legend

25 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may be surprised to learn that this is not the first time I've been informed of this  

I'm probably going to do a Dark Urge Monk going good, with the background being that my char trained as a Monk to try a suppress the dark urge.

Aliens capable of visiting earth today exist and are half-assed doing it in secrecy.

OR

The pilot didn't understand what they saw.

2 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Speaking of ambient-temperature superconductors:

 

‘A very disturbing picture’: another retraction imminent for controversial physicist

WWW.NATURE.COM

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Ranga Dias will have a second paper revoked. A journal’s investigation found apparent data fabrication. Ranga Dias will have a second paper revoked. A journal’s investigation found apparent data fabrication.

 

 

@legend - maybe not exactly the best timing for Dr. Kim and his team to publish their findings

Haha yeah I knew about this one. It's different, but it these kinds things are why everyone should be skeptical of grand claims. This one I posted from Korea seems to be getting more attention, which could just be weird social media noise, but I thought it was worth talking about all the same! In all likelihood, it's probably wrong because it's just too good  

Room-temperature superconductor 'breakthrough' met with scepticism

WWW.NEWSCIENTIST.COM

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Creating a material that perfectly conducts electricity at room temperature and pressure would be a big deal, but a research team's claims of creating one has attracted more scrutiny than optimism

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A team of researchers claim to have created the first materials that conduct electricity perfectly at room temperature and ambient pressure, but many physicists are highly sceptical. Speaking to New Scientist, Hyun-Tak Kim at the College of William and Mary in Virginia says he will support anyone trying to replicate his team’s work.

 

Superconductors are materials that electricity can move through without encountering any resistance and so would significantly cut down the energy costs of electronics. But for over a century, researchers have been unable to make them work except under extreme conditions like very low temperatures and remarkably high pressures.

 

Now, Kim and his colleagues claim to have made a material that is superconductive at room temperature and pressure.

I've been seeing story this make the rounds on Twitter (fuck you I'm not saying X). A result like this needs serious skepticism. However, it's from a reputable Korean research group, and from what I've heard, the paper seems legitimate, so there is a lot of finger crossing that this holds up to replication. If it does, it would be a civilization changing piece of technology.

So, I wouldn't trust it just yet, but this seems hopeful enough to think about.

1 minute ago, Jason said:

 

Instead the Hulk bullied New York State into shutting down Indian Point claiming he's an environmentalist. 

The negative environmentalist attitude toward nuclear is infuriating. I must leave room for being wrong, because I'm not an expert on nuclear technology, but the "environmentalist" arguments against nuclear that I've seen are just bad arguments, so I'm inclined to reject their rejection  

Can we please just use nuclear everywhere? It'd be a start...

I tried it last night. Seems legit! I'll probably be sinking a bunch of hours into it.

21 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

I was thinking of going Rogue...but strangely, it kind of seems like Rangers are the better stealth/assassin class in BG3.

Monk Way of the Shadow is also pretty great for an assassin build. At 6th level you can fucking teleport to the shadows and with the right feats (e.g., Mobile) you can hit and run without provoking an opportunity attack.

There are few actors with Glenn Howerton's range for frustration, anger, and calm psychopathic hate.

7 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Anybody playing this and getting upset about balancing changes and nerfs has obviously never played an mmo/live service game, ever. If you think you've made the "perfect build" and that it will exist two months from now, you're just setting yourself up.

 

it's the nature of the beast. Devs make a game. Players find ways to make game-breaking builds. Devs nerf game-breaking builds so that no longer break the game. Players find new ways to make game-breaking builds. It's the eternal conflict, fuck the angels and demons.

 

To play a game like this is to understand that your build will not be viable forever.

I expect a build to be able to last for a least a couple of weeks or to even be able to spend some time planning one, like I did in D2. And if the norm is that volatile, then everyone else sucks too.

6 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

The video specifically references the Battle Master subclass and the presenters says that it's a "personal favorite" of his.

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

I haven't watched this one, but just a PSA for people new to DnD: the Fighter class in 5e is pretty awesome. In plenty of other RPGs (even older DnD), the fighter was tough but boring with very few things to do other than attack. Not so in 5e. Take the Battle Master subclass and you get a shit ton of different strategic skills for combat. There are other good fighter subclasses, but Battle Master is so good just in terms of giving you different ways to do things, it's hard for me to recommend anything else.

2 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

At this point, it's practically a coin flip as to whether your build will remain viable with the next patch release.

 

Unless you're playing as a Sorcerer because in that case, a 50/50 chance would actually represent an improvement!

I am actually playing a Sorcercer  

On 7/18/2023 at 10:07 PM, Biggie said:

Made really good progress tonight. 
Got my 

  Hide contents

pouch maxed out with maximum consumables 

This game is long. Don’t know how some of you finished it in 30ish hours. Must have skipped cut scenes and side quests. 

Skipped neither. But I didn't just run on foot everywhere so there's probably some savings there!

It's crazy how volatile the game is. I haven't played in a while now, but shit like this keeps happening and it makes it completely pointless to try and build a character.

1 hour ago, Bacon said:

I recall enjoying DOS1's combat, but I could not get into the story and I hated the dual main character thing. I just wanted my created character to be the special boy with the powers. I didn't bother getting DOS2 because it didn't seem like your created character had any relevance and that ugly lizard was the real MC. This is why The Dark Urge appears like it might be right up my alley.

FWIW, The Red Prince was not the "real MC" in DOS2. In fact, you can completely abandon him or any of the possible party members in the very first act. All of the party members can also be made your main, or you can create a custom one. You probably could have just mained Ifan and been happy.

The story and presentation of it in DOS2 was improved over DOS1, but the story presentation is BGIII is going to trounce both. It's much more immersive this time around.

1 hour ago, Bacon said:

I wouldn't really be interested in min-maxing with racials, and since this is a video game it is probably pretty safe to pick your favorite race + class I'd imagine. Interested in either a human barb or human/half-elf storm sorc. Warlock seems like it has melee potential, and I'd be more interested in playing a type of unholy paladin so to speak. Tho, a half-elf wizard seems very cool too. The Dark Urge seems very interesting and I might be inclined to pick that rather than a full of custom character. Not really sure how much story a custom character gets and I will always care more about my custom PC than some premade.

 

e:

Spoiler

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As long as The Dark Urge isn't a pre-existing or reincarnated character, it looks to be a solid choice for me. Also wouldn't want the game to do something like, "Oh you are actually this guy named Steven Lars and you have a wife and kid back home." That's the kind of stuff I need to get spoiled on.

 

You can get away with not minmaxing your race, but I would not pick Warlock if you want to be a melee character. If you want an unholy paladin do an Oath-breaker Paladin.

Or multiclass with Warlock -- that can be legit and very powerful.

1 hour ago, Spork3245 said:

I know very little of D&D, what's the downside of making my character a Dragonborn? They seem neat.

In classic D&D rules, different races have different starting bonuses. For the full list, it's worth checking out DnD Beyond which has all the rules for everything. The race bonuses can be found here (mostly just look at the first section for the races from the standard 5e handbook)

Character Races for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e) - D&D Beyond

WWW.DNDBEYOND.COM

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Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e) Races. A comprehensive list of all official character races for Fifth Edition.

However, in the DnD expansion Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, they introduced the "Custom Lineage" race where you can basically decide what race you want and choose your own bonuses. I believe BGIII is also supporting a form of custom lineage in which case you can be pretty flexible to your race choice without it compromising gameplay style. This article seems to support that, but I haven't seen anything definitive.

Baldur’s Gate 3 lets you customize your racial bonuses | PCGamesN

WWW.PCGAMESN.COM

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A Baldur’s Gate 3 screenshot seemingly suggests that the popular Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything ruleset might allow for more customizable racial attributes.

Sorry to hear that Chris! That really sucks. At times like these I try and take comfort in knowing that it will be fixed and mostly you just have to wait through it. (With games of course)

I think I need to get to work on that asteroid defense space AI and robotics fleet.

On 7/17/2023 at 2:18 PM, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

I see your pedestrian "streaming", and raise you NFT/blockchain!

 

The Flash is the first new release movie to hit the blockchain, whatever that means

WWW.AVCLUB.COM

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The Flash movie will be an NFT now, because the future is utterly ridiculous

 

 

I love how blockchain bros will nod a long with the idea that their "owned" item is actually hosted on some private server somewhere without a hint of irony.

Just now, Dexterryu said:

 

All good. People keep expecting a lot, especially with the recent hype that the game has gotten so you are on point with that. If anything it's irresponsible reporting/marketing if they are saying that. In my book, if they are anywhere near what Witcher 3 had for ending variety (main game, especially) with where  the story ended up we're in for a treat. 

Heck, I just played the very first section of the EA game and was already interested in the side characters. I had to make myself stop playing since the save file won't be compatible and I didn't want to waste hours, spoil, or burn out on the game. Really looking forward to Aug 3 after burning myself on D4.

Yeah I played through all of the early access when EA first released. But I deliberately haven't played any of the massive updates since then because I already played enough to know it will be great and I didn't want to feel like I was retreading ground when the full release came out.

3 hours ago, Dexterryu said:

 

There's only so much you can write narratively & code for... what we're getting is already fairly generous. I'd also say this is about at much as we can reasonably expect until games are able to be programed on the fly by a generative AI that mimics voice actors.

To be clear, I didn't mean what I said to be a criticism of the game. Just a warning to keep expectations in check.

BTW, if anyone wants further corroboration of Emad being garbage, you can also check out this article on him.

The AI Founder Taking Credit For Stable Diffusion’s Success Has A History Of Exaggeration

WWW.FORBES.COM

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Stability AI became a $1 billion company with the help of a viral AI text-to-image generator and some misleading claims from founder Emad Mostaque.

I know of a few people in the AI community who joined Stability and then left after only months on the job.