213374U

Yeah, I remember reading that one of the two swtor.exe processes the game runs simultaneously is actually an instance of something called "Awesomium" (yeah), a Chromium-derived framework that provides browser-like capabilities for applications. In SWTOR's case, the UI. Awesomium has actually been discontinued by its developers and I couldn't even find when it was last updated. Heh. Barring the newest two instances, Storymode ops are completely brain-dead now -- after 4.0 was rolled out, any checks (including mechanics) are trivial. Which is a good thing for the reasons you stated, and the HM and NiM difficulties are still there for players looking for a little extra engagement. The last few posts also evidence one sad fact: there's also the fantastic Galactic Starfighter, which predates Squadrons by about 7 years and which no one seems to ever remember because a) it's essentially decoupled from the rest of the game, and b) it has objectively received the least amount of content, updates or promotion of any game mode in SWTOR.

Endgame content in the game even now is pretty much standard fare for the genre, as well -- either raiding or 4v4 ranked PVP. If you aren't into either, once you are done with story content, the game holds little for you because "Conquest" or the new battle pass aren't content, just strategies to keep players busy grinding the Tatooine heroics 32456624 more times. Which is a bit weird because people are going to be dragged in because of story, but then find an endgame that is completely different. It's not a bad endgame either, just not what people looking for a story-driven experience would be after, I think.

The game's engine is its biggest problem currently. Things like nameplates causing the framerate to tank (as with flytext, it's almost mandatory to disable them in 16m instances) preclude features such as speech bubbles which are common in MMOs and a long time request from SWTOR players. Desyncs keep getting worse, as do deaths by map. I suspect even the current dev team don't really know how to fix it as evidenced by several failed attempts. In KOTFE/ET, you are the companion. The player is a secondary actor in the Valkorion family soap opera. For that and other reasons it's regarded by many as a low point in the game, and I'm just happy that you can skip it and go straight to... whatever comes next. In all fairness though, the game has had a few graphical improvements over the years so it's now objectively prettier than it was when you quit.

And this is why I avoid this thread. See y'all in six months.

1890 called. They want their horse-and-sparrow theory back. They said to keep the tired references to Venezuela, though.

I wasn't quite sure where to post this, so I guess I'll just dump it here. 'World of Darkness' Role-Playing Game Headed to Film, TV with 'Arrival' Screenwriter Eric Heisserer

Don't they? There is a section dedicated to the discussion of the importance of respiratory jets, which aren't an issue beyond close-range (<2m) interactions: "We note that the use of face masks will have a marked effect on respiratory jets, with the fluxes of both exhaled pathogen and momentum being reduced substantially at their source. Indeed, Chen et al. (42) note that, when masks are worn, the primary respiratory flow may be described in terms of a rising thermal plume, which is of significantly less risk to neighbors. With a population of individuals wearing face masks, the risk posed by respiratory jets will thus be largely eliminated, while that of the well-mixed ambient will remain." According to the study, closed, ventilated spaces become "well-mixed", resulting in an homogeneous dispersal of particles which are then filtered out or inhaled. The study then gives an estimate of how long it would be safe to remain in such a space, depending on several factors which are parameterized. Interestingly: "Our analysis sounds the alarm for elderly homes and long-term care facilities, which account for a large fraction of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths (86⇓–88). In nursing homes in New York City, law requires a maximum occupancy of three and recommends a minimum area of 80 ft2 per person. In Fig. 3B, we plot the guideline for a tolerance of ϵ=0.01 transmission probability, chosen to reflect the vulnerability of the community. Once again, the effect of ventilation is striking. For natural ventilation (0.34 ACH), the Six-Foot Rule fails after only 3 min under quasi-steady conditions, or after 17 min for the transient response to the arrival of an infected person, in which case the Fifteen-Minute Rule is only marginally safe." So from what I gather, the issue is that the 6' rule just isn't an adequate measure for safety. As it so often happens, it's a tad more complicated.

Mathematical models from mathematicians, including the infamous Imperial College black box model (which, unlike the study in question, was never submitted for peer review) have been hailed as "SCIENCE!!1" ‑and more importantly, used as a basis for policy‑ for more than a year now. The >6' limit certainly does have a significance when establishing maximum occupancy limits, for example. The six-foot rule dates back to 1940s research that didn't account for masks or air circulation, as well. The implication is that small droplets are driving spread when people wear masks and so physical distancing isn't as important as exposure time, for instance. I don't know, simply hand-waving one study away as just "mathematicians doing math" strikes me as... selective, given the course of the discussion, and more generally, the weight given to mathematical models in science as a whole. As always, more research is needed, and I wouldn't consider one study the end-all be-all. But I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand either.

"Hard lock"?

Yeah, it's kind of against my religion to play unfinished products, be they release versions or otherwise. I will buy it at some point, though. I really liked AoD and from what I've seen I'll enjoy CS. That being said, AoD was rather janky and I have little doubt that CS will greatly benefit from some polish after it's content-complete. So yeah, I'll wait. The Steam review snippet seems like your run of the mill hater, though, complete with RPG vet "credentials" and all. I think I must have seen 95%+ of AoD's content throughout several runs. You only had to game the system like that if you wanted to play the typical power fantasy self-insert who could do everything and succeed at anything. I had no problem murdering whoever and channeling my inner Leonidas at totally not the Thermopylae when I built my character for combat and joined the Imperial Guards. The converse was true when I went the loremaster route, where at times it felt like I was at risk of dying to a paper cut or something. The designer seems to have a serious mad-on for the munchkin playstyle so they intentionally made it infuriatingly hard to play a jack-of-all-trades. Interestingly, the secret ending requires one such build, but it's not worth the effort in my opionion because, essentially, you need to stick to a pre-planned path or guide and that takes all the fun out of it.

He's our bastard.

Iron Tower Studio's Colony Ship is now in Early Access.

Techland Dying Light 2 Q&A (barely worth reading tbh, no definite answers to important questions, but a few interesting technical tidbits)

Some of those videos are pure gold. The one where he deletes the internet had me laughing my head off. He does put a ton of hours into each game he 'breaks' though. ... Now that it's been reasonably polished (and discounted), I finally got around to playing Wasteland 3 with a friend. I'm having fun so far and liking the systems -- it's rewarding to have non-combat skills be almost on par with combat ones in usefulness, and the perks are distinct and interesting for the most part. The story is kinda meh, but not Bioware-level meh. So the odds are good that I'll finish it at least...

Hold up. Is this "science" now?

Well, it's not so much a 'selective approach' as it is just people seeing the thread and having an answer to give. Forum moderators such as myself aren't affiliated with Obsidian so we cannot provide inside information -- in this particular case I simply remembered having seen the news I posted. The tech support forums are more a self-help resource for players to help each other out than a way to bring issues to the attention of the developers.

There's still a lot of unanswered questions regarding that one, though. Especially concerning the apartment block bombings (cf. Litvinenko) that sparked the 2nd Chechen War, which in turn enabled Putin's success in his bid for the presidency. And even the most cursory reading of Soviet history should make anyone shudder at the suggestion of Russia "taking inspiration from the USSR".

As best I can tell, the ranger pet issue is one that was left unfixed when Versus Evil, the Switch port's publisher, stated that they would not be releasing any further patches. Sorry.

I don't believe I can clarify anything with that sentence -- that's literally the reason used by publishers 100% of the time when they deign answer the question why a game isn't translated to a specific language. I mean, feel free to keep thinking it's a political matter, but there isn't much support for that hypothesis when games (including Grounded) are translated to Russian and Chinese, for instance. None of this means you should stop asking for a translation, of course. Fan translations are better than nothing I guess, but I am personally not a fan of those -it's kinda sleazy for a company to reap profits from the work of unpaid volunteers so obviously right up Valve's alley- and I say this as someone who has contributed to fan translations in the past. You do you.

I doubt it has anything to do with politics. Localization is expensive and the decision is likely made by the publisher on a cost/expected return basis. In many cases, it's added as development progresses or even after release. Still, I've been in your shoes more than once, and it really sucks when people you know are turned away from a game you'd like to play with them because it isn't localized. For those of us who aren't native English speakers this is always an uphill battle. Good luck with your petition.

And I bet you also thought that the military being subordinate to civilian authority was like, democracy 101. Heh, sucker. also, ITT: financial types wax clausewitzian on "the nature of war" lmao

Yeah, but leaving aside the fact that that's a point no one has made (yet), that's the difference between ancient and recent history. Discrimination of sexual minorities in US academia didn't happen 2,500 years ago and enslaving each other is no longer an accepted form of dispute resolution in present-day Greece. As for the skeletons, perhaps the process of name selection needs to be re-evaluated if that's really the outcome that you keep getting. Because the alternative is a more critical examination of -recent- US history, and every time someone proposes that, orange man gets one vote.

Not really applicable though. Many of the people affected by what's discussed in the SciAm piece are likely still alive today and remember what happened. And to a degree it seems to be happening still even if it's no longer official policy. It's not really "canceling" either -- banning speakers from events and SM is one thing, but I don't think there's anything in the Constitution that protects an individual's right to have a space telescope named after them. Seriously, I don't think it's such a big deal. Is there a dearth of brilliant people with untarnished legacies to pick from?

Live service generally entails a server-based architecture where your progress isn't stored locally. You must connect to the network to have access not only to the regular new contents and updates that are supposedly the upside of a live service, but simply to access your stuff and play the game. That's different from a DRM scheme like Denuvo which may need to dial home, even though the authentication mechanisms in live services do double as a form of DRM. Fundamentally you can strip or sidestep a DRM layer to get the game to work, but there's no way around a live service's servers shutting down.