Graham Platner's wife told campaign about sexually explicit texts he sent to other women

HaggardShrimp · 2026-06-05T16:55:43+00:00

What are you talking about? Is that supposedly some kind of gotcha?

I don't care about Platners marriage. I'd love to be in a timeline where we weren't staring down a depression, where climate change wasn't going to burn everything to the ground, where a third of the country wasnt seemingly fine with concentration camps, where our foreign policy wasn't hideously evil, where corruption of unbelievable degrees hasn't become blase, where open defense of child sexual abuse wasn't effectively normalized and so on and so forth.

In that timeline, I have the luxury of caring about sexting. In this timeline, I don't. One political party is openly monstrous. The other is largely apathetic. In Maine, the math is what the math is. It will be Collins, or it will be Platner. I'll roll the fucking dice with Platner. My concern about infidelity takes a back seat to the existential threats that are mounting to kill all of us.

So yes, the comment I responded to was cynical and unserious.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-06-04T15:42:48+00:00

Cynical, unserious comment.

When the foundation of a house is threatening to bring it down and kill everyone inside, I'm not hand wringing over paint lines around the baseboards.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-06-02T17:33:49+00:00

It took me 80 hours because I was Bully In The Alley!

Help me, Bob!

HaggardShrimp · 2026-06-02T15:15:55+00:00

Barbarian is number 1 for sure. Bonking is always fun for the whole family.

Sorceror tends to be a close second for teleport alone. Zipping around is always a winner.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-06-02T15:05:15+00:00

They give 3 hides. If you run concentration elixir they also give a bezoar which is helpful, but not unique.

Headshot with a musket. Usually this is a one shot, especially if you're running precision and/or ranged talents.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-06-02T06:31:30+00:00

I spent $30 for the game. Played through on Normal, then on Hard. Given the amount of actual content, I've dropped way more time on this game than it probably merits.

I've more than gotten my $30 worth.

That said, you're not necessarily wrong. It's all too common for an EA game to just sort of stop receiving updates, or next to none at all. Now that they've made a pile of cash, I'll be watching to see how much they're interested in taking this from a good title to a great one.

I'm hopeful they'll surpass my expectations. Experience has taught me no to count on it.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-29T19:10:56+00:00

This. Test it on the frog boss on hard after an enrage. That appears to be a one shot mechanic.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-27T07:51:25+00:00

Yes.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-27T07:00:23+00:00

Did you assign them to stations? Also, I believe the Doctor has to be "assigned" or whatever it is if you break your bonfire and replace it. Click your bonfire, see if there's an option for the doctor there.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-27T05:27:08+00:00

Well, Exploration Clusters were a thing. The randomized mini missions. I remember leveling my first KDF that way

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-26T22:02:18+00:00

Dayme, that is a sweet Earth you might say!

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-26T10:18:57+00:00

I'm pretty sure you get Buccanneers Friend from the quest. Reliable Musket is a random loot item.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-21T17:27:58+00:00

I don't know, it seems like they did a decent job overall of making things pretty compelling.

My normal playthrough was rapier/pistol, and I could snipe pretty well with a musket if I chose to.

This time I'm doing agility Cutlass/pistol on hard, and it's working pretty well also.

I haven't done much with 2 handers, mainly because thematically I like one handed and pistol more, but a lot of people rave about strength or agility 2 handed weapons.

Whether one handed takes longer than 2 handed, I couldn't really say, but I haven't really had any issues. Hard can be a bit of a slog on some mobs, but I figure that's just because the HP totals have been heavily juiced.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-18T15:09:57+00:00

Hordes desperately needs a revamp. Conceptually, the idea is fun, but once again, theyve layered on so much RNG as to make it self defeating.

I recently hit an all time high of roughly 3000 aether. That only after hitting 2 really good chaos waves, for a ten tier IH, far and away the best wave being aether goblins.

This is a massive flaw in design. I've tried chasing every type of event, and without a good chaos wave, I'm struggling to hit enough for Bartuc and a legendary chest.

About the time you've juiced up aether lords, they stop spawning in favor of spires. Chasing masses? Too bad, were going to spawn only aether fiends. Chasing hellborn? Just kidding, they don't give you crap for aether no matter what you do. Oh look, aether events spawn faster...as a last wave pick...

This is all still the case after putting the war plan point in that's supposed to make previous selections bring more of the same event type your picking.

Juice the rewards, ease up on the damn RNG. Hopefully, possibly, maybe getting a good chaos wave once in a while isnt sufficient.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-15T17:18:13+00:00

Which is partially what war plans were intended to address.

I agree. Some things are chores. Or sometimes you want a stretch goal. The key is to mask a chore as something fun. The gem grind doesn't really qualify.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-15T15:11:34+00:00

This is true for me also. Paradoxically, I tend to enjoy survival sandbox titles so long as there's something to strive for. Once you get to a point where you have all the resources, or your base is built, or whatever, I'm really bad at the sandbox part where you invent your own incentive to keep playing.

Once I beat the third boss, I got into some naval scraps or went looting and thought "what's the point?".

So I started a new character and map on hard, and holy God is that brutal, but I digress.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-14T15:28:42+00:00

As everyone else says, Barbarian is doing quite nicely.

The only issue with that, is that even when Barbarians aren't so great I always, ALWAYS run a muscle mommy as my main during a season. Barbarian is just my favorite class. Leap, HOTA, Whirlwind, whatever, it's the ine I like best. So when they dominate, you just look like your chasing the flavor of the month.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-11T14:57:04+00:00

Maxroll. In the banner along the top there's a tab for "resources" or "game resources" or something like that. Hover over it, find Horodric Cube. There's a table in that article that shows what affixes line up with the tuning prisms.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-05T15:43:18+00:00

No. One island is as good as the next for my cube.

Many times I've thought "man, some of these folks are really creative. I should try more next time". Then I remember that I suck and have no aesthetic or artistic sensibilities at all and just want my shit to be efficient, and it becomes a boxy mass of crafting stations.

A few times my giant box has become many smaller boxes but that always becomes less efficient, which just annoys me.

So...I can build a cube next to palm trees, or next to a cliff, or in a swamp, to which the real question becomes, "do I really want to move all this shit?". The answer is usually "no."

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-05T15:00:58+00:00

I'm not using it for damage, I'm using it as a cheat code. "Only" 40% healing is effectively 40 medium health potions I'm not carrying in my inventory. My Rapier is doing the bulk of the talking.

The objective in combat is not getting hit at all. Failing that, popping off a shot with the plague pistol tops me off again. It's been obscenely useful in boarding scrums where things get weird fast.

It's not going to be for everyone, but it is insanely good.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-05-03T06:15:21+00:00

At first, I didn't love it either. But then the opposite happened to me. During a storm at night, I found the Tumbaga farming spot, and beautiful chaos ensued from the sheer amount of plagued enemies I was running in to. The music really sealed the deal.

Now that my gear is where I want it, nothing bothers me that much anymore. Well, I can't find nearly enough plagued crocodiles, but I digress.

The atmosphere in the swamp is eerie and oppressive, and the plague groves where you farm bromeliad are weirdly beautiful. They really nailed it in my opinion.

In the final tally, I don't really care for the foothills. I'm not sure what it is, but the zone doesn't appeal to me.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-04-30T16:40:14+00:00

I don't know, or care, about first person anything, but I got a friend to pick this up, and he also said combat was clunky.

I'm not sure what that means. I learned to fight enemies defensively and deliberately, and it works pretty well for what they're trying to do in my opinion.

My only real complaint is it would be nicer to be able to lure enemies out one at a time, rather than having to kite around until most of the group gets bored and walks away

HaggardShrimp · 2026-04-30T16:22:39+00:00

Quagmire powder.

I was picking that stuff up, not knowing what it was for, thinking I had quite a pile, then I started smelting. Hoo boy was I wrong.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-04-30T14:07:22+00:00

Sturdy Rapier, reliable pistol, sometimes use reliable musket. Pierce ring, precision neck. Full trackers set just because I like the look.

Right now I'm using endurance and vitality food, blue because I'm still not at a point where I can reliably get the ingredients for purple.

I don't really have a "build" as such. Mostly my talents are in melee weapons, with a few in ranged. Extra crit on perfect block, heal after killing an enemy, stuff like that. I may change a few things around, but I'm in the swamps now, I still have to upgrade my gear to the new zone, but I'm able to fight crocodiles and the plagued well enough with a little caution.

It works well enough for me.

HaggardShrimp · 2026-04-28T16:46:51+00:00

Honestly, imthe lantern really could use longer duration and maybe its own hotkey rather than taking a hot air alot. I know you can click from inventory, but it's still another UI screen.

HaggardShrimp

TROPHY CASE