloading weapon such as arbalest,crossbow or firearms), Draining Whip. Go with light or no armor. I personally value mind control (confuse, charm, dominate) over all else. It's much more impactful than the damaging cipher spells for example. Exceptions are Disintegrate and Amplified Wave, both are amazing. Disintegrate vs. bosses and Amplified Wave against everything. Besides that Borrowed Instincts is great as well as Defensive Mindweb. If you use the marking Paladin from above then Tactical Meld is also very interesting! It will give you an additional all-stackable accuracy on top of the Paladin's +20 (or +30 if Darcozzi) from Marking. +40 in total (or+50). This makes landing crits against any enemy (even dragons etc.) supereasy. Watch out: mind controlled enemies (charmed, dominated) usually don't generate focus if you attack them with your weapon. Let them do their thing and pick another target instead if you can. Cheers!

Short version of The Apocalypse: The Antichrist arrives when Israel rebuilds The Temple after which there will be a big battle at Megiddo --> "Armageddon". After after which, to show how much Evangelicals really care about Jews, all the Jews can either convert or, well, go to hell. Plus lots of repetitive and contradictory imagery about Signs and Portents/ Enemies that allows for liberal interpretation. In short: Revelations should have been left as the ravings of a Qat addled hermit* who was a bit upset about the Flavians burning The Temple in 70AD or whatever. Always kind of funny to read The Bible assuming it was just written by people rather than being The Word. Big irony: muslims however are a definite death cult for believing the big battle will be at a random village in Syria (Dabiq) instead of a random village in Israel. Otherwise it's pretty similar** for their end times as well, maybe a bit more specific and anachronistic (eg taking 'Constantinople'). *might not have done any good of course. To whit: the Prosperity Gospel. Did you know that the rich man and the eye of a needle aphorism was actually literal and about a gate in Jerusalem, not about how being overly wealthy is bad? Actually, Jesus "Gordon Gecko" Christ thought accumulating wealth was, well, good and means that God loves you in particular! **iirc they're also Hadiths, so not 'full' canon.

Today I left the computer on so a download would finish while I was out. Came back and noticed I had forgot to unpause the download.

He is right that the moderate left has effectively abandoned the working class, but he is wrong that they abandoned it in favor of liberal elites. The moderate left has in fact abandoned the working class, but in favour of moneyed interests, be it multimillionaires, large corporate conglomerates or banking giants. This is true of moderate left parties across all advanced economies. In the US you could rephrase it to say in favor of the lobbying class. Fundamentally, due to Reagan's administration outsized influence in US and world politics, the moderate left got infected by supply side economics from the 90s onward, later known as trickle down economics. Another way of putting it is that the Economy Overton Window moved clearly and definitely to the right. The main consequence of this was depressing lower and middle class wages across the board, in every advanced economy since the 80s. First and foremost, over time this created an undercurrent of resentment, due to a disconnect between expected purchasing power and effective purchasing power among the traditional left-wing base. This decrease in the revenue of the general population, also inevitably led to a decrease in tax revenue, which has had a definite negative effect on all public services, especially healthcare and education. And while this has been terrible enough during left-wing government tenures, right wing governments have been only too happy to make things even worse than left wing governments are making them. Also, given the extended timeline under which this has been happening(30 to 40 years, depending on the country, I'd say), it's beyond the ability of any well meaning government to effectively turn this tide and significantly correct economic outcomes for working class families. This means that we are literally in an era of economic inequality that would make late 1800s robber barons blush at even the thought of it. And the only parties that have been able to effectively profit politically from this state of affairs are far right parties, meaning parties propped up and financed by the same financial interests which are making things worse economically for those who are poorest.

Hi, party composition is fine, go for Paladin, encrease his defences to the sky, when you will have defensive mindweb every boss will be a cakewalk. Initially a blunderbuss is good, as it has more projectiles you can hope at least one hit and generate some focus; if you have an arquebus you could generate more focus, but think if you never hit... mid game you have plenty ranged weapon instead of blunderbuses, late game you have reaping kneaves, shape Aloth as martial wizard, give them to him and massacred anybody. Quartestaff is a good "semi" ranged crush damage alternatives, and there are some nice ones in the game. Spam whisper of treason, eyestrike and above all mental binding early game. Then Silent Scream and Ring Leader, I think that often Borrowex Instinct is better than Tactical Meld: yiu get +20 all defenses, last longer, debuff enemy and you can hit whatever you want and stay wherever you want. But you have to hit, so first encrease acc in some other way, then Borrowed Instinct Or if in a boss battle there are some minions, borrowed instinct on them and you are OK. Time parasite is also a great buff/debuff. I don't understand difficulty level, in PotD I'd do PER++ and DEX+ (better one more chance to hit than 3% more speed) or even better PER++ AND DEX++, instead dump also CON and high all others attributes but RES. It works in SOLO, so it works also in party. But not too much difference, I know.

Of course you'll need a game base first that players want to make mods for. That's the bare minimum you have to do. Actually Outer Worlds had a huge hype on release. Everyone was expecting FNV in space and it got a big amount of positive/hype reviews from "professional" reviewers.

The Outer Worlds seems to have done pretty well for itself. It surpassed expectations. It will get a sequel. It was well-reviewed. I understand that Avowed has higher sales expectations, but I doubt the expectation is Skyrim. I was just making a joke, since Fallout 3 was always referred to as Skyrim with guns. Heck, Starfield didn't hit Skyrim levels, and that includes tons of modding stuff. It seems like an unrealistic expectation. I just hope it sells well and tells a great story. It's hard to judge that pre-release. The Outer Worlds certainly didn't have a ton of buzz before release, but it came out and surprised people.

UE isn't the best choice, it's Spacer's Choice.

Another giveaway, this time specifically tailored for Volourn! https://www.gog.com/en/news/16th_anniversary_special_claim_the_giveaway_of_diggles_the_myth_of_fenris

Bug Report #3 In the new patch, some buttons that can be found using mechanics are no longer highlighted purple. I encountered such buttons in the southernmost room of the 1st floor of the Temple of Eothas, in the secret room of the Temple of Woedica, and in the basement of Lumbala's house, but there may be more. The buttons themselves function normally, but you have to find them by touch. The Bilestompers tooltip doesn't work, making it unclear what the boots' ability is. You can read it after trying them on, but until then you're buying a pig in a poke. There is still an old bug where dead summons remain on the screen as a fixed png. This same png will haunt you when you move to new locations and will not disappear until you re-enter the game. Once you resolve Solmar the Shackler's problem, the game will continue to consider him a bad visitor and will offer you to pay him off (for 1200) or send an escort for him. The thing is, he doesn't give any penalties to the fortress's prestige or defense, so these actions make no sense. If the Berolt problem is successfully resolved, Berolt himself is mentioned in the fortress log as a *null*. P.S. I'm not sure if I'm writing to the right place for reports, but I couldn't find another one. If you know of one, please leave a link.

The way I see it, nobody really cares about Avowed. Not sure if it's marketing failure or if nobody has any trust in it. Even me... I guess will check it out, but am I really hot on it? Nah, not so much. Also, it will just not compete with Skyrim. Forget it. The reason why Skyrim is still as popular as it is ... is because of it's modding community. Avowed runs on UE(?), so forget about that right away. People will play it once and then that's it. Same deal as with Outer Worlds. Nobody is talking about that one anymore now either.

Knockdown is cool and very helpful from the early to mid game. But it requires to make the fighter a dw non-tank. And to be honest: at that point I might as well go with a non-tank monk instead which gives me a lot more utility and power in the long run. Fighters are great tanks, but that's a rel. narrow niche. It's not bad! Just a niche. Where Fighters are really cool as you said: with spells from items. Barrage in combination with the high base acc is perfect for that on a non-tank build. But that's an even more narrow niche and the same role as a melee wizard would take. Not a bad one at all, but still a niche imo. I, too, have to remember myself from time to time that niche-tier doesn't mean bad tier. That's why I argued for the Ranger to come out of the niche tier: because in combination with the animal companion it can do more than just single target damage. By the way: playing a party in PoE atm against a bounty and the rangers' Binding Roots is annoying me sooo bad - I consider taking it for Sagani. Funnily enough since Deadfire I value the per-rest abilities of PoE higher than before. Binding Roots is "only" 5/rest - but that also means it can be 5/encounter in a very tough fight. And a very long lasting (30sec base) stuck with the Ranger's high accuracy can totally turn the tides of a fight. Also the 15 pierce +15 slash dmg of Thorny Roots only have to overcome 1/4 of DR (as all fixed dmg it seems). You can totally kill some casters just with that at the start of the fight (it's a fast cast so getting out 5 in quick succession is easy). I'm honestly considering to build a "per-rest", high INT/high PER Ranger just for maximizing Binding/Thorny Roots in combo with spell items (Rotfinger Gloves and such). That's how much I was annoyed by Binding Roots.

It's not about trying to put things into boxes. It's getting sold people on an exciting idea. So far, the only people I'd guess to be at least some invested in this would be Obsidian regulars and like the two blokes who played Deadfire (like @Wormerine and me). And even us, we don't know actually why. Compare this to Warhorse, who are really pushing what's actually unique about KCD II -- or Larian last term promoting the (very D&D) idea of a game where (almost) anything would be possible. Or heck, anything! It's almost as if Obsidian are still wondering themselves at this point. Given that the game was supposed to come out this month already, that'd be curious.

paradox player always like to imagine themself commanding legions and rule over vast province no one imagine they might be the slave die from sickness before they are sold to some minor landlord

I can't read medical stuff on the internet. It brings out my inner hypochondriac.

The key to kitty comedy is apparently hard floors.

Dunno if someone posted this in the past but this looks right up my alley. We shall see.

Castlevania Anniversary Collection free on Epic: Castlevania Anniversary Collection | Download and Buy Today - Epic Games Store

I really love this board. Almost every day, I learn something new. Today, I have learned, that Bethesda has employees, who test their games for bugs. Who would have thought, that this is reality in this Universe

At first I though I was having a stroke. Then after a bit of searching I found that this is a Chinese bootleg dub... How have I never seen this before.

I hpe they hit the nail again, because PoE and specially Deadfire has some of the best class design and systems in any game, period. I just replayed Deadfire (2 runs actually) and man, it's so complex yet elegant...

If there is two half lives and you own both games, do they combine into one Full Life ?

NANI?!

Satanyahu is right on track then. Romeaboos are just irl Ceasar's Legion. Kinda funny that New Vegas is able to map this well onto irl politics, I guess we can thank a........balanced vision for that.

Yeah, I am also not quite sure what to make of Avowed just yet. I am not sure "Pillars, but like Skyrim" was ever a thing - at least not in the way that I would interpret it. The quote is from before Avowed was being worked on and the meaning of the quote might not be any deeper than "what if we do a first person game in Eora setting". The roumors had it that originally Avowed was more coop focues, but that direction was scrapped midway through development, and the game switched gears to become a more traditional singleplayer Obsidian game. So far what interviews highlighted to me that a special "Avowed" feature, is allowing less player agency than what I have come to expect from Obsidian - companions are mandatory, and our role quite strictly defined. Allegiedly, that allows to integrated companions better into the story, as one doesn't have to account for them not being with the player (or dead). However, I would think that if they pulled something extrodenary, they would try to showcase it, which I don't think have been the case so far. Eh, we will see. I am hoping for the best, expecting the worst. Let's just say, that Microsoft's track record hasn't been great. PS: Also: “Skins” for companions? I assume than, that there will be very little systemic depth to them. No inventory at least, it seems.