“Bingo!” The call echoed through the hall, followed by the collective groans of the other assembled Hellspawn. Askeraz the Malfeasant looked away from the trapped heroes and towards his demon army. They cowed.
“What was that?” Askeraz asked, his voice carried every shadow of the night.
“Uh, sorry, your Dark Lordliness, please ignore me.”
Askeraz looked at the heroes. He had been in the middle of his victory speech. Shouldn’t he just continue? This was his moment of triumph but-
“Let me see what you’re holding,” Askeraz commanded as he held out a fell hand toward the demons. The Demon that had yelled bingo, Kalim the Fleshrender, sheepishly handed the card to Askeraz, who began reading.
He was aghast at the first square.
“Tremble before me?” Askeraz asked, indignant. Based on the other squares, he’d already figured out what the card was. They were playing bingo with his speech but… “Tremble before me is a staple of the craft! A victory speech without it is a classless rant!”
“Sorry sir.”
“And beside it! ‘All Hope is Lost’. Pardon, you might as well be asking me not to use vowels!”
The heroes, trapped in the Soul Cage, were, almost, more confused than frightened. Almost.
“Sorry again, sir.”
Askeraz held out his free hand and collected another card. He repeated the process frantically, checking each and every entry that the Hellspawn had brought to the moment of his triumph.
That they were playing bingo right now? Bad enough, but considering victory was partially about celebration Askeraz could forgive party games. What he couldn’t forgive was the lack of understanding inherent in the cards. That had to be corrected now.
Askeraz waved an arm, and hellish magic swallowed the souls of the heroes. While they screamed, he approached his assembled generals.
“To begin, if you’re including ‘Behold my power’ on the card, you might as well have a free space. Konrad the Black, one of the original masters of dark triumphant speech, a wretched man who truly codified the forms of the modern art, said in his Soulbinding Treatise that a speech which does not include reverence to power, should not be considered a victory, nor a speech.”
Askeraz pulled out a large scroll for notes and continued. “Additionally the position of phrases on the grid completely ignore the accepted structure of the genre. For example, fundamental structural understanding is that a speech cannot have a reference to the power of light and dark within the opening of the monologue. It’s poor form. Both light and shadow motifs are central to the theming of closing statements. If you look into the research of Brimhilda Bladeheart—one of my favorite scholars of the craft—it’s clear her ideas on genre and managing audience expectation are central to my execution. I hope it’s clear at least. She’s an inspiration.”
Askeraz trailed off. There was just so much wrong. He snatched the cards away. He would show them. He would craft a tense game of bingo, where the chance of victory was equal on each card based on a proper understanding of the sacred art of villainous monologue. None of this new-age free-form hippy bullshit. Before he could make a game, though, there were more lessons to teach….
“And furthermore!”

So I’ve returned after about a year break and from bronze through silver 95% of the people that I have played against have had the exact same deck, and the exact same strategy, and the exact same place style. This leads me to believe they are bots.
For example, these people do not protect themselves, won’t make favorable trades on high threat cards that have one health left, they just do all face. The cards that they are using are all basic cards and it seems that each player is using the exact same cards. What gives?

I work with a team of 7 frontend engineers, 1 of them being our FE architect.
TLDR: the team wants to go frameworkless and just use the web platform and I have concerns that it'll actually mean we'll end up rolling our own framework. We already ship super slowly IMO because of the tech choices and this will make the problem worse.
The longer version is, I think the team made some tech choices based on incomplete information and chose to use a new framework vs some more battle tested ones. They leaned into some patterns to optimize for performance at the trade off of complexity and debugging.
A year later those trade offs don't appear to be worth it. We have a small user base and they all have high speed connections in offices using laptops or desktops. They've explicitly said they don't have any interest in a mobile application.
Now the team wants to drop this complexity since we're not getting the ROI from it. But they want to go frameworkless. This is where I get uncomfortable. As it is today, we ship features slow. I've worked at much larger company's with questionable infrastructures and we shipped comparable features in a 3rd of the time conservatively. A lot of our lack of velocity comes from using tech that isn't as battle tested as well known frameworks like React for example.
I've seen our devs push back on stuff like creating a drop-down box with a filterable list of items... Some form of this component has existed in every shop I've worked at, this is a solved problem. It can be challenging if we roll our own especially with respect to getting accessibility right... We're constantly compromising in areas that should be relatively trivial. I can't even imagine what the designers and product manager think sometimes.
Now they want to drop the framework, roll with web platform for everything. We have a few teams now that own vertical slices of the app these days. As we scale we're looking for deployment isolation. In this new world the leading suggestion is, we can roll our own module federation. And I mean roll our own. The only talk about solving for reactivity and binding app state to the Dom is we'll use lit which I don't think fully addresses the concern.
On the team, I'm seemingly the only one who doesn't think this is a great idea. But the way I see it, we're going to end up building custom solutions for all kinds of crap (that are already solved problems) and we won't call it a framework... Cuz that's a dirty word now. Then we'll end up having to maintain this collection of custom tooling instead of shipping business value
I feel like at some point the business is going call shenanigans on us and get an overseas team at half the cost to ship faster and the quality won't even suffer much because they won't be riding the newest tech trends where we're constantly hitting pitfalls.
Any of you been through something like this and if so how did it turn out?

Now that MultiVersus has returned, there is debate as to whether the game arrived with either positive or negative additions to the now fully finished, polished, and launched game. Many argue that the new mechanics have actually improved on the gameplay from the Open Beta alongside other neat additions, while others argue that the execution of the Beta versions gameplay amongst other details were remarkably better than the excuse for a finished game in these people's minds. In my opinion, the Open Beta beats the Official Games "quality" by a huge landslide, and here is why I believe that.

1. "The Camera Zoom And Slow Paced Gameplay:" A lot of people seem to be aware of the camera zoom system that was implemented in MultiVersus (Which by the way, cannot be modified to where it is completely gone), alongside the dramatically slower movement. It seems that a possible reason for why Player First Games included this monstrosity of an addition was because of players reporting the spam of attacks in matches alongside the seemingly way too swift gameplay, which of course lead to Player First Games including the previously mentioned implementations in the relaunch, thinking that players would "think outside the box" with attacks when playing. Back in the Open Beta days, there was a little something called "Attack Decay!" Sounds wonderful right? Well, my friend, here is a description of this glorious mechanic; Attack Decay basically made opponents attempts at spamming attacks utterly useless! This mechanic rewarded players who were already thinking creatively when utilizing their fighters moveset splendidly, but it seems that everyone at Player First Games thought that this aid for players who aren't spamming the same move forgot its existence to where it is M.I.A in the Official Game. About the fast-paced gameplay, let me present a question; Do you really prefer the new slow-paced gameplay, or the way the movement worked in the Open Beta? The movement was arguably floaty during the Beta days, but you would think that the gameplay that for the most part did not need any fixing whatsoever (in most peoples eyes) would be perfected by only editing the very small grievances and glitches in this way of playing the game, right? Nope; we would instead get gameplay that really shows the transparency of the playable characters not fitting in the new gameplay style at all (Iron Giants meets the Dexter's Laboratory Map for example) that seemingly only a small portion of players seem to be content with. I am willing to bet that if a dedicated fighting game enthusiast were to playtest both the Open Beta and Official Game versions of MultiVersus, the enthusiast would prefer the Open Beta's almost near perfect fluidity that was fun to participate in compared to the clunkiness of the Official Game that feels like a chore to play through after a couple of matches.
   
2. "The Corporate Similarities To Other Free To Play Games:" From the removal of the beautifully drawn 2D renders in game to make way for the ugliest 3D renders, to the layout of the Fighters menu quite literally being the FTP Battle Royale Locker, to the exclusion of a proper fighting game character select screen, almost everything about the new UI for MultiVersus screams "Fortnite" and "Stumble Guys'" unoriginality instead of a celebration of a company's Intellectual Properties with colorful, vivid, and creative design that actually was in the Open Beta. When you launch a game like Super Smash Bros or any MARVEL VS. CAPCOM game besides Infinite, you can feel the authentic love and passion poured into every single aspect of the game. When you log on MultiVersus, you are bombarded with microtransactions that probably cost as much as a wedding ring when accumulated together. Adding to these problems, fighters who should be carefully selected and handpicked with the intent of being well thought-out inclusions to the roster are treated like the average skin that adds no value to the gameplay in the average FTP game. So many people are fine with the idea of MultiVersus having an infinite number of character slots and franchises one day that could give Fortnite's colossal library of franchises a run for its money, but has anyone thought about the example of not having every participant in a baseball game receiving the big trophy, as well as keeping the roster at a reasonable limit to avoid having the roster the same size as a MultiVersus fan roster on DeviantArt? We have characters like Banana Guard before Scooby Doo, Samurai Jack, and many other characters who are objectively better picks for a celebration of Warner Bros as a whole; and yes, every good fighting game has a good selection of joke characters, but MultiVersus has not even reached the excellence of other platform fighters with their current strategy (putting emphasis on the most laughable and unnecessary aspects of a game) to add a joke character in a roster that has missing combatants that are way more important to Warner Bros history. But hey, Warner Bros and Player First Games have to make that green paper somehow, and they more than likely don't care about the fact that adding a "Passion Project" like Banana Guard before Daffy Duck is a massive slap to the face to people who want beloved characters added to the game that are not treated as muses to sell rubbish.
   
3. "Miscellaneous Stuff That Doesn't Need It's Own Category!!!:"
   

The Minigames are boring and suck for the most part, except for the Target minigame.
The coloring of the opponent and allies team color on the fighters looks atrocious and weird.
The game has crashed and disconnected over 20 times due to lag that will come at you even if you had the best Wi-Fi and/or Internet on the planet.
If they were trying to make the graphics better with Unreal Engine 5, they failed miserably! Everything looks shiny and gross compared to the Open Betas graphics. "Work Smarter Not Harder" I guess.
The new dash attacks feel very clunky most of the time.
The scrapped Guilds mode sounds a lot better than Rifts mode. They are more or less the same, but the details about Guilds sound much more interesting than what we got in Rifts.
You cannot play as characters you don't own in offline modes such as "The Lab." (They took out the Training map from the game too)
Hopefully everything gets fixed, as I do want the game to succeed and be in the greatest state it can be because right now, everything is a dumpsterfire compared to the very low lows of the Open Beta days. If you guys have your own problems with the game or have anything to say about the game, leave a comment and have a great day!

The idea that humans in large numbers lack competency, and so therefore a conspiracy would be practically impossible completely misses the point. Actually, the fact that humans are insanely incompetent and low-information is why conspiracies are everywhere and almost never go noticed. In fact, people DO speak up often and whistleblow and NO ONE LISTENS.
Part of the issue here is epistemological. We think we know about the world. Why do we think that? First of all, human brains are built to conceive of about 150 people around them. Urbanization breaks our brains, and because we're not built for it, we consistently process our impression of society wrong.
School and media are huge and very simply blunt instruments to provide us with a better impression of the massive urban society around us. Most of what we think we know comes from here. Yes, it's true that false information can be contradicted and humans actually can be quite logical with plain, clear facts. However, we have other social instincts which prevent this from happening.
We humans mostly tend to intuitively perceive what kinds of beliefs others have and give massive weight to that while filtering possibly complex or confusing facts in our heads. While some of us and some cultures are much more sophisticated and cynical about media, there are TONS of demographics (i.e.: young women) who psychologically interpret literally anything the media presents as representative of the actual tastes and preferences of that abstract 150 people the brain is built to perceive. Simply because the media exists and promotes one point of view, it means that this must be the position of those in the tribe with power.
Experienced, educated professionals will constantly filter inconvenient information in favor of adjusting to what the group believes. Smarter, 110-130 IQ "midwits" will actually recognize something is wrong, but will rationalize the emotional inconvenience and build explanations or narratives so they can cope. <110IQ people can't construct these rationalizations, and if they're low-IQ enough they can't even understand them, so this is why dumb people often perceive conspiracies that highly intelligent people observe, because the layer of rationalization doesn't appear to them. >140 IQ literally cannot use these rationalizations because their brains see right through them and you have to be a psychopath to ignore what you see. 110-130 IQ people ACTUALLY BELIEVE these rationalizations, that's the point. They ego invest in them and will fight their own kin to squash anyone noticing malicious behavior systemic to institutions. This is partly because, these midwits as the supreme managerial class, so effectively rationalize, they can operate in corrupt environments without being aware of the corruption. Thus they are rewarded immensely, given titles or big salaries, and become personally invested in the fraud while also consciously believing there's no fraud.
As an adult who has noticed all this from experience in the military, ecclesiastical, academic, corporate (never medical sadly) sectors, these patterns seem universal. You know the store manager who has the keys to lock up? Well, when they open up to their buddies and drink a little of the merchandise and throw a little party or whatever, if corporate can't tell, then why wouldn't they? Not everyone who has power will abuse it, but anywhere power is held, someone will abuse it. Abuse of power is a very casual thing, and at a minimum, some percentage of human personality types will always do it. The go-getters and doers especially trend toward a willingness to abuse power, and that's part of the problem. Other humans have specific instincts to submit to the powerful and almost take pleasure when they are on the good side of a psychopath who is abusing a third party.
Here you might say, "Gee, you have a cynical view of humanity." Sorry, the day a college kid can stand up and assert a point of view that's not social consensus, and have even 10% of the class change their minds and support him merely from considering the argument, then maybe I'll be more optimistic. No, people are cowards who are constantly trying to fit in, mostly most people are pretty dumb, and actually most people disdain those who refuse to fit in and don't care at all about the group's corruption. See, kids who are instinctively socially breaking from their parents will oppose the society of their parents. But kids will never oppose, not ever, not at scale, the social momentum of other kids unless there are other kids of clear divisions like racial or religious.
Therefore, I would propose that not only is society full of conspiracies at every level, but actually society functions on the basis of conspiracy. Small group loyalties and hierarchies form nodes around which institutional structure can build larger organizations. I was in the military which is full of formal authority, laws and rules. The reality of it is all that was a distraction to make people put up with a system that is more about little cliques among officers and so forth that sort everything out behind closed doors. Sure, norms, laws, rules, training smooth things out, allow interchangeability, but real decisions are made selfishly by some leader and they have quidproquo with colleagues and that bubbles up to the top. So whatever stupid beliefs they have about their organization or its values, they take with them to the top where someone like a general wields real power. Yet, such a person is sort of "endowed" with that position by his clique-community, and so they must fight for that community's values in the confines of that community's worldview, which might be totally inaccurate.
With this in mind, here is your final graduation thought experiment.
I've tried to understand the Ukraine war.
Right now Russia is playing on its former Soviet era diplomatic network so it's leaning into "white neocolonialists who think they have superior values exploit brown people because of theft and racism." But they're also simultaneously playing the newer, libertarian narrative of a progressive managerial elite which has hijacked the Western bureaucracy. It's sort of insane how they do this. Like how they exalt Orthodox religion but also insist Stalin did nothing wrong, which not even the post-Stalin USSR believed.
The anti-neocolonialist narrative says that rich whites want to steal resources from poor browns. This is factually what's happening, but the tragic irony is that many third world countries probably couldn't develop or benefit from these resources without first world help. So, there's both an argument against neo-colonialism, but also an argument that it's not like this big scam so much as a natural consequence. What it boils down to for me is where war, jackal economics or espionage is used. That's clearly wrong, and I think a lot of poor countries would be doing a lot better without these interventions, although I don't think they'd be rich and developed.
Well, the West actually is anti-neocolonialist too. Globalists want smart cities, AI economy, UBI, CBDC. They want rural white Americans to be the same level of poor as rural Africans, and for the gains of exploiting natural resources to be concentrated among a global elite, which although unfair, is not exclusive to borders. The geopolitical unfairness of neocolonialism will be addressed by Globalism. And its elite will be very small compared to the global proletariat they intend to have.
This is all very ironic since the globalist machine is playing the Euro-chauvinism card to appeal to Euro elites, and also the American exceptionalism card to appeal to American nationalists. They're playing whatever cards they have, like Russia.
So this is all I know: the West is lying to some of its lesser elites by paying lip service to their values. Russia is playing its old USSR geopolitics card while also playing a trad Orthodox card, while also playing an anti-globalist card.
I KNOW that the West is globalist, the leadership that is. So NATO must lose, because the globalists will certainly win if NATO wins. However, I fear the other side might also be globalists and the whole conflict is an anti-white, anti-Western charade meant to displace the old Euro elites and American nationalists.
That's the irony. Globalists control the West, but have to constantly deal with these older elite factions, so they could be using the war as a purge in a way.
It's hard to explain why the globalist-American leadership needed this conflict so bad. Probably it's all a shitshow gone wrong. This is where my explanation of how conspiracies function comes into play.
Neocons thought the would reinvigorate interest in the military but it hasn't. Like a new patriotism and interest in military power and funding.
Ukrainian Jews might have thought they could purge the Slavs and make a second Jewish homeland but that's probably off the table due to the failed counter offensive.
Russia's hopes of exercising their historical and cultural hegemony to settle the conflict have failed, when Ukrainian deep state operatives assured them they were still on the same old team.
Stupid nationalists who are somehow blind to the globalists and think the American economy is "doing great" probably thought this could be a knockout blow to Russia's meddling in certain geostrategic resource deals that affected American hegemony over Europe. This is a legacy of the British "can't let Europe become a world power" prerogative. The kind of dumb monkey legacy deep state geopolitical prerogatives that these idiots cling to while ignoring the other players around them.
So there are members of the British and American diplomatic-military-intelligence communities who are seemingly oblivious to what globalism is, or the imminent collapse of the Anglo-American financial hegemony. They actually believe the financial journalism. They are playing out a specific strategy from their class or clique or culture's history which is about keeping Europe down. So they are acting from that vantage and are acting as a conspiracy.
There are Euro elites acting from the vantage of actual vestigial colonialist attitudes where they actually think that Europe of all places is a bastion of Western values. While this class is completely morally degenerate, what they really mean is there is a class of elites in Europe that actually thinks the whole world outside of white Europe are actually just dumb monkeys. Not metaphorical. They are committed to all this, as a conspiracy that exercises influence as a conspiracy, because of this idiotic, low-information attitude.
Then there's the globalists who have all kinds of plans, and have even got Russia and China and India to adopt some of their financial technologies in preparation for their Great Reset. And this is done because of their massive influence over global business. As a conspiracy. And yet, while massively influential, they don't outright control Russia or China and their plants are constantly falling short. I'd say the globalists are trying to act as a conventional "illuminati" style conspiracy.
But the point is what I said in the beginning. Even these powerful, highly competent cliques have huge blind spots and huge power gaps because humans are in fact highly incompetent in large numbers.
I get a clique trying very hard to influence things and just falling short of being able to do it, but what boggles my mind is that a lot of these conspiracies who KNOW they are conspiracies who KNOW the world is a stage for the common sheep and KNOW the basic nature of deep state and intelligence games that are played. Even these people will not see past their own biases or egos, and fail to see lies in front of their own faces.
Because conspiracy is natural to humans. We do it naturally, so we engage in illicit collusion and cliquishness, but we don't necessarily see or realize where it's happening outside of our brain's 150 person social perception. Which to me is the oddest thing.

TLDR: Add some rare traits that can negate some of the negative mood de-buffs that might apply to pawns from their ideology i.e. a Noble Melee/Despised Ranged colony having a pawn with a trait that allows him to wield ranged weapons without the typical "Wielding a Despised Weapon" mood de-buff.
One of the greatest additions to Rimworld has to be the Ideology DLC as it brings prime roleplay potential to our story generator. The ability to pick and choose exactly how your colony is going to play out to allow specialized stories based on whatever you feel most motivated to play right now is beyond amazing, yet I believe the integration to the base game can be significantly improved.
The first major thing that I can think of is to improve on the noble/despised weapon selections as you might remove half of the game's combat from early to mid-game as the mood de-buff is difficult to combat when you're low on drugs early on, or it just might not be worth having to micromanage your rocket launcher pawn when you notice a particularly large mech raid approaching full of lancers that'll destroy your early-mid game melee pawns that have weak armor, few or no shield belts, and no jump packs.
The easiest way to combat this issue would be to have some traits negative about specific parts of an ideology, such as Honorable Fighter, a pawn that wouldn't face a mood de-buff from utilizing melee weapons that would otherwise be despised. This can be extended to many parts of ideology such as removing the required apparel for some roles via a trait or even cosmetic things such as an animal Recon Helmet prefeforced style via a trait even when you don't have the style as a part of your ideology. My primary thoughts on this idea have mainly been focused on the combat aspect, as I simply love the story of some rare pawn you manage to cut the leg off of that has the mystical trait that allows him to use ranged weapons in your Noble melee colony and you get to recruit/convert him.
My playstyle plays a lot into this idea as well as I love "main character" combat pawns that get all the juicy bionics and can act as a solo raiding party late midgame. I also thought a bit about SrGrafo's Tales from the Rim comic series and the Sniper (I forgot his name...) in the peaceful rice-farming colony (the Fireflies?).
Overall, I believe that a small addition that could create interest in "main character" based stories on the Rim would be having very rare (or expensive in character creator) traits that allow the pawn to bypass some of the mood de-buffs that come with specific ideologies. Let me know your thoughts or if there are any additions!
(P.S. If anyone can recommend me a good combination for a Dune ideology (with Vanilla Ideology Expanded) I'd appreciate it! So far I'm thinking Islamic Origin, Blood Court, Raiders, Human Primacy, Elders)

(PART 1) https://www.reddit.com/fantasybooking/s/TFDKfdWs5m
Road To Over The Edge
The night after Backlash, Vince McMahon demanded to know the whereabouts of Stephanie. The Undertaker was absent from the show, but The Jackyl assured Vince that she was safe in the arms of the Lord of Darkness. The Jackyl challenged Vince to meet him in the parking lot and beat the answers out of him if he really wanted to know. Vince stormed to the parking lot, only to be jumped by Mideon. Vince would easily fight him off, but was nearly run down by the ominous hearse at full speed that had crept in arena parking lots for months.
Shane McMahon began to forcefully insert himself as the leader of The Corporation and it started with The Rock. After failing to take back the WWF Championship from Stone Cold at Backlash, Shane fired The Rock from The Corporation and cemented it with a slap to the face. A Rock Bottom to Shane was interjected by Triple H, Chyna, Big Boss Man, and The Mean Street Posse, who put a beat down on The Rock. On the pilot episode of SmackDown! Shane completely usurped control from Vince McMahon over The Corporation and kicked him along with his stooges, Pat Patterson, Gerald Briscoe, and Sgt. Slaughter out of the group.
His reason? Vince lost focus. Shane stated that Vince only cared about Stephanie instead of the bigger picture which was The Ministry. Shane was also disgusted that Vince not only became so accepting of a reject like Mankind, but that he seemed to have more of a bond with Mankind than his own son. Big Show, Ken Shamrock, and Test refused to side with Shane and willingly departed The Corporation to stand by Vince’s side. Shane promised that under his leadership and vision, The Corporation would succeed in erasing The Ministry where Vince failed.
The pilot SmackDown! concluded with the Black Wedding. Shane was hesitant to interfere and stop the wedding out of fear that it could be a set up. Former Corporation members, Ken Shamrock and Big Show attempted to put a wrench in the plans for the wedding, but both were taken out by the Deadman with a baseball bat. Finally, Stone Cold Steve Austin would emerge and crash the wedding, managing to fight off most of The Ministry, whilst also saving Stephanie.
Vince would go on to form The Union that was comprised of Mankind, Ken Shamrock, Big Show, and Test. The Rock stepped in as an ally and unofficial member of The Union to assist in bringing down The Ministry as well as sticking it to The Corporation for his unceremonious removal a few months prior. Stone Cold vs Undertaker for the WWF Championship, Rock vs HHH, and a Triple Threat Elimination tag team match pitting the Mideon and Viscera, Mankind and Big Show, and Boss Man and Shane were the 3 big matches going into Over The Edge. Though Stephanie had been rescued from her horrific situation, her demeanor underwent a transformation in the weeks leading up to the PPV, seeming to constantly be in a zoned out state of shock.
Over The Edge
● Mideon and Viscera def. Mankind and Big Show and Shane McMahon and Big Boss Man in a Triple Threat Elimination Tag Team match
Big Show and Mankind were surprisingly the first team eliminated after The Ministry and The Corporation formed a brief alliance to work against them. The commentators were surprised to see Shane forming an alliance of any kind with The Ministry after all they’d done the last few months, but Shane’s hatred for Mankind, feeling Vince favored him more, would always cause him to act irrationally.
Boss Man and Shane seemed to be on their way to scoring a win over Mideon and Viscera after Chyna had attacked Mideon with the ring bell, while the referee was distracted, but The Brood and The Acolytes would soon get involved. With chaos fraying the referee’s attention on the match, Gangrel would spit blood in Shane’s eyes, allowing The Ministry to take the win after a double Chokeslam on Shane.
● The Rock def. Triple H via DQ after interference from Chyna
● The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer def. Stone Cold Steve Austin to win the WWF Championship
While the first few minutes of the match started off hard hitting, it didn’t take long for interferences to come into play. Just as Austin hit a Stunner on Taker, Shane McMahon ran down and attacked the ref to stop the pin. Shane’s delusional intention was for Undertaker to win the title, so that a member of The Corporation could beat him for the title and stop The Ministry. Shane would grab a steel chair and waffle Austin in the head with it. Vince would run down and tackle Shane, which led to Union and Corporation members running out and brawling to the back.
Moments later, Stephanie McMahon came walking towards the ring with a box in her hand, similar to the one that contained her teddy bear months earlier. She entered the ring and opened the box that was revealed to contain…..the urn! As Austin and Taker rose to their feet simultaneously, Stephanie glanced at the urn and then both men, before bashing Austin in the head with the urn.
Undertaker would capitalize with a Tombstone Piledriver, while Paul Bearer revived the referee to make the 3 count pin. The fans and commentators were stunned at what they were witnessing. A seemingly entranced Stephanie dropped to one knee and took an Undertaker style bow before the urn as Bearer rose it up and fire exploded from the turnbuckles. Stephanie McMahon was now property of The Ministry of Darkness!

Exploring C# Type System Nuances

In the world of C#, types play a pivotal role in defining the structure and behavior of data. Among these types, the distinction between 'String' and 'string' often becomes a topic of subtle yet significant discussion. This difference, while appearing minimal at first glance, underpins deeper insights into the language's type system and its interplay with .NET framework. The exploration of these two identifiers is not just about syntax but touches upon the foundational aspects of C# programming, including type safety, code readability, and the underlying system types.
The intricacies of 'String' and 'string' in C# serve as a gateway to understanding the language's handling of primitive types versus reference types. This distinction also sheds light on the broader theme of how C# maintains compatibility with .NET's Common Language Runtime (CLR), ensuring that the language is both powerful and flexible. By delving into this topic, developers can gain insights into the nuances of C# programming, leading to more robust and maintainable code. The following discussion aims to demystify the nuances between 'String' and 'string', providing clarity and enhancing the developer's toolkit for effective coding in C#.

Command	Description
String (with uppercase S)	Refers to the .NET Framework class System.String. It is a reference type that represents a sequence of characters.
string (with lowercase s)	Is the C# keyword alias for System.String. It is compiled into System.String in IL, making it interchangeable with String.

Exploring the Nuances of String Handling in C

In the realm of C#, understanding the difference between String and string is pivotal for developers, especially when delving into the nuances of type handling and assignment. At its core, the distinction lies in the representation and usage within the C# programming language. The 'String' (with an uppercase 'S') refers to the .NET Framework class System.String. This class is a part of the system namespace which provides a plethora of methods for manipulating strings of characters. As a reference type, it is capable of representing null, indicating the absence of a string. On the other hand, 'string' (with a lowercase 's') is a keyword in C# that acts as an alias to System.String. This syntactic sugar is designed to simplify code writing, making it more readable and concise.
The interchangeable use of String and string might suggest a purely stylistic choice at first glance. However, the decision between them can have implications on code consistency and readability. The C# convention recommends using 'string' when referring to an object or a data type and 'String' when accessing static members of the System.String class. This distinction, while subtle, aligns with the broader C# coding guidelines that advocate for clarity and precision in code. Understanding these conventions is essential for writing clean, maintainable C# code that adheres to best practices and leverages the powerful features of the .NET Framework to manipulate and manage strings efficiently.

Understanding String vs. string in C

C# Code Example

using System; class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { String str1 = "Hello World!"; string str2 = "Hello World!"; if (str1 == str2) { Console.WriteLine("str1 and str2 are equal."); } else { Console.WriteLine("str1 and str2 are not equal."); } } } 

Exploring String Types in C

In C#, the distinction between String (capital S) and string (lowercase s) might seem minor but carries significant implications for developers. Both String and string are used to represent text as a series of characters. However, their usage can reflect different programming practices and understandings of the language. String, with an uppercase 'S', refers to the .NET Framework class System.String. This class provides a range of methods for manipulating strings of text, such as comparing, searching, and formatting strings. When developers use String, they are directly invoking the capabilities of this class.
On the other hand, string (with a lowercase 's') is an alias in C# for System.String. Essentially, it is a shorthand provided by C# to make code more concise and readable. The compiler treats both String and string the same way, which means there is no performance difference between them. The choice between using String and string often comes down to coding standards and personal preference. Some developers prefer using String to make it explicitly clear that they are working with a .NET Framework class, while others opt for the lowercase string for its brevity and because it aligns with the lowercase types like int, bool, etc., that are intrinsic to C#.

Frequently Asked Questions on String vs. string in C

1. Question: Is there any performance difference between String and string in C#?
2. Answer: No, there is no performance difference between String and string. Both are compiled to System.String in the Intermediate Language (IL).
3. Question: Can you use String methods with the lowercase string keyword?
4. Answer: Yes, since string is an alias for System.String, all the methods available with the String class can be used with string as well.
5. Question: Why would a developer choose String over string, or vice versa?
6. Answer: The choice often depends on coding standards or personal preference. Some prefer String for its explicit reference to the .NET Framework class, while others choose string for its simplicity and consistency with other C# intrinsic types.
7. Question: Is string a value type or a reference type in C#?
8. Answer: In C#, string is a reference type, even though it often behaves like a value type because it is immutable.
9. Question: How does C# handle the immutability of strings?
10. Answer: Strings in C# are immutable, meaning once a string object is created, it cannot be changed. Any operations that appear to modify a string actually create a new string object.
11. Question: Is it possible to initialize a string with a null value?
12. Answer: Yes, strings can be initialized with a null value. However, performing operations on a null string will result in a NullReferenceException.
13. Question: What is string interpolation in C#?
14. Answer: String interpolation is a feature in C# that allows you to embed variable values directly within string literals, making it easier to format and concatenate strings.
15. Question: Can string literals span multiple lines in C#?
16. Answer: Yes, with the introduction of verbatim strings (denoted by @ before the string literal), you can create multi-line strings without needing to use escape characters for new lines.
17. Question: How can you compare two strings for equality in C#?
18. Answer: You can use the == operator for a simple equality check or the String.Equals method for more control over the comparison, such as case sensitivity and culture-specific comparisons.

Wrapping Up the String Discussion

The nuances between String and string in C# may appear subtle, yet they embody the depth and flexibility of the C# language. This examination underscores that while both represent sequences of characters, their usage is influenced by developer preference and context rather than technical distinction. String, as a .NET class, and string, as its C# alias, are interchangeable, offering the same performance and methods. The choice between them often boils down to readability, convention, and the intent to make code as clear as possible to other developers. Understanding these aspects is essential for writing effective C# code, as it not only affects how one interacts with strings but also reflects on broader coding practices. Embracing the dual nature of string representation in C# allows for a more nuanced approach to coding, where decisions are made with an understanding of both the language's syntax and its underlying framework. Ultimately, whether one prefers String or string, the key is consistent usage within a project to maintain code clarity and readability.
https://www.tempmail.us.com/en/c/understanding-c-string-vs-string

True Name: Sakamoto Ryouma
Class: Lancer
Source: Historical fact
Region: Japan
Gender: Male
Alignment: True Neutral
Height: 178 cm
Weight: 72 kg
Character Creator: Keikenchi
Character Design: pako
Character Voice: Kase Yasuyuki & Horie Yui
Appearance in Main Works: Fate/Grand Order

Strength: B	Endurance: C	Agility: B+
Magic: C	Luck: A-	Noble Phantasm: EX

Class Skills

Magic Resistance: C+
When Super Oryou gets serious, Oryou's hide prove quite the magical barrier, Ryouma!
Riding: EX
A special Riding Skill given to Ryouma for crossing the Bakumatsu period Japan riding the dragon that is the changing eras. It's a Skill exclusive for riding Oryou, existing separately from other Riding variants.

Personal Skills

Dragon of the Restoration: A
The man called a mystical dragon in a human body. His fleeting life briming of pride, crossing the Bakumatsu period Japan riding the dragon that is the changing eras solely for the sake of the people, was like a soaring dragon.
White Serpent of Takachiho: A-
The serpent who failed to become a dragon. The serpent, initially a black abomination held in contempt, aimed for the heavens in attempt to become a dragon, but ultimately, the serpent couldn't manage it.
Amanosakahoko (Pair): B
The pike of light fallen handle-first from heaven. The spear of the heavenly gods, which sewn together heaven and earth to seal the black abomination. Originally a single polearm, but taking the form of pair when weilded by the hero and the serpent.
The pike of light fallen handle-first from heaven is both a blessing and a curse.

Noble Phantasm

Ryuu yo, Wadatsumi no Hara wo Yuke (My dear, venture through the vast oceans)

Rank: EX	Type: Anti-Army Noble Phantasm
Range: 2-70	Max. Targets: 700 persons

By offering the Amanosakahoko that Ryouma pointed at the heavens, the black serpent sheds her skin and grows wings, becoming a white serpent of such beauty that she could be mistaken for a divine dragon.
Clad in radiant-white arcanity from the Age of Gods, the White Serpent of Takachiho exerts tremendous power. This form possesses physical abilities beyond comprehension and can deploy a sturdy physical barrier, preventing any mediocre attack from hurting her, potentially making her the god of the new era.
Instead of becoming a dragon and soaring the skies, she chose to be the serpent travelling the sea with the hero.
Pronouns (Ryouma)

• First person: Boku/washi (in Tosa Dialect Mode)
• Second person: Kimi/oman (in Tosa Dialect Mode)
• Third person: Kare/kanojo
• Master: Master

Pronouns (Oryou-san)

• First person: Oryou-san
• Second person: Omae/name without honorifics
• Third person: Koitsu/are
• Master: Ningen/omae

Personality

Pretty much the same as a Rider. Oryou hasn't changed either.

Motives and attitude toward the Master

He wishes for his relationship with his Master to be like that between two friends from the same town. Oryou is relatively fond of them and doesn't mind helping out every now and then.

Dialogue examples

• Ryouma: "Let's get washing them all away, then." Oryou: "I'll scrub them hard."
• Oryou: "Yaaay. Oryou-san turbo peace."
• Ryouma: "Oh? Time for the Kaientai to go all out?" Oryou: "Right... Ryuu yo, Wadatsumi no Hara wo Yuke"
• Oryou: "Done. Time for Oryou's victory peace. You do it too, Ryouma." Ryouma: "L-like this?" Ryouma & Oryou: "Yaaay!"
• Oryou: "I am the White Serpent of Takachiho. For thy offerings, some frogs would be welcomed." Ryouma: "Hahaha, you can't keep a solemn face either, Oryou."
• Oryou: "Fine, I can let Izou ride the tip of my tail." Ryouma: "Make sure not to drop him."
• Oryou: "Now that you're a Lancer with no divinity, we can kick that Archer's butt. Good job, Ryouma. We're having frogs for dinner tonight." Ryouma: "I wish it were that easy."

Historical character and figure

A loyalist living through Japan's Bakumatsu. Born from a country samurai family in Tosa, he deserted his fief, studied under Katsu Kaishu, founded the Kameyama Shachuu (which would later become the Kaientai), intermediated the Satsuma-Choushuu Alliance, and devoted himself to the restoration of imperial rule, overall contributing a lot to the Meiji Restoration. However, his ideals fell to assailant's blade, thus he never got to see the age of Meiji.

Character in Fate/Grand Order

An aloof man on his mid-20s appearance-wise. He may be a master of the Hokushin Ittouryuu, but he’s actually a kindhearted guy who dislikes conflict to his very core. Instead, the mysterious belle by his side will take the lead.
His default Class is Rider, but circumstances lead to this manifestation of him as a Lancer.
This form, in possessing of the Amanosakahoko and one of the Three Knight Classes of the Holy Grail War, is a what-if possibility that Sakamoto Ryouma could have attained, and a Servant powerful enough to uphold the reputation of Hero of the Restoration.
If Sakamoto Ryouma is summoned as Heroic Spirit, he's restricted to only getting either the polearm or the serpent as a Noble Phantasm. That goes to show how much of miracle it is that he is capable of using both.
He is a master of the Hokushin Ittouryuu and his swordsmanship is a force to be reckoned with, but the course he practiced was for the naginata, so the Lancer class is where he can best put his prowess to work. In addition, Super Oryou is bursting with power. Together, they're an invincible Kaientai.

Regular weapons

• Ryouma: Amanosakahoko (because he snapped it in two, he has the ability to split it into two spears). Super Ryouma Gun (can switch into Sniper Mode). "And dontcha forget mah Mutsu-no-Kami Yoshiyuki¹".
• Oryou: Hyper Power-Up Oryou Martial Arts and easily spammable beams of something unknown.

Related characters

Okada Izou
His best friend in their town. He wanted to stay best friends but their relationship never recovered from their split. After an incident where he got punched, they managed to return to their nostalgic ways.
Takechi Hanpeita
Former fellows who split off due to ideological differences. Takechi holds Ryouma in such regard that he believes Ryouma's presence would have spared the Tosa Imperialist Party from its failures. After an incident where they got punched, they managed to return to their previous ways.
Tanaka Shinbei
Takechi's right-hand man. In life, Shinbei kept Ryouma away from Takechi. He was probably annoyed at the faith Takechi had in Ryouma.
Nakaoka Shintarou
"It wounds me to disagree with Nakaoka in a discussion. Nonetheless, if I can't discuss with him, there is no one else worth discussing with."²
While Ryouma was frequently suspected, he was trusted by everyone. He and Ryouma compensated for what the other lacked.
Takasugi Shinsaku
They share mutual respect, with Ryouma acknowledging Takasugi as The Unicorn Prodigy and Takasugi acknowledging Ryouma as the Dragon Soaring the Skies. They also envy each other, believing one has what the other lacks.
Voyager
Ryouma can't hide his excitement about a rocket that can fly to space. Oryou gets competitive and begins an irregular training regime to fly to space.

Comments from the illustrator

Have a nice triiiiiiiip!!! Feels great to see those two having fun. I can hope they don't break any property or any debt-ridden alcoholic anywhere they go, but I know that's not a realistic expectation. (pako)

Translation notes

1) Sakamoto Ryouma's favorite katana. The same he uses in his Rider version.
2) Historical from the real Sakamoto Ryouma.

To get this up early, I’m splitting the two days of round 2. Here’s Wednesday’s ATP. The WTA Wednesday matches will go up around 12:30AM EST.

Rublev vs Martinez :

For a good chunk of his career, Rublev has made quick work of matches like this. When he’s the bigger hitter and his opponent doesn’t have a huge serve, he’s supposed to thrive. Lately though, Andrey hasn’t been automatic in these spots. He’s always had a temper, but it’s been on display following his errors lately and it has given his opponents belief. Taro Daniel won a set, and Martinez is at least as good as him. 5 sets with Tirante doesn’t indicate he’s ready to upset Rublev, but I would expect the bulk of this to be fairly competitive. Rublev in 4.

Muller vs Arnadli :

Muller scored a comfortable victory against Luca Nardi in the opening round, and he will continue to battle the Italian federation in round two against Matteo Arnaldi. Arnaldi had a fairly easy time with Arthur Fils, despite getting broken 6 times. Fils is a solid player with all the attributes to be a top player on clay, but he has no patience. He’s extremely willing to go for broke from any position, and when the rally stretches long he tries to hit the big shot as soon as it appears. As a fan, I want to see big shots, but to win on clay you need to play a more conservative approach. Arnaldi is way more stable from the baseline than Fils, but bailing out of rallies early isn’t the right plan because it means Arnaldi doesn’t really feel like he has to do anything special to win.
Muller will hang in rallies longer and is a good bit better than Fils on clay, but he doesn’t have this level of win on his resume yet. Arnaldi’s register is very high and I mostly only see him losing to players who hit bigger. I expect him to have to work harder and longer than he did against Fils, but this should go to Arnaldi in 3-4.

Sonego vs Zhang :

Immense power. A huge forehand. Inconsistent results. A cannon of a serve but a slightly subpar backhand. Which player am I describing? This is a matchup that is very close. Humbert fell apart against Koepfer last week in Lyon and his slump continued, allowing Sonego to get a much-needed win. Zhang had a great draw and took advantage of it, besting Vukic in 4. The big difference I see in these two players is the speed. Sonego is a bit quicker around the court and that might allow him to win a few extra points. Given they both have the ability to protect their service games I would expect a tiebreaker or two, and at least 4 sets. I’m a big Zhang fan but he hasn’t been as good on clay as he was in the Challenger grind, so Sonego in 4-5.

Altmaier vs Tsitsipas :

Tsitsipas was clinical in beating Fucsovics in round one. He’s back with Badosa, he’s a dark horse to win this event, and he’s playing great tennis. Having that focus is big for a player who’s struggled for confidence, and Altmaier is a player he can probably beat. Daniel has always been capable on clay, and he has some amazing clashes with big name players like Sinner in the past, but lately I haven’t loved his level. Beating an inactive Djere was honestly good, but I think Tsitsipas is fresh and will be hitting the ball bigger the entire match here. Altmaier moves the ball well but he will very likely get worn down as this progresses. Tsitsipas in 4.

Shelton vs Nishikori :

Nishikori pulling up and beating one of the better qualifiers was impressive, but I guess if we’re being honest Diallo isn’t automatic yet. He has a bright future, but big hitters can often be undone by a slick defender and Nishikori has all the experience in the world. I think this will be fun because Shelton is a lefty. Attacking Nishikori’s backhand will get him punished up the line and cross-court, because Kei has one of the best backhands the tour has ever seen. The downside is Kei just played a five setter so he might be a bit tired, and he’s not serving well enough to score easy points. Shelton’s team hopefully has told him to take his forehand inside out and down the line as often as possible. Shelton in 4.

Auger-Alliassime vs Squire :

Gutsy performance in round one from Squire. Even in the fifth set tiebreak he was still hitting his backhand down the line for effect, and while he double faulted in a few crucial moments he served effectively the entire match. I’m not sure how his game will fare against Felix. FAA is inconsistent but he’s had a good month and he does everything a little bigger than Squire here. Felix in 3-4.

Korda vs Kwon :

Korda winning in straight sets is honestly surprising the way it feels like his season is going. Checking his history though he’s been winning his fair share of matches, it’s just watching his losses that makes me feel he’s struggling. More surprising is Kwon winning in straights. Ruusuvuori continues to struggle on clay and Kwon returning from a layoff to black him is a great result for him. His insistence on pushing the pace and hitting to the open court will bother Korda a bit, but he’s a bit out of his weight class here. Korda’s serving is good enough to get him through here, but Kwon winning in straights means expecting him to just lose in straights is pretty unreasonable. Korda in 4-5. The problem here is Korda is supposed to win this in straights, but Kwon is supposed to lose round one so he’s at a level beyond what we’re estimating him at when we say Korda in 3.

De Jong vs Alcaraz :

Jesper De Jong won the best match of his career in round one, getting past Jack Draper and setting up a matchup against the current tournament favorite. It almost has to be the end of the road, but De Jong will give us our first look at how Alcaraz is playing. Carlos was immaculate in round one, losing only 4 games, but Wolf is just not good on clay, and is having one of his worst runs ever on tour. Alcaraz in 3 is likely again because De Jong doesn’t have the hugest serve, but this will be much more competitive than the Wolf match. Alcaraz in 3-4.

Hurkacz vs Nakashima :

Considering Mochizuki took Hurkacz to 5, Nakashima has to like his chances here. Mochigoat is one of the fun players to watch on tour and his volleys at net are unreal, but Hurkacz is supposed to win that match in a safe manner. Now he’s playing Nakashima who won against Moreno De Alboran in a solid performance, and has been grinding clay events the entire year, using them almost exclusively to earn his way back into the top 100. Hurkacz won’t necessarily struggle as much in this one; it’s fairly common on tour for players to squeak through a strugglebus performance and feel like they’re freerolling in the next round. You already should have been out, so you play with no pressure and your best tennis comes out.
Hubert’s serve can get him to the finish line against pretty much anyone as well, so Nakashima will have to lock in and try to wear Hurkacz down. It may sound silly, but Isner used to struggle more against the guys that couldn’t ace him. Putting the serve return in is great, but if the other player is a solid baseliner, it means you’re playing 6-8 shot rallies over and over. This can take the legs away from a big server, and Nakashima fits this bill. While I’m bullish on Nakashima here, I think it’s more likely that this will be close enough that anyone can win, and whoever plays the big points better will. A server like Hurkacz in tiebreakers is pretty efficient, and playing a servebot in a 5th is a really tough ask if they’re serving first. Honestly, I saw this match in the draw and thought Nakashima was 50/50, so I’m sticking with it. Nakashima in 5.

Shapovalov vs Tiafoe :

Shapovalov is winning tennis matches again. It’s great to see, but he’s in Dimitrov territory for me. Sure he’s winning, but I’m not going near it because I don’t want to get hurt again. His opponent this round is a player whose range of play goes from “does he even play tennis anymore?” to “omg he’s going to win the US Open” Bellucci almost had Tiafoe, and a few big returns for Tiafoe ended up being the key in the end. Tiafoe will probably be competitive here, and playing a lefty the round before means his backhand got a good workout and he’ll be comfortable with the generic patterns that a lefty will bring. Shapovalov hits bigger than Tiafoe regularly, and it will take a big step up in effort/consistency from Tiafoe to win this. Given his serving ability and the underlying ability to play top level tennis, being sure Tiafoe will lose here doesn’t make sense. I’m expecting a match where both players will be pretty frustrated at times, and I think the one who’s more willing to lock in and play stingy defensive tennis will win. For once, that seems to be Shapo. Shapovalov in 4-5.

Bergs vs Marterer :

There were some wild first round results, but Tabilo losing quickly to Zizou Bergs was one of the biggest. Not only does he get a huge result, but he’s a favorite to win his second round also. Marterer has gotten a lot of respect and fallen short on tour for a few seasons, but he made good on the respect and beat Thompson in 3. Marterer is a powerful lefty who crushes the ball, and the one problem with his game is he sort of plays at one speed. Hitting big is great but he sometimes plays his opponents into form by showing them the same pace over and over. Shapovalov had a similar problem during his slump as well. Marterer shouldn’t be counted out of this match at all, but Bergs is much quicker around the court and I think Maximilian’s backhand will get worn down eventually. Bergs in 4.

Maroszan vs Dimitrov :

I’ll take tickets to this match. Both are through in straight sets, and both hit extremely clean and play skilled tennis. Maroszan can win this match, but I think Dimitrov’s ability to defend will eventually get him through. Maroszan’s power and forehand are good enough to hit some winners, but he also scores a lot off of dropshots. I think it’s still a viable option, but Dimitrov’s speed will make it a risky option. Expecting a high level clash here and when both players are extremely skilled sets usually get traded. Dimitrov in 4 is what I suspect, but since it’s his defense I expect to get him across the finish line this could easily go 5. Maroszan is really good, and it’s just fitness and decision-making that are left for him to work on.

Moutet vs Shevchenko :

Moutet’s coach got a bit spicy before the Jarry match, allegedly mad about fans’ behavior in the Moutet Jarry clash in Chile. It seemed to work, as Moutet played some of the best tennis he ever has and beat Jarry in 4 exhilarating sets. That same level should win this contest, but a slightly different style of opponent can complicate things. Shevchenko is a plucky baseliner and he will make Moutet earn all his points. He managed to outlast Karatsev in round one in a 5 set clash that had a million changes in momentum and 21 breaks. Moutet’s level was higher, but besting another offense is sometimes a simpler task. Shevchenko is going to put the ball in annoying spots and try to outlast Moutet, so this is a mental test. I think Moutet is up for it, but I could see it taking some time to happen. Moutet in 4.

Ofner vs Baez :

Gustavo Heide should be on everyone’s radar now. He hits the ball huge and clean, and has one of the better serves from the young crop of talents on tour. Honestly, when I first saw him 2 years ago I think he was a servebot and an old guy, and now his baseline game has developed in a major way and somehow he’s 22. Stay still Gustavo! Baez had this mostly wrapped up and Heide was tired, and then he won 2 lopsided sets in a row. I was expecting Baez to go on a run here, and he played Ruud close in Geneva so this is a good reprieve for him (playing Ofner). Ofner beat Atmane in 5 and he has the power to compete with Baez, but not the consistency. The 5 setter with Heide was surprising, but I’m willing to chalk it up to Heide’s high level rather than Baez being a flight risk. Baez in 4.

Kotov vs Wawrinka :

Hehe. Kinda fair for these two to play each other. If there were any two players to look both ways during a changeover and then sneak a cupcake out of their bag and scarf it, it’s these two offensive wizards. Kotov managed to outlast Norrie which is honestly a tremendous win, and Wawrinka continued his clay dominance against Murray in a straight set win. Kotov is a little better and has more stamina at this point, but Wawrinka is serving well and I expect him to win at least 1 of the first two sets.
Wawrinka has been losing to a lot of players right around Kotov’s level recently (Martinez in 2, ARV in 3, Borges in 3) so it’s tempting but tricky to declare him a winner. Tennis-wise, my brain won’t let me see Kotov winning. Pavel serves well and hits big, and for a guy who appears out of shape he wins a lot of marathon matches and has good power late in the game. 5 sets with Norrie isn’t going to help him here, and if Wawrinka can get up 2-0 or 2-1 it could easily be goodnight just because he can then open up. Norrie is a tough out, but on clay his shots don’t really clear the court. Wawrinka is almost a clay specialist at this point in his career, and he serves a lot bigger than Cam also.
This is wide open, and if I could skip a match, it’d be this one. Wawrinka in 4 or Kotov in 5. Stan needs to win quickly, but his recent results don’t make it realistic. You can point to him smoking Murray, but Murray is really a gimme these days on clay.

Gasquet vs Sinner :

Jannik Sinner has filled the void that the gradual departure of the big 3 is creating. He was always a tremendous player, but now he’s become extremely reliable at that level. His returning is world class, his serve is constantly improving, and his baseline game is now measured and tactical rather than an all-out assault. He knows when to just put the ball in play, and his footwork is constant. I love it. Gasquet turned back the clock and smoked Coric in straight sets, but the road probably ends here. This will be a high-level match and the crowd will be behind Gasquet in a major way. Jannik is a classy kid and will understand the atmosphere and respect it enough to navigate to the finish line. Sinner in 3-4.

Wall of text warning: I was writing a comment on another post but I figured I'd just make my own topic on it with my full thoughts on each faction and their skills, balancing, etc, after about 20 hours of playing (enough to get a decent idea). Personally I don't feel like any particular faction is especially strong currently and I think the balance of the factions is actually pretty decent overall.
Cleaners are the weakest by far (not very far, though) and seem to suffer from some confused design choices. The Firebomb is great for punishing bunched enemies or denying area but this is a ranged game at the core so it often is completely useless on many maps or just makes you vulnerable if you try to use it aggressively, and particularly in mobile modes like Escort where there is high kill turnover and less opportunity for anyone to keep a strong foothold. The Incendiary Drone is decent, does what it should, not a lot to say about it. Strong alternative skill to Firebomb for mobile modes. Their Incendiary Ammo is a bit useless in a vacuum due to the nature of the TTK because most of the time it will not result in a kill you wouldn't have already gotten and it doesn't deal enough damage on its own to really speed up the TTK in any meaningful way. You still have to shoot someone the same number of times to get a kill and if you stop shooting to let the DOT tick instead you'll just die. On top of that, Incendiary Ammo actually reduces your weapon optimal range, and as mentioned before, this is typically a ranged game. The Incendiary Ammo shines more in situations where someone is running away and a teammate can finish them off instead since then it may have done enough damage or canceled their regen enough. It seems as though the Incendiary Ammo might be meant to offer a counter to Libertad's healing-oriented skills but it usually doesn't make a great deal of difference even there. Weirdly, the best weapons for taking advantage of Incendiary Ammo are snipers since it more or less guarantees a kill no matter where you hit someone with the Tac-50 even if it's a leg or arm shot, and guarantees a kill with the M44 in the body, in spite of the "reduced range". Personally the times I've seen Incendiary Ammo end up killing me is right after I had already killed them first anyways, so it was more of a kill guarantee after death than a true advantage in the fight itself. The Cleaners are still playable, just kinda why would you choose them over anything else if you aren't playing them because you like them. Also the Cleaner ultra is ridiculous if you get in a good spot to use it because it instantly kills anyone you hit but again its range makes you vulnerable. The Cleaners biggest strength at the moment seems to be that they have messed up hitboxes, honestly. I think that the Cleaners really need some kind of help on their skills as they are now, they are weirdly situational and difficult to safely employ, but I suppose that is the real philosophy of the Cleaners as it is, they run around with explosive tanks on their backs that instantly kill them in The Division so an exploding flaming firebomber that may or may not live through their skill is oddly appropriate.
Echelon is strong by nature of being a crutch. Intel Suit lets the enemy team know you're nearby and can see them thanks to the notification, smart/skilled players will just listen for you and it's not a huge advantage against them, below average players won't pay attention to it though and it's quite strong against players that don't have good audio or are unaware of where their flanks are. However, the main advantage of the Intel Suit is that it reveals the enemies for your whole team no matter where they are. While you have to be in closer range to detect enemies with it, your teammates can be on the opposite side of the map and still see exactly where the enemy is which is a massive advantage. Digital Ghillie Suit is honestly a pretty balanced skill, someone paying attention will still notice you and Intel Suit counters it (weirdly, same faction counter) but it has a lot of outplay potential and lets you reposition or get into weird spots that the enemy team might not expect if they are distracted. It offers a similar advantage that Phantoms skills do in that it can easily be used to disengage a losing gunfight back into your advantage for a kill instead. Not much wrong with it, it's a well designed skill-expression skill. Echelon passive is kind of whatever, I don't feel like it's a great advantage because it gives you no direct benefit in a gunfight or even while traversing the map most of the time, it's another thing that is strong against unaware or distracted players. The Echelon ultra is of course quite strong in even an average-skilled players hands thanks to real-time wallhacks and a Golden Gun, although the sound it makes and sonar waves effects do put a bit of a target on you and sometimes the OHK gun doesn't actually get a OHK (somehow) but even being guaranteed just 2-3 kills for the duration is still enough to wipe an objective and some players will even try to hide from it. Echelon is overall a strong faction to use against players that are worse than you (likely why it is the most popular faction seemingly at the moment) but it doesn't provide any major meaningful advantage against equal or more skilled players since that will come down to your more practical gunfighting skills instead the majority of the time. Digital Ghillie offers some potential to outplay even skilled opponents but aside from that their skills heavily depend on their opponents being distracted to take advantage of them fully. Given that, the faction is pretty well balanced even with multiple players spamming Intel Suits on one team, since it only offers opportunities, it doesn't exploit them for you.
Phantoms are my personal favorite faction because I feel as though they have the widest degree of skill expression over any of the others. Mag Barrier used smartly can completely turn a lost gunfight around in your favor, especially if there is a choke point or corner you can use to make enemies chase you. Mag Barrier is one of the few skills in the game that is actually a punish skill when you use it correctly by letting an enemy get caught out if they try to ego on you or think they are winning the fight. That's on top of everything else it does. The EMP grenade is only a "counter" to it if someone is mindlessly spamming it because when used correctly you don't have time to throw an EMP grenade. You would have to pre-emptively EMP the Phantom player for every encounter if they use it well and that's not very feasible in a dynamic scenario. That said, Mag Barrier is fairly weak in terms of pure cover and a determined player can chew through it in a few seconds if you carelessly use it without exploiting the advantage it gives, or grenades can be thrown around it, enemies can run through it, its strength comes down entirely to the user. Blitz Shield is also a strong punish skill but currently the way player collision works makes it difficult to use against anyone that is experienced or skilled because no enemy player collision means they can jump through you. You can't really use the shield to turtle 1v1s since enemies can just run through and behind you, even if you're in a corner. Most players won't do this or know it's possible, so it can be a bit of a crutch against less skilled players at least. The Blitz Shield is mainly strong for punishing around corners if someone chases you since you can typically swap to it fast enough to surprise them before they get around the corner. It's also good for absorbing damage at range or aggressively disrupting enemy players on an objective for your team to pick off but that depends a lot on how good your team is and less on the shield itself. Phantoms passive is honestly extremely strong, and IMO the best passive in the game currently. Having 20 more health is massive when 110 damage OHK body shots exist since it allows you to survive hits no other faction can and combined with the other skills it offers retaliation and outplay potential no other faction has. The Phantom ultra is a bit mediocre in terms of kill potential, due to lack of range or mobility, vulnerable to grenades, and various other problems that come with moving slow and telegraphing yourself to the entire map as a giant target. The ultra's primary purpose is of course simply being a big shield to deny area to the enemy team or offer your team a safe place to stand on objectives for pushes. The Phantoms are a well-balanced and strong faction currently that offers a lot to players that know how to take advantage of their skills properly.
Libertad is probably the most well-balanced faction in the game at the moment. It's very straightforward and easy to grasp for players of all skill levels and doesn't depend on a lot of gun skill, map knowledge, or general experience to perform decently. Since none of their skills are directly offensive, they are easy to employ in a variety of situations, like fortifying an objective or pre-emptively giving your teammates an advantage for a push, refreshing a teammate after a close gunfight, using mid-gunfight for a surprise comeback, etc. El Remedio is such a strong heal that it can greatly increase your EHP in a straight gunfight to the point you need multiple extra hits to kill if the enemy misses any shots, and if you manage to break contact with them briefly you can set up the heal on yourself for a surprise punish similar to the Phantom Mag Barrier. It forces the enemy to decide if they try to kill you or break the canister first and assuming you are equally skilled, you will usually end up winning the 1v1. The main downside to El Remedio is its fairly long cooldown so you have to use it smartly or else you won't have it for major moments when your team might have needed it. It's strong and has some skill expression to it in a variety of ways. BioVida Boost is one-time instant version of El Remedio with similar uses, but it works much better with a unified team push and has a shorter cooldown which makes it much more useful for a more mobile style of play. Not only that but its heal is essentially instant, again being very strong if you manage to break contact for a moment in a gunfight to come back with full health before the enemy got their natural regen. Libertad's passive has no strings attached, simply natural regen with no downtime for you and any teammates near you, doesn't require you to do anything and is always active which makes it great for people of all skill levels since it's always being taken advantage of. The Libertad ultra is literally just an even bigger version of El Remedio that also increases your and teammates max HP massively, it can guarantee a last second payload push or let you lock down a critical objective to break out a losing zone match. Libertad is generally the best faction for anyone that's really new or isn't that great at FPS games since it doesn't depend on your technical skill too much aside from simply staying alive to give your team a constant advantage. Another nice thing about Libertad is they synergize incredibly well with the Phantoms' huge health pool. The only outstanding weakness of Libertad is the old classic: your teammates. It has very little potential to actually carry and under focused fire their healing is pretty irrelevant so you're not exactly going to go tank a payload by yourself. Even with the ultra on, a single person can chew through it and kill you if you give them long enough (not very long).
I've not gotten to play around a ton with DedSec yet but my initial impression is that they are very similar to Phantoms in terms of skill expression and offer a ton of flexibility that other factions don't have through being able to hack enemy deployables and regenerating devices. I would not call them imbalanced, but I do think they are the one faction that currently does lean the most into that because they counter every single other faction. Being able to shut off enemy skills and ultras is huge, even if it takes their own ultra to do it. But you are effectively turning everyone on the enemy team into the Rookie from Rainbow Six Siege temporarily while all the players on your team get to keep their skills. If you have multiple DedSec players on your team and properly chain the ultras then you are looking at a free objective push every single time. The Spiderbot is fairly alright, but it's currently bugged and sometimes enemy players can't destroy it properly which makes it stronger than it actually is, and that's on top of it taking more than one hit to kill anyways which I personally think shouldn't be a thing either. In its current state it is basically a guaranteed kill on anyone you hit with it if you use it aggressively, though, and I do think it should be adjusted in some way after they fix the desync issues with it. Hijack isn't always super relevant because at the moment deployables aren't very long-lived or common, but being able to flip a Phantom Mag Barrier is wildly strong and is the only counter play to a choke point punish in that it punishes the punish. Hijack is fairly useless though if the enemy team all happen to pick Echelon or Cleaners (which is a fair possibility). I think the skill is still a good skill expression skill and fine, though. The DedSec passive is unsurprisingly very strong because being able to throw two proximity mines on an objective or get multiple uses of grenades is obviously something no other faction can do and those things are one per life for a reason. The passive doesn't benefit if you don't live long enough to use it, though, so it can be kinda useless depending on the situation: if you never throw your grenade or mine, the passive literally does nothing. DedSec is currently in a very strong state overall, while I wouldn't say it's imbalanced, it's definitely one of the better factions if only for the fact it can shut off every enemy skill and ultra and has a way to essentially guarantee a kill.
If I had to "tier" each faction in terms of their effectiveness in a vacuum regardless of skill, I'd probably rank them (from best to worst): DedSec > Phantoms/Echelon > Libertad > Cleaners. But that is a very shallow slope with all factions being very much viable to play and do well with.
All of this is also given without thought to the current state of weapon balance generally speaking, while I do feel that Phantoms have a particular advantage currently due to the prevalence of Tac-50s. Echelon's Digital Ghillie also helps them get in close to employ some of the better weapons in the game currently like the MP7 or double barrel. DedSec's spiderbot sets them up for kills with all kinds of weapons, particularly the Tac-50. I don't see any of these skills being worse off without the existence of those weapons, however.
If I were to speculate on any adjustments that should be made: Spiderbots need to be fixed ASAP so they always properly appear on the targets screen to destroy them (not really an "adjustment", a bug fix). Libertad needs some kind of light buff in my opinion, maybe a bonus effect on a skill like slightly increasing max HP (good to help deal with prevalence of OHK snipers) or an alternate mode that poisons or debuffs enemies (Viviro would make sense because it's the chemical weapon made by the same company in Far Cry 6). Cleaners need a little bit of help, maybe allow them to also select Molotov cocktails as grenades that make small fire puddles that aren't quite as strong as their skills as a form of area denial to sort of solidify their "stay the fuck away from me" presence as a faction. The big one people talk about is the Intel Suit for Echelon but I honestly don't see much issue with this. The game literally highlights enemies for you already as it is, seeing them through walls briefly isn't a huge stretch when you can already hear people running around anyways since (thank god) we don't have anything like Dead Silence/Ninja/Covert Sneakers in this game. Echelon is a noob stomping faction and that's why it's generally popular right now but I think once more people get access to DedSec we will start to see more of them instead.
Anyways, that's all for today. I do really hope Ubi upkeeps this game well and makes smart balancing decisions that keep the game fun and engaging without oversimplifying or nerfing anything for the sake of salty people. If it were up to me, they'd reduce the TTK to 4 body shots max like original COD4 and then we'd really be cooking (after they fix the netcode, that is). Also hoping for The Division themselves to be introduced as a playable faction with deployable drones or even seeker mines...

Im an amateur tennis player (UTR 7.5 atm). I play with a OHBH which I love. I love hitting it, i tend to have a better backhand than 90% of players I play, and I want the ohbh in the future of the game. If it disappers we lose an aesthetic in tennis I think we won't get with 2HBH.
I also believe, esp through playing, there are 2 very obvious disadvantages with a OHBH, among some smaller advantages (natural variety, natural topspin, natural power with the free stroke, better off forehand etc).
Here they are

1. You cannot hit winners off the back foot (like djokovic, sinner etc).
2. Over the shoulder balls are almost never playable offensively (you generally hit up and generate more spin back) and it becomes v hard when a player like nadal comes on the scene with a lefty whip of a fore hand that is constantly above head height. Roger figured out a solution - but he is roger. Most others like gasquet, wawrinka etc never did.
3. Return of serve - generally because you have to "hit" the ball and can't really push it as with a forehand or 2hbh.

Except Dominic Thiem never had these issues. He is literally the *only* single hander who didn't. Why? Because he doesnt whip the ball and hit up on over the shoulder balls. And beacuse he can push the ball off the back foot. Why? Because He has a straight arm on preparation which is very unusual. Its almost like a 2hbh - and he hits across the ball whenever he wants (so its flat). And in fact, he changed from a 2hbh as a junior so it makes sense.
This is why he can do insane things like 1. Hit passing shots off the *back foot\* while sliding like djokovic - this is unheard of for a ohbh you need to be front foot. 2. Can aggressively dominate baseline rallies with his backhand when nadal hits heavy forehand topsin to it. 3. Doesnt get pinned on cross court rallies with Nadal beacuse he can easily drive down the line by hitting throught the ball. Roger would generally slice at best.
Tsistipas is almost the polar opposite. He is very bent arm, and very whippy, and its so obvious he require exceptional timing. He struggles on fast courts and can manage on clay.
Thiem can also hit more topspin than most OHBH because once he sets his straight arm, its almost like his hitting with a baseball bat. Its a very "swing a bat" style motion as opposite to a "whip" motion most ohbh use.
My OHBH for example is really typicla of the classic "buggy whip". I finish quite exaggerated (lke dimitrov) with a "back against the wall" style side on position and I cannot really generate power off the back foot. I will generally slice.
Its very obvious I struggle with very high topspin balls. At best, I hit back with height and its neutral. I can never be aggressive without running around and hitting an off forehand.
I've been practising what Thiem does recently and its so difficult for me now. Straight arm prepartion is so strange. But looking at what he does, and my own first hand experience with the challenges of a OHBH, make me very optimistic that his technique is potentially a future.
Shapo actually has a pretty straight arm prep too and he seems to be able to hit across high balls easily too.
Would love to hear thoughts.
It also makes me so sad we never got to see Thiem dominate in the top 5 over 10 years+. He could've inspired a resurgence and new techique in the ohbh.

I recently graduated college with a diploma in computer science (heavily web focused). I've been working for about a year now and ended up getting laid off. Looking to try my hand at freelance web design. I know how to make websites pretty well in a number of different ways (ie. plain HTML/CSS/JS, React, Wordpress and Hugo). I also have backend experience.
So I know the basics, my questions are more focused on how to deliver to the client, how to charge them, how to manage domains/hosting, legal questions etc.
Let me know if this is the wrong place to ask.
I only know a lot of web dev companies do marketing/graphic design as well, I am not as experienced in this area (ie. logo design for example), should I outsource this work or is it worth learning it myself? Or should I just not offer it?
How should I make my websites (ie. CMS, plain HTML/CSS, SSG, etc.)? Is it better to focus on one of these or offer different options based on what the client wants? I've heard some people swear by plain HTML/CSS while others go full on CMS and use Wordpress themes.
How do I manage domains and hosting? I was thinking of just hosting on AWS S3 or a free hosting service. Is it better to let the client chose hosting/domains or should I buy them on their behalf, or just let them choose?
I'm thinking of having different tiers for development, ie. Basic (1-5 pages) , Intermediate (10+ pages, blog) and Advanced (e-commerce etc.) As for pricing I reckon 1500-2500 for basic, 3-4k intermediate and 5k+ for advanced. (all in CAD btw)
To start getting clients is cold calling and printing posters out a good idea? Or Instagram/facebook ads?
Any other recommendations for hosting/domains/tech stacks?
Thank you very much, any advice is appreciated!

My wife (F24) and I (F25) have lived in our apartment complex for about three years. Ever since we moved in, we’ve had issues with the kids in our complex destroying property (they literally set a bush on fire 18 inches from our bedroom window), leaving trash on our doorstep, pushing us off the sidewalk with their bikes and scooters, and just generally being obnoxiously loud every day. We live in an area where housing isn’t the most affordable and are saving to buy our first home, so moving hasn’t been an option.
Our apartment is closest to the playground, so before we signed our lease, we naturally knew it was going to be a bit louder than other units, but here’s the thing: these kids SCREAM. I’m talking, like, actual bloody murder. All. Day. Long. Since it’s summer break, a group of about 8 of them get outside around 8:30am and don’t go back inside until around 9pm, so we’re looking at 12 hours a day of listening to their obscenely loud “playing”.
Also worth mentioning, my wife and I both work from home, so we are on calls regularly throughout the day and there have been multiple occasions where we’ve had to end meetings early due to the volume of the kids outside. We have to play brown noise at nearly full volume on our living room TV when we eat our meals or work on the couch so as to not be overwhelmed by their volume. We also both wear noise cancelling headphones about 90% of the time that we’re home during the day and into the evening, and even then, can hear them clearly.
We’ve brought this to the attention of our apartment management multiple times in person and via email, and they’ve basically told us to fuck off because their hands are tied despite there being a specific clause in our lease that states we have the right to quiet enjoyment. We’ve also spoken directly to the kids and separately to their parents who legitimately refuse to do anything. Just for example, I have gone outside 5 times in the last two days to ask them to be quiet and more respectful of the people living here.
At this point, we have no clue what to do. We don’t want to be assholes and escalate things too much, but it’s at the point where being home is a nightmare for us. We can’t work, we can’t read, we can’t even sit on our couch most days. And if we wanted to hear kids screaming for 12 hours a day, we’d have them.
So basically, AITA for calling the non-emergency line and filing a noise complaint for this?
EDIT: I am specifically talking about a noise complaint, not trying to have kids arrested. The goal would be to get the parents to take some kind of action re: supervising their kids.

Discord: https://discord.gg/anzsecmilsim
Who are we?
ANZSEC is a community aiming to a create realistic, player-driven, mutlifaceted milsim experience. Powered by a talented leadership and mission-making team, the ASEC experience is second to none.
Who do we play as?
We are based on a fictional department/corps of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Elements of our ORBAT, procedures and structure are inspired by the real life ADF, but have been gamified in order to create a fun, yet realistic experience in Arma.
We have a huge variety of weapons, camos, helmets, vests, facewear etc that means you can create a character that is uniquely your own, to the point where our members are often identified by sight only. Our high quality gear mod is created in house, with setups that are based on real-world modern examples.
We have a variety of trainings available, from FO, to medical, to CQB, etc. The only training you are required to complete is your ICT which takes about 30 mins-1 hour depending on your experience.
While our ORBAT consists of traditional company-level assets, we have spent time creating custom scripts and mods that make them both feasible and fun within the world of Arma. We utilise a custom version of R3F Logistics in order to have functional, reliable, and realistic logistics take place behind the front line, including the suppliment and repair of vehicles, provision of ammo and medical supplies, the building of FARPs/FOBs etc. This means that while our infantry sections are fighting the battle, our logistics and rotary detachments are keeping them moving.
Our ORBAT can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aAOeMkhogTCWrtBfpek8dTp2LTYlrCK0rnxv05Ov-1M/edit#gid=1009893473
When do we run operations?
Our official operations are run every Saturday for BCOY and Sunday for ACOY.
When Daylight savings is not observed.
Load into server: 1800 AEST
Op briefing: 1815 AEST
Step off: 1830 AEST
Mission end: 2030-2130 AEST
When Daylight savings is observed.
Load into server: No later than 1730 AEST
Op briefing: 1745 AEST
Step off: 1800 AEST
Mission end: 2000-2100 AEST
We also run unofficial operations and trainings throughout the week but these are optional.
Mission Types & Styles
Lead by an experienced Zeus team, we take pride that all of our operations are balanced, challenging and enjoyable week in and out.
Official operations are primarily focused on realism within either the modern setting or a historic setting allowing us to partake in different time periods as ANZSEC. Meanwhile. Unofficial operations have the ability to use any concept the mission creator desires, from futuristic to fantasy allowing unlimited creative freedom.
Want to join?
Join our Discord, then have a 10-15 minute interview to check your experience and see if you're a good fit for our unit. Complete your ICT (30-40 minute training) and you're good to join operations! You must be at least 16 to apply.
Discord: https://discord.gg/anzsecmilsim

"I want to pick *points* this player and *points* that pl— oh wait, that's just a mannequin in similar clothes."

Mannequin (Outsider): Once per night, when a player chooses a player, they might register as choosing you instead, if legal. You then learn the real chosen player.

The Mannequin quietly takes the place of one player in up to one choice each night.

• Resolving the affected ability happens between the two sentences of the Mannequin ability. Any effects the ability would have on the Mannequin are applied before they learn who they replaced. If they are no longer a living Mannequin when they would learn this, they don't.
• The change is momentaneous, not maintained: Once the choice has been misregistered, it remains changed for the purposes of anything that later checks what was chosen before, even if the Mannequin is dead or droisoned. The choice itself was recorded incorrectly, and the record isn't fixed by the Mannequin not having the ability to do that again.
• Players who think they have an ability but don't can still choose players. It might not affect anything through the ability they don't have, but the Mannequin still learns their real choice.
• A droisoned Mannequin can't redirect any choices while droisoned, but they can wake to learn an arbitrary name anyway. If they're droisoned by the ability they redirect, they can learn an incorrect name, or not wake at all.

Jinx

• Butler: If a player with the Butler ability has their choice changed by the Mannequin, they learn who the Mannequin is.

I don't know why you'd do this as an ST, but the Butler ability doesn't work unless the Butler knows who they're choosing and why, so it needs a jinx.

Examples

The Monk chooses to protect the Fortune Teller. The Mannequin is protected instead, and learns the Fortune Teller's name.
The Fortune Teller chooses the Imp and the Soldier. The Fortune Teller receives a no. The Mannequin wakes to learn the Imp's name.

If the picker chooses multiple players, the Mannequin only replaces one of them, and only learn the one they replaced.

The Vigormortis chooses to kill the Sage. The Mannequin dies instead, and does not learn the Sage's name.

The second part of the ability never resolves because the Mannequin lost the ability partway through.

The Alchemist Poisoner chooses to poison the No Dashii. The Mannequin is poisoned instead, and may or may not learn a player's name.

This poison does not undo the "choice" of the Mannequin instead of the No Dashii. The poison does however come into effect before the Mannequin would be told who was really picked, so they may learn the wrong player or nothing at all.

The Alchemist Devil's Advocate chooses the Poppy Grower. The Mannequin is protected from execution. The next night, the Alchemist Devil's Advocate chooses themself. The Mannequin cannot replace this, because the ADA would have chosen them two nights in a row. (The ADA could also legally have chosen the Poppy Grower.)

"if legal" prevents the Mannequin from being "chosen" by a character that shouldn't be able to choose them tonight.

The Lunatic chooses to "attack" the Ravenkeeper. The Mannequin learns the Ravenkeeper's name. The Lleech learns that the Lunatic chose the Mannequin. The Lleech follows suit and kills the Mannequin.

Why does it learn?

Even working only once per night, this seems like it would be a rather destructive form of misregistry, likely enough that most players with this ability would self-nominate day 1.
But I also want getting rid of the Mannequin to be a valid option for the good team, for the same reason. Thus, no "even if dead".
So how do we keep it from being unfun to stay alive longer than necessary?
The information part of the ability is a carrot for the Mannequin. If the Mannequin can work out who was affected, it can be used to reverse engineer how and why the ability was used, and facilitate some amount of confirmation between the Mannequin and players whose abilities were redirected.
It also acts as a balancing measure against STs using the ability in certain overly punishing ways.
For example, imagine you're the Mannequin in the Fortune Teller example above, and you manage to connect with the Fortune Teller. Hmmm, kind of interesting that the Storyteller used the ability to redirect an FT's pick away from the Imp player, isn't it? That's arguably more suspicious than an FT yes on its own, considering the existence of the red herring mechanic and the ambiguity of which of the two players is giving off the yes. But only if the FT and the Mannequin are able to trust each other.
This also makes it potentially useful for ST's to occasionally use the Mannequin ability even when it wouldn't actually change the result, for evil players to bluff having picked the player the Mannequin is claiming to have learned, or for Minions to bluff being the Mannequin (wouldn't recommend it for Demons without a backup life).
In short, I think the Mannequin learning who they replaced is far more interesting for everyone involved, including the Mannequin themself. It gives the Mannequin something to do while alive and a chance to mitigate or even utilize the damage their ability does without necessarily sacrificing an execution and a good player's democratic powers.

Interactions

Townsfolk

• Alchemist: Some Alchemist abilities are often avoided because the Alchemist might pick the Demon. The Mannequin could mitigate this a bit... while alive.
• Amnesiac: If you use this on an Amnesiac that hasn't bingo'd, you might be a jerk.
• Chambermaid: One of the reasons the Chambermaid is so strong is that most Demons wake every night. The Mannequin can give the Chambermaid a +0 instead of the Demon's +1, since any Mannequin that can still mess with Chambermaid info tonight necessarily has not woken yet. (The Mathematician has a jinx to account for it waking after the Chambermaid, but I see no reason to do the same favor for a Mannequin that is actively being used to mess with the Chambermaid.) The trade-off is of course that the Mannequin learns who they subbed in for, which could be devastating if it gets back to the Chambermaid.
• Dreamer: There's a really mean thing an ST could do here: Each night, the Dreamer picks a different player... and gets "Mannequin / [evil character]".
• Exorcist: Like in the DA example above, the Exorcist can't be Mannequin'd two nights in a row.
• Huntsman: If you use the Mannequin on a Huntsman who actually picked the Damsel for once, I become the Huntsman and hunt you down. I bet you added the Damsel on top of the Outsider count too.
• Lycanthrope: Usually when the Lycanthrope's kill doesn't land, it implies the target is evil or the Lycan droisoned. But the Mannequin can attract the Lycan kill to itself, saving the target while still preventing other deaths that night. This doesn't actually say anything about the Lycan target's alignment, but it's worth questioning why the ST would deny both the Lycan and the Demon their intended kills using an Outsider ability. If the target is evil, it offers deniability. If they're good, why were they saved? Is evil stomping? Are they another Outsider?
• Mathematician: I've been going back and forth on how exactly this works (specifically whether the Math reacts to the redirection if it has a different outcome, checks whether the outcome was correct with the Mannequin chosen, or both), but it boils down to "math makes headaches".
• Nightwatchman: "Hey, Andy, I got some mail addressed to you. It said Benny is the Nightwatchman."
• Professor: The Mannequin isn't a legal target for the Professor while alive, and so can't redirect the Professor's pick. Which is good since a Professor somehow picking a living Outsider would doubly fizzle.
• Ravenkeeper: As seen with the Dreamer, I think there's something extra funny about interactions where being Mannequin'd causes the picker to be shown the Mannequin token.
• Snake Charmer: The Mannequin is not the Demon (usually), so it can be used to prevent a charming (good for the Snake Charmer, bad for the good team). But if the Snake Charmer later comes out with who's definitely not the Demon and which nights they picked them, the Mannequin can recognize that they replaced a pick.
• (There is a possible but convoluted interaction where the Mannequin gets handed Lil' Monsta, fails to get themself executed the next day, then gets indirectly Snake Charmed. The Snake Charmer picks the Sailor, then gets told they're the Mannequin holding the baby. The Mannequin becomes the poisoned Snake Charmer; they don't learn the Sailor's name. Then later that night the Minions wake to move the Lil' Monsta, having no idea anything happened.)
• Village Idiot: Like the Dreamer bullying and bird violence earlier, it's entirely possible to use the Mannequin to show a sober VI good every night. Or just that one time they pick the Demon.

Outsiders

• Barber: The Mannequin can intercept a Barber swap, swapping characters with one of the real choices. They don't learn who was really chosen. This should be done sparingly since it's an Outsider messing up an evil player's use of another Outsider ability.
• Drunk: The Drunk's choices can be affected by the Mannequin; this only matters in that the Mannequin still learns the real choice, which ensures that your choices lining up with a Mannequin doesn't indicate you're not the Drunk.
• Goon: If a player chooses the Goon, but the Mannequin redirects the choice to themself, the picker never chose the Goon. The Goon does not flip and the picker is not drunked (but gets info on / affects the Mannequin instead).
• Klutz, Moonchild: Neither of these can be affected, because the Mannequin ability only works on choices made at night.
• Lunatic: The Demon can see the Mannequin as the Lunatic's choice. As in the example above, this might be worthwhile if the Demon is following the Lunatic's choices and the Lunatic chose someone the Demon shouldn't kill for their own sake (such as themself, a Minion or a landmine Townsfolk). Since this can also be a reason to redirect a real Demon kill, the Lunatic learning that the player who died was the Mannequin, and maybe that their target was a landmine Townsfolk, might still believe they're the Demon afterwards.
• Ogre: This is yet another nice thing about the Mannequin learning who they replaced. If not for that, Ogre/Mannequin would need a jinx similar to Ogre/Recluse or Ogre/Spy, for the same reason: It's unfun for the Ogre if their alignment isn't solvable at all. But because the Mannequin knows they replaced the Donkey in someone's choice on night 1, they'll be looking for someone who picked the Donkey, and can inform the Ogre that they're good even if the Donkey is evil. (That said, stopping the Ogre from turning evil is again using an Outsider ability to interfere with an Outsider ability to evil's heavy detriment.)

Minions
Many Minion interactions are more likely to be relevant to an Alchemist than to the actual Minion, because this is an Outsider and should ideally be used to interfere with good more than evil. As such, I will treat the Minions below alignment-agnostically unless otherwise noted, with good ones probably being Alchemists.

• Assassin: The Assassin's "even if for some reason they could not" clause does not prevent the Mannequin from jumping in front of the knife and dying in the target's place. The Mannequin doesn't interfere with the Assassin's ability trying to kill, say, the Sailor; it interferes with the Assassin player's choice of which player the ability should try to kill in the first place. Now, if the Mannequin can't die for some reason, the Assassin ability can still kill them.
• Cerenovus: Poor Cerenovus, wondering why the claims they ordered are coming from the wrong part of town...
• Fearmonger: Oh, this one's rude.
• Harpy: The Harpy might be even more confused than the Cerenovus, since the Mannequin could replace either the player who's supposed to be mad or the player they're supposed to be mad about.
• Marionette: See Drunk. Also, a Marionette thinking they're the Mannequin might wreak havoc on town's info, getting names that imply their ability was used on players who actually got exactly the info they asked for.
• Pit Hag: This works just like you'd expect it to. It is worth noting that the Mannequin-turned-something-else doesn't learn who the Pit Hag really picked, because the character change resolves in the middle of the Mannequin's ability.
• Summoner: Yes, the Summoner choice can be redirected to turn the Mannequin into the Demon. No, you probably shouldn't do it to an evil Summoner unless you want a rerack. Either way, the Mannequin-turned-Demon doesn't learn the real choice.
• Widow: The Mannequin can soak up Widow poison and be unable to proc later. The main benefit to doing this would be that the Mannequin can be told their ability was used on choices that were never made, confusing the Mannequin and making them look evil, or on choices that gave correct information, misleading other players. But the Widow can also see that the Mannequin is in play and decide whether they want to do this themself, so it might be a little rude.

Demons
Demons in general (with a couple exceptions) can have their kills redirected to the Mannequin. This is mostly useful if they were about to kill a landmine character.

• Al-Hadikhia: I imagine even with the carrot, most Mannequins would be okay with dying to prevent an Al-Had sweep. Unusual case of the Demon learning immediately that one of their choices was redirected to the Mannequin. If the Mannequin chooses to live and there isn't a sweep, the Mannequin learns who the Al-Had really picked.
• Fang Gu: Out of all Demons, the ability for the Demon kill to be redirected to the Mannequin is probably the most useful to the Fang Gu, which jumps if it hasn't already. The Mannequin ability becomes a safety hatch for the ST to drop the Demon through if necessary. The dead Fang Gu might want to be careful about outing to the player they targeted, though.
• Kazali: "You'll have the Mannequin player as your Minion and you'll damn well like it!" Better than letting the Kazali pick the Soldier, but otherwise probably best avoided.
• Lleech: Yes but don't: The Mannequin can become the Lleech host instead of whoever the Lleech chose. If it weren't bad enough for the Demon to not know the host is the wrong player, there's also the fact that Mannequins are likely to be okay with dying early.
• Pukka: The Mannequin being poisoned after a choice is redirected to them doesn't mean they weren't chosen.
• Vortox: Since the Mannequin is an Outsider, the information on who they replaced is not affected by the Vortox.
• Legion, Lil' Monsta, Yaggababble: Can't have their kills redirected because they don't make picks, but can kill the Mannequin at the ST's whim anyway because it's how they work in the first place.
• Leviathan, Riot: Can't have their kills redirected because they don't kill at night at all.
• Ojo: Can't have their kill redirected because they choose a character, not a player. There is an argument to be made that they choose a player via a character, like how the Courtier and Ojo can become Goon-drunk, but that's not how the Mannequin functions. The Mannequin replaces choices before they're filtered through the ability they're made for.

Travelers
Most Travelers can't be affected by the Mannequin because they either don't make picks or pick in the daytime.

• Barista: If the Mannequin gets a Barista 2, it might be time to call for exile.
• Bone Collector: The Bone Collector runs into the same issue as the Professor: The Mannequin is an illegal target for the Bone Collector while they have their ability, unless they've already been Bone Collected. A Bone Collected Mannequin can in fact redirect a Professor's ability, though they're not resurrected because they're not a Townsfolk.
• Bureaucrat: I think the paperwork that says this Mannequin should have three votes might be forged.
• Harlot: "Choose a player." "James." "Alright, one moment... ... ...Kate has accepted your invitation; you learn that she is the Mannequin."
• Thief: "If you have to steal people's votes, take mine instead."

I’m visiting my friend for 2 weeks. We were roommates for 2 years in college. A few years later, she asked to move into my apartment in California and we lived together for 3 more years.
Since we were both low on vacation days, the plan was for us to still work on the weekdays (I work remotely) and hang out on the weekends. She warned me she didn’t have an extra desk but I asked if it was ok for me to use the dining room table. She said that would be fine.
The first weekend was fine. It was like we never lost time. After she went back to work, it was hell. She was so stressed out about work and was constantly complaining about her managers. She lets this anger seep into every aspect of her life, so I was walking on eggshells as I wasn’t sure if she was just mad at them or also me.
I knew she was particular about things (she describes herself as OCD) and even lost 2 friendships in college because they didn't get along as roommates, but we managed to get alone fine before. I think it’s worse now because instead of sharing a space, I’m entering her space.
Some examples of how I feel like a rude house guest:
1.) At first she was so apologetic about not having enough food in the house and concerned about me having enough to eat. She drove me to the grocery store so I could buy food. Now she’s annoyed when I’m reheating something in the microwave. The first time I used the microwave, I left the door open so the steam could air out. She was angry that I left the door open because I was wearing out the microwave's light bulb. The second time, I closed the door immediately, and she sounded annoyed while asking me to leave the door open so the steam could air out.
2.) Some pots need to be wiped down after washing and others left on the drying rack, and she didn’t explain which ones, but acts like I should just know.
3.) In general I think she has very specific ways of doing things. But when I ask clarifying questions, she snaps back and gets mad at my questions, as if it’s nonsensical to do it any way but hers. It’s almost like she’s offended that I’m asking.
4.) She was so mad at her job, that she rage quit her job mid-way through my stay. Now that she’s home all the time too, I think she’s getting annoyed that I’m also home all the time.
I'm trying my best to be a good house guest but there's always something I'm messing up. Am I being that egregious of a house guest?
My flight leaves on Sunday but it’s nonrefundable so I’m thinking of leaving for a hotel. I thought about telling her, “I’m feeling like I’m getting in your hair so I feel it’s best that I get a hotel so we can have our space.” However, I feel she will react badly to this. Is there a way to politely word why I'm leaving early?

I was going to post this in Japan. But it's not allowed. So I thought of presenting this here to get more direct answers:
I was looking for news related to the Japanese monarchy. I stumbled into an English site dedicated to news from Japan:
90% in Japan support idea of reigning empress: survey
Here are the 3 comments under this article that stood out to me:

1. "What's the point when the Emperor or Empress has no power nor Empire?" (12 likes/9 dislikes)
2. "I support the idea of disbanding the entire imperial system, along with all systems of royalty across the world." [...] (15 likes/ 13 dislikes)
3. "The 90 percent that don't count, like so many other decisions in Japanese political, socioeconomic scene." (13 likes/14 dislikes)

I believe the article was deleted because it was littered with negative comments. I'm not sure if they are Japanese because they used English profile names and they commented in English. The article is very recent so it seemed unusual to delete it for housekeeping. Also, Japan Today is a Tokyo-based online newspaper. So this must be the Chrysanthemum Taboo phenomenon.
According to Wikipedia: "The chrysanthemum taboo is the Japanese social taboo against discussion or criticism of the Emperor of Japan and his family, especially Emperor Hirohito/Showa (1901–1989)."
This made me think: Do ordinary Japanese avoid discussions of the Imperial Family?
I went to a random Japanese news site to look for an article on the same topic:
90% of people are in favor of a female emperor! The momentum for the realization of "Emperor Aiko" is growing within the Kishida administration, causing concern for "Princess Kiko's feelings"
I translated the Top 3 comments under this article:

1. "If the Kishida Cabinet were to steer the ship while ignoring the will of 90% of the people, wouldn't that be a failure of democracy? Furthermore, I feel that Princess Kiko's feelings are irrelevant, and that she should instead be considerate of the Imperial Family." (45,000 I empathize/I see 383/Hmm 2767)
2. "The world is moving towards a new era. I don't see the need to be obsessed with male lineage. Above all, it's wrong to put pressure on women for something they cannot control, such as having to give birth to a boy. Now that we don't know what will happen in the future with the coronavirus, war, earthquakes, etc., seeing Aiko's Mary-like smile is very reassuring and healing. I sincerely hope that Aiko will become the Emperor." (11,000 I empathize/I see 36/Hmm 524)
3. "I think Aiko is a good choice. The Emperor and Masako were educated, so I think they will be able to be close to the people. It's the Reiwa era, so I want them to stop treating women as superior to men. Looking at Mako, Kako, and Hisahito, Aiko, who grew up in the Imperial family, is the best!" (32,000 I empathize/I see 103/Hmm 1324)

It seems like people are not only talking about the Imperial Family, they also openly talk about members they like and don't like.
But this does not extend to Japanese pop culture. They barely mention the Emperor of Japan or his family. Most of it was indirect. Known examples:

1. In the anime Gate - Thus the JSDF Fought There! (2015) - The Emperor was hinted to allow the evacuation of civilians to the Imperial Palace.
2. In Sword Art Online (2012) - Kirito and Asuna were talking about the Imperial Palace's digital services being separate from the rest of the internet.

Weirdly, I can identify specific three older Japanese animation movies where the Emperor was directly mentioned:

1. In Hayao Miyazaki's Grave of the Fireflies (1998): A soldier committing seppuku cried out "Tenno Heika Banzai!" (Long live the Emperor!).
2. Memories (1995) - In the second part of the anthology, "Stink Bomb" mentions the Emperor refusing to leave Tokyo despite the mass evacuation of citizens.
3. A late 90s/early 2000s anime about the romance between then-Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako. I forgot the name.

In criticism of the monarchy, I know an Australian journalist wrote a book detailing the difficulties Empress Masako experienced when she was Crown Princess. Japan managed to control its release in their country, with the help of nationalists who harassed publication houses, but they failed to control/persuade the author. It helps that he is a foreigner.
A political breach of taboo could be the end of a person's public service. In Post-war Japan history, I read about ministerial resignations caused by leaking Emperor Hirohito's opinions on sensitive issues, usually related to foreign and military affairs.
After the 3/11 tsunami, Diet member Taro Yamamoto gave a letter to Emperor Akihito about the plights of the victims. Politicians demanded his resignation. He likely heard some things from crazy nationalists. But today, he is still a Diet member.
So the Japanese people do talk about the monarchy. The extent of their opinions on the Japanese monarchy is mostly limited to news and gossip and written in Japanese so foreigners do not immediately notice the discourse around them. Anything more than that, like publishing critical deep-dives on the monarchy, references in fiction, and fictional portrayal, is rarely done and prone to attacks from nationalists. But breaking the taboo isn't as serious as it was during the Showa period. What do you think?