Gromnir

for many employers, a bs or ba not related to hard sciences or engineering is less 'bout what you learned and more 'bout simple fact you achieved a multi-year goal. is why so many undergrad bs and ba degrees is fungible. employers know a university grad spent considerable hours during a 3-5 year period pursuing degree requirements. in the past, schools typical graded on a curve, but in touchy-feely new century, am not certain if the norm has been altered. regardless, am gonna assume a significant 'mount o' competition is inherent in achieving a degree. if some kinda frat boy schmoozed and cheated his way through Princeton and managed a 3.0 inspite o' learning nothing 'bout anything, the achievements is still gonna represent useful skills and abilities-- social skills is often more useful in the real world than is any kind skill one will find available in a Uni catalog. furthermore, any number o' studies has shown how, regardless o' the profession, when asked 'bout stress, University/Grad School/Med School/Law finals tend to ranks as more stressful than job related stress. yeah, a +3.0 from a good school don't prove you learned anything. so what? employers is playing the odds. a general University degree is a good (not infallible) indicator o' potential future success in any number o' fields. is gonna continue to be a meaningful box need for checking on job applications for a long time to come. HA! Good Fun!

trump Presidency in 2:07 Congressional impotence is partial to blame for the possibility of trump. even so, is only so much trump can screw up domestic w/o Congress adopting a Three Wise Monkeys posture. am hopeful trump scares Congress outta their indolence. HA! Good Fun! Was speaking more to the possibility of a mixture of carelessness, lack of experience, and attention-seeking that could lead to an unintentional security breach, I'm reminded of this passage from David E. Hoffman's "The Billion Dollar Spy": we got what you were trying to say. am actual far less worried 'bout accidental leaks than calculated showmanship leaks. trump is a narcissistic clown, but he ain't a complete idiot. a President, as Gromnir has pointed out so many times, has far less power domestic than most people understand. power o' the President on domestic is mainly being able to influence Congressmen. the folks in Congress wanna get reelected, and a popular President being stymied by Congress is a surefire way to fail reelection. trump won his election by an extreme small margin and he managed to actual lose the popular vote. a startling high percentage o' exit poll respondents noted how they voted for trump, but only did so 'cause they disliked clinton even more. trump were arguable one o' the least popular President elects, evar. so, reports o' hacking will no doubt make some question the legitimacy o' a trump Presidency regardless o' the actual impact the hacking had on voter behavior. add in the suggestion the hacking were a result o' russian malfeasance further undermines trump 'cause the folks who voted for trump are more likely to be suspicious o' those damned soviets than younger and more liberal city dwellers. the trump Presidency starts off with a bit o' a handicap given how donald is relative unpopular and Congressman pay very close attention to such stuff. so yeah, trump is being a bit obtuse 'bout his handling o' intelligence regarding russian hacks. shouldn't be a surprise. trump were either complete unaware o' the actual powers o' the President, or... well the alternative is less appealing. most o' trumps campaign promises cannot be accomplished w/o the support o' Congress. on many issues, a republican Congress will need not be convinced or cajoled into agreeing with trump, who will no doubt take credit every time Congress votes as any sane person would have anticipated a republican Congress woulda' voted anyways. regardless, trump's popularity and legitimacy is already extreme low and he hasn't done anything as President. Razzle dazzle 'em Show 'em the first rate sorcerer you are Long as you keep 'em way off balance How can they spot you've got no talent Razzle Dazzle 'em trump ain't a complete idiot. a President depends very much on image and perception. has a candidate for President ever indulged in so much flimflammery? *shrug* it don't matter now as trump Is President. more than even during the campaign, image and perception is essential if trump wants to achieve anything domestic. the intelligence community is hurting the trump image and we do not foresee a passive President trump response. if polls show lost credibility for trump, he is gonna need respond with razzle dazzle, and the easiest way to do such is to show how flawed is the intelligence community. as President, trump has great access to intelligence info. we would not be surprised if a considerable amount o' info, particular if presented in tweet form, could make the cia or nsa look incompetent. am less worried 'bout buffoonery regarding intelligence leaks as such would likely hurt his image. clinton's lack o' concern regarding security protocols is one reason she ain't gonna be sitting behind the President's desk in the oval office anytime soon. as reflexively stoopid as trump has been with tweets n' such in the past, am not seeing him make such a blunder at this time. however, we do see the possibility o' a calculated smear of intelligence using information which would not be treasonous if divulged, but would still be considered irresponsible to be releasing public. as far as image is concerned, trump is not in a good position. he is gonna feel pressure to do something. people do stoopid when they feel cornered, particular the elmer gantry clones who has been relying on sleight-o'-hand for so very long. HA! Good Fun!

trump Presidency in 2:07 Congressional impotence is partial to blame for the possibility of trump. even so, is only so much trump can screw up domestic w/o Congress adopting a Three Wise Monkeys posture. am hopeful trump scares Congress outta their indolence. HA! Good Fun!

race issues, real o' perceived, becomes national/international news and sudden 1/3 o' the population suffers a temporary drop o' +30 iq points. on the positive side, the pandemic foolishness is not limited to any one race/culture. the ubiquitous wacky is nondenominational and is as prevalent 'mongst the disenfranchised as it is 'mongst the privileged. so give three cheers for successful achieving some kinda equality. ... no cheers? HA! Good Fun!

consider self lucky. never has our expectations been so brutally crushed. broken mechanics and terrible writing. notice the near complete lack o' arcanum additions on those ubiquitous "best crpg characters" lists? the one unforgivable sin for a writer is to be boring. the arcanum characters is universal dull, flat and lifeless. you didn't play? you win. arcanum were at its best Before we played. rare has a crpg garnered so much hype. back in the days o' print magazines, arcanum were getting frequent and enthusiastic previews. development team were universal well-regarded and the setting were unique. the developers were a bit tight-lipped (jerks) 'bout actual game mechanics, but with their fallout pedigree, most industry writers had high hopes. a bunch o' reactionary crpg fans has convinced themselves o' the greatness o' arcanum, 'cause it checks the right boxes. is a sand-box open world which lets you explore. is, for the time released, a dynamic setting. you got freedom o' classless character creation. got tim cain. etc. so how could game be bad? buggy, horribly balanced and dull. is no forgiving dull. HA! Good Fun! ps we wouldn't mind if obsidian did an arcanum sequel, just as long as they went for a kinda battlezone (1998) take on the original.

... had a nerd moment. saw image for the trailer and we thought o' validus from the fatal 5. wondered if we would get a chance to play as mano or the persuader too. am not even much o' a comic book fan. wouldn't be surprised if we lost our mondavi center season tickets over this. HA! Good Fun!

Was expecting either a holiday or January 2018 release myself. After all, I remember it taking forever between the first major gameplay reveal of Inquisition to its final release. excepting end-of-year, Publishers o' aaa games try to release near start or end o' a fiscal quarter. plans don't always go as, well, planned, but a noteworthy % o' me:a sales is gonna happen day one or first week. get a good week o' sales in before march 31. tuesday is still typical software release day, yes? so, tuesday before end of fiscal quarter woulda' been one o' our favorite possibilities/guesses. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/68877-delayed-to-early-2015/?p=1519237 HA! Good Fun!

the 2e d&d kit made illiteracy an unalterable quality o' the skald. the notion o' Gorion's Ward, raised in a library, could possible be illiterate offended karzak. unfathomable. ... shoulda' saved the story as it actual managed to shut karzak up for a bit. HA! Good Fun!

skald. illiterate. HA! Good Fun!

shouldn't an evil alt be difficult to spot? sure, spock can pull of the van dyke, but am thinking amentep photoshopping beards onto his movie starlets and using a vague egyptian nom de guerre might be a bit obvious, no? go with something outta character. GibberingMotha alternative, take bart simpon's advice 'bout how "nobody suspects the butterfly." Fr.Flanagan? nice hat. dunno. only alt we ever used were decided obvious... were back on the Co6 boards and in post we used alt, we also revealed self as Gromnir. were long time ago. karzak suggested it weren't possible to envision a skald bard raised in candlekeep, so we wrote an origin story o' such a character with alt of "storyteller." used the alt a few times to pen mini stories. never saw much use for alts. HA! Good Fun!

odd http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85411-faith-convictions-now-still-always/ npc hireling has same base faith and convictions as a main character paladin: +4 deflection/+8 all other defenses. however, hirelings have faith and convictions modified by level as 'posed to disposition: +1/+2 every 5 levels. thus at level 15 an npc hireling will reach +7/+14 for faith and convictions. faith and convictions for a main character paladin, as you can see from the linked thread, is suffering rather peculiar math. for purposes o' faith and convictions and priestly holy radiance, dispositions max at 3 even though your character record sheet allows you to reach 4 in a disposition. as such, with 2 relevant paladin dispositions, there is six total opportunities to modify the base +4/+8 faith and convictions bonus to defenses. +.8/+1.6. a main character paladin will therefore be able to achieve +8/+17. as such there is not a large gulf 'tween main paladin faith and convictions bonuses and hierling, although a main character will likely max out dispositions far earlier than level 15, which is when a hireling finally achieves their ultimate faith and convictions upgrade. HA! Good Fun!

what are your assets? can't help you if am not knowing what you got at your disposal. without gimmicks the battle is doable with a level 4 party. we typical head to raedric's immediate after reaching level 4 'cause, well, "look at all that cheddar." can fill our digital coffers early in the game by killing every raedric defender and looting their corpses. don't hesitate to use food and potions. hire a henchman if you don't have a full party. kill weakest m00ks before trying to kill raedric. etc. *shrug* what are your assets? am gonna be able to give more useful tactical guidance if we know what resources you have available. HA! Good Fun!

the corrode damage from rakhan does not supplant fire, but rather is in addition to the +% burn damage from FoD. so take scion of flame and spirit of decay and wield bittercut or an arquebus for impressive crits... if that is your thing. even so, the paladin were not designed to provide impressive dps http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85484-help-me-build-a-dps-palidan/?p=1791272 paladins were envisioned as a low-maintenance support class. nevertheless, paladins can be built to do other stuff. a dps paladin will never be optimal, and pallegina is still your best bet for a striker who is not meant to be an on-kill healbot. nevertheless, a poe striker paladin, melee or ranged, can be highly efficacious. HA! Good Fun!

Jnpc? joinable npc. and yeah, she ain't one o' the better written characters in the game. flat. however, we will note how from mid levels onward, initial attribute scores is far less significant when measuring relative combat efficacy than is talents and abilities. pallegina's attributes do not prevent her from fulfilling multiple roles, which we suspect were part o' the rationale behind her scores. HA! Good Fun!

a couple quick observations 1) your experience with buffs is the opposite of the reality dunno. maybe you gotta bug. once battle starts is the only time a majority of buffs may be applied to your party. pre-battle buffing is, for the most part, limited to persistent auras and food consumption. 2) pallegina is effective to an annoying degree josh sawyer's jnpc contribution to poe is pallegina. am simple stating a fact 'bout the link 'tween josh and the npc paladin with unique special abilities which make her more efficacious as a striker paladin than any player created paladin can aspire to be. draw what conclusions you will. nevertheless, be it as a ranged or melee combatant, pallegina can be a comical powerful addition to your party. 3) cipher balance has been a constant problem sure, there has been a few bugs which made it possible for a player to ignore focus concerns, but even when such have been addressed, the developers has been fighting a near impossible battle to keep ciphers from being overpowered. no doubt if you take a quick peak at a few o' the cipher build recommendations a bit lower down the board, you will no doubt see suggestions for how to keep a cipher's focus reserves plentiful. 4) rangers no longer suck at release, rangers were a pain to micromanage, and kinda weak as well. rangers are no longer weak, but am not a fan even so. chanters and rangers rare have a place in our party, but it ain't 'cause they are underpowered. again, if you genuine wish to keep sagani in your party, read any one o' the numerous ranger optimization threads in the class build portion o' the board. the dwarf ranger also is making significant thematic contributions to the poe story, so there is that. 'course you gotta dig through layers o' lore exposition to get to her story, so... am thinking the most troublesome aspects of poe combat for new players is same now as they was during the beta. combat is fast and unforgiving. IF you don't got established tactics to handle charm or confusion encounters, then such combats will end fast and ugly. bug swarms cast by ogre druids (even w/o the benefit o' technical bugs to enhance damage) can reduce a low/mid-level party to formless goo in less than a minute if the would-be heroes ain't prepared. well, how the heck can you be prepared if you are new to the game? as bad as were beetles and bears in the beta, improvements in enemy/monster ai has made poe similarly unfriendly for new players. combat starts and a moment later the mobs o' whatever rush past our tanks and target whomever in our party has the worst possible defense 'gainst __________. such ai improvements is welcomed by hardcore players who have literal hundreds of hours of experience playing poe, but for a new player the shock and awe tactics is gonna be demoralizing. is tough for many veterans of poe to provide useful advice precisely 'cause they have so much experience. functionally the game is far slower for a person who has played poe for an embarrassing number of hours. also, the game were intended to have no specific tactic which would work for every battle, though such a goal has remained outta reach when experienced players is manipulating the game mechanics. *shrug* poe were not meant to be a rock-paper-scissors game. each enemy were not 'posed to have a kryptonite. even so, enemies will be weaker 'gainst __________. rare does a foe have equal good defenses. will be a weapon type or elemental type a monster is weakest 'gainst. perhaps a critter has relative poor will defense? well then, before trying to target the foe with a will attack, hit it with a will debuff such as miasma of dull mindedness, then follow up with a divine mark which targets will but also lowers deflection and does fire damage. at the same time, enemies will target your weaknesses. similarly, you can pile on a whole lotta buffs on your own party transforming your pedestrian seeming group o' adventurers into monster-slaying juggernauts. the thing is, and here is where poe is particular opaque for new folks, it is often difficult to discern what effects will stack. typical, two spells offering the same benefit will only use the higher value when cast 'pon the same target. there is seeming exceptions to this rule. a priest's modified holy radiance will stack with a paladin's aura. why? do you care? how on earth is you, as a new player, s'posed to know what can stack? veteran players know. vet players will give advice which works perfect well when you got ridiculous buffed defenses and accuracy, but may leave you frustrated. play on normal difficulty is kinda hard compared to most crpgs. poe combats is fast and unforgiving, but unlike games such as age of decadence, there is gonna be multiple ways you can build effective characters. as brutal as poe can be, you will see dozens of different recommended best tactics for dealing with particular nasty foes. sure, solo potd runs is gonna see options marginalized as gimmicks is often the best (only) way to handle a combat, but a full party is gonna have many options available. give you good advice is gonna much depend on how you wanna play poe. all-priest-party? no-priest-party? both is viable and can be effective... even overwhelming. so, how do you wanna play poe? whatever is your answer, is gonna be folks who can make suggestions on making your party members work together... and because three people give complete different advice hardly means any of 'em is wrong. HA! Good Fun!

mostly you convinced us that not watching supergirl is a good idea. that being said, we had our 2016-17 nfl season-in-a-nutshell surreal moment when legarrette blount called out ndamukong suh for being dirty. of course suh is dirty, but blount criticizing? dunno. perhaps manifested would feel better if he watched the bills presser following the firing o' their head coach. at least you can rest easy knowing the browns, 49rs and bills are far more disorganized than the chargers? maybe not. not a great season o' football. were like an episode o' mash, but not funny mash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYjy7uUn7fc&list=RDsYjy7uUn7fc HA! Good Fun!

metacritic annoys. a game gets only 20 total critic reviews, and most such reviews is from sources we ain't never read, so what does we actual learn? only get 20 reviews and a couple inflated (or deflated) scores is gonna distort averages. and the user reviews is even more suspect with the tendency for folks to score games in response to perceived opposition scores. m0mazboi likes the game and see a bunch o' zero scores, so he gives the game a 10 'cause all those zeroes is clear unfair and undeserved. ch33zwh!zsamura! sees a bunch o' perfect ten scores and so makes his submission a zero to balance out the fanbois. for the enormous aaa releases, metacritic may have some value as the highs and lows balance out a bit, and there is no paucity o' critics. dunno. personal, we don't use meta. we tend to look to a handful o' profeshnul reviewers and fellow gamers whose tastes appear to largely align with Gromnir's pov regarding games. our buying habits has us waiting, on average, 'bout six months post release 'fore considering a purchase. after six months am gonna have a fair bit o' feedback regarding a title we is considering, yes? regardless o' metacritic, if Thing 1 and Thing 2 both liked Balls o' Brass: a Glengarry Glenn Ross Game, chances are Gromnir will give it a try. if Thing 1 liked and Thing 2 did not, then perhaps we look to a few o' the folks we know on this board and others for input. ain't a foolproof system, but it has us rare feeling cheated by a game purchase. sidenote: 6 month delay also gets us a cheaper and more stable product, which tends to make us less angry than many day 1 purchasers. a mediocre and stable game for $20 is admitted almost an entire different game than a $50 purchase rendered near unplayable by bugs. HA! Good Fun!

tell us your party disposition. tactics will change substantial based 'pon what you can actual do. if only we had a wheelbarrow. HA! Good Fun!

moot HA! Good Fun!

no good reason for gifted getting a boat... unless. HA! Good Fun!

gonna watch her 30 rock episode. "help me liz lemon. you're my only hope!" is better if we can laugh.

you don't need roles if you abandon classes. unfortunately, poe has classes. poe has loads of classes. to avoid "best tank" or "best dps" nonsense, the developers realized making each class distinct were necessary. give each class a unique powha has always been a fail in ie games and elsewhere as it results in clear bests, which means you also got worsts. to avoid such wastefulness o' classes, the developers attempted to make each poe class genuine unique. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66380-update-81-the-front-line-fighters-and-barbarians/ sadly, with all the patches, the initial design concepts got lost. "Overall, fighters are designed to be low-maintenance, reliable, and long-lived even in marathon battles." in the ie games, fighters could laugh off trebuchet blows while dishing out epic pain. the goal o' poe were Not to make the poe fighter perform same as the ie fighter. the poe fighter would be able to sit on the front lines and absorb pain without the need for constant micromanagement. damage output of the poe fighter would not be challenging that o' poe monks or barbarians, and definite not rangers and rogues. unfortunate, post 3.0 patches and the poe fighter is looking very much like the ie fighter. the fighter is no longer a low maintenance damage sink who can hold baddies away from squishies. the 3.0 fighter now does rogue-like damage and requires just as much micromanagement as any other class... while being less able to hold enemies away from squishies. you got many classes? you need many roles. otherwise you got considerable overlap and eventual marginalization. take the poe rogue. the poe rogue still is, in limited situations, the premier melee damage dealing class in the game. the poe rogue has not been altered much since release, save the initial trap nerf. rogues is still squishy and fragile... and an increasing suspect choice 'cause o' ai changes and alterations to other classes. why play a rogue when rangers has been improved so very much and clear out damage a rogue? why play a rogue when fighters now do similar damage w/o being so darn squishy? at least in the past tanks could reliable hold foes away from squishies. is not as if rogues has become worse since release, but even so, 'cause fighters and rangers and other classes has seen so many changes, rogue is now the leper class o' poe. doesn't mean much to complete a potd solo run these days... unless you do it as a rogue. engagement has always been a suspect quality. as far as we is aware, developers has made no changes to engagement in a long time. so why are people complaining, eh? what developers made changes to were encounter design and enemy ai. the developers also spent considerable efforts "improving" weak or dull classes. unfortunate, the changes to ai exposed less salient weaknesses o' a few classes. furthermore, the developer improvements o' a few classes has not... not been improvements. more powerful, while always meeting with initial player approval, is a dangerous option in a game. increased power is not frequent an improvement in a game. some folks reflexive hate the idea o' balance, but balance is an essential quality in most any game. is kinda ironic that with all the post release improvements, the classes is less unique and far less balanced. am hopeful a fresh start with a poe 2 will allow the developers to turn back the clock on a few o' the classes, 'cause while we enjoy the game, obsidian let the post-release game kinda spin outta their grasp. perhaps the developers fixed isolated issues and lost sight o' the game as a whole? dunno. good game. we like game. sadly, is more than a few things 'bout the game which were better at release. HA! Good Fun!

bleak wankers have cruel as favored, so... you get liberating exhortation for 1 ability point, which is an ability we take for any support paladin regardless. is hardly as if one is throwing away ability points to get to the accuracy boost. and yeah, particular early in the game, +10 o' accuracy is huge. accuracy is more than d&d thac0 as it also pivotal in determining graze/hit/crit which affects not only damage output but any number on-crit effects. if we were playing a main character striker paladin, we would consider goldpact. HA! Good Fun! Makes sense. What would be the benefit of Goldpact as a MC striker paladin? Would love to hear your suggestions with regard to that build as well, thanks. sorry 'bout the delay. goldpact gets enduring flame, which is a damage over time effect triggered by flames of devotion. so you build a striker paladin around flames of devotion. obviously need take flames of devotion and enduring flame. scion of flame boosts all your flame damage. intense flames enhances your flames of devotion. tag a foe with sworn enemy and then hit 'em with your flames of devotion. both dual wield and two-handed weapons is viable, but we would recommend 2-handed 'cause of forgemaster gloves. you will see all kinda builds which rely on durgan steel and whatnot. durgan's steel is nice. the thing is, you are gonna play much o' the game w/o all the bat-crap crazy optimized 1007 folks recommend. might as well play a character who excels the entire game rather than only during last 1/3. forgemaster gloves are available early in the game. forgemaster gloves create a universal weapon which does pure fire damage... a whole lotta fire damage. so now we got foes tagged by sworn enemy and being hit by an over-the-top flame weapon which is being modified by intense flames, scion of flame, and enduring flame? the universal weapon created by forgemaster is universal but is 2-handed, so build 2-handed and then either consider greatswords or quarterstaves. why quarterstaves? durance's staff is one o' the more underrated weapons in the game 'cause it has a unique quality: it does crush/burn damage. scion of flame modifies durance's staff even though the tooltip don't show it appropriate. with one o' the very first unique weapons available in the game, you is gonna be seeing a +20% damage boost from scion o' flame. alternate 'tween forgemaster gloves and durance's staff. burn everything. ultimately, a durgan's steel enhanced tidefall (greatsword) will get you better damage than durance's staff. meh. people get way too worked up over attribute scores in poe. as a melee combatant you are gonna wanna focus 'pon might and dex, but do not waste much time looking for the perfect attribute spread as you can be xtreme effective with non-optimal attributes. by mid-to-late portions o' the game, talent, ability and gear choices all eclipse the importance o' your initial attributes when predicting combat success and failure. even so, regardless o' your starting attribute spread, focus might and dex via gear. earlier in this thread we included a less-than-optimal striker paladin. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/85343-post-30-paladins/?p=1792507 can build similar, but go goldpact. main goal is to stack fire damage. edit: am personal seeing an attempt to genuine maximize dps as a mistake for a paladin striker. paladins is underappreciated as a support class. don't get so focused on trying to make an effective striker that you forget to develop your paladin's support capabilities. aside: remember rakhan field builds for bleak walkers is another option for a dps paladin as you add corrode damage on top o' your burn damage for flames of devotion. in addition to scion of flame, you take spirit of decay to boost corrode damage. if you get all tingly seeing ridiculous crit hits, you build a ranged bleak walker with an arquebus and get some o' the highest crit numbers possible in the game. alternative, choose dual wield and use bettercut, a sabre which does slash/corrode damage. HA! Good Fun!

yeah, the new ai is just silly. how the hell does every enemy know which one of your party members has the worst will/fort/reflex defense? and somebody needs explain the new math of engagement to Gromnir, 'cause it sure seems as if we need two tanks in a party, and both tanks need be able to do respectable damage to hold enemies, which kinda defeats the point o' engagement, no? etc. oh well. HA! Good Fun!

white march monks and faux sahuagin (google spell-check actual knows "sahuagin"?) initial annoyed Gromnir as reasonable tactics didn't appear to matter. radiant spore battle mighta even been more tedious. felt as if 1/2 our radiant spore successes were the result o' our prayers to the rng deities being answered as 'posed to our stratagems. am not certain where you are at, but am thinking you identify a clear flaw in the game. poe is kinda a hard-core micromanagement game, and white march is clear designed to challenge the tactics people spent hours developing during their poe play. unfortunate, hard-core appeal is limited appeal. many (not all) hard-core folks is comic snobbish. not only must a game be hard-core, but it must needs be the right kinda hard-core game. gotta be tb and classless? maybe gotta be exact like bg2, but with all the "proper" mods? a developer tries to go hardcore and they necessarily limit the folks who will possible appreciate. sure, the developers added story-mode, but for folks who want some level o' challenge w/o being overwhelmed, story-mode no doubt feels patronizing. is a goldilocks kinda thing, eh? the bell curve for crpg appeal is gonna be fat in the middle allowing for very limited numbers o' happy purchasers at either extreme end o' the curve. core poe purposeful aims appeal at a more extreme end o' the bell curve. white march pushes towards even more hardcore appeal. as much as am personal liking poe, am thinking the overall design philosophy is suspect as it necessarily has limited appeal. you gonna make a game to appeal to papa bear? fine. gotta accept papa bear for who he is: a grumpy curmudgeon with a rather refined (limited) palette. make papa bear happy necessarily means you leave most others dissatisfied. works for Gromnir... a grumpy curmudgeon if ever there was one. HA! Good Fun!