📚┃off-topic

[warped wren]

made a thing

[jovial bane]

base seems a bit low, but other than that it's juicy

oh base is 5-7, so w/e lmao

[warped wren]

I was just randomly gambling amulets and got one with %ES and lightning res, and I hit it with greater regal and got +3 proj

knew I had to craft it then

shame it hit dex suffix at the end, tried using catalysing omen too

[twilit mountain]

So could a gal scam you out of this for friendship points? /s

[warped wren]

You want this?

I could do a discount in return for the loan earlier + because it's you, for sure

[fierce moth]

I can't believe I awake so early today

Americans should be familiar with that. I can taste that by buying any products after 5:00 in 01.01-01.04 :)

Will give it a try (Not available in here all the time)

[warped wren]

[fierce moth]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz6hr5nZlik

Here we go!
hhhhhhhh...

[fierce moth]

Good job! You can craft more now.

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/action-rpg-players-will-exploit-anything-in-the-name-of-efficiency-which-is-why-path-of-exile-2-players-are-locking-themselves-in-the-campaign-for-profit/
lol this is interesting

👀 pc gamer notice that too

ohhhhhh wowwww well, well, well... Such a pity that I'm very far away from that map in campaign

But it's a good reason to try a new ascendency

[fierce moth]

as usual, I sell nothing

[fierce moth]

?!....? But nothing special is happened...

[twilit mountain]

A nearby map. Check your atlas.

Nothing special happens in the current map. It is complete and utter luck. You have a 5% chance, with no scaling of any kind, on completing an abyss to overrun a different map with abysses.

[fierce moth]

Oh I guess this is the overrun map?

[twilit mountain]

Yes

[desert jasper]

morning

[warped wren]

dude just turned 180 on a swivel and slammed me

[gilded elm]

I don't know if I'm the only one who gets spammed by these requests daily... but they're getting more clever now with the whole "teehee I'm an egirl" act.

[gilded elm]

They're "okay" and worth trying at least once I guess. McGriddles have maple syrup-flavored pancake buns. They're popular in the US, though probably super unhealthy.

[desert jasper]

I haven't had those requests in a while tbh
On one server they seem to target weeb profiles and one of the bots mistook my cat for anime thingy

[gilded elm]

I'm getting at least one almost daily, it's a bit annoying so I probably just have to lock down my DMs more for all the servers I'm in. I'm also probably in 50+ servers, maybe even a 100? No idea.

[twilit mountain]

I get them on the reg. I just click block before I even read it, the benefits of setting it to request only

[fierce moth]

@naive tide Last time we met is here

You can check message history

Feb's thing. It been a while

[naive tide]

Haha reskimmed and remember that now - long time ago now

[fierce moth]

:)

[naive tide]

Ye, now moving to GGG is a good fit 😄

Still a fan of LE tho, need to play it again

[desert jasper]

I'm in 15
and I think that's already too many

[fierce moth]

(background: Sabre is one of game designers in GGG)

[fierce moth]

lol

Can we connect each other on linkedin?

[naive tide]

Sure

[fierce moth]

sent

[warped wren]

ok round 2 on a different map was better

wow opulence essences are 70+ ex?

damn

[fierce moth]

430+e per d already 🤷‍♀️

[twilit mountain]

Rarity goes crazy dude

[warped wren]

yeah I just have 35%

just a pain in the ass

finally, first citadel in sight

[sand wigeon]

“more clever”

[sand wigeon]

what the #%@* is that

[gilded elm]

In the sense that 2 is 100% greater than 1, but still not very clever overall. Still, it's a lot more effort than what I normally get.

[sand wigeon]

you need to change your settings if you’re getting that constantly

[gilded elm]

I think so too, I'm just in way too many servers and I think I have everything on a per-server basis where I have to toggle off specific servers.

A lot of them come from ARPG Discords

[sand wigeon]

well those are already full of losers, regardless of the bots

[gilded elm]

You know, they probably are more populated with "down bad" dudes.

Good point lol

[sand wigeon]

i think the only reason i haven’t been hit on in arpg spaces more than i ever was playing siege or valorant is because i’m not @&#^ing voice chatting in arpg’s

[gilded elm]

I think that's as close to being a fact as can be without empirical evidence. It should be obvious at this point, which in itself is kind of sad.

[sand wigeon]

valorant was pretty bad tho ngl

at least it was in a funny way

i also got hit on by more women in valorant than i ever was men

in siege weirdos would ask me for my snap like every game or call me slurs (in both games i literally only ever give gameplay relevant callouts)

(also who uses snapchat in 2025)

[gilded elm]

Maybe the women have gaydars? :P

[sand wigeon]

probably

it is valorant after all

[gilded elm]

I'm not gay and I'm not a woman, so I wouldn't know... but maybe there's some kind of giveaway that hints at it lol

[sand wigeon]

@twilit mountain do i have any lesbian tendencies

[gilded elm]

Kind of like the stereotypical gay voice for dudes? Though I'm way out of my depth here tbh

[sand wigeon]

ignoring my twitter and tumblr

[sand wigeon]

the gaycent…

i do get told i “sound slutty” on the regular

maybe it’s that

[gilded elm]

Yeah, not a voice, more of an accent or manner of speech

[twilit mountain]

You're a sarcasm slinging woman who wears denim and flannels and grew up near Portland, Maine. If that isn't a lesbian I don't know what is.

[sand wigeon]

siiigh

i don’t even wear denim

that’s a lie

[twilit mountain]

I'm not gonna give you a straight answer here (ha), every woman I have ever been close to is a lesbian lmao

[sand wigeon]

why does Sarcasm Slinger sound like a Borderlands class

[gilded elm]

Maybe because sarcasm is like half the franchise lol

[sand wigeon]

true

ig i do have a. lilt? to my voice

i’m also just a woman with a soft, deeper voice, people tend to like that, idk

[gilded elm]

Better than getting hit on by all the wrong people, surely.

Though maybe not. I guess hetero dudes hitting on hetero women is still usually unwanted, so maybe lesbians hitting on other lesbians is equally unwanted.

[twilit mountain]

Generally just getting hit on without invitation is... awkward at best, creepy at worst.

[sand wigeon]

yeah i don’t really like being hit on by anyone that isn’t already my friend

[gilded elm]

Yeah, there's a time and place for it and I imagine video games aren't the right place or time for most people (except down bad dudes).

[sand wigeon]

gods no, at the bar i’f be fine with it because to some degree it is a hookup place

but when i’m saying “omen flanking through heaven” and someone responds with words i cannot say in this server with out it getting censored by the automod, it’s pretty bad

[gilded elm]

Yeah... I feel like I'd enjoy online gaming less if I was a woman, not because of being a woman, but because of other people who clearly can't be around women.

I feel like most dudes understand this now, maybe? I hope it's getting better. I haven't played in online groups in a while.

Also probably depends on the kind of games, like League or Valorant vs say, something like FF14

[sand wigeon]

it rly depends on the game ngl

[sand wigeon]

ff14 is simultaneously a great space and awful space for women

you just need to be the right kind of woman

valorant is GENERALLY pretty great. 99% of the time i had a great time playing valorant and had either zero weird interactions or mostly funny ones

it was just those once in a while matches that were rly not fun lol

i had a pretty okay time with destiny 2 lfg’ing, though that was a few years ago

tarkov has generally been pretty good. i’d say the biggest problem with tarkov men is that if they’re the bad type of guy, they usually DON’T out themself immediately which can suck in the long run

[gilded elm]

Oh yeah, I remember FF14 also has women who capitalize on attention from men with the roleplay stuff so it's probably not so straightforward as I initially imagined.

[sand wigeon]

mmo’s are probably only second to the shooter community in terms of sexism i’ll be frank

the only one off the top of my head that doesn’t apply to is runescape

part of that is ‘cause runescape has a rly positive youtube community

people like Settled tend to push good and positive messaging so

[gilded elm]

Had a similar kind of discussion with a woman friend a while back... apparently women in MMOs can be a bit "competitive" for attention.

[sand wigeon]

we call those pick-mes

they attract mentioned “bad type of guy” on purpose to get attention

spoiler: the piranhas eat your face off too

[gilded elm]

lol

They can get territorial if they think another woman is encroaching.

It's a really... interesting dynamic.

[warped wren]

[sand wigeon]

helldivers had a positive community, hunt: showdown was pretty good, i’ve never had a bad community regarding civ (different story for hoi4 and ck2-3), dead by daylight was toxic all around, disco elysium community varies between godawful and the best people i can imagine

[warped wren]

What is wrong with people

[sand wigeon]

the finals was pretty positive

generally the more you steer toward multiplayer the worse it gets and the more you steer toward singleplayer communities the better

[warped wren]

You're not referring to Helldivers 2 right

[sand wigeon]

i am

[warped wren]

What

They're toxic as all hell

[sand wigeon]

the celeste community is great, the hollow knight community, horizon, gtfo, from soft etcetera

[warped wren]

Oh idk maybe regarding women in the lobby, sure, no idea about that specific thing

[sand wigeon]

yeah i’m more talking about sexism toxicity

not general toxicity of any type

[gilded elm]

Disco Elysium part is funny and honestly kinda checks out given the diversity of beliefs and personalities that can enjoy that game.

[sand wigeon]

that game does very well in baiting awful people into thinking it’s for them before turning around and berating them for having those beliefs

it’s great

[gilded elm]

Indeed

[sand wigeon]

the best video game community i’ve ever had the joy in being part of is the Black Tabby Games community, creators of Slay the Princess and Scarlet Hollow (though I’m referring specifically to the Scarlet Hollow side of the community)

[gilded elm]

Did you know ZA/UM is working on a new game and riding on the Disco name to prop it up? I hope it's a disaster given what they did to the original ZA/UM. I'm eagerly awaiting the next project the real Disco devs are working on: https://summereternal.com/

[sand wigeon]

there’s like five split-off za/um groups

all making their own games

lol

[gilded elm]

Really? Damn. This website is basically just a manifesto for now, but I wasn't aware there were so many split-offs lol

[sand wigeon]

relevant

(this is parody obviously but still)

there’s Dark Math, modern ZA/UM, Longdue, Red Info LTD and Summer Eternal

[gilded elm]

LOL

That manifesto definitely reads that way.

Not that I care if it leads to good art, though.

But yeah it sucks they aren't a unified group

[sand wigeon]

Dark Math’s game

XXX Nightshift

[gilded elm]

The people who made Disco are what made the game so great and I don't know if any single person can be attributed to that greatness. It would've been great to see them come together.

Is that on Steam?

[sand wigeon]

That one isn’t yet

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3481610/Hopetown/

Hopetown, Longdue

[gilded elm]

Immediately wishlisting all of the ex-ZAUM groups' projects because you never know, we might see something amazing come from one of them.

Thanks

[sand wigeon]

Red Info Ltd is made up of some of the primary people behind Disco Elysium and also helped Longdue on Hopetown, though has mot announced their own thing

and last is summer eternal obv

[sand wigeon]

people keep arguing about which group will make the real successor blah blah blah

what if they were ✨ all ✨ good

lmao

[gilded elm]

Then we all win

That'd be amazing

And if we're lucky, ZAUM loses.

[sand wigeon]

true

“disco elysium 2”

i rly pity the new writers they brought in

even if they make a good game nobody will want it just because they were hired by corporate greed pricks

it’s not the new writer’s faults, but oh well

hopefully people will understand it’s not the fault of whatever devs are behind disco elysium 2

[gilded elm]

It's hard to reconcile the idea of working on a successor to Disco Elysium for a company that is antithetical to the game's messaging.

But yeah devs gotta do what they gotta do to eat.

[sand wigeon]

yeah

it’s not even like Sunless Sea drama

it’s not even the same people that kicked the original creator out working on the rest of the stuff

it’s just new people that management hired

[sand wigeon]

(more accurately the original creator left of their own volition and then their previous studio became actively hostile to them)

no, unc

no

[gilded elm]

Never even heard of Sunless Sea, so it's not worth buying this game on Steam because it gives money to the wrong people?

[desert jasper]

I find it funny that the US version of it is way harder than japanese version

[sand wigeon]

not necessarily the wrong people

it’s a very different game than what the creator makes now

They made Fallen London, a web-based game that started the Sunless Sea world setting. Then they made Sunless Sea, a sequel to Fallen London before they left the first studio they created an started their second, called Weather Factory

The original studio went on to make Sunless Skies, a sequel to Sunless Sea, and another game in the setting I can’t remember the name of

Weather Factory (just that creator and his wife) went on to make Cultist Simulator, Book of Hours and are now working on Travelling at Night (a Disco Elysium inspired game), set in a new setting called the Secret Histories

He started both studios but left because he was slowly being pushed into a more managerial position rather than a developer and he didn’t want that, he wanted to keep making games

It’s been like multi-year long drama

[gilded elm]

Cultist Simulator! That's been on my wishlist since like 2018 or something crazy like that... I really gotta grab that game.

[sand wigeon]

It’s my second favorite game ever

The first is Roadwarden

But that’s not related to any of this

[gilded elm]

So I'm not following exactly what happened that actually led to Weather Factory

Oh I think I understand now. He was being squeezed out of development and that led to Weather Factory.

[sand wigeon]

Yeah, he wanted to keep actually working on games but due to his position it just wasn’t happening

So he left in good graces (didn’t even take shares or anything) and went to make a studio with his wife

Overtime his previous coworkers and friends started becoming hostile until he was basically excommunicated

With no real explanation

Some people have accused him of sexual harassment but given other people said those were lies and he also had to get restraining orders on a few people iirc I’m liable to say that’s not true

It’s a whole weird murky thing

[gilded elm]

So he made some people at the previous studio upset and they unleashed some hounds.

Possibly

[sand wigeon]

The creator of Weather Factory generally just tries not to talk about it because they don’t want to damage their previous studio’s reputation or anything, they were just forced into making some blog posts on it because of the whole situation affecting things like development

[gilded elm]

I feel that whole "want to keep developing" mentality, though. That's where I am in my career too... there's not much opportunity for advancement in my current position unless I'm willing to move into management, but that means telling other people what to do and less time (practically never) writing actual code.

Managing people sucks, at least from my perspective.

I should grab Cultist Simulator though now that I remember, that's a huge discount lol

[maiden widget]

Grabbed wall world 2 and Chernobylite in this sale finally, I need to play something non arpg for a bit

[desert jasper]

I played a bit of cyberpunk 2077 yesterday
I don't like the controls so far
Also hate that you can't lock the minimap to always point north

[gilded elm]

First playthrough?

[desert jasper]

Yes

[gilded elm]

What control issues were you having?

[sand wigeon]

do not just shoot everything in chernobylite pls

you will screw yourself

combat is meant to be avoided, focus on managing your resources and upgrading your companion’s gear so they’re more likely to succeed on your own missions

that’s all the tips i will give

[desert jasper]

I just don't like how hold tab for hacking, then press these buttons to do the things
why is f the default interact / select option button etc
driving a car probably the worst I've ever experienced in any game
Also when Jackie was driving the car after you're done with the tutorial there was absolutely terrible music playing from the radio and ofc you can't mute that bcs why would you be able to

[gilded elm]

Haha, yeah not surprised by any of that.

[desert jasper]

And then when I mentioned these to the guy who gifted it to me he just dismissed those

[sand wigeon]

i mean

keybinds can be easily changed

[gilded elm]

Driving is mostly a vehicle thing, so that should get better. Everything else is kind of just a "get used to it" thing, although for the minimap there is a mod for a fixed north, I think.

[sand wigeon]

car radio has its own audio setting

and the driving is an opinion thing i can’t comment there

i thought the driving felt great

[gilded elm]

Assuming there is a keybind to change the things you want to change, do that for sure. Some things might not be changeable, not sure on the tab for quickhacking.

[sand wigeon]

F is a pretty standard interact key

It’s either F or E

[gilded elm]

Handling is a common enough complaint in Cyberpunk that there's a few different mods for it, but honestly I wouldn't bother with mods until you've experienced more vehicles since handling can vary wildly depending on your car.

[sand wigeon]

modding also doesn’t fix any of the game’s issues, i don’t rly want to suggest those for nubs

if nubs has critiques of the game then “mod it” isn’t a real answer

[gilded elm]

Yeah I'd only ever recommend mods in this case for things that simply cannot be changed and are dealbreakers, to which I don't know where the "fixed north" minimap issue falls.

I highly encourage you to stick with the game and give it a fair shot, because it's an amazing experience IMO.

[sand wigeon]

bugs are such a per-person thing

i’ve never experienced literally any bugs while playing cyberpunk

and i played on release

meanwhile other people’s videos are nothing but bugs

[gilded elm]

Bug-free experience on release sounds kind of insane lol

Granted, I waited for the game to get better until I bought and played it, because of all the negative feedback it was getting at the time.

[sand wigeon]

my take at the time was “great game, great story, obscured by bugs for 99% of people”

[gilded elm]

Yeah, and then they continued to support it and 2.0 turned an already great game into an absolutely amazing one.

With Edgerunners updates

And then they also dropped an amazing DLC... hard for me not to stan for CDPR lol

[sand wigeon]

unfortunately they suffer from “all of their games releasing incredibly buggy”

happened with the witcher 3 too

people just forgot

[gilded elm]

Which isn't good, but to be fair it's also not entirely bad either because at least I can have the confidence to buy a CDPR game at release and know that it won't always be a bad experience unless the actual story or gameplay is bad.

There's more consumer trust and understanding based on reputation, as opposed to most AAA studios now. Basically a AAA developer is becoming a reliable signal for me to not purchase a game.

[sand wigeon]

i like tons of aaa games still

[fierce moth]

Fully awake finally

[abstract karma]

when it happened in past it was tragedy.. Now ? All studios take it as "normal" and we need to suffer +1 year to be able play it in some decent version..
OR worse +2 years or early access

[gilded elm]

Bugs have always been normal, less so in the days of hardware limitations where the surface area for bugs to occur was much smaller than it is today. The thing that seems to have changed a lot is performance, even for console game releases. Day one performance has gone down the drain in today's game releases.

But even performance is hard to attribute to any single cause. I can't really speak for the performance issues we see on consoles, but at least for PC gaming there is seemingly a much wider gap in consumer hardware specs than ever before.

There's so much at play there, but it does seem like AAA devs are heavily cutting costs in QA and playtesting.

And no UE5 is not an inherently a lower performance game engine, just throwing that out there pre-emptively in case someone thinks they know better. It's like the whole argument people used to make about Java having a slow runtime, which is very false. Sometimes good tools make it easy to create bad software.

[placid yarrow]

Cdpr haven't had a single smooth launch so far. And honestly I don't really care I'll buy Witcher 4 fully aware it'll likely be buggy af

Because Im confident they'll stick with it until it's not super buggy

[gilded elm]

Same, I trust them to do right by me.

[placid yarrow]

As far as I care it's an early access launch

Without the tag

Should they maybe launch it into early access for the people who aren't as aware? Maybe

But that's up to them and it makes no difference to me personally

[abstract karma]

if we will be even able play witcher 4 with HW shortage

[gilded elm]

Witcher 4 is confirmed for a PS5 release so it should be within reach of enthusiast PC gamers.

[abstract karma]

hope so

idk if these are hoax but net is crazy lately about it or that Nvidia tries something against steam.. probably should purge histories in website to read less nonsense

[gilded elm]

Who knows though, with the prices getting as crazy as they have been.

[abstract karma]

yes like that meme about RAM x new Apple laptop 😄

[gilded elm]

PC gaming is definitely in a less accessible state than it was just last year.

Not a good time to be building a new PC

[abstract karma]

or buy new laptop tho maybe new year sales of some previous 1-2 year older models can help if prices didnt reach there

[fierce moth]

40/40 Reach that finally

[fierce moth]

Long time not find anything good. Nice weapon for leveling

[fierce moth]

I saw mine too. Rushing to that

lol

zero affix on the waystone

[fierce moth]

Q&A. hhhhhhh

[hot crown]

Semantics doing their thing.

Lol.

[junior oyster]

Not the same thing but blood pools not being bleed pools

And corrupted blood having nothing to do with bleed either

Both of the above the forms of phys over time

[hot crown]

That's "counterintuitive" to put it family-friendly.

[desert jasper]

Just like you can stand on burning ground and take dmg but it's not ignite

[junior oyster]

Tbf though this is a pre-Jonathan thing

And is kind of prevalent in other arpgs but it's waay worse in poe imo

And yea to be truly immune to chaos damage you have to go CI or bust

[desert jasper]

I kinda miss when chaso dmg wasn't as common

[junior oyster]

Is it that common in poe?

I know it's like super common in poe2

Also those dots tick so fast I can't really tell what kinda damage I'm taking lol

[desert jasper]

It has gotten quite common in poe, yeah

It used to be basically nowhere

I think it started becoming more common with betrayal back in the day

[gilded elm]

Rewatching Supernatural for like the 10th time in years at 8am, what is my life lmao

[junior oyster]

Never watched this show and most likely won't ever watch it but I did watch Smallville for the first time this year

[abstract karma]

dang supernatural.. never finished continously.. Just watched a few finale battles episodes which i found interesting..
It was too much like shounen manga at end of franchise -- too much BS on BS

[abstract karma]

Smallvile is nostalgy.. just they should have cut a few seasons to that finale..

[fierce moth]

I think I will fall asleep before the movie is ended if I watch a movie in this way because it's too comfortable

The wound of the College Entrance Examination is permanent. Can be heal but can't be erased

[fierce moth]

https://youtu.be/x0CN3ZMT9z4?si=_TklEfSGVnFvR1pi&t=831
Sorry, I'm on the opposite lol

[junior oyster]

Bait videos

Don't concern yourself with them

[fierce moth]

no, I mean he dislike witch the most, he's a pure melee enjoyer

In fact I finished this video. A nice video to consume seaweed I purchased tonight

Korean's seaweed is quite common here. I mean as one of snacks.

[ebon meadow]

thats caind of harsh lul i literally just downloaded the game steam xdd

[abstract karma]

to be honest let F2P game with micros of 50k$ ship win Goty on Steam would made lose hope for next generation of players

I would rather pay for quality material than play single player mmo with good combat designed system or for what that game is actually praise for

[hot crown]

This happening right after wuwa won TGA's Players' Voice 😂

[desert jasper]

I kinda hate how a lot of those games bribe their players that "if we get enough votes we'll give you free goodies in game"

[junior oyster]

Eh I love those

It's a win-win for me

[abstract karma]

marketing ads ruines everything

It was always that way from time TV exists

[junior oyster]

The game I like gets the trophy/award and I get a little free goodie

[abstract karma]

you need rush trough game with bikini in some FPS games ?

[junior oyster]

What

[abstract karma]

"free godie" example

[junior oyster]

I could care less as long as I get free goodies

If I don't like it I won't use it

As long as it's cosmetic

[abstract karma]

dang that's almost sounds brainwashing

[junior oyster]

Now if they had said 'give us votes so we can sell you a goodie' then that's a different argument

[abstract karma]

hmm i spent too much money but i would like to finally buy Stalker 2 >.> tho ultimate edition is still expensive even within sale.. Stupid free DLC's..

[fierce moth]

Let's go

[desert jasper]

I guess I'll try running a few more
just to see if I can find those last 2 citadels

[warped wren]

Afaik citadels spawn near each other

[fierce moth]

No surprise on boss's drop

🤔 Fragments are unexpectingly cheap

[desert jasper]

Oho, I found another citadel

[fierce moth]

Oh only ancient one is expensive

ancient fragment come from which citadel?

[desert jasper]

The one with the wolf boss

iron, I think?

[warped wren]

Up till last league, copper citadel frags used to be most expensive

Because it was somehow the rarest

[desert jasper]

Oh, Isee the 3rd citadel too

[fierce moth]

yes, the thing in 0.1...

I'm afriad of my damage isn't enough for bosses under 8/10 difficulty...

🤔 2m35s, to slain this boss

oh forget to check if the waystone include increased xx monster life... Let me test more

[desert jasper]

Okay
Sometimes my action speed in map just drops by 30% as if I was constantly on frost ground when there's no frost ground in the map

usually happens after abyss encounter (or during it)
but I've no idea what's actually causing it
It's infuriating

Also nothing shows on the debuff bar

[warped wren]

holy, got a deadlock error immediately after citadel boss fight, what a save

[fierce moth]

I break lv 92 curse!

[warped wren]

Ayyy me too

[junior oyster]

Frame loss

[desert jasper]

Well it's shit anyway

[twilit mountain]

It's a shitass random bug that doesn't make any sense because it can happen even on a steady 60FPS.

[desert jasper]

A part of the vision, clearly

[fierce moth]

which ascedency are you playing?

[desert jasper]

Thanks abyss

Oh that's not actually too bad

[warped wren]

Oracle

[fierce moth]

spent 3m40s to slain the boss in mineshaft...Without moster life bonus. Alright I think I can't run any waystones with this mod after boss difficulty reach 8/10

[desert jasper]

Alright
I think I'll do one more jade isles (easy rakiyata incoming)
and then it's time to sleep

[fierce moth]

what are these

[junior oyster]

It was just a guess from me but I'm glad I was half-right

[desert jasper]

Alas

[fierce moth]

A divine orb jump from a magic chest suddenly lol

[desert jasper]

Feels good, doesn't it
random divine orb drops

Would be a shame if they... disappeared

[warped wren]

[desert jasper]

what is sanctify?

[warped wren]

can over-roll values

to iirc +10%

[desert jasper]

🤔

[twilit mountain]

+20% I believe

[desert jasper]

So it's... not the worst thing ever, i suppose

[twilit mountain]

It's very good if you're lucky

[warped wren]

basically I lost 1.5d

[desert jasper]

"if you're lucky"

[warped wren]

hmmmm

well that worked out

RNG giveth and RNG taketh away

[fierce moth]

blue beam = which citadel = which fragment?

[desert jasper]

I think Blue is iron?
meaning ancestral

[abstract karma]

iron ?

[warped wren]

yeah blue is geonor

[fierce moth]

wow ancient fragment!? What a good tomorrow is

I need to make a plan this time... Increase waystone quantity at first

[twilit mountain]

No not ancient

Ancient fragments come after you beat Arbiter and allocate your last boss points, they're "uber" fragments

[warped wren]

No the regular geonor fragment is an ancient frag

You're referring to calamity frags

Nomenclature is weird

[twilit mountain]

That's it I'm breaking Jonny's shins

It's the same issue with the new bosses in 1, naming conventions make zero god damn sense

[warped wren]

here's more reason:

[warped wren]

brother this was at 58 in the morning

what on earth

[desert jasper]

There's apparently something like ppl are running the interludes for free temples that then give a lot of good stuff

[warped wren]

yeah

holten interlude

they're making those gigantic temples to run

[warped wren]

ah well

it is what it is

found a 2nd citadel, hopefully I do this and find the 3rd, kill arbiter, try a few 3x rare tablet maps and call it

[twilit mountain]

On average it is spitting out about 15 divines in value per run, or about 45 to 50 raw + another 10 to 20 in liquidation per hour 👍

[twilit mountain]

(For clarity raw meaning raw "trade" currency such as chaos/exalt/divs not just raw divines)

[warped wren]

Wild

[twilit mountain]

Yeah it's.... bad. I lost all motivation the moment I saw a few back to back runs of it.

[warped wren]

did the temple tech really make it to game journo websites?

that's hilarious bro

lmao

[abstract karma]

well it was denied.. according poe news

[warped wren]

not like they can do much about the thousands of divs in the market now lul

[fierce moth]

lol unexpectingly cheap

A lv 20 uncut skill gem need 2d

Alright withering presence is the most expensive one to level up (12d)

Oh? First time to see a jewel like that

[desert jasper]

that can be incredibly valuable

If it rolls extra damage

[warped wren]

the fact that citadel simply bricks if you die in it

is the stupidest design decision in the history of stupid design decisions that went into this game

[fierce moth]

Not lucky enough on that... I hope I can sell that

[warped wren]

this is so phenomenally stupid: https://youtu.be/m4SubnV0s_Q?si=vKr2i1tea-3AhhLj

[fierce moth]

13K es...

I heard that from reddit too

[mental talon]

Temple aint bad. Still need to finish my loop then full pumping.

[fierce moth]

I'm surprised perfect jeweller's orb is rarer than divine orb

[mental talon]

I stopped Picking up Perfect Jewelers a long time ago

[desert jasper]

lol they fixed the interlude thing
"Players will no longer be able to get Energised Crystals from areas they significantly over-level."

[maiden widget]

remember kids, abuse early abuse a lot

[sand wigeon]

that’s a good way to get yourself banned from games

devs do in fact look for people who abuse exploits or bugs regularly

maybe in some games you can get away with it but definitely not everything

[maiden widget]

worked fine in poe for about all but one league for most people

[fierce moth]

Roasted chicken + iced milk tea, dinner time

[fierce moth]

Lol someone help me to say that, appreciated

[junior oyster]

I'm glad I quit the game sooner rather than later

Tbh though

This is kind of a common thing with poe in general

[fierce moth]

I still want to try amazon later so I will keep playing, even I'm done with lich

Le can't provide that experience

I'm sure my amazon can't reach high level(lv 90+) like lich though. Inflation is too insane.

[junior oyster]

You have like 3 more months of league time

Ofc you can

[fierce moth]

The only ascendency that can ride a pet. It's awesome 😎

[ebon meadow]

I have never seen a 3kg format holy y could use that as a kid

[junior oyster]

Deadeye can too

Unless they removed that this league

[fierce moth]

The coolest clock I seen

I never imagine waterwheel can combine with a clock house

With this logic, a cup cake near with the clock house is reasonable too

[junior oyster]

I wish just the same way the game zooms out when the world boss approaches, I could naturally zoom out that much in general xD

[desert jasper]

Literally all can
It's just a spirit skill, after all

[hot crown]

About to start baking a cake. Do you think I can make it?

[desert jasper]

Yes

Just barely victorious

[fierce moth]

!? What the name of that spirit gem?

Oh. 100 spirit and so much dexterity. Quite expensive for non-dexterity-based ascendency 🤔 But make sense on deadeye can use that too

so four of them are available to summon a pet, cool

damn...No way...It's true?!

I remember that was a joke on reddit

🤔 Isn't that the reason why headhunter unique belt quite popular? Interesting. It's the advanced version.

🤔 I think Ritualist is cooler than Amazon on ascendency nodes if both of them can ride a pet

the 3rd ring slot attract me literally lol

[desert jasper]

Yeah you also get a negative thing to gow ith the ring

[fierce moth]

yes I think it will be the biggest issue when I build the defense

I can select -20% max elemental resistance only if I want to ride Rhoa and reduce mana sustain issue

[gilded elm]

Feels like I'm playing Spaceship PoE lol

[desert jasper]

Are you saying it's not spaceship poe?

[gilded elm]

No, it's definitely a distilled PoE-like

Down to the crafting currencies and passive tree, at least.

[junior oyster]

What is the game?

Tli?

[gilded elm]

Astroloot. Super cheap, but also uses a lot of AI image assets. Surprisingly positive reviews on Steam, over 90%.

[junior oyster]

Offline mode?

[gilded elm]

Yeah

Doesn't have any online as far as I know

[junior oyster]

Oh nice

Arpg yea?

[gilded elm]

Yeah, like I said it's a very distilled experience. You're just going from arena to arena, in between each arena you can shop, customize your build and passives.

[junior oyster]

I see

[gilded elm]

Feels a bit like a roguelike? Not even sure if it actually is. Haven't actually lost my run yet, so don't even know if it's "run-based" heh

It was less than $6 for me so grabbed it because why not lol

[junior oyster]

Nice

[gilded elm]

Oh okay, so I did actually just die and yeah you can just retry. So not a roguelike

[desert jasper]

Good thing they didn't copy the exact layout of the skill tree
because I've seen some games on steam do that and get told by GGG yeah, no

[gilded elm]

Not exactly copied, but does share similar concepts. I think it has socketable passive slots

The game very clearly takes heavy inspiration from PoE

Orb of Alchemy? lol

[fierce moth]

emmmm the problem is if ritualist's builds restrict on cold + lightning damage only, why I don't play deadeye for the same damage type?...

But I don't want to play deadeye because I have played that already

I feels ascendency from huntress lack of personal features...

Selling points aren't quite much if I compare them with deadeye

...Weird loop.

It's quite boring if playing bows = play elemental damage only

I'm done on lightning damage in poe 2 because I played that enough in 0.1... Both of deadeye and stormweaver were lightning damage focused

[jovial bane]

feels even worse with druid shapeshifting IMO.
Want to be a fire bear, ice wolf or lightning wyvern ? Have the 4 abilities that work with that element

[fierce moth]

🤔 Ask a question. Do you confirm ice wolf isn't better than lightning wyvern and fire bear? I guess ice wolf better than lightning wyvern better than fire bear

[jovial bane]

I have not played the other forms than wyverns sadly. But at least at a glance the good stuff is that they are distinct and that you can choose. But for the love of loot gods, let me have more than 4 abilities. The problem is that every single wyvern/wolf/bear build is going to be pretty much the same

[fierce moth]

🤔 Maybe I should play infernalist if I want to play fire damage

lol but then... Go back to CI + stack es to build the defense, which the gameplay I'm quite familiar and I don't want to repeat

I'm confused why infernalist is the only ascendency focus on fire-relevant skills

[gilded elm]

Because Templar hasn't been released yet.

[fierce moth]

I want to play a armour/evasion ascendency which focus on fire damage :(

Sigh. Ascendency still too poor on damage types

If I can. I want to play a armour/evasion ascendency which focus on chaos damage too, but not dot. Crit-based please.

Bleed/poison damage can apply to a caster/ranger/melee/minion build too. It's where creative ideas come from...

Endless cold/lightning damage now, sigh...

[fluid pike]

acolyte of chayula or any fire spell with black flame keystone = chaos

[fierce moth]

Oh this chain for defence is interesting

More chaos resistance, more darkness, more damage reduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1X467dhtu4
Oh... Yes I forget GGG have been released a build showcase video for this ascendency specially and I've impressive by... Eben just erased all descriptions and replace them by his understandings lol.

The detail let the video shine! More simple to understand these points

Cool! It's what I want! Ok let's go.

Let's the world full of purple!

...... Damn

[desert jasper]

Yeah, it was said for a reason that they just deleted the 3 previous builds of the week /showcases from game

[fierce moth]

Good job on making the game worse, GGG

First time to see a game team have designed a new ascendency then buried that by themselves

[junior oyster]

First time?

[twilit mountain]

I have tried to find a way to make an Acolyte that isn't strictly worse than the same build on any other ascendancy since 0.1
I have not found one yet

[junior oyster]

I guess you should be glad you never played D3

They'd buff a build, some streamer would showcase it being really op (but not necessarily enough to make a huge difference) and then when the public test would end they'd nerf that op build

At least D3 devs were pretty open about the changes in most cases iirc

I can't remember if they got called out for shadow nerfs

[twilit mountain]

iirc any "shadow nerfs" were a result of missed patch notes or bugs

[junior oyster]

Not sure if GGG have been shadow nerfing builds since poe2 released but I'm pretty sure they've been shadow nerfing builds even in poe1

Before poe2 came out

If not I stand corrected and it's part of Jonathans vision

[gilded elm]

Sounds kinda scandalous, haven't heard of GGG shadow nerfing

The difference being "intent" of course.

Something may have been nerfed and somehow didn't make it into the patch notes, which would be different than a deliberate shadow nerf.

[junior oyster]

Ok I guess that's fair

[twilit mountain]

Oh they have. The issue lies in that the community gives them too much leeway so if a patch notes is updated two/three weeks later ooooobviously they just forgot it for the entire week the patch notes were up and being updated before the game anyway

[junior oyster]

This is referring to poe right?

[twilit mountain]

Yeah

[gilded elm]

I assume if there were intentional shadow nerfs, or at least any that were perceived as such, they would've been confronted and in such a case I'd be curious to know what their response was.

[twilit mountain]

Dodge roll was 100% touched this patch and nobody has called jt out

[junior oyster]

You think there are more iframes now?

Or something like that

I did feel as though dodge roll felt slower or shorter or something

But maybe it was just my imagination

[twilit mountain]

The hit box is juuuust a bit larger than last league. Large enough that gaps you could pass between mobs previously are now not quite enough

[junior oyster]

Ok I guess I never really noticed that

I just felt like dodge roll felt slower than usual

[twilit mountain]

It's a difference of like, maybe half a "unit" but enough that I noticed the ability to just dodge through walls of enemies in Breach is now gone

[desert jasper]

I thought I felt something like that

[gilded elm]

Strictly from a software engineering "outsider looking in" perspective, it's hard to link something like a hitbox change to a deliberate, intentional nerf or buff because these things are, at the end of the day, dials that get turned unintentionally and indirectly by touching something else.

Or rather, they can be the resultt of that.

I used to run game servers, change crap, push out patches, and of course I was frequently accused of things like "shadow nerfing" when in reality most of the time I caused an unintentional bug.

I might change the hitbox of a certain monster and not realize I unintentionally changed it for a bunch of other monsters, too.

[desert jasper]

Like LE had the purple fireball bug
changed nothing related to fireball and fireball came purple with the patch anyway
or was it pink

[gilded elm]

They meant to do something purply for another skill but it affected fireball's visual too?

[desert jasper]

Nothing was supposed to be purple
just a bunch of bug fixes, if I recall

After which they started taking more care with their patches because got to make sure you don't get another thing like that

Though I do wish they fixed bugs more often instead of only like
4 patches in a season and then stop

[gilded elm]

Yeah, never understood their priorities. Seems so mismanaged.

[junior oyster]

Balancing of the game aside I'm still quite surprised they barely did anything with the cash shop

[gilded elm]

For years it was left in that condition, too.

[junior oyster]

That's the main cash cow too

[gilded elm]

If money was a concern, you'd think they'd try and figure out why stuff wasn't selling lol

[desert jasper]

I think it's because their internal version is not the same as the as we are playing... or something like that

[junior oyster]

Like buying the game once is one thing but you gotta sell the cosmetics

Idk if it was a mistake to make stashes free (from their business point of view)

[gilded elm]

I think free stashes is totally fine when you consider the price of the game.

IMO the real failure was not taking monetization seriously at all

[junior oyster]

Yep

[gilded elm]

Or if they did, that's worse, because that screams incompetence.

[junior oyster]

Aside from the pets and maybe skill effects being good to ok, the clothing is for the most part atrocious

Lol all this time I thought my left mouse button was faulty when it was a screw under my mouse pad causing weird effects with my mouse

[gilded elm]

From a consumer perspective, I didn't really feel like they were trying to sell me anything at all. I just don't understand who signed off on the cosmetics in the store and in the supporter packs.

And how that was allowed to continue for years.

[junior oyster]

Like mouse wouldn't click properly and would feel awkward

I almost went and bought a new mouse 😂

[gilded elm]

You don't keep a spare mouse? Casual smh

[junior oyster]

I have 2 spare keyboards (broken but workable) but no spare mice

[twilit mountain]

I have no spares

[twilit mountain]

I bought one single armor set and a couple pets... all the way back in 1.0
Nothing released since then has caught my eye, everything is either too visually busy or just low quality (the sea themed set looks like utter shit even on maxed out graphics for example), the only things that look okay at best are either pets or the like two skill effects they release per year (that are always for dogshit skills, seriously who tf is playing Meteor in 2025?)

[gilded elm]

I don't think graphical fidelity is even the issue, I'm confident the current engine can more than support good looking cosmetics.

This really seems like a failing at the artistic level.

Not necessarily that it's bad art, it's just bad ARPG cosmetics.

I mean to say is that whoever is making the cosmetics is talented at what they do, they just aren't good at making the kind of cosmetics people want to buy in this kind of game.

[twilit mountain]

I've given examples before but I'll do it again. My favorite cosmetic on my account in PoE is a sandy colored cloak/poncho type thing with some purple undertones. It pairs well with almost any other piece I use, fits the aesthetic of the game, and just looks good standing on its own. It isn't glowing, it's not on fire, it doesn't have a billion vines or weird armor channels and attachments on it. It's just... a cloak. And I love it.

[maiden widget]

full ack, in poe i have decent/realistic sets as an option in LE everything looks like a cartoon

[abstract karma]

to be honest as Last epoch started and want continue to make income un another updates there should have been only 2 options

1. Big DLC's b2p system from start
2. more seasonal content for less money

• micros for character

IF you dont go the way how PoE then making B2P solely on packs is just mostly not enough
(at least in arpgs because gacha or similar ones just works differently)

[gilded elm]

PoE's artstyle in general has a certain grittiness to it that LE lacks, even D4 has it. LE comes off a bit more cartoony and that's not necessarily bad, but TLI for example is cartoony and it understands that its cosmetic monetization has to cater to gooners.

Still, I think LE could make it work. They could look at D3 for inspiration.

There are some good ideas there for cosmetics.

At least ones that more closely align with LE's art style, IMO.

Spellblade kinda fun in this game lol

[abstract karma]

can't remember new izometric arpg without rouge features and open or semi-open world
Was there some except Titan quest II which isnt finished ?

[gilded elm]

There was Dragonkin or whatever it was called

[fierce moth]

Oh no, colour explosion.

Yes, dragonkin. Judd joined their server too

[abstract karma]

dang only that ?

[gilded elm]

There's Tower of Kalemonvo, but that's more of a Diablo 1 experience.

[abstract karma]

hmm probably need to prepare that heavy core rogue will be everywhere

[gilded elm]

I wonder if this Discord lets me share a SteamDB link... let's see.

https://steamdb.info/instantsearch/?refinementList[tags][0]=Isometric&refinementList[tags][1]=Action RPG&refinementList[tags][2]=-Action Roguelike&refinementList[tags][3]=-Roguelite&refinementList[tags][4]=-Roguelike&refinementList[tags][5]=-CRPG&refinementList[appType][0]=Game&refinementList[languages][0]=English&refinementList[releaseYear][0]=2025&refinementList[releaseYear][1]=2024

Cool, so yeah most of those probably aren't exactly ARPGs, but some of them are.

Rum & Gun is a cheap $3 pirate ARPG

[abstract karma]

yea i heard about that one

[gilded elm]

There's Hell Clock too, I think that's no longer a roguelike, really. More of a very loose roguelite?

Or at least I vaguely remember some changes relating to meta progression

[junior oyster]

One of my spares is from 10+ years ago and the other is from 5+ years ago

[gilded elm]

Oh yeah, there's also Ghostlore, that's an isometric ARPG, but 2D. The character models are 3D but they are rendered as 2D sprites. That game is slept on hard.

[junior oyster]

I did have 2 other mice. One I use at work and the other was a microsoft standard mouse

[abstract karma]

I just wanted somehow make list of pure arpgs without any rogue elements..
https://store.steampowered.com/search?sort_by=Released_DESC&supportedlang=english&tags=4231%2C5851&untags=42804%2C1716%2C3959%2C454187%2C922563%2C1091588&category1=998&ndl=1 this what came from it in steam search

[gilded elm]

Probably about right, I'd also check the box that hides the Free to Play ARPGs too

Very likely to be P2W

I generally prefer SteamDB for searching though, and this is actually something I don't like about Steam (but at the same time I don't really blame them). Basically, Steam doesn't want to give you powerful search tools that allows you to filter through games because it affects game discovery.

Well, this search interface actually looks a lot better than it used to, so maybe they did finally update it too.

Oh nevermind, a lot of the stuff I am seeing is from my Augmented Steam browser extension.

Stuff like this. I see it because I have the extension.

Basically Steam doesn't want people to be able to do this.

[junior oyster]

Feels like poe trade

Lol

[gilded elm]

Yes, Steam sees this kind of friction as a good thing.

I lean towards them probably being right, too. I just... don't like that.

Because the truth is I did discover games this way.

Not having control over precise filtering forced me to look at games I wouldn't have considered before.

[junior oyster]

Thankfully most of the games I play I discover on my own

I play vamp survivors

I would not be willing to play a vamp survivors clone

That's kinda how I am

[gilded elm]

I was in a "all of these VS copies are dumb" phase after playing a bunch of VS-likes. But I did find some genuine gems and still find occasionally good ones.

[junior oyster]

There is the diablo x VS game I kind of was interested but that's already a popular game

[gilded elm]

Halls of Torment? That's a good one, one of the gems I mentioned.

[junior oyster]

I could have sworn I had the demo of HoT

Guess it was my imagination

No demo

[gilded elm]

That game def had a demo, it was called the Prologue

Weird if it's gone now

Oh it's Prelude?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2316660/Halls_of_Torment_Prelude/
Looks kind of out of the date, though

[junior oyster]

Dunno but one thing I can say is I love VS on steamdeck

I hate it on mobile though

Slay the Spire is the only game I love across the board

[gilded elm]

I dunno, VS chokes even on the Steam Deck, they're just not handling all the particles very well

[desert jasper]

God
I hate ulamans legion modifier so much

[junior oyster]

I have practically no issues on SD

[desert jasper]

it's always the worst mob type it picks

[ebon meadow]

Albion is fine , I need to try this where the winds meet on phone to check but it sounds ok

[desert jasper]

have like 10 shade walking tentacle shits

[junior oyster]

My only concern is I can't turn down the particle effects which is the closest thing to LSD for me

Never had it but I assume that's sort of what lsd feels like

[gilded elm]

I haven't played recently, but when I was playing on the Steam Deck I think last year, post-timer when you got a juiced build online the frames were always tanking

[junior oyster]

Oh I don't play online so I dunno

Offline has always been fine for me

[gilded elm]

I don't either lol

But maybe my characters are too juiced with eggs

[junior oyster]

Oh yea maybe

I don't farm that much lol

[gilded elm]

Yeah, it was a huge part of the fun for me, because that's one thing VS did right IMO, was giving you the option to infinitely scale lol

Since grinding was a big part of the fun for me

Made sense

[junior oyster]

Unlocked Dracula and I mainly play as him now

That was a cool scene

[gilded elm]

Oh did they add that in the Castlevania DLC?

[maiden widget]

vs makes me incredibly sleepy compared to all the clones

[gilded elm]

I haven't played through that, I don't think

I might have to lol

[junior oyster]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkptQjEuMlE

Spoilers

[gilded elm]

I don't really go into a game like VS with any serious expectation of story any way haha

[junior oyster]

Same

[gilded elm]

lol, is that original voice lines?

[junior oyster]

Yes

[gilded elm]

another coffin smh

when we gonna find this mf

[junior oyster]

It's why I said I play as him

[maiden widget]

i wish death must die development was faster

[junior oyster]

There is no vampire like there is no poe2

Oh apparently they got the VA for Astarion as Dracula

[gilded elm]

Yeah Death Must Die is good if you can get into the art style, because it has itemization

[gilded elm]

That checks out. Now that you say it, I can only hear Neil Newbon's voice now.

[junior oyster]

I ignored the vamp guy in BG3 so I wouldn't know lol

[gilded elm]

It's definitely not the same voice he uses for Astarion

[junior oyster]

I just read the comment under the video

[gilded elm]

But you can tell it's him for sure.

[junior oyster]

Also I kinda loved the death fight

The music is soo cool

[gilded elm]

Also, you should do a BG3 playthrough with Astarion, he has such a great story :P

[junior oyster]

I only do the females wink

[gilded elm]

I mean... he could be your femboy.

[junior oyster]

I don't swing that way

Lol

[gilded elm]

haha

[jovial bane]

Astarion's story was, damn

[junior oyster]

Honestly the only guy I like in bg3 is Gale

[gilded elm]

Weird, but at least you didn't say Wyll.

[jovial bane]

I've never finished his story on my first playthrough, so I did it on the second once honour rolled in

[junior oyster]

I didn't get past a2 ngl

[jovial bane]

And I get why he got the best VA of that year

[gilded elm]

His story also isn't linear, I mean it can unfold in different ways. All of them are great in their own right.

[junior oyster]

I'm probably partially hating on him because they chose to do a vampire over an undead skele boi

[jovial bane]

btw I think even WOTC thinks Shadowheart, Karlach and Astarion are the faces of BG3 while the rest are kind of tagging alone

[junior oyster]

Speaking of VS and fighting Death
https://youtu.be/H3lXqP7EfMw?t=141
I love this banger tune

[gilded elm]

But that's also true for all the other companions too, tbf, they all have non-linear stories.

[jovial bane]

at least judging by the artworks in the forgotten realm books

[desert jasper]

Nice path tiles
Surely I'll get to Atziri at this rate

[junior oyster]

Yea I love shadowheart

[gilded elm]

Those 3 characters had the best stories for sure.

[junior oyster]

I chose Karlach as my main and second immediately was shadowheart

[gilded elm]

When I listen to Gale, I'm like "bruh you did this to yourself lmao"

[jovial bane]

Wyll really drew the short straw

[junior oyster]

Yea

[jovial bane]

The location he was supposed to be recruited in ? Scrapped. His personality and story ? Scrapped in EA and changed to current one. And it shows

[gilded elm]

The only good thing to come from Wyll's character is Mizora, and she's evil.

[jovial bane]

yep, and I bet that's the one consistent thing they kept

[junior oyster]

Can you romance her?

[jovial bane]

Gale on the other hand is the boring protagonist. But I think it was intended

[jovial bane]

yes, and everyone will get mad safe for one companion

[junior oyster]

Let me guess

Vamp dude?

[jovial bane]

or Minthara, unsure tbh

I forgot

[gilded elm]

I don't remember either, and I never dated Astarion so I don't actually know, but I would assume he has no objections

I feel like Minthara would care, though

[junior oyster]

No idea who Minty is xD

Been a while since I played

Game is too big

If I do play I'm cheating 100%

[gilded elm]

The Drow from the goblin camp

[jovial bane]

hilarious that massive thread of simping for her resulted in adding her as companion, and then even more convoluted workarounds to recruit her in good runs made Larian cave in and let you knock her unconscious in act I

[gilded elm]

The VA for Minthara is also one of my favorite WH40k audiobook narrators, Emma Gregory.

[jovial bane]

People did insanely convoluted workaround to recruit her in good runs. I forgot the details, but one of the steps was turning her into a sheep and iirc tossing her around act 2

[junior oyster]

I have literally 0 knowledge on Castlevania but the guy on the top right is drac right?

Not sure who skeletor is supposed to be

[jovial bane]

Death

[gilded elm]

"Tonight, you are mine" - Still can't forget the way she said this lmao

[junior oyster]

So they made it so you can properly recruit her in act 1 but knocking her unconcious?

[gilded elm]

Yeah, they caved

She was such a popular character among players

[jovial bane]

yup

[desert jasper]

Ah, I really should get one of the castlevania sets on steam some day

[junior oyster]

Sets?

[jovial bane]

and frankly Minthara is on of the best companions IMHO.

Purely for her hilarious banter

[gilded elm]

Emma Gregory does an incredible job channeling the "dommy mommy" persona in Minthara.

[junior oyster]

Lol youtube refuses to load the search xD

[gilded elm]

Her voice is just made for that sort of thing.

[jovial bane]

yep

[gilded elm]

So when she narrates Battle Sister WH40k books, they're so good lol

[jovial bane]

although her voice of the worst NPC in DOS2 trumatised me

I cannot unhear the "smells worse over here than a bunch of rotten eggs dropped in a vat of vinegar"

"keeping it together bree ech ?"

[junior oyster]

A3?

[jovial bane]

[junior oyster]

Or was it a2

[jovial bane]

Act 2 in driftwood

[junior oyster]

The merchant I think?

[jovial bane]

or someone who visits the stalls, but definitely the most recognisable NPC on the market

[junior oyster]

Yeeeaa

I hated that soo much

I had to leave town cuz it got annoying

[desert jasper]

The collections
Like Dominus collection

[junior oyster]

For what game?

Oh

You mean castlevania games?

[desert jasper]

yes

[junior oyster]

These are the only ones I have

Played the ult edition back in 2016

My only real castlevania game

[jovial bane]

hmm, one thing I don't get about D4.
Paladin has this great feeling Arbiter form, but why is it a paladin not crusader ?
Weren't in RoS Crusaders basically higher ranking Paladins created to purge the corruption in the order that were given higher insight into drawing the power of the light ?

[junior oyster]

D3 doesn't exist according to D4 so far

Kind of

Like they scrapped the whole nephalem thing it seems

[jovial bane]

yk, a retcon somewhere down the line would not surprise me

[maiden widget]

dont think its scrapped, everyone is one just your char is more powerful than the avg guy

[desert jasper]

I hated Lords of Shadow 2 tbh
"yeah let's just put in quick time events to bosses and if you fail it the boss heals hack to like 75%hp"
also I hated how the game would tease you in areas by showing stuff you could get to if you just had some upgrade... and after getting the upgrade it teleported you back to the hub instead of just letting you go back to get them

You could also lock yourself when you got the freezing skill if you didn't do it fast enough

also, come on
some basic as f enemies in armor killing you instantly even when you're fully powered? so you had to possess them to get through some doors

[junior oyster]

Lol I can't remember but I hated that one fight with a giant dragon or something

Had to climb up it

Ugh

[jovial bane]

Lords of Shadow 2 was pretty much beginning of the end for Konami games. After that flop they've made MGSV and decided to focus on pachinko machines

[junior oyster]

Oh wait I'm thinking LoS1

[jovial bane]

we dont talk about that abomination called MG survive

[maiden widget]

dominus collection is nice on steam deck at least

[junior oyster]

I want to buy the MMX collection

But only game I actually care about is MMX8

[desert jasper]

Tbh I've only actually played Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (on GBA) and lords of shadow2
I did also play Bloodstained: ritual of the night
And a bunch of the metroid games
and also other similar ones
so I'm not exactly that familiar with the castlevania series
but I do enjoy the music

[desert jasper]

@gilded elm I honestly wouldn't mind Gacha if it was just skins
but when it comes to getting characters, especially like "oh yea you can only get this super strong character by paying thousands of dollars, IF you're lucky" it's just
Come on

[gilded elm]

Yeah, that's why I don't mind as much with something like Where Winds Meet, even though I really don't like that it's a thing at all

[desert jasper]

And then there's ofc the more revealing skins that might or might not be limited time only
and oh boy they're intentionally made rare AF

[gilded elm]

It's the same psychological predation that casinos / gambling services engage in. Sure, maybe the gambling industry has done some good things but it doesn't really wash away the extremely bad thing they're doing.

[gilded elm]

Yeah, the whole model is designed to be predatory. FOMO is inherently predatory. PoE does this with supporter packs, but we tolerate it because they're cosmetics.

[desert jasper]

yeah,
They stopped short races like "ledge only" that lasted some hours because of FOMO

I never even got to participate in any of those ones

[gilded elm]

Gachas take FOMO a step further, they combine FOMO with RNG.

[junior oyster]

Honestly supporter packs don't affect me nearly as much as loot boxes

[gilded elm]

It's a whole other level of predation

[junior oyster]

With supporter packs I KNOW what I'm getting

With loot boxes here you go literal trash for the 20th time in a row

Thanks to overwatch I stopped buying loot boxes

[desert jasper]

Oh yea, that
Heck, I remember when Overwatch (the original) got the halloween event with Witch Mercy skin that came with some special voice lines
It was intentionally extremely rare from the packs you'd rarely get from the halloween event
Or you could buy like 100 halloween packs and get it, maybe

[gilded elm]

The difference (IMO) between a gacha business model and everything else:

• Everything else: Tries to appeal to your senses through marketing
• Gacha: Literally programming your brain to spend money

[junior oyster]

I was crazy about Genji (awesome ninja android) and any skins he got lol

[desert jasper]

They did make it buyable with in game points later

[junior oyster]

Guess what

OW2 deleted ALL my coins

I ain't going back after that disrespect

[desert jasper]

I tried playing OW2 for a while
It just... I didn't have fun with it

[gilded elm]

Game died with OW2 as far as I'm concerned lol

[desert jasper]

it did

Promise the PvE mode, scrap that
make the main mode uhh... was it from 6v6 to 5v5?

[fierce moth]

Close to that finally. I'll know how many fragments can I get after one more sleep 🫡

[ebon meadow]

Puzzle memory question anyone remembers witch color is microphone out of pink green and blue ?

[gilded elm]

I was like 29 years old when OW came out... (39 now)... I felt like a kid following the progress of that game. It felt so revolutionary at the time, there hasn't been a "hero shooter" like it before, it practically defined the genre.

[ebon meadow]

Fk I need glasses and I have like 15 cm gap to see

[gilded elm]

For a long time it definitely remained my all time favorite game.

[maiden widget]

uh i'd not go that far honestly with ET and dirty bomb before it

it was the game that made it extremely mainstream for sure though

[gilded elm]

Yeah Blizzard made the genre mainstream.

For most people, that was their first hero shooter experience

[desert jasper]

Honestly I liked Paladins better than OW
And Dirty bomb was fun
there was also that f2p Ghost Recon game... I think it was Ghosts? but it make enough money so it got shut down

[gilded elm]

Wasn't Paladins a MOBA?

Also it was Hi Rez, so it was bound to fail, heh.

[desert jasper]

Paladins was similar to OW

[maiden widget]

i just remember how it felt like you shot huge hitbox shots in paladins compared to anything similar ive played, headshotting things was super super easy there

[gilded elm]

OW had a hitbox patch like that too, think it was during the bad days when it was going down the drain

There were videos demonstrating this in the training room, showing headshots with Tracer's gun splashing nowhere near the head lmao

[maiden widget]

yeah now imagine this x10 for paladins

[gilded elm]

lol

[desert jasper]

I did also enjoy Battlerite
but sadly it never got enough players so it kinda just died a slow death
i remember a friend was trying to hype me that "There's a 1000 players online"

on saturday evening

or friday

[maiden widget]

lol theres like 4x that in a d2 mod currently

[ebon meadow]

After 9 years I 98% finished making an actual desc for my self lol ,just meet to make an over lip on the left

Took me a day I just needed the time and mats but holy

[gilded elm]

I think you forgot the 3rd monitor

[ebon meadow]

Yea it's going to be a vertical one

[jovial bane]

yk what caused me a whiplash in D4 ? Seeing the platinum, and when I've clicked the platinum it did not say FIRST TOP OFF BONUS +100%

[desert jasper]

I don't have a 3rd monitor

Well, I don't think my desk would even fit one

[ebon meadow]

If I can get one cheep it's going to be handy for discord

My initial idea was just get the stand up engine base but now that I am in carpintery and we'll we waste a lot of wood I mights as well do something modular

I made it hight to my shoulders have been bad for some times

[jovial bane]

also to be completely fair PoE has gacha too

limited one compared to usual gacha style banners

but it does

[gilded elm]

Yeah I can tolerate vanity/cosmetic gacha, hence why I'm okay even playing Where Winds Meet

[jovial bane]

same

[gilded elm]

I don't like it, but my consumer brain overrides my moral compass on that

[jovial bane]

also it's earnable in game as well, which does soften it quite a bit

same with OW1 and lootboxes, or well gacha

it's really the same

[gilded elm]

I spent so much on OW1 lootboxes lmao

[jovial bane]

magic packs really, and I do enjoy it ngl

my biggest problem with gacha usually is the price once you do the math

oh yeah, this character is 300$. Lovely

[junior oyster]

Same

[desert jasper]

A f2p mmorpg I used to play used to have these raffles
where if you spent enough real money (in thousands of dollars) you'd get guaranteed gift
Like there were socketable things with ... 1% to socket in
but if you put in enough money you could get that to 10%
or even 100%
and if you failed to socket it in it would break the gem (that you could also only get from similar raffle)
I remember I bought one of those gems from another player for relatively cheap and just tried the 1% and got it in
everybody in the guild wanted to give me real money for that

I'm glad I don't play that game anymore
aeria games was greedy AF

[junior oyster]

So practically the same as a claw machine

[desert jasper]

Yup
A guild mate of mine spent like 2k $ every month on that game
and then when he asked me in a private message if I could give him a loan of like 1000€ it made me realize how bad it is for some people
Meanwhile I was just 18 or 19 years old

[jovial bane]

man, that sounds like Lost Ark

[desert jasper]

So uh 16 or 17 years ago

[junior oyster]

I never gamba with irl money any more

[desert jasper]

Anyway, it's almost 11pm here so I'm gonna go and try getting some sleep

[gilded elm]

Don't gamble, kids!

[junior oyster]

Also only ever gambled on games. Never done it irl so that's partially why it's easier for me to quit

[gilded elm]

G'night nub

[jovial bane]

night

[desert jasper]

I throw like
10€ to lottery every 2 months or so
but yeah, night all

[ebon meadow]

GN

i play videogames to escape irl gambling , it works

i do spend some dumb shit sometimes in games to (poe included)

WWM is very very similar to lost ark for me even if people tell me otherwise its a simular gatcha but u can play and enjoy the game if u play more u dont really notice the bad things like purchase regens

LA is obvisuly more heavier on it but pretty much same thing

buy mats buy energy WE , at least the envirioment is nice to explore and poeple actually put effort in sidequests

i do dislike the defensive part of combat in WWM its dumb quater of beeing same feeling a soullike combat

gating the wole thing behind stun and combo for every class

(i am talking out of 10 hours played and level 24 xdd but i just like to explore sides to much

[warped wren]

damn, Arbiter was easy af

he just died

didn't even do any ability

[junior oyster]

Uber?

[warped wren]

Nah just normal

Wanted to unlock rare tablets

Didn't realize he was that easy

Just folded over

[junior oyster]

For your build maybe

But gg

[warped wren]

Dunno, he was actually easier than t15 empowered bosses

Or about the same level I guess

Was expecting it to be harder

[twilit mountain]

Weird. Empowered bosses for me disappeared before I could even get infusions up. Arbiter I had to basically get perfect luck with overlaps and all infusions to phase skip him.

[warped wren]

normal or uber?

because I was talking about normal

also

PSA, if your overrun hits a Molten temple map, don't bother running it, it's cooked

[warped wren]

did my first ever actual abyss overrun map and dropped 4 raw divs + an Unforeseen Consequences

[gilded elm]

"Assassin" btw lol

[warped wren]

had to force myself to uninstall this game

these bullet hells are my coke

[gilded elm]

Yeah, had this one in my library for a while but I didn't really play it. This one is something else, for sure.

[fierce moth]

https://youtu.be/eCGzx7NTwRw?si=eji62vGDUFMv_1zG

New strategy for temple farming.

But how am I find t1 waystones lol

Even T14 are poor on supplies

Run the whole map to find the crystal area just a troublesome thing itself

Temple remind me of rift beasts in le. The same shortage. Tricky to find

But the size of maps in Poe 2 is 2-3x bigger than le

[fierce moth]

🫠 The only good thing is I know why ancient fragment is so value now

😔 Because it's quite hard to survive in the combat with mad wolf

Both of offense and defense aren't enough... Alright

Can't afford expensive gears just mean I have zero relastionship with high profit encounters

[gilded elm]

All of those from today, this game is crack lmao

[sand wigeon]

i’m glad you’re enjoying it

[fierce moth]

alright that's all after I exchanged all value currencies, omens or something else I stacked :)

Done this league.

Maybe I can reduce deaths to less than 100 when lv 93 next league

[warped wren]

dang

[abstract karma]

now you will need another 10 years to get HW components justo build new PC set

[fierce moth]

The truth is inflation is crazy already. They fixed that, but this game isn't fun anymore before they fixed that

2 weeks done the level of a month on the inflation. Well done, GGG :)

And...Good job on nerfing the purple build :)

[jade jackal]

Yes, become one with the soulstone

There's a lot more crack to discover when you unlock crazy combinations in the passive tree dont worry

[jovial bane]

I'm reading this right ? Maxed out T15 map now has two crystals instead of one ?

[desert jasper]

yup...

I'll have a look how it feels, I guess

[sand wigeon]

plastic

have you looked at plastic

it looks cheap, it looks brittle, it’s annoyingly shiny

[junior oyster]

Lol damn

The list is longer btw

I'm glad it's all cosmetic though

Except some of the stuff apparently but anything that's an 'item' to be used ingame can also be obtained ingame

God damn Jonny Yong Bosch playing Joshua

I'm sold

He sounds like Ichigoooooo

And he's a swordsman

Damn bruh

I hope there is an option to switch to the old layour though

[maiden widget]

they said there is

[abstract karma]

they added it more details but yea it looks so-so for me too

[maiden widget]

looks way better tho you can actually gauge the hp

[junior oyster]

Nah it looks neat but I kinda like grim dawns how it was before

Might get used to it

Also saves some UI space on the bottom

[junior oyster]

Yea now that I think about it I can more clearly see the 'es' on the orbs

I can't not post the link lol
https://forums.crateentertainment.com/t/grim-misadventure-198-a-new-er-u-i/150562

At first I was like uhh what's changed?

And then I checked out grimtools lol

[abstract karma]

well yes mods did crazy things but their original class, well they need to add something to viking dlc

[junior oyster]

Viking dlc?

Uh what are you on about?

[fierce moth]

hhhhhhhhhh

[abstract karma]

their upcoming dlc about Fangs of Asterkarn ? It prety much is nordic / viking vibe

[fierce moth]

which game is it

[junior oyster]

Grim dawn

[fierce moth]

hah? My impression of GD's UI is like that

[junior oyster]

Yea it will be an option to switch to/from that UI

[sand wigeon]

Reminds me of WoW

[fierce moth]

Oh they looks so cool

I'm new to everything so I prefer new stuff

[fierce moth]

how is it going? Any good loots are dropped?

[desert jasper]

no

Was wondering why monsters in ritual weren't dying
there was a divine shrine just outside the ritual area... wonderful

hate divine shrines already
and for some reason any shrine on wasd is terrible

[desert jasper]

Not sure how you're expecting me to give the feedback this fast honestly

I did get 2 crystals in row at tier 15 maps with only 4 mods

[desert jasper]

If only it had skill levels

[junior oyster]

Lol damn I probably never noticed how cute these guys were in the original xD

[twilit mountain]

I wanna pet them

[sand wigeon]

They're so funny looking

[junior oyster]

Also Estelle with cat ears looks so funny in cutscenes

Cute but funny

[fierce moth]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM5AkaJtixI
Why I Never Played aRPG's...Until Path of Exile (Part 1) by Darkwizard CJ

I admire he can explain why he never play ARPG in a long...not long for another people but it's long for me. A long elaboration about that. Long means rich info he provided. He touched lots of games, ARPG just absent on his list

[sand wigeon]

arpg's aren't exactly a popular genre

[junior oyster]

There's a streamer I know (Baalorlord) who tried poe but said he wouldn't go back to that genre

It's not everyones cup of tea I guess

[sand wigeon]

it's barely my cup of tea yet i'd call myself a fan

[twilit mountain]

It's too much my cup of tea, I have an addiction

[junior oyster]

If I wasn't introduced to diablo 2 (before LoD even) by my cousins I'd have probably never played arpgs

[sand wigeon]

i first played diablo 3 when i was like seven

[junior oyster]

That horror of hearing a zombie in the blood moors lol

I always got so scared of that xD

[fierce moth]

I love the contrast here lol

[sand wigeon]

Deias is the one who got me into ARPG's

I wanted to be her friend but I didn't know how so I started playing Path of Exile after she'd talked about it to try and connect

[junior oyster]

What is your cup of tea if you don't mind me asking?

[twilit mountain]

And now I funnel you funny build ideas based around skills that look interesting to you

[sand wigeon]

Puzzle games, survival games, narrative games, text adventures, metroidvanias, idle games and management sims

For the most part

Souls-likes, too

[junior oyster]

Did you play Ori?

I loved those games

[sand wigeon]

I used to be a big FPS fan but I don't play them as much anymore

[sand wigeon]

I've played both, yeah

[junior oyster]

Also regarding narrative do you mean games like point and click?

Or more like Bastion?

[sand wigeon]

Neither

[junior oyster]

Oh

Care to give an example?

[sand wigeon]

When I say narrative I mean things like interactive movies (Dispatch is an example), visual novels, things like The Red Strings Club that are mostly just reading dialogue, Disco Elysium and similar things

https://steamcommunity.com/id/dreamhallow/

you can go to my steam for a full list of my games and stuff

[junior oyster]

Fair

I'll check it out

[sand wigeon]

I also feature games I really like in my Discord showcase thing

[twilit mountain]

Two games down is Hero Siege xdd

[sand wigeon]

imagine playing destiny 2

[junior oyster]

TLI pukes