Battletech: Clan Wolf is "Licensed to il"

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Battletech: Clan Wolf is "Licensed to il"

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Crazy Joe Wilson posted:

House Liao is an interesting exception as I don't think it's that popular but the devs decided to let their leaders play smart for a half-century and now they're top Inner Sphere dawg (Probably to make up for the whole 4th Succession War fiasco).

Liao was nothing but mustache-twirling one-dimensional bad guys in every Stackpole book. Double Blind was refreshing when Sun-Tzu was shown to be a shrewd leader who was actually looking to the future of his realm, not just gnashing his teeth and wailing "Damned DAVIONS!".

# ¿ Apr 5, 2022 17:39

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 14:05

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

PoptartsNinja posted:

Unfortunately, everything else about Double Blind was awful.

Nah. It was a nice break from Victor and his buddies save the world from the evil Space Japanese yet again.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2022 17:41

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

SpaceDrake posted:

In other news, I recently gave some of the old 80s era house sourcebooks a read.

My god. So much of this could only have been written in the 80s. Especially the Kurita book, in toto. But it's just the tip of the iceberg.

_{I still can't believe the Kuritas are just straight up meant to be descended from Actual IJN Admiral Takeo Kurita Who Was Only Ten Years Dead When The loving Thing Was Published.}

80's Battletech is amazing. Check out Takashi's wife/cousin:

I really need to find my box of sourcebooks and TROs.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2022 15:22

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

SHD2H by photokirk, on Flickr

I painted this a long time ago. I need to find my box of minis and give them some touch-ups.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2022 14:29

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Holybat posted:

Those look really awesome! I like the red windshield effect a lot with that scheme too.

General question for the thread, any particular pointers for basing the miniatures? I still got plenty to paint up but once I get through those and varnish them for protection I'd like to work on the hex bases I think

Kitty litter makes good boulders.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2022 14:21

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Taerkar posted:

There's also the Cataphract but I'm not sure where the -3L version first shows up. IIRC the version in the original 3050 book is the -3D

The MUL shows 3050. http://www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/470/cataphract-ctf-3l

I always liked the Cataphract. I think it was supposed to be a bit of an underdog from the fluff text.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2022 15:26

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

PoptartsNinja posted:

Unfortunately, there aren't.

The Camacho's Caballeros mercenary regiment allows their Mechwarriors to paint their 'Mechs in any scheme they like; and it wouldn't be unusual for a group of mercs to use pink in an alien world/exotic/dazzle camo that was very bright and flashy.

That was my first thought as well. Annie Sue Hurd would probably have painted here Rifleman pink. Mariposa's Valkyrie as well.

Ace Darwin's Whipits might be a good choice. They had a pink cat paw logo.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2022 15:27

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Yeah thats my goal with my centurion thursday/friday. Gonna prime on thu and try to pick out a general color per limb or half or quadrant and toss in some wildly diff panels in every color i havent used. I might try to find a good burnt metal color and put that at a shoulder/hip joint like "this mech lost a limb but the repair is a clear rush job and new paint hasnt been applied to obscure the prior loss"

The original Citytech book had a passage about some rushed mech repairs using metal salvaged from commercial vehicles. One mech had SPAMSPAMSPAMSPAMSPAM on the arm, another had PROCESSED CHICKEN (I think) on the cockpit.

I always wanted to try that on a mini, just trying to find the time to sit down and paint.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2022 14:21

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Meh.

1st amendment. Y'all would be doing backflips if it was left-wing masturbatory fantasy.

I just want to have giant robots punch each other.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2022 02:15

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

PeterWeller posted:

Well too bad. You have to burn and smash all your Battletech stuff now to show them you're not going to bend the knee to their lieberal agenda.

That's just as stupid as when folks were smashing Dixie Chick CDs and beating their chests. It's all so tiresome.

I'm not going to agree with the personal beliefs of most of the authors, artists, actors, etc. I don't follow most of the sci-fi authors outside of their books because I don't see the need. I remember talking a bit with Pardoe back in the 90's when he posted on rec.games.mecha, but that was some questions about one of his books. I think Loren Coleman is into cryptozoology from one day when I was bored and reading up on Bigfoot. Stackpole writes the exact same characters regardless of what universe it's in (Corran Horn and Phelan Kell are almost the exact same person). Victor Milan is sorely missed.

From what I saw posted of Pardoe's book it looks just as absurd as Harrison Bergeron. Stupid as hell, but the odds of me reading it are zero.

Meh. I'm tired. I'm tired of all of it. I spent my weekend helping a friend deal with his family falling apart due to addiction. I just want to sit for a while and watch stupid impractical giant robots punch other stupid impractical robots. Especially while shooting lighting guns at each other and yelling stupid catchphrases.

I am sad that we will never see a book where Diana Pryde created the Tetae in a genetic experiment gone horribly wrong.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2022 14:52

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

That's a different Loren Coleman. The cryptozoologist usually comes up first in Internet searches.

This makes me sad for some reason.

Crazy Joe Wilson posted:

It's called Shrapnel and you need to get on that idea submission stat.

I'm almost at a one-year anniversary for my submission, position 23 to be reviewed. One day...

Best of luck to you!

As far as me writing a Jade Falcon story, it would probably get tossed as soon as they read the title... Attempted Murder Nothing but bird puns for as many pages as I can fill.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2022 20:22

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

BattleMaster posted:

Quirks are and were always optional and don't impact BV so I've never used them outside of RPG campaigns, but I'm glad to see that one gone even if it never came up in my games. Definitely the worst example of "art as rules" sneaking into the game. It should just be assumed that 'mechs have a way of twisting around regardless of how they look. maybe they have a turret waist or maybe the legs are articulated in such a way that it can contort itself in a way that is effectively the same, or whatever.

Agreed. I had to go back and look at the Vindicator artwork.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2022 14:21

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Fearless posted:

My mercs thus far:

I have two more left to do, but I think that is about it for this particular colour scheme and unit.

Those stripes are so clean...

# ¿ Aug 24, 2022 16:32

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

BattleMaster posted:

Incorrect, the official bases fit entirely within the lines of the map hexes with a little space to spare

Which reminds me that I need to finish these guys

I always used a file to clean up the edges and make them look purty.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2022 14:20

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

General Battuta posted:

Having finished Blood of Kerensky, I'm quite torn. I can see how much work the trilogy is doing - introducing the Clans, introducing a new cast of younger characters, setting up conflicts like the Word of Blake schism or the Capellan-St. Ives conflict that would define the setting for no poo poo 20 real world years. There's a lot in there. Sun-Tzu's fun to read because absolutely everyone sees him as a pathetic worm but he's sort of got his poo poo together.

But it is all just told in the most god drat narrow-periscope way possible. Phelan, Victor and Kai are all wrapped up in their inner lives to a sometimes frustrating extent. Their personal arcs - Kai learning to accept his ~killer instincts~, Victor stepping out of his father's shadow and building a relationship with the Combine, Phelan becoming a Wolf - get a lot of word count but don't involve a lot of real conflict. Phelan's a great Clanner, he wins his climactic Bloodname duel by getting better hit location rolls. Victor is sad quite a bit, but always comes through when it counts. Kai kills the poo poo out of everyone despite self-doubt.

Meanwhile, the major events, like Luthien and Tukayyid, are skimmed over in a couple chapters when (with their sheer importance to the setting) it seems like they could've been entire novels. Luthien takes just two days and it's the literal peak of Clan threat to the Inner Sphere for the next hundred years. Tukayyid is entirely done in summary except for battles Phelan personally participates in.

Stackpole's main characters gain power with every surname they collect. Phelan Kell Wolf Ward, Victor Ian Steiner Davion, Kai Allard Liao.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2022 19:42

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Capntastic posted:

I listened to all three Blood of Kerensky audiobooks in a weekend and can't remember any fights or characters or anything. I just remember the cool theme song and the weird voice saying "batttletech"

I can sum up all three:

A) Kai Allard Liao, Phelan Kell Wolf Ward and Victor Ian Steiner-Davion are all cool and good and chicks dig them. (notice the relationship between names and cool points on the Stackpole scale)
B) Everyone else is a 2-dimensional cardboard cutout that either wants to kill the big three or heap adoration on them.
C) coruscating, armor mist, man-made lightning, sweaty cockpit heat, etc.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2022 14:46

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Rorahusky posted:

Please, it's not 'scrounging' or 'stealing'. It is Tactical Resource Procurement.

My grandfather was a quartermaster in the Army Air Corps. He called it requisitioning.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2022 17:53

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

PoptartsNinja posted:

Official Draconis Suns.

Because Samurai Cowboys are way more interesting than Samurai or Cowboys.

A Shin Yodama/Galen Cox buddy cop movie would be fun if Michael Stackpole wasn't allowed within 1,000 miles of the script.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2022 16:12

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

PoptartsNinja posted:

I personally recommend Wolves on the Border instead of the Warrior Trilogy, but if you're not adverse to Stackpole and/or feel up for reading both I'd sneak Wolves on the Border in either right before or right after the 3rd book of the Warrior Trilogy.

Wolves on the Border is always good. I'd throw in Double Blind and Victor Milan's Caballero's books.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2022 15:54

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

SkyeAuroline posted:

I recognize in advance this is a silly question that I'm going to field anyway. I'm painting my company so far (already-posted support lance & the AGoAC box that just finished primer curing) in a consistent scheme and aiming to do the same for future mechs; not that I don't like a variety of factions, I just want my own stuff to be consistent/interchangeable. "Problem" that manifests: these are mercenaries, closer to pirates. All well and good, but I'm vaguely eyeing the Wolf's Dragoons Assault Star box once I have this set done and a few games run at the shop; the Archer is my favorite mech and I'd like both non-limited plastic versions eventually, the Blackjack fits with "backwater periphery pirates" well enough, and the Rifleman is just Blackjack +1 in that regard.

And then there's the Annihilator and Timber Wolf. The Annihilator I've already written off, I'll paint it Wolf's Dragoons and just stick it on a desk shelf for display. The Timber Wolf is a whole different issue. I've mostly planned with 3025 through mid Clan Invasion in mind, since that's what my local seems focused on & also the eras of most interest to me. As far as I know nobody plays past the Jihad era and even that's limited - not due to grog-ness about it, people just don't have the collections for later eras. I have no intent of buying any other clan mechs in the future (unless they release a plastic Glass Spider, which will similarly just go on display).

What on earth do I do with a single Timber Wolf, short of consigning it to another display-only slot or trading it with someone for a different IS mech? If this was the Combine or something, I'd feel better about fielding a repainted Timber Wolf, since they're at least acknowledged to have captured them - was reading up on battle armor last night and "captured Timber Wolf PPCs" came up a couple times - but random mercenary company #24601 rolling up with intact clan salvage of the iconic invasion mech feels silly, and outside of "let's play some duels" I don't see how much fielding a single mech alone will do.

Yes, I looked into buying the mechs individually and the secondhand markup was insane - just the Archer mini goes for nearly as much as the whole box does. I imagine for most people this isn't a problem since they're painting multiple forces and can usually find at least one to fit it into, just looking for thoughts with a rather more limited collection. This turned into a bit more of a ramble than intended, sorry.

Give it a shark mouth and lead the 17th Recon.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2022 20:31

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

a cyborg mug posted:

Yeah, like I say in the video, the damage is definitely the most fun part of BT�s gameplay.

Damage = most fun
Movement & positioning = most interesting, the tactical meat of the game
Initiative/alternating activation = ties the simulation together

Damage makes it fun. There's nothing like having a single SRM get a though-armor crit and wreak havoc.

Renegade Legion had a great damage model with the templates for each type of weapon, I'd love to see something like that incorporated into Battletech.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2022 15:42

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Rorahusky posted:

All done with my Constructicon-themed Battlemechs. Now I am thinking of a Cyclops painted up to be Shockwave.

Highlander has the right head for Shockwave.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2022 16:33

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Comstar posted:

Has anyone ever played with ALL the optional rules including building their own mechs and playing with the campaign rules? Or played in a Tournament with all the "Tournament" rules?

Was it worth it, and did it get any faster or was it as slow as I suspect it will be?

You have to define which optional rules are allowed. Trust me.

Otherwise you will summon the one grognard rules lawyer jerk weasel who digs up obscure and insane things from one issue of Dragon magazine from 1980 and insists on using it...

Brad is still not allowed in any game shop, convention or gamer's house in the greater Houston area.

ever

for any reason

# ¿ Dec 8, 2022 18:06

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

GD_American posted:

I remember when that tech readout came out, I saw the loadout and thought �oh there�s some cheese�

Yeah, it was a munchkin's wet dream when TRO3055 dropped. Our group wondered if anything was play-tested prior to publication.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2023 16:44

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

General Battuta posted:

You spend ten minutes taking it off the first Omni, ten minutes plugging it into the second Omni, then ten minutes flipping it over and installing it the right way up.

Clan Black Windows is installing an update and will need to be restarted.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2023 03:34

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

PoptartsNinja posted:

The Rakshasa is what happens when someone didn't successfully talk the NAIS out of the Waterley Plan (AKA: "refit all of our catapults to this configuration!") after first images of the Clan Timberwolf started coming in.

It's a weird semi-experimental unit made out of cheap, locally-sourced Marauder parts and built by GM. It's the Hummer H2 of BattleMechs.

"Mom, can we have Mad Cats?"

"We have Mad Cats at home."

Mad Cats at home:

Apologies to Eddie Murphy

# ¿ Jan 17, 2023 20:36

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

SirFozzie posted:

(Random Thought, due to my meds being screwy)

We have Hunchback in 70's format (Its laser intensive version is nicknamed the discoball in my old group, hence the 70s), and the Hunchback of the 80's (that Big rear end Auto-Cannon in one shoulder is definitely a Boom-Box), what would be the 90's and 2000's looking hunchback?

90's would be all style over substance with all the ridiculous new tech shoved in whether it needed it or not (ferro, XL, endo, etcetera)

The 90's?

HEYYYYYY MACARENA!!!!!

# ¿ Jan 19, 2023 15:56

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Owlbear Camus posted:

I remember reading my buddies copy of that TRO. had all the glossy pages with the "IIc" variants of all the classics with the conspicuous harmony gold copyright that clashed hilariously with the simple draftsmanship of the refrigerators with legs.

The difference in artwork between the 3050/3055/3058 TROs could cause whiplash.

This owns.

This looks like it is selling AARP memberships or long-term food storage.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2023 00:23

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

kingcom posted:

EDIT: Actually doesn't this happen in Double Blind too? The mechwarrior steals a clint, hacking its password without even any equipment but has to deal with the neurohelment being rigged to someone else .

Yeah, Marcus steals a Clint and pilots it even though it's tuned to someone else. It talks about the pounding headache from incorrect tuning.

In Star Lord, Duncan Karma and Rod Trade use a magnet to override the lockout on a Warhammer. Just hold the magnet on a certain part of the console during start-up and it scrambles the lockout.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2023 15:15

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

PoptartsNinja posted:

Chandrasekhar Kurita was the setting's best supervillain.

Uncle Chandy was pretty good.

Double Blind Sun Tzu Liao was amazing. Stackpole wrote him as a one-dimensional mustache twirling villain. Coleman gave him actual depth and motivation and made him an interesting character. His surprise visit to Canopus was a fun chapter.

I had some email correspondence with Victor Milan before he passed about how well he captured the southwest and the whole Ricky Rodeo cowboy archetype. Cowboy Payson was almost a carbon copy of a guy I grew up with in south Texas, right down to the lanky build and absurd swagger.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2023 02:29

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Crazy Joe Wilson posted:

Give me my Spirit Cat or Kurita novel already darnit.

A novel about Minoru Kurita's path to the Nova Cats would be interesting.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2023 16:34

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Dervish is another good choice for new players. Learn range brackets, missile tables, heat management...

# ¿ Feb 14, 2023 15:27

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

DeepThrobble posted:

I recall the scene where some pro-Katherine warship laying in ambush for Victor gets increasingly nervous as an incoming jump signature goes beyond fully-loaded Potemkin scale before being offscreened what was later revealed to be a Word Aegis super-jumping from Terra, but that was probably not the case with Serpent. AFAIR, they were a few days behind schedule because they ran into a Ghost Bear fleet and had to effect repairs and barely noticed an incoming jump seconds before they left and had to check sensor records to be sure. No time for things to look unusual, plus superjumping renders the K-F drive unusable, which is a really bad idea for trailing a fleet beyond the red line.

This is correct. There were only a couple space battles in the Exodus Road books, and they were pretty straightforward.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2023 15:17

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

GD_American posted:

I think I literally bought every supplement they made for it (I mean, like with allowance money) and I might have played it 3-4 times. The setting was that good and the gameplay was that bad.

It turned into an absurd arms race towards the end. Tanks with x-ray lasers? Sure, why not. Blimps dropping FAE bombs with laser guidance? Yup.

ADQ usually had some good short stories. Two of the three Car Wars novels were outstanding (one by Aaron Allston, the other by David Drake), the third one is best left alone.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2023 04:43

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

BattleMaster posted:

Yeah the artists often draw machine guns with a much greater apparent diameter than even a large bore cannon should have considering the sizes of the mechs.

Here's an 8-inch (~203 mm) naval gun, a size common among heavy cruisers in World War II, with crew shown for scale:

This specific example, the BL 8-inch Mk VIII naval gun, had a mass of 17.5 tons (for one single gun, not two as mounted in those turrets) and a shell mass of 116 kg, making it roughly equivalent to an autocannon/20 if one shot could be fired from it every 5 seconds (not possible with the real gun). Much longer range and typically fired in a high-angle arc, but the ranges in BattleTech aren't meant to make sense outside of gameplay. It isn't the largest naval gun size but it's by no means a small weapon. And yet it's tiny by comparison with how the smallest weapons are normally drawn in BattleTech.

The fact that the artists didn't really think about it like this and just drew whatever they thought looked badass is IMO one of the reasons why old BattleTech art is so good even if it's also bad. It's very charming, like doodles in a notebook kind of charming. And as a kid/teen I ate it up.

edit: I'm glad that modern BattleTech art is so much better, though I think the scales are still a bit off

The World's Largest Small Lasertm on the Stone Rhino is still my favorite.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2023 02:45

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Strobe posted:

I'm sympathetic to "there's too much" but at the end of the day look at the record sheet. It's specifically there to reduce the number of things you actually have to remember. It will be very clearly printed which weapon it is, it's not hard at all to remember that the one with different damages at different ranges is also the one with different bonuses, and DE means half damage to Reflective.

I'm not suggesting you have a problem with this, mind, but there's a fairly significant chunk of BT players who seem to think that you need to memorize as much as possible to have a quick or good game, and it's just not at all true. Hit location tables sure, those are gold to have memorized, but you're far better served getting good at looking at and interpreting the weapons and equipment section of a 'Mech than trying to remember every single weapon's stats at all times.

Exactly. Our group did beer-and-pretzels games by each drawing from a stack of face-down light mech record sheets. Every pilot was 4/4 and maps were random. Games were fairly quick and sometimes hilarious.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2023 18:50

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

FishFood posted:

I stand by my belief that the Capellan Confederation is probably the best place to live for your average civilian in the Inner Sphere, it's not like you have any human rights anywhere else and the CC has an actual social safety net.

You might feel like you're better off in the FedSuns because they pay lip service to democratic ideals, but your planet is most likely a horrible backwater being strip mined for the local nobility's capitol world that you'll never see and the duke doesn't give a single poo poo how you vote.

As a bonus you get a string of legitimately insane rulers.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2023 20:11

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:

It�s only been 2 insane vs. 1 not-insane in terms of fiction that�s ever been considered to be the �current space year� timeframe. Jury�s still out on Daoshen since he enjoys walking the thin red line and isn�t dead yet.

You�re best off enjoying the Thuggees rather than the Chancellor if you�re looking for insane Liaos

It's a heck of a ruling family.

Max Liao - bonkers
Romano Liao - bonkers
Sun-Tzu Liao (Stackpole era) - kinda bonkers, got better with other authors
Kali Liao - whoo boy... *side note* did Greg Land draw the portrait of her for the sourcebook? It's a bit much...

I haven't bought a sourcebook or novel in years, so I dunno about the current leadership.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2023 00:19

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Cthulu Carl posted:

Traditional Games > Battletech: PLANT MECH -> WOO HOO

Seconded.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2023 17:23

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 14:05

PhotoKirk: Jul 2, 2007; insert witty text here

Arquinsiel posted:

Steve Jackson is a weird dude, but he's right about that at least. Ogre Designer's Edition was the first one I played, and it resulted in me buying a whole pile of the Pocket Edition to give away to people at cons because it let me show off the really elegant game after hooking them with a pretty display. I also own a stupid number of miniatures for a game I have never played with miniatures, and TBH for Ogre the way infantry work the figures actually just do not make sense to use miniatures for the game. I'm unclear how I'm supposed to fit them into the bases or the GEV-PC without breaking the little pegs, but on the other hand the minis are just way too cute not to buy.

I'm still mad that Steve Jackson never embraced minis for Car Wars. (and everything else that eventually sunk Car Wars). Some friends and I built 9X scaled up cars, turn counters, weapon markers, etc. and used to have duels in the yard. We would get model cars, slap them together, add gun barrels and rockets and have a blast. I'd let the yard grow taller than normal, then use the mower to make the track. It worked really well.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2023 15:59

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