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Edit as of 04/12/2018: If you aren't sure about wanting the game, wait. It's been released in what I think is a very obviously unfinished state and while you can find fun with it, if you're looking for the long term gameplay of X3 or immediate short term enjoyment as a new player, both are in a fairly poor state for different reasons. Best to read the thread or check the latest pages to see the current state of the game before you buy. It's gonna be a real hit or miss game. E: As of 08/05/2019: The short term gameplay I think is a good bit better now but we're still waiting on more content I think to make the long term game up to X3's par. It plays good, but it's not a 1000s of hours game like X3 is. E2: As of April 2020 with the Split expansion and 3.0 update I actually think the game is in a pretty good place, I've been playing it a lot and enjoying it more than a lot of X3 games. It's a lot faster to get into and there's a lot of fun to be had with mods that turn the war diffiuclty up to make it more like a litcube's campaign. It's still a lot lighter on content than X3AP but I do think it's a good fun game to play. E3: As of April 2023 the game's got a lot of DLC and updates and I still think its good fun, people have been asking for DLC recs and I think this is broadly the consensus of the thread: OwlFancier posted:I think split is the best DLC because it integrates across a good swathe of the northern universe, then terrans, then I guess either boron or TOA depending on which you like. Boron ships and stations are very good but they are very isolated from the universe both in terms of equipment cross compatibility and geographically so they're kind of a non-presence unless you specifically go looking for them. TOA is a limited amount of content and not super enjoyable, but it does have a couple of specifically neat ships and the sectors integrate into the center of the map so they're certainly a factor in most games.  So this isn't going to be a super fancy OP because to be honest I don't know enormous amounts about the game, but I do know there's a bunch of y'alls that really loving liked X3, and were really not fond of X: Rebirth and might have checked out of the series as a result. Well, this might change your mind. For those not up on it, the X series is an awesome series of space shooter/explorer/empire builder/story games made by this one German dev team for like, nearly 30 years or something. And X3 in its various incarnations was the gold standard for the genre, nobody else quite makes anything like it in scope and depth because each time they release a new one they basically just bolt a new game's worth of new crap onto the previous game and release it again, so the universe and ship roster was massive. Then Egosoft released X: Rebirth and it was not well received. The game was a complete transition to a new engine with all new assets, but this massively scaled back the scope of the game into something much more like the original X, very few sectors, ships, only one flyable by the player, almost entirely plot driven. It was not, even as someone who likes the game, a very good X game if you enjoyed X3. But now, egosoft has done a similar thing, they've taken the engine built for Rebirth which did have some really cool technical features and did look really good, and they've upgraded the graphics a bit more and they've built way more gameplay and content into it. You now have the ability to fly (and walk around in) every ship in the game. You can custom design your stations again with a proper interface and there's more places to explore. They've also streamlined the annoying roleplay stuff from Rebirth so you can now do stuff through menus rather than having to walk around everywhere. This much we've been told but there's also a new trailer launching on monday and the game is coming out on November 30th. And it looks loving great based on the streams we've seen. STREEEEAAAAAMS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igmDNW1AyWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlnUEFlyXrA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGqChkwJXeg So, if you want a sequel to X3, this might be what you're looking for. I know I'm pretty interested. Best places for info are the official forums (which just moved to a new software in preparation for the new game) and the egosoft twitter feed has a bunch of nice screenies coming out. https://forum.egosoft.com/viewforum.php?f=146 - Forums https://twitter.com/EGOSOFT/status/1045759677710176256 Trailers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuIeKMYaIAk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6s9sXjqCME And some cool looking screens.       Also some screens those of you who liked X3 might appreciate: The map screen and station designer! Stations literally are made by snapping modules together in a proper editor! Sooo much nicer than X3! Also the map looks more like an RTS style thing? Much better C&C functionality than the X3 or Rebirth maps. Ships have a similar thing to the station designer for attaching different weapons and equipment.   Seriously this looks like it's gonna be a real fun game in the X3 vein, and what else you gonna do, wait for star citizen? OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Apr 23, 2023 |
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Sep 29, 2018 16:21
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And of course I forgot to set the thread tag... Eh it's not unfitting.
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Sep 29, 2018 16:23
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This will have all of the same features as Star Citizen and still come out before it!  I was massively into X3, and of course let down by X: Rebirth, that game was pure trash. X4 is looking great though and I am excited for it to come out.
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Sep 29, 2018 16:39
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a game experience similar to X3 without needing all the mods of X3 to make it fun would be fantastic so I'm ready to be disappointed
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Sep 29, 2018 16:42
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As I said I... kinda liked Rebirth. I bought it a bit late and it's not something I could replay to the degree I played X3, but I did have fun with it the first time through, and it is real pretty too. I wondered why they made all the cool engine features they did but not really use them for much. I guess this is why, just ran out of money and time and had to release something between then and now. The numbering scheme makes sense, cos this seems much more a sequel to X3 than Rebirth did. Anyway they've done some good changes according to the forums. For example we're supposedly getting both SETA and a high speed travel drive (like the X:R booster but you can use it constantly, and the autopilot can use it too) so the exploration and travel should be a lot less tedious than any previous game, and this also means that while there are the highways from X:R, you're not reliant on them to get anywhere fast. The map uncovers like, hexagonal sectors as you fly around it too, so it's got a lot of room for very big sectors you can actually explore and map out. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Sep 29, 2018 |
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Sep 29, 2018 16:51
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Say what you want about X. At least it comes out before Star Citizen. And they all work.
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Sep 29, 2018 18:33
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can someone who's played this series explain the differences between the games and, say, elite dangerous?
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Sep 29, 2018 18:35
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Man...I want to play x3 now.
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Sep 29, 2018 18:54
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Scrub-Niggurath posted:can someone who's played this series explain the differences between the games and, say, elite dangerous? the X series is more 4X where ED is more space trucking
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Sep 29, 2018 18:55
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You should hopefully get a nice video about the difference on Monday, but yes basically the X games are far more about being able to materially affect the environment in which you play, being able to build up or destroy the economy of entire empires if you spend long enough on it.
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Sep 29, 2018 18:58
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OwlFancier posted:You should hopefully get a nice video about the difference on Monday, but yes basically the X games are far more about being able to materially affect the environment in which you play, being able to build up or destroy the economy of entire empires if you spend long enough on it. Yeah, I spent my last X3 playthrough docked at a shipyard and automated everything via general commands and mods Makes me want to do it again but setup is such a PITA now that I don't think I can be bothered
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Sep 29, 2018 19:01
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Supposedly one of the X4 features is you get a HQ much faster and you can set up a teleporter network to teleport you around your empire, definitely seems like they've really leaned into the empire management side of things. And given that stations are now entirely modular presumably you can trick out your HQ however you want.
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Sep 29, 2018 19:05
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I wonder if the aliens or economy will be more alive in any way this time. The factory/empire building aspect is pretty great but needs streamlining, combat could use an auto-transport into nearby friendly vessel on ship destruction or some kind of overhaul. Otherwise I think the universe just needs some fleshing out, add more unique flair to it. I would like to see a gamemode with an actually persistant universe where everything actually needs to come from something, a universe that you can permanently screw up but can overtake and screw you too if you fumble your relations or actions. I really liked Litcubes mod that added 2 expanding forces, one corporate with all the tools you have at your disposal and one kill all humans robots with super ships slowly swallowing the galaxy for the player to be scared of and to compete with. It was fairly close to what I wanted, except instead of 1 competing corp it is like 10 and factions could have meaningful engagements rather than spawning capital ships from nothing to replace old ones. Honestly I would be content with yet another moderate improvment of everything X3 was if it comes down to it. Never played Rebirth, did it have any significant redeeming qualities?
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Sep 29, 2018 20:05
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Koboje posted:Never played Rebirth, did it have any significant redeeming qualities? The backend is much improved, stations are, I guess, much better put together than they are in X3, with each part being modeled individually rather than X3's complexes, and things like storage space and production being tied to which modules you have. The problem is that despite this there were only specific stations you could build and the modules were pre-planned. Also they added a bunch of roleplay stuff where you had to get out of the ship and meet people and do minigames to access what really should have been basic menu functionality. Walking around on stations is cool but useless so they shoehorned in what basically amounts to "nobody talks on the phone in space" to justify it. Capital ships use the same technology but have no modeled interiors, so you sit on an external landing pad and watch your cool cruiser get into a fight from there, rather then, y'know, on the bridge. Rebirth is really a bunch of cool mechanics buried under terrible interface limitations, but those mechanics seem to form the basis of the gameplay improvements in X4, utilizing station modularity in concert with a proper interface and freedom to plan them how you want. The walking around is better integrated with far more interior modeling for spacecraft, you can fly the new ships they put in, the boost drive is great for travelling but tedious to use in X:R so now it's a constant use thing, they reintroduced SETA as an addon to X:R but now it's back in as a baseline mechanic. The highways are another cool solution to realtime travel over long distances but the lack of an on-ship option made them quite annoyingly limiting especially when some sectors had them only going in one direction, so you had to loop back round if you missed your exit. They introduced AI managers to run your stations for you but you have to use them instead of setting up your own supply ships, and you also have to hire them personally by talking to people on stations which is very tedious. All of the problems are not so much the systems introduced but the design around how they're employed and the interface. Everything in Rebirth I think would be cool if it wasn't shoehorned into necessity by a dev team who were, i think, really just trying to pad the game out a bit to hide the lack of real content. Basically X:R seems like the intermediate step between getting the new engine going and making a feature complete X game out of it in the X3 tradition. Possibly the biggest change is the engine does this really nice "cities in space" kind of feel to stations, with them being truly massive things with lots of ambient little traffic buzzing around them. Massive change in style from X3's very sparse layout, in part facilitated by a much better pathfinding system for large and small ships. It looks gorgeous too and makes a great change from X3's rather limited visual appeal. Add some better design and mechanics to that and I think it should be a winner. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Sep 29, 2018 |
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Sep 29, 2018 20:26
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Sounds like what is needed is a good mashing together of old and new mechanics then, the feel of most sectors in X3 was that they all felt really barren and lifeless, no matter how many space stations there were, complexes hubs were ugly but felt like they should be the standard, with a smattering of independant factories here or there or on the outskirts. You can't go a page in steam without tripping over 10 new/old/early access Empire building and Star Citizen type games, like goddamn Avorion straight up has the same motto as the X series (which I always thought a bit weak), and yet this is the only one I am looking seriously at and with some actual hope. As long as they get the base mechanics a bit more in line with X3 while dragging along cities in space feeling I think modding can then do the rest.
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Sep 29, 2018 23:13
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Avorion's pretty good, and yeah it straight rips a lot from X, but I agree it doesn't quite scratch the itch. I'm reaaally hoping we get some solid video on some of the things I've seen snippets of in other videos, on monday. The current PR is a bit all over the place and a lot of it is in German.
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Sep 29, 2018 23:16
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All I give a gently caress about any maybe you German posterscan dig around a bit, is if UT, EST, and MARS/Codea got baked in. I need my ram shackles fleet and back ground universal traders.
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Sep 29, 2018 23:20
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I loves me some X games. I easily played hundreds of hours of X3. Rebirth was a huge disappointment though. I am definitely looking forward to this one. One thing that I will add though, is that egosoft games always come out as buggy messes on release. They do put in the time and effort to fix them, but it takes a while. Even if X4 is coming out this year, don't expect it to be really finished until they come out with a 2.0 version a year later. Filthy Monkey fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Oct 1, 2018 |
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Sep 30, 2018 02:38
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Blast of Confetti posted:Yeah, I spent my last X3 playthrough docked at a shipyard and automated everything via general commands and mods I spent mine becoming a salvage company/war profiteer. Between this and Rebel Galaxy 2 it's going to be a good year or two for spacemans
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Sep 30, 2018 02:52
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I played X3 so long ago. I remember it being confusing as fuuuck. But I eventually got it going and had a huge trade network going and started pulling in mad cash. Then it just got kinda boring.
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Oct 1, 2018 04:27
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These X games have always felt %70 complete out of the box but with enough patches (and/or mods) they really are fantastic. X3 was such a huge time sink. If they can pull off a quality experience out of the box I'd absolutely love to play an updated X3.
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Oct 1, 2018 05:22
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Yeah it's always been a series where 'playable release' = actual release + 1 year (if you're lucky), with 'fun release' being sometime after that. X3 TC/AP with mods was loving amazing though and I'll probably end up buying this too. Would be nice if they packaged some more proactive enemies, I remember enjoying the PhanonCorp mod that added an antagonistic faction that would grow.
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Oct 1, 2018 05:32
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Game releases November 30th 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUcXYxILnF8 quote:X4: FOUNDATIONS, the long awaited sequel in the successful X series brings our most sophisticated universe SIMULATION ever. Manage an empire or EXPLORE space in first person. Fly every ship, TRADE and FIGHT to BUILD your empire with modular station construction and THINK carefully when embarking on an epic journey. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 11:12 on Oct 1, 2018 |
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Oct 1, 2018 11:07
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OwlFancier posted:Game releases November 30th 2018 On one hand holy poo poo so soon. On the other hand I wish I remained ignorant for another month and a half.
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Oct 1, 2018 11:14
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There should be another, possibly more in depth video today too.
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Oct 1, 2018 11:22
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Aaand we have a gameplay information video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6s9sXjqCME Those of you looking for more dynamism in factions might be getting something like what you asked for. Also looks like they've gone back to the multiple plotlines just being around in the world. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Oct 1, 2018 |
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Oct 1, 2018 14:38
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It basically looks like Reunion 2.0 due to similiar visuals and different gameplay elements. I'm rather wary about this still since there are so many new additions that are potentially screwed up/unfinished (just seeing all the modding/building interfaces makes me wonder which parts are not going to function properly or are simply a pain to use) buuuuut I'll get it day1 anyways just because of nostalgica and supporting one of the last "AA" developers in the world just doing their thing. PS: I think it really isn't that hard to make ONE dynamic, scalable rig for humanoids without screwing up the entire model in game.
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Oct 1, 2018 14:48
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Yeah I mean I can't fault them for the amount of work they did on Rebirth post release and, honestly, I enjoyed Reunion for all it was a bit janky. The station building interface looks unbelievably improved from X3 too so I can really see myself having fun with it even if it's buggy, so yeah, I think I might put some money at this early for an honest effort. Look at all this crunch!    
OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Oct 1, 2018 |
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Oct 1, 2018 14:57
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My biggest hope, other than it generally being good, is that the OoS AI isn't basically just a really dumb dice roll for everything from combat to piloting. Finding your trading fleet suddenly missing after going and doing something else for a couple hours was a giant pain.
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Oct 1, 2018 16:49
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IIRC OOS stuff was actually significantly improved in Rebirth. Helped by the fact that you generally use quite large and tough ships to do trading (exclusively so in Rebirth) Plus the teleporter thing might allow you to respond to large conflicts.
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Oct 1, 2018 19:08
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OwlFancier posted:Aaand we have a gameplay information video: This looks incredible.
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Oct 1, 2018 19:12
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 Well that's a nice turnout for them. Steam also has a nice picture of the encyclopedia, lots of stats! Lots of categories!  I have to say this might be the nicest, cleanest, most functional looking interface I've ever seen in in an X game. Full screen windows! Did you ever think you'd see such a thing?
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Oct 1, 2018 21:53
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This betrayal will not stand. Give me my X games that are a chore to play.
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Oct 1, 2018 22:23
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Yeah naw, I'm not giving them money after rebirth. That's like 40 quid I'm not seeing again. Maybe I'll get it in like 4 years when it's on sale for 5 quid or something.
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Oct 2, 2018 00:01
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This game better be good. Maybe I should restart my abandoned X3 LP
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Oct 2, 2018 00:13
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Yeah, no, i bought rebirth at launch, before they had refunds. I'm gonna wait.
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Oct 2, 2018 00:19
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Drone_Fragger posted:Yeah naw, I'm not giving them money after rebirth. That's like 40 quid I'm not seeing again. Maybe I'll get it in like 4 years when it's on sale for 5 quid or something. I’m with you spiritually, but my flesh is spongey and weak. I can only hope Bernd won’t beat me this time around.
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Oct 2, 2018 00:28
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I am a little put off to hear that some of the old school races are going to be full on expansion territory, like I guess no Split to start with? But yeah, it's not like I'm not going to buy it the moment I hear enough people say "Well it's not garbage..." so whatever.
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Oct 2, 2018 00:31
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I'm legitimately surprised they didn't fold after the pile of rear end that was rebirth. The screens for this look much nicer at least and that UI is miles better than X3s. Does anyone know if there's any official word on a better modding system? X3 really became amazing once you got deep into it but holy poo poo was it obtuse and a nightmare to actually upkeep.
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Oct 2, 2018 00:34
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Boy I hope my computer can run this.
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Oct 2, 2018 00:36
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