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One thing I will absolutely praise this game on is the characterisation of the evil geniuses and the stellar voice acting involved. I've grown to actually really like Zalika and her smooth, cultured voice is always a delight to hear. Then I watched a bit of an Emma campaign and she sounds genuinely deranged and broken in a really cool way. It gives a lot of personality, even if a ton of the lines aren't actually personalised.
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Apr 8, 2021 00:16
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Uh oh, I might have hosed myself over. So I hastily dug some stairs to the cavern in my base for the superweapon quest: Whoops, I put my stairs too close and they're facing the wrong way. Guess I'd better delete the room and try again:  ...except I can't interact with that last strip of open tiles...and there's not enough space in the above floor to shove in another set of stairs...and I can't research the next tier of digging until I progress further in the story... Am I missing something or did I just ruin this playthrough?
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Apr 8, 2021 00:31
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Build another staircase in the already dug out area, then you can delete the first one
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Apr 8, 2021 00:35
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Build another stairs, then delete the first one. You're making the whole area inaccessible by removing the stairwell, which makes the whole room invalid. Edit: if you really can't build more stairs, try filling everything but the stairwell with dirt first, then delete the stairs and reposition
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Apr 8, 2021 00:35
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Danaru posted:
Is that the art heist series of quests? That one is just a giant pain in the rear end, even with Ivan's ability to instant train. Six technicians and some guards per mission, has to be done 11 times, with, and I paid attention to the clock during it, at least 2 minutes between helicopter trips and hopefully each trip was enough to do the mission, was 45 minutes just to do part of one sub plot on a side quest. Still wasn't done, and is only one part of that person's side quest.
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Apr 8, 2021 00:40
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If you aren't playing in fast forward like, most of the time, you're wrong.
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Apr 8, 2021 00:45
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DarkHorse posted:Build another stairs, then delete the first one. You're making the whole area inaccessible by removing the stairwell, which makes the whole room invalid. Tried it; game refuses to let me finalize the stair removal as long as those excavated tiles are still there, otherwise it would work. Time to dredge through the autosaves.
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Apr 8, 2021 01:04
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cumshitter posted:The one thing I wish they would bring back form the first game is the ability to increase the rate that yellow jumpsuit minions join. In the first game you had a slider where it was $0 for 1 minion per minute, and you could slide it up to something ridiculous like $10,000 for a minion every 5 seconds or something. I believe they also came in through the stockpile they grab purchased items from rather than the helicopter. Apologies if I came across as glib and hand-waving in my response earlier; I've finally gotten to the last third of the game with one of the geniuses, and holy poo poo does this escalate as an issue. "Current quest: run a mission that involves 6 workers and 6 other people do this 10 times" So, at 3 worker generation a minute, that's 40 minutes of waiting for workers to replenish once that one mission is done. Assuming I run no other missions during that 40 minutes. Yay! This game really wants you to keep it on fast forward while you do other things, holy poo poo. And beyond that, the restriction to one side mission at a time just completely narrows progress to this thin little pipe you have to wait for everything to squeeze through. I've spent the last two hours trying to do the Full Metal Jackie missions, and it's just "set up for five world map missions, waiting for minions to regenerate, load onto helicopters, and go off to do the missions which take a minute each (also wait for super agents to move out of the way); then do a research, which usually means waiting for your current research to finish; then fight a wave that takes 2 minutes to make it from the dock to your base entrance; then do another three missions (see aforementioned timing); then complete the side story to get the next side story and start again." Except for this last mission, which is apparently "and run into the bug where apparently the game doesn't recognize that you've captured Jackie, so you can't finish the mission and move on to the recruitment side mission, she'll just break out of your jail for the rest of the game". Jesus gently caress, I'm getting disappointed in this game. This really is for hardcore fans of the first game only.
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Apr 8, 2021 01:21
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skeleton warrior posted:So, at 3 worker generation a minute, that's 40 minutes of waiting for workers to replenish once that one mission is done. Just instahire the dudes, at this stage you can afford it easily.
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Apr 8, 2021 01:28
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Evil Science!  Inspired by Section Z, I created a spreadsheet of the gold payouts for every region. So far I've mostly only got tier 1 payouts mapped. In tier 1, all regions of a power have a very similar set of 4 gold/heat schemes. A slow gold scheme, a fast gold scheme, a slow heat reduction that only takes minions, and a fast heat reduction that only costs money. I don't know if this is true of tier 2 regions as well. In tier 1, the clear best region is Smash. All Smash regions have the standard fast scheme and then a wildly better slow gold scheme. Tier 1 Smash slow gold scheme gives 50k gold over 35 minutes and builds 40 heat. The extra heat means you probably won't be able to sneak in a fast and slow scheme in between heat cooldowns like you can with the other powers, but at 50k gold the slow scheme pays out almost twice more gold than doing both a slow and fast scheme in any other power would. It also generates less heat, making it safer. Most powers have the same two gold schemes. A fast one that gives a measly 10k gold over 3 minutes for 15 heat. The other standard scheme is a slow one that pays 20k gold over 30 minutes for 30 heat. Combined it makes for a lot of busy work for just 30k gold. Hammer is the only other unique power in tier 1. Hammer has a better??? fast scheme that pays out 15k gold for 20 heat. I guess technically you could cycle it fairly efficiently, but I sure don't want to have to be on the world map enough to babysit a bunch of schemes that cycle every 3 minutes. Side note, the region naming scheme is incredibly bland and boring. East Hammer/Smash/etc. blargh. Australia has a funny one. Alaska also has an odd name that is either a stealth dig at Alaska or a hilariously obvious bug. If you are seeing different values in your game, check and see what genius you are playing. I'm curious if that has an impact. I'm playing Max. I don't have much data on tier 2 yet. So far, all the tier 2 gold schemes also require intel. Panama et all, aka Northern SMASH Republic has a slow gold scheme that pays 305k over 70 minutes for 80 heat. Seems pretty nice. However, it has no fast gold scheme at all. Instead it has a scheme to either increase or decrease the number of tourists you get. Weird. Northern SABRE Territories has a slow gold scheme that pays 270k over 60 minutes for 45 heat. Several times better than even the tier 1 Smash options. So yeah, you want to get to tier 2 fairly quickly. The tier 2 networks do need more advanced minions, and intel, so most players will probably want to go wide in SMASH until they can tech up to tier 2. New players should probably be encouraged to break down their SMASH networks and set up tier 2 networks in region that generates less heat like SABRE. The extra heat isn't unmanageable, but it is additional risk that a new player should probably be steered away from. LLSix fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Apr 8, 2021 |
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Apr 8, 2021 01:36
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Lichtenstein posted:Just instahire the dudes, at this stage you can afford it easily. That, and/or do the various missions that get you 10 workers or 6 guards or whatnot within 30 seconds or whatever.
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Apr 8, 2021 01:38
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I was seeing fast 10000 gold schemes for 10 heat but that might have been part of the tutorial? It was in ANVIL as Max.
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Apr 8, 2021 01:48
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LLSix posted:Evil Science! Does this take into account helicopter recharge time? Even fairly early on the issue isn't necessarily heat, running a lot of schemes you're waiting on the helicopter to actually go anywhere more than anything else. I've found if you want to keep a scheme running in a lot of places and manage the heat you're more waiting on the helicopter to actually transport minions to the schemes than you are training or anything else. I'd love to have some actual data on how often the helicopter can send out a mission.
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Apr 8, 2021 02:14
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Lichtenstein posted:Just instahire the dudes, at this stage you can afford it easily. Wait, what? How?
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Apr 8, 2021 02:19
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skeleton warrior posted:Wait, what? How? Click on "Workers" in the minion manager. There's an insta-hire button that gives you 5 for 10k gold.
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Apr 8, 2021 02:39
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yeah in the endgame you slam that puppy as fast as you can and 200 dudes pour out of the helicopter - it rules
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Apr 8, 2021 03:12
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Lol yeah smashing yellowsuits+ is one of the best money sinks in the game Seriously though, started a new playthrough on Emma, built four transmitters, fully scout smash and do all the long schemes, on fast forward you're making 200k every fifteen minutes right at the start
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Apr 8, 2021 03:15
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Basically any time you're getting near your gold limit and don't have any real desire to make another vault for some more, just spend a chunk of it on new construction workers until you're back up to full strength. A lot of the time by midgame you can have enough coming in passively that being out forty or fifty thousand really isn't a big deal since you've got nothing that needs built.
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Apr 8, 2021 03:23
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Vengarr posted:Click on "Workers" in the minion manager. There's an insta-hire button that gives you 5 for 10k gold.
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Apr 8, 2021 05:29
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This game very much doesn't explain itself well. "Why are investigators shooting valets?" Guy on Steam: "Oh, they freak out if a door closes behind them and a minion is nearby." "OH." [removes the airlock front doors to my base] "..Uh, they're still sometimes getting in gunfights." Devs: "Investigators below a certain rate will no longer murder your valets if denied access to your base multiple times." "OH. poo poo. Well good, I don't know how I would have prevented that." EDIT: Also! Zalika's aura says quote:My plans take priority!: Zalika forms an aura around her and causes minions to rally to her. Minions will then prioritize task near her such as construction. Science minions receive a boost from this. So it's not *specifically* research, but Science Minions. Can you use her to speed up gathering Intel via computer consoles? Crasical fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Apr 8, 2021 |
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Apr 8, 2021 06:15
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Crasical posted:So it's not *specifically* research, but Science Minions. Can you use her to speed up gathering Intel via computer consoles? I think the boost is that they don't lose smarts, so they'll basically work the console nonstop until Zalika runs out of morale to keep up her aura.
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Apr 8, 2021 06:38
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Magni posted:I think the boost is that they don't lose smarts, so they'll basically work the console nonstop until Zalika runs out of morale to keep up her aura. No, it's only for research. If you click on a minion getting boosted by her aura, it specifies research even on minions working on intel consoles. Technicians get increased repair rate instead IIRC.
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Apr 8, 2021 06:43
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skeleton warrior posted:Apologies if I came across as glib and hand-waving in my response earlier; I've finally gotten to the last third of the game with one of the geniuses, and holy poo poo does this escalate as an issue. So did you have to not start a bunch of peoples quest chains to get Jackie or was that an urban legend.
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Apr 8, 2021 07:29
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A couple of things I've noticed that I think the thread has missed so far. * Missions for money pay out over time, but it's not a flat time/percentage ratio. There's usually a good chunk of the money remaining at 99% which comes in as a lump sum payout when the mission completes. Something to bear in mind if you're planning to just let the sector overheat and lockdown, or are thinking of aborting a cash mission for something else. * Zalika's ability text is misleading. The boost to brainpower only seems to apply to research activities. I've had her stood over scientists working intel desks and watched their Brains meter tick down as usual. Still useful for directing minions to focus on the task, of course, but you don't get the genius-specific bonus.
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Apr 8, 2021 07:59
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eventually your genius' main job will be to hang out at the intel consoles full time. you just burn through intel so fast later on.
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Apr 8, 2021 08:17
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Wyld Karde posted:* Zalika's ability text is misleading. The boost to brainpower only seems to apply to research activities. I've had her stood over scientists working intel desks and watched their Brains meter tick down as usual. Still useful for directing minions to focus on the task, of course, but you don't get the genius-specific bonus. Noticed the same. Research activities restore smarts to minions so as long as Zalika is around they will never stop researching. I think it adds a small bonus to their research too?
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Apr 8, 2021 08:19
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cumshitter posted:Noticed the same. Research activities restore smarts to minions so as long as Zalika is around they will never stop researching. I think it adds a small bonus to their research too? It definitely felt like it was going faster for me when I had her aura up than when she had to go sit down and restore stats.
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Apr 8, 2021 08:28
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Considering labs and Control rooms cause heat and are one of your most important areas to keep running 24/7 nonstop (even the training room gets breaks, sometimes), I wonder how many people not playing Max are starting to shift from "I made my sanctum surrounded by GOLD!" to "I built my office in the middle of the tech zone" IVAN WILL SUPPORT YOU, FRAIL NERDS!
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Apr 8, 2021 08:32
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seaborgium posted:Does this take into account helicopter recharge time? Even fairly early on the issue isn't necessarily heat, running a lot of schemes you're waiting on the helicopter to actually go anywhere more than anything else. I've found if you want to keep a scheme running in a lot of places and manage the heat you're more waiting on the helicopter to actually transport minions to the schemes than you are training or anything else. I'd love to have some actual data on how often the helicopter can send out a mission. I think the helicopter leaves once every minute? It comes by each minute to bring new workers and leaves again around thirty seconds later. It can only carry one mission's minions at a time though.
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Apr 8, 2021 08:40
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Section Z posted:Considering labs and Control rooms cause heat and are one of your most important areas to keep running 24/7 nonstop (even the training room gets breaks, sometimes), I wonder how many people not playing Max are starting to shift from "I made my sanctum surrounded by GOLD!" to "I built my office in the middle of the tech zone" I built food and smarts areas adjacent to my control room and stacked reduction to smarts decay items around the computer terminals. Now my minions are much more frequently at the consoles and it cured most of my intel woes. Whenever it gets particualrly low I just interrogate the current wave of investigators. I've got a 5-cell, 3-chair intel manufacturing facility set up for that purpose.
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Apr 8, 2021 09:00
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Lord_Magmar posted:It definitely felt like it was going faster for me when I had her aura up than when she had to go sit down and restore stats. Either way you get a bonus for not having naptimes without a lot of micromanagement if you buff your genius' stats. For some reason every group of research scientists for every project and half my guards are naptime buddies. I keep seeing 50% of my guards get up to go hit the barracks after spending all day sitting around the guard desk. It makes me wish there was a coffee machine item or something that increased their time awake by a random amount of 3-10 minutes just so it would be more staggered out. cumshitter fucked around with this message at 09:04 on Apr 8, 2021 |
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Apr 8, 2021 09:02
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cumshitter posted:Either way you get a bonus for not having naptimes without a lot of micromanagement if you buff your genius' stats. For some reason every group of research scientists for every project and half my guards are naptime buddies. I keep seeing 50% of my guards get up to go hit the barracks after spending all day sitting around the guard desk.  That said while I'm sure it adds up over time or if someone had low stats to begin with, watching basic bed recovery go from "1 stat every 5 seconds" to "1 stat every 4 seconds" with space heaters crammed between the cushions while mathematically good (That would probably shave about a minute off if some poor bastard was down to 20s, right?), does not FEEL like much of a change.
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Apr 8, 2021 09:08
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cumshitter posted:Either way you get a bonus for not having naptimes without a lot of micromanagement if you buff your genius' stats. For some reason every group of research scientists for every project and half my guards are naptime buddies. I keep seeing 50% of my guards get up to go hit the barracks after spending all day sitting around the guard desk. I have a suspicion that minion AI is set to either 2 or 3 shifts if not more, and they sync up like that specifically to help people understand how many of each item they need (twice as many minions as a given item seems about average, with some wiggle room for optimisation).
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Apr 8, 2021 09:09
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There's a bug where an item that you cancel building has its price forever stuck in your Commitments section and when that 'stuck' amount gets high enough you can't buy anything without the robot voice complaining that you can't afford it. It doesn't actually affect gameplay but it's driving me nuts anyway. I've read in different places that it's about either cancelling a construction after you've confirmed it or an autosave triggering at the wrong time and preventing something you cancel from being properly removed from commitments, and I don't know if there's any way to avoid it apart from checking that your commitments are properly set to zero after every bout of construction and reloading an autosave if it isn't.
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Apr 8, 2021 09:18
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Having construction depot in the very last tier of research when you've pretty much built everything you need feels like a bad joke.
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Apr 8, 2021 11:59
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I remember someone here making a post about the archive room being unnecessary since it costs way too much for the smarts-restoring service it provides, but I'm seeing minions with low smarts not going for the cafeterias. What's going on there; do they need the dedicated poo poo once they dip too low in that stat?
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Apr 8, 2021 12:09
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toasterwarrior posted:I remember someone here making a post about the archive room being unnecessary since it costs way too much for the smarts-restoring service it provides, but I'm seeing minions with low smarts not going for the cafeterias. What's going on there; do they need the dedicated poo poo once they dip too low in that stat? That's precisely it. Minions with regular star damage have a white bubble with orange symbols and will use mess halls and beds. Minions with CRITICAL stat damage have orange bubbles with white symbol, and will need dedicated equipment equipment for that stat - health pods, brain machine, etc. It's why minimizing travel time before stat replenishment is important, so lots of smaller rooms near different busy places are better than one huge room. From Reddit, an interesting idea about weapon racks: quote:PSA: Minions Grab the closest weapon they can use first. Note that mercs and guards will hold onto what they grab, but it seems like a merc with a gun typically won't train to be a MA if possible.
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Apr 8, 2021 12:30
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If a merc has a ranged weapon they'll drop it when they finish training to MA, that's not really a problem. Some minion will bring it back to the racks later.
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Apr 8, 2021 12:33
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Thanks for the confirmation. So do these re-education pods create heat, because I figure that freaky poo poo would set some investigators off...
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Apr 8, 2021 12:33
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toasterwarrior posted:Thanks for the confirmation. So do these re-education pods create heat, because I figure that freaky poo poo would set some investigators off... Nope, standard brain repair machine everyone has those these days (seriously pop em in your valet restoration zone they don’t generate heat at all from what I was seeing).
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Apr 8, 2021 12:39
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