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They should give Obsidian to make an RPG in the Diablo setting. I am eager to fish in Diablo

Right now, the Lizard boss fight feels like hitting a punching bag until it dies. Unlike the Broodmother, which had distinct phases that changed as her health dropped, the Lizard has no stage transitions. This makes the fight less engaging and removes the sense of evolving mechanics. Adding combat phases would make the encounter more dynamic and rewarding. For example, the Lizard could start with fast bite attacks, then switch to charging moves, and finally use tail strikes as its health decreases. This would restore the challenge and progression that makes boss fights memorable, instead of just being a damage sponge.

Lord of Hatred. Blizzard's update to the games turned it into a zen exercise simulator. Pretty good one though. Click this button here to create a new character. Wait five minutes. Pick class. Wait five minutes. Pick from presets or customize your own character, but the assets aren't loaded in. Wait five minutes. Click play game, wait five minutes, pick difficulty (huh?) then "Reconnecting...", wait five minutes... "Lobby Server Not Available"

Definitely a product of its time. Also unreliable narrators were super popular for a short while, ala Fight Club.

Completely agree, the fight with AXL is by far much better, and I simply dont enjoy the Dozer fight. He just gets 70% damage reduction at phase 3 and he can one shot you with the double stomp he does, which is unblockable and if you do not dodge his first attack it hits you with the second which kills you. I killed him by luck mostly, because for some reason Its very hard for me to invulnerability frame the stomp. I even think the boss is too big for the game. A full lizard?! At least if it was a common lizard (Zootoca vivipara), ok, but It does not fit that much for me. Overall, I love the weapon, shield and armor, but the fight itself ... A praying mantis was apparently a boss in Grounded 2, and mantises can kill lizards, so theres that, but such a lizard feels too much for me. Especially for Tier 3.

I have no issue with any government owning its own resources, this works well in many places like the ME or Norway But thats when the state funded and created its own state controlled investment Whats happening in places like Africa or Venezuela is foreign companies created the investment and controlled it for decades and now because of a badly run state they want to take control of that investment because they want the revenue stream. And they dont give the company a choice because they are the current government, thats what I define as forced nationalisation. Its theft and it undermines the agreement of why the investor created the FDI in the first place But agreed on nationalization is fine, so the company agrees to sell its assets to the state or sell part ownership. This works like in Botswana and its mining agreement with De Beers. Another workable option is mining licenses aren't permanent and they need to be renewed after 15-20 years, so the state can decide to not renew a license and take ownership at the end of the 15-20 years but this way the investor knows and agrees to this deal. Its not theft even if this carries certain risk and investor anxiety But going back to your main and most relevant question, "How would a resource rich country make best use of its resources" You have 2 main choices, the state creates and owns the investment from beginning . Then the tax revenue is used to benefit all citizens. The Norwegian sovereign fund is just one example of this around how taxes and profits go directly into the fund The other choice is you encourage FDI and you either grant them full ownership or you create a partnership but this must be done from the beginning and its contractually agreed to. And obviously these companies must abide by laws and regulations around things like conservation and sustainability where reasonable possible In both these examples its the responsibility of the government to ensure the Inuit population benefit from the mining going on. And that could take different forms. We also have mining companies that commit to building things for the local community but its not well done. I firmly believe its the government who should be uplifting communities and not the investor In South Africa the tax revenue from all our mining investments often is enough to boost GDP per quarter and SARS will sometimes report on overall tax windfalls just on high commodity prices. And all our mines are privately owned. But then the state either squanders or misallocates this increased revenue so the perception gets created that " mining doesn't help because the state doesn't own the mines " Which is a false analysis, mining generates lots of tax revenue for our state But what should never be acceptable is a badly run, corrupt or inefficient government suddenly looks around at successful FDI that has been in the country for decades and decides " we are going to take control of that asset because we want there revenue stream " That's what forced nationalization is

My favorite party composition is: Edér Aloth Durance Kana Rua Hiravias Kana Rua is very useful on some maps in the early game because he has access to the "White Worms" invocation. As long as you don't reload a map (leaving/coming back or reloading as save) all corpses will stay on the map. Every corpse works with White Worms over and over again (they don't get consumed). So on a map like Raedric's Castly you can pile up corpse over corpse in some doorways and use Kanas White Worms invocation for massive AoE damage. Also in longer encounters the summoed Phantom is extremely good in the early game. It can win fights for you (as long as Kana doesn't go down). From level 9 on I give him "The Dragon Thrashed" as only phrase for his chant and give him a single one handed weapon (because the +12 accuracy bonus translates to offensive chants for some overlooked reason) which decimates all mobs in range automatically. It's very powerful. Hiravias as a caster is very good in general but also his Spiritshift ability is very potent. I give him Wildstrike + Greater Wildstrike + Weapon FOcus Peasant + Two Weapon Style and Outlander's Frenzy. Very important to give him a Wildstrike Belt asap (can be bought for very cheap in Ondra's Gift). He then shreds through single enemies who want to mess with him in melee like no other class (not even Rogues). I give him the soulbound scepter because then he can regain his 1 spiritshift use per encounter, making it possible for him to spiritshift twice. Durance as a Priest is kind of a must if you don't want to gimp the party. Priests' buffs are just so strong. Pick Inspiring Radiance asap. It gives you +10 accuracy for the party in every encounter and stacks with everything. Makes the early game a lot easier. Aloth for CC is also my preffered way of playing him. Try Blast + Penetrating Blast + Weapon Focus + Dangerous Implements + Marksman and then summon Kalakoth's Minor Blights. It's a very good (small) AoE dmg combo and only needs one spell cast (for figts where you not necessarly need a lot of CC). Later something like the Rod of Pale Shades is very cool like that, too because Blast works with weapon procs (in this case Stunning + Disorienting) Although not in my favorite party setup, Pallegina can be very useful if you give her a Marking Weapon (there are several, my preference for her is a weapon set set of Spectacular Spetum pollaxe asap + Blade of the Endless Paths estoc later, pollaxe I keep as backup against pierce immue enemies) - and in additon pick Coordinated Attacks. This means she can give the nearest ally who's atacking the same target as her +10 stackable accuracy. This makes it a lot easier to overcome single tough foes (bosses and the like). And it's all passive so it doesn't cost resources or action time. And on top she can do all the other Paladin stuff of course.

American Psycho. Idk, I probably don't get it, but overall a boring flick. Probably has more to do with the time it came out.

Finished BG3 and started on Civ 5. Still my favorite Civ game. Need a break from cRPGs after hundreds of hours slogging through BG3. 😛

Enshrouded - huge patch. Combat changes. Gear changes, mechanic changes. Forced skill tree reset. Feels like 1/4 of the long time player base hates it/quit the game. Not sure it's quite that bad, but nothing I care about so I may not update it. It at least has the excuse of Early Access re: mega changes. Crimson Desert - huuuuge patch. Initially broke stuff. Hotfix. Multi-storage changes. Skill changes. Nerfs. 3-tier difficulty mode added. Control changes (still can't rebind WASD or some others). Fluff added (more cats, more outfits etc). Pet's ability to loot for you still seems half-broken. Still the worst implementation (graphically) of DLSS (major noise, ghosting in some scenarios, blur for some people) I've seen in years and all they do is focus on ray reconstruction improvement (noise goes away if you turn that on, pfft). I'm going back to previous version and probably staying there until I "finish" the game. semi-rant I'm all for QoL (bigger stash? sure) and options (difficulty options? added end-game activtives? sure), bug, stability, and sure, extra cats, why not, but I'm so fed up with feeling like every 2-3 months (or weeks) a game is no longer the same game I paid for. And half of it, in my mind, is because the "masses" whine and demand that every game be like/have the same features of a previous favorite game, and the dev's constantly capitulate. So in the end it's all the same slop. Frustrating as I found these two games in a love/hate kind of way, at the same time, at least they felt a bit different. Every patch slowly removes that individuality. It's tiresome. Even Teddy's Heaven is going that way - pretty soon it'll just be another tired same-y "shop" game. Yes, I know, sometimes constant patching works in favor. I'm just saying. end-rant

Update 1.21 Hi all, the Earthshaker subclass has been updated to 1.21. I made a few balance passes to it and removed some unintuitive mechanic (namely Terramote and Crushing Boulder). This mod right now is sitting at a point where I am mostly satisfied with, and I encourage you to give it try. Thank you!

I think the playerbase hated her or something.

Hmm, Google also tells me that "1% of individuals committing 63% of violent crimes" so maybe Gorth/Malcador math checks out. That means 817 MILLION people living in poverty is going to create a lot of wackadoos. I mean, theyre obviously not in it to uplift their community, and theyre not getting rich doing it, so its really just about inflicting violence on anyone with a different viewpoint until the cycle repeats and its their turn in the tire fire. Perhaps the true solution is giving everyone access to mental health services so they can work out that angry thats inside them?