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After a summer hitting the gym, my third build-race-revise challenge for Automation: The Car Company Tycoon Game has arrived; faster, leaner and meaner than ever before: Just like SASC-89, this challenge will feature: A revised racing simulation, complete with weather effects, A much more challenging reliability simulation, which will push entries to their absolute limits, A testing regime that will return much more meaningful results, A revision system that should help even out the field, and A ruleset that is, apart from a few categories, is largely wide open! So, What is Automation?  Click to go to the Games thread! Well, it's best summed up as such: The Automation Website posted:Automation is a car company tycoon game in which you design and build cars from scratch. It is you who designs everything from the very core that is the engine, over the chassis, to the suspension and the car's looks. Several games have tried this before... but were able to merely scratch the surface. Go ahead, build your dream-car company, or simply aim to dominate the world markets with your superior design skills! Automation has made a ton of progress in the last couple of years! More content added, along with the first vestiges of the tycoon game, as well as the long-awaited debut of the Unreal Engine version. But, what we're here for is the cars, and our ability to design, build and then race them in a grueling racing series. If you're curious what one of these challenges will look like, I've run two of them in the past here on the Forums: SASC-89 - A multi-class racing challenge set in 1989, and the immediate predecessor of this challenge (in archives) SA-GT 1975 - A multi-class racing challenge set in 1975, run last year (in archives) SA-GTE - my first challenge, run in AI, with modern GT analogue cars (in archives) So, How do I enter? Well first, download the SASC-90 Challenge Pack, which contains the rule booklet and an Excel copy of the official calculation tools (a Google Sheets version can be found here if you prefer), a guide to building a fast car written by yours truly, as well as the files for the three eligible Prototype chassis, if you're so inclined to enter the Prototype class in this challenge. Then, design your car to your heart's content and send it into me at aisheepgame@gmail.com no later than September 29th at 2359 GMT (6:59 PM Eastern Time)! The sooner you enter, the better, as you will be able to get far more testing under your belt, which you can use to revise your entries - move quickly, because the first test runs a week today! MrChips fucked around with this message at 08:11 on Sep 7, 2017 |
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Sep 6, 2017 03:11
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 Do NOT use the UE4 version of Automation for this challenge - it will not work! Challenge Specifications  Challenge Calendar  Helpful Resources SASC-90 Challenge Pack SASC-90 Calculation Tools SASC-90 Pit Strategy Tool SASC-90 Car Number Selection Sheet Pyrlix's High Quality Essentials Collection SASC-90 Track Pack MrChips fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Sep 16, 2017 |
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Sep 6, 2017 03:11
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Prototype Challenge Specifications CRT-89B  The CRT-89 from last season has been updated from last season to meet the rule changes for the 1990 SASC season, in addition to some minor improvements across the board to help keep this chassis competitive. The CRT-89B loses out on some of the aero benefits of the new entrants, but on the other hand it has a substantial cost benefit, and also in terms of the quality of its more mature driveline.  CRT-90  All-new for 1990, the CRT-90 builds on the success of the CRT-89. Lower, wider and with better balanced aero than its predecessor, the CRT-90 represents the absolute state-of-the-art in race car chassis design.  Scorcher  An innovative chassis from the advanced projects arm of Automurdermotive, the diminutive Scorcher represents a back-to-basics approach to design. While the small size of the chassis does not allow for the same large engines as in the CRT chassis, its small size and very light weight means it could be very competitive with much less horsepower than its larger rivals. 
MrChips fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Sep 16, 2017 |
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Sep 6, 2017 03:11
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Finally, an important note for returning players! In previous challenges, engine overheating was calculated assuming the engine was provided 100% of its total cooling needs. In this challenge, as long as you have 50% or more of the engine's cooling needs provided, you will have full reliability. While this does lower the car's overall reliability rating, this has been accounted for in the simulation model; a car with 40 overall reliability under these rules will be the equivalent of a car with 65 reliability in SASC-89.
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Sep 6, 2017 03:12
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Final Standings (click for bigger):
MrChips fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Nov 11, 2017 |
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Sep 6, 2017 03:12
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New England Motorworks Will be bringing a new trio of cars (staying out of Group A this time) On a related note, for some reason numbers in fuel burn calculator are not updating for me in Excel (running the 2016 version)
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Sep 6, 2017 04:03
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Kilonum posted:New England Motorworks Will be bringing a new trio of cars (staying out of Group A this time) Press F9, and/or make sure it's set to automatically calculate formulas, rather than needing to update manually.
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Sep 6, 2017 04:06
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You know what, add in Westward Motorworks for groups A & B. Also 7zip isn't able to open your RAR file. Danny Glands fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Sep 6, 2017 |
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Sep 6, 2017 04:17
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Depending on dates FISH may be able to enter Group A again
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Sep 6, 2017 04:57
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Count me in, time to hunt for that elusive two class victory!
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Sep 6, 2017 06:09
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Danny Glands posted:Also 7zip isn't able to open your RAR file. I had no problems Also, I can say right now my prototype entry will be using a CRT body. The engine I made is slightly too big for the Scorcher's engine bay.
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Sep 6, 2017 06:29
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Augh... this hits too many of my triggers to ignore. Let's see if I can learn the game in time to do something credible before the submission date.
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Sep 6, 2017 16:10
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poo poo, son. Time to bring back the Aeromaster, perhaps. Put the People's Automobile Design Bureau down for Group A. Zeppelin Insanity fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Sep 6, 2017 |
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Sep 6, 2017 20:36
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OK, newbie to the game alert... what's a decent target for the Automation test track (or whichever would be more appropriate) for the various classes? I'm trying to figure out how far I'm off.
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Sep 6, 2017 20:46
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OK. so I uploaded the calendar, and I made a mistake earlier with the submission deadline; it's now September 29th. I should also make it clear that the challenge is being done in the Kee Engine version of Automation; the UE4 version doesn't have the tools in it to allow this sort of thing to happen just yet! mekilljoydammit posted:OK, newbie to the game alert... what's a decent target for the Automation test track (or whichever would be more appropriate) for the various classes? I'm trying to figure out how far I'm off. First of all, welcome! The Automation test track is where almost all of the testing will take place, so that's as good a place as any for a comparison. Competitive times will probably be something like this: Group A: ~2:10 (on ~325 horsepower) Group B: ~2:06 (on ~450 horsepower) Group C: ~2:01 (on ~675 horsepower) Prototype: ~1:57-1:58 (on ~950 horsepower) I should also note that with the fuel capacity penalty, any cars using the Porsche 930-style body will need to go about a second a lap faster still to match the competitive times.
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Sep 6, 2017 22:00
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OK, I think I've got a car in good shape for GrA then - working on B next. There's nothing in there about the MR body styles for GrA is there? It didn't seem like it but you never know.
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Sep 6, 2017 22:44
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OK, a quick change; I needed to make a slight modification to the Scorcher chassis, in order for it to be a little better balanced with the other two. If anyone is using this chassis in the Prototype class, you will need to redownload the updated Challenge Pack, and remake your trims for it - sorry for the inconvenience! Updated download is found here. Danny Glands posted:You know what, add in Westward Motorworks for groups A & B. Did you ever get this to work? Try the updated Challenge Pack download if not. mekilljoydammit posted:OK, I think I've got a car in good shape for GrA then - working on B next. There's nothing in there about the MR body styles for GrA is there? It didn't seem like it but you never know. Nope, no restrictions on body styles, apart from the Group C racer chassis! MrChips fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Sep 16, 2017 |
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Sep 7, 2017 08:14
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OK, with two chassis that should be competitive so far and a 3rd in progress (the Group C version is making me pull my hair out) the Vélizy-Villacoublay, France based Equipe Mardre Sports will be entering A and B (and possibly more). Press release to follow! And yes I'm using the right BSFC number now. 
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Sep 7, 2017 13:50
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The Vélizy-Villacoublay, France based Equipe Mardre Sports has announced it will contest the 1990 SASC Championship. “In the light of the aviation industry general strike affecting Mardre Aviation, well, I thought that I could talk some of the workers into doing non-aerospace work,” said President Jean-Luc Ledgédale said of the new division of his company. “It worked out well so far. Gérard, one of our engineers, it turns out had a very nice little car that he had designed on his own time that we could adopt, and several of our truck drivers have been testing it. Henri in particular has had a lot of input.” When asked about engine supply, Ledgédale admitted, “We had a, project from some years ago from another strike, where we were working on engine design for another racing series. It is not exactly what people think of for a sports car engine, but we feel we can make it suit several classes.” With the season beginning shortly, Ledgédale was coy about how they were managing to produce sufficient cars for homologation. “The ACO and the FIA, they have been very helpful,” he said cryptically of the French sanctioning bodies. Asked about the risk of supply difficulties should the strike resolve during the season, Ledgédale shrugged. “It is France - there will be another strike.” EMS will be entering cars for at least two classes in the upcoming SASC test day and reportedly is furiously at work on a third variant.
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Sep 7, 2017 14:19
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mekilljoydammit posted:OK, with two chassis that should be competitive so far and a 3rd in progress (the Group C version is making me pull my hair out) the Vélizy-Villacoublay, France based Equipe Mardre Sports will be entering A and B (and possibly more). Press release to follow! It's super early days yet, don't sweat it too much. There's so many tweaks to be made between preliminary testing and the end of the season, I think the adage that makes most sense is "the perfect is the enemy of the good". I made so many mistakes in the first few revisions of my first cars in SASC-89. Mr Chips was kind enough to point out my glaring errors. Have a good read of the previous thread if you get the chance, I think there's a lot to be learned from that. If you're already hitting competitive range I'm worried about my entries. edit: great press release!
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Sep 7, 2017 14:28
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slothrop posted:It's super early days yet, don't sweat it too much. There's so many tweaks to be made between preliminary testing and the end of the season, I think the adage that makes most sense is "the perfect is the enemy of the good". I made so many mistakes in the first few revisions of my first cars in SASC-89. Mr Chips was kind enough to point out my glaring errors. Have a good read of the previous thread if you get the chance, I think there's a lot to be learned from that. If you're already hitting competitive range I'm worried about my entries. I'm about 5 hours spread between my GrA and B cars and I'm about 90% sure they're legal and... I think maybe some things changed in the rules from '89 to '90 that should allow more speed but I'm not sure how much. I know I don't have an optimum engine in terms of BSFC but I kinda fell in love with trying to make a tweaked late-80s NA Formula 1 engine work for as many classes as possible (Hey look what I found in these crates, Gérard!) So far I'm a bit below MrChips's HP-par for A, a bit above for B, and close to on target for C but the sucker is undriveable so far so lap times are only a bit better than the Group B version.
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Sep 7, 2017 14:38
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The Boston Globe posted:Dorchester, MA - Engineers were seen leaving the New England Motorworks Design Center bleary-eyed this morning, reportedly up all night trying to design a new engine for the SASC Prototype class after their first try - an all-new, 6.6L twin turbo V8 based on their popular Y2B engine block - wouldn't fit in any of the available chassis. *Meta time - URL is provided for background on car name (tl;dr: A scenic highway in New Hampshire). Also, reminder that 1990 is the first year the chicanes on the Mulsanne Straight were used at Le Mans. Kilonum fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Sep 7, 2017 |
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Sep 7, 2017 15:55
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I'm trying for it (edit: er, I mean trying for a prototype variant) next after the Group C engine but I'm not sure I can stretch a 3.4L V8 to close to a thousand horsepower within the fuel target. It'll be fun to try though.
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Sep 7, 2017 15:59
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Every challenge I've done up until this one, I built the car then stuffed in an engine. This time I built the engines then made a car around them. (except for the prototype)
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Sep 7, 2017 17:18
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I originally had the idea of doing a Russian team, built around old Gaz and Zil shortblocks crammed into Ladas or something, but I was having trouble getting the results I wanted without going to decadent Western valvegear and induction. I mean, I might do that for whatever the next one is, but the idea of a French team of on-strike aerospace workers making a bunch of homologation specials with F-1 engines and not actually meeting FIA/ACO homologation but-who-cares-because-they're-French amused me. Really, I *should* go and redo the engine family to give myself more capacity for stroke, but I'm not sure it fits in the car if I do that and I like how the whole package ends up... plus what's the fun if the engine doesn't shriek? Added benefit is if the Scorcer is a competitive chassis (and it seems like all the wings and things go away when I import it? Ugh need to mess with that) the engine family I'm using should still fit and maybe should make good power completely uncorked possibly.
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Sep 7, 2017 17:44
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It's 1990 so Soviet teams would have way more issues than just getting results out of old engines, what with the political situation in the east getting quite bad for Moscow. It'll probably affect my entry as well, but mainly since LATOY is a Finnish corporation and thus does a lot of trade with the eastern bloc during this time.
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Sep 7, 2017 18:24
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OK, got the Group C car good enough to be at least worth submitting for testing. I'll do a press release later today once I figure out some names and stuff. Is there a pack for the tracks used somewhere? I want to check to make sure some of my optimizations don't fall flat at longer courses. Also... this may be nitpicky silliness, but is there any provision to homologate more than one variant? I know you can burn revision points (somehow) to make changes during the season, but looking at my basic setups, in an *ideal* world there's a few changes I'd make between say, the 24 hour races and the 6 hour races.
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Sep 8, 2017 13:58
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Autosport Magazine posted:
*edit* Totally just realized I can avoid backing myself into a corner - besides, the Cosworth DFV stretched out to 3.9L, why not this thing?
mekilljoydammit fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Sep 9, 2017 |
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Sep 8, 2017 14:20
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mekilljoydammit posted:OK, got the Group C car good enough to be at least worth submitting for testing. I'll do a press release later today once I figure out some names and stuff. Ask and you shall receive. Extract the ZIP file to your My Documents\Automation\Tracks folder. Unfortunately, with the way that the model works (and also with the workload to make this challenge work), doing multiple setups would add to that considerably for me. Maybe in the next challenge...
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Sep 8, 2017 23:00
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MrChips posted:Ask and you shall receive. Extract the ZIP file to your My Documents\Automation\Tracks folder. Thank you! And no worries - just standard instincts to look for advantages kicking in.
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Sep 8, 2017 23:03
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Hm. I think I may have done it... 4 classes on a common engine family, on one chassis family and one prototype chassis, and I'm below best lap time for each of them at any track I examined data for from last season. Just need to do some pre-test tweaks and make sure I have the naming convention right. Looking forwards to Monday to see if I screwed anything major up!Autosport Weekly posted:Anonymous reports that Equipe Mardre Sports had acquired a surplus CRT-89B chassis for the upcoming test were confirmed today by President Jean-Luc Ledgédale. "Well, we felt that the MFV series had more potential, so we may have traded some favors and voila!" Asked about the previous season's attempts to stretch production engines to the premiere class, President Ledgédale was dismissive. "Georges felt that it was maybe not so much of a stretch as for some others in the past, and this will provide some extra development for some of the more... problematic variants, and a way to compare our engines alone to other manufacturer's efforts."
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Sep 9, 2017 02:43
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The no automatic lockers rule means no LSDs or are those a separate thing? Turns out there is a downside to a long stroke. Shitloads of torque plus tiny wheels 
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Sep 9, 2017 14:33
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:The no automatic lockers rule means no LSDs or are those a separate thing? Automatic lockers are a separate, specific kind of diff. I'm running a viscous LSD in one car, and geared LSD in another. *edit* And emailed stuff last night - unless testing reveals something completely unexpected I think I simulated enough variety of tracks to have a good shot at absolute speed. Reliability though... I'm not sure what a livable number is.
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Sep 9, 2017 15:43
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:The no automatic lockers rule means no LSDs or are those a separate thing? That is correct. Automatic lockers are kind of bugged right now in that that are way too good for what they are; as such they are reserved for the Group C and Prototype cars only. Any other differential type is allowed in the other classes.
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Sep 9, 2017 16:16
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If I don't get a revised car to you in time, could you run my 1989 car in the tests please Chips?
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Sep 9, 2017 23:15
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simplefish posted:If I don't get a revised car to you in time, could you run my 1989 car in the tests please Chips? I definitely can; I'll even update your tires to +5 Quality too.
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Sep 10, 2017 04:33
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MrChips posted:I definitely can; I'll even update your tires to +5 Quality too. Actually if you could do this for me too I would appreciate it. I've got a hell work schedule for the next few days
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Sep 10, 2017 04:49
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I've been fiddling on a group A car along with you guys. I had to detune my engine quite a bit to meet the fuel burn requirements though. I can put out far more power.
Dance Officer fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Sep 10, 2017 |
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Sep 10, 2017 07:19
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Dance Officer posted:I've been fiddling on a group A car along with you guys. I had to detune my engine quite a bit to meet the fuel burn requirements though. I can put out far more power. I am having trouble finding fuel consumption in UE4 automation.
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Sep 10, 2017 10:38
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wargames posted:I am having trouble finding fuel consumption in UE4 automation. You need the economy number of the engine. You'll find it in the final engine tab. It's expressed in g/kWh or p/Hph. In other news, turns out my group A engine had enough potential to be a good group B block with some tweaking. Dance Officer fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Sep 10, 2017 |
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Sep 10, 2017 12:19
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