LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Dec 6, 2022 11:40:11 GMT -5
This is such a non-event for me that all I can hope is that they're getting this out of the way 2 days early so they can drop the real shit at TGA. (Hope. I hope. I have no expectation of anything cool being announced.)
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Post by Frohman on Dec 6, 2022 16:04:24 GMT -5
This is such a non-event for me that all I can hope is that they're getting this out of the way 2 days early so they can drop the real shit at TGA. (Hope. I hope. I have no expectation of anything cool being announced.)
Wow, it took them ten months to include... the arena from Artorias of the Abyss. |
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Post by The Thanksgiving Goblin. on Dec 20, 2022 21:43:11 GMT -5
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Post by The Thanksgiving Goblin. on Dec 24, 2022 20:30:07 GMT -5
sir allone drill remix
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jan 5, 2023 9:47:18 GMT -5
I'm constantly in this weird state where I feel like I should be replaying Elden Ring - I've replayed all the other Souls games to death* - but whenever I think about booting it up I just ... don't want to. I did start a second play through some months back which trailed off while I was humping around Liurnia. Pre-academy. But it's been so long that I'd feel like I should just restart ... again, and I don't really wanna do Limgrave.
I think it's as I feared that Elden Ring as an open world game is simply incompatible with the completionist way I like to play Souls games. It's so much more time-consuming and, frankly, boring to do.
*Except Demon's Souls  |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jan 19, 2023 13:23:19 GMT -5
GeoGuesser but it's Elden Ring.
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Invisible Goat
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Post by Invisible Goat on Jan 19, 2023 14:33:00 GMT -5
I'm constantly in this weird state where I feel like I should be replaying Elden Ring - I've replayed all the other Souls games to death* - but whenever I think about booting it up I just ... don't want to. I did start a second play through some months back which trailed off while I was humping around Liurnia. Pre-academy. But it's been so long that I'd feel like I should just restart ... again, and I don't really wanna do Limgrave.
I think it's as I feared that Elden Ring as an open world game is simply incompatible with the completionist way I like to play Souls games. It's so much more time-consuming and, frankly, boring to do.
*Except Demon's Souls I actually did replay it immediately after intending to solo all the bosses instead of using ashes. I abandoned that once I got to the bullshit ones at the end which seem frankly impossible at least without some cheesy gimmick build. But yeah I've had no desire to since then. I really loved the first ~60 hours of that initial playthrough so much but seems like the things that make that possible just aren't replicable subsequently. Shame |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jan 26, 2023 10:15:19 GMT -5
So playing that Elden Ring GeoGuesser game of all things got me really excited about playing Elden Ring again. Booted it up and have actually been having fun with it. Cleared out most of Limgrave, mad dashed through Caelid for supplies, and am now working on the Weeping Peninsula. I would love to keep my interest up at least as long as to make it back to Altus. Such a pretty area, but I feel so adrift slogging through Liurnia.
Mad at myself for thinking I could handle the Selia Crystal Tunnel with 4300 runes on the line. I thought, heck, I'll do the treasure chest warp to Caelid after taking out Agheel, and if the enemies are too strong, I'll just run. Died immediately, died immediately again, and lost my runes. Fuck!
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Post by The Thanksgiving Goblin. on Jan 27, 2023 18:14:03 GMT -5
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jan 30, 2023 8:50:25 GMT -5
First-tried Margit and Godrick. In fact all my deaths so far have either been to regular mobs (fuck the Cliffbottom Catacombs and their blood imps very much) or accidental falls. Still having fun, though I was very aware after playing for about 3 hours yesterday just how little I had accomplished. I've been in Liurnia of the Lakes for 5-6 hours now, and I haven't even started on, you know, the lakes. It's taken me that long just to clear the stretch of land to the east of the lake, and I'm not done with it.
Not sure if I'm being more thorough (hard to believe) or just getting lucky in what paths catch my eye, but I feel like I'm seeing more content this time around. Like the Dragonkin in Ainsel River. I'm almost positive I didn't fight that my first time through the game, and it's a pretty memorable arena with the giant skeleton thing in the chair overlooking the fight. And then in the same area there's that overlook of the Lake of Rot. Pretty sure I didn't find that either. Maybe I just did a really poor job of exploring Ainsel last time.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Feb 2, 2023 14:29:52 GMT -5
Well I made it back to Altus Plateau. Not by completing all of Liurnia, of course. Hellllll no. But after completing the east and west land-based parts of the map, I finally headed into the lake and began my circumnavigation of the walls, rooting out and completing the catacombs, etc., as I go. This process inevitably takes me to the Ruin Strewn Precipice, and I thought, hell, let's keep going. Not a long area, and the Magma Wyrms are pretty chump bosses. I also decided to actually use a rune arc, didn't realize I was facing the wrong direction from a site of grace, and ran straight into an empty elevator shaft. Skills. Incredible skills. Practically a god gamer.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Feb 6, 2023 10:04:28 GMT -5
Rennala defeated. Since I'm exploring so thoroughly and killing everything as I go, I'm pretty ahead of the game's curve at this point. Went into the fight with only a half stack of flasks and made it through fine. Luckily she only summoned the wolves.
Still got some clean up to do in the Academy, but I also went ahead and did the Abductor Virgin -> Volcano Manor teleport. It's something I always meant to go back and do in my first run of the game but never got around to. Luckily I knew it would happen and could equip a Sacrificial Twig before hand. Still bitter about losing my charged Great Rune though.
Caelid next, which I'm actually looking forward to. Some of the enemies are annoying, but I genuinely love the look and atmosphere of Caelid. It's my second favorite location after Altus.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Feb 6, 2023 10:24:36 GMT -5
I feel like bell bearings are way too spaced out, or too late game. I'm 20+ hours into this run (30+ maybe, I dunno) and I've found TWO bell bearings.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Feb 7, 2023 9:32:17 GMT -5
I feel like bell bearings are way too spaced out, or too late game. I'm 20+ hours into this run (30+ maybe, I dunno) and I've found TWO bell bearings. Okay, so I guess a lot of bell bearings are trapped behind killing random NPCs like merchants, which I would never think to do. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Feb 13, 2023 11:06:33 GMT -5
Played a LOT on Friday and some on Saturday and Sunday. Cleared out Caelid, Nokron, Deeprooth Depths, Ainsel River Main, and Nokstella. Activated the Lake of Rot site of grace, but I decided to hold off for now and finally, at long last, head to Altus Plateau. Mad dashed past the guards and Tree Sentinels to get that outer Leyndell grace point, but really to get the two golden seeds. Now it's back to the abandanoned coffin grace point to slow crawl through Altus -> Mt. Gelmir -> (probably Lake of Rot here) -> Leyndell.
This time I vow to find the sewers in Leyndell and do that whole thing. I didn't find it or even realize it was there my first time through the game.
Haven't died to a boss in a long time now. Me and my +10 mimic are doing just fine.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Feb 20, 2023 8:42:29 GMT -5
Pretty much walking through the game at this point. Level 136 with a +22 weapon (yeah I went tradish not somber) and a +10 mimic that I happily pull out every chance I get. When you make a rule of clearing out every sub-area you can find before progressing through the legacy dungeons, I guess it's pretty natural to get ahead of the game's curve. I only had about 30 minutes to play yesterday, starting from the Avenue Balcony grace in Leyndell. Didn't want to spend time getting lost in one of the side areas just to have to quit, so instead I fun runned it to Godfrey and Morgott. Now to go back an actually clear Leyndell and find the sewers.
Lake of Rot is best poison swamp. Because 1) you can just run through it if you don't feel like messing with it, and very little can stop you; and 2) it looks fucking awesome.
Leyndell -> Sewers / Shunning Ground -> Mountaintops -> Consecrated Snowfield -> Mohgwyn Palace -> Haligtree -> Farum Azula -> Endgame
That's still so far to go.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Feb 28, 2023 8:50:19 GMT -5
Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for the Elden Ring DLC. I will play it. But it's kind of hilarious to me the hordes of people clamoring for more of a game that, for me at least, is arguably way too big and takes forever to play. Like I'm 70+ hours at this point and still have all that stuff I listed in my last post to do.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 4, 2023 23:35:53 GMT -5
Something I forgot to mention at the top of my current run is that this time I purchased the lantern, which now having done so I realize is unarguably the best item in the game.
What? An unlimited light source that is dirt cheap and you only have to buy once ... why did I not buy this the first time through the game?!?!?!
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patbat
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Post by patbat on Mar 5, 2023 3:02:48 GMT -5
Dark Souls 2: Universal complaints when one solitary enemy type near the end of the game has infinite stamina and endless combos, isn't fun to fight
Elden Ring: Universal praise when every. Single. Boss. has infinite stamina and endless combos, "greatest From Software game ever"
Someone make it make sense
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 13, 2023 13:58:11 GMT -5
Dark Souls 2: Universal complaints when one solitary enemy type near the end of the game has infinite stamina and endless combos, isn't fun to fight Elden Ring: Universal praise when every. Single. Boss. has infinite stamina and endless combos, "greatest From Software game ever" Someone make it make sense To be very clear I don't think Elden Ring is the best From Software game. Of the seven souls games (I'm counting Sekiro), it would rank fifth for me ... maybe sixth.
I do think the player base has changed enough, though, by growing with the franchise that what felt like bullshit 9 years ago, and in a game that you will have to agree "feels" worse to play, now feels more fair and manageable. Maliketh's wombo combos are still a bit much, but because character control feels so much better, it feels less like bullshit when he pummels me yet again.
So yeah, I guess I'm saying that at least a % of the audience, and I bet a large % of DS2's audience, ahem "got gud" over the last 9 years and it just doesn't bother them as much now. Especially since Elden Ring - which I'm not arguing is a better game - is arguably more fun to play.
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patbat
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Post by patbat on Mar 16, 2023 14:41:11 GMT -5
Dark Souls 2: Universal complaints when one solitary enemy type near the end of the game has infinite stamina and endless combos, isn't fun to fight Elden Ring: Universal praise when every. Single. Boss. has infinite stamina and endless combos, "greatest From Software game ever" Someone make it make sense To be very clear I don't think Elden Ring is the best From Software game. Of the seven souls games (I'm counting Sekiro), it would rank fifth for me ... maybe sixth.
I do think the player base has changed enough, though, by growing with the franchise that what felt like bullshit 9 years ago, and in a game that you will have to agree "feels" worse to play, now feels more fair and manageable. Maliketh's wombo combos are still a bit much, but because character control feels so much better, it feels less like bullshit when he pummels me yet again.
So yeah, I guess I'm saying that at least a % of the audience, and I bet a large % of DS2's audience, ahem "got gud" over the last 9 years and it just doesn't bother them as much now. Especially since Elden Ring - which I'm not arguing is a better game - is arguably more fun to play.
Oh yeah, my post wasn't aimed at anyone in particular so much as the community as a whole, so no worries. It just feels these post -Bloodborne games have this issue where the enemy movement and aggression are tuned for Bloodborne combat speeds, while the player character is still moving at Dark Souls speeds, and it feels kind of bad to me. You basically can't react/predict enemies like you could in Bloodborne and the games before it, because of this speed difference, and beating a new enemy type or boss on the first try feels way more like getting lucky than it does like being able to respond appropriately. You're basically required to die a few times to every new thing you encounter and learn their full moveset before you have a reasonable chance of victory. Which isn't horrible, but it is worth noticing--the Souls haters' claims that the difficulty is cheap are getting closer and closer to true with each new game, and I kinda hate that. FWIW I wasn't the first to make this observation, I remember specifically the old Souls YouTubers like EpicNameBro and AGermanSpy complaining about it when Dark Souls 3 came out. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 16, 2023 22:13:13 GMT -5
To be very clear I don't think Elden Ring is the best From Software game. Of the seven souls games (I'm counting Sekiro), it would rank fifth for me ... maybe sixth.
I do think the player base has changed enough, though, by growing with the franchise that what felt like bullshit 9 years ago, and in a game that you will have to agree "feels" worse to play, now feels more fair and manageable. Maliketh's wombo combos are still a bit much, but because character control feels so much better, it feels less like bullshit when he pummels me yet again.
So yeah, I guess I'm saying that at least a % of the audience, and I bet a large % of DS2's audience, ahem "got gud" over the last 9 years and it just doesn't bother them as much now. Especially since Elden Ring - which I'm not arguing is a better game - is arguably more fun to play.
Oh yeah, my post wasn't aimed at anyone in particular so much as the community as a whole, so no worries. It just feels these post -Bloodborne games have this issue where the enemy movement and aggression are tuned for Bloodborne combat speeds, while the player character is still moving at Dark Souls speeds, and it feels kind of bad to me. You basically can't react/predict enemies like you could in Bloodborne and the games before it, because of this speed difference, and beating a new enemy type or boss on the first try feels way more like getting lucky than it does like being able to respond appropriately. You're basically required to die a few times to every new thing you encounter and learn their full moveset before you have a reasonable chance of victory. Which isn't horrible, but it is worth noticing--the Souls haters' claims that the difficulty is cheap are getting closer and closer to true with each new game, and I kinda hate that. FWIW I wasn't the first to make this observation, I remember specifically the old Souls YouTubers like EpicNameBro and AGermanSpy complaining about it when Dark Souls 3 came out. For sure. I think said something similar way, way up thread, that DS3 felt like Bloodborne enemies with Dark Souls movement (somewhat alleviated by effective shields of course). I totally get where you're coming from. The trial and error is obnoxious unless you over level, which the game invites you to do through the brutal crucible of boredom (i.e. caves and catacombs.) And my first point was to qualify that I'm NOT an Elden Ring defender. It's low on the list for me, and my belief that going open world has cratered the chances of ever getting a proper "Souls" game again saddens me terribly.
But I kinda get the defenders. Whenever I go back to Dark Souls 1 or 2, or even Bloodborne if I'm painfully honest, it feels kinda, sorta, maybe a little bit - or a lot bit - bad compared to Elden Ring. What I'm saying is: I'm ready for the "Elden Ring Remake" of the entire series. Gimme DS1 with guard counters. I want them now.
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Post by Frohman on Mar 28, 2023 23:35:45 GMT -5
╭∩╮( ͡° ل͟ ͡° )╭∩╮ ╭∩╮( ͡° ل͟ ͡° )╭∩╮ ╭∩╮( ͡° ل͟ ͡° )╭∩╮
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Post by The Thanksgiving Goblin. on Jun 8, 2023 18:54:31 GMT -5
tried the lies of p demo. the PREMIUM edition of this is priced at £49.99 on the PSN store which should give you some idea of the level of polish this thing has. doubt i'll pick it up but not without some charm.
when you die "LIE OR DIE" flashes up.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jun 9, 2023 13:14:22 GMT -5
tried the lies of p demo. the PREMIUM edition of this is priced at £49.99 on the PSN store which should give you some idea of the level of polish this thing has. doubt i'll pick it up but not without some charm. when you die "LIE OR DIE" flashes up. Also when loading it says "Now lying" instead of "Now loading."
I didn't finish the demo, but I enjoyed what I played of it. More than expected. I want it to be even more like Bloodborne, though, in that I want them to go all in on the dodge. The dodge didn't feel great, but neither did the perfect block timing required to avoid block damage. Just take away my block, but give me a wider dodge. First-tried the Parade Master. I assume there's a second boss, but I didn't get to it.
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patbat
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Post by patbat on Jun 23, 2023 13:38:12 GMT -5
tried the lies of p demo. the PREMIUM edition of this is priced at £49.99 on the PSN store which should give you some idea of the level of polish this thing has. doubt i'll pick it up but not without some charm. when you die "LIE OR DIE" flashes up. Is that full AAA price? Because on American Steam that edition is $69.98, same price as a AAA PS5 game. I liked the demo more than I expected to, but I full agree with LazBro that both the dodge and the block feel ineffectual--go all-in on one or the other. The Sekiro-style perfect block mechanic feels tacked-on. |
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Sept 4, 2023 6:48:04 GMT -5
I have started playing Dark Souls on the Switch. The game became very difficult when I kept getting killed by a large dragon who would beat me to death with his giant club. All I had was a sword that was broken near the hilt and some clothes and a pair of binoculars, so I really couldn’t do shit to this dragon as far as killing him before he killed me was concerned. But then I realized that instead of killing the dragon, maybe I was supposed to befriend him. Sadly, this is also apparently not what I’m supposed to do because no matter what I do, the dragon just beats me to death with his club. I did figure out how to dodge being killed by the giant club and advance further in the game, but I was later killed by some guy wearing knight armor when I was trying to parry him murdering me with his sword. I don’t think this guy is one of the main bosses, but we’ll see if I can eventually defeat him and get to one of the real boss fights.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Sept 19, 2023 12:42:15 GMT -5
BLOOD LOSS! BLOOD LOSS! BLOOD LOSS!
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Sept 20, 2023 10:55:59 GMT -5
This was true of the demo as well, but I never got around to mentioning it. One thing that Lies of P gets right that I feel a lot of Souls-likes get wrong is that basic encounters are easy. Souls games have a reputation for difficulty, and sure there are some tough bosses and some tricky encounter layouts that give fodder enemies an upper hand from time to time, but for the most part, the minute-to-minute action of a Dark Souls game is no more challenging than any other character action game. Most enemies you never have to block or dodge. You can just run up and hit-stagger them until they die.
A lot of Souls-likes over design the basic fodder enemy. They're tanky and have complex move sets and tricky timing and on and on, and that's just ... not Dark Souls. In Dark Souls, a good 80% of encounters is just running up and hitting things with reckless abandon. Other games learn the wrong lesson and go too far trying to make them hard. I felt this way about Nioh 2, Mortal Shell, and the Surge games. But maybe I never got gud enough.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Sept 25, 2023 8:11:57 GMT -5
Lies of P is very good. Easily the best Souls-like I've played. One of the things I've been happiest to discover as I get deeper into the game is that there's a lot of variety in the level design. The early trailers, the demo, and even video reviews did maybe too good a job of hiding how much variety there is in this game in a bid to avoid spoilers. Sure, there's the Yharnam-as-hell main city of Krat, but you pretty quickly move along to a cool puppet factory, a badass cathedral, some creepy woods (also a major Bloodborne area, but the vibe is different here), and so on. There are poison swamps, the are giant rolling ball traps ... it's so hilariously on the nose and excellent.
It is .... ooof. It is hard. Like I said above, most regular encounters are just fine. The cathedral area was tricky, because there was a lot of tight platforming to go along with the standard mobs, but for the most part, it's really no trouble making it from boss to boss. But those bosses. Jesus H. Balls. What the fuck, man. Not to sound like a copium-huffing amateur who can't git gud, but the perfect parry system in this game just doesn't feel right. It's not terrible, but it relies so heavily on learning attack timing vs. reacting to what you see, and the actual window for the perfect parry is minuscule. Timing is also very hard to learn, because every boss - every single one - can vary its attack speed and arbitrarily delay its attacks to fuck with you.
My recommendation, based solely on where I feel I've been going wrong, is to dodge more. The block and parry systems are both useful, and it's so enticing to go after the perfect parry, get the stagger, and deliver a critical hit, especially since bosses are crazy fast and hard to dodge anyway. But, even when I succeed I feel like I've played terribly. The dodge, especially after a couple unlocks (dumb, this mechanic shouldn't require upgrades) is actually really good at avoiding most hits. Slow down, dodge in and past, and get your hits in.
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