I figured it out, hear me out!!
What is romantic attraction? It's the desire to have a romantic relationship with a person. What is a romantic relationship? It's any relationship the people involved identify as romantic. We all know this so far, and we all know it's circular logic and we know it's maddeningly vague, until you realize it basically just works the same way gender does!
Gender comes from the division of work based on reproductive roles, which was important for most of society until the push for equality we have in the modern era. Nowdays we agree people of any gender can do any job and occupy any social position, thus breaking down the male/female division of labor the entire concept of gender was built upon, but we still maintain many of the preconceptions, archetypes and significators that were created to reinforce a system no longer in place.
At its core gender is a useless descriptor, it tells you nothing about the person's appearance, personality, or lifestyle, but it still affects the way we conceptualize and present ourselves inside a society in regards to how we relate to, maintain or defy the whole set of archetypes related to our label.
Likewise the concept of romance comes from the institution of marriage which served to lock down inheritance as well as help maintain the gendered division of labor, which was important for most of society until the push for equality which caused women to be more financially independent, thus making marriage a choice instead of a requirement, as well as the development of contraceptives which made it possible for individuals to form sexual relationships that did not lead to offspring, not to mention expanding the institution of marriage to same gender couples, thus entirely severing the way relationships are organized from the original male/female division of labor. However, we still maintain many of the preconceptions, archetypes, and significators that were created to reinforce a system no longer in place.
At its core “romance” is a useless descriptor, it tells you nothing of the dynamic between two people, the acts they take part in, the feelings they have, the importance of their relationship, nor the expectations they have for the future, but it still affects the way we conceptualize and present our relationships within a society in regards to how we relate to, mantain or defy the whole set of archetypes related to the relationship label we choose.
At the end of the day we would probably be better off without either concept, they're vestigial ideas that no longer have any real use beyond self-identification in our current society, and which honestly are mostly there to cause troubles. A person can look and act in any way regardless of gender, and a relationship can look and work in any way regardless of label.
However, because they come from social institutions that used to be extremely important for a long ass time, it's unlikely we'll get rid of them any time soon, and because they still related to a long history of societal archetypes, they still affect how we are seen as well as how we see ourselves, making them relevant for many individuals.
That is what romance means. I think. Maybe.
Opinions?

Hi there, I'm not sure if this is the correct sub, so please let me know if it's not. I was hoping for some advice and maybe some words of encouragement. I was fired from my job at a VR Arcade a week ago, and I'm really struggling with feeling like an absoloute failure. I also can't afford rent now, and I'm in my last push of getting my degree, so I'm really stressed out.
I was good at my job, really really good, my manager said so. My colleague doesn't think I should've got fired over what happened - nobody I actually worked with agrees with the decision, but it was out of their hands as it was made by the owner of the company (relatively small business). I believe if it had been down to my manager, I would still be there, as he was backing me while my termination was in discussion. I'm in the UK, for context, if this affects anything. I was employed there twice.
At the VR arcade, we ran VR escape rooms and free-play "gaming sessions" (I don't know why but the name of it makes me cringe), and birthday parties for kids (where they can all play gorilla tag or among us, for example) which are dependent on the PCs...working. They are plagued with technical and physical issues to this day, and bookings often don't run too well.
I had been saying since over a year ago, when I was first employed there, that the PCs weren't running very well, and that we really needed somebody to come down to our store to take a look at what was going wrong, but nothing was done. Then my (old) manager, who was almost 40, confessed feelings for me over text message, and I was 21 at the time. I found it sickening because we had a very "I ask you for life advice and you tell me about your life experiences" relationship, and he was always talking about how he wanted a wife and kids, so I was really upset and uncomfortable. We were the only two people working there. I told my boss that I was really upset and asked if we could be kept seperate. Because there was only the two of us, the bookings wouldn't allow for it (we'd have to work together), and "what he'd done wasn't illegal", my boss refused to accomodate anything at all so I walked out on the spot.
About six months later, I'm asked to come back for a higher wage and I agree. Creepy manager left after I did, they employed two new teenagers, and they've lost another staff member. Again, there is now only two of us working there. For context, sometimes we are expected to help up to 6 kids by ourselves with their games. This sounds relatively fair, until you imagine you're in a room with 6 7-12 year olds trying to play virtual reality, which many of them have never touched before, alongside PC crashes and errors and trying to make sure they all still have fun, whilst their parents are shooting daggers at you and loudly saying "Timmy, is your headset broken?", when in actuality they ignored the instruction talk and are pressing the buttons they were specifically told not to. Meaning I have to put their headset on and get them back into the game that they were in because they've found the settings. As soon as I come out, someone's PC has started throwing out errors and I need to fix that - and then another "excuse me!" - It's hard to juggle by yourself.
I start getting vocal about the PC issues again, and eventually someone comes down to "fix" them but we're still getting issues. There was one complaint because my boss did not pay for the game pass (and xboxes are advertised on the party packages), and kids couldn't play the games that were being advertised. I had to text him, during the party, to get it sorted out (and even then, I had to go and get the card and individually enter it on all of the xboxes and leave the kids in the VR room unattended - coming back to a backlog of issues which I can't fix in a timely manner). Eventually - and only because they thought I might be leaving due to the end of my course when I said I wanted to stay on full time - they hired a third person who is like the Jesus of VR.
On my last day, I had to tell my boss to pay the VR game subscription so that the day could run at all. Of course, this led to all of the PCs freaking out, and my colleague (who is luckily a VR wizard, she develops games for that) managed to fix it just in time for a party but even she experienced some hassle.
I play a lot of games, and I'm great with kids, but I'm not a technician, nor am I a manager and this was not listed in the job description. We have several complaints about the equipment not working on their booking. Our PCs were plaugued with technical issues (critical SteamVR fails for example) and crashes, which meant that entire bookings were being ruined, and I was being spoken to really badly by customers. I'm very sensitive because I have anxiety, so this was awful for me, and I cried several times on different days. I once had somebody ask: "who's running this sh*t show?" and "this is a f*cking waste of money" (on my last day). On my last day too, a lady booked the wrong time and said "the more you talk, the more you're wasting my kids time" and insisting that the booking system was wrong and that it was not her fault - even though the booking system has never messed up and the time she booked was the only available time we'd have had, as I checked the bookings the night prior and she had booked the only free space.
I have a lady that the bosses wife labelled as "horrible" break me in the end, she raised her voice at me while I was doing absoloutely everything I can to make her kids birthday party run well. It was a Saturday, and my boss had understaffed due to wanting to save money, so I was the only person on that floor. I couldn't ask my colleague for help as we're not allowed to leave anyone unsupervised and she was upstairs. It was a packed Saturday, with people turning up early and bombarding me with questions even though they could clearly see how stressed I was. My manager had given himself the day off. It was just me. There are so many people waiting (turning up 30 minutes early), that I run out of space in the xbox room for them to wait, and the party I'm trying to run keeps failing. I end up calling my manager, having an anxiety attack (I think) and having to go out the back. I couldn't breathe and I was crying and I felt dizzy, I almost fell over. My manager comes in and I leave - I tell him over text while he's on the way that I don't want to quit, but I'm sick of being the face of a broken product and getting abuse for it. I ask if I still have a job when I come back into the building and he's arrived, and he said it'll be discussed but that I "shouldn't get fired".
I leave, go to see a fake Radiohead concert with my friends and get super smashed. No surprises was not a pleasant one when you think you're about to get fired LMAO
I start getting messages from my manager and my colleague saying, and I quote, "we looked at the PCs, and we can confirm none of the issues were your fault today". My colleague then messages me privately and gives me some hope, saying that it shouldn't be a big deal.
Well...this "discussion" was supposed to happen the following day, but they postpone it to Wednesday. I found this disrespectful on top of not getting breaks on packed days, being paid late and a general lack of communication from my boss and his wife.
I ask bosses wife what's going on. She calls me: "you're just too anxious, the people in [where you live] are so much more cutthroat than in our other locations, you're just not a good fit".
I think this is so unfair. I was essentially fired for having an anxiety condition, which would never have impacted my work if it wasn't for technical problems that I had raised dozens of times that they should have fixed. I asked if the decision was final and she said yes. She was almost crying, but she still did it - so I don't really care about how hard it was for her anymore. She did it on an unknown number, too, which looking back, I think is kind of weird.
TL:DR; I was fired from my job because issues with equipment that I had raised dozens and dozens of times over the course of nearly two years were ignored. Bookings started getting ruined, we were understaffed and customers were horrible to me, leading to my anxiety condition being triggered and having a panic attack on several occasions. On my last day, it was so bad I had to ask my manager to come in and I left. I was fired on the basis of being "too anxious", and I'm distraught. Does anyone have any advice?

Hi,
Recently came back to the ranked grind and realized I suck bad. I used to play a lot of Viktor back in 2020-2021 and was in silver, nearly got to gold at one point, but don't think I put enough games in really, the promo system was just a pain when I was trying to get to gold 4.
I've been playing mostly Neeko mid now, I tend to do fairly well early game (as Neeko is really good early game), but really struggle to actually use the lead I got to help the team - it can be difficult to get a good ult off with how uncommital and messy fights can get.
I'd like to roam more but I feel like I always end up getting stuck in lane because the other champion perma pushes and I can't push the wave under their tower to give me good roam timing.
Any thoughts? Here's my opgg, I'm not gonna blame my teammates, I don't know how much more success I'd have if I played the champs I used to play like Viktor or Veigar. But Neeko is meant to be way easier than Viktor, so either I really suck at Neeko, or the playerbase got way better since I was last in silver :D Maybe playing safe on a lategame scaling champ like Viktor is just gonna be easier, but I don't want to give up on playing Neeko as she's fun, and I'd feel like a bit of a failure if I just went back to playing someone else.
I do watch a decent number of guides etc. on midlane macro, so have a good idea of how to trade properly in lane and when to back.
My CS isn't great, I feel like I can't spot good opportunities to grab CS sometimes as either the wave is pushed too far up the map, or we have the usual fighting over a nonexistent objective and I need to be there.
Maybe I do just need to play more games, I got to bronze 1 multiple times and now I'm back in bronze 4, literally 90% of games at least have someone flaming the shit out of someone on our team, and someone wants to surrender.

Well, that took a while.
Wasn't hard, by any stretch of the imagination - this game is pathetically easy, even more so than the first Drakengard - but no other game in this series makes you repeat the same ten hours so many times in a row. Would've been fine, if not ideal, if all the enemies got buffed up on each subsequent play through like in Automata, but everything stays exactly the same. There's not even a modicum of challenge during the second, third, and fourth routes outside of maybe Tyrann. On the round that I was ready to sacrifice my save file for Kainé, I had the whole thing down from start to finish in four hours, and I took a thirty-minute shower halfway through. I'm pretty sure I spent less time actually playing the game during that run-through than I did mashing through cutscenes and sitting through loading screens. And good Lord, were there a lot of loading screens. It's like they could only render six square feet's worth of world at a time. You take a look at just about any noteworthy open-world game, including Automata, and you can run from one end of the map to the other and likely not encounter a single load zone. Meanwhile, this game has to load five times to get from the library to the Facade mansion, and it still lags hard whenever you use Dark Blast.
Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed my time with the game. The combat was great (though the camera seemed appalled by the idea of moving in its own), the story was incredible once it started picking up steam, and I adored ending E where I got to control futa chick Kainé and there were a bunch of callbacks (er, call-fowards?) to Automata. Still, though, the issues that I had with the game were really pissing me off.
Maybe I should've played Gestalt, instead. Sure, I would've missed out on ending E, and I've heard the combat is more in line with the Drakengard games than it is to Automata, but a clunkier combat system combined with being on weaker hardware would probably help with the overall game's low-budget-high-ambition feel. That's how I was able to enjoy (or at least stomach) Drakengard 1 and 3. Plus, I've heard that the father character strengthens the overall story. I was expecting Replicant to speak to me more, as an overprotective big brother myself, but it's clear Taro was an only child and it felt less like I was Nier and my sister was Yonah and more like she was either Nier or Kainé and I was Grimoire Weiss. Having Nier as the dad and Yonah as the daughter would definitely make a lot more sense.

The following is a directive by the 2nd Shock Army instructing its subordinate formations and commanders on how to prepare and carry out a breakthrough, including organizational measures to improve its combat effectiveness. 2nd Shock Army was deployed in the rear of 2nd Belorussian Front in December 1944, preparing to participate in the East Prussian Operation. In mid-January to would successfully break out from the Rozhan bridgehead.

DIRECTIVE FOR THE ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT OF THE EAST PRUSSIAN OFFENSIVE OPERATION
TO THE CORPS COMMANDERS AND CHIEFS OF THE TROOP BRANCHES OF THE 2ND SHOCK ARMY
When preparing for a breakthrough, I require you to focus particular attention on the following issues:
PREPERATORY PERIOD
[1)]
a) Study in the entire tactical depth of the enemy’s defense his engineering structures and obstacles, infantry and anti-tank fire systems, artillery and mortar groups, and the system of observation posts.
b) Know the areas where reserves are concentrated and the possible directions of counterattacks. Senior commanders (commanders of rifle corps and rifle divisions) must also know the operational depth of the enemy’s defense, the location of his operational reserves, the possibility of meeting them and on what lines.
c) Know where tanks are concentrated and the possible directions of their actions.
d) Using an observation system and studying all intelligence data in detail, establish the combat routine of the defending enemy.
2) Organization of observation
a) No later than December 25 the army headquarters will equip one OP [Observation Point] (main) in each direction and two auxiliary ones, providing them with communications equipment, surveillance equipment and specially trained officers.
b) Corps and division commanders must determine places for OPs and report to me no later than 12/18.
All OPs from the platoon commander and above must ensure complete observation of the terrain from the starting position according to the principle - every commander must see the battlefield.
Telephones should be placed at the OP for those where the commander is monitoring the battlefield.
c) Artillery and infantry observation should be organized by the army headquarters from 12/20/44, corps and divisions - by special order with the obligatory keeping of observation logs and a report to the top.
Observation data for the day should be submitted to corps headquarters and artillery headquarters to army headquarters by 10 p.m. daily.
d) At the OP from regiments and above, specially trained and instructed officers (3-4 people), headed by a staff officer and provided with security (2-3 machine gunners), must be located and monitored.
Observers should change every 2 hours.
The senior officer must visit the OP at least once a day.
e) Each commander must have a map with data from his personal observation and data received from other commanders (in different colors).
Artillery and infantry commanders should compare the data received by each of them about the enemy to clarify them.
f) By 12/28, the Army Headquarters will provide the corps and divisions with maps filled with the situation about the enemy based on data received from the defenders, observation from the OPs and from other sources.
3) Study the area
a) Study in detail the features of the terrain in front of the enemy’s front line of defense, in the tactical depth of his defense, and for higher commanders in the operational depth. Pay special attention to studying the terrain in tank terms.
b) Keeping in mind the open nature of the terrain, carefully study all approaches to the enemy’s front line, possible starting positions for the attack and the directions along which the artillery will advance.
Know the roads leading to the front line from the depths, and the roads in the depths of the enemy’s defense in the zone intended for the offensive.
4) Secrecy and camouflage of measures taken to prepare the operation
a) Regrouping of troops (infantry, artillery, tanks) should be carried out only at night.
Carefully camouflage the areas where troops are located, preventing the appearance of smoke during the day and the lighting of fires at night.
b) Eliminate any possibility of communication and conversations with the local population. Under no circumstances should commanders and fighters be allowed to be housed with local residents.
The headquarters of units and formations are usually located in a forest.
c) Warn all personnel about the inadmissibility of revealing the numbering of army units and formations.
d) Avoid talking on the phone about ongoing events. The commanders of the formations personally approve the lists of persons to whom telephone numbers are left and the right to converse.
Strictly prohibit the use of radio equipment until the moment of the attack.
e) Do not allow signs indicating unit numbers, field mail and commanders' names, as well as identification marks of hospitals and rear institutions to be displayed at intersections and at entrances to areas where formations and units are located. The latter will be displayed by special order.
f) Take the strictest measures to protect documents and maps, preventing their loss. Do not take maps with the details of your units to the front line.
g) Army headquarters, rifle corps headquarters, rifle divisions and rifle regiments organize a commandant service, establish commandant posts and patrols and carefully instruct them.
Commandant posts and patrols should not allow accumulations of vehicles, horse-drawn vehicles and manpower, especially in areas of visibility, and ensure strict compliance with all camouflage instructions.
Inform all personnel that the requirements of commandant posts and patrols are mandatory for all officers, regardless of official position.
h) All reconnaissance should be carried out in accordance with special instructions.
5) Combat training
Combat training begins on 12/20/44.
Combat training of troops differs from general combat training in that it is carried out in a specific environment.
Commanders of formations and units should organize combat training based on the specific tasks of each unit (being in the first or second echelon, with whom and when it interacts, etc.).
Conduct combat training on terrain as similar as possible to the one on which you will operate.
Corps and division commanders should be ready for an operational game at army headquarters by 12/26/44 based on the materials and conditions of the operation being prepared.
6) Work of headquarters
a) All headquarters prepare a complete schedule of urgent reports and the procedure for its implementation.
Establish a list of officers responsible for information from higher headquarters, formations of supporting and interacting units.
Consider the failure of the transmission of at least one report at any link to be an emergency.
Pay special attention to the truthfulness of the information.
b) Check the readiness of all means of communication: telephone, telegraph, radio, mobile vehicles (liaison officers, cars, motorcycles, etc.).
Have a reserve of radio equipment to create intermediate stations, especially for communication with mobile groups.
c) Check the distribution of functional responsibilities among staff officers and their mastery.
d) Ensure control over the implementation of combat orders of commanders. Following a combat order, an officer of the operations directorate (department) must be sent to the troops to monitor the implementation of this order.
The officers sent must be instructed by the formation commander or chief of staff and have a firm knowledge of the mission of the formation, unit or subunit to which they are sent.
e) Minimize the production time for operational documents, without in any way “eating up” the time of lower headquarters.
f) Carefully work out in advance all interaction documents for the entire depth of the battle.
g) Prepare SUV (Covert troop management) documents in advance and send them to the troops.
Immediately upon receipt of them, organize training and ensure free use of them by all officers, especially officers and administrators.
7) Logistical support
a) Carefully check the condition of automatic weapons. Each fighter must have the prescribed number of cartridges, each machine gun must have the prescribed number of belts and disks. Belts should not be damp.
Check the winding of the seals, the tension of the return springs, the availability of spacer rings (spare), extractors and antifreeze fluid.
In rifle platoons, which are intended for special work in clearing mines and laying paths for infantry, have carts for pulling away wire and other obstacles.
b) Check the ammunition from the rifle to the gun. Determine where to store ammunition, who, how and where to supply it.
c) The equipment of each fighter must be checked (fitting of uniform, equipment, contents of duffel bag, etc.).
d) Prepare a backpack supply for soldiers in the amount of one daily allowance, the issuance of which will be carried out by special order of division commanders.
Check the feeding arrangements, especially on the first day of the fight.
e) All vehicles must be repaired, possible routes determined, fuel depots installed. Each driver must be familiar with these routes and road conditions in advance. Cars must have chains and tools (shovels, axes).
f) Put horse-drawn transport in order.
g) On roads in the army zone, install signs at all intersections indicating populated areas, marking altitudes and azimuths of directions.
h) In crossing areas, prepare gaps and exits from roads every 50 m in both directions. Crossings should be distributed among commanders of formations and a commandant service should be established on them, avoiding the accumulation of vehicles, horse-drawn vehicles or manpower.
i) Establish a procedure for evacuating the wounded. Designate sanitary picket points.
Explain to the soldiers that the wounded must bring their weapons to the dressing station, and the weapons of the seriously wounded must be picked up by orderlies.
j) Explain to all fighters the inadmissibility of using captured products and “junk”.
k) All commanders should check the unit’s logistics on a daily basis.
PREPARATION AND OCCUPATION OF THE STARTING POSITION FOR THE ATTACK
1) The day before the troops reach their starting position, mark the routes to it for each company to prevent wandering and mixing of units. Set up beacons.
Take the most decisive measures so that soldiers and officers cannot get lost and fall into the hands of the enemy. Under no circumstances should you allow yourself to go over to the enemy’s side.
2) Study the starting position and equip it so that the infantry and materiel are completely covered. Eliminate the possibility of exposure and losses of manpower and materiel.
Considering the dampness of the soil and the appearance of track marks on it after turning off the road, these marks should be immediately smoothed out.
3) Regiment commanders prepare and fix roads to pull everything necessary to the starting position.
4) Consider the organization of communication when reaching the starting position.
5) Reach the starting position over two nights.
On the first night, bring out heavy infantry fire weapons and direct fire weapons. Those guns that can be seen in positions by the enemy should be brought out on the second night.
On the second night, bring out the infantry.
6) When taking over a combat area from defending units, carefully study your own and enemy’s minefields.
Clear your minefields located in the depths of the defense in advance; those located in front of the front line should be cleared of mines two to three days before the offensive, organizing the protection of the passages.
Clear enemy minefields within two nights. This demining is carried out under conditions of careful camouflage from enemy observation.
7) Before leaving for the starting position, explain to all personnel: for what, where and how should they do it, what secrecy and camouflage measures to take.
Bring the combat mission to the fighters 4 hours before the start of the attack.
INFANTRY ATTACK AND COMBAT IN THE DEPTH OF THE ENEMY'S DEFENSE
1) Build battle formations not according to a template, but taking into account the specific actions of each unit and subunit.
During a frontal breakthrough, the battle formation will be straightforward, in a forest battle - along road directions, when crossing rivers - echeloned, and when fighting in the depths of defense - maneuverable.
Pay special attention to the placement of forces and weapons in combat formations at all stages and in all conditions, so that fire weapons do not lag behind the infantry.
Senior commanders check the decisions of subordinate commanders, carefully explain the shortcomings they made in the formation of battle formations and indicate measures to eliminate these shortcomings.
2) Every Red Army soldier must understand that the main goal of an organized breakthrough of the enemy’s defense is to reach the firing positions of his artillery in the first 2-3 hours of the battle.
3) Remind each officer once again that combined arms combat consists of three elements:
a) organizing artillery fire support,
b) organizing close combat between infantry and tanks and
c) organizing close interaction between these two elements.
4) Remember that the basis of artillery fire support is not artillery preparation, but the organization of artillery fire in the depths of the enemy’s defense.
Every officer must know that the success of artillery fire depends on good organization of reconnaissance, on his knowledge of the capabilities of all means of reinforcement and the correct formulation of tasks.
5) An infantry strike must be preceded by a fire strike. This means that it is necessary to follow this order: reconnaissance, then fire strike, then attack, and not the reverse.
6) During the attack, under no circumstances should infantry be allowed to lie in the first trench. It is dangerous because it causes a desire to take cover and, as a rule, is always targeted by enemy artillery.
Don't linger at temporary stops; The longer people lie, the more difficult it is to raise them, the greater the losses.
The attack must be swift.
7) All means must be used to hit one place. Everything must be linked together.
I forbid pointing at others: “The tanks failed,” “The infantry did not rise,” “The artillery did not support.”
Check the implementation of interaction issues at all levels.
The artillery commanders will be with the infantry commanders.
8) During a battle deep in the enemy’s defense, obtaining accurate data on the enemy’s behavior becomes of utmost importance. Report about the enemy only quantitatively, and not organizationally, i.e. 30-40 soldiers and not a company or platoon.
Report exactly where and what enemy firing points are hindering the advance. Do not allow the expressions: “Heavy machine gun or mortar fire.”
9) Each commander knows at any time the position and condition of the formation (unit). The situation report must always be truthful.
The commander must have the courage to report whether his unit can carry out the order at a given moment, and if not, then for what reasons.
10) The depth of the enemy’s tactical defense in front of the army’s front lies at the line of 6-8 km from the front edge (the artillery positions). Until we reached the artillery positions, the breakthrough was not realized.
11) Consider the tactics of using tanks by the enemy:
a) for counterattacks with small groups of infantry,
b) as fixed firing points (armored fortified points) and
c) in night battle conditions.
Introduce to every officer the procedure for organizing anti-tank defense, which should include:
– a two-tier construction of the AT defense is provided;
– measures to combat both counterattack tanks and armored fortified points are indicated.
Take measures to consolidate occupied lines.
The two-tier construction of AT defense should be understood as follows:
– first tier – fire weapons from platoon to regiment (from anti-tank grenades to regimental guns); this tier is mobile and is located in infantry combat formations; his task is to fight enemy tanks and self-propelled guns encountered along the path of troops;
– the second tier is organized in depth from anti-tank fighter regiments and other artillery reinforcement means. This tier moves in jumps from line to line and ensures the advancement of the infantry.
A solid knowledge by officers and soldiers of the order of constructing anti-tank support prevents tank fear.
Each unit should have groups of sapper-hunters to blow up tanks.
12) The battle must be continuous, waged day and night. Continuity is achieved through reserves and the use of battalions specially trained for night combat. When issuing an order to commit a reserve to battle, the same order should also indicate the creation of a new reserve.
The order for a night battle should be given in such a way that the unit is not late in starting action.
13) The attack must be general. Do not allow the formation's battle to turn into battles of individual units. This can only be achieved by good observation of the enemy, knowledge of the situation, immediate response to the course of the battle, and solving the problem using fire weapons.
14) The battle must be deep, which means that commanders are required to know not only the object they are attacking, but also what is behind it, by organizing deep reconnaissance.
15) Provide advance relocation to new command posts and OPs. The relocation plan must be approved in advance by a senior commander. The axis of movement of the command post must be known to junior commanders.
You can move to a new point only when communication is established there.
16) Commanders who have personal radio stations should always keep them with them and during the offensive do not move forward without them.
17) The names of the commanders of units and formations are addressed on the radio only by their operational call signs, because some of them were published in the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and mentioning them will enable the enemy to establish from which front these units or formations arrived.
18) Prohibit communications on the radio in the clear. Use only communications tables, reference diagrams and coded maps.
ISSUES OF ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF FIRE
1) All commanders should check their subordinates’ knowledge of the materiel, ability to eliminate delays, and tactically, competently, fire and use each type of weapon.
2) Check all weapons for trouble-free operation and combat accuracy.
3) Require officers, non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel to make full use of infantry fire, especially at the moment when artillery fire will be transferred from the first trench to the second.
Carefully consider infantry fire according to the stages of the battle.
2-3 minutes before launching an attack, heavy machine guns should open fire on the enemy trench under attack. Be sure to take into account which heavy machine guns will go on the attack with the infantry and which ones will support them with fire.
Light machine guns must be completely in the combat formations of the attacking infantry and fire on the move and from short stops.
Fire from machine guns on the move during an attack, taking into account to save ammunition when you need to fight in the second and subsequent trenches.
4) Artillery commanders should not dismiss the organization of fire combat for the infantry itself. Take into account the fire of heavy and light machine guns in planning.
5) The guns will be assigned to companies and platoons; you should always help them move with you, and not abandon them.
6) Commanders of rifle corps and divisions and artillery commanders should give instructions to officers up to the company commander on how and what type of artillery should be assigned tasks.
7) Each commander is obliged to know what assets are operating in his offensive zone in addition to his group. Every leader should inform his subordinates about this so that they can take it into account when making a decision.
8) Division commanders must approve the OP for direct fire guns. Each direct fire weapon must have its own target, the nature and position of this target, the number of shells to hit it, and the time for their consumption.
Rifle corps, divisions and regiments must have general fire plans for direct fire guns.
Direct fire guns should only be placed on the observation posts when the latter are fully prepared and all work is camouflaged. After installing direct fire guns, they should also be carefully camouflaged so that the enemy could not guess their presence even with the help of photographs.
9) In terms of artillery fire for the destruction of trenches, each artillery and mortar battery must have its own area, preventing firing in areas.
Check target numbers with batteries and guns to ensure there are no typos or errors. Also check the trench numbers.
10) Particularly consider the issue of organizing fire to repel counterattacks of small groups of the enemy, with the help of which he seeks to delay our advance. In such cases, the counterattacking infantry must be met with organized fire and, pursuing it, burst into his trenches on the shoulders of the enemy.
11) When moving artillery, first of all move those batteries whose fire has reached the [range] limit.
ISSUES OF USING TANKS AND SELF-PROPELLED GUNS
1) Eliminate the shortcomings in the use of self-propelled artillery that occurred in previous battles: excessive fragmentation of self-propelled units, the use of self-propelled guns as tanks, lack of proper assistance from sappers in clearing mines, building bridges, etc.
Self-propelled guns are used to reinforce regiments as infantry escort weapons.
In regimental battle formations, self-propelled guns should be placed behind the infantry.
2) Provide assigned tanks with fire from the guns of the infantry's anti-tank system. The guns accompanying the tanks must be accurately aimed at the enemy firing points that they need to suppress.
3) Fully use the minesweeper tanks attached to formations. The actions of these tanks will be supported by infantry fire.
To remove and neutralize mines not detonated by minesweeper tanks, assign sapper groups to accompany them.
ENTERING RESERVES INTO BATTLE
(second echelons)
1) Take all necessary measures to eliminate the possibility of delay in bringing reserves (second echelons) into battle.
The commanders of the reserve units must be at the OP together with the commanders of the units advancing in the first echelon.
2) Commanders of reserve units are required to conduct reconnaissance on all possible directions of action of their units.
3) Thoroughly work out on the ground issues of interaction related to the introduction of reserves. Determine the boundaries of deployment, reassignment of reinforcement equipment, establish signals and the procedure for organizing communications.
Avoid delays in switching amplifiers.
INTRODUCTION OF MOBILE GROUPS INTO THE BREAKTHROUGH
Commanders of rifle divisions and regiments can be appointed heads of mobile groups. They need to remember the following:
– more initiative; do not wait for the decision of senior commanders;
– conduct thorough reconnaissance, especially engineering;
– always have a group of sappers ready to clear mine routes, fix roads, and build bridges;
– in case of major damage, use all available human resources to correct it, without waiting for the sapper units to arrive;
– ensure communication both within the group and especially with the highest headquarters of the formation in whose zone it operates;
– before the introduction of a mobile group, check that the issues of interaction, communication and support have been worked out by the commander in whose zone the group operates.
BATTLE MANAGEMENT ISSUES
1) By 12/20/44, check the staffing, composition and preparedness of the headquarters of company and battalion commanders and the availability of communications equipment. Avoid loss of control in this link.
Every officer must once again understand that control during battle is the basis of success; its loss threatens to disrupt the offensive.
2) Rocket signals should be a means of control only by the regiment commander. Other commanders duplicate these signals.
The signals should be common throughout the breakthrough area.
3) Use only white flares to indicate our front line when flying our aircraft. These missiles should only be launched at the very front line. Prohibit the use of white flares for any other signals. Corps commanders should check and report the presence of white flares and signal pistols.
4) Ensure that rifle units (companies) are always combat-ready. It is necessary to maintain a combination of manpower and fire.
After each battle, restore the combat readiness and firepower of the attacking units.
5) Each commander must have two pre-appointed deputies.

Hi all, I keep seeing discussions on A.I stuff and I still think many do not quite understand what is going on. With the new (Awesome looking) laptop and tablets with the neural chips built in I have seen some of this misunderstanding again. This is long but hopefully it may help some people?
Local processing VS Could processing
This is 100% the way to go. On device processing will clearly be faster and while it can leverage from Cloud information if needed processing and handling requests and being local NOT sharing helps with privacy concerns. (Although it does mean learning is more of a challenge for the service)
We Do not have true/real A.I yet. The term is currently being used pretty much because the average person understands what. We are only JUST starting to see terms like "copilot" and "assistant" being used and marketed as one form of "A.I".
A.I stands for - Artificial intelligence. (Machines that learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks.)
Many experts will agree we are not there yet but there is arguments that LLM's (Large Language Model ) and similar are there in the baby stages.
Machine Learning though is not true A.I As I said you will get a lot of arguments on the semantics but we are simply are not I.Robot YET.
Problems with LLM's:
The generation process involves creating a complete output in a single pass or through a series of steps, not modifying pre-existing media. Traditional image and audio editing tools work with concepts like layers and tracks, where different components of an image or an audio file can be individually manipulated. If you are an artist and not doing this to correct issues or make changes is a lot more complicated and your kind of all in.
These models are trained end-to-end to generate outputs directly from inputs. They learn patterns, textures, styles, and content all at once, rather than in separate, manipulable components. For instance, an image generator learns how to create an image of a cat from scratch based on the concept of a cat, not how to adjust individual features of an already-created cat image.
So be it Audio or Visual a LLM is a generative model is a Global modification - 1 all in output. Any coders out there using A.I - this is why it re-does the whole code or chunk if you ask for a change. It is not technically modifying the code already created. It uses what you asked before + change to generate something new.
Local modifications—changing just one aspect while leaving the rest intact—are difficult because the model doesn’t inherently decompose the output into parts that can be selectively edited.
LLM's will need to be able to have enhanced representation of the generated results.
What is needed:
There are a number of approaches around interactive instances or generated layered output but I think a use case may help explain this:
Adobe Photoshop has A.I image generation now. It can also select a part of an image and edit it. This is NOT modifying a layer, a component or has real understanding of the image. It simply takes that block, the prompt, its model data and maybe some pixels around the region to generate a new image.
What it needs to do is have more understanding of the tool itself - Photoshop and ALL of it's components and how they are used to create the visuals. it then needs to basically use those tools to generate an image using them. When it outputs it would have all the components in their own layers and so on.
An Audio generated for example would have any A.I singer on its own layer, drums on it's own layer and able to re-imagine or change those components based on prompts VS what it does today and re-makes the whole thing.
I hope these insights help.

I want to leave the team I’m on. The open houses are burning me out. This is the Team Lead's favorite lead generation (and from what I can tell after a year, their only lead generation outside of being well known in the community from a previous public role). I’ve been in RE for 10 years but joined their team after relocating to a new city. I figured it was a great way to build up a new book of business while I sorted some other things out.
My last 3 closings; 1 from them. 2 from me. On 50/50 team provided and 70/30 on my own splits. No brokerage split on top. 15k from their lead to me and 26k sent from mine to them. My next two are all from my sphere. One of them is under contract. The other very serious and writing offers. The split would send an additional total $7600 my TL's way.
To be fair, they have sent me a TON of rental leads that I hate working (because iykyk) but they pay way more than my previous market area, so I do it. Of those probably 20% sign leases equaling about an extra 1k a month for dealing with a lot of duds. The rentals only started really flowing in this spring while a unique market highering sector picked up. So about 3k there in the last 90 days. My past experience with listings is that few people make it through consumer websites to the listing agent and even fewer call signs anymore. I don't think my TL is hiding buyer leads, if anything they may be too busy to catch them due to the listing volume they have.
Thing is I picked up a part-time job immediately after moving here before joining the team. (Bled money to get out of a rough personal situation and had to put a tourniquet on it). I’m on track to make close to 62k working 25ish hrs a week there. It is at night bartending high volume and doesn't affect my clients other than having to text after 8pm on weekends and not taking appointments before 10AM. (I get up early, for a bartender [old FTR me would be up by 6am] and check my email etc around 8am on my days off from the bar and do the same on weekends I work behind the pine, but I'm not a real human until 10am). BOY OH BOY WE GET ROCKED HARD Friday and Saturday nights.
One thing about the bar is; I FUCKING LOVE NOT THINKING ABOUT WORK WHEN I'M OFF!!! I also love saying FUCK! After 10 years of being a full-time agent, going back to Bartending really opened my eyes to how silly some of my attachments to being a Full Time Realtor were (one example; working like a dog for commissions, all so when people ask me what I do for a living I could have some title? lol DUMB).
I don't want to leave RE entirely, but I love only working with people referred to me. If it weren't for these Open Houses eating up my Saturday and Sunday rest every weekend I would be content. ( I know leads eat those days up too but those are by choice and not EVERY DAMN WEEKEND).
One of my referred buyers JUST went UC on a new build. I'd be leaving next week knowing this will close next month. TL doesn't know about it. The extra $3800 would move a financial goalpost for me (fixing some wild shit that near killed me in 22, necessitating the move and complete life implosion).
I could just negotiate a better split; I do like having a TC, the ISA I'm 50/50 sold on they mostly just pester my database into sending STOP requests.... but I FUCKING HATE OH's! I don't feel a TC is worth $3800... For the amount of transactions I'm doing, I really can do it myself. Training is non-existent aside from some Tom Ferry videos lol and I have 7 years on my TL. They do have a lot of listings consistently though, so I'm not knocking their abilities as an agent.
For those curious; for lead gen I would continue to work my sphere and target off-market properties through a system that's been successful for me in the past. I prefer to put my LG efforts into sellers. Possibly take the extra from the splits and try a few new things too.
TL:DR; I want to leave my team and not pay the 30% on this next deal and leave before anything else goes UC. Do I tell them I even have it or just leave and see what happens? I would stay at the same brokerage. TL never sent me a copy of the Team Agreement.

I think the most interesting thing I came away from this experience was it challenged the way I thought about the world. I don't know if he's right. If he is, there is a lot of very smart people very wrong and that's harder for me to accept than one guy out of millions of people in this profession being the only right one. HOWEVER! It should be easy imo to look at the way he views math and to temporarly play around with it, and see if things make more sense. You should be able to see if things fall apart and make significantly less sense if 1x1=2. It should be easy. Right? What concerns me, is people are more interested at making fun of him, than treating his experience as a genuine experience and exploring his ideas and coming to real conclusions instead of refusing to even engage or entertain that we may be wrong. It's challenging, because my initial reaction is to deny deny and deny. But, if I listen to him he doesn't seem crazy. He seems very lucid and in control of himself. He's clearly very intelligent and he has a unique mind — as we all do. My experience isn't any less real to anyones. Academics, should spend at least a weekend listening to what he has to say, play around with his system, plug things in and see where it goes. If it turns out the answer is "if you pretend 1x1=2 and you can make sense of the universe under that system but only in that system" then that says far more about reality doesn't it? That it all boils down to at the end of the day, what you believe and how you choose to describe the universe. I'm not interested in people dismissing Terrence Howard. I listened to what he had to say. I can understand how he thinks the way he thinks. I get it. Now, let's open it up to the "smart" people and let the break it down and see where it falls apart. If they can't do that, Terrence is right. As long, as the academic world refuses to even look at this, he's right. He checkmated the entire fucking world because now we exist like Schrödinger's Box. We are in a superstate of 2 possible realities. Either he's wrong or he's right. We remain in this box, until I see someone tear it apart beyond recognition. If this is all fucking based on interpretations, then Science is fucked. Isn't it? We're right back to Philosophy (which imo, is where the real smart people live. Being Wise and Smart are not the same thing. You'll find happiness in wisdom, you'll never find peace in trying to think your way into it). Shouldn't Math explain how the universe works? If it can't, then it's pointless. It's made up. It's imaginary and we're fucking lost. Terrence getting on this show, was his ultimate move. Now the world is aware of what he has to say. He pubically called out Neil, and now there's going to be pressure for Neil to respond on the show. As long as Neil refuses to respond, Terrence wins. If Neil responds and refutes and tries out his math and things don't work and make less sense, than we lost nothing and nothing changes. It was wonderful hearing Terrence and I hope he finds some happiness finally getting this out of his system so unashamed for being brave to say potentially the stupidest thing someone in his position can say. It's one thing to be Kanye, it's another for people to refer to you as the idiot that once thought 1x1=2 and in your 50's. That's somehow worse than not being able to read. It's like, being too fucking stupid to breath. It's embarrassing if he's wrong and it should be so fucking easy to show why and I don't want the same old explanations. I want his shit tested and applied. Plug it in. SHOW THE WORK. Fuck.

I've read people's opinion on it and why it makes sense vs the one's who don't like it. Watched gameplay from different people. played multiple games with this rework trying out different strategys. No matter what is going on it's just awful to play. I genuinely don't see why they did this and most of the people who like it can't even explain why. Most just like it because it's a (new) support because it's a support without caring about the character. Others want it to happen whether because they hate going against Moji or the low pickrate excuse even though kinnesa and strix exist. So like the other actual Moji mains or people who know how she operates and her history. I'm going to explain everything wrong with this rework and why it shouldn't happen.
 

Spit & Sparkle

\ \ I have multiple problems with this change. Let's start with the fact that sparkle now self slows you for 20% when used. It used to be 10% which was one of the main issues that we wanted to be removed but kept it now it's at 20%. So now Moji has a ball and chain on her and anyone with extra speed will outrun Moji's heals and damage. Thought supports was supposed to stay with the team. Not have a hard time keeping up with them. No wonder Moji she tells Po-Li to go faster. In order to do it you have to stop healing, then heal, and do it again which means you have less healing. Unless of course they're glued to the point which won't happen in most cases since people have to constantly move in different areas because of what's happening.
Also when it comes to attacking and running away you might as well stay still. Where are you going while being self slowed for 20% while having a big hurtbox? Everyone in this sub just forgot about her big hurtbox which makes Fighting even more of a issue. Even if you use morning breath which takes off 4% of self slow. You still have the big hurtbox issue and less options for better cards which most of them suck that I'll slightly explain later as well. Self slow should be gone in general. It should have never stayed especially when they decided to remove it for everyone else.
Second issue is her damage. There was a reason why she did 1,000 damage and not 450. Not only that but they removed her ability to mark enemies by default. You can with a talent but I'll get to that later. Spit does the main damage and now sparkle does limited tickle damage which also means you're wasting your heals. Who thought this made sense in the slightest. You have to use that in order to kill your enemies faster. When your done you have to wait for it to refill to attack the next enemy coming when no one else comes to help making you helpless. Or you somehow kill the enemy because it's hard to do unless low health. You have to use the rest of it to heal your team which you won't have enough of. This is painful to use.
Third issue is it has heal ammo like IO that runs out quick. Yes you can mark your team but it still isn't enough and doesn't fix the main problems. Her main healing is short range. Name one healer in the game that has a short range in healing. They also have to manually heal with sparkle which other manual healers especially auto or assisted aim healers can do way better. God forbid if they have to come back into battle and try to heal a low health teammate with spit which you will miss multiple times. So what's the point of healing with this character. Moving on to Magic Shield
 

Magic Shield

 
This ability doesn't do much for her team or herself and she should have kept magic barrier. This ability feels like a worse version of Torvalds removed talent alternating current. Instead of delaying your death by 1.5 seconds you delay it by one attack and take the next few shots before being able to run away. The only possible use of it is a niche build and team where you run with a flank while having the card harmonious. With the card you are basically a walking dispenser that shoots with the flank you will hug through most of the game. We already have enough niche things that can be pretty boring and are hardly used. Torvalds had multiple of those. Moji doesn't need it too.
 

Scamper

\ \ You can now run indefinitely with it. They removed bunny hopping but then they brought it back when they realized that she was a literal bunny. When they brought it back though they nerfed the speed and the bunny hops. It's so noticeable that it's not any different from the scamper ability when it comes to speed. The only good thing about it is when you do the advanced tech when trying to spray. That is until that 20% self slow puts a ball and chain on you. This doesn't fix her main issues and they made it worse beilieve it or not. Here's there reason on doing it.
Due to changes to how Scamper functions, Bunny Hopping will be weaker at base than it was prior. In order to feel similar to how it did on Moji prior, you'll want high levels of both Boop and Morning Breath to allow those same flings across spaces.
This is completely wrong because when did we ever had a card that decreases self slow. Your really trying to tell me that Moji players, grandmaster Moji players, and bot Moji didn't know anything about it??? Guess it was hidden in the game the whole time. Plus it doesn't even change the speed of bunny hopping because you nerfed it and nothing in her cards effects it. So in order to maintain any kind of speed I have to put points into morning breath which is pretty a forced have too in game. Also who uses boop to increase the speed after using scamper. No one used it because bunny hopping was way better than that because you're able to move while attacking and defending yourself. Anyone running it was basically throwing without knowing. Not even maxing out scoot will save you. Your just delaying your death with that maxed out 20% damage reduction and giving them more ult. Seriously if using regular scamper made you die when trying to escape. What's making it indefinitely going to do?
 

Bon Appetite

\ \ This one really amazes me because they actually put part of yummy into base kit that we asked for halve what. Except there is no ult percentage and gives 50% of maximum health instead of 1000hp and ignores anti-healing. Problem is. This ult is now basically worse than pips ult and atlas setback. They changed everything else but the ultimate in order to keep the old Moji play style that is pretty much dead. They clearly want her to be glued to her team and with this ultimate you make them have to run to the opponent to eat it. The main use now for it is to use it for defence which is horrible because it's so easy to predict it. Most characters can either block, CC immune, dodge, and other things to ignore being ulted. Even with the cancels it won't work. You had a better chance of using it because you can attack regularly, use the magic barrier combo, and other methods to make people take the ultimate. Without magic barrier she less uses for her ultimate. It's now a long charging ability and is terrible. Now for the talents.
 

Spit Shine

\ \ Spit now heals them for 350 and increases their Movement Speed by 20% for 2s. Why is this reworked Moji's only true support talent. This talents fine until you realize that it's also goes against Moji and the team. Let me explain. Remember how Moji has 20% self slow when she fires. Well now that the team is moving at 120% now you're basically moving at 60% and they're outrunning you. Some characters can move even faster and you will basically be at a speed of 40%-60%. So if you felt forced using morning breath you will using this talent and have to make it 5 points. Even with morning breath maxed out. You will be moving at 60%-80% and will be forced to use scamper and may get attacked by a enemy and can't run or hurt them enough. You're just a bad assist healer with some use that is not enough.
 

Jubilation

\ \ Reworked to "Magic Marks are now instead applied to enemies. Detonating at least 7 stacks of Magic Mark deals bonus damage, up to a total of 800". I'm aware that she is a support but they still don't know why she did 1,000 damage in the first place. With this talent you no longer have the ability to use the secondary to heal people. This talent will bring these types of players.
The ones who like old Moji and then realizing that they changed so much that flank Moji is not possible. Instead they may go damage and heal from time to time. Another one is that someone uses it for defence while mainly healing the team and forcing two supports to play in the match. The last one is someone you will see more often is someone not able to play Moji or the talent well. Youthought grohk going damage and seris flanking on the same team was bad. Get ready for her to join the team. Your going to ask them so who is going main support and who will play tank and it's television static. The seris will stand around too much and do a bunch of questionable things. Grohk only has some heals because they were there when they played damage. The Moji is struggling to do anything with it. The seris will plug and the bad grohk player will say something crazy before leaving a millisecond later.
No matter what you do with the talent based on your skill. Nothing just works for reworked Moji including the cards. The damaged worked because she had magic barrier and damage combos with it. Without it she can't do anything when she's is in danger including running away with the giant hurtbox.
 

Realm Runner

\ \ When entering Scamper, leave a magical dust cloud behind that applies a lingering heal for 600 over 3s. Dust cloud lasts 4s.
Moji mains have been wanting toot I mean realm runner in base kit for awhile because it's not a real talent. It's a better version of scurry and when it's in base kit then she would actually be able to use the other two talents and do better without ruining gameplay for anyone. Instead they kept it as a talent to play the old Moji. What old Moji...you got rid of almost everything Moji who is basically just a echo champion at this rate. You turned a forced talent into a throw talent.
The dust cloud we wanted back is just a sparkly circle on the ground that people won't be able to see. Plus is like back then where the team can see it and no one else. Otherwise people will know where she is and take her down. Why.
 

Cards

\ \ None of the cards have any synergy with each other at all. You're basically forced to use morning especially with the healing talent at 3-5. Since default ammunition for sparkle is terrible you will definitely need 3-5 points for symbiotic. Dense woods never needed any points above 1 and was a decent filler card for old Moji. However since this is reworked Moji. Don't think it's worth using since you will try to be around the team constantly and should already be enough. Now we have 5-9 points for ourselves so what can we do. Uhhhh. Well damn.
Oh I didn't mention this earlier but remember how spit shine and Moji's 20% self slow makes the team run away from her. Well the card natures blessing gives allies 5% extra speed when they get hit by spray for 3 seconds. So you can max this out at 25%. Instead of being 40-60% slower than faster teammates being healed with there speed cards and abilitys. 60% slower when trying to healer teammates without anything making them move faster besides you. This is how fast you will be moving compared to them.
You will be moving at 15% at worst to 55% when trying to heal teammates while trying to heal them as they really outrun your heals. With morning breath maxed out you will mainly be moving at 35%-75% while healing. No one has tested this character at all.
Anyway you can look at the cards and get some ideas as we move on to the long time Moji bugs. So for the people who been playing Moji or about to with support Moji. Get ready to deal with these long time annoying bugs.
 

Weapons/Armor

\ \ Fluffy
Increase your maximum Health by {5050}.
Peppy
Generate {0.40.4}% Ultimate Charge when triggering a max stack Magic Mark.
Symbiotic
Increase your Sparkle capacity by {66}%.
Will-o-the-Wisp
Increase your Movement Speed by {55}% for 4s after getting an Elimination.
 

Sparkle

\ \ Dense Woods
Increase the duration of your Magic Marks by {0.80.8}s.
Greater Good
When an ally receives max Magic Marks, they gain a {2020} Health Shield while marked.
Morning Breath
Reworked to "Decrease self-slow of Sparkle by 2020%"
Nature’s Blessing
Allies gain {55}% Movement Speed for 3s after being hit by Familiar Spray.
 

Magic Shield

\ \ Cozy
Magic Shield Heals allies for {66} every 0.25s while its being channeled.
Glimmer
Reduce Magic Shield’s Cooldown by {0.10.1}s when detonating a max stack Magic Mark.
Harmonious
Regenerate {31}% Sparkle and Ammo for affected allies every 0.25s while channeling Magic Barrier.
Shimmering
Allies affected by Magic Barrier gain {33}% Crowd Control resistance for 4s.
 

Scamper

\ \ Boop
Increase your Movement Speed by {88}% for 2s after using Scamper.
Scoot
Reduce the damage you take during Scamper by {44}%.
Scurry
Heal for {2020} every 0.3s during Scamper.
Wobbles
Gain {1010}% Slow resistance while using Scamper.
 

The Bugs

\ \ It isn't a paladins games without mentioning the bugs. Here's what to expect when playing her so you don't get confused.
If a seris or Kasumi is on the team and attack the same enemy as you. Your marks will reset back to zero everytime they attack. Now can this somehow happen when trying to heal the same teammates. No idea but anything goes with paladins.
If you mark a enemy, shoot spit at them and die. Despite the mark being there the game will for some reason make you do zero mark damage.
A enemys hurtbox when turned into a cookie is really weird. You can touch them multiple times and still won't be eaten until they finally do. Sometimes they may turn back to normal even though you clearly deserved it. Last part hasn't happened to me and I hope it doesn't. What's even weirder is that even though you can't eat them from the front from time to time. Even when they're literally on your head and jumping around. You can definitely eat them from behind with no misses. Why has this not been fixed.
When being ulted by furia that's supposed to give 30% extra damage. You will instead receive 9% extra damage. I don't think this happens to no one else besides maybe jenos too.
These bugs are still relevant for reworked Moji. The other ones are not there like snack attack so I won't mention them. I even have videos for these bugs too. Don't think because these videos are old it means that it no longer happens. The horse bug is old and that has been going on for years including other things.
https://www.reddit.com/Paladins/comments/tvfhlg/a_video_of_multiple_moji_bugs_happening_ill/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/Paladins/comments/z33w1x/yeah_that_makes_sense/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
 

Conclusion

\ \ I know they want to do something with her but I don't buy it that they did this because they cared about Moji. Moji hardly got any changes for years and I mean rarely a update to anything about her even though we're telling them what to do and then they rework them. They did thid because they didn't have funds for a echo champion since that was mentioned in the exact same post when talking about changing moji. Paladins has a history of someone who works on the game saying they will do this or mention a thing. Whether or not people like it or not which most of them we didn't like. They will still do it like echo champions.
This is the wrong way to go about it and no warning was ever given. To people who think well people ask for support/tank in the past. Those people now see that Moji is actually better than how people depicted her in late season 2. Plus those people no longer play the game and had a whole different idea when paladins was different back then. It's one thing to say I want a support. It's another when it comes to a type of support and what they have but everyone can't explain it because they simply hate Moji based on the comments. There are some characters I hate going against and when there character gets gutted I don't cheer in excitement. I would hate that to happen to my favorite characters. I simply want a certain thing nerf if it's clearly too much but without ruining them. I only suggest a rework or change to a certain thing if nothing else can work and is something people can agree on that benefits everyone.
These changes don't benefit anyone including the ideas since no one asked for these specific things. I would just revert it and actually listen to Moji mains needs to make her a better character. Not just Moji but every character. Especially the non human characters because they stay ignore them including people wanting ruckus Aerial Assault in base kit. Rather you guys fix the actual issues than do stuff like this. Including finishing unfinished maps instead of a unnecessary map rework making them worse to play on and never fixed.
That's all I have to say. Please let me know your thoughts on this. Actually have a real opinion and thoughts and not repeat the same thing over and over without making a actual point or I'm ignoring it.

I found this old story, and decided to polish it up and post it. Sometimes I like to do little world-building exercises, to flesh out the world. I might not want to go into a seven hundred word digression about how firefighting might work on a space station in a novel, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't write about it.

When the humans came aboard the starbase they brought with them their own ideas about how to do things. After all, they've been in space for a long time, most of that time alone. Just about any scenario that could happen, did happen to them at least once...sometimes twice if they weren't paying attention.
With their propensity for solving problems with explosions (they will always exclaim that it was a "minor" explosion) and their seemingly genetic tolerance for risk, it is inevitable that the humans have robust systems in place to help with disasters. One of their most respected first responders on the joint Human/K'laxi starbase is the Fire Brigade. Made up of two-thirds human and one-third K'laxi, their highly polished red pressure suits with gold accents and the large Maltese Cross - a human symbol for a fire brigade - are a welcome sight anytime a conflagration gets out of hand.
One may point out that in space, all the starbase AI has to do is remove the air from a room with a fire and it will be extinguished. This is true, but should only be considered a last resort. If a fire can be extinguished in a more traditional way, with foam, water and carbon dioxide, it's a much less traumatic experience for all involved. Additionally, there are many internal rooms where there is no direct access to hard vacuum. Multiple rooms would have to be evacuated to extinguish the fire. There is always work for the Fire Brigade.
It is a volunteer service, which meets 3 times a week for training; usually in the evening. All members are required to be available to drop what they are doing as respond to an emergency at least 4 times a month. There is no shortage of volunteers. In fact, the waitlist is so long that people are requested to only maintain an active membership for two human (or one K'laxi) year before resigning their commission to give someone else a chance to volunteer. Only the Head of the Brigade, Head of Apparatus, and Head of Training are permanent positions.
All volunteers keep their pressure suits in the suit locker that is closest to their homes, and it is their own responsibility to maintain and keep it clean. Polished brightwork and gleaming suits are a hallmark of the fire brigade, and every member takes it seriously. Many volunteers are seen scrubbing and polishing every weekend.
On those weekends, children of all stripes will congregate at the main "firehouse" and watch the members train and polish and maintain their equipment. The fire brigade vehicles - while small and meant more for hauling gear and hoses rather than people - are the only wheeled vehicles on the starbase, so they're always a big hit with the kids. If it's a slow afternoon and there is a surplus of volunteers that day, it's not uncommon for rides to be given up and down the promenade.
Many children request a visit from the fire brigade at birthday parties. So long as they're not currently occupied, they're always willing to have a few members show up, lights and sirens blaring, dressed in full turn-out gear to teach fire safety and let the kids sit in the truck and wear the pressure helmets.
The fire brigade is a respected institution on the starbase and their word on fire safety is final. Even the starbase AI will ask for their opinion about things related to fire safety. It has not gone unnoticed that since the humans established a permanent fire brigade that incidents and accidents of all types have been reduced. Being safety minded is contagious.
They may never be the main focus of life aboard the starbase, and they will never be the first thing a visitor sees, but everyone is glad they are there, ready to help.

Feel like after estrangement from my immediate family, life has gone to shit. They have everyone supporting them and are even on a fancy trip out of the country. I’m living with my grandma and uncle at 28. Just got rejected by yet another man and no real support system. Have a new job at a goodwill store. No car yet. Want love and support. Want to try one more time. How to get love and support? How to feel less lonely.

Just wanted to pop into here and say hi since this is a topic I try to talk about somewhat frequently and am always encouraging other people to donate.
I've donated as regularly as I can for the past several years. I'm at 2.5 gallons, so in NY I get a new card at 5 gallons (so about 2.5 years away). I believe I have donated a total of 17 or 19 pints (one time I didn't have enough iron to give double reds but they badly needed blood and took a single O NEG). So been going for a few years REGULARLY now. I always w ent when I could since I turned 18 but I had a few personally bad years where I wasn't going. Hoping to make that up as much as I can going forward. You guys are probably the only people that understand HOW BADLY I want to upgrade from my 1 gallon card to my 5 gallon card. I'm already planning it 2-3 years out...not weird!
I'm O- so I feel morally obligated to an extent. Additionally I have had a family member receive an organ transplant, and feel again obligated to give back in the way I can.
I do double reds as frequently as I can. The drawback is the past several years I have had to travel overseas to be with my fiance. The area she lives it excludes me from donating blood for a certain period after my return. Therefore, this year for example I am making my schedule tight: donating TWICE this calendar year before going (literally donating not even days before my flight) and since it's double reds, it's 4 units.
I try and spread the message to as many people as possible. Even if I get just one of them to donate once I feel it's worth it. As I'm sure everyone on this forum is aware, the blood supply is always low and stock is hard to keep. I fortunately live in an area of the country where we have still have enough donors despite how few people donate (NYC) and the hospitals regularly have more than enough blood. However, the reason I try to push people so much is, as I know you all know: the blood supply issue in the USA is one of "longevity," or a better word would be consistency: we need more people donating YEAR ROUND to prevent any shortages. What instead ends up happening (again, as I'm sure you all are aware) is that tons of people donate in the wake of some sort of emergency or disaster, but because SO MUCH is donated during those times a lot of it ends up wasted.
Anyway, sorry for the spiel. I figured if there was any place to give that little rant it's here. Once again: O NEG donor here (I think I'm CMV negative too, unsure) who donates DRBC as much as possible because I feel morally obligated from both a societal standpoint as well as somewhat of a personal one.
HOPE OTHER O- DONATE IN CASE I EVER NEED IT!
To everyone on here: THANK YOU ALL FOR DONATING. Everyone here is hero in a small way for committing to doing this multiple times. Even if you only go once a year to a blood drive, that is more than the average person in the USA. I hope more people sign up to donate CONSISTENTLY, and I also hope more people sign up to be organ donors (again a close loved one got a major organ, more than a kidney). I wish we had an opt-out system like Australia in that regard, but that's a topic distinct from blood donation.
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO DONATES! I'm hoping I can get ONE MORE IN before the year ends, if I have enough time pass after returning the last week of August. Unlikely, but I'll keep my plan to give two DRBC a year before my trips (we all know the max is 3 but if I can only do 2 I'll do 2).
THANKS TO ANYONE WHO READ THIS! THANKS TO ALL FELLOW DONORS! I HOPE YOUR JOB AT LEAST GIVES YOU SOME TIME OFF FROM WORK TO DO IT! I get 2 hours a year to donate blood (can't be split into two one hour chunks as much as I'd like, as I could then leave work 1 hour early twice without it counting against me to donate), and I HOPE TO GOD your job offers something similar. If you're unsure, I highly suggest you ask, as it's becoming more common than before.
ALL BLOOD DONORS HERE: YOU ARE HEROES! Be well everyone.

Please allow a tired IDC to scream into the void.
Without sounding cheesy, I love this job. I feel like medicine is what I'm meant to do, I enjoy it, I find a lot of personal satisfaction in taking care of patients. I get a little exasperated with the sick call warriors and Sailors who try to collect ICD10 codes like Infinity Stones, sure, but it doesn't take away from the fact that I love my job.
I just got to my first shore clinic as a provider, though, and I'm exhausted.
We have a shortage of providers, so appointments are booked out for months. Acute care is now chronic care, because Sailors are realizing that they can get seen that way, and I am getting slammed with multiple patients daily that are way outside my scope of care. Mental health medication initiation requests, requests for chronic care and complicated specialty diagnosis management, requests to initiate LIMDU or MEB/PEB, requests for disease workups...and man, it SUCKS to keep having to tell people essentially "your princess is in another castle". I can refer you to the right person, but you're gonna have to wait to get seen. I can't cure you in an outpatient Primary Care setting, I can't provide specialist-level care, I'm not a diagnostician. And there's guidelines I have to meet and red tape to get through for those referrals.
This is the future of Navy Medicine. Acute Care will become Primary Care, because Primary Care is so overbooked that patients can't even get in to see any PCM, much less their PCM. Primary Care will continue to hemorrhage providers, which will make the wait for appointments all the longer and the strain on Acute Care even worse. Patients will get referred to Urgent Care, because Acute Care can't get them in; Urgent Care is a step above ER, so those patients with their chronic concerns will get the bandaid fix and be right back at Step 1, trying to get into Acute Care or a PCM appointment. And the cycle continues.
On top of that, the absolute hostility of some patients...like, I am not your enemy. I want you to get care. DHA deciding that we as an entity can do more with less is way out of my control.
I'm sorry you're waiting for 4 hours at sick call to get seen, there's only one of me and so, so many patients. I'm sorry the wait for Neurology is 3 months, I can't help that. I'm sorry that your chronic pain without a clear MOI is now beyond where you can handle it, but I can't get you to a specialist or an MRI* immediately, especially if you've never been seen/it's been 7 years since you had an xray and a single P/T appointment.
I don't know if it always was this bad, I don't think it was? But it's a broken system. If I didn't love this field so much, I would absolutely not be re-enlisting and would get out next year at 16, damn near 17 years.
I know I can't be alone in feeling like this, I know my situation can't be unique. I just don't know how to fix it.
*What is it with MRIs?! Why does everyone want one?

So we all know this game is riddled with cheaters right now and it's not the teaming prequeue, specatate tracking kind but rather the hardcore esp, weapon range increasing, stat increasing kind that is not only super blatant but down right obvious when u look at any kind of gameplay from their pov.
It's been so bad that it's hard to go even a day without a confirmed temp or perm ban message being popped up after reporting them which while it's a good thing doesn't change that we had a loss because of it which to date has been basically ignored. So my question is why are we not being refunded our gear and ap that we lost because of the cheating? I think it's about time they add a mail system that can hold our gear that's being returned after a confirmed cheater has been banned to fix the issue for the victim (and as a side bonus they can give out other things with a mail system I guess)
We all get it this game is still having major systems being worked on and added/removed but this kind of a system is definently something that should be a priority addition given the current situation of how bad the cheating is.

first
Luna VI query: Set the source to the leaked files of the first reconnaissance operation of Irisa.
Done!
Luna VI query: What did Nathan do during the first hour of the war?
***
From the instant he opened his eyes, Nathan's morning was chaotic. It all began with the ground shaking beneath him, jolting him into a state of awareness. He then was greeted by the sight of Amara. She was leaning against a corner, covered in purple from head to toe as she screamed at someone through an earpiece that she was pressing with one of her claws.
His good morning was overhearing one piece of bad news after the other.
The rest of Amara's group had been ambushed early in the morning; many were dead, injured, or missing.
A war had erupted in the sky and her allies were trying to push back the enemy forces, but the battle persisted; the outcome was uncertain.
Zara was being brought to them, but Amara had lost contact with Igmila's group who was bringing her, only receiving confirmation from another group that a rescue pod was spotted at a distance.
And when he thought that things couldn't get any worse, he heard a bang followed by the AI reporting that Ryo had shot down a drone somewhere near their position.
"Open the tent!" Red had conquered Amara's body.
None of the scenarios Nathan had contemplated the previous night had prepared him for such a chaotic morning. "Give me a second."
He only wanted a chance to get his gun from his backpack and explain why he had it in the first place, even though he suspected Amara was already aware he had it. But she didn't let him. "Now!"
She had never felt so distant to him as the moment she said that single word, which led him to just comply as he stood up and followed her in silence. But this frail silence only masked his morning grumpiness, magnified by the dire circumstances and her cold demeanor toward him.
Nathan had barely caught a glimpse of Ryo and Elysira at a distance when he muttered. "It wouldn't have been so hard to say a few words to fill me in, you know."
Amara's eyes were transfixed on the smoking pieces of the drone when she whipped her head around, glaring at him with her orange eyes. "My people are fighting a war and dying. How can you demand my time when Yelara is hurt and barely escaped alive?"
"Oh, come on, I'm not demanding anything." He scoffed, shaking his head. "I just don't think it would have been so hard to tell me what you intend to do in the next five minutes."
The tip of her tail pressed against his chest, as red and purple coexisted on her skin.
"I am heading up the mountain to find Igmila." She spoke in a detached voice, pulling her tail back and turning around, and then she sprinted in the gap between himself and the tent.
He caught a glimpse of gray on her neck and all his grumpiness was gone, replaced by a cold shiver running down his spine. With his arms moving faster than his thoughts, he grabbed her by the tail, preventing her from going anywhere.
"You absolutely can't do this Amara." Nathan looked down at the tail he held with both hands and swallowed a lump of saliva in fear of her reaction. But that still didn't prevent him from finishing what he had to say, "It's too dangerous."
Amara's eyes sought his, causing him to suspect she would demand to be released or try to free herself by force, but she did something else. "All of this is because of you. Had I not come to your tent, I would be there to assist them."
Nathan caught a glimpse of green around her back spots, which let him know that there was a hint of guilt in her words. But did that justify blaming everything on him and running into danger without thinking?
If not for the awful night followed by an awful morning, Nathan might have just taken the blame and hugged her. But he too had his limits, "How is that fair? Blame me all you want, but nothing will change that you had all the chances in the world to go back and you didn't. I'm not saying that you could have done anything abo-"
"Indeed." Gray flashed for a moment before red flowed among her black spots. "This night was a waste of time." His grip faltered at her words and she pulled her tail back from among his fingers. "I should have stayed with Yelara to help her tend to her wounds."
Nathan bit his lips in frustration. How was it possible to agree with her words, yet still feel the sharp sting in his heart?
And if that was not enough, Ryo had to step in to rub salt in the wound.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
With Elysira’s tail wrapped around his wrist as she averted her eyes from Amara, Ryo spoke, "Please don't tell me you're mad because the plant lover couldn't get it up."
Nathan blinked fast not believing his eyes. Ryo was not only shirtless but there were a lot of scratches on his neck and below. Elysira’s long strands were also a mess, but even without that, their physical closeness alone would be enough of a hint of how much fun they had at night.
When Nathan glanced at Amara to gauge her reaction, she had already crossed her arms, looking at him angrily. Which immediately made him feel as if Ryo’s not-funny joke was true although he knew it wasn't.
It took Nathan a considerable amount of self-retainment to not walk up there and rearrange Ryo's handsome face with his fist, or at least attempt to do so.
A few seconds passed before he said, "Why are you here?"
Ryo didn't even bother to look at him, his eyes focusing solely on Amara. "Information. I want her to tell me what she knows about this war."
Amara didn't look pleased to help, but she still informed him about the ambush and even alerted him that even their current position would soon be unsafe.
As If things weren't already bad enough, Ryo frowned and hurried to instruct Elysira to get his things as soon as Amara had finished talking. Nathan felt like he was in a war movie where everything was happening too fast for his emotions and reason to follow.
It was only when he saw Ryo raising his gun skywards that Nathan’s anger subsided, contained by the prospect of how bad their situation was. Ryo movements were fluid and methodical, but he never pulled the trigger on the many drones that appeared high above and, instead, retreated to take cover behind a tree.
Only now the seriousness of the situation sank in for Nathan.
He didn't even care that he hadn't explained to Amara why he had a gun yet, rushing inside the tent after exchanging a glance with her.
After crossing the circular door, he found only a few items on the ground: a pair of boots, his sleeping bag, and his backpack with all his equipment inside.
Nathan was quick, wearing his boots first before retrieving his belt, knife, and holster from the backpack. With a sequence of swift movements, he strapped the sheathed knife and holster to the belt and cinched it around his waist, securing it in place before closing the backpack and dashing out the door with his gun in one hand and the backpack in the other.
Already outside, Nathan found it weirdly reassuring that Ryo was in the same spot as before, but that only lasted until he tried to find Amara, but found nothing no matter where he searched for her.
He dropped his backpack, feeling at a loss. How could he have allowed her to venture beyond his sight when he knew that guilt was clouding her judgment?
Only when he had already cupped his hands around his mouth to scream her name that he felt a touch right above his heel—her tail.
"Psst..."
Wiping his head, Nathan saw Amara's whole body mimicking the colors of his tent, making herself quite hard to spot.
"I thought you were gone." He joined her, stooping down beside the tent as relief washed over him.
"It might be too late to join my soldiers." She didn't allow her colors to change, but the translator conveyed a hint of sadness. "I lost contact with all the teams who were coming here."
"Amara I-"
Nathan was about to attempt to make things right with her when Ryo’s assertive voice reached him. "Listen up, those fuckers are jamming our comms and they will be here at any time. Take the MLBCS and find a clearing to use it, I doubt they can interfere with the laser. Just don't forget that your immediate safety comes first or else you might not be among the living when the pod arrives."
Ryo ran back to his tent as soon as he was done speaking, leaving Nathan questioning his own intelligence. How come he had never even considered leaving the planet? A single glance at Amara and he knew why. But did he have any other option?
Staying and fighting to hold his position was something he briefly considered. But did he have a chance when even Ryo decided to leave after seeing the drones?
Mission control might give him other options, so Nathan decided to try his luck despite Ryo’s warning.
Unable to establish a two-way connection.
He confirmed the interference with the communication with a single thought, kicking his backpack in frustration even though it was expected.
Why did it have to be so hard to accept that Ryo was right and leaving the planet was his best option?
But would Ryo truly leave the planet and leave Elysira behind?
Nathan forgot Amara who was beside him and screamed, not allowing this question to stay in his mind, "Wait, what are you gonna do?"
Ryo replied as he waited for Elysira, "I'm not leaving the planet unless mission control finds a way to save Ely too."
Nathan's eyes widened, feeling like an idiot as he brought up a pop-up window showing the schematics of the rescue pods. They were designed to be fast vehicles capable of transporting a single person to the space station, but Earth's government hadn’t skimped on the design, which included various components that could be discarded, such as medical supplies and search and rescue equipment.
He used the AI to run the calculations and found that Amara would likely be able to go with him, that is if they wedged themselves into the vehicle and discarded everything else.
Nathan was about to share his findings with Ryo when he caught a glimpse of him and Elysira disappearing into the woods, abandoning their tent behind as they ran away.
A sense of urgency struck him at that moment, but it was easily forgotten when Amara's voice struck even harder, "You should go."
"What do you mean?" He sought her eyes, but she avoided his gaze, facing to the ground.
"Do what Ryo suggested." She took a small pause before she went on. "Leave the planet."
"The hell I will!" He punched the tent. "Not without you." He could only assume she was saying this because she didn't know she could leave with him. "You'll come with me, and the pod will take us to the space station."
"Your species will refuse to take me." He saw a hint of purple on her neck. "Before the mission started your people told us you humans will not get involved in our wars." She finally made eye contact, and the purple on her skin intensified. "My best chance to survive this is to hide in the mountains and wait for reinforcements."
"You don’t understand, Amara." He didn't have time for a full explanation of what humans considered not getting involved. "No one in mission control will want to leave you here to die just because of some stupid rule." He then spoke his heart out without a care in the world. "And even if they do, they will take you anyway if say I won't go anywhere without you."
A hint of yellow could be seen among her camouflaged skin, but before she could say what she would do, her tail wrapped around his neck and he felt a strong pull to lower his head and bend his knees for cover.
"The rebels are here," she whispered as her ears twitched.
Nathan was tall enough to see the slope on the other side of the tent by just standing, but Amara struggled to see from above the structure, requiring her to stretch her full height and still take little jumps to take peeks.
And it was after doing so that she dropped her camouflage entirely, letting purple run free among her black spots.
Nathan took interest in what she had seen that had caused such a reaction, and he leaned cautiously against the tent and raised his head slowly, prepared to find a few armed Irisians hidden among the trees. But what he found instead was a never-ending line of Irisian advancing downhill at a fast pace towards them.
He understood Amara's reaction now, pulling back the harmer of the revolver as he stared at her. "I need to... do something."
He made up his mind, determined to shoot. But when activated the infrared view mode and took aim at Irisians descending the slope, Nathan froze for a second. This just lasted a moment, and when found the resolve to fire, he had already lifted the gun enough that it wouldn't hit anyone and it would just be a warning shot.
He fired once, twice, and went on until all six rounds were gone, then he noticed their organized marching had stopped, all of them having activated their camouflage. Some even broke the line and retreated uphill.
When he took cover again, Amara was protecting her ears with both hands, looking at him as if he were some sort of monster. Nathan ignored her and rifled through his backpack in search of more ammunition, finding the small box with shining metal bullets after he had searched for some long seconds.
It was only when he released the cylinder to reload the gun that Nathan noticed something.
His hands were shaking.
He ignored it and pressed the extraction rod the remove the cartridges from the cylinder to make room for the new ones, clumsily dropping a few of them as he reloaded.
Amara saw this and stopped him with her tail before he had filled all the chambers.
"I cannot go with you." Her body had been conquered by purple.
"You think I'll leave you behind?" He almost reached his breaking point when she replied.
"No." Her tail touched his cheek gently. "There are too many of them, Nathan." She pulled her tail back as a hint of gray appeared. "My brother will never let me go, he lost too many ships and soldiers to give up without his prize." The gray intensified, squeezing her black spots. "If you die with me on this planet, your species might abandon Irisa forever.
"My chances of hiding in the mountains are slim, but they exist... and even if I fail I will distract them long enough for you to flee."
Her body blended with the surroundings again and Nathan felt that she was about to do something stupid, but he moved faster and grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to bend her legs and join him on the ground as she stared at him with wide eyes.
"To hell with this self-sacrifice bullshit." Nathan finally decided what he would do. "Do you think I will die that easy? Guess what, you’re wrong." His hands moved from her shoulder to her back and he embraced her. "Let me tell you what we'll do, we take the MLBCS, we find a clearing, and we go to the space station." He released her and added, almost crazily. "You go with me even if I have to drag you by the tail as you scratch me, you hear me?"
He was not kidding; he grabbed her tail with his left hand, leaving her exterior filled with colors ranging from purple to yellow.
Amara was about to reply when the tent produced a thud noise, sounding as if someone had knocked on a cardboard box. When they turned to the side, there was a tiny hole in the tent dangerously close to Amara's head.
She touched the hole with her finger, and then her whole hand pressed against the side of her head, staring at him without saying a word.
Nathan's heart skipped a beat when he realized what had just happened, and consumed by a rage like he never felt before, he pressed the cylinder of his revolver back into place with just the four bullets inside, pulling back the harmer.
This time there was no hesitation, he quickly stood up and used the infrared view mode to survey the now organized groups of Irisians who had taken a defensive formation, choosing as target an Irisian who had climbed a tree and was pointing a long gun at them.
In just a moment Nathan aimed and pulled the trigger, firing one round after another. The first two missed completely, but the others hit the tree right above the target, making this Irisian panic and release his claws from the wood, only to welcome an ugly fall on the rocks below from several meters above the ground.
He took cover again immediately, but this time noise as if he was facing heavy rain under an umbrella struck his eardrums moments after he had taken cover, making him wince every time he heard the distinct noise of a projectile going through one wall of the tent and stopping the other.
With her tail still among his fingers, Nathan and Amara exchanged several anxious glances as the shooting persisted, only calming down when the rebels realized they were wasting ammunition and the barrage of fire slowly started to lose momentum.
Nathan's heart was racing and she was going through all tones of purple when she broke the silence.
"Fine!" She spoke fast. "If you are being so adamant about tying our fates together, we can do it your way." Her tail escaped his grip, but instead of pulling it back, she coiled it around his wrist. "But we are weaker together, Nathan. I will be a burden to you when you run, and you will be a burden to me when we hide."
"Oh, to hell with that too." Despite his harsh words, just knowing that they were on the same page now was enough to give him some hope. "Sorry. I do all the running and you do all the hiding, does that work for you?"
He didn't wait for her reply and loaded the gun again, this time doing it very fast even though his hands were still shaking.
"You do all the running? I fail to understand you." She said as she stood up to take a peek at the enemies, just to recoil in fear and add, "Explain yourself fast, they are losing the fear of your loud gun."
"Sure." He grasped his backpack bottom and overturned it, emptying its contents in a quick motion. With all the items on the ground, Nathan only took the MLBCS and the little box with his drones that he promptly stored in his pocket. "We won't need any of that, which means my back will be free."
"Are you crazy, I am too heavy f-"
"You're not." Nathan was 6′3″, and he had the nanites ensuring he was as healthy as a human could be. This meant that the short Amara—the top of her head only reaching a little below his shoulder—was not a challenging weight for him to carry given her slender body.
Noticing the doubt in her gaze, he lowered his body even more, turning his back towards her in a way it would be easy for her to climb, hoping this would be all the push she needed.
"You take pleasure in testing my trust, do you not?" The tone of her voice hinted at her reluctance, but she still draped her arms over his shoulder, securing her grip in a way her claws wouldn't hurt him.
Even though they had a plan now, Nathan still felt a chill down his spine at the thought of what he would have to do. And despite knowing that he had taken everything he needed, he anxiously patted down his pocket the make sure the box with the drones was there and remembered to take a handful of bullets, filling up his pockets as some of them fell to the ground.
"Ready?" He asked, trying to sound confident.
"See for yourself." Her tail wrapped around his belly, full of tiny black spots surrounded by purple as far as he could see.
Nathan took a few deep breaths and stood up, getting a glimpse of the many groups that were advancing from both sides, trying to surround them.
It didn't even take him a full second before he started firing his revolver indiscriminately at them while his legs moved on their own, not even waiting for his eyes to decide which path he would take.
Amara's weight escaped his thoughts completely, replaced by the fear evoked by the faint noise of metal breaking the sound barrier around them as soon they left the protection of the tent.
He didn't spare a single glance behind, running downhill at full throttle with bursts of adrenalin fueling his speed. He outran the reach of their guns quite fast, hurdling fallen brunches and putting not only distance but also several tree trunks between them and the hostile force behind.
With Amara's solid grip and occasional shifting of her weight to prove that she was fine, Nathan kept his pace as his muscles burned with exertion.
For a little over ten minutes he kept going, jumping over protruding roots and ducking beneath low-hanging branches. But this couldn't go on forever and eventually, he stopped to catch his breath, bending forward and letting go of items in his hand as Amara released her grip to stand on her own two feet.
His breath was coming in ragged bursts, but that didn't keep him from starting to laugh as he stared at her, whose eyes were gentle and her entire body was filled with hints of yellow.
In a split-second though, her whole demeanor changed, all the yellow giving way to purple and red.
She asked a single question, "Is that device of yours supposed to release smoke?"
The tip of her tail was pointing at the MLBCS, which now had a small hole in it from where a whisp of smoke curled upwards, just like a candle after its flame had been extinguished.
Nathan shook his head and touched his forehead; a single word left his mouth, "Fuck."
***
This was an account based on what Nathan did during the first hour of the war. The previous narrative is based on the events of the morning of the twentieth day of the exploratory mission of Irisa. According to your current settings, no queries will be suggested.
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Hi all, turned my AC on for the first time this season and it wasn't working. It's a 20 year old split system heat pump and the fan motor broke, having been quoted $1k for a repair I figured I might as well just replace the system at this point.
First estimate was $9.5k for a 2-stage Rheem, but with a SEER2 rating of only 14.3, and not qualifying for the federal rebate. He also presented the option of a 2-speed American Standard unit for around $14k and a SEER2 of 16 that didn't qualify for the rebate.
Second estimate was $9k for a single-stage Lennox, SEER2 rating of 16. It qualifies for federal rebate per AHRI so I'd get $2k back, effectively making it $7k. This guy exclusively installs Lennox and said that they did not have a 2-stage unit available anymore, the next best thing would be a variable speed for $13k after rebate, which just feels like total overkill for me.
I also got a third estimate that was so much laughably higher then both that it isn't worth mentioning. So, I guess my question is, how should I compare this single-stage Lennox to the 2-stage Rheem? I understand the primary benefit of a 2-stage system to be increased efficiency, but if the single stage has a higher SEER rating, does that cancel out the benefit? Especially given it'd be $2.5k cheaper, though I've read that Lennox systems can end up being more expensive to repair, so that may end up cancelling out.
For context, I live in Arizona, so extreme summer heat and mild winters. My house is only 1.2k sq feet, very well insulated, and am pretty conservative with the thermostat.

I recently posted an analysis of input lag on the 4KP, and I'm back with more accurate data. I'm also using this post to share some info on two popular after-market replacement buttons. Read on if you're interested, skip if not, but I did the work for myself anyway, so I thought I'd share with you all.
This is specifically going to be a look at aftermarket button options and then at total input lag for a selection of native tables. I'll be focusing on OTG lag and tweaking VPX/FX settings next time.

What's New?

Just as a quick TLDR from my last post, I'm trying a bunch of stuff to try and minize total input lag as much as possible, mainly for OTG use. My input lag measuring methodology was: high speed camera method, using iOS app "Is it Snappy?," tagging the input frame as the frame where the button was fully pressed in, and the output frame as the frame where flipper movement was first seen. So basically an imprecise start frame and a precise final frame.
Well, turns out we can have a precise first frame as well. I put together a quick breadboard circuit setup (details at the very end of this post) that adds in an LED light to indicate the precise moment when the button was actuated.

Solenoid LEDs

It turns out you don't even need a breadboard or electronics skills to get much more accurate, consistent, input lag measurements than I was getting by eyeballing the button. If you have your solenoids turned on, then there will be a pair of red LEDs on one of the controller boards that light up every time you push the flipper button. To be clear, these are solenoid lights, so they won't trigger if you have your solenoids turned off. Just remove the control deck, hit the flipper button, and the lights will be easy to spot. Now the caveat here is that these lights do trigger ~4-8ms (1-2 frames at 240fps) after the breadboard light (and thus after actuation), so you should build that additional lag amount in to your measurements if you use this method.

Aftermarket Button Options

Imgur Album
One big point of discussion around input lag (maybe more on YT than here) has been the flipper buttons. Are the stock buttons bad? Which aftermarket option is best? Do these completely fix flipper lag as some videos have claimed? Does any of this really matter?
The answer to the last one is: "Kind of. Maybe." I have three buttons that I've been playing with. The stock clicky button, the popular "gold leaf" button, and the much-praised "leaf" button. I sourced these from the usual eBay sellers.
Button Characteristics
I used a digital caliper to measure some key numbers for these buttons. Total travel distance is the distance that the button is capable of traveling, from unpushed to bottomed out. The actuation point is the distance into the button press that the button completes the circuit and sends the flip signal to the machine. This is all as accurate as I could get, but there's always some literal wiggle room when taking measurements like this.

Button	Actuation Point	Total Travel Distance
Stock	~1.75mm	~3.7mm
Gold Leaf	~1.75mm	~3.7mm
Leaf	~1mm	~3mm

Stock button:
There is a Baolian/Bao-Lian brand black clicky mechanical switch inside the button, with silver-colored contacts. It has low push resistance overall that increases leading up to the click, and peaks at the click, with low post-click resistance. See the album for a dissambled white stock button and a look at the Baolian switch.
Honestly, I don't like the stock button because it's clicky, and pinball flipper buttons shouldn't be clicky.
Oh, and the click happens 2mm into the button push, so it clicks actually after it actuates.
Gold leaf button:
Essentially identical to the stock button in terms of basic push characteristics, but there's no click, and the contacts are gold-colored instead of silver-colored. There is a Baolian grey linear switch inside the button. They are quiet and smooth, with a low push resistance that is consistent throughout the push.
I'm not sure if the contacts are just gold-colored, or if they're actually gold plated. Even if they are truly gold plated, that isn't going to make a meaningful impact on response time or lag. This button and the stock button have exactly the same actuation point and total travel distance.
The lack of a click makes these an easy winner for me over the stock buttons. I like them, and they make for an easy drop-in replacement for the stock buttons.
Leaf button:
Uses an actual old-school leaf switch mechanism, so this also has no click. See the Imgur album for a demonstration video. It has a much higher push resistance than either of the other two, and it comes in two stages. A lighter pre-actuation stage, and then a heavier post-actuation stage as you transition from pushing one contact arm to pushing both arms. It's actually surprisingly tough to bottom out compared to the low-effort bottom out on the others. It does make a small amount of noise due to various parts rubbing together and bending, but I'd say not really loud enough to hear when installed.
The leaf button has shorter pre-actuation travel than the other options, so it wins for "speed" by ~.75mm. How much that actually matters in terms of perceived lag is very much up for debate, but I expect it's a small impact.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of the extra resistance these buttons have. My sweet spot is the gold leaf button.
Input Lag Impact:
Actuation is actuation. Your button choice doesn't affect lag once the button has been actuated, so if you want to do absolutely everything you can to minimize perceived input lag, go with the leaf switches. I'm sure you can claw back a few milliseconds, but it probably won't make much difference overall, and it definitely won't solve the lag problem altogether as certain YouTube videos suggest. The real lag isn't happening between 1mm and 1.75mm of the button press.
There has long been a related discussion in MechanicalKeyboards, with "normal" switches compared against "speed" switches that have a shorter actuation distance, and the consensus there is that the shorter throw "speed" switches don't actually improve your gaming performance in a meaningful way. I expect it's not that different here.
If you want the button that feels most authentic to modern physical pinball machines, go with the gold leaf buttons. That's what I'll probably stick with.

More Accurate Input Lag Data for Native Tables

Here I'm looking at a variety of stock/native tables, with a deeper dive into OTG coming later. One last quick note - I hate how the total lag measures seem to vary over time, but they do. In the past, I've captured total input lag times for Dino Dynasty as low as about 50ms, but I didn't capture anything that low this time.
Software version 2.16.6. Measurements taken using my breadboard LED indicator for the most accurate possible results. The individual measurement error is ±~6ms, and I've gathered anywhere from 5 to 15 measurements for each table, and I threw in the 95% confidence interval data for any stats heads out there.

Table	Type	Average Total Input Lag (ms)	95% CI (ms)
Dinosaur Dynasty	Magic Pixel	72.5	± 3.27
Ice Age	Magic Pixel	68.4	± 7.33
Attack from Mars (with effects)	Zen	139.5	± 5.46
Attack from Mars (no effects)	Zen	135.0	± 7.33
Star Trek Deep Space 9	Zen	145.3	± 7.33
Star Trek Discovery	Zen	137.5	± 7.33
Star Trek Kelvin Timeline	Zen	138.9	± 7.33
Tee'd off	Gottlieb	54.2	± 7.33
Space Invaders	Taito	69.2	± 7.33

I'm personally looking at ~100ms of total input lag as the benchmark for maximum acceptable lag, and below ~50ms total lag as the ideal range.
There's nothing shocking here. I just wanted to provide more accurate data. The Magic Pixel tables get a passing score, as do the native Gottlieb and Taito tables. Zen, of course, is still the problem. It's interesting how small of an improvement I got from disabling the table effects on Attack from Mars.
That's it! Thanks for reading and I hope this was interesting for at least one of you.
Breadboard Setup
A red LED in series with 50k ohms worth of resistors, with wires going to the button terminals, putting the whole setup in parallel with the button. The buttons are NC (normally closed) buttons, so the led light will be on by default and turn off when the button is actuated. The system is also very sensitive, reading even small drops in voltage as a button press. 50k ohms was the magic number where the system finally worked. Anything below that and the system was interpreting the voltage drop caused by the mere presence of the LED circuit as a button press due.

I 24F took in my younger sister 17F in October. She had texted me during school that day saying she didn’t feel safe, when she got home she texted me our code word. I left work as soon as I could and made a lame excuse to go over to my family’s home. My parents 41F and 57M were standoffish so I stuck to my lame excuse and distracted them. My sister ran to my truck and ducked down. I left and around the corner we self reported her runaway to the proper authorities. We reported to CPS everything that happened and led up to that day and have worked with the system since including the sheriffs office and detectives. I won’t say what exactly we went through but our dad has been arrested on 11 charges, 2 of which are capital crimes. Through all of this she has lived with me and my husband 24M in our home we purchased just a month before she ran. We’re both suffering PTSD and depression from everything that happened and she has been seeing a therapist. Unfortunately my sister and I present very differently. I took the quiet way out of that house so I could still have access to my sisters when I moved out, my sister has fought every step of the way since leaving for justice. It’s admirable and I don’t want to sound like I don’t love her and understand how hard all of this is, but my sister has been rude to my husband and I, condescending about my education, complaining we’re never home when we go to work, picking fights with me, complaining we can’t afford to buy her a car, etc. Needless to say it makes it feel like everything we do is not enough and never will be and has led to changes in how we want to handle her turning 18 in 3 months. My husband and I started working on a rental contract to give her and ourselves protection when she turns 18. She can rent her room and bathroom for $350 a month with all basic groceries, utilities, washedryer and all the supplies, kitchen and all the supplies, and streaming services included. There are rules that are basically keep your spaces clean, keep the common spaces clean, respect all members of the household, let us know in advance if you’re having company over and give us extra time if you’ll be having company over and hosting in common areas so we can make sure we don’t have plans overlapping. We did decide that for disrespecting the rules or us there would be a financial penalty after a certain amount of times a month of failing to do these things because we currently have no recourse for her consistently fighting with me until I cry, leaving messes in the kitchen I get to clean up, and just generally not respecting our home. There are clauses to have those penalties removed and added in for her protection because it’s meant to protect everyone if any arguments or issues come up. My husband, being frustrated after 8 months of her purposefully upsetting me or starting fights then asking us for things and guilting us for them not being done immediately because we need to work to pay bills, wants to drop this in front of her when she turns 18 and give her two options: sign the contract and stay with us or find somewhere else to live and provide us with a lease by the end of August (her birthday is early in the month). I felt that was unfair to drop with no warning so I gave her a heads up about it so she wouldn’t be startled when the time came. After talking with her therapist, she’s decided we’re a**holes for not just supporting her (emotionally and financially) after she turned 18. I’m on the fence and frustrated. So AITA for asking my sister to sign a rent contract or move out after she turns 18? P.S. my husband has been very patient with her and the first few months just brushed everything off. He’s only to this point because there’s been no improvement whatsoever and she has been apathetic to everyone and has even ridiculed me for crying or being at all emotional.

Passive ability. Helping hand.
After getting a knock down, increase healing speed by 1.5x.
After getting a kill, increase healing speed for all teammates by 1.5x.
This effect is active until, the next healing item used, and has no time limit. So a knock at the start of the game activating this passive, will keep it active until the end of the game. However that probably won’t be happening.
The passive does not stack. So 1.5+1.5… every knock. It’s just You (The player) gets 1.5x healing speed on your next health item if you get a knock. Then if you get a kill that’s 1.5x healing speed for the whole team. This overrides the first healing buff, so everyone only gets 1.5x
The passive works with every healing item, Lifelines D.O.C, Wattson’s Ult recharging shields.
Full disclosure I have NO IDEA the 1.5x was literally just a random number I came up with that sounded like a nice little bump in speed. If that’s WAY too overpowered I’m very sorry I… I don’t know.
Tactical ability. Switching sides
Switch places with a teammate. I have two ideas on how this would work.
1, Holding down the tactical button, looking at a teammate for 3 seconds, will then activate the teleport, causing you to switch places with them… this seems like the fastest most dynamic way of going about it but also the most accedent prone, and it feels like the easiest to mess up.
2, Pressing the tactical button will bring up both your teammates, kinda like in a JRPG game like Final Fantasy, you then just need to pick one of them and in 3 seconds will switch places with them. This is obviously slower and not as mid combat safe, but a lot more accurate.
Regardless of the method tho. Switching places will create a 30 damage AOE explosion, that will cause knock back and shell shock, similar to a Bangalore Ult stun.
I’m not sure if I want it to do more like healing the teammate you switched with, or giving them passive health recovery like an Octane passive. It’s a Support move because it’s supposed to get your teammate out of a bad situation, like they’re stuck in the Zone, with no health items. There getting killed by gunfire. The point is to Teleport in, get your teammate out of there bad situation, but now your in that situation, so deal some damage, knock back, stun… to help keep you alive after switching places.
I don’t think adding a healing system to it is necessary not that kind of support move.
Ult Ability. Yin and Yang
The Ult dose 2 things that are similar, but keeps her relevant with and without teammates.
If you have teammates, Increase there Ult by 5%. What this means is anything that can be increased will be increased by 5%. This includes Ult time, Ult damage, Ult stun, Ult speed boost. If there is something that can be increased by 5% it will be. Only works for 1 teammate.
If you don’t have teammates. instantly cancel an enemy Ult, that is in its animation. Can’t cancel Ults that are already activated. But if you see a enemy in the Ult animation, pressing your Ult will instantly cancel there’s.

Hi there!
I'm looking for writing partners interested in setting up some original guy/established woman in pro wrestling roleplays. It'd be great if you're looking to be silly and have a mix of comedy and romance to go along with the action. I want to work on characters and the general story a bit before starting up anything. I'm looking to do the plot below, though I'm open to others:

• I'm a new talent, the son of a Hall of Famer and one of the youngest guys that WWE (or AEW, or another federation) has signed and is using prominently in the modern era. I'm catching on quick with fans and even you've taken notice. It's no surprise that I'm loving the attention, and I've especially been enjoying yours. It's no bother to me, I've seen you giving me some extra attention when I'm cutting a promo or having a match, and I like it. Truth is, I've been watching you and I've been a fan of yours for years. Wanna know a secret? I even have the tiniest bit of a crush on you, but it'll take a bit of convicing for you to get that out of me. The question is are you going to just keep looking at me or will you make a move? If you're not going to, I just might. Is it a whirlwind romance? Or do we start casually and let things grow slowly? Maybe you're just linking yourself to me because I'm popular, maybe you even fall along the way? The posibilities are endless, and I can't wait to see how it cracks out.

I'm around a lot and looking for partners who want to write a lot. Please don't message me if you're just going to reply with "I'm up for anything" or something like that, I want to play with people who are into it! But as long as you're interested in writing and being creative, I want to plot and set something up!
If you're looking for something with shorter replies and or longer waits between them, still feel free to reach out too! Reach out, because I'm looking to write! You can send me a DM, or Chat. Also open to use discord for partners looking for longer & faster RP. Please let me know if you write in third or first person, while I prefer third, I can do either!