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Solasta - I owned this on Steam and never got very far. I'd make a party, and then re-think my choices, and start again. I did this a half dozen times. So basically I had 20 hours of making characters. I decided to try again, but I wanted the DLC classes, so I bought the Lightbrimger Edition on GoG, as it was on sale for a good price. I managed to push past the first mission and now I'm starting to get into the rhythm. Hopefully it lasts.

That game really clicked with me. The plot isn't groundbreaking. The UI isn't the prettiest. But it was the closest a PC game got to the fun of being a teenager and hanging out with friends playing DnD.

WotR is linear longer, so it's harder to completely miss stuff. But you'll miss some things, like Mythic Paths. So if you want to be a Lich, yeah, use a guide. I have this problem with every RPG.

I really, really like their implementation on 5e. I hope the sequel will improve all other aspects of the game.

am actual not familiar with the mechanics o' what happened... am only able to speak to law/legal issues. as is typical for those in our profession, reality and all its attendant filthy details is often an annoying distraction from the important questions. <-- sarcasm. perhaps ironic, am able to speak to alito's curiously obtuse dissent w/o needing get into the legal weeds-- you not need be a lawyer to see problem with alito's position. presumptively, the reason scotus provided middle of the night and weekend emergency relief is 'cause the aclu, on behalf o' their clients, informed the Court that the government had put venezuelans on buses seeming with the intent o' taking 'em beyond the physical jurisdiction o' current habeas rulings limiting their deportation, so as to send 'em to el salvador w/o additional meaningful due process. ... https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/legal-fight-raged-ice-buses-filled-venezuelans-heading-airport-turned-rcna202007 and today we learned o' more government shenanigans albeit in a tangential related case. https://www.justsecurity.org/110842/ice-dod-custody-deportations-cecot/ "The D.V.D. case directly affects the administration’s ability to deport Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador without an opportunity for them to present their claims of potential torture as required by federal statute. As I discuss at greater length in the substack, a key element to focus upon is that ICE retained custody over the detainees following the court’s Mar. 28 order and then appeared to switch them over to the Department of Defense (DoD) for transfer by military plane to El Salvador. The line of defense (some would say the game) being played here by the government is that DHS/ICE is a named defendant in the case but DOD is not." to get around a temporary restraining order which prevented ice/dhs from sending detainees out of the country, the government had ice/dhs transfer custody of detainees to the Department of Defense, who then went ahead and deported individuals protected by the tro. dude. am aware this is the kinda sh!te people believe is what attorneys do for a living, but that kinda rulez lawyering which happens in the worst dnd campaigns most certainly don't fly with federal judges. the tro named ice/dhs and not dod, but there is also standard boilerplate language in those tros which covers pretty much anybody working for/with or in aid o' those named in the tro, and if ice (executive branch o' the fed government) formal transferred custody of the detainees to dod (also part of the executive branch o' the fed government,) then is no court in the land which is gonna three wise monkey their way outta holding dod just as bound by the tro as ice. most courts has gotta be losing the patience and faith typical afforded to the executive. is utter unreasonable to pretend this is all just same ol' same ol'. alito pretending mock indignation when the trump administration is making blatant their efforts to thwart and undermine Court orders is less than compelling. again, the government had detainees on buses headed to an airport. taking those detainees outta the country from the texas district woulda' been illegal, but the shell game o' moving detainees just ahead o' court orders from new jersey or dc were something the feds had already done. even so, it is complete ridiculous to suggest the government would try the same shenanigans in texas, right? "fool me once..." so, for what reason did alito and thomas believe ice were carrying out their little fieldtrip? maybe the venezuelans were being taken for a weekend disneyworld excursion? even if you can imagine an innocuous explanation for the government's actions, what reasonable person would complete dismiss the possibility that the feds were trying to exploit the ordinary slow pace o' a typical judicial response? the fact the government were using "counterterrorism operations" as an excuse for not supplying details to plaintiffs AND the Court is not only beyond the pale, but it should make reasonable persons more suspicious about the government motives, no? nevertheless, alito and thomas can't figure why the aclu and the Court majority is getting their shorts in a twist. ... other than death penalty executions, it is difficult to imagine a more clear example o' the need for emergency intervention by the Court than we see regarding the possible extra judicial deportation of detainees to el salvador... and we remain reluctant to call such activities "deportations" as what is happening is that the US, without due process, is sending residents o' this country to a prison in el salvador for an indeterminate period a time. wtf

I configured Kingdom Management to auto, I regret that now because I think I would have liked to try my hand at managing my kingdom but once you set this option you cant change it So the AI makes all decisions around my lands and so far so good

I shall join this club. After originally backing it I finally started a play through. Hah, this is the last part i completed, I've been doing every single side quest I could find so far, slowly getting Henry from being totally useless to being less totally useless. I might even venture outside of Rattay soon I mean, given the game it makes sense, though the DLC made me appreciate her a whole lot more. The Theresa part of A Woman's Lot was absolutely great and I'm confident has something to do with people liking her so much. Oh yeah, and someone posted a (I presume) edited picture with her hair loose... https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Falikwyhz24l61.jpg Just completed the Theresa part of the DLC yesterday and it was fantastic. Think it really set the tone better than the same part done as Henry, because you get to experience more of the Skalitz part, and Theresa just starts of as a much more ... engaging(?) character than Herny (imho). Of course being more competent at the game's systems helped (still can't hit much of anything with a bow though). There were some minor niggles, like the nightly herb picking being more about fighting the terrain and the dog AI than the actual quest, as well as what happened to Tinker, which felt like more of a gameplay thing than something that really made sense. Still came away really liking Theresa a whole lot more than I did before.

My biggest issue with P:K is

yeah but it's start wars. They will find a way to make it lame.

the government's own affidavits submitted severe undermine the narrative that the judge were trying obstruct an arrest, or at the very least, the proof beyond a reasonable doubt standard needed to prove intent o' the judge is looking to be an insurmountable hurdle. first, pretty much no judge allows arrests in their courtroom, so there is a question as to what the heck the fed agents were doing in the first place as they were clear doing not business as usual. maybe 'cause the public don't know what is ordinary, the judge ejecting the feds from her court sounds nefarious but it most certain is not. second, the judge's actions don't look particular obstructive when you read details. while the judge did send flores-ruiz out of her court through the jury door, that egress point led to only one exit-- a hallway where, according to the fed's affidavit, two agents were waiting. if judge dugan were trying something sneaky, then sending him virtual into the arms o' the feds looks shaky. heck, again, according to the fed's own affidavit, flores-ruiz took the elevator down to the ground floor o' the courthouse before he tried to run, and he were not alone in the elevator but were in fact accompanied by a fed agent. ... found a useful link is a bit o' unnecessary editorializing, but read all fourteen. again, even the government has gotta know beyond a reasonable doubt is goanna be insurmountable, so the arrest o' the judge and detainment looks performative. this also looks pretty bad. maga has tried to make this a damned if you do scenario and they once again complete miss the underlying due process aspect. the government offers no meaningful proof, but they claim the deported mothers were asked whether they wanted to bring their US citizen children with 'em and they responded in the affirmative. maga: you libs are gonna be angry no matter what. if there is child separation, you whine. if the child stays with the parent and is deported, the social justice warriors complain. it's a no win. Gromnir: bs we don't have any evidence the mothers agreed other than government says so, but beyond that, we are told these women weren't allowed to talk to family or lawyers when confronted with the dilemma o' whether or not to leave their children in the US. the children, who is US citizens, unquestionable deserve due process before deportation and getting a head nod or a quick signature on a form from mom before being loaded on a plane is unlikely to satisfy due process. furthermore, the law says the mothers get process. even if you think undocumented immigrants don't deserve process, the law says otherwise... and thank god for that fact. example: have mentioned more than once that Gromnir looks quite a bit like esai morales, sans facial hair and the grey. inexplicable have very little grey hair thus far. anyways, tomorrow we could be picked up off the street by ice, thrown in a van, and subsequent sent to el salvador 'cause we look like an undocumented immigrant on some list. once in cecot, the US could claim there were no way for them to correct their mistake. oopsies. so sorry. due process is those steps which allows Gromnir to challenge the government before or after they does something wrong. if the government claims we is undocumented, a gang member, insurrectionist or terrorist, we should have a way to contest those assertions, no? again, like it or not, undocumented folks get due process 'cause its in the freaking Constitution. not only do we give undocumented folks process to prevent mistakes, but Congress also passed all kinda laws making it possible for undocumented folks to make asylum claims, so being undocumented don't necessarily mean they got no right to be in the US. relative quick aside, am having mentioned how for a few years we worked at a juvenile detention facility. am mentioning 'cause you would likely be shocked to discover just how little process is involved with categorizing a person as a gang member. we were warned during training that while a kid could have their criminal record expunged when they reached eighteen, the gang label would potential stick with kids for life. when a kid were brought into juvenile hall, during the intake process, we would affix appropriate labels to their file... or update existing labels. gang affiliation were one such label. nothing nefarious for you numerous acab folks. example: s-1 were a designation which indicated that a kid were suicidal or had a history o' self harm. s-1 kids were typical housed with a roommate but for obvious reasons the roommate would not be s-1; two s-1 in the same room were a recipe for tragedy. ok, but there were also designations which indicated an individual were a sexual predator, and those kids were typical housed solo, 'cause bad things could happen at night and between room checks. so what do you do if a kid is both suicidal AND a sexual predator... we don't need to get into all the ugly details, but as mentioned, one o' those "s- __" designations we utilized at juvenile hall were gang affiliation. you can likely guess why the staff at a juvenile hall would wanna know if a kid were a gang member and to which gang they had an affiliation. the thing is, that s-6 designation decision likely took less than a minute o' reflection by staff. typical factors: tattoos, input from the cop dropping off the kid at the hall, self-identification o' the minor. on busy days/nights at juvenile hall, there were considerable motivation to get kids processed asap. personal, we only ever listed a kid as s-6 if they claimed to be a gang member... we let unit staff who had more time figure it out. the thing is, am also confident a few kids lied about gang affiliation when asked. a few o' the folks sent to cecot were first identified as tren de aragua when they were minors and am having only a little doubt that the original labeling were 'bout as probative as what we saw day in, and day out working at juvenile hall. as such am not shocked so many ended up in cecot for little other than suspicious tattoos and maybe secondhand input from a cop. is perhaps worse to realize that the gang identification efforts used to send so many to a dystopian hell hole were likely less sinister than you believe and instead were ordinary. some clown working at a juvenile hall or jail in kokomo, indiana six years ago probable spent less than a minute deciding whether or not a new intake were a gang member, and that initial assessment stuck. HA! Good Fun!

From a powergaming perspective you should do every quest possible, since quests translate into stronghold turns which translate into adventures that can give you very desirable rewards, so you would want to wait for their quests, yes. And, of course, a stat boost is better than a benched NPC, especially if you're cool with replacing them with in-most-cases-stronger mercenaries. So if it won't bother you in character or out of character to do it, go for it as soon as you're "done" with your intended victim. If you intend to play Deadfire and import your Pillars 1 history there, know that this decision will carry over.

Why would people play Avowed on Steam when they can play it for cheap on Xbox Gamepass? Anyways, Avowed did quite well. Not sure why they'd be lumped in with Veilguard. edit: Sounds like Avowed reached about 6 million, and Veilguard reached about 1.5 million, so not really close to comparable.

Yes, China can do it too. And Trump is signaling he is okay with Russia taking Ukraine and China taking Taiwan if that also means he can take Greenland and/or the Panama Canal. Trump is essentially creating a 21st C. version of the 19th C. Concert, with the US, Russia, and China as its only members, and where those three states can do whatever they want in the world so long as they consult with each other and don't cross each others' red lines. And all other states are irrelevant. It is classic hardcore realism. As Thucydides once put it, "The strong do what they will; the weak suffer what they must." Btw, on Taiwan, although China could invade, and still may, I strongly believe they won't -- for this simple reason: China has spent the past few years ramping up its infiltration efforts inside Taiwan. It's strategy is to push in pro-China Taiwanese into positions of power within the Taiwanese government, military, intelligence services, law enforcement, industry, and civil society. This effort is pretty significant, even though no one, including the Taiwanese government, is talking about it publicly. And when the time is right, these infiltrators will launch a coup and overthrow the elected government and set up a Chinese puppet government that will then "invite" China to come in and "save" the Taiwanese people from US/Japan-controlled "splittists." This will all happen lightning fast, and will be all over before whatever governments exist at that time in Washington and other allied capitals can get their heads out of their asses. Classic Sun Tzu: victory without war. Mark my words.

I found the solution to most annoyances with Bethesda games is solved by hitting ~ then typing tgm Of course I realised by doing that I kinda skip playing the game, so my solution to my grievances with Bethesda games is ignoring the games altogether.

These people are definitely wired a little different.

Bessent is probably going to eject from this circus soon

Of all these old RPGs, the only two I really want remasters of are Neverwinter Nights 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. The first I am hopeful that recent find in SteamDB proves true and we will have it. The second I highly doubt will ever happen, which is a shame.

Honestly, I kind of thought crisis might be the whole point: crisis, after all, generally leads to the seizing of more power, not the loss of it. Even if you're the one who's deliberately causing it.

Considering that Congress prevented Biden's admin to get through their policies to prevent illegal border crossings, because Trump asked them to do so that he can use those illegal border crossing in his campaign and now those polices have been enabled and border crossing are decreasing. So how much credit we should give Trump and republicans for solving issue they themselves created in order to win election? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/23/senate-democrats-immigration-border-bill https://apnews.com/article/congress-ukraine-aid-border-security-386dcc54b29a5491f8bd87b727a284f8 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/senate-republicans-block-bipartisan-border-package-scrapping-deal-they-had-demanded-from-democrats https://eu.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2024/08/22/trump-border-bill-arizona-visit/74898253007/

In other news, USA now such a terrible destination that Mexicans prefer life under the cartels.

0/5, no Jubilost.

https://www.thegamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-sales-15-million-larian-losses/ This is a old story but I found it interesting because of how Larian was running at a loss and BG3 sales numbers saved it. It was a small loss and would have been around the cost to develop BG3 which is expected " We now have a better idea of just how successful Baldur's Gate 3 was, with the Irish Independent reporting that the game sold 15 million copies. This comes after developer Larian reported €214,000 in losses prior to Baldur's Gate 3 launch. Now, it's being reported that Larian made €249 million in pre-tax profits - quite the turnaround after its losses. This puts the studio in a very comfortable position as it works on its next two RPGs, which are not Baldur's Gate related and therefore won't require the Dungeons & Dragons licence. "

Star Wars TurnBased Tactics game? ok!

Oh, I forgot about the banker... he was ridiculously evil. As if making him a greedy banker wasn't enough, they needed to add some sex kink stuff on top to really sell it. The only thing missing was him twirling his mustache. He is basically this guy: I haven't watched 1883, maybe I will now.

I thought ep2 was really good and well done. Remained true to the game for the most of it, but improved on it also and got rid of Joel's stupid behavior. Still I don't understand why they had to swap out the spores with magic mycelium, to me this doesn't solve any issues.. if at all it creates more/different ones. Watched s1 and 2 of 1923, that Yellowstone prequel thingy. Wasn't bad at all, but some of the drama was just so forced and lol. Also how they kept talking about "we need Spencer, then everything will be good again" as if Spencer is god knows who. Just feels weird and like fantasy. Was wondering how much of that show is based on history and how much is just fiction.

I don't really remember Oblivion being all that exciting in terms of story and setting. Is that the one where I had to close a bunch of gates? Morrowind would be more interesting to me. Maybe that will be next.

Oblivion Remastered /Edit: It's on Game Pass as well, which means I don't have to pay the 60 bucks to do a quick look around. Nice. I'm really getting used to this Game Pass thing...

From a certain perspective, it can be viewed as a race against time: will DJT ruin the economy before he can impose his vision of an authoritarian regime. In that case it can make tactical sense to delay his imposed measures for as long as possible. Hence, we get a massive number of lawsuits while the judicial branch still retains power. I don't think DJT's measures to limit immigration will be disfavored by a majority voters. Likewise, the focus on transgender is a side issue. It's all about the economy.

Like many things in Kingmaker I would miss him completely, if I didn't get frustrated with a substantial lack of available advisors and looked for a guide. In fact I found playing Kingmaker without a guide on the 2nd screen to be a miserable experience. Anyway, I am glad you enjoy it and I hope you continue to do so. I am still scared to dive into Wrath of the Righteous. I started it and PTSD started to come back.

I brought that up before too but I got some handwavey response about perceptions or something.

I just has my most difficult battle around strategy, it was the Womb of Lamashtu quest And it was at the end where you need to split your party, lucky I double up on roles but it was very tough. The hard part was the second battle because I hasnt rested and my party was wounded and low on spells. But I used scrolls, potions and then a Wyvern summon that helped distract all the monsters that appear Havent come across him yet but I see he should be available in my city

I spent 12 bucks on a photography sim called - Lushfoil Photography Sim. I like photography, I like taking game screenshots. I probably will like this game. ---location areas are locked until you take pictures of certain things. I suppose this helps it mentally qualify as a "game" (goals) but I was hoping for more freedom from the start. ---based on real locations, it's quite beautiful in that game-y way. But it's empty. No ppl, I haven't noticed any wildlife to speak of - maybe I saw a cat - so it feels kind of hollow. And kind of over-brightened and monotone outside of occasional splashes of bright color buildings. I bet it would be cool in VR tho. ---it's basically a make your own nature wallpaper walking sim. Pics you take get put in a folder as png and you can do what you want with them. In the end, I didn't finish (yet). I would say I didn't dislike it, but it didn't feel creative to me (taking pictures). Just walk along take a picture of a lake, a tree, a rocky vista. It might be immersive visually for some for a while, but that's about all it has. I would rather roam around in Death Stranding and take screenshots.

^ I saw Little Girl Who Lives Down the Land on TV when I was maybe 11. I liked it a lot then. Surreal in a way. I guess Apoc. Now was what cemented M. Sheen in many minds? He's had a long career but I'm not sure I'd call most of his films/tv must watch. He played a not-creep/baddie in Gettysberg, just to say. I don't think he was that great in that, but it was more the long winded, pontificating script. Only Jeff Daniels came out shining in that one, imo. In other: I've decided I like "teasers" more than full trailers these days. This one (thriller/horror I gather) tells me nothing of the film, outside of the notion that some children are missing - but it's just weird imagery of kids running with arms akimbo. I may not see the movie, but I like the teaser.

Hegseth could at least have given the traditional bastion of top secret military leaks, the WarThunder forums, a heads up instead of keeping it to select officials/ family/ friends/ the mailman and a journalist.

I feel ya. When I tried the beta, I struggled to switch to 4 button layout and kept pressing "Guard" instead of heavy punch. Wasting two base roster slots on odd real-humans killed any interest I had in the game for the moment. Might reconsider, once first season of DLC characters is done. That said, I am not sure if I have time for a 2nd fighting game in my life. SF6 might be enough for now.

I have decided to give a go to Fatal Fury: City of Wolves fighting game. The optimization is very good, I can play the game on Ultra Settings on my 4 year old Ryzen 9 5900X with Radeon RX 6900XT. I have went through all of the Tutorials, and then trained a little bit with one very good King of Fighters players. My biggest issue with that game is blocking. I have almost exclusively played Mortal Kombat games since Sega Mega Drive/Genesis days, where you have dedicated block button, and this game has the classic blocking with or input, and I can’t force my brain into accepting that and of course, my opponents can easily exploit this. I am still having fin, but I will probably have to spent a lot of time to recondition my brain to different behaviour.

Star Wars Xcom during the Clone Wars seems like a slam dunk for me. I love all of those things.

I heard it's being made by some of the XCOM folks, so it could be decent.

Happy Easter

Im 36 hours into Pathfinder and I have just ended the Troll threat I am absolutely loving this game. It has a wide depth of mechanics and rules around the Pathfinder system but this is my first time playing Pathfinder and I have never been someone too concerned with a deep understanding of mechanics in these types of RPG, I obviously learn how to be effective in combat and what buffs and roles are best to adopt in a strategic way in battles And then I just have fun and go wild. And this game really delivers. Some components that are entertaining and really well done I love how you need to explore to find things like the troll lair. combat is obviously the best part of the game, very strategic and complex around how you need to use different approaches I like the lore and the history of the gods no level scaling from what I can see, when I get annihilated I come back at higher level and I can win battles loads of Easter Egg encounters like the Young Dweomercat and how he randomly appears to help me some really interesting companion side quests I am not sure how I should configure my XP gain around active party members only getting XP? Because the downside is when you select another party member they not on the same level but I now think I have my "ideal " party and its based on a combination of tanks, healing and combat magic This is my current party selection Gimar ( my main character ) as the primary combat magic user Amiri as a tank Valeri initially as tank but I have now adopted Ekundayo because his archery and dog companion seem much more effective? Octavia as thief and secondary combat mage ( I decided to replace her with Kalikke) Tristian as main healer and also combat mage Linzi as main buffs and very useful in combat with spells and healing (Tashas hideous laughter has literally saved me several times fighting trolls )

Goal nr. 5/2025 achieved. April 17, 16:30 – 8 years and 4 months after I have booted Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness for the first time on my PS4, I have finally finished my 3rd and final playthrough on hardest Chaos Difficulty. With that, I have acquired the last missing trophy. Skipping most of the quests and optional content, it took me about 23 hours. I had to repeat few boss encounters, because they hit harder than a truck, so my main character was knocked out a lot of times. And I have to say, without the special crafted Reserve Rush gear, which helped me to get faster my “ultimate attack”, it would be much harder and take much longer to finish the game on this difficulty. In total it took me about 185 hours to get the Platinum Trophy.

I think you can die even earlier than that if you pick the right (wrong) options in the first dialogue. (Not the earliest death in a game in any case, if you play Kingdom Come in hardcore mode you have a 90% chance of dying from measles/ childbirth/ smallpox/ typhoid/ cholera/ whooping cough/ plague/ misadventure/ non specific infection immediately after leaving the main menu. You even get an achievement for it)

I started playing Disco Elysium. I put on most of my clothes. Reached for my tie which was on a ceiling fan, then had a heart attack and died and went to the game over screen. That counts as completing a playthrough right?

Beat avowed. I enjoyed it. The worst part about is it that you are aedyran. Limits role playing. The best thing about the game is how they managed to make it feel like Eora. Don't want to go into particulars. Maybe I will write something in the avowed spoilers page. One thing is for sure. After playing kcd2 and avowed back to back, I am done with first person RPGs for a while.

Speaking of healthy food: Was pretty good.

In-game your saves are grouped by playthrough, so clearly the game can make sense of it. I see no cause for concern.

Your math was correct, in that it caclulated the change in the percentage of Grazes that would convert to hits. I just took it the next step, by expressing it as a percentage of all attack rolls, not just the ones that resolved as a Graze on the first pass. [EDIT: And I did it wrong-- math now fixed below!] And I was only talking about the marginal increase that you get from Confident Aim, not the total of the PER inspiration and Confident Aim. To illustrate, assume that you're attacking an enemy with a weapon you're proficient with, and your total ACC is perfectly equal to their Deflection. With no buffs: A straight d100 roll against the game's thresholds. 24% chance to Miss, a 25% chance to Graze, a 50% chance to Hit, and a 1% chance to Crit. With just Confident Aim: As above, but add 30% Graze-to-Hit after the initial result. 24% Miss, 17.5% Graze, 57.5% Hit, 1% Crit. With just Disciplined Barrage: the +5 PER translates directly to ACC, which shrinks the Miss window and adds to Crit. Your first pass results in a 19% Miss, 25% Graze, 50% Hit, 6% Crit. Then you apply the 50% Graze-to-Hit conversion for 19% Miss, 12.5% Graze, 62.5% Hit, 6% Crit. With both Confident Aim and Disciplined Barrage: As above, but apply both G2H conversions sequentially. 19% Miss, 8.75% Graze, 66.25% Hit, 6% Crit. Lastly, remember that this is a best-case scenario. If you're fighting an overpowered enemy or if you've buffed your ACC and debuffed your enemy signficantly, you might have a smaller initial Graze window, which would reduce the number of times that the conversion is relevant.