The Man Known as Dan

On the "what's next for them" front, Ali to AEW is such a big no brainer that I'd be stunned if it doesn't happen. They already run Chicago tons, and I'll die on the hill his upside is still a guy who could main event pay per views. He can talk, he can work. Easy pick. Dolph probably does get the AEW call, as his brother already works there and he has a natural fit. I do question the upside of his role at this point though. Benjamin probably gets the call as well, and I always feel like I'm weirdly low on Shelton compared to others while still liking him. He's a good tag wrestler who I can't remember much in the way of a great singles match in well over a decade. I'd love to see him try running as a more traditional technical wrestler, but he had the opportunity the last time he was cut (which everyone seems to forget), when he had chances to be a top indy guy and simply didn't. With Benjamin and Ali both getting their papers I'm legit surprised Cedric Alexander is still around. He's also in the "If he gets let go, AEW should be calling him within 10 minutes" club. Give me the the best days of 205 Live again on Collision please.

I have been going through my “Activity” tab to try to do some fresh stuff and happened upon a mission I don’t want to spoil too much. Let’s just say it’s high level area, it’s one hell of an interesting mission, and I have an absolutely fascinating new co-pilot.

Just hit level 35 tonight. Still no combat perks taken, have only done stealth to level 2 on physical. Starting to work more in Social but honestly the only things in that tree that interest me are level 1 perks until we get deep in 3 and 4. Everything else still remains in Science and Tech. My Frontier is the terror in the skies. Over 2,000 Shields, a massive Hull, while still keeping full Mobility and a Top Speed around 150 before boosts. I’ve had 4 Bounty Hunter ships all level 30 or higher try to take me down at once and I wiped all of them out before they took away half my shields. I also figured my answer out for the weapon question, and think I can give recommendations: You want Particle Beams and EM Weapons. Particle Beams are about 80% as effective as Laser Weapons on Shields and 80% as effective as Ballistic Weapons on Hulls. No need to switch out the allocation system when you have 1 weapon that is damn good at both jobs. The EM Weapons are there if you wanna board, as a strong system can wipeout your targets engines in no time flat.

This game and Baldur’s Gate 3 both made me institute a “only play this game when you are willing to put your day into” rule. It has served me well.

I ended up playing till 7 in the morning yesterday. I was completing a personal quest for a companion who might not be revealed yet, as well as continuing the Vanguard story, and I literally voiced to myself "Man, this game is really fucking good" like 5 times because it just needed to be said, even it was me to the void. So I'll post it here too: This game is real fucking good. Joined Craig on the "having done the Mantis mission" train. Loved it loved it loved it. Enjoy the Razorleaf, but I've invested so so much into the Frontier I just can't change it out as my regular ship. I'll eventually upgrade it to the way I want, but well, I've turned Frontier into such a beastly machine I can't change now. On other ship news, I got into a fight with a Va'ruun Eulogy with my Frontier, and managed not only to defeat it, but capture it. That thing was a behemoth and had a crew of at least 25, and I barely got out with my life.... but I did. And that ship is a machine, can't believe I took it down with so little ship weaponry investment.

Oh yeah, my entire build is focused on only 2 things: Making my ship as good as possible while keeping my speed fast, and making scanning and resource gathering as easy as possible. Geology, Zoology, and Botany are fun skills for that sort of build. As is surveying really, which was weirdly the first thing I maxed. Now most of my skills for gathering info are going into Astrophysics and Scanning. Of course, that is being delayed. Now that I can access level 4 science perks, Aneutronic Fusion is the truth. I got to Piloting 4 today and bought a 50,000 credit rank C reactor. My reactor power is now high enough I can keep 12 in engines and shields and still move around 6 points into my weaponry or Grav. The science tree is incredible for my character, and I haven’t done nearly enough doing research stuff. Or even made an outpost yet. Need to look into the proper means to do that stuff now. And also make up my mind on my ship weaponry direction. EM seems obvious, but need to look at other plays.

Also, anyone you hire permanently works for you can just go to unassigned and return to their place you recruited them or to new homes. The game also tells you their location in the crew menu. Recruiting people isn’t a problem.

Captain Nova’s journeys have gone well, though she’s mainly focused on two things now: Research (cause duh, that’s the shit she was born for) and turning the Frontier into the finest ship in space. She’s became an incredibly talented pilot, and is oh so close to getting her ability to pilot C class ships. She also completely finished her scan of the Sol system, and is selling the data to cover more ship upgrades She will pay back her mortgage…. At some point. Really the 500 dollar payments aren’t bad. And sending back money to her parents has been more then worth it, mom and pop are sweet and keep doing tons of things to support me…. Including givingn me some absurd stuff. Thanks dad on your ability to play cards. God bless a Straight Flush. On a more meta sense, I’m level 23, have taken no Combat perks, only invested in Stealth and Persuasion in the Physical/Social circle. I’m almost up to tier 4 perks in Science, and oh boy that Reactor boost perk thing is calling for me. I’m already boosted my Engines, Shields, Targeting, and general Piloting. The Space Combat is so my jam in this game.

Welp. The Vanguard questline is the most fun I've had playing a Bethesda game in..... Ever, I think? I haven't felt the way this quest has made me feel about a game in, lets say, 11 years. You can do the math.

Haven’t had much time to play these last few days, but my Professor (Who in my head is a former accomplished member of society who purchased a fancy dream home and was sending money back to her parents before a school project went wrong, leading to 3 kids being eaten by wildlife. She was cleared of wrong doing, officially, but lost her job, has no aspirations of replacing it, and also the parents of those involved maaaaay have put a large bounty on her head. Basically, fun color for my Kid Stuff, Dream House, Wanted playthrough). Having a blast. Finished the first big mission for the Vanguard and oh boy is it a doozie. Highly recommend.

Was already 95% sure I was gonna love this game. And I do. Biggest problem I’ve got with it is I can’t play it a little at a time. I’ve have prep to play it, because I know I’ll be in for hours. Feels more like planning around a DND campaign then a video game. Thought I’d share the characters I’ve been using. I was 20 hours into play though 1 when I decided I had made some decisions assuming things were going one direction but realized they were not going the way I hoped. Yes, that’s a romance thing. So some pictures of the characters I’ve been running. My first character: The Tiefling Bard known only as Nowhere And the character who basically took over for her: The Gnomish Bard Tessa The fact you can see we’re the two dyes meet to go into purple/pink is so amazing I had to keep it. Also, some tips: Speak with Animals is an amazing spell to learn: You can cast it as a ritual 1st thing after a long rest and it lasts till your next long rest. And as far as I can tell: every single animal in the game has dialogue, some even just taking you to loot. Similarly, Disguise Self got a buff: there are no saves to recognize you. This is huge for a lot of reasons. Last night, if you kill someone they will not be willing to give you information if you use the Speak with Dead spell…. But if you cast Disguise Self BEFORE casting Speak with Dead? They are none the wiser.

Assuming you aren't joking, the AEW title that got vacated.

Punk is very clearly being positioned as a tweener, and that promo made it obvious. He's a babyface in Chicago because of course he's a babyface in Chicago. Crowds are going to react to him however they want and he will wrestle in response to that reaction.

You are taking seriously a promo designed specifically to piss off people that are big Elite heads. Take a deep breath and re-evaluate.

That update was my final stray to fully uninstall GTAV. I'd still jump in occasionally, but that was my full on "I'm done" update. Over Rockstars bullshit.