Gromnir

It's Offensive in that it forces itself on an enemy, and has an offensive effect. You could argue that any offence is "active defence", in that killing someone means they can't hurt you. Which is exactly why Offence almost always is more important and has a bigger impact than Defence. It is offensive when it deals with the enemy, whether it hurts the enemy, disables them, or interrupts them. It is defensive when it deals with yourself, protection you from the offence of the enemies. Interrupt is the offence to which Concentration is the defence. I'm not arguing with you, really, I'm just making the offence/defence definitions as I used them clear. Your point can basically be summarised into the adage "The best defence is a good offence", and I completely agree, which is my entire point. That's fair. I was thinking more in the terms of Offense = increasing outgoing DPS & Defense = decreasing incoming DPS. So no matter how high you stack your interrupts, it won't increase outgoing DPS, but it will have an effect on your incoming DPS. interrupt works a bit like a stun. a stun attack that also does damage is potentially very powerful, which is no doubt why josh is being so cautious. we have seen the abuse o' stun weapons and attacks in previous rpgs and crpgs just as has josh, so we get the caution. if Gromnir can use an attack that not only reliable damages foes, but prevents enemies from successful attack our party, then we have an extreme vital weapon, but even in 435, that ain't how interrupt works. from a practical and pragmatic pov, even overpowered interrupts o' 435 is not encouraging us to boost resolve or use the numerous spells that increase concentration by 30 for up-to a full minute. HA! Good Fun!

batman as date/romance material? is our policy to never date anybody with serious emotional baggage. being a victim o' childhood trauma and/or sexual/domestic abuse don't make a person bad, but it does mess with their ability to have meaningful romantic relationships. be their friend? sure, but don't date. ... is one reason we don't date strippers. HA! Good Fun!

The problem really is that we have no idea what narrative effects the Attributes will have, so it's all really a moot point. We can't discuss possible narrative effects and the narrative pros and cons of certain Attributes because we don't know the narrative. All we know is really the mechanical aspects, so that's why we discuss them. Until release, the narrative aspect of Attributes exists in a Schrödinger's Game state. It's interesting to guess about, but honestly we have no clue until we play it, so we have to assume that the narrative design is both terrible and/or glorious. We can't affect it in any meaningful way. And if we try, we might kill a cat or something, I don't know, I'm not good at metaphors. the fact that we do not and cannot know the relative importance of attributes beyond combat does not in any way diminish or increase the eventual importance o' such attributes. we are indeed left making educated and uneducated guesses based on only the past behavior o' obsidian developers. but that is the case as with so many elements o' poe, yes? heck, the reason we is a kickstarter supporter o' poe is precisely because o' our experience playing past obsidian crpgs. can we possibly know about story elements and companion interaction o' poe until we play it? nope, but based on past obsidian games, we is moderate confident that we will enjoy such stuff in poe. recognize that we cannot know how much impact resolve and perception and intellect and various skills will have on the game beyond the mechanical numbers resolutions we has seen and tested thus far is hardly convincing us that we should ignore such considerations. in the obsidian nwn games, we liked to play as a cleric, but we Always boosted intelligence to at least 14 and took a few (2-3) levels of rogue so that we would get extra skills. there were no way we could know how much impact the talky skills and intelligence checks would have on dialogues, but past obsidian games had taught us that those social-skill checks would be plentiful and meaningful for those who cared about such checks. our cleric builds were hardly optimal from a pov o' the mechanics o' combat, but there weren't no other way we woulda' chosen to play a cleric who were only receiving 2 skill points per level. recognizing the impossibility o' certainty regarding attributes value beyond combat is not the same as recommending that we should ignore. those who fail to learn from the past... HA! Good Fun!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-02/russia-manufacturing-slumps-to-weakest-since-2009-as-ruble-sinks http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-22/ruble-colluding-with-oil-brews-toxic-loan-morass-russia-credit since zor seems to like bloomberg. oh well. is a russian collapse gonna happen in six months or less? unlikely-- 6 months is a worst case scenario even from those horrible uniformed folks at the imf. somewhere between 6 and 18 months seems likely. new western sanctions would speed up the fail. oil inexplicably starts selling for +$80 per barrel and some o' the default scenarios will be delayed. 'course, as noted earlier in our linked sources, practical reserves o' russia is closer to $200 billion and it took russia less than 5 months to burn through that amount in 2008/2009. situation is worse today than in 2008. western sanctions is hurting russia. russian food sanctions is hurting russia. the drop in oil, which russian stoopidity has made russia particular vulnerable to, has hurt russia. and on top o' everything, western sanctions is making it particular difficult for russia to mitigate the damage from heir current crisis as western aid and loans is not available and there is increasingly less possibility o' paying off western debt. the ostrich routine from zor were laughable in june o' 2014, but now it is absolute insane. "Putin is not scared of sanctions, protecting Russia's interests, which is how he views Ukraine, is a higher calling. " and that is why Alexei Kudrin is no longer the minister o' finance in russia. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/kudrin-predicts-100-billion-capital-flight-from-russia-this-year/514821.html HA! Good Fun!

and yet, wisdom, which is kinda the resolve equivalent, has gotten disproportionate attention from obsidian in past games. even if resolve, intelligence, perception and lore skill looked complete worthless, we would be very cautious about ignoring those stats and that skill. HA! Good Fun!

that is exactly why people ignored wisdom when they played ps:t their firstest time. no "mag. def. adj." for high wisdom in the ie games and you couldn't play a cleric, so why boost wisdom? am doubting obsidian does anything so oblique with attributes, but am thinking it would be a bit foolish to complete discount the gameplay impact o' attributes outside o' combat. HA! Good Fun! edit: weird auto-correct on spelling

am looking at your graph. not as bad as russia. why? where is the other oil-dependent nations on the worst performing currencies? all o' which ignores point that clearly sanctions has contributed to russian suffering, and RUSSIAN food sanctions exacerbated. am guessing you haven't bothered to read Alexei Kudrin comments. 40% o' the devaluation o' the ruble, according to the former russian minister o' finance, is western sanctions. he ain't wsj or imf or world bank or harvard... though pretending that those sources is poor is ridiculous. western sanctions alone were clear hurting, but the oil situation, which had a predictable impact on the bass akwards russian economy, sent the ruble into free-fall and the russian economy into full recession. last year Gromnir, bruce, kgambit and a host o' others recognized that, gosh, western sanctions could have disproportionate impact on a nation that is near complete dependent on petroleum exports. zor conspiracy theories about journalists and delusions about the health o' the russian economy is funny, but is reinforcing just how unreasonable you is willing to be in the face o' what is obvious to virtual the entire world save russians and a handful o' other conspiracy nutters. HA! Good Fun!

oh, we disappear for a considerable stretch, from time-to-time. 18 months o' absence before early last year. as hard as it is to believe, we get the feeling that some folks didn't miss us much. in any event, welcome back. HA! Good Fun!

Well, aside from your usual fellating of posts, I must say this was amusing. What does the West want to be seen as doing right now, then ? am relative confident that most governments in the west would love any plausible excuse to reduce sanctions. however, they can't do so unless putin supplies an excuse. warning: link is sweary it works 'cause it is a movie. the tough guy takes every punch until the evil Lou (the west) finally gives up and leaves. however, tyler and putin ain't the same, mostly 'cause tyler had a plan. even so, the western economies got enough invested in russia that they don't wanna make russia collapse, but they can't stop until putin gives... something. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

zor is helping us, so we don't deserve all the credit. show us how norway, a nation similarly dependent on petroleum exports as russia, is Not suffering a cataclysmic collapse o' currency. why the difference? well, gosh, they is having a slight more diversified service based economy and they is not being hit with western sanctions and reason defying self-imposed food sanctions. maybe that might explain the difference? HA! Good Fun!

"At current rate of spending- your words, not mine; your fault, not mine- reserves will last far, far longer because the current burn rate is around 10 billion a month and they have 376 billion in reserves. I'd be perfectly happy with the general consensus of 18 months to 2 years, but you had to go all in on hyperbole- even when given the opportunity to clarify you doubled down, cutting it to the least optimistic six months." well, no, the 6 month prognostication is not Gromnir's words but am rather referencing those yellow journalists who quote harvard professors, as well as imf and world bank experts, silly rabbit. during a 4 month period last year, russia burned through just under $150 billion, so your $10 billion per month fantasy is... quaint. situation is currently worse now than in 2008 when russia burned $200 billion in five months. "laughable economic ignorance about the exchange rate's effects, utterly laughable. That it is apparently mirrored by 'experts' is no real excuse" yes, more o' the conspiracies and delusions and yellow journalism nonsense. is not tough math. best case scenario for russians is that food costs in general goes up "8-10%" because of sanctions (see above npr comments) and given that russians spend 30-35% of income on food... 60% increase for chicken? and again, "oh, and maybe you read a few Alexei Kudrin prognostications and comments? as a russian, he need obviously be careful with being too critical o' putin, but he blames 40% o' the devaluation o' the ruble on western sanctions. he also admits that russia is in crisis. http://www.ft.com/in...144feabdc0.html http://www.reuters.c...N0KX0F920150124 http://www.sptimes.ru/story/41515 "sad and surreal." *shrug* is genuine surreal. honest. am knowing you not wanna go back and read you posts, and Gromnir can only lead you to water so often, but this situation were predictable to many. you and others did the ostrich routine, but am not understanding how you can continue to do so in light o' the current situation. HA! Good Fun!

that is kinda our point. interrupt is gonna be emasculated by josh, so why make concentration even a greater obstacle for interrupt? HA! Good Fun!

am admitting that we kinda like most o' luckman suggestions for attributes. we don't believe might needs a boost to interrupt as it is already one o' the more useful attributes in 435. also, we would be hesitant to give +6 concentration for resolve AND +3% for a point o' constitution. based on josh posts, interrupt is already gonna be weakened in the final release and we see no reason to further add concentration opportunities which would/could diminish interrupt. even so, we kinda like luckman suggestions as it would, at first blush, make resolve and perception relevant while reducing the essential quality o' intelligence for most any caster... and a few other builds. our concerns with luckman suggestions is mostly quibbles. HA! Good Fun!

the anecdote about Justice Ginsberg at the home o' the chief justice o' the supreme court o' india were our favorite part. “As we entered his house, all the women were ushered into a separate room, and all the men” remained, Scalia recalled, chuckling. “Ruth did not for a minute head for that room. It was wonderful to watch.” am hopeful that video o' the entire lecture/conversation eventual becomes available. HA! Good Fun!

am assuming, as others have noted, that only priests choose a patron deity in poe, and the list from which priests choose is not encompassing the complete pantheon. aside: near the top o' our list o' things we would like added to future poe content, other than cassowary companions for rangers, is an expansion o' the deities priest characters can choose as their patron. HA! Good Fun!

reminds us o' early-to-mid 80s videos. sure, the production values were paltry back in the early days o' music video, but folks were less afraid that they might look silly. am in another one o' our blues moods and a surprising good cover. HA! Good Fun!

denial is Not refuting, and label any source you dislike as yellow journalism is... pathetic. obtuse, at the very least. last year Gromnir and others pointed out that what is currently happening to the russian economy, which is pretty dire according to pretty much any economist outside o' russia, and even a few in russia, could happen. you chose to delude self then. delude self about the current level o' seriousness too? okie dokie, but you ain't fooling anybody but those conspiracy nutters such as yourself. oh, and maybe you read a few Alexei Kudrin prognostications and comments? as a russian, he need obviously be careful with being too critical o' putin, but he blames 40% o' the devaluation o' the ruble on western sanctions. he also admits that russia is in crisis. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d8bf5266-89cb-11e4-9dbf-00144feabdc0.html http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/24/us-russia-crisis-davos-kudrin-idUSKBN0KX0F920150124 http://www.sptimes.ru/story/41515 sad and surreal. HA! Good Fun!

this topic has become surreal. last summer you got Gromnir and others saying that western sanctions imposed on russia for perceived predation in the ukraine would hurt. we noted at that time that the russian economy were already headed toward recession and that an economy such as russia's, one reliant in large part on oil exports, were not only fragile but particular vulnerable to sanctions. with all the debt russian business owed to western banks, sanctions would be particular painful in a time o' recession. Gromnir and others worry that given how fragile the russian economy is, the west will suffer if russia takes too great a hit from sanctions. bester, zor, drowsy and others respond: nope russia then self-imposes food sanctions, which Gromnir and others observe is kinda crazy. after all, the aforementioned western sanctions would already be hurting russia and russians import 40% o' their food. not only that, russians, on average, spend 30%-35% o' their income on food. we compared to a flat tax on essential goods here in the west, but observed that russia were taxing self w/o actual collecting money. to self-impose food sanctions on top o' western sanctions were bordering on ludicrous. we wonder if russia's economy can handle increased self-sanctions when they is already vulnerable to western sanctions. we worry that russian suffering will result in at least some western hardship. bester, zor, drowsy and other respond: west will be hurt more by food sanctions. move calendar forward forward 8-10 months. oil prices has indeed dropped, exposing russian over-reliance on oil. russia has already had to use a considerable percentage o' their reserves and in spite o' the fact that russians ridiculous raised interest rates, russians is not buying russian goods such as cars, the sales of which is down already 24% since december. oil prices is not expected to be anywhere near +$80 a barrel during the next 12 months. in 2008, russia blew through over $200 billion in reserves in five months, and situation were seeming less dire at that time. and again, the dropping oil price issue is something russia has had to face before, but they still haven't modernized and diversified their economy. this time they gotta deal with sanctions and unhlepful western banks and self-imposed sanctions. the terrible part o' the situation is that russian stupidity is gonna be felt in western economies. sure, wont be near as bad as russians have it, but there is more than a few major western companies doing business in russia. http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/10/03/how-russias-debt-and-currency-markets-could-spiral-into-crisis/ http://www.nasdaq.com/article/putins-year-of-defiance-and-miscalculation-20141217-01129 http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fault-for-the-rubles-collapse-lies-with-mr-putin/2014/12/16/3f9a8a1a-8548-11e4-a702-fa31ff4ae98e_story.html?tid=gravity_1.0_strip_2 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/15/russias-economy-is-doomed-its-that-simple/ zor and others: everything is fine. nothing to see here. the problems in russia have nothing to do with western sanctions but is a momentary blip caused by drop in oil. yellow journalism. conspiracies. etc. surreal. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/the-scaliaginsburg-reality-show-a-not-100-percent-sober-friendship/2015/02/13/b8336930-b368-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html it might be a subscription article... http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/13/politics/ginsburg-scalia-parasailing-sotu-wine/index.html cnn is a bit... less. oh well. HA! Good Fun!

my aren't you obtuse. we keep saying that the russian economic crisis/collapse is terrible because it will indeed affect more than just russians. am wondering how many more posts you need read before that sinks in enough that you actual remember it. and we s'pose that any harvard, imf or world bank economist who is quoted in wsj or nyt or reuteurs is counting as yellow journalism. *chuckle* is funny and delusional, but knock yourself out with that. "Russia's $388 billion cash hoard fell by almost a quarter over 2014, although the free float of the rouble that saw it fall so spectacularly late last year has reduced the amounts drained in support of the currency. Strip out the money in the government's rainy day funds, gold and IMF drawing rights and the number is estimated by some to be well below $200 billion." that one is reuteurs, and they is the more optimistic folks. "According to data and research compiled by PISM, Russia’s decision to ban food imports from the EU in response to the sanctions will put a dent in the wallets of shoppers eyeing up a traditional roast pork supper. Moscow’s ban on EU pork imports will make a meat joint as much as 15 per cent more expensive, while another ban on Polish apple imports could push apple prices up by as much as 40 per cent as domestic stocks become scarce – a jump that could push headline inflation up as much as 0.8 per cent." "Russia imports about 40 percent of its food, so price increases hit hardest at the grocery store. "In addition, Russia banned most food imports from the United States and the European Union in retaliation for Western sanctions. That drove food prices even higher because it created shortages. "Some regions, such as Russia's Far East, are more dependent on imports, and prices for some items, such as chicken, shot up by as much as 60 percent when the ban was announced." is npr. and again, please note that russians backwards arse economy has individual russians spending more on food that westerners, so food sanctions is disproportionate hurting russians. and yeah, the predictable possibility o' a drop in oil made sanctions on food all the more o' a potential problem. duh. keep trying to separate oil from food and all the other russian blunders if you wish, but they is all interconnected... just as Gromnir and others were suggesting last june. http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2015/02/11/is-russias-economy-rebalancing-in-the-face-of-western-sanctions-not-really/ sadly, after food sanctions and because of the poverty o' the russian economy, the rate o' food production actual slowed in 2014 as 'posed to previous years. we can keep posting such, but is all yellow journalism, so what is the point, eh? russian stupidity created this crisis. the russian government were fully aware of its over-dependence on oil. Gromnir and others in this thread observed BEFORE the drop in oil prices that the current situation were possible given how fragile the russian economy and how dependent it is on oil exports... any measurable change in oil prices can be disastrous for the russians, and to compound that fragility with self-imposed food sanctions were bordering on insanity. check the dates on our linked post. well, sure enough, there were a drop in oil and sure enough the russian economy went into a free-fall and sure enough the price o' necessary foodstuffs increased and sure enough the russians made the problem worse by bolstering business friendly to putin and raising interest rates so that the crisis will last far beyond a resurrection o' oil prices. russia got a warning in 2008. they didn't heed the very clear and painful warning. is getting repetitive and silly reply/quote will again have you posting self into insensibility. and one more, 'cause you is too obtuse to notice the half dozen times it has been mentioned already, the impending russian fail is gonna hurt everybody. the only reason we care is 'cause russian fail will have far-reaching effects. go back and actual read the linked posts and the posts that follow. our fear were that given the fragile nature o' the russian economy, we were worried that sanctions would lead to a collapse o' the rsussian economy which would hurt... everybody. russians will be hurt more than polish and far more that US, but german auto makers and french (HA!) arms dealers and many other folks is gonna suffer. not as bad as russians is gonna hurt, but that is cold comfort. HA! Good Fun! ps we gotta add 'cause is so funny. when questioned about the seeming ineffectual russian response to the growing economic crisis, russian deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalo, said that russians would eat less food and use less electricity. ... that's the plan.

And what would you call Ukrainian economic situation then? irrelevant? is a terrible reality that the dismal state of the ukranian economy has far fewer global ramifications than does the impending fail of russia. HA! Good Fun!

bruce jenner agrees. HA! Good Fun!

not the final version, he just submitted a new version that is richer and fuller sounding yesterday internally. needs some kettle drums to sound more like conan perhaps justin can add some kettle drums in expansion music. nothing says over-the-top, campy-grade, epic like kettle drums. makes falkon happy. heck, Gromnir wouldn't mind such, but we likely would giggle... not that we giggle. is more manly and epic to guffaw, yes? HA! Good Fun!

our criticism o' big heads is sawyer-specific. guy mentioned, more than once, that he didn't like joke stuff or pop culture references in serious crpgs. then he changed slight and said that he didn't like bad humor... whatever the heck that means. (example: frequent ps:t humor were ok, 'cause it were good.) big heads is good humor? *shrug* big heads is optional, but am thinking for sawyer to laud such stuff is peculiar. at least if poe big heads were silly/stoopid and original, but am given to understand that big heads is some kinda unlockable ha-ha feature that has been in other games, so is not even a particular creative obsidian addition to crpg humor. is all we gonna say on the subject. HA! Good Fun!

am admitting that the first time we saw font ligature, we attempted to wipe it off our screen-- thought it were lint or a bit o' dog hair or some such. then we thought it were a mistake. then we thought, "isn't that odd?" is quirky, but if it adds some kinda increase o' atmosphere for folks, then we is okie dokie with it. is far better than ubiquitous "ye olde" or thees and thous being added to dialogue to make seem more... crusty? font thingie doesn't hurt our game experience and we doubt it took any real effort to add it to poe. HA! Good Fun!