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They couldn't — unlike sexual orientation, those are protected classes and the lawyers would fall on them like a ton of bricks.

I don't know about PoE (I logged about 6h on it before I got bored), but in the BG2 engine, there's a lot of auto-pause options (on spell cast, on round end, etc) that most people overlook. I won't say that effectively managing a 6-man group without it is impossible, but it's something I certainly wouldn't be able to do. Without auto-pause, I'd agree with you. With, I actually prefer RTwP... In other news, I encountered another really weird bug with one of the vendors making references to a run I didn't go on, while standing right next to a replacement for said vendor that talks as though the vendor was gone... dafuq.

Yeah, I take it you didn't upgrade her Mark ability. For the time being, it's bugged, and choosing the lower option on her Lv3 upgrade makes the ability disappear altogether. Bah. (other than that, I haven't encountered any serious issues)

Looks like I was wrong. You don't need to defeat all the numeric combination locks, just the first one. After that, you can click on "next" and it takes you straight to the symbol sequence guessing part. Beating that just once clears the hacking minigame. The numeric combinations seem to have no purpose other than earning you extra time for the second part. For easy locks (4-5 symbols), 30 seconds is more than enough and doing the 8 numeric sequences is kinda pointless, unless you want to practice for tougher instances.

Yeah, I don't know about fake "Russians", but I can confirm that beaches along the Mediterranean coast are chock full of "actual" Russians. Don't much look like the ones in that vid though.

Okay, maybe I'm not understanding what you mean right. Let's see: the symbol thing is a way to sidestep a *single* numeric combination lock, of which there are 8 (I think) of increasing difficulty that you need to beat to win the game. You don't need to guess the symbols for each lock, only for those you don't want to/cant beat by remembering the numbers. You are indeed supposed to click on the row of symbols you think is the correct one judging from the hints. I usually take the plunge once I have located a row that has 3 symbols matched.

Too early to really tell, but the 2 I picked (Shadowrunner and Academic) have already given me a couple conversation options so far. Academic/Corp drone here. Academic for a lot of flavor talk, but no actual rewards. I haven't seen a single Corp check yet. Gang/Shadowrunner seem to be used fairly frequently. Good thing they rolled Street into Gang. I'm debating whether to get Security or Gang for third. Huge row? I've only seen four symbols. What difficulty is the lock? From what I've seen, I think it goes like this: completing each numeric sequence earns you extra time. I do the combination thing until the last lock (can't for the life of me memorize 8 numbers) and then use the bonus time I've accumulated to guess the symbols. Doesn't work so well if you can't beat the first 6-7 locks quickly, as you will actually have *less* time left than when you started, and the timer counts down much faster during the symbol phase.

Haha, sorry. I'm usually the one learning about deals from folks here, not the other way around. GOG is my go-to option, I assumed you had checked there before committing. In other news, I officially suck at hacking. How hard can it be to remember a short number sequence? (loving the Matrix revamp so far) I usually go with a street sam in first playthoughs, but seeing how there are two NPCs with that archetype and again they neglected the pure caster option*, I made an elf mage instead. Elves > you.

What the hell. You can't name your character after an obscure toy line? I had to look it up. Maybe it's big in the US but not so much elsewhere? In DDO I named one of my characters after a somewhat famous footballer. Two years later, I was forced to change names, as apparently someone had reported it as offensive (Reds fan?) and the GMs agreed. Pfft. All my characters save for 1 or 2 have variations of the same name. Which was a bit of trouble back then before the legacy bank, or when I have to mail money to an alt. Yeah...

If you liked The Dead Man's Switch, you'll love Dragonfall. The whole series is on GOG at the same price as non-preorder SR:HK. Where did you pick it up and didn't they have a bundle deal that's cheaper?

I disagree! (and no, I'm not doing it to bait you into a long-drawn e-debate ) People IRL may be more willing to concede a point, but odds are they are still clinging to it internally and simply aren't comfortable continuing with heated discussion that may jeopardize a relationship or one that requires them to examine deeply held beliefs. On the internets people are simply less willing to back down, as a result of anonimity and little risk of escalation. Most of the time, people don't base their opinion on X on a ton of meta-analyses they have read on the matter, and the most cutting edge research on the topic. Instead, cultural/social prejudice and quick jugments make up a majority of the stuff we believe. The alternative, living in constant uncertainty about everything, is impractical, uncomfortable, and unnecessary to perpetuate the species. I think it's also somewhat arrogant to expect people's beliefs to be turned upside down simply because you told them how wrong they are — you're no Jesus Christ (and even for him it didn't work out so well...). As for eating crow, I used to be a Reaganite. There, I said it.

So I finished my BGEE run with an evil party. Man, I had forgotten how contrived the writing is in that game, at some points. Reputation 1 and Flaming Fist hit-squads literally waiting for you behind every corner? Who cares, Scar and Eltan are more than happy to commission you to carry out this mission of critical importance for the city of Baldur's Gate, while making it clear that the Flaming Fist rank and file will still try to kill you on sight. Refuse to kill Rieltar in Candlekeep? It doesn't matter, and there are no consequences if you actually kill them. Bah. The final battle was sort of underwhelming too, even with Stratagems enhancements. Drinking one of each potion available (and after Durlag's, I have more than enough of anything) + arrows of dispelling = dead Sarevok in under 5'. Funny because if you don't do that, *you* get creamed in much less than 5'. "Balanced gameplay" just wasn't in the dictionary back then. Just started BG2EE, and I'm taking Hexxat along, as it's either her or Jan Jansen for thievery. Jan just doesn't fit in an evil party, IMO. Vanilla Hexxat is really lame for a vampire, and some of her abilities are bugged to boot, so I'm using Weimer's Valen as a basis to tweak her. I'm giving her Valen's level draining claws, but I'm editing them to have a 0x backstab modifier and be two-handed weapon to stop the temptation to try dual wielding shenanigans. I was thinking of also making them force APR to 1, but enemy vampires aren't subject to that restriction. Valen's armor makes her immune to healing spells, and I'm also editing in a specific inability to use healing potions, which I suspect will stop working when I take Use Any Item as a high-level ability. She'll be restricted to her natural regeneration abilities only. Weimer's scripting also gives certain clerics Protection from Undead scrolls and I've seen them cast Sunray, False dawn and Repulse Undead, though this may be owing to "Smarter Clerics" from Stratagems. At this point I'm starting to have more fun fiddling around with files than actually playing the game...

I actually liked Kaliyo. And SCORPIO even more. Must have a thing for bat**** insane ladies. That would explain a few things... The IA story was ok, but I kinda expected more after hearing how great it was from everyone.

Nope, you are actually on to something. Gravity and, more specifically, tidal forces, are a mechanism through which systems of celestial bodies lose energy over time. For instance, due to the tides caused on Earth by the Moon, the length of Earth days is increasing, and the orbit of the Moon is being boosted. Friction between the surface of the Earth and the mass of water being constantly displaced by the gravity of the Moon is causing Earth's angular momentum to decrease, the difference in energy being dispersed as heat. These effects operate over astronomical periods, so even if you're right in that it cannot be an example of true perpetual motion, in human scales, it may as well be. Another, more exotic example is the slowdown of pulsars. Pulsars are the super dense cores of stars that have exploded in a supernova. Owing to the conservation of angular momentum, they spin much more rapidly than their progenitor stars did (the ice skater that spins in place with arms wide open and then pulls its limbs towards the body gaining rotational speed is an apt analogy). Neutron stars have a powerful magnetic field that, due to the rapid rotation (as fast as 1/4 of the speed of light on its surface), generates an electrical field that excites protons and electrons present on the pulsar. These, in turn, release electromagnetic radiation along the poles of the magnetic field, resulting in the emmissions we receive. This process eventually slows down the rotation of pulsars until they no longer "broadcast".

Funny perhaps, but no less true for it. Darth Bane, Nihilus, Marka Ragnos, Traya, the Dread Masters, Malgus etc. They are all supposedly "Sith" when all they have in common is that they are threats for the good guys to rally against, and they use "the Force". You don't think that's how expanding a franchise should work? Take it up with Lucasfilm, they vetted the character concepts before greenlighting the projects they were a part of. The sort of "my villain is more cool than your villain" one-upmanship that has been going on in the SW EU for years is only partly to blame — the fact that a lot of terrible authors have been allowed to work on SW is no less a factor, I think, as their inability to write distinct, interesting characters in their own right without giving them some new and cool power to separate them from generic villain #654714 has resulted in the Sith zoo we had before Disney wiped the slate clean. Ironically, Obs is also guilty of this: they came up with Nihilus for whatever reasons, and they effectively set a new standard for galactic threat that was immediately copied and expanded upon by Bioware ("no one's villains are more epic than our own" seems to be their motto these days). Kreia was an infinitely more interesting character, but she didn't have any particularly revolutionary gimmicks, so **** that lol, right?

130 lbs in 18 months? And putting on muscle at the same time? And you still ain't happy? **** man, you seriously deserve that Cap'n America shirt. Huge kudos.

I don't understand what you mean, unless what you're saying is that the "the point" is "don't write internally consistent characters, don't explore the logical implications of central themes, don't think". So, either The Brothers Karamazov or Spongebob Squarepants, right?

So, expansion gameplay trailer. Also, free ****.

A few veiled hints by Mr Avellone on the aforementioned RPG Codex: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/questions-for-chris-avellone-radio-interview-now-updated-with-additional-answers-from-mca.101510/page-5 Halfway down the page, using the Durance avatar. Neat, thanks for that!

I'm less concerned about certain forms of expression being banned than I am about certain topics being unacceptable. Let's take your Hitler example. Essentially, all posts containing the same old "international Jewry" references are a subtler form of "Hitler was right", even though Hitler didn't invent anti-semitism. We've had quite a few of those, and I'm betting it's easy to post a holocaust denial topic under the guise of "historical review" without the mod squad getting their collective pants in a bunch, at first anyway. Further, there's also the huge issue of consistency. A thread about how cool the Nazi leadership was would probably get insta-punted, but for years we had a certain user repeatedly expound the marvels of socialism as embodied in the Soviet Union, including mocking remarks about Katyn. It's probably no big deal either to post about the Armenian genocide with a pro-Turkish slant because it's a topic we're much less sensitive about than Nazism. I myself got into trouble with mods here for fooling around with non-Nazi swastikas that some other user had found deeply offensive, for some reason. Arbitrary application of rules and standards being all over the place is never a good thing. So, yeah. I'm thankful I don't have to decide where to draw the proverbial line in the sand, but if asked, "offense" wouldn't even be a factor. Personal threats and openly calling for the death of people, possibly. That doesn't mean I don't agree with you on the KKKodex — I read the site from time to time but I can't find it in me to participate in the perpetual contest of edginess they have going on in there.

No, I'd say Obs got the Sith and the Force just fine. The problem lies with Star Wars having rather flimsy and poorly defined foundations — it works great for juvenile space operas, but it starts falling apart when one tries to scrutinize the premises of the setting. Throw in a thousand different authors across radically different media and you have the royal mess that is SW (or was before Disney nuked everything, anyway). The Sith are about power. There is nothing else of concern, and the way they grow powerful in the Force is through channeling unrestrained emotion. MCA simply took this to the extreme. As a result, the Sith in K2 are more akin to a force of nature than to the archetypical evils we're used to encountering in games. Their motives and actions are alien because they have shed what made them individuals. They are extremely one-dimensional by design. They don't conform to Sith tradition because Sith tradition is whatever the author du jour determines it to be — and yet they are essentially Sith: their power is everything to them, quite literally in the case of Nihilus. Was MCA subtly mocking the SW mythos? Your guess is as good as mine. We'll never know what Obs intended for the True Sith, because they never had the chance to make K3. Instead, Bioware built their own "True Sith" empire in a much more conventional way, so while it's valid criticism, it's a criticism of Bioware's vision, not Obsidian's.

LOL A pity that the Kickstarter failed, though. Would have been hysterical by the looks of it.

I take it you're not buying the story that he got the nickname for his scientific education then? Yeah, 70's bodybuilders were on gear too. Ahnuld's even admitted to it, somewhat. Not necessarily all of them were, or all the time, though, unlike now. Many present day natural bodybuilders have physiques comparable to Zane's. Back then it was still possible to prevent the competition from being decided in a lab. Too late for that now.

That's not the case as far as I'm aware. "No compelling scientific evidence indicates that specific modes of arduous physical activity and training damage a healthy heart." - McArdle, Katch & Katch： Exercise Physiology, 7th ed. Lippincott Wiliams & Wilkins, 2007, p.463 While extremely strenuous bouts of training may lead to acute heart failure, it seems damage to the heart from chronic overtraining isn't documented by evidence. On the other hand, we know that chronic (ab)use of anabolic steroids is harmful in general, and in particular for the heart. But really, even putting aside the clear deleterious effects of PEDs on the health of athletes, just a quick comparison between 70's and 00's top level bodybuilders should be all the evidence anyone needs to make a case against allowing walking pharmacies to dominate a sport. And once it starts happening, reversing course is extremely difficult, because all competitive athletes will be forced into using, as sponsorships depend on performance. How any of this relates to esports, however, I have no idea, but don't underestimate the ability of people to find ways to gain unfair advantages through unintended effects of chemical substances...

Yeah, I stopped trying to queue as DPS after capping my mara. The only other pure DPS character I have (slinger), I never bothered queuing up with. Other than that, I always carried two sets of gear to be able to perform as tank -insta-pop 95% of the time- or heals in group content. Field respec is best unlock evar.