https://preview.redd.it/vfqpjxdvqn0d1.png?width=3005&format=png&auto=webp&s=5714871c0eb21939d134ffe5f90025eb3f2fc8e3
I'm not sure why I'm still so hung up on this. For context, I kinda fell out of theorycrafting a while ago — at this point, I've seen every shred of evidence supporting or opposing every possible theory, and yet I feel no closer to any concrete conclusions on the game's lore. There are just too many questions, too many possibilities.
Then the secret Valentine dropped. This letter raised a lot of questions I was eager to discuss! Instead, I was disappointed to find the discussion dominated by something I didn't even think to question: the writer's identity. This frustrated me a bit, as I felt that, for once, the conclusion was actually pretty clear-cut; it didn't strike me as something Toby Fox even intended for us to debate.
At the time, this drove me to write a post discussing it (don't bother reading it, this post is better). I thought that would be the end of it for me, but somehow the debate has yet to leave my mind. Even now, from what I've seen, people are too busy arguing about who wrote the letter to discuss what's in it. All the while, I've not only grown more confident in the conclusion I've reached, but I feel more prepared to articulate why. I've also heard more counterarguments since then, which I will address in this post.
I'll start with what we can agree on, before addressing more significant counterarguments and delving into progressively deeper levels of conjecture. Should be fun!

Context and implications

Even before looking at the letter itself, we can see that this is a rare, cryptic secret, already giving us an idea of who might be involved. I'd go so far as to say that Gaster is "rare, cryptic secrets" personified. To me, this is the main thing setting him apart from other characters.
Obviously that's not to say that other characters can't be responsible for secrets like these, but giving the letter a cursory glance, the format doesn't fail us. All caps — this doesn't tell us much on its own, but when used alongside a very, very specific manner of double line spacing between and within sentences, compounded by the aforementioned association with secrets... Toby Fox is clearly trying to tell us something here, so I'm not a fan of any theory that completely discards that.
You'll probably agree with this point — even Gaster Valentine deniers admit that there is an intentional association being drawn. If you disagree... sorry, I don't know what to tell you. When it comes to Gaster, having a mysterious secret with all-caps weirdly-spaced text is basically equivalent to Susie walking onscreen and saying "Hi, I'm Susie". Sure, maybe a plot twist down the line will reveal that this isn't actually Susie... But you'd only suspect that if she says something that would imply it, and for now, we're only looking at the presentation.
There's another association I haven't seen as many people bring up: the fact that the letter is anonymous. Ironically, "not being confirmed to be Gaster" is one of Gaster's identifying characteristics. In every case, we're left to assume his involvement from cues such as those we see here: secrets, crypticism, capitalization, spacing, all that. Anonymity is his signature. By including these quirks and leaving it uncredited, he may as well be signing "GASTER" in flashing letters. And that's not even getting into the implication of Wingdings and the letter disappearing after being read, which are both Gastery as all get out.
A couple minor notes regarding the writer's anonymity:

• The lack of a telltale 666 motif or gratuitous "VERY, VERY" could be seen as a point of contention, but I think this naturally follows the pattern we've seen thus far: as we grow more familiar with Gaster, there's less need for these kinds of identifying motifs. In Undertale, the name Gaster is directly associated with 666 and Wingdings, but as we already know these connections going into Deltarune, the game's intro more-or-less drops the name and font associations.
• Notably, this is the only Valentine without a confirmed sender — if it was meant to tease a new character (à la Lanino and Elnina), why not include a visual or first initial to indicate that? Because it's supposed to seem like Gaster, only to end up a red herring...? Seems like a pretty cheap twist to me. Characters have deceived us in the games themselves, but we've generally been able to take supplemental content more-or-less at face value.

Of course, that anonymity is a double-edged sword. It implies Gaster's involvement just as much as it leaves room for doubt. If Toriel does something un-Toriel-like, we simply have to reconcile what we previously knew of her character with what we do now, whereas if Gaster does something un-Gaster-like, it calls his entire identity into question. I still don't think the Gaster associations can simply be handwaved away — again, even Gaster Valentine deniers agree that there's some significance to the similarities — but, by his very nature, it's nothing more than an implication.
If the voice from the vessel creation sequence says something to the effect of:
https://preview.redd.it/lsfu4bxrqn0d1.png?width=514&format=png&auto=webp&s=14867b9e9ea46dfc4f7c7fc91de69c574cab530d
I'll be the first to admit that it probably isn't Gaster. But I don't think that's the case here, and to discuss why, we'll have to move on from the context to the content.

Personality and mannerisms

The obvious problem with analyzing Gaster is that he has yet to be properly introduced, much less developed. We've only ever interacted with him outside Deltarune's story and world, and furthermore only briefly, within a very narrow range of contexts. Additionally, these interactions are written to provide us with as little characterization as possible — he is succinct and direct, never shifting the subject beyond what is relevant to us. This itself could be considered characterization, but without the "why", there's not much to glean from it.
Regardless of whether this trait is dependent on context (there's little room for conversation in a survey program, after all) or is simply an ever-present aspect of his personality, I'd argue it carries over to the letter. He tries to begin with polite small talk, but each topic he broaches is swiftly dismissed; once again, he can hardly bring himself to deviate from "the purpose of the message". Speaking of which, that fact — that this is the only Valentine with an explicit "purpose" — itself provides characterization. Almost as though this character would only contact us for an important reason (perhaps a character with a history of doing so, often outside the game). Almost as though we've met this character before (otherwise, I suspect Toby would've focused exclusively on characterization rather than motives, as with Lanino and Elnina).
I realize I'm getting into full speculation territory now, but hopefully I've made it clear why it's necessary to do so. Gaster's personality and motives are largely up to personal interpretation — I think we can agree that, were that not the case, the debate would be a lot more one-sided. Your interpretation of the character can't be used as conclusive evidence for your theory. Of course, I'm not exempt from this either! My interpretation could be completely off-base as well. That said, I'd like to at least explain why it all lines up in my head. (Feel free to compare my interpretation with his dialogue, which I've compiled here: https://pastebin.com/yR5Y8qhw)
Let's get the specific shared mannerisms out of the way before moving onto the more general similarities. Specifically:

• Gaster employs a specific kind of repetition, mostly limited to single words, but occasionally multiple ("OF COURSE", "SHALL WE", "THE SECOND"). We see this reflected in the letter ("BELIEVE IT SO", "WANT[ED] TO HELP", "SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN").
• He alternates between present and past tense when describing what is currently happening (seen throughout the vessel creation and save menu text). The letter writer does this multiple times.
• Perhaps a generic word choice, but the writer says "HOW ABSURD", much like how Gaster has said "HOW WONDERFUL", "HOW INTERESTING", and "HOW LONG IT HAS BEEN".

There are a couple other things that struck me as extremely Gastery, but I couldn't find many examples for them. I might just be thinking of the stilted way Toby Fox writes in status updates and newsletters, which reminds me more of Gaster than any other character... but that's a tenuous connection at best, so take these for whatever they're worth:

• The letter writer puts "VALENTINE'S DAY" in quotes. I thought there were more examples of Gaster putting random terms in quotes (it suits his general robotic-yet-whimsical demeanor), but the only ones seem to be the names you enter in the vessel creation.
• I find the phrasing "THE PURPOSE OF THE MESSAGE" (as opposed to, say, "the reason I wrote this to you") very Gastery — something about the detached feeling and repeated use of "THE" — but the only instance I could find of this particular sentence construction was "CHOOSE THE TARGET FOR THE REFLECTION", so maybe it doesn't mean much.

Moving onto the general personality, the easiest similarity to argue is the metaknowledge. Gaster introduces you to the Deltarune program, and is the only character known to acknowledge it. The letter writer is clearly interested in your thoughts on Deltarune (albeit spelled "DELTA RUNE"; beyond Toby's general inconsistency with minor details like these, I'm not sure what to make of that). The writer also acknowledges the wait between chapters, much like Gaster does — contrasting this, everyone else simply acknowledges the time that's passed within the story, perceiving two real-world years as one night. It could also be argued that Gaster is the only character who has contacted us, the player, directly.
Gaster is also known to be polite and formal, always offering greetings ("WELCOME"), gratitude ("THANK YOU FOR WAITING SO LONG"), and compliments ("YOU HAVE CREATED A WONDERFUL FORM"). We see this reflected quite well in the letter — "AS YOU ARE WAITING PATIENTLY" and "DO YOU BELIEVE IT SO?" certainly don't feel like the words of someone speaking casually. Like Gaster, the writer also uses fewer exclamation marks and contractions than most. Granted, the fact that the writer uses contractions at all is cause for suspicion... but, since they're outnumbered by the uncontracted phrases, contraction usage remains closer to Gaster than anyone else (except Toriel, I guess). Although we haven't seen Gaster use contractions in his few prior instances of dialogue... evidently, he does use them, albeit infrequently.
The formality even goes beyond word choice — his repeated backtracking on the exact order of "PUT ON YOUR COAT AND WASH YOUR FACE" brings to mind his polite accommodation of our choices in the vessel creation or save menu. It doesn't seem like him to forcefully tell us what to do, or in what order to do it, and the letter's ending serves to exaggerate that quality. He may not use any highly technical language here, but that makes sense in this less scientific context (especially when you consider that he doesn't use scientific terminology all that often anyway).
Gaster's constant emphasis on the subject at hand, saying something odd or outright wrong whenever he alludes to anything else (listing the wrong options for whatever he means by "FAVORITE BLOOD TYPE", or listing such favorite flavors as "PAIN" and "COLD") — it's always given me the impression that Gaster's transcendent brilliance doesn't extend far beyond his own work. That's not to say he's stupid, far from it, but definitely a bit "out there" (I feel this much is apparent from the multiple typing quirks he uses). At the very least it feels inarguable to me that, while Gaster is smart, he doesn't know everything, and (like any Toby Fox character) he isn't always intended to be taken 100% seriously.
Casting our gaze over to the letter, this once again checks out. Confusing the new year with the old year, considering himself to be the person he's forgotten, mixing up the recipient's face and coat — these feel more-or-less like a natural development of Gaster's established eccentricity, like the kinds of weird things that would only make sense from his unique, potentially fractured, extradimensional perspective. Sure, "THE TIME IS GOING AROUND" may not make sense to us mortal beings, but neither does "DELTARUNE GLOWS BRIGHTLY FROM YOUR HOPE". Ending a message with the archaic "GOOD BY" feels roughly equivalent to randomly putting [24] in brackets.
The increased emphasis on these quirks makes sense in this more casual context, and adds tonal consistency with the other Valentines — being a spooky creepypasta character is hard work, and I think the guy's earned a day off. The friendliness also makes it out to seem like the writer has communicated with us in the past, which wouldn't make sense for anyone other than Gaster, and certainly wouldn't have made sense in something like the vessel creation sequence. I find that it also makes sense from an extradiagetic perspective — Toby Fox is just providing characterization here, not announcing a new chapter, so there's less reason to write Gaster with as much purpose and brevity as in previous appearances.
Basically, the idea that Gaster is completely serious and grounded while the letter writer is completely goofy... I don't get it. I really don't think either of those things are true. I'm not even sure what I would change about the letter to make it sound more like Gaster... Did you expect less exclamation marks? More line breaks (which would make it overly long and monotonous, might I add)? Less whimsical turns of phrase? At that point the letter wouldn't deepen our understanding of the character at all, and I fail to see what the point would be.
And the idea that the letter ruined Gaster's character makes even less sense to me — for one, what does this letter really establish about Gaster that wasn't already alluded to? I suppose the letter makes him out to be more whimsical than most of us thought, but how is that a downgrade from "static, one-dimensional robotic scientist"? Can "whimsical scatterbrain" and "robotic scientist" not coexist? Is the gradual reveal of depth and contrasts not at the heart of most Toby Fox characters?? The directness of his speech has made him feel more like a plot device up to this point, so this letter was the first time I truly felt invested in Gaster as a character outside of his unique presentation. I don't think "saying things in a casual context that could be construed as humorous" (again, especially when he already says things like "FAVORITE BLOOD TYPE") is enough to consider him "scrunkly goober #78" — and even if it was, Toby has a way of delivering the most emotionally impactful moments through the funniest characters, so I'm not particularly worried.
All that to say: it's my belief that, even looking past the context and format, the letter aligns more closely with Gaster than any other character. Who else has such a formal and cordial composure contrasted against an air of inscrutable strangeness?

Motives and memory

Gaster hasn't exactly been transparent about his goals, and the letter writer isn't giving us a whole lot to work with either, so we're going to have to get even more speculative here. That said, the conclusion I've arrived at makes a lot of sense to me, relates to established elements of Deltarune, and even explains away some people's reasons for this not being Gaster. Those being:

1. "Gaster asks us for help, even though we've already been helping him!" This is easily explained if we assume he's asking our help with something else this time. The more casual tone and secrecy of the letter supports the interpretation that this is a less generally important, more personal matter; it's the difference between "Hey, if you don't mind, would you lend me a hand with this thing that's been on my mind?" and "I'm subjecting you to an experiment I've spent years preparing, please follow these exact instructions." I suppose it's strange that he doesn't mention how we can help, but I imagine that's something that will become clear in the future.
2. "Gaster isn't forgetful!" While I'd say it's entirely possible that Gaster has memory problems that simply hadn't been alluded to yet, I find the more likely explanation to be that there's something supernatural at play, and once again I believe this is hinted at in the letter itself. Gaster says it's "IRONIC" that he forgot something — what could this imply, beyond the fact that he was forgotten himself? (To recap the theory, Goner Kid mentions a world where they don't exist, no one acknowledges Gaster outside Fun events, and while Asgore is said to have taken a long time replacing Gaster, it's unconfirmed whether he remembered who he was replacing.) I was 50/50 on this theory myself, but I take this letter to be more-or-less confirmation of it, further tying it to Gaster. The only other explanation I can think of for this "IRONIC" line is that perhaps Gaster makes people forget things...? For the purposes of this theory, it doesn't matter too much, as it establishes a precedence for supernatural memory loss either way. Furthermore, by suggesting the person he's forgotten may be himself, he draws a direct parallel between himself and the person he's helping, lending further credence to this interpretation.

This brings us to my theory. I posit that the forgotten character is someone in similar circumstances to Gaster himself; someone who cannot be found in the story, and is instead associated with secrets outside of it (much like this letter). As an added bonus, it would help strengthen the theory if it happened to be a character who is known to call out for help, and who we've previously been requested to find (particularly in secret material outside of the game, much like this letter). If only there was a character fitting all of those criteria...
But this post isn't about that. My point is, while there's not much to glean in the way of connections between the letter person's goals and Gaster's, I don't think there's anything contradicting such connections either.
https://preview.redd.it/gswysspqtn0d1.png?width=392&format=png&auto=webp&s=248273e7bacc131cf9e9422a0aebdaeeacc6c9b6
Oh. Right, I guess there's that. If this is the same Gaster we've worked with before, why doesn't he say "YOU HAVE PROVEN YOURSELF TO BE RELIABLE"? I feel like this minor word choice could be justified by any number of explanations. For one, the phrasing makes a bit more sense within the full context: basically "you're odd, but you seem reliable regardless". You could also argue that, since he's asking something different of us this time, we haven't proven ourselves to be reliable for this specific task. Or that since we've only been assisting in the "Deltarune" project for 2 of 7 chapters, that's not enough time for him to fully consider us reliable. Or, maybe the only reason we do seem reliable to him is because we've been assisting him — otherwise we wouldn't seem reliable at all. Heck, it could just be odd phrasing for a character who constantly uses odd phrasing, only misleading under a specific interpretation.

Translation

To recap, I think the context and format convey a very clear implication — one that could be a red herring, but that I believe is only supported by the writer's personality, and (at the very least) not contradicted by their goals. Here is where I believe we come to the first hole in my argument.
The Japanese translation doesn't sound particularly close to how Gaster speaks in Japanese. I don't speak Japanese, so there's not much I can do to back up or debunk this claim — perhaps people are overlooking some of the more minor similarities, as with the English version...? Or maybe there's more nuance to the translation process than most people think, and the writing style is highly adaptive to tone, mood, context, or method of delivery, or affected by cultural differences...? I don't know, so for now I can do nothing but take it at face value, and consider what this inconsistency might imply.
People seem divided into two camps with regards to the translation: "the English version very clearly sounds like Gaster, therefore the Japanese version doesn't matter" and "the Japanese version very clearly doesn't sound like Gaster, therefore the English version doesn't matter". Frustratingly, neither of these actually address the inconsistency. If we assume it isn't Gaster, the English version clearly goes out of its way to mislead us into thinking it is (as I've already justified extensively), so why not do the same for the Japanese version? If Toby wanted to clear up ambiguity by making the Japanese version distinct from Gaster, why not do the same for the English version? Whichever way you slice it, it's a contradiction.
That said, I think there are a few things working in my favor here. For one, English is Toby's native language, as well as the most common language spoken by his fanbase. Japanese translation is handled by a different team under Toby's supervision; they had a lot of Valentines to translate, and likely a pretty strict deadline. It's believable that time constraints forced the team to prioritize accuracy to the content and tone of the letter over consistency with established text quirks.
There's also the fact that the English version is the only one to imply a clear sender (unless you want to reach and say the secrecy and metaknowledge of the Japanese version imply Gaster as well); personally, I feel inclined to believe a deliberate implication over the lack of one. Adding weight to this point, this isn't generally the sort of thing casual fans are going to speculate about — anyone who knows about the letter has likely heard of both versions, which means most will gravitate toward whichever one implies a specific identity. Because of this, the Gaster interpretation seems to prevail even in the Japanese fanbase.
Basically, I don't like that making sense of the letter forces me to either make up an arbitrary narrative explanation for the discrepancy, or to write off either the English or Japanese version as unreliable... However, this decision is made much easier by the fact that, the way I see it, only one of them provides mounds of evidence (from the context to the specific format to the anonymity to the metaknowledge to the formality to the strange mannerisms and so on) pointing toward a single interpretation.

Alternative explanations

I've seen a few other theories regarding the writer's identity, the most common of which being the idea that Gaster was shattered into multiple personalities, and that this is a different "shard" from the one we've communicated in the past — I take issue with any theory that compartmentalizes one complicated character into multiple simple ones, but I suppose it doesn't necessarily have to be done that way. There are also theories that this is the Chapter 3/4 secret boss (associated with Gaster based on precedent), Mike (associated with Gaster through Spamton), or IMAGE_FRIEND (associated with Gaster via filename conventions), some of whom may or may not be the same person.
My main argument against these theories is that I simply don't think they're necessary. To reiterate, I think the whimsy Gaster displays here is consistent with his previous characterization (we've only seen him in scientific contexts until now, and even then a bit of whimsy manages to slip through), and the forgetfulness can easily be explained as well (since it only seems to apply to one subject). Again, the only hole I can find in my interpretation is the Japanese version, and none of these theories really explain the inconsistency there, leaving us back at square one — if it's merely a character associated with Gaster as opposed to the man himself, why aren't the similarities and differences roughly the same in both versions?
These theories don't make much sense to me when I attempt to look at them from Toby Fox's perspective, either. Getting a secret Valentine from Gaster is, technically speaking, like the coolest thing ever, and I think he realizes this. If he's willing to include a secret letter with this much lore in it, why leave out such an important character we've already communicated with? And furthermore, why give a different mysterious character so many of the same characteristics we use to identify Gaster in the absence of his appearance or name?
Also, isn't it telling that the debate seems split evenly between "Gaster" and "a theoretically infinite supply of basically made-up Gaster-adjacent characters"? While these theories could end up being accurate, I don't yet see any precedence for either Gaster having multiple personalities, nor any as-of-yet unseen/nonverbal characters sounding like the letter writer; these theories simply exist to explain a contradiction that I believe isn't truly there. They embody the principle of explosion, or "from contradiction, anything follows" — if you accept that it sounds both "like Gaster" and "unlike Gaster", you can make up anything in between these possibilities, an untouchable theory that can neither be proven by evidence or disproven by counterevidence. I personally don't find that line of thought very compelling.
In the most popular video on the topic, SpookyDood analyzes the letter through cadence, language, context, and function; however, I think something is lost from analyzing these aspects separately. Cadence, language, and function are largely dependent on context. If we accept the letter into that pool of Gaster characterization rather than nitpicking it into oblivion, we simply see new patterns emerge. We see that Gaster only uses particularly large words when he's referring to something scientific. We see that Gaster is slightly more enthusiastic when there's less pressure to be serious and professional. Basically, I feel that all of the inconsistencies SpookyDood brings up are easily explained by this letter being a different narrative context from the one Gaster has previously occupied (and I presume will largely continue to occupy), which is what I find so interesting about it.
As for cadence, SpookyDood says that "[Gaster's] pattern of each few words being broken up by a line break is no longer present", but the first 3 sentences alone are divided into 6 lines. He even calls out certain sentences in the vessel creation as going against this pattern, proving that it doesn't have to be consistent — while these line breaks do define the flow of Gaster's speech, I think the frequent use of ellipses here achieve the same effect without needlessly extending the length of the image.
The video ultimately posits that the writer is the man behind the tree, and honestly, I don't entirely disagree with that conclusion. The use of "well" checks out, as does the happy mood. In the case of both "DO YOU BELIEVE IT SO?" and "He might be happy to see you. What do you think?", the text moves on without directly responding to our answer. There's also a more loose connection to be made, in that both of these questions involve reality being dependent on our thoughts (whether each day is or is not a day of love, and whether there is or is not a man there), and likewise, dropping the egg causes the narration to act as though the egg was never there. (Obviously the man himself doesn't say any of this, but the association's still there through the narration.)
The connections don't strike me as plentiful or strong enough to stand toe-to-toe with the Gaster interpretation, but without much to go off of regarding the man, it doesn't have to deal with as much counterevidence either. I'd say I have the same problem with this theory as the others I've mentioned (an excessive avoidance of contradiction such that, instead of associating with said contradictions, the letter is attributed to a character we know so little about that it can't be argued against), but there's a fairly reasonable basis for argument here.
Thing is, I don't think these interpretations are mutually exclusive. I was ambivalent toward Gaster and the man (the mystery man, you could say) being one and the same, but the letter has done a lot to sway me toward that conclusion. Strengthening the connections between the letter, the man, and Gaster are the mutual association with forgetting (due to the blog post where Noelle can't remember the name of her egg), secrets, and disappearances. The letter's contrasting of contradictory statements ("NEW YEAR" vs. "OLD YEAR", "WASH YOUR FACE" vs. "WASH YOUR COAT") call to mind both the man ("a man" vs. "not a man", "not too important" vs. "not too unimportant") and the strange someone who corrupted Jevil ("didn't make sense" vs. "didn't not make sense").
If the letter was supposed to be written by the man, but not Gaster, I imagine the letter would have been formatted like this instead:
https://preview.redd.it/igudqtpisn0d1.png?width=2500&format=png&auto=webp&s=0dd63050999a033459f6255ac671a1ac4ad4fcd9

Conclusion

Sorry, that was long. I'm done!

Now that we have some of the newer ships and vehicles it was time to test in what ships the Nursa can fit. I took my C1 from Area18 to HDMS-Pinewood. Sadly the C1 doesn't have enough space.
C1 arrived!
1) Can we use the Lynx / Ursa paints on the Nursa ?
Unfortunately, as they are considered rentals, we can't add paint to it yet, so we don't know until later this week.
2) Is there any size difference between the Lynx, Ursa and Nursa?
The Nursa has the same size as the Ursa and the Lynx has slightly smaller tyres but it's overall dimensions are the same as the other two vehicles. This means any vehicle that can carry an Ursa or a Lynx can carry a Nursa.
Ursa, Nursa and Lynx
Lynx, Nursa, Ursa
3) What is the smallest ship that can carry a Nursa?
It is the Freelancer MAX (S3)! In fact, you can carry two Nursas! You do need to use the ramp at the back to leave the second vehicle as there is not enough clearance between the tyres and the MAX' walls. When you open the ramp make sure that you press the button otherwise you may glitch into the rear turret and your MAX will not be so happy :-).
One Nursa
Two Nursas :-)
That is a tight fit!
4) What does the Nursa offer?
Besides the medical bed, the Nursa still has two passenger seats: one next to driver and one at the back. Then of course there is also the medical bed so it's really easy to transport four people with it! One thing you need to remember is that if you use the Nursa for respawn it should have the bare basics for you to get back into action but upon respawn you do get the standard white under suit and helmet so you're not completely helpless.
Nursa co-pilot seat
Nursa: Passenger seat
It has two gun racks and two side arm holders and like the C8R it comes with 2x patient storage (0.125 SCU each) for something like a two weapons, an under suit and a helmet. For larger items like armor, it's best to store them in the general storage of the Nursa (2.4 SCU storage). This large storage is also great to collect loot from bunkers! It also comes with 2x S1 Bulldog repeaters that can be controlled by either the pilot or the co-pilot (I would recommend to replace them to NN13 for smaller overall size and higher DPS so it's quicker to take out turrets).
Nursa: Patient storage
Nursa: gun racks
5) Waiting on the rework of the 600i Explorer? Want a med bay now?
Well, yes of course we still want the rework so we can bring our Nova Tank to explore. But in the mean time we already have a mobile med bay now! The nice thing of the 600i is that you have the cargo lift for the Nursa and on the sides you can still put storage containers where you can store all the material you need in case you respawn. I feel that this is one of the best combo's actually.
Nursa on the 600i elevator
Nursa parked and next to it some personal storage SCU with spare armor and weapons
Setting the respawn point in the Nursa
6) Origin too fancy? More of a Drake fan? Still waiting on the modules for the Caterpillar?
Soon™ - but at least you can now have your own med bay too. It might be a little to sterile for your liking but at least it's here. I found the MPUV-Tractor is the easiest way to load a Nursa into a cargo bay (for some reason the Caterpillar's Tractor beams didn't want to lift the Nursa and their position is not ideal anyway).
Make sure you do it from the right / starboard otherwise the Nursa gets trapped under the bridge and you can't close the bay door anymore. You can do this at any planetary zone.
Using the MPUV-Tractor to move the Nursa
Nearly there!
Perfect fit!
7) What ships can carry the Nursa? Well any that can carry an Ursa or a larger vehicle. Examples:

• S3: Freelancer MAX
• S4: Constellation series, Corsair, MSR, Valkyrie,
• S5: Caterpillar (with some help), C2/M2/A2, Carrack, Starfarer Series, Hammerhead
• S6: 890 Jump

8) Medical gameplay - Respawning at a T3 bed - is there a maximum range?
In the patch notes it is mentioned that respawning is now active in T2 and T3 beds. Before it was only T2 beds. T3 has a range of 20 KM and T2 has now a range of 50KM (this was 20 KM before according the patch notes but I was able to respawn from much further away in the 890 and Carrack).
Now with the reintroduction of respawning at T3 beds it was time to test it out but before I did that I set my respawn point at the nearest space station: Everest Harbor. I also used this moment to refill on my drinks and foods. As you notice in the screen shot all the medical beds at stations (and planetary cities) are T1 and they have an unlimited range.
Station: Tier 1 bed
Time to fly out and crash. I found that as mentioned in the patch notes I was able to respawn to the Nursa when less than 20 KM away. In the next attempt I flew 53 KM away and again I returned to the Nursa- this may be a bug or a feature ;-).
Respawned in the Carrack :-)
Notice that when you respawn in the Nursa you will automatically get an undersuit and helmet to get you back on your feed. Of course if you want to recover your gear you need to find your body (body markers are working fine 90% of the time in 3.23.1).
The Nursa gives you a free under suit and helmet :-)
Extra: Ships with medical bays
Final note: besides the Nursa there are of course already ships in-game that can respawn. These are currently in game:

• S1: C8R (1x Tier 3)
• S3: Cutlass Red (2x Tier 3)
• S5: Carrack (1x Tier 2)
• S6: 890 Jump (1x Tier 2)

o7!

https://preview.redd.it/nckn1ql6xn0d1.png?width=1642&format=png&auto=webp&s=21506c7610ebf19c6acc15ca495c44251ab5b579
DISCLAIMER: I think there are already a lot of great "guide to 52X" scores on this subreddit. A lot of this is just written as context before my last month of studying, the studying I did was honestly super haphazard up until that point so I recommend looking at how other guides tell you to study for those earlier months. Feel free to skip to the last 5 weeks, but if you want to compare your progress before that last month to mine I've written out background. I would come to this guide when you need a reminder of the fact that you will make plans and your plans might backfire, but you can still end up doing well.
I've always been a crammer, have never been the type to be able to stick to a set amount of anki cards a day over a long time period (this sucks! I actively am working to change this attitude). I also didn't feel like I knew much from my classes (especially in orgo, genchem, and biochem) since again, I generally tend to cram, take the exam, and forget all of what I learned. Going into studying, my biggest worry was that I didn't have a lot of background knowledge that I remembered.
Background:

• 2 months studying (5.5 weeks content review, 2.5 weeks uworld) summer 2023. Ended up taking sample unscored a month before my august test date, getting a 507, and then deciding to reschedule to March.
  • Biggest takeaways: spent too long getting bogged down on details of content review, avoided practice questions on I was bad at instead of tackling them head on, did not stay consistent with anki. Also barely studied psych at all
• August to January: did not study, was in last sem of college
• 1.5 months Mid January - end of feb (content re-do with anki, and uworld): I felt like I got a decent overview of content from the summer, so even if I forgot the details, it now felt like I was starting studying at the same place as everyone who had retained information from their undergrad classes.
  • Typical day looked like: 1 section uworld C/P or bio + review, ~70 cards of anki/day + more reviews, reading 20 pages of psych. Studied for 4 days / week, took an FL on 5th day, then had rest day or hospital shift on the other 2 days.
  • By the end of Feb, I had finished around 27% of uworld (I reset it after the summer), and done anki with reviews for bio. Had also clicked through MD anki for orgo genchem and physics but didn't do reviews for these since i used it as a refresher

Practice test scores from mid Jan through March: FL1 509, 510 (retook sample), FL2 513 (127 across all sections except 132 CARS somehow), Fl3 513 on March 5th. I seemed to be plateauing around the low 510s, so I decided to push my test date back one more month to the 4/13 date.
Took a few days break where i just passively clicked through some of pankow psych and watched mamma mia and random other shit
Last 5 weeks of studying:
At this point the cramming panic somehow hit, and I was set on the fact that it was time to lock the fuck in. From March 5th to April 9th (5 weeks) I went from a 513 -> 522 on my Fls. I remember scrolling through this reddit and reading about people saying it's only possible to increase scores by a few points in the last month, and was kind of doomspiraling because of these posts and comments. I think it's so important to realize that everyone is in a different situation, and you can't generalize a score increase that one person had to what you will have without evaluating your strengths/weaknesses with theirs -- which is why I'm going to try and give as many details as possible on why I think I was able to make this improvement.

• Started using Uworld as a LEARNING TOOL instead of an assessment tool. After all the work so far I was doing ok on timing for the sections, so I used tutored and untimed mode on uworld. I reshaped my mindset to "i am so fucked bc im getting these wrong" to "there is a month left for this exam, I now know why I got this wrong and it's going to at least be in my short term memory for the exam". This was just an exercise in gaslighting myself into confidence, and it seemed to work -- the mindset change made me a lot more motivated, and things felt a lot less disheartening once I stopped caring about what my uworld averages looked like.
• Week 1: Up until this point, I had still not covered the psych content in full since the science sections were "scarier" to me. Would average 127 on my psych sections on previous FLs. Took one week to go through psych Uworld in full, wrote all of my missed questions into an anki MQL deck. Clicked through 100 cards MD a day the week after that (while doing uworld physics) to finish the deck, did not do reviews (this was ridiculous tbh like do your reviews LMAOO). On March 19th, 2 weeks after my 513 on FL3, I scored a 517 on FL4 with 3 points of that increase coming from psych. I think this was mostly due to doing all of uworld psych + going hard on reviewing my uworld sections
• Week 2 and half of week 3: Did uworld for sections that I was bad at -- I had spent about 1.5 weeks going through 75% of the uworld physics questions and uworld orgo questions, and then targeting areas I had weaknesses in for genchem on uworld. After this, I felt a lot more comfortable with the science sections given the background I had already had from doing anki
• Halfway point: 2.5 weeks left until my exam, I started AAMC material. I had done the chem SB and half of the bio SB already, but had not touched the rest of it. In retrospect, give yourself 3 weeks for AAMC material at LEAST, or be prepared to be ok with not finishing all of the material like I did. Bio/chem qpacks and AAMC discretes had not seemed super difficult to me, so I skipped the second bio qpack and half of chem. I finished all of the material except bio qpack 2, half of chem qpack, AAMC discretes, half of CARS qpack1, and CARS qpack2. THAT SAID, the rest of the shit was so hard. The only thing that kept me going was my "this is a learning tool not an assessment tool" mindset and thinking that I was learning things from making these mistakes.
• CONTENT BLITZES (!!!!!): At this point, I knew my strengths and weaknesses, so I actively tackled my weaknesses by going back and clicking through anki chapters/looking at videos for the specific topics I know I was bad at. I made one page "guides" on them, and from the last month of studying ended up having 40 looseleaf pages of "guides" that I looked through 3x -- twice in the 2 weeks leading up to the exam, and once the morning of my exam (oof). This was INCREDIBLY helpful since it made me feel like there was no topic that I would be scared to get on the exam, since I now felt like I had at least a baseline understanding of most things.
• random game changer: found this MCAT AI tool (based on chatGPT). Used it to upload screenshots of practice qs and get the AI explanation
• Took FL5 on April 9th, and scored a 522. I was so fucking happy im ngl
• Ended up finishing about 43% of uworld with a 73% average, but again I was using it as a learning tool
• LAST 2 DAYS: funny funny funny story is that I never properly reviewed any of my FLs (had reviewed C/P for half of them). this is because reviewing sections i made a lot of mistakes on is something I loathe since it takes me fucking forever and its so much work to figure out why I got things wrong, condense that into a few sentences, and then put that in an anki card. So during my last 2 days I finished reviewing the C/P B/B sections (went faster since now i knew a lot more), but still didn't review any of my P/S or CARS sections. this was stupid imma be honest

Final score: 521 (131/129/130/131) on 4/13 exam

• was part of the people that had the glitch, somehow I just made the assumption that the breached qs were experimental qs and it thankfully didn't interrupt me that much other than the 5min it took for the proctor to look at it. I later absolutely freaked out about the implications of the glitch post exam

Final Musings:

• VERY MUCH do regret skipping the CARS qpacks, but I was feeling a bit more confident about CARS after reshaping my mindset to "this is such an interesting passage and I am actually so FUCKING excited to read about this because its literally hidden knowledge that was declassified or like recovered from the library of alexandria" and seeing better performance after that. Once again, literally just an exercise in gaslighting yourself. I also knew that if I were to finish CARS I would be sacrificing part of studying for my other sections. Still quite happy with my score though so like womp womp i guess it didn't matter LMFAO
• LAST DAY: "dont study on your last day" I was a fucking adrenaline junkie and was absolutely determined to cover the things that I needed to cover in order to feel confident going into the exam (did not do any practice, thats draining). So I studied longer than I have ever studied in 1 day, clicked through all of bio anki / anki on sections i was bad at from 7am to 10pm straight with only a one hour break from 3-4pm where i walked around my house in a haze. I dont recommend this per se, but I guess I am an example of it not entirely fucking me over (but n=1).
• Biochem last 4 chapters I mostly learned by writing out the pathways in a giant map
• Morning of: once again I was in my insane era and studied from 6:15-6:45am, then again in the car from 7am - 7:39am. I took 5 minutes to clear my mind and touch grass outside my test center until 7:45, then walked in and had 7:45-8:10 to clear my mind and not think about anything before I started my exam
• please review your fls before the last 2 days dawgz
• MINDSET IS HUGE. part of why I think I had such a score increase was 1) actually doing psych 2) CONVINCING myself that I was improving and on the right track. Control f everywhere i said "gaslight" and ingrain that shit in your mind because it is actually so powerful
• for the last month of studying i holed up in my apartment and did not see any of my friends (maybe left my apartment 3 times ever?). it was horrible but i was like this is a sacrifice i need to make, also fits the crammer description very well. my only breaks were blasting 2010s hits and country music and dancing to it in my room and also making an ominous classical music playlist (top song of march was mozart's lacrimosa lmaoo)

*******OPENING MY SCORE: I was so fucking scared the day before and even more so the morning of. That said, I knew I had tried as much as I could given the general exhaustion and the wacky way I studied. Honestly I thought I would feel happier after opening my score, instead I felt relief but there was no surge of happiness. Still kind of feel empty, I think it hasn't hit yet. Am in theory very happy though, I remember imagining how happy I would be if i got a score like this. I think this also just goes to say there is life outside of this exam and getting a solid score isn't always like some magical thing but also it is DEFINITELY a relief
In retrospect you should honestly just use this to learn from my mistakes because there were MANY, but I think there is also some helpful advice in here. Am really just hoping this helps at least one person even if its pure yap to 99% of other people. tbh im not proofreading this like im not reading all that again LMFAO but If anyone reads this far and has questions on specific FL section breakdowns or anything else I'm happy to answer! good luck my bitches I believe in you fr