phil bottle

Yep, it's really telling that we miss the centre partnership in particular. Although Bissouma seems out of sorts lately and not playing to previous standards, he was poor today.

I had issues yesterday after another update started making the game freeze at start up when compiling shaders which was, to be fair, doing my nut, but that seems to have sorted itself. First time I've had any issues funnily enough.

When Spurs go 3 up versus Utd, I get the cold sweats...I have a memory from a certain game. So, I'm glad we fixed that little issue tonight. Hard work though as usual 🙈🤣

Basque country, don't dare call it Spain, they'll kill you 🤪 but love that place, great food, culture and people.

I've 70+ hours into this now. I've done about 8 or 9 of the main missions (there's 35 in total). So much to explore and find 🥰 Big patch out today which apparently improves the AI etc. I'll post a bit below but there's a lot more : ) A-Life fixes Fixed the issue with spawning NPCs behind the player's back. Players can now encounter roaming NPCs across the Zone more often. Greatly extended the distance at which A-Life NPCs are visible to the player. Fixed the aggressive optimization issue that prevented A-Life NPCs to exist in Offline (out of player's visualization range). In Offline mode, A-Life will continue to advance towards their goals over time. Players may now have opportunities to encounter A-Life NPCs they've previously met by following in the same direction as the NPCs. Improved A-Life NPCs navigation in Offline using GameGraph (global AI navigation map): Fixed multiple issues where NPCs would fail to follow or find a path to their designated goals. Fixed several issues with NPC being stuck in Online-Offline transition state, Enhanced A-Life NPCs' motivation to expand territory and actively attack enemies and mutants. Fixed issues that could result in fewer A-life NPCs encountered than intended. Further contextual actions improvement to ensure seamless transitions between Offline and Online states for NPCs engaged in these actions. The groups exploring the Zone are now more diverse regarding possible factions and group sizes. Fixed issue that while roaming over the Zone, Human NPCs didn't satisfy their communication needs and talks. And some other development related improvements. AI improvements Reduced the number of summons and increased time between spawns of Pseudodog phantoms. Fixed an issue when zombies would have their arms and legs twisted while knocked down. Fixed an issue when large mutants would hide behind small cover, such as trees. Fixed an issue when mutant limbs stretch sometimes when firing automatic weapons. Fixed an issue when bloody visual effects played a few times after Rat's death from grenade. Fixed an issue where NPCs quickly detected the player when he was crouching. Fixed an issue where NPCs would enter doors without opening them. Fixed the issue when the controller could take the main story NPCs under control. Fixed an issue when Chimera would try to enter a narrow passage that it couldn't enter instead of hiding in ambush. Fixed an issue when NPC was teleporting to the restricted areas such as safe zones and hubs. Fixed an issue where mutants that were in cover did not change their cover when receiving damage. Fixed visual effects of Burer's telepathic ability. Minor combat behavior fixes for NPCs shooting from covers. Fixed Burer’s throwing objects animation. Fixed some issues with NPC staying idle and refusing to start mission-related dialogs. Fixed an issue when mutants kept attacking zombies in knockdown. Fixed an issue when NPCs are stuck in aiming animation. Fixed an issue when death animation was replayed for an NPC who was resurrected as a zombie. Fixed an issue when a neutral NPC stays neutral after a player hits them by melee attack. Fixed an issue with some NPCs' broken arms while shooting. Generic improvement of combat experience and NPC pathfinding in big fights with lots of corpses. Fixed an issue when Player was able to kill the chimera with the help of carousel anomaly. Fixed an issue where NPCs would clip through objects and walls when shooting from covers. Minor improvements for peaceful behavior of NPCs. Fixed issue where NPCs wouldn't stop combat on emission start. Fixed an issue when some mutants couldn't jump off an obstacle. Fixed issue when NPCs were stuck after the end of emission. Fixed bandits' behaviour after emission ends during the mission Bullseye. Fixed an issue where NPCs could teleport if the NPC couldn't build a route. Fixed an issue where NPCs could stop talking to each other after loading a save. Fixed an issue when mutant dead bodies fly to a long distance from the places where they were killed by the shotgun. And over 50 more minor “anomalies” were fixed. Balance adjustments Increasing rewards for several missions. Fixed issue when artifacts with Physical Protection effect give maximum possible effect. Changed "Goldfish" artifact value to 14000 coupons. Fixed issue when player is able to have infinite coupons via selling and returning back any stackable consumable. Fixed infinite money exploit with splitting a stack of weapons from selling windows. Fixed issue when A-Life NPC's can be spawned dead with full clips of ammo. Increased Snork's abilities cooldown time by 30%. Gauss rifle damage was increased. Increased difficulty for the fight with . Recalculated rewards for the Harpy's missions. Fixed instant player death after getting almost full radiation bar. Fixed that Poltergeist and Burer do not deal damage with thrown objects in some cases. Removed the POS 8x scope from the assortment of several merchants. Tweaked damage from PSY fields. With over 10 more minor fixes delivered.

A series around Drenai could definitely work for sure. As for Eddings, if you have the Belgariad series, Pawn of Prophesy etc go for it, it's an easy read and excellent story arc.

I'm going to spin off this topic slightly. As a teenager I also grew up reading Eddings, Gemmel and Jordan, I'd also add Raymond E. Feist to that list. Do you think any of these author's books are ripe for television? Those not already televised that is...

I'm off work now until January and finally picked this up. Anyone played much, still playing?

Yep, hypocritical nonsense. Although I have banned myself from picking up this game 🤣

I'm not a Situationist myself but I do like their proverb from back in the day: Be realistic, demand the impossible! 🤣

It's such a weird season but so massively entertaining so far. I almost think Pep has been paid off to let another team win the league this year 🤣 Who will win? Impossible to know at this stage. There was a possibility for Liverpool to forge ahead but they didn't take advantage and now Chelscum have spent their way into being a challenger again. Its looking though like a top 3 of LFC, CFC and AFC with half a dozen teams fighting for 4th. But everyone is beating everyone so can all change still. I wonder how the Liverpool v Spurs game will go...anything is possible 🤪

I tried the UFL demo, it wouldn't ever connect to servers. So I think EA are doomed to reign supreme a little while longer 🤣

Yeah it's pretty boring at this stage, and online it's mostly used by some of the biggest dildos on the planet and I assume by some who like to disguise their prejudices 🫠

Game awards last night and lots of announcements of new games, of which this was not expected at all...