kanisatha

Hey thanks for posting these, specifically for me the last video on powergaming. I very much agree with everything JES had to say in it. It's a lot of the same critiques I have of DnD systems and how RPGs, including very much BG3, push us towards powergaming rather than roleplaying. I especially loved that he outed DnD for what it truly is: a war game more so than a roleplaying game.

Sorry, wasn't intending to cause a kerfuffle. I love PoE mechanics and can't stand D&D mechanics. Just my two cents. And I completely agree with the sentiment of "different strokes for different folks." That said, I do feel strongly that there is a problem, in that people generally, and ironically gamers especially, are very resistent to change. Therefore, a mechanics system that's been around for ~40 years is ingrained in a lot of gamers regardless of its merits/lack there of, and many of those same gamers won't give a new system a fair chance. Thus, for better or worse, we're stuck with the old way of doing things and with no equivalent alternatives ('equivalent' being operative here for me because shallow, superficial systems like the D:OS system don't count).

Yeah this has been my own assessment as well, because I believe the Russsians actually going on the offensive recently in the Kar'kiv and Donetsk regions is their desperate attempt to draw Ukrainian forces away from the southern front.

More sterile and less fun than D&D gameplay? That's saying a lot to me because I consider D&D gameplay mechanics to be the worst. And by contrast I love the PoE mechanics, especially all the passive abilities, no pre-buffing, and the downgrading of random chance.

Yeah the massive pre-buffing needed for many encounters is what got me also choosing the 'drop difficulty all the way down' option instead. But playing Angel, there are several Angel spells whereby with one click you cast multiple buffs on the whole party. I've been using those spells a lot. My only complaint there is that 'Death Ward' is not available in a 'communal' form anywhere. What gives? That is the most useful buff of all, yet no party-cast version of it? Really sucks.

Yes. And that's why they're being cleared for export, as massive amounts of Russian mining in their frontline areas is what is accounting for 90% of Ukrainian hardship in advancing into those areas. Russian troops are no obstacle; those mines are a huge obstacle. Also, not all cluster munitions are the same. US cluster munitions, as employed in ATACMS and cruise missiles, are very advanced compared with Russian cluster munitions, and include auto-deactivation whereby they deactivate themselves after they've been sitting around undetonated on the ground for a little while.

Biden green-lighting new F-16s for Turkey in the face of congressional opposition.

I watched that video when it was posted in the Larian forum and it did not change my mind. It pretty much has the same things in it that are already well discussed in that forum. Right now, my biggest issue with BG3 is how poor the cast of companion characters is. They're heavily skewed towards the evil side (and relatedly, Larian seems to have intentionally created the game to favor and preferance the evil side over the good side), and are all in one way or another hipster edgelords with ridiculously super-powerful backstories. It is very obvious playing your own custom-created PC is the option Larian least cares about and which a player is not supposed to do, but where for me it is my ONLY option in playing a D&D RPG.

Sorry, Bruce, but I consider Dark Urge to be the absolute worst thing (among many bad things) Larian has managed to come up with in that game. It is the psychopath option in the game, with the "you can resist it if you want" claim being a pathetic attempt to spin what it really is.

It's like we're twins here. I'm in exactly the same situation. The game I want to play, in terms of their genre, I can't stand their TB combat; the games that have a combat system I would enjoy are games I'm not too interested in playing, genre-wise. Yes, this^. I've been able to stomach TB in Solasta, for example, but Larian's approach (to many aspects of RPG design) really, really grate on my nerves.

And very clunky TB combat at that, in my opinion (from what I've seen in streams). And there's zero chance of anything changing in this regard in BG3. TB combat just really sucks. In WotR that one battle that you are forced to fight TB is easily the most annoying and frustrating part of that game for me.

I assumed they were the demon slaves I freed when I killed the slave traders in the slave market area of the demon city.

How do you "lock" the crusade morale?

Critical condition? Not dead? See, now they'll have to put a pillow over his face in his hospital bed. Man, Putin cannot even off his political enemies competently anymore. What's Russia coming to?!

So here's a question about the so-called 'secret ending': it is my understanding that you have to enter Threshold on specifc dates that are in the fourth month. In Act 5 I am now in the ninth month. If I were to keep skipping days to get to the fourth month there is no way I can stretch out capturing forts and killing demon armies for that long. So am I screwed on crusade morale once I have no more enemies to defeat?

I also saw these reports this morning. Classic Putin. Prig is such a complete idiot (and soon to be a dead idiot).

Whenever Billy Idol's Rebel Yell comes on the Oldies radio station I have on in my car, I have to pull over out of traffic so I can go nuts. 😀

What a disappointment. I was so excited about the prospect of political chaos in Russia. 😜 I suspect Prig learned that as much as generals in the Russian military may dislike/disagree with Putin, they were surely not going to throw their lot in with him. But I do feel this increases the odds that someone within the regime/military with more credibility and standing will look to dipose Putin in the near future. Prig has been gutted like a fish here, but Putin has also been exposed as being weak and vulnerable.

Interesting. If true then Prigozhin could have himeself an airforce now. Milerovo is home to a full regiment of Su-30s, and Voronezh has a regiment of Su-34 bombers.

My favorite ABBA song

Thanks for the summary! I'm actually really happy that the 1,000 planets will not all be teaming with life and full of stuff to do. That would be entirely unrealistic and kill my immersion. I want to land on planets that are barren/desolate. I want to land on planets that only hold resources I can extract and pretty much nothing else. That's not boring for me at all. To the contrary, that's what would be interesting to me. Sooooo excited for this game!! I wonder if I can still run it and play it even though my computer doesn't quite meet all the minimum requirements, especially not having an SSD?

Interesting that the wording involves "sovereignty" without mention of territory and borders. That will be an immediate 'no' for Ukraine, with justified reason.

Maybe of interest to you: https://gamerant.com/bioshock-infinite-similarities-clockwork-revolution-trailer-brian-fargo/ https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-responds-to-clockwork-revolution-bioshock-infinite-similarities

Well, supposedly there are reasons to be hopeful of a third-person option: 1) Apparently in a job posting from Obsidian for Avowed back in 2019/20, they specifically asked for people with programming skills and experience in both first-person and third-person combat animations. 2) In certain places in the recent gameplay trailer they do show both exploration and combat animations in third-person. But of course it remains to be seen if these reflect in-game gameplay or are merely cinematic displays. 3) When Grounded was released Obsidian said they did not have any plans to add a third-person option for that game, and yet now they have announced the addition of a third-person option for that game. So, all taken together, some measure of cautious optimism?

Yes it is first-person, and because it is inXile I would imagine there's no chance of a third-person option. Also, time travel as a concept really bugs me in all forms of entertainment. If it is possible to go back in time and change anything and everything, is anything real? Does anything matter?