Gromnir

complete untrue. there is very little in common between the poe cypher and the paladin. the mechanics o' gameplay is extreme different with cypher's being adept at striking, but also capable at debuffing and having cc capabilities as well while needing to build focus through combat. on the other hand, paladins are a Relative low maintenance support class that is durable enough to fulfill the primary tank role in the party. making both classes balanced so that each is offering roughly equivalent contributions to your party is not diminishing diversity. heck, as this ain't a mmo with pvp, the developers has specific noted that the goal o' balance is other than producing classes with genuine equal power. as hard as this is for some folks to hear, the goal is to make classes and talents equivalent fun. regardless o' power, if it were simple more fun to play as a fighter tank than any other class, then obsidian would effectively be discouraging folks from playing other potential tank classes. so, balance promotes viable choices, and more choice in a crpg is a good thing, yes? and yeah, power is always gonna be a factor in balancing. if in some random game it is clear better to use a two-handed sword 'cause two-handed swords is objective superior damage dealers to all other weapons, then regardless o' the diversity o' weapons available to a player, there will be a tendency to choose the best. even though there is little point in trying to WIN in a single-player crpg designed so that any yutz with a couple firing neurons can complete the game successfully, folks still tend to try and make stronger, rather than weaker, characters. even so, balancing power is not mutual exclusive with diversity. avoiding clear best or worst weapons, talents and classes does not result in reduced diversity. in most cases, balances actual enhances diversity 'cause more talents, weapons and classes is viable... and fun. the notion that balance diminishes diversity or fun is complete bass ackwards. HA! Good Fun! You seem to be under the impression that less diversity means no diversity. If you think something like multiclassing would bring less, not more, diversity - then we'll have to agree to disagree. That statement would make no sense to me. As for balance diminishing diversity - it's inevitable. But it's not a black and white issue, and no one is talking about 100% balance and 0% diversity. That said, a good example of what I'm saying is a game like Chess. In Chess, you have close to 100% balance and 0% diversity. The single potentially unbalanced aspect of the game is who goes first. That's it. ... who are you responding to? pick a single example (chess) and suggest that its balancing is applicable to a non analogous situation is not only bad form but illogical. poe ain't chess. when Gromnir plays poe, he does not line up his character directly across a board from the computer and then try to knock off opposing pieces until we defeat his/her king. heck, as we already noted, poe ain't a mmo with pvp. am not competing with anybody in poe, and there is no need or desire on the behalf o' the developers to make certain that when we play as a priest of eotahs that we should face exact the same challenges faced by a dracozzi paladinin paladin. poe is so complete not like chess. ridiculous. as we noted already, the goal in chess is to win, while in poe, winning is a near forgone cone conclusion. poe is a complete different kinda game from chess with complete different balance requirements. as we didn't address multi-classing, your hypothetical attribution to a stance by Gromnir seems a bit misplaced, but given the initial non-responsive bit 'bout less diversity being different from no diversity, we shouldn't be surprised. btw, simple saying that balance diminishes diversity don't make it true. not by a long shot. we explained how balance actual enhances diversity by making alternative classes, weapons, talents and builds More viable. you didn't respond even if you believe you have. HA! Good Fun!

complete untrue. there is very little in common between the poe cypher and the paladin. the mechanics o' gameplay is extreme different with cypher's being adept at striking, but also capable at debuffing and having cc capabilities as well while needing to build focus through combat. on the other hand, paladins are a Relative low maintenance support class that is durable enough to fulfill the primary tank role in the party. making both classes balanced so that each is offering roughly equivalent contributions to your party is not diminishing diversity. heck, as this ain't a mmo with pvp, the developers has specific noted that the goal o' balance is other than producing classes with genuine equal power. as hard as this is for some folks to hear, the goal is to make classes and talents equivalent fun. regardless o' power, if it were simple more fun to play as a fighter tank than any other class, then obsidian would effectively be discouraging folks from playing other potential tank classes. so, balance promotes viable choices, and more choice in a crpg is a good thing, yes? and yeah, power is always gonna be a factor in balancing. if in some random game it is clear better to use a two-handed sword 'cause two-handed swords is objective superior damage dealers to all other weapons, then regardless o' the diversity o' weapons available to a player, there will be a tendency to choose the best. even though there is little point in trying to WIN in a single-player crpg designed so that any yutz with a couple firing neurons can complete the game successfully, folks still tend to try and make stronger, rather than weaker, characters. even so, balancing power is not mutual exclusive with diversity. avoiding clear best or worst weapons, talents and classes does not result in reduced diversity. in most cases, balances actual enhances diversity 'cause more talents, weapons and classes is viable... and fun. the notion that balance diminishes diversity or fun is complete bass ackwards. HA! Good Fun!

gonna second this. as much as we hated the early beta beetles and spiders, ogre druids, immediate after 1.06, became a nightmare for us. in the beta, we were new to the game and frequent didn't know what we were doing. by june of 2015, we couldn't use inexperience to dismiss over-tough battles. with 1.06, there were a glitch or something with plague of insects. level 3 of the endless paths became, for a time, a comical meatgrinder. HA! Good Fun!

wanna play a tank? step 1: wait til faiths and convictions is fixed. HA! Good Fun! ps folks is gonna tell you what is the necessary or best attribute spreads. don't listen to them. attributes, even for potd, are not nearly as important as most folks suggest. example: wild orlan old valia darcozzi paladini m: 10 c: 9 d: 10 p: 14 i: 19 r: 16 is our current (languishing) paladin. folks will tell you that such attributes is wrong, but he largely roll-stomped potd. is an incredible buffer and more than resilient enough. you could drop intellect one point and raise perception, and even w/o metagaming and exploiting inn/stronghold rest bonuses, you will rare fail the cerebral dialogue checks. HA! Good Fun!

am having sympathy for folks who invest considerable time into the game only to have a patch or new build significant alter their character. it can be frustrating to get many hours into a game and suddenly have the developers pull the metaphorical rug out from underneath your feet. that said, this is the example o' an either/or situation that don't represent a False dichotomy. sure, the developers coulda' left the game as it were on day one and only fixed technical problems. 'course then you woulda' had Gromnir, at the very least, complaining 'bout all the broken aspects o' the game. after release it became obvious that late game cypher were ridiculous strong. cyphers never ran outta focus and a handful o' powhaz were doing incredible damage. with perception and resolve providing significant deflection bonuses, players built tanks that were functional invulnerable to ordinary melee and ranged attacks. traps were wacky overpower das any number o' comical adra dragon fights revealed. it took many builds to get chanters to a point where they were neither op or gimped. etc. failure to fix PERCEIVED problems woulda' had Gromnir, and many others, complaining. so, if the developers had backed off of balance after day 1, there woulda' indeed been consistency. am doubting that many would argue against the value o' having consistent rules and mechanics in a game, yes? and truth to tell, doing nothing woulda' been far easier for the developers. unfortunately, if the developers had taken the easier path and chosen to fix technical problems and add new content as 'posed to continuing their balancing efforts, many players such as Gromnir woulda' continued to rail 'bout all the broken, and easily fixable, mechanics. were no way they coulda' made everybody happy. thankfully the developers showed good sense by adding a respec feature. obsidian's predictable balancing efforts did indeed alter many character concepts and builds. yeah, respec were not a perfect solution for those who had seen their concept diluted or changed, but at least these players could respec their character w/o having to restart a game in which they mighta already invested dozens of hours. not a perfect solution were respec, but it did take some o' the sting outta the continuing balancing changes. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUeuAnMNDhA on the rare occasions when we take the old buick outta the garage on an unpleasantly warm sacramento summer night, we invariably drive a bit too fast and play the above song way too loud. HA! Good Fun!

games we want that will likely never exist: a kinda crpg fusion 'tween indiana jones and call o' cthulhu... need more lovecraft than indiana jones embraced obsidian deadlands crpg neil gaiman setting crpg from bioware or obsidian-- graveyard book or neverwhere barsoom setting for a squad-based tactical combat or turn-based strategy game... made near impossible by failed disney movie is some other games we want, but most is plausible. a new mechwarrior Tactical game is being made, so scratch that seeming pipe dream off the list HA! Good Fun! edit: am noticing we spelled "indiana" as "indian." were not intentional... though we wouldn't mind an indian jones character. the indian folks make a fine motorcycle.

... okie dokie. am borderline ocd our self, and still finding it difficult to take serious. you having issues with an incomplete journal don't surprise, but there is an obvious and simple solution to the genesis poster's described problem. need find a way to delete wm to avoid a quest log entry? HA! Good Fun!

... am sensing that you are serious, but am not wholly convinced. HA! Good Fun!

solution: don't play white march content am not being snarky. is just kinda an obvious solution given that wm is all optional, much as is the endless paths. on subsequent playthroughs you can enable story-mode and check out wm w/o having to deal with constant battles, but if you don't like wm content to the degree that you wanna delete, you can simply avoid such content. *shrug* honest. am feeling like Gromnir is missing some aspect of your request/concern. HA! Good Fun!

we would rather french kiss a light socket than watch some yutz play a video game. ... have somebody who looked like stephanie seymour circa the 1990 sports illustrated swimsuit issue host the "let's play" and we might be momentarily curious... 'cause Gromnir IS a guy. however, once ms. seymour's lookalike actual started playing the game in question, am certain we couldn't maintain interest for long. HA! Good Fun!

we can't give you westlaw or lexus access, but search wxyz-tv 2012 arab festival. a few such news bits describe the "free speech zone." dearborn is actual notorious for their "free speech zones." most case excerpts from your link simple repeat what we observed earlier in this thread, so no need to repeat fighting words or incitement.... and hardly any mention were given to the public forum aspect precisely 'cause o' the free speech zone. however... "Fundamentally, no police action that hinders the speaker’s freedom of speech should be deemed legitimate in the eyes of the Constitution unless it satisfies strict scrutiny, which requires the police to achieve their ends by using only those means that are the least restrictive with respect to the speaker’s First Amendment rights." keep in mind that you cannot read this as plain english-- is legal terms o' art. when a court applies "strict scrutiny," it is a near complete and total loss for the State. the government needs use the Least restrictive means to achieve their Compelling interest. we capitalized purposefully 'cause least and compelling is no joke. you can count on one hand (and have fingers left unused) the times the SCOTUS upheld state abridgement o' free speech wherein strict scrutiny were applied... and dearborn weren't a wartime case. when courts say least respective, they mean it. is not least respective given police manpower and resources available. money and cost does not overcome first amendment least restrictive. 'y'know the reason why Gromnir does mostly free exercise and establishment as 'posed to free speech? 'cause free speech is too easy. if you got facially neutral time, place and manner restrictions (volume outside a hospital) or incidental regulation (burning your draft card isn't ok even if is speech) then Gromnir needs put in a full day o' work, but that is rare. if is speech, and is protected speech, and if we ain't dealing with increasing number o' forum issues, then double-check for tpm or incidental regulation possibilities. nope? apply strict scrutiny and call it a day. too easy. thank goodness. HA! Good Fun!

I'm taking the wait and see approach. Eventually the whole package will get re-released in some "GOTY" edition (all DLC's included) at bargain prices that is our plan for almost every title. a week before christmas we purchased goty edition for pc dragon age: inquisition. $20. is not as if we is a pauper, but in addition to getting more stable games with additional content, waiting +6 months to get at 1/2 or 1/3 price reduces our nerd-rage inclinations. pay +$60 for a mediocre game that were made only marginal better with $30 worth o' dlc might anger Gromnir. pay $20 for a mediocre title and am gonna walk away after +40 hours o' gameplay feeling satisfied even if moderate underwhelmed. other than kickstarters, it takes an aberrational low sales price to get us to purchase any earlier than 6 months. HA! Good Fun! ps full disclosure: we actual already own fo4 as it came with an xbone deal which we indulged last december. however, the game is still in the shrinkwrap. *chuckle* will likely purchase a fo4 goty edition 10 months to get all the dlc at one low price.

http://www.nfl.com/combine with the combine workouts a few days away, am thinking we need a new thread. HA! Good Fun!

is always best to consider how you would feel if a repugnant group were holding a festival-- weird cults and racists and whatnot. is a permit to have a march, festival or parade justification for preventing the NAACP from showing up to protest a KKK rally being held in a local park? imagine the NAACP shows up on the street just outside the barriers set up for the planned kkk hootenanny and they shout at those folks entering and exiting the park. am also gonna once again observe that the event you reference were a street festival. even if the muslim group got a permit, that cannot possibly mean that all adjacent streets and sidewalks beyond the extent o' the festival should be off-limits to protest, can it? 'course not. were a street festival. as such, protesters woulda been able to be on streets and sidewalks within view and shouting distance o' the festival but again, the actual facts is that the bible thumpers who were protesting the muslim festival were doing so from a "free speech zone" established by the city o' dearborn and the ruling o' the court regarding the first amendment issue were never controversial or questioned. the legal issue being referenced in your article were the extent of dearborn's liability. liability were a forgone conclusion. from your linked article "Murphy’s order does not affect the portion of the appeals court decision that found Bible Believers’ First Amendment rights were violated and that members should be awarded damages by defendants Dennis Richardson and Mike Jaafar, who were both deputy chiefs with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office at the time." were a question o' who pays for the wrong done to the protesters: city and county or city alone. the city police claimed they got an okie dokie from the county counsel to go ahead and arrest the protesters. county denied. HA! Good Fun!

still bugged as of 3.01. HA! Good Fun!

pc faith and convictions is still broken. HA! Good Fun!

Curious, considering how the ability was pegged as lackluster when it was revealed. possible explanation: the player character and his party can be devastated by prolonged prone, but seeming 1/4-1/3 o' foes in the game is immune to prone and knockbacks. HA! Good Fun!

seems to confirm what we thought. during a pre wm completionist run, we mighta seen azzuro 4 or 5 times... w/o trying to game the game. typical game for us would see us get to almost 120 turns (edit: ~120 before starting final burial isle run.) wm adds content, but it seems clear that as the opportunities for other stronghold events has increased, if only 'cause is more options, the chances o' getting an azzuro initial or follow-up visit has decreased. do everything to maximize the stronghold and don't get even the first azzuro dilemma til turn +75? *shrug* is a bonus thing, so no biggie we s'pose. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking that because more visitor options has been added, your chance to see him has decreased... substantially. am not certain what modifies the chance o' an azzuro visit, but he is clear in the same pool o' options as random attacks on the keep, prestigious visitors, potential special henchman and those seeking to purchase the release o' prisoners... may be our ill luck, but the tuning for the prisoner release opportunities appears a bit too frequent compared to other options. HA! Good Fun!

Just behind and slightly left of the breastbone? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eulSbXIjzk the grinch heart were positioned correct... were just a bit small. any chance trump's metaphorical heart grows and he saves christmas? ... we stress metaphorical growth 'cause we seem to recall that an enlarged heart is rather unhealthy. HA! Good Fun!

if you are having a street festival, somebody can use the street to protest your festival. am thinking you don't necessarily have all the facts o' the case, but that is understandable. the anti-muslim protesters occupied portions o' the street not in use by the festival to taunt attendees. don't let papers confuse you when they observe that the bigoted anti-muslims "disrupted" the festival. free speech does not mean that others need remain quiet while you exercise your free speech rights. thank goodness. whenever the kkk or nazis have their little marches, people come out to protest. good. we would be mighty disappointed if some group dedicated to bigotry held a street festival in dearborn and the good folks o' michigan did not respond with public chastisements. the thing is, the Constitution doesn't make judgement calls on the quality o' speech and there is no right to be free from offense. we do not force the naacp to remain quiet while the kkk marches. reverse must be true if everybody gets same free speech, yes? and nobody says you need listen to bigots or offensive speech. respond and educate, or leave. nevertheless, if is a park or sidewalk or street, people got a right to speak their mind. avoiding your inconvenience is not the kinda government objective that is gonna survive a strict scrutiny analysis. HA! Good Fun! ps is actual kinda amusing how the police attempted to prevent the events o' the dearborn incident. as we noted, streets and parks and sidewalks is Public Forums, though even those has been diluted by recent Courts and by well-intentioned local officials. officials in dearborn were not caught unaware by the anti-muslim protesters, so they set up a "free-speech zone" where the protesters could gather. *chuckle* such "free-speech zone" limits near always fail legal challenges, but rare do the protester have the means or opportunity to get injunctive relief. regardless, the bigots were in their zone when the folks from the muslim festival began hurling soda cans and such at 'em. pps after re-reading, we need kinda apologize for how little we explained public forum doctrine, but is kinda confusing. is an irresponsible oversimplification to state that parks, sidewalks and streets is the only genuine public forums, but is, for all practical purposes, true. the only public property where people can expect to get full free speech protection is parks, public streets and public sidewalks. in the 1980s the Courts started using a peculiar original intent rationale to put limits on public forums. example: the founding fathers couldn't have envisioned airports and so airports were not public fora. wacky. pre 1980s, all public property were either a public forum or a closed public forum. for obvious reasons, locations such as prisons, hospitals, military bases were closed. everything else were fair game. in the past, the public forum doctrine were raised almost exclusively as a bar on the State-- can't restrict speech 'cause _______ is public. in the 80s (pre Reagan appointees actually) the Court gets creative and uses the public forum doctrine as a limit. more and more locations become categorized as either closed or limited public fora 'til now we got only streets, parks and sidewalks as traditional public fora. is very few places where an American has full free speech protections that cannot be abridged. streets, parks and sidewalks is the totality o' the list. so if you not wanna be offended, is easy to get away from the offending speech. am still indulging in almost negligent oversimplification. apologies.

we got some considerable stamina in dealing with these kinda things, but even Gromnir can only manage so long. nevertheless, ros argument contains two pet-peeves we got which has made us wanna keep at it a bit longer than is typical. the first is the inexplicable misuse o' "irony." honest, what is it 'bout irony that so confuses folks? why do people use interchangeable with curious, quixotic, hypocritical and a half-dozen other more applicable words? the other is the frequency with which we sees folks mischaracterize aspects o' the law. some people got this weird notion that the law is all just subjective gobbledygook and that lawyers finagle it however they so desire. there is grey areas in the law, but hate speech laws in europe is not fungible with euro defamation or incitement anymore than they is in the US. also, in all fairness, there were a five-page and three-day gap during which Gromnir assumed the discussion were finished. hasn't so much been "still arguing" as arguing again. ... am tempted to reference a few o' the gg thread endurance-fest arguments we saw in recent past... well, recent from our pov. al2o3 surprise is a bit curious in light o' such. but yeah, point taken. this one should've been dead awhile ago. HA! Good Fun!

while thinking o' the siege o' dragonspear expansion, we loaded up bg:ee and looked for our last save. 82 days in and it appears as if we are about to enter the ducal palace for the big brouhaha with sarevok, but is as if somebody else played the save, 'cause we recall almost nothing. 82 days means we invested many hours, but is all... fuzzy. the journal is a mess, so am not even certain if we did totsc. our party is all max level, but you can do that easy w/o totsc. am likely gonna try and finish bg, but is just so strange that we recall so very little. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna ignore your misapprehensions o' law, 'cause if you won't bother to self-educate a bit, we can't help. if you don't understand what is defamation and incitement, then you cannot hope to understand why hate crime laws is different. am just not certain why you continue to embrace ignorance. and no, am not forgetting the context o' your offensive "my ancestors and distant cousins were raping and killing your Indian ancestors" nonsense. that is precisely why we posted the link to the post. try and reimagine however you wish, but if it weren't so ridiculous and over-the-top, we likely woulda' bee offended. the actuality were that we were momentarily stupefied, but not offended... and we already responded. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66123-israel-vs-palestine/?p=1473966 *sigh* as to irony... Am sad we need repeat this, but this were your observation ‘bout irony. "That's ironic you know, that you are so opposed to hate speech laws. The Swedish hate speech laws was initially pushed by American Jewish groups, after some wacko handing out Nazi propaganda became an international embarrassment in 1948." Ok, so am thinking we are safe in assuming that ros weren’t going for Socratic or dramatic irony, ‘cause those don’t apply even with ros obtuseness working to max. gonna go with the everyday and garden-variety irony that alanis morissette and ros is seeming trying for: “incongruity between the actual event of a sequence of events and the normal or expected results.” Now, what ‘bout GD’S POSTING were incongruous with the normal and expected? Ignore your 1948 jewish-americans for the nonce (most o’ Europe ignored or harassed jews for centuries, so a few moments longer shouldn’t cause any strain,) and focus on GD. Is it actual ironic that GD is “so opposed to hate speech laws?” Has his past behavior, the sequence leading up to his posting, led you to believe that he were opposed to free speech? Let’s be magnanimous and use some kinda stereotyping to aid ros in his pursuit o’ irony—is something ‘bout GD that woulda made one guess that he would be in favor of hate crime legislation? Perhaps his race, creed or national origin misled you? Surely gd’s American citizenship did not lead you to believe that he would be in favor o’ hate speech legislation, after all, we got no hate speech laws in the US, and whenever some yutz tries to create such laws, folks like GD is fighting to prevent such from successful being passed by state and national legislatures. You personal have seen GD post for some years on these boards, so am pretty sure you can’t use your own personal interactions with GD to establish the incongruity o’ his current opposition to hate speech. Perhaps you see GD as a kinda wild-eyed, gun-toting, red-Stater who drives a big pickup and is one controversial Supreme Court decision away from starting his own militia group? Oh, wait, that is Gromnir’s image o’ GD. Regardless, whatever were your personal image o’ GD (not that such would make ironic) am doubting you genuine expected GD to support hate speech legislation. Sooooooo, now we get to the curious example o’ jewish-americans in 1948. What about jewish-americans convincing 1948 Sweden to adopt hate laws makes GD’S POSTING an unexpected result? You cannot possibly suggest that ‘cause you read an article that created a rather suspect causal link ‘tween an unspecified jewish-american group and Sweden’s adoption o’ ate laws that GD’s BEHAVIOR were transformed from expected to incongruous. Did you perhaps mean that the 1948 jewish-american’s behavior were incongruous or unexpected? No, that wouldn’t make much sense, would it? Is difficult to work up any surprise that people o’ the jewish faith would be angered by a guy promoting nazi propaganda. So, what is it ‘bout the 1948 Jewish-Americans made GD’S POSTING in opposition to hate speech a surprising? How were GD’s actions unexpected? Given GD’s past behavior or his inherent qualities, what made HIS behavior incongruous with your expectations? Now, we can see a certain black humor in your mistaken irony. After all, if sweden’s adoption o’ hate speech laws were the result o’ pressure from a jewish-american group in 1948, we cannot help but see the scenario as a monumental farce. To observe that the jewish people faced considerable bigotry across much/most o’ Europe for many centuries previous to 1948 is an understatement, but particular starting in the late 1800s, the endemic bigotry the jewish peoples faced became marked by systemic violence. Sweden weren't as bad as some nations (ain't saying much) and we get that sweden wanted to stay neutral during ww2, but given all that EUROPEAN JEWS suffered for so very long, for sweden to sudden have an epiphany about hate speech 'cause an unidentified group o' american jews 'posedly complained about a guy handing out nazi pamphlets is... *shrug* as we said, is black humor. HA! Good Fun!