03-09-2013, 10:11 AM | #301 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Colorado
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On-line gameplay should only be an option not a requirement. My PC is the only "server" that should matter beyond simply downloading the game and activating it.
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03-09-2013, 11:23 AM | #302 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2003
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There is an article in the latest PC Gamer that really makes me want to play this game. It is too bad they fucked it up with all of these issues caused by an unnecessary design decision.
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03-09-2013, 11:45 AM | #303 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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I will echo what neon said.. I have actually had a lot of fun playing this game. The annoying part has been the server issues, but I probably have about 15 hours or so into this thanks to the snow day.
Once they get the launch issues worked out, it might be a pretty fun game for those of you who don't care about the drm part. |
03-10-2013, 09:22 AM | #304 |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jan 2001
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I switched over to NA East 4 yesterday and since then I've had a pretty much normal experience. I interacted with other cities, no issues logging in, etc.
Overall after my first REAL experience with the game I'm really enjoying it! I played about 6 hours yesterday (!!!), trying to get my city over the 35,000 hump. Trying to balance the 3 tiers of housing to get the right employees for my industrial complex has been very difficult for me. I'm trying to become the education city, but I'm not really seeing any revenue from this, only costs. I guess if my citizens go to other cities and make good money i'll get the tax revenue? I do like the University research projects though, they're really cool. Trying to make a giant solar array to power my city, none of my neighbors are feeding me enough electricity and my current solar plant just isn't doing the trick. Seeing all kinds of brownouts and it's pissing off my citizens. |
03-10-2013, 05:51 PM | #305 |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Just got on Steam. Lots of friends playing SC4 and Cities XL.
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03-10-2013, 06:24 PM | #306 | |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Parañaque, Philippines
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Quote:
What's your Origin ID?
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03-10-2013, 07:17 PM | #307 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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I didn't even realise I owned Simcity 4. I must have bought it in a Steam sale. Anyway, I fired it up Saturday afternoon and..... well, played it for the best part of a day. First time I've ever played a Simcity game without cheats, and I'm turning a profit in 3 out of 4 cities.
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03-10-2013, 07:45 PM | #308 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Green Bay, WI
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03-10-2013, 09:41 PM | #309 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Parañaque, Philippines
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Ugh. Made a big mistake by upgrading to a higher tier of casinos. I'll be scaling back until the region develops more.
Clebrownsfan/Alan feel free to purchase power from me. (I think I have 100 kw/hr free) Just holler in the region wall if you need more power, and I'll see what I can do. I solved my water problems by a hack-y solution. I put in my large water pump next to the sewage filration system. Basically, unlimited water that gets filtered constantly. I could probably scale the operation up if you guys need me to provide water.
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Come and see. |
03-11-2013, 05:06 AM | #310 |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jan 2001
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03-11-2013, 05:30 AM | #311 | |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Quote:
You did something to your city during the weekend that caused my city to go belly up fast. I think i was depending on your buildings heavily for supplying jobs to my sims and suddenly all chaos hit in my town. I nearly went bankrupt and had to get a bunch of bonds and tear down and rebuild a good chunk of my city. I think I finally am back on a better stable footing now and am close to 100,000 residents again. I had the same water issues though, but did the same thing as you with the sewage station next to the water pumps to take care of it. |
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03-11-2013, 10:51 AM | #312 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Surfside Beach,SC USA
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03-11-2013, 10:58 AM | #313 | |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2003
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Quote:
I like the one commenter who said that sevrer load was relieved because so many people gave up and stop trying to play.
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Why choose failure when success is an option? |
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03-11-2013, 10:59 AM | #314 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Here is a night time view from my current city. In the distant right you can see Neon's gambling city that spews constant criminals to my town. To the distant left, you can see Clebrownfans city.
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03-11-2013, 11:11 AM | #315 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Parañaque, Philippines
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Expect more criminals to come. I am about to give up on funding my police, since we can't stop the crime anyway. I'm investing around 9k per hour on the police, with no end in sight. Might as well go for the moolah!
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Come and see. Last edited by Neon_Chaos : 03-11-2013 at 11:11 AM. |
03-11-2013, 11:12 AM | #316 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2003
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I need to stop coming into this thread.
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Why choose failure when success is an option? |
03-11-2013, 11:21 AM | #317 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: C-Town
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Wasn't able to play as much as I wanted to over the weekend. I should get some playing time tonight. What's the deal with the "Great Works"? Is it worth even thinking about them with only 3 of us in the region?
My city is sort of a mess at the moment. I tried to make it an industrial city (mining ore) but committed a lot of my funds to utilities, police, fire, hospital, ect. I also have a serious problem with traffic... A part of me wants to scratch that city and start over. Alan, are you "specialized" in one certain aspect? I know Neon is a crime infested casino region
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03-11-2013, 11:26 AM | #318 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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I was building up as an oil city, but there is only a certain amount of oil under there and I was using it up too fast. Plus tornados have been devastating my oil fields. So I am not sure what I am doing yet other than just building up the number of residents and trying to get stable financially.
I've been working on improving education in the area and might re-purpose my trade depots from oil to high-tech with that. I did have a huge traffic problem previously which was complicating my fire/police/ambulance/garbage/freight shipping as well.. (like solid gridlock for hours). When neon's city went belly up previously it caused me issues and I ended up taking out a ton of bonds and just gutting the entire residential and commercial parts of my town. I now seem to be handling traffic much better without having it all funnel through 2 specific intersections. There seems to be a better flow and it has improved all of my services tremendously. I haven't thought any about a great works yet. i want to get my town a little more stable and built up so i can accumulate money before I sink into that. I just recently got my ferry hooked up for water transport, and train is running as well as bus terminals and street cars. Now to do a little more on the education side and then figure out what to do with the oil/high-tech issue. |
03-11-2013, 12:41 PM | #319 | |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Massachusetts
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Quote:
Well...if I thought I might someday buy if they fixed the always-on DRM, forget that based on this. Regional interactions seem far too...random per this review. Last edited by DaddyTorgo : 03-11-2013 at 12:41 PM. |
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03-11-2013, 01:32 PM | #320 |
College Starter
Join Date: Jan 2011
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Someday I may be able to get on America East 2 so I can join up in the region with you guys.
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03-11-2013, 01:36 PM | #321 | |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Quote:
We are on America West 1 actually, CleBrownsfan moved last week. Since Friday, I haven't had any connectivity issues at all myself. |
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03-11-2013, 02:23 PM | #322 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Green Bay, WI
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03-11-2013, 02:29 PM | #323 | |
Retired
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Fantasyland
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Quote:
I don't expect EA to remove the always-on DRM for this title. I do expect that patches (and lots and lots of DLC) to modify the high city interdependency that players currently experience. |
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03-11-2013, 08:01 PM | #324 | |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Parañaque, Philippines
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Quote:
I am seriously thinking of blowing up the casinos and just going to manufacturing.
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03-11-2013, 08:41 PM | #325 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Green Bay, WI
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Luke Plunkett, Kotaku: "seriously, fuck this game. i feel genuinely sorry for the designers who made the amazing game that lies buried beneath all this bullshit."
Mike Fahey, Kotaku: "Earlier I asked if I could just change my review to a giant "FUCK THIS". Stephen thought I was kidding." Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku: "Sounds like you have arrived at the conclusion I worry I'm headed towards. Bummer." When three members of the editorial staff for a reasonably major site arrive at the 'great game, but so much bullshit' consensus, that's...ouch. |
03-11-2013, 08:50 PM | #326 | |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Massachusetts
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Quote:
that pcgamer article i posted earlier ended up giving it a 69...so...yeah..
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03-11-2013, 09:00 PM | #327 | |
Head Coach
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Green Bay, WI
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Quote:
That's the thing. I don't think it's that bad. It's just that everybody spends time with it seems to come away saying "Man, what a great game this would be if not for this other bullshit." |
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03-11-2013, 09:24 PM | #328 | |
General Manager
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Kansas City, MO
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Quote:
I mentioned it before, but this is exactly the scenario that led to the downturn in the Madden franchise. It started like that and quickly degraded to where it stands today. It's a scary thing to see the same thing happening to other franchises. Stupid management handcuffing creative minds is a recipe for disaster. |
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03-12-2013, 01:35 AM | #329 |
High School Varsity
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Midlothian, TX
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Metacritic has it at a 66 right now, and thats with Eurogamer Sweden giving it a 100.
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03-12-2013, 08:34 AM | #330 |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jan 2001
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If they changed the rating for Polygon.com's review from the initial 9.5 to the current 4, it would be even lower!
Hey, I'm really enjoying the game right now, I'm trying to get into the whole production thing with processors to start and trying to break into CPU's and TV's. It's actually quite difficult. My biggest thing right now is getting $$$ workers to fill my positions, I have tons of high density $$$ housing and I still only have 700 workers (70K population). My city has 2,300 $$$ jobs open so there are still 1,700 or so unfilled. Nobody from other cities are coming in either, I have 0 commuters. With the $$ positions I have 15,000 commuters and 0 unfilled positions so that's obviously not a problem there. |
03-12-2013, 11:21 AM | #331 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: ...down the gravity well
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So my question is if you don't care about the online always requirement and you hope that the bugs will be ironed out...is it worth purchasing...
I mean compared to 4, is it a signifcant upgrade?
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03-12-2013, 02:42 PM | #332 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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I liked 4 a ton, I played many many many hours of it. It never was ever fixed or bug free though and relied on modders to get rid of the biggest annoyances. I do not know if this version will have a similar fate or not but so far I have really enjoyed playing it. I don't think that I can say it is better, it is just different. It feels like a sim city mixed with anno a little bit as far as games go.
It is pretty pricey for many gamers I realize, but I have gotten a good 15 or so hours of play time in on it in just three days myself and I don't tend to be at my computer that much normally. |
03-12-2013, 04:21 PM | #333 | |
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
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Maxis Insider Tells RPS: SimCity Servers Not Necessary | Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Quote:
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03-12-2013, 08:02 PM | #334 | ||
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
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It sounds like this super advanced Glassbox simulation that that's part of the reason for smaller city sizes is totally worth it too!
Traffic "AI"... This is why services and traffic are broken! - Answer HQ Quote:
Quote:
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03-12-2013, 08:08 PM | #335 | ||
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
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Quote:
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03-12-2013, 08:11 PM | #336 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Massachusetts
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LMAO
What a clusterfuck. |
03-12-2013, 08:27 PM | #337 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Keene, NH
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I think all the naysayers are full of it, because I just saw this in Target and the cover CLEARLY stated that this game had won 26 game awards already
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03-12-2013, 08:43 PM | #338 | |||
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
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The more I read about Glassbox the more impressed I get.
Did EA lie about theoretical population sizes? : SimCity Quote:
Quote:
So it looks like thing like demand for services and required workers may expand based on the listed population for the city, but available workers and tax revenue only increases based on the simulated population. Last edited by mckerney : 03-12-2013 at 08:44 PM. |
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03-12-2013, 10:45 PM | #339 |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jan 2001
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Oh wow. All of this makes total sense. Now how do they fix it? Seems like the problems we're having and the fundamental issues causing these problems stretch deeply into the core of the game system. Once you peel back the pretty exterior of this game, there's a lot of rot inside.
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03-12-2013, 11:06 PM | #340 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
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An experiment on the population numbers.
PROOF THAT THE GAME IS MISLEADING REGARDING POPULATION COUNT, AMONG OTHER THINGS... : SimCity And a video of Glassbox agents in action at the end of the work day. Last edited by mckerney : 03-12-2013 at 11:10 PM. |
03-13-2013, 02:07 AM | #341 |
Mascot
Join Date: Jan 2012
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the last few days i have softened on this game.. thought maybe now the launch is over, things have settled down and we could have a great game in front of us..
unfortunately, everything i have read since, makes it look like the launch issues are the least of the concerns! the glasshouse "engine" looks like a total farce as shown above.. Disasters seem to wreak havoc on most users, destroying hours of work... spend 5-6 hours building a city, only to get a disaster that destroys your town hall and upgrades, rendering half your infrastructure totall unusable! Neibouring regions just seem to have waaay to much influence on your own city... i can appreciate the intention behind it, but the execution seems poor. I can forgive the launch issues.. however i can not forgive a garbage AI that does nothing like it was claimed to. Good bye sim city, my ol' friend! Last edited by HarryLime : 03-13-2013 at 02:10 AM. |
03-13-2013, 08:34 AM | #342 |
Retired
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Fantasyland
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After reading (and seeing the confirmation of it) the stuff mckerney posted, my interest in SC has dwindled to nothing. The whole point of the Glassbox engine and the small cities was so that each "resident" could be simulated properly. But now that it's been shown that is a total farce, there's no way to build a city in any kind of realistic fashion because the underlying models don't work. SC4 had problems with traffic modeling (which was ultimately fixed by NAM), but that's nothing compared to the failures of this type of agent modeling.
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03-13-2013, 09:38 AM | #343 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Parañaque, Philippines
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Casino City has ground to a halt. There appears to be a bugged police car stuck in the regional highway. This is preventing all trucks, buses, etc from getting back to my city.
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03-13-2013, 09:45 AM | #344 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Parañaque, Philippines
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Welp, it eventually fixed itself... but that was fucking stupid.
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03-13-2013, 10:01 AM | #345 |
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Location: Kansas City, MO
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03-13-2013, 10:09 AM | #346 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Parañaque, Philippines
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Wow. That outage just completely set everything off balance. City is practically dead now.
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03-13-2013, 12:43 PM | #347 | |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jan 2008
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RPS
Quote:
i am shocked and appalled |
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03-13-2013, 12:56 PM | #348 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2003
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With Simple AI Like This, Why Does SimCity Need Cloud Computing?
More stuff along that line. So tragic.
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Why choose failure when success is an option? |
03-13-2013, 01:01 PM | #349 | |
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
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Quote:
And still another video in timelapse (but still 10 minutes long) shows a city growing to 200,000 population with entirely residential zones—no commercial or industrial zones, no traffic, and basic services. Nice. EDIT: This was also the only city in the region, so it wasn't population building to work at a neighboring city. Last edited by mckerney : 03-13-2013 at 01:21 PM. |
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03-13-2013, 01:20 PM | #350 |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jan 2008
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at some point you stop being disappointed and just have to marvel the sheer magnificence of this flaming dung pile
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