Democrats are meddling in Ohio’s Senate GOP primary at the 11th hour to boost Bernie Moreno, the candidate former President Donald Trump endorsed to face vulnerable Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown....
The real issue here is that this has been a strategy of the DNC for years. As much as they'd like to deny it, they are responsible for the rise of Trump and extremism. But we'll be asked to pretend that didn't happen, again.
When you endorse racist fascists to win, you're no better than those wh osupport them.
And Democrats are "merely" authoritarians who 1) have colluded with fascists for decades to secure a duopolistic stranglehold on power, 2) have endorsed many of the same positions, historically, 3) place power above all else, including risking lives by boosting the cred of a literally insane psychopath fascist so they could win in 2016, 4) share many of those fascists views on privacy, personal security, freedom of expression.
Democrats only look good when compared to fascists. Is that really the best we can do?
You're going to see a lot of issues on Linux boards because people go to then for help. I've been running Linux since 2020 and though there have been hiccups, its been remarkably reliable. Having said that, when there ARE issues, it can take some digging to find answers.
Is it not stable
Moreso than Win 11, in my experience. I use Win 11 at work and I've needed a system wipe twice. Once because networking just... stopped... and once because appx apps decided not to load.
Ongoing issues
Plugging PopOS as a good "set and forget" distro that is easy to grasp. The workflow is very MacOS and the tweaks they've made make for a friendlier interface v Ubuntu, IMO.
Vouching for PopOS, which has been my primary OS for years. The only thing I run a Win VM for is the old Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas & Campaign Cartographer. I suppose I could tinker with Wine, but it tends to be finicky with the latter.
Probably the most relevant line in the entire article:
a series of polls have suggested Biden will narrowly beat Trump in the November vote. But with eight months to go, and the polls so tight, this could change and a number of polls have also indicated that Trump will win the election.
Whether Biden wins or loses is going to come down to how well he engages people in key states. Outside of the "blue no matter who" crowd, people have decidedly mixed feelings about voting for a candidate whose strongest argument is that he isn't Trump. Everything from events in the weeks leading up to the election to the weather (which affects Dems more than Reps) will matter, so rather than leaning on polls that suggest a victory... it might be wise to end those behaviors and policies that have human rights advocates concerned.
It's interesting how wilfully ignorant people get when the data doesn't support their candidate. I should be angry, but at this point it's become so comical that I have to laugh.
Objectively, he has been a mediocre president whose most impressive victories have stemmed from the fact that the economy was already recovering from a worldwide pandemic. His handling of the withdrawl from Afghanistan was an appalling travesty that got countless innocents killed, his two-faced positions on Gaza (lamenting the human rights abuses while cutting aid and supplying weapons,) the fact that the interest rate for home loans has skyrocketed in an already difficult to afford housing market, and quite honestly, his racist and homophobic past make him difficult to swallow.
So ethnic cleansing and support thereof is now reduced to "a policy?" That's a big oof.
Biden mishandled COVID, has slowly re-enacted some of Trump's worst policies on immigration, abandoned those who, at no small risk to themselves, supported us in Afghan, has presided over a massive increase in the cost of housing... and I guess, on the bright side, forgave a fraction of a percent of the student loans he said he'd forgive.
Maybe it's time to support someone who doesn't have the blood of countless innocents on his hands.
If it were up to me, I would see the Republican party dismantled. Were I a member, I would vote for it's dissolution. But thing is, they can nominate whoever they like, including a fascist psychopath. That he's second most likely to win is a direct result of GOP and DNC collusion.
Or you know, vote for someone who wouldn't support it in the first place...which you could do if the DNC didn't collude with fascists to keep alternative voices silenced.
Dark Alliance was a bit of a mess from what I hear.
Critical Role does great, but for the most part Wizards has left its own setting to languish. Most of the lore from Faerun is now 100+ years out of date (in-game) with new sourcebooks rehashing versus moving the world forward. Unless you're a Drizzt fan, you're not getting a ton as far as... well, anything is concerned. Even Dark Alliance is a rehash of Salvatore's fiction.
this could not be timed worse for Tumblr which is in huge hot water with its userbase already for its CEO breaking his sabbatical to ban a prominent trans user for allegedly threatening him (in a cartoonish manner), and then spending a week personally justifying it increasingly wildly across several platforms. the rumors had...
Concur. Larian is a breath of fresh air in a field saturated with pay-to-win, monetized, microtransaction nonsense. I'm not convinced they haven't traveled across dimensions to restore fun and sanity to a hobby that has been all but ruined by greed and laziness.
Story killed gaming? Nah... story-driven games are what took games out of the basement and into the mainstream. One can only make so many "I have a gun / sword and I kill the things" games before it gets repetitive.
I've made the "promotion later" mistake once. I was as new at what I do as he was; taught me not to trust corps to do the right thing if it isn't in writing and even then, not.
It’s a free-to-play mobile gacha game. Therefore, it is trash. That point simply cannot be argued. It’s not up for debate. If you’re here to debate that point, please don’t even bother. All mobile games are trash. All free-to-play games are trash. All gacha games are trash. Again: there is no debate about that....
Funny story, my partner sent me a gacha game and I have yet to spend a dime. I play for maybe 20 minutes a week. If someone is unable to control their spending on make-believe prizes, then they have underlying issues they need to work out.
Your assertion that gacha = slavery is about the most ridiculous thing I've read all day, and I had to open Twitter.
So a guy registered on lemmynsfw, an instance whose users have been known to post exploitative pictures, is bitching about... gacha games. Oh wow. Wow.
Okay let me start with two heavy hitters right from the get go and don’t forget these are only personal oppinions and I absolute understand if you like those games. Good for you!...
Real time strategy games are not my cup of tea. Nothing against anyone who enjoys them, understand, but they're basically exercises in who can do the clicky clicky faster. Give me a turn-based game any day... where you actually have to out-think versus out-click your opponents.
Oh, and any game that pits console players against PC players. Yes, let's put the 'stock controllers only' console players up against the PC players with $8,675,309.00 of custom equipment and every cheat they can get away with. Sounds like a reasonable plan. Overwatch, I'm looking at you.
Elturel = 215 miles east of Baldur's Gate
The Grove = 200 Miles East of Baldur's Gate
Moonrise / Reithwin = 193 Miles East of Baldur's Gate
As noted in my last post, my partner and I have been trying to pinpoint the locations in Baldur's Gate 3 on the Sword Coast map.
Larian, in their Gameplay Demo, revealed two vital bits of information. First, that the nautiloid crash site was on the Chionthar and second, that it was approximately 200 miles east of Baldur's Gate. The Blighted Village, Goblin Camp, and everything else should be relatively close (within 5-10 miles) of The Grove. In-game text suggests that The Blighted Village, Moonhaven, is on the border of the lands controlled by Elturel, but where that border is or what it means is squishy.
Moonrise was more difficult. The only out-of-game reference to Moonrise was in an old adventure, and the only map we could find with Moonrise definitively mapped was in the old Forgotten Realms Interactive Access mapping tool. We got our hands on a copy and proceeded to measure distances. The results are available above.
Caveat: The maps of the Sword Coast have changed over time. Sometimes, TSR / Wizards changes distances dramatically, so this estimate is only that. Take this with a grain of salt / as a fun project we undertook to better understand how in-game locations meshed with Sword Coast locations.
Now that the "official" stuff is out of the way, here are some things to consider:
Maps during similar periods of Earth history have been laughably inaccurate, so we assume that Faerunian cartographers are offering "best estimate" distances. This is supported by real-world evidence. As this enterprising gamer has noted in detail, changes to maps distances have been substantial. Between the old Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas and the official 5E map, distances are often off by up to 20 miles; it even puts BG as around 17 miles north of the Chionthar!
It goes without saying, but take these map as aids, not as a hard and fast requirement for your own campaign.
So... fudge the distances if you need to; these maps are off by nearly 20 miles in some places! Elturel is 15 miles further east on this old map versus the newer map, for example, and there's a similar distance discrepancy between Trollclaw and Baldur's Gate. So... there's wiggle room, even if you're trying to be 'official.'
For me, I prefer to place Moonrise 15-17 miles west of the Grove. Having it a mere 7 miles away seems a bit too close.
The Grove being 21 miles east of Elturel DOES make sense and is consistent with my original estimates (the 200 miles here is very close to the 200 "by river" I measured before) ; that's between a day and a day and a half of travel on trails through mountainous terrain.
I don't think this weakens my argument at all. It is fact from 1E to 5E, the official maps of Faerun are off by quite a bit. Looking for an in-game explanation isn't unreasonable as the fact that the map distances are off is... well... fact. But don't take my word for it... Elminster's Guide to the Forgotten Realms says the following about maps:
Maps in the Realms are expensive works, being rare, easily damaged or destroyed, and more often inaccurate than not. Large, detailed, good maps are usually owned by rulers, from mayors of cities who have sewer and street maps, up to kings who own large and varied collections of old and fanciful maps from everywhere.
....
Nautical charts tend to be cruder, more inaccurate, and even more precious than maps.
Is Elturel 200 miles as the crow flies from Baldur's Gate, or is it 215 miles from Baldur's Gate? Apparently, even cartographers of the Realms cannot agree.
To measure 100 miles, assuming your 120 foot measurement and assuming that game mechanics = in-world logic, you'd need to cast your spell 4400 times per 100 miles, moving at a glacial pace as you measured. You'd also need to ensure that your path was perfectly straight, you accounted for elevation changes, that you precisely marked each endpoint, etc etc etc.
If you're seeking accuracy, measuring the outside of a 200mi x200mi square would require doing all those calculations across 35,200 castings. If you were measuring the internal dimensions to about a one mile accuracy, you'd be in the millions of castings and you'd still need to ensure you accounted for all of the above.
Regardless, we know that it doesn't work that way because FR sourcebooks tell us that maps are inaccurate, rare, and expensive. We know that the maps are inaccurate because they've told us so!
Locate object does not provide measurements, it provides a direction and whether the object is moving.. Canonical lore states very clearly that maps are inaccurate in the FR. That is a canon statement, pulled from a sourcebook written by the man who created the Realms. Whatever explanation we prefer, that is an in-game reality. We can assume that the "easy" methods of offering accurate maps have failed, which would necessarily include magical means.
That maps are as accurate as they are is likely a reflection of the use of magic to assist with their creation.
You might be able to achieve something beyond the scope of the above examples. State your wish to the GM as precisely as possible. The GM has great latitude in ruling what occurs in such an instance; the greater the wish, the greater the likelihood that something goes wrong. This spell might simply fail, the effect you desire might only be partly achieved, or you might suffer some unforeseen consequence as a result of how you worded the wish.
As the Faerun canonically has inaccurate maps, we can assume that Wish has failed to provide accurate maps. I cannot imagine that a Wizard hasn't tried to create one in the thousands of years that Toril has been populated, after all. Heck, if we are talking magic, Wish is amateur hour when one considers ancient Netheril and the possibility of 10-12th level spells.
This, exactly. We can get a sense of this from the old novels too; magic is not nearly as restrictive as it is in-game; those rules exist to simplify gameplay, not to turn combat, magic, travel and healing into math problems.
Heck, Long Resting is an excellent example of how things 100% do NOT work in "real" Faerun. We think someone who survives being tagged with dragon claws, burned in a breath weapon, and sent flying with a tail attack is healed and ready to go with a nice 8 hour nap? Nah...
We don't need flavor text. We know that the Realms have existed through multiple editions of the game; if spells were this consistent then they would operate consistently across the different rulesets. They do not, though.
Using Locate Object as an example:
2E Distance: 60 feet per level of spellcaster (so variable between 120 and 1200 feet for levels 2-20)
3E Distance: 400 feet plus 40 feet per level.
4E Distance: ???
5E Distance: Up to 1000 feet.
The spell itself is the same, but the gameplay limitations vary for the purposes of game balance. I sincerely doubt that a spell in-world changed; rather, we set limits to ensure balance in gameplay. We should be distinguishing between rules meant to balance play and in-world realities, here.
I haven't tried with 1 and 2. The BG3 in-games maps are useless except as notes, but context clues, dev statements, and prior material helped quite a bit, as did paying $100 for the official mapping software.
I do. There are, of course, as many Realms as there are campaigns in the multiverse, but I do assume that most of the geography and core lore is consistent across most of them.
The location of the nautiloid crash site and the grove have been bugging us for some time, so we decided to take it upon ourselves to figure out where exactly, we start. The inner line on the image, where it intersects the Chionthar, is our estimate.
Supporting evidence:
In the gameplay demo, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9hU6UJX_pc, Larian references the crash site as "200 miles from Baldur's Gate." However, 200 miles from BG intersects Elturel, suggesting that "as the crow flies" is not right. Instead, we used string to measure out 200 miles by river.
The tieflings in the Grove mention being "a ten-day" away from the Gate. #dnd characters move approximately 24 miles a day. We assume they round up a bit, account for difficult terrain on parts of the trail, and the slower pace of children. They also likely estimate from their (former) home of Elturel versus the relatively unfamiliar Grove.
Blighted Village / Moonhaven
The Blighted Village (Moonhaven) is recorded as being on the edge of Elturgard. While Elturgard likely extends out quite a ways on paper, they are not likely regularly patrolling more than a day out.
Additionally, goblin raiders on the grove do not carry many supplies, suggesting that they can raid and return "home" in less than a day.
Some maps place the Grove much closer to Elturel. However, we believe that even with their recent return from Avernus, they'd have sent scouts to investigate the crash of the nautiloid if they'd seen it. Based on the altitude of the ship when it began its descent, our placement puts it below their line of sight.
The tiefling refugees would have put enough distance between Elturel and themselves to avoid harassment, but they were laden with children. A day's journey, if that was the edge of Elturel's patrols, makes sense to us.
Placing the grove further west puts it too close to Baldur's Gate, in our opinion, as the travel times would no longer make sense. #dnd#dungeonsanddragons
It's the Chionthar river; it's explicitly stated in the original demo. Sorry, that came across as short! We see a mention of it in the demo; Larian notes that if we had a boat we could take the river all the way to BG.
I've been browsing older Forgotten Realms sourcebooks and the love that the authors put into those is amazing. It hurts to see D&D and the worlds I grew up loving destroyed by a soulless entity that cares only about profit.
Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 passengers may be crime victims: FBI (www.reuters.com)
Dems launch 11th-hour meddling operation in Ohio GOP Senate primary (www.politico.com)
Democrats are meddling in Ohio’s Senate GOP primary at the 11th hour to boost Bernie Moreno, the candidate former President Donald Trump endorsed to face vulnerable Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown....
thinking of trying linux,
My current issue is i see you guys constantly having issues, editing files etc....
Trans youth will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers, NHS England says (www.thepinknews.com)
Trans youth will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at NHS England gender identity clinics in a new “blow” to gender-affirming healthcare....
Joe Biden suddenly leads Donald Trump in multiple polls (www.newsweek.com)
Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have "about 40" video game projects in the works (www.gamefile.news)
If there’s that many, one of them better damn well be another Shandalar game.
Tumblr and Wordpress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools (www.404media.co)
this could not be timed worse for Tumblr which is in huge hot water with its userbase already for its CEO breaking his sabbatical to ban a prominent trans user for allegedly threatening him (in a cartoonish manner), and then spending a week personally justifying it increasingly wildly across several platforms. the rumors had...
PlayStation laying off 900 workers, closing PlayStation Studios London (www.polygon.com)
According to Kotaku, we’re well over last years head count in layoffs.
After $90 million driven by Baldur's Gate 3, Hasbro says games will be "huge" for D&D and Larian's hit RPG is "just the first of several new video games" to come (www.gamesradar.com)
Baldur's Gate 3 is a "mega hit" that Hasbro expects to pay dividends for years
Former Overwatch 2 artist alleges shocking mistreatment by Blizzard management: 'I spent most of a year stressed out of my mind' (www.pcgamer.com)
Can someone explain to me why Honkai: Star Rail is treated as something other than trash? I keep seeing posts about it, all over.
It’s a free-to-play mobile gacha game. Therefore, it is trash. That point simply cannot be argued. It’s not up for debate. If you’re here to debate that point, please don’t even bother. All mobile games are trash. All free-to-play games are trash. All gacha games are trash. Again: there is no debate about that....
Mapping the Demographics of the Western Heartlands (kbin.social)
Sorry for the mere preview; I'm not sure how to upload multiple images on Kbin, if there is a way at all....
Which games do you dislike, but the rest of the world loves them?
Okay let me start with two heavy hitters right from the get go and don’t forget these are only personal oppinions and I absolute understand if you like those games. Good for you!...
Pinpointing Key Locations in Baldur's Gate 3 (media.kbin.social)
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'There's almost nobody left': CEO of Baldur's Gate 3 dev Swen Vincke says the D&D team he initially worked with is gone, due to Hasbro layoffs (www.pcgamer.com)
Suffering and success.