BruceVC

Great story Gorthfuscious. Such an interesting journey and you have been around since the early days so you have seen things progress and advance to the level of gaming from where we are now

And these are all valid examples but what is the petition expecting to change legally In other words if there is an online gaming service that is losing money is the legislation going to say " you cant shutdown the gaming servers " ? And thats fine but then who is going to pay for the servers to be maintained? Maybe the idea is where the community maintains it like City of Heroes I just think trying to get the state to legislate this type of thing is problematic

I still dont understand what the petition is suppose to achieve, this what the petition website says " Many videogames rely on servers. When these are shut down, games can be left unplayable where no action is taken to remove this dependency. We believe this is effectively robbing customers, leaving them with no recourse to retain their purchases. We have concerns that existing laws and agencies do not effectively solve this problem. Thus we believe government intervention is needed to stop this practice." What if a company goes under, then the online servers will also be shutdown. But whats more relevant is what is an example of what they talking about ? Specifically around what they mean by " When these are shut down, games can be left unplayable"

Yes it makes no sense. It must be because of a specific example and that would be why this petition was created But the UK is famous for these types of well-meaning but mostly pointless examples of outrage, they dont lead to much real change around implementation

Im not sure I understand the objective? What are people expecting, what do they mean by " in a reasonably working state when support ends" Do they mean official patches and fixes and does this include community patches or mods, is that support? Because you can have a bug specific to your PC or mods you loaded and if you dont fix it then you cant finish the game. Its unrealistic to hold the original developers legally responsible for that? They must be talking about a specific game or games that was the foundation of this petition so I wonder what they mean?

I completed EoB1 after about 45 hours, it was a great experience and well worth playing So a couple of comments An Automap feature is a MUST for your average gamer if you serious about completing the game, of course you can make maps manually. A map is critical to completing levels for several reasons that include you find levers and buttons that sometimes open doors or hidden walls that aren't always in the vicinity of where you are but with the automap you can see immediately what a button does I loved how the game is non-linear and you sometimes find keys in different places that you decide what you want to unlock and then you can progress as you want and I didnt explore every level completely The " fast travel " was a brilliant and well done feature. It makes exploration for the stone items worthwhile but its not easy to teleport unless you find specific portals I enjoyed the overall combat mechanics, simple but still entertaining I had an interesting final battle with the beholder Xanathar, initially he decimated me after 3-4 rounds of combat with death spells and fireballs. Then I read some combat tips and I had the Wand of Silivias. But it didnt seem to work where you supposed to push Xanathar back to this spike trap so I adopted my own strategy. I ran to the room with the spike trap and literally fought him by running around the room, attacking him and avoiding his frontal spells. It was hard but eventually effective. I nearly had a crisis because I used a save game when he was down to 50% of health but then my front line fighters got killed and I accidently saved instead of restoring And because you only have 1 save game and load game that meant I was stuck with a party of 3 dead party members and these were the only people who could harm Xanathar. But I ran away and luckily my Cleric was still alive and I had 2 Raise Dead scrolls so I used that to resurrect my fighters, heal and return to the battle and I was able to win and defeat the diabolical Xanathar I am now playing EoB2 and I decided to import my previous party, I have just started and already I can see some improvements like how magical items are identified and multiple save games. Very appreciated change to EoB1 If someone had to ask me " why should I play such an old game like EoB1 when there are all these amazing new games with beautiful graphics and modern features " My answer would be these types of classic games capture the excitement and ambience of dungeon exploration better than any modern game and they always will. Modern games are great but if you want to experience the true thrill of classic D&D exploration you wont find a better way of doing it than from games like EoB And finally it gets a solid 70/100 on the globally respected " BruceVC game rating system "

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-01/saudi-arabia-steps-up-gaza-arrests-as-israel-ties-edge-closer Interesting development, Saudi Arabia is making some positive steps towards supporting Israel. Its sooner than I thought considering the ongoing war in Gaza but geopolitical events in the ME tend to move quickly Im not sure if its Abrahamic Accord revitalization but it may be more about " Saudi Arabia and regional allies like Egypt and Jordan have been alarmed by the trend, fearing that Iran and Islamist groups could exploit the conflict to incite a wave of uprisings, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified due the delicate nature of the matter. Memories of the Arab Spring more than a decade ago remain fresh among regional rulers, who are desperate to avoid a repeat"

You asking an important and relevant question and that is " whats radical about demanding that a university divest from the arms industry " Thats not radical at all and its reasonable. But thats not what the protestors are asking They asking for the Universities to divest from all companies that do business with Israel and a boycott of these companies if these companies continue to do business with Israel or have an Israeli footprint. Its similar to South Africa Apartheid sanctions which were reasonable, understandable and effective But if you think how impractical the students demands really are, just take IT companies that include Microsoft, Amazon, FB or Twitter. The Universities and the students themselves arent going to boycott these products so whats the point of asking for a generalized boycott and divest of all companies? But if they were specific about weapons companies that would be a different story because the Universities can do this

I bought all the Gold Box SSI games on Steam and Im playing Eye of the Beholder 1 as my first game. Im going to spread out when I play these games I played it when it was first released back in 1992 and I still remember certain mechanics like the pressure plates The Gold Box games have the All-Seeing Eye automap built in which is a "must have " feature if you dont have the time for making maps manually which I dont And Im really enjoying it, its very simple but thats the fun of this type of classic dungeon crawler. And of course it uses the D&D ruleset and mechanics which is always a win for me

Its interesting you raise " or that that they were dubbed "outside agitators" when this was not true" Now that hundreds of arrests have been made that view is demonstrably untrue https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/live-updates/college-protests-israel-palestine-war/nearly-half-of-columbia-university-and-ccny-arrests-were-nonstudent-protestors-109886454?id=109734946 " Nearly half of Columbia University and CCNY arrests were non-student protesters Of the total arrests made at Columbia University and The City College of New York, many were affiliated with the university, though nearly half were identified as non-student protesters. At Columbia University, there were 112 total arrests with 80 of the arrests being individuals affiliated with the institution while 32 individuals were unaffiliated. The protests at CCNY saw 170 total arrests with 68 individuals arrested being affiliated with the public research university and 102 individuals being unaffiliated with the college" So why does 50% of the total numbers of people arrested not being students just at 2 universities matter? Two main reasons, the first one being that the allegation of outside agitation is true and the second one is it undermines completely the view that says " these protests are about well-meaning students who have an understandable concern about where there universities spend there campus endowments " I do think most of the students have a well-meaning and genuine belief they doing the right thing even if the demands are unrealistic and unachievable But you cant deny that there is a real element of protestors who have hijacked the protests for there own radical left agendas

Mamie what is the historical connection between Moldova and Romania, did they use to be one country?

Lets hope its not as unsuccessful as the French African military interventions But to be fair to France you cant defeat Islamic extremism in Africa without also changing the economic and social conditions in these African countries and only African governments can do that France cant do that for them

Its easy to understand what is an illegal or legal protest and this is outside of criminal acts or violence being committed , it depends on things like where the protest is happening. You cant protest on private property and as far as I know certain Federal areas But you can protest in public areas. But the campus encampments and protests were largely on private sector University areas which is why much of the Universities protests have moved outside the private areas to the streets So its not a selective definition because the University can allow protests on there grounds but they have every right to call in the police to end illegal encampments on there private sector areas

Come on Lexx, lets be fair There are literally dozens of examples in the US where you see protests that arent violent or illegal or the police dont respond because a particular mayor doesnt want to escalate tension so the police will ignore much of the criminality There have been numerous BLM protests, like the weeks of protests in Portland, where the police didn't intervene or try instigate violence so they can respond with just arresting people Despite what you seem to think the US police arent some fascist organisation that takes orders from an authoritarian government. Its not how it works and you can see the obvious differences in police response in different states and in different cities And these drones are just another mechanism to ensure violent protests can be subdued and contained. Its just an additional tool, its not a bad thing

Do you also support the ICC, I do. Remember when Putin was issued with the warrant and it was immediately dismissed by many people with comments like " the ICC is a Western\US controlled and biased institution and it should be ignored "

Freedom and human rights also have civilian responsibilities, the right to protest is enshrined in all Constitutional Democracies but thats the right for peaceful and legal protests Using drones is only a measure to be used when there is illegal and violent protests. It wont be necessary in any peaceful protest which is what most protests in the US are

Yes I was, I reread my post and it wasnt written properly @Wormerine Wormie I hope this clears up any confusion because you absolutely right. We dont want anything to undermine the global influence of the " BruceVC game rating system "

Do you remember you and I have spoken about this for years and how drones could be used to subdue violent and chaotic protests and now they getting adopted to exactly that purpose This is a good first step, drones are incredibly versatile

Lexx some of those protesting students have water bottles and flags ....those can become deadly weapons But on a serious note, if you watch some of the police arresting people it can take 2-3 cops to restrain and arrest one protestor. Sometimes protestors have to be carried out so you do need a fairly large and effective police contingent if you have to arrest dozens or hundreds of people and remember this was after the protestors had hijacked the building and barricaded the entrance so the police didnt know what to expect

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/columbia-university-pro-palestinian-protests-occupy-hamilton-hall/ Malc lets not be too cynical, here are some very convincing and reasonable words from Eric Adams about why the police needed to be deployed in NY. And as we know he is not some right-wing, neo-nazi, police fascist so his opinion should be credible and believable @Zoraptor its further evidence of outside influence in the protests "I have been saying for days, if not weeks now, that what should have been a peaceful protest, it has basically been coopted by professional, outside agitators," Adams said Tuesday. "We were well aware based on a series of observations that what should've been a peaceful protest that's part of a constitutional rights of Americans has clearly been coopted. A right that this administration supports and defends to support your concern." Adams urged everyone violating Columbia's policies to "leave the area, and leave the area now. And if you're a parent of a student, please call your child and urge them to leave the area before the situation escalates in any way. This is for their own safety, and the safety of others." "We are seeing professional, external actors getting involved in these protests, including in the occupation of a university building," Police Commissioner Edward Caban said. "These people are not Columbia students. They are not affiliated with the university and they are working to escalate the situation. We are seeing their tactics changing in a way that's endangering public safety. These once peaceful protests are being exploited by professional outside agitators and the safety of all students, faculty and staff are now a concern."

The protests arent the same for the reasons I mentioned, the primary goal of " divest " from Israel cant be realistically implemented Apartheid sanctions were about companies leaving South Africa and then any company that still traded with South Africa you publicly vilify them and dont use there products, so you protest with your wallet which is effective . Obviously the Universities and the students themselves are not going to stop using the products of Microsoft, Google, FB or Twitter because all these companies trade with Israel or have an Israeli footprint. And this is just IT companies. So the entire " divest " from Israel is completely unrealistic if you serious about what BDS says they believe and thats where the students got the demand from. Its based on BDS Apartheid sanction activism https://bdsmovement.net/what-is-bds But we will see if all the protesters are all from the University, I doubt they are but lets wait now that hundreds of people have been arrested

Some people may be aware of the fantastic news that a Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has been announced This is my 6th favourite game of all time and its absolutely brilliant. Really good medieval action game, no wokeness just historical realism Here is an update video about KC:D2 And here is a summary of certain key features ( these arent my summary points but they seem accurate ) Savior Schnapps - The save system will be returning. Although Sir Tobi mentioned that they are aware that especially in the early game it was hard to afford to save often enough. They are making it more accessible in the early game. Blacksmithing - This is a confirmed mini-game similar to how alchemy worked in the first game. Lockpicking - Lockpicking will work much the same way as it does now in KCD1, however he said it was smoother and more accessible. Father Godwin - Everybody's favorite priest is confirmed to be back. Time passing - The start of the game picks up exactly where KCD1 ended. Sir Tobi refused to speculate at all about anything related to story. So whether or not time advances later was left unsaid. Story structure - Initially KCD was envisioned as a three part story. But the first game ballooned to be much bigger than they had planned back in 2014. KCD2 will "end the story" but exactly what that means is unclear. Current state of KCD2 - According to Sir Tobi, they are much farther along in development with KCD2 than KCD1 was at this stage. He says they are now working on bug fixing and localization. He said the team is very confident they can release in 2024, but acknowledged that outside factors may change that. Character progression - Sir Tobi said there is always a challenge in sequels about how much progression to reset so the player can grow the character again. He alluded to something happening to sort of soft-reset Henry's skills. But also said that since KCD2 takes place in a far larger and more powerful area of the world than KCD1, Henry is now up against bigger and more powerful foes - and therefore he might not be as skilled as we thought. Game areas - As we already knew, there are two separate game maps. Once the story advances to the point that Henry gets to the second, Sir Tobi confirmed that you can travel freely back and forth between the two. They are far apart, so there is a loading screen as Henry makes the journey. Returning characters - Sir Tobi was very vague about story points and who we can expect to see. However he said there were some familiar faces, but also many new characters. After all, Henry has traveled a long way to a much larger area. There will be many new characters. Battles - Sir Tobi confirmed that just like KCD1, there will be larger-scale battles. But just like the first game, these are restricted to story moments. Henry cannot just decide to siege a castle for fun. Mini games - Again Sir Tobi was very vague in his answer. He confirmed blacksmithing as the big new addition, and said Farkle is back with some minor additions. Miscellaneous - Beyond these things, Sir Tobi confirmed there will be no NPC children in KCD2. This is primary a time restraint. It doesn't add enough to the game for the team to devote the time it would take to do it properly. He also said there was no fishing to his knowledge. When asked if Henry could swim now, he said no. But the way he answered it made me wonder if that would be a skill Henry could learn, similar to how Henry could learn to read in the second game. Maybe I'm speculating there... Tobi confirmed in another interview that Henry will only swim in a cutscene.

But these protests are not the same as anti-Apartheid, anti-Vietnam war or even many modern day protests like fracking on Native American land. These campus protests dont have achievable or realistic goals And then another difference is these other legitimate protests weren't in flagrant disregard of the Universities own recently created rules where all students have rights to " safe spaces " and an environment where they arent harassed or intimated. And many Jewish students are definitely feeling intimidated So most of these campus protests have ended up being both illegal and or violent like the taking over of the Columbia building And this is why the police are acting and they being asked by the Universities to intervene But the main point is the protestors demands are completely unrealistic and Columbia has spent days trying to negotiate Interestingly enough it appears many of the people arrested now at Columbia arent students so this is another example of a protest being hijacked by external groups with there own agendas to spread chaos and anarchy

What do you mean by house slipper? Do you mean like a shoe?

But please tell me you are using the recommended and mandatory mods for FO3 like this overhaul mod, the Wanderers Edition. It incorporates over 50 mods and vastly improves the vanilla experience https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/2761 Just please dont tell me you playing vanilla FO3?