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Arivia posted:You're not done. Go back to Ulgoth's Beard for one more fight. I already did when I handed in those two quests related to the tower.
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Aug 27, 2023 05:38
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Would you say Gullykin was a little short on content?
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Aug 27, 2023 08:52
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Man BG1 dungeon design sucks rear end, the firewine ruins are just awful. Especially compared all the amazing dungeons in BG2. And yet, I'm still having a lot of fun. There's something about the feel of the combat in these games that you can't get anywhere else, Pillars of Eternity tried, but it just feels too streamlined and sterile. Something about the infinity engine games just keeps me coming back.
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Aug 27, 2023 10:00
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Torquemada posted:Would you say Gullykin was a little short on content?    Your Brain on Hugs posted:Man BG1 dungeon design sucks rear end, the firewine ruins are just awful. Especially compared all the amazing dungeons in BG2. And yet, I'm still having a lot of fun. There's something about the feel of the combat in these games that you can't get anywhere else, Pillars of Eternity tried, but it just feels too streamlined and sterile. Something about the infinity engine games just keeps me coming back. (I love both games, but yes I do prefer the Baldur's Gateseses, in part for that reason)
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Aug 27, 2023 16:29
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Did Sawyer come up with the stat system? Because it’s the best one in any rpg He did such an incredible job with it. Should be lauded like some kind of Edison for the genre
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Aug 27, 2023 16:38
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Dr. Quarex posted:
In the Enhanced Editions, did the mighty Drizzt ever figure out how to walk around the pond instead of just standing there while we pelt him with arrows?
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Aug 27, 2023 17:02
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I imagine not. Your own party can't seem to figure out how to get stuck in doorways or run into each other while moving around and getting stuck.
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Aug 27, 2023 17:17
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oswald ownenstein posted:Did Sawyer come up with the stat system? Yeah, he had a whole talk about it on GDC, let me see if I can find it. Here we go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvyrEhAMUPo
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Aug 27, 2023 18:26
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So in SoD I'm trying out that goblin companions. What role do Shamans play in a party? Their spell selection feels like they're sorcerers for priests but also get some unique spells for themselves and that spirit chanting stuff.
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Aug 27, 2023 19:41
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Jimbot posted:So in SoD I'm trying out that goblin companions. What role do Shamans play in a party? Their spell selection feels like they're sorcerers for priests but also get some unique spells for themselves and that spirit chanting stuff. I love the shaman class. Their unique spells are good, their chant/summons thing sucks. I think sorcerer style casting works really well with holy spells because it means you cast more of the situational ones that you wouldn't normally bother memorising. Also means you don't waste spell slots on unnecessary healing spells, or vice versa.
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Aug 27, 2023 20:18
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Yeah, it seems like a really neat class. I wasn't sure about the spirit summoning but that answers my question on that mechanic. It's hard to get an idea of how good the class is since the wiki and reddit are full of crusty SCS players who have at minimum 200k hours in the game and anything new or different automatically is trash and bad. The goblin lady seems cool but the only downside is that they didn't adjust her movement speed so she moves so much slower than the rest of the group. I'll have to see who has those cheetah paws boots and throw them on her so she can keep up. A funnier question: can you, uh, revive dead companions you haven't recruited yet? Voghilin managed to get his stupid rear end killed after the recruitment dialogue. I can loot his crap but I dunno how to revive companions not in my party. If he's gone forever then no biggy.
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Aug 27, 2023 20:39
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Nope, they're gone. You could use the console to spawn him in again if you want. And yeah I'm sure min/max types on the Beamdog forums or Reddit wouldn't like the shaman class because everything they do is outperformed by some sort of druid or cleric single/dual/multi class. But I think they're good to play 
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Aug 27, 2023 20:49
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Your Brain on Hugs posted:I'm kind of dreading getting up to that fight with maxed out difficulty in SCS, so far my party has been ripping through everything, but there comes a point even with uncapped XP when the power curve slows down and you really need to pull out all the stops. That fight has ended a couple of my Ironman runs. It's honestly harder than Aec.
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Aug 27, 2023 21:31
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bike tory posted:And yeah I'm sure min/max types on the Beamdog forums or Reddit wouldn't like the shaman class because everything they do is outperformed by some sort of druid or cleric single/dual/multi class. But I think they're good to play Sometimes, I play things like unkitted bard or paladin just because I like the RP element of it. Every time I see a post about a class being objectively bad, it seems like it's always from the perspective of somebody trying to minmax. Of course, I only play the games on Core Rules so I doubt I'm running into anything that actually requires a minmax.
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Aug 28, 2023 00:05
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Vargatron posted:Sometimes, I play things like unkitted bard or paladin just because I like the RP element of it. Every time I see a post about a class being objectively bad, it seems like it's always from the perspective of somebody trying to minmax. Any game's community will do this. Searching for and exploiting the most powerful / broken combos is fun, but given enough time it always seems to turn into "X and Y and Z are the best, don't waste your time with anything else." The reality is that literally any class can solo the game, so the number one advice should always be "play what you think sounds fun." If the most powerful builds are what you think sounds fun, cool! Go nuts. But playing a kitless thief or a jester bard is just as good if that's what someone wants to do.
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Aug 28, 2023 00:13
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I will admit that some classes, like kitless thief, are just kind of bad. But that's basically the 2E ruleset being bad. I think I would roll Fighter/Thief if I was going to do a playthrough, just to add some extra damage output. Thief kind of falls victim to too many skills and not enough of them having impact in game for it to be worth a solo class.
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Aug 28, 2023 00:23
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Yeah, kitless thief is really bad and probably nobody should actually play as it, despite what I just said.  At least go bounty hunter so that your traps are cooler, or assassin if you love to murder.
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Aug 28, 2023 00:25
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Vargatron posted:I will admit that some classes, like kitless thief, are just kind of bad. But that's basically the 2E ruleset being bad. I think I would roll Fighter/Thief if I was going to do a playthrough, just to add some extra damage output. this is all depreciated now, of course, but was that always the case with Thief when the game was simply just Baldurs Gate and no TOTSC? I feel like the draw of Thief was that it had the most levels, and most skill points to play around vs MC/DC, and I cannot remember what the kit situation was.
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Aug 28, 2023 00:32
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Kits weren't a think until BG2. In fact, IWD did not have kits until the EE editions I think.
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Aug 28, 2023 00:34
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Vargatron posted:Kits weren't a think until BG2. In fact, IWD did not have kits until the EE editions I think. Correct, that was a big part of the appeal of "Play In The BG2 Engine" mods like Tutu back in the day.
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Aug 28, 2023 00:45
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A shame they never backported 3e Sneak Attack Rules from Icewind Dale EE. Yeah, that multiplicative damage bonus is super sweet but hide in shadows is really goddamn hard to pull off unless you choose Shadowdancer (even then I dunno how hard it is to do) so having something that only does a set amount of dice damage but only requires you to be behind the enemy would have been really fun to have in the Baldur's Gate games. You can only do it once per enemy but each time after that gives them penalties to attack and damage so that's neat.
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Aug 28, 2023 02:05
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(BG1 Chapter 7) Is there any loving way to prevent either Belt or Lila Janneth from getting killed at the Grand Duke ceremony? It's not a cutscene so I'm sure it's possible. I'm trying to figure out proper spell selection for my Illusionist. Perhaps a Greater Mailison followed by a Confusion or Fear would help? Magic Missiles to bypass the Blur effect?
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Aug 28, 2023 14:19
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One of the more interesting benefits of playing with SCS is that its NPC spellcaster buffs apply to Liia and it's quite hard for her to die in that fight as a result (and quite easy for her to catch us in a friendly fire incident if she decides to open with a Cone of Cold or something). I'll sometimes throw Belt in the bubble (Otiluke's Resilient Sphere) for the fight but he took offense the last time I did that so I kind of just let him fend for himself these days. In Vanilla, yeah, any kind of ally-friendly disabling spells like Confusion/Chaos or Horror would be your best bet. (Don't sleep on Insect Plague either if you have a high enough level druid, which in Vanilla means having Faldorn or a PC single class druid I guess). I can't remember if Glitterdust affects Blur in vanilla but it certainly can't hurt in general.
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Aug 28, 2023 14:29
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:(BG1 Chapter 7) Is there any loving way to prevent either Belt or Lila Janneth from getting killed at the Grand Duke ceremony? It's not a cutscene so I'm sure it's possible. I'm trying to figure out proper spell selection for my Illusionist. It's possible but it's a huge pain in the rear end. If it helps, they're rich and connected enough to have priests with resurrection on speed dial, so it's implied that whoever dies will pop right back as soon as you're out of sight, so you don't have to feel bad about a partial failure.
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Aug 28, 2023 14:40
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Shamans suck to play as a PC class because their level curve and spell level access is incredibly slow early on, and the low level shaman unique spells all suck, but the SoD goblin gets to be recruited at a nice level where you skip all that, so it’s really the optimal way to experience Shaman.
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Aug 28, 2023 14:47
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I think you're fine as long as one of the Dukes survives. Anyway, they've been part of the ruling class that's allowed a city to be dragged close to war on false pretenses and get infested with all kinds of bad poo poo while they're busy planning a pretty party for the newest member of their petit-bourgeois club, so gently caress 'em. Honestly, they all deserve the  for their laissez-faire approach to financial regulation, the rest is just gravy.
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Aug 28, 2023 14:50
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Shamans suffer from (a) the (vanilla) druid spell list being underwhelming at lower levels and (b) the spirit summoning dance having been implemented by someone who I assume was convinced the player ran over their dog or something because it's just horrible. And also (c) "you don't get a stronghold at all because gently caress you". (a) is pretty easy to fix with minimal modding (or just playing Icewind Dale) and after trying every which way to mitigate (b) (including the Improved Shaman Dance mod that at least lets you move at half-speed while summons are out) I'm happy to just ignore the spirit summons altogether, they're just not worth it. There's also a mod to address (c) but I've never gotten far enough with a Shaman PC to try out the stronghold it adds. I like the core concept of the class, and M'Khiin is my favorite Beamdog NPC by a considerable margin. I really wish Beamdog had been able to make their planned BG2 expansion since I assume she'd have turned up again.
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Aug 28, 2023 15:13
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Wait, they were going to make a BG2 expansion? When was it supposed to take place? But yeah, I was asking about Shaman mostly for a IWD EE run. I've been enjoying Bard quite a lot and SoD gives them a ton of great stuff to use so I'll be bringing that one into BG2.
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Aug 28, 2023 15:21
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Jimbot posted:Wait, they were going to make a BG2 expansion? When was it supposed to take place? I don't know a lot of details but it got mentioned at some point in this thread by one of their developers (Kirk I think?). The impression I got is that SoD didn't sell well enough for them to go forward with it, which is a shame.
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Aug 28, 2023 15:23
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Ah, drat. That would have been rad. I think SoD is really good. I thought it was going to be pretty decent but so far I've really really enjoyed it. Like I said before, the itemization in it is really strong and I've been enjoying the writing. So it's a bummer it didn't do all that well. I wonder how much marketing it got, though. I knew of it coming out at the time because I pay attention to this stuff but I wonder if your average person heard of it.
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Aug 28, 2023 15:30
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I think it was supposed to take place between SoA and ToB.
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Aug 28, 2023 15:41
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I think they also ultimately wanted to start unique modules adjacent to bhaalspawn gaiden but were planning out the bhaalspawn expansions first because if those didn't sell then what chance did new stuff have? There's a ton of nuts and bolts in DLC container architecture for it to have just been used for the Black Pits and SoD.
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Aug 28, 2023 15:51
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It's a real shame things went the way they did because it feels like they had finally found their footing with making new content. SoD was actually pretty drat good in my eyes. The writing seemed to really improve and it had some cool combat encounters even if a couple were bullshit. God gently caress that fight against the invisible enemies with backstabs in the dead magic zone.
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Aug 28, 2023 16:27
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6 fireballs from wands or the very good but inexplicably common necklace of missiles (Its called 'The One Gift Lost' but there's at least 5 of them in BG1) going off at once deals with that encounter easily.
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Aug 28, 2023 16:52
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So I've never actually done durlag's tower, when are you "meant" to do it? (Bonus: when would it make the most sense narratively)
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Aug 28, 2023 17:00
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It’s completely separate from the rest of the plot so whenever you’re hench enough is the real answer. I usually clear it before the return to candlekeep.
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Aug 28, 2023 17:11
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Jay Rust posted:So I've never actually done durlag's tower, when are you "meant" to do it? (Bonus: when would it make the most sense narratively) Any time after going to Ulgoth's Beard as there are some quest givers there who send you to Durlag's tower. In my head I like to go as soon as chapter 7 starts, as I like to use it as an excuse for the party to "lay low" after what happened in Chapter 6 so going to some bumblefuck town in the middle of nowhere and getting sent to ransack an old dwarf fortress sounds good to me. In the hardbox copy of BG1 I think you got kicked straight to Ulgoth's Beard after You beat the final boss of the main game but I think that having SoD on BGEE sends you to the start of that which sort of breaks up the consistency a bit. BG1 even had a little congratulatory message for beating the last boss of TotSC!
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Aug 28, 2023 17:13
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:It's possible but it's a huge pain in the rear end. If it helps, they're rich and connected enough to have priests with resurrection on speed dial, so it's implied that whoever dies will pop right back as soon as you're out of sight, so you don't have to feel bad about a partial failure. After a few more attempts I managed to save them both. I prepared by arranging my party so that two could enter from one door, two from another, meanwhile I pre-cast Greater Mailson from a scroll as they were moving into position so it'd go off just as combat popped off. A blast from a Wand of Fear, a Confusion spell, Barkskin cast on the fragile mage and spending my Cure Serious Wounds to keep the mage up and that did it. DeadButDelicious posted:Any time after going to Ulgoth's Beard as there are some quest givers there who send you to Durlag's tower. In my head I like to go as soon as chapter 7 starts, as I like to use it as an excuse for the party to "lay low" after what happened in Chapter 6 so going to some bumblefuck town in the middle of nowhere and getting sent to ransack an old dwarf fortress sounds good to me. All right, so I guess I should do it now since I am just before the maze. Jay Rust posted:gently caress the main villain just ran down these stairs to his hideout, let's chase him and end this once and for all I got on a boat! Right after being sent out in hot pursuit, I sailed away for weeks to and island full of werewolves! Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Aug 28, 2023 |
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Aug 28, 2023 18:17
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I think SoD always faced an uphill battle because it's hard to make a new game on an old engine, especially when it's some sort of mid-quel What are games that best scratch the infinity itch for you? I've mentioned this before but I actively dislike BG3 to the point that I probably won't even finish a playthrough for several reasons Pillars is my go to but I also have both Pathfinder games Something about them (Pathfinder) just doesn't feel quite as satisfying - something about the combat isn't engaging.
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Aug 28, 2023 19:23
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oswald ownenstein posted:I think SoD always faced an uphill battle because it's hard to make a new game on an old engine, especially when it's some sort of mid-quel Tyranny is great, probably my #1 rec in this list. Shadowrun is turn based and more on rails, less open world exploration. The combat and magic is a little more primitive/basic, but still fun. Dragonfall, Hongkong were great, skip Shadowrun Returns (Deadman's Switch is the module name). Underrail. Very difficult game a friend bought for me as a gift. Fallout-like clone. Interesting, played about 25%, haven't gone back. Fell into the recurring them of "put the game down, forgot where I was, what I'm doing or where I need to go." Solasta. BG3/5E but not a 100 hour epic. Story kind of sucks, but game is fun and a better implementation of 5E than Baldur's Divinity. Potato face graphics, based on SRD, so distinct classes, spells, etc from BG3. Black Geyser. I bought this game, played it, put it down, forgot where I was and haven't touched since. It's probably not good, but it's definitely an IE successor game with flavors of vancian casting. Open world feel like BG1/2, including dumping you in a gigantic town with limited direction and hundreds of NPCs to talk to, which I love. Expedition: Vikings is a turn-based tactical like Solasta/BG3, but not 5E. Low-magic world. Spell casters are like herbalists. Looks like a money grab after things like the Netflix Vikings show. I enjoyed it, but didn't beat it. King Arthur: Knights Tale. Alt universe Camelot/Avalon where you play as Mordred and attempt to restore Camelot. Turn based tactical, high-er fantasy. Gameplay was fun, combat was fun, character customization was good. Storyline is okay. Got 2/3rds of the way through it before something else came out; I enjoyed this more than the other less-IE like turn-based games, but was also fiending for BG3. Seems like it has good replayability with a pagan/Christian x good/evil alignment access that dictates bonuses and which knights you have access to. Wartales. This is like a combination of Expedition: Vikings/shadowrun and Mount and Blade 2. Turn based tactical combat with overworld exploration. Very very low magic. Beats game, less IE oriented, more rogue-like but with good character building. Got to the second act before BG3 came out. I may have a specific type of game I like. E: Clarified some things. But a few of these games are closer to X-Com (with actual stories) than IE games (Wartales, Expedition: Vikings, KA:NT). You can throw Jagged Alliance 2/3 (though I got bored of no-magic gunplay). And there's always the old trustees of Dragon Age: Origins (the failed messiah of CRPGs), and things like Goldbox Krynn Saga, etc. E 2: Arivia posted:Tyranny is Obsidian, not Larian. Wild, it's also published by Paradox of all people. DisgracelandUSA fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Aug 28, 2023 |
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Aug 28, 2023 20:17
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