Tali'Thread vas Clan Zorah nar BSN 6.0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeogp9GnIRk

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CECFr8gS8k

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3XK5nnPiBk

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiYK8lZs23s

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2DgTwYMrbU

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDv1ZrML8Dg

[Dragaros]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-assass ... 1-5-333503

So is Chromie secretly a sadist or something?

https://www.wowhead.com/news/rewritten- ... zas-333679

Alexstrasza time travel shenanigans, take 2

[Vol]

Took about six hours in total with the configuration, calibration and keybinding in Everspace 2. I guess I'll get to that game next weekend.

Man, that's a comfy setup. Reminds me of what I was aiming for in the 00's, but lacked the funds for. Though 6 hours is a lot of work! Suppose it'll all be worth it in the end

https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-assassination-of-amber-kearnen-troubling-quest-in-patch-10-1-5-333503

So is Chromie secretly a sadist or something?

https://www.wowhead.com/news/rewritten- ... zas-333679

Alexstrasza time travel shenanigans, take 2

Uh. Well, they're committed to making their point, I suppose. On the ole' moral barometer, cold-blooded murder and facilitating rape/slavery aren't all that far apart, but nobody asked me, and so goes liberalism. Hope they actually go somewhere with this stuff.

[magnuskn]

Man, that's a comfy setup. Reminds me of what I was aiming for in the 00's, but lacked the funds for. Though 6 hours is a lot of work! Suppose it'll all be worth it in the end

I had a few minutes with it yesterday and it was very fun. In the week it's difficult to get the time together, though, so I'll have to wait until next weekend to really test it out.

Uh. Well, they're committed to making their point, I suppose. On the ole' moral barometer, cold-blooded murder and facilitating rape/slavery aren't all that far apart, but nobody asked me, and so goes liberalism. Hope they actually go somewhere with this stuff.

For me this is way more acceptable, since we actively help Alexstraza escape from captivity and rape. That the incident happened in the past at all is okay writing, making us an active part of if continueing was the really, really disgusting part.

Still very unhappy about the Amber Kearnen quest (I really liked the character when we had adventures together with her in Pandaria and her sudden and very useless death in Legion was also an unhappy point for me), but since these are dailies which are not story relevant, I can skip over this one without wanting to uninstall the game in angry frustration.

[magnuskn]

Alright, I got a few hours in with Everspace 2 on the new joysticks and it's so far a real joy. Ahem. :p Circle strafing around an asteroid is very fun, although I still need to get the hang of not ramming my ship accidentally into it by misjudging the thrust from the throttle side. ^^

I was quite a bit nervous I wouldn't end up liking the feel of two joysticks, but so far it has been really good.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQTLUU4hwo

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4-ulnhXjXU

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

So how's the Fourth Tyrannic War going for the Imperium so far?

► Show Spoiler

Not so hot for the Imperium, according to recent sources from 10th edition.

-entire sectors on the Western front suddenly go dark, and the Imperium didn't know what was going on at first; when they send in forces to investigate they are never heard from again.
-multiple astropathic choirs died from the constant psychic barrage of calls for help and cries of terror from the sheer number of people being eaten, one sector command was destroyed because the resulting death of chief-astropath caused such a disturbance it allowed in a daemon that destroyed much of the station before being banished back to the Warp.
-the number of Tyranids worming through the West is so vast even an orc Waaagh led by the "Monsterboss" turned around and ran away rather than dealing with them.
-a staggering amount of refugees fleeing the 'Nids, trying to warn people who will listen.
-the Shadow In The Warp from this invasion is especially powerful, disrupting communications, crippling psykers, and causing people to have nightmares and instigating panic and madness.
-communication was so bad, it took Custodes spies to acquire and relay the information back to Terra to give warning of the threat; Valoris and Leontus got the High Lords to get their shit together and act.
-with the Imperium's military forces stretched kinda thin between Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade and other war zones, the Imperial Guard will make up the bulk of the military response, but getting them organized, armed, marshaled and moving will take time, so the Solblade Fleets are made to help slow the Tyranid hordes down with surgical strikes and holding key strategic areas and buy the Imperium time to mobilize and muster.
-the Solblade Fleets are made up of elite special forces of Custodes, Space Marines, Knight Houses, Admech and Sisters of Battle; they are giving autonomy to pursue their goals as they see fit.
-a group of Eldar came to help one Solblade Fleet, wanting to do an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" team-up, but the xenophobia of the Imperials drove them kill their would-be allies.
-the Solblade Fleets helped establish "anchor worlds" to act as a bulwark against the Tyranid advance and to act as resupply stations.
-just when it looked like things are going the Imperium's way--surprise!--another Tyranid fleet tendril came in, cut off a ton of Solblades, surrounded them and consumed them and the planets they were defending, including a Votann-held world. Lots of Imperial and Squat deaths.
-the Tyranids are swamping the galaxy; Xenos factions, both minor and major, are fighting them, including but not limited to the Hrud, Necrons, Leagues of Votaan, and Eldar from every faction and corner of the galaxy.
-most of the Imperial Fist's forces are deployed in the Crusade, but they did send in the Phalanx to aid the war effort, and helped create the Dornwall, a field of asteroids fortified with weapons and defensive measures to slow the 'Nids down.
-Imperial scholars debate which foe is the greatest threat to the Imperium: Chaos, Orks, or Necrons. But now, they're adding Tyranids to the list, and many consider them the number one threat, as the Imperium is starting to realize just how numerous and adaptive they are, and now see that the 'Nids are encircling the galaxy.
-Hive Fleet Leviathan has three tendrils pushing towards the Segmentum Solar from the west, one from the galactic rim, from below the galactic plane, and one from above the galatic plane, plus tendrils from what is left of Hive Fleet Scylla and Charybdis coming down from the north helping.
-the Ecclesiarchy on one planet said it was impossible for the 'Nids to invade their world, that the God-Emperor would never allow it and to say otherwise was heresy worthy of death, and when the 'Nids started invading and the military was trying to defend and spread word they got attacked from within not by Genestealer Cults but by hyper-fanatical Ecclesiarchy, denying reality even as Tyranid monsters rained from the skies, hurting their efforts.
-The Imperium's war machine manages to win victories for planets that were critical to their travel lanes and military mobilization with the help of what was left of the Solblades and some reinforcements from Space Marines and Custodes, but they're overall losing a ton of worlds and ships to the bugs, and bleeding troops fast, and the Fourth War has only just begun. And the 'Nids just keep coming, and unleashing new tactics, strategies and maneuvers for nasty surprises.
-there are new Tyranid ships called Mindflayers, capable of using devastating psychic attacks.
-the Raven Guard scouting the fringes discovered a new, mega-gargantuan Tyranid bio-ship larger than a moon unlike anything ever before seen coming to join the war.
-The 'Nids are also bringing out the serious big bugs for this invasion; no more playing with their food. One of these new horrors are the Norn Emissaries, super assassin beasts that go deep behind enemy lines and kill high value targets. They are described as being colossal in size, yet unbelievably fast, agile, graceful, and able to squeeze into spots you wouldn't think they could. They are also very intelligent and cunning, able to use complex and deceptive planning, and even having some semblance of individual personalities. The new Tyranid novel even has one regarding Space Marines with derision, as if insulted that it has to waste its time going after such weak, unworthy prey. Even the Emperor's Golden Boys have trouble with them. Here's some of what they are capable of:

"With the skies darkened, day and night had no meaning. The defenders fought on doggedly, yet their casualties mounted and the fortress they manned became ever more heavily damaged. All the while, the three Norn Emissaries stalked through the fighting with eerie alien grace, closing inexorably upon objectives only they knew. One of them struck on the eighth day of the siege, having compressed its mass into the seemingly impossible confines of a decommissioned turbolift shaft then crawled steadily upwards for untold hours. The towering monstrosity burst into the Erythrad Peak command sanctum, where it slaughtered hundreds of screaming strategos and command adepts and destroyed scoroes of irreplacable cogitator banks. The beast would have escaped to strike again elsewhere, had it not been for an unnamed Chapter serf who selflessy sealed the blood-drenched sanctum and trigged the plasmic denial charges, reducing the entire peak to a glassy crater.
The second Emissary - whose distinctive scars identified it to Imperial strategos as the infamous Fiend of Hag Rift - surged from a Trygon tunnel to attack the White Templars' gene-seed vault. It was supported by swarms of lesser warrior organisms and a pair of Neurotyrants. In response, marching from the Chapter's Vaults of Repose came almost a score of White Templars Dreadnoughts who held back the Tyranids in an increasingly desperate and one-sided struggle. Almost all of the ancient warriors were slain - a dreadful loss for the Chapter - but their sacrifices bought time for Colonel Uveda of the Ortegan Grenadiers to launch a massive counter attack and drive the Tyranids back. When the vengeful Chapter Master Stavro arrived at the head of a White Templars strike force, the Fiend of Hag Rift was badly wounded and its swarm devestated. Yet the malevolent monster escaped to fight another day.

"For all the butchery and horror wrought by its fellows, it was the third of the Norn Emissaries that struck at the most crucial target. Scaling the snow-whipped peak of the tallest mountains in the Heights of Artorus, the creature lurked in wait amidst rock and ice for its prey to emege. Below lay the wide-open square of the Ascendorum, a great plaza wrought from a mountainous plateau, dotted with braziers, statuary, sheild generatorums and flak batteries. In better times, the White Templars had mustered on this open space to perform rituals and bestow honours beneath the starry vaults of Sanctum's skies. Now, Lord Solar Leontus was crossing the open plaza astride Konstantin with his entourage about him. The Norn Emissary knew its prey's psionic spoor. Its black eyes followed him. Its ropes of muscle and tendon tensed, and then it leapt out into thin air. The Norn Emissary dropped towards the plaza, sword-like talons extended, angling its huge mass to slam down directly atop Leontus. From below came screams as someone spotted the danger and many amongst Leontus' entourage raised weapons. The Lord himself looked up, registering his doom descending upon him too swiftly to be avoided.
Missiles streaked in and struck the Norn Emissary in the flank when it was scant feet above Leontus' head. The impacts blossomed into concussive fireballs. Their force hurled the huge Tyranid aside even as their shock waves unhorsed the Lord Solar and threw him and many of his companions flat upon the flagstones. The Norn Emissary bucked in the air, ichor gouting from its wounded flank, and turned its tumble into a cat-like landing with a grace nothing so huge should posses. It hissed as the gilded gunship that had fired upon it streaked overhead, then banked sharply with a flare of engines and came in for another pass. The craft's rear ramp whined open as it flew closer, and hulking warriors clad in ornate auramite armour dropped from it one after another to slam down in the plaza with enough force to crack stone. The gunship's weapons blazed again. This time the Emissary was ready. Leaping and swinging huge talons in a scything arc, it tore the cockpit from the gunship and sent it spiralling down the mountainside in flames.
The emissary wheeled and surged with serpentine speed towards Leontus, who was still staggering to his feet. Blood ran down his pale face from a bad scalp wound. Though he fumbled to draw his blade, the Norn Emissary's prey was in no condition to defend himself. The monster reared above him.
The newly arrived golden warriors moved with incredible speed and merciless focus. Those of the Lord Solar's retinue not swift enough to clear a path were smashed aside with bone-breaking force as Trajann Valrois and his Custodians raced to interpose themselves between Leontus and his would-be xenos assassin. The Norn Emissary was just paces from its victim when a hammering volley of bolt fire from the Custodian's guardians spears arrested its charge. The monster staggered then lunged with a shriek, snatching up the nearest Custodian and tearing one arm from his body before swinging him by the other and hurling him away.
Trajann Valoris stepped in and aimed a mighty stroke with the Watcher's Axe that shattered several of the Emissary's talons. The towering xeno-beast feinted back then sprang past Valoris and attempted to snatch up Leontus. The Lord Solar had, by now, recovered his wits, however, and hurled himself backward to escape the monster's grasp. Bodyguards and chanting priests pressed forward, raking the Norn Emissary with fire from lasguns, pistols, and a handful of plasma weapons. The monster swatted its attackers aside like insects and sent broken bodies tumbling across the plaza.
The next instant it reeled and screeched as several Custodians' blades hacked into its flesh. Eyes still fixed unerringly on the retreating Lord Solar, the Norn Emissary lashed about itself with blistering speed. A custodian was borne aloft and ripped bodily in two. Another was kicked so hard that his head cleared the plaza and vanished over the precipice before his blood-spurting body had even toppled. Yet another was stomped into the flagstones, even his toughened bone structure and auramite armour not enough to prevent his death. The golden wall between the Norn Emissary and its prey was thinning.
All the while Leontus defenders and the remaining Custodians were pouring fire into the colossal alien abomination. A scything blow of the Watcher's Axe slit the cable-like tendons of the beast's right ankle and set it limping. A plasma blast - either skullfully placed or incredibly lucky - melted the right side of the Emissary's face into a fused mass of cooked flesh. Bolt rounds fired by Custodians blasted chunks of chitin and showers of ichor from the creature's limbs and body.
Still the Norn Emissary fought on. Its whipping tail broke another Custodian's neck and sent his body cluttering away across the plaza. A final, desperate effort saw the beast hurl itself forward, jaws grasping to close upon Lord Solar Leontus like a trap slamming shut. Yet Valoris was there at the crucial moment, Watcher's Axe swinging in a meteoric arc to embed itself in the side of the Norn Emissary's skull and smash its head aside. The xenos monster crashed to the ground, crushing more than a score of Leontus' aides under its bulk, yet its last strike at the Lord Solar had been fended off by the Captain-General of the Emperor's own bodyguards. Valoris and his one surviving Custodian kept their weapons levelled at the monster as it twitched and heaved, but it did not try to rise again. Ichor flooded from its grievious wounds, steaming as it cooled and began to freeze upon the cracked flagstones of the plaza.
Lord Solar Leontus looked gravely around at the carnage, then up at the stern-faced demigod who had interceded to save his life. Expression sombre, Leontus raised his hands and wordlessly offered the Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes the sign of the Aquila. Valoris returned the gesture, and then calmly set about checking his wargear and reloading the Eagle's Scream. The life of the Lord Solar had been saved at terrible cost, and the defenders of Sanctum had received reinforcements, but there was still a world's worth of war to be waged."

[Vol]

For me this is way more acceptable, since we actively help Alexstraza escape from captivity and rape. That the incident happened in the past at all is okay writing, making us an active part of if continueing was the really, really disgusting part.

Still very unhappy about the Amber Kearnen quest (I really liked the character when we had adventures together with her in Pandaria and her sudden and very useless death in Legion was also an unhappy point for me), but since these are dailies which are not story relevant, I can skip over this one without wanting to uninstall the game in angry frustration.

Yeah, being actively complicit in evil, when the game presumes you're a hero (for better or worse, the early warlock/rogue/etc. lore and such is long gone), so if you _have_ to contribute to evil, it's best done as a trick or in narrow range. Like not knowingly help Alexstraza get chained and raped during the Second War. That sort of quest, in the saving the timeline plot, should be optional, and treated with due gravitas for the "greater good" act is presumably is.

Reminds me of having to kill General Nazgrim. He was our bro since Wrath, and died for principle in MoP. It sucked, but it felt properly set up at least. Bringing him back as a DK is...yeah.

So how's the Fourth Tyrannic War going for the Imperium so far?

► Show Spoiler

Not so hot for the Imperium, according to recent sources from 10th edition.

-entire sectors on the Western front suddenly go dark, and the Imperium didn't know what was going on at first; when they send in forces to investigate they are never heard from again.
-multiple astropathic choirs died from the constant psychic barrage of calls for help and cries of terror from the sheer number of people being eaten, one sector command was destroyed because the resulting death of chief-astropath caused such a disturbance it allowed in a daemon that destroyed much of the station before being banished back to the Warp.
-the number of Tyranids worming through the West is so vast even an orc Waaagh led by the "Monsterboss" turned around and ran away rather than dealing with them.
-a staggering amount of refugees fleeing the 'Nids, trying to warn people who will listen.
-the Shadow In The Warp from this invasion is especially powerful, disrupting communications, crippling psykers, and causing people to have nightmares and instigating panic and madness.
-communication was so bad, it took Custodes spies to acquire and relay the information back to Terra to give warning of the threat; Valoris and Leontus got the High Lords to get their shit together and act.
-with the Imperium's military forces stretched kinda thin between Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade and other war zones, the Imperial Guard will make up the bulk of the military response, but getting them organized, armed, marshaled and moving will take time, so the Solblade Fleets are made to help slow the Tyranid hordes down with surgical strikes and holding key strategic areas and buy the Imperium time to mobilize and muster.
-the Solblade Fleets are made up of elite special forces of Custodes, Space Marines, Knight Houses, Admech and Sisters of Battle; they are giving autonomy to pursue their goals as they see fit.
-a group of Eldar came to help one Solblade Fleet, wanting to do an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" team-up, but the xenophobia of the Imperials drove them kill their would-be allies.
-the Solblade Fleets helped establish "anchor worlds" to act as a bulwark against the Tyranid advance and to act as resupply stations.
-just when it looked like things are going the Imperium's way--surprise!--another Tyranid fleet tendril came in, cut off a ton of Solblades, surrounded them and consumed them and the planets they were defending, including a Votann-held world. Lots of Imperial and Squat deaths.
-the Tyranids are swamping the galaxy; Xenos factions, both minor and major, are fighting them, including but not limited to the Hrud, Necrons, Leagues of Votaan, and Eldar from every faction and corner of the galaxy.
-most of the Imperial Fist's forces are deployed in the Crusade, but they did send in the Phalanx to aid the war effort, and helped create the Dornwall, a field of asteroids fortified with weapons and defensive measures to slow the 'Nids down.
-Imperial scholars debate which foe is the greatest threat to the Imperium: Chaos, Orks, or Necrons. But now, they're adding Tyranids to the list, and many consider them the number one threat, as the Imperium is starting to realize just how numerous and adaptive they are, and now see that the 'Nids are encircling the galaxy.
-Hive Fleet Leviathan has three tendrils pushing towards the Segmentum Solar from the west, one from the galactic rim, from below the galactic plane, and one from above the galatic plane, plus tendrils from what is left of Hive Fleet Scylla and Charybdis coming down from the north helping.
-the Ecclesiarchy on one planet said it was impossible for the 'Nids to invade their world, that the God-Emperor would never allow it and to say otherwise was heresy worthy of death, and when the 'Nids started invading and the military was trying to defend and spread word they got attacked from within not by Genestealer Cults but by hyper-fanatical Ecclesiarchy, denying reality even as Tyranid monsters rained from the skies, hurting their efforts.
-The Imperium's war machine manages to win victories for planets that were critical to their travel lanes and military mobilization with the help of what was left of the Solblades and some reinforcements from Space Marines and Custodes, but they're overall losing a ton of worlds and ships to the bugs, and bleeding troops fast, and the Fourth War has only just begun. And the 'Nids just keep coming, and unleashing new tactics, strategies and maneuvers for nasty surprises.
-there are new Tyranid ships called Mindflayers, capable of using devastating psychic attacks.
-the Raven Guard scouting the fringes discovered a new, mega-gargantuan Tyranid bio-ship larger than a moon unlike anything ever before seen coming to join the war.
-The 'Nids are also bringing out the serious big bugs for this invasion; no more playing with their food. One of these new horrors are the Norn Emissaries, super assassin beasts that go deep behind enemy lines and kill high value targets. They are described as being colossal in size, yet unbelievably fast, agile, graceful, and able to squeeze into spots you wouldn't think they could. They are also very intelligent and cunning, able to use complex and deceptive planning, and even having some semblance of individual personalities. The new Tyranid novel even has one regarding Space Marines with derision, as if insulted that it has to waste its time going after such weak, unworthy prey. Even the Emperor's Golden Boys have trouble with them. Here's some of what they are capable of:

"With the skies darkened, day and night had no meaning. The defenders fought on doggedly, yet their casualties mounted and the fortress they manned became ever more heavily damaged. All the while, the three Norn Emissaries stalked through the fighting with eerie alien grace, closing inexorably upon objectives only they knew. One of them struck on the eighth day of the siege, having compressed its mass into the seemingly impossible confines of a decommissioned turbolift shaft then crawled steadily upwards for untold hours. The towering monstrosity burst into the Erythrad Peak command sanctum, where it slaughtered hundreds of screaming strategos and command adepts and destroyed scoroes of irreplacable cogitator banks. The beast would have escaped to strike again elsewhere, had it not been for an unnamed Chapter serf who selflessy sealed the blood-drenched sanctum and trigged the plasmic denial charges, reducing the entire peak to a glassy crater.
The second Emissary - whose distinctive scars identified it to Imperial strategos as the infamous Fiend of Hag Rift - surged from a Trygon tunnel to attack the White Templars' gene-seed vault. It was supported by swarms of lesser warrior organisms and a pair of Neurotyrants. In response, marching from the Chapter's Vaults of Repose came almost a score of White Templars Dreadnoughts who held back the Tyranids in an increasingly desperate and one-sided struggle. Almost all of the ancient warriors were slain - a dreadful loss for the Chapter - but their sacrifices bought time for Colonel Uveda of the Ortegan Grenadiers to launch a massive counter attack and drive the Tyranids back. When the vengeful Chapter Master Stavro arrived at the head of a White Templars strike force, the Fiend of Hag Rift was badly wounded and its swarm devestated. Yet the malevolent monster escaped to fight another day.

"For all the butchery and horror wrought by its fellows, it was the third of the Norn Emissaries that struck at the most crucial target. Scaling the snow-whipped peak of the tallest mountains in the Heights of Artorus, the creature lurked in wait amidst rock and ice for its prey to emege. Below lay the wide-open square of the Ascendorum, a great plaza wrought from a mountainous plateau, dotted with braziers, statuary, sheild generatorums and flak batteries. In better times, the White Templars had mustered on this open space to perform rituals and bestow honours beneath the starry vaults of Sanctum's skies. Now, Lord Solar Leontus was crossing the open plaza astride Konstantin with his entourage about him. The Norn Emissary knew its prey's psionic spoor. Its black eyes followed him. Its ropes of muscle and tendon tensed, and then it leapt out into thin air. The Norn Emissary dropped towards the plaza, sword-like talons extended, angling its huge mass to slam down directly atop Leontus. From below came screams as someone spotted the danger and many amongst Leontus' entourage raised weapons. The Lord himself looked up, registering his doom descending upon him too swiftly to be avoided.
Missiles streaked in and struck the Norn Emissary in the flank when it was scant feet above Leontus' head. The impacts blossomed into concussive fireballs. Their force hurled the huge Tyranid aside even as their shock waves unhorsed the Lord Solar and threw him and many of his companions flat upon the flagstones. The Norn Emissary bucked in the air, ichor gouting from its wounded flank, and turned its tumble into a cat-like landing with a grace nothing so huge should posses. It hissed as the gilded gunship that had fired upon it streaked overhead, then banked sharply with a flare of engines and came in for another pass. The craft's rear ramp whined open as it flew closer, and hulking warriors clad in ornate auramite armour dropped from it one after another to slam down in the plaza with enough force to crack stone. The gunship's weapons blazed again. This time the Emissary was ready. Leaping and swinging huge talons in a scything arc, it tore the cockpit from the gunship and sent it spiralling down the mountainside in flames.
The emissary wheeled and surged with serpentine speed towards Leontus, who was still staggering to his feet. Blood ran down his pale face from a bad scalp wound. Though he fumbled to draw his blade, the Norn Emissary's prey was in no condition to defend himself. The monster reared above him.
The newly arrived golden warriors moved with incredible speed and merciless focus. Those of the Lord Solar's retinue not swift enough to clear a path were smashed aside with bone-breaking force as Trajann Valrois and his Custodians raced to interpose themselves between Leontus and his would-be xenos assassin. The Norn Emissary was just paces from its victim when a hammering volley of bolt fire from the Custodian's guardians spears arrested its charge. The monster staggered then lunged with a shriek, snatching up the nearest Custodian and tearing one arm from his body before swinging him by the other and hurling him away.
Trajann Valoris stepped in and aimed a mighty stroke with the Watcher's Axe that shattered several of the Emissary's talons. The towering xeno-beast feinted back then sprang past Valoris and attempted to snatch up Leontus. The Lord Solar had, by now, recovered his wits, however, and hurled himself backward to escape the monster's grasp. Bodyguards and chanting priests pressed forward, raking the Norn Emissary with fire from lasguns, pistols, and a handful of plasma weapons. The monster swatted its attackers aside like insects and sent broken bodies tumbling across the plaza.
The next instant it reeled and screeched as several Custodians' blades hacked into its flesh. Eyes still fixed unerringly on the retreating Lord Solar, the Norn Emissary lashed about itself with blistering speed. A custodian was borne aloft and ripped bodily in two. Another was kicked so hard that his head cleared the plaza and vanished over the precipice before his blood-spurting body had even toppled. Yet another was stomped into the flagstones, even his toughened bone structure and auramite armour not enough to prevent his death. The golden wall between the Norn Emissary and its prey was thinning.
All the while Leontus defenders and the remaining Custodians were pouring fire into the colossal alien abomination. A scything blow of the Watcher's Axe slit the cable-like tendons of the beast's right ankle and set it limping. A plasma blast - either skullfully placed or incredibly lucky - melted the right side of the Emissary's face into a fused mass of cooked flesh. Bolt rounds fired by Custodians blasted chunks of chitin and showers of ichor from the creature's limbs and body.
Still the Norn Emissary fought on. Its whipping tail broke another Custodian's neck and sent his body cluttering away across the plaza. A final, desperate effort saw the beast hurl itself forward, jaws grasping to close upon Lord Solar Leontus like a trap slamming shut. Yet Valoris was there at the crucial moment, Watcher's Axe swinging in a meteoric arc to embed itself in the side of the Norn Emissary's skull and smash its head aside. The xenos monster crashed to the ground, crushing more than a score of Leontus' aides under its bulk, yet its last strike at the Lord Solar had been fended off by the Captain-General of the Emperor's own bodyguards. Valoris and his one surviving Custodian kept their weapons levelled at the monster as it twitched and heaved, but it did not try to rise again. Ichor flooded from its grievious wounds, steaming as it cooled and began to freeze upon the cracked flagstones of the plaza.
Lord Solar Leontus looked gravely around at the carnage, then up at the stern-faced demigod who had interceded to save his life. Expression sombre, Leontus raised his hands and wordlessly offered the Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes the sign of the Aquila. Valoris returned the gesture, and then calmly set about checking his wargear and reloading the Eagle's Scream. The life of the Lord Solar had been saved at terrible cost, and the defenders of Sanctum had received reinforcements, but there was still a world's worth of war to be waged."

► Show Spoiler

Really, really not a fan of Custodes turning into Worfs. If super-duper genestealers, with Trajan in tow, can kill _multiple_ golden boys without even really being focused on them, what's the friggin' point of being "nearly Primarch"-tier? It makes the Tyranids able to pump out basically Primach-assassins, without the Warp stuff.

Otherwise the rest sounds neat. Imperium taking lots of losses, everywhere, constantly, means Big E has to intercede at some point, and I've said for years, advancing every end-game at once would make for the most satisfying new status quo. Glad to hear the xenos got some love. Hrud fighting Tyranids would make for an interesting short story, since what exactly the time-dilation effect does to bioengineered beings is fertile grounds.

Still super dumb that Custodes are dying left and right for minimal purpose. Seems like BIg E is gonna have to intervene, given everything is falling apart from every angle at once. Primarchs are only man-sized, and their spess mehrines aren't gonna do much in this nightmare.

[SciFlyBoy]

Alright, I got a few hours in with Everspace 2 on the new joysticks and it's so far a real joy. Ahem. :p Circle strafing around an asteroid is very fun, although I still need to get the hang of not ramming my ship accidentally into it by misjudging the thrust from the throttle side. ^^

I was quite a bit nervous I wouldn't end up liking the feel of two joysticks, but so far it has been really good.

I crashed my ship into a lot of asteroids in Elite Dangerous. So I feel you. And you can control everything from both joysticks?

[magnuskn]

I crashed my ship into a lot of asteroids in Elite Dangerous. So I feel you. And you can control everything from both joysticks?

Yep, aside from somehow not being able to get up/down movement on my right analogue stick to work in the correct way (i.e. pressing up goes up and down goes down, it always stays inverted, no matter if I choose to have it not... however that is a problem of the game, not the joysticks), I got all movements, action keys and menus on both sticks. It helps that I got about fourty buttons and 16 axis to choose from. The Virpil Constellation Alpha Prime sticks are not by coincidence the most expensive ones you can get on the market.

[Vol]

Do propane grills need to preheat like charcoal ones? Got a small one as a gift, much more convenient than going through the process for charcoal, especially with how small of portions I cook, but the directions were very sparse. Only said to run it for 15 minutes the first time you use it to burn off any chemical smell from the interior. I would assume so, the grate needs to get up to heat.

[Dragaros]

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

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToHkKAKUO0g

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgXh3GbFor0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US-u29m8Jms

[Dragaros]

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

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_PXuEPxN50

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_9PYUXQ9Qw

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBw0bBUdTZY

[SciFlyBoy]

Do propane grills need to preheat like charcoal ones? Got a small one as a gift, much more convenient than going through the process for charcoal, especially with how small of portions I cook, but the directions were very sparse. Only said to run it for 15 minutes the first time you use it to burn off any chemical smell from the interior. I would assume so, the grate needs to get up to heat.

I think the grill marks are the appeal of cooking outside. Get those grates HOT, so heat it up before hand.

What's the first meal you're going to master?

[Vol]

I think the grill marks are the appeal of cooking outside. Get those grates HOT, so heat it up before hand.

What's the first meal you're going to master?

Yeah, looks nice, and easier than a consistent browning in a pan. I always struggle with preheating, to be fair. Because this grill is so relatively small, I'm assuming it takes relatively little time to get up to heat.

Well, I tried a grilled cheese on it. Which came out alright, other than a bit of carbonization from said preheating mistakes. Then made some hotdogs for dinner, after a sweat-drenched walk to get buns. They came out better, though I only preheated for about 5 minutes, on medium, and they still instantly scorched. But once that initial heat dispersed, they cooked normally, turned them a few times, looked really nice.

Obviously, I'd like to do a proper steak. Marinade overnight, grill hot and fast. But that's a bit outside my budget, so I'll settle for a good burger. I am only an American after all.

[Mazder]

Maaaan all this talk of grilling and steaks is making me hungry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI9_wnlOx0Q&ab_channel=LetterkennyProblems

[magnuskn]

Did Twitter just block non-account holders completely from seeing tweets at all?

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KgUr7-3eR4

"25 years since we released Banjo Kazooie! Thank you all for the love you still show the game and the characters."

[Dragaros]

“See that green dot? That's a bolt of lightning. On Jupiter.”

Ok, who accidentally activated the Necron Blackstone Pylon? Do you want C'tan? Because this is how you get C'tan.

[SciFlyBoy]

Yeah, looks nice, and easier than a consistent browning in a pan. I always struggle with preheating, to be fair. Because this grill is so relatively small, I'm assuming it takes relatively little time to get up to heat.

Well, I tried a grilled cheese on it. Which came out alright, other than a bit of carbonization from said preheating mistakes. Then made some hotdogs for dinner, after a sweat-drenched walk to get buns. They came out better, though I only preheated for about 5 minutes, on medium, and they still instantly scorched. But once that initial heat dispersed, they cooked normally, turned them a few times, looked really nice.

Obviously, I'd like to do a proper steak. Marinade overnight, grill hot and fast. But that's a bit outside my budget, so I'll settle for a good burger. I am only an American after all.

Ha! Great for you. And do you have easy access to it? Or is it a chore to set up, to pull it out of the garage, get all the gear together, to go out of your way to use it?

I have the later for both my bbq and my smoker. Both are chores to use since I have to roll the bbq 100 feet out of the garage and up a flight of stairs, or put my entire balcony away to set up my smoker.

If it's the formal, then you can grill often and quickly. That also makes way for you to quickly figure out the best way to make something. Knowing that you can cook your favorite really fast, the way you want to, that's the recipe for happiness. I'd grill almost everyday if I could. Burgers, dogs, birds, any vegetables, anything I'm cooking. You can even do your meatloaf on the grill and make it the best you've ever had. Breakfast potatoes and eggs on the grill. I'd use a small pan with some woodchips to add a little smoke, that's me though.


That's really exciting. Hope you get many uses out of it.

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFllQ7Pfrpo

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9003aiiBvI

"Here is actual video of Bloodborne running at locked 60fps in 1080p resolution on PlayStation 5. No upscaling, just 6 minutes of real gameplay footage captured directly from PS5 hardware. This video shows 6 minutes of Bloodborne running at a true 60fps framerate without lowering the resolution from the original Full HD 1080p on actual PlayStation 5 hardware. No upscaling or interpolation has been applied to the footage. Just raw gameplay capture is shown."

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHPBCy-etdc

Nozdormu needs to stop moping and brooding and should take a page form Kain's playbook from the LoK series: if your tale is crude and ill-conceived, you must rewrite the ending of it. When presented with a rigged game, where every choice results in disastrous calamity, and the tyrannous stars of fate and destiny are conspiring to crush the free will out of you, there's only one way out of the dilemma: pursue the hidden third option, or forge one yourself if there is none. Take the sublime moment of your undoing and make it into a weapon, an ineffable fulcrum to swing the course of history. For while there may be only two sides to a coin, suppose you throw a coin enough times... suppose one day, it lands on its edge.

[Vol]

Did Twitter just block non-account holders completely from seeing tweets at all?

Yes, temporary measure. Musk is saying it's because a ton of companies, big and small, are training their AI scripts on Twitter and causing tremendous overhead.

Nozdormu needs to stop moping and brooding and should take a page form Kain's playbook from the LoK series: if your tale is crude and ill-conceived, you must rewrite the ending of it. When presented with a rigged game, where every choice results in disastrous calamity, and the tyrannous stars of fate and destiny are conspiring to crush the free will out of you, there's only one way out of the dilemma: pursue the hidden third option, or forge one yourself if there is none. Take the sublime moment of your undoing and make it into a weapon, an ineffable fulcrum to swing the course of history. For while there may be only two sides to a coin, suppose you throw a coin enough times... suppose one day, it lands on its edge.

I would make a point criticizing the philosophical implications of that, how it's just contrived nihilism/absurdism and escaping fate is blah blah blah.

But then I looked 5 tabs over, at the old manga I'm re-reading, where it ends with the MC not choosing just one girl, but he actually picks the third option and takes the entire harem.

So I have no room to judge, heh.

[magnuskn]

Yes, temporary measure. Musk is saying it's because a ton of companies, big and small, are training their AI scripts on Twitter and causing tremendous overhead.

Ah, alright. I won't delete all my tabs to my favorite journalists, then. Yet. Strange that I couldn't find any articles about this yesterday.

Nozdormu needs to stop moping and brooding and should take a page form Kain's playbook from the LoK series: if your tale is crude and ill-conceived, you must rewrite the ending of it. When presented with a rigged game, where every choice results in disastrous calamity, and the tyrannous stars of fate and destiny are conspiring to crush the free will out of you, there's only one way out of the dilemma: pursue the hidden third option, or forge one yourself if there is none. Take the sublime moment of your undoing and make it into a weapon, an ineffable fulcrum to swing the course of history. For while there may be only two sides to a coin, suppose you throw a coin enough times... suppose one day, it lands on its edge.

I would make a point criticizing the philosophical implications of that, how it's just contrived nihilism/absurdism and escaping fate is blah blah blah.

But then I looked 5 tabs over, at the old manga I'm re-reading, where it ends with the MC not choosing just one girl, but he actually picks the third option and takes the entire harem.

So I have no room to judge, heh.

I find this one of the most bloody absurd storylines in WoW lately, this inevitability of corruption, when we still have no fucking clue why every single bronze dragon follows Nozdormu into this, why it is somehow inevitable in the first place and if the Infinite Dragonflight doesn't have a point as well. This "one true timeline" stuff is idiotic as well... we've already seen that there are alternate timelines around, what exactly is making this particular timeline the "one true" one?

[Dragaros]

I would make a point criticizing the philosophical implications of that, how it's just contrived nihilism/absurdism and escaping fate is blah blah blah.

But then I looked 5 tabs over, at the old manga I'm re-reading, where it ends with the MC not choosing just one girl, but he actually picks the third option and takes the entire harem.

So I have no room to judge, heh.

Interesting you say that, because I would argue that doing such would be one of the most anti-nihilist/anti-absurdist things you could do. That’s the diversity of thought and perspective that gives life its spice for ya.

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Vol]

Maaaan all this talk of grilling and steaks is making me hungry

Every friend group in America looks like this btw

Man, I'd kill for a good seared steak with some herb and garlic butter. But I just drank my brotein shake, it's too late for steak, ahhhh.

Ha! Great for you. And do you have easy access to it? Or is it a chore to set up, to pull it out of the garage, get all the gear together, to go out of your way to use it?

I have the later for both my bbq and my smoker. Both are chores to use since I have to roll the bbq 100 feet out of the garage and up a flight of stairs, or put my entire balcony away to set up my smoker.

If it's the formal, then you can grill often and quickly. That also makes way for you to quickly figure out the best way to make something. Knowing that you can cook your favorite really fast, the way you want to, that's the recipe for happiness. I'd grill almost everyday if I could. Burgers, dogs, birds, any vegetables, anything I'm cooking. You can even do your meatloaf on the grill and make it the best you've ever had. Breakfast potatoes and eggs on the grill. I'd use a small pan with some woodchips to add a little smoke, that's me though.


That's really exciting. Hope you get many uses out of it.

It worked out well since my dad's charcoal grill was rusting out, so I could give him my relatively new one, and equipment. Owe that man more than I'll ever be able to give him, and all that.

Yeah, it's a tiny thing. Folds up and can be carried like a suitcase. Legs are bit short tho, so I either gotta squat to the ground or find a safe, stable box to put it on. The deck table would work, it's glass, and I checked around the grill during use and heat wasn't radiating more than a few inches. All I need to do is screw in the 16oz propane tank and it's good to go, which is nice. The charcoal grill was so much effort in comparison, took 30 minutes to get up to heat, and I never got quite the hang of it.

Yeesh. That's a lot of effort! Can't just keep your setup on your balcony? Or a closet?

Only bottleneck is the propane tanks, seems like I should get 2 hours or so of life out of them. Which is fine for quick stuff, hotdogs, chicken breast, burgers, but I'd like to do potatoes, get my cast iron skillet going, but that'd burn a lot of fuel.

I find this one of the most bloody absurd storylines in WoW lately, this inevitability of corruption, when we still have no fucking clue why every single bronze dragon follows Nozdormu into this, why it is somehow inevitable in the first place and if the Infinite Dragonflight doesn't have a point as well. This "one true timeline" stuff is idiotic as well... we've already seen that there are alternate timelines around, what exactly is making this particular timeline the "one true" one?

Twitter: Musk rolled out a temporary measure for combating the dataminers. Limited views for non-registered people, registered people have a higher cap, and verified people have the highest cap. Should be temporary, though people are freaking out like it's the end.

That's the issue with time travel plots. You have to be way smarter than schlock fantasy writing to pull it off. Those are all good questions. _Is_ the WoW universe hard deterministic? Why is there any possible need for timeline patrolling then? If it's determined that they will patrol to ensure things come to pass...why is it like that? It's a whole philosophical can of worms. Things can't be inevitable _and_ subject to interference. But if it's a closed loop where people are just acting out their prescribed roles...then none of it matters, because there's no (fictional) agency to begin with. What _is_ the one true timeline? Why is it that way? If things can be deviated from, why not go with that?

Interesting you say that, because I would argue that doing such would be one of the most anti-nihilist/anti-absurdist things you could do. That’s the diversity of thought and perspective that gives life its spice for ya.

Do tell! I'm curious what you mean specifically.

[magnuskn]

Progression on Everspace 2 is slow (start of the new anime season, also some other stuff), but I'm really having a lot of fun with the game and the joysticks. I got about 2/3rds of yesterday in (skipped Indiana Jones 5 in the theater for it, after all those abysmal reviews... it'll be on D+ in a few weeks time, anyway) and the gameplay loop is quite fun, much better and more varied than the first part. Also I'm trying out the different ship classes, which also is very interesting. I don't think I'll get that much time in today, but I have those other interests to attend to as well.

[Dragaros]

Do tell! I'm curious what you mean specifically.

I’ll keep this brief and simplistic, so as not to get too deep into the quagmire of a philosophical debate and to keep it in the specific context of Noz's example. Let’s see if my point won’t get diluted into absurdity or rendered childishly trite or vapid by doing so!
By even attempting such a thing, you would essentially be shouting as loud as you can, “I am not an insignificant nothing! My life has value! The things I treasure have meaning! I care not if the universe is a cold and uncaring cesspit born out of random chaos or a cruelly designed labyrinth from a capacious divine power, or a benevolent power, or a misguided power, or any other metaphysical or scientific cosmologic possibility, I am here, I think therefore I am, that means something, I have purpose, I will not suffer this bullshit without a fight, I will not accept the yoke and chains like a cowardly, submissive animal!” All of the key tenets of that thesis are things a nihilist or an absurdist would reject on principle.
To challenge time, to defy destiny, to fight fate, to strive for a better tomorrow and a better version of yourself, one must have hope. Nihilists and absurdists have no hope, at least as how I would define it.
You could argue that challenging a cosmic imperative baked into the very fabric reality is egotistical and the height of hubris, absolutely, but that doesn’t render the striving and the journey without meaning if you subscribe to any kind of philosophical system that acknowledges, ascribes and weighs value. Whether the endeavor resulted in failure or success, there was value to be had, and thus meaning, even if ultimately a selfish, unnoticed or unappreciated one. One doesn’t need an audience or have a purely altruistic motive for a choice to be worth something to you as an individual.
Even if you fall under a philosophical system like, say, Existentialism, that would argue against anything having intrinsic value, it does argue that the subjective or transitory value you yourself give things as a thinking and living being is equally valid as if it did have intrinsic value, something a nihilist or absurdist would also reject. To be driven, to have ambition, to want to change things, to have principles, to honor your responsibilities and commitments, to be accountable, to cherish others, to love and hope, to work for a brighter future, to leave behind a legacy, these things require a system of values that have meaning to you, even if not some intrinsic or universal value that exists outside of yourself.
Noz’s problem isn’t that he’s a nihilist but that he’s succumbed to fatalism. But if his future was really inevitable and preordained, without any room for change, then how does one explain all these alternate timelines’ very existence in the first place, or that the Old Gods almost succeeded in re-writing history to break free of their prisons and were only stopped because of some mortal time-travelers from the future influencing things? But putting all that aside, even if he really is damned to turn evil with no way out, at least pull a "Do not go gentle into that good night; rage against the dying of the light" as you go. I could respect that, unlike meek surrender.
WoW really needs to stay away from time travel/paradox plots. It opens up a whole can of worms the writers are clearly not prepared to deal with.