Trebla

So they are half-way done creating a GOOD Fantastic Four movie. The hard part is to finally nail Dr. Doom and yes, they do need to try again. Doom is the best Marvel villain and was basically the main character of the orginal Secret Wars. If they want to nail the casting, they need to make him an evil Tony Stark. Doom is brilliant, elegant, and POWERFUL. Not only did he have the suit but had become a powerful sorcerer as he had tried to free his mother from Mephisto's Hell. 

I am very aggravated right now. I decided to download some mods, specifically the increase party number one and now on new games there is no dice roll and it causes the game to get stuck. I deleted the mods but it is still doing it. I googled around to see possible fxes and one of them is to go to gameplay options and to make sure Enable Dice Roll is clicked. Problem I have is that isn't showing up. All there is enable karmic dice which does nothing. Anybody able to give advice on this?

ETA: Ok, fixed it. There was a couple of mod files left and iwas able to remove them. Dice are back.

So, that Belichick guy is available, right???  Hell, I'd take Pete Carroll right now. People have been saying that Dan Quinn was the heir apparent if McCarthy failed again in the playoffs but I have serious reservations after this game. He has been thouroughly outcoached.

Same ol' Sorry Ass Dallas. Thankfully I never drank the koolaid this year.

Staley AND GM Tom Telesco both get the boot

Quote

 

LOS ANGELES -- After 2½ seasons highlighted by lofty expectations and routine letdowns, the Los Angeles Chargers have fired coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco, the team announced Friday.

Staley is the second Chargers head coach to be fired midseason since 1970, joining Kevin Gilbride, who was fired in 1998.

 

Congrats to the Bears for breaking their streak! 

This is some Grade A loafing here. Dude needs to be at the least benched. 

If the Cowboys go anywhere this year, beyond early January, a big reason will be the ascension of DaRon Bland. A 5th round rookie corner from the 2022 draft, he had 5 picks his rookie season despite not playing until October. This year he has 4 picks and 3 have been pick 6's, one of those was today. He has greatly softened the loss of Trevon Diggs, but I'll forever wonder how good they might have been with Diggs, Bland, and Stephon Gilmore.

S.O.S.A.D

Same Ol' Sorry Ass Dallas

Even though I should know better, they really had me fooled that this could finally be their year. I knew losing Trevon Diggs would hurt, but not this bad. And there was Bad Dak again, throwing a crushing INT. He's been mad that people keep asking him about last years' picks. Oh well, stop throwing them. 

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

 

Time to worry and pray for Gilmore, Diggs tore his ACL and is out for the year.

Sigh, yep. It's Bland and Gilmore on the outside and Jourdan Lewis now mans the nickel. That also means that former Dolphin  Noah Igbinoghene will have to play some significant time now.  He was traded straight up for fellow bust Kelvin Joseph. At least Muuamu returned a blocked kick for a TD against the G-Men. I also wouldn't doubt that safety Israel Mukuamu slides over to corner like he did last year after they lost Anthony Brown and Lewis for the season. While I don't think the sky is completely falling now, it does mean that the pass rush is even more important now.

8 hours ago, dbunting said:

Dallas final score looks good but I'm still not happy. Been saying it all off season that Pollard is not a lead back. He isn't doing very well and is getting out played by Dowdle and an Oompa Loompa.  I hope I'm wrong and he figures it out. Of course I have to keep telling myself they were playing the Jets and they have a legit top 5 defense. 

The def, looks good but I am not sold on Gilmore. He seems to be playing off too far and has been beaten more often than I expected given his reputation.  The pass rush, IMO, is making the secondary look better than they are.

Pollard is a lead back in TODAY'S NFL. The years of Emmitt Smith going for 100 yards and a TD are mostly over. Nowadays a RB will get like 60-70 yards rushing and 30-40 yards receiving. Other than Christian McCaffrey, that's exactly what the top backs in the league have done so far.  The Giants game Pollard rushed 14 times for 70 yards and 2 TD's. That's a 5 yard average. Dowdle ran 6 for 24 yards and Vaughn 6 times for 8 yards. The Jets game was a different story as the Jets are supposed to be one of the best defenses in the league. Pollard: 25 attepts for 72 yards, 2.9 avg. Dowdle: 7 for 26 yds. Vaughn: 3 for 16 as he finally was able to not just run into the backs of the offensive linemen. One thing to point out: Tyler Smith has not played yet at LG and an undrafted rookie has replaced him  journeyman Chuma Edoga has replaced him.

As for Gilmore, according to PFF he's been average. I'd be worried if Trevon diggs wasn't ranked 6th and DaRon Bland 13th in the league.

8 minutes ago, aceluby said:

So has the Wilson trade taken the mantle as the worst in history yet?

I think the Trey Lance trade has that distinction. SF traded three 1st rounders and got a 4th in return from Dallas.

Speaking of Dallas:

Cowboys: 70

City of New York: 10

6 hours ago, dbunting said:

What makes you think that? If Lance develops and takes over next year (if he didn't then you wouldn't pay him) he will want to get paid. Yes he likely wouldn't get top 10 money but to say 30 mill a year less is just not reality.

BTW they also got Dak for a 4th round pick.

Nobody is saying that Lance is going to suddenly develop and take over next season. And nobody else is going to all of the sudden give him a 20-30 million dollar contract. The only way he plays this year is if BOTH Dak and Cooper Rush get hurt, or if Rush has to play and totally sucks. Every team in the league had a chance to trade for Lance. According to the 49ers, the other teams were offering a 5th or lower. Shannahan made a point to take a shot at the Cowboys by saying he didn't expect to get a 4th for Lance, as if that helps make up for the utter disaster that trade was for them. Remember if they had just kept those picks, they could have had Nick Bosa and Micah Parsons as the best pass rush duo since Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware. That team won a Super Bowl with a crippled Peyton Manning.

Cooper Rush signed a 3 year, $1,670,000 this off-season. That's fairly low. You really think anyone would give Trey Lance a $10 million a year contract at this point? Dak is going to wanting at least a $40mil. a year extension. That's where I got my math and it's probably on the low side. Trey Lance is going to be competing against Cooper Rush this season and next for the #2 spot. Dallas can then see if the next two seasons if he develops.  Reading around, lot of beat writers think there's a better chance that, if Lance can develop, Dallas would trade him for draft picks. Hopefully for more than the 4th they gave up.

Like I said before, I expect Dallas to offer Lance a contract extension that stretches out his cap hit. He's only 23, he needs time to just LEARN and I hope he knows it's in his best interest to sit and watch for a couple of years instead of being pushed out to play too early like he did in SF. 

54 minutes ago, dbunting said:

So trading an asset and taking on even more salary (when Lamb and Parson need $) for someone who can't even beat out Sam Darnold is done because of Daks future contract? This assumes the miracle that Lance develops enough that Dallas lets Dak walk after next season, can't do it sooner or it's $61 million hit. I'd be ok with that except guess what, at that time Lance would need a new deal because it's his last year of his contract and now he has to get paid and we are right back where we started. 

 

 

The moeny they would have to pay Lance compared to Dak is probably like a 30 million a year difference. That's assuming that Dallas doesn't try to get Lance to sign a contract extension that stretches out next years cap hit. Cooper Rush is a really good backup but he is who he is: a physically limited system qb. Trey Lance is super athlete who has played actually very little football. Is he a total bust? Maybe, we will find out. I don't mind the 4th round pick. Look at who the Cowboys have picked up in the last 6 months for a 4th, two 5's and a 6th: Trey Lance, Stephon Gilmore, Brandin Cooks. 

44 minutes ago, dbunting said:

I don't quite understand the deal for Dallas or Lance.  Lance needs playing time and Rush is the clear back up here so when will they find time to develop him? I guess as the season goes on they can split Rush' practice reps but it seems he needs more than that especially learning a new offense.

Dallas now owes Lance 5 mill next year guaranteed. We have our own free agents who are looking for big contracts. IDK maybe this will work out but my initial reaction is that it's a waste of a pick and cap space. 

This is about Dak's upcoming contract extension. Years back, the Cowboys low-balled him so he bet on himself in the final year of his rookie contract. He went on to have probably his best season which forced Jerry to give him a huge contract that paid him like a top 5 QB. Obviously he hasn't played like that and he keeps getting injured. Dak also won the biggest sticking point of the contract fight: years. He wanted a shorter contract so he could get an even bigger bite at the apple and he got it. This year his cap hit is $27mil. 4th in the league. Next year, the final year, it balloons up to $56mil. 2nd in the league behind Deshawn Watson's ridiculous $$63mil. cap hit. So Dallas HAS to give him a new extension next year or be stuck with that huge number.

Dak is again going to be want to be paid like a top qb even if he isn't playing like one. Meanwhile, Dallas will have to pay Cee Dee Lamb and Micah Parsons as well. As Mike Florio says here, Dak has Dallas over a barrel. This trade at least gives them a tiny bit of leverage. They had planned on keeping 3 qb's with Will Grier as the 3rd. Again at the very least, Trey Lance is an upgrade over Grier. One interesting tidbit, one of the three 1st round picks the 49ers gave up to draft Lance was used to draft...Micah Parson.

9 hours ago, IlyaP said:

So this is confusing. If you go across the water in the Underdark, and you take out any of the draugur, the rest of them seem to simply vanish, and the person trapped behind the rubble is no longer trapped. Or alive. 

What?

For the record, the Early Access ended right as you were supposed to cross the lake. So that is officially 1/4 of the game. I'm right at that part and I'm close to 40 hours in!

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

I did encounter some cheesy bullshit in the game.

  Hide contents

With the hag who takes the woman hostage and kills her brothers, I used stealth to get past the masked guardians at the start of the area, then made my way through the gas and flower mine traps, then sneaked into the hag's lair and pre-looted it, and even found a mushroom teleport circle to go outside and do a big rest before combat.

Then when you fight the hag herself, she insta-summons all of the masked guardians at the start of the area to fight alongside her whilst you're frozen in the pre-combat spiel and can't do anything. You then have to fight all of the guardians and the hag herself, who is not a pushover.

Online guides seem to suggest trying to kill her in the house at the start when she's invisible, but you've got your hands full with the swamp goblin things. The other advice is "come back at Level 10" which seems pretty stupid. You meet the hag when you reach the second half of the first overland map, which you can reach at Level 3 easily. And the fight feels not a million miles off doable at Level 3.

I did get lucky in the fight and managed to boot two of the masked arseholes off the ledges with Shove, but but then got TPKed five seconds later. One of the masked arseholes is five times tougher than the rest and is able to personally heal himself and attack, and the others heal him as well, making him almost unkillable in the battle.

Wondering if I should reload and killed the masked dudes first and then wail on the hag with the full party later on.

Spoiler

I did this part during EA and killed the masks first. When I finally got to the the hag, she split herself into multiple hags who each have an attack. The trick is to attack each hag with a strong projectile. If it is a duplicate, a hit over 10 will make it laugh and disappear. It's one of the hardest fights that I experienced in EA and took me a number of tries. Even then, I wasn't able to save the girl. IIRC, I was level 4 when I did this part. I'll probbaly wait until level 5 before going back since that is when you melee characters get double attack.

 

43 minutes ago, Arakasi said:

Because I have young children? I don’t want to explain bear human sex to an eight year old.

Yeah, or..

I started and re-started when I found out there was way more character options like getting to pick your type of genitals. That was DEFINITELY not in the early access, nor was the option to show nudity or not!

Wert gave good advice above. One thing I would add is to constantly be pressing left alt which highlights objects you can pickup. There is a TON of stuff lying around; from treasure chests to alchemy ingredients. A lot of it is random, I just picked up a topaz on the mind flayer ship which I had never done before.

ETA: Oh and one more thing, make sure you always have a shovel in your inventory. There are a bunch of hidden treasures under the ground that you can only dig up with a shovel if you or a party member can notice them.

3 hours ago, Poobah said:

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.

Yeah, I agree. I'm on my 3rd uninstall and reinstall for  an extra file here or still clicked on patch 8 there. Hopefully 3rd times a charge cause I'm ready to start smiting stuff!

Or at least the first level of Avernus. This is the opening scene of the game:

After nearly 3 years of early access on pc, the game goes live tomorrow, August 3rd. I've played all the way through the early access, which is roughly one quarter of the game which capped at lvl 5. I played most of the classes and suprisingly, my usual favorite class seemed to be one of the strongest: paladin. In most games I've played, pallys were either weak tanks or low dps. In this game, they are amongst the strongest dps thanks to their powerful smite attacks. There also did not seem to be an issue so far with alignment problems with companions, a drawback with the previous BG games. 

Overall, the game is incredible. Graphics are phenomenal and the story is great. I really love the combat which is turn-based but very similar to the Tactics games. Terrain and distance really matter. The games that it reminds me of most are the Pathfinder games which I enjoyed. The game is going to be MASSIVE. Just playing a quarter of the game was roughly 30 hours, though I explored everywhere and completed nearly every quest.  Oh and one little spoiler:

10 hours ago, Relic said:

Combat in BG3 is just fine. Yeha it sort of sucks you have to hit the end turn button, but it's more strategic than the occasional mess BG2's combat could be. I've played a few hours of early access and the game is sweeeeeet

I bought the game almost THREE YEARS ago and I love it. I always hated having to constantly pause during the BG, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter games. I was able to play almost the first quarter of BG3 as a pally, rogue, and wizard and all 3 were a lot of fun.  August 3rd cannot get here fast enough.

I decided to buy the game for PS4 instead of pc for my back's sake!  Baldur's Gate 3 is FINALLY coming out next month and I know I'm gonna play the Ninth Hell out of it.

So I started with barbarian and it's okay. I usually play as a Paladin/Crusader but I guess I'm gonna have to wait for the DLC. Anyone playing as a rogue or sorcerer? I've been eyeing both to play next. Which one is better DPS?

"BAH!" That was his favorite saying when he joined the board and it always cracked me up. He was a really good guy and is sorely missed. 

What platforms are you guys playing it on? I've played the first 3 games on PC but at this point I'd rather play it on PS4. Any differences in PC vs console?

That was one of the best and shocking episodes of TV ever!

18 hours ago, dbunting said:

Something is brewing in Dallas. They have cut Zeke and restructured a lot of players contracts to free up more money than it appears they need. A big FA or trade for a big name WR? Getting the Diggs new contract done? Not sure but it really seems like they are gearing up for something. 

 There has been a lot of speculation that they may try and trade for a receiver like Mike Evans or Jerry Jeudy, or a tight end like Kyle Pitts. Tee Higgins and Stefon Diggs have also been mentioned but I find those two highly unlikely.

They have to be careful because they have 3 star players who will be up for paydays in the next couple of years: Trevon Diggs, CeeDee Lamb, and Micah Parsons. Those guys are the young core of the team and they can ill afford to lose them because of the cap. Jerrah is a big mouth but he is right once in a while. He said that the Eagles built their team for a 1 year championship window and now most of their defense will be gone this offseason. He said he didn't want to do that, he wanted a long term window.

I also really liked the Gilmore trade and the Wilson and Vander Esch re-signings. They are really close to having a championship level defense. If they could get a pass rushing defensive tackle in the draft, they would be set.