Leaderboard

Nice. They can go for Paradox next. I want a Tyranny sequel, ffs.

Someone dislikes Minsc?! What?! Boo is outraged! See his fury! It's small, so look close. Trust me, it's there.

What you have missed: Drudanae is now called HoonDing and mostly only posts screenshots. Usually without comments, though the screenshots often include text. A number of people have kids now. I don't really post Mordheim screenshots anymore. You can now win the internet here on the forum: it counts the likes and other reactions you get throughout the day and whoever gets the most for that day wins. Or Raithe wins. Usually Raithe wins. Keyrock still plays games nobody else even knew existed. A number of people play Conan Exiles and the screenshot thread will every now and then be filled with impressive feats of digital desert architecture. And scantily clad characters taking it all in because a) it is hot there and b) they spend all their money to pay for construction materials and the cost of steel and concrete went up again because the oil price went up and that left them without money for a coat.

New Features The Hedge has been revamped with new content New Building: Zip-lines New Building: Spinning Wheel New Building: Signs New World Landmark: Frankenline Halloween Additions: Jack-o-Lantern landmark, Candy Corn food item Localization for French, German, Spanish, Italian New spider webs that stick to unsuspecting players and critters. Changes/Game Tuning Engine UE4 Version Upgrade Combat Ant Soldiers have a set of new attacks Ant Soldiers now deal more damage with their attacks TAYZ.Ts now deal much more damage with their attacks Most armors now block more damage All weapons have had their damage, stamina cost, and durability adjusted to fit a stricter Tier-based curve Bombardier Beetle burning hazards and Stink Bug gas hazards are now much deadlier Bombardier Beetle attacks deal less initial damage (end result should be about the same combined with hazard damage change) Fresh Defense perk now blocks twice as much gas and burning damage Reliable Friend perk now boosts revive speed by roughly double the amount Interface Processing buildings such as the Campfire now show the progress of each item in the interface, and allow items to be canceled The Recycle Building interface now shows how many structures will collapse if the target building is Recycled Contextual slurping text lets you know what you're going to taste Additional icon art The Interact UI will no longer briefly appear enabled when looking at a disabled interaction Clearer labeling of game modes/type in save/load UIs Game no longer asks to overwrite a save if you are not able to currently save the game World New perks to discover and unlock New color themes to discover and unlock Stumps left behind no longer prevent foliage from respawning Grass will not respawn if the stump is removed Ants now have a desire to take back their stolen eggs Ant eggs can now hatch even after being moved by the player (but not while in an inventory) Ant eggs no longer stack in the inventory Larva wander range is now much smaller during the day Mushrooms in the world now take much longer to grow back Meats now take much longer to spoil SCA.Bs that have been moved since prior patches will reflect those moves in older saves Mint chunks in the Mint container should no longer spawn on top of the container Buildings Structural buildings are now fully allowed to overlap with any static environment object Blueprint buildings in the air cannot be completed unless a supporting building has been completed. This prevents situations where large structures would collapse because they were technically unsupported Buildings can no longer be built inside of tables Buildings can be placed more easily on the pond flagstones now Mushroom Garden spawn timer will now start when the building is built instead of when it is placed Smoke from torches, wall sconces, and campfires should now rarely penetrate floors/ceilings Plank/Log Storage deposit sound effects now play on clients The player will no longer play canteen animations when building a Water Container with a canteen in hand Clay foundation now has double the health Pebblet foundation now has less health, but still more than clay Crafting Most recipes that require spiderweb have been refactored to use a processed spider web obtainable via the new Spinning Wheel instead Performance Improved CPU performance of large bases and structures Other Additional water caustic effects Bird feathers now float in water Weed stems now float in water The "Drop" control can now be rebound The "Swim Up" and "Swim Down" control bindings are allowed to overlap with other controls that cannot be used while swimming Bug Fixes - All Platforms Top Community Issues Free buildings attached to player-built structures will no longer become out-of-position for clients The game will no longer crash in some specific cases when demolishing a plank or log storage building Game Alchemist BURG.L Quests will complete when accepted if the player has already analyzed the target item Kill based perks now only track kills on enemies Items/Equipment/Resources Berry Chunks will no longer inflate themselves when subjected to a strong impact while lying on the ground Traps can no longer be triggered for a few seconds after destruction Traps can no longer be triggered by the 3rd-person camera Tropicop juice droplets should now correctly spawn from the straw of the juice box instead of from the base Bombardier Head Trophy should now be much easier to place World Building ingredients will no longer remaining floating in the air when large structures collapse while no player is nearby Got rid of a small bump in collision while walking up and down player built stairs Bombardier Beetle now plays a sleep animation while sleeping instead of playing the stunned animation UI Various camera animation adjustments were made to reduce the camera clipping into objects and the player's body Audio Buildings no longer create noise events immediately after loading a saved game Chatter audio is now attached to the player character and should sound better when moving Ominent Practical Technologies Removed [REDACTED] Added [REDACTED] To report any issues you come across while playing this public test build of the game, please search this section of the forums first to see if your particular issue has been reported. If it has, please add your information to that thread. If it has not already been reported, please make a new thread to share what you have found following the guidelines here. It is important that you search for reported issues FIRST before making a new thread, as this helps us keep better track of what is being reported and how many players are being affected. Thank you for your assistance, and have fun out in the public test backyard!

I'm patiently waiting for Star Citizen, it's going to come out any day now, I'm sure of it!

So far, I can say I like this character better than ComradeMaster and SonicMage. But I also liked Minsc.

I don't know, but we don't need to worry:

I was clearing out some hard drive space and noticed I had a Star Citizen folder, dated 6 November 2013.

Man, she's your childhood friend. Bunch of sociopaths here.

I like Minks

I'll start with dislikes, then move on to what I liked. DISLIKES: At times, the writing felt like good fan fiction rather than a professional production. Especially during the storybook sections which were overdramatic. The flavor text felt insubstantial. I didn't care about Furrante's dimple, even though I liked him. What he says and the way he says it define him perfectly as a character. The main story was OK. I'm a bit tired of the Eoran Gods. And the first new NPC you meet is religious-themed. It was a novel idea in the first game but feels played out. The adult-themed content seemed awkward/forced. Romances are hard to do right in any game. Almost none do it well so I won't hold it against Deadfire. The best romantic moment in gaming for me is the "phone call" in Disco Elysium. Nothing in Deadfire is at that level, but there is a nice moment when you ask Eder how he feels. Load times. SSD helps but not enough. I saw Josh Sawyer talk about optimization in his post-mortem talk and appreciate that they worked on it, but could still be better. Stacking rules: why don't weapon modals stack? And others like Paladin aura? My preference is that everything should stack. Design around that rule. Not in love with afflictions / inspirations. Wish at least they used terms like "Mild Perception Affliction" instead of the word names which are difficult to remember. Even after finishing the game, I couldn't recite every affliction / inspiration to you from memory. Though it's possible that my memory is worse than average. Thankfully there is an interface mod that adds color coding and suffixes. Leveling up: I don't like that accuracy and defenses automatically increase by a set amount each level up. It removes an element of player choice. You should get stronger by the abilities/perks you pick, your gear, improved game knowledge. Even letting the player increase an attribute by one point each level would be better, because you get to choose how to improve. Deadfire's level up system automatically makes a higher level character stronger than a lower level character, without taking into account the specific situation. It would be more fun, realistic, and allow for more player agency if a level 2 character could beat a level 10 character (say a level 2 fighter is dueling a level 10 diplomat who has invested in purely non-combat skills). Difficulty: I played on POTD with "all" upscaling and felt that the game was hardest in the beginning and gradually got easier. Maybe the first few battles were almost a little too hard, but I can't complain as it's the hardest difficulty. But doesn't it make more sense for a game to start easier and get harder instead of the opposite? The best way to increase difficulty is smarter AI. Something like SCS (Sword Coast Strategems) for BG and BG2. But I understand that may not be realistic for developers to implement as you'd have to bug-test multiple AI scripts, and it can tank performance. The second-best way is by using different enemies. Deadfire does this somewhat by offering harder versions of enemies in some fights. The third-best way is to increase the number of enemies. Deadfire does this a lot. The worst way is global bonuses like increased HP, armor, or dice roll bonuses. This is a staple of POTD, unfortunately. I haven't tried Magran's Fires. Discovered that recently by accidently clicking. The way it's hidden is genius. Some of the challenges seem interesting (keep Vela alive). Item graphics in UI: the item icons are beautifully drawn and obviously done at higher resolutions than visible in game. Why are they shrunk down to tiny squares in the inventory? There is much wasted space in the inventory UI that could be used for larger icons. Perhaps this is inconsequential for some players but it's a big part of an RPG for me. I'll always remember seeing a new suit of armor in Diablo II or the inventory space of Arcanum. Visual zoom range: after learning that this could be modified by the SetZoomRange console command, I set it to the max (3.0) and also turned off the fog-of-war when in Nekatata. What an amazing sight to see a whole city district on screen, alive and bustling! The game is fully playable this way with less-than-expected performance hit. My dream is that, in my lifetime, there will be the technology that allows zooming from character level to overworld map level smoothly, like Google Maps. That would be far more impressive than No Man Sky. It's time for this type of game to follow Disco Elysium's lead and transition to a vertical text panel. Voiceovers: felt like I was hearing the same actors repeatedly with only slightly different accents/deliveries. Some, like Eder and Aloth, were quite good. I was surprised that they were both done by the same person, he is truly a talented actor. But other VO quality was uneven. The Italian accents in particular weren't great. I have to admit to disliking Xoti's VO initially but then having it grow on me. Despite it being very expensive, I still think think full VO is best. I don't like when only the first line or two is spoken and the rest is quiet. I would prefer all or nothing. Grimoires: don't like this at all. Just let me pick my spells. Although having unique spells hidden away in special grimoires was a fun surprise. No AOE indicator for carnage: fixed by mod. There is also a mod that makes every NPC say their "two cents" at certain points instead of the game randomly choosing one. Why wasn't this part of the base game? Typos: there were some, but not many for a game of this size. Deadfire deserves credit for this. Factions: Boring. Every game has them. They impart an artificial rigidity and predictability to the structure of a game. Personality dispositions: not well done. The dispositions match poorly to dialogue options at times. Many of the dialogue options felt silly and forced. Conversation trees: I didn't like the trees in this game. Oftentimes, the option that seemed most in-character was also the option that skipped to the end of a conversation. I found by reloading that much good content was missed, for seemingly no reason. I'm not saying that conversations should be "click every option from top to bottom", but the trees seemed somehow off here. There was some weird looping too. Ship-to-ship combat: not fun. Ship boarding: pretty good actually, I enjoyed this. Maybe allow a bit of conversation with the opposing Captain before battle to add flavor to each encounter. NPCs: Not bad. Eder is cool. Xoti grew on me. Tekehu's character seems to mature through the game and is nicely tied into the story. Not everyone can be Kim Kitsuragi and that's OK. I would like to see more older/stronger/wiser NPCs in games like this. Thinking along the lines of a Keldorn. It would be neat to have someone clearly more powerful/more influential/smarter than your player character join your party. Such a character may choose to leave at a certain point in the story if it doesn't make sense for them to follow you around. I feel the trend is too many tag-along youthful NPCs (in age and personality). I didn't mind Pallegina's seriousness in that regard. Ship: having your new equipment visually show up on the boat was neat. Take this a step further. Get rid of the other ship types and focus development resources on upgrading one ship. Make upgrades have more meaningful impact on gameplay. Open world: in Deadfire, the cost of freedom is less plot cohesion. It's not a worthwhile trade-off in my opinion. I would prefer a semi-open world. Perhaps your ship, due to damage, is only capable of making short journeys at the beginning. So you're restricted to one corner of the map at first. Then as you upgrade your ship, you're able to take on longer journeys to distant ports. I wouldn't mind a bigger overworld map to simulate long sea voyages. You should be able to buy a map late in the game that clears the black areas, to save the tedium of clearing every spot manually. (I know there's a Berath's Blessing that does this.) Backer content: I understand the necessity, but it doesn't do much for immersion. DLCs - well done, but would prefer one bigger package instead of three separate adventures. Now, here's what I liked about the game. LIKES: Party of five is a good size. Four would be fine too. Rather the focus be on quality over quantity. Due to decreasing difficulty ramp on POTD, I restricted my party to four in the second half of the game. Overall combat system: I enjoyed the depth and detail of the combat system. The many available classes and abilities are distinct from one another. Multiclassing is fun. Superlative implementation of real-time with pause. The ability to slow down or speed up combat is amazing. Playing the big battles in slow motion is incredibly, sensationally fun. I can't gush enough about Deadfire's RTWP. Interrupt / Concentration mechanic is intuitive and works well. Engagement is done well too. Keywords are a good idea, though it doesn't seem they are always implemented consistently. I appreciate that there is a dodge animation. I don't mind that some dungeons are small. It's OK to have that variety. Nekataka captures that big city vibe from Athkatla. The names are similar and it must have been an inspiration. The different regions of the city are varied and fun to explore. It'd be great to have the whole city be on one map, with seamless interior/exterior transitions. I wonder what the limiting factor to this is.. CPU? GPU? Development time? Engine? RAM? Hard drive? If Novigrad can exist, why can't a seamless Nekataka? I like how the game tries to be transparent about its mechanics. "Hold shift to view details" is excellent. I want to see the numbers, and I'm glad Deadfire doesn't hold back most of the time. It does still resort to something like "Summoned weapons increase in accuracy, damage, and penetration" occasionally without providing further details. And can more detail please be provided on the character creation screen? Evokers get "increased power level", but how many? I know they don't want to bombard new players with detail, but I'd imagine ambiguity like that is actually worse, even for a new player. Numbers: I like that the numbers are kept fairly low. How annoying is it when you begin the game by doing 79-151 damage? I think the game could even go a bit further by using D20 instead of D100, but it's not the biggest deal. Getting your first 1D8+1 sword feels special. Smaller numbers are more impactful. Items: I generally like the items in Deadfire. They are memorable, and feel unique when you get them. There are maybe too many random exceptional items later in the game, but it could be worse. Deadfire avoids committing the worst itemization sins. There could have been randomly generated item stats. Items could have, god forbid, "item levels" or "level requirements". Oh no, my level 17 sword with 4 randomly generated buffs is now irrelevant, because I'm level 19. I've got to farm for more loot! I appreciate that the yellow-background items in Deadfire have stories behind them. I like that some of the items are truly powerful and have unique abilities. Remember when you picked up Carsomyr +5, or the Staff of the Magi? It was a special moment. They may have been overpowered, but I'd much rather risk that than have a perfectly balanced game with no memorable items. Not a big fan of the enchantment system, but I've complained about enough today, and this is the LIKES section. Beastiary is neat, but oddly hidden away. You should get the entry after just 1 kill (mod fixes this). Also, it seems some of the stats in the beastiary scale by difficulty level, but not all. It'd be nice if they all did. Music: Very good. There is not enough variety, especially at nighttime, where the POE1 theme plays on repeat. But each individual track is top-notch. I've saved the best for last: Graphics: just sublime. The character models look terrific. I was pleasantly surprised how every piece of armor looked different on the different models. The animations are detailed and varied. The art style is not too cartoony but alternately joyful and macabre when appropriate. Pre-rendered backgrounds are done in that slightly-oil painted look that is stylized but not too abstract (though sometimes a bit pixelated). The effects are great. The flora outdoors looks alive and moves in the wind. There is a momentum to the projectile spells that makes them feel wonderful to cast. Trudging around in knee deep water looks awesome. The lighting is superb. Xoti's lantern casts foreboding demonic silhouettes on dungeon walls. Even the parallax isn't so bad. Deadfire is one of the best looking games I've played. To me, it looks as good as modded GTA 5, or Witcher 3 with high resolution texture pack, or Control with RTX, or maxed-out PC Red Dead 2. How many isometric RPGs can you say that about? Deadfire looks the way that I dreamed games would one day look as a teenager playing Baldur's Gate twenty years ago. I remember playing Neverwinter Nights for the first time and feeling utter disappointment at what 3D could look like. I felt the same disappointment about games like Warcraft 3, and even today about Divinity Original Sin 2. But Deadfire absolutely nails it visually. OVERALL SCORE: 9 / 10 When I read a review, I'm usually curious to what that reviewer thought of other games, as a point of comparison, and to see if their preferences align with mine. So here's what I would score the other games I've played this year: AC Odyssey: 5/10 Control: 7/10 Disco Elysium: 9/10 Divinity Original Sin 2: 4/10 Hollow Knight: 9/10 Nier Automata: 3/10 What Remains of Edith Finch: 8/10 CONCLUSION I thoroughly enjoyed the 80 hours or so spent in the world of Deadfire. I hope they make POE3, although from what I read it doesn't seem super likely at the moment. Maybe in a decade when the nostalgia reawakens. I'm skeptical about Avowed, but will at least watch some YT videos of it. I'm bummed about Baldur's Gate 3. Truly bummed. But enough complaining for one day. Thanks for reading!

"What's the dumbest thing you ever did as a kid?" "Wished I was an adult."

People do tend to settle near good sources of heat to help them survive winter.

I have a friend, kind of an adopted nephew I've known for many years. He went off to the Naval Academy and graduated recently. We have spectacular political arguments come from diametrically opposed sides (he's a Bernie Bro, but I love him anyway). Since he's out at Charleston, he thought he'd swing by my virtual 5th edition campaign I'm running. He was hooked line and sinker! By the end of the first hour he was already downloading Fantasy Grounds. He created a bard and provided significant help to the party in the last major encounter of the night and also contributed to some of the exploration. I like puzzles in my games, so I truly value people who are willing to tinker with things and figure out new approaches. Modern technology is truly great. While I'd like to get back to in person gaming, I'll undoubtedly sitll use some of the tools I have now. I keep track of party character, npcs they've met, clues they've found, and my wife keeps a party journal. Then I put all these documents in my OneDrive D&D dedicated folder. Today, when they got started, one of the players mentioned one of the things I'd thought they'd overlooked. It was truly gratifying that someone had taken a gander at it beforehand. Players never find all the fun stuff you put into a campaign. It is, after all, their story as much as mine, but it's always fun when they get invested enough to think about things between gamedays. It's even better when one of my old friends can join my campaign from 3,000 miles away! Huzzah!

Probably only makes sense to old farts now.

I asked for the address, claiming I get lost easily. It was my dentist! The pic was his wife with a different hair color. He has 2 numbers apparently, because I already had him in my phone. Weird. Probably a bit anticlimactic, sorry.

Well IGN gave 10/10 also to The Last of Us 2 Might just mean, that’s just right amount of water in CK3

Let's start off this thread like I start each morning, with a steady breakfast of

I think I've mentioned it once or twice, but there's not been much progress on making it official so to speak. Who knows, maybe we'll remain perpetually engaged?