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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.

Yes of course. How did I forget Judo? Grappling is one hell of a full-body workout, and most importantly, it's fun. I wonder if Greco-Roman wrestling is a thing over there? What with being Greece and all...

IMO, much like Crossfit, Krav Maga is a fad. If you are looking to take up martial arts for the exercise, I'd recommend the classics, such as Karate or Tae Kwon Do. Maybe boxing if you're up for it. That way when the fad for "hardc0re" stuff like MMA goes away, you won't find yourself out of a place to train. And from my experience with self-defence stuff, you won't really get a good workout out of each session. Self-defence is more a judgment thing first, and muscle memory second. Otherwise, just go Woldan and start picking up heavy stuff and putting it down. Hard to go wrong, and iron gyms are a dime a dozen. Just my $.02...

My bad. What I meant (and what Alanschu posted a few years back IIRC) is that from a content amount standpoint, the game was KotOR 3-5, not necessarily that the storyline picked up where K2 ended. I agree with the rest of your post. I didn't know it was Karpyshyn who wrote the JK storyline, but judging from the general poor press the Revan novel(s) -which I haven't read- have got, I guess I understand why it's the story I liked least. BTW, Hurlshot is a long time SWTOR player from what I've read, I'm guessing he's familiar with The Foundry/Maelstrom Prison and SoR plotlines.

She flipped out before or after you fixed the problem? I've found that if you can get a word in edgewise early in the torrent of verbal abuse and explain the solution, people usually calm down. Then again, some people become even more inflamed at "interruptions". Heh. Back when I worked as a travel agent, I wrongly charged this charming Brazilian lady several thousand €... and failed to issue any tickets while at it. Stupid Amadeus won't let you issue tickets unless the correct amount is charged, down to the cent. I had to make a second (correct) charge to get a useable payment order to issue her tickets. I was both scared ****less and baffled that she seemed much less preoccupied about the money than she was about making sure her seats were guaranteed. The original payment order wasn't confirmed so she was automatically refunded, eventually. That said, I much prefer dealing with the odd double charge than having to constantly demand that customers pay up after the service is booked and confirmed.

Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath for housing prices to come crashing down spectacularly in the event of a bubble bursting. We had that over here, and a lot of people had banks foreclosing on their mortgages. You'd think that would mean cheaper houses, right? Think again. Mother****ers just sat on a lot of empty houses precisely to avoid a significant decrease in prices, only auctioning a fraction while they waited for the market to recover. And if it didn't and they ran out of time/money, who cares, they'd get bailed out anyway. Free market my ass. Of course that was here and this is there so the experience might be different, but "too-big-to-fail" wasn't coined in Europe.

I'm just going to comment on this real quick as others have already covered the other questions enough. Pathfinding is functionally the same, but I've experienced something that I don't remember being an issue present in the originals: when a creature cannot find a path (Iron Golems not fitting through doorways, Carrion Crawlers not being able to cross a stream) the game will often start lagging. BG2EE retains the original cutscenes, btw.

Catharine, huh? The handle sounds familiar. I think I may have run into you, or thought you were insane due to your GTN asking prices, or something... Will drop you a line if I reactivate my sub (which I'll probably do to check the expansion out, maybe sooner).

There is no irony. It's deliberate on his part and it's not new either. He's playing you like a fiddle. Don't bother.

It's my understanding that they still have the 12x Class Story XP bonus thing going for subscribers? At least until the expansion is released, too. You can avoid all sidequests thanks to that... avoiding trash mobs populating the instances is another thing, though. After leveling an Operative and a Shadow, I don't think I could go back to non-stealth classes.

You can disable that by flipping the corresponding option in baldur.ini from "1" to "0". Not sure if it's anywhere in the options menu though. (I hate that **** too btw)

Don't you usually roll a custom party anyways? I think the VA on new companions is pretty poor and mod-quality myself. Well, as with the rest of BD content, it's hit-and-miss. Dorn is good, Neera is bad. So, so bad. And so annoying I've actually developed a newfound appreciation for Jaheira. Baeloth is pretty good. Rasaad is so-so. Then again, Rasaad and Baeloth are both Mark Meer, so I'd be surprised if he suddenly couldn't do VA. Unless you mean the actual quality of the recording, as in, it sounds as if I had recorded them with my webcam mic, in which case I tend to agree. The only thing that no mod has come close to in terms of added content quality are the new areas. And those still feel different for some reason I can't quite put a finger on. Color palette maybe? They are bringing back "some" of the original cast, so it'll be interesting to see if it's a matter of VA direction or what.