Wrath of Dagon

you seem to be trying to talk 'bout a specific game rather than a general principle. but if you wanna backtrack a bit regarding game-changers, who is Gromnir to argue with you. I'm using a specific game as an example, I haven't thought about it enough to be able to talk about general principles without specific examples. I'm not backtracking, but perhaps we're not both talking about exactly the same thing here. No, because there are alternate abilities and alternate approaches. Although in some situations that might be the case, don't know.

No, there's a cool down for the more powerful feats, so you still use your regular skills/abilities (which you upgrade at level up through spending SP). But such feats are a game changer in the sense that they might make an unwinnable fight into a manageable one, and cause you to refine your approach and strategy. Of course enemies get those too, so you have to adjust the strategy to counteract them.

Yes, but new abilities can complement your existing abilities and make them a lot more powerful, like Cryostasis in Underrail. In fact most of the feats you get there allow you to improve your existing abilities.

game-changing abilities is stoopid. developers should be lauded for not having individual abilities that is game-changers. sadly there were a couple poe class abilities that were altering the gameplay dynamic once your character acquired. such developer miscalculations is a flaw to be avoided. just saying. HA! Good Fun! Why do you say that? Don't those kind of abilities give you a real sense of progression? How did you do in Bound by Flame?

Third parties will never be viable until the election system is changed, which is unlikely as it's not in the interests of the two major parties.

I'll take both your words for it, I didn't look at any guides and just build the characters the way it made sense to me. And I didn't notice any game changing abilities/items. May be it's my fault, may be the game is too abstruse, I'll let others judge.

Skill of the user is the same kind of upgrade as the gear upgrade, so what's the difference? Unless you mean player skill, but that's a completely different quality. As far as different damage, yes, in some situations ice damage is better than fire damage, but am I supposed to carry ten different weapons around? I didn't notice any particularly interesting types of damage, nor were the spells particularly exciting either, at least at the level I reached so far.

This is impressive and kind of scary, AI can now beat human fighter pilots: http://www.popsci.com/ai-pilot-beats-air-combat-expert-in-dogfight

It's not really "more", it's feeling that whatever you get makes a real difference. In W2 it's obvious that it does, in POE I seem to be able to swap all the rings between all the characters and not notice any difference in the next battle. May be W2 just has better feedback for the user. I never found a ring or weapon in POE I was excited about, but getting to the M16 in W2 was a real thrill. Granted, it's subjective as you say.

So I'm not arguing the combat in Wasteland was necessarily "better", though I would say for me it was a lot more fun. Perhaps because I prefer guns to magic/melee. My point was the loot/level up/combat cycle was better implemented. In POE I hardly notice my level ups, I seldom find any better equipment, crafting upgrades are also hard to find and unimpressive, and on top of that I can't improve my existing upgrades, I have to start with a whole new weapon! In wasteland you know as soon as you unlock a new area much better equipment will become available, so you're constantly working towards that and getting as much money as possible to be able to upgrade everyone. Also when you level up, you really notice the difference, plus every few levels you get much more powerful attributes, like an extra AP, so you're always working on getting there. In POE it's not clear that levels do much of anything, you get a skill per character and some dubious feats you forget to use in combat, and that's about it. Also the very complexity of POE works against it, you simply forget or don't bother to take advantage of every recipe, potion, spell scroll and what not you have available.

I dislike just using one or two polls to make an argument, but FiveThirtyEight grades WashingtonPost/ABC News as an A+ pollster. There's something to that. Looking at the big picture, Clinton has had a steady, and sometimes huge lead in the aggregate over Trump since the start of the campaign season. It's getting closer to final bell and Clinton's been more than capable of absorbing Trump's haymakers. It's all media propaganda. When the Libertarians and the Greens are included in the polls, Hilzilla and Trump are tied: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/27/us/politics/donald-trump-slips-further-behind-hillary-clinton-in-new-polls.html?_r=2 You mean this? http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton_vs_johnson_vs_stein-5952.html As of right now, Clinton's still up 5.6% in the aggregate in a four way with Trump, Johnson, and Stein. Sorry, I should've read that article more carefully. It only said they were tied in the WSJ/NBC poll. As far as third parties underperforming, that's certainly true. But a lot of other things will change between now and election also, the campaign hasn't even officially started yet.

The smartest man in the Trump campaign: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/stephen-miller-donald-trump-2016-policy-adviser-jeff-sessions-213992

Having a tough encounter is also a way to work the cycle, if you can leave it for later and be forced to think about what abilities you'll need to get in future level ups to be able to beat it. POE doesn't do that as far as I noticed. It's not really a question of an ingrained attitude, it's the fact that RPG's are designed to simulate success in real life through gameplay, where you succeed either through combat or completing quests. POE doesn't do a good job in delivering those dopamine hits IMO. Edit: For the combat to be rewarding in itself, you need fewer, tougher, more interesting encounters you have to figure out like a puzzle.

Al Qaeda insists future terrorist attacks be PC: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/06/27/al-qaeda-urges-lone-wolves-to-target-whites-to-avoid-hate-crime-label.html

The problem with POE isn't just the very frequent (but usually not that difficult combat, at least on hardcore), it's that you really don't get rewarded for it. You just find a bunch of junk equipment usually no better than what you already have, and leveling up doesn't feel particularly rewarding either. They really got the combat-loot-level up cycle wrong, which makes the combat and the game feel somewhat tedious. Compare that with how addictive that same cycle is in games like Wasteland 2 or Underrail, I literally couldn't stop playing those games.

Of course, he brought us the 2008 financial crash and recession, what's not to like? Immigrants no longer have to pledge to defend America to become citizens: http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/06/27/tancredo-oath-to-defend-america-optional-because-it-could-reduce-muslim-immigration/

No, they have no Supreme Court, the Parliament is supreme. Of course we can't be sure what the Parliament will do when all is said and done. Big part of western democracies is the laws that prevent majority taking rights from minorities. Things like constitutional rights depend heavily on such systems. And democracy is constantly living thing that don't stop in singular vote but continuously evolve through series of votes and even if you lose one vote you continue to argue for values/things/laws that you think are best for society so that society can reflect them again in next vote and so on until end of time. Meaning that there isn't anything that is set in stone in democratic society but only things that society at any given point of time thinks are rules they as collectively accept to abide by. That only works when the courts actually follow the law, not substitute their own opinions for the law. http://joshblackman.com/blog/2015/11/29/posner-the-14th-amendment-is-old-cryptic-or-vague-but-what-about-article-iii/

No question about it, she's said as much.

If you want to give up the Supreme Court for a generation and make sure you lose your last constitutional rights, like the Second and the First amendments, that's exactly what any butthurt Repube should do.

https://ricochet.com/the-new-rules-of-democracy-there-are-no-rules-just-give-me-what-i-want/ Too bad British progs can't do what American progs always do, just go to court and have any popular vote they don't like nullified.

I dislike just using one or two polls to make an argument, but FiveThirtyEight grades WashingtonPost/ABC News as an A+ pollster. There's something to that. Looking at the big picture, Clinton has had a steady, and sometimes huge lead in the aggregate over Trump since the start of the campaign season. It's getting closer to final bell and Clinton's been more than capable of absorbing Trump's haymakers. It's all media propaganda. When the Libertarians and the Greens are included in the polls, Hilzilla and Trump are tied: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/27/us/politics/donald-trump-slips-further-behind-hillary-clinton-in-new-polls.html?_r=2

David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog Jun 24 .@andylevy a British version of John Oliver would be a nightly BBC show with Larry the Cable Guy talking about how bad Britain sucks David Burge Retweeted Eddy Elfenbein ‏@EddyElfenbein Jun 23 The future is on the wrong side of history. David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog Jun 24 Holy crap, we've raised an entire generation who are terrified of not being ruled over. David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog Jun 25 Let's all pray that Britain doesn't descend into Norwegian or Swiss-style anarchy David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog Jun 26 .@jpodhoretz these Brexit people with their paranoid delusions of an anti-democratic EU are obviously too crazy to be allowed to vote. David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog 2h2 hours ago If history teaches us anything, Germany only has Britain's best interests at heart. I didn't think it was possible to have worse hair than Trump, but Boris comes through with flying colors.

Because they're filthy globalists, looking out for the interests of multi-national corporations that pay them off.

Just pre-ordered it myself GMG has it 20% off right now if anyone is interested That's weird, I went to GMG and it says $44.99 and then I went on Steam and it's 15% off at $38.24. Edit: Meh, if you try to leave the GMG site it gives you a voucher code for 20% off.

I was hoping for this Why would you be hoping for this, Texas is never going to secede from the USA....surly people arent serious about this? I'm willing to give Trump a chance to fix things before we secede. They don't get to leave. The US will remain united until the end of history. I'm just very surprised that it's Texas and not the South lol Been there... done that... didn't work out so good. Actually in all seriousness, state secession COULD actually happen but it would be precipitated by some very heavy handed action by the Federal Government. As in a lot more than anything Barack Obama even considered doing. I'm no fan of Obama's it's true. But he is not the tyrant that suspends the Constitution and starts ordering Americans in death FEMA camps. Neither is Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump for that matter. It would take something like that to do it. It might just take banning all guns, which is something Obola would dearly love to do, and which Dems will be able to do if they get one more seat on the Supreme Court. Our governor already said "Come and take it". Why not? Better than the the undemocratic EU that is run by unelected, appointed officials, i.e., the European Commission in particular, who routinely overturn local laws passed by locally elected officials. Yeah Yeah, Because House of Lords in UK is full of elected individuals ROFLMAO This is exactly why the Brits shouldn't be made to comply with the wishes of East Europeons.