Gorth

Yeah. I'm sure they would prefer that, but FIFA doesn't care. It's profitable. And the national FA's are bound to obey FIFA's directives or get excluded from international football in the future.

Thanks for the warning. I am mostly happy with my party. Not a cheesy or min-maxed party, but it generally seems to get the job done (it's only Normal difficulty after all). I did visit a place where I decided to throw the towel in the ring and need to rethink strategy. I can't remember the name from top of my head, but far NW on the map. A place full of cyborgs. They are manageable with things that ignores spell resistance and requires will saves (they have little to no will save). But their AC?... Could use some tip for best BAB boosting buffs (there the first buffs haven't worn off before the last buff has been cast). I don't know if the enemies have True Seeing, but they beeline for Nenio and Arueshnae (sp?) despite both have blur, displacement, improved invisibility etc. and whack them 3 rounds or less of combat). Confusion, various auras, laughter etc. buys me some time, but apart from my main character (with his rage and vivisectionist str. buff), bless, prayer, luck, etc. the other party members all need to roll 20 to hit. In my best attempt in a large circular room with 3 larger demons and 2 succubi, I killed the latter two and got one of the demons down to -115hp and the other to -40 (no kidding) with repeated coup-de-graces, yet they refuse to die (hit them with lightning bolts and arrows too, as that is listed as what removes their regen). Grrrr..... It wasn't made any easier by having a vanilla Woljif in the party, who was dead before even entering the room (and all out of diamonds for raise dead spells). I'll reload an auto save from before entering again and trying with a few different team members. As said, just curious if there is any "usual" or popular ways to boost those attack bonuses (Arueshnae also has a level of vivisectionist, which I use to boost her dex for ranged attacks)

I suppose it's part of Danish tradition to tell The Emperor, that his fashion (or lack of) sense sucks. Cf. Mohammad cartoons, falling out with China over human rights abuse in the 1990's (a fallout that never really recovered https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-04-16-mn-49192-story.html) and now mixing sport and politics https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63066393 Denmark will wear "toned down" shirts for the World Cup to protest against host Qatar's human rights record and its treatment of migrant workers. Kit provider Hummel has also designed a third, all-black kit, to represent the "colour of mourning". Hummel said it "does not wish to be visible" in a tournament it claims "has cost thousands of lives". ... Denmark's training kit sponsors will also withdraw their logos to give room for messages critical of Qatar. ... In short, nobody wants to be affiliated with the tournament in Qatar Official death toll of foreign workers is in the 30's. Unofficial (from the embassies of the countries of the migrant workers) adds up to 6500 deaths. A rather costly football project.

Lets face it. Iran needs a regime change. Currently as backwards and oppressive as the Saudis. A concern is if they end up with something like the Shah again... or a similar puppet dictator that is all about appeasing foreign investors at the cost of his own people, as that is what led to Khomeini in the first place.

I'm not a Bruce Springsteen fan (I don't dislike him, I just really don't know anything about him or his music), but the old man himself?... always worth a listen

Since @Katphood brought up the subject a few days ago... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63047363 The death tolls rising very fast in Tehran "The anti-government demonstrations have spread to more than 80 cities and towns across Iran since the funeral of Mahsa Amini on 17 September. The 22-year-old Kurdish woman from the north-western city of Saqez had been visiting the capital, Tehran, on 13 September when she was arrested by morality police officers for allegedly violating the strict law requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf. She collapsed after being taken to a detention centre to be "educated" and died in hospital following three days in a coma. The police said Ms Amini died after suffering sudden heart failure, but her family have dismissed that and alleged that she was beaten by officers." Official death toll according to state media 41, according to non state media 76

To be fair, it looks like it was something I brought upon myself. I had defeated him, then couldn't resist the temptation to mock and taunt him while he was down... I noticed that it earned me a "rare" achievement:

The Russian ministry of defense admits they made a rounding error somewhere... instead of mobilizing another 300000 men to send to the front, they accidentally rounded up 1000000 men to send to Ukraine soon. Hence the widespread dissatisfaction https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63036985 Edit: The Soviet army is calling from 1942 and wants its troops back!

Bulls eye! https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63039191 "Dart's camera returned an image per second, right up to the moment of impact with the target - a 160m-wide object called Dimorphos."

A detailed map of the fallout in Sweden that year... ...and they looked so radiant that year I'm sure night clubs everywhere would've have loved "glowberries" to put in the ****tails in those dimly lit locales

More or less cleared out the Ivory Sanctum. Sided with Jeri...something. First enemy you encounter. The one that doesn't like the Lord of Flies/Grasshoppers (the one whose name starts with 'X' and not, it's not Xvim, sorry, I really suck at remembering names from top of my head). Cleared out the sanctum. Got my self killed several times checking for alternative loot from the puzzle/trap combos (the notes gave hints to open doors, but when just randomly clicking, one of them revealed a chest, so I went back and face tanked all the explosives) Got some nice rings and stuff. Killed the grasshopper boss in a most frustrating fight. You get him down on his knees and ready to be decapacitated and... he gets back up at full health with all his summons while my party, the 5 survivors (barely, between 5 and 50 percent health), has to scrape by low on spells, health and used all their items ready in their belts. Ember was polymorphed into a canine, cowering on the floor while getting nibbled to death by swarms (since half of them seemed to beeline towards her), my mounts were dead, X guy had cast mass haste on his team and mass slow on my team, Seelah was dead, Sosiel died next, Arueshalae was clinging on to 2hp when I remembered I had a few resurrection scrolls. I somehow managed to get my succubus disengaged for one round and could in the next few rounds add scrolls of resurrection to her belt. Got Sosiel back up (who had both raise dead and resurrection spells, as well as Heal). In a rather haphazard way, I managed to patch enough party members up to kill the boss, after which some of the summons disappeared (not the grasshopper swarms). Then it was a fight of attrition. Lots of sleeping and healing afterwards. I did go back in and use the key to open up the door to the exit, but I forgot two things. Outside there was a ledge with a mobility check which I forgot and I forgot to go back the first boss and claim my reward in the form of information Luckily I have a teleport site not too many hours walk away... if I can reenter the sanctum that is.

You can go a bit further back than that if you want... it has been a country since 127bc, was an empire since 627ad and a theocracy since Dalai Llama I came to power in 1391ad. Some fragmentation and provinces seceding (and re-incorporated) up until 1642. The Qing Empire invaded in 1722 to help defeat a third party invader in collaboration with the Tibetan army. Thing is just, the Qing troops stayed after the Khanate was defeated. And that is China's justification for claiming Tibet (that they had invaded and occupied it previously). Hmm... this really belongs in the military or the politics thread, doesn't it?

@xzar_monty which is why modern armies have things like tour of duty, rules of engagement and seems to be generally better at the team building part too, so men at the front can mutually support each other (and then it all falls apart when they leave the army and their support network of people who share their experiences and know how they feel) Edit: The Russian army issues one way tickets to the front. You only return if either victorious or in a body bag. No breaks. The only thing missing from the Soviet era are the NKVD Commissars.

@Darkpriest Quoting the forum guidelines: Discrimination: Obsidian has a zero-tolerance policy with regard to racial, ethnic, gender, religious, disablement, and/or sexually discriminating remarks. Calling somebody a harlot for being female (regardless of how infuriating that person is) is crossing the line and I would recommend reconsidering the choice of words. Edit: Thread pruned. Let me know if I missed any pots on the subject?

The reason being an army made up of thugs, simpletons and general "rabble" armed with automatic weapons and cannons and led by corrupt, incompetent officers. The same mix that is is the reason for the callous brutality is also the same mix that prevented Russia from winning the war outright in the first 14 days of the war (which any even medium competent army would have done blindfolded and with their shoelaces used to tied their shoes together). Main difference in February was a) better quality material humans in the Ukrainian army and a lot of material support from the west. The Ukrainian army was not significantly better at the fighting part during the first days of the war. Motivation (defending your home vs. being conscripted and shipped off to a war at gunpoint) as well as a lot of new high tech toys that doesn't kill a crew even with a glancing hit does wonder for morale. Just about any other army than the Russian (with a similar size) would have marched up against the Polish border within a fortnight and asked the Europeans if they want fries with their LPG.

Yes First paragraph is a response to Xzars post (and the nature of the videos) and the second paragraph is me musing over the irony of Ukraine still being a country for the same reason a lot of the atrocities take place.

Your dad wasn't the only one

I've seen the second video (and no, it really doesn't belong on these forums, so thank you for not posting it ). It all leaves you with that feeling, that the bulk of the Russian army is made up of uneducated thugs led by slightly educated but rotten to the core, corrupt crooks. Hence why you get all the seemingly unnecessary cruelty and brutality. Those young men didn't want to be in a war but got issued a gun and shipped off to a war zone. No leadership or direction (militarily or ethically), so they take it out on anything. The Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian people and each other too. It's a two edged sword, because if they had been a well led and well motivated force, Ukraine would not have suffered a lot of the civilian casualties, but they would also long since have been part of the Russian Federation again (even with Russian obsolete, meme worthy hardware).

I'm *not* saying Putin is right (that wasn't the question). I'm saying "The West" is a bunch of hypocrites for not treating aggressors by the same measuring stick (and apply the same consequences). Edit: Added the 'not' because I hit submit before proof reading

No referendums in any of the cases.... a few links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_annexation_of_East_Jerusalem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights_Law (Trump being the only one recognizing the Israeli "de facto" annexation of part of Syria after military conquest) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Tibet_by_the_People's_Republic_of_China (to quote the wiki, China called it the "Peaceful Liberation of Tibet") My argument being, that Tibet being occupied by various Qin Emperors for a while is no more a legit reason for invading and occupying a country than the Russian attempt at doing the same because Ukraine was occupied by various Russian Czars in the past. The similarities are hard to overlook. The differences in response and sanctions are easy to overlook.

I think Israel and the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, muddles the whole UN and territorial integrity/legitimacy thing a bit, making it harder for the rest of the world to keep a straight face while making grand claims.... Edit: Last time I checked, the country of Tibet was still occupied wholesale by it's larger neighbour (after China invaded it in 1952) without a lot of the same, self-righteous countries doing much about it. Edit2: My way of saying some countries are acting rather hypocritical about the whole thing, applying different standards to different autocrats and their megalomaniac tendencies. Which means it's impossible to have any respect for statements or claims made by leaders of western countries until they get consistent in their support and condemnation of territorial transgressions.

i still haven't made up my mind if I want to keep the ring Daeran gave me or just sell it for the 15k... My main character doesn't really have room for it and he's the one with the boots of freedom of movement, because he's such a hero... well, a frothing at the mouth, lunatic barbarian and the largest damage dealer in the party to boot (pun unintended).

I think a remake of BG1+2 in the Unity Engine that OwlCat uses could be "viable" (from a gaming point, not necessarily from selling/commercial point).

Ahahhh! A recent acquisition indeed (it was driving me crazy). Thank you

It was a collaboration with a Brazilian activist (according to the Patreon supporter email I got)