Ineth

Virtually every speaker of Ænglisc who lived after the Norman invasion spoke like that, yourself included. Chances are that you would say something like "I eat beef", rather than "I eat cowflesh". So what's with this "beef" business? Are "vampire" and "duke" so much better? Those are just butchered versions of the perfectly fine Serbo-Croat word vampir and the perfectly fine French word duc. Indeed, the PoE variants of words feel quite fitting for a Medieval European based fantasy setting IMO. In some ways more authentic than the modern English variants actually, if you know a little of (or from) European languages. I wouldn't be surprised if the people who feel irritated by those words, are people who only speak English.

You dirty racist speciesist! #YesAllOrlans

I agree, it's unfortunate that Obsidian decided to let their writers spend time writing all those uselss "NPC soul stories", and at the same time cut content from the scripted companions.

Normal currencies are less volatile, but that's a difference of degree, not a fundamental one. The main reason why Bitcoin is less stable than "normal" currencies is, I think, the fact that the market for Bitcoins (and the market for trading Bitcoins for goods & services) is many orders of magnitude smaller than, say, the Dollar equivalent. So if one person suddenly decides to buy (or sell) a lot of Bitcoins, that can quickly upset the whole Bitcoin ecosystem and change everyone's expectations (and by extension the "going price"). Whereas a single Dollar-based transaction would never make any measurable difference in the grand scheme of things, since there are probably billions of other Dollar-based transaction on the same day and they all sort of even out. The value of today's national fiat currencies isn't fundamentally more "real" than that of Bitcoin. In both cases the value derives from the fact that people expect to be able to either trade it back later at a profit, or buy stuff they want with it. With Dollars you have more choices what to buy and there's less risk of the whole system collapsing before you have a chance to trade your money back for another currency, but again that's a difference of degree. The central bank can choose the amount of new money to print or change the federal funds rate, but those are only tools to nudge the market for that currency into a particular direction, they don't make it possible for the central bank or government to simply "decide" the value of a currency. And they can also make things worse.

The same is also true if you buy another currency like Euro's. Or if you buy anything else really, and try to sell it again later after it has become less or more popular / in demand. The people who want to sell some of theirs, choose how low they're willing to go. The people who want to buy some, choose how high they're willing to go. If two if them manage to meet in the middle and the transaction occurs, you've got one data point for the current price. Looking at all transactions that are happening in public bitcoin exchanges over a certain time period, tells you the average "market-going price" at that time. As for why it changes? Because the buyers and sellers change what they're willing to offer based on their expectations.

Now we just need to find out who cast that vote, force them to explain themselves, and set up a tribunal to decide on a fitting punishment!

Want high damage per hit? 1) Be a rogue. 2) Have high accuracy. 3) Use talents/items/enchantments that increase the crit multiplier. 4) Dual-wield sabres. 5) Profit: With Arquebus you'll get even higher numbers, but the total DPS will be lower because it's so slow. Also, melee rogue are much cooler than ranged rogues.

You dropped some of the specifics there to make the examples sound more generic than they are. For example it's not just that "some place with lots of graves exists somewhere in the game" (which would indeed be very generic); it is in both games: A burial isle that has to be reached by boat/raft that is used by the natives (rather than the settlers) and has to be visited as part of the main plot and is literally called "Burial Isle" on the world map. Considering that there are not too many games in this genre (classic isometric party-based fantasy cRPG), that's a rather particular similarity for two of them to share methinks.

From one of the best indie game soundtracks ever: (purely instrumental) (sung by the composer/writer himself)

...and they'll conclude that this process is part of a global conspiracy to oppress and victimize them, and that the more competitive people must be deriving their success from some kind of institutional privilege. And certain segments of the political landscape will listen to them and push more illiberal legislation in their favor.

What's wrong with those?

The way that slogan is phrased, wouldn't it be the light beer choice of prospective date rape victims if anything?

Spiritshift sucks (except maybe as a defense when you get swarmed), but thanks to their generous spell selection druids are nonetheless the most powerful class in the game.

Get Scion of Flame early; it's awesome. I'd say those bonus spells will be redundant for pretty much all encounters. Fights against trashmobs will be over before he can cast four level-1 spells and use his "blast" ability twice. And for boss fights, you'll want to whip out some of the higher-level (per-rest) spells instead.

Only girls?

Are all the female player voice sets from the same voice actor? Because there's really not much variety between them.

After finishing PoE, I felt the urge to play some Icewind Dale (IWD) again, so I loaded up a savegame from the Heart of Winter (HoW) expansion of that game - and couldn't help but notice some of the same themes I had just encountered in PoE. For example, both games prominently feature: A long-running historical conflict between a "less civilized but more-in-tune-with-nature" indigenous people, and settlers with a more European-ish culture - with these properties:The natives are in a more "direct" contact with the gods. The natives feel displaced by the settlers, but are no innocent pacifists themselves. The threat of attacks by the natives' war parties shapes both the backstory and contemporary events. A "Burial Isle" of the natives, that becomes important for the main plot of the game. A monster type ("Cean Gŵla" / "Wailing Virgins") based on the idea of "women who died under particularly tragic or traumatic circumstances" who are now, in death, taking "revenge" against any living who cross their paths, and are one of the toughest monster type in the game. And who was one of the main designers of HoW? The very same Josh Sawyer who was also the "Project Director" and "Design Lead" of PoE! Coincidence?

In the game there's this book called "The Great Western Stag": However, it's text contains nothing which would support or explain the adjective "western". Instead, the text refers to the animal as a "great white stag", and tells us that it roams "the world" (and not just some specific western region): So my guess is that the title is mistaken (possibly mistyped due to auto-complete?) and should say "The Great White Stag" instead. PS: In case anyone is wondering what's the deal with this particular book, it has been theorized that it metaphorically foreshadowed the events of the Saint's War and may contain hints about not-yet-revealed truths about Eothas/Waidwen (which we will hopefully learn more about in an expansion or sequel)!

lol, just PM a mod and ask them to sticky the thread instead.

Why would you use a Rogue as your Mechanics expert anyway? Rogue's can benefit from stealth, so pump that instead. Max out Mechanics on another character, who doesn't really need the other skills (like a cipher).

It depends on the situation; specifically on: The enemy's damage reduction. Your character's interrupt potential, and how highly you value that compared to raw damage output. Whether you can inflict additional effects per hit (e.g. Cipher focus generation) or per crit (e.g. stunning weapons), and how highly you value that compared to raw damage output. So even if you did know the exact numbers for the attack speeds, you couldn't simply go and multiply it with the damage numbers to identify a single weapon that's objectively "best". And that's intentional. This game is supposed to be an RPG, not a math quiz. Just try out different weapons; you'll get a feeling for their relative effectiveness for your particular character build and play style.

Yep, not sure if they agree 100% with Iovara but they sympathize with her. Which ones?

You mean this one?

So if I understand the endgame revelations correctly, things went down like this: Thaos (Woedica's favored) steals Dyrwoodan souls in order to restore Woedica's power. Eothas figures it out, incarnates as St. Waidwen, gathers an army in Readceras, and marches towards Dyrwood to stop Woedica's plan. However, the Dyrwoodans think that Eothas has just gone crazy, and apparently so does Magran because she helps them build the Godhammer. Dyrwoodans use the Godhammer to blow up Eothas; Woedica's plan proceeds unhindered (until the protagonist enters the picture). So I wonder, why did Eothas act so foolishly? Like he has the worst communication skills ever? I mean, he could have easily told Magran and the other non-evil gods: "Hey, I figured out this evil plan by Woedica - let's do something about it together!" Or he could have told the Dyrwoodans: "Hey, I don't actually want to murder/enslave you all, I'm just after Thaos! So chill out, and don't blow me up when I arrive, okay?" But nope, he thought saying nothing and instead raising an army and marching towards Defiance Bay as a mad conqueror was the smart way to handle the situation? Is this a huge plot hole, or am I missing something vital?

I think the center of the enemy's selection circle has to be inside the trap area for it to trigger.