Looking for a unique mil-sim experience in Arma 3?

Have a look at Tau-44, an Oceanic mil-sim community based in the SCP universe.

In our continuity, the Foundation is no longer a secret, the public knows that anomalies exist (even if they don't know all the details), and groups of interest have surged in numbers; many of which have plans to use or abuse anomalies for their own good.
Wars over these anomalies - waged both in the open and behind closed doors - have become commonplace, dictating the requirement for more MTFs like Tau-44 to fight the conventional fight so that others in the Foundation may continue the mission to Secure, Contain, and Protect.
Our unit, Mobile Task Force Tau-44 "Phalanx", is a globally ready first recon and fast response force aimed at putting effective initial investigation and surgical strike capabilities into the hands of regional Department Heads, O3 and O4 Councils, and Site Directors on assignment request.
With an emphasis on being the first force in position, as well as the last force to give up ground, Tau-44 are the go-to MTF for sensitive tasking where conflict with enemy armed combatants is likely. Where Nu-7 "Hammer Down" famously embodies the obvious, eponymous hammer, Tau-44 "Phalanx" is equal parts the anvil and the scalpel.
Based out of Site-231 in the sunny region of █████, ████████, Tau-44 trains for a typical deployment consisting of less than a company of soldiers, comprised of a primary HQ element directing platoon-sized detachments, further organised into teams of two four-man fire-teams.

Our ideal applicant is:

• Over 16 and has an adequate level of maturity
• Living in AUS/NZ or can play in our timezone
• Respectful of everyone, new and old
• Speaks English
• Dedicated

Frequently asked questions:

1. What are your experience requirements? We understand not everyone has 2000+ hours of hardcore mil-sim gameplay or even any hours at all. Because of that we offer a training course specially designed to teach our new players our unit's tactics, mods, gameplay, and many other aspects. So even if you have never played in an Arma 3 mil-sim before, we're happy to take you on board.
   
2. How dedicated do I have to be? Our general rule of thumb is that you attend as many operations as you can, but we understand that real life obviously takes precedence over the unit. This is only a game, real life is real life. Don't feel stressed about having to come to every mission.
   
3. When do we play? Tau-44 runs events on Sunday nights starting from 6:00pm ACST and expect our active players to regularly attend. Operations normally last 2-3 hours.
   
4. Do I need any of the DLC? To play in our operations, you will need the Apex and Contact DLCs. All other DLCs are optional, but recommended.
   

How to join if you're interested:

Head to https://tau44.net/ to find our Discord link and proceed from there!
Alternately, you can send us an email at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Like many, I read William Davis' book Super Gut and decided to start following some of the advice there - making probiotic yogurts in particular. They turn out incredibly good from the very beginning, which is great, but I cannot stop eating them. The book advises half cup per day, while I am consuming a quart. Shall I expect any negative consequences?
I mostly make l reuteri yogurt but also l gasseri and coagulans in smaller batches.
If anyone's wondering how I make commercial quantities of yogurt - the oven light raises the temperature just right for yogurt making. By changing the hight of the tray and the proximity of the jars to the light bulb, one can get the temperature just right for bacteria species being used. An air thermometer comes handy.

tl;dr My (27f) fiancé (28m) doesn’t make me feel special and I feel like I’m asking too much.
I love my fiancé, we’ve been together for 2+ years. We’ve had some ups and downs as we started out long distance. I love him very much and have always seen the best in him. He has treated me very well, there are just a few things I am struggling with.
I’m a romantic, and I love physical and verbal acts of love. His love language is acts of service and sex. I try to cater to these, by making him a special lunch everyday, washing him in the shower, brushing his hair, putting a face mask on him, etc. I love making him happy.
I have talked to him a few times about my love language, ands sometimes my love language can be too much for him and make him uncomfortable. This makes me sad and obviously I don’t want him to feel that way so I have tried to minimize how much I verbally or physically express my love.
He tries to make small efforts throughout the day but it’s pretty obvious they are forced. The majority of time that he will be physically affectionate with me is usually when he wants to have sex, which is 1-3x per day. I happily oblige to again, keep him happy. We will cuddle,
He is a good guy, and although he is not putting in specific effort towards my love language, he is kind to me and a good partner.
I also told him I didn’t want anything expensive or extravagant, but it would mean a lot if he planned something small and non public for our engagement. He didn’t plan anything, just did it on a random Tuesday night in our home. I feel so lucky and thankful that he proposed to me. I just still feel a little crushed he didn’t even get me flowers.
I love him so much, but I’m feeling sad, and finding myself quietly crying while he sleeps next to me. Not receiving the affection I desire weighs on me deeply and I’m confused on what I should do. We’ve talked about this many times. I just don’t want to feel sad like this forever but I also know very likely I won’t be able to find anyone who treats me better.
TIA
TL;DR I feel like I’m asking too much to be treated the way I want

I'm a PRN DPT in home health (HH). I love the flexibility, autonomy, and not having to be in a building all day. But I must be honest, although I still have a deep passion for helping the elderly, I am over traditional physical therapy. #1 I felt like I was lied to through school. I don't feel like I got the real taste of reality when in clinicals. It one of those things where you know something isn't for you, but shoot I was already 2-2 1/2 years in. I'm tired of getting emails about limited visits regarding insufficient insurance coverage, even when the patient really needs it; having to fight for visits with other disciplines; not truly feeling valued; imposter syndrome occasionally due to admins questioning my decisions on how many visits I plot. Like HONEY I went to school for a purpose! I wouldn't waste visits on those that don't need it as well as jeopardize my license with waste of services! So insulting. To add additional insult to injury, it doesn't help seeing the coordination notes on how much they make off PT with the insurance companies (although I understand they may not receive that full amount, but still).
So, I want to start my own business with Medicare part B and cash based services. I admittedly have been self sabotaging myself by getting comfortable off the money I make with HH and life in general. I do not care for any other setting than HH. Tried them all, HH is better fit despite paperwork. I've been saving, needing to establish LLC, liability on business, logo, all that.. I believe I have reached my last rope with traditional therapy. I want to bring an ADAPTIVE way for the elderly to remain functionally mobile. I've been having this urge to leave for a few months, and based on how my stress has been with HH, it's time for a change.
Does anyone know different occupations that I can look into part time? Even if I needed to take some courses and get certificate for? SOMETHING QUICK! Like 6-12 months or less if courses are needed. I would hope for the salary to continue to be above $70,000 if I could help it (although I make more) but I do understand I may have to bend with salary.
TIA!

I've been observing a number of my friends and family on WFH over the last 3 years. Myself and my wife were on WFH for 2 years since March 2020 and then moved to hybrid mode. While the convenience, comfort, and ability to avoid traffic and pollution are great, it also needs a lot of discipline, self awareness and self care. Some observations:

1. It's very easy to fall into a rut of lack of physical activity and ignore fitness while on WFH. I've seen many in my circle gain weight and experience early onset of lifestyle ailments. While this could very well happen on WFO too, I'm alarmed at the number of people in my circle who were active and fit earlier but are now overweight with ailments. So please make an effort to get out of the house, for a grocery run (please avoid using grocery/food delivery apps everytime!) or just for a run or a walk. Play a sport regularly or go to the gym or do whatever physical activity you like, but please don't become WFH beached whales!
   
2. I've seen many in my circle fall into a pattern of doing non-work stuff during working hours. Unavoidable household chores like picking up kids from school etc. is fine but watching Netflix during working hours on weekdays isn't a good idea since that often means you extend your working hours to complete your tasks. Focus and discipline during working hours can easily be lost if you are not in an office.
   
3. Loneliness and depression can creep in without you noticing. We are social animals, we need human interaction to be healthy and thrive. WFH isolation is fundamentally opposite to thousands of years of civilizational evolution built into our DNA as human beings. I've seen those living by themselves become progressively aloof and depressive while some couples on WFH seem to be far more agitated with each other than earlier. So please make an effort to go out on weekends, meet friends/family or make new friends, watch a movie or a comedy show or a play, go to a restaurant or a pub or a cafe, join a book club or a sports group, find a like minded group, go to a park, pick up a new hobby or whatever. Just don't lock yourself up in your home for weeks at a stretch.
   
4. Be kind to yourself and your colleagues, and develop self awareness. It's very easy to misunderstand or be agitated with your colleagues when you've never met them in person. Body language is an important marker of how we perceive and relate to someone and remote work interactions take that away. So please make an effort to be kind to each other and to yourself and your family/friends too.
   
5. Last but not the least, don't spend so much time on social media that you fall into an internet rabbit hole of bad news and envy about that friend's lifestyle - people mostly post about the best parts of their lives and hide not-so-good parts. And bad news travels faster than good news.
   

Sometimes it might actually be better to switch to WFO or atleast hybrid mode but you need to have developed enough self awareness to understand pros and cons of WFH for you, since everyone's different.
Have a good week ahead Bengaluru people!

Thought I would share the macros I use on my Preservation evoker. Some of these are really useful, some of these are just me trying to have the most streamlined, efficient, minimalist action bar setup. Some are just silly but I thought they were interesting, so I hope you might too. None of these are going to make you an epic 3000io player on their own but I do find that lessening cognitive load can really help during the M+ grind.
I would love if people shared any macros or ideas or improvements! I could spend hours making silly little buttons.
Here is a picture of my UI and keybinds if you want to have a look what my screen/setup looks like: https://imgur.com/a/HuQetnp
Damage/Kick/CC
Casts "Azure Strike" on your mouseover target without modifiers, "Quell" with Shift modifier, and "Sleep Walk" with Ctrl modifier on mouseover targets. Good bind on my mouse button for easy spam.

#showtooltip /cast [nomod,@mouseover] Azure Strike; [mod:shift,@mouseover] Quell; [mod:ctrl,@mouseover] Sleep Walk 

Deep Breath/Fire Breath
Description: Simple shift modifier to put Fire Breath and Deep Breath on the same button. You could create a WeakAura to show you when Deep Breath is almost off cooldown though you eventually can just sense when its coming back (or just check by pressing shift).

#showtooltip /cast [nomod] Fire Breath /cast [mod:shift] Deep Breath 

Emerald Communion Helper
Cancels "Emerald Communion" if active and casts "Emerald Communion" if not active. This means if you Communion and get locked in place, then a swirlie appears beneath you, you click it again to be able to run away. Lifesaver.

#showtooltip /cancelaura Emerald Communion /cast Emerald Communion 

Fury of the Aspects/Visage
Casts Lust with left-click in combat and Visage with right-click out of combat. Stops you casting Lust out of combat, just in case, though this means I sometimes have to throw an Azure Strike on the mobs before I can lust.

#showtooltip Fury of the Aspects /cast [combat, btn:1] Fury of the Aspects; [btn:2] Visage /cast [nocombat] Visage 

Sneaky HoveSoar
This ones fun. It uses Hover in combat. Out of combat, it will first try to put you into Visage form first, otherwise cast Hover. This is a stupid workaround for the fact that Evokers always get put in dragon form which means you’ll spend much more time in your Visage form! In combat it will just Hover, so you don’t have to worry about it messing with encounters. It also uses the Highborne Soul Mirror which leaves a translucent copy behind you which can be useful in PvP. While holding shift it casts Soar, to save you a bar slot.

#showtooltip [mod:shift] Soar;Hover /stopcasting /cast [combat] Hover /cast [nocombat, mod:shift] Soar /use Highborne Soul Mirror /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear() /stopmacro [combat] /castsequence reset=nocombat Hover, Visage 

Mass Return Alert
Sends a message to your party or raid when you Mass Rez. Doesn’t work in combat which prevents you spamming the message when you’re waiting for the last mob to die. I dont use normal Rez anymore, even though I know it would save me 1s of cast time. You could do a simple shift modifier if you wanted that option.

#showtooltip Mass Return /cast Mass Return /stopmacro [combat] /script if IsInRaid() then SendChatMessage("Casting Mass Return. Don’t release!", "RAID") elseif IsInGroup() then SendChatMessage("Casting Mass Return. Don’t release!", "PARTY") end 

Damage Reduce/Self Healing
An all-round damage reduction button. Left-click uses Obsidian Scales, right click uses a Healthstone, shift-left-click uses a Refreshing Healing Potion. You could put Renewing Blaze in this macro on a shift-right-click, but I prefer giving it its own button so I can easily see the CD.

#showtooltip [mod:shift] Refreshing Healing Potion; [btn:2] Healthstone; Obsidian Scales /cast [mod:shift] Refreshing Healing Potion /cast [btn:2] Healthstone /cast [nomod,btn:1] Obsidian Scales 

Rescue/Oppressing Roar
Description: Casts "Rescue" if known at the cursor location, or "Oppressing Roar" if known. I swap between a Rescue build in raids and a Roar build in M+. This just means the button changes automatically when I swap specs.
The Rescue function is a must - you click an Ally then Rescue to your cursor point. Big timesaver when every second counts.

#showtooltip /cast [known:Rescue,@cursor] Rescue; [known:Oppressing Roar] Oppressing Roar 

Rewind/Favourite Pet
The most important macro on this list. Prevents you casting Rewind when out of combat (I have a real problem of blowing my cooldowns because of twitchy fingers. When you right click it out of combat it summons a Random Favourite Pet :3

#showtooltip /cast [nomod,combat] Rewind /rfp [nocombat, btn:2] 

Time Dilation/Landslide
A space saver. Casts Time Dilation on my mouseover, or Landslide at my cursor point when I shift-click the button.

#showtooltip [mod:shift] Landslide;Time Dilation /cast [nomod,combat, @mouseover] Time Dilation /cast [mod:shift,@cursor,known] Landslide 

Dream Breath & Trinket
Description: Simple trinket to auto-use a trinket with my Dream Breath whenever its off cooldown for a little burst. This is unsuitable if your trinket requires more specific timing.

#showtooltip /cast Dream Breath /use 13 

Use Trinket or Follow
Uses your 2nd trinket on your mouseover target when in combat. I also made it so that out of combat, pressing that button follows my mouseover target (if I can), which has felt surprisingly good to have on an easy keybind.

#showtooltip 14 /use [combat, @mouseover] 14 /script if not UnitAffectingCombat("player") then FollowUnit("mouseover") end 

Eat & Drink
Simple space saving WateFood macro. Replace the names with your specific items (which could be Conjured Mana Buns). Uses food on left button click, water on right button click.

#showtooltip [mod:shift] Cup o' Wakeup;Thrice-Spiced Mammoth Kabob /use [btn:2] Cup o' Wakeup; Thrice-Spiced Mammoth Kabob 

Mana Potion/Invis Potion
General space saver and a reminder to always carry Invisibility Pots.

#showtooltip /use [nomod] Aerated Mana Potion /use [mod:shift] Potion of the Hushed Zephyr 

Renewing Blaze or LFG
Just putting this here as inspiration for other space-saving/efficiency macros. In combat it uses Renewing Blaze, out of combat it opens up the Group Finder (straight to premade groups!). Could free up a button for someone.

#showtooltip Renewing Blaze /cast [combat] Renewing Blaze /script if not UnitAffectingCombat("player") then PVEFrame_ShowFrame("GroupFinderFrame", LFGListPVEStub) end 

Bonus Macros:
Crest & Chest Cleaner
When I click this it attempts to combine Crest Fragments or open the most common type of treasure its (Weekly quest box, Professional skill-up items, etc) so I don’t have to go digging through my bag. This is just a random list of the items I use it for, but its here as inspiration if you want to make your own. Currently it shows me how many Aspects Crests i have on the button.

#showtooltip /use item:204078 /use item:204077 /use item:204075 /use item:204076 /use item:200454 /use item:198964 /use item:200677 /use item:205226 /use item:198608 /use item:205247 /use item:205423 /use item:199115 

Quick Fire
When you use your cooking fire it sets it at your feet, instead of requiring a second click. The game is literally unplayable without this.

#showtooltip Cooking Fire /cast [@player] Cooking Fire 

Dismount
Just put this button your Dragonriding Action Bar for an easy dismount. Used to ease my anxiety when doing Nokhud.

/dismount 

toggled fly on accident on pvp legacy :skull: don't bind blatant features to keys that you can accidentally click on oops been working on configs that don't flag, these should work for [Meteor](https://meteorclient.com)/LB Nextgen (LiquidBounce), still do recommend meteor >> liquidbounce due to how much CPU LB takes up
Before you download:

• Meteor is a FABRIC Client, be sure to install some fabric performance mods that actually do shit (https://modrinth.com/modpack/fabulously-optimized) is my preferred modpack to use with Meteor and it's addons so just check
• This config is for SWORD mainly - do not toggle some of the features on if your combat mode involves shields - Meteor KA (what I use here) hits through shields and this flags basically every anticheat with a decent check

Modules (METEOR + ADDONS)

Undetectable
Aim Assist - Range - 4, Speed, 0,2, FOV - Same as Killaura (70-90 will do really), Priority - Same as KillAura, Aim Target: Body (Head/Feet make it look like you are nodding on attack)

• Alternatively, you could put AA on 0.3 instead, which snaps faster, but might flag on PVPLegacy (from testing) - You'll know this when a fake player starts circling your head
• As of v0.5.3 of Meteor, Aim Assist has been REMOVED from the base client, this is where you can get it instead: [Meteor Rejects Addon](https://anticope.ml/addons/?addon=AntiCope%2Fmeteor-rejects)

Killaura - Weapon - Any, Rotate - None (Aim Assist will be doing this instead), Only on Look FOV - 90, Hit Chance - 95% to 100% will do, lower this based off of gamemode, Range - 4 to 5 Priority - Up to you (personally, i prefer lowest distance, but it's up to personal preference, I've gotten great results in teamfights with lowest health as well)

• Alternatively, if you want to use TriggerBot (doesn't hit through shields like Meteor Killaura, but has a less legit animation if you plan on screensharing with Meteor (why would you), you can use the Triggerbot here: [Meteor Triggerbot From MeteorPlus](https://anticope.ml/addons/?addon=Nekiplay%2FMeteorPlus)

ESP - Whatever setting will do really, just have this bound to the same key as nametags for a more comprehensive array of info and just toggle on what you like - it's clientside
​
Detectable if Strict AC

• Disclaimer: The following modules are detected on stricter anticheats or if you have low ping to the server - Use at your own risk! My config doesn't guarantee 100% undetectability either.

Hitbox/Reach (PLEASE BIND THIS TO A KEY AND TOGGLE ON AND OFF - YOU ARE GUARANTEED TO START FLAGGING IF YOU CONSISTENTLY LAND HIGH REACH HITS) - Reach - 3.1-3.2 (Depending on Ping)/Hitboxes (0.1) - Hitboxes seems to flag more now

• Reach is a pretty useless module really, landing consistent 3 block hits with triggerbot will do more unless you toggle up to a blatant reach setting, in which case you get banned like 100% of the time (like 3.5)

Hopefully this is an improvement to the previous messy closet guide i made

https://www.cp24.com/news/no-injuries-reported-after-daylight-shooting-in-north-york-suspect-vehicle-crashed-into-pole-1.6427031
​
Broad daylight on the road, somewhere where I drive on a regular basis. Luckily, I was at home all day today....but I could have easily been there at the time. I am often thinking what I would do if smth like this happened when I'm driving. How quickly can I react realistically, if I'm stuck in traffic and smth like this happens? ....for so many ppl, this happens only in movies or music videos, but it's reality..

Sorry for another post. I'm playing Skyrim SE on the Steam Deck, running on medium settings and capped to 40fps.
Game runs perfectly until a sudden random crash. Happens every 10 mins - 1 hour of play time. Everytime the game crashes, my wifi symbol shows an ! And says Steam Deck can't connect to the Steam servers. When I tap the wifi icon that message is there for 5 seconds then disappears and wifi seems to be functioning fine again.
This has been happening for weeks now on stable, beta AND preview builds. When this happens, steam is also unable to sync cloud saves, even if the wifi is working perfectly. I need to restart the Deck to get cloud saves to upload after a crash.
Please help, I'm ripping my hair out over this. Overall really unhappy with how reliable the Deck is. I love the thing but there's so many crashes, slowdowns, freezes, glitches etc. I'm really not far off putting it in a drawer and forgetting about it

I (30F, 5’6”) have been on a weight loss journey for 15 years. At my highest I was 250lbs at 16-17 years of age. Then I starved myself in college to get thin because I didn’t have enough knowledge about food and exercise. As a result I developed intense stretch marks and loose skin.
Over the years I learnt, worked out (strength training and walking) and ate proportionately but life kept getting in the way (I know it sounds like an excuse but I literally had $0 in my bank account and I moved countries, took loans because my family was in debt and worked 60 hours a week while studying). I lost insane weight here because I had no money to eat and due to a breakup and was 150lbs. I got a very stressful job out of grad school and binge ate as a coping mechanism gaining all the weight back.
Then Covid hit and life got better (haha the irony) and I started working out everyday for 1.5 years (lifting weights and HIIT) and ate healthy food. I was in a good headspace at 180lbs with good muscle mass. But life got in the way again and I struggled with mental health issues (robbed at gunpoint, visa issues).
I am at a point where I am desperate for change and help. I want to be 150lbs and lean with 19% body fat (currently at 35% and 190lbs). Can someone tell me how many calories should I be eating in a day to be in a deficit and how much protein, carbs and fats? I’m struggling with binge eating again at the moment and only just getting running, hiking and back to lifting weights. I will be working out for 1.5 hours everyday (5-6 times a week). Thank you.

So I’m current on round 613 started reading in December and not stopping but I have a couple questions that I can’t find clear answers on from google. 😂😂 1. How many total chapter is hajime no Ippo? I’m reading on mangasee123 and it’s has up to 1422. 2. I saw that mange is still going but also saw stuff saying it wasn’t. So is chapters still being release? 3. If chapters are still being released and mangasee123 doesn’t have the most recent or stops is there another site that I can read in English? 4. Last and final question I have not tried looking to hard but are there physical mangas of Ippo in US stores ?
Seriously no spoilers. If these are stupid questions sorry but I wanted straight to the pint real answer and I’m tired of shitty google searching. Thank you 😊

Link download: https://bestgraphicai.com/go/advanced-badass-seo--video-strategies--holly-cooper-and-peter-drew

Here’s what you’ll get in Advanced Badass SEO & Video Strategies

You will study the most cutting-edge "Advanced Badass Seo & Video Strategies" available in this jam-packed seminar.
Webinar Instruction 1
The majority of SEO professionals view these as "whitehat methods"
Citations, guest blogging, social media postings, legitimate wiki connections, and web 2.0 posting will be covered.
How to link out properly (dofollow vs. no follow) to avoid being penalized. Methods for super-secret channels that have never been addressed before.
We'll talk about PBNs and how to keep them hidden from your rivals.
also a lot more.
Webinar Instruction 2
These are regarded as "blackhat methods" by the majority of SEO specialists.
We'll talk about some dubious techniques, such 301 redirects, sponsored link networks, and automatic link building (gsa, xrumer, zennoposter, scrapebox).
While many of them are "known methods," you may need to make a few adjustments to make them work for you. Put your hands in the dough and let's get started.
Leave your pants at the door because this is badass stuff.
Webinar Training with Q&A
We'll address any issues you have in a Question and Answer session to wrap up the presentation.
Before the webinar, you can submit your questions, and we'll answer any that need clarification.
As we address the issues of other members, you'll also gain a deeper knowledge of everything we covered in the first two sessions.

https://imgur.com/a/DAbKQlr
• ⁠Tank size: 5 G
• ⁠Heater and filter? (yes/no): Yes
• ⁠Tank temperature: 77
• ⁠Parameters in numbers and how you got them: 7.6 pH, .50 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 5 Nitrate - API Master Test • ⁠How long have you had the tank? 9 months. How long have you had your fish?: 9 months
• ⁠How often are water changes? Weekly. How much do you take out per change? 25 - 50 % What is your process?: Siphon
• ⁠Any tankmates? Yes. If so, please list with how many of each: 1 Mystery Snail and 1 Nerite.
• ⁠What do you feed and how much: 3 - 4 Tetra Betta worm-shaped pellets 2 times per day.
• ⁠Decorations and plants in the tank: Driftwood with Anubias

This may be a bit of a controversial take but I honestly wasn’t a fan of the story in The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom. I honestly was a bit excited for this game coming out because it is the first game in a long time that Ganondorf made a re-entry in the series and one criticism I actually gave the Zelda franchise was that I believe that Ganondorf isn’t in enough Zelda games but now after actually beating the game and after 6 years of waiting after Breath Of The Wild, I feel like there was potential for the story to be really good and interesting but instead the game just felt undercooked with half baked ideas and the story is a convoluted mess with the most cookie cutter, bare bones plot structure you could imagine.
I feel like the characters weren’t utilized well to their full potential and the story overall just felt shallow and paper thin with it’s presentation. It was lazy and it was crafted with no direction of creativity. I just think the biggest problem with the story as a whole is that it feels so generically crafted and there’s just not much too it.
I think the biggest issue that exposes this is the way they handled Zelda in this game. I think her lack of agency in the story creates plot holes and many things that actually happen in the game are just left vague with very little detail explaining how things are so the story can be pieced together.
Even right in the beginning of the game I kind of question the motivation of why Zelda and Link decided to go down into a cave and explore Hyrule’s past without really much thought given. I know this is a minor complaint but it kind of bothers me how the whole story in this game is set up just from this happening alone and then they just happen to find Ganondorf just chilling beneath Hyrule Castle and he is somehow powerful enough now to literally disintegrate the master sword with barely any trouble.
I mean, I think it’s cool how he can actually do that now and I love Ganondorf as he’s always been one of my favorite characters of all time and don’t get me wrong but isn’t the master sword like Ganondorf’s one weakness? I think I wouldn’t have a problem that he could do this at all if they at least just bothered to give a bit more solid context as to how Ganondorf can now just overpower Link so easily in the beginning of the game.
The only logic you can come up for why and how Ganondorf can do this is because he acquired Sonia’s stone on his forehead but the game never clearly states this so all you can do is speculate.
This is what I mean about the story being vague because nothing is ever articulated well enough that you actually see an explanation so you can understand what the hell is happening in this game.
Another issue with the games story is how much this game just dumps the same exposition in your face like as if you couldn’t understand simple things that the story tells you meanwhile not being able to focus on anything that could be more subtle like with Zelda being a puppet of Ganondorf throughout 2 thirds of the entire game but doesn’t utilize to it’s fullest potential.
This could’ve been honestly one of the darkest games of all time if they just fixed how they handled Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf. I don’t really like how the characters barely turn against Zelda when they can clearly see that Zelda is doing some really terrible things like how she used Yunobo to turn all his people into slaves that reject work and eat rocks all day, and how she was literally responsible for causing all of Rito Village to suffer a blizzard harshly.
I understand why Queen Sonia didn’t turn against Zelda because she was able to see how she was a fake Zelda right before her eyes but during the entire game where you play as Link, nobody see’s the real Zelda and they’re just left to speculate what the hell is happening.
What we actually got was disappointing as answers. What really happened to Zelda was that it’s revealed that she turned herself into a light dragon after she was told by Mineru that it was forbidden because she wouldn’t be able to turn back and she decides to swallow a stone and turns into a dragon.
Not only does the game not make clear how she travelled back in time to begin with but then it all leads down to a disappointing plot twist that also gets resolved in an instant at the very end of the game but we’ll talk about that more down below.
The reason I state that the game repeats exposition and throws it down your face is because there’s also this one cutscene that gets repeated being shown 4 times as if we didn’t already have a grasp about that Rauru imprisoned Ganondorf after the Imprisoning War. We don’t need to watch the same exact thing happen over and over again after we beat an area and dungeon in the game.
The game has no real sense of progression and instead formulaically copies the same cutscene watered down every time.
I also don’t like a lot of the new characters they make up in the game that are newly introduced. Either they feel like filler characters or their entire existence is contrived to begin with.
Personally I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not a big fan of Rauru as a character. I find it pretty hard to actually believe that he himself is actually the first king of Hyrule mainly because it doesn't actually make any sense from a biological standpoint.
If you're telling me some weird goat dude was the first king of Hyrule and if the Zonai were really responsible for building the kingdom to begin with, then this creates a massive question. How do you explain how the Hylian's rose to power when the Zonai are the creators?
In theory, you could probably argue that Rauru's spirit maybe met some random dude and told him he could be king but the game never hints how that could be the case as like with Ganondorf now having power to destroy the master sword or the situation where Zelda is turned into a dragon is left very vague with nothing deeper than just simply go with whatever nonsense is happening in the plot of this game.
It's not even that I think Rauru is annoying. I just think he's a really boring, uninteresting character who also just has no personally. I think the people honestly making this game didn't bother putting two seconds of thought into how this would work that a goat looking freak of nature is the original king of Hyrule.
I don't actually care about him or the ancestor's which by the way are just bootleg versions of the champions from Breath Of The Wild because the story does nothing developing it's characters past the cookie cutter and basic storyline of good guys must defeat evil demon bad guy that you see recycled a million times.
I actually kind of wonder how if he's actually the king of Hyrule how it never crosses Zelda's mind to wonder if they're somehow biologically related somehow but you know, who'd wonder anything about that right? Nah, let's just go with it right?
A lot of the new side characters are also extremely boring generic archetypes like Tulin who's just some brat who thinks he's tough and then for some reason, Teba who's actually his father just decides to allow Tulin to fight with Link anyways because you gotta have some little kid fighting to relate to babies playing this game and Sona who's extremely aggravating because the writers just thought it would be smart to just add some new forced in love interest who's in love with Sidon even though they've never even been together shown in Breath Of The Wild and have the amount of chemistry as two planks of wood and showing a paper bag being blown beneath your legs.
Not even much to say beyond that regarding these "Characters" if you could even call them that.
Going back to Zelda though, I think the biggest problem with her character arc is that she's utilized about as subtle as raw paper throughout the entire story. I think the biggest problem with her becoming a dragon is that it kind of removes any tension or real stakes of what goes on with her.
I just feel like it would've been a lot cooler in the story if there was more intriguing mystery surrounding why Zelda was acting so strange throughout the entire game because on paper, it is a good concept. I'll give Tears Of The Kingdom credit with that.
It would've been better if the game had you first meet Zelda and then emotionally tries to break Link and hurt all of her friends and then everybody turns against her meanwhile the real Zelda hides in the shadows trying to prove there was an imposter and nobody believes her. That seems like a much better outline for a really dark and gritty story and personally if I was writing this games plot, that would be what it'd be focused on.
Dragon Zelda shouldn't even exist in this game. I thought it was stupid because it took away all the tension that evil Zelda was doing and it wasn't like it wasn't so obvious that Ganondorf was pulling the strings behind Zelda this whole time.
The reason why this is such a terrible plot twist is because it ruins the darker tone this game was trying to aim for with Ganondorf's admittedly cool and dark plan of ruining the belief that Zelda is such a pure and innocent soul as a way to get revenge on the fact he was imprisoned. Breaking people from the inside is a lot darker than breaking them from the outside and that's something I think this game doesn't understand.
Personally I think they also ruined this part of the story because they needed to aim it towards kids and not both kids and adults and I see this as an issue because there's absolutely nothing wrong with an adult having his nostalgia for a video game so that argument would be ridiculous.
It's just a shame that the game's plot isn't as dark as it could've been and would've been a lot more interesting this way.
Now I was maybe just a little bit hard on Ganondorf in this game but to be fair, I don't actually think he was done poorly in this game. I think the final boss in this game minus the part where Ganondorf turns into a dragon was a pretty cool fight and I also think that he does look pretty cool in this game too.
My only real issue with Ganondorf in this game is that I do feel like his characterization is kind of lacking in this game. All of his dialogue is just generic comically evil one liners and it kind of just takes me a bit out of it when I'm just trying to have fun watching Ganondorf kick everybody's ass on screen. Him talking about how he just wants to erase light from this world feels a bit cheesy and I think they could've done a better job making him a bit more serious as a character and really going an extra mile ruining Zelda's reputation as a hero.
I say this not ever because I hate Ganondorf. I say this because I know when things have more potential and they could be done better and I feel like Ganondorf's presentation with his character writing was a bit lacking in this game. I feel like Wind Waker actually did a better job making him feel more human inside but that's because we saw him care about something more than just enslaving Hyrule for once.
I feel like if Ganondorf was given a bit more human emotion, it would've made more since that he was actually born as the demon king instead of just becoming the demon king stealing some jewel from some ancient people. Wasn't Ganondorf already the reincarnation of Demise or is that just not the case anymore somehow? It's not like we ever learn what motivated Ganondorf to steal it to begin with other than simply obtaining power.
Lastly we must talk about the games ending. I know there's a few parts that I haven't brought up yet like anything about Mineru, or literally questioning how the hell guardians don't exist anymore which is a whole thing into itself but to prevent this post from being too long, I'm just talking about what's really most relevant in the games story.
I find it to be a ridiculous asspull that Zelda turns back into a human simply because Link gave Rauru the channeled power to do some magic garbage on her. I find it rather baffling that she was turned into a dragon and was told she wouldn't be able to turn back but the story retcons this anyways without logically piecing together what could be a cure for Zelda that could work.
Instead they just use magic out of their ass because Link is apparently God in this game. I find it to be really annoying that he also has no real chemistry with Zelda because he's so emotionless and hollow with how he presents feelings towards her. Link in this game just feels like a blank slate of a character.
He's already overpowered when the game first starts and then he's able to fight Ganondorf later by having way less trouble than before. What kind of character progression is that? At least in Twilight Princess or Wind Waker, he starts off weak and grows stronger overtime but in this game, Link just feels like cardboard designed as a plot device for himself and the other character.
There's no sense of scale for his power level and he can just save people from curses and overpower a literal dark lord because the game demands it for the sake of the plot. Not because any of these characters actually feel like people.
Look, this game isn't a bad game and to be fair, I still think it has a lot of good qualities and the game is fun sometimes. Although, it struggles as a whole game mainly because it's nothing really that original as a game and that concerns me. It just feels like Breath Of The Wild with a bit of minor tweak's to it.
Breath Of The Wild despite being a really fun game for me was only a 7/10 because while it was a very fun game, it was lacking with it's story and I also thought the game had issues with weapons breaking all the time and the open world just feeling lifeless sometimes because there were no characters that really felt like they touched my soul.
Tears Of The Kingdom is honestly overall a 6/10 game for me which may be controversial but I'm not afraid to say this game honestly has a lot more problems than some of these other critics are making this game out to be.
I haven't even talked about the actual "Game" part of it yet but there's honestly a lot I could say about this game. If this truly is game of the year this year, than gaming truly is dying and that's literally sad.
Overall, I think the biggest problem with the story in this game is the fact that it's not willing to create or write anything that doesn't have a basic and more complex story structure and that hurts it overall because I see that the game has good ideas but it's not willing to advance further and write stronger story beats because by design, this entire game is too much like Breath Of The Wild and tries to do the same thing but ends up falling apart with some of it's core design.
Can I be one to say that I'm honestly getting sick of Breath Of The Wild? Yes, it was a good game but it was fresh back when it came out in 2017 and Tears Of The Kingdom just feels like a worse replica of that game. It's definitely not way worse than Breath Of The Wild but I actually think that even compared to a game like that, it doesn't quite have all of it's charm.
I'm not a big fan of Tears Of The Kingdom's story. I think it's honestly just a ripoff of Breath Of The Wild's story but also fanfiction writing the origin of Hyrule and failing. I think there was a lot of missing potential for one of the darkest games ever made and it just didn't have enough thought and focus put into it. I think it's characters are shallow, 1-Dimensional, and the story fails because it tries too much to keep the same formula as Breath Of The Wild which holds the story back from breathing air more and focusing on more ideas better.
Please let me know what your take on this games story is. I'm curious. I'm always up for a friendly discussion. Stay tuned for more posts and have a good day.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/desktops/legion-desktops/legion-t-series-towers/-legion-tower-5i-gen-8-(26l,-intel)/90ut000dus

• i7-13700F
• RTX 3060 Ti
• 16 GB DDR5 @ 5600 mhz
• 1 TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Air cooled

Usage: lots of browsing, coding, data science, ML.

1. It comes with Windows, but I plan to install Linux. How many issues can I expect to have? Will there be any performance degradation when running Linux?
   
2. I'd like to upgrade to 64 GB @ 5600 mhz right away. The PSREF says that 64 GB @ 5600 mhz is supported. It says that there are "Four DDR5 UDIMM slots, dual-channel capable". Crucial offers 16 GB cards @ 5600 mhz and 32 GB cards @ 5200 mhz. If I buy 4 of the former I get 64 GB @ 5600 mhz and if I buy 4 of the latter I get 128 GB @ 5200 mhz. And I can change the RAM speed in the BIOS. Is my understanding correct?
   
3. How noisy will this get? Does it get noisy even during browsing etc.? I had first considered this Legion laptop but turned away from it because I'd read that the fans get noisy. I started looking at desktops instead because I believed that a desktop would have a better cooling system due to more space. Is my understanding correct?