Gorth

...and making the transfer of funds from wealthy, financially disciplined countries to corrupt governments more streamlined and efficient.

Somebody understands me I can relate, sort of. I know I'm throwing hissy fits and temper tantrums at the moment over it. Might or might not change my mind in a few weeks time (sub still runs for a month and a half) I do worry if they are going to add on top of what already feels like a "broken" leveling path though. There is a noticeable "bump" still around level 50, it isn't a smooth, transparent transition going from say, 45 to 55. Many reminders everywhere still that there is a level 1-50 game and a level 51-55 part tacked on to it. I wish they would have had some kind of "upgrade" path to never commendations. In PVP you have an exchange rate between WZ Commendations and Ranked WZ Commendations. It would be nice if they had offered something similar to those who has 1000's of classic commendations and nothing to use them for. E.g. allow people at level 55 to buy basic coms at exchange rate 5:1, elite coms at 15:1 or whatever less arbitrary number that would make sense. At least people who grinded stuff before RotHC would have a chance to get something for their work, rather than being left with their face in the mud... [dramatic voice]Why oh why [/dramatic voice] do they still have level 50 HM FP's? Some of those are great to play and quite "educational" mechanics wise (some nice insta-wipe pulls here and there to temper the occasional over eager mara/sent). Yet the rewards... Level 50 gear and classic commendations just isn't worth it. A nice one-off experience for the story elements. Re-balance them for L55 HM play. Force people play them all at least once to qualify for GF Ops. Speaking of assassins... I think our guild master is obsessed with them, he has no less than 3 L55 DPS assassins. My own 3 main characters are currently my old Powertech Tank, a DPS Juggernaut and Operative Healer. Sort of trying to be at least competent if not mastering all roles. Also got a L55 Assassin Tank, Shadow Tank, Gunslinger, DPS Commando, DPS Guardian, DPS Sorcerer and a Sniper (and a Jedi Guardian tank and Sage Balance/PVP Spec close to level 50), in various stages of gearing up, some in mix basic com/elite com gear and the sniper in a mix of elite and ultimate com gear. Just a wild guess, I can probably get them the same gear in 3-4 weeks now that it took me the previous 9-12 months to get them. Which is why i probably feel completely unreasonable and peevish at the moment

So... update 2.8 (i refuse to call it "patch", because that implies it fixes something) hit the street. Verdict? Entirely opinion based, but in the almost a year and a half I've been a subscriber, this is the worst I've seen. The thank you from Bioware for being an avid player, putting in a lot of long and hard hours getting characters geared up was rewarded with?... giving it away to everyone else for basically free. Thank you, thank you very much for such appreciation. Never mind the new bugs introduced, but removing the crafting materials from the fleet vendor now means, a number of schematics (still sold by the vendor who just dont have the materials anymore) means, forget about heroic space missions on future characters. Grade 7 upgrades not sold on CM and materials unavailable to craft those missing from the vendor selection. 16 Man ops in groupfinder... with bolster... just to ensure that no skill playing your class and no gear is needed to "qualify". Seriously?... You would have thought they had seen what happened when people leveled up through the now infamous "KDY Academy", which has become a meme all on it's own. Teaching every possible way to fail at "real" flashpoints. Throwing away Elite Coms and Ultimate Coms just for doing HM Flashpoints... I guess besides pissing in the face of older customers players, they with one brilliant stroke removed any incentive to run dailies and weeklies on the various planets. Oricon was getting a bit stale. No need to ever do it again. Nor makeb. Nor anyplace else for that matter. Expect queue times for DPS in groupfinder to explode. Good thing i got a couple of tanks (and only run with guildies). And yeah, the bugs. There was plenty to go around. All in all, a big thumbs down and it made the decision to abandon my subscription rather easy.

Remind me again, exactly why does the European Parliament exist? I remember for 20 years it used to be a practical solution for disgraced or semi-retired politicians, which could pull in favours owed and get sent to Bruxelles. The idea being, they could line their pockets and be out of sight at the same time.

A personal favourite of mine (Sofia Vergara).

Maybe devaluing isn't the right word, but "destroying it" is such a loaded, emotial word. It does remove a potential avenue of sale. The market reacts to it in typical market economy fashion. It's now heading towards everything being software as service. There will not be downloadable products in the future, just a few influential corporations offering online accounts, giving access to play on their servers. Same is slowly happening in the movie industry with the likes of netflix. A sign of tomorrows digital distribution market. In the case of gaming, it's the diversity and the prices that are going to suffer, because there will be fewer outlets offering competing products. Australia is a good example of what *could* happen, price fixing makes digitally distributed products between 50-100% more expensive (without any added cost of distribution) simply because of lack of competition (bless their little hearts at Gamersgate and GoG).

Lawful Neutral is so dull... (said the Chaotic Neutral guy). As for Gromnir... don't let the lack of skill points in diplomacy fool you. Just stay honest. Welcome to the squad TrueNeutral. it's a task that does indeed sometimes require two personalities, which needs to be kept separate.

Most likely dangling something attractive in front of their noses and having the audacity to charge money for it. I'm pretty sure that we both know very well how the music industry (as a very obvious example) has been treating both consumers as well as artists, in that light I can't help but feel that your interpretation of my words is rather disingenuous. I fail to to see anything "disingenuous" in that. Please explain exactly how the music industry is forcing people to take matters into their own hand then. The hyperbole used in the post referred to makes it impossible to take it serious.

Most likely dangling something attractive in front of their noses and having the audacity to charge money for it.

Somebody seriously needs to get a grip on themselves somewhere... Racist would be to call them clowns because of race. I don't see the cartoon doing that. I see it calling them clowns because of (sub)conscious choices done by the party members and their voters rather than genetics. If their first reaction is to try to put a foot down on free/opposition press, you are headed in a very bad direction. Bonus question: How *would* you draw a stereotypical South African? White, Black, Asian? MCA's stickmen?

Can't say I've ever heard the name before But: 1. Consider myself lucky that the cyclones, floods and bushfires usually don't happen in my area (and grab an umbrella if more than 200mm rain is coming down in one day and I have to get out). 2. Lament the loss of a good sportsbag. 3. Christmas tree... like those on postcards???

When you give the ebook to the next guy, do you delete it from all your devices? Otherwise it sounds very much like copy infringement if you copy the ebook, keep a copy for yourself and pass the copy onto someone else. Pretty much this. As implied in the word "copyright", it's who has the right to make copies of his/her work. If you lend somebody a paperback book, you are not copying it (i.e. a new paperback book doesn't pop out of thin air so you both have one). No idea how ebooks work, but if creating multiple copies of the product, you are entering copyright infringement territory. If you were to give the other guy the actual physical device the ebook resides on, so you don't have it anymore yourself... I guess you could argue you didn't copy it, but actually lend the one and only copy to somebody else.

Oh, yeah. Didn't read it properly. Oops So effectively add an extra user to the server that is the "jukebox"?

Moved to gaming section, as gamers are more likely to use for teamspeak I've used it myself every now and then (as well as raidcall). Teamspeak 3 has app specific settings for audio devices, so you can select sound and sound recording device independently of your windows settings. In short, I use my usb audio device (an external amplifier gadget) for headset and mic, standard soundcard for speakers, so I can get speech in my headset and game sound in the speakers.

Now I start feeling like some cheap "Made in China" replica of the real thing... Whatever happened to good old craftmanship and creativity in your creation?

Dinosaurs are so yesteryear... I liked the first movie though. saw it in the cinema. Great entertainment. Sat through the second one when it was shown in "free tv" (what ever commercial financed tv is called in your part of the world) and found the commercials better than the movie. Saw first half of the third movie, switched to football during a commercial break and didn't get back to it. The fourth movie will have to present a pretty convincing case.

I thought you South Africans were out in the bush, wrestling wildebeests and zebras to the ground, snapping their necks, then dragging them off and frying them over big bonfires... at least that's what a South African friend of mine tried to convince me of The Biltong isn't so bad though, i think I could get used to that

Just bought "Warlock 2: The Exiled" from steam. Time for some turn based strategy goodness soon.

Yeah, this thread is in dire need of an update

Splitting my time between "oldies" (Warlock - Master of the Arcane, Watchmen - The End is Nigh and a few others) and then SWTOR and Wildstar Beta, the latter being open for this week, it even had my characters from the previous open beta which I managed to grab a key for (thanks Gromnir). They did announce that current characters would be gone next time though.

Just curious if any 4X geeks out there has played this one The Last Federation If so, I would love to hear some opinions on it. Nothing has really, truly managed to fill the void that Moo2 left behind (thank goodness for dosbox).

Thanks for sharing decado. Reading now...

Gorthfucius !!!! Where have you been, it seems like ages since I read one of your erudite and omnipotent posts Just keeping a low profile... Lurking a lot, but not playing a wide variety of games at the moment and only a cursory interest in remote world events (and local events being rather yawn inducing), simply haven't had much of value to add to discussions. I know silence is golden, but sadly the world market hasn't put a dollar per ounce price on it yet.

I was lazy yesterday. Left some steak in some marinade in the fridge for a few hours and tossed it on the BBQ. Put some potatoes in the Microwave and 10 minutes later, dinner was ready. Add a bit of butter and garlic salt to "baked" potatoes.

Done and gone Thanks guys for still putting work into this.