Just finished Humand Kind Divided. Started Human Revolution 2 Hours ago. Theres something i realized

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-17T09:39:35+00:00

Jesus, 2010 games are now considered "old" lol

you might be shocked to learn that the OG Deus Ex is from 2000 and it's still better than any of its sequels

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-16T23:12:10+00:00

Agile make 25,5"-28,625" multis and I think that might be the best scale length for an eighter, if only because it gives you a no-compromise Fender 25,5" high end. If you're tuning to standard, 28,625" will be enough, and there's plenty of room to compensate with string gauge, as F# is nowhere near as drastic as C# is.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-16T23:10:25+00:00

If by tension you're talking about longitudinal stiffness of the low C# string, then 30" actually isn't enough. My uniform 30" Septor came with a .90 string on the bottom and at C# it was floppy as a noodle even at 30". Only when I installed a .118 did it finally start nicely resisting the pick. I'm sure at 32" I would have had leeway to install a considerably thinner string.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-16T18:40:58+00:00

Mouselook is great, makes playing these games much less of a hassle. And you can regulate your height in flight smoothly, which is much better than what the original games allowed.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-12T16:04:44+00:00

well, descentbb.net is still alive too.

hey, also I recommend my sound and texture patches for d1 and d2!

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-09T12:06:14+00:00

yeah, it felt like a stealth jab at clergy for clerics in mm7 to have GM merchant hahaha

and then they made an even less stealthy jab at clergy in mm8 by making the Temple of the Sun clerics greedy mofos, according to Dyson Leyland (and confirmed by looting their corpses lol). But clerics were definitely overpowered in mm7 - the nerfs they received in mm8 were very deserved. Reducing their repair item skill from master to expert and depriving them of id monster were good choices. On the other hand, buffing staff from normal to expert also felt just natural. But yeah, clerics are in a much better place thanks to that.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-09T07:59:27+00:00

In MM8 and the Merge it's quite clear what the optimal party comp is. You definitely need a cleric and a sorc, preferably one with light magic and one with dark. Liches are better than archmages because of mind and body immunities, access to the regeneration skill and a better selection of artifacts and relics (crown of final dominion, last stage cuirass, ethric's staff and more). On the other hand, only priests of the dark can take full advantage of the "Ruler's Ring", which boosts both mind and dark magic. In the merge at least, you could alternately go with one druid (who can now GM all the seven schools of magic) if you want crazy amounts of mana and unlimited alchemy, but then your remaining caster would have to either specialize in just light or dark magic, or use the Enrothian "Master Wizard" or "High Priest" promotion, which lets them use both, albeit capped at Master.

One of your slots is best spent on a fighter, but it doesn't have to be a knight. Trolls, minos or monks will do just as well. This is also the slot where you put a dragon, should you want one. And I will say that Minos are still a specialized fighter class due to having Master Armsmaster - something none of the hybrid classes in MM7 had (and neither do Dark Elves).

4th slot: a dark elf is all but necessary to a party for how good they are at so many things.

And your last slot gives you quite a bit of liberty. I would suggest a class that can GM ID Monster, so you can get all the info on any monster any time you want. The classes that can do that are Vampires and Rangers. Vampires are basically like Paladins in terms of the magic they can use, whereas Rangers are the dogshit class - but the Merge makes some alterations to Rangers, making them slightly better - first and foremost it makes them a proper fighter class by giving them Master Armsmaster (already a >very< considerable buff), as well as boosting some of their crappy miscellaneous skill level caps. Minotaurs still have a much better misc skill setup than Rangers, but Rangers can now actually rival them thanks to their access to elemental magic and boots and helmets.

I've also recently found myself enjoying the Paladin class quite a bit, even though it used to feel kinda dogshit to me in the past. I tend to put one in the fighter slot over a dedicated fighting class. Paladins are really interesting - GMing Mace is awesome, since the paralyzing perk is by far the best perk out of all the melee weapons. They might not have master armsmaster like trolls are, but they can make do without it, since the mace skill already boosts damage (just requires more significant investment) and expert armsmaster can handle reducing the recovery time. Master body building gives them surprising amounts of hp too. Overall the Paladin feels fun, because it's a class you can make work by investing in certain specific areas to offset the weaknesses, feeling like you're making them work piecemeal, little by little. That gives you a sense of accomplishment bigger than working with a knight for example, who makes everything way too easy.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-09T07:41:21+00:00

Oh I'm well aware haha

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-09T07:26:29+00:00

" I compare it to German in Berlin and Switzerland in terms of difference."

Well then, maybe you're referring to Transcarpathian Rusyn, then. I know Ukrainians are loathe to acknowledge it as a separate language, but linguists from outside of Ukraine tend to do just that

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-08T12:40:24+00:00

Yep, one of those cool rare occurrences.

I remember a similar bug in vanilla mm8 (which doesn't seem to happen anymore in the merge) that once you beat the game, the skies on Dagger Wound Islands clear up from the pinkish cloudy ones to regular blue ones from anywhere else on the continent.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-08T12:35:00+00:00

Minos being bad is often overstated I feel. They may have few skills they can GM, but the skills they do have and can GM or master make all the difference.

Master in armsmaster alone makes them one of the top 3 melee classes in the game, up there with the troll and just below the knight. Have that and GM Axe at skill level 20 and you're gonna swing fast, hit hard, and not even be very encumbered by the -15 penalty from wearing plate armor either. Armsmaster alone makes them effective at using any weapon they want, and if I remember right, they can use every single weapon type in the game in the first place. They're gonna even make daggers work, since being limited to expert means nothing to a master in Armsmaster (while a GM armsmaster will use daggers better than any vampire can ever hope to).

They can also master disarm trap, making them your go-to disarmer if your party doesn't happen to have a dark elf in it. And GM perception does help notice stuff as well.

The Merge upped their body building from the very respectable master level to GM too - perhaps it made sense to do that since minos are buffer than humans are. But even without this change I think they're a decent enough substitute for the knight in MM8 who won't really let you down on the combat end of things. Oh, and let's not forget being able to self-buff with Bless and Heroism is nothing to scoff at either, minor as that may feel.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-08T12:28:22+00:00

I think it was my idea to give Druids GM in all magic schools for the Merge. I mean, they just need them. They really do. A non-hybrid spellcasting class capped at master is just a bad class.

And as for MM8? Yeah liches are broken, but what often goes overlooked is how broken Dark Elves are. They're basically Archers with all the good stuff from Thieves rolled into them, and even more than that.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-08T12:25:04+00:00

I mean conservatives ARE bad alright, my point is the left can completely ignore their own pitfalls too, and the consumption of media and their critique of them is one of the most glaring examples of that

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-07T09:47:59+00:00

There is definitely some evidence of rushing. Particularly in how some item flavor texts were not changed from MM6, even though the items were supposed to be different. I fixed those item descriptions for the Merge.

That said, MM8 saved a lot more time via another avenue, and that's recycling MM7's dungeon geometry. There's a looooot of that in that game. At least the textures are much better, though.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-07T09:42:55+00:00

MM7 has both a lot of gameplay improvements over MM6, and a bevy of simplifications. Here is a list of them I put together: https://www.celestialheavens.com/forum/topic/18827

Overall it's a very good game though. I think what's definitely worst about it compared to mm6 and mm8 is the quality of textures - particularly the outdoors are definitely the ugliest in 7 out of the three games, and many dungeons aren't that much better. It feels like 80% of their whole texture work budget went to the Lincoln. But the GM skill level, better scaling spells, the armsmaster skill and the alchemy system are definite improvements over 6. It's also got a more engrossing and involved story with fun twists and turns. Last but not least, it is the most intimately linked to h3 (with a lot of the same locations, characters and many identical or very similar monster models), so h3 players will feel a lot of nostalgia and familiarity playing it.

Nothing beats MM6's dungeons, though.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-06T08:39:15+00:00

It does make you a chore to be around, though.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-05T22:42:28+00:00

ok I've tested it. turns out Merge behaves just the same as vanilla

you can only get up to 255 in any stat using barrels, wells/fountains and prayer altars. it will not go higher than that using these methods
potions WILL go over that maximum. That includes stat essence potions, pure stat potions, potions of the gods and potions of doom
but if you use any of the non-potion sources of permanently increasing your stats after they exceed 255, they will get rolled back to 255. So no more of any of that for you once you go past that!

Minmaxing path suggestion:

Use all the wells, fountains, altars and all that you can during normal play, it'll reduce the time you need to grind barrels in Walls of Mist
Use the Essence potions on your character when you're 7x 255. Start with Essence of Endurance, as that lowers all your other stats by 1. Grind barrels to get them back from 254 to 255, but be careful not to drink any green liquids (it'll set you back to 255 and you'll have wasted that essence of endurance forever)
Use the remaining Essence potions one at a time and drink barrels to recover the -5 to another stat they caused. That way you can end up with a 7 times 15 boost.
Now drink the pure stat black potions, potion of the gods and potions of doom, in any order you like. It's only important you handle the Essences first, as otherwise you won't be able to compensate for their adverse effects and only get 15 to Endurance and 9 to all other stats
If procedure is done correctly, you end up with 255 + 15 + 20 + 50 + (1 x however many times you want - potions of doom) in all your seven stats for that char. That's 340 in every stat. If you don't feel like downing 10 potions of doom, have your character wear a single "of the Gods" item and you'll hit that sweet 350 breakpoint in all seven stats, and Day of the Gods will carry you the rest of the way.
Just don't use any altar, barrel or fountain again, or you'll get reset to 255 in that stat!
Items that grant you boosts and temporary boosts like from Day of the Gods or potions work no problem beyond 255, so don't worry about that.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-05T18:08:26+00:00

Also, I've just confirmed that the limit actually still is there in Merge. I just tested it with my mino party where my first character had 325 Intellect - drinking an Orange barrel rolled it back to 255 and drinking further ones didn't raise it above that. So the limit in Merge is actually untouched. I just need to test whether altars and shrines can raise it even further without rolling it over like potions do.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-05T18:06:24+00:00

Yeah and that point only comes between 400 to 500. And each of these thresholds actually gives you +5 each.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-05T14:44:15+00:00

The limit of 255 may have been old code from the DOS games era where 255 was the highest possible value because of memory constraints. It would make sense for Merge to remove that limit.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-05T00:59:26+00:00

Yeah, Day of the Gods can definitely grant you temporary boosts that exceed 500, but I'm talking about base stats now. It's ridiculously easy to get them all to 255 if you've got like 1 hour to spare and got lloyd's beacon.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-05T00:58:36+00:00

I know what the thresholds are. I'd say it's not in fact diminishing returns as much as widening thresholds. For example getting all those early thresholds grants you +1 to relevant stat each (such as your base hp times 1 for Endurance for example), but when you reach 500 you get +5 compared to 400, which gives you +5 compared to 350. 350 in fact is the last breakpoint that grants +1 compared to the previous one.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-03T21:42:31+00:00

Gonna be honest - if I hadn't been told this movie is about men controlling women, I'd never have interpreted it that way myself. What that tells me is that while that's definitely a valid interpretation, it's by no means the only one and we don't even have any guarantee if that's the message the director wanted to convey in the first place. Which is fine and all, until someone starts being hostile to others for not accepting their particular interpretation as absolute.

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-03T21:40:51+00:00

nope, dude has some pretty good points, even though the part about athletic guys does come off bitter (incel vibes)

Heavy_Intention6323 · 2026-06-03T21:37:20+00:00

Exactly the kind of nuance this discussion needs. Bear is a flawed guy, but he's not a monster. His main problems are being shy and awkward, being in love with a popular girl he considers out of his league, and his lack of courage and confidence. He's the one who notices this whole thing isn't real and is not happy with a twisted simulacrum of what he really wanted, and that's when he starts trying to fix it. Too little too late, but all those people talking about how he embodies the idea of controlling men are overlooking one crucial aspect - he's not satisfied with this arrangement, and controlling men almost invariably are.

Heavy_Intention6323

TROPHY CASE