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I liked WC3 story-wise, but I hated the style changes to the Kilrathi. I'd recommend Standoff, if you're looking to scratch that Kilrathi war itch. A WC2-era fan game based on the WCP engine that featured a whole new campaign away from Bluehair, including branching paths depending on your performance like in WC1.

I cover a lot of Viking history in the Dark Ages, but I only teach 7th grade and we have a limited window of time. I think I remember covering some Swedish rulers during AP Euro History in High School. This looks like the unit: https://www.tomrichey.net/blog/the-thirty-years-war-ap-euro-lecture-notes I mention the general area during tge Reformation as well, but the focus tends to be on Luther.

Something from the famed Italian comic artist Milo Manara that hits home:

Because Keyrock and Hurlshot aren't the only people who can fly:

My boss' timing is impeccable, just got a message saying that it was a warehouse next to us, so that's good (For me).

Dunno, there aren't any direct images of it, but noone was there atleast. https://www.gp.se/nyheter/storbrand-sprider-rök-över-göteborg-1.26702101 Here are some Street view images, the first one is pretty recent, one year ago, but the other one is a few years before and has an unobstructed view of the facilities. I don't know if the street view links will work properly, but turn the camera due west. https://www.google.com/maps/@57.738846,11.9932293,3a,75y,284.02h,67.89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVwj2nAJZSEH5N0wquFDZog!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@57.7388311,11.9931374,3a,75y,284.02h,67.89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s77Or6pHJke4DRjIFgHqogQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 And a little bit further down the street; https://www.google.com/maps/@57.740652,11.9937902,3a,75y,274.94h,76.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYCtvI8lUDrs9zjx8pmRnMQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 I'm highly amused that you can jump backwards and forwards in time by just switching side of the road. Hahaha! That's the wrong place I would burn

just adding another difficulty-dependent note. on higher difficulties (especially PotD+upscaling) where PEN/AR is more of an issue, crit is way more impactful because crit can move you up from underpenetration into doing full damage, which could be as much of a 300+% increase in damage on a crit. even when juggling multiple weapon damage types, there will be fights where it's just really dang hard to have full penetration on the enemy's armor. So because of that i don't completely frown on exalted focus's hit-to-crit bonus. It also stacks with other similar effects (just an oddity with how hit->crit and other similar effects work), whereas like you said the base +armor effect of endurance is really easy to be redundant with other similar effects. i would also point out that while the constant health regen of exalted endurance is really nice and can totally carry you in fights that you have no business winning, it's an anti-synergy with a streetfighter, since a streetfighter is best at sub-50% health and flanked. personally i extremely prefer exalted charge - bonus stride can totally save your clothies from being hunted down by enemy rogues, you can use it to kite, and the hit->graze defense bonus can do much more for you than the constant armor effect of exalted endurance without undermining streetfighter bonus. but it's not for everyone.

to add my own opinion (which is similar but slightly different to aeonslegend), if you don't have a priest backup: i suspect a streetfighter has so many damage bonuses that dual-wielding tarn + grave calling gives you the best of both worlds and will blow out what aldris can do -- the aldris crit effects will get drowned out by the streetfighter's huge other damage bonuses (even undermining them due to the heal) that you're probably better off with a straight-up higher lash from tarn or grave calling (since it's multiplicative). depending on the difficulty you are playing with, it's also somewhat of a trick question, because animancer's blade will be one of the best sabres. the lower damage is made up for by the lower recovery time (basically cancelling each other out) and you can "dual-wield" it by putting a ranged weapon in your off-hand and never going at range, and you will output insane damage in situations where sabres' slash damage would normally suck. might be a good candidate for your second weapon setup. depending on the difficulty, i would still rate scordeo's edge highly. without a priest for metagaming the instant recovery duration, i think its big attraction is the possibility of getting up to +20 accuracy on any weapon, which in some situations (mostly on higher difficulties) might outweigh what you can get with any lash. with a priest and salvation of time, scordeo's edge is probably hands down the best weapon in the game. even with high dex, negative armor, and streetfighter recovery bonuses, having all recovery eliminated for 20-30 seconds (not counting ways to get more salvation of time) is still a massive multiplicative increase in dps - a streetfighter could melt an entire battlefield by themselves in that time. you'd have to "dual-wield" the scordeo's edge with a ranged weapon to maximize the chance you trigger blade cascade each fight though. edit - for comparison, my last streetfighter wielded daggers and with all bonuses taken into account had a recovery time of .9 seconds or so and an attack time of like .4 seconds... so roughly an attack every 1.3 seconds. even despite that speed, removing the recovery completely would still be a whopping 3x increase in damage.

I'm playing KOTOR 2 right now. I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan, but I'm absolutely loving this game so far.

Working on the Jeanette Voerman look

I don't understand the question. You can use any grimoire you find, put several ones into the trinket and belt (quick) slots and switch them at any time. You can't learn from them like in PoE. If you avoid the ones with a lot of Evocation and Illusion spells you are good. I would put as many ability point into passives as I can and build an assortment of grimoires that has most of the spells I like. That way you can cast your favorte spells without spending ability points for them. Especially you don't want to learn Concelhaut's Draining Touch but cast it from a grimoire. Then, before attacking with it, switch to another grimore that doesn't have the spell. That way it will stay with you for the whole fight. It's a very powerful weapon and also great to use with an Essential or Substancial Phantom.

I found it to be quite a pleasant surprise myself. I went into it hearing about how it didn't stand up to Torment and how it fell off after a decent first half after Sagus Cliffs, yet my experience was actually the opposite. I thought the Sagus Cliffs section was alright but it was following it that the game really picked up steam, and whereas I expected to dislike the Bloom based on initial art and concept, I found myself quite enthralled with it. I went with middling expectations and they were easily surpassed. I played the game a while ago so I cannot recall the specifics right now with too much detail, but some general impressions are as follows: contrary to the rest here, I was expecting the game to be *very* flowery with its text, essentially trying to one-up Torment's writing and using word-count as a bar and the likes... And I was glad to find it wasn't really the case. I thought the text in Pillars, Torment, Tyranny or Disco Elysium was much more laboured for instance, and there were also some touches to facilitate comprehension that I quite appreciated, such as making a point to always offer a more succinct and straight-forward summary of what was being told upon asking for clarification; but at the same time these games are more effective at bridging the conflict and backdrop early on than Numenera is, thus making the exposition feel a lot less superfluous by extension. To exemplify: in Pillars you're introduced to the Saint's War and the meaning it has to the present day the moment you step into Gilded Vale and see the corpses hanging on the tree - as a player you are offered an immediate hook relating to a very current conflict, you're prompted to ask yourself why they're being hanged and why are you asked to move on, and the lore regarding the War, the suspicions that those being hanged aided Waidwen, the fears regarding Waiden's Legacy and so on is therefore justified as backdrop to that conflict; in Numenera you arrive to a massive town square and find this ancient soldier caught in time whose only real purpose is to stand around and explain why he's there and what happened hundreds of years ago - it's not until much later that you really connect the Eternal War to the Changing God and the Castoffs and start understanding its purpose or importance in the story. A lot of stuff in Sagus Cliffs is relevant but is introduced as flavour text and little else, making the game feel rather scattershot and indulgent early on. It's through the bottleneck at the mid point of the game that things really start falling into place and the focus feels that much clearer, and where the very Blade Runner-esque existential and humanist themes start to solidify, and from that point on I was very taken by it. Other small tangential bits... I love the area design and music in this, quite like the setting, the characters are rather memorable and interesting, the in-dialogue mechanics are very good and probably a better attempt at this sort of roll-based system than Disco Elysium's... But the turn-based mechanics and encounter design is a very mixed bag, which can at times be quite creative (like the heist sequence somewhere in the latter half) and at others plain horrible (most instances of actual combat). You might say it's not unlike Torment in that regard, but I'd argue that Torment's combat is easier to forgive because it's never really hard or prolongued enough to really sour the experience, whereas Numenera's can frequently be frustrating and excessively dilated through the sheer number of enemies and figures given individual turns.

It's Herbie's 80th B-Day! That merits a few tracks. Here's Dolphin Dance. IMO, the best of the tunes he wrote that became part of the standard jazz repertoire. And Rain Dance! My favorite early-electronic Herbie. Head Hunters, which came out right after Sextant, was of course the huge hit of this era, but my tastes run more towards the weird early jazz-electronica than to the funky popular stuff. Lastly, Herbie himself dancing. Sort of. This was an incredibly influential live performance-- it's from the broadcast of the '84 Grammys and was an introduction of both breakdancing and record-scratching to the nationwide TV audience. "Rockit" was already a hit, but millions of people who heard it had no idea how they got the record-scratch sound until they saw this broadcast. The Grammys are a famously conservative organization, and it might be the fact that the ostensible "front man" here was 43 and already an acknowledged master helped them sneak some then-underground stuff into living rooms throughout America.

Noclip is to release 5 videos long documentary series on The Outer Words. I shall update as they become available.

This is the day that that Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Day off for me, so I'm chillin' and getting ready to go to bed. Whatever your creed, or lack thereof, I'm wishing you a happy and healthy day!

Ok, you may have to activate the quest first. It's possible the item doesn't spawn without it, but I've never tried it. To meet Arkemyr you have to complete the quest "The Archmage's Vault" in Neketaka. It's activated by passing by his manor in Periki's Overlook and talking to the two arguing ladies there.

This man over here, officer.

Clear Out wins IMO - for that very purpose. Also for fun of ragdolling everyone. But before the Lance and Clear Out, a Spellblade would be better for the likes of Minor Blights / dual mortars for aoe and Nanassin's Cobra Strike for single target.

NO ONE MAN SHOULD HAVE ALL THAT POWER

I'll get a Therese costume and alternate between the two

For weapons I recommend Tarn's Respite + St. Drogga's Skull and for armor Magnera's Chain. Aldris Blade becomes strong only with high crit chance. Grave Calling is over rated because people always consider max stacks when in fact you'll spend most of the fights with less than half. (also Grave Calling works better with a shield because you attack more often with it than if you dual wield). However keep in mind that sabers do only slash damage and vs enemies with high armor resistance/immunity you'll be in trouble. Modwyr + Watcher's Blade is another great combo which doesn't suffer from that issue.

reckless brigandine comes to mind. But devil of caroc's breastplate is always good.

To be honest, one big part of why I lost interest in the game was due to the early access / beta phase. When I played the beta - despite the mentioned issues with the text from above - I really enjoyed it. And when I got this small ball with a hamster in it, THAT KEEPS FLOATING AROUND ME, I totally lost it. So then the beta chapter ended and I had to stop playing. Then months later when the final version was released, I tried to pick it up again, but now suddenly the flow was gone. I had to force myself to keep going more than anything. Well, and then just as above, out of the blue I stopped booting up the game and lost even more motivation to continue with it. tl;dr - the early access / beta killed the game for me otherwise I very likely would have played through it fully. This was when I realized, that I will NOT do these kind of beta shenanigans ever again. It just sucks reaching the end while you really want to keep playing.

I don't know if Youtube's age filter kicks in. I hope so. NSFW

Happy Easter to you too old friend (yes, I'm still a heathen)

You do have to be online to play Elite Dangerous. That was a minor scandal, as it was kickstarted as having a DRM free option and initially they refused refunds based on its always online status. Both I-Wars are good, and 2 in particular has graphics that stand up very well for an early 2000s game. 1 is a bit more on the sim side of the scale, with 2 being a bit more arcadey (but still on the sim side overall). They were running out of money when making it, so the story in 2 basically implodes in the 2nd half. Everspace is pretty good as well, it's further onto the arcade side of the spectrum than the sim side. Sort of like a space flight version of Faster-Than-Light is probably the best description. While low budget/ kickstarter level it's also quite pretty.

Tarn's Respite might actually be better for shorter skirmishes than Grave calling as it gives +15% cold damage right off the bat without requiring to stack it. Plus it has +1 pen. It can also reduce deflection on enemy.

I know you were being glib But really, I spend all year telling students to stop trying to memorize dates. They would all rather just rote memorize a bunch of dates and definitions than actually think critically about the events that have happened in the past. It's pretty hard to get 12-year olds to think about cause and effect and the ripples of actions centuries ago. Of course, now that they are living through a major historical event, it might be a bit easier to get them to engage.

I played about 10 hours of the game sometime last year, but stopped it for no reason other than just getting busy with life. I'll hopefully return to it soon, because it seemed quite interesting and beautifully designed.

The Surge 2. I've successfully reached the Seaside Court. TS2 is a souls-like, but there are several notable differences - an actual quest log, crafting system (getting schematics first, then components to actually craft an armor piece), rechargable "Estus flask" (in combat you generate energy, which can be used to generate injectables), leveling system (Power level determines how much armor and implants you can use). The Seaside Court itself was a combat-free zone, so I did not worry about accidentally hitting NPCs, though the inability to mess with the story was not encouraging. From what I understand, at the end of TS1 the nanites were launched, somehow infected one city and the city is on lockdown. The PC's plane crashed when it happened and there were only two survivors - the PC and a random girl, whose luck apparently was better - she got some super-abilities from the nanites.

Aldris Blade of Captain Crow is probably the best Sabre in the game in terms of damage output. Scordeo's Edge is ok and you don't have to side with the Principi I think to get it. In terms of damage output Grave calling is likely better than Scordeo's Edge and with dual wielding you're going to have very little recovery. 5% chance to ignore recovery is not a whole lot. You're better off dealing extra damage. I'm not a fan of Exalted Focus, but you can go with it if you don't need the healing. Exalted Endurance is very strong, but the armor bonus doesn't stack with Goldpact bonus I think. The main reason to get it is because of the great AoE healing. That plus AoE armor for everyone. That is better than +5 accuracy and a 5% chance to crit and deal 25% extra base damage imo. For reference that's a 5% chance to deal 3.5 extra damage.

This is like a messed up version of Talking Heads. I've been digging it lately.

Peak Coltrane. I feel sorry for that sax.

Oh, that's another point: the game doesn't do any favours to itself citing and recycling Torment in several instances. I don't recall all of them but I do remember some cases acting as very blatant references to the original game. It doesn't help things because to me Numenera works better as its own individual thing opposite to a spiritual successor, and yet it also never truly wants to leave its antecessor's shadow.

who likes Swedes anyway. They were d!cks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Brno During the Thirty Years' War, in 1643 and 1645, Brno was the only city to succeed in defending itself against Swedish sieges, thereby allowing the Austrian Empire to regroup its armies and to repel the Swedes. In recognition of its services, the city was rewarded with a renewal of its city privileges. In the years following the Thirty Years' War, the city became an impregnable Baroque fortress. In 1742, the Prussians vainly attempted to conquer the city, and the position of Brno was confirmed with the establishment of a bishopric in 1777. In 1805, The Battle of Austerlitz took place about 10 kilometers (6 miles) southeast of Brno. Yeah come at us agains!

It's my mother-in-law's birthday and Easter so she is doubly excited. We're trying to be supportive. Thinking back to my childhood and my mom as this was the one holiday that I would accompany her to church.

That depends on the subclasses. E.g. a Steel Garrote/Bloodmage is superb with Whispers of the Endless Paths/Offensive Parry. Offensively as well as defensively. Casting while at the same time dealing dmg and draining health via parries. A Bleak Walker I would either play as sturdy offensive caster with Blightheart/Eternal Devotion for the corrosive/burning lashes on spells - or as sturdy melee frontliner with Spirit Lance.

I almost feel bad for Vince McMahon. The first time the XFL died because it was terrible. This time it was halfway decent and it died because of a global pandemic. Word is, Vince poured an awful lot of his own money into the XFL, counting on recouping it a couple years down the road with a big TV deal, which is obviously not going to happen now. It just wasn't meant to be, I guess.

The supermarkets in Australia don't give refunds on toilet paper or hand sanitiser. Also, many people in Australia report price gouging on sites like ebay to get the over priced toilet paper taken down and is very successful. It's basically a FU to these people. No sympathy at all.

Late to this, but great update! Text size was much needed, and idle camera button is a cool option. Regarding the idle camera, I think it would be nice if we could manually adjust the camera angle ourselves. The angle of the rotating camera isn't great for screenshots.

Very timely as I have been thinking about it, due to some info revealed in todays Noclip documentary. I am "in main game expansion" kind of guy, rather then a new adventure. According to the documentary early in devlopment they cut content multiple times as they realised that the compact RPG they drafted was too big for what they can do. L Boyarsky expressed a sentiment of "one cut too many". If so, I would love for them to use expansion to inject at least some of it's content back, if they feel it's possible, or if game in it's current state would benefit of it (I doubt it could be reimplimnented in the way originally planned, but perhaps those ideas could be used as a basis for the expansion).

Part 1: From Concept to Creation

Way ahead of his time

Yea that was because she had a lot of synergy with the watcher options in terms of affinity building. It was extremely easy to get her to 2 points. 2 points is what is required for romance options with anyone. The game basically tells you that romance is saying what people want to hear and agree with a few times and then you can get together. Just like real life.

This seems to be the general view of TB fans, that any party-based RPG must of course be TB. There's zero logic to it, but that's the line that gets pushed. The overwhelming majority of negative reviews on Steam for both the PoE games and P:K are some varient of: it's RTwP so it's a horrible game.

I thought I might have broken my toe but then I realized two things, I feel no pain and you can't hurt steel. Though if anyone on here is a doctor, has played one on TV, or recently stayed at a Holiday Inn Express can I ask if it's supposed to look like hamburger yet smell faintly of almonds?

So gog is doing an aquatic themed sale and part of that sale is Neverwinter Nights...

Shame that's a pre order item and not everyone has access to that one.

Read the news. "Big fire at Hisingen". Several trucks started burning and ignited a nearby warehouse. "Hmm.. those images are awfully familiar, I drove there to the meeting." ... *Checks google streetview to compare images from the scene to where I drove* ... Kurwa.