Lurker > InfestedAdam

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Make the player WANT to recruit that character via story and scene.

Do you have an example that I can relate to? Personally, General Leo from Final Fantasy VI mighta been the only time I had really hoped he becomes a party member after his introduction and boy was I disappointed that he was just a guest character.

You bring up some good points in regards to companion characters though. Majority of the time I feel like I view companions simply as mules, "stat sticks", meat shields/distractions, and maybe for the comments they have. When I think back to Baldur's Gate II, it felt like I only got invested into the various characters after I have had some conversation with them and wanted someone of their personality in my party. Minsc might be one where right off the bat I felt I needed someone that crazy on my team.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Lokarin posted...

I haven't seen much of it, but there are people saying it's as good if not better than New Vegas

I enjoyed The Outer Worlds and the few black humor I noticed but I would not consider it on par with Fallout: New Vegas. I had fun but it felt rather rough around the edges. I did a solo playthrough via the Microsoft game pass so might opt for a second playthrough with companions after it releases on Steam.

Lokarin posted...

s Borderlands 3 any good (as compared to BL2, not compared to other games)

Gameplay wise I think Borderlands 3 is a huge improvement over its predecessors. Storywise, I would say it felt weaker compared to BL2 and maybe even BL. Pre-Sequel is probably my least enjoyable one among the series.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

First choice would be birthday cake followed by buttered pecan and then chocolate.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Pork is my preferred meat. Among Chinese dishes, I think it is the most used.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Zeus posted...

America's infrastructure was in better shape than other nations because we weren't being bombed.

Thank you for that reminder. With the exception of Pearl Harbor (and I guess Midway), I something forget the country itself was for the most part left untouched compared to the other Allied and Axis forces.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

I dislike neither. I enjoyed college and the social interaction with my classmates and friends. I rarely see each other in-person nowadays even before COVID-19 but I still kept in regular contact with a handful of them. Elementary, middle, and high school had some bumps but all within tolerance for me.

As for work, I am enjoying the engineering position I am in now. It might not be what I want to do long term in terms of pay/benefit but I am still enjoying it. A few coworkers are difficult but overall I enjoy it working at that company.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Yes. My previous car was a Subaru 2005 WRX. Friend gave me a crash course on how to drive manual before I bought it and I refined that after purchasing the vehicle.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Pre-COVID-19 during the Superbowl. Due to our schedules and family stuff, friends and I rarely meet except for special occasions and/or potlucks.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Zareth posted...

It's not facing the way to be a Nazi swastika though.

That did cross that mind and I was thinking of the Buddhist swastika.

BlackScythe0 posted...

Not something you can count on people to know. Both the recipients and the ones who actually did it.

But then also this. Typical person seeing that will think of the Nazi symbol instead of the Buddhist one.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

wwinterj25 posted...

I take them off unless they say otherwise.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

I do not necessary need caffeine to function most mornings but I do like the taste of coffee, black. How much does decaf taste differ?

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

I feel it will just end up being a "He said, she said" situation. Has there been a case where a book being published have ruined someone's life because of what was stated in the book?

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Android. Pixel 3 XL. Woulda gone with an iPhone a decade ago if they worked with T-Mobile but at the time only worked with AT&T.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Not regularly but my family and I enjoyed Souplantation.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

On. I might miss what a character said so prefer seeing the words on the screen.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

ParanoidObsessive posted...

For FO, I'd argue that you've "beaten" it when the game literally ends. Like, you see an ending, and the game stops you from playing any more. That's "beaten".

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The problem with Skyrim is that it doesn't really HAVE an "ending". The main quest just sort of peters out and leaves you in the world

Touche. I felt compelled to do the companion quests and DLCs before finishing the main quest again because I knew the game ended after that with no post-ending gameplay. I finished the main quest before the first DLC and was not till my second playthrough after all the DLCs were released that I worked on the companion and DLC quests.

For Skyrim though, one could finish the main quest which is technically "beating" the game and then go back to finish off the other faction quests and DLCs. I can see what you mean by Skyrim does not quite have an ending.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

I still live with my mother. I handle most of the lawn work, various maintenance around the house, currently grocery shopping due to COVID-19, my own laundry, and any other tasks that my 77 years old mother should not be doing.

As a kid I did a lot more with helping wash dishes, food prep, religious/cultural holiday celebrations prep, etc. My mother kind of prefer I do not handle these nowadays because I might be too much of a brute and/or she does not like how I wash the dishes.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

No, it would be a crime against humanity.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

If I have a few $1 bills and/or loose change and I can give em something without holding up traffic around me, I will give em $3 or what coins I have. More often than not, I simply use up my paper money and forget to put more in.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The problem with Skyrim is how you define "beaten". Is it finishing the main questline? Finishing the civil war? Finishing literally every possible quest, sidequest, and general activity until all that's left are the infinitely repeating ones? Completing every Achievement/Trophy?

I would say that is up to the individual on when they feel they have "beaten" open world games. I felt satisfied with FO: New Vegas after finishing most or all of the companion quests, the DLC quests, and most of the different endings of the main quest.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Assuming you do not have sensitive skin or allergies, do you folks notice the difference between detergent? I have been using Kirkland's detergent but prior have been using 99 Cent Only Store brand so do not really have any others to compare with.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

darcandkharg31 posted...

funny is that I got till like end game in both of them but I got burnt out, took a break and never finished.

That is me with some JRPGs. I would search every nook and cranny and talk to every NPC in the beginning but after some grinding and whatnot I would get burnt out in the last third of the game at which point I either rush through the rest of the game or take a long break before finishing some weeks/months later.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

captpackrat posted...

Crab grass is in the family Poaceae so weed killers that won't kill grass won't kill crab grass either, and herbicides that will kill crab grass will also kill your lawn. But unlike most lawn grasses, crab grass is an annual, it will die off every winter then regrow from seed. So you can either pull the stuff by hand thus preventing it from going to seed, or you can apply a pre-emergent herbicide in the early spring and late fall which will kill the new plants before they can get established. Frequent mowing to 2 or 3 inches can help as well.

I used to have a major problem with sandbur, which is also family Poaceae and thus immune to most lawn-safe herbicides. Applying a pre-emergent over several acres would be extremely expensive, so I just wait until the seed heads begin to form then I pull the plants by hand. I still have some sandbur, but it's much less than it used to be.

Thanks for the tips. I will look into this. I have maybe two or three giant patches of crab grass on my lawn that are more of an eye sore. Rest of the lawn ain't exactly pretty either since I do not regularly water it so the crab grass kind of blend in.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

As for single-player games, it would be Skyrim with about 600 hours of play time with less than a third of the quests being completed. I think I am only half way through the main quest. Fallout 4 and Morrowind trail behind at about 300 and 200ish hours respectively. Fallout: New Vegas stands at 500 hours but I finally finished all the DLCs and main story about a year ago.

World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV takes the lead at over a thousand hours each but being MMORPGs, I will never truly finish these games.

Comments are appreciated,

Thank you

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Reading this topic again just reminded me I need to spray some weed killer again on various parts of my lawn. I poured about a cup on some crab grass and bloody thing is still alive.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

No but I can understand what is meant by that. At the same time I do feel one cannot handle every situation with a one-size-fit-all approach.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Elevenses/Brunch for me. I tend to knock out a few hours of work before making myself a sandwich to cover both breakfast and lunch.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 for me.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

I am not afraid of simply getting old but I am concern with maintaining what health I have as I get older.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

No and yes? I do not use those particular words but I have a habit of say "fudge" and "poop monkey" instead.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

JoeDangIt posted...

I'm not really a fan of buying cards directly, for me the fun has always been doing the best with whatever I happen to get.

Friends and I started doing for a few blocks. We would split the cost on a booster box, divide half the packs among ourselves, and have a draft with the remaining booster packs. Kept the cost down and prevented any of us from simply dropping cash to make a better deck. I was not particularly good at making a deck with what I had but my friends were creative in what they could make.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.

As a hoarder I keep far too much stuff out of sentimental reasons (i.e. old homework from 20+ years ago), I do feel she brings up a lot of good points in regards to decluttering. Stuff that I have not bother looking for or needed in several years probably can safely be tossed out.

EDIT: See how bad I am? I said I can probably should toss out items I have not looked at in several years instead just admitting I should toss such items out.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Beetlejuice!

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

I would get a Black Lotus and one of each Mox just for collection sake. I do not have the experience to properly make use of these cards. That said, I would love to update my Kithkin and Treant deck from Lorraine.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Having played only Pokemon among those choices, that mighta been my vote. With Minecraft on that list, I am hesitant to vote against that.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Bought it a day or two after it released. I wanna say the music feels like the best improvement compared to the gameplay. The AI and pathfinding feels bout the same as before and sometimes just weird. There are times I do not understand why me clicking to attack a unit result in my units moving up to melee range instead of shooting. I am fairly sure I am not accidentally making them force move instead unless the input has changed.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

GastroFan posted...

Some of my coworkers (we move cars from branch to branch at a rental car company whose name I won't mention) have come in with tee shirts, shorts, no socks, and shoes on their feet from time to time (this was pre-Covid). Nobody really says anything, though, since we're outside most of the day and rarely have any contact with guests (customers).

I kind of wonder if there is a physiological reason behind dressing properly depending on the line of work. I do not doubt that some engineers, drafters, and other folks in an office environment work better when they are feeling relax and part of that could be with how they are dressed. But I wonder if being too relax can negatively affect the work.

I can imagine though not feeling comfortable cause a suit is too tight or too hot will be nothing more than a distraction so being too "professional looking" can also be a hindrance.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Apology for the confusion if my opening statement was confusing or too wordy. I understand and accept college is not always the best route but is not asking about how useful college is in the real world.

What I am asking is for those who do want to attend college, how much of studying hard can make up for attending a poorly funded high school or coming from a low income family?

blu posted...

It's more about the environment. Being in a rich private school will let you associate with other rich people and learn to act like one. You learn the secret handshake that persuades people to give you money and opportunity for prestige.

Depending on the college/university, I can see this being a thing. But how would this stand out in an application when being reviewed? It has been 20 some years since I applied for college and our application, essay, transcript, SAT score, etc. were the only things we were presenting to an admission office. Maybe certain schools held interviews but most I recall were just done via applications and the required documents.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

I do not view higher education as a joke but can agree it is not a guaranteed to a happy and comfortable life either. I often been told it is more of who you know and less so of what you know and unfortunately some very intelligent college friends are examples of this. I too have a friend who did not finish college and went on to make good money by working for the city.

I feel parents and teachers need to be more realistic about their children/student options after high school. They should not push for colleges specifically but rather something said child can hopefully enjoy and make a living with.

That said, my question was in regards to those you want to attend college. How much of studying hard can make up for a poorly funded school, bad teachers, etc. compared to those attending better high schools?

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Apparently the UC governing board voted to support a measure to restore affirmative action to improve diversity. Some folks I know are less than happy this might screw their children over when they apply for college several years from now.

The high school I attended 20 some years ago was not in a rich community but we did not seem that bad either. Many fellow classmates I know study their arses off and are doing well in life after attending various top end colleges/universities. I think one friend took a year off at MIT and still graduated on time, whatever that means.

All that said, how far can studying hard really take you? If one comes from a poorly funded school, could that influence your chance to get into the top colleges/universities? How much of "selling yourself" fall on the student and not the high school?

I do not doubt some schools better prepare their students compared to others and part of that might be due to better teachers, better programs, better opportunities, etc. In the end though, I still feel a lot falls on the student.

From your personal experience of hearing about it, how far does studying hard really takes you?

Comments and opinions are appreciated,

Thank you


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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

blu posted...

Keep in mind we aren't dealing with patient's directly or sales or so this isn't appearance to customers or clients.

Engineering company I work for established a lax dress code some years ago. Personally I do not disagree with the idea of a dress code even if employees are not dealing with clients/manufacturers in-person and that is because some coworkers kind of took it too far on several occasions.

The worst was on "Casual Friday" where one fellow engineer regularly come in with slippers, shorts, and an undersized tank top. Kind of bizarre to have said coworker walking about with his hairy belly hanging out.


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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

EvilMegas posted...

I love this cycle of:
1. Aggressively engage with a person
2. Threaten to call the cops
3. Lie
4. Outed on the internet
5. "I'm so sorry, I just tried to ruin their life and it didn't work. My life is ruined now and I don't like it"
Rinse and repeat.

Scary thing to me, No. 5 probably would not happen if No. 4 did not. If I was on the receiving end of such treatment, I would not believe No. 5 is sincere and would be hard-pressed to want to meet over coffee so said person can "learn and grow and be a better person".

That said, I am willing to believe such person can change their views/personalities overtime and with positive exposure. Maybe meeting over coffee could be the first step to such positive changes. But for such person to say they are sorry this quickly, I would not believe. They might regret their actions but they would not feel sorry for it.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

I am pretty sure either World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV has the most playtime for me. For non-MMORPG games, I think Borderlands 2 or Skyrim might have the most playtime.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

How does the newer ones compared to Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5? I have only played RE5 and could not get into RE4 cause of the controls. To my understanding RE4 or RE5 was when the series shifted to more of a shooter and less of a horror survival. Are the newer ones more true to the earlier RE games or follow the RE5+ trend?

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

I am hoping this will be a true space flight sim and worthy successor to X-Wing vs TIE Fighter. Might justify getting a flight joystick again. After Jedi: Fallen Order, I had hopes they can make a proper single-player game but I based on the trailer, I can only assume it might be focused on multi-player only.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

My father passed away several years ago. I am considering visiting his grave this Sunday since we could not do it during Memorial Day weekend.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

My computer do not have a camera and I find it easier to view meetings via my computer instead of phone so I just have a black screen with my name when attending online meetings. I thought about getting a camera but question whether or not I really need to have people see me when talking.

To some degree seeing a face makes it easier for me to pay attention instead of just listening to audio but that also depends on the subject at hand and length of conversation.

Do you prefer your camera on or off during online meetings?

Comments are appreciated,

Thank you

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

Kind of indifferent toward Maguire but I thought Garfield was closer to the 90's animated series version compared to the other two. Holland does seem to be doing a good job of maintaining that series's personality but I kind of wish his origin story did not start him off as a high schooler. As odd as it may sound, it seems as if Holland's Spider-Man does not have the same issues/concerns as Maguire/Garfield's Spider-Man.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"

myghostisdead posted...

Depends on what the item is.

This for me. Items that are $100-200+ and I do not need anytime soon, I tend to wait for 20%+ off before buying em. Also depends on whether or not said item(s) regularly goes on sales. I know REI has at least three major sales a year and members can use 20% off coupons on one item. I wait on my big purchases until these sales. Certain items like computer hardware, I might not wait around as much. I will buy em when I plan to upgrade and might not upgrade again until several years later.

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"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"Go for the eyes Boo! Go for the eyes!"