Gorbles

Bit of a break in The Discourse™ (sorry, been great to read though), time for Gorbles' Multiplayer Thoughts: The Krogan Vanguard, or Kroguard, is magnificent. << end of thoughts >> More seriously, he's a straight port of the character class in ME3 and I managed to get him in one of my early Advanced or Expert packs (that I grinded Bronze missions for). The only difference (barring some tweaks to Power Evolutions) is Barrier has been swapped out for Fortify, but it's basically the same thing. Takes him a little while to get going, and as you're very Power-reliant you want that delicious 100% Power Recharge stat. which makes choosing weapons a bit difficult. I tried with a combination of pistols for some time; didn't really give me the stopping power I wanted. So I sat down with your basic M-8 Avenger and it's been doing me very well, thankyou very much. I've actually swapped it out for the Thokin Assault Rifle that I recently unlocked, but the rate of fire combined with the limited ammo is making me reconsider. Going to give the Thokin a few more missions to see if I get used to it; the homing feature on the projectiles isn't as strong as the description makes it out to be. Anyhow. Skill Rage. Rage is your friend. The effects could do with work, even on Ultra (what is with Andromeda and pixel / voxel-style particle effects on everything, I don't know), but boy do you feel the difference. Stacking it on top of Fortification turns you into the absolute tank the Kroguard was always meant to be. My recommended order is (because I've forgotten what's unlocked at default now I'm level 14) one point in Charge, Fortify, Nova and Rage, and then go to town maxing Charge, and follow it up with Nova. I'm about 1 experience point from L15, which should let me max Nova, which is when I get super-happy-funtimes (no recharge time on Nova, at the cost of Shield usage). I recommend the anti-Armour Evolution on Nova because I use an Assault Rifle (you can use any good-magazine high-ROF weapon) to strip or damage shields, then follow up with melee and Biotics in whichever order you prefer. With the late introduction of Rage into my skillset I'm regularly topping scoreboards on Bronze missions (haven't made the move to Silver yet, hahaha) and the only thing I have to worry about, like I did in ME3, is getting too cocky and getting oneshot by some of the big beasties. A thoroughly-satisfying class to play, with massive advantages over its debut in ME3 given both the inclusion of jump jets and the forward charge motion that I've bound to Ctrl (which means I can charge into a piece of cover and combat roll over it in two taps, because those binds can co-exist). You're a massive, armoured wrecking ball that also has some of the most flexible movement I've seen on a dinosaur-esque-rage-monster. Good times.

Chalk that up to me relying on the Krogan Vanguard (and the Drell for a bit, actually) in ME3 after a certain point

To really hammer home what Bjorn has been saying, the Vanguard gives you so much survivability. I've been warming up in ME3 MP of late (you still instantly find matches, P2P latency issues aside), and I was quite happy how I transferred my Vanguard cheese skills to ME:A MP. It's all about placement. I booted up ME:A last night and dropped straight into MP after doing the brief tutorial and unlocking all the darned Chests I'd accrued for various things (ME3 loyalty, etc). Got some neat stuff in there (including an Alien Shotgun that I'll likely never use because PISTOLS ALL THE WAY), but stuck with Human Vanguard (Level 1) and the basic machine-pistol-gun-thing. Gave myself a Hornet for some extra damage potential (keeping power recharge at precisely 100%) and equiped melee mods on both because why not. The biggest change makes me not want to switch from Vanguard, ever again, is the change to power cooldowns (affects all classes I think, and the homing Concussive Shot on Soldiers is a nice touch too for that class). Namely that power slots don't share cooldowns. No more struggling with latency or sweaty mouse keys to juggle the combo timing with Singularity, or the Sentinel's freezeray, or similar combination attacks. You can Charge and immediately Nova. Or you can lead with a Shockwave and them immediately Charge. And so on, and so forth. Combine this with the ability to launch attacks from anywhere (i.e. in the middle of a jetpack-assisted jump) and you have a very manouvreable invulnerability-frame Biotic Charge user. So much fun. Did one Bronze Extraction, died on the last wave but was revived in time to get a completion. That was at Level 1.

Hello hello hello! The game is live on Android and has been (for me) since early this morning (GMT / UTC). 5462-3959-9596 About to add folks on here

In Marvel Contest of Champions (mobile game), the Grandmaster and Collector are referred to as brothers (to each other, by each other). Either a colloquialism of brotherhood, or they're in some way related. Not that it makes a huge amount of difference, but that's where a lot of my modern lore knowledge comes from at the moment (well, that and Future Fight hero biographies :D).

Probably one of my favourite movies, will see how a rewatch goes hopefully.

I haven't found confirmation, but he looks like he could be the Grandmaster. Who's basically the Collector's brother. And a massive lover of Xanatos Gambits, multi-dimensional chess, and all of those other TvTropes references that I may or may not get shot for bringing up as I cause people to lose their afternoons to that website.

I'm mainly intrigued as to why it recommends an i7 - there normally isn't much in an i7 that benefits gaming. Is it just the sheer throughput that a top-end relatively-modern i7 can provide? I'm not an AMD guy so I don't know how the FX-8350 compares. Is there something that both of those chips have in common?

Just on the movie note, I enjoy Superman Returns far more than X3. I unashamedly love the X-Men movies for what they are, but so much of X3 hinges on people we've spent two movies developing as insightful and resourceful even in the face of overwhelming odds . . . and making them all incredibly stupid. I'll never not love the Juggernaught, though.

This thread is looking lonely, so this is me remembering to post that I have indeed signed up!

I love everything about that Tweet. Also on-board with the hype train for this. Carefully organised finances so I can buy this on release (assuming it's not an absolute trashfire and causes computers to explode) because, similar to Bjorn, it is arriving very close to my birthday!

r.e. warmongering, I used to think that Sorbicol, but you can make the AI surrender without taking one of their Cities. When making peace, you can also cede their Cities back to them (I think? I haven't tried that side of it, I usually just take the Warmongerer hit). Being able to accrue effectively "free" Cities in terms of warmongering is rather exploitable even if you didn't start the war (because it's pretty easy to craft your actions so at least one AI kicks off at you. The visible Agendas alone, nevermind parking four units on their borders and waiting for them to get uppity).

I agree I don't think her childhood needed that much exposition, but personally I greatly enjoyed Andor's little morally-grey excursion. Very tightly paced. And yeah, he definitely shot that dude. He shot first. Hehehe. Heh. Kill me.

Relevant links r.e. pacing of first half. Not meant as an excuse, just, explainy. Explain-y. There's a word there I swear. http://mashable.com/2017/01/03/rogue-one-reshoots/#AvCB1fWfukqD http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-01-05/rogue-ones-reshoots-changed-key-scenes-in-the-star-wars-film-reveal-editors (in case like me you find Mashable's use of JavaScript a sin unto God and in need of exorcism)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ UPDATE Useful link - https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/https/ct/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Only get this on Chrome (assets and connection seem to be secure, so it just seems to be an obscure certificate requirement that Chrome is flagging), so no idea how much this needs looking into. No idea what forum to post this in either

I'm presuming this is the same Adam Curry, because his Twitter talks about Infowars. I wouldn't call this remotely a British source, nevermind a politically unbiased one

If it's so okay to have different opinions, why did you attempt to label people critical of Trump as angry people on social media?

Concrete examples, that I (and presumably others) counterpointed with examples from Trump and / or his team. Which were then ignored, or dismissed as some kind of hysteria on social media

People being loud or angry on social media doesn't mean people are being wrong on social media. That's an equivalence that has a history associated with it, and not a good one.

@xchen I don't think "I don't believe he will continue with his bad policies that he has already garnered public and party support for" is a great counterargument, I'm afraid. Besides the proposed database of Muslims (which has so many parallels to Nazi Germany that prominent Jewish people have said they'd put themselves on it for solidarity and support), we have commitments to repealing transgender protections (put in place by Obama's adminstration), foreign policy that allows Russian criminal acts to go less-challenged (by pulling back from NATO and supporting Putin, Trump emboldens Putin's categorical inarguable action of invading sovereign countries in peacetime, with no provocation), repealing Obamacare (and talks of replacements set to exclude hereditary or otherwise genetic conditions) and the inclusion of former Goldman Sachs employees on his team . . . there is a long list of things based on campaign promises that movement is already being made on. I'm from the UK, I've been through Brexit (the referendum and associated political manouvres, to clarify). We saw a lot of rhetoric about it being better for the economy. It wasn't. It isn't, and it will continue not to be even as we actually move to invoke Article 50. It will cost us billions, and in preparation for that the Government is cutting spending to education, local government and medical institutions like the NHS. I have very little faith the US will manage a reversal of this considering the sorry state things like your healthcare are and were in. The moves Trump have been making do not inspire confidence in a platform that can invigourate the American economy. He's a multi-million dollar businessman (I'm being charitable here) with links to former Presidents (remember when he met Bill Clinton, years back?) and other political bodies. He is not an "outsider". He might not be a Republican, but that's hardly a qualification you need to shout about. Speak for yourself, and only yourself. There are plenty of facts available for people to be able to be worried about the man and the platform he represents. Do not dismiss peoples' fears and concerns by suggesting their view of reality is warped in some way. This isn't to say that this is an impossible notion, but this is not the generalisation that you want to be making. The difference between your repeated criticisms of Obama and your repeated defense of Trump is simple: Obama not achieving all he aimed for (against a Senate that was controlled by an opposing party in a two-party system) does not lead to as bad an outcome as Trump turning out to be as bad as people are saying. Assuming you're right about Obama does not bring peoples' worst fears to pass. Assuming I (or other poster) are right about Trump brings them to pass.

[1] I thought I explained that Trump has a similar number of issues under his belt, including the revealing of confidential information and more definitive legal proceedings like rape cases? Plural? [2] You said you were a left-leaning person, this should be a useful link on the origins of having an opinion for you: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump [3] Again, statements like this are why people believe you are "defending" Trump, despite your claims to the contrary.

Why would you be more concerned about Clinton than Trump? If your concern is that she has lied to the people, so has Trump. If your concern is foreign policy, Trump has just as many warning bells (that I think Gormongous kindly explained). If your concern is exploitation and a lack of protection for impoverished classes, Trump isn't going to help there either (case in point: he's committed to repealing transgender rights passed by Obama's administration). For every bad aspect I can think of around Clinton, Trump is just as bad if not worse. This doesn't absolve Clinton at all, but I struggle to understand how you were more concerned should Clinton have won the electoral vote.

If you're left-wing, then you have absolutely nothing to gain by playing down concerns of Trump. I can understand the criticism of the Democratic party completely, but you can oppose Trump and oppose the current tactics of how the Democrats engage with issues.

Other people have said the same thing, but the appointments he's making and / or is rumoured to be making is not helping people believe he isn't a monster. Or rather, complicit in a party of monsters that he's entirely too happy to go along with policy on. He's already committed - personally - to repealing Obama's protections of transgender people. This is not a good thing. You have literally done nothing but defend Trump; you're doing it again by implying (well, stating) that his failures are made-up by the people who want him to fail. His failures and misdemeanours are pretty well-documented. If you don't know how much Trump is worth, then don't give statements about his financial worth, because you used it as a defense against him being a professional failure. You can't now take that back just because the figure was disproven. This is you, defending him. I wish I'd had the start in life he had. Many people do, I'd imagine. It's pretty hard to fail in life when you're given so many safety nets and a startup fund of a million dollars. I can only hope you don't rate people purely based on their ability to turn a lot of money into a lot more money, because that has bad connotations for what you think of people that need state support to survive.

There's some irony in complaining about being talked down-to while talking down to jennegatron. You miss the points made, repeatedly, in favour of some meta-discussion where you patronise her based on what you think is best for "the discourse". I think this has been a fantastic effort by jennegatron to get something out of this thread that isn't repeated unproven assertions about (illegal) immigrants and the sweeping generalisations about "liberals" and the like. She's even made it clear that the issue isn't individuals (though of course they can contribute), it's systemic. Wide-reaching, and pervasive.