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I think Gorgon covered the most important bits really. Disclaimer: I was never a nationalist to begin with, having lived more of my adult life abroad than in Denmark and I believe money is something better spent before you can't use it anymore. So no hoarder of wealth either. What I do remember from my early years, thinking about Greenland and The Faeroe Islands, can be summed up as "they are". They were part of the realm. Different people, different cultures and interesting history. But not a sense of "ownership". More a sense of bewilderment why anyone would want to live in such cold areas 😄 Do I think of them as "my people"? I probably does on a subconscious level, i.e. never thinking of the people living there as "foreigners". Just fellow citizens with the misfortune of living in a cold climate. I also know that, Greenland in particular, was not a happy story and Denmark was no benevolent colonial power. Like the Australian Aborigines, the Inuit people were subjected to abuse, atrocities and mistreatment. Eugenics programs, forced sterilization of young women (we are talking modern history here, 1970's) and generations of kids forcefully removed from their parents. Very similar to the Australian "stolen generation" programs. If the people of Greenland resent Denmark, I wont blame them. i still think both parts would benefit of keeping status quo as it is today though. Greenland minding its own business in most aspects, represented in the Danish parliament, the country subsidized by the government in Copenhagen because the living standard is not affordable by the local economy. Iirc, Greenland also has the right to do its own business with investors about the resources they have, so those minerals etc. are not disposable income for the government in Copenhagen.

^The Rip was pretty good.

Good job picking this guy.

AI doesn't *know* anything, it's a predictive algorithm, which means when it comes to something complex and open to interpretation, it often amplifies existing ignorance. For instance, it could very likely be trained on literature that is missing a crucial pov. Greenland is a net loss for Denmark, there are mineral rights, sure, but we don't pretend that Denmark profit from those, we just expect that if they strike it rich they will be able to pay their own way. Greenland stays with Denmark because it already has autonomy, and isn't really big enough for afford all the trappings of a state. We don't care about a strong strategic presence, or rather, it's problem to be solved, not a source of prestige. after 400 years there are a lot of Greenlanders with Danish roots, Danish is a second language still, so it's not really a question of what Greenland offers Denmark. The arrangement with Danish territories, we have 2, Faroe Islands and Greenland, stands for as long as they want it to. Also, Denmark is the colonial power that Greenland eventually made peace with. We made all the same mistakes as the Americans and the Canadians did with the Inuit tribes, but a lot of progress has been made to address them in the last decades. The Greenlanders don't trust the Maga Americans. They believe, probably correctly, that the minute the ink was dry on an annexation treaty with the US, they would dismiss the rights of indigenous people as they have done so many times in the past. Denmark meanwhile, has already granted them autonomy.

A tool-using cow is challenging what we know about farm animal intelligence

I don't know if it's the ultimate flex, but its a good candidate. Floor Jansen singing the Dutch version of The Yellow Pages

I just wrapped a fun BPM & CP Triple Crown playthrough with a custom party, and it's left me hankering to play through again with companions and really try to lean into their unique classes/items. Elric's fixes in BPM for Xoti's Monk Subclass and Serafen's Cipher subclass work great in terms of balancing them with the smallest number of changes. I've found myself with slightly different desires/goals, though, and was hoping to gather some feedback on some proposed solutions. For both Xoti and Serafen, I wanted to not only update their subclasses, but also their weapons and armor, so that they could be used throughout an entire playthrough. Ideally, the changes would make sense as a package, and point to a general playstyle for each that feels thematic and balanced. Xoti Add: Sister of the Reaping Moon gains Reaping Moon Style: while you have a shield equipped, gain bonus accuracy (+15) and damage (+50%) against Near Death enemies. This focuses the playstyle around killing blows and makes sense of the buckler proficiency, starting items, and flavor text (A monastic order of Gaun, the reaping aspect of Eothas, Sisters of the Reaping Moon are most effective against opponents who are already at death's door.) It feels somewhat balanced, in that it's still worse for raw damage compared to any other monk subclass, but makes shield oriented builds more fun. Tuotilo's Palm is already so good, and this is an indirect buff to it, so I'm not 100% sold on this implementation, but I'm stumped on how to encourage the "with shield or with buckler" playstyle without making it better. Change: Resource Gain mechanic: gain +3 wounds on kill > gain +2 wounds, +2 Mortification on kill. The "worse at wounds, but then better if you can get lots of killing blows" playstyle falls flat, in my opinion, while the mortification gain from the lantern was always a unique and interesting flavor when compared to the other subclasses. I'm eager to try this out and see if it breaks anything, and if the balance of always worse at wounds, but better at mortification is fun. I'd love feedback here. Change: Lantern enchants: Holy Radiance: +2 Restoration, Inspiration PL > 4m Aura (include self): +% healing received (scales with religion) The +PL was always a little odd to me, given Xoti's spell list (she get's exactly 1 bonus spell with one those keywords). I'm not locked in on the healing received, but it feels like the safest effect here. I'm open to suggestions, but want to have it be an aura, so that it has more resonance with the quest upgrade enchant. Soulkeeper: Gain +1 of each Monk resource on kill > gain +1 PL until the end of the encounter on kill, stacks twice This effect might be too strong, esp. b/c it applies to the priest side as well, but I never liked the way the item only half-functioned if you were single class. Easy to tune. Could also replace with another stacking buff on kill. Change: Sickle enchants: Soul Reaper: +5% sickle Damage until combat end on scoring Kill (stacks 4 times) (increases with Religion skill) > +5% sickle Damage until combat end on scoring Kill (stacks 4 times) (increases with Religion skill); +1 penetration with sickle attacks. Change: Spiritual Weapon (Gaun): Added Soul Reaper enchant to the summoned weapon. Bit of an oddity to have the lantern enchants carry over, but not the sickle ones. Change: Vestments of Gaun: Made this unique so the quality can be upgraded. Added an enchant to make it more competitive for both priest and monk. Sacred Duty: reduced recovery that scales with religion. -1% per skill point. (I've tinkered with this a little, but I think this is the cleanest) Serafen Add: Wild Temper passive: gain bonus damage and penetration with AoE attacks. Currently this is a scaling bonus to damage (a la Sneak attack) and a flat +1 to pen. It applies to all AoE attacks, making Serafen a good candidate to keep his beloved hand mortars. It also makes Serafen the best companion to pick up Explosives as a skill. I'm not sure what the right amount of bonus is here, so I'd appreciate feedback in terms of relative balance. I really wanted something to incentivize play that caused the maximum number of wild mind procs, while actually offsetting the risk/reward. @thelee has made a strong case multiple times that randomness favors enemies, and that there needs to be a stronger benefit to offset, even if there are "great" outcomes from the random events. I also really like that this pushes an AoE damage niche rather than AoE debuff play that Beguiler. I also like how it synergizes with Barbarian in theme and mechanic, benefitting Carnage and Spirit Tornado in a Witch Build, offering unique benefit. I turned Miscast back to Friendly Fire to balance things, but kept Elric's awesome "always miscast on an empowered cast" feature. That little bit of control feels really great and enables some fun play. I like the idea of dropping Serafen into the enemy backline as a psychic bomb. Sometimes you get some collateral damage. Change: Serafen's Padded Mail: Made this unique so the quality can be upgraded. Changed it to be padded armor (per the description), but added some bonus armor back to it. More fitting for a mid-range caster, and usable for the whole game. Concealed Chain: +1 crush, pierce, slash AR Crow's Nest Comforts: +2 freeze AR, +2 shock AR I'd love any feedback on these from folks who have thought through ways to improve these characters/items in a balanced way. Thanks!

One of the best things that @Elric Galad added in BPM was the empower interaction. Predictable "miscast" is flavorful and adds some level of control to the randomness. I have not played BG2, but for the Wild Mage, there was a class ability that always proc'd a "wild surge" but came with benefits (e.g. casting a higher level spell using a level 1 spell slot). I think Empower fits really well here for that function. More thoughts on that later. I think you're so right about them being hard to notice. With the exception of invisibility and stun, there's usually very little visual information presented to you, and the combat log rolls by quickly. I really like having a shorter more impactful list of effects. Even if they were affliction/inspiration, pick a shorter list a la Tayn's Chaotic Orb. I also like the idea of making them focused on Serafen. There's something more playable and flavorful there vs. total chaos. One thing that's missing right now from the current list of Wild Surges is just casting the wrong spell. I think that's slightly harder to do in terms of programming, but even if you cast a second spell randomly chosen, that feels cooler/more flavorful. I'm noodling some effects and will come back with some more refined ideas. Thanks for the feedback/input.

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