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Must be a scarce species these days. Yeaess... Based on a Sting song.

Participated in the Together Alliance (anti-far-right) march in London yesterday. The numbers were higher than the fash march last year (500K vs 100K). I did not stay for the speeches, as the bloc I was in (LGBTQ) was at the tail and moved slowly.

Do you really still expect redacted to apply reason or logic to problems at this point? He has an undisciplined mind and can't even properly communicate his reasons for going to war. We know he has immense difficulty accepting a loss, and nuclear weapons are the ultimate trump card for when events go badly wrong. "But he is not insane" Are you sure about that? He satisfies all criteria for "narcissistic personality disorder" in the DSM-5. There may be other co-morbibity conditions present, but narcissism explains most of his behavior.

Before there was YouTube, there were ... educational classroom videos.

This is a sequel/continuation of a sort to the Turning an Adventurer into a Sidekick? thread. This time we are looking at modification of the unused prefabs in characters.unity3d to create a new custom party member. This method potentially allows for something more feature than the Hired Adventurer with a conversation item I described in the other thread. However it does require a great deal more patience to get a functional character in game. There are some compatibility and logistical caveats that should really be solved before it would really be easy to share characters with others. That said here's a quick example of what can be achieved. What I want to highlight in the above video is: A specified conversation can be initiated by clicking on the character. When in the party the "Talk To " button appears on the UI that triggers the conversation. Adjusted appearance. The character's hair/skin/eye, and primary/secondary cloth colour can be any combination of RGBa. The head, facial hair, and hair models are restricted to the existing Player and NPC assets though. Scripts can be triggered on events like the party resting. In this example it's another conversation but could be anything listed in the documentation. What is needed?A tool for modifying the contents of assetbundles. UABEA is what I used for the above example. Then it is just a case of pretty much finding any prefab that contains the components: CharacterStatsMutable, CompanionInstanceID, Equipment, NPCAppearance, NPCInteraction, Portrait, and ScriptEvent. There are 13 such prefabs that are unused in the game: companion_caroc companion_ggp companion_gm companion_hiravias companion_sagani companion_test_barbarian companion_test_chanter companion_test_cipher companion_test_druid companion_test_monk companion_vspriest companion_vsranger companion_zahua and an additional 4 that are used only in the Backer Beta mode: companion_generic_fighter companion_generic_preist companion_generic_rogue companion_generic_wizard A couple of them are familiar names from PoE1. However their presence does not constitute any form of cut content. More likely these are remanets from various stages of prototyping or testing. Which of these lads is your favourite PoE1 companion? By filling in various components with the values and GUIDs pointing to certain gamedata (CharacterStats, CompanionData, and others) and a conversation you can get a custom party member! They can then be spawned into the game with a console command such as SpawnPrefabAtMouse, or as part of an encounter for a less intrusive ways. Though interestingly encounters seem to force the character into attacking so there is some jank in need of solving there. Would that this were only problem to solve... There's a catch.Currently the only way to achieve this is manually making adjustments to the prefabs components inside of the characters.unity3d assetbundle. Needless to say it's a very finicky process. Best worst case, the change you make doesn't take. Worst worst case, the game no longer works. And that is just summary of my past experience attempting assetbudle modding. I'm as shocked as anyone that I got anything to work! And if doing it yourself weren't tricky enough, you would need to explain how to import changes to others Does that make sharing the modified characters.unity3d file the best option? It is on the lower side of 2gb. Which is not massive by modern game filesharing standards sure, but given the changes made to it only account for something like a couple of kilobytes, it does seem a bit ridiculous to me. And we're back to square one when 2 independently created custom character mods want to be installed together! So, there are certainly some fairly tricky problems that need to be solved to make this viable in my opinion.

I made an earth-themed barbarian subclass called earthshaker. It took inspirations from geomancy and earthbending from variou media. Nexus Mods Portal: https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/825?tab=description Class Intro Bonus Gain access to Earthshaker abilities Penalty Lose access to base Barbarian abilities Core Runestones Modal abilities, auto-unlock at odd barbarian levels Provides situational benefits at the cost of Constitution Multiples can be activated at the same time Crushing Boulder Passive. A "consume-stacks" type of buff for Boulder Toss Stacks can be gained from the following abilities Boulder Toss (and its upgrade) Stone Spikes (and its upgrade) Earthfall Level 1 Runestone: Exfoliation While Hurt (<75%) or worse, gain health regeneration based on missing health Earthshaking Yell Replaces Barbaric Yell Cone-shaped aoe, applies Sickened Fortify Replaces Frenzy Grants damage reduction, grants Strong and Fit inspiration, reduce Reflex defense Level 2 Boulder Toss Replaces Barbaric Blow Ranged ability, hit the first target then explode for aoe Level 3 Runestone: Fossilized Amygdala While having an Intelligence or Resolve affliction, become Petrified and greatly reduce its duration Shoulder Charge Replaces Wild Sprint Single target push and Stagger Grants bonus movement speed on successful hit Level 4 Earthshaking Shout Replaces Barbaric Roar and Barbaric Shout Reduces enemies' power level Blinds the barbarian Stone Armor Replaces Blood Frenzy and Spirit Frenzy Grants bonus armor and bonus Explosives skill Summon Explosive Stones into quickslots, which function as Bombs Stone Spike Replaces Savage Defiance Aoe pierce or corrode damage Level 5 Runestone: Tremorsense While having a Perception affliction, grants bonus accuracy and increase engagement limit Unrelenting Toss Replaces Crushing Blow and Barbaric Smash Reduces rage cost and recovery time Trample Replaces Leap Functionally same, but reflavored Level 6 Land Tank Replaces Lion's Sprint and Ram's Sprint Single target push and Stagger Grants bonus movement speed, resistance against ranged attacks and aoe attacks on successful hit Using this ability again while the buff is active will consume the buff and Stun the target instead of Stagger Level 7 Runestone: Earthen Wound While having an Injury, gain bonus Armor Penetration and boost healing effect Dust Storm Replaces Blood Storm and Spirit Tornado Fortify spawns a dust storm around the barbarian, dealing raw damage and petrify nearby creatures Rusted Spike Replaces Savage Courage and Stalwart Defiance Stone Spike reduces armor Level 8 Heart of Stone Replaces Heart of Fury Self-inflicts a Concussion injury Convert some incoming Hits to Crits, and reduce incoming Crit damage Generates rage when critically hit Gravitating Trample Replaces Panther's Leap and Dragon's Leap Pulls in nearby enemies upon landing and deals crush damage in a slightly increased aoe Disorient the barbarian Level 9 Runestone: March of the Colossus While flanked, grow in size, cannot be Interrupted and gain damage reduction Debilitating Shout Replaces Driving Roar and Dazing Shout Reduces enemies' damage output Doesn't do damage Earthfall Replaces Instrument of Boundless Rage Aoe crush damage Leaves behind an aftershock, dealing raw damage and petrifying nearby creatures

Can you get a hamster?

Crimson Desert: Best weapon types | Rock Paper Shotgun

I spoiled my kitty and he got fat. -- j/k, it's a different black cat. At last a game where I can be a true "cat lady". Forget gameplay, I'll just tame cats for hours. Sadly, cannot rename. There's a few outfits to start, rumor has it one can get more. MUST GET.

Crimson Desert - 35ish-40ish hours in. I'm getting a little bored. --- maybe I'm missing something, but I feel like weapons/armor is mostly all the same, because of the upgrade system. If you upgrade anything enough - whether a seeming starter you buy in 1st city or some cool looking thing you looted, everything ends up with similar stats. You can eventually socket items and stick "gems" into them that give some bonuses/effects, but you can swap these out and put them into anything else, far as I can tell. This makes gearing feel more about cosmetics - what you like the look of - more than function. Which is good for those that don't want to be stuck with something "ugly" because it's the "best." But it means there's not much reason to care about finding a new armor, outside of do you think it looks badass. eg, loot hunting/treasure finding is boring/feels pointless after a while. I find nothing by looting that is "better" than what I've already upgraded and I have no desire to swap (meaning I'd have to upgrade new stuff, all over again). --- I don't know if it's the patch nerf or that I've already gear-upgraded much more than they expect, but combat, even MQ bosses, are so far easy. I've just button spammed them, food-healed a few times, didn't need any fancy moves, and win in 60 seconds. I'm sure I'd hit a "wall" somewhere late game perhaps but I was expecting boss-combat frustration and it's not there. I guess one could conceptualize that the upgrade system is like a Difficulty option. >.> --- MQ combat surges are visceral and very busy/large but eh Anyway, it's not that it's bad - but the appeal in this game is largely/simply visceral/visuals/cosmetic and for those that never tire of finding yet another small POI/cave/castle over the hill over there with mundane loot or simple quest, because it's discovery. And I do very much like discovery, but if you're talking 100's of hours of a map of untold size, I feel like I need to have more of a mental or game goal to go with - there is no base-building or mega resource hunting, outside of one time type gear upgrade costs, as example - but so far I already have enough "money" to not worry much re: general or frequent small purchases. City/regions have a "you're popular/respected" currency that is slow to accumulate but mostly that gets you - more cosmetic gear options. The visuals/vistas are great, but that only takes me so far before I get bored of looking at them. EDIT: oh, some exploration tedium after a while, is because the main traversal methods are too slow/drain stamina super fast. Enshrouded-gliding it's not. So far the best thing in the game for me long term is - you can gear up your pets with adorable costume pieces. SO CUTE. EDITEDIT: I think for most of the forum long-timers here, this would be a $30-40 game at best. But optimization/performance IS pretty good, if you're not trying to 4k it. :D

Started a fresh playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas on PC after years of playing it on PS3. Got the Ultimate Edition as well.

Postscript: I'm definitely of the opinion that this is a game where one has to give it 10-20 hours before it starts to shine. You can judge two things in two hours: whether you're going to put up with/let yourself get used to the interface UI, and whether the way any story/chr stuff is done appeals to you. The rest is a slow burn. Combat gets more interesting, exploration gets more interesting, puzzles get more interesting - in a way, the 1st castle-region/starter area gives some bad impressions but get past that and there's a pretty good game. Not GOTY material tho. Unless continued and rapid patches turn that around.

Crimson Desert - they patched it again. there's now a personal stash function, although it seems mixed with the auto-collect wayward-loot function (it's the same chest), plus some control changes, plus some boss nerfs I guess (some will like that, some won't). A lot of other small things. Kliff now no longer feels like a 3-ton brick - maybe now he's a 1-ton brick. It's still an improvement. Anyway, I'm around 20-25 hours now, although much of that time initially was wandering starter castle region to amass lots of food (your heal potions) and revive orbs (ability to immediately continue boss fights, with a bit of health, if you die), and upgrading weapons/armor where possible. Because I'm a wuss and figure I'll need extra. :P So far I'd call this a 7.5/10 game. Higher if you like the mechanics/environment, lower if you dislike them etc. ---Main questline goes in chapters, with multi-parts to each Chapter. Doing these quests is pretty important for the first 4-5 chapters to unlock stuff, including some crafts, stores, npcs. Don't have to if you don't want, but you won't be able to access/do everything you may wander into, otherwise. ---definitely a sandbox-action game, with RPG elements. The story cutscenes are there, but yeah. ---exploration and mechanics (outside of the crazy control UI) are good and yes it's very desnse vs. empty. But they ARE a lot of MMO or fetch or "go kill the bandits for me" stuff. A few sidequests are more than that, and MQ stuff can be more involved. --- the main process of improving gear is upgrading with crafters and resources. So your sword gets +1 or 2 per upgrade - do that often enough you can way outlevel current mobs. But it does take some resource-gathering time. If you don't upgrade your gear periodically and try to rely on randomly finding something better, you're likely gonna rapidly die to mobs/mini-bosses the farther from the starter-castle you go. Diablo/PoE/or even some more focused story-rpg type loot progress this is absolutely not. I'm having fun. It's kind of obsessive, but for me, not the "sleep, what's sleep" type of obsessive. It's more the load-save, 3-6 hrs blink by, then I feel like a 12+hr break. EDIT: oh - I have the particles effect at around 30-40%, which so far hasn't felt too busy/ostentatious etc. I think if you have it at 0, it starts to affect things like visibility of rain. EDITEDIT: weather sometimes affects resources found. Rainstorm - toads/salamanders and other such appear to collect, sunny, it's butterflies and insects, which have different purposes. Small stuff like that.

I gave in and bought Death Stranding 2. Was sick the week and couldn't do much else, so there was no distraction for me. Oh well. Anyways. Game feels like a straight continuation after the first game. Even gameplay-wise, a lot of the old features are unlocked quite fast, and then the new combat stuff added on top of that. There's a lot more shooting going on now / feels a lot more like MGS5 than before, and it kinda felt like that already before. Ambience and music and all of that is very nice again, no surprise here, I guess. Visuals are good too, though my PC is blowing steam quite a lot more than in the first game.

So, apparently DLSS 5 is the fusion of 3D graphics and Artificial intelligence (at molecular-genetic level). Artists at Obsidian: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Early Crimson Desert reviews are in/trickling in over the day. As expected, seems fairly polarizing. Some love it (after 60-100hrs, no one has finished it), some think it's middling etc. Note: I do not "trust" any reviewers re: yays or nays, I only look for gameplay information re: bugz, mechanics, UI, and gameplay loops that may increase or decrease interest for me. For which, I gather, for myself, for this game: 1--world exploration/discovery is dense, vast, immersive and I would utterly love it 2--big boss combat is likely going to have multi-phases and be something where I want to toss my KB out the window, or pull out cheat engine, a lot, and for some progression areas cannot avoid. Perhaps if one explores oodles first it'd help mitigate some of that via over-preparedness but dunno. 3--you can have a cat or dog companion that ends up following and picks up loot, although not always and not always quickly. But still, YES. Also, you can do a slide while on horseback (the horse body-slides). Not sure when one would want to this, but ok, it's still cool. 4--general combat I could probably deal with fine 5--inventory management/space is a nightmare. They will supposedly add a "town/base" storage. Right now it's only chr. inventory/backpack. 6--devs seem quick to patch in/alter things like bugs, UI/QoL complaints (eg, waiting a week for a couple fast patches might be best) 7--no one is going to talk about the game's fantastic story or chrs, because (as expected) that's not what this game is 8--could be the best "wish this MMO was single-player" we're ever going to get Summary: Just like Enshrouded, I would love exploration/discovery/non-combat systems but everything else I'll be neutral to critical of. Except in Crimson Desert, it might be 200-300 hrs before exploration stops motivating me to keep pushing on beyond any criticism, vs. 60-80 hrs in Enshrouded. So - hmm. 🤔

Not the example I used above, but it's mostly energy costs and loss of big c Confidence that are the approaching needle. Though really, AI is an absolutely awful idea economically on base principle (simplistically, replace jobs with AI and who is going to buy the stuff that makes the actual economy run? AI?).

It's a big question mark, Claude seems to be a big leap forward. I was very much an AI skeptic and still am to a large degree, but people have started churning out whole working apps with just prompts. Granted the code under the hood is not optimal, but the app does what you asked for. If the bubble doesn't burst, the cost of using AI will skyrocket, to a point where using human labor may turn out to be cheaper. The current cost for the end user for using that amount of resources is not realistic in the long term.

Well, for me personally, it's very easy to decide, what am I going to do. Especially with the crazy out of touch prices of RAM and GPUs. I'll stay with my AMD CPU and GPU, which I have purchased in 2021 and keep purchasing awesome games I've never played on GOG 🤷‍♂️ And there are other options as well for other people to chose as well, to avoid AI slop and still have enough fun within their budget. The console emulation is also getting better each day, and in my country it is legal to make a backup copy of software you purchased on any platform of your choice 😊

Since Denuvo changed their licensing model a while back, I'm not really bothered nearly as much by its inclusion. Denuvo works orders of magnitude better than any other DRM that came before it, and most games protected by it do not get cracked or at least do not get meaningfully cracked - i.e., maybe one version of the game, usually one close to release, might get cracked, but then nothing after that: it's just too difficult and too time-consuming for cracking groups to really handle. However...while Denuvo used to sell perpetual licenses, they are now a real proper money-gouging "service" (and this is one of the only times I'll ever celebrate that) in that publishers must pay quite a hefty sum to continue to protect their games with Denuvo on an ongoing basis, and this means that even very big games eventually lose Denuvo - at the very least, the singleplayer ones that aren't earning the cash to continue to warrant it. Way I see it, this means games get protected for 6-24 months, which strongly encourages the people who really want to play them to actually buy them (which is good for the prospects of bigger singleplayer-only titles in particular, which have always been at higher risk of being pirated en masse relative to multiplayer titles), but it also means publishers will eventually push clean builds through Steam et al. somewhere down the road...which is good for those of us who either don't want anything to do with (or straight up can't play with) Denuvo, OR for those of us who would be waiting to buy something at a lower price point anyways. I think this is a fair compromise, and a much better and sustainable situation than those nasty perpetual licenses Denuvo was selling previously. Now that they've pretty reliably proven their DRM works and many publishers use it and will want to continue to do so, it makes sense they'd change their pricing model to take advantage of that, and the rest of us can luckily benefit from it.

^^ Yeah, it does look like stable diffusion slop.

I'll be sure never to get a GPU that supports that slop.

You can change the setting so that clicking the title of the thread brings you to the latest post.

Nukes? Where did that come from, why would you ever think he would want to use nukes? That makes no sense. There is absolutely no chance Trump will use nukes in Iran. Its completely illogical and doesn't align to any military objectives that are inextricably tied to the economic fallout of this war Can you imagine what nuking Iran would do to global energy prices? Trumps arrogant, capricious, petulant and obsessed with his legacy and current popularity . But he is not insane Only a truly demented person would ever use nukes in this regional conflict

Sadly no. There's tons of animals but so far they only seem to be for meat. I've become a butcher of chipmunks for food. 🤡

Alexander Brandon the composer of many all time classic soundtracks, including Deus Ex, Tyrian, Mask of the Betrayer, Storm of Zehir, cannot get a full time job. https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/its-brutal-out-there-deus-ex-and-unreal-composer-says-hes-submitted-50-resumes-and-gotten-one-interview-in-the-last-year/