Gromnir

its gonna vary depending on the issue... but not so much the issue as the situation. admission: have mentioned previous on this board how the few times Gromnir were involved in a case where we had a jury selection expert (Con law issues, for the most part, do not get big budgets so weren't common for us to get help from juror experts)and our expectations 'bout who were ideal jurors were wrong a disturbing high percentage of the time. as often as not, the generalizations 'bout jurors and most important factors in selecting jurors, has nothing to do with issues being adjudicated. one o' the few generalizations which always were appropriate in our experience were mentioned by us earlier in the thread-- older women is tending to be critical o' younger women regardless o' whether the younger woman is plaintiff, defendant, attorney or judge. go figure. you got a case with a victim or plaintiff or pivotal witness is a young woman and have multiple older women on jury probable makes job tougher. *shrug* those jurors who will likely to be sympathetic to a particular defendant or plaintiff is important. how jurors see the attorneys or judge or others is usual more relevant than legal issues and evidence. but again, on this board we have lamented jury decision making multiple times over the years. get feedback from juries and discover that reason we lost case is 'cause client "squinted" too often or looked "uncomfortable" during trial. as often as not, those were the kinda responses we received. the "uncomfortable" example were a particular tough pill to swallow as the plaintiff in question were in literal agony sitting in chair for hours due to a back/neck problem, a problem which jury were aware. nevertheless, her shifting in chair and inability to stay complete still for hours made her look less reliable to jurors. we similar had sympathy for those govt. lawyers we typical faced who invariably came across as "mean" or "unpleasant." HA! Good Fun!

obsidian, and more specifically josh, addressed stuff such as per kill xp and pre buffing and whatnot, trying to elicit from those requesting such stuff, why those things made game better? the responses never articulated more than the most subjective feels arguments. as we noted 'bove, while rare explicit stated, the underlying and unspoken argument from those requesting the collective laundry list o' items o' curiously essential features were that those features had been in the ie games and as such they should presumptive be included in bg3/poe. after all, leaving such stuff out would undercut obsidian's "spiritual successor"... promises. as to the confusing nature o' poe, am recalling how for us personal the poe beta combat were fast and unforgiving and feedback were limited. we were failing to hit a beetle, but were not sure why. at the same time those giant insects were attacking us with damage-over-time attacks which quickly depleted our life and we had no idea how to counter those attacks short o' killing the beetles faster, which we failed to do. two things worth observing: 1) obsidian made numerous efforts to address combat "speed." 2) we played poe and poe2 to death. obsidian did respond to beta players concerns 'bout speed and speed were, 'ccording to consensus o' community, noticeable "slowed" 'tween beta and release of game. some things as simple as aoe visual effects made it difficult to see what were happening in clustered combat. obsidian were responsive during beta, and continued to respond to speed concerns. we have noted how for us the best improvement 'tween poe and deadfire were the shift feature related to the combat log. unlike poe, it were much easier to follow combat w/o digging into code. that said, we again observe how we played the poe games for eye-popping hours. the speed o' poe naturally and predictably slowed for us. regardless o' obsidian efforts, given our daily and hourly experience with the game(s), the difficulty curve flattened considerable. our impressions is not illustrative o' the typical player and am fully cognizant o' fact that it is literal impossible for us to judge speed or confusion o' the poe games for an ordinary and sane player. HA! Good Fun!

this is hardly the totality o' josh's monte cook ranger comments and hardly the most troublesome. regarding wotc interference insofar as attempts to implement the monte cook ranger, josh were... animated. all such josh posts were exorcised from the black isle board and short there afterward highest levels o' black isle management added a short post which reassured us all were well 'tween black isle and wotc and let the community know that josh had never actually made comments questioning wotc. HA! Good Fun!

iwd kept the doors open and the lights on for a few more years at black isle, and believe it or not, iwd were black isle's most profitable development. were relative quick and cheap to make iwd, which were likely the only reasons the interplay bosses gave it the green light. iwd2 were an attempt by black isle to replicate iwd success and were an even more desperate attempt to keep black isle viable... and more immediate, kept the people at black isle employed. however, is a darker side to iwd franchise development. iwd and iwd2 were developed instead o' more ambitious games, games which mighta' changed the fortunes o' black isle as 'posed to just keeping interplay bosses from shuttering the operation for a couple more years. iwd were not as successful as bg or bg2, not even close. even so, the business o' game development is not simple and straightforward. as an aside, licensing issues is what killed black isle's bg3 development. oh, and is worth noting the relationship 'tween wotc and the black isle developers were less than perfect. josh never posts here, so is unlikely you ever get the story from him, but there were a rather public kerfuffle 'tween the d&d folks and black isle regarding monte' cook's ranger. were embarrassing but understandable gaslighting by black isle in an attempt to make folks forget josh's excess o' exuberance on the matter. wanna bet monte cook's ranger were only the most public conflict 'tween d&d folks and black isle... or obsidian for that matter. bet josh in particular would as soon as gargle broken glass than work on another d&d game. regardless, obsidian don't have d&d license, so no d&d games will be forthcoming from obsidian. nevertheless, deserk's wish for obsidian to "go back to making DnD-based games," is illustrative o' the core problem we identified earlier. a significant portion o' fans were disappointed 'cause poe were not their idealized bg3. obsidian didn't even make iwd. obsidian made nwn2 and a couple expansions, but can you recall how many requests you heard for poe to be more like nwn2 during the development o' poe? few and far between. HA! Good Fun!

tell 'em you are an attorney. is a functional get out of jury duty card. is no law which prohibits an attorney being part o' a jury, but you can guarantee either defense or prosecution or plaintiff will want you gone. keep in mind, only works if you are an attorney, and we do not recommend law school and passing bar just to get out o' jury duty. today were weird for us. we saw our money guy at his office, which we do at least twice a year. the person handling our portfolio is relative new to us-- has only been last 2.5 years. previous advisor retired. weirdness is 'cause the guy handling our dough frequent refers to us as "young man." "how have you been, young man?" "have a seat, young man." etc. thought this were funny 'cause we estimated our advisor were in his late 40s, and Gromnir turned 50 this year. sure, when we go to ___________ 's office, we tend to dress down. no suits and expensive shoes. jeans. hoodie. hiking shoes. maybe casual makes us look a bit younger? a bit. didn't correct him the last couple years 'cause we were somewhat amused, but today we decided to question the, "young man" bit. pointed out how we were confident that we were near his age or even older. guy were shocked. seemed to think Gromnir is thirtyish. okie dokie. other weirdness were when the advisor mentioned senator warren. we were expressing a desire to shift our portfolio away from so many tech-heavy offerings and also to get better representation from fixed term stuff. outta nowhere, money-guy opines how half our portfolio disintegrates if warren gets elected. bit o' hyperbole, but he has a point. doesn't stop with warren though. starts talking impeachment, presumable 'cause o' impact on markets. talks 'bout trump and due process and unfairness. *sigh* we made a minor correction on legal presumptions, but tried to mollify by observing how we believe there is zero chance senate would convict. w/o enough public support, too few republicans would flip at a senate trial. we were glad when the trump stuff ended. we had to work hard to talk down the guy sitting across the desk from us. weird. have been able to avoid most similar nonsense in rl, but caught us off guard. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

iwd is still our all-time favorite soundtrack, but inon zur's work on iwd2 has a few individual tracks which is 'mongst all-time best. HA! Good Fun!

is likewise notable pledges weren't a problem for deadfire in spite o' chrisA absence from obsidian and his friction with former employer. deadfire fig pledges show there were a substantial core following for poe and much anticipation for a sequel, in spite o' chrisA and his attempts at self-immolation-by-internet. am suspecting the problem for obsidian and deadfire were all those other folks, the more casual gamers who didn't know if fig were a fruit, flower or a crowdfunding campaign, folks who woulda' been less likely to know or care 'bout individual obsidian developers. the hardcore folks, divided by poe, nevertheless spent more on deadfire crowdfunding efforts in spite o' smaller numbers. sadly, obsidian did not recognize warning signs. what is clear is that many folks who bought poe1 did not buy poe2. assume chrisA were a major cause o' a massive falloff in sales is fanciful and correlative speciousness at its worst. that said, we don't have any clear evidence for any other theory o' sales drop off neither. doesn't make the chrisA theory any less ridiculous. HA! Good Fun!

quick side note: am not believing obsidian were wrong to breakaway from bg2 mechanics, and in some respects, style. nostalgia were only gonna carry poe so far, particular as bg2 nostalgia were a deeply personal and fluid concept, at least it were 'mongst those providing feedback on the boards. those essential aspects o' bg2 which made bg2 liked were not uniform 'mongst consumers. worse, often times the things people liked 'bout bg2 were not necessarily part o' that title, but were nevertheless what folks remembered 'bout bg2. as such am suspecting if obsidian recreated the ie engine as best they could, with updated graphics, and created a 2018 near clone o' bg2, many o' the bg2 fans woulda' complained 'bout the game being derivative and antiquated. an idealized bg2 were what many poe fans wanted, but am not sure what such a game would be, or if it would be successful. likes and dislikes not need be reasonable or rational. such feels is real nevertheless. our point is not that obsidian were wrong in their development scheme. am honest not certain how deadfire coulda' been created to have more broad appeal and reconnect with those fans who were disappointed with poe. regardless, am believing obsidian misjudged who were the likely purchasers o' deadfire. during deadfire development, obsidian were focused on improving the gaming experience for those who purchased and enjoyed poe. the stuff obsidian worked to improve 'pon in deadfire were only gonna solidify the approval o' those who already liked poe and would further discourage those who were annoyed by poe's lack o' bg2 qualities. reviews were excellent for poe and sales were impressive, so am believing obsidian were reasonable in under estimatimating the number o' purchasers who were underwhelmed by poe. regardless, am believing there were a real misapprehension 'bout who wanted deadfire. HA! Good Fun!

am largely repeating what we said elsewhere... marketing is the frequentest excuse for why a good game sold poor. is a pleasant illusion 'cause it means the game you liked were still good, and it also means the developers you approve o' did nothing wrong. cheap. easy excuse which shifts blame. deadfire were the wrong game if goal were to improve sales o' poe. poe2, from start o' development, were making clear that design philosophy were refinement o' poe-- those who liked poe would get a better game in poe2. that were the problem. poe were selling ie game nostalgia, and too many folks who played poe did not get the bg3 for which they hoped. hardcore crpgs is an admitted niche genre. hardcore fans tend to become more polarized over minutiae than ordinary fans. unfortunate, deadfire developers narrowed appeal o' their title by letting those who were disappointed with poe failure to be another bg2 know that deadfire would be even more unlikable. as somebody who enjoyed poe, deadfire design were targeting Gromnir. save for a few mechanics issues, we appreciated deadfire improvements. yes, we did have more than a couple narrative concerns, but such has been belabored ad nauseum and were not, we believe, contributing to underwhelming initial sales. deadfire were made for folks such as Gromnir. liked the first game and wanted the sequel to refine what were done well in poe. the problem is, there were too few Gromnirs... which is pretty much insane. should never be more o' us. but again, deadfire were appealing to an already niche genre and developers made clear the game were gonna be even more exclusive than first title. diminished sales, in retrospect, should not surprise. HA! Good Fun!

we spent more hours than wormerine playing poe2... many more, so am not one o' those who were disappointed with purchase or discouraged from purchasing altogether. nevertheless, after listening to post-mortem from josh, we arrived at conclusion the obsidian folks misinterpreted poe1 feedback. josh recognized how divinity: original sin 2 developers took consumer feedback to heart and improved game resulting in bigger sequel sales. obsidian anticipated similar results from following same gameplan, but there were a fundamental misunderstanding 'bout poe criticism. beyond the inevitable and insurmountable too hard/too easy complaints, next most common critique o' poe were almost never stated open and honest. real biggest complaint o' poe were: it isn't bg2. any significant design choice which altered bg2 "standard" polarized the community. the developers had no desire to replicate perceived errors o' bg2 in poe or poe2, and so the "it ain't bg2" complaints were largely dismissed. poe were, relative speaking, a hardcore crpg; a genre for which there were significant, but nevertheless niche appeal. the developers o' poe2 chose to refine poe by giving folks who liked poe more o' what they enjoyed in the first game-- a reasonable and rational approach given the obsidian conclusions 'bout dos2 development. unfortunate, the developers o' poe2 were misinterpreting feedback at a fundamental level. by focusing on demands and criticisms o' those who liked poe, obsidian failed to recognize that they were narrowing the appeal o' their title rather than expanding... which, for the most part, were good for Gromnir. most o' the bg2 nostalgia demands were nonsensical. per kill xp rewards, pre-buffing and hard counters were not what made bg2 a popular game, but folks clamoring for such were making known just how much they wanted poe to be bg3. obsidian developers didn't understand this feedback, and am personal glad they ignored such, but regardless, the developers were somehow blind to fact they were making poe2 appeal more exclusive rather than inclusive. oh, and there were narrative issues in poe2 which we have discussed ad nauseum elsewhere, but am not convinced such were the downfall o' poe2 insofar as sales is concerned. nope, the reason why poe2 underperformed in terms o' sales were 'cause it weren't bg2, or at least not bg2 enough. HA! Good Fun!

didn't wanna start a new thread and couldn't think where such a post would be more appropriate. in any event, is 11:38 pacific time, so is still veterans day, which means we couldn't go to the bank today. more important we wish to express our gratitude for any and all who have served their country honorably as a member of the armed forces. thank you.

general policy for us to not buy until after at least the first major patch, and is likely we wait six months. get a more stable and likely encehapened game. is the norm for games to be buggy at release, so why buy at release? no downside to wait. am not gonna be the guy who habitual complains 'bout games being buggy in spite o' buying such games day 1. you learn lesson the first time, yes? yes? exception: crowdfunding. if we contributed to game development, then is kinda too late to wait for post patch reviews to decide on a purchase. HA! Good Fun!

am curious, but similar to bug, we will wait for a few patches 'fore paying and playing. sidenote, disco elysium sounds like an alternative title for xanadu. HA! Good fun!

can always use more prunes. kidding. sweeter wine might not be an ideal choice 'cause the sugar is added in part to take edge off the acidity from the wine. if cane sugar is problematic, you can turn golden raisins into a paste. maybe thin the paste with your wine before adding. won't affect the aesthetic o' the dish and you get natural sugar with a mild additional flavor which should be complimentary. HA! Good Fun! ps if you like the bite from the wine and vinegar, then ignore our suggestion.

first you claim the democrats are "evil and want to enslave people." nevertheless, you then see a problem in both sides attempting to demonize the other. ... hoonding does purposeful. you do by accident. funny v. sad. HA! Good Fun!

we always think ella when we hear summertime. one more, just 'cause it is a fave. HA! Good Fun!

got unseasonal gorgeous weather here in norcal. am gonna enjoy outdoors... outdoors away from our home. we got an enormous carob tree in our backyard which provides admirable shade and doesn't need much water. enormous is kinda understatement. current sounds as if we are living under power lines 'cause o' all the bees pollinating the carob. is perfect kinda foliage save for one small detail: it stinks. when the carob is in bloom, it has a genuine foul odor. what kinda tree blooms in autumn anyways? *shrug* if you are curious, you may google what stink carob is often compared. chances are you wouldn't believe us. regardless, we need to put some distance 'tween our self and casa de Gromnir during daylight hours for as long as temps are nice, 'cause am not gonna wanna open our windows at back of the house for the next week or so. HA! Good Fun!

given how easy it were to get tank and dps gear, am thinking we will do a heals before we burn out again. swtor don't have crates check spec until they are opened, and they are tuned to gear level regardless o' kinda gear. guardian in 306 dps gear will get 306 tank gear as long as he/she is current spec'd as tank. as soon as we hit 300 gear, we changed spec to tank when we opened crates. esseles runs provided our dps. am not particular worried over augments at the moment. crafting is typical wonky following an update. as such we will focus on wringing as much juice as possible from artifact cell graft market before situation stabilizes... though we were complete focused on gear grind the last couple days so for all we know the market has already changed. however, is second week in november and we got clear skies and temps near 80 degrees in the sac valley. with 1 day remaining in billing cycle, our electric costs for the month is under $40. no a/c. no heat. is ideal weather and temps and so am gonna get outside and enjoy rl while weather remains idyllic. would be criminal to play swtor given how beautiful it is at the moment... which is rare 'cause where we live is always too hot or too wet or too foggy or... HA! Good Fun!

funny. no, what you wrote is hardly humorous, but occurred to us the post you made sounded like the typical @HoonDing drive-by, but meaning would be complete reversed in such a case. HA! Good Fun!

the idea that because the democrats are partisan the impeachment investigation is inherent flawed is bordering on asinine. is irrelevant given the testimony. is red herring. so what if schiff is a democrat? so what if the whistleblower voted democrat? you are buying into the partisan narrative if you think such stuff is at all important. that the wh prevented the whistleblower complaint from reaching Congress is NOT a partisan observation-- is a fact. delivery o' military aid and a meeting between the Presidents o' the US and the ukraine being contingent 'pon ukraine investigation o' 2016 election conspiracy theories has been described by multiple trump administration officials and career bureaucrats. again, fact. label facts as somehow partisan and then excuse dismissal o' such facts is one o' the hurdles we, as a nation, need get past if we are gonna put this self-destructive polarization behind us. 'course the obstruction of justice events (multiple and egregious )and entanglement with the russians stuff from the mueller report were also facts and somehow folks nevertheless described in terms of "witch hunt." HA! Good Fun!

update: yesterday we managed to reach gear 306 for our guardian--tank and dps. we don't have augments or ideal tacticals for tank. we don't yet have ideal set bonus gear neither. even so, less than two full weeks o' mostly esseles runs (+ the 2 mek-sha heroics and 6 onderon dailies) and am at 306. all we need to finish the trifecta is heals gear. coulda' cut total time by /14 to 1/3 if we had used a shadow instead o' a guardian. coulda' stealthed esseles for ultra-fast speed runs. am not a big fan o' grindy, but am nevertheless thinking 10ish days is too fast to get to 306 for two roles. HA! Good Fun!

gd concerns is baffling to us, but it is the narrative being presented at fox and conservative radio outlets. whatever "antics" gd references, they is wholly irrelevant to whether or not the trump admin attempted to block a whistleblower complaint from reaching Congress and the question o' whether the administration were leveraging military aid and presidential meetings to bring about wholly political motivated investigations o' a political rival. the whole "closed door hearings" nonsense is utter bs and am not certain how it gets so much mileage. investigations at almost any level is having a level o' secrecy. for chrissakes, could you imagine how stoopid it would be if cops investigating murder had to let their primary suspect see all the information the cops were gathering? even as to investigations o' the chief executive, mueller and starr investigations were not public affairs. the nixon investigation didn't start public. difference in 2019 is 'cause o' desire to move forward fast, Congress is not utilizing a special prosecutor or fbi to do the investigation. the due process arguments made by trump defenders is utter bs, not only 'cause impeachment ain't a criminal proceeding, but 'cause impeachment is analogous to an indictment, and the investigations which precede the indictment tends to be secret for obvious reasons. due process stuff being raised and echoed by gd is applicable IF there is impeachment. the only thing we can see worthy o' criticism thus far insofar as the inquiry is schiff not being honest that the whistleblower had contacted the committee before the IG went public with his concerns 'bout the WH's wholly unlawful attempts to impede the delivery o' a credible and urgent whistleblower complaint to Congress, but even then, the whistleblower complaint has been corroborated by multiple first hand sources. even if schiff authored the complaint himself, o' which there is no evidence and a strong denial from whistleblower's attorney, the complaint itself has already been validated by multiple offers o; testimony from firsthand witnesses. however, schiff were untruthful, and we woulda' thought better o' the process if he recused self. regardless, that singular act o' dishonesty or "alternative facts" by schiff is the only meaningful critique we have for process thus far. is just another example o' "read the transcript" t-shirts mentality. facts and reality not matter. conservative narrative ignores reality in favor o' what should be comical transparent gaslighting. HA! Good Fun!

is worse. rand implies he knows the identity o' the whistleblower, whom he describes in villainous terms. the thing is, rand then exhorts the media to make the whistleblower's identity public knowing full well such is illegal. *shrug* we can't imagine this stuff. "read the transcript" t-shirts being sold to and worn by trumpers? HA! Good Fun! ps not funny, but President is not subject to fed whistleblower retaliation laws as written. trump could divulge w/o any consequences save possible civil litigation if "harm" (not limited to physical) comes to the whistleblower.

good luck with that. Gromnir is the guy selling 'em in bunches o' 5 or 10, and we sell 20-30 per day. am the current basement on price save for a few single unit outliers. blame us for ruining the market, but am satisfied with our returns given minimal effort. been doing for six days and will keep up the pressure for as long as we can. those three companions at 50 is finally earning their keep. repeated esseles runs has us at gear 298 with a few 300 pieces and a nice pair o' tacticals. not certain how much will we have to push onwards, but at least full 300 before taking a break. HA! Good Fun!