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[Naturegirl1999]

I wish people, when they make plans with me, would actually bloody tell me that they aren't going through with them at some point before it starts. I've had it four times now in the past two weeks where I've made solid plans, only to find out an hour or two *after* they were supposed to start that the other person couldn't/didn't want to do it.

I'm not crazy for expecting this am I?

you’re not crazy for expecting this, it makes sense to want to know if someone’s not going through with the plan

[Iduno]

I wish people, when they make plans with me, would actually bloody tell me that they aren't going through with them at some point before it starts. I've had it four times now in the past two weeks where I've made solid plans, only to find out an hour or two *after* they were supposed to start that the other person couldn't/didn't want to do it.

I'm not crazy for expecting this am I?

No, you're being reasonable.

[Reelya]

Well, in Eye of the Beholder 3 I discovered there's a magic item *right near the start of the game* that effectively lets you hack your way to maximum levels and effectively infinite HP with very little time and effort (as in you can spend less than 1 hour and have a character from level 1 to level 20, with much more levels / XP than 50 hours across the other two games). It's not deliberate, it's just broken by sloppy code that they didn't test.

I liked the other two games, the third one literally wrecks the series in that it puts stuff in their that breaks the game and makes all previous efforts to level up the characters entirely moot. I *heard* this sequel sucked and was rushed out by the publishers (not the original developers) but I had no idea it would be this broken.

Spoiler: Explanation of the hack (click to show/hide)

What the item is a is a Rod of Restoration that you gain after fighting your way through a level full of level-draining Wights. When used, it adds any levels and HP back to your character that were drained by Wights. The reason it's broken is that it *doesn't* check if you've subsequently gained levels. So if you have a guy with level 8 with 80HP, let some wights drain you to level 1 with 10HP, and then manually level him back to level 8 and 80HP, then use the Rod of Restoration, you suddenly jump to level 15 with 160 HP. Since the lower levels are far cheaper in XP than the high levels this cuts a massive amount of time off the leveling process. However, it also breaks the game since you could rinse and repeat this for a never-ending increase to arbitrary amounts of HP. Additionally it also somehow ignores the game's own D&D ruleset, in that it ignore racial level restrictions in doing so. So you can have an entire party of Half-elf multiclass Fighter/Cleric/Mages at level 20/20/20 and 1000 HP each if you want, probably. And I'm only like 3% into the game. This is the third dungeon level counting the starting area.

Yeah, so even for completioninsts, probably don't play Eye of the Beholder 3.

[Lord Shonus]

Have you considered simply not exploiting that?

[Reelya]

Have you considered simply not exploiting that?

The point is that it's only the first thing that's broken. Everything else is equally broken.

And if you know there's an easy way to achieve something in the game then any hard-earned levels just become clearly an exercise in self-flagellation. Just makes all previous effort pointless when you for example find a magical font of free money and ammo in a game where you've been carefully conserving supplies up to that point, you know the sort of thing I mean. You could play the first two games for weeks grinding up to beat game three in this case, then you find there's an instant-levels button right near the start, and it's hard not to run into it, since it's one of the main quest items in the dungeon.

EDIT: Also, you find the item right at the end of the level with the Wights in it, so you've probably lost a lot of levels by then unless you were carefully save-scumming. Then, when you finally get the Rod at the end, you've probably gained at least a few normal levels. Then using the Rod of Restoration even once breaks your character, since your HP total will pretty much certainly exceed the official rules.

[Lord Shonus]

Something that's in-game content working as designed -like using the buffing fountains in the old Might And Magic games to grind ludicrously easily- , I can see your "feels dumb not to use it" point. Something that's clearly and obviously a bug? Don't agree at all.

[Reelya]

Read my edit. You find it right at the end of a large level with the level-draining critters. If you even gain one level during that time after your first level-drain then using the Rod delivers you a rules-breaking character with too much HP for their level. Like I said before, I found this out by getting an NPC drained from level 8 down to level 1, then manually-releveled him to Level 7. Then used the Rod the first time, and he's suddenly turned into a level 14 character. (then I restored the game to before he used the rod, so he's still level 7 now).

So you can't even use it normally without breaking the rules-as-written.

I used it for one purpose however, which was to exceed the racial level limits, since my chars couldn't level any higher than they already were, and the first two games manuals lied about level limits (saying there were none, when they mean none in those particular games, then they spring the limits on you in game 3. Except, surprise, the level limits are actually broken by an in-game object :/). I'm not going to restart 100+ hours of gameplay so that I can get a level 20 cleric and mage, if I don't have to.

[TotalPigeon]

This sentence.

"No amount of protection afforded to white people is worth the horror we continue to perpetuate in this country against millions in marginalized communities."

Don't imply that white people as a group are to blame for this. There are enough people trying to incite racial division across the world already. Perpetrating it further with irresponsible sentences like this does nothing to bring us together or solve the problems at hand, it just makes it worse. The vast majority of white people are good, normal people and it is unjust to label them as the problem for every marginalized group in the US, since it leads to them being targeted simply for being white.

As to why I'm sad, I will be disappointed to miss out on the graphical steam release, but I can't give money in good faith while that statement is up.

[Reelya]

Classifying people into groups and ascribing traits to that group as a whole just perpetuates the problem, as you've outlined. It doesn't matter which way the group-defining goes, it's part of the same cycle.

[dragdeler]

-

[Imic]

I’ve wanted to get into art for my entire life. But I just can’t. I can’t bring myself to pick up a pencil and do it. My birthday is in a while, and I thought that the prospect of getting another year older would be enough to scare me into doing it would be enough, but apparently not. The closest thing to a reason I’ve been able to find is that I doubt that any amount of practice or work would ever be able to make my drawing skills even passable. Would anyone have any advice? I’d stick this on the life advice subforum but posting a second thread there feels like a much worse social crime than just sticking it here, and it’s definitely making me sad, so overall I feel no guilt for this, at least not yet. Give it a few minutes and I’ll be paranoid that everyone’s judging me.

[bloop_bleep]

To be honest, I don't understand what Toady/Threetoe are saying or implying in that sentence...

[Naturegirl1999]

To be honest, I don't understand what Toady/Threetoe are saying or implying in that sentence...

what do you mean? That was Imic, not Toady

[ChairmanPoo]

If you mean the moderation bit about how people should be less racist and strange, it was because some guy posted something that was both racist and strange

[TamerVirus]

I suspect

To be honest, I don't understand what Toady/Threetoe are saying or implying in that sentence...

is related to

This sentence.

"No amount of protection afforded to white people is worth the horror we continue to perpetuate in this country against millions in marginalized communities."

Which was posted in the dwarf fortress dev blog for 6/1/20