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Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/29/25 in all areas
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1 point
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Well, you're never "cheating," because it's a single-player game. It's your game. You can play it however *you* want.1 point
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Musk was specifically hired to work for 130 days (SGE / Special Government Employee).1 point
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I don't think you're supposed to be able to have more than 6 people in your party, but you can have stuff like animal companions.1 point
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Im making good progress in WoRT after about 45 hours and Im busy with the siege of Drezen, its intense and I made a huge mistake last night I decided on the Regill suggestion and targeting the giants but somehow I overlooked the part where you can select your party so I started the quest with only me and Regill in my party and I assumed other party members would join me like the Lost Chapel quest Imagine trying to complete Drezen with 2 party members And I did well considering my serious combat disadvantage, I barely got to the 3rd gate and then I realized " this cant be right " So I restarted the quest and I have added my full party, at least I have knowledge of certain enemies Im really enjoying WoRT, it has some deep and thought-provoking narrative choices like the initial Worldwound choice and what to do around repairing it And the crusade battles are fun, they like mini-RTS features in the broader game I do have one conundrum, for some reason I can have more than 6 people in my party. And I have decided to have 7 because I like all the party interaction and combat contributions Does anyone think its a form of "cheating" because it can unbalance combat in my favour or is it fine because its only 7 people?1 point
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Court says Trump doesn't have the authority to set tariffs "Stuff" just got real. But why did it take them so long to rule?1 point
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The Bosch had a pump issue which repairmen broke. We bailed and got LG , washer had a seal issue, dryer control board got fried. Have had decent experience with Bosch considering how heavy our use is, to be honest.1 point
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You're only lvl 4 and the early game is the hardest part, especially for defensively minded characters - because there isn't much im terms of items and abilities to help you stacking up enough deflection. It doesn't help that Rogues don't have high starting deflection of course. So it will get better! You will get better deflection gear, be able to pick Superior Deflection (I'd recommend it), have a Priest buff your deflection etc. In addition to deflection buffs you also want to lower enemies' accuracy. Check out Despondent Blows, Devotions for the Faithful, blinding or frightening spells and abilities and so on. A Rogue with a two hander won't be a real tank, but you can make a Riposte build work - if it's not the only thing you are focusing on but treat it more like a nice addon. Check out the great sword "Tidefall". It improves your survivability because it drains a percentage of the damage you cause as endurance for you. It also wounds enemies, which stacks with Deep Wounds (also on Riposte attacks) which is really nice, too - because this means that they take damage over time from your Ripostes even if you are not hitting them further. Another option is to use an overbearing two hander (the Temperacl or Hours of St. Rumbalt) which will cause prone on crit - which also improves your survivability because once an enemy is prone (from a direct crit or a crit from a Riposte) he/she cannot attack your for some time (and also unlock Sneak Attack at the same time). The third option is to use the Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer (and maybe Forgemaster Gloves, too) and use the summoned great sword Firebrand. It has almost twice the base damage of a normal great sword and thus its attacks hit incredibly hard, especially with Rogues and their several damage bonuses. It's not the fastest weapon (compared to durganized stuff) but that's countered by the occasional instant Riposte attack. If the enemies already have an affliction that unlocks Sneak Attacks, a single Riposte might be enough to one-shot them (at lower levels - high level enemies have too big of an endurance pool to be one-shot by anything). Keep in mind that getting flanked is an automatic -10 deflection malus - so try to not get surrounded and flanked. Imstead take on one (or two) enemy in front of you and keep your back free of enemies if possible. Use Escape and other mobility abilities to get out of a flanked position.1 point
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But even when they criticize Russia they don't seem to follow that criticism with actions which is quite different from their actions against other countries where they seem everyday to do new actions. Playing home audience is quite different from actually being something. In past 6 months their actions have been quite pro Russian. They have but more pressure on Israel than Russia. So I can see where their critics are coming from.1 point
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Torment's Reach is a Full Attack - and since that is the overall best attack ability of the Monk I personally would go for a bashing shield such as Badgrad's Barricade (if you have picked Torment's Reach in the first place). But (if there's time and in-game money) I would also try out dual hatchets as a tanking setup (and dual fists as backup). Anitlei's speed buff (which stacks with everything) makes it easy to reach 0 recovery with dual wielding, Two Weapon Style and durganized hatchets + durganized breastplate (or simply lighter armor). 0 recovery in combination with Force of Anguish can be very useful for a Monk tank: he can then push back and prone single enemies in very quick succession (protecting his allies that way) and be extremely reactive in general. I found that the +10 deflection of dual hatchets is often enough (if you are not alone in the front line) to achieve sufficient tankyness.1 point
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Badgradr's Barricade or Little Savior if you need defense and no ACC penalty.1 point
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Well, Tacan are a population, while Nalpazca are a monk order1 point
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The **** Marines shall rise once again! DoW was one of my most beloved games, it's a brilliant RTS and I honestly don't think any game in that genre has managed to out-do it when it comes to having so many different factions with their own truly unique play styles, mechanics and strengths & weaknesses, and managing to keep the game incredibly fun despite all that. I hope this generates enough hype for DoW 4.1 point
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Not much imo - unless you want to really mitigate direct damage on allies who receive a lot of grazes (your tank(s) mostly).1 point
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Yes, China can do it too. And Trump is signaling he is okay with Russia taking Ukraine and China taking Taiwan if that also means he can take Greenland and/or the Panama Canal. Trump is essentially creating a 21st C. version of the 19th C. Concert, with the US, Russia, and China as its only members, and where those three states can do whatever they want in the world so long as they consult with each other and don't cross each others' red lines. And all other states are irrelevant. It is classic hardcore realism. As Thucydides once put it, "The strong do what they will; the weak suffer what they must." Btw, on Taiwan, although China could invade, and still may, I strongly believe they won't -- for this simple reason: China has spent the past few years ramping up its infiltration efforts inside Taiwan. It's strategy is to push in pro-China Taiwanese into positions of power within the Taiwanese government, military, intelligence services, law enforcement, industry, and civil society. This effort is pretty significant, even though no one, including the Taiwanese government, is talking about it publicly. And when the time is right, these infiltrators will launch a coup and overthrow the elected government and set up a Chinese puppet government that will then "invite" China to come in and "save" the Taiwanese people from US/Japan-controlled "splittists." This will all happen lightning fast, and will be all over before whatever governments exist at that time in Washington and other allied capitals can get their heads out of their asses. Classic Sun Tzu: victory without war. Mark my words.1 point
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I’m sure I’ve heard this before… a conservative leader talking to a nationalist leader, telling us said leader doesn’t want all of Czechoslovakia, just the Sudetenland, then he’ll be satisfied. Makes me believe Trump has all the political savvy of Neville Chamberlain1 point
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Apart from being completely one-sided, a critical point is that it does nothing to deter another Russian invasion of Ukraine after the Russians have re-armed and rebuilt their forces. Only a NATO alliance or Ukrainian nuclear weapons would provide that.1 point
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Really only Ukraine makes compromises Areas that Russia gets contained 28% of Ukraine's population before the war Areas contain almost all Ukraine's major ports Areas contain majority of active mines in Ukraine Areas contain majority of Ukraine's minerals counted by value Areas contain majority of Ukraine's manufacturing Peace plan does not contain any actual protections for Ukraine in case Russia breaks it Ukraine will not be able to join EU in next 100 years, because they can't meet requirements Ukraine can't join military alliances not just NATO Russia gets areas that they have lost for Ukraine Russia does not give up anything Russia gets all sanctions removed I see how it is very good peace plan for Russia, for Ukraine though it is just little better than full surrender1 point
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I wonder if any territorial concessions will encourage Xi to make a grab for Taiwan. If Russia can do, China can do it too1 point
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Unlike Trump, I suspect Chamberlain genuinely believed peace was an option1 point
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As in official Russian narrative sanctions have had zero impact, lifting them will not be seen as win and I am pretty sure that Russia wants to have win to sell their people especially know as Ukraine has problems thanks to its allies kind efforts1 point
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I thought russia already said that they don't need a ceasefire. Also didn't they broke all of the ceasefires in the past anyways?1 point
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*stares suspiciously* But for real, that made me laugh.1 point
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There is a lot of money in it and there is a lot of rebuilding to do. I would say it's more likely than not now that the negative connotations of having an arms industry are set aside by necessity. We have enough know how for a European defense consortium to be a serious player, especially one including Ukraine.1 point
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You put too much stock in our ability to remove our collective heads from our asses, really. But yeah, would be nice to see.1 point
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Trump really screwed the American arms industry long term though. Europe will want to build their own rather than be dependent on American hardware and parts, now that free availability is not guaranteed anymore, we will need to match the Russians in production capacity. Europe will wind up competing with the US on the international arms market, rather than being mostly customers.1 point
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Pretty sure people who can read that image are in the minority here.1 point
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There is lots of misinformation about the mineral deal, one of these points is " all the minerals are in Russian controlled areas " Thats not true, you can see from this map where the mineral deposits are. "Ukraine doesn’t have globally significant reserves of rare earth minerals, but it does have some of the world’s largest deposits of graphite, lithium, titanium, beryllium and uranium, all of which are classed by the US as critical minerals." https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/26/europe/ukraine-us-mineral-resources-deal-explained-intl-latam/index.html Its very normal for most large countries to want to gain access to rare or critical minerals, China now has the biggest mining footprint in Africa. So it shouldnt be a surprise to see the US wanting to gain access to these Ukrainian minerals and to have joint development of these resources But the issue is the last audit of Ukrainian minerals was done by the Soviets so it may not be accurate and then these mining resources need the investment but thats also normal You can also end up finding new deposits that you were not aware of, this happens all the time in mineral rich countries. Recently in 2023 a new Copper vein was found in the DRC by an established mining company https://www.mining.com/ivanhoe-mines-makes-new-copper-discovery-in-drc-similar-to-kakula/ "Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) announced on Tuesday that geologists made a significant high-grade copper discovery in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) similar to the massive orebody it is mining at the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex. The discovery, named Kitoko — meaning “beautiful” or “gift” in several local languages — was made on Ivanhoe’s recently acquired joint venture licences in the Western Foreland, about 25 km west of the ultra-high-grade to Kamoa-Kakula mine. "1 point
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It seemed intentional, like Zelinskyy was supposed to buckle because Trump figured it would be way easier than getting Putin to move. Trump overestimated his leverage and now he just looks like a fool who isn't qualified for these types of negotiations.1 point
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I'd rather be Ukrainian than a Republican.1 point
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This white house crap convinced me to finally donate to the ukraine defense fund. Might turn this into a monthly donation.1 point
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Zelensky was there to sign it but for some reason he was forced to ensure humiliation ritual anticipatory press meeting where people usually shortly tell what they except from that days discussions. But Trump for some reason made that event much longer than it usually is, take his time to praise Putin, which is quite rude considering that he was meeting president of country that Putin has invaded, then his ally in press score asks why Zelensky disrespects US by not fearing suite and Vance praises Russia's diplomacy, in which Zelensky maybe unwisely comments what kind of diplomacy Vance is speaking, which lead Vance and Trump shouting Zelensky how ungrateful he is. Even after that Zelensky was willing to sign the mineral deal, but Trump kicked him out. So there was no deal to be made, this was show to Trump supporters to put blame on Zelensky for his failure to make peace in Ukraine as soon as he become president which he said he will do during his campaign. So Zelensky had already lost US when Trump was elected, there was nothing that he could really have done but surrendered to please Trump, but even that option would have alienated US. EU already has funded Ukraine more than US (132.3 billion euros vs 114.2 billion euros) has, and even in military aid they are about equal (62 billion euros vs 64 billion euros). EU can double the support easily if they want considering that it is less than 1% of their GDP, it is more about question how difficult is to do because EU has members that support Russia and who are now empowered by USA to block all support for Ukraine.1 point
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Isn't that exactly what Macron wants, to make clear to the rest of the world (and especially Europe) that the United States is lost to them, will not help if they actually need it? I feel like that's something he's been trying to accomplish for years at this point, even during the Biden administration. Felt like that was a pretty good demonstration.1 point
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I am not sure that Kravchuk didn't support NATO membership considering that he visited NATO headquarters, lead Ukraine's foreign policy to formalized Ukraine's relationship with NATO and helped to create framework agreement with NATO to support Central and Eastern European countries to join NATO. Kuchma started to propose special partnership with NATO after Russian Federal Council officially endorsed claim that Sevastopol is part of Russia. Which eventually lead him to declare that Ukraine wants to join NATO in 2002, although NATO countries seemed to though that such would be too risky because it would upset Russia, opinion that they still hold. Yushchenko then tried his best to get NATO and EU to open their doors for Ukraine, but his efforts were blocked by opposition parties that called referendum (polls said that about 50% oppose idea of joining NATO) about continuing pursuing joining in NATO, which lead to some leading Ukraine politician to state that Ukraine will not join NATO as long as public opposes it. W. Bush and Obama promised to support Ukraine's membership in NATO, but in 2008 NATO decided that it will not offer membership for Ukraine or Georgia yet. Bit later NATO told that Ukraine and Georgia would need to make reforms as the leaving present by W. Bush. Yanukovych campaigned with idea that Ukraine's relationship with NATO is sufficient and there is no urgency to join. Later he said that Ukraine's relationship with NATO is partnership and Ukraine can't live without that partnership. Then he removed "integration into Euro-Atlantic security and NATO membership" from Ukraine's national security strategy and law that didn't allow Ukraine to join any military bloc but allowed co-operation with them. But in same moth Ukraine approved plan to implement national annual program of cooperation with NATO, which lead Ukraine to continue joint exercises with NATO during Yanukovych presidency. Interim government and then president Poroshenko stated that they don't intent to make Ukraine a member of NATO. In August 2014 after reports that Russian military is operating in Ukraine, Prime minister Yatsenyuk announced he will ask Ukraine parliament to put Ukraine to path towards NATO membership and repeal non-block law. After that Ukraine has made joining NATO one of its priorities, which was answered by President of European Commission that it will take at least 20 years. But NATO did add Ukraine in 2018 in list of aspiring members. Zelenskyy signed Ukraine to NATO's enhanced opportunity partner interoperability program, which does not have effects on decisions about membership according to NATO's official statement. In 2021 when Russia started to bring troops and have military exercises on Ukraine's borders NATO members promised military support and started to grandstand about possibility give Ukraine MAP status in NATO. Then after half year of building troops Russia invaded Ukraine and NATO members didn't gave military support, but at least they gave equipment and money and sanctioned Russia somewhat. Popular support for NATO in Ukraine is about 80%, which is up from polls in 2014-2019, when support was about 50%, but Ukraine is probably not any closer to NATO membership than it has ever been. So in sort none of Ukraine's presidents have been against NATO, but Yushchenko was clearly NATO fan others seem to have seen it as way to protect Ukraine from Russia.1 point
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Not saying a literal return to the past. It's about returning to a certain way of doing things, where only a small group of the most powerful states matter, the other states don't matter, and the powerful states are the only ones with a say on how things work in the world and whose interests get taken into account. Furthermore, the powerful states each maintains deference towards the behavior of the others in return for the same. In Trump's view, only the US, China, and Russia (and possibly India) matter. And in return for the US not criticizing Russia for its actions in Ukraine, and potentially not criticizing China for actions in Taiwan, he expects they will return the favor when he takes certain actions in the future against Mexico (cartels), Panama (canal), and Greenland.1 point
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There were no NATO troops (except during annual Rapid Trident exercise which has organized since 2013, when about 6000 troops from NATO and African countries trained with Ukraine's troops for a week) before current invasion and even possibility for NATO troops were close to zero and Ukraine joining NATO was even more unlikely. Invasion itself made idea of NATO troops in Ukraine a possibility that could actually happen. So I don't see that would prevent subsequent ones as blocking NATO troops was not one of the goals that Russia tries to achieve with the invasion. Invasion made it possible that Finland and Sweden joined NATO. Support for NATO in Finland was in 2018 less than 23%, 2021 it was 26%, in 2022 after Russia started their invasion it jumped to over 70%. In January 2022 less than 40% of members of Finnish parliament supported joining NATO, in March support had jumped to over 90%. Finnish Government Defence Report from 2021 estimated that NATO support in Finland could reach 50% in 2040 if Russia continues its power politics and Russian parliament members continue to threated Finland. So if Russia didn't want NATO to expand, they choose option that caused opposite effect, quite predictably Russia warned against NATO deploying troops in Ukraine in 2021 and said that is their red line, but at that time Russia itself was already moving its troops to Ukraine's border for "military exercise" which ended as invasion to Ukraine in 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56616778 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/2/russia-warns-nato-against-troop-deployment-to-ukraine https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/putin-says-nato-troops-in-ukraine-would-be-a-red-line-for-moscow Although Ukraine wanted NATO to hasten its membership because it feared that Russia may invade https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/06/ukraine-pressures-nato-for-membership-as-russia-amasses-troops-at-border Russia was also against NATO countries supplying Ukraine https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/22/russia-accuses-west-of-fuelling-hysteria-over-ukraine-tensions https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/30/russia-will-act-if-nato-countries-cross-ukraine-red-lines-putin-says Although Russia did say that they brough troops to Ukraine borders as response against non specified NATO threats https://www.euronews.com/2021/04/12/g7-calls-on-russia-to-cease-provocations-on-ukraine-border There was also speculation that everything has been just to increase gas prices in Europe and get approval for Nord Stream 2 https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-shmyhal-nato-russia/1 point
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The Russian economy isn't all that large these days, and their primary trade partners (as of 2017) were China, India, and... Germany. Hence, not much of a win. USA trade with Canada (752 billion) is vastly greater than it ever was with Russia (26 billion), and DJT is working to tank the former. Stable genius is in.1 point
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You don't need enemies, when you allies are more than willing to rob you and if necessary point gun towards you1 point
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I'm shocked anyone expected anything else from Trump1 point
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Moscow bomb kills pro-Russia paramilitary leader | Russia | The Guardian1 point
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Successful marketing where they blame issues to some population that isn't really blame of those issues, but it is easier to sell than trying to tell that in past we have collected too little pension money, which now causes issues because population does not grow but gets older causing increase of both pension and health service expenses And failure to increase value of goods and services that we export, causing problems when it comes to increasing salaries in such extend that inflation has started to eat people's purchasing power. Failure to act on research about changing climate in past 50 years, which has lead to need to try find fast ways to fix infrastructure and policies that are designed to different kind of climate Failure to understand we can't lean single supplier in important products like fertilizers, gas and oil. Failure to see that tying large parts of economy to few big companies is as dangerous if not even more dangerous than tying it to public sector, because it both makes difficult to refocus economy if there is global issue and people's livelihood is tied to entity which they don't have any say over. Failure to see that we need to invest to future not pump billions and billions to sectors that are dying, even if that would cause short term problems. Failure to understand that short term gains from privatizing public infrastructure will lead to monopolies that will cause issues Failure to ensure bureaucracy of people immigrating to work does not prevent creation of jobs and cause people to go else where. System where seeking asylum is easiest way to get residence but with prohibition to work, will lead situation where migrants are see only as burden. Failure to create rules to prevent tax havens, unchecked imports, equal postal fees, need to have same standards for imported goods than domestically produced goods have, have same refund rules for imported goods than domestic goods, have equal tariffs. Failure to have coherent clear foreign policies that are same for all and lots of other issues.1 point
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If I ask the people in my area for why they are voting right, it's always the same garbage build on lies and "feelings."1 point
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Finnish Bureau of Investigation currently suspects that nine member of the crew of the Eagle S purposefully cased cable damage. So I am not sure who the nameless officials that WaPo used as their source are.1 point
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as if excutive are not openly defy court and law in the last few month court ruling doesn't mean anything now0 points