Poobah

I think what you ended up doing by getting ahead of the block to trigger things and remove blockages is mostly how I did it and what seems to me to be the logical / correct and intended route

I really wish you didn't need Wizard levels to be able to learn / summon Shovel more than the once with the scroll, it's such a delightfully ugly little evil baby of carnage.

Meanwhile my 1070 is running between 70 and 75 playing BG3 and Google says that's a perfectly fine operating temperature for it under load it's a bit less fine for the temperature in my room though, even with this summer being very mild.

In between Baldur's Gate 3 seasons I am completely addicted to The Planet Crafter and want to take a minute to gush about it. The basic premise is that you're dumped on an uninhabitable red planet and need to survive and eventually terraform it. Watching this lifeless barren world develop as a result of my efforts has felt very rewarding, it's such a nice vibe to be bringing life to a planet rather than ruining it with industry. I've loved seeing the changes over time and it's done so gradually that it feels natural, it's been great coming back from a trip to search for resources or explore a wreck to see that the moss has spread or the water has begun to pool and rise etc. And on that subject there is a lot to explore on and under the surface and a fair bit of storytelling done through various things you can discover to learn or infer the fates of those who came before and who crashed there. My base has begun to feel really homey so instead of rushing myself towards the end of the current content with all the resources I've gathered I've just been doing small things and letting the progress tick along slowly as I enjoy the vibes of the lovely paradise in creating and tweak the small things / build fun things and living spaces. If I have any complaints it's the inventory management typical of this sort of game. I really don't want to build some huge ugly storage area filled with tightly packed containers to hold all my resources on my beautiful planet but it doesn't feel like any of the storage options are really enough if placed naturally around what I consider to be a sensible sized base and similarly my own inventory size which did expand nicely to begin with hasn't really kept pace with my growing capability to explore and obtain resources which has resulted in a lot of running back and fourth. I'd like to see them add more inventory expansion and maybe some kinda compression for items later on, and especially a vehicle of some sort with more storage on it in the early/mid game (I've seen that you get drones way late on which I'm sure will take care of all of this and lead in to big automation but there should be a stage I'm between where you're just better at manually moving stuff around).

Before I begin I will note that the tooltips are quite detailed. I'm not sure how one would access the in depth ones with a controller but on KB+M there's a prompt to press T to examine or see details or something like that, then you can mouseover and get further details on all those keywords and underlined bits in them which does give a fair bit of explanation of most of this stuff. Ok so the nomenclature is to indicate what type of die is being rolled, with D&D dice having various numbers of sides and being labelled as you would expect - guidance is +1d4 which means it rolls a four sided die so your outcomes are 1,2,3,4 evenly distributed. A d6 is a basic six sided die, there's a d8, a d10, a d12, and a d20 all with the respective numbers of sides. If something indicates that it rolls more than a single die for its damage (gonna use fireball for all my examples since it's a very well known and recognisable spells) then you sum the totals on all the dice you rolled eg. you roll 8d6 for fireball damage and roll 3,4,1,6,5,4,2,2 = 27 damage. I don't know how much you know about statistics but when you roll more than a single die your outcomes are going to become weighted more towards the average in a normal distribution. If you want to get an idea of how this would look and the probabilities involved try using AnyDice and put in "output 8d6" to simulate that fireball. Proficiency is a stat that rises with your level, a baseline bonus that makes you stronger at things you are good at over time. If you're proficient in a skill you add your proficiency to the roll total on the D20 when you make a check (rogues and bards also get to select expertise in some skills which allows them to add double their proficiency). A character is either proficient with a weapon in which case they add their proficiency bonus when making attack rolls with it or they are not and can't - you don't gain proficiency with stuff through use, only through stuff like class selection, backgrounds, race, etc. Possibly (likely?) there're some events and similar that can give proficiency with stuff too in game. It should be very rare for damage to be less than advertised... usually I would expect it to be more. I think you can only go as low as 8 in a stat in this game so if it's 1 point lower it would be because the character in question has 8 in the attribute and thus a -1 modifier. When rolling to hit with a weapon you roll a d20, then add your proficiency if you're proficient and a modifier based on your character's stats and the type of attack, then compare it to the AC (armour class) of the thing you are attacking, and if you have more you hit. You then roll whichever die or dice are associated with the weapon and then add the appropriate stat bonus to the total for the damage. All melee weapons use strength, ranged weapons and melee weapons marked as "finesse" can use dexterity instead, and your spell attacks will use whichever attribute your class uses for their spells ie. Cleric will use wisdom and Wizard will use intelligence. The way stat bonuses are derived in D&D 5e is that 10 is considered the baseline and then you either gain a bonus or get a penalty for every 2 points past that you go in either direction so someone with 8 or 9 strength would have -1 to attacks with weapons that use strength for instance, whereas someone with 18 strength would have +4. Quick example: I attack a goblin with my rapier on a level 1 rogue. I have 16 dexterity and am proficient with the rapier, which is a finesse weapon. So I roll a d20 then add 2 for my proficiency and 3 for my dex bonus (1d20+2+3). For the damage I roll a d8 and add 3 for my dex again for a total somewhere between 4 and 11. Sorry if this is too much of the nerdy details. I can try and slim it down if needed.

I found the tooltips mostly self-explanatory but I am admittedly a big D&D-er. What do you mean about the casting system? Happy to help. Generally dice are used for two separate things - to see if something succeds / hits, and in this case the game transparently tells you your success/hit chance up front unlike in tabletop D&D; and then afterwards to generate the damage number, essentially a somewhat weighted range based on the types and number of die used (ie. 2d6 vs 1d12 have slightly different distributions and averages). @Fez I don't think I've noticed that about mage hand, did you get yours from a racial or something that gives it that limitation? I'm not in game now but I feel sure I've used it pretty much at will, I could be misremembering tho. It's a fair point about spiritual weapon though, I guess I just accepted it for gameplay reasons without questioning it. In default 5e it is very overpowered but mine still feels pretty effective at the moment but I'm not that deep in the game - is the problem that its hp isn't scaling when you upcast it later and it's just dying immediately or something? Right now it's actually feeling like a decent boon that it takes some heat for me while still attacking for free.

All the departures from 5e I've noticed are balance decisions, largely buffing terrible things, the totem l turn barbarian path was also renamed for, I must assume assume, for reasons of being racist or culturally appropriative (haven't looked in to it but that's where mind mind goes). I think my biggest complaints so far are just where things feel missing. I know this is very focused on "just" the PHB 50+ options but they did include a few non-phb subclasses so they clearly weren't strictly limited to it by contract or something. The melee cantrips (Green-Flame Blade, Booming Blade) feel particularly egregious in their absence being the core around which the "gish" (melee caster) is supported but also there are some of my favourite subclasses from later source books missing. I know mods can fix this but that's for later playthroughs along with a party size increase.

Didn't get to play much yesterday but pretty sure I remember that if you click on the rolling dice dice it resolves instantly.

I assume they're talking about the system from DOS2, which I haven't really seen much of here but I imagine it may come more in to play over time, wherein you have oil for instance and if it's hit with something on fire then it'll all set alight, or a noxious gas may explode or a liquid can become frozen etc. in response to various interactions. Also while I'm here I'm curious what you mean when you talk about skeuomorphic gameplay elements (new word I just learned, thanks!) the only thing I can think of that fits this description is the die rolling? I feel like it's very thematic and something that the big audience that's coming in off of all the hype for RPGs of late is going to enjoy (also you can speed it up if you just click it again it'll skip the rolling animation). Similarly I'm not sure what you're describing when you talk about gacha in the game?

I've only played a few hours so far but I loved the opening and think it gives all the information I need to understand the plot, dropping in new bits of setting info as I explore and find things. Personally I think this is the way to go - I've never given a fuck about Faerun to the point that I actively avoid it and playing irl D&D in it because I don't want to make a character in a setting where I feel like I need to know decades worth of lore - but this is a video game and the last thing I need is some lengthy opening crawl or similar shoving several decades of its lore down my throat. In a video game I don't really need to know everything right now about the who and why and what because finding out is part of the gameplay experience, it isn't info I need to RP my character because the game has the info and gives me chat options to explore it etc. As to why they did the opening like that? It's cool. What does it tell me about the world? That crazy shit like this can happen, that there're dragons and creepy squid-people and demons and brain parasites! It buys interest / investment straight away and gives players a taste of higher level stuff as well as a very compelling reason to be adventuring which helps motivate disparate party members to stay together. To me anyway it's a lot more interesting than a standard D&D opening where your character is a student or basic mercenary or whatever and you do some mundane stuff at the direction of some powerful named character that will eventually lead you to the plot once you're leveled up enough to be worthy of it.

It's very irritating and seems poorly thought out to require people to uninstall completely in order to redownload the full game. I have good enough internet that I can probably manage it in a few hours but it's still annoying and seems very wasteful; a lot of it will be textures, music, dialogue etc. which will be the same as in the full version and many people still have shit internet or download limits.

It is a nice scene. I like the more philosophical, seductive portrayal of Ishamael. It's much more in line with how Jordan wrote him in the world book and later as Moridin than the cartoon devil from the early books. In terms of what it does for the story it's a pretty cute way to introduce the mystery of who could be a darkfriend with the girl serving as the perspective seeing the little details under the anon black robes that give away who some of these people are / could be in the place of "Bors" at the start of TGH. We see the nails of a Seanchan (Suroth), the emblem of Shienar (hi Ingtar), a great serpent ring (probably Liandrin), a Tinker outfit (unknown?), a whitecloak outfit (Carridin?), and... not sure about the others as they aren't as prominent, but I'm sure it will drive speculation for show-only fans.

Just chiming in to say that I, too, remember Dark Forces - the original was one of the first real games a young star wars obsessed me ever played on our shitty home computer that couldn't handle anything better and when we finally got a new family computer Dark Forces II blew my little mind, the expansion for which introduced me to the magnificent Mara Jade who went on to become my favourite EU character. Her exclusion is amongst the most grievous of the crimes committed in the Disneyverse (Kyle's too of course).

Article on Nerdist showing some of the costumes and sketches for season 2. I like most of them (especially Siuan's) but as much as I am positive about this show fucking hell is the damane ball gag ever ridiculous. Someone needed to take the designer aside and have a serious talk with them about that decision. And not just that it looks ridiculous either but conceptually it's stupid, it's a horribly ham fisted physical metaphor. If you want to show that someone has had their voice taken away, that they've been silenced, then show that on screen with the acting, show that they are terrified and meek and are so broken that though they physically could speak they don't, they know not to speak unless directly commanded to, is that not far more powerful? Physical chains are easily broken, mental ones not so much, and that's part of the horribly insidious nature of it all.

The problem for a lot of these small businesses (at least from my bystander's perspective) is the insane inflation in property values which means equally insane rent and thus a business that may have been profitable in a less silly era just can't stay afloat. I can't even count the number of local businesses I've heard have had to shut down over enormous rent hikes (honourable mention to energy prices too). Then there's the added cost of living problems which mean that people who may have been happy to pay a little more at a small independent shop now go to a supermarket or online because they have to save pennies where they can.

Ok so some things that jump out: Rosamund Pike's delivery is great. As I mentioned before the Channelling VFX looks way better. And in general the shots all look better/more polished/more expensive. I'm ambivalent to whatever song they have playing in this. Nynaeve's Accepted test. The set looks pretty good, as does the image of her staggering out later bleeding. Woman covered in blood - not sure what this is? Maybe it's supposed to be Lanfear awakening? Certainly creepy. Lanfear / "Selene" cozying up to Rand, I'm curious to see how this will play out. Hopper! Very unsure how I feel about the Seanchan costuming. They're leaning real hard into how fucking weird their outfits look, which in fairness is quite in keeping with the canon but still. The damane gag thing I'm just not a fan of period (though again arguably randomly inserting some kink is also in keeping with Jordan ). Ishamael being seen directly influencing the Seanchan (and as book readers we know Suroth is a Darkfriend too of course) is a very sensible change. I like the increased role in the show for Logain and think a meeting between him and Rand is a good idea, and obviously they want to have Rand meet Siuan as they do in the books but I am a little concerned if they have him go to Tar Valon for it. Perhaps this will be a way to trigger / speed along his irrational distrust of all things Aes Sedai, if Liandrin starts nosing around with her trademark "I just bit in to a lemon" look. With the shot of some Aiel maidens fighting Children of the Light it makes me wonder if it's Aviendha or one of Bain/Chiad in a cage that Perrin will come upon and free instead, I don't know if there's even been an actor cast for Gaul? Presumably Rand literally tied to a wheel is a dream/nightmare, or could it be... perhaps a flicker? Overall it looks pretty good I would say but I'm certainly still holding my breath to see how things turn out.

I'll post proper thoughts when I've had a minute to digest, but I like the upgraded SFX for the weaves.

Incredible match. Awesome work Carlos!

A very sad and disappointing Final. My heart goes out to Ons, it's clear the immense pressure she carries with her clearly got the best of her; she was totally off her game and every time she had opportunities she tightened up and made a bunch of mistakes. She wanted to win so badly it kinda felt like she was trying too hard and every attempted winner that went a little wide or long and every clever drop shot or volley that didn't work out was another blow to her and brought on more mistakes and balls in the net.

It's 4 seasons totalling... (thanks wikipedia) 75 episodes of about 20 mins each, so around 25 hours worth. Personally I think it never quite hits the absolute peaks of Clone Wars but it's far more consistently good so you're not sifting through dross waiting for the gems. From what I recall it has a bunch of good arcs and some great episodes, particularly the big Ahsoka ones of course. Edit to add: I really hope the Ahsoka show is good. It has such potential but there's certainly been... variance in the quality of the Star Wars shows.

Can't help but feel like Hurkacz threw away both of those tiebreaks.

The Rublev v Bublik match was thoroughly entertaining.

The problem is that we have corrupt idiots who go into politics for the money and power... so the solution is to make going in to politics more profitable? If you want to talk about accessibility of high office in this country you might start by looking at all the classism - the public (private for those non-uk dwellers amongst us) school elitism - that permeates it, that's what's responsible for our leaders staggering lack of qualifications, not lack of proper incentives.

I've already said my piece on this, probably multiple times, as have you, as has everyone in this thread and given that the topic seems to irritate everybody involved every time it comes up I'm not sure why it keeps being regurgitated. Can we set aside the disingenuous accusations for a moment and consider that there are multiple ways to engage with a text? That the things I find interesting, important, and core to the world Jordan built and themes he was exploring are simply different to the things you do? If you think I'm wrong you're obviously entitled to your own differing opinion but that doesn't make me a liar. Do we all really need to get out our "who is the biggest Jordan nerd/scholar" dicks and have a measure to see which boarder gets to be the authority that defines the one true interpretation... it seems like a facile way to engage with such a massive text (not to mention supplementary materials) but if we must I'm prepared to unzip.

Loved this movie. First before everything else.i have to join you all in praising the visuals - they're absolutely phenomenal.