kanisatha

Well, any Russian attack against NATO, whether preemptive or not, and even if the main target is Finland and/or the Baltic states, will surely include an attack on Poland coming out of Kaliningrad and Belarus, because Russia closing off the Suwalki gap will be critical to their having any hope of winning the war. And likewise for NATO, any hope of successfully defending the Baltics, and even Finland, will depend almost entirely on keeping the Suwalki gap open. That's why Poland is positioning its best land forces for the coming Suwalki gap fight.

Yes absolutely. Poland is the best, and I give them complete credit for it. And it's not just spending, but what they're spending on. They're doubling the size of their army, making it completely mechanized, and also doubling the number of fighter squadrons in their air force flying 4.5 or 5th gen aircraft carrying long-range missiles. They're doing everything right. But this is also exactly why I worry they may face a preemptive strike by Putin.

I bought the following just now on Steam during their summer sale: Baldur's Gate 3 Neverwinter Nights 2 Enhanced Edition Old World (incl. all the content DLCs) Humankind (incl. all the content DLCs) The two DLCs for Zoria: Age of Shattering

I specifically said in Europe, because we're talking about NATO spending. And no, even globally, the only powerful threat to the US is China. No one else.

Yes, now they have a powerful opponent (in Europe) but we don't. So if anything, they should be spending more than us.

All through the late Cold War, (West) Germany had the largest armed forces in Europe. As an American taxpayer I am happy to see Germany *finally* stepping up to its responsibilities and obligations and doing its fair share for NATO collective security, though I'll believe it only when I see it.

Looking forward to the start of the Steam summer sale today. I may be inclined to put quite a bit of a dent into my Steam wishlist this year.

Right, well, I'm a customer too, and this customer says "Great job Obsidian for ditching stupid, useless romances in your RPGs." Their developer resources are much better spent on pretty much anything else.

I commented on Tracker some time ago. It's my favorite show these days. And it is one of the highest rated shows on broadcast networks.

Actually, I appreciate this more than you realize, because I did pretty much the same thing. Although I think I didn't even allow her to kill her father.

LOL 😀

This is true up to a point. Broadcast and cable networks now tend to have their current season available to watch for free anytime.

Streaming has the exact same problem that cable has, which is that you have to pay for things you don't want in order to get what you do want. And to get all of what you want, you have to pay for many different streaming services/networks. The "winner" will be whoever offers the customer the ability to buy only the shows they want, from across all available networks, without having to buy everything. But this won't happen anytime soon, not because it doesn't make business sense (it very much does), but because the content creators won't allow it as they won't be able to "sell" those shows they think are awesome even though customers don't care for those shows.

Well, in May, new shows are done on both broadcast, and to some extent cable as well. It's exactly the time when people turn to streaming to "catch up" on their shows. Streaming would need to beat broadcast and cable at their prime timepoints in the year, which is not May.

Yup. And I was emphatic in saying 'yes'. That right there is one of my biggest negatives about the new SRD.

Ha! You beat me to it. Was gonna' post the same thing. I think many of the rule changes are good. Some not so good. But in their attached survey, which I filled yesterday, there is the option to support TA also keeping some parts of the 2014 ruleset and modifying things they don't like in the 2024 ruleset. I strongly supported that option.

Yes, this is where I'm coming from as well. Oh, and just to note, my comment about budgets was (speculatively) about their current games, not past games. So, TOW2 and Grounded 2.

This may also explain Patel's departure. Seems to me that of their current three active franchises, Avowed was given the lowest budgeting priority: TOW got the biggest budget, Grounded also got a pretty decent budget, and Avowed got the smallest budget (as the least important project for the studio). 😧

Just watched the Direct for TOW2. It seems to be a much deeper and richer RPG experience than Avowed. Having not yet played Avowed, though, am I right about this? And if I'm right, why? Was Xbox Games more willing to give TOW2 the budget it needed than Avowed?

Oh, so this answers my question from a couple of days ago. The third unannounced game Obsidian had under development is Grounded 2. Very dissapointed. 😞

All current games are 5e (or maybe more accurately 5.2e).

Here's the latest D&D-based new game to be announced. The article also lists all the others that have thus far been announced: https://dungeonsanddragonsfan.com/new-dnd-video-game-giant-skull/

^This. And also, I can't imagine any studio--and especially a studio that is not a huge AAA studio--wanting to deal with the pressure of living up to BG3 budget and sales expectations.

So ... unrealistic to hope that it could be PoE3? There have also been stories out there that Wizards of the Coast has been shopping around for devs to take on new D&D games in the aftermath of BG3's financial success, including a BG4. Now I'm quite sure Obsidian will pass on a BG4. But what about a NwN3, especially given the current timing of an "enhanced" edition of NwN2? Also, Tyranny2?

So, last year, after the reveals of both Avowed and TOW2, there were online stories confirming that Obsidian had a third unannounced game in development. I'm dying to know what it may be. Anyone care to engage in speculation about what it could be? If you happen to have actual info, that would be even better! 🙂