Gromnir

am looking at the mountain o' dishes in our kitchen. *sniffle* were that a tear that leaked out o' the corner o' our eye as we contemplated the cleaning task that now lay ahead o' us? ... our housekeeper comes on thursday. we could leave this mess til then, no? no. @#$% HA! Good Fun!

we must have missed the smirking emoticon, yes? HA! Good Fun!

What? shouldn't be a surprise. a suspect who has committed a violent crime runs away from cops without pulling a weapon and aiming at cops or bystanders. the suspect later shoots some old man or rapes an old lady... or the reverse. how many times does that happen before folks change laws applied to cops use o' deadly force on suspects who is reasonable suspects o' violent crimes but who is not immediate threats? *shrug* aside, the Court upheld the fleeing felon rule back in 1985. the rules for cops to use deadly force is not the same as for ordinary citizens. have seen that bit o' myth used multiple times in this thread and others like it. HA! Good Fun!

pulled pork cole slaw buffalo wings nachos salsa(s) baked beans sloppy joes chili vegan chili potato skins lasagna (half with meat and half w/o) we let other folks bring stuff, but the aforementioned is our traditional super bowl spread. ... last year we had a woman make a weird comment regarding our super bowl menu: "its so normal." she seemed rather disappointed that the food we offered were the same kinda stuff you could get at a local bar. our reputation took a hit in her eyes. HA! Good Fun!

we will need to see actual new build, but from what we can tell, particular with how graze and crits is still being calculated, accuracy is having more immediate and significant impact on damage totals than is might. is no longer at OMG level o' wackiness for crit damage totals, but accuracy is still a major concern, yes? if any one attribute were the accuracy attribute, it would still be the no-brainer for the vast majority o' characters and builds. HA! Good Fun!

is semantics. you train cops to aim for center-mass. you train cops to instinctive reach for firearm when an individual presents a situation whereby they could cause serious injury to bystanders or the cop. in point o' fact, in many jurisdictions, cops can, and is s'posed to, shoot fleeing suspects who is NOT immediate threat to bystanders or cops. you give cops firearms and you has steadily increased lethality o' the firearms available to cops since the early 80s. stopping or disabling a suspect with undeniably deadly force v. train to kill? *snort* is silly semantics. HA! Good Fun!

That's not true any more, though. They fixed the multiplier/integer bug(s), which has significantly devalued accuracy and individual character's reliance on it. I would not mind trying out whether Accuracy from Perception works again or not. Right now I think the stats are a bit wonky (especially how both +AoE and +Duration is tied to Intelligence and Resolve now will be something of an oddity for Paladins to pick, rather than the chief stat you'd expect them to take, but both those issues are really separate points). accuracy is less important now than it were in some earlier builds, but it is still extreme important. am thinking it would be a bit disingenuous to suggest otherwise. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

accuracy is overwhelming important to most poe characters. ... above observation creates a dilemma for the developers. have accuracy tied to a single attribute necessarily makes that attribute "overwhelming important" too. given developer goals regarding balance and their intent to makes multiple character builds viable, linking accuracy bonuses to a single attribute is counter-productive. unfortunately, am thinking that the developers has gone to another extreme by removing accuracy from attributes. accuracy is still overwhelming important, but the developers has now reduced the player's ability to meaningful customize their character. if the character generation choices is having less impact on the efficacy of a build, then such choices is necessarily less meaningful, no? furthermore, character development & customization choices that affect accuracy is now limited to class and talent choice. as such, those two options become even more vital. no doubt the developers need concern themselves that they is replacing one form o' character generation tyranny with another. as important as the accuracy boosting talents were before accuracy was insulated from attributes, now those limited talents will increase in significance. have functional essential talents runs counter to the philosophy espoused by the developers regarding balance and meaningful customization. we advocates constructive criticisms, so we would prefer another approach, a more balanced approach. as with deflection, reflex, will and fortitude, the developers could choose to have accuracy affected by multiple attributes. it is not unreasonable to suggest that every attribute could affect accuracy. resolve? well, being composed in pressure situations sounds like an aspect o' resolve, no? a greater tendency to be composed in combat would likely affect accuracy, yes? can do same rationalization for almost all attributes. am not suggesting that all attributes should modify accuracy equal, 'cause that results in the same situation as no attribute being linked to accuracy. even so, we could envision three or four such contributing accuracy modifying attributes. one might even provide some kinda synergy bonus for maintaining balance between those four abilities. got four accuracy abilities and difference 'tween highest and lowest o' the 4 attributes is =0 results in a bonus. get slightly smaller bonus if difference =1. etc. sure, min-maxers would still be rewarded as they always is in games such as poe, but if you build in a meaningful bonus that requires a more balanced attribute spread, am suspecting we will see more variation in character builds. we got no doubt the developers can come up with a better solution than has Gromnir in the span o' a few moments o' reflection. regardless, the current plan to remove attribute-based accuracy modifiers strikes us as flawed. the ultimate solution is likely to go back to square 1 and make accuracy less significant to poe combat mechanics, but such a change at this late date does not strike us as practical. even so, to have a quality as important/vital as accuracy in a crpg and to chose to reduce/eliminate options for customization and modification o' that quality strikes us bordering on crpg heresy... not that we believe in crpg heresies btw. HA! Good Fun! edit: weird jumble of two paragraphs

HA! Good Fun!

mental instability is hardly making an individual less dangerous to police or bystanders, yes? even so, we do believe some consideration should be given to evaluating peace officer training. clearly there is a growing gulf between what peace officers is trained to do and what ordinary american citizens (on such issues, euros and kanadians can go sit and spin for all we care) recognize as reasonable force. once grand juries and criminal court finders o' fact has the law explained to them, cops is rare prosecuted or found guilty in excessive force cases. however, that don't change the fact that most americans seems to be getting sick o' watching videos o' people getting killed by cops. will more videos o' cops being killed or serious injured balance things? doesn't seem that way. we got a democracy, for the most part. if americans don't like the way they is being policed, there should be some kinda examination o' cop training. HA! Good Fun!

am wondering if the french have some weird national sadism insofar as ducks is concerned. 'tween duck press and foie gras, one cannot help but imagine what ducks ever did to the french to deserve such treatment. HA! Good Fun!

one thing to note is that coyotes typical do attack the face o' their prey. unlike wolves which frequent go after large prey, coyotes usual food source is smaller than themselves and as such they go for face rather than hamstring. track for a large coyote will be very dog-like and is gonna be in the 3"L x 2.5"W range, though is typical smaller although proportions is the same. no doubt you will continue to have a mystery, but we wouldn't necessarily discount the "lone coyote theory." *chuckle* and we has personally seen large hunting dogs get their snoot bloodied by raccoon. am recalling hunters tell stories about raccoon luring big dogs into a stream and then drowning by climbing on top o' the dog, but that is pure anecdotal stuff and possibly hokum. am personal lucky with our dogs 'cause two o' the potential more dangerous critters don't seem to be a problem for us. we have far too many deer in our area, and as hunting is verboten, the deer is quite bold. even so, while we frequent see deer during daylight hours, none appear where we run/walk our dogs. a splayed deer hoof, attached to those delicate looking deer legs, will cave in a dog skull as easy as gallagher going at watermelons with his mallet. and as silly as it sounds, wild turkeys could be a serious concern. our dogs will go tearing after jack rabbits and other critters if they see 'em, but they got absolute zero interest in the ubiquitous wild turkeys we have in the area. male wild turkeys grow a very nasty spur on the back side o' their legs. that spur can do serious damage. HA! Good Fun! ps is not a perfect method, but to distinguish a large coyote track from a similar sized dog, we looks at outside toes (which is bigger than middle toes on the coyote) and narrowness o' the print as coyotes is narrower than most dogs. even so, depending on quality o' the track, we has flubbed such identifications. is info you likely already know, so please do not take as patronizing as it is not intended as such. we screwed up on a coyote track once 'cause o' poor quality o' the tracks and 'cause the freaking coyote musta been 60lbs, which were outside our experience at the time.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-texas-shooting-20150129-story.html people are strange.

am not a fan o' new classes in expansions. we prefer adding options and improvements to existing classes... and bg2/ad&d style kits is NOT improvements in our mind. kits were a blight on ad&d and the ie games alike. if the only reason to play a vanilla anything is 'cause you plan on dual-classing, then you got a problem. however, in the limited scenario wherein the developers had to cut a poe class they were extreme enthusiastic 'bout 'cause o' insufficient resources or perhaps concerns that the cut class were too similar to a core class, then we is grudgingly open to seeing such a thing added to poe future games. perhaps it has been too long since the bg2 and iwd2 developments for folks to recall what the fanbase demanded from kits n' such. we could, yet again, remind folks o' what happened to the bg2 feralan and josh sawyers iwd2 kit suggestions. *shrug* then again, we has had wacky folks on these boards folks trying to argue with us that even the most egregious ad&d kits were better balanced than poe classes, so am expecting we got no common ground with many the potential contrarian. HA! Good Fun!

where Gromnir loves in the foothills, mountain lions is a serious concern, particular in summer months or drought years, though we have never been concerned 'bout the possibility o' being attacked. we always figured that with a couple largeish and noisy border collies (they is females but both in the 40lb range,) we needn't be too worried while on our walks/runs. we had heard, anecdotal, that some coyotes in our area hunted in familial groups and would attack even larger dogs, but we has always been most concerned by threat o' accidental surprising a rattlesnake or possible coming across a diseased rodent or skunk that might bite our dogs. the thing is, we gots an acquaintance who is a game warden and he informed us that we had our head lodged up our arse regarding mountain lions. it would seem that a solo person walking or jogging with dogs is statistical much more likely to be attacked than is a solo person w/o dogs. conversely, no person in CA has ever suffered a mountain lion attack when they were with at least one other person-- is always solo people who is targeted. bringing one o' more dogs with us on walks/runs is sorta like setting out a "free-buffet" sign to hungry mountain lions? so it would seem. HA! Good Fun!

we chose to do tacos thursday instead o' tuesday... and we made carnitas de pato 'cause o' the following reasons: 1) Gromnir likes duck 2) Gromnir were running outta duck fat and we needed a duck recipe/excuse to replenish our supply. braise the duck (3-4 lbs o' legs... or when lazy, just quarter a whole duck) in a dutch oven for a few hours with a fine chopped white onion, juice and remains o' an orange or two, garlic head halved and whatever mexican spices appeal to you. is best to do this as a 2 day thing as half o' our motivation is collection o' duck fat and that is best done with an overnight cooling. eventual we collect our duck fat, strain out solids from liquid, and discard skin and bones. shred meat. add a little o' our precious duck fat to a cast iron skillet, set over medium-high heat and then cook duck til is nice and crispy. HA! Good Fun!

speaking of ben-hur, is a great movie. However, after this scene... ... well, the movie has pacing issues. yeah, the story isn't ultimately about the conflict between judah and messala, but that is the part we most watch... which sadly undercuts the message and themes o' the movie. is more than a couple times we stopped watching ben-hur following the scene we linked. is still a great film, but we thinks it is often overrated given how it kinda tails off like an obsidian game. kingdom of heaven, the director's cut, is under-appreciated, but we get the lack o' enthusiasm as we believes that orlando bloom were a horrible casting choice. as a thought experiment, we has attempted to imagine a movie with keanu reeves, orlando bloom and jason patrick in it, but the soporific effect would likely prove lethal. HA! Good Fun! ps we couldn't find a ben-hur clip that included an additional 15-20 seconds at the front-end. is too bad as messala refusing life-saving treatment is kinda important.

tetanus is actual a very useful example. get a puncture wound with a rust or poop covered instrument and you may suffer from tetanus. one could, we s'pose, make sure that tetanus were present on an arrowhead and thus increase chance o' infection. is not an airborne pathogen, so is something with which one could reasonable safe coat your arrows... though that would no doubt be o' small comfort to some o' the inevitable accidental friendly victims. is not contagious, so again, you ain't gonna accidental wipe out your own people when infecting the opposition. however, even for something as virulent as tetanus, the % o' folks exposed v. the % o' folks who show symptoms is nowhere near 100%. we sees numbers such as 11%? the time between infection and showing o' symptoms is averaging a week, so is clear not a useful single battle option, but even long term, how much more lethal is a tetanus arrow than an ordinary one? dunno. psychological impact may be more significant than actual casualties from infection. HA! Good Fun!

pork cooked in lard? bruce will likely have advice for you. HA! Good Fun!

writing for games strikes us as a peculiar endeavor... we mean that in sense o' uniqueness more than odd. Gromnir is actual relative unusual regarding just how much pre-writing we would do. our ocd-level issues with detail and organization were such that we had extreme detailed outlines. even so, once we started writing, the characters would begin to tell us their own story and we would frequent feel as if we were mere transcribing. games has gotta be different. you got many folks working on A story that has needs be a relative known quantity relative early in the process. is not as if we can tell artists and level design guys that the stuff they has been working on for months is unnecessary 'cause the story went in a different direction while chisA were writing companion #5. game writing is peculiar. we understand. on the positive side, is good to hear that chrisA is aware that story ain't just a matter o' character dialogues and plot. is far more folks than just the writers who is involved in telling the story... which necessarily further complicates the process. am wondering just how integrated the process can be. is weird to have a story built more along the lines o' a major steel fabrication project than what we would tend to envision as a "normal" storytelling process... whatever is normal nowadays. we may give a ricardo bare book a try. HA! Good Fun!

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/27/the-myth-of-the-komodo-dragons-dirty-mouth/ seems as if bacteria is a negligible factor, and even komodo dragon venom is not lethal in and of itself... the venom prevents clotting, which causes critters to bleed out faster due to the massive wounds the critter causes. stuff like bacterial toxins on arrows don't strike us as a particular useful battlefield approach. the incidence o' lethal infection from weapon wounds were already extreme high previous to mid-late 1800s anyways. hope some % o' already wounded folks will drop dead at some point in the future? "if you noticed, he doesnt just pull the bowstring back, but also pushes the bow itself forward, effectivelly halving the time needed for every shot and the strain on each arm" if speed were our only goal, we would applaud the approach, but armed with a bow with even a moderate heavy draw, we can't imagine that such an approach would help our aim. sure, in a video with potential innumerable takes wherein the archer is aiming at fixed targets, we can see usefulness. just don't seem practical based on our experience... though again, our experience were hunting. regardless, as we noted already, we don't see much value from the video other than a nifty trick-shooting exhibition. HA! Good Fun!

based on the theory that almost anything is improved via deep-frying? Gromnir is an advocate. heck, you can improve twinkies and ice cream with deep frying. HA! Good Fun! Gromnir I hope you realize how unhealthy deep-frying anything in oil is for you, especially vegetable oil? If you are going to fry try to use Olive oil You should only occasionally deep-fry food, its much better to steam or bake food. So now I'm back on my diet because my training session is over in the UK where I couldn't eat healthily. So what that really means is salad for dinner with fish or a meat and no junk food during the day but I normally take breakfast and lunch to work so thats easy to stick to deep frying, if done correct, actual gets a bad rep. is based on simple science, but to do right is requiring artistry. insofar as calories is concerned, fat is fat. is also more than a few misconceptions regarding poly/mono/un saturated fats. but ultimately, cooking in oil is not markedly less healthy than cooking in air or water IF a person understands the process at work. simple rule: if steam is escaping food, oil can't simultaneous get into the food. you deep-fry at the correct temp for the correct duration and you is adding very little fat to your food. that being said,we ain't gonna even try and boast the health value o' a deep-fried ice cream. a chimichanga ain't gonna be advocated by any health honk anywhere. heck, you got any idea how much watermelon rind we has mindlessly thrown away over the years? that stuff is delicious when deep-fried... honest. nevertheless, we ain't advocating deep fried watermelon for patients with heart conditions related to plaque buildup in their arteries. am actual a bit o' a food snob, and such folks tend to act as if deep-frying is some kinda quaint, plebeian folly. we don't get caught up in culinary or dietary dogma. we eat food for taste at least as much as health. we get all necessary nutrition we need from food, and we exercise frequent. am not gonna suffer through our daily diet 'cause o' perceived notions o' the lethality o' pork or beef or frying. if we die at 78 instead o' 80, then so be it. HA! Good Fun!

one need not be particularly prescient to guess the weather in the CA's central valley between late april and early october. dry & hot. ... is a bit like rubber necking as one passes by a traffic accident, but am admitting a tiny fraction o' curiosity insofar as val's conspiracy theories regarding weather predictions. no doubt the cia and the military-industrial complex is involved in over/under estimating the severity and duration o' inclement weather, but we don't immediate see the connections. HA! Good Fun!

based on the theory that almost anything is improved via deep-frying? Gromnir is an advocate. heck, you can improve twinkies and ice cream with deep frying. HA! Good Fun!

people got odd notions about US weather. http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2013/05/16/extreme-weather-north-america/2162501/ as for CA http://www.livescience.com/30097-the-snowiest-places-on-earth.html and one o' the places on earth with most snow is a 3 hour drive from arguably the mecca o' big wave surfing. you could surf until 8 am and still manage to get an afternoon pass at kirkwood. even so, we do hate drivers in the valley and socal. most such folks don't know how to drive in any kinda weather other than sunny and clear. have lived in other places since our graduation from universities, but we always end up back in cali. worst part o' being out here is trying to find a decent pizza place. HA! Good Fun!