Raithe

Wait, actually looks like the French did vote in quite a similar manner to the English..

I don't think the French Revolution really gave the King any votes.. or were muchly concerned about not killing the majority of the aristocracy. They were rather het up at the time. I believe the vote thing relates to Charles I of England, and how he ended up tried for High Treason and executed after the second civil war and Cromwell's Republic was established. On the really random historical note, Louis XVI (said French King) was behind sending monies and armaments to America during the war of independence - purely as a method to annoy the English. However it's generally recognised that the success of the American revolution was one of the key elements that helped inspire the French Revolution... Kind of hoisted on his own petard there.

They normally require you to log into the Cerberus Network to activate them within the game...

I picked up all the DLC together during the steam sale back in October/November time.. started up a fresh playthrough of the whole game. For various reasons I ended up taking a break from it just when I'd started Dead Money.. at the moment I can't seem to find the enthusiasm to get back to it...

Managed about 3 or 4 hours of sleep last night, and feeling like I'm just being incredibly slow with what work I'm pushing along today. Throw in the dog being a wee bit over-enthusiastic and a muddy garden.. just adds to the fun. Drinking much tea to keep me going.

One of the issues I found with the global cooldown was with chained powers. In ME1, if you had a Vanguard, you could use Lift to cause someone to fly up into the air, and then blam, hit them with the Throw ability. In ME2, you really needed to have two people in the squad with matching abilities to be able to combine effects like that. Otherwise, by the time the global cooldown let you have Throw ready.. your Lift had already ended.. It basically had that element of pushing your need to micro-manage your squad to be able to combine different abilities like that.. which has both elements of good and bad. In ME1, it was carefully manage your abilities rather then spam everything. In ME2, it was more about managing your squad together. Of course, the one that always irritated me was the Charge ability. Enemy Vanguards could use Charge to blip around the battlefield (key example, Vasir in Lair of the Shadow Broker), while the player could only use it to attack an enemy.

Since I pretty much only use headphones rather then speakers, I had to get some decent ones when mine broke over christmas. Picked up a Razer Carcharias Gaming Headset, and dang, that's comfortable to be wearing for hours at a time. Full over-ear coverage, and the sound quality is good. Haven't gotten around to using the microphone for anything yet.. but the rest is all good.

Hm, I wouldn't say anything in those videos were spoilerish as such, and they've pretty much shown that whole introduction and first mission off before now. Although I would say Shepherds wrists/hands looked really small compared to his arms and body in the cinematics.. So nothing really fresh shown off about the game mechancis. And of course, since it's the introductory mission, it's keeping it fairly simple to show the player the basics. I'll play the demo to see how it all feels, and I'm keeping my pre-order on track because I do want to wrap up the trilogy just to see what they do with it, and I'm curious about which choices will turn out to have effects - whether small or large.

Well I haven't encountered any serious story-killing moments that have turned me off yet. Of course, apart from the SI and getting the Smuggler into Act 2, I've only dabbled with the prologue of the Jedi Knight and Bounty Hunter. I'm just trying to pace myself out rather then spend extended periods playing in rapid order. I can still see myself cheerfully playing TOR for another half a year working through the class stories at a steady pace.

A recent q & a session on the upcoming 1.2 patch - http://www.darthhater.com/articles/swtor-news/19932-swtor-hosts-community-q-a-session-plus-announces# Including such comments as:

There's that mixture of things about the Wehrmacht that tends to be easily confused. At the time, one of the praiseworthy aspects about it as a group was that it promoted by ability, rather then by class and family connections. One of the few armies of the day that really did that. A son of a baker could become an officer if he had the skills and ability. On the other hand, they had a lot of political bias and the unconditional "following orders" that has a rather bad schtick from the historical viewpoint.. Either way, with all of the political connotations, it was a rather stupid thing for the Sniper Scouts to do..

Happy birthday Nepenthe. Enjoy the time.. and don't get too depressed quite yet..

Had an extensive catchup of gameplay tonight. Pushed my Smuggler through to the end of Act 1. Although was annoyed that I was given a Codex entry that revealed the upcoming plot twist and "surprise" reveal.. before you do the mission that shares it. Kind of spoiled any possible drama/tension about it.. ah well. C'est la vie. I have to admit, Underworld Trading built up one massive stack of Companion gifts in my cargo hold.. I worked my way through them and had Corso and Bowdaar were up high levels.. but didn't want to talk to me. Until Act 1 finished..and then suddenly each one had about 10 conversations one after the other. So there's that automatic pause that waits for specific acts to be dealt with before they carry on with companions..

Hm, one thing you might want to consider Hurl, does she enjoy the dancing itself, but not the idea of performing? If so, then carrying on the dance class, but not worrying about going to performances might be a thing. Dance can be good on its own, just for the general sense of kinesthesia it can bring to your own body and as long as it isn't hard core ballet.. it'll be some physical good in its own right. I guess it's that balance of finding out if its just a severe case of shyness and stage fright or a genuine dislike of performance.. On to other things, I had a fun night. Somehow I kept up ending in positions that made an arm go numb/dead. So I'd keep waking up to find I was having serious pins and needles as feelings were returning to my arm...

Was trying to get a grip on my CV. Had a friend of the family who's husband passed away ask me to look at some tech issues she was having. All the paperwork on the home pc, her router and broadband are under her husbands name and files. And of course not all passwords for it could be found. Throw in a router that says its connected to her adsl line fine but has no internet access... Hm, and found out that my classic Crombie Great Coat is in need of some repair. The stitching at the back of the collar has given way .. Now while I could try some home repair, it's a damn good quality coat, so I think I shall have to take it to a professional to be on the safe side.

To be fair to the detractors, TIM is the ultimate, head honcho leader dude for Cerberus. He set it up, he organised it, he structured it. And he's shown he's perfectly willing to get involved in really dirty things if it meets his "goals" of improving humanity. Sure, there are a few examples of how they had occasional "rogue" elements go further then even he had planned - case in point, Jack and that whole "School" have elements that seem to suggest that they were keeping secrets from TIM about what they were doing. And TIM pretty much handwaves the elements of Cerberus that were involved in ME1 and testing things on Alliance soldiers resulting in their. But you don't really get much that states that that research group was totally rogue. If I recall, Miranda mentions them as something like a fringe element, but my memory isn't being specific about it so I could be wrong. As for killing off the Admiral, well, TIM runs Cerberus with a strict hand on security consciousness. So if some Admiral started turning over rocks and digging in ways that might endage some operations.. I can see him easily arranging a death. Although to be fair, TIM seems more like the type who would set it up as some form of "accident" that didn't look too suspicious. As compared to an obvious kidnap/death thing.

Does it really matter whether or not the Collectors could have successfully attacked Earth? They showed they were quite capable of hitting the fringe/colony worlds, and would keep doing so. That's still a rather large swathe of humanity, and I'm pretty sure that Shephard and co were quite frantic over that alone. I mean, remember overhearing some of the crew talking. They had family in those colonies, which is one reason some of them were so motivated. The fact that human colonies were getting disapeared like that was also having political knock-on effects with the Alliance. They were getting stressed the Council was ignoring the issue, and the other races would see it as Alliance weakness and maneuver for more political benefits. The problem of what the Collectors were doing needed to be solved regardless of whether they could have mounted a successful threat against Earth or not. You've been brought back from the dead after two years, you get shown this pattern of attacks and destroyed colonies. You get given data about a mysterious, race that seems to have very advanced tech. And then you find out that the Collectors were the very people that blew up the Normandy in the first place. You go talk to Anderson and the Council, and they pretty much ignore you and tell you that your visions of Protheans and Reapers from the first game aren't real and they don't believe you. Anderson believes you, but can't actually help you in any real manner. Then later you find out he wasn't sure he could trust you and sent a member of your old crew out "undercover" to find out if Cerberus was behind the missing colonies.. The only people willing to give you resources to look into and potentially deal with the problem are a group you don't like and can't really trust. What are you going to do, walk away and ignore the situation? Or use the resources you can and prepare a backup plan? At what point did Shephard and Co know that they only had the one ship? Sure, they encountered the same ship several times, but for all they knew, the Collectors might have had a full armada at their home of origin. Until they had definite knowledge, they have to act as if there might be a big fleet and a serious threat there... It would be like a certain renegade Spectre deciding that the Alliance only had one ship because he only saw the Normandy turn up at all the places he went to....

They weren't known for the attacks on the human colonies, that was a secret. But if you picked up stuff from the various novels and comics, the Collectors as a "mysterious species" were well known in Omega and that region of space. Everyone knew they came through the Omega Relay, and they tended to turn up and conduct strange deals and collect species - aka, seemingly pull random slaving missions. Trade weird, advanced tech for specific odd genes, mutated creatures, and the like. They have that reputation of engimatic, not to be messed with that would be very similar to some darkly dangerous, semi-criminal group would have in those environments. Also, that they'd been around for a very long time, but no-one knew specific details about them.. Just that they had that sort of reputation.

I think a lot of people get confused with the ME1 Reaper's disdain for organic life, and then ME2 showing they casually used organic life they manipulated and gengineered to their purpose in some bizarre scheme to make a Reaper using human tissue.. Personally, I think the "main story" of ME2 was a little weak, it got lost in the whole "gather the group and gain their loyalty", but that was quite well done, if over-using family issues. The key to it being that no-one knew what was on the other side of the Omega Relay, just that the Collectors came from there, and no-ship sent through ever returned. So what do you do to find out a way to stop the Collectors? You find a small group of highly trained/skilled people, put them in a highly advanced Reconnaisance vessel, and figure out a way to get through the Omega Relay to find out whats happening. Recon vessel goes through, and then you can put the group down on whatever area they find to gather intelligence and figure out if there was a way to deal with the threat. You don't want to spend the resources gathering a massive fleet to go through a Relay no-one ever returns from. You might need that fleet right here on this side of the relay in the future... You never actually get a clear answer as to whether the Collectors have more then the one ship. You only know the same one shot down the original Normandy, invaded the colony you were at, and happens to be there when you get to blow it up yourself. Also, that whole end sequence the Collectors were suprised by your arrival in their space. Who knows whether the ship was fully staffed and ready to deal with combat right then? The emergency response could be one reason why you can kick their asses so easily.. Especially with all the suped up technology you'd put in. If I recall correctly, the improved guns are actually based on Reaper tech. The Collectors have the big scary reputation because of their advanced organic tech, the mysterious way they behave, and that they come from a place no-one has ever returned from. They aren't exactly smart in their own manner. They are controlled puppets to a large degree, so you can't really expect them to respond in a great manner when surprised. They seemed to specialise in using shock and awe after a stealthy approach. Then blindsinding folks with their organic paralytics and wotnot. Which is part of what makes it fun when you use those same tactics on them. Sure, there are portions of the story I thought could have been developed better, and bits that were weak, but it pretty much had a fun space opera feel to it. And since they've said it was geared up as a trilogy from the beginning, I'll await the arrival of ME3 and see how it all connects up before I start saying it all retcons and contradicts itself too much.

I had fun playing with a Ranger/Spirit Shaman build.. and that was damn useful for the amount of incorporeal undead you can end up facing in both NWN2 and the expansion.. You really s hould take advantage of the multi-classing aspects in the rules to really develop a fun character. Going totally with a single class always seem to lack something. First time I played it through I'll admit getting into the restoring the Fortress and managing those assets took a bit, but it was actually kind of fun.

Gratz on the new place, and enjoy the housewarming.. However you decide to do it. Trying to figure out how aware I am right at the moment. I think I managed about 2 hours sleep, possibly 3. Something woke me up in the wee small hours of the morning and I never managed to get back to sleep.. I have to admit, it's one of those things I find interesting. If I only get around 6 hours sleep, but have something specific to be up for, I can be jumping out on the dot, aware and active, feeling all fresh to go. If I don't have anything in specific to be up for and get around 8 hours sleep, I'm dozy and slow to wake... But if I only get 3 hours sleep I'm just Meh. Which is actually quite expected...

All numbers we impose on the universe are arbitrary. Some just appear to be less arbitrary then others...