Gromnir

kinda surprised we ain't talking manifested off a 12-story ledge today. the depleted chargers lost to an equally depleted bears team, a bears team that gave up a red-zone fumble and a pick six in the first half. ... think he mentioned playing tomb raider. perhaps that game is a balm for his charred football soul. HA! Good Fun!

it is expected given that we are talking 'bout a fallout game not made by troika... not that troika ever made a fallout game. we fully expect the ANGARMONKIES to throw their noisome 0 metacritic scores at onlookers in the vain attempt to punish bethesda for the unmitigated gall o' making yet another fallout game. HA! Good Fun!

Has a coldness dial, 0 is off 5 causes ice in liquids and frosts veggies, we keep it on 3, he turns it to 0. This was like the 6th time he's done it but the first we didn't catch it within a couple hours. Took until now to realize that I can pull the dial off. Ever since the youngin' around here has been walking, we've had to pull the knobs off the front of the stove whenever it's not in use. His persistence in trying to blow up the house is a little unnerving. In other news, we're nuts enough after dealing with this one (and assorted failures along the way) to be expecting Youngin' the Sequel next May. well, congratulations. this is a congratulatory matter, yes? am recollecting more than a few stories o' enoch jr. illness, and is sounding as if a healthy crumbsnatcher is as much a handful as one laid low by communicable disease or adverse condition. well, at the very least, you has proven your continued virility to your fellow man and to the universe itself. huzzah. so, tip back a self congratulatory glass/fifth o' rye... and try to get some sleep while you still can. HA! Good Fun!

Let me see if I can do impressions. Relatively unknown actors and directors is what made the original movies great ... claiming you don't like them is bad strawman, Strawnir, you're flailing again, like a teenager. You can't trust Harrison because he's a stoner, but he is an honest stoner, and when he says the project that made his career is in good hands, you better listen. Or keep flailing, no one can understand you anyway. *chuckle* that being said, the original film were indeed mostly a collection o' unknowns... with a few notable exceptions. gonna observe that peter cushing and alec guiness were hardly unknowns. regardless, am not certain if unknowns is what made new hope great, but Gromnir were kinda young at the time, so our knowledge o' directors and casting choices were limited. our favorite director in 1977? had only been to the movies 2 time previous... though we did like rocky very much. even so, is unlikely that we aware o' Lucas' (or harrison ford's) work on american graffiti. am pretty sure that whatever anticipation we had 'bout the first star wars were limited to having seen kids with star wars t-shirts and lunchboxes. we rare went to school, but as we didn't own a tv, is difficult to come up with reasons for a young Gromnir to buy into star wars hype. am doubting we had more anticipation 'bout the original star wars than we does 'bout the current 2015 offering. HA! Good Fun!

we wouldn't trust harrison ford regarding quality o' scripts (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000148/) particularly o' a project he is starring in and has monetary reasons to hope for its success. kasdan also ain't exactly a can't miss writer... and keep in mind that the script itself were re-tooled by kasdan and abrams after arndt left the project. *shrug* am not a fan o' abrams. have not been a fan o' a star wars movie since empire. truth to tell, the only star wars storytelling we has genuine enjoyed this century were kotor, kotor2 (til the end) and star wars: clone wars (2003). our anticipation is guarded. typically, director and actors are what draw us to a project. writing credits is so misleading nowadays. for chrissakes, damon and affleck got an academy award and their script apparent included gun battles and car chases before william goldman came onto the good will hunting project as an uncredited consultant. actors and directors. a collection o' relative unknowns and a director we don't like. HA! Good Fun!

not to be a bucket o' cold water, but am suspecting that the phantom menace trailer gave you (and many others) chills. we like the trailers, but as soon as we recollect that jj abrams is directing and gets writing credit... well, we prepare for plot holes big enough to swallow a death star, and a nonsensical ending that makes us long for superman (1978). HA! Good Fun!

am not one to quote monty python, but... am s'posing that for an englishman it is tough not to channel your inner imperialist, from time to time. HA! Good Fun!

well, it is worth observing that there has been few advances in the basics o' sex in the past 50 years. the only big change in contraception in that time has been the "morning after" pill, yes? now admittedly, if you were teaching in japan, we expect the class would need be a bit more complex. need explaining that being sexually assaulted on a train is Not a healthy and normal sexual encounter for a pre-teen girl? and am suspecting that no American class need have clarification o' tentacles. HA! Good Fun!

yeah, am having had a few nightmare flashpoint runs since 4.0, so we quit fps altogether. the changes to heroics and fps has not worked as advertised. for heroics, people is less likely to group now 'cause the vast majority o' such missions is soloable. get all rewards for self and not need wait 'round for folks to show up at heroic locale. and tactical fps has us praying to infernal powers that mando raiders will require less than 2 hours and/or a half-dozen wipes. current hm fps is making us recall when hammer station were first made a hm fp with the level 55(?) increase... but replace every boss with the bonus boss. took a couple months for folks to get gear or experience enough to make the hammer station bonus anything other than gulag. for the time being, am more focused on getting 1-2 companions to 50 influence on most o' or characters. the crafting and resource gathering bonuses for 50 influence is considerable. a 50 influence companion also makes possible to solo the star fortress stuff if need be. is likely we create a new consular and do the esseles solo tactical fp approach to take full advantage o' qyzen influence before bioware alters/changes. HA! Good Fun!

"i think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living." is something said by a character in a vonnegut book... speaking to a psychiatrist. vonnegut's mother committed suicide. vonnegut attempted suicide in the mid 80s. nevertheless, vonnegut never stopped trying to find wonderful new lies. he were extreme active in support o' suicide prevention organizations regardless o' vonnegut's own uncertainty regarding the value and meaning o' life. even so, nobody can tell you why life is worth living. sorry. still... “Why bother? Here's my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about…You are not alone.” --kurt vonnegut you are not alone. is that recognition enough? perhaps not. personally, Gromnir has always found genghis khan to be a kindred spirit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEpsVSdtfcc HA! Good Fun!

quick update: not including the heroics, which can only be done weekly as of 4.0, we were able to get better than 3000 influence for kira while spending ~30 minutes doing the belsavis dailies. is hardly world shaking influence gain, but we will likely use the belsavis dailies IF we ever grind companions such as talos drellik or 4x into the 40 influence range. ilum dailies also provides influence bonuses through dialogues, but the numbers seem far less favorable than belsavis. am gonna experiment with different comps to see if there is a few that get particular good result from ilum... but not today. HA! Good Fun!

for what it is worth, the belsavis dailies do indeed provide dialogue influence rewards at the new 4.0 rates. that means that each daily is gonna give you an influence boost o' 'tween 260 and 780 with your summoned companion. unfortunately, a few o' the dailies is missing. am gonna need check to see what happened, but we weren't able to start conversations with a few o' the mission npcs. even so, there is still ~8 belsavis dailies. similar to black hole, the belsavis dailies is rewarding crystals at a better rate than most other dailies-- 5 per mission. HA! Good Fun!

our experiment o' starting a new character has had mixed result. am level 63 after less than a week o' moderate gameplay. those repeated esseles tactical fp runs is soul numbing but lucrative. our t7 is at influence 50, we got a bunch o' 208 purple gear, a large stack o' purple tier 5 gifts purchased with excess crystals( cultural artifacts and republic memorabilia at ~50 apiece), and am maxed at 1000 o' the common crystals. unfortunate, a few o' the companions dont get max pay-off from gifts til you romance, so kira is at 30 influence and doc is at 20ish. we only just finished voss, so sgt. grumpy-pants and scourge is not having benefited much from dialogues-- they is still in the 20 influence range as well. with all the saved crystals and purchased purple gifts, we should be able to get one o' the kotfe companions to influence 40 rather painlessly, but am not gonna have any starting comp other than t7 much beyond 30. see, the thing is that pre 4.0, the companions that joined your crew later in the game would benefit from larger individual dialogue rewards. that is no longer the case. if t-7 and lord scourge both like a dialogue response, they both get the same amount o' influence boosting points... and there is relative few dialogue opportunities for scourge simple 'cause there is only a couple planets remaining when he is recruited. ... y'know, it has been years since we ran the belsavis and ilum dailies, but those missions were unique in that they did provide dialogue rewards. rewards weren't enough to be worthwhile pre 4.0, but if am getting better than 200 influence per appreciative dialogue response, those dailies could have some minor value. the only belsavis or ilum missions we has run recent is the supply crate missions, and those is done sans npc interaction. am gonna need check what kinda influence payoff there is from doing dailies on belsavis. am unlikely to bother doing such missions more than once, but seeing as how dialogue rewards do not diminish as one gains influence, such dailies could be a useful way to top-off a couple o' original companions once you get 'em into the 40 influence range. 4x, yuun, scorpio, xalek, and doctor lokin is most obvious options. oh well. mixed results. HA! Good Fun!

am having difficulty coming up with a more desirable option than sawyerxcain for combat mechanics in a crpg. perhaps you are a fan o' vd's aod approach to combat mechanics? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puo1Enh9h5k betehesda? well, is kinda the opposite o' vd, no? combat, while occupying a majority o' gameplay hours, is point-and-click simple and mindless. *shrug* we do agree that obsidian should create their own... but if they wanna take an established setting and build, we vote for darklands... not that this is a voting scenario. HA! Good Fun!

There are many Fantasy writers, old and new, who wrote much more complex works with much more foreshadowing and still managed to have a decent if not yearly release schedule (Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson immediately come to mind). The thing is, Martin is a discovery writer and the issue with discovery writers is when they get writers block they are screwed, also they usually need many more revisions upon completion of the first draft. hmmm. jordan and sanderson? salinger took more than a decade to write catcher in the rye. is as easy to come up with examples o' authors who took their time to write as it is to note the guys who churn out bloated monstrosities with machine-like regularity. HA! Good Fun!

am feeling similar, but am not certain why we got lowered expectations. we liked original star trek. we liked next generation. we liked deep space nine, though perhaps there were too much warfare given rodenberry's original vision. voyager? hmmm. is not our favorite star trek, but there were more than a handful of excellent episodes... kinda inconsistent. scott bakula didn't strike us as a good choice for the captain's chair, and the rest o' the cast were meh, but we liked enterprise for the most part... right up until we got time-travel overload. am not a fan o' time-travel stories. some o' the star trek movies were gawd awful, but we cannot complain 'bout the tv shows with any vigor. nevertheless, we can't get hyped for the new star trek tv show. odd. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.si.com/college-football/2015/11/01/miami-duke-lateral-play-referees-suspended is difficult to feel bad for duke, but... HA! Good Fun!

shady's question got us thinking... as silly as it sounds, doing solo esseles tactical flashpoints might be the ideal level option for a knight or consular-- nothing but esseles. cant do any gathering worth mentioning, so you would need boost crafting through companion missions. as such you likely wanna have at least 3-4 total companions, but level all the way to 50 or even 60 doing little save esseles might be worth the effort. solo tactical fp esseles grants better than 1 level per run til you hit 47-48. that is not sooper-fast leveling as even a quick run o' esseles takes Gromnir maybe 30 to 40 minutes... not certain. you also garner big influence with your starting comp. you should be staying geared okie dokie 'cause all the boss 1007 drops is gonna be class appropriate, which is nice. dunno. on a couple characters we has spent a boat load o' credits and more than a few crystal/comms to boost influence o' a single companion to 50. to be able to start kotfe with a companion at ~50 influence w/o having spent credits beyond the initial level 20 influence booster vial tier 1 gifts is an option worthy o' consideration. on the negative side, other than the boss drops, credit and 1007 in tactical esseles is appropriate for a level 10 mission. you are not gonna earn many creds by completing esseles. is a few other drawbacks, but am serious considering esseles leveling. HA! Good Fun!

am not certain that "excited" is how we would describe. am ambivalent 'bout the interview... were he genuine drunk or is he simple getting old? gotta give him credit for getting into the silly costume for halloween, though if he wanted to dress as a "dog," woulda' been funnier if he dressed as triumph. y'know, given that he were on kimmel. HA! Good Fun!

yes. get ~7000 influence per run. HA! Good Fun!

we got 10 characters at +60, but only 3 is through chap 9 of kotfe. with the savage skies "bug," am much wishing we had all our high levels able to access the supply crate heroics. am looking at potential 10 extra supply crates a day, but only so long as the savage skies mission is bugged. unfortunately, given our ocd, we have difficulty getting through kotfe intro material with the proper tempo. as soon as we get a new story companion, we make certain to boost affection to level 20 through tier 1 gifts. takes 20-30 minutes to do the traveling to fleet and buying of gifts and giving of gifts. by making effective use o' early gift give, am adding an extra couple hours o' mind numbing gameplay to kotfe. am doubting we have more than 5 or 6 characters through kotfe by tuesday, at which time we expect the bug will be addressed. HA! Good Fun! ps am also leveling an additional guardian to be seeing if we can get all companions to ~40 influence.

... we deserve to be slapped 'cross the face with a mouldering trout. we were wondering why kevin bacon were relevant to star wars so we needed to google "sebastian shaw" to be realizing that mr. shaw were the face o' vader. well, we learned something new. am gonna go take a nap now as, given our advancing decrepitude, learning anything is quite taxing. HA! Good Fun!

dunno if this has happened to anybody else, but for Gromnir, the heroic on makeb, savage skies, is repeatable Daily from the alliance terminal for supply crates.... which is nice seeing as how we cannot solo for the record. is a couple heroics (counterstrike on makeb) that am gonna stop doing as they take far too much time. being able to do daily savage skies would be a nice salve for our burning ocd. am also gonna note, for those who is farming basic comms/crystals, the gsi heroics still provide 4 comms apiece, but the alderaan gsi heroic provides 8 comms. all is repeatable daily. the gsi weekly is... meh. 20 crystals and no elite or ultimate? anywho, at the very least, is worth hitting the gsi heroics while on a planet for the supply crate missions... and we will likely do alderaan daily. also, while most o' the post 50 daily missions has had their rewards reduced, the black hole dailies is continuing to provide 4 crystals/comms per mission. HA! Good Fun!

we did all the heroics via the terminal and it still were not quite enough to get the alliance recruiters to level 10 influence. were close to 10 on all 4 as we evened out the influence, but not quite. is gonna be a mighty long haul to exhaust influence with the 4 main base npcs. we also got our ithorian to 46 influence, but decided not to break our back attempting to hit 50. got til januaryish before chapter 10, yes? just for funsies, we spent some time leveling a sentinel. went from 26 to 35 relative quick. more impressive is how fast the influence meter increases with all the gift-giving and dialogue perks chosen... and even w/o 12x xp, you level fast in 4.0. is easy to solo most heroics, so to level we were doing planet heroics (to keep us geared and save those now valuable basic comms) and the purple missions... and nothing else. am not doing tactical fps at all. and the thing is, if we wanted to genuine maximize influence, we would do every planetary mission, but we dont have the patience for such grinding... and am suspecting that we would hit 65 before we finished aderann if we did everything. level adjustment means we cant over-level on a planet. so, our sentinel, a character we have little genuine interest in playing as sentinels still seem sucktastic, will have at least a handful o' companions near 40 influence by the time we hit 65, and we wont have needed to resort to costly gift giving antics to do so. will still immediate boost to 20 influence via the cheap level 1 & 2 gifts, but at that point the massive and frequent dialogue opportunities becomes the major influence booster. kira and t-7, in particular, is gonna be uber by time we hit 65. ... as ridiculous as it sounds, am tempted to make our main a new character. with all the legacy gear available, as well as observing the benefits o' universal mastery stat, am figuring it takes us a couple o' weeks to get a new character to 65 and through kotfe, as long as we play 90 minutes a day at least 5 days a week. cant manage much more than 1 hour o' game time these days. so, am slight more than 2 weeks behind our bestest characters, and starting from scratch means all those juicy dialogue boosts wont be wasted. hmmm. might be worthy o' experiment. got two extra character slots after all. HA! Good Fun!

yeah, we got a chuckle when we saw 'em. ... am hesitant to mention this, particularly on this board, but we thought the show kinda bludgeoned us with "girl power." the bad guys (and good guys) were misogynists who refused to take the protagonist serious just 'cause she were a girl... and we had to have characters specific mention that fact 'cause the writers were 'bout as subtle as a hammer blow to the head. that being said, am admitting that we never much liked supergirl as a character. the karen starr power girl were kinda fun for a short period o' time. am thinking we most liked power girl when she weren't doing superhero stuff as the day-to-day difficulties o' trying to keep starrware industries afloat kinda humanized her. karen starr were quirky. y'know, the only supergirl we did like were the paul dini & bruce timm version from justice league and justice league unlimited. regardless, am doubting we watch another episode. HA! Good Fun! ps am sure Gromnir were the only one, but it bothered us a great deal that supergirl, after depositing a plane in a river, at night, fled the scene... 'cause is not as if dozens or hundreds o' people could possibly drown in such a situation.