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Top counterterrorism official Kent resigns over Trump’s Iran war, says Iran posed no imminent threat I'm glad to see somebody in that circle showed moral qualms about redacted's actions. ‘Never heard him so angry’: Trump is furious that global allies aren’t pitching in in Iran Crackpot is angry his fantasy world doesn't match reality? Huh.

Hey folks, Sorry for the long delays on your playthroughs. I just wanted to catch up and say I was able to get through one of the four in my backlog now that things are a bit less hectic after last year and the beginning of this year. With that in mind, I'm already part way through the next playthrough and will try to keep making time to get through all of these so you can all get confirmed playthroughs and get your well earned patches. With that in mind, I'll update the following character list as I go through the playthroughs. Xoti's Wife - COMPLETE Sissel V - IN PROGRESS Silvaren - WAITING LOCK IN - WAITING Thank you for all of your patience as I get to these and I hope to get you some more updates soon!

I have to admit there's a certain amount of grim amusement to be had from Trump now begging other countries to send warships to Hormuz. The combination of the great unilateralist going cap in hand when the going gets tough asking those he's spent the last year insulting to bail him out and all his recent pronouncements about how great things are going- including telling Britain not to send ships as it would be ~"joining a conflict we've already won"- has slightly more than a scintilla of irony. Also probably the closest we're going to get to an admission from Trump that if the USN actually does start trying to escort ships they're going to take losses. He would, of course, far prefer those losses to be from the countries he insulted the dead of less than two months ago.

Finished Wavetale. A lovely and concise adventure, though easy and the full price does not quite match the quality. Started Clash - Artefacts of Chaos. At some point, I spent 10 minutes staring at the left buttcheek of a humanoid boar because it was the only "safe" spot and the opponent was KO'ing me in 2 hits. Otherwise, the camera is the greatest foe, especially in group battles, and the dice mini-game feels useless. The invisible walls and the MC inability to vault over thigh-high fences is annoying. The unique aspects of the game are the setting (feels like post-apocalypsis) and the focus on the unarmed combat. The bug with the stances (the game auto-selects the second stance randomly while I explicitly kept it empty because there is only one I am comfortable with) is unpleasant. Still, I am going to try to finish it, though cannot recommend. Got the DLC for Saints Row on the latest Steam sale. The LARP one is fairly funny and fun. The heist one is 3 missions. I've also been trying to finish the optional activities on the map with relative success. The issue with pacing is less noticeable after completing the main story, though there is more fairly similar side quests than in the previous parts (as far as I remember). I still enjoyed the timed races ("Pony Express"), but would have preferred there being 50% less of it.

I feel like the easiest thing is to split the issue in three parts: Allow a way to apply a different appearance to any piece of armour (Spend bug parts/resources to make X piece look like Y, but retain all stats and effects) Make the Tier be a separate path to upgrade. Upgrading the Tier could just use set resources regardless of armour (or resources specific to the class type or whatever), and improve the base stats of the equipment. Allow a permanent one-way "Link" upgrade to make a piece of armour from Set X count as being from Set Y for activating the set bonus. It shouldn't be cheap, but doesn't need to be crazy expensive either.

The way bandages currently work disincentives using higher tier bandages. Due to the healing effect being cancelled upon hit, players are more likely to not want to "waste" bandages because they get hit. The players who can block/dodge the hits to get the full effect of the bandage are not likely to get hit as much. So higher tier bandages should be able to take a hit or two before "breaking." This will incentivise using the higher bandage tiers despite the cost, even if they don't get more healing. Then players who get better are rewarded by being able to use cheaper bandages.

If you see reviews/gameplays of Crimson Desert and they go on a small rant about UI/interface control setup, it's true. It sucks. Can you get used to it and eventually "memorize" enough for it to work. Sure. But they suck, to the point where you wonder if the UI/interface designer should be fired. It's bad enough that the first few hours feels like learning how to not hate the Ui. I did try controller for a bit but it's not much better. And apparently you can't remap controller layout at all, unless some 3rd party app can force it. I got stuck on that arm wrestling bit (you have to do it re: main questline) because I couldn't do the QTE mash timing, even after 30 tries, no idea why I usually can do those things fine. I finally realized I could spam both the general key on KB and controller at the same time and that bypassed even needing the QTE press timing. Which seems like an oversight but whatever. The world outside is quite pretty even with lowered settings - but lower settings can turn candles/lights/fires into murky/artifact-y low res bloomy lighting making it hard to see in caves and/or at night occasionally. Camera inside tighter areas is annoying. Actual gameplay - it's fine. Exploration motivation is there. Early area combat is super easy (I'm sure it's not forever). The controls/UI is just klunky, time-wasteful/tons of extra clicks and button holds to do anything etc. Cats/dogs to pet everywhere. Little quests, random occasional bandit surprise in early/training area. Many early sidequests you may want to skip, you can't really, because rewards are often inventory increase bags. Early summation: seems like one of those games where if you can get past the bad UI, is one of those "it gets good after 15-20+ hours!" types.

OK, semi-scratch some of the above. For some reason, for me, it looks better on DLSS-Ultra-Performance vs. Balanced. >.> Post-Processing Quality seems to hit fps fairly hard and so far doesn't seem to lose much looks if you have it Low. I might even like it better, since stuff like chromatic aberration/other seems tied to it. Ray Tracing (global illumination) vs. non-RT global seems to have little fps effect on/off so I left it on. Anyway, I got it where it looks pretty good/better on the big TV at 50-55fps. I'll post a vista scenic SS in the pic thread. Don't judge graphics vs performance too much in the tutorial section, wait to you get to the first town/world proper (won't take too long). There's a simple PhotoMode. Kliff still feels like a brick. Flavor NPC's say the same things over and over and over. Voice acting is ok but nothing distinctive. Horse riding is fine. There seems to be an auto-loot chest available but you cannot (?) put anything into it, it's only for "rescuing" dropped loot that you missed/didn't see. I picked up a bird and Kliff just held it in his hand I've gone over refund time, so I guess I'm keeping it. :P

Sap really is just an incredible ability. I can count the enemies on one hand that immune to it, and it never misses. Once a character is stunned for 9 seconds standing next to a rogue with sneak attacks and fast dual wield attacks, there is nothing they can do about it. Not even Concelhaut.

Youtube Video Guide Disclaimer: This playstyle is not for everyone. This is all about micromanaging every movement your rogue makes. If you don’t like this style of play, you will not have fun with this build. If you leave this character alone for a second, she will die. If this sounds fun to you, read on. In the middle of the night they came. Dark shadows on the wind, almost soundless. Tquintan heard them though. She always did. She was one of them, trained to move without being seen, and strike with furious anger. She was good. Not the best, but good enough to warrant a death sentence. The Orlans of the Deadfire had a cruel sense of justice. Tquintan had challenged a senior in her guild, and won. The others in the guild did not take kindly to this upstart trying to climb the ladder of assassins before she had proved himself. So they did what they do best. Well, they tried. Tquintan got away. With nowhere to go, she went south and joined a caravan headed for Gilded Vale… ======================================================================= This is my take on a classic backstabbing stealthy sneaky glass cannon rogue. I know there are probably ways to optimize it better, but this character was a beast. Did far more damage than any other party member, soloed a dragon, took down Concelhaut without letting him get a spell off, and was a damage dealing machine from level 1 to level 16. She is also squishy. Very squishy. She will die a lot. Hopefully not before she has taken out 3-7 enemies (sometimes more). I beat the game on POTD with all upscaling and injuries on, and she had a grand total of 300K damage, 1045 kills, more crits than hits, and was knocked out 88 times. ;) Race/Stats/Background Hearth Orlan (want those crit bonuses) Deadfire Drifter Might - 17 Con - 3 Dex - 19 Per - 20 Int - 15 Res - 4 Perception and Dex are our most important stats. We want to attack fast, and crit often. Might is next for the damage. Because we are so squishy, we attack many times, crit many times, and kill fast. If you don’t kill them fast and they turn around and target you, you need to get out! Int is also nice as it makes our afflictions last longer, which is broken strong when it gets to sap at level 13. Dump Con and Res to as low as they go. Embrace your inner micromanager, and accept the fear of death at any minute. Skills: Max Stealth, couple points into Athletics for second wind, couple points into Survival for move speed. Important Story Talents Flick of the Wrist: A flat ACC bonus to our weapon of choice Merciless Hand: More Crit Song of the Heavens: More Per Skaens Boon: I just wanted to be evil… Dex doesn't hurt either. Blooded Hunter: More Stealth Dungeon Delver: More Crit and Stealth Blood Pool: Sagini (Itumak too) More Per Gift of the Machine: More MIG is always welcome. Level Progression These are the abilities/talents I took. I respecced so many times testing different things that I couldn’t really tell you the order. I put them in what I think is an optimal order for a full playthrough, but mix and match as you please based on your team composition. 1: Crippling strike (or blinding strike doesn’t matter, though late game crippling strike is better) 2: Backstab (obviously, also why we invest in stealth points) 3: Reckless Assault (this model gives extra melee damage at the cost of defense, but you are wet paper towel anyway so may as well go all in, have it on at all times) 4: Shadowing Beyond (this is where we start getting tricky, though our damage is not quite respectable enough to be taking enemies out in a single swing, but it is damn fun) 5: Escape (now we have a combo! Escape to the backline, crippling strike, go invisible, backstab, if buffed from a priest, should take out casters and ranged units quickly) 6: Two Weapon Fighting (get that attack speed up!) 7: Deathblows (More sneak damage, but now you need two afflictions to proc. So easy to do if you have a priest and wizard or druid in party. 8: Weapon Focus Ruffian (Stilettos and Sabres!) 9: Finishing Blow (This is a good one, make sure to use it against low health enemies. It will not be overpowered at this point in the game, but later…. Your backstab crits will be in the multiples of hundreds) 10: Bloody Slaughter (Crits against weak enemies, combined with deathbows….) 11: Dirty Fighting (more crit damage) 12: Devastating Blow (Mỏre damage for finishing blow) 13: Sap (Ok, this is the most overpowered ability in the game for a rogue. You get 2 uses per encounter, it stuns the enemy, and then you get 7-11 seconds to just wail away on them as they can’t do a damn thing. They are usually dead by the time it wears off. Then, you do it again. I can count on hand the amount of enemies who were immune to stun and this didn’t work. It is how my rogue basically soloed the Adra Dragon. Incredible ability) 14: Vicious Fighting (better dirty fighting) 15: Deep Wounds (Damage over Time DOT) 16: Beast Slayer (Just for dragon killing…) Team Composition There are certain things you need to make this work. My team was Eder, Kana, Aloth, Durance, Hivarias. But almost any composition will work as long as you have…. 2 Tanks: You need two frontliners to take a ton of engagements. If the enemies curl around your tanks and come to the side, where you are standing and target you, you are dead. I used Eder and Kana, they did very well tanking large groups while I killed enemies off to the side. Plus, they are pretty low micro intensive. Affliction Casters: You need afflictions to proc sneak attacks, 2 for uber sneak attacks with deathblows. The best characters to do this are wizards, ciphers, druids, priests. The Priest is the easiest, just get painful interdiction. Wizard also has a huge AOE spell Arkemers something something. Druids can cast insect plague for sickened, relentless storm for stun, etc. Ciphers can do Secret Horrors and Phantom Foes, both of which have massive AOE…. the combinations are endless. The important thing is your backline is inflicting affliction for your rogue, buffing the team. They can throw out damage spells after that. A Priest: Painful Interdiction, some Heals (you will need them!), the occasional Withdrawal for longer fights, resurrection for when you die, and the suite of Priest buffs, Crowns of the faithful, Devotions, Blessings, etc, etc, etc. Durance was responsible for standing in the back and buffing the hell out of everybody. Playstyle Combat starts and one of two scenarios will unfold. a) Your rogue is grouped up with your team, b) your rogue is off the side hiding. Scenario A Your rogue is standing where he needs to be, right next to the priest. Combat starts, the buffing begins, the tanks move forward, the casters throw out some debuffs, your rogue waits in stealth. Once the dance at the frontline is settled your tanks have engaged the enemies, the rogue moves in on the flank side, and begins to stab. She quickly kills a couple, and then uses escape to jump to the backline where is an annoying priest and a ranger. Teleport right beside the priest (he is the most dangerous) and hit him with Sap. Now he is stunned. Stab Stab Stab Stab, dead. Pop hide in shadows and sneak up behind the ranger and backstab him for big damage. He won’t last long. Scenario B Your team is in one place and you are in another. Just stealth up behind the backline and start stabbing. Use Shadow Beyond and escape to move from target to target. Use escape to get our there quickly, use Sap to run and burst. In this scenario though, you don’t have the priest buffs on. You are flying solo so make sure to really carefully babysit. Gear Weapons Dual Stilettos are a fun way to go. You get amazing ACC and they do good damage because you are attacking so fast. They also have innate DR, which is nice. Your backstabs won’t be huge, and you need a wizard or a priest to get some inflictions on enemies. The game has some great Stilettos, one you can buy early in Gilded Vale, and another you can get on the first floor of the endless paths. With those two you can head to Ondra’s Gift, buy some Vithrack brains, and you good two unique Exceptional Stilettos for all of act 2. Later in the game you get some more amazing Stilettos. It is a solidly represented weapon. Some good ones: Azureiths Bleak Fang Oidhreact Miserys End Vent Pick HOWEVER….. If you really want to min max, do an insane amount of damage, make POTD feel easy, and feel like a god, then do this instead. As soon as the White March starts, do it. I mean all of it. From beginning to end. We need Krakens Eyes. Once you finish and get your 2 Kraken Eyes, upgrade the Sabre Bittercut to Legendary. Add a Corrosive lash, Durgan Reinforced, and put it in the Wax Mold and copy it. Now you are dual wielding two legendary sabres with increased attack speed. And you have all of Act 3 and many bosses and bounties and the endless paths to enjoy it with…. You can upgrade something to Legendary once you hit Level 16, but I had a huge chunk of content left after I did this. Honestly though, it was almost too strong…. NOTE: Always have a bow equipped in off slot just in case you get stuck behind tanks and need something to do. Or you get stuck and can’t move) Armor For most of the early and mid game you should use Angio’s Gambeson for the DAOM spell. Of course you could also just go with clothing or robes. Late Game Vengiatta Rugia is best in slot of a sneak attack rogue. And best in style. Scales of the Raven is also a good choice, but it also a late game item. I used Vengiatta Rugia so I could ditch the Glanfathan Stalking Boots and use boots of speed instead. I made it Legendary, and added an +2 Int upgrade. Angio's Gambeson (early) Vengiatta Rugia (Late) Scales of the Raven Blaidh Golan Durance Robe Boots Use the Glanfathan stalking boots until you get Rugia armor late game, and switch to boots of speed. Or use Boots of Speed as soon as you get them. Honestly, it is a huge quality of life boost to move faster during combat! Helmet Maegfolc Skull for the +3 MIG and the style. Neck Mantle of the Excavator: +4 PER cloak Rings Ring of Thorns +3 Dex Ring of +9 Defenses Gloves Gloves of Quickness for the increased attack speed Belt Belt of Mortal Protection (just to save you from crits that might one shot you) Belt of Constitution +3 (more HP) Looped Rope (defences against afflictions) Driving Wave I wore the Looped Rope from the moment I got it. Getting your movement impaired with this build is a death sentence, and 20+ defence on these afflictions is nice.

Crimson Desert -- initial setting/performance evaluation etc Spent 70 minutes trying to find performance that fits me. I will say that if you're a 1080/1440 type, the game looks decent, whether native or a bit of upscaling. You can have a lot of things on High/Ultra and it may still get you 60fps, which is good re: older systems. With 4k as the starting resolution, it's a bit tougher on my old rig. I can get the usual mostly 60 if I fiddle a lot, but the game has the usual modern day problem where dropping a lot of settings doesn't really do tons for FPS until you go so low it's awful - and if you go below High on lighting, post-processing, shadows etc it start to look like poo ( especially if using DLSS 4, Quality or Balanced), like more and more artifacting and blurriness. Motion Blur, btw, is under Accessibility. oh, if you have it don't use ray reconstructuring, it appears to dramatically tank fps at the moment. EDITEDIT: so for me it's not that I can't get ok FPS, it's that upscaling doesn't seem to work very well/doesn't look as good as DLSS usually does. Like the way they optimized graphics = less pixels for DLSS to work with and the result is kind of a mess. My main issue in this early time is that Kliff moves like a brick. I feel like if I'm walking and want to get him to turn, he's a 3ton brick. Stiff, slow to respond. It's driving me crazy, can't get used to it yet. This is using KB/Mouse, haven't tried a controller. KB/Mouse can be remapped - somewhat. But there are so many actions that require two or more button inputs, and many actions that use the same key, that it's difficult. I typically want to move anything tied to CNTRL and ALT elsewhere, to the right, and it's tough in this game. And I think WASD cannot be remapped, if you're left-handed or other preference. I am undecided. I guess I have 30-40 more minutes to figure out if refunding/trying later would be better. :P

Finally had to upgrade to iOS 26 - iOS 26 compatible devices don't get the iOS 18 updates with the current security fixes needed to fully stop DarkSword. Needless to say I hate every change Apple made to the UI. President Trump, it's not the hard working, illegal Mexican immigrants that you should lock away in CECOT. It's people who think changing user interfaces for the sake of changing them is a good idea, and round and lock up everyone who was involved in creating Liquid Glass as well.

I think I have base 15 Int and I usually eat a fish before a fight. This rogue has eaten a lot of fish....

ah ship CTD bug report jumpscare NEW RELEASE!! I realized now that the right description would be "non-ghost child nodes", oh well...

As stated in the article, because of the Venezuela decapitation. Why would a US attorney general be the target of Iran?

I was rude so didn't manage to sleep with Odessa in the end

I dont understand the tie to Iran. 3 were moved in Oct 2025 over concerns for their safety from US citizens: Top Trump Officials Are Moving Onto Military Bases - The Atlantic Bondi was moved over concerns from "cartels": Bondi moved to heavily guarded military base amid cartel threats So where are you getting your information? Link?

Hey been running into an crash lately when trying to re-parent nodes in the Conversation and Quest editors. Steps to recreate: Child a node to another node. Delete the non-child version. CRASH.

Thanks, I'll do just that 👍

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?).

I use gg.deals

nVidia is an AI company now, you'll accept it or else. While most people have been using Seymore Skinner's "am I out of touch? No, it's the kid's who are wrong" for nVidia/ Jensen's reaction at least as appropriate is Kang's (or maybe Kodos'?) "what are you going to do, vote 3rd party buy AMD?". Though they'd probably be as bad, if they were in the dominant position. Hmm, pretty sure they've always had a microsoft 365/ John Deere option since near the start, if not the start, it's just the perpetual license option is now gone. Certainly there's been a tendency to remove denuvo after one or two years, and given that that costs money itself and corporations are hardly charities doing so out of the goodness of their hearts seems... out of character.

A good reminder for folks to check https://isthereanydeal.com/. I just heard of it.

Nslopia 🤷‍♂️

Yes, there's some questionable elements to Kent's background. But his actions seems to be consistent with a pol. who had bought into redacted's prior stance against foreign entanglements. Is redacted's sudden switch an example of how susceptible he is to the right kind of influencers?

US - Australian relations explained...

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

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

Heya SellSwordDev, Please explore the link here for further information: https://www.obsidian.net/careers/internships

I have decided that these two need new pairs of glasses. I tried viewing this video both on my tablet and on the OLED. Ok, sometimes the close-up faces might look a bit better, in an overdone or Ai-uncanny valley fashion, depending on one's artistic POV, but the area/scene examples are awful, even taking into consideration they seem to be filming a screen vs. direct video captures. Most scenes just look like blown out brightness/contrast/color reshade-like filters, with too much forward light (like portrait lighting) and losing possible directional shadow. Not to mention, it adds wrinkles/details to faces, in one case alters upper lip shape of a chr (or at least the lipstick to a point it feels like it) etc. At least I assume it's an option/one doesn't have to use it. EDIT: also, the demo they got to look at was running on two 5090's. But don't worry, it'll scale downward in the end. >.>

This just in: Starfield Remastered confirmed. And it's going to be even cheaper to produce than the Oblolololivion UE5 reskin. DLSS 5 -- it just works! 😁 https://youtu.be/dJACkKbN-Eo?si=2AuTloEFsoMDlstj&t=37

I am HIGHLY disappoint about the lack of directed energy weapon usage. Especially microwave systems. 😿 (< haha I just found that one under "cry"). Strap one of these on the port and starboard deck of the tankers and lets cannonball run the straight and see what happens:

No one but well-known twitch/review/game influencer people are (and they're still under non-disclosure), since it doesn't release until the 19th. :D Not sure when the ND for those folks review video, will be lifted. I'd guess the 17th or 18th, assuming it'll be pre-release at all.

I really enjoyed the LARP DLC. With the heist one... I liked the start - the hubris of the celeb. The setup is great but then it is just two run of the mill missions. I had fun with the murder circus. Reminded me a bit of Moxxy's arena in Borderlands 1. And I liked the stories of the characters in it.

'Major Discovery': After Years of Research, Scientists Found a New Chemical Reaction : ScienceAlert

https://newrepublic.com/post/207749/donald-trump-selling-national-security-briefing-details-fans "In a fundraising email, a Donald Trump–affiliated super PAC offered the highest bidders “unfiltered updates on the threats facing America.”" How can this even be real.

We were friends with China even during the iron curtain. In fact China was smuggling a bunch of stuff for us during the NATO aggression and we gave them the wreckage of the downed stealth bombers to study. Our relations have steadily improved since China turned communist and nowadays we probably have better diplomatic relations with them than we do with Russia.

Yes, it would be good to have a timeline. I'm now busy modding CP2077, but I'll move on and start another game soon and, when I do, the chances that I'll come back to TOW2 to finish it are slim.

You've obviously never lived in Australia 😂 The same game could be almost 100% more when purchased through Steam, if your geo-location was Australia. I think that was when I decided to get a commercial VPN solution. Also, at the time, there was some heavy censorship in games sold in Australia, because and old law forbidding the selling of 18+/R rated games in the country. Every attempt at repealing the law was met by one religious nutcase individuals veto until he eventually was forced out due to age. Aussies can now buy games with boobs and violence just like most other western countries (except Germany where blood is copper based instead of iron based) Arenanet are bastards too when it comes to their cash shop for Guild Wars 2. The cash shop currency, "Gems", has a price that is the same in Euros and Australian dollars. I.e. the exact opposite of Steam. I can buy x number of "Gems" for either 50 AUD or 50 EUR. Guess what my VPN says on the rare occasion i actually spend money there? Hint, 50 EUR os roughly 80 AUD, so I of course chose to pay 50 AUD instead Edit: A different consequence of regional pricing is the existence of cheap game keys from resellers. They get large shipments of otherwise legit keys redirected to them from low income regions and sell them at a markup to high income regions. The keys are valid, but also means low income regions regularly get deprived of the option of buying legit software at affordable prices

Main character isn't very appealing.

Luke Stephens video mentioned a person in the room that got stuck on a puzzle for like 30 minutes. I guess we know who it was, now. The four preview vids I've seen, my takeaway is: no "yellow paint"/hints on puzzles/you have to use your brain or (non-puzzles) try several things before you figure out something (I say yay, some will hate it), massive amount of controls (combat)/large learning curve for that, but combat is still kinda simple, don't expect sweeping/expansive or multi-options RPG story (I wasn't), good performance is real (relatively speaking for the era), non-main quest stuff is more expansive than MC and varied/discovery-cool or fun. So basically, one of those games where one is probably going to like it a lot, or one is going to find learning/control curves too much/not guided enough etc. The preview I liked the most was the one below - or Luke Stephen's (he claims he got the farthest in the MC/chapt 3), but his yapping style can be a bit annoying and it was extra long. My main concern as always is frustrating (to me) comabt, but eh. I'll risk it this time. I mean, at least I can steal a goat, toss it over my shoulder, and run away with it. Cute. There's apparently eventually some kind of small npc-settlement/animal husbandry stuff.

I used to be able to do it when I was younger, these days I can't. I can still do it when it's just numbers, ie eating all sapient life in the galaxy in Stellaris.

There will be a particle slider so you can turn all that visual noise "off" or have it max. I never got past the intro of TW3 - Garult is not my kind of chr. Might have been another reason, like graphics at the time, but I don't remember. And watching later YT video let's play didn't change my mind so I never tried it again. I think for me Crimson D. looks like the sort of "world" I like to explore, mostly - since I'm not focused on any "RPG" aspect anymore - plus their seeming desire to optimize for native as much as possible (and optimization in general) vs. "just turn on dlss/frame gen". The 2080 rec. requirements these days is pretty decent for big expansive graphic/world games+RT global illumination (even if that's for native 1080/60). I think it started with 32gb system ram req, but then they got it down to 16gb. I like to see that in a dev. Maybe with upscaling and some lowered settings I can run it at "4k" at over 60fps instead of "mostly, kinda 60 fps." Heh. But yeah, gameplay is always the key. Is it interesting/fun, engaging, motivating, is it a decent open world or one of the boring nothingness types etc. We'll see. I'm willing to give it a shot as long as early reviews aren't "crash and burn".

I found out, I could access my old Pathfinder Wrath of the Righeous saved games via GOG cloud. Awesome. Installed the game and relized a lot of time had passed since playing on my lich game 🤔 I remember having a nice editor tool for saved games, but I don't remember what it was called. In hindsight, having a spell caster specializing in scythe combat wasn't such a great idea, but hey, it made perfect sense thematically! Started up a new game as a Magus (arcane rider), but till probably drop it again. It was good as a warm up game though. I might do a second take on the Lich path, but with something different than a sorcerer as the starting class. I wouldn't be surprised if magus is a decent choice for the task Edit: It bugs me a bit, that I have a hard time constantly picking evil choises, even if its a roleplaying character.

One thing that nobody warns you about when you get a job in the gaming industry is just how many meetings there are. There’re daily standups, gate reviews, sprint meetings, post-mortems, sign-offs, bridge meetings, war rooms, and the list goes on and on. But one of the most important meetings is called Triage. It generally occurs on a daily or weekly cadence, depending on what part of the dev cycle you are in. This is where Production, Design, Engineering, and QA get together and discuss the latest bugs. We go over each bug written since the last Triage and decide as a group how important the bug is, who is going to fix it, and when they need to fix it by. There are three main ways that this is measured. Severity: How bad the bug is, in the eyes of the user. Priority: How soon a bug should be fixed. Repro Rate: How hard, or easy, is it to run into the bug? How likely are players to see it? This is usually measured in attempts. For example, a crash bug could happen 100% of the time, or it could only happen under very specific conditions. And one thing that is easy to forget when you’re lost in a sea of bugs, is the scale of the audience. Sure, only 10% of the testers may experience a specific issue. But 8% of the modern AAA audience is hundreds of thousands of players. You would think, with that in mind, anything that affects at least 5% of players would be treated as a serious concern. But what if I told you that while only 0.5% of women are color-blind, 8% of men are? And how many modern games have color-blind filters? The answer is not nearly enough. Accessibility features are about giving players the tools they need to enjoy the game in whichever way works best for them. If you can add color-blind filters (https://colorblindgames.com/2021/03/29/colorblind-gaming-101-the-basics/) that’s roughly 5% more potential sales. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 85% of Americans under 18 play video games at least once a week. That comes out to 205 million players in the US alone. Five percent of which, comes to 8,000,000 people. Multiple that by $60 and we’re talking serious money. So why, in a world where the dollar drives everything, are accessibility features not standard? Why are so many developers leaving so many potential players behind? It would be easy for me to blame big bad CEO’s or shareholders for the problem. But the reality is, it’s not malicious. Like most issues in life, it’s more ignorance than anything else. People just aren’t as informed on the subject as they could be. But that is starting to change. The industry is starting to come around and they are making serious investments in multiple ways. (alt text: Ishihara test was invented to measure color blindness. The image above uses different shades to create the image of Toadstool from Super Mario Bros) source: Obsidian has been leading the way for longer than most. Well before it was “cool” to make accessible games, titles like Pillars of Eternity (2013) were giving players multiple color-blind filters, detailed difficulty options, and a large suite of audio/video settings to let players decide what “good” looks like. Back in 2020 Grounded introduced the Arachnophobia filter. A setting that is now becoming default in many horror/survivor games. Hogwarts Legacy added it, but only after NorskPL released a community mod for the setting. My favorite is actually from the most recent version, Grounded 2. Can you detect the feature? It’s one of the first things you see when you start the game. (alt text: Screenshot of Grounded 2 main menu showing custom face button graphics used to inform the player where on the face the button is located.) Many of you probably pointed to the Accessibility shortcut. And that is a great example of mindful design. How do you expect people to turn on the accessibility features if they need the accessibility features enabled to get to the accessibility features? But that’s not my favorite. My new favorite is the A and Y buttons. Notice what’s different? I bet you Xbox Certification noticed that these are not authorized representations of the face buttons on an Xbox controller. But I love that they saw through the rule to find the intent. Instead of confusing players, these actually provide more information. It’s a tiny change that can have a big impact. Heck, I’m not even color-blind and these helped me after I spent the previous few weeks playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where the A and B buttons are swapped. And that’s the key to accessibility features. Not telling players how to play, but providing the options for them to play how they want to play. And they are not alone. The industry as a whole has finally seen the benefits of expanding their games and tearing down walls. For example: the Entertainment Software Association (a trade association representing the major video game developers and publishers across the industry) recently rolled out their Accessible Games Initiative. They are leading by example and starting with updating their storefronts to include Accessibility Tags. Much like you can browse by genre or feature, now you can filter games by which ones support the accessibility features you care the most about. (alt text: A black background with brightly colored stickers in the shapes of Xbox icons and accessibility products like prosthetic legs, wheelchairs, and seeing eye dogs.) And they are not alone. A whole market is forming around consulting, reviewing, and teaching about accessibility. People are getting together and demanding “Never about us, without us.” From Accessibility Labs, a startup in Tempe, AZ of former QA professionals passionate about Accessibility testing. To Microsoft’s Xbox Accessibility Guidelines, requirements that titles they publish must meet. But Tommy, I’m a developer and I want to do better. How can I make sure everyone is able to enjoy my hard work? Well, I’m glad you asked, imaginary developer person. Because while I’m passionate about the subject, I also acknowledge I’m just as ignorant as most. But together, we can work towards fighting that ignorance, in our own minds, and in others. Even the smallest changes, like the button prompts above, can have a huge impact. Bring on Accessibility experts during your design phase, don’t wait until you’re about to launch. Don’t be like so many others before you that designed fully fleshed out UI’s that rely on a cursor to navigate. Only to find out down the road this is not very accessible for people with fine motor issues. Making these changes during the design phase will save you thousands, if not millions, of dollars down the line. Embrace your lack of knowledge and seek out the experts. There are resources available to developers of all shapes and sizes. Are you a small developer that wants to do better, but just doesn’t know where to start? Support other independent gamers like Accessibility Labs. Have a good idea of what you want to do, but want to make sure you aren’t forgetting anything? Check out Microsoft’s Xbox Accessibility Guidelines. Want to support the effort in other ways? Reach out to AbleGamers, who have been fighting this fight for over 20 years. Enjoy this article and want to know more? Check out Derek Gruber on Seattle Indie’s Accessibility Awareness Month episode. The last thing I want to do is trivialize game and UX design. Accessibility is just one of countless aspects that must be considered when designing a game and it’s UI. What’s most important is that you are making the effort. Instead of asking why you should add an option, ask why you shouldn’t. When in doubt, trust the player to decide what is best for themselves. Not every feature is going to be a home run. But as long as we, as a community, are working towards improving, the rising tide will raise all ships. Sources & Resources Game Developer - Nintendo, Microsoft, EA and others unite to make accessibility messaging a priority Washington Post - Accessibility option in survival game ‘Grounded’ turns my arachnophobia into a thrill Colorblind Games - Colorblind Gaming 101: The Basics Mashable - Video games taught me I was colorblind but it's not always a friendly lesson Nexus Mods - Arachnophobia mode Seattle Indies - Accessibility Awareness Month Interview Series: Steve Saylor and Derek Gruber Able Gamers - Combating Social Isolation Through Play Accessibility Labs Microsoft - Xbox Accessibility Guidelines Entertainment Software Association (ESA) - Entertainment Software Association Introduces the Accessible Games Initiative to Provide Players with Information About Accessibility Features in Video Games

There's a better chance of them adding in a transmog machine to let you just make one set of armor look like anything else. With the 'founders packs' that override a cosmetics look they can just implement a system where you put into a machine one set of armor that holds the image then wear whatever you want and your look wont change. That's how Abiotic Factor solved it so they could have Tiers of armor while still letting the players look however they wanted to. I also anticipate them selling other ones in the future too. It's easy money for companies to make now.