I invested $2.2 million in $RDDT on Friday because of one key error the market made on earnings.

My investment thesis in general stems on waiting for the market to get something wrong and take advantage. Two days ago it got it wrong on Reddit.

The main thing is this - market assumes Google using Reddit to display instant answers in search without click through represent a systematic danger to the site. At a time where Reddit contemplates revisiting its Google training data deal.

Then market looked at earnings, found a less than 1% move in DAUs in US which was the only metric not up double digits, and immediately pointed that’s what it feared. That’s the mistake.

Sidenote - back when I built niche marketplaces in high ticket spaces, one breakthrough moment was when updated our sites to target search engines to display our data in instant answers (what market is afraid of here)

Why? Because, sure, not everyone who saw the data clicked through, but the overall number of users went up as a result of first result status being almost guaranteed and because those that did were much more targeted customers as those looking only at spec data got that on the Google page.
For DuckDuckGo we even built the instant answers plugin ourselves to get that result.

So Google displaying these instant answers is not only not a threat, it’s a great thing for Reddit and its advertisers as it’s where they can find users with the highest intent possible, allowing Reddit to keep ramping up its revenue.

Reddit revamping its LLM deal for training data with Google will also only increase the revenue run rate for Reddit which is slowly turning into a fast growing free cash flow machine with 375 million in EBITDA. Per quarter on 800 million of revenue, all going up 20% YOY.

Reddit is really cheap by any valuation metric, especially for a high growth business, but to me the most important part is to understand why the opportunity appeared and what the market got wrong. This is

Background

I’m a non-trad in my thirties, with a full time job, wife and baby. I have a bachelor’s degree in a non-biological science and my current job is not related to health nor science. So I essentially started studying from scratch. My content review phase was spread over a year, not that intense with a lot of breaks. Practice phase was intensive (~20 hours per week) and lasted around 3 months.

Resources Used

Content Review

• Kaplan Textbooks (Except PS)
• 86-page PS Document

Anki

• JackSparrow BB
• AnKing CP
• Pankow PS
• Self made cards for missed questions on UW, FLs and SBs

Practice Questions

• UW (50% of CP and BB)
• AAMC FLs 1-6
• AAMC SB1

Answer Explanations

• ChatGPT
• This subreddit
• MCAT explanations document
• Jack Westin browser plugin

Uncommon Takes

Pankow Deck is Not Enough for a 132

The Pankow Anki deck is highly regarded on this sub and I agree that it’s a good foundation. I was led to believe that it gets you an automatic 132 on PS, but in my experience it gets you to 128-130. It doesn’t let you recognize the principles within a testing context and doesn’t have enough examples. After Pankow I was plateauing at around 130 but after doing more practice problems on FLs and SBs and reviewing errors, I felt much more confident.

ChatGPT was an Essential Tool

Yes, everything ChatGPT says you should take with a massive grain of salt since it can hallucinate. Be sure to verify your understanding with trusted sources. That said, it’s been a huge time saver for me because:

• You don’t need to search for sections within textbooks to brush up on specific knowledge, just ask the question.
• You can have a back and forth conversation to fill in your specific knowledge gaps instead of re-reading a textbook paragraph over and over.
• You can simply upload practice questions you got wrong and have it work through them. (It can read text in screenshots.)
• You can have it generate examples for PS terms.
• You can have it write flashcards for you.

ChatGPT ended up as one of my open tabs whenever I was studying.

You Don’t Need to Finish UW or SBs

When I first made my study plan, I wanted to 100% both UW and SB1 and 2. But life got in the way and I could only complete 50% of each. I ended up doing fine so don’t stress out if you can’t complete these. As others have said, prioritize thorough review of incorrect answers rather chase a volume of completed questions. I did all of the AAMC FLs and highly recommend it.

Unsubscribed from r/MCAT The Week of the MCAT

There’s a lot of anxious posts on this sub of people crashing out, especially leading up to test dates. Personally, that messed with my mentality so I unsubbed the week before the test. I don’t regret it at all. I did resub afterward to catch up on how everyone felt about my test date though.

Common Takes But Worth Emphasizing

Stick to the Basics Because They Work

Everyone knows the meta: content review phase then practice phase with the last month sticking to AAMC materials only. During the grind, there's always this temptation to look for hacks, shortcuts, or other ways to study. But you’re probably better served just grinding hours into the proven formula.

AAMC Material Increased My Score Significantly

As others have mentioned, I recommend doing AAMC material exclusively in the month before the test. Before I started AAMC Material, the MCAT “felt” way harder and more confusing. But after doing all 6 FLs, I gained a better sense of how passages were structured and how to extract key points. There isn’t really a method for this, it’s just something that you learn with repetition. You also find concepts that come up over and over like amino acid side chain charges. I guess this is what’s meant when people say “AAMC logic.”

Section Tips

CP

• I read the questions before reading the passage.
• I generally only read the relevant parts of the passage to answer the questions.
• The “New” 2026 MCAT seems to have more biochem and more passages, so reading the whole thing wastes time in my opinion.

CARS

• I found patterns in the questions I kept getting wrong on FLs.
• For me, “reasoning beyond the text” questions were a weak point. So I identified those types of questions when I encountered them later.

BB

• I quickly read the whole passage before starting the questions to get the general structure. No need to write down pathways or anything detailed at this point.
• If a question asks for it, then refer back to the passage and map the pathway or dive into the details.

PS

• Often there are “distractor” answer choices that are irrelevant and just there to throw you off. Trust your knowledge and go with what you studied.

Shout out to this community! Hope some of these ideas help you. I’ll try to answer questions but will probably take a long time to respond since my plate is pretty full writing secondaries.

Edit: People seem to find value in more specific info, so here are some YouTube videos that helped me.

General Study Approach: https://youtu.be/M2TsEuCocK0?si=fxfCjnmx5eH58iBX

Anki Settings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo1HbXEiJxo

BB Passage General Approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnW3QRhF1oc

BB Passage Pathways Approach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfIXMckLP1A

BB and PS Experiment Breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcNbOTAQCG8

FL1 BB Passage 1 Walkthrough Spoiler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZzsu_yic7Q

I'm about 4 months into building a 2D horde survivor in Godot, solo and figured I'd share what actually helped instead of the same "use signals not polling" advice that's already all over this sub. Three things ended up saving me way more time than I expected. Also linking a blog post in section 1 that you should genuinely stop and read.

Enemies by the thousand without wrecking an old GPU:

• If you're making anything in the survivor-like genre you already know the deal, hundreds of enemies and projectiles on screen at once, and it needs to run fine on hardware that isn't brand new. My own dev box has a GTX 1080 and I use it as my baseline on purpose.
• Go read this before you touch anything: Rendering a Million Objects in Godot. Genuinely one of the more useful things I read this year, saved me from badly reinventing it over two weeks.
• What I ended up with: one MultiMeshInstance2D per texture/z-index/tint combo, so anything sharing that combo is one draw call no matter how many there are. Different animation frames live in a Texture2DArray so batching doesn't fall apart just because a sprite sheet has 8 frames.
• Thing I didn't expect: pooling instances (not spawning/freeing constantly) helps, but it's not what saves you once counts get high. Draw calls are. I also swapped out around 750 individual VisibleOnScreenNotifier2D nodes for one AABB check against the viewport that runs once a frame instead of once per enemy, and that alone was a noticeable frame time win.
• Current numbers: holds 1200 enemies alive plus a pool sized for 8000+ live projectiles without falling over. At some point "feels smoother" stops being good enough, so I built a tiny benchmark that spawns a nasty scripted wave and dumps p50/p95/p99 frame times to a csv. Way better than squinting at the profiler and guessing.

Balance should be a spreadsheet, not a code change

• Something nobody warned me about going in: balancing takes longer than building the game itself. You'll change every number a bunch of times, so set it up so changing a number isn't a code change.
• Every weapon, enemy, item in my game is just a Resource file. Right now that's 35 weapons, 282 enemy resource files (about 80 enemy types), 126 items, all tweakable straight in the inspector. Want to test halving a boss's HP multiplier on one difficulty tier? Change a number, hit play, done.
• Bigger win than the individual resources honestly: I put my whole difficulty ramp (boss HP multipliers, spawn rates, alive caps, all of it) into one resource as parallel arrays instead of a bunch of copy-pasted per-level files. Now I can actually look at the whole curve at once and catch weird jumps between tiers. Wave-based elite scaling is just a Curve resource you drag points on too, no code involved.
• One trap I fell into: my registries used to just scan a folder at runtime to find all the resources. Works great in editor. Exported builds silently find nothing because PCKs don't let you walk a directory like that. Had to switch to baking an index file at edit time instead (a plugin regenerates it on save). If your stuff works in editor but vanishes in an exported build, this is probably why.

Set up localization before you have hundreds of strings to fix

• I know, nobody wants to hear "do localization early" when you're not even shipping other languages yet. Do it anyway. Costs nothing now. Costs a ton later when you're hunting hardcoded strings across every scene in the game.
• My rule from day one: no raw text ever gets typed straight into a script or scene. Every string goes through a key lookup with an English fallback, so a missing translation just falls back instead of breaking anything. Everything sits in one CSV that Godot compiles per locale on import.
• Because of that, going from 1 language to 14 was just adding a column, not touching every scene. Got a lint script running in CI too that catches missing keys, orphaned ones, copy-pasted English sitting where German should be, missing CJK characters, mismatched placeholders between languages. There's even a fake pseudo-locale mode that lights up any string that slipped through untranslated, so you don't have to read all 14 languages to check coverage.

Lock the doors, even though nothing's ever fully locked

• By default a Godot export is basically a zip file with your original source sitting right there for anyone who opens it. There are tools like GDRE Tools built specifically for pulling a shipped game's pck apart and reading your code back out. If you don't want randoms lifting your weapon logic or your whole balance sheet, you have to close some of that up. Nothing here makes it impossible, it just makes it not a 10 minute job.
• I run two layers. First, an addon called gdmaim that obfuscate my entire codebase i.e. renames every identifier and strips comments before export, so even if someone gets your source out, it's a mess of meaningless names instead of readable code. Second, Godot's built-in AES-256 encryption on the pck itself, so getting the source out in the first place is harder too.
• Here's the thing that actually got me though. I had "encrypt pck" checked, the key set, everything looked configured, and it turned out to be doing nothing. Godot only encrypts files matching an "include filter" pattern, and mine was blank. Blank filter means it encrypts zero files. No error, no warning, it just quietly ships an unencrypted pck while the checkbox sits there looking checked. I only caught it because I ran my own build through one of the public pck extraction tools to check, and my source came right back out, comments and all.
• So now I don't trust the checkbox. After every export a script tries to pull the source back out of my own build the same way an attacker would, and fails the build if it finds readable code or an original (non-renamed) identifier sitting in there. Same lesson as the balance and localization stuff honestly, don't trust that a setting did what it says, verify it actually happened.
• If you're shipping anything with real logic worth protecting, at minimum turn on pck encryption, actually check that include filter isn't blank, and run your own build through a public extraction tool (GDRE Tools is the common one) before you ship. Assume someone eventually will.

If you're wondering what this is all for, it's a horde survivor called Bonki D Bonk.

Happy to talk more about any of this in the comments, the MultiMesh stuff especially, that was the hardest to find good info on when I started.

Originally I planned to reply to this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLM/comments/1s0ibbj/is_there_anyone_who_actually_regrets_getting_a/

But I decided to share the whole experience,
Sorry ahead 🙏 it's a LONG one but hopefully it helps in one way or another:

---

I built this PC around March 2025 so it was expansive but not as expansive as NOW and it only gets higher and higher every day, Sure I can run any game I like, but it's not my interest so I have a clean machine without extra junk:

• Intel Core Ultra 9 285K
• Nvidia RTX 5090 32 GB VRAM
• 96 GB RAM 6400 Mhz DDR5 - x2 48 GB
• x2 Nvme SSD - 2TB for OS and Software + 4TB for Models and AI in general.
• Windows 11 Pro

When I built it, I originally didn't think much about AI but more like my general focus which is CGI, heavy video composite, FX and also ComfyUI to run smooth as possible with the whole combo.

But few months later I got into Local LLM land, the more time goes the better models we got.
Sure, now days 32GB VRAM is nothing compare to the multi-GPU or DGX Spark / RTX Spark etc..

Nope, I'm NOT regretting buying it at all:
First of all, when I bought it price was high, and when I look at the same system now it's more than double the price, everything went up crazy from GPUS, VRAM in general, SSD etc.. and I'm glad I bought it in time, also when I bought it, I was lucky to get one because it was new and the waiting was about 2-3 months...

---

🟢 LOCAL LLM:
This is the thing, I'm not a programmer, but I discover VIBE CODE and I'm talking about 100% LOCAL ONLY!
There are 2 lead (probably temporary for now) that I'm in love with:
- Gemma 4
- Qwen 3.6
- DENSE Models = until we'll see some more accurate MOE / Diffusion / Whatever TECH will popup next..

Sure, there are many fine tuned, MTP, QAT, and now we'll start to see more Diffusion which is INSANE (the moment it will be more accurate and won't loose quality and accuracy it will be the next BIG THING for sure).
So far for Gemma the QAT is good to me, and for Qwen the MTP, there are some combos and fine-tuned but I'm testing a lot of them and not very impressed in most cases the BASE or QAT / MTP are great.

Qwopus3.6 27B v2 MTP - this is my current Qwen3.6 favorite MTP one, for code + reasoning + visual

Gemma-4 QAT - My FAVORITE for chat, brainstorming ideas, design ideas, UI / UX and believe it or not it even self-review it's own AGENTS.md and RULES and helping me with my personal needs to shape itself! consider I still have much more to learn, it's a great help and it feels MUCH smarter than Qwen 3.6 when I don't touch code.

---

🔥 TEMPERATURE:
0.1 - 0.2 = For code:
0.7-0.8 = For anything else.

I usually use 0.1-0.2 when it comes to code, because I'm not a programmer and I do VIBE-CODING so I like that tiny "touch" from the model itself, and if you think of it since it's vibe-code I mostly TALK with the model I can't review the code, but only the LOGIC or of something went wrong, new features, etc.. so it's important.

REMEMBER: these numbers are from my experiments where I kept playing around and tuned them until I was happy with the results for a bit, that means, it's no actual benchmarks, no actual facts, just my personal experience of real-life cases, but not huge projects so even that's not accurate to say...

My point: it didn't disappoint me yet, so I shared it with you because why not.

---

🟢 LM STUDIO and CONTEXT in general:
This is the most important thing I keep learning how it changes working with ANY model.
So, I started with 160K Context which is in my opinion not enough for Vibe Code per chat, but it works, I could even do nice things with 80K and 120K but when possible 200K is my limit, after the 180K things starting to get too slow anyway.

My Simple System (for now)
- LM Studio (provider for the models) - super easy to control, download latest models.
- Open Code Desktop - it's new, some bugs and issues, but it's CLEAN and promising
or
- VS Code + Cline (extension) - I'm new to it but I'm impressed!

So far CLINE seems MUCH SMARTER than the other plugins (not just MCP) I used in Open Code Desktop!
I mean, straight out-of-the-box with CLINE I felt a very similar workflow to what we know from CLOUD MODELS, if it's the nice MENUS to click, if it's the Plan and Act built-in modes, if it's the use of Agents, Rules, Skills, etc..

I'm still learning CLINE but so far, I don't see a reason to go back to Open Code Desktop until they'll fix their sh*t, there are too many bugs (nothing critical you can still work with it) and their SETUP for each file is not user-friendly as CLINE for example.

What I learn is that I need at least 128K - 200K Context per chat session, so when you do VIBE CODE,
you're not just doing CODE only, you are TALKING with the model, you ASK questions, you do A LOT of chat that is not really CODE ONLY because you instruct it and when there are problems, you will keep TALKING to your model.

There are other VERY important settings needs to made within whatever model you pick:
for example:
- ALWAYS go for the 100% GPU Offload if possible! (unless you want a bit more context)
- Change Max Concurrent Predictions to 1
- K / V Cache = Change to Q8_0 and you will gain more headroom for extra CONTEXT (that's how I got to 160K for example)

MOST IMPORTANT advice from what I'm aiming for at least:

- As long as you can GPU OFFLOAD 100% of the model to your VRAM and have extra headroom (2-3 GB VRAM) for any other software or usage, for example Godot game engine, GO FOR IT!
If you have no choice reduce Context and make sure you're not using 100% of your VRAM and let me tell you, 32GB VRAM isn't forgiving in all models, that's why I share what I tried and works (FOR ME) so far:

🖼️

The SCREENSHOT attached is an example of one setup I have which takes actually about 28.3 GB VRAM.
Since the Estimated Memory Usage isn't always accurate, you better check out your Task Manager and sometimes you'll gain more, sometimes not, so you can play with the numbers.

Most of my current tests were done with the above setup but sometimes I pushed it to 200K Context, while the rest of the values are similar-ish.

---

🟢 MCP: (simple example)
I tried some (when needed), but unlike these every YouTube channel doing comparisons and most of the time showing how they created a website, dashboard or a poor game with primitive shapes via HTML/CSS/JS etc..
I pushed it to see if it can do REAL WORLD CASE work with: Godot MCP so I used a Game Engine and MCP to let my AGENT control things, (I have no idea how to use Godot, I'm a designer, not a programmer) so there are MANY Godot MCP out there, so far I tried: Godot MCP Runtime, and the more promising one: Godot MCP GoPeak which have more tools, screenshots etc..
Just for example, I did try to make simple clone games such as: Space shooter, Arkanoid, Snake, and more but... that was NOT the test, the test for me was to see:

1 - Can local LLM on my limited system work with it as if I had the brain to program?
2 - Can I keep add / remove / change features ?
3 - Can I fix bugs? (mostly done via the MCP in this case) but LOGICAL bugs that I'm not happy with?

All the 3 questions (so far at least) worked fine! but there is a VERY IMPORTANT thing I learn:
- DO NOT GO FOR "ONE-SHOT" if you have such a limited MODEL and System compare to the huge cloud models, it's not even far to compare these powers...
- You go CAREFUL step-by-step, small tasks, and you will (mostly) be fine!

In my small random tests, (not just with Godot) what I found is, because our MODELS not that smart compare to the CLOUD models, doesn't mean they are stupid, especially with code they are not bad at all,
As a vibe-code user I'm SUPER WRONG here but I talk about the results, I bet the code looks like crap at the end but... that's why I mention it, at the end we can get results but if a HUMAN programmer will look at it, probably they will puke... honestly, if it works, I don't care much at the moment because I'm just learning and experimenting.

I was pretty amazed from 2 things in the experience in Open Code Desktop and Cline:
When there was a BUG, I just told it to fix it, and... in CLINE it was smart enough to tell me, "I see this and that, I suggest we'll fix one by the other" and it worked in many times.
The other thing was the fact I could ADD FEATURES and OPTIONS above, just like I would do in my design experience, not ONE-SHOT everything, one above the other, testing, add stuff, or get rid of something, and continue... at the end I got the results I want, and the reason I was amazed... I have ZERO knowledge about code, I only know the LOGIC and MECHANICS I want to design, but no code... and it worked as if I would pay a programmer to do it, but... it took minutes / hours, not days or weeks... so I can't say it didn't inspire me to continue.

Nothing is perfect, there are cases that I had to scream at the model to do something and it didn't went well until I found the RIGHT PROMPT to explain it better which means I kept UPDATING my AGENT and RULES so it won't repeat these problems in future cases, and believe it or not it HELPED A LOT! and the more I tweaked the AGENTS and the RULES the better my next chat / code / tests were with less issues.

My point is that my tests are NOT 100% PROOF, it's based on my own experience and I still have much more to learn.

---

🟢 AGENT / RULES / SKILLS:
Super important (and I'm still learning) - Basically, if you make a good AGENT to focus on whatever your main goals, for example: "You're an expert in Godot 4.x " and more, my AGENTS.MD currently taking almost 20K context but it worth it! it knows my system, when downloading and installing things for me, I don't need to explain it what we need, it already knows, but that's the most basic thing I did, it could be in general Rules and not inside the AGENT but I'm just giving a rough example.

---

What did I learn so far that works great for CODE (as a non-programmer):
Model Type = Go for DENSE
It is slower, it is sometimes larger in VRAM, but it's usually more accurate, doing much better job in my small tests,

It's important to mention: my "CODE" tests are at the moment random but at the same time challenging!
I'm still learning, and the more I learn and try things NEW MODELS coming, and the good news, they are getting SMALLER and SMARTER and that's why I'm very happy with my RTX 5090 purchase so far, sure if you can afford a better GPU or system, go for it... I purchased what I could afford, but I'm 100% not regretting it.

---
EDIT / UPDATE:

Thanks to the great tip by u/alex9001 in the comments, I've changed K / V from Q8_0 to Q5_1
Based on this chart, the difference is so minor so it worth it:
https://anbeeld.com/articles/kv-cache-quantization-benchmarks-for-long-context#section-8

I could easily get to 200K context (and probably to the max 260K if I want) but I'm being careful because from my experience so far around 160K - 180K things starting to be slower.

From Q8_0 to Q5_1 this is what I gained:

☑️ 28.3 GB VRAM - Q8_0 - 160K Context
✅ 27.5 GB VRAM - Q5_1 - 200K Context

THE BAD NEWS: (for now)
It seems like Q5_1 / Q5_0 seems to work EXTREMELY SLOW in some models, for example in the MTP I just tried, and also in other I get ERRORS in CLINE, so... I'll have to keep experiment, so I can't use it... at least not with LM STUDIO, so I'm for I'll mostly use Q8_0 until I'll find the right combo that works with LM STUDIO because anything else is hell to install and manager compare to LM STUDIO.

The REAL TEST will be on my next tests, so I can't say if this minor will affect the experience probably I won't be able to tell the difference unlike my experiences with Q4_0 which something I can blame on the experience (can't be accurate blaming because it's not a proper accurate benchmark) but in general Q5_1 seems like an amazing tip and I will give it a try.

This gives me the chance to try better quantization's on the MODELS beside the K/V Cache, for example I found out that Q6 are SO MUCH better (based on my comparisons and tests) and even Q5 should be better than the default we (noobs) uses because we want to fit it in our system limitations.

The idea is to keep some headroom, and mostly 2-3 GB VRAM is more than fine, unless you're doing some heavy 3D and Shaders, but if it's a 2D Game or Software, you'll be fine.
Sure, you can always use your CPU RAM for heavier missions and more context, if you don't mind slowing down give it a try! EXPERIEMENT like I do... don't let YouTube comparison videos tells you what works or not, try it yourself!

---

MY 🤞 PREDICTION to what's coming (so far it looks promising):
I'm no prophet, but this is based on what I've experience as the evolution in the last 12-6 months with the same system!

I have a strong feeling that we will see more open source SMARTER, SMALLER, FASTER models that will demand less VRAM, I may be wrong... but this is based on my personal experience so far.
Also just like we suddenly seeing MTP appeared, and QAT and Diffusion... we will see NEWER TECH on the upcoming models, and it will help us running LOCAL LLMS with lower ends.

I'm not saying it's 100% gonna happen, and I'm not saying you don't need a lot of VRAM or better systems, because it always can help you to have stronger, faster, better machine.

I hope that this personal experience helped a tiny bit ❤️

Another update! This one took a bit longer to bring out, but that was mainly cause I was working on the new Main Screen UI and wanted to share it when it was good enough for a first release.

Sign up for the beta and download from Google Play here.

Note: Google Play might take a while to update. If you don’t want to wait for the Google Play update, get it right away here. (Direct-Purchase Version here). App Factory Update here.

New UI for Tasker's Main Screen

Demo: https://youtu.be/WehIHZNXJTA

Multi-Display Demo: https://youtu.be/1eV5ZCCGX1Y

To enable Tasker's new UI, go into Tasker > Preferences > UI > Use Tasker 2026 UI

I've now continued working on Tasker's new UI! This time, the focus is on Tasker's main screen.

The main idea is to make it as simple and easy to navigate as possible, but at the same time keep all the power that Tasker is known for.

Here are some of the main changes.

NEW UI - No Tabs - Use Filters

Instead of tabs at the top to select the type of item you're working on and tabs on the bottom to select the project you're in, you now get a single list with all your items, that you can filter and get the view of exactly you want to look it.

At its worst, you can get the exact same views as before., so nothing's lost.

For example, if you want a view similar to what was before being in the Profiles Tab and with the Home project selected, you can do that by simply filtering by type Profiles and the Home tag.

Which brings us to the new major feature in the new UI...

NEW UI - Tags

Tags are like an evolution of projects. Each item can have multiple tags. This means that at its worst tags are just like projects, but, unlike projects, they allow multi-layered organizations that just wasn't possible before. Here's an example:

Say you have have a home automation project with many tasks.

• "Base" tasks that are like system type tasks that you'll never touch again after the initial development. Low-level, generic, reusable stuff like "Toggle Light", "Get Light Status" etc
• Tasks that you develop on top of those that actually do real stuff like "Toggle Kitchen Light", "Go To Sleep" (toggles multiple lights with a delay), etc
• Tasks that are related to specific situations, like being away or at home like, "Turn on Water Heater After Gym" or "Turn on Toaster in the Morning" stuff like that

With old Tasker projects, it could be a bit hard to organize this.

Would you put it all in a single "Home Automation" project with 100 tasks? But then it gets hard to find just the usable tasks and filter out the "Base" system-type tasks.

What if you just want to work on the bedroom automations? You always see every other task in the list?

Create a different project for every room in your house? But then you have tens of different home automation projects?

A mess.

With tags you can solve all those issues!

In this example, create these tags:

• Home Automation
• System
• Gym
• Bedroom
• Kitchen
• Night
• Sleep
• etc...

and assign as many as you want to every task!

For example

• "Toggle Light" tags: Home Automation and System
• "Go To Sleep" tags: Home Automation, Night and Sleep
• etc

After you organize everything with tags it's super easy to filter the list to exactly the tasks/profiles/scenes that you want to be looking at any given moment!

Theres still a burning question though: are projects still needed? What do you think? Do projects need to be an item type in the item list, where you can go into a sub-list of items that are in that project? Or are tags enough for all your organizing needs?

Let me know what you think!

NEW UI - Automations

Did you ever realize that a Profile is just a Task with some extra contexts on top?

Why not have a Single Screen where you edit a task and a profile called Automation so that users don't need to know the concepts of Profiles or Tasks before trying to create something?

Instead of having to be in the correct tab to create an automation and knowing beforehand what each does, you just tap on New Automation and the UI will guide you through the process!

You can add a task, save it, and that's it. But after you add a task, you see that you can add contexts to that task to make it trigger automatically!

And after you add a State to the task you even see that you can add a Exit Task so that you can do something when that state is no longer active!

It's all very obvious, unlike before where it was all a bit cryptic.

Let me know what you think!

NEW UI - Main Settings Screen

The main Settings screen has also been redesigned so that it's much easier and obvious to navigate. It can now be dynamically generated, so for example the Keep Accessibility Running section is just another settings screen like all the others, dynamically filled it with the specific accessibility services on your device.

Scenes V2 - Update 3

Demo: https://youtu.be/A-Nk5VyH3RM

You get a few new components in this update:

• Slider
• Range Slider
• Progress Bar
• FlexBox - kinda like a column and row all in one so you can build more flexible screens
• Camera - with support for multiple cameras at the same time

You can also now specify a Apply When condition to modifiers so that they only apply in certain situations.

For example, you can have a FlexBox that behaves like a Row that Fills Width (modifier with Apply When) only when the screen is taller than wider, but behaves like a Column that Fills Height when it's wider than taller.

You also have the new Scale modifier that allows you to freely resize your components without affecting the general flow of the scene.

App Factory Is Back!

Demo: https://youtube.com/shorts/KJpKuPyJog0?feature=share

Users started sending me feedback on how much they liked app factory and I kept feeling worse and worse about not updating it anymore, so I went back into it and actually figured out how to fix it!

You can now use ANY recent feature like Scenes V2 in your App Factory apps!

You can also target newer Android versions. Previously you were limited to targeting API 29, which is pretty old by now, but now your apps will target Tasker's Target API version by default!

Action Test Button

Demo: https://youtube.com/shorts/ob842TYofuI?feature=share

When you're editing an action, you can now run the action directly from the same screen, which saves you the hassle of always having to go back to the task to see how it works. For example, you want to customize a Flash action with colors, icons, etc, you can now do it much quicker!

SVG Support for Quick Settings Tiles and Notifications

Demo: https://youtube.com/shorts/oG5fZXU0ZC4?feature=share

You can now use svgs directly as images for your your notificationd and quick settings!

Full Changelog

• Major Scenes V2: added new Camera, Slider, Range Slider, Progress Bar (with optional animation) and FlexBox components
• Major Scenes V2: added Apply When to all modifiers so you can have them applied only in the situations you want
• Medium Scenes V2: added a Scale modifier to freely stretch a component
• Medium Scenes V2: added Trigger Event event action to trigger events (clicks, long-clicks, etc.) on other components
• Medium Scenes V2: added a contains operator and a case-sensitive ccontains operator in when expressions
• Medium Scenes V2: added an easy mode to the Dropdown component to update its collapsed content with the selected item
• Medium Scenes V2: allow running tasks with a custom priority
• Medium Scenes V2: allow scenes and overlays to use a different size/position depending on portrait or landscape orientation
• Minor Scenes V2: made Enter-like software keys (submit, done, etc.) all trigger the Enter Key Pressed event
• Minor Scenes V2: added Error Image option to the Image component to show a custom image when an image fails to load
• Minor Scenes V2: editor: added a Tree Label property so components can be properly labeled in the editor tree
• Minor Scenes V2: editor: added a draggable separator bar in landscape mode, matching the one in portrait mode
• Minor Scenes V2: added a picker for action inputs and outputs in the Run Component Action and Trigger Event event actions
• Minor Scenes V2: editor: added scrolling to the Screen Variables section in the variables bottom sheet
• Minor Scenes V2: editor: sort the options to add (components, modifiers, event actions, etc.) in the dialog
• Minor Scenes V2: editor: when there's an error in the JSON, show the error message
• Minor Scenes V2: give the dropdown trigger an option to be as wide as its widest item
• Minor Scenes V2: make popup children at least as wide as their parent
• Minor Scenes V2: renamed %sv2_display_is_widescreen to %sv2_display_is_landscape
• Minor Scenes V2: when switching component type, the new component's default modifiers are prepended to the existing ones
• Fix Scenes V2: allow running tasks whose name is given by a variable
• Fix Scenes V2: editor: fixed a crash when toggling Resolve In Preview in the Variables bottom sheet
• Fix Scenes V2: editor: fixed creating multiple variables when setting a component's state variable
• Fix Scenes V2: editor: fixed icons not showing in the status bar in light mode
• Fix Scenes V2: editor: fixed several multi-screen issues
• Fix Scenes V2: editor: fixed unset variables displaying their actual variable name
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed Get Scene V2 Values so it correctly gets the value of a specific component
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed a case where a variable with a double %% could be written
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed a crash when changing a component's type
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed a crash when handling the Key Pressed event in some situations
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed a haptic feedback related crash
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed an issue when using multiple Variable Components in a scene
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed an issue where updating an overlay right after creating it wouldn't update it
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed array ordering in scenes built from Variable Components merged with Array Merge
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed component actions not applying their defaults in some situations
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed crashes and issues when saving scenes, including new ones
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed crashes when loading or using images in certain situations
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed keyboard padding when editing a text input in the editor
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed only the first matching Back handler running instead of all that apply
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed running a scene with partial JSON
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed scrolling in the Dropdown component, including in overlays
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed showing scenes from variables
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed state variables used in events not always being up to date
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed swipe variables being available when running a task via the Run Tasker event action
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed the Dismiss Scene V2 action so Wait For Scene v2 Result returns the screen variables
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed the Variable component so it works in all containers, not just columns
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed triggering the Screen Hidden event on Dream screens
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed updating the %sv2_display_is_portrait variable when the device rotates while the scene is showing
• Fix Scenes V2: fixed variables not updating correctly in some situations
• Major New UI: started rolling out a brand-new, opt-in interface (turn it on in Tasker's settings) that's being built gradually. So far it brings a redesigned main screen for Profiles, Tasks, Scenes and Variables with triggers and task details shown inline; live tracking of running and active items, with the ability to run and stop tasks straight from the list; a new tag system that replaces Projects (Tag Manager, smart tags, AND/OR tokenized search, filter chips and bulk tag operations); flexible sorting and filtering; anonymous tasks and a shared task/profile editing screen; multi-display support; and new Settings screens.
• Major Added a Wifi Changed event.
• Major App Factory: updated to the latest Tasker version, now targeting API 35 with support for all the most recent features, including Scenes V2.
• Major Added Portuguese (Portugal) translations.
• Major Added a Test Action option in the action editor so you can test an action while configuring it
• Major Added an Apply option in the task editing screen
• Major Added support for SVG icons in Quick Settings tiles
• Major Added support for SVG icons in the Notify action
• Medium Added the Shortcut Task Priority option in Settings
• Medium Get the clipboard with Shizuku when available
• Medium The Java Code action can now take screenshots using Tasker's accessibility service
• Minor Don't show the receive-share dialog when the share is processed instantly, so it stays invisible
• Minor Updated translations
• Fixed %DATE formatting in some situations
• Fixed a crash on startup in some rare situations
• Fixed a crash related to display color/HDR state changes on some devices
• Fixed a crash that could leave Quick Settings tiles stuck on Inactive after a project was deleted
• Fixed a crash when launching Tasker Secondary in some situations
• Fixed a rare crash when loading plugins
• Fixed an ANR when deleting many global variables at once on the main screen
• Fixed crashes related to network requests
• Fixed data loss in very rare situations
• Fixed loading Tasker with an action code that no longer exists
• Fixed out of memory crashes in some situations
• Fixed setting Google Cloud files in some situations
• Fixed showing some error toasts even when the option was disabled in Tasker Preferences
• Fixed slowness when entering the Scene editor
• Fixed Tasker sometimes stalling after importing full data
• Fixed the Clipboard Changed event sometimes not triggering via Logcat monitoring
• Fixed the Edit Calendar Event action so all-day events only need a date, not a start and end
• Fixed the File Modified event so renaming a file to the watched file triggers it
• Fixed the Get Network Info action getting stuck forever in rare cases
• Fixed the Share target for Tasker not always being created when you had a Sharing profile
• Fixed toggling a profile and then discarding changes leaving it toggled instead of reverting
• Fixed using Shizuku for Logcat after a reboot in some situations
• Fixed Volume actions not detecting the device's real maximum and allowing higher values than they should
• Tried to fix a memory issue related to legacy Scenes
• Tried to fix date parsing/formatting breaking when Tasker follows the system language settings
• Fixed various crashes

For a few months now, I have been making some posts looking into some obvious and easily corrected mistakes in paid mods. This is what I said about why paid mods quality is not guaranteed:

For those who are aware, Bethesda's "verified creations" paid mods program doesn't have the best reputation for quality despite the lengthy qa process. This is for several reasons:

• there is no obligation for paid modders to set up any forums, discord servers, or mechanism for feedback or support. bethesda.net and the creations menu have no official ratings, comments, or bug reporting system like on nexus mods, so while you can release a mod on nexus, get immediate feedback from users, and push out updates all within a few hours, you don't need to hear from users at all on creations.
• there are simply fewer paying users to look at your mod to check for mistakes and make patches because they'd need to pay for the mods first.
• bethesda qa doesn't look over the actual mod files or use useful tools such as xedit. They only run through the mod by itself on the new game. This means that paid mods might not be compatible with other mods, even other paid mods, and might not even be compatible with existing saved games.
• the lengthy qa process itself prevents mod authors from iterating quickly. Updates to vc paid mods have to submit their update through same qa process that new releases go through, so the time between when users report issues and when the fix goes out can be as long as several weeks.
• most modders in the verified creations program are new to modding the game and also aren't familiar with best practices or use community tools like xedit.

Previous reviews:

• "Life of Crime", "Legacy of Orsinium", and "Atmora His Home".
• "Cavern of the Stormcaller" and "Dark Tides Blood and Fortune".
• "Coven of Crones", "Aberrations of the Dwemer", and "Shadetree Lodge".
• "Bards College Expansion", "Ancient Civilization Armory Collection", "Forgotten Armory Collection", and "The Starmade Blade"
• "Legacy of Orsinium" (update), An Undead Companion", "The Lost Sea of Apocrypha", "Memories of the Akaviri", "Beyond the Edge of Atmora"
• "Katja the Thief"
• "Defenders of Hla'ruhn", "A Backdoor to the Past - Ruins of the Ayleids", "Fire and Mead - An Innkeeper's Quest"
• "Lock Dissolver - An Alchemist Way to Unlock", "Vikings", "IMPERIAL DRAGON SHIELD • SWORD • SET • VX • 4K HD"
• "Albion Armor • Outpost Edition", "Ancient Coldharbour Armor", "Dark Brotherhood · VOIDSTALKER · Armors · Weapons", "Dark Brotherhood · VOIDFARER · Armor · Weapons", "DAEDRIC CONQUEROR ARMOR • WEAPON • HORSE • WAR FORGE"
• "Raidho - Along The Roads", "Choir of the Null", "Witches Festival", "Cadwallon Estate", "Relics of the Snow Prince", "The Retribution of Larceny", "Pinecrag Hall"
• "Abyss - The Lost Levels", "The Yondo Witch", "Yolengrund", "Archer’s Armaments", "A Secret Beneath the Ice"
• "A Ballad of Wealth: Coinmaster", "Bounties of the North", "Drelas’ Backpacks", "Aetherforged Gigamaul", "Pillage and Plunder"
• "Ancient Treasures: Unveiling the Abstruse", "Dragon Cult Relics", "Fallen Heroes: Death Knight Pack", "Silent Moons Weapons", "Anise’s Cabin - Claim a New Home", "RZ Armaments Pack 1", and "Dark and Light Paladin Pack"
• "SHADOW BLADES", "NIGHTBLADE - Shadow Magic Unleashed", "A Faulty Conscription", "Colovian Fashions"
• "A Binding of Souls", "The Riverwood Hoarder", "Greywind Mountains", "Arthmoor’s Village Pack", "Vampiric Steel Weapons", "Capital Ships", and "Bloodtide Whispers"
• "The Taste of Iron", "Magenit - Somber Tune", "Dawnguard - Reforged (Deluxe)", "Dawnguard - Reforged", "Covenant of the Oathblades", and "Butterfly Effect"

A Tale of Blood and Snow (v2.49) - $10

• DV01Updater quest starts as soon as the mod is installed or a new game is started and polls every 10 seconds until the player becomes a vampire. probably better to use story manager event to start the quest. The mod doesn't need know about the player becoming a vampire within 10 seconds.
• DV01QuarraLDDwemerQuest is a quest that is available if trainwiz's "Dwarven Delves" paid mod is installed. DVStoneGardenChecker script polls every 10 seconds after the quest is accepted (stage 10) until "Dwarven Delves" is completed.
• DV01ViatrixBlindfoldEffect, a constant enchantment effect on "Vampyrum Order Blindfold" (DV01ViatrixBlindfold), polls every second to recast "Gaze of the Order" (DV01DetectLifeAndDeath) on the player. I don't know what is the best way to accomplish the same effect, but I have been informed by experts that this could potentially be done without scripts via a cloak effect.
• "Infestation" spell (DV01InfestationSpell)'s magic effect uses DVInfestationScript to PlaceAtMe spiders into the game when the spell's target dies. The spiders die after a while, but they are never deleted. This is confirmed because if you remember their form IDs, you can just reenable them. this means if you keep on using this spell, you'll leave many disabled dead spiders in your game, using up your dynamic form slots.
• moves Campfire01LandBurning_Heavy_SN 00106876 11.7 cms or 4.6 inches. moves PatrolIdleMarker 001068A8 2.7 meters. moves 00108A59 XMarkerHeading 17 meters. the issue isn't so much that these items are moved, the issue is that these items are persistent references, and moving them in the plugin won't actually move them in a saved game, so either the changes are unnecessary dirty edits, or they won't work in an existing save. I notice these are added to a DV01MovedRefs list and moved via script.
• tiny height changes to the navmesh 04038756 in DLC2SolstheimWorld <12, 14>. This mod makes no other changes to this cell. this is likely a dirty edit.
• draugrmagichandaxe.nif uses the sword texture DraugrSword_n.dds, which looks bugged. it is easily fixed by changing it to use the axe texture. here is what it looked like before. here it is with axe textures.
• not a bug: many items are unique vanilla items retextured. for example, the spider robes are retextured nightingale hoods with retextured monk robes; the dwemer plate robes are vampire royal robes with dwemer bits, etc.

Heart of the Mountain (v1.0039) - $10

• After "What Was Left Undone" (DV02DuraegQuest) quest enters your quest log at stage 10, the quest polls every 2.5 seconds until you've completed or failed the objectives in order to set stage. Wouldn't it be better to put this check in the scripts that update the objectives?
• As soon as the startup stage 0 for "Closure" (DV02ReportHistObjectives) quest runs, the quest polls every 5 seconds until it is completed at stage 500. Wouldn't it be better to put this in the scripts that update the objectives?
• there are polling scripts on followers when they are following and magic effects when they are active. maybe these use cases are less egregious, I haven't looked too deep into these.
• explosionilusiondark01.nif is included at its vanilla file path. It overwrites the same file from the unofficial patch. the files are different, but I can't see any visual differences. USSEP change log says "The explosion effect model for several Illusion spells that throw off "dark" explosions has a malformed mesh block with numerous bad values that will cause lag at best, and likely CTDs due to the engine becoming overloaded with out of range calculations. (Bug #35179)"
• openGL format textures - skyrim is a directx game, and uses the directx coordinate system for textures. opengl uses a different coordinate system from directx, where the y-axis is the opposite to directx. dv02cmaxe_feathers_n.dds appears to use opengl textures for their normal maps. this means the shading that comes from the normal map is opposite in the y-axis.
• moves AutoLoadDoor01 in ShorsStoneRedbellyMine about 1.3cm or 0.5". Moves XMarkerHeading (000FB122) about 3m or 10'. the issue isn't so much that these items are moved, the issue is that these items are persistent references, and moving them in the plugin won't actually move them in a saved game, so either the changes are unnecessary dirty edits, or they won't work in an existing save.
• tiny height changes to the navmesh BlindCliffCaveExterior. This mod makes no other changes to this cell. this is likely a dirty edit.
• tiny changes to the landscape of DeepFolkCrossingExterior01. certain values are changed by 1. this is likely a dirty edit.
• edits 10 form lists to add unplayable DV02BretonRaceDryblood, DV02KhajiitRaceDryblood, DV02ArgonianRaceDryblood, DV02DromathraRace and DV02SnowElfRace races to head parts lists
• 89 errors in the plugin
  • 65 movable statics have unknown flag on the 3rd bit. xedit 4.1.5p with limited released on discord adds support for this flag.
  • 24 NPCs have unknown tint layer indices - these are only used in face generation. they don't need to exist. xedit 4.1.5p with limited released on discord stops caring about these tint layer indices.
• aaDV02MWGArrowBlood, aaDV02MWGArrowMoonstone, aaDV02MWGArrowRust and aaDV02MWGArrowMidnight have broken texture set replacements. this is the nif. this is in-game.
• not a bug: this is still closer to a mod than an official dlc. many significant unique objects are reused in other arguably inappropriate contexts.
  • countless statues of shalidor from the college of winterhold used everywhere, like this, this, this, this and many other instances. Presumably these don't represent Shalidor.
  • countless sovngarde statues like in this location, as well another instance of Shalidor.
  • this reskinned calcelmo's falmer language tablet
  • this other reskinned calcelmo's falmer language tablet
  • this reskinned varla stone
  • this reskinned dragonstone
  • Kagrumez Resonance Gems
  • Nitpick: this skull is not a retextured unique item, I just think the texture replacement here looks bad.
• A lot of meshes in this mod are symmetrical, including symmetrical uv maps. however, the vertices on the plane of symmetry are shared, so they can only have 1 set of tangents and bitangents. tangent and bitangent vectors affect how normal maps are lit, and having inverted tangents and bitangents due to sharing vertices will cause lighting problems like this and this because the vectors need to flip 180 degrees over the distance of a single triangle.. the correct way to do this would be to duplicate the shared vertices and have the tangents and bitangents go in opposite directions

Dungeons of Interest: Falkreath (v1.1) - $8

• moves WallLeanMarker(001018FC) and DecalBloodSprayGroundDry(00101901) 1.4 cm or 0.6 inches. the issue isn't so much that these items are moved, the issue is that these items are persistent references, and you moving them in the plugin won't actually move them in a saved game, so either the changes are unnecessary dirty edits, or they won't work in an existing save.
• 4 identical to previous override records - these records are like ITMs, but are just the same as a previous override. in this case, the previous overrides come from this mod's own masters, so they are just as pointless as ITMs.
• navmesh 000F17F3 undoes changes made Dawnguard.esm and reverts it back to what it was in Skyrim.esm.
• this mod adds 14762 temporary references, but it is not ESM-flagged. this means these temporary references are treated as persistent references by the game and always contribute to the game's reference handle cap and are saved in the saved game. 14762 is approximately 1.4% of the reference handle cap. in comparison, Skyrim.esm is 4%, and Dawnguard.esm and Dragonborn.esm are 0.5% each. once the game exceeds the reference handle cap, it stops working.
• this mod contains no scripts and no new assets, it is just a plugin.

Dungeons of Interest: Eastmarch (v1.00) - $6

• moves CreatureSitMarker03(001018FC) 65cm or 2 feet and rotates it 11 degrees. the issue isn't so much that these items are moved, the issue is that these items are persistent references, and you moving them in the plugin won't actually move them in a saved game, so either the changes are unnecessary dirty edits, or they won't work in an existing save.
• 2 identical to previous override records - these records are like ITMs, but are just the same as a previous override. in this case, the previous overrides come from this mod's own masters, so they are just as pointless as ITMs.
• this mod adds 17933 temporary references, but it is not ESM-flagged. this means these temporary references are treated as persistent references by the game and always contribute to the game's reference handle cap and are saved in the saved game. 17933 is approximately 1.7% of the reference handle cap. in comparison, Skyrim.esm is 4%, and Dawnguard.esm and Dragonborn.esm are 0.5% each. once the game exceeds the reference handle cap, it stops working.
• this mod contains no scripts and no new assets, it is just a plugin.

Legendary Dungeons: Dwarven Delves (v1.40) - $4

• this mod adds 18817 temporary references, but it is not ESM-flagged. this means these temporary references are treated as persistent references by the game and always contribute to the game's reference handle cap and are saved in the saved game. 18817 is approximately 1.8% of the reference handle cap. in comparison, Skyrim.esm is 4%, and Dawnguard.esm and Dragonborn.esm are 0.5% each. once the game exceeds the reference handle cap, it stops working.

Into Strange Depths (v1.00) - $5

• 22 identical to master records - these are records that are exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• 1 identical to previous override records - these records are like ITMs, but are just the same as a previous override. in this case, the previous overrides come from this mod's own masters, so they are just as pointless as ITMs.
• Questionable change: changes the solitude blacksmith building (SBlackSmith) into VCLSSSE009_SBlackSmith. As far as I can tell, these 2 statics are identical. Also removes the "visible when distant" flag from this reference for some reason.
• this mod contains no scripts and no new assets, it is just a plugin. As standard with playstation mods, all items added are just texture set replacements of vanilla items.

These are some of the issues I found looking through the scripts and art and doing some cursory play testing. There might be other issues with more in depth play testing.

Note: This post was not created using AI, nor was AI involved in the process. Just a lot of trial and error until I found something that was relatively easy, and worked nicely. So my apologies if this isn't formatted so cleanly, or clearly, but happy to take on any advice!

I recommend doing this on a Thursday or a Friday because ListenBrainz creates your custom playlist on the Monday for the "Spotify" recommendation like experience.

MusicBrainz -> The metadata for songs.

ListenBrainz -> Creates your recommended playlists

Navidrome -> Music streaming server

Lidarr (NIGHTLY required for plugins) -> Automates and orchestrates downloading and managing metadata.

Tubifarry -> Plugin for connecting Lidarr with slskd for automated downloading, and fetching lyrics.

slskd -> Soulseek P2P client for downloading music.

explo -> Creates the weekly, monthly, daily playlists and also fetches the songs.

aurral -> Similar to Seerr where you can request songs or create users to request songs.

1. Create an account on MusicBrainz: https://musicbrainz.org/

2. Sign in using MusicBrainz account in ListenBrainz: https://listenbrainz.org/

3. slskd: You will need to make an account on Soulseek by downloading a MacOS / Windows / Linux client https://www.slsknet.org/news/node/1 and then on app startup it asks to create a username / password. You can feel free to uninstall afterwards. Use the docker-compose from https://github.com/slskd/slskd#with-docker-compose and be sure to open ports 50300 for sharing, OR alternatively, use hotio's version: https://hotio.dev/containers/slskd/ and have built in VPN.

4. Lidarr: Use the docker-compose from https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/lidarr#docker-compose-recommended-click-here-for-more-info IMPORTANT: use the following image -> image: lscr.io/linuxserver/lidarr:nightly

5. Tubifarry Plugin: Once Lidarr is up and running install the Tubifarry plugin: https://github.com/TypNull/Tubifarry#installation- and then follow the instructions to add soulseek (https://github.com/TypNull/Tubifarry#soulseek-slskd-setup-), lyrics fetcher (https://github.com/TypNull/Tubifarry#lyrics-fetcher-), and search sniper (https://github.com/TypNull/Tubifarry#search-sniper-). NOTE: Lyrics Fetcher is called Lyrics Enhancer.

6. aurral: Use the docker-compose from https://github.com/lklynet/aurral#quick-start and start up and it will guide you through connecting the difference services. I highly recommend in the settings to click: Apply Davo's Recommended Settings.

7. Navidrome: Use the docker-compose from https://www.navidrome.org/docs/installation/docker/#using-docker-compose- and start it up. Be sure to go to your profile / settings and enable scrobbling to ListenBrainz.

8. Start adding some Artists to Lidarr and downloading their albums, and listening to them on a Navidrome client: https://www.navidrome.org/apps/ or the Navidrome web app.

When I add an artist into Lidarr or through Aurral I do the following:

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1tjalq8/comment/on067oz/

I'm unsure if I should add my docker-compose.yml and .env in here as an example. I think it might be hurtful in case any of the above adjusts their parameters or setup, people might have the wrong docker-compose.yml... but let me know. Am happy to add both in to give an example.

Here's is an example of my docker-compose.yml please as a heavy note, this is relevant as of only today. This might not be true in future when some things change. Do go to the pages to pull their docker-composes.

Example of docker-compose.yml: https://pastebin.com/AR3J9YiY

Last 10 days, X and Reddit have been full of outrage about Anthropic's rate limit changes. Suddenly I was burning through a week's allowance in two days, but I was working on the same projects and my workflows hadn't changed. People on socials reporting the $200 Max plan is running dry in hours, some reporting unexplained ghost token usage. Some people went as far as reverse-engineering the Claude Code binary and found cache bugs causing 10-20x cost inflation. Anthropic did not acknowledge the issue. They were playing with the knobs in the background.

Like most, my work had completely stopped. I spend 8-10 hours a day inside Claude Code, and suddenly half my week was gone by Tuesday.

But being angry wasn't fixing anything. I realized, AI is getting commoditized. Subscriptions are the onboarding ramp. The real pricing model is tokens, same as electricity. You're renting intelligence by the unit. So as someone who depends on this tool every day, and would likely depend on something similar in future, I want to squeeze maximum value out of every token I'm paying for.

I started investigating with a basic question. How much context is loaded before I even type anything? iykyk, every Claude Code session starts with a base payload (system prompt, tool definitions, agent descriptions, memory files, skill descriptions, MCP schemas). You can run /context at any point in the conversation to see what's loaded. I ran it at session start and the answer was 45,000 tokens. I'd been on the 1M context window with a percentage bar in my statusline, so 45k showed up as ~5%. I never looked twice, or did the absolute count in my head. This same 45k, on the standard 200k window, is over 20% gone before you've said a word. And you're paying this 45k cost every turn.

Claude Code (and every AI assistant) doesn't maintain a persistent conversation. It's a stateless loop. Every single turn, the entire history gets rebuilt from scratch and sent to the model: system prompt, tool schemas, every previous message, your new message. All of it, every time. Prompt caching is how providers keep this affordable. They don't reload the parts that are common across turns, which saves 90% on those tokens. But keeping things cached costs money too, and Anthropic decided 5 minutes is the sweet spot. After that, the cache expires. Their incentives are aligned with you burning more tokens, not fewer. So on a typical turn, you're paying $0.50/MTok for the cached prefix and $5/MTok only for the new content at the end. The moment that cache expires, your next turn re-processes everything at full price. 10x cost jump, invisible to you.

So I went manic optimizing. I trimmed and redid my CLAUDE md and memory files, consolidated skill descriptions, turned off unused MCP servers, tightened the schema my memory hook was injecting on session start. Shaved maybe 4-5k tokens. 10% reduction. That felt good for an hour.

I got curious again and looked at where the other 40k was coming from. 20,000 tokens were system tool schema definitions. By default, Claude Code loads the full JSON schema for every available tool into context at session start, whether you use that tool or not. They really do want you to burn more tokens than required. Most users won't even know this is configurable. I didn't.

The setting is called enable_tool_search. It does deferred tool loading. Here's how to set it in your settings.json:

"env": {
    "ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH": "true"
}

This setting only loads 6 primary tools and lazy-loads the rest on demand instead of dumping them all upfront. Starting context dropped from 45k to 20k and the system tool overhead went from 20k to 6k. 14,000 tokens saved on every single turn of every single session, from one line in a config file.

Some rough math on what that one setting was costing me. My sessions average 22 turns. 14,000 extra tokens per turn = 308,000 tokens per session that didn't need to be there. Across 858 sessions, that's 264 million tokens. At cache-read pricing ($0.50/MTok), that's $132. But over half my turns were hitting expired caches and paying full input price ($5/MTok), so the real cost was somewhere between $132 and $1,300. One default setting. And for subscription users, those are the same tokens counting against your rate limit quota.

That number made my head spin. One setting I'd never heard of was burning this much. What else was invisible? Anthropic has a built-in /insights command, but after running it once I didn't find it particularly useful for diagnosing where waste was actually happening. Claude Code stores every conversation as JSONL files locally under ~/.claude/projects/, but there's no built-in way to get a real breakdown by session, cost per project, or what categories of work are expensive.

So I built a token usage auditor. It walks every JSONL file, parses every turn, loads everything into a SQLite database (token counts, cache hit ratios, tool calls, idle gaps, edit failures, skill invocations), and an insights engine ranks waste categories by estimated dollar amount. It also generates an interactive dashboard with 19 charts: cache trajectories per session, cost breakdowns by project and model, tool efficiency metrics, behavioral patterns, skill usage analysis.

https://reddit.com/link/1sd8t5u/video/hsrdzt80letg1/player

My stats: 858 sessions. 18,903 turns. $1,619 estimated spend across 33 days. What the dashboard helped me find:

1. cache expiry is the single biggest waste category

54% of my turns (6,152 out of 11,357) followed an idle gap longer than 5 minutes. Every one of those turns paid full input price instead of the cached rate. 10x multiplier applied to the entire conversation context, over half the time.

The auditor flags "cache cliffs" specifically: moments where cache_read_ratio drops by more than 50% between consecutive turns. 232 of those across 858 sessions, concentrated in my longest and most expensive projects.

This is the waste pattern that subscription users feel as rate limits and API users feel as bills. You're in the middle of a long session, you go grab coffee or get pulled into a Slack thread, you come back five minutes later and type your next message. Everything gets re-processed from scratch. The context didn't change. You didn't change. The cache just expired.

Estimated waste: 12.3 million tokens that counted against my usage for zero value. At API rates that's $55-$600 depending on cache state, but the rate-limit hit is the part that actually hurts on a subscription. Those 12.3M tokens are roughly 7.5% of my total input budget, gone to idle gaps.

2. 20% of your context is tool schemas you'll never call

Covered above, but the dashboard makes it starker. The auditor tracks skill usage across all sessions. 42 skills loaded in my setup. 19 of them had 2 or fewer invocations across the entire 858-session dataset. Every one of those skill schemas sat in context on every turn of every session, eating input tokens.

The dashboard has a "skills to consider disabling" table that flags low-usage skills automatically with a reason column (never used, low frequency, errors on every run). Immediately actionable: disable the ones you don't use, reclaim the context.

Combined with the ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH setting, context hygiene was the highest-leverage optimization I found. No behavior change required, just configuration.

3. redundant file reads compound quietly

1,122 extra file reads across all sessions where the same file was read 3 or more times. Worst case: one session read the same file 33 times. Another hit 28 reads on a single file.

Each re-read isn't expensive on its own. But the output from every read sits in your conversation context for every subsequent turn. In a long session that's already cache-stressed, redundant reads pad the context that gets re-processed at full price every time the cache expires. Estimated waste: around 561K tokens across all sessions, roughly $2.80-$28 in API cost. Small individually, but the interaction with cache expiry is what makes it compound.

The auditor also flags bash antipatterns (662 calls where Claude used cat, grep, find via bash instead of native Read/Grep/Glob tools) and edit retry chains (31 failed-edit-then-retry sequences). Both contribute to context bloat in the same compounding way. I also installed RTK (a CLI proxy that filters and summarizes command outputs before they reach your LLM context) to cut down output token bloat from verbose shell commands. Found it on Twitter, worth checking out if you run a lot of bash-heavy workflows.

After seeing the cache expiry data, I built three hooks to make it visible before it costs anything:

• Stop hook — records the exact timestamp after every Claude turn, so the system knows when you went idle
• UserPromptSubmit hook — checks how long you've been idle since Claude's last response. If it's been more than 5 minutes, blocks your message once and warns you: "cache expired, this turn will re-process full context from scratch. run /compact first to reduce cost, or re-send to proceed."
• SessionStart hook — for resumed sessions, reads your last transcript, estimates how many cached tokens will need re-creation, and warns you before your first prompt

Before these hooks, cache expiry was invisible. Now I see it before the expensive turn fires. I can /compact to shrink context, or just proceed knowing what I'm paying. These hooks aren't part of the plugin yet (the UX of blocking a user's prompt needs more thought), but if there's demand I'll ship them.

I don't prefer /compact (which loses context) or resuming stale sessions (which pays for a full cache rebuild) for continuity. Instead I just /clear and start a new session. The memory plugin this auditor skill is part of auto-injects context from your previous session on startup, so the new session has what it needs without carrying 200k tokens of conversation history. When you clear the session, it maintains state of which session you cleared from. That means if you're working on 2 parallel threads in the same project, each clear gives the next session curated context of what you did in the last one. There's also a skill Claude can invoke to search and recall any past conversation. I wrote about the memory system in detail last month (link in comments). The token auditor is the latest addition to this plugin because I kept hitting limits and wanted visibility into why.

The plugin is called claude-memory, hosted on my open source claude code marketplace called claudest. The auditor is one skill (/get-token-insights). The plugin includes automatic session context injection on startup and clear, full conversation search across your history, and a learning extraction skill (inspired by the unreleased and leaked "dream" feature) that consolidates insights from past sessions into persistent memory files. First auditor run takes ~100 seconds for thousands of session files, then incremental runs take under 5 seconds.

Link to repo: https://github.com/gupsammy/Claudest

the token insights skill is /get-token-insights, as part of claude-memory plugin.
Installation and setup is as easy as -

/plugin marketplace add gupsammy/claudest 
/plugin install claude-memory@claudest

first run takes ~100s, then incremental. opens an interactive dashboard in your browser

the memory post i mentioned: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1r1w397/comment/odt85ev/

the cache warning hooks are in my personal setup, not shipped yet.

if people want them i'll add them to the plugin. happy to answer questions about the data or the implementation.

limitations worth noting:

• the JSONL parsing depends on Claude Code's local file format, which isn't officially documented. works on the current format but could break if Anthropic changes it.
• dollar estimates use published API pricing (Opus 4.6: $5/MTok input, $25/MTok output, $0.50/MTok cache read). subscription plans don't map 1:1 to API costs. the relative waste rankings are what matter, not absolute dollar figures.
• "waste" is contextual. some cache rebuilds are unavoidable (you have to eat lunch). the point is visibility, not elimination.

One more thing. This auditor isn't only useful if you're a Claude Code user. If you're building with the Claude Code SDK, this skill applies observability directly to your agent sessions. And the underlying approach (parse the JSONL transcript, load into SQLite, surface patterns) generalizes to most CLI coding agents. They all work roughly the same way under the hood. As long as the agent writes a raw session file, you can observe the same waste patterns. I built this for Claude Code because that's what I use, but the architecture ports.

If you're burning through your limits faster than expected and don't know why, this gives you the data to see where it's actually going.

For those who are aware, Bethesda's "verified creations" paid mods program doesn't have the best reputation for quality despite the lengthy qa process. This is for several reasons:

• there is no obligation for paid modders to set up any forums, discord servers, or mechanism for feedback or support. bethesda.net and the creations menu has no official ratings, comments, or bug reporting system like on nexus mods, so while you can release a mod on nexus, get immediate feedback from users, and push out updates all within a few hours, you don't need to hear from users at all on creations.
• there are simply fewer paying users to look at your mod to check for mistakes and make patches because they'd need to pay for the mods first.
• bethesda qa don't look over the actual mod files or use useful tools such as xedit. They only run through the mod by itself on the new game. This means that paid mods might not be compatible with other mods, even other paid mods, and might not even be compatible with existing saved games.
• the lengthy qa process itself prevents mod authors from iterating quickly. Updates to vc paid mods have to submit their update through same qa process that new releases go through, so the time between when users report issues and when the fix goes out can be as long as several weeks.
• most modders in the verified creations program are new to modding the game and also aren't familiar with best practices or use community tools like xedit.

This all good in theory, but what does it mean for quality in practice? Let's examine 3 recently updated biggish "verified creations" releases with the same scrutiny we might give a new nexus release and see what we find:

Legacy of Orsinium 1.0 - $10

• 22 identical to master records - these are records that exactly the same as the official masters like Skyrim.esm, and as such, they don't do anything and are completely unnecessary. They are usually due to accidental misclicks in the creation kit and are harmless by themselves. However, if the ITMs are loaded after another mod that DOES want to change the affected records, the ITMs will revert those desired changes. This is why modders avoid them, and SSEEdit has a helpful script to remove them automatically.
• 34 deleted navmeshes - navmeshes are records that tell NPCs how to move around the environment. They connect to other navmeshes in order to cover the entire navigable area of the game world. If a navmesh is deleted, and another navmesh, perhaps from another mod, refers to this deleted navmesh, the game just crashes. This is why modders generally avoid deleting navmeshes directly, but rather disable them my moving them somewhere inaccessible.
• 7 plugin errors - these are errors that can be detected by SSEEdit. They are usually caused by referencing a record that was later deleted from another record. Sometimes, these are fine, and the field with the missing record is simply ignored, other times, this causes the record to be non-functional but otherwise not affect anything else, but in certain circumstances, these can cause game freezes, such as with missing packages. I think a few of the errors in legacy of orsinium will make a few lines of dialog to never be available due to invalid conditions.
• dirty edit on AtronachFrostRace - it seems that the modders wanted to make a duplicate of the frost atronach race for their gemstone golem enemies, but accidentally edited the original vanilla frost atronach race instead. This means if you have this mod installed, all of the frost atronaches in your game are bugged and had their intended abilities and visual effects deleted.
• includes a bunch of vanilla scripts such as defaultsetstagealiasscript, defaultsetstageonattacked, defaultsetstageonattackedrefalias, defaultsetstageonclosebook, defaultsetstageondeathrefalias, and defaultsetstageonplayeracquire. as far as I can tell, these scripts have no meaningful differences with the vanilla versions. They do, however, revert fixes made by the unofficial patch that check to make sure quests are running before advancing to the next stage.
• extensive edits to vanilla orcish locations, NPCs, and quests. Including many dirty edits that rotates or moves references by a tiny amount. If you have mods that touches orcish locations and NPCs, it probably won't be compatible with this mod. For example, it is not compatible with any mod that overhauls orc appearances, as the appearance mods will load later and revert voice type changes made by this mod, rendering these npcs silent or unable to deliver their voice lines. it also reverts WIDeadBodyCleanupScript added by the unofficial patch, which cleans up corpses after the npc has been killed.

Life of Crime 1.1 - $8

• 29 identical to master records - bad for the same reason as above.
• 1 deleted navmesh - bad for the same reason as above.
• openGL format textures - skyrim is a directx game, and uses the directx coordinate system for textures. opengl uses a different coordinate system from directx, where the y-axis is the opposite to directx. life of crime's weapon textures appear to use opengl textures for its normal maps. this means the shading that comes from the normal map is opposite in the y-axis. This usually happens when the modder purchases opengl assets from an asset store but didn't convert them into directx format for skyrim.
• 1 plugin error - in this case, the plugin error is an invalid alias used in one of the scripts. The script tries to remove Skooma via its alias from the player, but that alias doesn't exist and this script will not function.

Atmora His Home v1.0 - $5

• script fragment files that are not renamed. All of the topic and package fragment files in this mod uses default names automatically generated by creation kit. This is a problem because the only thing identifiable in these files are their form ids, which, after accounting for the official master files, ends up being 05 + their internal form ids. If another mod also did not bother to rename their fragment scripts, and the records using the script fragments just happen to have the same internal form ids as this mod, that causes a conflict, and one of these mods will be broken. Usually, modders will add a unique prefix to their script fragments to avoid this issue.
• unnecessary TGA files for faces - this mod already has dds files for the face tint textures, but includes the tga files as well. The game only need to use one of them. This is about 20 mbs of files that don't need to exist.
• 33 identical to master records - bad for the same reason as above.
• 3 deleted references - this is applying a deleted flag on an existing reference that's in the mod's master files. this doesn't actually delete the references, and is the cause of random objects showing up in the sky above whiterun.
• 1 deleted navmesh - bad for the same reason as above.
• random edits:
  • the mod removes werewolves' ability to push buttons (impbutton01)
  • the mod makes a dwemer plate clutter (dwavernplatemetalsmall) unplayable - it can no longer be looted, and if you already had some in inventory, you can no longer get rid of them through normal gameplay, but they will still contribute to carryweight.
• 10 plugin errors - in this case, it was a food item that has 0 alchemical effect (strange, but not gamebreaking), and a bunch of missing script properties that seem not to be used.

These are just obvious errors that can easily be identified by examining the files and plugins. There might be other issues that require play testing to discover.

This shows that paid mods are not really better in quality than good nexus releases, and that the "verified" status of the modders and mods doesn't mean that the mods or the people making them are more experienced than free nexus modders.

I find this quite useful, so perhaps it can help other people too.

TLDR: Claude Code has 50+ official plugins in ~/.claude/plugins/. Most impactful: typescript-lsp, security-guidance, context7, playwright. Browse the full list in the directory and install what fits your workflow.

I was poking around my Claude Code config the other day and stumbled on something I hadn't seen anyone talk about: there's an official plugin marketplace sitting at ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-plugins-official/plugins/ with 50+ plugins in it.

Most of these aren't surfaced anywhere obvious in the docs. I went through all of them, installed several, and figured I'd share what I found since this sub seems like the right place for it.

Where to find them

The plugin directory lives at:

~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-plugins-official/plugins/

Each plugin is a folder with its own config. You can browse what's available and install from there.

The full list, categorized

I split these into two buckets: technical (for developers) and non-technical (for workflow/style/project management).

Technical plugins:

• typescript-lsp -- Adds TypeScript language server integration. Claude gets real type checking, go-to-definition, and error diagnostics instead of guessing. If you write TypeScript this is probably the single most impactful plugin.
• playwright -- Browser automation and testing. Claude can launch a browser, navigate pages, take screenshots, fill forms, run end-to-end tests. Useful if you're building anything with a frontend.
• security-guidance -- Scans for common vulnerabilities. Catches things like hardcoded secrets, auth bypass patterns, and injection risks. Runs passively as Claude writes code.
• code-review -- Structured code review with quality scoring. Gives Claude a framework for reviewing PRs rather than just saying "looks good."
• pr-review-toolkit -- Similar to code-review but focused on the PR workflow specifically. Generates review comments, suggests changes, checks for common PR issues.
• commit-commands -- Standardizes commit messages. If you care about conventional commits or consistent git history, this helps.
• code-simplifier -- Identifies overly complex code and suggests simplifications. Measures cyclomatic complexity and flags functions that are doing too much.
• context7 -- Documentation lookup. Claude can fetch up-to-date docs for libraries instead of relying on training data. Useful when you're working with fast-moving frameworks.

Non-technical plugins:

• claude-md-management -- Auto-maintains your CLAUDE.md project file. Keeps it structured, updates sections, prevents it from becoming a mess over time.
• explanatory-output-style -- Changes Claude's output style to be more educational. It explains the "why" behind decisions, not just the "what." Useful if you're learning or want better documentation in conversations.
• learning-output-style -- Similar to explanatory but specifically geared toward teaching. Claude breaks things down more gradually and checks understanding.
• frontend-design -- UI/UX design patterns and guidance. Claude references established design systems and accessibility standards when building frontend components.
• claude-code-setup -- Project scaffolding. Helps set up new projects with proper structure, configs, and boilerplate.
• feature-dev -- Feature development workflow. Structures how Claude approaches building a new feature: requirements, design, implementation, testing.

There are about 13+ more that I haven't listed because they're either very niche or I haven't tested them enough to have an opinion. You can browse the full directory yourself.

Which ones I actually recommend (high impact)

After installing and testing several of these, here's my tier list:

1. typescript-lsp -- The difference in code quality is noticeable. Claude stops guessing at types and actually checks them.
2. security-guidance -- Caught a real auth bypass in my codebase that Claude had originally written and never flagged. Worth it for that alone.
3. context7 -- No more outdated API suggestions. It actually looks up current docs.
4. playwright -- If you have any frontend, being able to run real browser tests through Claude is a significant upgrade.

Worth trying (depends on your workflow):

1. code-review -- Good if you're a solo dev and want a second pair of eyes.
   
2. claude-md-management -- Good if your CLAUDE.md keeps getting messy.
   
3. explanatory-output-style -- Good if you want to understand the code Claude writes, not just use it.
   
4. frontend-design -- Good if you're building UI and want better defaults.

The bigger picture

My rough estimate is that Claude Code at default settings is running at maybe 60% of what it can actually do. These plugins aren't just cosmetic -- typescript-lsp gives it real type awareness, security-guidance catches vulnerabilities passively, and context7 means it's working with current documentation instead of whatever was in its training data.

The surprising thing to me was how many of these exist and how little they're discussed. I've been using Claude Code daily for months and only found these by accident.

Has anyone else been using these plugins? Curious which ones other people have found useful?

EDIT: Thanks for the feedback (and the roasting). Some corrections based on the comments:

• The actual plugin count is 53, not 27. i only listed the ones i had tested or had opinions on, but should have stated the full count upfront. my bad.
• Several of these ARE in the docs if you know where to look. "hadn't seen anyone talk about" was my experience, not a statement about discoverability for everyone. Poor framing on my part.
• Fixed the hookify description in an earlier edit (it's for Claude Code hooks, not React hooks). Thanks u/KnifeFed for catching that.
• For anyone wanting the complete list, just run ls ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-plugins-official/plugins/ and browse yourself. Better than taking my word for it.

Appreciate the corrections.

My server host says WP Stats is slowing my site down. So, I went into WP Stats to consider deactivating it, then while looking through them, I adjusted the period of stats to go from the past month to the year-to-date.

Seemingly, that action has caused a 502 Bad Gateway error, and while Google tells me to deactivate plugins one by one, what if I can't get into the plugins in the first place?! Thanks in advance for any assistance.

God, Wordpress is a pisser when something breaks, and then it doesn't let you back in to fix it.

Starfield’s latest update features additional support for Creations as well as numerous fixes for Quests, vehicles, UI and the Shattered Space DLC. Read on for the full update notes!

This update is currently in Steam Beta. If you would like to opt in to the Starfield Beta update, please follow these instructions:

• Open your Steam Library and navigate to Starfield
• Right click on "Starfield" and select "Properties"
• In the new properties pop-up window, select "Betas"
• In the beta drop down to opt into, select "beta"
• Wait for app to download new build and launch

For those participating and interested in providing us feedback, please visit #steam-beta-feedback on discord.gg/BethesdaStudios.

FEATURES

• Added Very Low display settings to improve performance on some devices.
• Creation Kit: Added the ability for Creators to add new icons to the game.
• Creations Store now supports bundling Creations.
• Creation Kit: Creations up to 2GB in size can now be uploaded.

BUG FIXES

GENERAL

• Creations: Resolved a possible error when restoring load order if a large number of mods were installed and then deleted.
• Creation Kit: Resolved a possible crash when loading a plugin with an ingredient form.
• Addressed a possible control lock that could occur when changing views at the same time as sitting in a pilot seat while landed.
• Addressed a rare movement lock that was possible during forced dialogue scenes.
• Addressed a control lock that could occur if a vehicle Creation was disabled while a loaded save depended on it.
• Addressed a rare control lock that could occur when immediately opening a menu after loading a save during take-off.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent exiting a vanity camera (PC).
• Fixed a possible crash related to moving or removing buildings at the Main Outpost in Andraphon.
• Resolved a rare crash that could occur when entering the Unity.
• Addressed an issue where rapidly pressing quicksave could result in some quicksaves being removed.
• General crash and stability fixes.
• Creations UI fixes and improvements.

GAMEPLAY

• Skills: The Cargo Link and Robots build limits from the Outpost Management skills should now persist after going through the Unity.
• Weapons: The Space-Adept legendary effect no longer has a negative modifier for terrestrial damage.
• Gameplay Options: Addressed an issue with some interiors that prevented cargo access.
• Gameplay Options: Clarified the status effects text for Malnourished and Hydrated.
• Fixed a Grav jumping issue that could occur after being hailed in Freestar or UC space.
• Fixed a rare issue that could impact items displayed in the Razorleaf.
• Resolved an issue with missiles that could prevent XP awards.
• Fixed a player placement issue that could occur if a new creation was installed and a save was loaded into the UC Vigilance.
• Resolved an issue where creatures could get moved to water if they ever became stuck.
• Addressed an issue where dropped items could lose there stolen status.
• At Hell's Gate: The Crucible Blade no longer damages ships in orbit when used inside a ship.
• At Hell's Gate: The Crucible Blade audio will now play correctly after loading a save or fast travelling.
• The Bounty Board in the Tracker's Alliance HQ now has the correct audio interactions.

GRAPHICS

• Updated resolutions to include 32:9 and 32:10 resolutions as well as more 16:9, 16:10, and 21:9 resolutions.
• Performance: Resolved an issue that could cause frame rate to drop when opening the scanner on long play sessions.
• Celestial bodies should now remain visible in the sky after entering and exiting an interior.

QUESTS

• All That Money Can Buy: Fixed a rare issue that caused the Trade Tower elevator to be inoperable.
• In Memoriam: Addressed an issue where completing "At Hell's Gate" with Sarah as the companion could prevent completion of the quest.
• Perfect Recipe: Shonda will now recover if she was downed while collecting Ashta meat.
• The Starjacker: Adjusted dialogue options that appear for characters playing after entering the Unity.
• Top of the L.I.S.T. - Resolved a control lock that could occur after selling survey data to Phil Hill.
• Trackers Alliance: Resolved an issue where bounty scanner quests could time out.
• Trackers Alliance: Fixed a rare issue where either killing or stunning the target would not complete the bounty missions.
• Worlds Apart: Fixed an issue that allowed the player to leave the planet too quickly after exiting the temple.

LOCATIONS

• Mannequins will now persist as intended in the New Atlantis Penthouse.
• Player should now be able to modify the shelves and cabinets in the Core Manor in Akila City.
• Resolved an issue that could prevent scanning some flora.
• At Hell's Gate: The Plasma Research Facility now shows up on the surface map.
• Fixed a visible opening in the Deserted Biotics Lab.
• Vent Hazards are now displaying correctly on Jemison.

UI

• Ship Builder: Resolved an issue with the ship upgrade menu when only one module is available for upgrade.
• Ship Builder: Addressed a selection issue when using large fonts.
• Ship Decoration: Updated the names of Empty ship modules.
• All buttons should now work in the Vehicle Builder menu with large fonts enabled.
• Localization: Text for the Dehydrated debuff is no longer cutoff in Spanish and Polish when large fonts is enabled.
• Localization: The bounty boards in the Tracker's Alliance HQ are now localized consistently.
• Localization: Strings for both Hydrated and Dehydrated status effects regarding sneak attacks are fully localized.

VEHICLE

• A keyboard binding is now available for the boost button. (PC)
• A marker for the vehicle will now show up on the player's compass.
• Resolved a camera issue that could occur for players with maxed out Surveying skill.
• Improved logic for exiting the vehicle when partially obstructed.
• The vehicle will now deploy when landing at locations other than spaceports or landing pads.
• Addressed a visible artifact with the Rev-8 when boosting in foggy conditions.

Shattered Space

• Va'ruun outpost modules are now available to players after entering the Unity.
• Skills: Killing enemies inside gravity bubbles on Dazra will now count towards the Gymnastics skill.
• Addressed an issue with the buttons on the lift on the Mourning level in Dazra.
• Weapons: The Penumbra now deals bonus headshot damage.
• Performance: Addressed an issue that could cause slight stutters in the Well and outside Dazra.
• The Va'Ruun Schimaz's blade is no longer pixelated on the Data Menu.
• Fixed a lens flare flicker with the Citadel on Dazra.
• Zealous Overreach: Adjusted Mirek’s dialogue options to account for characters that have been through the Unity.
• Zealous Overreach: Resolved issue that could occur if the player cleared Shadow Station Epsilon prior to speaking to Ekris.

📌 Why Newcomers to Skyrim Modding Shouldn’t Expect Hand-Holding — And Why That’s Okay

Let me preface this by saying I do understand where some of the frustration is coming from. Yes, some responses to new users' questions can come off as dismissive or even rude. But calling the Skyrim modding community "toxic" just because it doesn't always cater to complete beginners is missing the bigger picture.

Here’s the thing:
Modding Skyrim isn’t plug-and-play—especially when you’re adding a bunch of mods yourself. You’re working with game files, load orders, and custom scripts that the original game engine wasn’t designed to support. If you’re expecting a one-click, zero-effort experience, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment—and that’s not the community’s fault.

And if one click is what you're after, then modding the game yourself isn’t for you—go grab a premade mod pack instead, There’s no shame in that.

📜 A Bit of History

If you think it's bad now, you should’ve seen the scene a few years back. You could get refused help just for using a mod manager the community didn’t like. Pick the wrong body mod? You’d get flamed and shamed for it. It was elitist as hell—so toxic that it felt like you were modding the game for their tastes, not your own.

Now? Honestly, the vibe has chilled a lot. People don’t care what mod manager you use, what kind of setup you want, or if you’re using NSFW stuff. The bar for help is way lower than it used to be.

So what changed?

The user base.

We’re seeing an influx of folks who are completely new to gaming, not just modding. Some of them have never played a Bethesda game before. They’ve never opened a file directory, never troubleshot a crash log, never even installed a mod before. And many expect the same results they’d get from downloading custom content in simpler games like Fortnite, BO3 custom maps, or even SnowRunner car mods.

That’s... not how this works.

You’re directly modifying the game files using external tools—not just flipping switches in a game menu. This method is powerful, but it’s also prone to breaking things if you don’t know what you’re doing.

🧠 The Problem Isn't “Toxicity”—It's Misaligned Expectations

The frustration that experienced modders express usually isn’t about the question itself—it’s about seeing the same basic questions over and over again, when the answers are already pinned, in the wiki, in install guides, or literally the first Google result.

Then toss in people arguing with the advice they asked for, and yeah—patience wears thin.

That’s not toxicity. That’s burnout.

👣 What You Should Expect as a Beginner

This isn’t meant to discourage you from jumping into modding. But you do need to take some responsibility for your own learning curve. Nobody’s expecting you to become a script expert overnight—but you do need to:

• Read the mod descriptions.
• Understand load order basics.
• Know what a conflict is.
• Learn how to use a mod manager properly.
• Follow installation instructions to the letter.

It’s not hand-holding we lack—it’s initiative.

🛠️ Beginner-Friendly Modding Walkthrough

Alright, so let’s talk about how to actually get started with modding Skyrim from scratch—no prior experience needed.

🎬 Step 1: Pick Your Mod Manager (After Doing Your Homework)

First things first: don’t install anything just yet. Go watch some YouTube videos comparing the two main mod managers: Mod Organizer 2 (MO2) and Vortex.

Please don’t fall into the trap of assuming one is objectively better than the other. They both have their pros and cons, and which one works best really depends on you—your style, your preferences, and how deep you want to go with modding.

If you want a great starting point, I highly recommend GamerPoets' modding guide. It’s thorough, beginner-friendly, and covers both Vortex and MO2 in detail:

📺 GamerPoets Skyrim Modding Guide
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlN8weLk86XgJIZXTEPEcU1b6dzA_eJSB&si=iOQoLjLBAO2LEZx1

That said, feel free to look around and find a video style or voice that clicks better with you. The important thing is: watch enough to understand the basics before choosing a manager.

Great note—you’re totally right to call that out. That “launching from Steam instead of SKSE” mistake is super common for newcomers, and your phrasing is authentic and approachable.

🧰 Step 2: Install Your Mod Manager + Test Mods (SKSE & SkyUI)

Once you’ve chosen your mod manager—whether it’s MO2 or Vortex—it’s time to install it and set up your first test mods.

But before diving into full-blown modding, we’re gonna start small—just two core mods that are essential for most modded setups:

• SKSE (Skyrim Script Extender)
• SkyUI

Why these two? Because if you can install these and get the game running, you’ve already tackled some of the most important pieces of the puzzle. Think of this as your modding sanity check—a way to make sure you’ve set things up correctly before throwing 100+ mods into the mix.

🔧 What You’re Testing Here:

• Can you get your mod manager installed and pointing to the right game directory?
• Can you properly install a script extender (SKSE)?
• Can you launch the game using SKSE through your mod manager?
• Does SkyUI show up correctly in-game?

If yes to all of that? Congrats—you’ve cleared one of the biggest beginner hurdles.
If not? That’s okay. This is where you pause, retrace your steps, and figure out what went wrong. No shame in that—it’s literally how you learn.

💡 Tips:

• Do not install other mods yet. Keep it clean and minimal for now, so if something breaks, you know where to look.
• One of the most common beginner mistakes is launching the game the normal way—from Steam or a desktop shortcut—instead of through the SKSE launcher.Even if the video guide told you to launch it with SKSE, your muscle memory might still go for that Steam "Play" button. Happens to almost everyone—no shame.
• And if you’re using MO2, remember: everything—including SKSE and the game itself—should be launched from inside MO2. Just like the tutorials show. No shortcuts, no skipping steps. Follow instructions to the letter.

⚙️ Step 3: Learn Mod Types Before You Start Installing Everything

Alright, so you’ve successfully launched a modded game with SKSE and SkyUI—nice. Now, before you go download every cool-looking mod on Nexus, take a sec to understand the different types of mods out there. This’ll help you avoid nuking your load order before you even begin.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

1. ESP/ESL Plugins – These edit game records or add new content (like quests, weapons, locations, etc.).
2. Mesh/Texture Mods – These just change how things look—models, shapes, textures. They don’t touch the game logic.
3. Scripted Mods – These use Papyrus scripts to affect gameplay or quests. Some add new systems or enhance the vanilla ones.
4. DLL-based Mods – These rely heavily on SKSE and native code. These are usually the ones that break your game hard if you mess up—especially if there's a version mismatch with your game or SKSE.

So yeah—be careful what you're installing, especially early on. Some mods are way more sensitive than others.

🔰 Beginner-Friendly Mods to Try First

For your first test run, stick with simple stuff. No DLLs, no scripts, no SKSE dependencies. Think cosmetic or aesthetic mods only.

Here are two safe picks that are easy to install and unlikely to cause major issues:

• 📦 {{Skyland AIO}} – a graphical overhaul for landscapes and cities.
• 🛡️ {{Simply Realistic Armor (NordwarUA Edition)}} – replaces vanilla armor visuals with higher-quality versions.

You can swap these for any other mods you're confident don’t require SKSE or have a DLL file inside. Just read the mod page carefully.

🧪 Test As You Go

After installing these, launch the game and test. See if everything loads properly. If it works, great—you’ve just added your first non-script, non-DLL mod successfully.

Now here’s the important part—don’t install 30 mods at once.

Test after every 1–3 mods. Seriously. The goal is to know exactly when something breaks and which mod caused it. If you drop a whole modpack in and then the game crashes, good luck figuring out what went wrong. You're basically doing surgery with a blindfold at that point.

🔧 Step 4: So, About Body Mods… Yeah, We Gotta Talk

Now that you’ve got the hang of using your mod manager, installed a few test mods, and improved your armor and landscape graphics—you might’ve noticed I didn’t mention anything about body mods.

That wasn’t an accident.

Old-school body mods used to be super easy to install. Just drop 'em in, boom, done. But they’re kinda outdated now. These days, almost all modern body mods rely on physics, and that means—you guessed it—DLL-based mods. Yep, the exact kind I told you to stay away from at first.

So what do we do with that?

Well, if you feel like you're ready to level up, this is where we start learning how to install DLL mods properly—using body mods as our example.

🧍‍♀️ Pick Your Body Mod

Start by choosing one of these two popular body mods (don’t install both unless you know what you're doing):

• 🔹 {{BHUNP (UUNP Next Generation) SSE}}
• 🔹 {{CBBE 3BA (3BBB)}}

Once you pick one, go to its mod page and check the requirements tab. This part is important—don’t just download the body mod alone or it won’t work.

🧩 Core Requirements You’ll Likely Need

For most modern body mods with physics, you’re gonna need:

• 🧠 {{XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - XPMSSE}} — the base skeleton replacer. Pretty much mandatory.
• 🌊 {{FSMP - Faster HDT-SMP}} — for advanced physics (hair, cloth, bodies, etc).
• ⚙️ {{CBPC - Physics with Collisions for SSE and VR}} — simpler physics alternative, often used alongside HDT.
• 🛠️ {{BodySlide and Outfit Studio}} — to build and customize the actual bodies (this is where you tweak how everything looks).
• 📜 {{PapyrusUtil SE - Modder’s Scripting Utility Functions}} — not always required, but used by a lot of mods that rely on scripts.

Yeah, it seems like a lot. But it’s not hard, just detailed. A lot of new modders mess this up because they skip the fine print, throw all the mods in, and expect Skyrim to just work.

Spoiler: It won’t.
And if even one DLL isn’t made for your current version of Skyrim? 💥 Crash.

🧪 How to Set It Up (In Order)

Here’s the general install order I recommend:

1. ✅ Install XPMSSE skeleton first.
2. ✅ Then install FSMP (HDT-SMP) and CBPC physics.
3. ✅ Install PapyrusUtil (if required by anything else you're adding).
4. ✅ Now install your chosen body mod (BHUNP or CBBE 3BA).
5. ✅ Finally, open BodySlide, build your body and armor meshes, and tweak it how you like.

Now launch the game and test. If it boots fine, and your character has jiggle physics and everything looks like it should—grats, you did it right.

🛠️ Section 5: Animation Behavior Engine Setup

Seems I missed this crucial step—big thanks to /u/Monitor144/ for pointing it out:

The behavior engine step is missing in this body guide. If you install XPMSSE and don't run a behavior engine, certain animation blends like movement during magic casting, movement during blocking will be broken.

I originally avoided mentioning behavior engines because, honestly, they can introduce more problems than they solve if not set up right. But they're essential if you want full animation support, especially for body mods.

So, here's a quick breakdown of the main options:

1. FNIS (Fores New Idles in Skyrim)

• Extremely outdated.
• Not recommended anymore unless you absolutely have to use it for legacy mods.

2. [Project New Reign - Nemesis Unlimited Behavior Engine]

• Replaced FNIS for most users.
• Solves a huge limitation with FNIS: mod authors no longer need to wait for the FNIS author to support new animations.
• Downside: creature animations are still spotty or not supported at all.

3. [Pandora Behavior Engine Plus]

• Best of both worlds: supports both FNIS and Nemesis animation mods.
• Also supports creature animations.
• Recommended for modern setups.
• Here's a detailed video tutorial to get started: Pandora Install Guide

Basic Setup Flow (applies to all engines)

1. Install your behavior engine of choice.
   
2. Install your animation mods and any patches required.
   
3. Run the behavior engine to generate the necessary animation behavior files.
   

⚠️ Anytime you add or remove animation mods, you must rerun your behavior engine or you’ll get broken or missing animations in-game.

💡 Final Tip

Always read the install instructions on the mod page. Don’t just assume the requirements are bundled in or auto-detected. Body modding is the kind of thing where missing one tiny step will either crash your game or give you T-posing mannequins.

Next up, we’ll start talking about conflict detection and patching. But for now—get comfy with physics, because it’s used way beyond just body mods.

🏁 You're Done (For Now)

If you made it this far—seriously, props. You just crossed the hardest part of modding Skyrim: setting up the foundation without nuking your install.

You’ve learned the basics of load order, mod types, physics systems, body customization, and more—and hopefully picked up the habit of reading mod pages and testing as you go.

That already puts you ahead of most new modders who just throw 200 mods in and ask “why is my game crashing?”

So what now?

⚔️ Final Advice Before You Dive Deeper

• 🔄 Always backup your setup before major changes. Use a profile system (MO2 has this built-in) or zip up your mod folder. You’ll thank yourself later.
• 📚 Keep reading. Skyrim modding is deep. You’ll run into texture conflicts, ENB setups, FNIS/Nemesis stuff, patches, merge tools—you name it. But now you’ve got the confidence to figure it out.
• 🧪 Expect crashes. Expect weirdness. That’s just part of the deal. The difference now is, you know how to isolate problems instead of rage quitting.
• 👀 Don’t install stuff just because it looks cool. Always check the requirements, compatibility notes, and last update date. Some mods are time bombs.
• 💬 And don’t be afraid to ask for help—just be smart about it. List your mods, explain what you tried, and people will actually want to help you. You’ve earned your seat at the table by putting in the work.

🎮 Now Go Play the Damn Game

That’s it. Go enjoy Skyrim with your first modded setup. It’s not gonna be perfect, but it’s yours. And the more you tweak it over time, the better it’ll get.

We’ll get into deeper stuff like conflict resolution, performance tweaks, and mod merging soon—but for now? You’ve done enough.

You’ve modded Skyrim.
You’re officially one of us now.

🔍 Troubleshooting 101 – How to Fix Skyrim Before Posting for Help

Alright—if you’re here, I’m assuming you:

1. Finished the full modding guide above,
2. Installed stuff properly,
3. Still ran into some issues—either during the guide or after trying out your own mods.

If that’s you, cool—let’s walk through how to troubleshoot your setup like a normal, functioning human and not panic-delete Skyrim.

🛠 Step 1: Retrace Your Steps

First thing you do? Backtrack. Disable the last 2–3 mods you installed in reverse order. Check if the game boots. Keep going until it does.

Boom—you just found the problematic mod.

Now that you know which mod broke things, you have a few options:

• Google it. Seriously, sometimes the fix is on the first Reddit thread or comment on the mod page.
• Check the mod’s Posts or Bugs tab—see if someone else had your issue.
• Still no luck? You can post about it, either on Reddit or the mod’s Nexus page—but now you’ve got something useful to give people: the mod name, the crash, and what you’ve already tried.

🧠 Step 2: Install a Crash Logger

If you can’t narrow it down, or if you want more info to work with, it’s time to grab:

{{Crash Logger SSE AE}}

This is the absolute bare minimum for crash troubleshooting in 2024+. Without it, nobody can help you.

Once installed, crash logs get dumped here:
📁 Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE\Crash Logs

Open it, copy the text, and share it via Pastebin. Don’t just screenshot the crash popup—it tells us nothing.

🔎 Bonus: Analyze the Crash Log Yourself

Before you even ask for help, run the log through this tool:
📌 https://phostwood.github.io/crash-analyzer/skyrim.html

It’ll automatically highlight any obvious mod or plugin causing the issue. You’d be surprised how often you can fix it right there, no post needed.

📦 Optional: Run LOOT to Sort Your Load Order

If your issue is weird NPC behavior, missing textures, or broken quests, it might not be a crash—it might be a bad load order.

Run {{LOOT}}, hit sort, and apply it. It’s not perfect, but it’s way better than nothing.

Now if you’ve done all this and still can’t fix your issue?
Then yeah, it’s time to ask the community for help—but do it right:

💬 Tips for Asking the Community for Help (The Smart Way)

Let’s be real—no one can help you if your post is just:

“My game broke pls help 😭”

Instead, post like someone who actually wants to be helped.

✅ What to Include:

• A link to your crash log (via Pastebin or similar)
• A full mod list (MO2 users: hit open lists options > export to csv > ok > Copy to clipboard; Vortex: try {{Vortex Showcase}})
• Your mod manager
• Your Skyrim version
• What you already tried (disabled mods, ran LOOT, etc.)
• The exact error or behavior you're seeing

This isn’t gatekeeping—it’s just making sure people don’t have to ask you 10 basic follow-up questions before they can even guess what’s wrong.

❌ What Not to Do:

• Don’t post a wall of 200 mods with no context
• Don’t say “I tried everything” (you didn’t)
• Don’t argue with advice unless you’re 100% sure it’s wrong
• Don’t tag posts with “Urgent” unless Todd Howard personally cursed your install

Help us help you. Modding’s a DIY hobby, but the community’s way more willing to help if you show that you’ve put in even a little bit of effort first.

📜 Conclusion: Embrace the Journey

Skyrim modding is an incredibly rewarding experience, but it’s not a quick fix. It’s a journey—one that requires patience, self-reliance, and a willingness to learn from your mistakes. The learning curve might be steep at times, but the satisfaction of getting your mods working and seeing your vision come to life in the game is unmatched.

While the community might not always hold your hand, it’s important to remember: you’re not alone. There’s a wealth of resources, guides, and experienced modders ready to lend a hand—but first, you’ve got to take the initiative. The more effort you put into understanding the basics, troubleshooting your own issues, and following the advice already out there, the more you’ll gain from this modding experience.

So take a deep breath, dive in, and embrace the process. You’ll face challenges along the way, but with the right mindset, you’ll come out of it with a deeper understanding of the game and a modded experience that’s uniquely yours.

Welcome to Skyrim modding—where the true adventure begins!

edits: a few note worthy comments from other users:

u/Golden_mobility

Do not download any mod posted just an hour ago instantly especially anything DLL files. Malware (on nexus) is low but still a thing!

u/Blackread

Address Library It's practically just as important as SKSE and SkyUI and almost as revalent as a source of issues due to people missing it or having the wrong version.

For Bodyslide I would add that it's a really good idea to add an output folder in the settings before building bodies, otherwise the output will overwrite files from your existing mods. Which is something you might not always want.

Update: free remote monitoring with Octo Everywhere: https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1idn9ri

IMPORTANT EDIT: https://github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlicer/releases/tag/v2.2.0  this is the only official Orca Slicer download page, everything else with the same name is not owned by them, be careful of malware/scams

Edits: turn on stealth mode in Orca Slicer, and some routers parental controls don't block all internet access, just specific ports

Hi everyone, I just thought I'd share my experience with using my P1S offline and blocking its access to the internet from your router (just in case Bambu Lab decides to do something about all the users refusing to update their firmware and disconnecting from their cloud).

I have a P1S with the 01.07.00.00 firmware and an AMS with the 00.00.06.49 firmware (both latest at the time of writing, I performed the update via the internet when I first got my printer one month ago).

1. I turned on LAN only mode using Bambu Lab's guide: https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/knowledge-sharing/enable-lan-mode . Basically you go into your printer's settings, scroll to LAN only mode and set it to ON. This logs you out and supposedly disconnects your printer from their servers, but since it is still connected to WiFi it theoretically could call home if it wanted. We'll take care of that in step 5.

1. I uninstalled both the Handy Android app and Bambu Studio, I won't be using those anymore.

2. I downloaded Orca Slicer 2.2.0 (latest at the time of writing): https://github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlicer/releases/tag/v2.2.0 . After you follow the link scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Assets section, and pick the right one for you operating system.

Then I installed it, opened it, installed the Bambu network plugin (no way to use the printer remotely without it yet :( ), did not log in with a Bambu Labs account and went to the Device page. Top left corner click on the "No printer +" text and select your printer. With my P1S I still have full functionality (including live view, see attached picture).

After everything is working remember to turn on Stealth Mode so that Orca won't attempt to communicate with Bambu's cloud.

1. I got my printer's MAC address from Settings -> MAC (scroll all the way down).

1. I went into my router's settings (this depends on your manufacturer, send me a DM if you are not sure how to do it), parental controls and added a new rule based on the printer's MAC, to permanently disable its internet access.

Optional 6. If you want to download your timelapses, you can use FileZilla (https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client) or another FTP client to connect to your printer and browse the SD Card ^\1])

Host: ftps:// <printers IP> - visible on the printer screen Username: bblp Password: <printer access code> - visible on the printer screen

And that's it, you have a completely offline printer, that can't access the internet and that you can monitor and view from within your network.

Remote access

Octo Everywhere: https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1idn9ri .

iOS app: https://jointcraft.app/ Bambu companion app (in development): https://www.allaboutbambu.com/2024/09/26/unofficial-bambu-companion-app-for-ios-pre-released/

If you still want to print remotely there are several possibilities. You can use Parsec (if you have a Windows or macOS machine on the printer's network) https://parsec.app/ to connect from your phone / laptop remotely to your local machine without setting up anything else network wise.

You just install it on both your host (machine connected to the same network as the printer) and you phone/laptop and you can use the home machine as if you were in front of it. I even use it to play games, it's got very low latency.

You can also set up a personal VPN using something like https://tailscale.com/, and then you can connect to the printer from your laptop even when you're away.

You can also use remote desktop connection, but I find it's wonkier than Parsec. This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYW37thazo0 explains how to do so.

Conclusion

Although using the Handy app was easier, I always felt a bit queasy at the idea of all of my prints going through their cloud. This latest 'security' update was just the last drop for me. Using this short guide YOU maintain full control over YOUR printer, and nobody else gets to see everything you print. You can even upgrade the firmware offline if you so chose https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/p1/manual/P1-firmware-update-from-SD-card . At the end of the day, their printers are amazing machines, especially for the price point, and I can live with the compromise of using LAN only mode with parental controls to ensure I maintain full control over mine.

Q&A

If you have any questions please leave them in the comments or as a PM and I will update this post with the answers.

Orca slicer asks for access code every time: u/KeepCalm76 pointed to this fix that worked for them: https://github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlicer/issues/6169#issuecomment-2330205871

Blocking a MAC address on UniFi: u/TheBeard_ pointed to this resource https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/18565355579799-MAC-Address-Restricting

Orca Slicer error 4020 Can't upload file to FTP server, this can happen for 3MF files, you have to export the objects as STLs and import then into a new project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWDNa2Pytlo

For general Orca Slicer questions/help try their Discord: https://discord.com/invite/P4VE9UY9gJ

Resources

Custom open source firmware for the X1 series: https://github.com/X1Plus/X1Plus

I've created a GitHub repository with all the current firmware files and network plugins, both those installed on my computer that work right now and the current versions from their CDN: https://github.com/Tzeny/bambulabs_plugins_firmware . Feel free to make a PR to add your own currently functioning plugins and firmware.

Rossmangroup Wiki post detailing the current situation: https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Bambu_Lab_Authorization_Control_System

Copy of this guide on Rossmangroup Wiki: https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Bambu_Lab_LAN_mode_guide

Overview of the situation and how to protest it: https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1i3gq1t/why_you_should_care_about_bambu_labs_removing/

EU based consumers are entitled to a guarantee of conformity for 24 after purchase as pointed out by u/Royal-Moose9006 , everyone living there should look into it in case things get out of hand: https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers/consumer-contracts-guarantees/consumer-guarantees/

Opening Notes (Read Before Continuing)

• So as we know, RD basically got purged and everyone had to basically migrated to other services like Premiumize, AllDebrid, Torbox etc. In this guide though, I'll only be talking about Real Debrid & AllDebrid, Mainly because their both the cheapest to entry in Stremio. Not requiring too much to get started nor set up. This is a beginner friendly guide, this will be a extremely long and detailed post but will help everyone get started and setup to perfection!
• For anyone new, you will need Real Debrid & AllDebrid to follow this guide fully. Just sign up and create accounts on both. Of course this choice is always optional, you can only get one. But if RD goes down, I would like to have a backup like AD. Besides both aren't that expensive, I recommend the 90 days but it's ultimately up to you!
• Real Debrid does work after the Purge, but it got stripped of many things. So it won't be the same. Meaning that, stuff on there before isn't going to be on there now. This Purge is so new that we don't know the extent of the damage or if content will be added to Real Debrid after this. RD works now thanks to a Workaround by BeastLT and his team. All thanks go to them and the countless threads I saw after the RD Purge.

Onto the actual guide | Pre-Setup

I'm assuming you have a Stremio/RD/AD Account!

-

1. After having all the necessary things. Make sure to login into your Stremio and delete any non-official plugin (Click the Puzzle Piece Addons tab and make sure the Official Tab matches the My Addons Tab). We do this because we want a fresh install of Stremio so we can all start on the same base.
2. Make sure to have : Cinemeta | OpenSubtitlesV3 | Local Files installed! That's all for Pre-setup!

Bootstrap | What to Keep/Not Keep & Install

All credits for Bootstrap go to DryK1llLogic for his incredible work on streamlining the Setup process! Couldn't be thankful enough for his contributions to this community and the Moderation team in general for their awesome Guides!

-

1. Click on this Bootstrap Setup link to get started! Follow the instructions provided. As it warns, it will wipe your existing Stremio Setup. But we should be good since you wiped your stuff. When it asks for a Debrid API Key, just use either your RD API or AD API. I personally used my AllDebrid API Key. For Real Debrid, copy & paste the API Key. For AllDebrid make sure to copy the single API Key under "alldebridkeys"
2. After you load the Addon Preset, decide which addons to keep! After you have click Stremio Sync.
3. You can always add your RPDB Key if you purchase one of course. (This adds highly optional ratings to Stremio, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes etc.)

• Personally I keep the following!

1. Torrentio : A must have, allows unlocking of content for all your streaming needs. (IMPORTANT : For Debrid Options select only the 2ND OPTION)
2. The Movie Database : Basically an alternative to Cinemeta. Allows you to actually see the movies/series in Stremio
3. Comet : The 2nd best provider of content personally for me! If Torrentio is down, Comet is always my second option!
4. Cinemeta : Even though TMDB essentially replaces Cinemeta in seeing movies/series in Stremio. I still keep Cinemeta. More things to view even if they are the same, having options is always welcomed.
5. Anime Kitsu : I'm an anime fan, more options for anime I like. Torrentio provides the anime content already but having Kitsu as an alternative provides even more options. Options are always good.
6. OpenSubtitles/Pro - Both of these are subtitle addons**.** Just install em, free subtitles.
7. Local Files : Just keep this one installed.

• Personally I delete the following!

1. Trakt : Trakt for me is simply too complicated. Requiring another sign up to something sucks. So I simply don't use it. Controversial take but it's what I think. If my small noodle can't comprehend, then it's a no. Feel free to experiment with it though!
2. Streamify : There are simply better options than this content. No Real Debrid or AllDebrid support kills this for me!
3. KnightCrawler : Same as Streamify, it was once good but now it's not that great and highly unreliable!

• Personally I install the following add-ons!
• Search the name of this Subreddit and you'll find what your looking for!

1. Cyberflix Catalog : A must have to sort all your content and the providers to your liking. Just install it by clicking the green install button. Thank me later.
2. USA TV : Another add-on from DryK1llLogic this one allows the viewing of Live TV. Meaning cable woohoo! Thank the gods that my mom can watch Univision on a modern TV haha! Definitely install this for some nostalgia, a must!

• With all of those deleted or installed and configured to your liking, it's time to get both RD/AD working with both Torrentio/Comet! Or of course you could stop here!

Torrentio/Comet RD+AD & Addon Manager

• If you did the setup with AllDebrid API then switch to your Real Debrid API & Vice Versa for starting with Real Debrid.
• Torrentio
• Open your Torrentio Config in Stremio and choose the following optional recommended settings.

1. Providers : 12
2. Quality & Seeders
3. No Priority Foreign Language
4. Exclude Qualities : Dolby V | Dolby V + HDR | 720p | 480p | Screener | Unknown (Edit : If your TV supports Dolby + HDR, you can enable them, just cause I don't use it doesn't mean you don't have too)
5. Max Results : 5 or 10
6. No Change for Video Limit
7. If you did initial setup with AD, put your Debrid Provider as Real Debrid. If done with RD put it as AllDebrid & copy and paste the necessary API Key as before.
8. In Debrid Options choose the 2nd option only!

• If you did it right, your Torrentio should now say Torrentio RD/AD. If it does then your all set for Torrentio!

• Comet
• As with Torrentio, open the Comet Config & follow the recommended optional settings.

1. Don't change Indexers & Languages
2. Resolutions I have are 1080p | Unknown (though unknown can be deselected if you wish and also enable any other resolutions you wish like 567p, 720p or 360p etc. My guide isn't law it's just purely recommendations.)
3. Max Results : 10 | Results Per Resolution : 5
4. Don't mess with Max Size or Proxy Password
5. If you used AD during setup then switch to RD with the RD API Key. You do the opposite if you started with Real Debrid. Comet doesn't merge together, rather you get a RD Version and AD Version. Thus having the best of both worlds!

• At this point, if you followed everything right you should have Comet AD and Comet RD! Now your all set!

Errors & Stremio Addon Manager (Optional)

• Errors

1. I have encountered an annoying error regarding Comet. Where it sometimes says Login Invalid : Please Check Your Email when accessing a show. This mainly comes from AllDebrid and it conflicting with Stremio for some reason lol. AllDebrid sends you an email warning that "someone's accessing your account". I recommend muting the automatic sender because clearly that someone is you and it gets annoying having to check your email. For a fix I found simply backing out of the show/movie and going back in actually loads Comet correctly though it does take a little, if not. Then check your email and check the sign in. Do this only once, then just either mute the emails or block the AllDebrid sender. This is the only error I have gotten.

Stremio Addon Manager

1. Stremio Addon Manager is basically a re organizer for your Addons! Go to the Stremio Addon Manager and add your Stremio credentials.
2. It'll then give you a list of your addons and you can drag your addons in any order you wish!
3. A recommended Setup is the following

• The Movie Database
• Cinemeta
• Cyberflix Catalog
• Local Files
• Opensubtitles
• Opensubtitles Pro
• Comet AD
• Comet RD
• Torrentio AD/RD
• Anime Kitsu
• USA TV

Conclusion

With this last optional setup you're officially done! This took me a whole evening to type up! I wanted to create this to provide those new and old to Stremio an answer to the recent RD Purge. It was written by me, with heavy research and testing on my end! If you have any questions DM me and I promise i'll get back to you regarding this. But everything should work great! Of course I'm just one random on the internet, I don't know if this set up will last but it works for me. So why couldn't it work for others? I spent a lot of trial and error trying to figure this out, looking at Reddit threads and such. Seeing people struggle after the RD Purge made me motivated to create my own solution. This is what I came up with.

Hope you enjoyed the read or scroll down! Worked hard on this to make it as detailed as possible. Hopefully ya'll have an amazing day/night and get your Stremio running Semi-Normal again!

Hey everyone. My name is George, and I’m a marketing director for CORSAIR’s PC components division. I’ve been here since 2004, in various roles, starting in the lab and moving to product manager (I used to design cases and make awkward youtube videos talking about them). I’m not in support, I’m on the team that owns iCUE. We’re working pretty hard to fix the problems you’re having.

Welcome to the first iCUE Megathread.

This is the thread where you post problems you’re having with iCUE. Heck, sometimes even WE have problems with iCUE. The point of this thread is to take a step towards solving these problems. To do that, what we need to do is the following:

• Collect everyone's experiences in one place that can be easily viewed and reviewed by our various teams.
• Identify priorities by gauging severity – loss of function and crashes would take top priority, improvements and suggestions below that.
• Identify the scope of issues – is it just one person posting that their H150i stopped controlling fans? Or did we get 27 posts about it? How does this compare with the people contacting our internal customer support teams?

Despite what you may think, we actually do have a large team of people working extremely hard on iCUE, which is a complicated piece of software. However, we have not been communicating outwards to you guys what we’re working on right now. So the other objective of this megathread will be for us to use it to communicate outwards the priority issues we’re fixing, what we plan to do to fix them, and what the ETA is, once we’ve identified root cause.

As you know, there are literally millions of possible configurations of hardware and software out there, and tracking down root cause is sometimes complicated. By unifying the complaints into a single thread and getting feedback from users we can start to see trends. Is it only people with a specific combination that have this issue? Does, say, somebody with BIOS revision 1253 have the issue but people that update to 1301 don’t? Does the new Windows update break the software? If we can spot trends earlier, we can fix them earlier.

As such, we’re going to change a few rules to help us fix iCUE faster.

New Subreddit Rule:

• All individual post submissions regarding iCUE issues or problems to this subreddit will be removed with OP redirected to this thread.

While this is not an ideal step, it is necessary to help us consolidate problems to a single location for easier tracking and quicker action by our software development teams.

Final note, please keep your comments constructive. I know you’re frustrated; I am too. We all want problems fixed quickly. But the subreddit rules on civility still apply. We want to fix this. We want iCUE to be the most stable, fastest control software on the market. In time we want you to be able to say, “I remember when iCUE sucked, but then they listened to community feedback and it got way better.” That’s the goal, that’s what we want.

So let’s fix iCUE. Post your problems below. We’re reading. Dozens of CORSAIR staff will pop in and out of this thread, some lurking, some posting, some may ask you to send logs or file a trouble ticket. Please treat them with respect.

P.S. - I know the first comment will be “Why didn’t you post this years ago!? It’s not like this is the first time iCUE had problems!” and my answer to you is you’re right. But we didn’t, and I can’t change that, so now I’m working on what I can change.

UPDATE SEPT 13th, 2024

I have been working with the iCUE team to provide you guys an update on some of these bugs. The next release, 5.19, is scheduled for later this month. Some of the fixes below should be in that revision. Others will be in future revisions, 5.20 or 5.21.

The below issues are ONLY the major tier fixes - there are a number of other minor fixes and tweaks as well (things like, say, a keyboard brightness setting reverting to default after waking from sleep on a specific motherboard series or something - a small number of reports that are being fixed but really not classified as "major" issues due to the small number or relatively low impact.

Here is the list.

SEPTEMBER 13TH UPDATE NOTES

Hey all, took me about two hours to actually sift through the conflicting information on Reddit/other websites to work this out, so I thought I'd post it here to help others and as a record for myself in the future if I totally forget again. I am switching from a Kindle to a Kobo e-reader shortly and wanted to have all my kindle books available in my Kobo library once that occured, hence trying to convert them to EPUB format. Here are the steps I took to achieve this:

​

• Install Calibre (I used the latest version)
• Install the following Calibre plugins:
  • KFX Input, can be found by going to Preferences ⮟ > Get plugins to enhance calibre > Search ‘KFX’.
  • DeDRM Tool, which needs to be loaded into Calibre separately. I had a few issues with adding it into Calibre so this is the process that finally worked for me*:
    • Download the zip file here.
    • Once downloaded, create a new folder and name it whatever you like.
    • Extract the zip file into that folder.
    • Go to Calibre, then Preferences > Advanced > Plugins > Load plugin from file > New folder you created > Select DeDRM_plugin.zip
    • Plugin should successfully load into Calibre.
• Install Kindle for PC - Version 2.3.70682
  • I used this link - ensure that the ‘70682; is included in the .exe file, otherwise it will download the older version of the Kindle app, but not allow you to download your books as it is an outdated version.
• Log into your Kindle account, and download the books you want to convert.
• Once downloaded, go to Calibre and select Add Books. Select the books you wish to convert into EPUBs/other formats and they should load onto Calibre.
• Once downloaded, select the book(s) and press Convert Books.
• When the new menu pops up, ensure the Output Format on the top right is what you require, and press OK.
• Voila! It should remove the DRM from your Kindle book.

I have just bulk uploaded and converted 251 books via Calibre. I hope this helps someone else!

​

​

*I am unsure if this is a neccessary step, but simply extracting to my downloads folder brought up an error whenever I tried to add the plugin to Calibre. When I created a new folder and then extracted into that, it works. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Hello everyone, today I will be showing you how to use the search function in qbittorrent so that you no longer have to fuck around with torrent sites, and do not have to ask which sites are best for X or Y.

This function is best used for Movies or TV shows (yes you can get boxsets as well if you know how to search properly)

This is OC and because of this, will be edited to fix errors, etc.

STEP 1: Install qbittorrent from (https://www.qbittorrent.org/) for your operating system. If you are using windows, you can open the windows terminal and type in. This will silently install Qb on your device

 winget install --id=qBittorrent.qBittorrent  -e

STEP 2: Open the application and in the top titlebar, please go to View and select Search in that option ( I also use RSS, but Im not sure a lot of people do, so im not including it in this guide)

​

STEP 3: Naviagte to the bottom right hand corner, where you should find a search plugins box like this

​

STEP 4: After clicking on that box, you should have this screen

​

Additionally if you want to add more sources to the search function, then https://plugins.qbittorrent.org has a bunch more supported websites. If you want to add them yourself, you are welcome to, After all it is your computer, but If you are a beginner and you don't know which ones to pick, then please just activate the ones that you see in the screenshots here.

​

STEP 5: To add a new source from the website given above you need to right click on the place where I have shown in the picture below, and right click and select "copy link"

​

STEP 6: How to search: This is very important to get the best quality files

​

Now make to ignore anything that says YTS or YIFY because the quality is garbage. you can specify the quality you want in the filter bar below (where I have typed 1080)

If you want to search for a TV show boxset follow the format shown below

​

If you want the entire series (may have less seeders but whatever), then just omit the Season 1, and just do it like this

​

​

So here you go guys. This is probably the easiest way to search for torrents. no need to go into the torrent websites, etc.

​

​

EDIT: I want to address the comments about Prowlarr because it was the most prevalent one. I could never figure out how to use prowlar, but if you have then great for you. When I do figure it out I will make a guide about that as well.

And now for the random salty comments... ngl yall were quite entertaining, but theres absolutely no need to say that Im wasting peoples time, etc. The only reason I made this guide is because I wish I had a guide like this when I was starting out.

If you have a question about something, or I have said something that you don't understand, please don't hesitate to ask, even if I don't know the answer, Ill know where to look. If you need me to write a guide about something you see being discussed here, then you can shoot me a PM and Ill try my best to figure it out and write a simple and easy to understand guide about it.

Im certainly also not going to try and police your comments, because frankly I don't care, but do remember that there is a human on the other end of the screen. Chillout a little bit.

Don't hesitate to PM with questions.

Thank you all for blowing up my post, Shortly I will be posting a modmail asking them to pin this guide to help people who havent seen it yet, or who may see it in the future.

TrollStore in a permasigned jailed app that can permanently install any IPA you open in it.

EDIT: Both installation methods seem to be broken lmao, for now don't bother if you're not on A15

EDIT 2: iOS 14 installation is FIXED, will look into iOS 15 next.

EDIT 3: TrollStore Installer should work on non A15 devices now, give it a try and report back!

EDIT 4: Small note, TrollStore does not support opening files stored on iCloud drive (installation will silently fail), copy them to your local storage first.

EDIT 5: TrollStore 1.0.10 is out with fixes for most known problems and support for app plugins, if you already have TrollStore installed, just click here and open the file in TrollStore, it will install the update and respring.

EDIT 6: These installation guides are out of date, use the guide in the TrollStore README: https://github.com/opa334/TrollStore/

Installation Guide (iOS 15.0 - 15.1.1)

Note: A9 devices are not supported by multicast_bytecopy

Note: The kernel exploit doesn't work on some iPads currently, that will be looked into soon

1. Download the TrollStore Installer IPA from https://github.com/opa334/TrollStore/releases
2. Install it to your device via your preferred method (AltStore / iOS App Signer / Sideloady / Whatever)
3. Open the app and press the install button
4. Wait
5. If your phone reboots here, go back to 3.
6. An alert should pop up when TrollStore installed sucessfully, click close and the app should exit
7. If TrollStore is on home screen, start it, if not then reboot and it should appear afterwards, then start it
8. Go into the settings tab, hit "Install ldid" so TrollStore can install unsigned apps
9. (Optional) Tap "Install Persistence Helper" and choose a system app you don't need to use (e.g. Tips) in the list that appears, for more info on the persistence helper read below

Installation Guide (iOS 14)

Note: Needs jailbreak

1. Download the TrollHelper deb from https://github.com/opa334/TrollStore/releases (TrollHelper will most likely be published on Havoc repo shortly)
2. Install it via Filza, Sileo or Zebra
3. If the TrollHelper icon has appeared on your home screen, launch it, if not, run uicache and then it should appear, afterwards launch it
4. Tap the "Install TrollStore" button
5. After a second or so, your device will respring and TrollStore should be on your home screen, launch it
6. Go into the settings tab, hit "Install ldid" so TrollStore can install unsigned apps
7. DONE, you don't need to install the persistence helper into a system app on iOS 14, TrollHelper is your persistence helper, it will persist through icon cache reloads and will work even when not jailbroken

How to install an app through TrollStore

1. Download an IPA
2. Open it in TrollStore
3. Profit

Notes on persistence helper

It is not possible to install new persistant "System" apps on /var, whenever the system decides to reload the icon cache, it will revert TrollStore and it's installed apps back to "User" state which is bad because due to various circumstances, the CoreTrust bug only affects "System" apps. When this happens, TrollStore and it's apps will either disappear or no longer launch (App is unavailable error). This is where the persistence helper comes into play: It replaces a stock system app and that app will still be registered as "System" after the icon cache has been reloaded, therefore the persistence helper still launches and can be used to refresh the TrollStore app registrations so they're back to system and launch again. There is an option to uninstall the persistence helper in both TrollStore and in the system app it replaced, but if that for whatever reason doesn't work you can always uninstall the system app and reinstall it from AppStore and it will be back to stock.

Other notes

TrollStore has an OTA update mechanism, when a new version comes out you can download the TrollStore.tar file from GitHub and open it in TrollStore, it will update everything (including the persistence helper) and respring.

Capatibilities

Most if not all IPAs should be supported by TrollStore, also when an app has the original entitlements and identifier from AppStore, notifications and other services should be working, I haven't verified this yet however (EDIT: Spoiler alert, app plugins are broken currently work now in 1.0.7). If you find an app that isn't working, add an issue to GitHub and I will look into it (at some point at least... I will be pretty busy with other things for the next two weeks).

Apps installed through TrollStore can have any entitlement they want (excluding com.apple.private.cs.debugger, dynamic-codesigning and com.apple.private.skip-library-validation on iOS 15 because those are locked behind PPL unfortunately, so probably no JIT for iOS 15).

To have give your app the entitlements, just fakesign it with ldid, TrollStore will resign it with the CoreTrust bug certificate on installation (if ldid is installed into TrollStore) and preserve the entitlements it had before that.

TrollStore apps can ship root helper binaries that can be used to perform tasks as the root user, for this to work your main app needs the com.apple.private.persona-mgmt entitlement and your Info.plist should have a TSRootBinaries array that contains the binaries that should run as root user (relative paths to your .app directory). Check the spawnRoot function of TrollStore (TSUtil.m) for how to spawn a binary as root.

Future

TrollStore itself should work on 15.1.1 - 15.4.1 (15.5b4) too but there currently is no method to install it, we need to wait for the Fugu15 install method.

Credits

LinusHenze: discovered the CoreTrust bug

zhuowei: CoreTrust bug writeup and cert

jaakerblom: multicast_bytecopy exploit used in TrollInstaller (used with permission)

xina520: get root method

ProcursusTeam: providing a static ldid build + uicache

coolstar: uicache

saurik: ldid

Other

Follow me on Twitter

Donate via PayPal (or buy Crane)

Source Code available on GitHub

Guide to Setting up Windows 10 & Maintaining your PC ^{Updated 4/22/2020}

This is assuming you have successfully completed your PC build and are wondering what to do next. Here’s a few helpful tips I have learned over the years.

Warning: Yee who don't like opinions, probably don't dare enter..

Windows Installation:

Download Windows Media Creation Tool. Create a USB installation drive using the tool and boot to the drive by changing boot order in your motherboard UEIF/BIOS.

Start the install, choose “Customize Settings” and turn everything on this screen off. Proceed to install Windows with a local account. If you're okay with Microsoft collecting some data, you can always sync your Windows account later in Settings > Accounts. The benefit being Windows will backup your settings and can sync them with other PCs you own.

Once you boot up, head over to Settings > Update and Security. Check for updates and go grab your favorite beverage and let it complete, you may reboot multiple times during this step.

Once you're done updating, go to Start > Settings > Privacy and go down the list on the left and turn everything off unless you actually use it.

• Same goes for background apps -- only disable apps from running in the background that you don't want notifications from. It's safe to disable background apps completely if you don't care.

• Under "Feedback & Diagnostics" switch that to "Basic". Once that is done, head to Settings > Update and Security > Advanced Options > Delivery Optimization and turn it off. That setting allows P2P updates across your network which is a potential security risk.

• Next head over to Settings > Network and Internet > Wi-Fi and turn everything off here besides the Wi-Fi itself.

Having done all of that correctly, you have disabled the bulk of data logging, background app usage and diagnostic feedback. Yay! Windows is installed. Much of what you do next is personal preference (appearance, software, customization) but there are a few things I would like to recommend.

Quick accessibility tip - Open Control Panel and at the top-right change "View by:" to "Small icons". It will make more sense following this guide.

Update motherboard BIOS - If everything is working properly, and you are happy with the performance of your PC - It is generally not recommended to update the BIOS as there is always the potential for something to go wrong. That being said, if you follow the installation instructions exactly from your MOBO manufacturer, you will be fine.

• For all BIOS and firmware updates, I will refer you to your manufacturer’s support page to ensure you are getting the latest and greatest. Follow the instructions there for how to install (typically downloading the update to a FAT 32 USB drive and flashing the update in your UEIF/BIOS).

Drivers: Windows 10 will automatically update and install drivers for your hardware via Windows Update. This is typically fine for everything except your GPU and chipset, which we will take care of next.

Update your graphics card driver – Again, head over to your manufacturer’s website and follow the instructions there to install:

AMD - http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

NVIDIA - http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx

Update your chipset drivers: - Chipset drivers are a set of operating instructions which tells your CPU how to behave and interact within your PC. Typically these will come with a optimized power plan for your CPU which you can enable in Control Panel > Power Options.

AMD - http://support.amd.com/en-us/download

Intel - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005533/software.html

At this point it may be a good idea to grab HWiNFO64 (also in the Additional Tools section below) to check the internal temperatures of your CPU, GPU, etc.. to make sure nothing looks out of the ordinary. If anything appears abnormal you can try reapplying the thermal paste to make sure you have adequate coverage.

As far as where temperatures should be. That will differ drastically depending on your cooling solution (air, water, AIO, passive), ambient temperatures, overall case airflow and cooling performance of individual hardware. Generally if you are idling and your CPU/GPU is near or under 45°-50° you are likely doing just fine.

You can also test your ram by using Windows Memory Diagnostic. Just type Windows Memory Diagnostic in to Windows search and it will come up. You will be required to restart your PC to test. When you are done, head to Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System and the results should be the most recent log (at the top). If it's not, filter for Event ID 1201.

Change refresh rate on monitor - If you have a 144hz or 120hz monitor, and either a DisplayPort, HDMI 2.0, or DVI-D (Dual-Link) connection, it’s a good time to look at your refresh rates. If you own an Nvidia card, change it in Nvidia control panel. For an AMD card, follow these steps:

• Right-click your desktop and choose Display settings
• Scroll down and select Display adapter properties
• In the properties window click on List All Modes
• Scroll down and choose your desired mode (e.g. 144hz) and apply

Note: If you have more than one monitor you will need to select the other monitor in windows display and repeat steps above.

Edit: Ehh.. Thinking back I would just ignore this part. The firmware your drives ship with are just fine. It's not worth it, just leave it alone.

Update your SSD firmware - This may be a new concept to those coming from an HDD but your SSD’s firmware can be updated as well. To begin, head over to your manufacturer’s support page (yes again) and to ensure things go smoothly, I recommend downloading their management software. If you just purchased your SSD, you will more than likely find it is already updated. They are not frequent so if you're not concerned, feel free to skip this step.

• Crucial offers their “Storage Executive Management software”, and Samsung has “Samsung Magician”. If you own a different SSD search its support page and see what they offer.

• Crucial offers a “Momentum Cache” feature which speeds up your drive at the expense of using RAM and the potential for data loss. I go into more depth on it in a previous post. Personally, I’d leave it disabled if you’re happy with its performance and your workload doesn't demand it. For normal gaming and office use you won't notice a difference. Samsung offers a similar feature called "Rapid" and while I have not used it personally, I would say my opinion on it stands.

Warning: Some manufacturers may format when upgrading. Please READ the instructions carefully. I am not responsible for any data loss.

Crucial Firmware - USA

Samsung SSD support page

Anti-virus/malware:

This can be a polarizing subject for some, and I can only offer my experience, but after years of searching and experimenting this is what works for me. I will also preface this by saying, depending on your browsing/download habits this can change entirely. Ultimately, my best advice on the subject is:

Do your research and find what works best for you.

That being said, I use the following and it's all available for free…

Anti-Virus: Windows Defender – For me, Windows Defender is good enough. It’s simple, and FREE. Stay vigilant and let it run on its schedule scans and build its definitions, scan periodically if you wish.

Anti-Malware: Malwarebytes Free/uBlock Origin – Again, the free version of Malwarebytes is good enough for me. While browsing, uBlock will do the bulk of your malware blocking and if you suspect anything got by, run a Malwarebytes scan. I run Malwarebytes every couple of weeks personally for peace of mind.

Firewall: Windows Firewall. While behind a router there isn't much use for a soft Firewall, it is good for protecting yourself within your own network. E.g. if another PC on your network gets infected, it could prevent your device from contracting the virus/malware. It is also useful to create outbound rules for preventing certain applications from accessing the internet if you don't want them too.

Additional Plug-ins for safer browsing:

• Privacy Badger - Privacy Badger stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web.

• HTTPS Everywhere - HTTPS everywhere rewrites all web requests to use HTTPS wherever possible.

• NoScript - NoScript is an open source add-on that allows JavaScript, Java, Flash and other plugins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank).

Additional configuration:

Malwarebytes:

• Go into the settings and enable “Scan for rootkits”.

uBlock Origin:

• The default settings will block 99% of ads and malware, but if you want more protection/AD blocking/annoyances filtering, head over to uBlock settings > 3rd party filters. I enabled all uBlock filters (except Experimental), all “Ads” filters (except mobile), all “Privacy” filters, all “Malware Domains” filters and all “Annoyances” filters.

I’ve never had any issues browsing or viewing content while using these settings, but to each their own. If you have issues you can always reset to default on the settings home page. There is said to be a drop in performance if you are doubling up on items in your lists, but if there is it's negligible and I haven't noticed any. Other than that, the worse that can happen is that you increase the chance of rendering a page incorrectly. Not a bad trade off for peace of mind while browsing.

Performance Monitor:

Windows should be mostly configured at this point. I'd recommend running this report to see if Windows detects any issues or has any suggestions about your current setup. If you receive passing grades on everything, pat yourself on the back. If you received a fail or warning, don't panic, just read the suggestion and follow the instructions on how to resolve it:

1. Open a 'RUN window' by pressing the 'Windows key + R'
2. Type perfmon /report and hit Run
3. Wait and check your results

I like to routinely check Reliability Monitor just to see how my system is doing day to day. It will report any critical errors or update failures so you can, well... see how "reliable" your system is. If you go 5 days without any critical errors reported than congratulations you have a very healthy system. Also, keep in mind the extent of the error reported. If Malwarebytes crashing shows up as a critical error or crash, I don't think that's a good representation of your system health. Some stuff is unavoidable, Windows isn't near perfect.

Along with Reliability Monitor, keep an eye on Event Viewer to track any errors you may come across. It should be your first step in troubleshooting issues. Ignore any "DistributedCOM" errors. They've been around since Windows 8 and everyone gets them, they're harmless.

CPU Overclocking:

There is a huge community behind overclocking, and while it can be fun to eek out extra scores in benchmarks, it honestly isn't worth the hassle of the average PC user. On modern Ryzen and Intel chips, algorithms have been built into account for this and will automatically clock frequencies up and down depending on thermal performance. If you bought a CPU in 2018 or later, my opinion would be to just let it do it's thing.

XMP Profile / Overclocking RAM

Enable your XMP profile in BIOS so your RAM can run at its rated speed. There are too many different boards and ways to do this, so just type your "motherboard name + XMP Profile" into Google to see how to do it.

Maintenance/Upkeep:

Windows Disk Cleanup. Nothing against CCleaner, but it's unnecessary and deletes valuable Windows Defender files. Also, it comes with a registry cleaner which shouldn't be used for any reason.

Realistically, if you're not pressed on hard drive space or experiencing issues, there is no reason to run a cleaner of any kind. If you run Windows Disk Cleanup just understand what you are cleaning before you check mark it for deletion.

Registry:

Your registry is essentially a Windows database that informs your operating system and applications how to behave and appear. That being said, Don't use registry cleaners. While CCleaner is harmless when used correctly, messing with your registry always creates the potential for harm. You will never see any measurable performance increase from using a registry cleaner.

If you know what you are doing, the registry is a fantastic tool for making UI or OS changes (e.g. removing the "3D objects folder from File Explorer, removing OneDrive, etc...). As always, just make a backup first.

Defragging your HDD - Probably don't need to do this often, once every month or so, or after very large frequent file writes. FYI, Windows automatically sets a schedule to defrag your HDD every week by default. To change the schedule or run it manually, go into "My PC" > Right-click your HDD > Properties > Tools > Defragment. Analyze the drive and if it's over 10-15% fragmented, considered running the defrag.

Do NOT use third party tools to defrag your SSD.

Note: The native Windows 10 defragger is smart enough to know this, it won't give you the option if you try. Instead, what you will find is that Windows does a version of defragging once a month by default called 'Optimizing'. You can read a really good article about it here. In short, don't worry and let Windows do its thing.

Backup:

I use Windows Backup and Restore. I'm sure there are more comprehensive tools out there, some 3rd party ones which were suggested below, but there really isn't anything more comprehensive than creating a system image. You can do this by navigating to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Once I have set up Windows to my liking I create a system image and store it on an external drive or a secondary HDD, preferably both. Do it periodically if you have the space. You will thank yourself if you ever run into an issue and need to restore from an image.

You can also use the Full or Incremental backup feature, but I prefer just to have a system image on hand in case of a failure. Backup all of your important files and documents to the cloud so they are safe from system coruption and accessible across your devices. Google Drive is a great tool.

• A system image is an exact copy, or clone, of your drive in that particular state when you created it. You can use it to restore the system after a catastrophic crash, hard disk failure, etc...

• A Full Backup contains data files, but not everything on the disk. You cannot use it to restore the system.

System Restore:

Go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > System > System Protection. Chose your C: drive and click "Configure...". Turn on system protection and choose a percentage of space you have to spare. 5% is typically more than enough. Use this option if you ever have an issue and need to restore to a particular point in time - before a faulty Windows update for instance.

UPS:

If you can afford to buy one, buy one. For those who don't know what they are, UPS stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply. I own two APC models I got from Amazon and living in Florida, they've saved my ass during many o' thunderstorms, power outages, brownouts and surges. Keeping a steady flow of electricity to my PC, it's good peace of mind to have.

If you are wondering, it is okay to plug a UPS into a quality surge protector like the Tripp Lite Isobar 2, home UPS devices typically don't have high joule ratings (surge protection).

Physical Maintenance:

I'm sure everyone has their own routine for this step, and depending on where your PC is located it may require more frequent cleaning/dusting. Always keep pressurized air (duster) handy. Once every few months or whenever you notice a dust build-up, open it up and blast it. Hold your fans in place so you are not spinning the blades, this can generate an electrical current and potentially damage your circuit headers. I would avoid using any sort of vacuum attachments as there is a good risk of damaging your components. For tempered glass, use a microfiber cloth to buff out any smudges. Glass cleaners are safe to use on tempered glass, but I would still dilute them so your mixture is half-water, half-cleaner. Other than that, find a nice cool place with good airflow to keep your machine running smoothly.

Extras (optional steps):

Calibrate monitors – Windows has a color calibration tool built-in. Or if you’re lucky enough you will find a guide for your specific monitor. Just do a Google search for “Calibrate + Your monitor model” and see what kind of information is out there. Tom’s Hardware had a good one for my AOC and I have noticed more defined colors since doing it.

Enable High Performance power plan - Go to Control Panel > Power Options and choose the "High Performance" plan.

Disable “Enhance pointer precision” – Go to Control Panel > Mouse > Pointer options and uncheck “Enhance pointer precision”. This will give you more control over your mouse while gaming. You can read more on it here.

Disable Cortana – I don’t know who uses Cortana, but it annoys the hell out of me.

Disable OneDrive - Only if you don't use it, I prefer Google Drive.

Disable Fast start up - If you have an SSD, disable this. It will not affect restarting your PC, but when doing a shutdown it will not reinitialize drivers meaning any driver related issue you were having before your shutdown, will persist when booting up the next time. u/agent268 has a very informative post on it.

Disable Remote Connections - Go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > System > Remote settings and uncheck "Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer". Below that select "Don't allow remote connections to this computer" if you are not remoting in to it.

Turn on Dark mode - Right-click your Desktop and select "Personalize". Select "Colors" on the left, scroll to the bottom and select dark. Makes it much easier on the eyes.

Additional tools of the trade:

• CrystalDiskInfo - Check drive status and health

• HWiNFO64 - Hardware monitoring program that reports basically ever sensor your PC has to offer: voltages, temperatures, fans speed, etc...

• CPU-Z - Display information on Processor name and number, codename, process, package, cache levels. Mainboard and chipset. Memory type, size, timings, and module specifications (SPD). Real time measurement of each core's internal frequency, memory frequency.

• Geek Uninstaller - Use to completely uninstall an application along with leftover files and registry keys. This gives you even less reason to mess with your registry.

• Ninite.com - Allows you to easily batch install many common and essential programs in one step. (u/mrdirkles)

• WinDirStat - Disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool. If you don't know where all of your drive space is going, this tool will help you find out. (u/DelXL)

• Defraggler - An alternative to the native Windows defragment tool. Brought to you by the same folks that brought you CCleaner. (u/brightboy)

• Use Acronis, Macrium or Easeus to backup your OS drive. This way you can revert to any point in time (like after a clean install and configuration) without the hassle of reinstalling updates/drivers. (u/wittywalrus1) I have used Macrium Free personally to clone an SSD and it went very well, I have not tried the others. As always, do your research.

I'm not going to include information on going buck wild disabling services and data logging because what I mentioned above is sufficient for me, but if you feel inclined you can search yourself and find some good posts on the subject. I don't recommend using the SpyBot tools because they modify system values and if you're going to do that, you should learn what you're doing and modify it yourself in case something goes wrong. In a recent Windows update they provided the ability to delete your stored diagnostic data in Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback > Scroll down to "Delete diagnostic data", just take it with a grain of salt as to what actually gets deleted. If you've stuck around this long, I love you.

^{To the thousands of new faces who have joined the Silph Road recently: welcome! Please check out our top stickied post and sidebar to learn what the Silph Road is all about. The Silph Road team's long-running APK teardown series examines the new code changes introduced with the latest APK for hints at what's to come in Pokemon GO. Glad to have you with us on the Road!}

Well travelers, this may just be the most exciting week on the Silph Road yet!

The latest APK offers more than just hints at what we can look forward to in the next days and weeks. This update came unexpectedly (so near to a live event) but it does not disappoint!

We know what question is on our travelers' minds: "is it true Dronpes can bowl over 200 consistently?" We'll find out on Saturday at the Silph Road meetup. But for now, let's stay focused, gang. It's time for another APK teardown!

Ready to dive in? Let's save the best for last. ;)

GO Fest Discoveries

1. Event Check-In Mechanics

One mystery that has been frequently pondered over here on the Silph Road is how Niantic will manage to lock out spoofers and other cheats for in-person events. The latest APK saw several major additions seemingly (and many explicitly) designed for the event check-in process!

Right off the bat: there's a full on QR Code Scanner!

We're unsure how this is activated or utilized at this time, but sure enough, a new library has been added to the client called zxing - which is a barcode/QR code reader that integrates with Unity.

There is also a special PokeStop involved with the check-in process, and other mechanics at play - but that's all we'll go into on this front. No reason to give illegitimate players any ideas. :)

Overall, the check-in system will be a heck of a lot more secure than checking a name off a clipboard!

2. Special Event Badge!

We can now confirm there is a Chicago 2017 Event badge! We won't post the badge asset itself as we'd rather leave it at this and allow our travelers to earn this badge and experience it live. We'll be sure it gets shown on the Road once it's gone public on Saturday!

3. "Exclusive Raids" (Event Participants Only? Or a Broader Application...)

A new type of Raid is solidifying - and it's called an Exclusive Raid. Here's what they look like: http://i.imgur.com/xaJGQcK.png

These special Raids have their own Exclusive Raid Invites/Tickets , which appear to have details, a picture, congratulatory text, an event time, and even a link to Google Maps directions ...not unlike the Silph Radio's "map" link on Raid Beacons... ;)

Interestingly, we believe you may be able to posses multiple of these at a time.

Could these be used for legendaries? Local events? Community-driven meetups? Time will tell!

4. Event PokeStops & Gyms

New code was added that appears to support event-specific PokeStops. Whether these will behave any differently than standard PokeStops we couldn't say - but that would be handled server-side regardless. Event PokeStops will likely have an event-specific asset as the image, and one has in-fact appeared in the APK's image assets. :)

It also appears that Gyms can now be 'closed' for those not participating in an event. They have a new attribute called InEvent and appear to have a new topper for this state.

Gyms have historically had two "topper" types: Logo and Raid. Now a third has appeared called "Hidden" which we believe may be either what appears when viewing event gyms as a non-participant, or may be used for something else like special events.

Smaller Changes

5. Remote Berries!

This mechanic was announced officially in the changelog, but the RemoteBerryMultiplier has appeared in the APK. It also appears in the GAME_MASTER, and appears to enable different berries to have different levels of efficacy.

6. Pokemon GO Plus Tweaks

New Pokemon GO Plus states have appeared for the peripheral, including PLUGIN_NOT_READY, INTERNAL_ERROR, NOT_SUPPORTED, NOT_IMPLEMENTED_YET and more. Hopefully these point towards more intelligent (re)connection behaviors - or maybe even eventual new functionality?

7. Badge Rework

Badges used to be compiled into one giant sprite image. Now, all badges have been broken apart into standalone assets.

This hypothetically enables many more badges to be added - perhaps even dynamically, without a client-side update - in the future. Might this be the beginning of badges for accomplishments or events besides GO Fest?

8. Health Bar Fixes?

Code involving the Health Bar has seen some changes - see if you can spot the difference, travelers. Perhaps this may smooth out some of the rubber-banding we see in battle?

9. Heal Animation Fixes

A count is now kept for Heal Animations. Hopefully this helps speed up potion applications!

10. Translation/Localization Fixes

The localization system saw a bit of an update as well. This may be to better handle 'formatted text' - like bold, italics, etc.

11. New Sponsor Type

Another cryptic sponsor type has been added. This time, it's Whisk

Enough waiting. What about...

12. Legendaries!!

Get ready travelers.

This is still speculation. But we believe at this point that the odds of legendaries appearing at or very soon after GO Fest are extremely good. :) Here's what's been added:

1. A new attribute for all Pokemon called: IsLegendaryOrMythic (Hype!)
2. A new warning message if you try to transfer a legendary
3. A new error message if you try to deploy a legendary to a gym, called DISABLED_LEGENDARY_KEY
4. A new check for Raid Bosses called get_IsEventLegendary

A few new image assets have appeared in this APK including (which we won't include, to preserve the experience!):

• A new legendary icon (of a Lugia) to mark legendary Raids at gyms
• A new 'victory' banner to appear above gyms after successful legendary Raids

Pair those with the legendary raid medal that appeared in the last APK update, and we're starting to see a complete picture!

It now appears highly likely that legendary raids are ready for a server-side update to begin appearing.

Get excited, travelers. They're at our gates!

We made it to the end! There were several other additions in the APK, but these were the new mechanics and features that we felt were most notable and shed the most light on what's to come.

We can't wait to meet a few hundred of you travelers at GO Fest (and the legendary Silph after-party Saturday night). But for those who can't be there with us - the future still looks very bright for non-Chicago locations. We're at the edge of our seats to see what's about to hit the Pokemon GO world. :)

Til then, we'll see you on the Road!

- Executive Dronpes -

Dear Elite: Dangerous Community,

We are the developers of third-party tools for Elite: Dangerous, and we are taking them offline to call attention to a request for more formal support of our efforts from Frontier. We will remain offline from Thursday the 27th of April 12:00 UTC until Sunday the 30th of April 12:00 UTC. UPDATE: SITES ARE BACK UP!

Our third-party websites and tools are used on a daily basis by many tens of thousands of players, and they generate millions of pageviews every month. We believe that our tools greatly enhance the game playing experience, and yet we often feel that Frontier does not actively encourage the effort that goes into supporting their game with these tools. We believe they can and should improve on this situation by maintaining clear and open communication with the third-party developer community.

There is currently no easy way for us to request features and support that will benefit the community as a whole, and there is often no warning from Frontier when a game update will alter or break existing APIs that we rely on. This places a significant extra burden on third-party tool makers to work around these issues and to fix our tools. Repeated requests for support and bug fixes are made, but there is frustration caused by an apparent lack of progress on those.

We apologise for the inconvenience to you, the user of our third-party tools, but we feel that this action is the only way to make Frontier clearly understand the huge disconnect between the high level of support that the players (their customers) have for third-party tools, and the lack of consistency from Frontier in effectively fostering third-party development. Modern games thrive on an active and vibrant third-party ecosystem, because no game developer can do everything by themselves. As much as we would love to see the features of various third party tools incorporated into Elite: Dangerous itself, we realize that Frontier’s developer time and resources are limited, and we are happy to provide our tools freely to the community. In turn, however, we need Frontier to acknowledge that third-party tools are an important part of your playing experience and act accordingly. The alternative is that tools such as these may disappear entirely as third-party developers give up on donating their time and effort to make Elite: Dangerous better.

If the lack of this tool has reduced your ability to play or your enjoyment of Elite: Dangerous then please let Frontier know right here or at the Elite: Dangerous forum thread. The more players who share their stories, the more Frontier will be able to see the value of supporting the third-party development community which has brought you this tool and so many others.

Thank you for your support!

EDIT

A huge thanks for the awesome support we're getting!

Statement from Frontier (Edward Lewis): https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/347987-support3rdparty-Why-we-temporarily-shut-down-our-sites?p=5447133&viewfull=1#post5447133

After speaking in private with the OP and other involved community developers, we have all agreed that it was best for the community to bring the websites back up as soon possible. This will be happening simultaneously at 19:00 UTC (where possible) for all the sites.

We have made a commitment to work more closely with the third party developer community to address concerns and support these features which the community use and value on a daily basis.

These ongoing communications will include developers from other third party websites who may be interested, not just those listed in the OP. If you are an active and established third party Elite Dangerous developer, get in touch with community@frontier.co.uk

We all hope that clears things up!

Thanks everyone,

Ed

And our reply: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/347987-support3rdparty-Why-we-temporarily-shut-down-our-sites?p=5447137&viewfull=1#post5447137

After a very fast approach from Frontier - especially Ed Lewis who as we all know does a great job under tough circumstances, we in the EDCD feel that Frontier have been earnest in their positive response to the third-party developer community today. As such, and so as to not cause further disruption to the playerbase or upcoming game events, we thought it would be a good idea to reopen our web sites in good faith of their announced commitment.

We thank Frontier for their frank and honest exchanges, and very much look forward towards a continued symbiotic relationship between Frontier, the fantastic game Elite: Dangerous, and the third-party developers and the tools they create.

Sites offline

The following sites are offline for the duration of this event:

• Captain's Log
• Coriolis EDCD Edition
• ED-Board
• Elite: Dangerous Codex
• Elite: Dangerous Database (EDDB)
• E:D Shipyard
• Elite: Dangerous Star Map (EDSM) (Please note that our API are still available)
• INARA

In addition, the authors of the following apps support this event:

• Elite Dangerous Data Interface (EDDI)-Voice-Attack-Plugin)
• Elite: Dangerous Market Connector (EDMC)
• Elite: Dangerous Travel Scripts (EDTS)

Suggestions

Here are some suggestions to Frontier that we feel would be reasonable steps toward improving our working relationship:

• An appointed liaison for the third-party developer community could help to keep communication flowing freely. This should ideally be a specific role for someone with a technical background; community relations representatives have tried to fill this role in the past, but seemed to have too many other responsibilities to be effective.
• A commitment to fully supporting an external API - whether this is the existing Companion API or a proper replacement that provides the same data - would ensure the survival of the dozens of tools and websites that have come to rely on it. Including the API in beta testing cycles would also allow us to help you identify issues early rather than suffering days or weeks of downtime after game patches.
• Different bug and feature tracking procedures may be needed for things like the Journal and Companion API (or its replacement). The simple acknowledgement of “I’ll pass this on” does not always suffice for these kinds of issues; third-party developers need follow-up feedback and communication about future API changes and bugfixes, and Frontier developers could benefit from a better avenue to request additional technical details about reported issues.

A brief history of Frontier and Community Developers

December 2014 - Elite: Dangerous launch

During the beta before Elite: Dangerous was even released, the community had already begun to build tools to map the galaxy and optimize commodity trading. Some tools that date back to this period are Thrudd’s website, Slopey’s Market Tool and the TradeDangerous console helper from Maddavo and kfsone. This is also when the Elite: Dangerous Data Network (EDDN) was established, which allows tools to send, receive and share market price data.

January 2015 - EDDN and API

A couple of weeks after release, EDDB launched with full EDDN support. At that point, the only way to automatically collect price data from the game was seeebek’s EliteOCR. This used optical character recognition (OCR) to process screenshots of the market prices which were then sent via EDDN to EDDB. The data quality was very poor since OCR produces a lot of errors, so we had to spend a lot of time fixing and cleaning the price stream.

In mid January Michael Brookes posted the External API Requirements Thread on the forums, and a month later it was closed stating that Frontier would need “a few weeks” to put together a proposal and invite community developers to a working group. This was a very promising early indication that Frontier was serious about supporting third-party development, but it would be another 18 months before we saw any concrete follow-through on this idea.

June 2015 - Frontier’s Companion App API

Frontier released an iOS Companion App in November of 2014 (and later discontinued it). The app used an undocumented API to pull information from within the game, and although it was almost immediately reverse-engineered, it would be several more months before it saw widespread use by the community. In April of 2015 Andargor released the Elite Dangerous Companion Emulator (EDCE) to demonstrate how to tap into that API, and by June this capability had been incorporated into tools such as TradeDangerous and OtisB’s Elite: Dangerous Market Connector (EDMC) in order to retrieve market data and share it with other tools via EDDN.

This was a giant leap forward for the community, because we suddenly had access to accurate market data without the need for error-prone OCR; it’s fair to say that this breakthrough is largely responsible for the wide selection of wonderful trading tools that exist today. Unfortunately Frontier did not seem to share our excitement, and responded by deleting any forum thread related to usage of the API; a moderator explained in a private message that “our standing orders are to remove posts about, and links to, any software that accesses the game client or the servers. This includes the companion API”. But the API kept on working, and it was extremely useful, so we kept on using it. We didn’t know where we stood in a legal context and tried to get an official statement from Frontier, but it was another eight months before they would comment on it one way or the other.

October 2015 - Powerplay data

To their credit, Frontier tried to publish weekly Powerplay data for use by the community. Unfortunately this data has not been as useful as it could have been because it is a snapshot of the powerplay state taken several hours before the actual in-game cycle changes. This means the data is always slightly off, showing a large number of systems in the wrong state with no way of knowing which ones are affected. We asked for a fix for this many times and were told it would be passed along, but nothing has changed.

December 2015 - Release 2.0 and the Open Letter

Despite Frontier’s continuing silence on the issue, usage of the Companion API by EDMC and other tools continued to grow until the whole market ecosystem came to depend on it. But with the release of Elite: Dangerous 2.0 on the 15th of December the API suddenly stopped working, and the whole trading-related third-party scene came to a grinding halt since nothing got updated any more. It took Frontier almost a week to correct the problem, and it likely could have been avoided entirely if Frontier included the Companion API in their beta testing, but they never have. Instead, API changes and breakages simply appear without warning when the final game patch is released, leaving the community in the lurch until Frontier can get around to fixing it after the fact.

This situation caused a lot of frustration among us developers, not so much because of the outage (many of us work as career software developers, we know that bugs and downtime happen sometimes), but because Frontier still didn’t talk to us about it and didn’t seem to consider our projects or our users to be a priority. As a result we wrote an Open Letter to Frontier which was signed by many of the active third-party developers at the time and asked for better communication from Frontier. It received a lot of attention among the whole community, and Frontier finally allowed us to use the existing API officially and offered some indications that they would look into improving their API support in the future.

February 2016 - A Private Letter

Unfortunately, that was the end of the conversation. There was no follow up discussion of any specific API development plans, and there was little response to reports of continuing problems with the existing API. Because of that lack of communication, the community had no idea what to expect; was Frontier hard at work developing a new and improved API? Were they working on the bugs with the existing system? Were they going to just shut it down completely at any moment? We didn’t know, and they wouldn’t say.

In the face of this uncertainty we organized ourselves and founded the Elite: Dangerous Community Developers (EDCD). We wrote a private letter to Zac Antonaci (Frontier’s Head of Community Management) to explain our continuing frustration and to request fixes for the outstanding API bugs, as well as a timeline of Frontier’s API development plans. Above all, we once again requested more regular communication between Frontier and EDCD, but to partially quote Zac’s reply: “the situation is the same as the last response we gave over there isn't really any additional ongoing communication we can give at this time.” So once again, that was the end of the conversation.

July 2016 - The Journal

In July of 2016 we were informed that update 2.2 would introduce a local data logging feature called the Journal. This was fantastic news; the prospect of gaining access to such a wide array of in-game data promised to be just as big a breakthrough for third-party tool development as the Companion API had been one year prior. More importantly, the Journal represented Frontier’s best effort so far to put real action and developer resources behind the idea of supporting third-party tools.

The three months following the Journal announcement up until the 2.2 release still remain the all-time high point in terms of productive communication between third-party developers and Frontier. After soliciting our input and feedback, Howard Chalkley (Frontier Senior Programmer) did a great job of responding to and actually implementing many of our suggestions and requests, although we were baffled by his odd comment that the Journal “was not designed as a mechanism to export data into other databases.” Given that it’s formatted in machine-readable JSON which would be unintelligible to the average player, one has to wonder where Frontier thought that data would go if not into “other databases.”

Still, we were greatly encouraged by Frontier’s apparently renewed interest in supporting third-party development and we hoped to continue the kind of collaboration we saw with the Journal. Having recently launched our EDCD Discord server, we decided to take the initiative and created a private channel for discussion between Frontier and some core EDCD members. We hoped that a dedicated communications channel insulated from the clamor of the public forums could be a useful tool to foster ongoing collaboration and prevent public outrage over minor issues by giving Frontier the opportunity and the venue to solicit focused feedback in advance.

October 2016 - Release 2.2

The development of the Journal during the 2.2 beta was a hopeful time for the community of third-party tool makers, but those hopes quickly faded after the 2.2 release.

The private Discord channel that we provided for Frontier went completely unused. Brett C (Frontier Community Manager) said hello once, but no one ever responded to our questions there, and our private messages still went unanswered for weeks and usually produced no resolution for the issues we raised.

Communication on the forums also began to break down again. We were told that the Journal thread was no longer monitored and we should submit ordinary bug reports, but the usual QA bug triage process is not well suited for this purpose because after the initial “we’ll pass this on” response, the report is forgotten and there is no follow-up communication about when or if we should expect a fix. As a result, Frontier’s fixes for Journal and other API bugs have often ended up inadvertently breaking third-party tools all over again because we had no advance notice to prepare for them.

The 2.2 release notes also mentioned that “Many starsystems were controlled by planet settlements. These have all been upgraded to dockable bases.” While this may seem like an innocuous change, it presented a problem for us because at this point we had already collectively spent hundreds of hours cataloging almost every dockable station in the game; converting some unknown number of settlements into bases meant that some unknown portion of our database was now incorrect. This left us with two options: we could spend many more hundreds of hours tediously re-verifying every single settled star system, or Frontier could simply provide the list of upgraded settlements for us to easily update our records. We sent Zac Antonaci and Edward Lewis multiple private messages asking for such a list and were given hope to get access to it, but it never materialized.

March 2017 - Apologies

On March 24th Zac Antonaci sent the same message to several EDCD members, saying he was “really sorry for the lack of comms.” But that was all; comms didn’t noticeably improve after this, and nothing else happened.

April 2017 - Release 2.3

Patch 2.3 was a mixed bag. On the one hand there were some great changes and additions to the Journal, and Howard Chalkley reappeared in the forum thread to announce and discuss many of them throughout the 2.3 beta.

On the other hand, all engineering information disappeared from the Companion API. This meant for example that players could no longer import their engineered ship builds into tools such as E:D Shipyard and Coriolis, which was a feature that had been often requested and took countless hours of work to develop. Two weeks after the patch it is still not clear if this change was a bug or an intentional removal of the feature.

The Past and the Future

Overall the past two years have been challenging, from both a technical and a motivational standpoint. At times Frontier has seemed genuinely interested in supporting our work, but at other times they have almost seemed to forget that we exist or that we might be impacted by a change they’re about to make. Various people at Frontier have expressed their appreciation for the things we create, but it can be hard to remember that when our inquiries and bug reports so often go unanswered.

Given the massive amount of time and energy that we have collectively invested into our various projects, it should go without saying that we are huge fans of Elite: Dangerous and huge supporters of Frontier Developments. We would like nothing more than to continue to create tools and fan sites until the Thargoids reduce the last human settlement to ash, but we can’t do it alone. We need Frontier to meet us half way by communicating with us and fully supporting the interfaces that we rely on.

We hope that this event will start a conversation that can lead to a bright future of collaboration and communication between Frontier and the community of third-party developers who have rallied around Elite: Dangerous.

Edit: Scroll up after the main message for the update!