Gorth

I seem to have messed up my Obsidian forum settings/view on my desktop pc (at least in FireFox). It works fine on my phone and my work laptop, so I know it's just a local thing on that browser/pc. The text font is *tiny* and black and effectively impossible to read on the default dark grey background. Anyone out there got any idea what I could have touched/clicked/changed ???

English translation: "He is guilty as hell, but we need their oil"

As a foreigner, I get the impression the US food industry puts copious quantities of corn syrup in *everything* (both food and drinks). Might explain why some things are described as "bland", if it tastes like everything else Trying to expand my horizon a bit when it comes to red wines. I've been a Shiraz fanboy for two decades (I love the strong, spicy flavour), but I'm sure there are other good grapes out there. I've just no idea which ones

Following advice, I changed to using greataxes for now. I can always (hopefully) switch back to greatsword later. Sadly my avatar no longer matches the portrait picture. I wonder if there is a way to use some of all those IWD1+2 portrait pictures (absolutely loved those). I'll have a to check what's required. I'm sure I saw a Portrait folder somewhere in the installation directory. Gave Finnean to Sosiel for now, as it was definitely an upgrade to his old, non enchanted glaive. Edit: It looks like most of my bonus damage was coming from sneak attacks anyway, rather than crits. I may have a word with Destna and Calistria, to see if either of them offers a better deal on RNG outcomes Edit2: I'm tempted to create a "branch" save, just to try out how my barbarian looks with that scythe I've been hanging on to for a long time. Probably either very comical or very cool. Maybe both. Probably something I'll keep in mind for a subsequent run (looking at the Lich path)

I still have a long way to go before I get to chapter 5. I'm only at the very beginning at chapter 3, haven't even left Drezen with my party yet, trying to figure out what the 3 councils do (the logistics council, the diplomatic council and the secret council... with their door inside the closet in my bed room. I wondered why they didn't just place the entrance in a rabbit hole under my bed Most of the writing I would call "Ok". Doesn't win any prizes, but is also not cringe worthy and I do more often than not actually read the books and notes I find (I suspect I'm so going to skip that part in my next game, but I do find them interesting enough to give at least one read). I do appreciate the odd humour in some of the writing. As for character writing... I'm no expert and I only just found the last two party members (there may be more, but the fallen succubus and Greybor the dwarven assassin were the last additions). Of the ones I spent time with, most are again Ok. Nothing that makes me think it's bad. Video game characters are a bit tricky to give personality I've understood. Daeran is Norman Bates (in that his mother was important to him, not necessarily cruel to him) and Camellia (the girl with the masked alignment) grew up in a fancy home and her own children's room was full of blood stains and torture implements, so I suspect she has some exotic hobbies, hence the "unimportant" amulet that masks her true alignment (I'm guessing something like chaotic evil with a penchant for tearing off the wings of fairies). For me, the two interesting ones so far were Regill as the over the top practical incarnation from PS:T and Ember, because she reminds (unfortunately) of a girl I knew in real life many years ago (she wasn't burned at the stake by a mob, but she got raped repeatedly by her father growing up, which leaves a similar kind of scars on the soul and her attitude is the spitting image of said girl, a very uncanny kind of recognition)

Speaking of Biden, he seems to think enough is enough and there is no reason for the US to become increasingly dependent on Chinese chip manufacturing https://www.bbc.com/news/62803224

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is 59% off on steam at the moment. Just not sure it's worth getting if you have all 3 games and their DLC's already?

Some classical music for a change...

@Gromnir I often go with "rule o' kewl" (heck, it's why my first character was inspired entirely by one of the portrait pictures, including weapon choice), but I'm also beset by a pathological curiosity, so would love to hear a few highlights. If just to get an idea of what exists (without spoiling too much by digging through some wiki page, which I presume exists). Stuff that I suppose I may discover some of, given enough time and play throughs, but alas, the curiosity that more than once landed me in hospital since childhood is ever present

To be honest, I was somewhat disappointed in the old Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. It was a pvp only game. No story, no "missions", no nothing. Just grinding and fighting pvp battles. I am biased though, as the thing I love the most about Games Workshops franchises is the lore of the setting(s). WAR also made the cardinal sin (for a pvp only game) of having a really bad combat system.

I think hellknights were carrying the fight for me in the first act... the basic footmen and the archer spent more time being resurrected and soaking up fire than dishing out any damage (except the archers getting the first salvo in). Just like HoM&M, the knights do considerably more damage the longer the travel distance before they hit (a knightly charge I suppose), making for some rather amusing encircling movements, when riding circles around already engaged enemy units before hitting them. Edit: Now trying to work out what to do on the crusade screen, beginning act iii. There is a little map where I can build buildings, lots of decisions pending and a lot to read through in the mission log. Some of the little incidents were quite amusing though. Diplomacy? What is it for?

The science of Economy is a bit like the science of Psychology with too many variables and unknowns

Continued from old thread: @Amentep do me a favour and rename this thread to something more sensible and movie related? You know that stuff way better than I do

This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend, the end Of our elaborate plans, the end Of everything that stands, the end No safety or surprise, the end I'll never look into your eyes again New thread here:

@Gromnir I'll keep an eye out for those locations tonight, when I get back to the game As for the advice, dang it, now you mention it, that was a weird one (it made me smile at the time). Somehow it completely slipped my mind after Drezen. Happy to take that advice.

I only just finished Act II, so no idea what is up next. Tonight I'm going to finish inspecting "New Drezen", read mission log updates, as well as going over and reviewing most party members builds. The latter alone looks like a job for an entire evening I'm actually quite happy with Sosiel (much to my surprise) on his angry boar at the moment, even though he still wields his old cold iron glaive. Nothing funny seems to drop for him there. I also haven't found any better greatswords than whatshisname the walking weapon I'm currently wielding. Visually nice with its frosty effects, but not overwhelming stat wise, I noticed one of the vendors now sell +3 greatswords, so I'm tempted to replace him. Alternatively change specs to focus on axes. Lots of better axes, including greataxes around. Regill on his raptor is probably the second hardest hitter in my team now, after my barbarian. Since I'm going to review his build later today, I gave him the mythic super charge ability when assigning points yesterday, just to try it out a few times and satisfy my curiosity. Seelah is doing... Ok on her horse. It's just that the horse seems to fail most saves and leaves her stuck in place, so she has to dismount and walk at slow pace towards the enemies. Succubus lady (because I can't for the death of me remember her name, much less spell it) seems to have same problem as Lann. Ranged just doesn't seem to do well when everyone and their pet is blurred, concealed, mirror imaged and displaced at the same time (or some such, it feels like that at times). So they miss 3 out of 3 shots most of time when not shooting low level support grunts. Even Camellia is doing better when she closes the distance to the enemies (and having cast a few preparatory spells boosting her survivability before combat. Not that there is always time for that, the way my chaotic guy charges through rooms at full speed Edit: No idea what the last dwarf in my party is about. We met, said hello and haven't as much as killed a single rat in a basement together yet....

Spent most of the evening, but... Drezen is now secured from demonic occupation. Way too many things happened to summarize. Met the architect (first disguised, later as her true self), fought a traitorous dwarf and his girlfriend, got forced to pick a mythic path (no path was not an option as far as I could see???), so picked trickster. Did save the game before making any choices though. Now running around and exploring my new base of operations. Got two new party members. A fallen demon and a dwarf that got hired for a dragon hunt. Way too much to catch up on reading in the mission log here past bed time. Tomorrow

Ah, figured out where to go next in Drezen... at least a bit further

Thank you If they don't respawn, I think I just have a bad habit of "cutting corners" that I somehow missed when going through areas first time (wouldn't surprised me if I regularly missed enemies at the limit of the fog of war areas). If they don't respawn, that would be a bit of a relief. As for resting... The corruption meter is indeed blanked out and the occasional load screen hint tells me it's dangerous because corruption (can do all kinds of nasty stuff to my stats etc.), although I suppose the warning is not specific for the difficulty, just a standard load screen blurb. Have kept resting to minimum, but the mini bosses just seems to leave my party a bit depleted at times... Will keep resting as little as possible Edit: I could have sworn those duos of Vrocks weren't there when I walked through those gates the first time. Will pay closer attention Edit2: Because I may previously have fought those close to the gates, but then climbed the walls to get to the other side... Edit3: Because assaulting castles with cavalry and having your horses, raptors, boars etc. using ladders is a thing Edit4: To be fair, only the horse (Iomedae) is a fully grown mount. Regills raptor (Raptus) is still too small as is Sosiels boar (Angus). The latter is hilarious, introducing me to the trip mechanic. Nothing like an evil sorcerer lying flat on his/her back because an ornery boar tripped them over

Almost cleared out the first map of Drezen. It sure doesn't hold your hand when comes to finding the sword of valour. Still no clue where it is and enemies seems to be respawning? Luckily I found a few spots where I can rest, even if it doesn't restore various permanent damages to my party. Ah well, Regill cracks the whip, I'm sure he'll make everyone up to the task once they've made enough crutches and stretchers for my party The GOG launcher gave me an achievement (don't remember the name) telling me I've kept all paths open. Guess I did something right somewhere I guess this afternoon is going to be me running all over the map, fighting baddies, trying to see what I missed that could lead me to completing the mission... (I did meet the queen and Irabeth etc. after starting the assault)

My first car was a rear wheel drive and the second was a front wheel drive. That sums up my history with cars. Always wondered what driving AWD feels like

I'm about to enter Drezen. Together with Regill or his Hellknights. No idea if that's better or worse than joining the full frontal assault with the masses. Regarding Nurah:

Made it to a place called Lost Chapel. My party slightly smaller due to plot stuff atm. Before that, I went to visit one hell of a hard hitting guy (pun semi intended). Called something along the lines of Pain Connoisseur (I don't remember his first name, we never really got formally introduced). Need a couple of tries to defeat the guy. No amount of defensive spells seemed to prevent him from killing one companion per round, unless running away very fast (and then he uses dimensional portal to catch up). He ignores grease etc. too. But... in the end, then winner of the day were the level 0 and 1 spells I noticed his spell resistance would shrug off anything my party could throw at him otherwise, so I just piled acid touch and acid arrow on him (ignores spell resistance). He downed all 6 party members and started doing unspeakable things with the corpses or some such, when the damage over time from the acid eventually did him and my otherwise defeated party started slowly getting back on their feet (because normal mode and its default settings allows them get up rather than bleed out or some such). Back to camp and rest, but I did get a very nice chainmail of comraderie (sp?) out of it edit: the game switched from turn based to real time when my last party member entered deaths door, so things happened very fast. I only know how he died from the combat log. Not the most elegant of victories, but I'll take it anyway

I did think it a bit funny, that I could equip Seelahs horse with potions. Including acid and fire for throwing at enemies. I just keep forgetting it though, because it's so un-intuitive. I'll take note of the outflanked ability. Did invest in dazzling display for a few characters (my main and Regill for now Iirc, will check the rest as I get to respec them). But I'll make a note of outflanked being a preferred feat, when leveling up to 8 Edit: I suspect Lann and Sosiel are up next for a visit to the camp trainer. It took me a bit to figure out that the raptors start as lizardlings and you can't use them as mounts at lower levels. It's still small, because it's only level 6 where the rest of the party is level 7 (and 6 is where it "grows up" to become medium and rideable for Regill)

Rather than restarting the game at this point, I admitted defeat to my curiosity and did a second respec of my main character. Current level is 7 and is now 4 levels of Barbarian - Instinctual Warrior and 3 levels of Alchemist - Vivisectionist. I changed Regill previously to have a level of Inquisitor - Beasthunter (I don't remember the exact archetype, but the one that gave him an animal companion). I actually respecced him a second time, but that was to respec his animal companion. I had first given it finesse in something it didn't have, only noticing later its attacks are Talon. Camellia got changed too. Mostly to make her ranged (keeping her class for now). All Rapier related skills replaced with longbow equivalents. Question for the panel, is composite longbow a longbow when picking feats or is its own class? I have a nice spare +2 composite longbow I would like to use without having to spend a lot of money at the vendor. I splurged the 30k+ gold for some fancy gimmick for Ember that allows her to cast more fire based spells that she couldn't cast before. Edit: That guy in the medic tent with all the scrolls and gadgets has some nice, but rather pricey stuff