Gromnir

Bravo sir, bravo. am actual mild disappointed in karakov... for failing to work in the immortal, "hey sexy, do you want to take a look at me ditties?" HA! Good Fun!

... more mexicans is "fleeing" the USA than is fleeing mexico. am not certain where is vol's confusion on this matter. HA! Good Fun!

sadly, such simple reasoning would lead to the conclusion o' mexico>USA. https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016/01/05/more-mexicans-leave-the-us-than-come-across-the-border obviously the issues ain't as simple as vol believes, but for many mexican immigrants to the USA, illegal or otherwise, mexico has become an increasing attractive option. HA! Good Fun!

gotta feel sympathy for spicer and huckabee sanders. http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/analysis-president-trump-just-decimated-the-white-house%E2%80%99s-entire-comey-narrative/ar-BBB1kge?li=AA5a8k&ocid=spartanntp HA! Good Fun!

am kinda surprised, given the way this board reacts to divisive issues, that the mr. nancy intro (series original content btw) failed to result in polarized dialog. our initial conclusion is less people hereabouts is watching than we expected. HA! Good Fun!

if is binary choice, then might need recharacterize as wall is a similar dollar sink given projected long term maintenance and patrol costs. http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/usa/ with mexico being one o' the two most common destinations for US goods, helping to create a strong mexican economy has obvious benefits beyond decrease in illegal immigration. is folks who would argue investing in post war japan were a mistake, but such voices is outliers. investment in rebuilding japan results in a modern and stable democracy in asia as well as creating a valuable trading partner. similarly, fail to help russia rebuild after the cold war strikes us as a clear mistake even though the cost woulda' been difficult for the american public to accept. aid mexico would have far less cost than rebuild russia or japan, but the benefits would actual be noticeable more immediate as well as providing more significant long term benefits. again, am not suggesting pursuit o' a program o' long-term and concentrated infrastructure development in mexico. political suicide for any suggesting such a thing, particular with our domestic infrastructure needs. even so, am recognizing how aid to mexico would not be a bottomless hole but a potential lucrative investment... more so than a wall. HA! Good Fun!

and Gromnir were addressing your preference for a wall. while politically we don't see investing in mexican infrastructure as a sound strategy for dealing with illegal immigration, it does make more sense than a wall. mexican illegal immigration has actual decreased in recent years and the decrease coincided with improvements in the mexican economy. help strengthen mexico as a trading partner is a win-win, but political untenable as a solution to illegal immigration. is particular a problem as the current majority o' illegals coming 'cross the border ain't even mexican but is from other parts o' central/south america. invest in all of central america would be impractical and political suicide, but in terms o' roi, it makes more sense. create stronger trading partners while decreasing illegal immigration makes sense. ain't practical. wall is symbolic. folks is tired o' doing nothing, so they need do something. wall won't stop folks on expired visas. won't stop considerable boats. won't stop trucks or planes. won't be as uncrossable as claimed as is simple too much terrain, and the country is too rough. is water issues. is private owned real property issues. wall is too expensive for a largely symbolic gesture. HA! Good Fun!

so, squandering billions of dollars on an ineffectual wall is ok? unforgiving terrain, rivers and private property make a secure border near impossible, but we could understand wanting such a thing if tijuana were lobbing rockets into san diego and mexican suicide bombers were sneaking 'cross the unfenced portions o' the border. such ain't the case. the majority o' drugs will continue to make their way into the US via trucks/planes. large numbers o' illegal aliens will make their way into the country via similar transportation. as such, building a largely symbolic multi-billion dollar wall strikes us as, y'know, squandering. HA! Good Fun! ps keep in mind we ain't one o' those granola-munching californians who see any kinda immigration reform as evil. a teary-eyed Gromnir, wringing his hands, "why can't we help those poor people instead of deporting them?" nope. never gonna happen. we got little sympathy for many illegals who is placing great burdens on our health and education systems. build bridges, not walls. bah. even so, our recognition o' needed immigration reform don't blind us to the silliness and expense o' the wall.

laughable or not, the cries for impeachment is nothing new. part o' the problem is the Constitution itself which makes it less than easy for even scholars to say with certainty when impeachment is appropriate. doesn't bother us when a handful o' Congressmen cry for impeachment. would bother us if such Congressmen were too afraid to voice concerns. let the fringe-dwellers throw their p00p at each other. still, 'cause o' the increased polarization o' US political parties, the fringe has become a far more densely populated place. that being said, while the idea o' weaponizing pigs or bees or cattle or dogs appeals to our sense o' whimsy, am suspecting being able to deliver swine to predictable and efficient take out targets o' opportunity would likely cost more than $1 billion. wilbur's wreckers, a sounder o' 50 elite warpigs, is dropped into IS held territory where they deliver terrible carnage 'pon terrorists... and dumpsters. as appealing as we find such a concept, am suspecting cruise missiles remain a cheaper option. HA! Good Fun! ps shouldn't need repeating but the missile strike in syria were clear never intended to cause casualties. the strike were an object lesson in relative power. syrians and russians were given advanced warning o' an hour, and the target were a military airfield. such a target, accompanied by warnings, made the possibility o' casualties, particular civilian casualties, near non existent. cruise missiles ain't meant to destroy airfields, but using such weapon were a powerful message. USA: in one hour i am going to send +50 cruise missiles to one of your airbases, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. not only do you have no choice but to sit and wait for me to punch you in the face, but you aren't going to do anything to retaliate. oh, and you are about to see just how powerful an ally you have in russia, because they won't lift a finger to help you, not that they could help if they wanted to. btw, in case it isn't clear, those cruise missiles could just as easily have targeted the homes of every command officer you have left. have a nice day. syria: *soft whimpering* russia: hey now, we can spin this.

calls for impeachment following nixon has actual been de rigueur. ford faced widespread calls for impeachment by pardoning nixon. carter faced calls for impeachment, though based on our reading, "cartergate" always seemed more o' a lunatic fringe kinda movement. iran-contra inspired loud calls for impeachment o' reagan. clinton? 'nuff said. you will find numerous articles 'bout attempts to generate impeachment for george w. bush, and is claims o' obama refusal to enforce syrian red-line policy were 'cause gop senators had threatened impeachment if american soldiers died 'cause o' syria. andrew johnson and john tyler faced serious attempts to bring 'bout impeachment, but fdr also had a vocal minority dogged making claims o' presidential excess requiring impeachment to clarify. there were calls for lincoln impeachment, but he dealt with such by throwing journalists in prison, so might not be an ideal example. regardless, am thinking a post nixon president who do not hear for impeachment beyond mere whispers is gonna be the exception. HA! Good Fun!

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Oh yes, I agree completely. Thing is, many of those things can be said about BG2 as well, especially the main plot. I mean, if you think about it, the whole motivation for Irenicus is that he tried to eat a tree, got caught, and the chick who ruled the place that he was also banging basically went, "I know, I will help him learn by stripping him of his soul so he has no conscience whatsoever and then unleash him upon the world, that will work..." You also got the usual D&D issues like trying to kill characters off in a world with easy resurrection: "Oh no my husband is dead!" "Er, lets just take him to a priest..." "Oh no, not possible, nope, not if you want to bang me..." clearly irenicus' motivation were not to eat a tree. also, his punishment were not the removal o' his soul, but rather excising o' his elvish nature. the penance laid 'pon irenicus were intended to afford him a chance o' redemption, but the punishment also robbed him o' those emotions necessary to actual yearn and strive for redemption. the queen's good intentions perverted. were 'posed to be tragic. ellesime's foolishness were obvious in hindsight, but dramatic tragedy is always obvious in hindsight. macbeth. most folks didn't/don't see the macbeth, though bio were less than subtle. had a lady macbeth. had numerous quests reinforcing macbeth paralleles. is unfortunate the bard class sucked so bad, 'cause the bard stronghold quest did a fair job o' making the macbeth qualities o' irenicus more obvious. bard stronghold shoulda' been critical path. if macbeth, after his downfall, had been given an empty and doomed chance o' redemption, then we would have something akin to bg2. at least such were the intent. such were how bg2 were actual written. unfortunate, irenicus were never developed fully so as to make the macbeth parallels visible to the typical bg2 player. most folks saw irenicus as a crpg wizard gone mad with power... or as a guy who "tried to eat a tree." too bad. bio's fault and david warner's fault. bg2 main plot were not full o' holes and cliches to the degree as were bg1, but it relied far too much on a few easily missed dialog encounters and book entries to be recognized, and even then the vo made irenicus less sympathetic than he coulda'/shoulda' been. as for raise dead and resurrection, the game mechanics misled a bit... and the overabundance o' gold available to the player were also tending to distort. in d&d 2nd edition, the likelihood o' finding a priest capable o' casting raise dead, much less resurrection, would typical be a quest worthy endeavour... which were problematic given the day-o'-death-per-level time limit. after all, even in a large city there would be very few 9th level clerics 'round, and what chances are you think they would be willing to cast raise dead 'pon you? raise dead would require a component cost o' 5000 gp worth o' diamonds and the body would need be healed enough so the recent raised corpse would survive. oh, and don't forget the constitution point cost and the chance o' failure. heck, the chances o' the ordinary baker or shipwright surviving raise dead were not great. 2e d&d resurrection more expensive and aged a cleric casting the spell 3 years. etc. we always saw ie game raise dead and resurrection as a gameplay concession as 'posed to being representative o' how such spells were meant to be functioning in the game world. *chuckle* am sure you can find a pdf copy o' the old ad&d rogues gallery supplement online somewheres. kinda nifty, but only the last dozen pages or so. at the back o' the "book," noteable d&d contributors had submitted their actual d&d characters. rob kuntz's famous (to d&d nerds he would be famous... or infamous) robilar, who would eventual be the first character to complete the dungeon crawl under castle greyhawk and reach level 20, were level 15 at the time o' the rogues gallery printing. we bring up 'cause numerous such characters were belonging to a non-standard race. why? 'cause the players had needed avail themselves o' the services o' a druid to reincarnate 'stead o' being raised from the dead. raise dead, particularly in early edition d&d, were hardly run o' the mill. in any event, bg2 had a whole lotta shortcomings, but plot, which we is ordinarily dismissive o' in any fantasy crpg, had much positives worth noting. sure, optional and tangential sidequesting made any sense o' pacing problematic, but at least one didn't need go through tedious wilderness map mowing to find such quests. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/inside-trump%E2%80%99s-anger-and-impatience-%E2%80%94-and-his-sudden-decision-to-fire-comey/ar-BBAZWM9?li=AA5a8k&ocid=spartandhp http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-comey-decision-idUSKBN1862WP if trump were livid 'bout comey not stopping press leaks, the last couple days will have the chief executive apoplectic. given the negative backlash resulting from the firing o' comey, we assume the new fbi director is gonna need be somebody beyond reproach to avoid seeming impropriety. is hard to imagine such a candidate being any less problematic for trump. HA! Good Fun!

listening to spicer pressers is always surreal. sarah huckabee sanders (we continue to leave off the sanders) were a nice change o' pace, but equal perplexing. is 2017 and alternative facts is the norm. even so, while we were not surprised to hear the claim, we were disappointed when the wh insisted the rank and file within the fbi had lost confidence in comey. is an easy claim to make 'cause is not easily proven or disproven, but our experience is vast different. we got admitted limited exposure to fbi, but what feedback we has received has been overwhelming and near universal positive when folks in the bureau speak o' comey. probable the chief reason we feel bad 'bout comey firing is 'cause the bureau folks we know is gonna be disappointed to see comey leave. from our pov, the director were respected by those working for him. HA! Good Fun!

killing the russian mobsters who stole your car and killed your dog? HA! Good Fun!

our main concern 'bout the berserker is it sounds like reload bait. have cipher and priest buff a berserker into temp immortal state and then set her loose. 'course for those couple encounters when things go wrong and the berserker 'causes a party wipe, folks will simple reload. am happy to see obsidian is sticking to iwd2 kits pov compared to bg2. and yes, we know iwd2 didn't have kits, but it were gonna until the developers switched from 2e to 3e. iwd2 kits did not make the base class less appealing. ... am a bit puzzled. the fanbase did not react positive to the iwd2 kits. expectations were for bg2 power kits and when black isle failed to deliver inquisitors and wild mages and berserkers, the fans voiced their displeasure. the negative backlash regarding sucky and underpowered poe2 subclasses seems inevitable to Gromnir. feel like bill murray from groundhog day. we have lived this day a few times already. hope to be wrong. hope obsidian has a plan if Gromnir is correct. HA! Good Fun!

maia is clear the most attractive poe2 companion thus far, regardless o' sex. 'course we ain't seen her shark teeth as yet, so​ there is that. HA! Good Fun!

complete mischaracterization. for instance, comey noted how clinton Did send multiple classified emails from her private server and he observed how clinton actions were "extremely careless." in fact, comey went out of his way to express the brobdingnagian scope o' clinton fumbduckery and how her actions regarding handling o' sensitive information were unique in his experience. might as well simple repost https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87025-us-election-2016-part-ii/?p=1825582 https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87025-us-election-2016-part-ii/?p=1825704 https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/87025-us-election-2016-part-ii/?p=1826111 nobody had ever been prosecuted under the statute for gross negligence. doing so in clinton's situation woulda' proved extreme difficult. so comey observes how while no reasonable prosecutor would attempt to pursue criminal charges under the statute, clinton's actions were irresponsible to a significant degree. he pointed out how clinton genuine claimed an inability to distinguish classified documents in spite o' the big "C" on such items. comey were doing everything he could to express the magnitude o' clinton's error, but all some folks wanted were criminal charges. HA! Good Fun!

while not an immediate obvious outcome o' the comey firing, am thinking the most unfortunate long-term impact o' the fbi director's removal will be the conclusion o' future directors to avoid transparency. in an attempt to avoid the perception o' bias, comey were forthright and honest. unfortunate, in a climate dominated by alternative facts and polarized parties, comey's efforts to dispel claims and concerns 'bout impropriety only magnified the perception o' investigative malfeasance and/or incompetence. comey's fate is gonna be a cautionary tale for future fbi directors. taciturn and anonymous. HA! Good Fun!

is absolute nothing wrong or curious 'bout President nixon firing archibald cox. oh, wait... HA! Good Fun!

bg had a main plot, but it were filled with holes and clichés. poison iron in mines to create a synthetic shortage? not gonna once again get into why the whole iron shortage nonsense were pointless when you already got bandits raiding, but another mine with a james bondesque self-destruct feature were serious beyond the pale. the "exploration" some point to as an advantage o' bg compared to bg2 were, in point of fact, one o' the more criticized aspects o' bg. particular following totsc, the boardies overwhelming demanded less mowing o' largely empty or repetitive wilderness maps, and more durlag's tower kinda stuff. we spoke with bioware developers 'bout bg years after the title's initial release, and more than one admitted playing the game five or ten years after the initial release felt like slow death before reaching the city o' baldur's gate. bioware's first d&d title had many flaws folks inexplicable wanna ignore. a never ending flood o' mindless fed-ex quests. poor developed characters. companions with nothing to speak to quality save a catchphrase and the contents o' their character record sheet. shallow tactical challenges made worse by a few overwhelming powerful abilities, spells and items. etc. bg were not a particular good game. it had the advantage o' being the best d&d crpg for many years, which weren't saying a whole lot. also, for many people, bg were a welcome alternative to the action-rpg diablo clones which were then flooding the market. folks frequent see qualities in bg which did not exist, or would not have existed save for bg2. HA! Good Fun!

only obvious omission from the genesis post we see is the berserker subclass for the barbarian. keep in mind josh referred to "a berserker subclass," rather than the berserker subclass. is highly possible the subclass will have a different name than "berserker." HA! Good Fun!

obvious am not knowing what went on behind the curtain, so is possible any number o' things went wrong with the fig campaign. however, we will concede surprise regarding how many fumbles occurred releasing stretch goals. one assumes the details o' stretch goals woulda' been planned long in advance o' the campaign. with the kickstarter, the obsidian developers were caught unawares by the rate o' funding and had not planned enough stretch goals in advance. kickstarter goals were often ad hoc. no excuse for such with the fig. shoulda' been a pure mechanical process o' releasing stretch goals. one would assume obsidian had a plan which took into account optimistic or pessimistic funding rates. hit X dollars by date Y and stretch goal is Z. hit Q dollars by date Y and stretch goal is R. there were no reason for any mishaps or confusion regarding the fig campaign stretch goals. we saw numerous stretch goals aborted and altered. no excuse. meh. were a relative minor thing, but does show how obsidian continues to make inexplicable errors on the business side o' game development. this weren't a kotor2 we should have gotten it in writing mistake, or a fo:nv you get paid based on metacritic numbers blunder, but there frequent appears to be obsidian fails which strain credulity. that being said, we had no idea the fig campaign would be as successful as it was. game sequels rare make as much money as an original title. made sense to start off with assumption o' the fig doing less well than the kickstarter. furthermore, inxile managed ~$3mil with their wasteland 3 fig campaign, and wasteland 3 were gonna be released on console as well as pc. wasteland 2 kickstarter were comparable to poe. etc. our most extreme optimistic guesstimate for the poe 2 fig campaign were envisioning a $3.5 million haul. so yeah, we thinks obsidian made mistakes with their fig campaign, but ultimately their campaign achieved results much beyond expectations. learn from mistakes when you succeed can be a difficult thing, but regardless... am thinking obsidian were satisfied with the results. HA! Good Fun!

Seems like you're exaggerating just a little bit. depends on what he means. fat hermann were smart and brave, but he were also a corporate opportunist who were more interested in advancing himself than doing what were best for the german people. heck, hermann actual blackmailed hitler at one point; were gonna release info regarding the hidden truth behind industrialist backing o' the nazi movement if hitler didn't support him in the 1928 elections. 'course hermann's reason for wanting political influence were so as to advance his own industrial interests. the hermann göring worksa would become one o' the largest holding companies in europe thanks to göring political connections. worse, the numerous military contracts hermann engineered for himself also tended to include kickbacks and bribes. on top o' his other shortcomings, göring's military expertise were woeful out-of-date. so, who were hermann göring? a former military leader most notable for ideological extremism and political opportunism? trump wants folks who is, first and foremost, loyal to him. in the future, trump is no doubt gonna want somebody with ideological leanings more in-line with his own. so yeah, we can see how somebody might see a göring copy as the most likely replacement. trump might find some out-o'-touch, old guard, general or admiral who is willing to take up an accursed wh position, but am thinking there is reason to be concerned as is tough to envision the qualified and ethical replacement who active pursues mcmaster's old post when a consensus The Guy were fired for telling his boss hard truth. HA! Good Fun!

am not seeing much personal need for updates. 'tween now and the beta, am willing to wait patient 'cause little said 'tween now and then will matter. after beta, then am gonna wanna hear obsidian observations in light o' community feedback and criticism. if obsidians is silent after the release o' the beta, then we would be concerned. obsidian developers should take a lesson from 41. updates? shut up and get to your oar, 41. kidding... sorta. HA! Good Fun!