So I've been playing this recently...

[eddyak]

Compounded interest, I think.

[Seika]

Normal thieves cap their backstab at 5x damage. As a high-level Assassin kit, I should cap at 7x, but two separate mods included weapons that each improve my backstab multiplier by one, so it's nonuple damage. Then crits double damage, yes. An 18x multiplier overall.

I was backstabbing with a 2d3+4 magical dagger, which I'm reasonably sure rolled double threes. I also had Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise (+2 damage), a Luckstone (+3 damage), and a Girdle of Frost Giant Strength (+9 damage from strength, although this should only be multiplied by the crit and not by the backstab; conveniently, this just reduces the multiple of 18 by one).

Looks like I'm missing a miscellaneous point of pre-backstab damage somewhere, but I can at least account for ((15*9)+9)*2.

[mAc Chaos]

Sheesh. As for what all that represents... since it is a dagger at the end of the day, I'd say it represents the skill with which you can land a damaging blow. Hit points would represent how well the other person can deflect, etc. So you're so skilled with the dagger that not even a god can stop you from getting through their defenses and hitting their vital point.

[RoydGolden]

Sheesh. As for what all that represents... since it is a dagger at the end of the day, I'd say it represents the skill with which you can land a damaging blow. Hit points would represent how well the other person can deflect, etc. So you're so skilled with the dagger that not even a god can stop you from getting through their defenses and hitting their vital point.

I'd imagine it as something like this.


(Ignore the tired "can Shiki kill Servants?" meme. I'm talking about the imagery alone.)

[Seika]

Also, as is customary, I found more cut content on my way through the BGII files. Literally happens every time I poke my head in.

Journal entries:
Vakola attempts to take revenge on Keldorn.
We met up with an old acquaintance of Keldorn's...a man by the name of Vakola, who holds Keldorn responsible for some manner of 'betrayal' which Keldorn denies.

We encountered Keldorn's old 'friend', Vakola, again in the Sea's Bounty. This time, it became apparent that Keldorn and Vakola were once team-members in the Order, and that Keldorn turned him in for accepting bribes. The man's bitterness brought him and his friends to attack Keldorn and I... and now he is dead.

Vakola's a thirteenth level Cleric with 18 WIS and a surprisingly good spell selection, though no items.

He has seven different lackeys assigned to him (which might make him the biggest "party" battle in BGII were he included?):
Thug, a sixteenth level fighter with 18 in all physical stats and full plate, a long bow, and a long sword;
Mage, a twelfth level Necromancer with some generic mage spells assigned but no necromancy ones except the traditional anti-summoning Death Spell;
Archer, a twelfth level fighter with a heavy crossbow and a random selection of Druid and Cleric spells (?);
Thief, a thirteenth level melee thief;
Goon, a ninth level sword-and-shield Paladin with the same random priestly spell selection as Archer;
Mage, an unkitted tenth level mage with just a lower level version of the previous Mage's spell selection;
Thug, a twelfth level ranged Thief with a light crossbow.

[Historia]

so battlefront 2... despite everything i'm having fun - and thank goodness i'm decent enough at the game to the point that the grind and getting star cards doesn't effect how well i do

the campaign being as short as it was is a disappointment, but come dec 13 the 1st season dlc comes out so yay free content...

[Orange]

I've been playing a lot of Dragon's Dogma. It has a lot of flaws but I've already completed the game three times and have no intention of stopping yet so it's doing something right. Ripping out thirty hearts out of an undead dragon never gets old.

Also been playing some Nioh also on pc. I haven't been having many issues with the port and the gameplay is something I've been enjoying quite a bit more than Dark Souls 3.

And about Dark Souls 3, just in the starting area and I already know that this is the souls game I'm going to enjoy the least. I'm already tired of the endless shades of grey.

[eddyak]

I'm already tired of the endless shades of grey.

Get used to it. It's 95% of the game.

[Sesto]

Spoiler:

Was going for 2 of Karen/Aoba/Yuno, but I'll take it

[Imperial]

Same question as Kirby but for the Nintendo Switch

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again and a Mario game or two are a given. But I don't know that three to four games justify an entire console purchase.

As for what I've been playing -- more Muramasa: Rebirth and Odin Sphere Leifthrasir on the Vita. I love the many-protagonists style of those narratives and games like the SaGa series. I wish it was more common.

[Rafflesiac]

Isn't Pokken on the Switch? That was a pretty solid game from what little I've played of it.

[Imperial]

I'll keep it in mind, but Pokken isn't really my bag.

I used to be all about the Guilty Gear franchise, but XX all the way back in the early 2000s was the last fighter I cared about.

[Neir]

Same question as Kirby but for the Nintendo Switch

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again and a Mario game or two are a given. But I don't know that three to four games justify an entire console purchase.

As for what I've been playing -- more Muramasa: Rebirth and Odin Sphere Leifthrasir on the Vita. I love the many-protagonists style of those narratives and games like the SaGa series. I wish it was more common.

metroid prime 4 is coming

[Kirby]

Bayonetta 3, and the ports?

[Neir]

Bayonetta 3, and the ports?

oh yeah, i should get those. I heard they're fun

[Mattias]

Started playing Tokyo Xanadu. Feels like #FE with less idols.

Also that feel when you die to the prologue boss like twenty times because you can't figure out the gimmick, and the Player Character says "So weak" after it's finally dead. (The gimmick was dodging into the attacks, rather than around them)

[Sesto]

Finally finished AC: Origins.

It was alright. The combat was much better than previous games, but I disliked the leveling system. Being forced to do side-quests to level up so I can continue the main quest was annoying. Especially considering there were so many goddamn side quests and only a few were even worthwhile.

The story was not very good. I loved the idea, and the characters were pretty great. But the execution was fucking abysmal. Terrible pacing alongside some really bad in-game cutscenes and a few terrible dialogues (mostly the ending because lol at the chuuni assassin speeches) did not make for a good narrative. Honestly I'm kind of confused in regards to the cutscenes. I don't remember Ezio's trilogy or 3 too much, but I don't recall the cutscenes being this goddamn bad. There was something about how the characters moved during them that made it very hard to take seriously. It was very mechanical.

[Sunara]

Bayonetta 3, and the ports?

hmm.... I still need to finish 1 but I am looking forward to those.

Finally getting around to playing Deadpool & Akibastrip.
I really should stop procrastinating the Typemoon games... -.-; I am a failure of a Typemoon fan.

[Five_X]

Finally finished AC: Origins.

It was alright. The combat was much better than previous games, but I disliked the leveling system. Being forced to do side-quests to level up so I can continue the main quest was annoying. Especially considering there were so many goddamn side quests and only a few were even worthwhile.

The story was not very good. I loved the idea, and the characters were pretty great. But the execution was fucking abysmal. Terrible pacing alongside some really bad in-game cutscenes and a few terrible dialogues (mostly the ending because lol at the chuuni assassin speeches) did not make for a good narrative. Honestly I'm kind of confused in regards to the cutscenes. I don't remember Ezio's trilogy or 3 too much, but I don't recall the cutscenes being this goddamn bad. There was something about how the characters moved during them that made it very hard to take seriously. It was very mechanical.

The combat is really fun, but I'll admit to missing the "artistic" (if very easy) combat of earlier games, and wish there could be something of a balance between the two. The side-quests were mostly pretty great though, I liked how there were millions of them and they all told decent little stories of their own. That's where AC:O shines, and it gives me the strong impression that the main story was written by an entirely separate team from those that wrote the side quests.

I can't agree enough on the main story, though, oh my God. It starts somewhat promising, but it falls off that cliff with all the speed it can muster. The characters are thinly developed, are barely even at least interesting like Black Flag (the last AC game I played all the way through) and it seems to go by in a flash. You jump from one scene to the next with little in-between, your actual motivation for continuing becomes extremely vague by the end, and everything in general comes apart like a loose ball of yarn rolled downstairs. The dialogue is absolutely where it hits a true nadir in quality though: the voice-acting is perfectly okay, I had no problem with that at all, but the writing is so awful I could barely believe it. The "banter" in story boss fights is so painfully amateurish that it put anything in Mass Effect Andromeda to shame. The fight at 34:00 in this video (incredibly minor spoilers) gives a good example:



Nonetheless, it's a fun game to play, and also it's absolutely gorgeous, the landscapes and towns and cities are beautifully rendered. It's well worth it to just ride around and enjoy the scenery instead of doing quests or fights.

[Rafflesiac]

wow that is painful