u/Brilliant_Shoe_2635

Maybe I missed it, but did they show the frogs in trailers?

In the book, when Harry first buys a Chocolate Frog, he literally asks Ron if they are real frogs. Ron just casually says, "No, but see what the card is."

The whole brilliant subversion of that scene is that Harry (and the reader) expects some crazy magical creature, but it turns out to be just a regular piece of chocolate. The actual magic was inside the packaging - the moving portrait of Dumbledore on the trading card, which blows Harry's mind because Muggles only have static photos.

But the movies changed it for pure "Hollywood spectacle." They made the frog actually jump and fly out the window just to look cool on screen, but ruining that funny moment.

With the upcoming HBO series, I really hope they avoid this kind of unnecessary "movie logic" or at least keep it to an absolute minimum. I want the show to capture those small, clever subversions from the books rather than just throwing CGI magic at everything for cheap thrills.

What do you guys think? Are there any other minor movie changes you hope the show completely reverses?

Is vanilla difficulty feeling like a walk in the park? Tired of the unbearable lightness of being? Is your medieval town thriving, your graveyards completely empty, and the local rats and raiders don't stand a single chance against your impenetrable walls? Are you desperately searching for actual hardship to overcome? Look no further! Now you can enjoy item shortages, severe food deficits, and incoming immigrants who are no longer a fully equipped crew of highly skilled master craftsfolk. Introducing the ultimate survival experience: Losing Is Fun.

Losing Is Fun is a global hardcore overhaul mod for Farthest Frontier designed for players who want a true survival test. It completely rebalances core mechanics—from wildlife behavior and raider threats to diseases, economy, and the tech tree.

Btw this is also the best anti-lag mod. No villagers = no lags.

All features are fully customizable and can be toggled or adjusted in the configuration file.

Wildlife & Pest Rebalance

• Wary Deer: Deer herds are scared off by buildings at greater distances and migrate further. No more free meat/hides/tallow on your backyard. Now hunters must travel farther to hunt. Herd replenishment is significantly slowed down and can actually be hunted out by hunters.
• Includes an option to hide deer icons on the map(off by default).
• Aggressive Boars: Aggro radius expanded. Boars have a counter-attack chance increased when hit and a 50% chance to attack villagers who get too close instead of running away most of times. Vanilla scare range was greater than TooClose range so in vanilla its almost never worked as intended.
• Fast Spreading Pests: Rats spread more frequently. Groundhogs start raiding crop fields after 1 year (instead of 4+ years).

Raider Difficulty Patch

• Deadlier Incursions: Raiders move faster, run sooner, and engage from further distances. You are not able to kite them with 5 archers through the whole town, now have to fight them fairly.
• Camp Reinforcements: Raids summon additional reinforcements directly from up to 5 nearby raider camps.
• Adjustible ask for payment chance/amount: raiders will ask for gold more often.

Equipment & Item Wear

• Clothing & Footwear: Leather and wooden items (shoes, clothes, coats, baskets) wear out significantly faster to balance vanilla's extremely long lifespan.

I recommend to install my other mod "Nikuksis's Misc Fixes & QoL Tweaks" to see the lifespan of items in villager UI.

• Weapons & Armor: Heavy weapons, steel gear, shields, armor, and crossbows degrade faster.
• Tools: Basic and heavy tools wear out faster.

Disease & Healthcare Overhaul

• Deadly Epidemics: Disease incidence rate and overall lethality is increased.
• Severe Crop Blight: Increased crop disease loss severity.
• Shelter Rescue: Downed, wounded villagers can be carried to the nearest shelter with a 30% base chance to survive even without a healer present. Used in early game so villagers can try rescue others instead just leaving them in fields.

Hardcore Immigrants

• Diverse Age Groups: Incoming immigrant groups can now contain villagers of any age (from children to the elderly) One adult villager is guaranteed.
• Unprepared Arrivals: Most immigrants arrive without tools, food, and wearing damaged clothes.
• Infected Settlers: New arrivals have a chance to arrive infected with diseases (separate option).

Economy, Weather & Global Modifiers

• Depletable Fishing: Base fish replenishment rate reduced by 80%. Fishing spots can now actually run out of fish. You probably didn't even know it could happen, since vanilla replenish rate is way too high. Check out my other mod "Nikuksis's Misc Fixes & QoL Tweaks" to see how much fish is available at a pond in fishing hut UI.
• Hardcore Economy: Trading post prices are higher, and market tax rates can be tweaked.
• Severe Weather: Extreme weather chance increased, with heightened penalties for cold exposure.

Expanded Tech Tree

• Multi-Rank Research: Added new ranks for most technology nodes. Each rank gives slightly smaller bonuses, but can be researched multiple times.
• Flexible Progression: Since there are much more points to spend removes the strict point-spent requirement to unlock higher tech tiers. Overall research speed is increased to compensate lower impact from each. Higher research tiers are now only available when TC is upgraded.
• Single-Point Unlocks: Option to unlock access to adjacent technologies by allocating just a single point into a prerequisite node.

Configuration The config file is automatically generated upon the first launch with the mod installed at:

Farthest Frontier/UserData/LosingIsFun.cfg

Available at steam workshop and nexusmods now!

With all the meta-gaming, economy discussions, and divine-per-hour tracking going on, I wanted to share a completely different perspective on how to enjoy Path of Exile 2.

The video is just 1 minute of my current gameplay. As you can see, it’s the absolute opposite of the modern "zoom-zoom" meta. I’m playing a janky, self-made physical melee Blood Mage in Bear form. I don't even have movement speed on my boots. I attack slowly, I move slowly, and by community standards, this build is probably considered "terrible."

But here’s the catch: I’m playing on SSF HC, and I am having the absolute time of my life.

I created this post especially for newcomers or burned-out veterans who feel overwhelmed by the competitive nature of poe. I want to remind you that poe2 doesn’t have to be a race. It’s not a competitive PvP game. You don't need screen-wide explosions or a billion movement speed to have fun.

By slowing down, ignoring the trade market, and earning every single piece of gear myself, the game completely transformed for me. I’m actually looking at the stunning ground textures, listening to the incredible NPC dialogue, and treating every pack of monsters as a tactical encounter rather than a speedbump.

I do not insist that this is a better way to play, or that everyone should do this. But I guess many new players don't even know that the game can offer something other than just PoB-optimal builds, farming strategies, and erasing bosses in 2 seconds.

To be honest, I play completely blind. I don't use PoB, I don't look at build guides, and I don't use any third-party overlays or apps. My checklist for playing PoE2 is very short:

1. Launch the game.
2. ...There is no step two. You just play.