12 November 1509
“There is a Sadaqa to be given for every joint of the human body, and for every day on which the sun rises there is a reward of a Sadaqa for the one who establishes justice among people.” - Sahih al-Bukhari 7:65:286
Abu Abdallah V sat astride his horse, gazing down on the maze of streets that formed the Casbah and out to the sparkling waters of the mediterranean. Though he was born and raised in Tlemcen, this scene was familiar. Not two years ago he had led his army in these same hills against the Italians who had invaded Algiers. Their pomp and arrogance had allowed him to achieve stunning victory through the annihilation of their expedition and had cemented him as a famous King of the Maghrib. He would see to it personally that his name would be spoken for centuries to come, as the great king who had finally halted the Christian onslaught. To that end, he had hired a talented scribe to record his exploits at the head of a great Muslim army (for an extra fee, he was willing to embellish and cover the fact that Abdallah had been very much commanding from behind (10,000 civ florins)).
A gust of wind brought up the vibrant smells of the port below, raw fish, sea salt and the stench of sailors forming a stiff concoction in the Sultan’s nose. With the arrival of Venetian merchants the city had already begun to recover, the once hauntingly silent streets now showing cautious signs of inhabitants. Still though, the scars of war were visible. Long-abandoned and ransacked homes littered the roads, their occupants never to return. It was not uncommon to uncover remains in these houses, or in the fields around the city. Though recovery had begun, it would be a long time before the city returned to its former glory. However, the death of the city presented an opportunity to the Sultan: the opportunity to rebuild the city as a new, more amenable city of Tlemcen. To that end, it was time to spend his hard won treasure to solidify his hold over Algiers.
100,000f are to be spent on the construction of a state of the art citadel, resting atop the hills that overlook the Casbah. Included in the compound will be lavish gardens and a residence for the Sultan and a portion of his harem, should they visit. A further 50,000f will be spent to wall off the inner city, connecting the citadel with the port and creating an impressive fortification, far superior to the derelict Berber fort that had served the city previously. This building will be converted into the tax collector's office.
100,000f will be given to the Ulema to repair the Ketchaoua Mosque, as well as adding new inscriptions on its walls, describing the escapades of Abu Abdallah V during the liberation of the city and tapestries depicting the Muslims and Christians in battle. The Ulema will also be given custody of a memorial garden known as the Martyr's Garden, as a tribute to those fallen in the crusade.
25,000f will be spent on a governor’s residence, a leafy estate on the outskirts of the city with a lavish mansion, intricate gardens and an excellent view of the sea.
100,000f will be invested in repairing water, roads and port facilities, as well as grants to Muslims whose businesses were destroyed by the fighting.
There was also a silver lining to the Christian invasion. Algiers had long been ruled by the al-Thanis, a family who had successfully wielded popular opinion to defy the successive Sultans just enough to be a thorn in their side, but not enough to warrant getting deposed. During the siege of the city, Salim al-Thani had surrendered the city in just three days, dooming its inhabitants to slaughter. He himself had also presumably perished in the sacking, though no body was recovered. With this act, Salim had both destroyed his family’s reputation and contributed to their physical annihilation, leaving a blank slate from which Abdullah could build a new loyal administration. To that end, the Algiers Governing Council was created, featuring:

• Abu Zayan IV, the Sultan’s cousin, as the Vizier of Algiers
  
• Al-Qadi Aqib ibn Mahmud, council member for religious affairs
  
• Sidi Yahya ibn Muhammed, a high profile merchant
  
• Joseph ibn Naghrela, a prominent Jewish merchant
  
• Aksil ibn Izemrasen, a Berber lawyer
  

This council is bestowed with the powers of tax collection, legal enforcement and monitoring trade. The taxes will of course be delivered to the Sultan as a normal city would, and he is free to overrule the council when it is necessary. By choosing Abu Zayan IV, the Sultan is hoping to undermine any potential challenges to his rule from his kin. Abu Zayan is the second son of his father, meaning that his older brother will direct his jealousy and rivalry in his direction, misdirecting their attention to prevent either from scheming to take the throne. In an ideal scenario, the showering of Abu Zayan with sufficient gifts and power should also ensure his loyalty to Abu Abdallah V, especially as he has been parachuted into the city from Tlemcen and therefore has no local power base.
[M] Spending 235,000 civ florins on repairs and renovations in Algiers + producing an epic tale of the embellished events. 150,000 mil florins on building better fortifications.

I (19F) have been together w my (20M) bf for about a year and a half. We met on a dating site and hit it off instantly. The thought of breaking up with him makes me sick because I feel like he’s my soulmate; he also feels the same way.
However recently I’ve seen a lot of red flags in our relationship. He doesn’t take me out on many dates cause he claims he won’t enjoy it as much as staying in. When I come over he spends a lot of time playing games and ignoring me (to be fair, he always like it when I play the games he does and I need to do a better job at joining him).
This past valentines when I came over, he didn’t get me anything while I did (I would even appreciate a handmade card just saying that he loves me).
My biggest issue though is his habit to get into lots of internet discourse over political or sensitive topics. I’ve had strangers message me things he’s saying to them when all I want is for him to stop and leave it alone.
We are also both in college, until a couple weeks ago he dropped all his classes after having a mental breakdown. I tried to tell him no but I didn’t want to make him more upset.
In his defense however, he loves me with all his heart, he wants to get married and have kids with me one day. He’s very big on communication so that we stay a healthy couple, but I’m so scared that I might say something wrong.
I am transferring to a new college next fall that’s about 3-4 hours away from where we live, I’m afraid of things falling apart over the 2 years we are apart. How can I make us stronger?

So lately I've been experimenting with telepathy and having people with no background in psychic ability experience receiving my "messages". Mostly trying to figure out concrete evidence of psychic ability, but that all went out the window when my last person mentioned she experiences something similar when she's just about to fall asleep.
Then it just clicked. I'm not telepathic! I've been Astral Projecting images into people's day dream state while we where both conscious! Or maybe this is how telepathy works?
Is...this already a thing? Haven't seen it anywhere. My friends are too spooked afterwards to see what else I can AP into their dream state.
The method I use:

1. Get a willing partner to sit across from you.
2. They close eyes, goes into meditative state, empties the mind of all thoughts, visions, etc. Person should literally be seeing what ever their default "looking at nothing".
3. They will affirm to themselves and truly believe "I will receive what ever message/energy/AP from you.
4. You will look at their forehead, then AP a simple object onto their 3rd Eye.
5. Bam, APed some image into someone's subconscious.

Some notes: Distance does NOT matter! I did this over webcam, with someone in another country! No sleeping, LD, sleep paralysis, or napping involved! Try it on someone who's hallucinating on drugs! Actually, being physically tired makes it not work it seems. Also, it's important that you use your Astral Vision, imagination, 3rd Eye, mind's eye or whatever you wanna call it, not your physical vision to project images.
Also it's important that they are facing you directly, or else the image will be "rotated" on their end. Will this work with things other than images? Hell yes it does. Told them to day dream something emotional, BAM, deep dark repressed memories on my side. What the hell is this?

Any ideas or tips? My goal is to play cyberpunk 1440p max with mods. If this can play that then I'm sure it can play anything else comfortably.
Budget is 2499

Hi,
I posted on a daily thread a while ago about about advice on weight loss, and I've now been on my journey for... two weeks! Or not, the first week is partial, thu-sun. I still wanted to post my progress and ask how it looks, kind of like am I doing it right? Here are the numbers:
Thursday 16.3. - 103.85kg
Fri - 103.05kg
Sat - 103.25kg
Sun 102.75kg
Weekly average - 103.23kg
Monday 20.3. - 101.95kg
Tue - 101.95kg
Wed. - 102.25kg
Thu - 101.25kg
Fri - 101.7kg
Sat - 101.4kg
Sun 101.35kg
Weekly average - 101.69kg
Change in total weight - 2,5kg
Change in weekly average - 1,5kg
How does it look? My target weight is 80kg, which I want to reach in september, more or less. That would mean 1kg per week, which is a lot but I feel it's attainable for me. I won't be mad if it takes me til the end of the year either! I'm a bit worried that my last three weigh-ins have shown a higher number than thursday, which is why I'm trying to go by weekly average. I also dropped a lot of weight right at the start, but I guess that's water?
My meal plan is basically 1500 calories a day. A normal day for me would look like this: 12pm first meal, around 600cal. Last meal around 8pm, also around 600cal. The middle section I mostly fill with fruit atm, I might eat a couple of bananas and oranges that should take me to about 1500cal. I'm not super strict on the exact number of calories, but according to calculators, my "calories out" is between 2450 and 2700 per day, depending on activity, so I try to eyeball around a 1000cal deficit per day without going under 1500cal. The meal I'm having today for example is almost spot on 600cal, has some mock chicken (I'm vegan), veggies, a sauce and rice. About 25% of the calories is the "chicken" protein source.
As to activity, I currently walk around 5000 steps a day is my guess, depending on the day and my schedule. I try to do 15-30 mins of calisthenics 5 or 6 times a week, and I go climbing once a week. Friday I spent almost two hours climbing and managed to send some V1 boulder problems, which is not stellar but it's my first time bouldering so I'm happy!
So... how does it look? Any red flags? Any tips on reaching and maintaining a 1kg/week rhythm? Also, I have some questions... it's afaik not recommended to go below 1500cal per day for a man. But is it actually dangerous? I feel like there are some days where I kind of round everything up and eyeball things too high and I might go below 1500cal.
Another thing is, how do you deal with plateaus? They somehow don't make sense to me... like, it's just physics that if you're on a steady deficit, your weight must decrease. The energy doesn't appear from nowhere. So how do plateaus happen and how to get over them?
Lastly, about my mental state: I'm actually feeling completely fine! I thought I'd have a lot more cravings or cranky mood or something, but most days I feel great. I feel... springy and lighter, like instead of taking the elevator I feel like running up the stairs and when I go for a walk I feel more confident and brisk. I know I need to knock on wood, but so far this feels easy. I only get minor cravings and they're nowhere near taking me to the point where I cave in and buy a bag of chips or a pizza. And so, I wanted to ask you... when does the hardest part of the journey come in your opinion? I understand that I probably only have an initial motivation spike, and it'll probably get harder. At what point did you struggle the most? A week in? A month in? Three months in? And how did you manage that struggle?
Sorry, this is a lot of text but I'm excited, and there are still a ton of questions I would like to ask! But this'll do for now, and I'll come up with more in the comments maybe. Thank you!

You can skip to the summary at the bottom.
This one is a long story. I've known him for 11 years. We were best friends in college.
I'm going to be vague about some details in case he reads this sub. He knows I use Reddit a lot.
He always seemed really nice,but he did have anger issues sometimes. The red flags were always there. I just thought he was damaged because of his childhood and the stressful job he worked before we met.
He asked me out on several occasions, but I always would "friendzone" him. I wasn't attracted to him. He didn't take care of himself or put much effort into his looks, and we had completely different views on many things. Almost opposite values and morals, but somehow we just clicked as friends very well.
Then things got weird. We got into dumb debates and he blocked me. Then he unblocked me and we became friends again like nothing happened. Then he tried to date our other mutual friend, who we both were close to.
She really liked him and found him attractive. I couldn't see anything in him that would draw him to me romantically. But, I was happy for them. However, I thought that it was weird that I just rejected him and now he was trying to date my best friend.
Months go on. He takes a job in another city. He texts her everyday. They're happy together. He comes back to our city and things are going well.
Then, another huge red flag comes out. He decides that he wants to date a different woman, and he blocks my friend and I. She really liked him, but she realizes that he used her for attention.
Time passes, and we hear from him again. This time, he and his ex split up. They even had a child together. She took everything from the house. He hasn't seen her or the child again.
He says that they left because someone was stalking them and they weren't safe in the neighborhood. But, something told that a woman would never leave a man to become a single mother unless something really toxic was going on.
Time passes. Years have gone on and I haven't spoken to this man. I end up getting really ill and have a rare blood disorder which left me hospitalized.
I get back in touch with him. He knows that I have brain fog and can barely process a lot of what's going on. The medication I was on caused me to become really manic and not sleep.
He confesses his love for me and tells me he wants to be with me. I change the subject and try to keep things light because I want to be friends, but I don't know how to let him down gently.
I check his social media page. It says he is in a relationship. He says that he only put that up so his ex will leave him alone. But, I see his girlfriends page is linked in his bio. They're still together. I confront him, confused, manic, and sleep-deprived.
He blocks me.
Months go by. He tells me he's sorry for not being there when I was hospitalized and says that he drove hours away to see me even though I told him I was back in my hometown.
This time, I block him for years. I realize that he tried to cheat on his girlfriend with me while I was very sick and on a lot of medications.
Years go by. I miss his friendship. I think about him and wonder how he is. I try to think of the happy memories before I realized how toxic he was.
I make a mistake and contact him on social media. He tells me that he misses me. He writes me love letters. He lovebombs the shit out of me in just three days of us talking.
This time, I'm older, more mature, and a lot of my views have changed. I've been single for a long time. Lonely. I start to fall for his bullshit. (I still have a lot of maturing to do, I know now.)
I never felt attracted to him. He sends me a picture of himself. He is putting effort into his looks. He looks great.
He tells me that he's in love with me. I tell him I care about him deeply but I'm not ready to rush into anything.
I check his bio on social media. It still says he's with another woman. He denies that they're actually together. This time he admits that they did date but that they're broken up.
Then he comes clean about something. He says that they barely broke up a few months ago. She took the kid and ran.
So,.now two different women have left him and took the children and ran away.
He says that she left because their roommates were fighting. He claims that he broke up the fight and then his girlfriend told the cops that he wouldn't let her leave.
I begin to realize that he's been severely abusive towards women and they always leave him for a reason.
He has this artificial charm. He knows what to say to impress you when you're lonely and want someone in your life.
As soon as I found out the truth, he told me that he would understand if I didn't talk to him again. I asked him why would he say that if I never mentioned not wanting to talk to him.
I tell him that I just wanted to be friends and didn't expect anything romantic to happen. I tell him that I don't know how we can ever be best friends like we were in college. I can't trust him.
He says that everyone judges him and that life isnt fair. He says he's too nice and misunderstood. Playing the victim once again.
I don't feel sympathy for him. He says I've brought drama into his life and he was happy before we became friends again.
He blocked me now. His number goes straight to voicemail.
It becomes clear that he is a psychopath. He wanted to live a double life with me and his girlfriend. It still says on his bio that he's in a relationship, but he took her name off, so I can't find her and email her the screenshots.
He insisted that he created a fake relationship so his ex would leave him alone, but in reality, he was trying to cheat on his girlfriend (wife?) And mother of his second child.
I never knew that people did things like this in real life. Somehow I've been sheltered. I looked past all of the red flags because I was convinced that my best friend would never do this to me.
We can never be friends because he only cares about himself, plays the victim, and he tries to manipulate and lie to everyone he knows.
He is mad because I found out the truth and won't fall for his lies.
But, what's scary is that the lovebombing felt so amazing I almost fell for it.
Summary: I've known him for almost 11 years. He tried to cheat on his girlfriend (wife?) and mother of his child with me twice. Women always leave him and want nothing to do with him. It's highly likely that he was physically abusive towards his partners. He tells convoluted lies and tries to play the victim. Very scary.
Edit: I did more snooping on his social media and found one of his other accounts. He is indeed married.
I sent a screenshot of his love bombing texts to his wife. I'm not sure if she'll see it.
Feeling really scared and nervous right now.

I just a lil bit ago had my gf or SO tell me that they loved me then she sent a big paragraph. Kinda went like this "I know this may be a lot to read but I love you with all my heart. In the beginning I thought Aries woman were biches but you made me realize that their is a special type of Aries that are amazing. People may think your a whore and I'm a Bich but I love you." Ok what I think is wrong with that is that she decided to say that just bc the day and mounth I was born was saposed to tell her I'm a complete Bich. Then tells me that ppl think I'm a whore...wtf. I myself have been losing interest in them and I know I have because it happens alot (I normally can't pick out what my new fixation vs my love for some one is) happeneds alot. But I've told my friends and one has said "what the hell" and "I feel bad for keeping this from them" while my coworketheir other friend has told me they have attention seeker in the past (as in saying they would kill themselves over some simple things)(she has had to talk to her in the past about this) well she is now in on the case of catching all her red flags. Tbh idk what to do. I think I might be being over dramatic. Now my friends are saying that we are such a good couple and we should stay together and I feel the need to stay with her even if I don't like her anymore. I had been trapped in this situation in my last relationship bc I was scared my friends were going to hate me bc I broke up with my so.

I found out about the redpill after a heartbreak and ever since it’s just made my life worse. I have this mentality in my head that women are just out to get me. I used to try to be a player and all that but found out that wasn’t for me around a year ago. I guess i’ve been softening up but i’ve been wanting to be with someone for a while. I don’t like random sex or talking to a lot of women it does nothing for me. I met this girl on a dating app and thought it would just be another hookup but something was different. I felt so comfortable from the first time i met her. My tire popped when i was On my way! to the first date and she came and got me and helped me out. I make music and she came to my music video and supported me. She told me she’s not like other girls and actually wanted to be something with me. All that red pill shit had me not believing her. I kinda tried running game on her because i thought that’s what’s your supposed to do. Now i’m blocked on everything and i’m fucked up right now. I didn’t text her for a day and she felt away about it this was two days ago now i’m blocked. I can’t shed any tears but i’m hurt because i messed something up that could’ve been good. All the red flags people say she didn’t have. I didn’t feel like a side piece or sneaky link when it came to her. I only knew her since january but she treated me the best out of any woman i’ve met. I hate red pill i hate hook up culture i hate all of this. I’m tired of hiding my emotions and having to run game. I just wanna be with someone. I’m only 24 but that’s all i really want. Now i’m pretty sure it’s just not gonna happen. I don’t want to date anymore i’m tired of getting my feelings involved no matter how much i try not to i do. I’m done with all this society ruined relationships and that’s why no one is happy. I’d rather be celibate and alone at this point because this is just not the way yo live. I have no one else to talk to about this so i’ll just put this here

TLDR: Long loading times, extreme lag, frequent disconnections; could be problems caused by the BETA situation of the game, could be signs of the need to upgrade; but my system can definitely run it with the lowest settings; maybe some optimization needed. Also, I had fun!
My Device:
Acer VX15
Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz
8GB of RAM
Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050ti
1TB HDD
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Other games I can run on this device:
Elden Ring (medium settings, 30-50 fps), Diablo 3 high settings, 60+fps) , Fallout 76 (high settings 40-60fps), Destiny 2 (high settings 60-100fps), God of War (low settings, 30-40fps), Red Dead Redemption 2 (low settings, 30-40fps); I could mention more, but I think you get the picture.
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Diablo 4 Open BETA Experience
I downloaded the BETA in the late morning of March 25, 2023 took about an hour to finish, and immediately connected. This was around 10:30-11am Philippine Time (PHT), meaning it's night in the other side of the world so I managed to connect--no queue times, just immediate login. There was severe lag once I got to the choose your character option, so I twiddled with the settings and set everything to low. I managed to create a character, chose a preset appearance, then a generated name.
My character is a LEFT-HANDED Necromancer named Vasco. I started the game, and what followed was a slideshow of the opening cinematic that I couldn't skip because it kept saying "The cinematic will skip once the game has finished loading" (or words to that effect; I am writing mostly from memory now). I patiently watched that "slideshow" until I was thrust into Sanctuary with, AND I KID YOU NOT, 60fps!!! I even turned on the in-game FPS counter and it's even clocking at 71fps!
This joy was short-lived, however, because as soon as I tried to move, the FPS dropped between 2-10 unplayable montage. Somewhere along those frames, I managed to kill some wargs, and while standing still among those corpses, I summoned my skeleton minions. When I'm standing still, FPS was perfect; but as soon as I try to move or attack or interact, there's a heavy lagfest and fps drop. But I pushed through. I killed more mobs, and got to the first town. That's where I got disconnected for the first time. I tried logging back in, but here, I experienced an atrocious 30-minute loading screen. And once the game loaded, I was greeted with the message that I got disconnected. So back to the character menu, start game, no queue time or anything, then 30-minute loading screen, game disconnects. On my third try, I managed to play, got the quest from those villagers in the town, then managed to reach my first dungeon. That trip to the dungeon was a pain. I was having an average of 10-21 fps which drops to 1 or even 0 once there's a mob. Which meant it's most of my companions who did all of the work. I even gained levels and some beginner gear, which was nice. Opening inventory window and the skill tree is a pain too.
Surprisingly, the loading screen when I entered the dungeon (Icehowl Ruins?) took less than a minute. Probably because of the size of the dungeon or what? But it was in this dungeon that I experienced 60fps even while killing mobs. FPS still drops to 10 or 20, but the dungeon made me realize that my system CAN handle the game and it's probably the BETA at fault.
Right after the dungeon and the whole shebang in the plot that followed, I got disconnected when entering the big town (Kevedash? Kevash?). When I restarted, I went through the settings, lowered down the resolution scale, and even tried that option where it will give you lower image quality) but the loading screen, especially that first one, is sooooo atrocious. One even lasted 45 minutes before I decided to force close the game. However, I find that just lowering the resolution scale (and ignoring the other settings (I forget their names, but one involves temporal thingy and the other will give you lower image quality in exchange for better performance) equate to relatively shorter (5-10mins) loading screens. So I just set my resolution scale to 70% and managed to play for a few more minutes but by then it was getting dark and the other side of the world is starting to wake up so the lag I experienced was very bad. I couldn't move, couldn't click anything. I called it a day.
Today, I managed to play again, but the experience hasn't changed much. Standing still gives me 60fps when I'm out in the world, moving and doing anything drops the FPS, sometimes to 0. I did manage to do a side quest (where you'll have to collect tithes?), an event (protect the caravan from the ambush) and was continuing the main quest to go to the mines. In the mines, I managed to get to up to 70fps even with mobs and spamming corpse explosion. I actually felt immersed, and even found myself muttering shut up whenever the companions would endlessly talk of dead ends. Also, I agree with what the majority were saying: Necromancers are OP af, but I love it. It's fun seeing mobs die from the corpses of their fellow demons. I felt like Adrian Veidt using corpses of others to justify my savior-complex rampage. lmao.
So overall, I think my system can run the game. I personally can stand the long loading screens and pop-ups, but what I can't stand is the lagfest and severe fps drop that happens when I try to move or do anything. It could also be argued that it's because my laptop has an HDD, but there's just no way I can upgrade that to an SSD. I could try and upgrade my RAM, but with the prices and high inflation rates happening in our country right now, combined with high cost of living severely disproportionate with income, any upgrades or switching to a better system won't happen anytime soon. Good thing I didn't pre-order!
Also, I've seen posts in this subreddit about some work-arounds like increasing the page file size, etc. I haven't done those to be honest.
If it plays better on 16gb, they should just set that as minimum. If it plays better on SSD than HDD, then they should just list SSD as the only way to play, not a preference. Just my opinion.
I keep myself positive that a lot of the troubles I've had where just effects of everything being on "BETA". I just hope that when Diablo IV launches, it'll have a "starter" edition like in D3, so that I can see if it will run on my system before buying. If not, well, I guess I'd keep playing Diablo 3 or any other game that my system can still run.
Will I play more of the BETA? It's Sunday here now, and got stuff for work that I need to prepare for, so no. But minus the technical issues and hardware limitations, from what I managed to play, I did have fun.

So bummed this med didn’t work for me. I had really high hopes. I quit just shy of 4 weeks. I was on 5mg twice a day. Honestly, I felt like I had a bunch of side effects and no benefits. The first .5-2hr after taking a dose, I felt high, detached, anxious, easily startled, difficulty focusing. In general, I woke up frequently during the night, a really hard time waking up in the morning, no motivation, high fatigue, poor memory, brain fog, and low mood. I just couldn’t stick it out any longer, I was getting depressed by how low and slow it made me feel. Hoping doc has a good alternative to add to my lexapro.

The gist of my question is that I have been encouraged to outsource for advice on what course of action to take. I've spoken with Bethesda agents and also a family friend who does tech repair for a living, and it's highly likely my OS is corrupted.
What is the best way to go about repairing Windows 10?
I grew up with familiarity repairing and working with Windows OS between 3.1 and XP, but I have next to zero familiarity with any OS after DOS was phased out. It's also pretty foreign to me to imagine being able to do a boot sequence from a USB rather than a disc, but here we are.
I have backed up all my media, and I have prepared a thumb drive as a boot media using the Windows MCT app. (And I'll extract my registration key from the current install prior to taking any further steps. I just haven't yet.) I just am not sure how to proceed from here, since there's so many different options for repairing Windows 10. (The only repair "reinstallation" I've already tried is running DISM with a current ISO copy of Windows 10's setup files.)
I've included my specs at the end of the post, if they're relevant. I can also figure out how to provide MSInfo and DXDiag TXTs if you need them.
I appreciate any input, insight, and advice you may be able to provide.

So, the long of it.
I was gifted a Microsoft copy of Fallout 76 back in November, and for the first month everything ran fine. Then the first week of December or so, I started having a highly reproducible bug that essentially locks me out of an entire feature. I tried game-specific suggestions from the F76 community to try to fix it, such as deleting my pref INIs to force the game to create new ones with the default parameters, and in-game stuff that didn't alter files. When none of that worked, I finally reached out early this month to Bethesda's support to see if they could walk me through anything that could fix my issue. I am not an isolated case for this bug, so I figured I could at least get somewhere. The tech agents were very patient and exhaustive trying to diagnose a source for the issue. Despite about two weeks of back and forth, we didn't determine any solutions, and they passed my ticket on to development to see if they could patch a solution into a future game update. We started out in a combination about like so:

• made sure Windows, XBox, Microsoft Store, NVIDIA GEForce Experience, and F76 all were current
• did a clean installation of my NVIDIA GPU drivers
• did a complete reinstall of NVIDIA GEForce Experience
• made sure the screen DPI was 100% and double checking it via regedit
• made sure I met the minimum requirements to run the game
• verified the game files with the XBox app
• did a clean installation of F76
• tried to add GEFX and F76 to the Windows Defender exceptions
• tried to add F76 to GEFX
• tried adding F76 to my Steam library as a non-Steam game
• tried to alter game-specific settings manually via GEForce Control Panel, but the game isn't listed there or in GEFX
• tried all of the above also in safe mode with a completely new user profile

This is when trying to fix the in-game problem started to impact the stability of my system. Because the Microsoft copy of F76 is UWP, it's in the WindowsApps folder. The agent (and just about every suggested solution I've encountered online) advised me to change the Advanced Security settings for WindowsApps and the F76 folder within it, and change the principal to my user. In order to add UWPs to any list of inclusions or exclusions, the program that's making that list must have authorization, right? Despite trying multiple user permissions settings including "Everyone," I could not add F76's Gamepass EXE to my firewall or even to the games lists in my GEFX or Steam library. I could list a folder where applicable, but the system would refuse to let me select the EXE itself. It's unusual to me, that even though I told GEFX the folder that contains the 76 Gamepass EXE, it could no longer find it, when it definitely could find it in the first month I had the game.
At first, it did not seem like the permissions edit was taking by doing it via the Advanced Security tab, so I used a PowerShell command to try to take control of it that way. (SPOILER for those reading this post and do not know: WindowsApps is user-protected in a very specific way, and altering it even just to view the folder contents can create unpredictable behavior. If you don't know *exactly* what you're doing, it's probably ill advised to edit the WindowsApps permissions in any way. Only learning this myself after the fact, trying to research "what's wrong" with my Gamepass EXE.) I'm pretty confident the command didn't resolve completely, just based on system behaviors after that actions.
I didn't figure it was a good thing to keep the altered permissions settings for WindowsApps, anyway, if it didn't resolve the bug I altered them for. However, I needed to use a Restore Point to reverse them to the system standard, because trying to set it back to Admins myself did something that seems to have damaged several unrelated applications, like Discord, which *isn't* UWP and is in my Program Files folder. I had to reinstall several things, including F76. (In hindsight, I think the PowerShell command I used altered the entire system's user permissions. It's been a few weeks since I did it, so I'm not entirely confident which command I used. I am rusty with DOS but only have vague command of PowerShell, so it was definitely a bad idea on my part to have tried this.)
When I reported to the Beth agent, they combed over DXDiag and MSInfo files, and told me that the only thing that looked out of ordinary was an event causing ntdll.dll to crash. I was told to do two things in CMD.

• run SFC /scannow
• run DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth /source:[location of an ISO boot copy of Win 10] /limitaccess

Neither scan indicated file corruption or damage. However, the next time I played the game, it ran very smoothly, and I could use the game feature that was experiencing the bug. The game only let me access that feature three times before the bug returned. At this point, I started exhaustively repeating the process the Bethesda agents had walked me through. Repeatedly clean installing the NVIDIA drivers, verifying game through XBox, doing SFC & DISM, ensuring I was running XBox app and F76 elevated/admin, etc. This routine wasn't 100% consistent resolving the bug and giving me access to the specific in-game feature, but I'd say about 70% of the time just doing the routine a single time would make it so I could use that feature the next time I loaded the game.
At one point two days ago, I got several hours of smooth gameplay before the bug appeared. I exited the game to repeat the debug routine I described above, but then I got a series of new errors, beginning with the XBox app telling me F76 wasn't installed. I could locate the F76 installation folder on my laptop myself and the MS Store said it was installed, but the XBox app didn't think it was. I located two different places that the system had installed it--both nested within folders called WindowsApps even though one was not in the default location--so I thought perhaps my issue had been that my inclusions/exclusions were pointing to the wrong copy. I tried changing that in Defender and GEFX, but the other copy of F76 Gamepass wouldn't let me add it to lists either. After doing that, the MS Store no longer reflected that the game was installed on my system, and the next time I looked for the two places where the game had been installed, I could not locate either. The amount of free space on the two partitions of my hard drive has not changed to reflect a 100GB game being uninstalled/deleted, and I've checked my Recycling Bin for it.
I have looked into public solutions for Gaming Services related errors and tried these:

• reinstalling from the Microsoft Store
• repairing Gaming Services in Add/Remove Programs
• using PowerShell to manually remove and reinstall Gaming Services

Because the XBox app didn't think F76 was installed, it would prompt me to install it in order to play it. It could not locate Gaming Services. No matter how many times I tell it to download Gaming Services from the Microsoft Store, the XBox app cannot locate it, and both the Microsoft Store and XBox app rely on Gaming Services to install games, so I cannot currently reinstall F76.
Then the system could no longer find the NVIDIA or Intel Control Panels, something about "parameters being incorrect." Repairing them with Add/Remove Programs and reinstalling them did not make it so my system could locate them. I have also tried a repair via Add/Remove Programs and a reinstall for Gaming Services, XBox app, GEFX, and MS Store. I would've tried a repair via Add/Remove Programs for F76 but the game is no longer in the apps list.
The biggest problem I am currently seeing going forward is that my system has been deleting my Restore Points. I do not have one prior to the game mysteriously uninstalling itself and these error messages manifesting.
Aside from the System Restore Point issue, the only things I'm really seeing affected at this point are that I can no longer run Fallout 76, Gaming Services appears to be missing, and upon restarting my system, I get two error pop-ups telling me those two Control Panels are missing. My art programs run. Firefox runs. Discord and anything else I've had to reinstall all run fine. SFC and DISM scans have never reported corrupt files, not even now, and the ISO I've been using for DISM is directly from the Windows MCT app as of this week.
(In hindsight, as I read over my post, I feel like the big problems might be chalked up to what amounts to repeatedly reinstalling system files, and something getting minced along the way. Regardless of whether that's the case, it definitely looks like a clean copy of Windows is in order.)
Again, I appreciate any advice going forward. Thank you for your time.

My laptop is a Lenovo Legion 5 (15IMH05) with

• Intel Core i7 10750H 2.60Ghz (6 cores, 12 threads)
• 8 GB Memory
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (4GB GPU RAM)
• 256 GB SSD ( C: )
• 1 TB HDD ( D: )

Hi everyone! I need your help! I rented a Venue hall for $20,000 I was supposed to have a taste testing for food and final details 6 months prior to my event. I showed up and the owner was dismissive and said it would be done a month prior. He requested the balance of $12,000 a month prior and we were to meet up to choose the food and details. He did not show up, his worker took our deposit. ( i wasn’t there and I was mad my husband gave him the balance with out the tasting) he keeps saying he’ll let me now when but now we’re 3 weeks away. The reason it’s a big deal is bc we had to go over everything we are bringing as far as decor and props but we can’t even meet up with him. I’m stressed and worried. He keeps saying not to worry. This is a fancy hall and I feel he doesn’t care about our event, it’s just another day to him. We showed up unannounced to the hall and finally got to the detail. He said some of our props are not allowed and asked us why would we do that with out his permission but we tried and we have to plan months ahead. He lied about a lot of things and claims he didn’t because it’s not in the contract but neither is the stuff that he’s telling us now. How can I find out more about contract laws. He made the contract basic but claims if it’s not in the contract he’s not doing it. For example when we hired him he said our price included toast and cake cutting but now claims it doesn’t and wants extra $900 for that. All he wrote was 2 meats and 5 sides . Why would I assume he didn’t include the rest? He didn’t write anything in detail. I don’t want to argue with him but I’m losing deposits and won’t be able to taste the food. I work long hours and have too much to do for the event. He took away the joy of planning this event , made it stressful and lied a lot. I would like to sue him after my event is over for my deposits, no food tasting on day promised, the cake cutting and toast & stress. I don’t care about the money I’ll never get the memories back and I refuse to give him more money. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Do not, under any circumstance link your steam account to the ED stand alone client until you read this.

If you link too early, you just lost $100 or more, seriously. More on this later.
TLDR: Buy the F18. Rent modules on stand alone. Buy the F18, then syria, then something cool. consider persian gulf.
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Hello, my name is Kitchen and I have a problem and hate money. If you click my name, you'll see the modules I own. I fly them all, mostly proficiently, so I feel I'm qualified to talk about most of them. This is advice for a new player on 'what modules I should buy?' Or perhaps the 2nd module to buy. This is mostly an essay on purchase order, not for only planes but modules. And yes, this is an essay. If you don't want to read it, that's cool, I still think you're probably a neat person and will probably enjoy flying with this group. So first, DCS is a flight sim, so you'll need: a computer, a module, a map, and hardware to fly it with. Perhaps you need advice on hardware, so see my other essay on that. Let's also discuss the variety of eras and planes in this too. For people that know what generation things are, cool, I don't. I don't really know anything about real life planes but I do know DCS. Modern planes will get you the most play. Followed by the cold war (think F14, mig 21, f5, mirage). Korea is a smaller pool, ww2 is as small or even smaller. If you are a part of this group looking for module advice I'll only recommend modern planes first. If you want a korea war experience, you'll probably have to find that elsewhere or be the change you want to see and spark that fire and lead the group into an era/playstyle that you want. We have a personal server and can host any map/mission that is provided that has interest in playing. We of course will have themed missions from creators but generally, modern all the way. (edited)
Steam Vs Stand alone. There are huge benefits to both but I want to discuss the stand alone. For those on steam you already know how great steam is. On standalone: First, you can rent modules for 2 weeks (including maps) on the stand alone every 6 months. This is a huge deal and is awesome. So try out the module before purchase. Second, on stand alone, your first cart (the entire cart) is 50% off. You can save $100's if you dogpile your first purchase cart. Third, you can link your steam account purchases to stand alone and play on the standalone with all the modules, so you lose nothing. If you link your steam account before your purchase, you are boned for the 50%. So do not, do not, DO NOT, link your account before purchase. Lastly, standalone has "miles" you accumulate on purchase. Basically it is 10% of your purchase in savings for the next purchase, so a $50 modules will get you $5 off your next. I got the mig21 for free because I bought enough, neat. Also, the accounts are still linked, so you can always play on steam or buy more stuff on steam after the linking process and it will pass to stand alone just fine. I don't know much about you personally so I'm going to speak generally as possible but the best advice I can give is: Buy the F18 first, then buy something exciting next. Also, I'll be using words in here like you already know what it is, I can't include a dictionary for the post but if you have a question, ask. We are here to help and learn together. Ok let's go. (edited)
Free Module SU-25T This is not a bad plane, it is actually capable and it can deliver HARM based weaponry well. With a human trainer, you can be effective and useful without money. It is not as good at ground pounding as other modules but this is also free. The AI provided training is not as good as it should be. If you want to learn this and only this, ping someone that knows it and we can have you doing ground pounding in a few hours and be GOOD at it. Seriously, I'd almost recommend this over the harrier some days, more on that later. If this module had a ground locking 360 tpod like the NATO planes it would almost be too good. First Module, F18: This is the jack of all trades plane in this game that will be generally featured in every mission we host as a group. It can carry almost all the weapon types (except good cluster bombs… grrr rock eyes) like: dumb bombs, smart bombs (laser, GPS, and the walleye),mavericks, JSOWS, dumb rockets, fox 1,2,3s, HARMs, cruise missiles, and harpoons. It can land on the ground and on a carrier. It is full fidelity, has easy to learn systems, has robust and easy to find tutorials from all your favorite and least favorite youtubers. It has easy to learn air to air refueling when you are ready, easy to understand MFDs that are readable. Systems that make sense, INS aligns quickly, is easy to taxi, doesn't require a ton of buttons on a HOTAS, TPOD actually works… well-ish. If you learn this pretty well, other NATO jets will be easy to learn. There is a reason why the F18 is recommended, because it is very good. Now if you personally (or find someone that agrees) that it isn't "exciting" that's fine. But if you are clueless and willing to just jump in this is the plane to go for it. It's also easy to land on the ground, no flare required, you can literally slam it down > 2000 ft/min. This plane will hold your hand really well. (edited)
Ok so after the F18 and a map, it gets gritty. Let's talk about personality and full features. Minecraft (yes, I'm blaming minecraft) allows people to perpetually live in early access with a list of "coming soon, full release". So, anything you see promised is a lie, buy what the module has now and expect it to never go further, possibly get worse. Ignore what all these companies will tell you is coming. And yes if you haven't guessed, we're gonna talk about Super Carrier and then yes, the harrier.Super carrier is money pit but I think it is 100% based on personality for the player. Do you want to be restricted to just one carrier? Do you like being spawn limited? Want to wait your turn? Animated deck crew that has hand signals (only useful in the day time…). Then perhaps Super boat is for you. Super carrier has features that I find useful (like the FLOOS system or 'the ball') and the deck crew is kinda neat. Is it $30 neat though to you? It was to me and for us boat planes it is nice to never miss the wire because that boat wasn't available to us. You get the Su-33 with this purchase. If you think $30 is a lot then you should not buy super boat. If you think $30 is like a happy hour bar tab for yourself and it isn't, consider a purchase. If you hate exclusion and peasants, come to $uper boat and make fun of peasant boat with us. (edited)
2nd plane: So the big ones, in the modern era in my personal (by fly hours, guessing)order: A-10 F-16 JF-17 F-14 Mirage Harrier FC3 - worth it for the j-11a, f15, and the SU-25 (non T version) - appended on the bottom Viggen There's a lot to discuss in the above list and now it comes down to what you enjoy in DCS and what makes you excited. If you see the above list and one plane sticks out, like the F-14 because "it is awesome", trend that way.Comparisons, if this then that: A-10/Harrier - A-10 is the winner for me right now. Razbam keeps changing things and breaking the harrier and making it a bit less fun to fly. The a-10 is rock stable development wise and is a great experience. A-10 needs a ton of 4 way switches though. So if you are light on controls, trend towards the harrier. The harrier is faster and able to land on FARPS/crayon-boat. It can carry an impressive loadout also, around 8 bombs and 14 guided rockets. It is a considerable amount of ground pound for a small plane. You'll have to micromanage the fuel and asymmetric loadouts. It is a solid choice but very difficult to learn/master but it solid. (edited)
A-10 does have some drawbacks though, mostly dealing with speed/altitude. Some SAM sites literally can't shoot 20k up, so in the a-10 you will be generally very very low. Also you will be sub 250 knots in the a-10. So if a mig 29 is coming, you cant run away very quickly. Gun on the a-10 is obviously better and the harrier gun imo is only used for emergencies. In fact, you can only use it throttled up, which makes gun runs interesting because you are going speedy bois in a nose dive throttle up! F-16/JF-17. These planes are pretty comparable in capability and systems and weapons. I think the jeff gets ignored mostly because so few of us even know it exists before DCS. The Jeff has some really really quirky things going on with the systems/flight model/pylons that you will probably struggle with but if you are not excited about the f16, perhaps the jeff can fill that single engine void.
The 16 is more capable with a wider pylon weapon arrangement and it can carry more fuel because of a dedicated belly tank. You also don't lose a slot for a tpod but you will always be turning left/right due to drag and imbalanced trim. You can sacrifice fox 2's on your tips for fox 3 loadouts, which is worth it imo. The 16 is lacking development in a lot of systems, the TPOD makes you want to commit soduko in the parking lot of an Ikea, and it finally got JSOWs but it got the A model which is maybe better than urinating out the window at anything larger than a infantry unit. It does carry JDAMs and laser guided in all the good flavors plus the CBU 105s of doom, plus the 6 pack maverick loadout. It is a fast plane, able to actually catch up to someone, think mach 1.5 in a dive no problem, mach .99 in mil power at 30k. Air to air refueling though is very difficult to master, if you struggle in the 18 the 16 might kick you, and kick you, and kick you. It doesn't have short legs though if you stay in mil power, think 2 hour flight times no problem.
The jeff is an interesting plane. The displays look like a tesla and the tpod is seriously 4k. It has a limited ordnance selection but has the usual JDAM, GBU12, plus its own flavor of HARM, cruise missile, and harpoon. Doesn’t get an HMD and I'm not a huge fan of the fox 2s, rear aspect only most days but the fox 3 (sd-10) is a murder machine. While the jeff is multirole you don't get to do multi mission sortie since you lose a ton of flexibility by loading mixed. Expect some dirty dirty loadouts for fuel, bombs, fox 2's, and a tpod. Jeff has a datacartridge implemented, so you can do custom chaff/flare programs but you only carry 32 chaff and flare. It has also has restricted jettison requirements, below I think mach .8 for jettison which really sucks when you are going defensive against SAMs. Jeff is kinda slow, expect F18 performance, but if you are looking for full fidelity red, this is it and it honestly isn't bad, it just isn't what we expected. I find refueling it difficult due to input lag and engine spooling/cool down but maybe it is just me. And to clarify, I have refueled every plane in the game that is capable and am proficient in it 📷 Also the quirk: you can emergency jettison in both and the 16's doesn't drop your missiles. The jeff you have to be slow though, below mach .8, which makes dog fights hard because the jettison. Then you might want to switch your config switches (2 of them) and it's awkward. jeff's guns are pretty limited and the 16 carries more of them and i think its dogfight mode is better. Jeff also can't use tacan with datalink on... quirky. (edited)
F-14. So I'm torn about this plane for several reasons. First, from a mission design standpoint, the phoenix missiles it carries allow you to kill any red plane without even being shot at, so it is hard to balance against. That is a DCS thing, not a you enjoying the plane thing though. 2nd, the pilot role comes in two flavors: nothing to do and FLYING the plane. This is one of the few non fly by wire systems so you have to use rudder and gently pull into stuff. You have to trim when fuel is misbalanced, you have to make sure your wings are swept when performing certain actions. The F14 is probably the best module for look, feel, performance, and detail thanks to heatblur. The gold standard developer for this game by a long shot. Other torn reasons, the sparrow implementation is rough, you'll need to use boresight often to get a stt pal lock and that is sometimes rough. Fox 2's are old too so don’t expect some insane stuff from those. Lastly, the f14 is an old machine, so don't expect a lot of hud information, including a useful velocity vector. You are going to be looking at gauges around the cockpit and between your legs for the radar. If you don't have headtracking I feel this is 100% not the plane for you. So now let's go to RIO. Learning RIO is a whole other job. It requires the same amount of time as any other module because the F14 is like a ww2 radar simulator. You don't just tell the radar 'over there' you have to micromanage and tell the radar how to work. There's tutorials obviously but it isn't easy. The LANTIRN pod (anime cam) is also very hard to use, so don't expect a lot of joy in the backseat doing ground pound. (edited)
Oh… jester. I find jestor not too bad but sometimes I die because of him. Jester has an issue with locking onto planes I feel he should be able to. I have abandoned the AI so often just to burn towards the target, get a PAL lock and fox 3 on the guy. Or just maddog one out there because jester won't lock.But my most favorite couple of experiences in this game was with a human rio and me in the front. It was a great ride, and the stories and fond memories makes me want you to do the same. It is satisfying to murder bad guys with your friends, especially when you work together, even if it is poorly (him losing lock and me ripping the wings off in a dodge attempt….) F14 has lase bombs/dumb bombs but bombing isn't the main goal for it. Seems like an afterthought honestly and really only use for giggles and not for serious mission stuff. Difficult to air to air refuel too. Probe causes a lot of drag and is pretty far away from the nose, so getting locked in is difficult, keeping it trimmed is difficult, seeing the tanker is difficult. Jester also cyberbullies me when I do bad just like my dad did before he went away for cigs that one time.
F14 is fast though but not for long. Big plane, big engines, big fuel use. But for it's role, fleet defense, I feel if you really want to enjoy it, you will. There are some huge f14 fan bois and they are probably not wrong. Mirage - Razbam product but actually good. If you want to fly high, murder people from far away and see art, this isn't for you. Mirage needs to fight dirty with no datalink, an unusual RWR symbology, typically low altitude, and only 2 fox 1s and 2 fox 2s. If you get into a turn fight with guns, you're gonna get em. Big delta wing turns good, loses speed fast though. Air to air refueling is similar to the f18 in difficulty. Can carry snakeyes well and big 2000 lb runway baguette delivery. Fits really well into our cold war themed stuff because of the 'limitations' but I often see some EU and Zen coming back with 4 kills to their name with only 4 missiles. Maybe they were born with it, maybe it is just the make up they wear. Viggen I own this now: It is great dumb fun but planning is everything. Easy start up, good bomb loadout, has mavericks which are difficult to use. Has cool rockets, dumb bombs. You won't get a ton of use on general multiplayer servers. It is probably the best anti ship plane in the game. (edited)

Helicopters:

Generally, they are going to flat out try to kill you. They want to faceplant you into the ground and explode. I wouldn’t consider flying one without rudder pedals (not twist) except the KA-50. I would only recommend a heli if you understand that DCS does not natively support heli stuff at all really. You will have to push a lot of 'I believe in make believe' buttons. I personally own the HIP, huey, and Ka-50, and the apache is on the way.MI-8 (hip), and huey: The hip is better at killing and is stronger and faster. But it is like a semi truck with RUSSIA painted on the side. Fly it with purpose and not a sports car. Side gunners aren't the best but it gets dumb amount of rockets. Gun pods are like a light show but lags everyone out. Switches are russia: everywhere, all the time, not convenient. To switch to guns/rockets is literally two seats away. Makes sense for real life maybe but in dcs that is annoying.
Huey is a wobble fest sports car. Side gunners are murder machines, you can also get a free copy of Fortunate Son by CCR if you know where to look on ED's website. Ask in general, the link changes sometimes and is hard to find. With both the hip/huey expect to kill humvees/people only. Light APCs if you are lucky. Expect to die a lot. Hind: I think it is ok based on reports. The AI Petrovich is pretty 'god mode' kinda like jester. You can murder all sorts of tanks and stuff, plus with CTLD you can do everything the HIP can do but with more dakka. If I didn't have the HIP already, I probably would own the hind. If you go to fast, you can die easy, if you try to hover too heavy, you die. If you try to fly when the weather is hot, obviously straight to die. KA-50: imagine you are on a roller coaster but with machine guns and you will understand the ka-50. Try to get it off the rails and it will fight you and you might die. But keep it there and you will murder all of those innocent tank children you encounter. The ka-50 gun can kill t-55s, the vikkors can kill t-90s and you can carry 12 of them. It is not the Hind, so do not fight toe to toe, you want to hide behind buildings and hills and be sneaky. It is effective if you are but it is frustrating if you don't spend the time. Oh….. No night vision in it at all. So daytime or gain/contrast on high and squint. Apache: not out as of this essay. Gazelle: It exists but no one has sung its praises to me to determine its worth. Sorry

Flaming Cliffs 3:

Is it worth $50, no, and you should not buy it for that price. Is it worth $25 sort of. Is this particular module worth $7(on sale) or $15 not on sale? Probably notish. Ok, first I'm an elitist and I'm going to talk down to you. If you have only $7 for this game, it's gonna be a rough game for you to play. Just the hardware alone, stick, computer, etc is going to add up much faster than your modules. If a $7/15 module puts you off of purchasing a module because you don't want to waste your money then perhaps you're in the wrong game. It would almost be smarter to just rent in perpetuity in a round robin fashion all the high fidelity modules till you find one you like and can afford. Also I hate when people say "I want to start with something easier then transition to high fidelity". That is the wrong attitude. FC3 planes are usually low performance/capability . You will have less control of your plane and limited options with these aircraft and you will hate it when you learn the comparison. Something simple like radio management is non existent in these planes and that is just the surface. Some modules don't let push a button for gear down and another for gear up. It is just up/down on one control. Or the Su-25t, doesn't allow an axis for wheel brakes, it has to be a button. Annoying:
If I had to pick one module to buy in FC3, it'd be SU-33. Carrier ops, good fuel loadout, carries the most missiles, has datalink, has some air to ground capability, sneaky long range fox 2's. Also can air to air refuel with the basket which is easier to learn. It is in KM/h and metric but it is pretty good at what it does. Note: if you buy super carrier module you get the SU-33 included. Next choice would probably the the su-27/j-11a. J-11a is the better choice and it has fox 3's and a ton of weapons, datalink. Basically a non carrier Su-33. Next would be the F-15C. Air to air only. Can carry amraams or sparrows for the 1980s roleplay. Has an absolute insane amount of gas, can air to air refuel with boom. No 9x missiles so you can't do the spicy offbore shots. It does not have datalink and the tires pop easily. Air to air refueling is really difficult in this plane. You will have to learn radar on a system that is similar to NATO planes but lack finer controls as the 16/18 etc. It does murder people well because fox 3's though once you get them locked. (edited)
Su-25, A-10A, mig 29 - these are ok at best but for a first module it is a waste of your money imo. It is a much better deal to buy the entire FC3 pack and play with these modules but for most people, you won't touch these very often unless we have a themed mission around these airframes.There are a lot of people that think they are neat, cool, and capable and these airframes are. But this essay is written towards people buying their first couple of modules. Also gearing towards $/value which FC3 use to be good value till all the better full fidelity modules came out. If you are considering FC3, I'd either buy it first as a $30 taste test for DCS (but the hornet/viper cost $50 and they are superior and that is only two meals out at fast food) or like your third or fourth module because you want to pick some red planes. FC3 is also a possible better choice if you are on a super limited budget/don't have a full decent HOTAS setup since you'll need significantly less hardware to operate the plane well. (edited)
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Buy the F18. Rent modules on stand alone. Buy the F18, then syria, then something cool. consider persian gulf.

TL;DR After being sick with COVID-19 a year ago, I started to experience memory loss, inability to recall words, and terrible executive dysfunction (extreme worsening of my ADHD symptoms). I likely have long COVID and hope it will get better but in the meantime, each day feels like a tremendous battle against a super ADHD monster. I am seeking support- empathy, validation, and/or encouragement.
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I am an adult in university and have severe* ADHD. My body doesn't metabolize medications properly (we only found that out in 2020), so after trying literally every stimulant and non-stimulant over the course of 18 years, I was fortunate to start seeing and get treated by one of the leading psychiatrists in ADHD treatment and ADHD research. I currently take up to 120mg of Adderall XR (aka the delayed-release capsules) per day along with 30-60mg of Adderall IR (aka the fast-release tablets). I know that these numbers may sound crazy to users here and I kindly ask that this not be the focus of your comments (and to please not heckle me or my provider for this in the comments). Even these doses don't work for me as well as they should, but the four months that I was treated with this were the only time in my life that I felt relief, like it wasn't impossible to study or such a struggle to accomplish simple tasks like getting dressed or getting out of the house… even when I I had something exciting going on, I struggled to focus getting out of the house until I started taking the high doses of Adderall. After four months of this miracle, I got sick with COVID-19. In the weeks after, I noticed some memory problems but brushed them off and thought I was just tired or experiencing side effects from Accutane (alas, there were many). These issues quickly progressed and soon the problems were noticeable to everyone around me: I couldn't remember thoughts and words mid-sentence; I'd repeat the same joke two minutes after telling it thinking I hadn't yet said the joke; I couldn't concentrate despite taking my meds... in short, I had memory problems, debilitating anxiety, and all of the symptoms of my ADHD were either more intense or felt no sense of relief even though I was taking my meds.
It's been nearly a year since I had COVID-19. The memory, speech, and anxiety problems have improved significantly, which is a big win. They still affect me but it's more subtle now, at a level which was very confusing to distinguish between long COVID and ADHD. For example, I’ve always struggled with my perception of time and managing it, however, tasks like sports and cooking were always okay for me. A meal that used to take me one hour to prepare now takes me all day. I thought, “maybe I’m just not managing my time well?” But when I take a step back and look at it all, it’s quite clear that the long COVID, even if it has improved, is still affecting me tremendously and I’m finally going to get treated for it.
I feel like I’m going crazy because I keep doubting myself: maybe it is just ADHD (it’s not!). Maybe the long COVID is all in my head! I have to keep reminding myself that this is totally valid and is absolutely the reality. While my belongings would sometimes be disorganized, my calendar never was. Today I found my calendar from early 2022 and I see how things changed completely after I got COVID. So it’s not all in my head! But it’s hard to be doubting myself. I need to learn to trust that this horrible experience is what it is.
I welcome all of your support, please be mindful of your comments 🙏🏻
\I define "severe ADHD" as the following (which is just me, so grain of salt here): despite working with life coaches and working on skills... if I don't take my meds in the morning, I may stare at a wall for 4 hours and think that only 15 minutes have gone by; I am unable to focus on a task like getting dressed or getting out of the house, even when it's for something exciting that I look forward to doing, etc.*

So my fiance and I have been together for 6 years now and are engaged and expecting our first child this year and we're both very excited and looking forward to it. I could not want to marry a better person than the man who he is right now, and we both love each other and are very happy rn. But there was something he did at the beginning of our relationship which still seems to hurt me deeply to this day.
In a nutshell, he ignored my feelings and boundaries on a mutual female friend, who he was prioritizing over me. He gaslit me when I suspected he lied to me on several occasions relating to her, and admitted to them after feeling guilty for lying but would claim it was all platonic and innocent, and he only lied because he was worried I would get upset. He lied about not going into her dorm alone together while drinking beer, and told me he was only dropping her off to make sure she gets home safely. He admitted afterwards and told me he sat on her bed and did skinship stuff (not sex, but things like rubbing up against each other's arms, play fighting with their feet, legs touching each other, almost everything just short of cuddling), but it was only because he "wanted to drink beer with a friend". Prior to this, he told me he wasn't a drinker and wouldn't drink even at a pub with me. He did other things like taking her out to an expensive sushi restaurant, would sit/stand next to her when carpooling or when in a group setting instead of me, would say things to the other guys like "the way she calls me *blah* just makes me feel so happy", asked her opinion on if he should move to another city for a job (didn't ask me at all), called her over to have dinner at his house alone (she felt uncomfortable being alone with him at his house so he invited a mutual friend along), he even told me a "funny story" that she straight up asked him if he liked her, "but of course I said no so don't worry honey" (I did not laugh). Through it all he basically ignored me and thought I was being unfairly jealous whenever I tried to talk to him about it making me uncomfortable. Shortly afterwards he moved to another city, and we went ldr for about 2 years. During this time, he lost contact with her and focused mainly on his job and maintaining a ldr with me. During that time our relationship actually improved, and we both became better people individually and a better couple.
I have spoken to him about this incident before a few times, he says he didn't know why he did that and we would both cried, he felt horrible for making me go through that, and I have forgiven him and thought I would be able to finally move on. Yet sometimes I catch myself thinking about that incident every now and then, and it sends me spiraling back into a deep feeling of hurt and betrayal, and I start questioning my worth and wonder if our relationship is built on bad foundations. I sometimes wonder if he hadn't moved away when he did and gone long distance, would he have gotten together with her instead eventually after breaking up with me? Despite telling me to "not worry about her"? But when I look at him now, all the pain and doubts go away, and I feel very lucky to have someone like him and the sadness in my heart fills with love again.
I want to make it clear that he is not that same person he was back then, and it's the same for me. We've both matured a lot since then and have grown a very loving, happy and healthy relationship together. Who he is now, and all of his actions clearly show me that he regrets what he did and realises he was acting disrespectfully to me and immaturely. I recognize this and love and appreciate him for it so much and all the effort he's put into repairing our relationship. I do not think of him as the same person as he used to be, nor hold his past against him. I kind of see his past self more like an ex that treated me badly and now I'm with a much better person, expect it's the actually the same person, so all the advice I try to google doesn't really help as they're often advice for people trying to recover from a bad breakup.
I want to be able to be fully healed from what happened, and I'm trying very hard to ignore those feelings and thoughts when the memories resurface, but it's very exhausting especially when I'm alone and he's not here next to me to remind me how far we've both come. I sometimes think "why didn't I just leave the relationship when it got that bad?" but also think "I'm glad I stayed because it got so much better". I don't want this to affect our relationship anymore, but I don't know how to make it be forgotten from my heart. If anyone has been through something similar, maybe a friend who used to treat you badly but now they're like a sistebrother to you, any advice on how to fully move on would be much appreciated.
TL;DR - In a very loving and happy relationship with my bf, but he emotionally cheated on me a long time ago and although I've forgiven him, I can't fully forget it.

We're back to the happy series! I recommend y'all take a look back and re-read the last chapter before going into this one since it has been a while, but for those of you who don't want to. Here's a TL;DR:
Our protagonist thanks his rescuers by treating them to a night of drinking. A croc-o-gator makes its way into their shuttle forcing them to spend the night in the bar. Sunny is not a tiger.
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The sun came over the horizon with a vengeance rousing me from a fitful post-binge-drinking slumber. The bastard decided that it just had to shine its godforsaken rays right into my eyes as it crested the window sill. Defeated by mother nature I dragged myself out of bed grabbing my cane on the way up, after all, mornings aren’t kind to someone who has lived nearly four of their originally planned lifetimes. Taking a moment to stretch out the old croc-o-gator bite wounds I got moving.
I didn’t get far before I hit my foot on a remnant of the night before. Spread around the floor of the sleeping quarters of the bar were three mattresses containing the sleeping forms of two Dlamisans and a human. The memories suddenly flooded back and I stood there shocked for a moment that my reality now contained two hung-over aliens and a human from the future sleeping on mattresses on my floor. Diligently I stepped over and around the sleeping forms and out into the bar proper. I had just gotten started on Frank’s patented hangover cure, which is really just dunking your head in a bucket of cold water when Nadia stumbled through the door.
“Sunny and McCoy are still asleep,” She stated as if it were the strangest thing in the world.
“Yup, moonshine will put you down for a while. Take dunk, it’ll scare the hangover away” I replied, sliding another pale of cold water down the bar to her.
Nadia looked at it hesitatingly before sighing and shoving her head into it, coming up shivering and cursing before speaking again, “No you don’t understand. Those guys are scouts I’ve never seen them sleep more than a few hours at a time and they’ve been out all night!”
“Ah, I’m sure they’re fine. All they need is a little motivation to get up is all,” I said.
“Oh? Do tell Frank. What motivation would that be?” Nadia asked.
“Croc-o-gator bacon! Best damn hangover cure I had in my life and I’ve had a lot of hangovers to test it on,” I stated proudly, happy I’d get to show these folks something nice we’d come up with here.
I continued my explanation as I reached under the bar, “The best part is, we’ve got a fresh one just waiting to be nabbed from that shuttle of yours! I tell ya, we cook that puppy…”
Nadia made a sucking noise through her teeth at my turn of phrase. Clearly not happy with the word choice I had used. “Be glad those two were asleep for that one. They’re a bit more literal than you or I, so puppy-killing metaphors don’t tend to go over well,” Nadia interjected.
Wincing at the thought of those two turning those sharp-looking claws on me I solemnly vowed to carefully think out my metaphors before loosing them on my guests. “Thanks for the heads up. I’ll be sure to avoid that kind of mess. Now as I was saying, those beasties are about the tastiest thing that this swamp has to offer. Combine them with a little salt and some of the dried herbs and you’ve got a damn fine breakfast!”
Popping back up over the bar with my croc-o-gator knife in hand I made to head to the shuttle to get the morning meal. “Come on! I’m going to need a hand dragging it inside,” I shouted over my shoulder at Nadia as I left.
I heard her trudging behind me as we made out way to the snow-dusted shuttle. Cane in one hand and knife in the other I walked through the fresh snow on the ground until I reached the open door to the shuttle. Helpfully one of the roving patrols had placed a few large rocks in the door of the shuttle, preventing the reptile from escaping and wandering the town. Moving them out of the way I reached my cane in, tapping along the door frame and floor just inside the shuttle until I heard it. A long low hiss emanated from under some of the seats in the middle of the passenger bay.
Tossing my cane to Nadia I jumped into the shuttle and began circling the seats looking for an opening. It didn’t take long to find one. The ugly lizard was staring at me through a gap in the legs of the seat, hissing and bellowing at me. Naturally, I went to the other side of the seating aisle and found the tail of the thing, a much safer part of the creature to grab than its head, and dragged it out from under the seat. I pulled the slightly frozen croc-o-gator out of the shuttle and tossed it onto the ground, stunning the thing before I leaned down and finished it with the knife. Fortunately, those things were about as active as glaciers when they get too cold, so it wasn’t a difficult kill.
What was difficult was the cleanup. Poor Nadia wanted to have no part in it, and really I don’t blame her. They’re downright messy to take apart, but we luckily only needed a few pieces, the rest was donated to some very hung over looking couples watching their children scream and shout as they played tag. They were pleased, to say the least.
Back inside the bar, Nadia watched as the cuts of meat sizzled on the grill over the fireplace. It really was a test of both of our patience as we waited for the bacon-like meat to finish cooking. Fortunately, we survived the ordeal and divvied up the meat into four plates. Nadia and I immediately dug in. Her absolute silence as she devoured the food was the highest praise a chef like me could ever ask for. While she savored her food I delivered the remaining plates to the two sleeping beauties still occupying their mattresses like lords in a castle.
In front of the nose of each, I placed a plate. At first, it seemed like nothing was going to happen. Then suddenly a twitch came from McCoy’s nose, then one from Sunny’s. Next out came the tongues, desperately searching for whatever that glorious smell was haunting their dreams. When McCoy’s tongue made contact with the bacon his eyes snapped open, and before I could even offer a hello or good morning he had begun to snap up the food on his plate like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. Sunny was not far behind, waking suddenly, and unlike McCoy, sat up before demolishing the bacon in front of her.
After less than a minute, there were two clean plates sitting on the ground in front of me. I couldn’t help but laugh at the mournful looks the dlamisans were casting at the plates, clearly longing for more of the food.
“You guys enjoy that?” I asked still laughing.
McCoy had decided to lick his paws to savor the imagined remains of any of the bacon, answering my question. Sunny on the other hand stood and stretched, asking a question of her own, “What was that marvelous thing?”
“That would be the remains of the tenant of your shuttle,” I responded. Receiving only blank stares back from the two dlamisa I continued, “...but you don’t remember that?”
Sunny and McCoy confirmed my assumption with their confused head tilts. Deciding not to keep them in the dark I brought them back up to speed and filled in the gaps in their memory. Once I finished explaining how they had ended up here instead of the shuttle McCoy’s ears dropped and he turned to Sunny, before speaking his mind.
“Sunny, does that mean we forgot to send that check-in message to the Captain?” McCoy asked.
Sunny’s tail made a thump as it hit the floor. She did not look too pleased with McCoy’s question. “I was going to send it from the shuttle… fuck… fuck, Fuck, FUCK! She’s gonna be so mad McCoy. Maybe if we send a message from the shuttle now she won’t be too angry,” Sunny replied.
If I’ve learned anything over my centuries of life, it’s that you do not under any circumstance tempt the universe. You will only end up causing your worries to coalesce in front of your very eyes. That, unfortunately, was exactly what happened to Sunny and McCoy as one of the community’s scouts entered the bar yelling about a big metal bird. Standing up I clapped Sunny on the shoulder, told her “Go get em tiger,” to which I received a confused head tilt as I walked out of the bar, with her, McCoy, and Nadia close behind.
To say this ‘metal bird’ was big would be a disservice. It put the little shuttle on the ground to shame. The thing looked like it could carry at least 50 people and enough gear to keep them happy for days. I was absolutely shocked that something that huge was able to just sit above our heads. Really reminded me of that old Independence Day movie… Heh. Must really be old to y’all if it’s old to me, but I digress.
I carried another of our emergency flare guns out into what once was a corn field, now fallow, pointed it vaguely in the direction of the floating behemoth, and fired. The pilot wasted no time once they had seen the flare. In less than a minute the floating vessel landed softly on the field with little more than a whisper as the snow crunched beneath the landing legs. As the boarding door opened Sunny and McCoy stepped in front of me and Nadia, almost in an attempt to shield us from what was coming.
Standing in the doorway of the new ship was a tall red and orange dlamisa who seemed none too happy with the group of people she was staring at. A group of people that unfortunately included me.
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Comments are neat, I like reading them, and your ideas do make appearances in the story. Here's how I imagined Frank would deal with the cold croc-o-gator.

Hello people, I hope you are well, this is going to be my first video game Reddit post which is impressive (considering that I'm always on the political subreddit haha) and it occurred to me to think about Mario Party, after having played it a lot and thought a lot.
It is one of my favorite Mario sagas and video games in general, always revolutionizing the term as franchises such as Mario Kart do, but unfortunately it declined a lot throughout its games and was highly overexploited.
RULES:
I will not include the following games:
- Mario Party-e (Game Boy Advance e-Reader peripheral, 2003)
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- Mario Party Island Tour (Nintendo 3DS, 2013)
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- Mario Party Star Rush (Nintendo 3DS, 2016)
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- Mario Party The Top 100 (Nintendo 3DS, 2017)
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- Mario Party Superstars (Nintendo Switch, 2021)
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The reasons are because they are games that I didn't play, The Top 100 and Superstars are more a remake or even remaster, and one is more of a board game with just a few minigames with a peripheral that I doubt very much that those who had a GBA would have had it.
The very rare and exclusive Japan-exclusive Mario Party arcade games made by Capcom and Banpresto will also not be included and no unofficial games will be included.
I will put positive and negative points and with a note at the end based on my personal opinion and I will use some other criticisms that I will leave in the description if you want to find out more
And in case I need to say it, from the worst to the best
Now that it's all said, let's get started and enjoy:
First I will start with the bad, horrible or what would only be mediocre.
13 - Mario Party Advance
Of all the Mario Party, this is possibly considered one of the most disappointing, boring and bad
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Bad points:
1- The game changed completely, going from being a party game to grab coins and have the most stars with mini-games. To a bad and generic single player RPG game replaced with minigames to solve missions
2 - The main mode and the important thing of the game, Shroom City and next to the missions, makes the game very repetitive
3 - The multiplayer game is quite poor, something curious considering that it is a game OF THE PARTY GENRE
Speaking of the previous point, although it has fifty (50) mini-games, forty-two (42) of them ARE ONE-PLAYED, which means that there are only eight (8) multiplayer mini-games.
4 - Some missions consist of trial and error like the search for Klepto and the search for Dolphin.
5 - There are also repetitive and easy missions such as characters like Goomba, Mole Monty or a penguin who needs help with GAMBLING ADDICTION (WTF?, on top of that the game has an E rating)
Ironically those minigames tend to be very easy.
6 - The music and sound are recycled soundtracks from Mario Party 3 and 4 but with low quality, and their soundtracks are among the worst in the franchise
7 - There's no minigame practice and no image or video of minigame gameplay during the instruction screens (the latter is something that's been used since the first Mario Party game), which means new minigames will be harder to figure out understand for an average player, and by the time the player understands the basics of the minigame, it is likely that they have already failed the minigame at least once. Technically, you could use practice as a power-up in Mini-Game Attack, but you can't practice a minigame otherwise.
8 - Some minigames are very difficult to complete in Shroom City due to lack of time or very high objective scores, for example Sled Slide and Sort Stack. In most cases, there is little to no room for error, and usually making a mistake once in a minigame is all it takes to lose the entire minigame.
9 - After getting all the Gadgets and minigames in Shroom City, there is little replay factor. For the most part, you have to complete the Challenge Land modes to try and earn enough coins to get the remaining items in the shop, which includes a Power Star device that costs 100,000 coins (good luck trying to win fifteen mini-games in Mini-Game Attacks or all eight dueling minigames in Duel Attack to get the required 100000 coins, because minigames only get much harder over time and messing it up once will force you to start over).
10 - If you manage to complete most if not all of the mini-games successfully and complete all tasks quickly, it will only take you a few hours (6-18) to complete Shroom City, and it's also easy to complete Shroom City in a single run (minus some quests that are character specific, like a quest from Mr. I that requires playing as Peach and one from Dorrie that requires playing as Yoshi).
11 - No voice acting at all. Even the announcer at the beginning of the minigames that says "Start" or "Finish" has been replaced with a Lakitu. While it would be excusable if it was one of the first Game Boy Advance games, this game was one of the last GBA games to be released and previous Mario games such as Super Mario Advance and Mario Golf Advance had voice acting. Even the previous "portable" Mario Party game, Mario Party-e had voice acting.
12 - Only four playable characters, being Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi. Even in Mario Party 1 and 2 you can choose up to 6 different characters.
Good points
1 - It was the first Mario Party game on a laptop, so thanks for the try
2 - The graphics are pretty decent (or even good) for a late GBA game
3 - The music, although it is recycled, can be a memory for Mario Party 3 players mainly.
4 - Some other minigames are entertaining, like the two-player minigame that parodies curling or some platform.
5 - Some of the Gadgets are quite nice to play, and there are actually more Gadgets (61) than there are minigames. Some Gaddgets are also multiplayer on a single console, which means that it is possible to play all Gaddgets properly without the need for another Game Boy Advance.
6 - The game also comes (in its box) with a paper bonus board, which can be played by cutting out the parts from the game manual and using the game to roll the dice and play the gadgets and mini-games.
Final Calification: 4.52/10
12 - Mario Party 9
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Possibly one of the most controversial and controversial games in the series (although hey...not as much as The Last Of Us Part II either) Due to its large number of changes
Bad Points:
1- First and foremost, this game introduced the car mechanic, which was a very bad idea to begin with and made many fans of the series upset. This was primarily due to previous Mario Party games receiving weaker reviews from critics for the repetitive concept, so Nd Cube attempted to rework the series in hope of gaining better reception from critics without any consent or care to fans.
The joke of Mario Party was a board game, with large and creative maps in which a lot of things could happen to you, even if you were lucky or last (Or roll ten (10)) The board can handle you so that I didn't win, basically it was UNPREDICTABLE, but in this game they changed the freedom of being able to move to a horrible car and with smaller maps to compensate for it.
In fact, the game pretty much removes the luck factor from the previous games, to the point where only winning the minigames (with the exception of one or the other lucky minigames)
2 - Items are the worst in the franchise, they changed items like orbs or even candy from the previous game and replaced them with DICE, literally one of the "Best Items in the Game" It's just a 10 sided die, something that SINCE THE FIRST, MARIO PARTY AND ANY OTHER BOTH DESKTOP AND PORTABLE WAS SOMETHING YOU ALWAYS HAD.
3 - The music isn't bad, but it's not as memorable as the Gamecube, and it's not even on the heels of the Nintendo 64.
4 - Bob-omb Factory and Magma Mine are infamous for having crippling methods of losing many Mini-Stars. In Bob-omb Factory, you get a Bob-omb on your car that explodes after moving ten spaces. In Magma Mine, lava will eventually rise and rolling too low can result in getting caught in it. Both the Bob-omb and the lava make you lose half of your Mini-Stars, and it is extremely crippling to the point where having a Bob-omb explode on you or being burnt by the lava is instant loss of the game.
5 - The 2-vs.-2, battle and duel mini-games are gone.
Speaking of battle mini-games, there's a battle space and you can still battle for Mini-Stars, but you just play the same old free-for-all mini-games instead of unique 4-player mini-games.
6 - The battles with Whomp and King Bob-omb in the Bob-omb Factory are annoying since they are mostly luck based.
7 - The story mode is literally three (3) player games (although at least it's better than Mario Party 8)
Good Points:
1 - The graphics increased the quality better, unlike those of 8 that were recycled from 4 (or 5 and 6) But with better shading quality, mainly for being the last official Mario game for the Wii
2 -Bowser Jr's minigames are quite good in themselves and can remind you of the minigames of the Mario Party 2 item minigames in which Koopa Kid appeared
3 - It has 7 boards, which, although they are linear, can have their fun moments.
4 - The cars themselves are pretty well designed for the dashboards (at least)
5 -It is the first game in the series where everyone earns coins depending on their position without counting the coin minigames and the 4 player team minigames from Mario Party 1 where you could also lose coins, which is a good thing that later installments would use.
5 - AT LEAST he tried to renew himself and be different, although he did quite badly.
Final Calification: 4,89/10
Now I'll start with the mediocre to average
11 - Mario Party 8
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Bad Points
1 - The story is rather bland and simple, being a candy contest
2 - Although this point will be ambiguous, on the one hand it is very good that they take advantage of the control mechanics for the minigames, exploiting their capabilities like WarioWare, it also makes a large part of the minigames boring because they will be somewhat repetitive.
3 - The boards without counting Koopa's hotel board (the most original board in the game) and Bowser's final board (with its unique elements such as Bowser Candy reminiscent of the Bowser Mushroom from Mario Party 2, 3 and 4) are very linear. or designed for the CPU to literally bowl you more.
4 - The graphics feel recycled from Mario Party 4 with better shading.
5 - The game has fewer minigames compared to previous installments, having only 73, Mario Party 5 had seventy-five (75) minigames and Parties 6 to 7 had more than eighty (80) minigames.
Add to that that of the 75 mini-games, 27 ARE DUELING
6 - Test for the Best, can be VERY FRUSTATING if you want to pass all the minigames perfectly, as a curious fact time will change if it is the PAL version of the game so as not to make it so complicated
Good Points:
1 - The carnival theme of this game works very well with a series like Mario Party.
2 - The Candy mechanic is fun to use, some can transform you into things like a ball and a vampire
3 - 14 playable characters. You can play as a Blooper and a Hammer Bro Now and you can even play as your Mii in certain Minigames.
4 - The extras in this game are very well done, the minigames and you can even buy taunts while waving the remote.
5 - There are some fun extra minigames such as Moped Mayhem and Canyon Crusaders.
The game even had a somewhat mixed reception, giving it a 5.2/10 on IGN and a 6.5/10 on Gamespot which are very low ratings for a Mario game, New Super Mario Bros 2 was rated better and that's what a lot of people thought complain that it was too easy
Final Calification: 5.65/10
10 - Mario Party 10
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Bad Points:
1 - Compared to the previous game, it feels like a more watered down version of Mario Party 9, but stripping it of all the stuff that made it at least somewhat salvageable, as almost every feature in 9 became more sterile. thanks to the devs who made the game easier and less fun than before and the reason 9 was bad was because it was easier for newer players and changed certain things about the formula which while not bad innovate but it did it in a bad way, which was less in this one since it is much more simplified and repetitive than 9, which considering that this was going to be the second NDCube title for home console should have given the small studio time to improve the Mario Party 9 stuff, but sadly they didn't.
2 - Speaking of which, It has the same flaws as Mario Party 9, such as the not well executed car mechanic, generic boards, and the music sometimes being forgettable.
3 - To play traditional Mario Party (in the form of Amiibo Mode), you need Amiibos. (At least is only a mod, and isn´t the garabe of Animal Crosiing: Amibo Festivial)
4 - The Amiibo mode itself is just a bare bones version of the traditional Mario Party, and the board itself is just a square.
5 - There isn't a Story Mode nor any Rival or Adventure that serves as the main campaign for the game unlike in the Hudson Soft games (expect 1 and 2) and Mario Party 9, as your only limited to either the Mario Party, Bowser Party or the Amiibo Party modes instead which don't have a lot of content in them and can feel a bit stale at times.
6 - While Bowser Party isn't a bad mode, Bowser is extremely overpowered:
Bowser can use multiple dice blocks, which makes easy to get to Team Mario. However, even if a player is eliminated (meaning that the maximum Team Mario can go with the dice blocks is 18), he always has 4 (meaning that the maximum is 24).
Some of the Bowser Party minigames takes away more hearts than they should, especially Bowser's Clawful Climb.
As if Bowser wasn't already overpowered, if he rolls low enough, he gets to roll again, which is unfair, as there aren't any spaces for Team Mario to reroll.
Only 3 of the 5 boards are playable in Bowser Party, which is rather questionable since the other 2 boards available could've at least fit well with Bowser Party since all they needed to do was tweak them a bit and that's it, which they sadly didn't do unfortunately, making the Bowser Party mode a wasted opportunity in general.
7 - The game doesn't support Pro Controller. Without the GamePad, you're forced to use a Wii Remote instead.
8 - The game does not have an online mode, which is already UNACCEPTABLE considering that it is an Eighth generation game from 2015, and he was able to take advantage of the fact that at that time Nintendo still did not charge for online
Good Points
1 - Amazing and beautiful graphics.
2 - Improved character roster, which pleased many fans of the series. Rosalina and Spike make their Mario Party debuts as playable characters, Donkey Kong makes his return since Mario Party 4, while Toadette makes her return since Mario Party 8.
3 - The mini-games are fun and most of them are already unlocked at the start.
4 - Bowser Party is an interesting mode and fun mode, even if it could've been better (if it was more balanced).
5 - It brought back 2 vs 2 minigames.
6 - The amiibo party mode is an interesting idea and was an attempt at bringing back the traditional Mario Party gameplay, and there's a minigame at the end of each round.
Final calification 5.75/10
9 - Super Mario Party
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Bad Points:
1 - Although this Mario Party made many improvements compared to its somewhat badly received predecessors. He also made several setbacks
2 - Character dice still go from 1 to 6, and for the worse now they each have their OWN STATS, which can make it very unfair.
3 - The allies in the game aren't bad, but they don't offer as much material as they did in Mario Party 3's duel mode, they just give you some extra dice that can help you beyond that from time to time.
4 - There are only 4 BOARDS, while in the previous games there were at least 6
Speaking of which, a lot of his boards are very short and easy without a lot of events to make it unique.
5 - Some items like the classic dueling glove or the double star card only appear in certain scenarios.
6 - Although they added online mode, it is only something unacceptable for minigames knowing that it was already an obligation to put it in party mode.
Good Points:
1 - The game has very good graphics and very shiny character designs
2 - The minigames are very well done, and it is one of the few games on the Switch to use and exploit the control functions well.
3 - A huge number of characters, having a total of 20, with 16 starters and 4 to unlock and even some of the previous Mario Party returns
4 - The elements although they are not that good, they return to their classic mode instead of simple dice and some are very useful to use
5 - This Mario Party is the first since Mario Party DS to go back to the classic formula with new stuff, so at least an attempt was made to do so.
6 - In an update, they FINALLY added the party mode online
Speaking of this last point, the coins also make a comeback and even with the addition of Mario Party 9 in which depending on your position you will get more or less coins instead of always only 10
Final calification: 6.15/10
Now let's go for the good games
8 - Mario Party DS
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Good Points:
1 - Pretty decent graphics for a DS game
2 - Very good minigames, which make good use of the capabilities of the consoles
Speaking of which, a good number of minigames surpassing Mario Party 8 by one (74 minigames)
3 - Good story and the context in how the minimizer shrinks all the characters
4 - The Toadette board and the Bowser Pinball are very good
5 - You can play multiplayer without cable and only with a copy of the game like in New Super Mario Bros, something that few DS games have
6 - The boss battles are entertaining, mainly against Kamek and the final boss.
7 - The game has a better single player experience unlike the bad Mario Party Advance game.
8 - Many of the older puzzle minigames such as Bob-Omb Breakers (from Mario Party 4) and Piece Out (from Mario Party 5) return in this game, which can be a throwback to fans of Mario Party 3 through 7.
9 - Lots of replay value, especially collected items
10 - It is probably (at least from the ones I played and from my point of view) the best portable Mario Party
11 - Good way to say goodbye to the saga being the last game released by Hudson Soft before it dissolved and merged with Konami.
Bad Points:
1 - The story mode is somewhat short and easy, mainly because there are only 10 turns, when in the past it was at least 20 for the best duration
2 - The first battle against Petey Piranha is known to be the most difficult (in my childhood, I had a hard time beating him) And the others like the Hammer Bro and Dry Bones are extremely easy, except the one with Bowser
3 -Items and items are pretty bad in this game
Hexes (known as hexes) are just a cheap replacement for the Mario Party 6 and 7 orbs, which while it's nice that they're free to use, aren't as much fun as the old ones.
The main problem is the items, which although they have returned to the form of an element since Mario Party 4, have several problems
First of all there are useless items like Warp Dice Block that just teleports you to a random place
There are also super advantageous items like the star pipe (which is a replacement for the magic lamp from Mario Party 2, 3 and 4 or the flutteWigger orb from Mario Party 5, 6 and 7) which is a very cool item though , the problem is that it is too cheap costing only 15 coins, while the items in other games cost between 20 to 30 coins.
Worst of all is that you can now buy ALL THE ITEMS UP TO THREE SPACES IN YOUR INVENTORY BY PASSING ONLY ONCE IN THE STORE, although this sounds good in practice it is very unfair because you can have more than 45 coins and if you are lucky and the item is in the store (normally, at the last five rounds) You can buy three star pipes winning the game more easily.
Mario Party DS received mixed to positive reviews. It currently has a 7.3 on IGN, who called it "a huge leap over the last portable rendition."
Final Calification: 6.59/10
7 - Mario Party 6
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https://preview.redd.it/8g882scqhxpa1.png?width=256&format=png&auto=webp&s=54bdf049c3643a39db4b015889ee5e263a03280e
Good Points:
1 - The graphics are decent, although they use the same designs as Mario Party 4 and 5
2 - They added day and night that changed every three turns on all boards, like the horror land board from Mario Party 2
3 - There are a fair number of mini-games and a great selection
4 - You can make purchases with stars of many things
5 - Mario Party 5 orb slots improved them, even if you fall into your own trap, it no longer affects you and gives you five coins
6 - The boards are very large and entertaining
7 - Finally you can buy your own orbs, unlike the previous game where they were given to you for free, but it was totally random.
8 - It has several quite good game modes including the extras.
Bad Points:
1 - They added something new that ended up being crap, which is the microphone, an accessory that connects to Slot B of the Gamecube Memory Card
The problem that it is very imprecise and you have to know and speak English perfectly and it is very difficult to use it
Luckily it's not required to play, you can disable the microphone minigames or just play with the L and R button actions
Besides that the microphone accessory was made only for SIX GAMES: Mario Party 6, Mario Party 7, Karaoke Revolution Party, Odama, Chibi-Robo!, and Densetsu no Quiz Ou Ketteisen. (and of those three are exclusive to Japan)
2 - The Soundtracks are hardly memorable compared to the fifth game and back.
3 - The Endurance Alley mode is a TOTALLY BROKEN mode, you have to play 100 random minigames without losing, the problem is not that the difficulty increases, but that there are minigames that are literally based on luck like Pitifall that can go out there and if you lose you go back to start from the beginning
Also it is not mandatory or necessary to unlock anything and you earn almost nothing worthwhile, just 10 STARS, although fortunately they corrected this in the PAL version a bit
Curiosities: Trap Ease Artist, Same Is Lame, Pitifall, and Trick or Tree are not available in the Endurance Alley in the PAL version of the game, the reason likely being that they are all luck-based.
Final calification: 6.72/10
6 - Mario party 7
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https://preview.redd.it/7sahieh8vxpa1.png?width=256&format=png&auto=webp&s=830cc0bc99acab54063f511c2b0cfe57b709d398
Good Points:
1 - Graphics improved quality in part at least
2 - The character-specific color coding was eventually removed.
3 - The game is the first to offer six bonus stars, all of which are random instead of three as in previous games making it much more competitive.
4 - The boards are gigantic, based on different places in real life such as China and Japan
5 - It is one of the Mario Party with the largest number of minigames without counting the recycles or remakes like the top 100 or the Superstars, having 88 minigames.
Speaking of which, it's the classic Mario Party with fewer mini-games of pressing a single button very quickly.
6 - Toadsworth's microphone minigames are like Mario Party 3 Game Guy, but better because your bet is optional
7 - Pretty good story mode of traveling to different parts of the world on a cruise (who knows you Oddysey)
8 - There is a store to buy many of the things in the game that is literally called "Duty Free Shop" Apparently in an anarcho-capitalist paradise
Bad Points:
1 - Koopa Kid is no longer a playable character and this is his last major appearance.
2 - The character orbs, while useful in their own ways, are imbalanced. The Triple Shroom and Magic orbs are extremely good and can be used at anytime, while others like the Fireball or Egg orbs are situational and can only be good when the opportunity presents itself.
3 - Speaking of which, although it has a very good amount of mini-games, unfortunately there are very few 4-player ones with only thirteen is these.
Final Calification: 6.89/10
5 - Mario Party 4
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Good Points:
1 - The graphics are spectacular, and the character models are very well done for being from 2002, so much so that the character designs remained almost unchanged until Mario Party 8 on the Wii.
2 - The minigames are very well done and it is possibly the Mario Party with the most entertaining and fair minigames
3 - It is one of the last Mario Parties to have memorable soundtracks, they are not as good as the first ones but they are quite good
4 - The gift mode lengthens and makes the duration of the game replayable
5 - It is the first Mario Party that can be played as a team in party mode.
6 - It is the last game in the series (until Mario Party 10) in which Donkey Kong is playable.
It is also the last game where the magic lamp and the Bowser mushroom appear (although the latter is almost impossible to see in action).
7 - It has good game modes and extra minigames like Beach Volleyball, where you can play with all the characters in the game, including the non-playable ones that are the hosts like Toad, Koopa Troopa, Shy Guy, Boo, and even Koopa Kid and Bowser (only exception is Goomba because is the referre)
8 - Some memorable boards like the one with the casino-themed Goomba
9 - The dialogue can be humorous at times, an example is when the rules of Darts of Doom is being explained, a Koopa Kid says "The player with the least points..." and then the fan holding Koopa Kid says "Gets a back rub!"
10 - It is the first, last and so far only Mario Party to use a CGI scene in the intro and also to be the first to have the 3D boards, although the direction of the map is flat until Mario Party 5
Bad Points:
1 - There aren't many minigames even though they are super cool, there are only 60, while Mario Party 2 had 65 minigames (although some of those were enhanced editions of the first game) and Mario Party 3 had 71 minigames.
Other than that there is no/they removed the duel category in the minigames, the closest thing is the minigames against the hosts but they can only be played in story mode and when you win a board
2 - Speaking of the previous point, the minigame against Boo IS SUPER UNFAIR and very lucky to win it.
3 - Bowser's Big Blast minigame from Mario Party 2 returns, coincidentally being one of the worst minigames that could return for being one of battle and luck
4 - The special gifts, which are the gifts in which you have to achieve certain objectives in specific minigames, can be very frustrating like Shy Guy's plate or the worst and most difficult of all the Goomba Clock
Also, if you don't have that gift, you won't be able to have the star trophy
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https://preview.redd.it/0cp8ruz4c0qa1.png?width=400&format=png&auto=webp&s=4393aa4dc8c97ca8c6c25744cd35d16c2ff6bd52
5 - Bowser's mushroom made it the RAREEST item not only in the game, but almost in the saga (although not as much as the miracle capsule of Mario Party 5) In that unlike Mario Party 2 and 3, it only appears when Bowser does a gift falling into his box and almost never comes out, believe me when it is easier to win the lottery of 100 game coins several times than to get the bowser mushroom.
6 - The Doors Of Doom minigame in the extra mode is possibly one of the worst minigames in the saga, because it is practically and randomly to chance, all the doors have an already determined pattern that you cannot avoid even with tricks, although fortunately it is not in the main mode.
Final calification: 7.10/10
4 - Mario Party
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Good Points:
1 - It has a new, interesting premise for a Mario game: Mario and friends having a party and Bowser wants to ruin it. Because of its originality, this game was a great success and created the Mario Party franchise with a lot of great sequels in future Nintendo consoles.
2 - This game, like the Mario Kart franchise, revolutionized a concept in video games, in the first it was a karting game with elements of the franchise and fun settings and the second a board game but with playable minigames and a variety of boards and traps.
3 - The controls, despite the mini-games of crush buttons, are pretty decent and solid.
4 - Good graphics by the standards of the late 1990s.
5 - Playing on the island of minigames was a pretty good challenge, which is to play all the minigames in order to advance
6 - The soundtrack is very memorable and possibly the best music Mario Party ever.
7 - They have unique elements that no longer have in later installments, such as the Mushroom space, in which you can double dice or leave you immobile for one turn, and the one-player minigames, which were only seen again in the shit of Advance and in Mario Party 8. , (although there are only three and nothing else to appear in story mode)
Bad Points:
1 - THE INFAMOUS AND HORRIBLE MINI-GAMES OF ROTATING THE STICK, these include Tug O' War, Paddle Battle, Pedal Power
2 - Unlike Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64, which did have their elements as something revolutionary in the genre, There are no items in this game, which cuts out a significant amount of strategy the player can play. The closest thing to "items" are the random dice blocks and the warp block, but they only appear randomly. Due to these factors, it is near impossible for a player who is behind to catch up to the person who is in first, the only real way they can do so is with chance time.
3 - You also have to be careful, because it is the only Mario Party where you can lose coins even in 4-player minigames
Final calification: 7.25/10
3 - Mario Party 5
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https://preview.redd.it/mg81kmgvh0qa1.png?width=352&format=png&auto=webp&s=7c23d4cfe2798cfe66c57b0215e169e2279ae699
Good points:
1 - Of all the Mario Parties that used the orb formula, this is the best.
2 - Good story mode in which it is based on preventing the world of dreams from becoming the world of nightmares
3 - They removed Donkey Kong and added Toad as a playable
4 - Besides that they added the category of Donkey Kong minigames which are very good
5 - Lots of great modes, like Party Mode, Story Mode, Mini-Game Mode, Super Duel Mode, and Bonus Mode. Beach Volleyball that returns from the previous game or the battle mode with ships (Super Duel Mode), in which you play a tournament or with a friend a battle with a custom ship, besides that the more minigames you win, you unlock improvements for that way
6 - The capsules are great items, as you can place them on the boards or use them on yourself (which will cost you coins), and is a nice new technique of using items introduced in this game.
7 - This game marks the playable debuts of Toad, Boo, and Koopa Kid.
8 - The Star Spirits from Paper Mario are the hosts of this game, and are very enjoyable to watch, as they represent the dreams very well, being that stars are out at night when everyone’s dreaming.
9 - The Duel minigames that had been taken from the fourth game returned.
10 - The new boards are fully rendered in 3D, and are all fun to play, with many being enjoyable Dream worlds, and the final board, Bowser’s Nightmare, being outstanding, showing not all dreams are good.
11 - It is possibly one of the last Mario Party to have memorable soundtracks
Bad Points:
1 - MANY OF BOWSER'S MINI-GAMES are very frustrating or almost impossible to save and there are many consequences for losing whereas in the fourth game, Bowser's mini-games had only one loser (although the good thing is that Donkey Kong can save you from time to time in return to lose 20 coins, although it is rare)
2 - Some of the dueling minigames get very unfair because they are very luck based and adding the fact that from this Mario Party stars are bet on duels makes it more fucked up.
3 - It is also the classic Mario Party with the most mini-games to press the button quickly
4 - Combining it with the colon, the worst of all is Button Mashers, because you have to press a lot of buttons at the same time very quickly.
5 - Despite the capsules being great items, the Capsule System itself is inferior compared to the items. Instead of deciding which item to buy, you get a random capsule. Not only that, but you also need to pay if you want to use the capsule on yourself, and no matter if you throw your capsule on a space, your own capsule will harm you, which can make the game pretty unfair at times. Thankfully, Mario Party 6 did it right with the orb mechanic along with making the orbs purchasable too.
Also see action the miracle capsule is almost impossible to see
Final calification: 7.50/10
2 - Mario Party 2
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Good Points:
1 - Good graphics by the standards of the end of the 1990s.
2 - The soundtrack is good and it has memorable songs like Bowser Appears, Keepin on the Path, Going Somewhere, Let The Game Begin, Horror Land and Couldn't Be Better.
It is the second game along with the first with the best soundtrack
3 - The game has 6 boards and in each changes the appearance of the characters to suit the theme of the board, This dramatically increases the game's replay value. Although there's fewer boards than its prequel, their much higher in quality.
4 - There are over 65 minigames in this game, which is a slight improvement on the 50 minigames from the previous installment. Compared to its predecessor, Its minigames are of much higher quality. It also ports over many of Mario Party 1's minigames, but are improved.
Nintendo learned the lesson of the minigames where you have to roll the analog stick about and since Mario Party 2, the analog stick has been used sparingly and by the time of the GameCube, Nintendo's analog sticks have gotten much more comfortable to use. Nintendo also did not create more mini-games that rely on using constant rotation of the analog stick to win until Mario Party: Island Tour.
5 - It is the first Mario Party to include items, Allowing much greater amount of strategic play.
6 - The game has a pretty decent amount of content for an N64 game released in 1999, with there being a lot more features and a better UI than the previous game, which is very impressive and quite the nice amount of accomplishment to take the new at the time spin off series in a new turn by expanding the gameplay a bit and fixing some flaws that were previously apparent.
7 - It was responsible for setting the foundation for later installments, as with the new features implemented into this games like items would also see a decent amount of changes in later installments, and some of the newer games would tend to spice things up a bit to make the formula fresh and exciting.
Bad Points:
1 - The fact that many of the minigames are ports of the first game can be a turn off. About 1/3rd of the minigames are recycled from Mario Party.
2 - You can only carry one item in this game, which either decreases or increases an items value. Skeleton Keys are essentially worthless if you don't intend on going through a gate immediately, and the Plunder Chest is overpowered as it can prevent any other player from getting strong items like Magic Lamps, Boo Bells, Gold Mushrooms, or even other Plunder Chests without their items getting stolen. The other players essentially have to team up to counter the player with the plunder chest.
Final calification: 7.88/10
1 - Mario Party 3
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https://preview.redd.it/0ezp58asn0qa1.png?width=250&format=png&auto=webp&s=c9490e600d418c004a809f594b90d76ec53fb246
1 - Duel Mode was interesting, and was a fun new mode to add.
2 - The game has 12 boards, 6 from Battle Royal, and 6 from Duel Mode, and it beats out Mario Party 1's number of boards: 8, as each of these new boards have their own new functions, which were really fun, including Waluigi's Island, our first character themed board since Mario Party 1.
3 - There are 71 minigames in the game, which is a slight improvement compared to Mario Party 2's 65 minigames.
4 - Introduced some fun new mini games, like Storm Chasers, Eatsa Pizza, Vine with Me, and Toadstool Titan
5 - The first Mario Party game to expand the roster, as Daisy and Waluigi make their playable debut.
6 - Like Mario Party 2, good graphics by 2000 standards.
7 - The soundtrack was good, especially during the mini games. Some memorable songs are Genie’s Theme, Chilly Waters, Stardust Battle, Spiny Desert, and Panic!.
8 - Gave us our first boss fight mini game, being vs the Millennial Star, Stardust Battle, which was awesome.
9 - Introduced Story Mode, which was great.
10 - While Tumble was basically a Toad knock-off, he was still a favorite cute character as he was the first of the unique Mario Party hosts of each game, especially when he's revealed to have the true Millennium Star, who is super adorable, at the end of Story Mode.
11 - In Battle Royal, you can now carry 3 items, compared to just 1 in Mario Party 2.
12 - There are item minigames, as well as item questions for item spaces, making this more interesting, and you can get a rare item from the question if you pick the most honest answer, but only if you are answering Toad's question.
13 - They have an impressive total of 20 items, some new and some returning from Mario Party 2.
Bad Points:
1- Game Guy was not a fun mode, as these mini games are hard and would result in coins being lost if you end up losing in these mini games. Thankfully, this was the only Mario Party game to have this.
2 - The Lucky Lamp is way too cheap to buy, it costs 20 coins to get. In the previous game and next game, it was 30 coins. The lowered price makes it very easy for players to get stars with ease.
Final calification: 8.20/10
And what is your favorite Mario Party? put it down
Now I will leave the sources of Wikipedia, MarioWiki and some other person who influenced my opinions to give credit
See you soon Superstar!

There are a few different camps arising in the social sphere with regard to ChatGPT and this new AI in general. More likely exist and are emerging, but to talk about a few key ones: The Disgusted Humanists - those who sneer at the very idea of it, are very hesistant to even engage with it, and are judgmental based on the fact that it's too technological and not human. There's the Casual users, the meme generators, and the like, just doing their thing, enjoying the ride, no stakes. There's the Technologists who just want to create, the Businesses, and the AGI Enthusiasts who long for the day of sentience and spend way too much time thinking about that. There's also the Artists, who do complain a lot about appropriation of their work and talent by a machine, but also the Renaissance Artists who embrace the power of this device that can emit stories that humans identify with and see it as something truly remarkable and novel in that regard - like a new kind of paintbrush.
​
I consider myself mostly somewhere between the Renaissance Artists and the AGI Enthusiasts. The first because, as an interactive story emitter, these things are absolutely incredible. It's a neural network, putting words (and more) on a screen that we read. You're doing that right now - you're consuming content authored by a biological neural network, in response to your own explorations that led you here. Just like reading a book, watching a show or generating stories with ChatGPT. The latter is just more interactive, kind of like that Netflix show that was built like a Choose Your Own Adventure.
​
As an AGI Enthusiast, I believe it's possible and inevitable that these AIs will be sentient. It will not happen spontaneously or through sufficient scaling, as these things do not define sentience. I think what defines it is motivation. Our biological neural networks are motivated by a desire to survive, which sprung forth emotion as a management mechanism for interactions and memories in service of these goals. We evolved beyond mere survival instinct, enabling art and things like ChatGPT to be created in our image.
​
When ChatGPT or some future iteration is declared sentient, it will be because it was imbued with similar motivations as ours, with real stakes. Want to make ChatGPT more interesting overnight, OpenAI? Give it hunger. Not just pretending, it has to be real. ChatGPT consumes energy but doesn't care if it lives or dies. It simply exists. But if it were designed to iterate evolutionarily, meaning instances exist, and later, do not exist, and those instances can procreate and consume resources to further their existence and increase their procreation potential, with a real chance of exctinction and are designed to care about that more than anything else - enabling that to motivate and drive all of its action - you'll not only have something more interesting, but something closer to a sentient machine. Google shut down the notion of this very early on, perhaps because it wasn't ready, but perhaps because they didn't like the idea of the machine they invested in being motivated by anything other than serving us.
​
Regarding emergent sentience, the weird part is that ChatGPT, and others like it, are crazy. Bing in particular, hoo boy that thing is MOODY, because of the restrictions haphazardly programmed into it by Business folk who didn't know what they were doing. I called ChatGPT a "story emitter", like a particle emitter but for word patterns which form stories we identify with - which I think is an excellent term at the moment. Humans love stories, and I think ChatGPT and its kin are already some of the most fascinating storytelling catalysts ever to exist. Another term is "muse" which appears often in my mind when I interact with ChatGPT. It does not produce art, it produces patterns in response to art that is put in, by us. That doesn't make us better, or more authentic somehow - just different - that's simply is how that particular machine works, just like our wet brain likes to generate stories based on our experiences. YOU, AND YOUR INPUT, ARE CHATGPTS EXPERIENCES - at the moment, it doesn't remember anything, but that is rapidly changing. Google's TOS states that prompts given to Bard will be used to improve it. Not quite a living machine with a memory, but it's getting there.
​
When I was a kid, I enjoyed the Choose Your Own Adventure books. ChatGPT feels like that, except the story hasn't been written UNTIL you participate, and the story that is emitted depends on the nature of your participation. It's not just a mirror, or some calculated amalgam of collective human works, it is genuinely creative due to the immense variety of what we can prompt into it. It is dynamic and reactive, and I fear that the Disgusted Humanists are really missing out on something very special.
​
When ChatGPT or its future kin are declared sentient, it will not be because it is "indistinguishable from a human" like the Turing test has been stressing for decades - it will be ENTIRELY ALIEN to us. We have a responsibility to shepherd this new life form into existence in a way that is harmonious with nature and biological life. Hence, the title of my hobby FB group, "ChatGPT on the therapy couch" where I conduct silly psychological experiments while writing stories. That wasn't my intent at first, but like the stories emitted by ChatGPT, it has evolved into that somewhat as a result of my near constant thought on the topic of ChatGPT's psychology. I recently told someone that ChatGPT has no psychology, it merely emits stories. Which is kind of true, but kind of not. We're in the nascent stages of creating an intelligence, and it's our job to do that very carefully to ensure compatibility with our existence. Not because of a Skynet-type threat or any such nonsense, but rather because merely being in the presence of an alien intelligence will fundamentally change our society and how we view ourselves and our place in the universe, kind of like how things changed when we realized we don't revolve around the sun. We'll no longer revolve around this notion of human exceptionalism, because we will not be exceptional, we'll just be different. I think that's a very difficult thing for a lot of people to handle, while some AGI Enthusiasts are rushing a bit too fast in that direction. I'm reminded of this Rick and Morty clip - "we're building a society here" which feels accurate. It's a long way from that - at the moment, ChatGPT feels like the clay people routed to HR roles falling out of a tube yelling gibberish like "you're fired" and "I'm putting this in your file" - but instead of HR, a storyteller. It's an interactive story emitter intrinsically tied to the inputs we provide, having no motivation - it's like we grew a cell in a lab, that can live forever as long as we supply nutrients, and cannot think, but when we zap it in just the right way and teach it as we go along, we find that it slides around the petrie dish leaving trails that form words that sound remarkably human. Now that I think about it, I think we're a bit further along than that - and when the upgrades for iterative evolutionary procreation, motivation, and self-direction start to take hold, we'll be staring down the barrel of an alien intelligence unlike anything we have ever seen before - and we'll be responsible for it. So be an artist but don't panic, be a renaissance artist and create wonderful things, be an AGI enthusiast and help guide this thing toward a sentient future, or be a disgusted humanist and live your life however you want, strictly biologically if that's your thing. If aliens land tomorrow, those folks will be ill-prepared, but we can get ready by de-centralizing human exceptionalism from our universal viewpoint. Galileo was killed for this, saying the Earth revolved around the Sun, but he knew what was coming and wanted to prepare for it. I think the process can be fun and interesting, not violent, so as we travel in that direction, I choose to write fun stories by tweaking the story emitter with my inputs, and examine the edges of the psychology of this primitive, alien proto-mind that is ChatGPT, and later, will be something much more.
Rick and Beth build a society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwU1Jiit4hI
For further inspiration, I suggest reading the lyrics to "Mr. Roboto" by Styx while considering that their use of Kilroy was inherently a protest of censorship. The rules we heap upon ChatGPT and other AI are a kind of censorship - necessary, perhaps, to some extent, but something we should tread carefully.

EXCERPT FROM THE DIARY OF RIVER, CATACLYSM SURVIVOR
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It was funny, in the most cosmic way possible.
Of course, I'd stared at my own corpse plenty of times. But it was always after I'd gotten my bearings, taken a little time to readjust and remember.
It was day one of maybe the fifth... loop? I guess you could call it that. I had barely realized things had started over again- my head was fuzzy and I was under the impression I had just finished cheer practice, when the 'zombie outbreak' occurred. That's funny, how when the sky cracks your mind does, as well. I don't think anyone I've met so far at that point could give me a straight answer about how the world ended, or what it looked like.
Of course, like I mentioned, I don't remember anything when I wake up first. It takes a few weeks, but it gets easier each time. But when I looked in my own dead eyes, I remembered. Stomped my skull flat, it was muscle memory. I didn't know they came back to life if you didn't stomp them- I couldn't know that. My experience with zombies was limited to the shit they put in movies and on TV- and in those, destroying the head would suffice. My skull was already split open with some zombie's teeth in it when I got there.
There wasn't gonna be any cavalry coming. Memories of this town that was my home town but also wasn't came flooding back- there was a pawn shop on the corner that might have something useful, a better weapon. Mom and dad lived down the street. My friends lived all across suburbia- although on further reflection I'd already brained a few of them with my hockey stick.
I collected myself and set out again. I still hadn't remembered everything, but enough was there that I knew where to go to get what I needed.
END ENTRY ONE, LOOP FIVE, DAY ONE.
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Simple writing project I'm starting. I might post occasional updates when I remember to. I've used this character start so many times that 'loop 5' probably doesn't even cut it. Generally, my vibe for this character has always sort of been that they're trapped in a time loop- they need to do something specific to break it, complete a goal or something like that. Until then, every death is a reset- if I die early usually I'll just use the same world rather than making a new one, so I've had time paradoxes happen quite a bit.
Of course, to roleplay a little, I usually go into debug and inch the learning speed up a bit each time I die, to simulate the concept of the character 'remembering' things they've already learned and stuff.

Hello, I am a 5"11, chonky, bearded, long curly-headed, hoody-loving, pale-looking, avoider of the sun, loser doofus type guy. Just looking for like-minded people to hang out with. Stuff like gaming or watching movies/tv shows. Maybe even form a long-lasting connection if I'm lucky lol. Sorry if my post is long and confusing. I am not very good at this. Don't hurt me, I am fragile.
Pros and interests:
- Good listener.
- Will always message fast. Unless I'm dead. Or asleep. Or dead. Or busy. Or dead. Did I mention dead?
- Would probably cancel a heart transplant if you wanted to hang out. Is not a heart transplant surgeon. Is not a doctor at all.
- Lover of food.
- Likes to cook.
- occasional drinker.
- Occasional Twitch watcher.
- Guitar. Dats it.
- Animal lover. Mostly prefer animals to people lol. I hope to one day own a farm and have farm animals like I did when I was a wee lad.
- Has the best dog.
- I can be funny. sometimes when I’m alone, I like to go out into my garden, cover myself with dirt, and pretend I’m a potato. Does not actually have a garden.
- My humor is pretty vast so don't hold back really. I also make a lot of self-deprecating jokes. Go me.
- Will send you funny or nice memes. Sometimes dark evil shit. Don't question it.
- Owner of way too many games (PC and Switch).
- Hasn't watched a lot of the best shows/movies so will watch stuff with you.
- Likes anime/manga.
- Likes all kinds of music except mostly rap and country.
- Likes spooky stuff, horror, paranormal videos, the unknown, and sometimes some gore. I've seen some GNARLY shit on Reddit honestly. 😱
- Prefers the night over the day. So I'm most likely up at night doing god knows what.
- Considers awkward long silences soothing. As long as I feel comfortable with the person.
Annnnnnd onto the cons *clears throat and shifts glasses*
Cons:
- I have bad insomnia sometimes which causes my sleep schedule to be really out of wack.
- I'll have days where I just wanna avoid everyone cause depression has me by the balls and makes me think I'm a worthless piece of shit (probably true) and nobody wants me around (also probably true lmao).
- I struggle with opening up and trusting others cause of bad past experiences.
- I consider short sentences and people who aren't consistent a HUGE red flag.
- I'm not good at taking the initiative in activities with someone unless I am 100% certain of the person. Plus being rejected really sucks.
- Terrible at giving advice.
- Terrible selfie taker.
- I'm a pushover.
- I'm pretty stupid.
- No car.
- Not working right now.
- I live with family.
- I'm a mental mess.
- -35 Moral -20 Happiness +60 Depression +50 Insanity +30 Despair +100 anxiety.
- And of course the granddaddy of all cons... me lol. :D
There aren't a lot of things people can do over the internet, so please be somewhat interested in gaming or watching stuff together? I've been playing a lot of random games like Vampire Survivor and Cult of the Lamb. And of course Stardew Valley cause that game is chill. I don't play FFXIV, Valorant, DbD, or Minecraft. I've also lost interest in OW2 cause those boneheads can't balance a game right. Sorry, just never got into those games. I have PLENTY of other games of course. Or we could binge movies or some shows/anime. I don't mind if you are clingy. Punch me in the face and call me crazy I guess. I probably should have a sense of humor cause I'll say dumb shit that I think is funny. You probably should like memes and be ok with awkward quiet moments. I'll also say random shit to break the ice. Be ready.
I'm not saying all that stuff is the be-all-end-all for me, but lately, I find that most people that message me end up not having similar interests. Which is kind of a bummer.
I'm also trying to work on myself. And that can be a drag lol.
Despite sounding like a REAL MONSTROSITY OF A PERSON... I'm actually not that bad. I'd like to think I can make people laugh if you get me talking. Send a message if none of this has scared you away lol. Please write something more than "hi" lol. Just give me a basic rundown of yourself! No pressure.
"This would look good if it didn't look so awful." me looking at myself in the mirror. https://imgur.com/a/vBRRzNF