First of all, don't get me wrong guys, Mbappe is a generational talent no doubt (also 5-6 years younger than Kane), but let's look at the facts here.
We need a striker. Kane is one and Mbappé prefers the left flank. Now, i know he can adapt his game like Cristiano did and he can also rotate during the game like Benzi, but why should we inconvenience Vini when he is the face of the club as of now and as talented as Mbappé. Plus i find Kane a much better finisher with greater playmaking abilities which would possibly elevate Vini even further.
Also, what Kane has done in that Spurs team is unbelievable. I mean look at them, they are utter shit. He gets no service, he creates for others but they don't finish... Everybody talks about Haaland breaking the record, but that is not even close to Kane's achievement in my opinion. Put Kane in City's team and he will bag 40 no problems.
Another problem would be salary and availability. Mbappé would require a much higher salary than Kane and PSG would never sell him this summer. They would much rather keep him for another year then lose him for free.
So now i ask you guys, would you prefer a striker this year that would fit us as a glove or another left winger that would cost us lots more money and possibly a whole season of Joselu up front. (nothing wrong with Joselu, he is a great player, but old and unproven in european competitions).
Would love to hear your opinions.

Introduction: As technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, many institutions of higher learning are incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into their curricula and research. One such institution is the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) in Maharashtra, India. In this article, we will explore the ways in which COEP has integrated AI into its educational programs, research, and industry partnerships.
Presentation:

1. AI Education at COEP: COEP is committed to producing well-rounded engineers who are knowledgeable in cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence. The college offers courses in AI and machine learning at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The curriculum includes theoretical and practical components, providing students with a comprehensive understanding of AI algorithms, data structures, and programming languages. Additionally, COEP has established a dedicated AI laboratory equipped with the latest hardware and software to facilitate student learning and research.
   
2. AI Research at COEP: COEP's faculty members are actively engaged in AI research, with a focus on developing innovative solutions to real-world problems. The college has established research centers and labs that specialize in AI, including the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) and the Image Processing and Computer Vision Laboratory. Research projects undertaken by COEP faculty have ranged from developing algorithms to predict earthquakes to designing autonomous robots for agriculture. With a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, COEP is poised to make significant contributions to the field of AI research.
   
3. Industry Partnerships: COEP has established partnerships with leading industry players to provide students with exposure to AI applications in the real world. These partnerships give students access to internships, workshops, and hands-on training in AI technologies. COEP has also hosted international conferences on AI, bringing together experts from academia, industry, and government to discuss the latest developments and trends in the field. By forging strong industry partnerships, COEP is preparing its students to become competent AI professionals.
   

Conclusion: In conclusion, COEP has emerged as a leader in the integration of AI into engineering education and research. The college's commitment to providing its students with a well-rounded education in AI, conducting cutting-edge research, and forging strong industry partnerships is a testament to its forward-thinking approach and dedication to innovation. With AI expected to drive the next wave of technological progress, COEP is well-positioned to play a key role in shaping the future of this exciting field.

Police arrive to question a student Parents demand the school deal with bullies Wild food fight School councilor wants to talk to you Questioned by school authority after blames for problem you didn’t do Overhear a student singing, beautifully Janitor is hiding illegal contraband in the basement Bathroom gossip Student in adjacent stall is sobbing Bully is trying to swirly a kid Selling drugs in the bathroom You catch gays kissing Fire alarm triggers Snoring kid in class Kid has super freak out in class Note passing, maybe you get caught Accused of cheating on test Dodgeball, but with supers Coach pushes student to tears A “hidden spot” all the students of the class graffiti their names on to, as a rite of passage Infirmary is robbed Injured student refuses to see nurse Horny teen keeps faking injuries to be with the nurse Kids Frenching in the library Religious teen destroying “bad” books Students injures themselves while working in shop class Hot student on the field distracts everyone, causing accidents Overhear two teachers speaking in the lounge about classmates Two teachers get in a fight Honor society for the best graded / scored in school (maybe one of the teachers is trying to pull some heroes to a crime group or to the cult?) Student invites people to his big house party Players have to do a weird job for a wealthy patron, “fundraising” for school needs Community outreach event, NPC wants to go the mall and do a PSA on how the supers are good folks. Help a bunch of folk and get threatened by the holy crusade Awkward meet and greet scene in class, “introduce yourself to the class…” Naming ceremony after completing the first semeste graduating Help student get their driver’s license. While on it, see a crime being committed. The paparazzi. Make this a number of significant NPCs, one that is unbiased, one that loves them, and another that despises them. Regular interviews requested. Paparazzi, gets scandalous photo. Paparazzi stage a damsel in distress situation, just so the woman can come on to you and they can get a photo. They arrange a meeting between you and a villain to get a juicy fight aired, they provoke you into hitting them. Hang outs with friends and classmates as a means of reducing stress / sanity Villains who are opposite of some heroes latch on to PC or NPC, making their life mission to destroy them. One is kinda sweet and innocent about it, another not so much. NPC classmates that join villains PCs are tasked with recruiting / saving a super and bringing them to the academy Students dare others to sneak into teachers dorm, pot is up for 500 bucks. Each attempt costs 5 bucks. Must break in and get evidence to prove it.
Edit: oh god! Mobile formatting!!
I’ll edit this when I’m home. Sorry it’s hideous!

As usual, before a big final, I like to get a little behind the scenes insight. Last time, I got up close and personal with the players, but as a result, a restraining order was issued, so this time, I leveled up and installed some cameras in their hotel rooms. This will give us a first-hand look at their prep for the finals.

Casp-o-vision :

Sunday, June 11th. The clock strikes 6:00AM. Norwegian music begins playing. Casper’s eyes open. “Ahhh Kongesangan,” thinks Casper, “the only choice for brushing one’s teeth”. Casper begins brushing. He is already in the bathroom, where he sleeps standing up to maximize efficiency. He brushes the right side efficiently, and does the best he can on the other. Though these teeth are mainly defensive, they are constantly improving. Casper turns to his coaches, who are sitting in the tub watching him brush. They nod and make fists, the only coaching he has ever received from them. He nods and makes a fist as well. The main coach, whose name he has never learned, hands him a plate of Fårikål, and he begins eating. “Shouldn’t I have eaten this before I brushed my teeth?” he asks, but perhaps the storyteller, like Casper’s team, did not think this through. Still though, Google is very informative. “Boy, I sure do love Oslo,” muses Casper. “And fjords.” Wow, Casper is ready for Roland Garros.

Djokocam :

Sunday June 11th. The clock strikes 6:00AM. Norwegian music begins playing. “Perhaps we should not have been roommates” thinks Novak, as he looks across the room to Casper’s bed. But Casper is not there. Djokovic stretches his impervious to cramps body. He is not in a bed, but gently relaxing on a bed of moss, which grew when he summoned it with warrior one. He eases slowly into chair pose, and a chair appears. Goran quickly sits in it. “Look at my cool new shades!” says Goran. “Very nice, Goran,” says Novak, as he closes his eyes to begin meditating. “You think we can win, Novak?” asks Goran, while swinging his legs excitedly in the chair. “Yes, Goran,” answers Novak. “Can you believe they eat snails here?” asks Goran, while pretending his hand is an airplane. “Yes, Goran,” answers Novak. “Would you ever eat a snail?” asks Goran, while pretending he is an airplane. “Yes, Goran,” answers Novak. “Wow,” says Goran. His friend Novak is so cool.
Casper emerges from the bathroom, and Djokovic heads in. There are crumbs in the sink, and Ruud’s team shake their fists and nod at him as he begins combing his hair. Novak shakes his head. He is ready for Roland Garros.

Men’s Singles Final :

There is something about Casper Ruud’s game that makes it seem like he is not doing anything special. He is ultra-consistent, and he makes the right choices in almost every situation, but his disciplined approach can make a player like Zverev or Rublev seem like they are on another level. Ruud has made two Grand Slam finals already (both last season), but was summarily written off before they began, suffering defeat at the hands of Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open, and Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros. Here again, he is being given very slim chances by most people. When you do everything right (by the book), there is a sense that you become predictable, and the greats of the game have excellent situational awareness. If they can move early to your shots, you’re not going to get many errors from them. It makes this a very uphill battle for him, because Novak Djokovic is a player that is unlikely to be rattled by the classic patterns and approaches to the game, and is one of the most consistent players the tour has ever seen. Once he gets in a rhythm, you’re playing a tennis game set to expert, so Casper will need to elevate his aggression here.
Ruud will thankfully be fresh for the finals, but after watching the Alcaraz demise it’s hard to gauge how long that will last. Him being a bit older does give him a bit more stamina and experience, and he had a fairly quick match against Zverev. He’s also done this before, so I think physically he is ready to go 5 sets. Thinking, though, isn’t it always the cause of our blunders. Zverev looked competitive in parts of their match, but he is not at the top level of the game yet. His ceiling is, but where does his ceiling lurk? Ruud is nearly robotic out there. You know he is going to execute and move the ball well and his defensive skills are solid enough to make his opponent play several shots to win a point. It’s the discipline he has that allows him to do this regardless of the stage and the opponent. Zverev, on the other hand, is very much thinking out there. When he has a setup, it’s very up in the air what he should do. He’s often creating angles and situations that he is only going to play 1-2 of per match, and it leads to errors as he second-guesses and hesitates on shots (especially rough in choosing when and when not to come to net). In truth, he could have wound up deep in the match against Casper, but when Zverev had control or time, he made a lot of unforced errors trying to crack Ruud’s defenses. Despite having a ton of experience on tour, Zverev has not really ironed out his game and since returning from injury, he hasn’t really dealt with a match where he had to play hard every point in order to win. The ability is there, but the repetition of effort is not.
Speaking of repetition of effort, it should be noted what a great adjustment Djokovic made in his semifinal match. He is very frequently a slow starter on clay, but he came out and looked to match Alcaraz’s aggression from the start. It was a very “I’m not going to miss and I want you to know that” approach, and digging in in this manner started to forced Alcaraz to come up with more and more ambitious attempts. They both have a lot of heat on their shots, but Alcaraz is certainly the one swinging harder on the average ball. He started to make errors, but it looked to me like he would wear down Djokovic’s defenses with the onslaught. There have been a number of matches this tournament where the first couple games were furiously played, and eventually one player settled into their role as a defender, or folded up and forced offense until they lost. This didn’t feel like the case here, as both of these players can legitimately expect to hit a high percentage of their shots no matter what style they proceed with. A good example is how a post-cramp, immobile and defeated Alcaraz was able to guide winners off Djokovic’s serve. Not a strategy to win the match, but something that he rarely uses in match-play yet was instantly able to do.
After losing the first set, I still like Alcaraz’s chances. It had become the best type of ATP match, one where the player who is serving doesn’t just automatically win. The great big 3 matchups featured so many breaks and yet those breaks weren’t huge cracks or fails at all, it was just that at the highest level, players can play defense and offense from everywhere on the court. They exchanged breaks late in the 2nd set, and it seemed like Alcaraz’s aggression was finally mentally wearing Djokovic down. Early in the third though, disaster struck in the way that it always seems to when a phenom plays Djokovic at a major. Carlos Alcaraz cramped. Spectacularly. His hand cramped, his calf cramped, and he looked like Medusa slid in his DMs for a moment. Big credit to Djokovic for being bigger than the moment, and coming across the net to express concern and help Alcaraz to his chair. Cramping is something that affects a lot of players on tour, but it was pretty unexpected from Alcaraz. His physical strength is off the charts, and he trains extremely hard. If some combination of nerves and over-exertion really caused this, then it’s a by-product of Djokovic being willing to go toe-to-toe with him right from the start of the match.
There are great nutritionists working on the tour, but once you actually go full-cramp, it is nearly impossible to continue playing tennis. The muscle is in pain, and doesn’t want to fully flex even if you do. In short, you’re fatigued, in pain, and weak. Alcaraz forfeited the game so he could get treatment, but with 2 full sets left against the guy who is leading the GOAT debate currently (and competing against off-tour opponents), you’re pretty much finished. Brave of Alcaraz to finish out the match, and I had some hope that the kid would go full-tank and hydrate to recover for a 4th, but it appeared the damage was irreversible. He stood in on some returns, and while this means that any poor returns leave your court position too shallow to cover both wings of the court, he did show a pretty good ability to utilize this tactic. I’d love to see him do more of this in the future, as the best returners are pretty much hugging the baseline and you need this to win with minimized effort on hardcourt and grass. I’d also add, his deep return position was allowing Djokovic to serve and volley an awful lot, and Novak really was the one scoring off the dropshot in the non-cramp sets so Alcaraz will need to work on some other strategies. A good restful win for Djokovic, and a new wrinkle to the “how high will Alcaraz rise” debate. I don’t think too many people were really expecting cramps (to my knowledge it’s the first time he’s dealt with that on tour), and he had the momentum before they occurred.
One of the best things about majors is how long the players are out there. It allows for so many deviations in strategy and planning. Dumping sets to conserve energy, planning to sprint early then take a set off, and changes in strategy (holding back a bit of pace on serves early or playing frequent dropshots to take your opponents legs) can be really effective. Djokovic got the benefit of an interesting result here. It seemed like his defense was good enough to keep Alcaraz at bay but he wasn’t able to counter-punch. If this was by design, kudos to him and his team for allowing Alcaraz to punch himself out. If it wasn’t, it has at a minimum inspired other players to dig in on defense against Carlos now that they’ve seen the gas tank actually on E, which is tremendous for the tour since we’ve seen a few top guys fold against him already. The names on the trophies are less important than creating an environment where these guys can compete at their freest, because the sport won’t continue to grow unless the product is visibly enticing to the non-tennis public.
Djokovic Ruud should be a great match, the same way Swiatek Muchova was today. Ruud has yet to win a set against Djokovic in his career, but almost every single set has been confined to a single break of serve. That’s largely what I expect here. Ruud is good enough to compete with Djokovic for 75% of the match. Similar to the CA/ND situation that caused the cramps, Ruud is good enough to play Djokovic on even terms, but not really able to get out of trouble once he’s in it. Since Djokovic’s measured approach won’t wear himself out like Alcaraz’s did, this means a long match, with a vaguely assured result. This is good for Ruud for a few reasons. One, he won’t be distracted very often. When you’re going uphill but are a great competitor like Ruud, you don’t get caught up in the “what ifs” of an L or fret changes in the scoreline, you just keep an eye on how you’re doing out there. Trying different approaches, working on the spots you’re losing ground in, and communicating with your box constructively rather than complaining are useful, and keep you in the present moment. That’s a good place to stay for Casper here, because the crowd is very likely to get behind him. Djokovic is a beloved champion, but fans want to see a long match. If Ruud was considered an even contender here, he could almost enter villain territory, as fans would not want to see a great champion dethroned. Since he’s publicly regarded as a plucky underdog, he’ll have plenty of support.
Tennis-wise, the problem here is simple. Djokovic has the best backhand in tennis, and Ruud fights his off. He can create some great angles with it, and hits passes fairly well, but it’s a safe target for Djokovic which means the majority of shots are going to go there. We all saw how devastating a weapon the dropshot and forehand inside-in became for Alcaraz when Tsitsipas attempted to camp in his backhand corner, and I fear that Ruud will have similar issues in this match. This is doubly tricky because Djokovic’s backhand dropshots are much better and much more frequently attempted down the line. Ruud served well against Zverev, but he went out wide from the duece court a lot and Zverev never really punished him for it. Djokovic ropes these shots cross-court very well and he’s good at picking a few spots to up the aggression. If Casper is forced to abandon this serve, it’s a problem because it’s generally the best way to ensure that his second shot is a forehand. He plays well behind the pattern, but great returners (and great teams hello Goran) are likely to notice any significant lean on a particular serve. The odds at -450 indicate that Ruud will be competitive (because basically everyone watching is looking to bet on Djokovic at this point), but this would be the most surprising result that has occurred in tennis in a very long time. I think Ruud wins the same set via steady play and heavy hitting that Khachanov did, but it’s hard to see Djokovic struggling with patterns and opponents that he has already figured out. Djokovic in 4.

Not to many weeks ago my group and i started playing pathfinder, we went through the beginner box into Abomination Vault.
The problem became apparent at the kobold ghost hazard and further confirmed at the wisp.
My player hates the confused condition, to the point where they tried to use the shove action instead of strike and when i pointed that out he then pulled out his knife and went for the stab, despite him being an animal barb that has yet to ever actually use his weapon.
It went on to him using rage before any other action in case a fight would break out, like rage then open the door, rage then walk up stairs... He would then sit down and refuse to move until the minute for rage was up.
I had a talk with him after the session, and he stated that any effect that would remove his agency would make him act like this, cause this is not the reason he is playing role playing games, in fact it goes directly against role playing as your not your own character anymore.
I went through all the conditions with him, and he only had a problem with Confused and Controlled, and told me that he would act the same way should these conditions affect his character.
Im quite new to PF2E, so is there any homebrew or other thing i could do to solve this, and is there a lot of these conditions in Abomination Vault, on the lower levels?

Hey!
31 year old M from EU here. Mostly looking for friends for gaming, but why not outside gaming too. Sadly the last one from my old friend circle who is not into having kids, so I've had quite a lot of free time for communication with others lately :D
Generally open for any types of games. As long as you can play it with someone using voip, it's fun for me. Lately I've been playing Diablo 4, Beat Saber and Gran Turismo, but I'm really open for anything, for real. I don't have it, I'll buy it. Also played lots of Valorant and TFT in the past two years, but can't really remember "how" on either one anymore after months. MMORPGs or RPGs have historically been my favorites, but in contrast Risk of Rain 2 was the game last year for me. I've had some itch towards survival games too. Survival is kind of unknown to me as a genre as none of my friends got into them, ever. Oh, and the platforms I use are mostly PC or PS5, but I do have XSX and Switch too if needed.
Personality-wise I'm simultaneously incredibly competitive but calm as a player. I don't give up on any match until the game has ended, but I still don't care if we win or lose, as long as we have fun. More casual gamers may have trouble keeping up with me, but I don't mind playing it slow and easy too. Not really into raging or blaming random team members in chat, I'd rather just quit the party or whole game if that happens.
Outside work I spend maybe 98 % of my free time either playing games, running, cycling or being the worst taekwondo hobbyist ever. Going out is one really rare habit for me. While I often work more than the law allows, during evenings I'm always ready to drop it if there's gaming available. A message in Discord / Whatsapp and I'm already closing the laptop and running home.
It's usually okay to talk to me about any topic, I can defuse any person and problem quite easily and confidentially, but unless I spend time with someone in some activity for hours, it's really really difficult for me to keep any conversation going. My mind is usually either focused on some game or my work, even if that sounds a little bit sad. I only get out of that habit once I get to know the other person better, unless the other person is really good in keeping up conversations for hours by themselves.

For now, I have learnt to play aamon, saber, bene, harley and karina but I really need someone to guide me as mentor. I have noticed I often do these wrong-

• Natalia- I am not sure but my build doesn't do much damage and get bursted down before I kill enemy mm
• Fanny- Cable problem
• Lancelot - I can dash with him but when it come down to being immune to turrets like how the pro players play dashing using the minions- I just can't.
• Joy- I just have no idea, should I just run around?
• Helcurt- stacking his s1 is a problem
• Lesley- she is so weak smh.
• Ling- It's always hard to jump wall to wall and I often get cc'ed
• Gusion- Not fast hands (ugh.. skill issue)
• Hanzo- My body get bursted down when I ult and I die.
• Selena - aim problem ( welp, another skill issue)
• mathilda - how do I play her as assasin?
• Yss - No idea? should i use him as mm?

​
To all assassin mains out there, any help please regarding my mistakes? any tips and tricks on each hero are welcome too!

I have a problem with giving my players a path to follow.
For example I let them get on a boat to a city but then didn't give them a direction on what to do in the city and instead let them make it or I told them to find the myconid leader as they had been kidnapped. they fallowed the tracks to a city but they didn't know what to do after that.
How do I fix this?

1. When I kill an NPC, two ragdolls appear. Does anybody know what may cause this? I tried changing GMod versions, turning ragdolls on and off and deleting my most recently downloaded mods.
   
2. A mod that I think I never had appeared in my game. It's the gore mod used in old gmod videos. It makes NPC's and players lose limbs or explode, depending on the amount of damage dealt. I don't know the name of it, I never used it, downloaded it or nothing even similar to it. I deleted all my mods, and I still had it working. I launched a clear, vanilla game with no mods even installed and this mod still somehow worked. It doesn't appear in the mods folder, it looks like it's already in the vanilla game.
   

Can anybody help me with either of them? I really appreciate any kind of advice on how to deal with these problems.

So there is a lot I like about Street Fighter 6. From the story mode, to a control scheme that's from this decade, and to online that actually runs well.
However, something that Woolie has said a lot in the past is how going into the lab is so fun. One of the problems I have is that fighting a dummy or the computer is not the same as fighting a person that plays differently. I can beat up a dummy JP all day, but it's not gonna help me against JP players online. Another issue is I shouldn't have to fumble around in the dark to find how Jamie even takes a drink or to have a character taunt since it's not on the command list.
I still think it's a great game, but I just don't see how training is either fun or particularly useful.

So I've been in a DnD game for a couple months now. It's the most fun I've had as a player after having 2 years of negative experiences, and I very much enjoy the sessions. But for some reason, whenever it's Saturday (the DND day) I get a sinking feeling. It feels like as the time nears session time, I'm about to go into something boring and miserable. I dread Saturdays, I dread session time right up until the moment it starts. And when it starts, I sometimes zone out and miss what's happening but other than that, it's a great time.
I constantly wish sessions get canceled or I get an actually valid excuse not to show up. My mental state pre session is seriously concerning but I cannot take a mental health break from DND, it is not a valid excuse to miss sessions for me. Besides, this isn't a one time thing. I have dreaded literally every session except the first.
I never feel hyped, I never feel like showing up but when I do, I'm always glad I did. I enjoy the sessions, there isn't any problems with the group or the game, and I don't want to leave a game again.
But this has just been getting worse and worse. I feel serious anxiety and try to look for excuses to not show up. Even though said anxiety goes away an hour in.
I have been upfront with my group on this, and rejected their offers for a break because I don't feel like I need a break from DND if I do enjoy the game. But I'm starting to have mini breakdowns before sessions and the whole group dynamic is just uncomfortable for them now. I want to be a better player, and right now they might be doubting if I really enjoy the game or not.
I seriously do not know why I feel this way. The best reason I can come up with is some trauma from previous games but none of my experiences were a complete horror story, and I've known this group for a couple months already. The fear should've went away by now. Please help.

As it is currently written, using 2h axes drains 40 run energy per swing, which occurs every 4 ticks. Successful chops with this buffed swing gives 18% more xp and -20% logs. If using foresters rations, which yield 30 run energy, on average you will be receiving 3 buffed swings per 1 regular swing. The net effect is that you spend 1500 forester's rations per hour for 113.5% experience and 85% as many logs.
According to the original blog, a forester's ration is made out of 1 cooked meat and leaves. Cooked meat is currently 85 coins each, but since this would require an additional processing step and have higher demand, foresters rations would easily be 200-500 coins each. Taking a conservative estimate of 300 coins each, this means mains would be spending 450k coins per hour for a 13.5% woodcutting xp buff. To me, this is remarkably underwhelming.
As others have pointed out, this also provides an unintended mechanic where players can restore 30 run energy by chopping random trees while their energy is low. To be honest, this is very niche and would be incredibly inconvenient for most players who are not doing speedrunning challenges. That being said, I propose 3 suggestions that would resolve several problems that have been brought up:
1 - Make the cost of a 2h axe swing equal to the energy restoration of a forester's ration. If they are equal, then you'd never be able to profit run energy off of chopping logs, preventing unintended run energy restoration methods.
2 - Reduce the cost of a 2h swing and forester's ration run energy restoration down to 10% (or make it so that, under the effects of a stamina potion, you are receiving one 2h axe swing per ration consumed). This would allow energy potions to be a direct substitute for forester's rations, since you can drink 1 dose of energy potion per 4-tick chopping cycle. This would allow energy potions to be a non-afk substitute for rations, while reserving rations for if you really want to afk at a somewhat higher market cost.
3 - Make forester's rations purchasable from the forestry shop for noted logs. This would allow logs, which are currently very low in value, to be sunk from the game for bonus woodcutting experience. With the incredibly high usage rate of 1500 rations per hour, this would provide a rather firm sink rate for logs, with the potential of making woodcutting a profitable skill again.

Greetings, I'm an ar60 player, the TCG stuff didn't really interest me, so I put them on hold ever since they came out. but I got hacked, luckily, I got it fairly quickly, but the hacker basically did all my quest that I was too lazy to even finish, story quests, the hangout quests, and especially my TCG.
Since the TCG event is here, I feel like I'm getting thrown into a Chess match with a bunch of grandmasters as a beginner lol, keep in mind I have no prior experience when it came to other games related to or similar to TCG. Will this cause me problems if I just go in blindly in the event?

SAs someone who has:

1. Completed all quests
2. Completed Badum quests
3. Unlocked Everything (Factions all 20)
4. Have 285/285 with gear and guns
5. Have around 8m - 10m Kmarks
6. Am at best average at straight up PvP, most of my success is from playing smart and cautious (making moves at the right time, rotating and repositioning in fights, coordinating with my team, counting shots, etc)

These are the following things that I have observed about the game, but more specifically after patch 3.4:

1. Most of my time playing the game is spent PvPing in duo and trio squads, helping out some of my friends do their quests, or just going around solo gathering cables for letium drills, doing data drives for dungeons, or farming pistons and aluminum for oil, or just doing jobs for scrips
2. Having 10m sometimes but nowhere to spend it on since my stash is perpetually full means that I have to sell perfectly fine guns such as Flechettes and Advocates to buy Kors and Brutes just to keep my money down so I can pick more stuff up to sell and not waste K-Mark rewards from jobs.
3. There has been a significant rise in cheaters after the patch. Before the patch, there were at best 1 cheater every 4 or 5 raids. Now it seems that there are cheaters almost every other raid, and raids without cheaters are either empty or full of white gear guys doing what white gear guys do.
4. Dungeons somehow outclass Lab Keycard rewards. I understand that they are not the same thing, but I have over 800 hours this season, not once have I found a Lab Keycard. Good thing I opened the Lab keyroom just before it got nerfed.
5. Due to all the end-game content being around the north-western part of Crescent Falls, the south-eastern part of the map is empty. The only people I ever find there are either white gear guys questing, or cheaters who ape for my brute that ran from Starport Warehouse.
6. Matchmaking is still not fixed. I still get trios in my Crescent Falls/Tharis raids despite being a solo. (I literally see their drops, no they are not teaming)
7. Before the patch, I had to forge around ~125x before completing the 10 Slags I need for Badum. After the patch, I have managed to get 5 slags in less than 20 forges, and got 2 slags back to back just a few raids ago. The drop rate may be slightly higher than intended, but the sample size of my personal experience may not reflect the actual statistics.
8. Tharis is dead. As someone who actually enjoys Tharis Island, it's frustrating to have my favorite map nerfed to the ground that no one ever comes there anymore except for some white gear warriors looking for a comeup or just mining Tharis Iron, or those who are there to farm slags. It's a shame, because currently, Tharis is the only map that is actually almost free of any cheaters because of the level requirement to unlock the map in the first place(Most cheaters get banned before unlocking it, and the cheaters that actually play on Tharis are most likely retail cheaters meaning they are legit players but decided they needed an edge to play the game)
9. I've been randomly getting disconnected from the raid, with my gear just vanishing, then immediately dropping back into the same raid naked. Sometimes, this happens over and over again, until I can find respite from a stranger who mercy kills me or until I exit to station which I usually do.

Now what exactly can be done about the game? I will enumerate suggestions that directly mirror the points that I have made above.
​

1. The end game loop is absolutely terrible (wow, 103,127th time this has been said on the sub, i know). The game is absolutely in need of some content especially for end game players. PvPing is absolutely the only real thing that can be done, and while that is fun, why not just play other shooters that go straight to the point like Apex? Jobs are mostly tedious and annoying to do, and it does need either an update or a rework. A global leaderboard would also be cool, as we saw several people actually playing the game just to get on the howlerbuster boards.
2. The money cap seems like a band-aid solution to a bigger problem. With the current economy of increased ammo and repair costs, more items added into the item pool, and no more permanent insurance, below average players are having a hard time keeping a steady economy in the station whereas successful players still are successful. I personally never really had a hard time hitting the money cap over and over again, the harder thing to do is actually keep my stash from overflowing. I thought the approach to season 3 was to make it easier for newer players to get into but the current system hard gatekeeps casuals while barely doing anything to sweats. Something they could do is just to add a high-roller lobby where you cannot insure gear, and the lobbies cost Kmarks to drop into or even aurum, and is locked with gear requirement so you know you will be fighting people in gear. This also means that if you die, you do not get anything back, and that what you paid for to get into the raid is also gone. (An immediate effect of this implementation might be that we would get almost empty lobbies in regular and high roller instances due to the players being further split into separate buckets but this change alone would bring back so many of the sweats who stopped playing the game back, and the casuals could actually just finish their quests)
3. Nothing to say about cheaters really, but a few hours into the patch, guys were flying everywhere once again despite " 3.4.0 containing various backend improvements and tweaks to the anti-cheat formula and Yager adding new systems to the game to help detect and prevent the kinds of cheats we have found to be the most common ". I understand that 10 devs vs 1000 cheat makers is a tough battle, but certain measures to make reporting and banning cheaters can be done. Adding a death cam that can only be played after either the whole squad is dead, or the enemy squad is dead is one thing that can be doable, many other games have this feature. And before anyone starts going, "well, you can't do this because you can drop in the same lobby if you drop back down again and now you know where the enemy is", just make it so that players have a 15-minute cooldown per instance of the map which aligns with the time it takes for gear to despawn. That way, even the information you receive from the death cam is irrelevant 15 minutes later, and is only really useful for reviewing deaths and as evidence for cheating. Sure, you can get a lucky 5-headshot beam with a Kor on someone but 12x in a row in the same raid? That's an easy ban if anything.
4. Key rooms are massively underwhelming right now. Community Room? Here's a green creature mod for your smg. What's that purple keycard you got there? - Oh, it's an Overgrown Keycard. That's 3 Circuit Boards, 21 Basic Light Ammo, and a white backpack. I've gotten 5,000 Overseers Office Keycards, but 1 Basecamp Armory Key, please explain how this is possible? Back in Season 1, key rooms were heavily utilized(as they should). Base Camp Luggage Room was always open, so was Armory in Jungle. Garage in Greens? Good luck. Hell, even Community Room was worth the trek because Loose House was there as well. I've since sold all my keycards early into the season as I have found it utterly useless and I have better luck picking up high tier weapons and armor just running around Tharis Island. Something clearly should be done here, the Lab Keycard during the start of Season 3 was perfect - it was hard to get up there, it's an extremely rare card, and it can be only used once. The loot was god tier, but that's assuming you can evac with it. And almost everyone only really got one shot at opening it, but I suppose that was too good because now all you ever really get is 3 PKR Maelstroms and a blue set. Sidenote: Puzzle Rooms are also really bad. They really are only for the reactors, and the weapon crate is a bonus, but the process of completing the puzzle, especially solo, is way too much of an ask for so little of a reward. The only puzzle really worth doing is the one by greens prospect since it can be done solo in 15 seconds, but even then you get shot as soon as you start doing it.
5. South-eastern side of the map of Crescent should get some love. Add something there that would actually make players want to go there, or at least make them decide which side of the map they should go to. As of now, all the high-gear players go Warehouse/Pinnacle due to the large open areas which make it ideal for fights, versus the thick jungles of Favela that has dense foliage and full of cliffs where you die if you slip off of. Sure missions take you there, but everyone eventually completes their missions and its off to Pinnacle most of the time from hereon out. Buffing Community Key will not pull players there since keys are single use, and I understand the dungeon is there but let's face it, not many people enjoy doing the dungeon in the first place, be it easy as it was back then or how it is now.
6. Fix matchmaking. That is all. Please.
7. Whatever this is, keep it the way it is. Don't find out oh, the drop rate was increased to 30% instead of increasing it by 3% and reverting it back.
8. Add gear lock to Tharis. That's it, plain and simple. There should be some risk to Tharis, and on the opposite side of the stick, there should also be reward. What is the point of ammo being more expensive, repairs being more expensive, money being harder to keep, if I can just keep dropping back in to Tharis with just a white backpack, mine for 5 minutes and evac with 30-50k worth of Kmarks in Tharis Iron? Imagine doing that for an hour, that's an easy 300k right there. Just about the same amount you get from completing a letium drill, but with no investment, no risk, just sacrificing your sanity for the sake of money. As it stands, in order to add 5% less fauna damage and 5% less damage from storm strikes to my shield and stamina regen during storm on my backpack, I have to fight 6 free loadouts ratting in and around Tharis without gaining anything yet risking everything.
9. I understand ping limit, server issues, yada yada yada. Just make it so if you go poof, let our teammates pick our shit up. PLEASE GODDAMNIT. This is so dumb. I've lost countless loadouts to this dumb mechanic of being booted out of the raid, and now just to add insult to injury I get dropped back in but naked over and over again. What spaghetti code is this where you fix one thing and 12 other things become broken. Just please drop our shit, let some rando pick it up and have a nice feeling picking up a kor and purple set. I don't care. JUST DROP OUR SHIT PLEASE and thank you.

Part 1 - Cannor Part 2 - Escann and Deepwoods Part 3 - Aelantir Part 4 - West Serpentspine and Gerudia Part 5 - Bulwar Part 6: The Forbidden Plains Part 7: East Serpentspine
I'm nearly at the end of these series of reviews. After Haless it's Yanshen and then that's about it. The whole continent has some of my favourite mission trees in the entire mod so I'm excited to talk about it.
Azkare -> Sunrise Empire ★★★★★
Azkare is someone staring down the multiple genocidal campaigns across Anbennar, and indeed across regular human history, and asking themselves how they would design a campaign where you are the Good Guy. One where the end goal is to create a truly equal state that values all its citizens. It’s an interesting design issue since empire-building has certain inherent traits that are really hard to present as being a “good” option. Gee Hiderion, what are you going to do when one of your internal states votes for independence huh? Just going to march in an army to crush the rebels? How many millions must die for you to achieve your “dream” Hiderion? You can answer these questions during your questioning at The Hague! Or wherever they try war criminals in Anbennar.
Playing it though, it’s great fun. Sure it’s another Haless state that is simply based around conquering everything, but the mechanic on how you integrate them all into this single parliament is pretty neat. It feels like messy internal politics, which I enjoyed from a role-playing perspective. It’s wild that this much effort went into a single nation’s mission tree too, and one you absolutely never see created in-game by the AI. I have some nitpicky problems. While the writing is generally good, I think the author tried to write a short piece of romantic fiction at one point that felt so out of place it bordered on comedic. Also the end of the mission tree has such silly requirements that I didn’t even bother trying. But it’s overall one of the most complete trees in the entire game and would be one of the first ones I’d point a new player towards.
Plus, so long as you embrace the roleplay of being Hiderion, the guy with the biggest Elf Savior complex in the entire world, it is neat to imagine yourself crushing the previous horrid regimes across Haless and rebuild them in your vision of equality and tolerance. Bhuvari are slavers, Verkal Ozovar want to mind control the whole continent into subservience, and do you really think everyone would be better off under The Command? If Haless had to be united, Sunrise Empire would probably be the best option. Just don’t ask the Oni that question.
Fengwuzhe -> One Xia ★★★★☆
I know a lot of people play EU4 because they love to watch numbers go up. Stack modifiers on top of modifiers and watch as your god soldiers destroy armies 3 times their size. I am not that sort of player. I legitimately have no idea what army tradition does. The only number that matters to me is the size of the army. If I have more soldiers, I should win the battle. If I don’t, it’s probably a bug and should be patched. That all said, there was something about marching around as this death squad of militant harpy combat monks as One Xia that tickled a little part of my brain, giggling as I watched The Command flee in terror despite outnumbering me.
What made it all the more satisfying is the challenge it was to get there. As Xia, you are one of the first ports of call against the might of The Command. That’s another part I love about Anbennar that other people seem not to: I love fighting The Command. It’s a race against time as they gobble their neighbours, as you frantically build up a force capable of taking them on. Once they do turn on you, there might as well be that “Objective: Survive” popup. It’s interesting to play a game of EU4 and actually lose a war and have to figure out how to rebuild so you’ll be able to take on those hobgobbos if they attack again.
The actual story of the nation was a bit lost on me. I liked the design of the mission tree and how it forced you to really drill your troops to progress, which was a neat change of pace for me. But what their nation actually fought for and believed in wasn’t terribly well portrayed. Maybe because I don’t have a lot of experience with the genre of fiction they’re based off. Also man is the Blue Scarf Rebellion such a weird disaster. Only pops at a point where you’ve basically already won the game. A huge amount of effort into a very forgettable disaster that I very nearly didn’t see because I had reached the standard boring EU4 end-game by that point.
Verkal Ozovar ★★★★★
One of the coolest things in Anbennar is how they’ll take specific mechanics from the base EU4 game, warp it into something new, then re-contextualise what that new mechanic represents. Escann is the best example of this when it comes to the design of an entire region with how they repackage the native migration mechanics. What Verkal Ozovar does for vassal gameplay is so utterly wild and creative and I had a truly fantastic time with it.
The whole conceit is that you remain as this single province hold for the entire game, but through a series of vassals, and a very heavy focus on vassal loyalty increases, gain control over all of Haless. Early on you’re playing what seems like a fairly standard game, albeit heavily vassal-focused. But as your vassals start to dwarf (heh) your single province, it becomes a game unto itself of how does one maintain loyalty while progressing through the mission tree.
I’ll give you a few examples of the stuff I would do to maintain loyalty. I would declare war and then never move my troops from the capital because keeping them alive was more important for loyalty purposes than using them for the war. I would declare wars entirely for the purpose of draining my own vassal’s armies and manpower so they couldn’t build up a large enough force to want to rebel against me. It’s evil in a whole other way than how EU4 and Anbennar usually enforces it through “click the genocide button”, and it really fed into the themes of the story. These totalitarian, mind-control dwarfs, who seek to subjugate the people around them so they swear absolute loyalty, all while never having the capacity to ever resist you.
I literally had a notebook next to me of my vassal’s dev sizes so I could keep track of how large they were getting and dole out new provinces accordingly so none would get too large. The final end reward of having the capability to ensure total vassal loyalty is the best end-game reward in the whole game, because suddenly I was free to grow however much I wanted. I declared on the Lake Fed then just left the game on x5 speed and watched as my combined vassals experienced 3 million deaths in attrition and still won the war. My computer may have hated me for it. The end game of Ozovar is the slowest I’ve ever seen EU4 run. But I loved the campaign and it’s a top 3 all time favourite nations to play in Anbennar.

The current state of Fortnite is something that I personally am not a fan of. People say go find a different game, and to be honest there’s a point to that. The problem with that for me is that I have a connection to this game. It’s something that I’ve been experiencing for so long and put time into for so long it’s hard to let go of all that time. I grew up with it so it’s hard to say goodbye. People say you’re blinded by nostalgia, you’re right, I can objectively say that Fortnite chapter 1 was objectively not as good of a game as more recent seasons. I still loved it and miss it of course but it wasn’t as developed, not as polished, and was just generally a little plain. A lot of people like that and I get it, simplicity can be a positive. Chapter 2 for me was peak objectively. I have no nostalgia for Chapter 2, I don’t get emotional when I think of it or think ahh the good old days. That’s how I feel about chapter 1, which I miss but don’t want back that game, I want back that time, and that won’t happen and I don’t think that it should, it was an inferior game. But chapter 2 comes around, that chapter is literally just a good game. Not an era I miss, I don’t care about the era, I miss the actual software of that game. Balanced loot pool, not an absolute flood of collabs. The new skins, while personal opinion, were bangers who fit in to the game and were actually pretty sick. I’m not a huge fan of sbmm so that’s my one problem with it. Fast forward to now. The map is too full of filler and crap that I don’t care about, the map is built for zero build. I know many people like zero build and they play it and they’re happy. That’s great and I’m glad for you that’s just not what my experience is. I like the older maps and think they were fun and great and they didn’t have a bunch of useless crap everywhere like they do now to cater to zero build players. I miss the old guns of chapter 2. Grappler guns, launch pads, helicopters. And the guns in general were just great. You didn’t have OP mobility items like you have recently . And you didn’t have a lack of mobility because you had other not op items that you could keep in your inventory that weren’t on the same level as the new op movement items of the last seasons. Arena had siphon and that’s a great thing too. The mythic items were not overly present in my opinion, there were only one of each on the map and that’s what’ made them special and not absolutely op. Yeah they might’ve been a bit too good but I didn’t care because there were just one and they were fun. Fortnite has gone downhill and it’s not because I’m nostalgic. I also asked what people thought Epic games care about and that they care about only money. That makes sense to me, but a lot of people share my opinion that the game has gone downhill, none of my friends even play this game anymore, it used to be that every single one of my friends was almost always online, it’s not because they’ve gotten jobs or gotten busy just no one likes this game because of the way it’s changed. How does epic stand to make more money because they’ve made their game worse and worse. Wouldn’t it make sense that people who are happy with the game and into it spend more money. I don’t spend money on the game anymore. Seems like all they care about is zero build, but most players don’t play zero build. Thoughts? What are changes you’d support, things you miss. Also, please don’t hate on me, it’s just what I think, I know people disagree with me and that’s fine, I don’t have a problem with other peoples opinions about a game, so please don’t have a problem with mine.

I've seen these excuses thrown around in various place on the Internet like twitter and it just bugs me.
"Play it with friends".

1. Not everyone has the friends to play this game with, or said friends having the time or access to play the game with you.
2. By default you can play the game alone, but shouldn't playing it alone still be fun?
3. Almost anything can be more fun if you play it with friends.

"Just install mods".

1. Not everyone has access to mods whether they play on console, or on Bedrock (Java mods are WAY WAY BETTER than the Bedrock marketplace)
2. It requires a bit of research to get into. It's not hard, but you still have to look into it, plus Curseforge did recently have a security breech
3. It's the job of the company to develop a quality product they deliver to the customer, not the community's job to improve it. This would be like excusing flaws in Skyrim because there's a mod that makes dragons less annoying.

"If you find the game boring, it's because you lack imagination"

1. This is just pure projection. It's possible to try and do a lot of creative stuff in Minecraft and still find it a boring game. I have built mob farms, mansions, a cathedral that encloses the giant natural spawning nether portals, yet I still find flaws in its core gameplay loop.
2. Redstone and automation isn't taught in the game and is an unintuitive system for new players. How likely are you to learn everything about automation with various kinds of farms and logistics by only playing the game? Odds are most people just look at a tutorial and follow the construction step by step. What's creative about that? It's like instead of learning how to code, you copypaste stuff from stack overflow.
3. Sandbox games don't have to only rely on self imposed goals. Minecraft isn't like gmod, because you still have survival mechanics like enemies, hunger, crafting and resource gathering. But a lot of the mechanics don't really tie in that deeply to the core gameplay loop. Beds just easily destroy the threat of night and villages can easily supply you food. Factorio is also a sandbox game but core gameplay concepts and mechanics like automation, space management and using belts, vs rails, vs bots always have the player actively engage with them with more of a challenge.
4. Self imposed challenges are always going to more shallow than an actually hand crafted challenge. Hardcore makes it so you only have one life, but it doesn't fix all of the problems. You still have beds easily delete the threat of night, you can still find villages, combat is always going to be "hit them before they get close to you", and the Enderdragon is still going to be same old boss. It's like with Pokemon nuzlocke, how it doesn't change how gyms make it obvious which pokemon type they'll use.
5. Finally it's just insulting and toxic to assume people lack imagination because they don't like the game you like. What does it say about the Minecraft community when some people just resort to personal insults when responding to people voicing their opinion on this game? This would be like responding to someone saying they found a game's difficulty to be unfair, and then you call them an idiot.

​

It’s not really important to detail everything of the next few weeks, word did spread that the Walkers were leaving again, of course, there was no way to keep that secret. Packing had to be done, after all, and arrangements for the house had to be made.
There was simply no way to keep our going ‘completely quiet’. So the neighbors started to come by asking questions.
“Should we leave too?”
“Am I going to end up with more bits of shrapnel in my kitchen?”
“Do I need to get more stuff to patch bullet holes?”
“I assume we go to the same hotel as last time, or will it be a different one?”
It was frequent enough that we held another ‘neighborhood barbecue’ where William explained over sizzling meat and a mix of real beer and that abomination to all civilized species ‘non-alcoholic beer’ that, “You are in no danger. We are leaving for a government assignment, but it is not one that puts any of you at anymore risk than yesterday or the day before. I promise, there won’t be any crazy masked gunmen showing up and disturbing the peace.”
William’s reputation was one of truthfulness, and it probably didn’t hurt that making sure the neighbors were safe had been a priority last time.
‘Last time… for the sake of the void… how many shenanigans are we supposed to get involved in?’ I asked myself that question while sipping on a very large ‘wood bottle’. This was a wonderful innovation in alcoholic beverages. Instead of ‘glass’ this ‘wood’ actually added a wonderful earthiness to the beer, making it smoother and far more full bodied than the glass counterpart.
It had its drawbacks, of course, if you didn’t want that added flavor, you had to use glass, but I found it to be positively delectable, if a little ‘thicker’ than my usual preferences.
I had a great fondness for ales, particularly the more ‘aggressive’ ones with an immediate sort of bite to them. They weren’t to be ‘chugged’ like the bland and fizzy ones that had all the kick of a sleeping toddler. No, no, these powerful ones were meant to be ‘swigged’. You take one big swig at a time, savor the richness, the full flavor, the taste, and the feel of it going down.
It’s about here I should mention that ‘beer clubs’ and ‘bourbon buddies’ were starting to gain popularity among dlamisa.
It began with the Ballyball League of Earth and Dlamias. As part of their training for the sport, teams ‘ran’ a great deal, and they learned of an ancient Earth organization that survived through the centuries called the Hash House Harriers, ‘drinkers with a running problem’ as they are popularly known.
These organizations around the world would lay out trails and follow them in search of alcohol at various stopping points. They would drink together and have a grand old time, and be rather intoxicated by the end of it all. From this my people innovated various ‘fan clubs’ for certain alcohol organizations that would sponsor their runs in exchange for filming their gatherings.
Naturally I set up a few gambling options for people to bet on my players during training, but out of these grew specific off-field rivalries which were now starting to spread to my home world, usually run out of coffee establishments.
This might be the thing that made someone decide to put me at risk. I will probably never know the answer to that one.
It didn’t matter. Not really.
I was standing there among my friends, family, neighbors, with warmth and welcome, with the smell of good food cooking and people wishing me well on my ‘business trip’ and I knew I was doing the right thing.
This was the reason, this was the point of it all, to bring ‘this’ not just to me, but to everybody.
Every drop of blood that spread in my arena, every credit that flowed into my exponentially growing cooperative organization… all of it was serving this single purpose. ‘I will see my will done. I will bring it all down.’ I vowed and took another swig from my bottle. Latunde was telling a joke, and I huffed politely.
A good man, a good neighbor. And a surprisingly good actor considering he ran a feed store, his pretend police situation when we were making our evacuation a few years ago was really well done.
But I couldn’t pay attention to jokes right then.
I went back into the house and up to Fauve’s room. I knocked, “Come in.” She answered.
I expected this, she was never particularly social, and didn’t care for large gatherings of people. I still wasn’t the biggest fan of those, but…alcohol makes everything much easier.
“Hi.” I said, poking my head in without entering. “How are you?”
She was seated at her terminal, pounding away at ‘nothing’. But she had a virtual headset on so there was ‘something’ to her.
“Fine. I’m just taking care of some things. Writing out some notes, researching the Praeda species that we’re going to meet, writing my will, breaking up with my girlfriend, the usual sort of thing that happens every…single…time I think life is going to finally come out of warp and let us relax.” She said it with such deadpan humor that I almost missed it.
“I’m sorry.” I said and slipped into the room, closing the door behind me, I went and sat down on her bed.
“For what? You didn’t do anything wrong.” Fauve answered, though she didn’t take her attention off her work. “This is just more of the usual, and if anybody is to blame, it’s me. I could have faded into the background. I could have just let everything go back to normal. I could have just shut my mouth after everything was over the first time… but no. I didn’t. I didn’t and now I can’t have a moment’s peace or normalcy. I had to be media personality, a speaker, a filmmaker a….” She trailed off and slapped her palms down on the desk. “I did this to myself. Now I’m going to be alone again because I just can’t say no. Michael is going to lose years with his friends. You’re being thrown back into god knows what, mom and dad are… no, they’re fine, to them this will be a vacation, if anything.” She sighed.
“My point is, Bailey, you don’t have anything to apologize for. I’m just, I’m stressed out a little.” Fauve said to me and I swallowed hard and nodded.
“I know what you mean.” I said, I chose not to mention the pseudo-attempt on my life, but added, “This is a disruption to my life too, and… a lot of things are going to change, even if things go well, maybe ‘especially’ if they do.” I got up and went to put my hand on her shoulder.
Fauve leaned back, rocking her chair so that it hit my waist, her head was against my fur, “And I don’t think I did anything wrong here but… I’m sorry that things aren’t as easy for you as you deserve. I mean that.” I promised.
She cracked a smile beneath her headset.
“Yeah, yeah, well it’s not like space is boring. No human has ever been out that far before, so we get to be a first… but even so? I’m tired of having to end relationships over work. It happened with Halbert, it happened with… wait… has it ever not happened that way?” Fauve stopped and thought that over.
I wasn’t surprised she referenced her first romantic interest. Humans tend to template all later relationships on the basis of their earlier ones, and Fauve tended to be hyperfocusd on what she was engaged in at any given moment, so I wasn’t surprised that she would never have really looked at how something over ‘played out’ in the end. Not until she had a reason to.
“Wow… yeah… everything always ended because of something work related… if not mine, then theirs. Damn.” She sighed as that understanding hit home.
Humans have in my observations, a tendency to blind themselves to what is happening, they don’t always see underlying causes for what goes awry in their lives, and as such they may miss patterns that will not be missed by other species. It makes them interesting to be around, at least.
“I’m taking a long vacation when I get back.” She promised herself and slumped. “Maybe I should sell the rights to that game series and turn my attention to something new… I…” Fauve shook her head, “Bailey, do you think it’s possible to be too career focused?”
I squeezed my hand on her shoulder a little nad cocked my head. “You’re asking me that question? Fauve, I came here on a fifty year doctoral program, I’m the last person you should ask that question.”
She was quiet for a moment before she quipped, “Alright, that’s fair. But after this is over, I’m definitely taking a break. Maybe I’ll just rewrite this breakup note and explain that because of work that we need to ‘go on a break’ no questions asked after I get back.”
It was of course possible that the other person would ‘move on’ and there was nothing to come back to when Fauve did return, however this did leave the possibility open at least. “I think that’s wise.” I said with a gentle voice.
“You should invite them to Waterland Park with everybody else.” I suggested, but Fauve shook her head.
“No. No. I have to face this one on my own. If I can walk in there and walk past that place without a problem, on my own, I can finally put the last bit of that bastard behind me.” She said it with such iron resolve that it was hard for me to imagine she wouldn’t be able to do it.
“You won’t be alone, you know that.” I reminded her.
She smiled again.
“That’s not quite what I mean, Bailey… but thank you. I still have some work to do here, but, would you be a friend and bring me a beer while I finish this up… and maybe a hamburger?” She asked.
“Sure thing, Fauve.” I said, and left her room again.

Base64.com/decode aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubWVkaWFmaXJlLmNvbS9mb2xkZXIvazlsbTdsZjB2ZGFlcC9CQkMrLStQcmlzb25lcitDMzMrLStkaXIrYnkrVHJldm9yK051bm4rd2l0aCtUb2J5K1N0ZXBoZW5zK2J5KytBbmdlbGljYStmaWxtcytFTitzdWIrMjAyMg==
IMDb tt20868632/ Subtitle from the source available in your player
runtime 1h 8m
Summary from IMDb
Oscar Wilde is confined in Reading Gaol. His younger self appears, and the two men wrestle with the humiliation of Wilde's fall from celebrity to convict because he loved a man. The dialogue in the film (on video) draws heavily on Oscar Wilde's own written word and famous quotations. Director - Trevor Nunn, Writer - Stuart Paterson, Oscar Wilde - Toby Stephens. This is a one man show posted to Proshot from BBC and Angelica Productions about a year ago. I have it here for the Master Mega list archive. Toby Stephens was also in Noel Coward's Private Lives posted a year ago and is on the Master Mega list. Stephens is the son of Maggie Smith and starred in the premium television series "Black Sails," a big favorite of pirates everywhere.
1920 by 1080. A MediaInfo and these notes are in the folder.
PM with any problems

"The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces" is a short adventure module for 1st–level players. In this adventure, players will explore an expansive mansion packed with endearing characters, deadly enemies, challenging puzzles, and much more! This adventure is a light-hearted one shot that ideally serves to bring new players into the game in a casual environment.
The themes of this game are exploration, magic, and problem solving. The environments include cozy libraries, sprawling mansions, hidden laboratories and more. For players that enjoy the feelings of intrigue, mystery, and wonder, this is a must play!
As far as platforms go, I will be running the game on Roll20, using discord for voice and video. I offer content sharing for D&D Beyond character creation. Lastly I will be facilitating the game through Startplaying, where I ask that you consider leaving a review at the end.
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Slots: 4, though I will consider overloading to 5 upon request.
Session Duration: 3-4 hours
Time: Saturday June 17th 9:00 AM / 1:00 PM / 5:00 PM CST
Startplaying Link: https://startplaying.games/adventure/609dc426279f1d000859fe99