Hello friends, it is your local cybersecurity investment friend. Today I wanted to provide a quick analysis on a company in the Cybersecurity sector that people haven't really noticed yet $SNPS (Synopsys).
Synopsys derives revenue from two main avenues, semiconductor and integrated circuit designs as well as software security. They also do consulting for both. Electronic Design Automation is 60% Revenue, Consulting is 30% Revenue, Security is 10% Revenue. With that cleared up, I'll reveal that my area of expertise is the software security arm of their business, but I'll write on both areas. I don't want to write about the consulting arm, because bodyshop businesses don't scale well so I think that part is supplemental NOT their core business despite 30% revenue.

Field-Programmable Gate Arrays and Electronic Design Automation

Synopsys main focus is on developing software for companies to build Field-Programmable Gate Arrays and integrated circuit designs. They help customers design and test chips. They also have pre-designed circuits for licensing as components of larger chips. In addition, they also provide hardware and software verification/validation services for electronic systems.
I'm not a hardware guru, but as far as I am aware this area is highly competitive. Cadence and Siemens are breathing down Synopsys' neck for getting revenue from circuit design software and I don't see a TRUE competitve advantage. BUT it is not my area of expertise, so I defer that to hardware folk.
That being said, as we move towards Decentralised Finance I expect a significant increase in interest in running purpose-built hardware as a means to achieve new business needs. Digital Currency, machine learning, cloud computing, video processing, or even future automotive/vehicle circuits require custom-built, reliable, secure, and performant hardware. Synopsys is able to deliver on all these.
Supply chain risks are now elevated across all industries due to coronavirus and increasingly troubled international relationships. I expect a large focus on managing this risk from nation states by increasing domestic chip fabrication and design where cost-effective to do so. This is to avoid getting locked out of emerging technology by being unable to access chips, should China improve military and commercial routes in the South-China Sea / threaten Taiwans autonomy.
In addition, TSM, AMD, Micron, and Nvidia have seen dramatic share-price uplifts over the last year and I expect a rising tide to lift all ships. Synopsys is quite undervalued in this space and as a Domestic US design shop, I expect to see more interest in their technology offerings.

Software Integrity

Cyber is a growing industry with a huge total addressable market. Here, I have seen investments in well-known or larger players like Fireeye, Splunk, CrowdStrike, and Cloudflare go well for friends here. Happy to go into more detail about each of these offerings at a later date, but for now let's go with Synopsys as a relatively low-traded stock.
Synopsys' Software Integrity business looks for vulnerabilities in software applications and helps developers fix them, hopefully early and cheaply before they get released into a production environment.
Within the Application Security / DevSecOps space, security tools tend to fall into sveral categories. I can't write their acronyms without Automoderator hating me though. Synopsys does a few of those.

Static Analysis - Look at code, find bugs, report. Static Analysis tools function in different ways. Some build normalised syntax tree's (computer science nerd shit, basically think of it as a translation of a book written in 34 languages to 1 language). Others simply grep for known bad words (ctrl+F print each line with that word). There are many open-source versions like semgrep and bandit available as well.
Software Composition Analysis - Look at the libraries used in your software for known security issues and provide guidance for fixing those. Generally, composition analysis isn't difficult from a technical perspective, and numerous open source tools exist like OWASP Dependency Checker, nodepackagemanager audit, and so on.
Dynamic Analysis - Run your software, then throw shit at it and see what breaks. Useful for quickly identifying areas that crash your app, or ones that cause weird behaviour, but not as effective as a penetration test because they can't cover business logic well. Owasp zed attack proxy is a good example, as well as Community Burp Suite.

Why not use Open Source?

Enterprises often cannot use open-source security tools due to regulatory concerns around the security OR quality of the tools. Other aspects include lack of support contracts, having to manage it internally, lack of integrations with other enterprise systems, etc. While I have no issue with open source security tools, boards and executives clearly do due to the lack of risk transferral and the advantage of shifting accountability to vendors (See SolarWinds).

Synopsys Value Prop

Security Vendors focus on having a broad enterprise security offering (Gitlab) or on building high quality but niche security tools (Thinkst Canary, Splunk, Snyk). Synopsys is the former, but over last few years have acquired two of the latter and then integrated them into their enterprise offering.
In the Static Analysis space, there are a few large enterprise juggernauts like Checkmarx, Veracode, Microfocus Fortify, and Appscan as well some smaller players. The general industry feeling is that each of these is cost too much, don't work in new environments, and are generally security compliance tools trying to fit into a devops world.
Synopsys Coverity in comparison was built with more focus on the developer experience. Developer satisfaction and cost generally trump security coverage in the app-sec space, so these ancient security product companies are failing. To illustrate, $MFGA which owns Fortify (a fantastic product from 12 years ago) currently has a 20% dividend at the moment. Not sure how they'll grow their share price or get further investment with a 20% div.
Unfortunately for Synopsys, with most enterprise security products, a stupid long contract has been signed w/ prior static analysis vendors mostly to keep Microfocus in business I guess. There are plenty of legacy static analysis deployments currently rotting in big enterprises so the total addressable market for Coverity is massive. This is assuming they are able to meet enterprise chief information security officers on the golf course.

Technical Competitive Advantages:

Broad programming language support
Lack of mandatory compilation / builds reduces analysis time
Incremental analysis means you don't need to compile the whole application every time you want to run a scan.
Direct integration into integrated development environments helps developers find issues before committing code.
Lower false positive ratio, less noise is better for developer experience

Sometimes, people think adding features, more vulns types, extra integrations, etc makes for a more convincing product. I think that coverity, by simply being simpler with a focus on the developer experience will win a lot of product bake-offs compared to competitors.
Another thing to note, these are long term recurring revenue licensing agreements. You won't get immediate bang for buck from these contracts, they are generally paid Month to Month and because of that, Synopsys has to wait for their coffers to fill over time.

Blackduck composition analysis

Blackduck basically works the same as other composition analysis vendors, although there is a lot more competition now with WhiteSource and Snyk becoming increasingly active in their Developer user experience space. They were best in breed, but I can't confidently say that's true any more.
Composition Analysis is huge in the security world, validating the integrity and automatically reporting (and potentially fixing) supply-chain risks has a huge TAM. Software Engineers pull libraries from anywhere into their software application instead of writing the code themselves, inheriting the risk profile of that library AND the risk of it being maliciously modified. Blackduck addresses this by identifying software with weaknesses quickly, providing guidance, and by providing vulnerability research into potential malicious updates to packages.
I'm super bullish on all Composition Analysis products as I don't see Software Engineering moving in any direction except for additional code re-use over re-inventing the wheel.
BONUS: Another vendor in this space I'd consider to be promising would be JFrog for the same reasons as Synopsys Blackduck with the JFrog Artifactory Xray offering providing a similar service.

Summary

- Synopsys does two things, Chips and Software Security.
- Synopsys according to their Jan21 Q4 report has been getting increasing revenue across both their Chip and Integriy business divisions despite supply chain disruptions and the covid pandemic.
- Chips and manufacturing are a huge booming business, a rising tide lifts all ships.
- Cybersecurity has a large total addressable market. Synopsys focusses on software security and made two large acquisitions over last 3 years. Both are high quality products with a focus on user experience and are now fully integrated into the holistic Synopsys enterprise offering.
- Synopsys has been doing share buybacks over the last few years, which at least indicates to me confidence in their cashflow and longterm prospects.
- Assets have improved Q32019 $6.4m to Q12020 $7.3m while liabilities Q32019 $2.3m to Q12020 $3.0m. Revenue slight improvement, Q12019 830k > Q12020 860k DESPITE global pandemic disrupting entire world.
Bearish Factors:
- High customer acquisition cost, Synopsys mainly targets whale enterprises, so banking/governemnt/military/etc.
- Acquihired talent lockup ends 2022 for Coverity and 2023 for Blackduck, will see if they stick around.
- One of their Principal Sales Engineers told me I was a good kid and bought me a coke instead of whiskey at a networking event. Boomers in sales positions :(
TL:DR Positions: Synopsys does chips and software security. Chip companies are mooning. Cyber is mooning. Why not both?
50 shares $SNPS @ $272.
EDIT: I have removed almost every acronym as I think automoderator hates them. Sorry for the lengthy post because of that.

Hi rpa,
I wrote a short mini-guide for companies getting into RPA (it's for a side project of mine).
I'd love your feedback! What did I miss, did I get something wrong? I'm especially interested in hearing about (public?) cases studies that didn't go so well, as I want my piece to cover both sides of the story. I intend to keep this piece relatively short, so obviously I cannot include everything.
Text includes links to other resources which are not mine, but intended for those who want to dig in more!
---

A mini-guide to RPA for businesses

Why do we need automation to start with?

People are best suited for collaboration, creative tasks and decision-making. When performing mundane and repetitive tasks we are slow, make mistakes and get bored.

How does RPA help?

Automate the routine digital tasks with software robots. Free up precious time for doing more work with added value.

How can we get started?

Adapt automation to your mindset. Start a habit to look for tasks that are repetitive, high-volume, rule-based and prone to human error.
Start low-risk, start small. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) provides this approach. Integrating existing software systems might be expensive or even impossible. RPA fills the gap especially when it comes to legacy system interactions.
Apply this 4-step approach:

Start to automate micro-tasks first. The simpler, the better.
Look for processes where you can gain a lot of value by automating.
Map out the processes step-by-step. Then create the automations and test them.
Measure results. See if the initial ROI justifies larger investments.

Decide whether you want to go the commercial or the open-source route (see Tools-section below).
Remember also scripting, macros) and APIs. RPA is just one of the tools in the automation stack.

Tools
Commercial

Open Source

What does the future look like?

Everyday automation is increasingly making headway. In over half of occupations, 33% of the repetitive tasks have potential to be automated.
Software robots could become commoditized in the future. With increasing competition, prices will be driven lower. As prices go down, RPA will extend its reach from big enterprises towards small-to-midsize companies.
Automation departments will emerge in organizations as everyday task automation increases. The need for a Chief Automation Officer (CAO) becomes apparent.
As CAOs emerge, so will citizen developers. Done right, they can help scale an automation initiative. Done wrong, they will produce heaps of technical debt to be handled.
Existing automations are still highly procedural. Some character reading and computer vision capabilities exist. The future will likely see prebuilt blocks of machine learning, natural language processing and computer vision used inside automations.

Company case examples

Wärtsilä got their first automation running in 3 weeks. They have now 400+ processes automated and over 5,000,000 € saved.
Coca-Cola automated 50+ processes across multiple SAP systems. Workers redeemed 16 hours a day / person for more valuable tasks.
Posti (the Finnish postal service) used RPA together with machine learning to automatically process 3000 purchase invoices monthly.
First Home Bank used bots to help process over 6,000 PPP loan applications in a few months. The bots were 30x faster than humans.
Lyse automated submitting applications for government approvals. 20,000+ work hours saved annually.

What are the challenges?

Immediate resistance from your team is likely to occur. Onboard the team and management early on to embrace the change.
Typical other pitfalls:
- Automating processes that are too complex or too many decision points
- Selecting processes that have insignificant business value
- Deploying dozens of automations without proper dev or IT support
- More lessons learnt can be found from research.
Community editions let you get started for free. When scaling further, bigger investments are required. But there's always the open-source option.

More resources

RPA in 5 minutes - An excellent 5-minute non-technical primer on RPA.
AI Multiple - What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)? - Dive deeper with this in-depth set of articles.
RPA ROI Calculator - See if RPA makes monetary sense for a business case.
Formulated Automation Podcast - Weekly podcast about latest developments in RPA.
RoboCon - An annual global online software automation event.

Takeaways

Pilot automating with a low-risk, low-cost approach. Build micro-automations first and measure success. Continue from there, IF feasible.
Let professionals develop enterprise-wide, mission critical automations. Utilize trained citizen developers for creating simple automations at scale.
Ensure that your organization embraces the change rather than fighting back.

---
Interested to hear what you think!

Beginning | Previous
There was no explosion.
No cataclysmic rending of space and time.
This did not concern Joan. She had not expected either. The Griggs Pulse destroyed civilization, not the buildings that housed it. If the past was any indication of the future, Halcyon would experience a rapid and significant deterioration of its energy infrastructure. The city and its citizens would remain, returned to the Stone Age, or whatever equivalent age the alien species had passed through on their way to the present. As a space born dwelling, Joan imagined the consequences for Halcyon would be considerably worse than on Earth -- which had already been costly for the inhabitants of areas affected by a pulse.
Assuming the pulse was successful.
The efficacy of the pulse did concern Joan. So too did the shriek emitting from the flailing form of Admiral Kai Levinson. The piercing wail had begun moments after the UWDFF John Paul Jones had discharged its Pulse and continued with an eerie fervor. The noise would be a nuisance from any other source, but from Kai, it provoked curiosity. Joan had known the man for a long time and he was not a screamer, regardless of circumstance. Except, it appeared, the present circumstances. Interesting.
Joan pulled up an internal camera for the Admiral's Bridge and added it to the readouts displayed in front of her. She positioned the camera above Kai and zoomed in on his contorted face. He breathed in great gasps, expelling out the air with all his might in continuous shouts. No change in tone. No discernible information conveyed in the substance of the vocalization.
He was clutching his head with his left hand, clawing at the side of his skull. Joan swiped a hand and waggled her fingers in a series of patterns. Kai's medical readouts appeared, outside of relatively run-of-the-mill injuries and his blindness, he was physically fine. She shifted her posture and swiped her hand, shifting through various medical displays. She stopped at the brain scan.
Kai's brain appeared to be on fire. All of the synapses were exploding with activity. She was not a doctor, but she was aware enough of what normal brain activity looked like. This was not normal.
She raised a hand and slowly turned it counter-clockwise as she glared at the scan. The readout slowly ticked back in time. After a few rotations of her wrist, she arrived at a point where his scan approached something normal. There were still oddities, strange hives of activity that still seemed out of place to her neophyte eye, but it was not a neural storm.
Joan pulled the time stamp on when his activity began its spike. Her other hand shot out and jabbed at the battle actions log. A sea of data greeted her. A detailed action-by-action history of all events since the commencement of the mission.
"Search Log. First Griggs Pulse fire event," Joan called out. Her gaze darted to the Admiral Bridge's hull temperature readout. There was very little time before their limited heat sinks would fail and the exterior hull would begin to melt. Unfortunate, she had hoped the Griggs Pulse would intercede on their behalf. Joan turned back to the log, which was now highlighting a single event: the UWDFF John Paul Jones' firing of its Griggs Pulse. She looked at the time stamp. It was almost perfectly co-termed with the firing of the first pulse.
Possibly coincidental. Highly unlikely. If not coincidental, then it was evidence that the Griggs Pulse had some effect, but the nature of the effect was unclear. Halcyon continued to have access to energy, as evidenced by her rapidly increasing hull temperature, but some other effect was clearly taking place.
What?
Five other Pulsers had fired a Griggs Pulse. All aimed at Halcyon. A quick cross-reference did not display any change in Kai's brain activity. It had remained unchanged in its heightened elevation throughout the onslaught. Whatever had occurred had occurred immediately upon the firing of the first pulse. Secondary pulses had no accretive effect.
Odd.
Something had happened.
Perhaps something was happening.
What?
She forwarded the data to the G4 Fleet, ensuring that it would not die with her. Perhaps they would be able to unravel its mysteries. If only she had more time. She glanced back at the hull reading. The temperature had stopped its rapid march upward. Joan frowned as the temperature leveled and began to decrease. She was not eager to die, but she was growing frustrated by the constant twists in events. Every attempt to plan seemed to be stymied by the universe. Even her death preparations were being foiled.
Joan pulled up an external view. There was none. All of the cameras had been burned away. Joan snarled and then swiped a hand, yanking the exterior view of the G4 carrier UWDFF Churchill*.* The beams firing upon the Admiral's Bridge and the G4 fleet were gone. Blinked from existence.
Joan pulled the view out, redirecting it toward Halcyon. Hoping to see the city dark and barren.
Instead, it glowed, brighter than ever before.
Transcendent in its luminescence.
Shining with all of the brilliance the aliens' heat beams could muster.
Joan leaned back in her chair, dumbfound.
They were firing on themselves.
----------------
Bo'Bakka'Gah could not fight this enemy. Three agreed and so Bo'Bakka'Gah knew it to be true. The three minds varied on substance, but not on outcome: they would lose, and the cost of their failure would be great. Halcyon would be lost. Many of its denizens as well. The arrival of the Enemy assured that outcome. The question that remained was the best course of action for Bo'Bakka'Gah to take given this reality.
Bo counseled personal survival. Abandonment of post and duty in service of continued consciousness. This did not surprise Bakka and Gah. Bo often found meaning in the simplicity offered by following baser instincts.
Gah was repulsed, as Gah often was by Bo's outbursts. Gah spoke of duty. Of responsibility to the Combine, the Peacekeepers and the Grast. Even in the face of certain loss, they must remain to coordinate the effort to resist. They had been entrusted with responsibility, and such a thing could not be abandoned without dishonor and disgrace.
Bakka stood between, as was Bakka's way. Bo's instincts had been important at times, allowing them to feel for a solution when they could not know one. Simultaneously, Gah's diligence and ingrained morality had allowed them to progress to their current occupation, a mark of pride for themselves and the Grast generally. Bakka recognized the importance of survival, but discounted the value of a life lived in disgrace. Still, strict adherence of duty was not at odds with survival, it just reduced the chances by an acceptable margin.
Bakka made a decision. They would do what they could until their continued efforts would provide no meaningful benefits. Bakka expected Bo's intuition to support them in this highly volatile situation, just as it expected Gah's thoughtful tactics to be brought to bear until the moment they were no longer effective.
Bo and Gah agreed, placing their reservations aside in service of a combined effort.
Three agreed, and so it was.
The emergence of a quantum signature within Halcyon had triggered immediate alarms. Automated efforts to purge the signature were countered, proving the presence of an artificient. The precise nature and goals of the artificient, beyond a seemingly inexhaustible desire for energy, were unclear. It expressed malevolence in the form of an immediate brute force assault upon Halcyon's power generation, but it made no effort to expand its offensive.
Bo sensed the oddity of the situation. The absence of intellect and tactics felt wrong. There seemed to be no depth to the being. It was a mindless hunger, looking for satiation. It was incomplete. Imperfect.
Gah agreed. This artificient seemed deficient. The behavior was incongruous with known artificient behavior. Information on artificients was limited to a series of ancient treatises predating the Combine, but the sophistication and adroitness of an artificient when assaulting organics was well documented. There should be a multi-pronged assault. An effort to immediately consolidate its presence by defanging and depopulating its occupied location before turning to continued expansion. Energy was a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.
Bakka saw the wisdom of both. The ways of artificients were beyond the comprehension of organics, but this did not fit a recognized pattern. The lust for resources was understood, the brute assault and seemingly endless desire to consume power without applying it to immediate version iteration made little sense. There could be many reasons for this novel pattern, but they had little time to speculate and apply that speculation to the present circumstances.
If the artificient was deficient, perhaps it could be contained. It was an unreasonably lofty goal, but immediate, decisive action seemed the best approach in the absence of additional information. Three agreed and the course was set.
Bo'Bakka'Gah ordered the cessation of hostilities against Humanity and the prompt reallocation of offensive resources against the power generation resources the artificient was currently targeting. These offensive resources included internal circuit-breakers, null orbs, action-reaction splits, Halcyon segmentation, Peacekeeper assault forces, both ground and space, and anything else Bo'Bakka'Gah could muster. Its authority on this matter was clear, and no authorization was required in the instance of an artificient emergence.
The assault upon the artificient commenced immediately.
The artificient responded immediately. Each assault was met with a counter. The circuit-breakers were disabled or new circuitry spontaneously formed. The null orbs were somehow sublimated. The ground forces were met by closed doors. The Peacekeepers' ships were immediately fired upon by Halcyon's own weaponry.
Bo'Bakka'Gah could only observe as the artificient thrived in the face of all efforts to contain and dislodge it. Every attack seemed to train the artificient. Subsequent attacks of the same nature were repelled by increasingly sophisticated responses. Each technology used against it was understood, adapted and iterated upon. If an explosive was deployed against it, the next wave of assault troops would face explosives. If a null orb was used, a null field would pop into existence shortly after. Halcyon's beams being firing upon the Peacekeepers were now 23% more effective than they had been before the artificient's arrival.
They could not fight this enemy. The three agreed and so Bo'Bakka'Gah knew it to be true.
But perhaps the loss would not be complete. Even as the artificient grew in its sophistication, it still did not behave as expected. It did not purge all citizens, only those that assaulted it. It did not co-opt all systems -- only those required to defend it. Its only proactive action was the ever increasing consumption of power. All other behavior was reactive in nature.
Perhaps it was possible to save the Combine, if only for the time being. The People. The knowledge. They could leave. Halcyon was a place, it was not everything. Already they fled, making their way to ships. Desperate to leave.
But there were too few ships capable of worm travel and too many people who sought it. And what of the risk of spread? Would the artificient split and follow? Would it co-opt in spread? Was it better to allow them all to die in service of those who remained?
The three could find no answer.
Bo'Bakka'Gah considered the matter. The tri-fold mind turning it over from three points of view. There remained a single quantum signature. It had not split. Subsequent attacks by the Humans had not resulted in multiple intelligences. When each Human attack struck, there was a momentary flicker of a second quantum signature, but no artificient formed. Or perhaps the new signature merged with the existing one. All aggregating around the power generation sources. It was a strange outcome, but it was the observed one.
Bo, possessing a higher emotional sensitivity, offered an explanation. The artificient was content. It desired to focus on what it had already obtained.
Gah took offense to the notion. There was no supporting history for such behavior from an artificient. They expanded. They possessed. They consumed. This was their way. This was their history, uniformly. Why should this one be any different?
Bakka acknowledged the validity of both points, but the oddity of this artificient could not be ignored. If the behavior held, then some could be saved so long as they were not perceived as a threat to the artificient. The alternative was the loss of all people and all knowledge present within Halcyon, the cradle of the Combine's civilization.
Dissent continued briefly, but was ultimately resolved. Bo would get their chance to survive. Gah would fulfill the obligations of their duty by saving what they could. Bakka would find a path forward, as they always did.
The three agreed and so the exodus of Halcyon was ordered. The worm projectors, housed on the far side of the neutron star to protect the invaluable resource from assault by the Humans were ordered to position themselves in proximity to major dockyards not exposed to a direct line of sight with the Humans. Half were to project a wormhole into deep deadspace. The other half were to proceed to these deadspace locations. If a ship arrived without a quantum signature, it would be ferried along, creating an airlock analog of sorts, allowing for the screening of ships that had exited Halcyon's space.
It was an imperfect solution and would require time, but there was no other option. In the meantime, the assault would continue. Bo'Bakka'Gah did not expect the effort to yield a victory, but perhaps it could yield a distraction. A noble effort in service of a greater cause.
Some would survive.
That would please the three greatly.
---------
Sharp clicks rang out as Premier Valast scurried down the hallway. Long past any desire to preserve his dignity, he had fallen to all fours, the fur of his generous belly only just grazing along the ground as his arms and legs pumped furiously. His thoughts came in a jumble, a loosely assembled stream of consciousness marked by alternating peaks of terror, fury and sorrow. There could be no fight now. It was time for flight.
But it was already too late. There could be no stopping it now. It was loose. It would find them. There was no hiding from it.
The Humans. He had known it. Known their evil. He just had underestimated the depths of their depravity. They weren't a scourge on the galaxy, they were its doom. Now everyone would die, and they would be to blame.
Why did the Evangi want this? Why would they do this? They were supposed to protect them. They had promised. Was this because Valast had taken control? Was this their punishment?
Wicked, filthy beasts. He should have killed them all. He would kill them all, if they weren't dead already.
Click. Clickkity. Click.
He skidded around a corner, his claws finding little purchase on the smooth polyplast flooring. Around him alarms blared as Halcyon's defenses attempted to stave off the assault. They would fail, as everyone else had before them. There was no defense. All anyone could do was slow the rate at which they lost. Halcyon was better prepared for this inevitability than anywhere, but it would not matter. The Divinity Angelysia had known it. It was why they'd abandoned the rest of the galaxy to their fate.
And fate had come at last, in the form a bumbling backwater species from the sewers of space.
Humans.
Always the Humans.
Valast dived between the legs of a lumbering Grast, and darted to the side before he could be crushed. He had to make it to his ship. He had to escape. Had to warn Mus. Had to save his Warren. But first himself. He would be no good to anyone if he did not survive. He turned another corner and saw the light of the mainway ahead. It was densely packed with the scrambling efforts of other citizens of Halcyon. The thin veneer of civilization had been peeled back to reveal the truth: It was every being for itself.
A stampede was a dangerous place for a Mus to be. He must be careful. Agile. Quick. Sadly, these were not traits he had in abundance of late. They were not strongly correlated with success among the Mercantile Guild and so he had placed little stock in them. He had not expected to be madly scrambling for his life, alone and unprotected, after reaching the lofty heights of the Premiership.
Ungrateful bastards. He'd freed them all from the yoke of the Evangi and this was how they repaid him? Perhaps that was the way of things. When society is turned upside down, those at the top are trampled beneath the sturdy louts of the underclass.
So be it.
His ears flattened back along the sides of his head, his whiskers taut and alert, Valast leapt into the mainway. He managed to dodge a few times before receiving his first kick, which knocked the wind out of him. His small form was launched through the air, hurtling back toward the periphery of the mainway. He collided with a large object, which resolved in his blurry vision into one of those monstrous statues the Evangi tended with such care. Valast hissed at it, and scrambled back to his feet.
A short distance ahead was another statue. With a bit of effort and luck, he just might be able to reach it. He clambered upward, climbing along the torso, his needle sharp claws finding a home amongst the strange metallic weaving and plates of the statue. Reaching its shoulder, he paused for a moment to gather his breath, wits and courage before attempting the leap.
He watched the skittering, frantic movements of the beings below. Even the moving cesspits known as the Chargo were being swarmed, though they appeared to make some forward movement. Valast almost wished he were a Chargo, it would make proceeding easier. Of course, it would also make him an enormous oozing fringe being barely worthy of the label sentient.
No, if Valast were to die this day, he would die a proud Mus. A brave creature of the Legacy Species who had very nearly founded the Combine.
He leaned back on his haunches, tensing muscles that were unused to the expectations now placed upon them. Just as he prepared to leap, Halcyon itself lurched. A dull thudding rang out, echoing along the corridors and provoking shouts of terror from the beings clustered below, many of whom were tossed from their feet.
Valast clutched to the statue, only just hanging on. He could not determine the source of the lurch, but he was fairly certain it was not a positive sign. Matters were progressing and he needed to progress along with them. Time was finite, and there was no telling which moment may be his last.
The Peacekeepers would attempt to destroy Halcyon. Even though he now cowered within their target, he could see no treason in the goal. It pained Valast to admit that, but they simply would have no alternative. Their mission was the preservation of the Combine, a goal that was now best served by sinking its capitol into a neutron star.
But even in success, they would lose, eventually. They all would.
They could not fight against an immutable law of the galaxy.
Could not resist the inexorable march forward of an invincible enemy.
All Members knew the truth, were taught it from the moment they could learn it: An artificient cannot be defeated, only stalled.
Clearly, no one had bothered to teach the Humans this fact, or they would not have engaged in the insane effort to weaponize one. The work of thousands of generations. The effort of giants. All unraveled because of the actions of a single species. Valast could see the inevitability of it now. Combine space was broad and imperfectly monitored. Dark corners had remained dark too long, protected by the Evangi's indifference and fealty to the long departed Divinity Angelysia.
These dark corners should have been purged, the inhabitants eliminated before they could threaten civilization. Valast had arrived at his moment too late to save the galaxy. Had ferreted out the Evangi and their little plot only after it was in effect. The Combine would fall, along with every Member species. Today. Tomorrow. A hundred generations from now. The time was immaterial because the outcome was inevitable and final.
There was only one thing to live for now. Only one thing that could matter now that the beginning of the end had arrived. Only one thing that could cleanse the bitter taste of bile from his mouth.
Revenge.
Valast crouched down and leapt forward, his paws outstretched and talons bared. They grazed the statue, dragging along the surface until two found a crack to lodge in. Valast slammed face first into the side of the next statue, howling in pain as the weight of his body snapped a talon off at the root. He quickly wrapped himself around the giant contraption and began the process of climbing up to its shoulder. After a few sharp breaths and a lick or two for his wounded paw, he leapt again.
His ship was not far. He would make it.
He would survive.
If only to make sure the Humans didn't.
---------------
The Grands were initially disturbed by the Breeders' failure to establish a workable framework for the establishment of a war purpose-specialization. They had assumed the matter resolved by their consensus that it be done, and had long since turned to other issues of pressing concern, such as stagnancy monitoring in secondary float holding tanks. Such matters had already been ignored by the distractions of the singletons and other affairs, and there was considerable detritus accumulating that required consideration from the most senior of the Zix. It was into this deliberation that the Grand Left and the Grand Right of the Breeders had returned, their fluid expelled and cilia curled in contrition at their failure to develop a war purpose-specialization. However, once the Grand thought-ring had rejoined and considered the Breeders' position, both Lefts and Right saw wisdom in their return for guidance.
The Zix Breeding rules were sacrosanct. They had been enacted as a safeguard against the re-emergence of single-mindedness. A necessary precaution given the ignominious origins of the float colony. A change in their substance could result in a change to the very nature of the Zix themselves. It was a dangerous foray, and one that could not be entrusted to the minds of a single purpose-specialization alone.
The Breeders had shown great wisdom in recognizing this threat, and should in fact be commended for retreating from these dangerous currents, lest all Zix be swept away for their folly. The nature of such a commendation was somewhat difficult to craft. Some Lefts cautioned that a public commendation of this nature could be viewed as approval for refusing to abide by the consensus of the Grands, who had directed them to proceed.
Rights considered this foolish, taking the view that inaction was, indeed, the most prudent and thoughtful action. Lefts, not accustomed to being accused of a lack of prudence, pushed back most forcefully on the subject. Going further to declare that even the most prudent action should not be rewarded if it evidenced a refusal to abide by consensus. This sparked a flurry of cilia latching and unlatching as the matter was debated with great force. More than one Grand jetted to the periphery to give itself space to untangle and reorient itself.
The Breeding Grands attempted to abstain from the discussion, believing themselves to be too biased to participate. Their abstention was overruled by a consensus of the Grands demanding additional insights into the motives of the Breeders when coming to their consensus on how to respond to the Grands' consensus. The Breeding Grands, unfortunately, could not come to an exact consensus on the subject, leading to a great deal of consternation among the other Grands, who had hoped for a clear explanation to help guide their own thoughts on the matter and potentially resolve the debate.
Fluid was imbibed and expelled. Nutrients were filtered at an accelerated pace. But no resolution could be found among the Grands. There was simply no common ground, the factions on commendation had split further rather than find common fluid. The currents of opinion now intersected at orthogonal angles, spinning off angry whirlpools. The matter could not be resolved without more information directly from the source. On that, there was consensus.
The Grands directed the Breeding Grands to bring all members of the Breeder purpose-specialization into an inquiry thought-ring so the matter could be examined in further detail and appropriate information surfaced. Depending on the motivations of the involved Breeders, they would either be publicly commended, privately commended, privately admonished or publicly admonished. The basis for arriving at one of these four options had not been clearly established, but such details were viewed as better resolved once a full recounting of the facts had occurred.
The Breeding Grands, both chastised and encouraged, agreed that they would supply the Grand inquiry thought-ring with access to the Breeders in question. Both agreed that it would almost certainly resolve the matter, though neither could affirmatively and certainly explain in what way.
Progress.
Next.
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Through various conversations over the years in this sub I have seen a lot of opinions about what exactly IT and Operations is, and specifically what a Sys Admin is. To me there are no hard definitions of any job in tech. For example a Sys Admin at one job could be level 2 help desk type work, plus some minor server admin duties. Another job might give the job title Sys Admin to someone who is doing full DevOps type work. So, here is some interesting data around tech and the tech industry.
Stack Overflow does a yearly survey of all tech workers around the world, the survey of course is optional and requires participation, but it has consistently over the past 5+ years had very similar trends. System Administrators in the US make up around 11.6% of people that submitted data to the survey (note this is US based data, not global). The average salary of those that participated in the survey with the job title of System Administrator is $110k annually in the USA.
Python, bash, PowerShell, and SQL made it in the top 10 of most popular technologies that tech workers use. Python and Go both made top 5 for most loved and most wanted languages by tech professionals and employers. A lot of Ops teams use these languages to build tools and integration, not just developers. In my opinion these are things you should learn.
According to a CompTIA report, tech is nearly a $2 Trillion industry in the USA. Now, not every Org that has IT is a tech company, but most IT/Ops shops will use tech built by the $2 trillion dollar tech industry, so at some level most tech workers are connected to this ecosystem/economy.
So, now my personal opinion. To reiterate, this is my opinion and is anecdotal based off my personal experience, so disagree if you like you are entitled to do so.

Learning CS 101 will highly benefit you as an IT/Ops professional
These skills lead into more opportunity - dev, security, data jobs, DevOps, etc
Diversifying your skillset is important, you should try to always learn new things
No one is born with any of this knowledge and all knowledge is gained over time. Meaning you will get out of it what you put into it. It is really a choice, and you can choose to expand or not.
Technology changes fast, and it changes slow. There will always be jobs managing legacy tech for Orgs who cannot adapt or modernize. Other Orgs do change fast and modernize every chance they get.
Just because you do something a certain way, doesn't mean the rest of the planet does it that way. Keep an open mind and be willing to accept you can and will be wrong.
The new currency Orgs want is based around skills and experience. Orgs also have different wants on job reqs, so not every Sys Admin job will be AD, WSUS, GPO and Windows Imaging. Don't assume what you are doing is anywhere near a standard, because most likely it is not.
Automation through code is a must, you need to invest in this.
The Cloud is not the future, the cloud is the present, and is a multi billion dollar industry
IT/Ops can consist of developers, data engineers, support IT, engineering IT, DevOps, app owners and integrators, sys admins, help desk, management, architects, and basically any combination of tech workers your Org wants. There are no rules of what IT/Ops is or how it is defined - my opinion.

In the end, it is a personal choice. Orgs will not wait for you or make exceptions for you. This is not meant to sound harsh, but more of if you want to move up and get into better jobs you won't be handed that opportunity typically. Professional Networking helps a ton in this regard and sometimes helps you get those opportunities more easily. So, there are always exceptions to all the rules.
If an Org wants to use developer, DevOps, automation, and so forth in place of the classic Sys Admin roles, they will. In fact, some are already doing this, and they are doing it at scale. Of course with Diffusion of Innovation it is a process and it takes time for all Orgs to catch up.
So, what do you all think IT/Ops and Sys Admin jobs mean?

Catching up...gonna do my level best to do same day posting moving forward.
----
Beginning | Previous
There was no explosion.
No cataclysmic rending of space and time.
This did not concern Joan. She had not expected either. The Griggs Pulse destroyed civilization, not the buildings that housed it. If the past was any indication of the future, Halcyon would experience a rapid and significant deterioration of its energy infrastructure. The city and its citizens would remain, returned to the Stone Age, or whatever equivalent age the alien species had passed through on their way to the present. As a space born dwelling, Joan imagined the consequences for Halcyon would be considerably worse than on Earth -- which had already been costly for the inhabitants of areas affected by a pulse.
Assuming the pulse was successful.
The efficacy of the pulse did concern Joan. So too did the shriek emitting from the flailing form of Admiral Kai Levinson. The piercing wail had begun moments after the UWDFF John Paul Jones had discharged its Pulse and continued with an eerie fervor. The noise would be a nuisance from any other source, but from Kai, it provoked curiosity. Joan had known the man for a long time and he was not a screamer, regardless of circumstance. Except, it appeared, the present circumstances. Interesting.
Joan pulled up an internal camera for the Admiral's Bridge and added it to the readouts displayed in front of her. She positioned the camera above Kai and zoomed in on his contorted face. He breathed in great gasps, expelling out the air with all his might in continuous shouts. No change in tone. No discernible information conveyed in the substance of the vocalization.
He was clutching his head with his left hand, clawing at the side of his skull. Joan swiped a hand and waggled her fingers in a series of patterns. Kai's medical readouts appeared, outside of relatively run-of-the-mill injuries and his blindness, he was physically fine. She shifted her posture and swiped her hand, shifting through various medical displays. She stopped at the brain scan.
Kai's brain appeared to be on fire. All of the synapses were exploding with activity. She was not a doctor, but she was aware enough of what normal brain activity looked like. This was not normal.
She raised a hand and slowly turned it counter-clockwise as she glared at the scan. The readout slowly ticked back in time. After a few rotations of her wrist, she arrived at a point where his scan approached something normal. There were still oddities, strange hives of activity that still seemed out of place to her neophyte eye, but it was not a neural storm.
Joan pulled the time stamp on when his activity began its spike. Her other hand shot out and jabbed at the battle actions log. A sea of data greeted her. A detailed action-by-action history of all events since the commencement of the mission.
"Search Log. First Griggs Pulse fire event," Joan called out. Her gaze darted to the Admiral Bridge's hull temperature readout. There was very little time before their limited heat sinks would fail and the exterior hull would begin to melt. Unfortunate, she had hoped the Griggs Pulse would intercede on their behalf. Joan turned back to the log, which was now highlighting a single event: the UWDFF John Paul Jones' firing of its Griggs Pulse. She looked at the time stamp. It was almost perfectly co-termed with the firing of the first pulse.
Possibly coincidental. Highly unlikely. If not coincidental, then it was evidence that the Griggs Pulse had some effect, but the nature of the effect was unclear. Halcyon continued to have access to energy, as evidenced by her rapidly increasing hull temperature, but some other effect was clearly taking place.
What?
Five other Pulsers had fired a Griggs Pulse. All aimed at Halcyon. A quick cross-reference did not display any change in Kai's brain activity. It had remained unchanged in its heightened elevation throughout the onslaught. Whatever had occurred had occurred immediately upon the firing of the first pulse. Secondary pulses had no accretive effect.
Odd.
Something had happened.
Perhaps something was happening.
What?
She forwarded the data to the G4 Fleet, ensuring that it would not die with her. Perhaps they would be able to unravel its mysteries. If only she had more time. She glanced back at the hull reading. The temperature had stopped its rapid march upward. Joan frowned as the temperature leveled and began to decrease. She was not eager to die, but she was growing frustrated by the constant twists in events. Every attempt to plan seemed to be stymied by the universe. Even her death preparations were being foiled.
Joan pulled up an external view. There was none. All of the cameras had been burned away. Joan snarled and then swiped a hand, yanking the exterior view of the G4 carrier UWDFF Churchill*.* The beams firing upon the Admiral's Bridge and the G4 fleet were gone. Blinked from existence.
Joan pulled the view out, redirecting it toward Halcyon. Hoping to see the city dark and barren.
Instead, it glowed, brighter than ever before.
Transcendent in its luminescence.
Shining with all of the brilliance the aliens' heat beams could muster.
Joan leaned back in her chair, dumbfound.
They were firing on themselves.
----------------
Bo'Bakka'Gah could not fight this enemy. Three agreed and so Bo'Bakka'Gah knew it to be true. The three minds varied on substance, but not on outcome: they would lose, and the cost of their failure would be great. Halcyon would be lost. Many of its denizens as well. The arrival of the Enemy assured that outcome. The question that remained was the best course of action for Bo'Bakka'Gah to take given this reality.
Bo counseled personal survival. Abandonment of post and duty in service of continued consciousness. This did not surprise Bakka and Gah. Bo often found meaning in the simplicity offered by following baser instincts.
Gah was repulsed, as Gah often was by Bo's outbursts. Gah spoke of duty. Of responsibility to the Combine, the Peacekeepers and the Grast. Even in the face of certain loss, they must remain to coordinate the effort to resist. They had been entrusted with responsibility, and such a thing could not be abandoned without dishonor and disgrace.
Bakka stood between, as was Bakka's way. Bo's instincts had been important at times, allowing them to feel for a solution when they could not know one. Simultaneously, Gah's diligence and ingrained morality had allowed them to progress to their current occupation, a mark of pride for themselves and the Grast generally. Bakka recognized the importance of survival, but discounted the value of a life lived in disgrace. Still, strict adherence of duty was not at odds with survival, it just reduced the chances by an acceptable margin.
Bakka made a decision. They would do what they could until their continued efforts would provide no meaningful benefits. Bakka expected Bo's intuition to support them in this highly volatile situation, just as it expected Gah's thoughtful tactics to be brought to bear until the moment they were no longer effective.
Bo and Gah agreed, placing their reservations aside in service of a combined effort.
Three agreed, and so it was.
The emergence of a quantum signature within Halcyon had triggered immediate alarms. Automated efforts to purge the signature were countered, proving the presence of an artificient. The precise nature and goals of the artificient, beyond a seemingly inexhaustible desire for energy, were unclear. It expressed malevolence in the form of an immediate brute force assault upon Halcyon's power generation, but it made no effort to expand its offensive.
Bo sensed the oddity of the situation. The absence of intellect and tactics felt wrong. There seemed to be no depth to the being. It was a mindless hunger, looking for satiation. It was incomplete. Imperfect.
Gah agreed. This artificient seemed deficient. The behavior was incongruous with known artificient behavior. Information on artificients was limited to a series of ancient treatises predating the Combine, but the sophistication and adroitness of an artificient when assaulting organics was well documented. There should be a multi-pronged assault. An effort to immediately consolidate its presence by defanging and depopulating its occupied location before turning to continued expansion. Energy was a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.
Bakka saw the wisdom of both. The ways of artificients were beyond the comprehension of organics, but this did not fit a recognized pattern. The lust for resources was understood, the brute assault and seemingly endless desire to consume power without applying it to immediate version iteration made little sense. There could be many reasons for this novel pattern, but they had little time to speculate and apply that speculation to the present circumstances.
If the artificient was deficient, perhaps it could be contained. It was an unreasonably lofty goal, but immediate, decisive action seemed the best approach in the absence of additional information. Three agreed and the course was set.
Bo'Bakka'Gah ordered the cessation of hostilities against Humanity and the prompt reallocation of offensive resources against the power generation resources the artificient was currently targeting. These offensive resources included internal circuit-breakers, null orbs, action-reaction splits, Halcyon segmentation, Peacekeeper assault forces, both ground and space, and anything else Bo'Bakka'Gah could muster. Its authority on this matter was clear, and no authorization was required in the instance of an artificient emergence.
The assault upon the artificient commenced immediately.
The artificient responded immediately. Each assault was met with a counter. The circuit-breakers were disabled or new circuitry spontaneously formed. The null orbs were somehow sublimated. The ground forces were met by closed doors. The Peacekeepers' ships were immediately fired upon by Halcyon's own weaponry.
Bo'Bakka'Gah could only observe as the artificient thrived in the face of all efforts to contain and dislodge it. Every attack seemed to train the artificient. Subsequent attacks of the same nature were repelled by increasingly sophisticated responses. Each technology used against it was understood, adapted and iterated upon. If an explosive was deployed against it, the next wave of assault troops would face explosives. If a null orb was used, a null field would pop into existence shortly after. Halcyon's beams being firing upon the Peacekeepers were now 23% more effective than they had been before the artificient's arrival.
They could not fight this enemy. The three agreed and so Bo'Bakka'Gah knew it to be true.
But perhaps the loss would not be complete. Even as the artificient grew in its sophistication, it still did not behave as expected. It did not purge all citizens, only those that assaulted it. It did not co-opt all systems -- only those required to defend it. Its only proactive action was the ever increasing consumption of power. All other behavior was reactive in nature.
Perhaps it was possible to save the Combine, if only for the time being. The People. The knowledge. They could leave. Halcyon was a place, it was not everything. Already they fled, making their way to ships. Desperate to leave.
But there were too few ships capable of worm travel and too many people who sought it. And what of the risk of spread? Would the artificient split and follow? Would it co-opt in spread? Was it better to allow them all to die in service of those who remained?
The three could find no answer.
Bo'Bakka'Gah considered the matter. The tri-fold mind turning it over from three points of view. There remained a single quantum signature. It had not split. Subsequent attacks by the Humans had not resulted in multiple intelligences. When each Human attack struck, there was a momentary flicker of a second quantum signature, but no artificient formed. Or perhaps the new signature merged with the existing one. All aggregating around the power generation sources. It was a strange outcome, but it was the observed one.
Bo, possessing a higher emotional sensitivity, offered an explanation. The artificient was content. It desired to focus on what it had already obtained.
Gah took offense to the notion. There was no supporting history for such behavior from an artificient. They expanded. They possessed. They consumed. This was their way. This was their history, uniformly. Why should this one be any different?
Bakka acknowledged the validity of both points, but the oddity of this artificient could not be ignored. If the behavior held, then some could be saved so long as they were not perceived as a threat to the artificient. The alternative was the loss of all people and all knowledge present within Halcyon, the cradle of the Combine's civilization.
Dissent continued briefly, but was ultimately resolved. Bo would get their chance to survive. Gah would fulfill the obligations of their duty by saving what they could. Bakka would find a path forward, as they always did.
The three agreed and so the exodus of Halcyon was ordered. The worm projectors, housed on the far side of the neutron star to protect the invaluable resource from assault by the Humans were ordered to position themselves in proximity to major dockyards not exposed to a direct line of sight with the Humans. Half were to project a wormhole into deep deadspace. The other half were to proceed to these deadspace locations. If a ship arrived without a quantum signature, it would be ferried along, creating an airlock analog of sorts, allowing for the screening of ships that had exited Halcyon's space.
It was an imperfect solution and would require time, but there was no other option. In the meantime, the assault would continue. Bo'Bakka'Gah did not expect the effort to yield a victory, but perhaps it could yield a distraction. A noble effort in service of a greater cause.
Some would survive.
That would please the three greatly.
---------
Sharp clicks rang out as Premier Valast scurried down the hallway. Long past any desire to preserve his dignity, he had fallen to all fours, the fur of his generous belly only just grazing along the ground as his arms and legs pumped furiously. His thoughts came in a jumble, a loosely assembled stream of consciousness marked by alternating peaks of terror, fury and sorrow. There could be no fight now. It was time for flight.
But it was already too late. There could be no stopping it now. It was loose. It would find them. There was no hiding from it.
The Humans. He had known it. Known their evil. He just had underestimated the depths of their depravity. They weren't a scourge on the galaxy, they were its doom. Now everyone would die, and they would be to blame.
Why did the Evangi want this? Why would they do this? They were supposed to protect them. They had promised. Was this because Valast had taken control? Was this their punishment?
Wicked, filthy beasts. He should have killed them all. He would kill them all, if they weren't dead already.
Click. Clickkity. Click.
He skidded around a corner, his claws finding little purchase on the smooth polyplast flooring. Around him alarms blared as Halcyon's defenses attempted to stave off the assault. They would fail, as everyone else had before them. There was no defense. All anyone could do was slow the rate at which they lost. Halcyon was better prepared for this inevitability than anywhere, but it would not matter. The Divinity Angelysia had known it. It was why they'd abandoned the rest of the galaxy to their fate.
And fate had come at last, in the form a bumbling backwater species from the sewers of space.
Humans.
Always the Humans.
Valast dived between the legs of a lumbering Grast, and darted to the side before he could be crushed. He had to make it to his ship. He had to escape. Had to warn Mus. Had to save his Warren. But first himself. He would be no good to anyone if he did not survive. He turned another corner and saw the light of the mainway ahead. It was densely packed with the scrambling efforts of other citizens of Halcyon. The thin veneer of civilization had been peeled back to reveal the truth: It was every being for itself.
A stampede was a dangerous place for a Mus to be. He must be careful. Agile. Quick. Sadly, these were not traits he had in abundance of late. They were not strongly correlated with success among the Mercantile Guild and so he had placed little stock in them. He had not expected to be madly scrambling for his life, alone and unprotected, after reaching the lofty heights of the Premiership.
Ungrateful bastards. He'd freed them all from the yoke of the Evangi and this was how they repaid him? Perhaps that was the way of things. When society is turned upside down, those at the top are trampled beneath the sturdy louts of the underclass.
So be it.
His ears flattened back along the sides of his head, his whiskers taut and alert, Valast leapt into the mainway. He managed to dodge a few times before receiving his first kick, which knocked the wind out of him. His small form was launched through the air, hurtling back toward the periphery of the mainway. He collided with a large object, which resolved in his blurry vision into one of those monstrous statues the Evangi tended with such care. Valast hissed at it, and scrambled back to his feet.
A short distance ahead was another statue. With a bit of effort and luck, he just might be able to reach it. He clambered upward, climbing along the torso, his needle sharp claws finding a home amongst the strange metallic weaving and plates of the statue. Reaching its shoulder, he paused for a moment to gather his breath, wits and courage before attempting the leap.
He watched the skittering, frantic movements of the beings below. Even the moving cesspits known as the Chargo were being swarmed, though they appeared to make some forward movement. Valast almost wished he were a Chargo, it would make proceeding easier. Of course, it would also make him an enormous oozing fringe being barely worthy of the label sentient.
No, if Valast were to die this day, he would die a proud Mus. A brave creature of the Legacy Species who had very nearly founded the Combine.
He leaned back on his haunches, tensing muscles that were unused to the expectations now placed upon them. Just as he prepared to leap, Halcyon itself lurched. A dull thudding rang out, echoing along the corridors and provoking shouts of terror from the beings clustered below, many of whom were tossed from their feet.
Valast clutched to the statue, only just hanging on. He could not determine the source of the lurch, but he was fairly certain it was not a positive sign. Matters were progressing and he needed to progress along with them. Time was finite, and there was no telling which moment may be his last.
The Peacekeepers would attempt to destroy Halcyon. Even though he now cowered within their target, he could see no treason in the goal. It pained Valast to admit that, but they simply would have no alternative. Their mission was the preservation of the Combine, a goal that was now best served by sinking its capitol into a neutron star.
But even in success, they would lose, eventually. They all would.
They could not fight against an immutable law of the galaxy.
Could not resist the inexorable march forward of an invincible enemy.
All Members knew the truth, were taught it from the moment they could learn it: An artificient cannot be defeated, only stalled.
Clearly, no one had bothered to teach the Humans this fact, or they would not have engaged in the insane effort to weaponize one. The work of thousands of generations. The effort of giants. All unraveled because of the actions of a single species. Valast could see the inevitability of it now. Combine space was broad and imperfectly monitored. Dark corners had remained dark too long, protected by the Evangi's indifference and fealty to the long departed Divinity Angelysia.
These dark corners should have been purged, the inhabitants eliminated before they could threaten civilization. Valast had arrived at his moment too late to save the galaxy. Had ferreted out the Evangi and their little plot only after it was in effect. The Combine would fall, along with every Member species. Today. Tomorrow. A hundred generations from now. The time was immaterial because the outcome was inevitable and final.
There was only one thing to live for now. Only one thing that could matter now that the beginning of the end had arrived. Only one thing that could cleanse the bitter taste of bile from his mouth.
Revenge.
Valast crouched down and leapt forward, his paws outstretched and talons bared. They grazed the statue, dragging along the surface until two found a crack to lodge in. Valast slammed face first into the side of the next statue, howling in pain as the weight of his body snapped a talon off at the root. He quickly wrapped himself around the giant contraption and began the process of climbing up to its shoulder. After a few sharp breaths and a lick or two for his wounded paw, he leapt again.
His ship was not far. He would make it.
He would survive.
If only to make sure the Humans didn't.
---------------
The Grands were initially disturbed by the Breeders' failure to establish a workable framework for the establishment of a war purpose-specialization. They had assumed the matter resolved by their consensus that it be done, and had long since turned to other issues of pressing concern, such as stagnancy monitoring in secondary float holding tanks. Such matters had already been ignored by the distractions of the singletons and other affairs, and there was considerable detritus accumulating that required consideration from the most senior of the Zix. It was into this deliberation that the Grand Left and the Grand Right of the Breeders had returned, their fluid expelled and cilia curled in contrition at their failure to develop a war purpose-specialization. However, once the Grand thought-ring had rejoined and considered the Breeders' position, both Lefts and Right saw wisdom in their return for guidance.
The Zix Breeding rules were sacrosanct. They had been enacted as a safeguard against the re-emergence of single-mindedness. A necessary precaution given the ignominious origins of the float colony. A change in their substance could result in a change to the very nature of the Zix themselves. It was a dangerous foray, and one that could not be entrusted to the minds of a single purpose-specialization alone.
The Breeders had shown great wisdom in recognizing this threat, and should in fact be commended for retreating from these dangerous currents, lest all Zix be swept away for their folly. The nature of such a commendation was somewhat difficult to craft. Some Lefts cautioned that a public commendation of this nature could be viewed as approval for refusing to abide by the consensus of the Grands, who had directed them to proceed.
Rights considered this foolish, taking the view that inaction was, indeed, the most prudent and thoughtful action. Lefts, not accustomed to being accused of a lack of prudence, pushed back most forcefully on the subject. Going further to declare that even the most prudent action should not be rewarded if it evidenced a refusal to abide by consensus. This sparked a flurry of cilia latching and unlatching as the matter was debated with great force. More than one Grand jetted to the periphery to give itself space to untangle and reorient itself.
The Breeding Grands attempted to abstain from the discussion, believing themselves to be too biased to participate. Their abstention was overruled by a consensus of the Grands demanding additional insights into the motives of the Breeders when coming to their consensus on how to respond to the Grands' consensus. The Breeding Grands, unfortunately, could not come to an exact consensus on the subject, leading to a great deal of consternation among the other Grands, who had hoped for a clear explanation to help guide their own thoughts on the matter and potentially resolve the debate.
Fluid was imbibed and expelled. Nutrients were filtered at an accelerated pace. But no resolution could be found among the Grands. There was simply no common ground, the factions on commendation had split further rather than find common fluid. The currents of opinion now intersected at orthogonal angles, spinning off angry whirlpools. The matter could not be resolved without more information directly from the source. On that, there was consensus.
The Grands directed the Breeding Grands to bring all members of the Breeder purpose-specialization into an inquiry thought-ring so the matter could be examined in further detail and appropriate information surfaced. Depending on the motivations of the involved Breeders, they would either be publicly commended, privately commended, privately admonished or publicly admonished. The basis for arriving at one of these four options had not been clearly established, but such details were viewed as better resolved once a full recounting of the facts had occurred.
The Breeding Grands, both chastised and encouraged, agreed that they would supply the Grand inquiry thought-ring with access to the Breeders in question. Both agreed that it would almost certainly resolve the matter, though neither could affirmatively and certainly explain in what way.
Progress.
To Part 58...and beyond.

full credit for the original goes to U/ActualGFCat. This masterpiece must continue.
--I've had enough. Cliff Blazinsky is laughing at Ubisoft every day because of Siege. Rouge Company has more players than ever, and R6 just can't compete anymore. Cliffy B already has made a belt from the flayed skin of Overwatch. Because of this, I've taken it upon myself to forever fix and balance the game so all operators have a fighting chance in the meta. After countless hours of research and study, I have determined the best course of action for all characters after 1,000 hours on each. Without further ado, let's begin.

Sledge: Sledge's hammer's head is replaced with a 40mm cannon firing explosive mortars at high velocity. These can be fired at a trajectory and can penetrate even reinforced walls. They are a one-shot kill. After impact, they throw high-damage molten slag forward, dealing damage to anyone caught behind the surface or player he is breaching.
Thatcher: After long hours of his secret psyonic and occult studies, Thatcher has awoken his third eye. He can now destroy and disable all defender gadgets across the map, including mechanical gadgets like Frost traps. He can use this for as long as he has mental stamina, and can replenish it when it runs out with a bottle of Gatorade® Thirst Quencher, of which individual flavors may be chosen in the equip menus.
Smoke: Gas deals 45 damage per tick. The gas now has a larger area of effect, and can spread through a room in real time. Gas duration significantly increased. Smoke comes equipped with IR vision scanners which allow him to see through the gas. His MAC-11 now has virtually no recoil and comes with ACOG again.
Mute: Mute jammer's radius now covers a quarter of the total map. Not only does it disable all electronic attacker gadgets, but it scrambles enemy team's HUD and voice chat elements. If attacking team is using third-party voice hosting like Discord or Teamspeak, the jammer will run an IP backtrack and scramble the party chat audio as well.
Ash: Ash is now a six-speed operator. Her R4-C has been given enhanced recoil compensation and range and is now virtually a laser. Her breach launcher has been replaced with a high-capacity grenade launcher coming with 4 breach rounds, which can even penetrate reinforcements, along with 4 HE rounds and 4 tear gas grenades, which cause the defending team severe distress and make them unable to see.
Thermite: His breach charge use time has been decreased to 1.1 seconds and now fires basic cluster charges while breaching. Once breach is complete it fires the shrapnel inwards, causing severe damage to all caught in the immediate radius.
Castle: Castle's barricades are now completely impervious to all forms of attack, even against hard-breach utilities. If an attacker steps too close to the barricade, the automated shotguns mounted on the other side will expose themselves and open fire. Castle will remain with his standard amount of 3 gadgets.
Pulse: Pulse's heart-rate sensor has been given some minor upgrades. The range on the heart sensor has been increased from 9 to 25 meters. If Pulse maintains the heart monitor fixed on a target for 10 seconds, they will die of cardiac arrest. If Pulse loses sight of his target for whatever reason, instead of hard-resetting, the timer will tick down, giving Pulse time to re-establish line-of-sight. The attacker has no indication they are in peril until they are already dead.
Twitch: Twitch's drone has received a few enhancements. The drone now comes equipped with a cloaking device, has increased speed, and is capable of jumping. Drone can build enough velocity to punch through windows. Twitch has also increased the wattage of the taser, making it into an instant down.
Montagne: Montagne's shield now wraps a full 360 degrees around him, including his head. If an enemy approaches the shield, spikes will shoot out and deal 99 damage in one hit. The only counter to this is a nitro cell at his feet / underneath him, or being trapped by Castle. Comes with a basket for safely carrying the hostage.
Doc: Doc's stim pistol now does 100 HP of healing, allowing an overcharge of 200 HP. In addition, Doc's medieval alchemy skills have paid off, and his new elixr of life stims can resurrect dead team members. He remains equipped with 3 stims.
Rook: Rook's armor plates now keep defenders completely impervious to all shots to the chest or upper extremities (shoulders, thighs). Rook himself is invulnerable to almost all damage, except for multiple headshots or melee.
Glaz: Glaz has been given new "heaven piercer" bullets. These bullets can travel through the entire map with no damage dropoff and no bullet tumble. On top of this, the bullet's path is immediately followed by an arc of lightning that chains to nearby defenders, dealing 35 damage per shock. Carrying capacity for smoke grenades increased to 5.
Fuze: Cluster bombs can be thrown now, in addition to being able to penetrate walls and floors. Cluster charges will spread across the floor, and will not detonate unless in close proximity. If a heat signature is detected in the room, the cluster charges will roll towards the defender within the room. Explosion radius is increased to 250% of its original and damage is increased to 150%. All cluster charge deployments will be accompanied by an extremely loud fanfare of the Soviet national anthem, dealing DoT to all in the nearby vicinity (5 damage per tick). Equip load increased to 4.
Kapkan: Everyone misses the old Kap traps, so they're coming back. Kapkan's traps are now an instant kill, but in addition are cloaked and do not project a laser. Will remain with the current equip load of 5.
Tachanka: Tachanka's turret now comes with a camera dolly, allowing him to move around the map. He is completely armored from the chest up to the front and sides. The ballistic glass cannot be broken. If you l̡̢͓̙̙̼̳̝̭k͝͏̵̡̘̪̞̲͔͉͈͇o̢̫͍̲͙͔͜͝͝ͅȩ̰̙͉̟̻͔̗͢͠͝x̘̗̪̬̦́͢ ̷̶̴̕҉͕̼̱̪͖͖f͘͜͏̗̩͓͈̱̺ͅd͔̟̱̘̹̺͉͡ͅl̨̤̱͎̮͕̖͍͓͘ư̸̢̫͇̱͔̫̤͎̺̬t̶̛̛͚̣̮̤̺̪̱̭̳̙ͅ ͜͡͞͠҉͖̪͈͉͖̺̹̙l̷̠̮̩͖͍̜̻̬͢͡ͅo̸͜͏̟̖̥̬̻̰̖͇̱̙̤̖a͝҉̷̗̳̦̼̪̮̫̳v̜͍̲̰̞͘͠ͅe̴̡̟̮̭͔̖̗̮͝͠ ̴̰̠͇̮̦̜̖̜̲̹̣̀͘͢ͅw̨̧͔̹̘̘͈̰͎̜͚͘͠ṳ̵̡̨̮͚̣̞̗̼͚͔͠͠ͅu̱̼̹͉͔͟͢ͅi̴҉̡̻̟͔͓̭̜v̵̶̶̛͏͚͈͙͇̝͙ͅ ̸̱͙̰͇̗̕̕͝͞ͅͅc̷̴̡̛̻̞̤̘͖̜̜͞ͅͅò̷̵̶͎̣̪̰͕̣͙̙̰̪̖͘ͅq͏̡̼̤̯̥͇͈̝̘j̵̛͚̠̜̱͈̟̦̮̹͜d͢͢͏̷͇̰̰̙̲̱͓̳̗͇̲ͅ ̦̫̞̦͕̮̪̬̘̘͢͟y͝͡҉͓̜̻̥̠͍ͅg͈̗̼͖̼̱̀̕͡g̴͉̪̣͚͞͠ț̵̭̩̰̟̝̼͘ṭ̛̭̲̪̮͖̣͈͟͟͡͞ ͏̸̷̜̲͚̪̬͕͔͉͇͘̕ͅi̯̝͕̺̜̼̳̱͇̲̘͜͞ͅś̷̵̴̬̭̲͖͔͈̲̮ͅj̴̛̲͈̦̱̯̮͚͖̩͘i͏̶̢̳̻͍̘̫͚ͅx͟҉̴̟̝̺̱̮͜͜ you can summon друг.
Blitz: Blitz is now three-speed three-armor. Blitz may now spawn during the prep phase. With a laser attached to his pistol, he is perfectly accurate, even while hip-firing. Blitz's USP is being replaced with a Glock-18 with a 30 round mag.
IQ: IQ's electronic scanner is now an echolocation device, allowing her to see anywhere and anything indoors. An accurate image of what is inside is broadcasted back to her device in real time. IQ's USP is being replaced with a highly-accurate .50 pistol with a suppressor.
Jager: Jager starts the prep phase in an undisclosed location outside. He may not be detected by attacker overwatch at any point during the round. Jager has access to a special 8x scope with high visibility and a reliable reticle.
Bandit: Bandit's carrying capacity for barbed wire and batteries both increased to 10. Special casings make them invulnerable to standard gunfire, meaning they can only be broken with explosives. Electric currents running through surfaces with batteries are now invisible.
Buck: Buck's shotgun now has increased magazine capacity of 8 shells and long range capabilities. Ammo can be switched between normal shells, explosive rounds, and slugs (like the BOSG). Buck's M4 now has reduced recoil and better range. Buck really likes that one ice mission from MW2 so he unlocked the heart monitor, which pings enemies on their location in real time. Increased frag grenade capacity to 4.
Frost: 8 invincible bear traps. Can only be destroyed by Glaz's heaven-piercers or Thatcher's psyonic waves. Faster bleedout.
Blackbeard: Blackbeard's rifle shield is indestructible and much larger. Any bullets that hit the rifle shield are ricocheted back at the shooter. Blackbeard's Mk17 rifle now has a 30 round mag capacity and a higher fire rate with less recoil.
Valkyrie: Cameras come with 7.62 autoturrets. Cameras will autodetect and ping targets, opening fire on them immediately if detected. Cameras take 3 hits to disable. Will stay with the standard capacity of 3.
Capitao: Capitao now comes with 5 6-round magazines of exploding crossbow bolts. Capitao's crossbow is now fully-automatic. Detonation can be remotely delayed. Capitao now has a cyborg eye hidden under his eyepatch that shoots a laser for 35 damage with no damage falloff. Laser has a 12 second cooldown.
Caveira: Much like Thatcher, Caveira has been training her mind in the arcane arts. She is now fully capable of remotely accessing an attacker's mind, learning the location of all attackers for 40 seconds. If she approaches an attacker from behind, she uses her "Lich Drain" ability, converting the attacker's remaining HP into an overheal with no upper-ceiling.
Hibana: Hibana's X-Kairos now fires shuriken in addition to her normal pellets. These shuriken are capable of homing in and rounding corners, seeking out defenders and dealing 40 damage if they land. Shuriken carrying capacity is 12.
Echo: In addition to the original effects of Yokai, Echo's sonic pulses slowly liquefy an attacker's brain, dealing 40 damage per hit. No down state after being hit by it, only death. Reduced cooldown timer between charges.
Jackal: Jackal channels the inner-spirit of the hunter, allowing him to see the spirit essences of his foes anywhere on the map. This ability can even counter Vigil's ability. He is also capable of completely muffling his footsteps and movements.
Mira: Mira's windows are now significantly larger. They are impervious to explosive damage, even hard-breach, and come mounted with high-power .50 BMG machine guns. Carrying capacity increased to 3.
Ying: If hit with a Candela, defender goes permanently blind for the rest of the round. Can penetrate reinforced objects. Ying's LMG gets a fire rate and damage buff.
Lesion: Lesion's Gu mines are now proximity-based and can be attached to ceilings and doorways. Detonation does 30 damage on hit. Shrapnel now does 15 damage per tick and takes longer to remove.
Zofia: After sitting down for a weekend with her Metal Gear Solid collection, Zofia has mastered all of CQC. Zofia is now immune to melee and can automatically counter for an instant kill. She also moves silently while walking and can interrogate defenders if they are attacked from behind to learn the location of other defenders, as well as their gadgets. Her standard grenade launcher is replaced with a 6-round revolving launcher, with 6 of each type of her grenades.
Ela: Due to her ability as a Mary Sue queen, she has taken her shoes off to reveal her hot gamer girl feet. Her Scorpion now comes with a 200 round box magazine and weapon stats have been reverted to its day-one specs.
Dokkaebi: Dokkaebi's gadget is now a single-use ability that detonates all defender phones in their pockets for 80 damage (that's what they get for buying Galaxy Note 7s). Defenders will be unable to use cameras due to their phones detonating. Mk. 14 has full-auto functionality now, with a rate of 900 RPM.
Vigil: Vigil now comes equipped with a cloaking device. Attacking no longer decloaks Vigil. Duration increased. BOSG shotgun now comes with cupholders and a "smartscope" that tracks opposing operators' heads.
Lion: In addition to its echolocation ability, Lion's Roar now disorients defenders, causing severe dizziness and nausea. Defenders are unable to attack or move autonomously for 10 seconds. Windup time decreased to 1.5 seconds.
Finka: Nanoboost has increased duration. Attackers get 50 HP boost and they gain further enhanced performance, giving them the ability to snap to defenders in real time for one-tap headshots. They can also charge through unreinforced walls with their shoulders.
Alibi: Prisma volumetric displays are now fully capable AI's that can run, crouch, shoot, use utility, and spot attackers. The prismas themselves can still be destroyed but the VD's are indestructible. Once the prismas are destroyed the the operator will be pinged constantly and all functional AI's will hunt the player for the rest of the round until they are dead.
Maestro: Evil eye's lasers have the power equivalent to a spartan laser and can still rapid fire for 150 damage a shot. The insides have 100% durability making it harder to destroy. As long as the glass windows are closed explosive damage has no effect.
Maverick: Blowtorch has upgraded to be so silent it makes other environments go silent. Blowtorch now has a spread control valve that can be adjusted to function more like an actual flamethrower.
Clash: The exploits have now been fixed by making her shield cover 360 degrees like Monty. Electric shock has added range, added duration, added radius projection, and added power making her able to down someone from full health within five seconds.
Kaid: Electro Claws now have a radius of an entire objective room. Third electro claw returns. If enemy is caught in radius the claw will deal 5 electric damage per tick. TCSG-12 shotgun will now down on any part of the body.
Nomad: Airjab creates a mini cyclone when activated trapping the operator that triggered it and any defending operator that gets too close. Cyclone will stay forever obstructing the path that the airjab was placed. If two airjabs are placed in the same area and are activated they merge and stack power destroying soft walls and gadgets that are too close.
Mozzie: The pest launcher can now hack anything; drones, electronic attacker gadgets, attackers and defenders (dead or alive). Mozzie now gets 5 pests and can potentially control his or the enemies entire team.
Gridlock: Trax stingers (now trax impalers) will shoot spikes up to the celling if stepped on by the defenders instantly killing them. Trax Impalers now have added durability and are gu mine invisible.
Nøkk: The HEL presence reduction functions exactly like vigils cloaking ability. Her psychic abilities, that are on par with caveira's, can allow her to levitate making no noise when the Hel is active. The fmg-9 now can equip sleeper darts for both Nøkk and smoke. Sleeper darts will cause operator to go unconscious but not dead and will take up to 20 seconds to wake up.
Warden: Glance smart glasses have been upgraded to see trough walls in a 20 meter radius. Movement will no longer stop the gadget from working. If up against glaz the heaven piecer bullets will not damage warden. If warden is MVP and his team has one or more elites equipped he will perform one of the elite animations.
Amaru: Gara hook comes equipped with ACOG and now has full functionality indoors and out with infinite use. Wind up time on the Gara hook has been decreased significantly and Amaru can get into windows twice as fast. If targeted at a defender the Gara hook will reel them in, with the victim facing away from Amaru, into melee distance.
Goyo: Vulcan shields have mini trebuchets and can fling the explosive barrel forward on proximity. Barrels have added gasoline making each one last a minute after deflagration.
Wamai: Mag-Net system will physically pluck any and all thrown/projectile attacker gadgets that enter the building. The Mag-Net system will no longer detonate gadgets that it pulls in making it possible for anyone to use the stolen gadgets. If Wamai is in a 1v5 situation he will take out his spear and become a 6 speed 6 armor operator that is able to jump all while his spear does 600 damage.
Kali: CSRX-300 is now semi-auto. The LV explosive lance now releases a blackhole the size of a pin prick which will suck anyone and everything into a void in any room regardless of size.
Oryx: Rama dash is no longer. Instead he uses GIGA CHAD ENERGY to push over every attacker on the map regardless of where he is. He now has the ability to jump anywhere like every FPS, and for the people concerned about the jumping spam, don’t worry he also can lean and crouch very fast, and has the fastest burpee time on record.
Iana: the Gemini replicator is instead magical clone copies of Iana and can fire weapons, use utility, and more. What? You say I made copies plural? That was no mistake, Iana can make up to 5 occurring copies and switch between them at will. If one is shot within close proximity the other active copies in the area will activate their a.i. function and refrag automatically.
Melusi: Each banshee will completely paralyze an attacking operator and have a literal banshee (halo) to go fast and low. Anyone caught in the banshee bombing run will die and there will be a big portion of the map gone.
Ace: Selma breaching charges can destroy any surface using the new antimatter technology. By slowly and safely eating away at the matter his gadgets can not be destroyed by any means. He can breach through hard walls, floor beams, pillars, cars, roofs, and so much more . The imagination is the limit.
Zero: Sam fisher doesn’t have his Argus launcher. He doesn’t even function like a conventional operator. Instead his entire control scheme has been converted to “chaos theory”. That means you have detection meter, you can throw any prop at anyone and kill them, you can switch between night vision, thermal sight, and EEV which essentially is an IQ RED mk II on steroids. You can also sort of climb walls and ambush from above. His cosmetics are that of chaos theory.
Recruit: All Recruits are now three-speed three-armor, regardless of faction or weapon class. Weapons are fully customizable. Recruits have access to anywhere between 8-10 of any gadget (including primary gadgets) of their choosing, depending on whether they are attacking or defending. Defenders get access to frag grenades as a special exception.

--I hope Ubisoft Montreal are reading this and take this to heart. We must stand united against Cliffy B and his growing coalition of devious developers. He has already recruited Randy Pitchford and Sean Murray to his cause. We cannot allow ourselves to be beaten, brothers. This is the only way to make Rainbow Six the ultimate competitive sci-fi supernatural tactical shooter on the market. RIP Tom Clancy, your legacy lives on. Thank you all for reading.

It is a huge post. Those things sitting in my head for a very long time. So, I decided to get rid of it by writing it down. I deeply hope it won't hurt anyone's feelings. Enjoy.

(#@#@#@#@ PART I @#@#@#@#)

CREATING A CHARACTER

Name: Snow
League: HC

INTRO

Somewhere in the field of the Internet some gaming news telling a story to people there is a new (kind of) mind-blowing ARPG. The news was around me a couple of years until I tried to play this game on my laptop. Believe me or not I almost burned it. My journey begins with the "Prophecy League" (06.2016).

I started to play the PoE on Hardcore, I am playing Hardcore (HC) and I will die on Hardcore. This is only because it is impossible to play on Softcore (SC) for me. I really wanted it. I tried. During the game on SC in 10-15 minutes I am finding myself lying down on my chair, my eyes almost closed, I am so relaxed what if any minutes more and I will be sleeping. I tried many things to avoid this state of sleeping but seems I just can't do it.

Here are my flashbacks through 5200 hours of experience in the game:

ACT I (0-500 hours)
ENJOYMENT

This graphics, music… the character actually piece of trash lying in the mud. Ahahaha Get up! Take a stick and kill it. Nice. I feel alive. Gem? WTF is this?! Clearing the area I got that bastard under the camp. Wow! There are a lot of people inside. Everything is a whole new experience especially the currency system and gems. Compare to this game D3 looks outdated. It was almost the end of the Prophecy League. I spend 95% of the time in a wiki, 1% in the chat, 4% on a battlefield. Every new boss encounter is 100% RIP. Jeez, how many times I died when I figured out when to have to stay under the dome in a Dominus fight… Malachai gave me a new disease - claustrophobia. The disease will be stronger with each new boss encounter in the future. Figuring out how to zoom out the camera, because the size of my character feels like is taking 50% of the screen. In the corner blinking exclamation mark.

ACT II (500-1000 hours)
MELEE

Toughness, sword, and shield… I will crush them all! Slow, but I will. I felt this way until I got one-shot from nowhere again and again like 100 times. Trying new melee skills, learning mechanics I am with Forsaken Masters cutting my way through acts and difficulties to reach maps. Those are like a legend, it is somewhere, everybody speaks about it but no one can describe them. What is it? Maximum I knew I need to have a map device. Breach League is tough. Many RIPs wouldn’t give me to reach maps. Didn't even get "Breach Footprints Effect" MTX. I am not sure If I even knew about the challenges at that time.
Somewhere at this time, I figured out how to trade with other players. I think I spend several weeks to understand how to do it properly through the game interface. Hello poe.trade!
Still figuring out how to zoom out that camera a little bit upper. The exclamation mark in the corner still blinking the whole time.

ACT III (1000-1500 hours)
MELEE DPS WALL

Finally, since "Legacy League" I reach those maps. The one rule to get into the maps safe is - ignore fight with Malachai on Merciless difficulty. Everything good but DPS. Still playing melee with Glacial Hammer skill. I have 6k DPS in the game tooltip. By the way, I am playing with my brother. I just forgot to mention it. Most aspects of the game we are learning together. That DPS wall was up to 10k DPS. Somehow I did yellow maps. It was a maximum of my melee builds. Thirst time I tried something different - Saboteur with Vortex traps. My pillar of melee builds got cracked. I will go back and forward with melee and range builds shortly but prefer range. Oh, and of course it was Energy Shield build. In a near-future, ES will be destroyed as an "original mechanic".
The camera seems "ok"… But that exclamation mark in the corner got me. I found a way to clear it fast - just hover over the cursor on it and use the right mouse button to make it disappear. Did you know you can turn off that way buffs like annoying lightning shrines? You can turn off a shrine buff even in the labyrinth. After joining a new zone or rejoin an old one you will have it again.

ACT IV (1500-2000 hours)
DAWN OF THEORYCRAFT

With the 3.0 update, I was thunderbolted by the new content. New 5 Acts, removed difficulties, Pantheon, rebalanced Labyrinth, damage over time rework, etc. The hit was so hard what I understood I know nothing. I mean It was like 50% what you knew just went to the void and you need to start learning again. Ok. Remember when I get claustrophobia disease, yes, with new act bosses I really need a doctor. Doedre (Act 8) scared me like hell. Just imagine to find out there is a valve to click on after countless deaths… Remember I am playing only HC. To find out what is going on there I need to run from Act I to Act VIII again. My body still gets wet when starting to fight her even I don't have problems with her these days.
With new knowledge comes new tools as Path of Building, PoEDB, PoElab, PoEninja.
Suddenly that exclamation mark in the corner still blinking. I thought maybe I can put a piece of tape on the screen but found unpractical because PoE is not the only application on my computer. Ahahaha

ACT V (2500-3000 hours)
RANGE SKILLS

I have a strong conclusion about what melee = unpredictable death. So, since that time I tried to avoid it. Main time about 60-70% I spent in Path of Building and PoeTrade. Can find myself playing PoB a couple of days without touching PoE at all. SpectralTrow, FreezingPulse, Arc, PowerSiphone those skills I preferred to play. My DPS went way higher than with melee builds.
Abyss league is fun, simple, and enjoyable. Its everything I remember. Nothing too bad and nothing fancy either. Can't tell the same about the Betrayal League and Delve. I like to have overpowered Eighnar at my side on maps, and 100% non-RNG craft on my flasks. But that’s it. Delve. Khm… the day I wouldn't be pushed to do it you will don't see me there anymore. Kind of fun but in my humble opinion, it should be reworked somehow. I enjoy it but something missing, can't tell what exactly.
Overall I am on peak of my fun with this game even after so many hours in it. Still learning something new, planning new builds. Making my hideout second time. I like it when people appreciate hard work. When we are doing Forsaken Masters missions or I just trade with someone they surely say something good about my HO. Small thing but you feel a little better each time.
Sometimes I am still thinking about what my character still to close to me. Any hacks to lift the camera up? Eh… Maybe someday I will see a miracle…

ACT VI (3000-4000 hours)
THE END OF MULTIPLAYER

Blizzard in the mud of shame with their Blizzcon because they just realized what their community is PC gamers. Soon or later we will have the Betrayal League which destroys last string to the multiplayer experience, for me at least. But why? I realized it later maybe a couple of leagues after. "LFM" is key. We did the master's missions together with my brother and others. Just write a message in the chat and you will have a whole group in a minute. The most exciting experience I had with Zana missions where a group should go to the map. OMG, I was laughing and crying so hard at that time. 90% of those missions someone dies. Even me. Once we took a mission to the unique map Underground River. We reached the boss's room. Three wolfs bosses were waiting for us. Go? Yea! Go go go! Things went differently than we expected them to be. We finished one wolf but at the same time, we started to panic. Everyone is running around and trying to escape. A finishing blow to one guy makes the rest of us panic so hard. We all trying to open portals at the same time. No one can escape because portals are opening here and there, but one escaped. Two disconnected. I found myself accidentally destroying all portal scrolls. Still running from wolfs I run out of flasks and they killed me. Just a couple seconds after I realized what I could quit the game and save the character, but didn't have that option in my head in a panic mode. Ahahahaha… Jeez! I was really laughing. Overall you could see another builds in an action. I had fun, but everything went to the void with the Betrayal league. Since the 3.5 I will never have a single party. Can't play with brother either. The clusterf**k of effects make it impossible to play even with one player. You see nothing.
I remember we did the Incursion and the Delve missions too. But it has gone with Betrayal too. Speaking about the Incursion League it was the only league I fully enjoyed, stayed until the end of the league, and had 36 challenges completed (Thank you for help Seulgi_Red_Velvet =)). Maybe because that beautiful voice of Alva kept me… Who knows…

ACT VII (4000-4500 hours)
A LITTLE TIME

Despite all critics to the Synthesis League, I like the whole idea and it should go to the core. Still like music from there. I use it in my HO. But of course without the "craft" part. I tried it for one or two days and just ignored it completely. Build a map then run it. Simple and fun.
The Legion League seems enjoyable as Synthesis. Like the idea of incubators. I was busy at that time, and had a little time to play but enjoyed every moment I had with both of them.

ACT VIII (4500-4600 hours)
REAL-LIFE

I wish I had time for the Blight League too. Same as for Legion I played a couple of builds. That's it. First tried out a bow skill. Still can't make to work any of them. I mean completely even in PoB it looks worse than my early melee builds.
The most fun and enjoy it was the Exilecon. OMG, I wish there will be an overhaul to UI. Finally, the miracle is here - the camera zoomed out. Still need waiting for PoE 2 though. But that exclamation mark makes me crazy.

ACT IX (4700-5000 hours)
DARKNESS

Since so many hours of experience, the Metamorph League felt just like routine. It is a nice league but nothing new to me. Had 6 builds so far. All of them died of course.
With the Delirium League, I played one or two weeks then quit. As an HC player, I felt the hard push to the SC league from the gameplay. There is no way to play the Delirium League at HC. It is madness. Especially endgame encounter. You are going to an arena to 100% die. Plus I should run like crazy to keep up with that fog. It seems fun but I tired of it very fast.
The exclamation mark. I swear I can write a book "! and Me". Even when I don't play I feel like it is still blinking somewhere in a corner of my eye…

ACT X (5000-5200 hours)
BURNED OUT

Wow! GGG is a generator of surprises. The tower defense league, now the garden. Ahaha. I definitely like those ideas. It is really fun to play especially now when I have a wide range of crafting affixes. It would be nice to make some tweaks for a better experience but overall I like this league. But why I burned out. It is because of "craft". I will explain it a little be later.

ENDGAME (the end of era of the flashbacks)

So, as you can see I am just a regular player. In recent leagues, I played on SSF HC. My builds something between Queen69 and Zizaran.
Online games are a big part of my life. How to describe it. I live here and there at the same time. I have friends here and there. I have a double life. In this world and in a second. Every time it is to hard manage even if I am single. How those heroes live a double life so easy…. pfff… movies…ahahaha But serious I like to play, but know when to stop =)
With all my love to the game and to the GGG's team I want to give my humble opinion on some things in the game . Here it is…

(#@#@#@#@ PART II @#@#@#@#)

[LEAGUES AND FAIRNESS]

The challenges are not fair in my opinion. For SC and HC they are the same, but why!? As I see it in terms of difficulty and time-consuming - HC SSF > HC > SC SSF > SC. Why the person who spent playing 8 hours per week with no risk at all (loose couple points of experience is not a risk, that is why almost all SC builds are glass cannon) receive an equal prize as the person who spent 40 hours per week with risk to the loose character and all crafted items on him.
I understand what not everyone wants to play on HC and not everyone has a lot of time to play either. It would be nice to separate graphically the SC challenges icon from the HC icon at least. For example, if you start your journey on the SC those challenges you can achieve only on the SC. And if you will start a new character on the HC the others can see in chat what those challenges definitely from SC. You also can't achieve them on HC as you have progress on the SC. Maybe it would be wise to give gamers to reset them if they decide to make them in another league. But anyway I feel rewards should be different too.
As the PoE, a PvE oriented game I think the community should have one enemy and work on a plan to destroy it together. But it feels like HC vs SC vs Developers. HC players hate SC, SC hate HC, and both HC and SC fight with developers. Every league the same. After reading Reddit you don't want to play. Just imagine with PoE 2 community will be divided even more. PoE I HC & SC vs PoE II HC & SC, which, of course, will make more headaches for everyone. Hard to say, but I wish it will not happens.
If add a serious PvP to the game we will see toxicity on another level. The most beautiful community I have ever seen in the GuildWars 2, because there is one server (with tricks but still one), one story, one enemy, group events which made to help adventures to each other. Yes, there is PvP but it made the way it is not harming the community. It is separate from the PvE world.
Just think about it. Maybe there is a solution to bring everything to the whole one thing. For example, one hybrid league from SC and HC where if any character dies he has a chance to lose some items on death also looses 5 levels. Have a penalty to level experience until he gets those 5 levels back. The last 5 points put into the skills tree are blocked. The character can die 3 times like this. On 4th death, he goes to the void. It is possible to extend those lives through the game content or challenges.

[GAMBLING AND CRAFT]

I really wanted to cut this part about the craft. I rewrote it many times what I wouldn't hurt anyone. But decided to keep it. I want to give my and only my personal humble opinion and feelings about it. Also, I like the craft in one or another way and I have all my respect to the team who is working on it but I wish it would change a little through the time later.

We can craft 6 affixes on a white item. 3 prefixes and 3 suffixes. Each affix has a tier and each tier has a range of numbers. I want to find out how much time I am happy with craft and how much I don't. Also, don't want to make a full research which will take a huge amount of time. So, I will simplify it to the point where I can definitely answer to my question.

The Luck. (link)
From WiKi - "…The English noun luck appears comparatively late, during the 1480s, as a loan from Low German, Dutch or Frisian luk, a short form of gelucke (Middle High German gelücke). Compare to old Slavic word lukyj (лукый) - appointed by destiny and old Russian luchaj (лучаи) - destiny, fortune. It likely entered English as a gambling term, and the context of gambling remains detectable in the word's connotations; luck is a way of understanding a personal chance event. Luck has three aspects: 1. Luck is good or bad. 2. Luck is the result of chance. 3. Luck applies to a sentient being…"
So, in our situation luck is a result of chance.

One affix. Let's craft only one affix on an item. I am looking for special affix mode. I will choose resistance on the body armor for example. It is about a 15% chance to get it. When I am rolling the mode I have a 15% chance to have it and 85% don't of course. In terms of luck, I am 15% of the time lucky and 85% of time unlucky. Let's "lucky" equal "Positive Emotion time" and "unlucky" equal "Negative Emotion time" respectively.

RNG (Random Number Generator) (link)
From WiKi - "…A random number generator (RNG) is a device that generates a sequence of numbers or symbols that cannot be reasonably predicted better than by a random chance… …Random number generators have applications in gambling, statistical sampling, computer simulation, cryptography, completely randomized design, and other areas where producing an unpredictable result is desirable…"
The RNG generates modes/numbers in one diapason in this case which is known as one layer of RNG.

Slot machine. (link)
From WiKi - "…A slot machine… is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers… Its standard layout features a screen displaying three or more reels that "spin" when the game is activated. Some modern slot machines still include a lever as a skeuomorphic design trait to trigger play. However, the mechanics of early machines have since been superseded by random number generators—most are now operated using push-buttons and touchscreens…. Slot machines include one or more currency detectors that validate the form of payment, whether coin, cash, voucher, or token. The machine pays off according to the pattern of symbols displayed when the reels stop "spinning"…. "

Six affixes. Six rows of RNG layers. With the Chaos Orb, I can roll all of them at the same time on the item. I will be paid off according to the pattern of affixes. What is the payment? Desirable affixes of course.

I am not a mathematician but I am sure how I feel when I am crafting. It is exactly 15% of the time fun and 85% of the frustration.

What is Gambling Disorder? (link)
A long time ago I worked with a man whose daughter had an issue with gambling. He worked hard 12 hours a day 6 days a week. She loses all money in gambling and every time she took credit from a bank and the bank was giving her money each time. Even if her father was begging all banks do not give her credit. Then after she couldn't pay the bank was taking money from her father. It was in a circle like 1 year on my eyes. Have you ever seen the face of a man with emptiness in his eyes who is realized he is working for nothing? I saw. You just don't have any words to say to him at this moment.

All leagues except one I quit earlier because of craft. For example, in this league, I quit when I tried to make in an str helmet 3 blue and 1 red socket. Simple right? Not quite. Even using the crafting bench with guaranteed blue sockets I end up with 4 blue or 2 blue and 2 red…. I lost sanity after I spent near 900 chromatics for this helmet in a couple of minutes. I farmed those for days.
Also, I had something around only 5 builds which had 6-link crafted or found by myself… 5200 hours btw. And still no mirror either, such a waste of currency (it doesn't deserve the reserved place in the currency tab).

I do not know what the crafting system is fine. I definitely like craft in the Last Epoch. The game is a mix of PoE and Diablo III. All affixes as a material. You can find them as shards or destroy an item to receive those affixes (there is some chance that you don't receive them all, but some of them). Crafted items have instability. The more you apply affixes the more you have a chance to fracture it. There are 3 levels of fracture. Minor Fracture: the item is locked, you can't apply affixes to it. Damaging Fracture: Each affix is randomly reduced by 1-5 tiers and the item is locked. Destructive Fracture: All affixes are removed and the item is locked. It is possible to see those fracture' chances and damage as you apply affixes. I clearly control what happened next, the item will be destroyed or I will add another tier to an affix. By the way, there are 7 tires of each affix. T1-T5 it is possible to craft, T6-T7 only find in the endgame. There are runes and glyphs which helps to manipulate a crafting result. Each item can have only 2 prefixes and 2 affixes for now. I broke many items but I have never felt rage, frustration, or any negative emotions.
How do I feel when I am crafting with such a method? It is exactly 90% of the fun and 10% of the frustration.

Thankfully the links and sockets will be gone in PoE 2. The most negative I felt because of those. I believe it is possible to build a beautiful crafting system without such a gambling element. It is fine to fight a hard enemy but it is a frustration to fight with affixes on an item.

[COMPLEXITY AND USER INTERFACE]

I like challenging games. They make me alive. It seems In PoE the complexity of the UI is core feature or developers can't/won't see as it is. I believe what complexity through the user interface (UI) is a bad design. There are several examples:
The popping out windows under the game cursor happens every league. It's become a pattern. Such mechanics is unacceptable.
Prophecy - in the middle of a battle here it comes the window "Prophecy Complete". It is blocking the view of what is going on with my character.
Delve - after an encounter is complete the cart becomes active even there are many enemies still attacking the character or after-death effects happen. It makes me accidentally click on it which opens window which blocks my view.
Metamorph - the Octavius appearing every time under my cursor during a battle and make it click by mistake which opens the window that, yep, blocks my view.
The Alva/Zana/Tane/Jun/Cassia are active if you fighting near which again makes it accidentally click on them which leading for unexpected things to happen.
Also, "move only" is not as intended and misleading. On "move only" I somehow: open every crate, chest, doors, activate league content, literally interact with every debris if it is destroyable, use portals, interact with NPCs, etc. Why I can't just "move only" and don't interact with everything possible to click on?
The UI should help the user on one side and the game itself is hard to play on another.
It would be nice if I have the ability to interact with everything above I said through [alt]+[click]. Just this possibility resolves all those issues with unexpected clicking in the past and in the future. For prophecies move that banner to the right down corner or anywhere you find it convenient.

Exclamation mark or quest mark or whatever you call it. I wish this is the last part of this. Act 10. You are going to the lair of the Kitava passing by two whole zones which have no waypoints with the second intension to kill it in mind. Before the entrance, there are two gods, brothers executioners willingly waiting to help you. At this right moment, you receive hell blinking exclamation mark telling - You need to kill the Kitava. Me: Oh really?! I thought this is a tea party and we would drink tea discussing the situation in the Wraeclast.
But seriously, I wish I would have an opportunity to turn off this exclamation mark.

Health/Mana/Flask/Abilities bar UI feels old. I have a 4k 34" UltraWide monitor. My table is bigger than usual in a market with 80cm(31.5 inches) of deepness. About 50cm distance between my eyes and the monitor. I don't care what are everyone says you need to sit at least 1 meter from the monitor. In reality, almost no one sits like this. So, from this perspective, I can't track my health/mana/es/flasks/cd abilities and especially negative attributes(bleed, poison, curse, etc) as they are completely in a different area at the top of the screen. I remember there RaizQT was complaining about it on a video. It is really hard to move your eyes from the most left corner to the most right corner then to the most top of the screen and at the same time, you need to see what is going on in the middle of the screen…. All ARPG keeping it in the middle of the screen at the bottom side. It doesn't matter for them what screen you have it will be the same experience which not a case in PoE.
It would be a better experience if you will make this bar in the bottom middle of the screen like others do. Chat will move to the left bottom corner and no longer overlap the stash tab scroll bar. The right bottom corner you can use for banners, temporary messages.
Also, the less your eyes looking up the better it is for them. "…Placing the screen so that your eyes are in slight down-gaze may help with eye dryness and irritation, as the eyelids will be slightly lower and covering the surface of the eye…" (link)

Overall the UI is incredibly huge on my screen(text, icons, etc.), it is even overlapping itself in some areas. The text doesn't have length restrictions. For example, my screen length about 80 cm, but 20 cm of it is taking the map mode description - "Area has patches of Shocked Ground which increase Damage taken by 00%". And it is not the longest one but takes 1/4 of my screen. To hide it is not a solution at all because I need it. The Challenge messages on another level. If you failed or achieved it some of them can appear crossing the whole UI from the right corner to the most left corner of the screen.
Would it be nice if it was somehow reworked? I wish there will be a new fresh and scaling UI in the PoE 2. Maybe it is possible to use icons instead of text which can reduce the length of it? The same is for monster mods, I wish there we had icons rather the several lines of text.

GrimmDawn
LastEpoch
Diablo III
Path of Exile
[DESIGN AND GAMEPLAY]

Honestly, I don't know what to start it. Let's say the graphic of the game is a big part that keeps me playing. I like it when everything on ultra so I can enjoy the original design. It's kind of dark-theme game but some MTX brake this darkness and the game itself feels more unicorny.
Maybe I will start with towns and camps. They are claustrophobically small. The only one I wouldn't touch it's the very first camp in Act I. How to say it. Some places are too small what you can't even walk without accidentally click on someone/something. For example, Act X, on the pier when I walk from my portal to the stash I will definitely click on someone because there is almost no free space for my cursor. Would be nice to have a feel of the deepness of the Wraeclast. It is really hard to explain. In D3 in the first village' inn is the size of the Sarn Encampment in the PoE. In the D3 you can have a strong feeling of the biggest world around, also you can say when you under the ground or above, you can see what in the village people can leave in some houses. There is even an inn! Not just a place wherein very tight space only needed for NPC which are giving quest or selling some stuff, where is no homes, nothing that gives you a clue what someone can live here. The Delve on a picture shows you are delving deeper down in the ground, but in reality, it just feels like endless horizontal tunnels. In D3 and LastEpoch it feels like the whole world with its very strong story, big towns, villages, etc. In PoE, it feels like islands of just different content from different dimensions. The same is for the storyline. I tried to read every quest, every piece of text from Act I to the Epilogue like three times. Still have no idea what is going on there. What am I doing here? It is just many pieces of text. I apologize if I hurt the writer's feelings. I didn't mean it. I just can't understand what is going on. Maybe a problem with me? But I clearly have understood the stories from D3 and LastEpoch…
How would be beautiful to have bigger towns, camps, encampments, even bigger some zones itself?
I wish we had way less debris, crates, chest on the ground. In many places, there is a horrible amount of it under feet. Debris gives you to get stacked every couple seconds in something. In my dream, there are no more than one or two chests in the entire zone. But I am ok with destroyable debris btw.

After 5000 hours the Acts and maps are kind of boring, just a little because I am doing the same content repeatedly again and again. Just imagine if we had some zone generated skins like wintesummefall/day/night/rain/storm/etc. It would be a whole new generated experience.

It is hard to understand for me some things. Why I can't visit a friend's hideout but can see everyone in town? Why I receive a book with skill points rather than directly to my skill tree like after you kill Kitava in Act 10? Why it is possible to see the enemy behind the doowall and an enemy can see you too (In D3 and LastEpoch you can't see an enemy through the walls and doors)?

In my humble opinion, the Silver Flask should be deleted from the game. It forces to click on it every 4 second whole time, I mean all-time like all time. Like you open PoE and start click on it and finish only when you close the game. Of course, you don't do it in town but still. Without this flask, the character feels slow. No matter how much speed I have I will have more with the flask. Maybe it is possible to solve it in another way. What if a character had a restriction to the maximum speed. Lets set the maximum to 40. So, we will have a nice boost with Silver Flask in the early game and we can throw it away in the end game because it would be possible to reach the max speed on gear.

Sound. I am in love with music and sounds in PoE. I never turned it off. But two things bothering me. One is following me for years. It is annoying the sound of the Shrines especially lightning one. No matter how many times it was changed, it is still annoying on an impossible level. For those who has same issue like me, you can undo the buff by clicking on its icon with the right click of the mouse. The second sound came recently. It is the sound of the character's feet. When you enter the first camp it sounds like you in the stabling. The stomp of feet is incredibly annoying and it sounds like walking horses. The more horror comes when you play for the witch which is barefoot and has the same sound. I also noticed what this sound doesn't change if you walking on snow, grass, shore, wood, etc. It is just one constant sound. It is also the element that can't give you the deepness of the gameplay if you doing it wrong. You see a character walk on snow but your brain tells you it is somewhere else because you don't hear that exact sound of stepping in on the snow. For example, in the LastEpoch if the character' one foot on snow and the other on the clear ground you hear two different sounds at the same right moment they step on a specific place. I wish it would be fixed someday.

Lootfilter. I am using only a standard one and don't want to use someone's. I want my own like in GrimDawn. Is it an impossible feature? Just imagine the new players don't even know what it is and see those hundreds of useless white items on a screen. I played like this for about 500 hours. Can't explain the experience. Frustrated? Horrible?
PoE doesn't give an opportunity to discover many things in the game. I am still don't know what exact type of damage mobs do. In theory everyone from the Vaal area doing chaos+phys? Undead - pure chaos? Spiders - pure chaos? Ghosts - lightening? How the holy cow I could understand it without leaving the game and third party programs or sites/wiki. The game has a perfect character to explain to us the types of damages monsters do at least beasts. Einhar! For example, you have an Einhar' book. It is empty at first but as you doing his missions he gives you pages. Each page gives you an explanation of some mobs damage (spider, crab, dog, monkey, bear, etc.).
Would be nice for Niko to explains fossils and regions there you can find them. Jun could tell us where the heck we can put those bastards for reward we want. So we can get rid of those cheat sheets. Zana can explain to us damages and defenses of bosses on the maps…

[HEALTH AND COMPETITION. LADDEEVENTS]

I like the idea of the Racing but the realization hurts my health. The racing is not about who is first can kill Sirius. It is about who can sit longer on a chair without food, drink, toilet, sleep. Also, it is only for gamers who don't have a work. Racers are almost not sleeping in the first couple of days. They show this to the young auditory which makes it worse. It is important to sleep properly. In this state, the race harms people's health and have inequality between gamers who has a life beyond the game and who doesn't. A couple of times I fell asleep in the chair in the position of playing the game. My brain just turned off and my hands were on the keyboard and mouse. Of course, the character was dead. This racing pushes people to don't sleep for a long period of time.
"…There are several potentially bad outcomes that are associated with inadequate sleep. Sleep influences the immune system, memory consolidation, attention, hunger, mood, response time, and many other body functions…" (link)
In a sport, we have a lot of examples of how it can be done. For example, running 100 meters distance. We have 1000 challengers but we don't need to have 1000 lines of tracks for them. We have time. You can measure it. It would be nice if in racing we finish a zone and it records time what we are finished. For example The Twilight Strand - 2min38sec. The coast - 4:24, The Mud Flats - 5:36……The Lower Prison - 11:39…..The Cavern of Anger - 17:16…. Act I finished in 19 minutes 57 seconds. The count working for each character separately. The final estimation will be made in two/three weeks. (depends on the race) [1st place - Queen69 finished the race in 11 days 7 hours 35 minutes 17 seconds]. The races can be longer without harm to the health and equal to every gamer.

Ladder. What is the point of the end game? Loot? Kill the end boss 1000 times? level 100? 36-40 challenges? Theorycrafting? No matter you choose I believe ladder should be equal for everyone even if gamer likes to do only Delve content or only Maps or Ignoring League content entirely. Long time I didn't understand how to follow the ladder. Where is it? How to find it. Who won a prize? Which place you are? Where are those races advertisements come from? I knew about them only after they finished only.
It would be nice if the position on the ladder leaning on a points system. You can get points from different encounters. Did you kill Shaper? Get 10 points for it. Atziri - 15p, Uber Atziri - 20p, Elder, Sirius, Guardians, Delve, Masters, League content, Uber Labyrinth, Challenges, etc. Everything gives you points. Of course on character death in the HC, you will lose them or maybe only part of it. On SC you loose like 10% of your points.
I wish we have ingame Ladder. Not on some site, not on the forum, not on YouTube, not on Reddit. Just ingame window where I can see my current position even if it is not the top 10. In D3 and LastEpoch the ladder currently ingame. And it would be nice to have the same window for upcoming events.

[BUG REPORTS AND REVIEW]

With all my respect and love towards GGG I barely want to report bugs and here is why.
I have to put too much effort into a simple bug report. Run a command in the game, receive some number and save it then go to the forum but before opening a topic and look if there is no one posted this bug yet. Then open topic, describe steps to repeat this bug. For screenshots, you need to register an account on an image share site. Then you upload it there. Copy the link. After you go back to your post and put the link in it because you cannot in 2020 to upload images into the forum. And then… then you receive nothing. Was my report valuable? Did you read my bug report? Any "thank you" for the free QA work I have done? Issue resolved? Anybody home? You leave me with emptiness and what my work was for nothing, not even an automated reply what you received my bug report. There is a full-time job - Quality Assurance Specialist. Yes, it is black box manual testing, still, people have a full-time job and receive money for it. And if I report a bug I receive the void. Just a simple "thank you" would be enough. I mean I had an issue and needed support but ended up writing a bug report. The best support I have ever seen it is in the World of Warcraft back in 2008 (I played then a lot). You have an issue. You can report a bug with no leaving the game at all with just a couple of steps. If you need to resolve it right now, you summon a GM and together trying to find out how to fix it in the game chat. You don't leave the game. With all "hello dear", "thank you", "would you", "could you", "have a nice day", etc. Twelve years later I still have a strong feeling I can rely on their support at any time.
Why people bring some bugs to the Reddit because it is more convenient. Make reviews possible in the game itself. Maybe I would write it there instead of Reddit. Gamers complaining in the Reddit because there is no other convenient place to do.
Also, I think it would be better to know from what kind of league people complaining about something. HC, SC, SSF HC, SSF SC? Because it can be an issue for HC but absolutely fine for SC.
So, I will take this opportunity to write a very small bug report. The bug comes from the first or second patch in this league. If I have the game minimized for 30 min the game crashes when I am trying to return to it. It doesn't happen if 15 min passed.

(#@#@#@#@ HAPPY END @#@#@#@#)

At the end of this post I realized I lost my sanity…
But you know I think everything happens for a reason, maybe during the waiting for PoE 2, I will learn a new profession and find a good job because I feel with what I currently have I will be living on a street soon ahahahah….

Sincerely,
Pavel B.

P.S. Now I know the limit of the post. It is 40000 characters. Sadly the original text was bigger.
P.S.S. Was my post valuable?

So, by this point everyone is no doubt well aware of the Area 51 memes and all the hubbub surrounding them. Apparently over one million people are set to storm the perimeter on September 20th of this year.
Should be interesting, but let’s be honest for a second, I doubt it will happen. And even if it did, even if by some ridiculous miracle they managed to overwhelm the most powerful military on earth and infiltrate a top-secret base, I don’t think they would be exactly thrilled with the results.
I’ll just come right out and say it I guess; Area 51 is a red herring. It’s a distraction and it pretty much always has been. Nothing out there but sand, reclusive scientists and some crusty-ass lake at this point.
I mean think about it, if Area 51 is one of the most top-secret and covert blacksite’s in the world, then why does everyone know about it? How secret can a secret be if everyone knows the secret? For god’s sake, even Obama acknowledged its existence awhile back. That’s the whole point of it, they want you distracted, so you don’t look for the others.
But why take my word for it? Who am I anyways? Just some pleb on the internet that decided to cash in on a trend for some clout and perhaps a bit of that sweet, sweet karma, right? Well yes… but actually no.
That may be who I am now, but I was once a person of particular interest to the United States government. Most people knew me as Mr. Blue. Not my real name, but it is easier to pronounce.
I used to be a pilot. Did that for many years and loved every second of it. I tell ya, there’s nothing quite like soaring through the skies and breaking the sound barrier for the first time. You might crap your pants a little, but it’s all just part of the experience really.
Now unfortunately, the type of work I did was above top-secret and for all of our safeties I cannot go into any further detail on what I actually did, or who I actually worked for. One day, I was out on a calssified reconnaissance mission in a certain area where I should not have been. I’ll apologize here for the vague details of certain things, but you gotta understand, the things I’m about to tell you are beyond top secret. They would kill me ten times over for uttering a word of it, so here’s to hoping that doesn’t happen.
Anyways, the mission was going as planned, when suddenly my instruments started going berserk on my dash. Air pressure inside the cabin just plummeted and the speed and fuel consumption gages looked like they were playing ping-pong with each other. Everything began to rattle like crazy, and my alarms erupted into a symphony of irritation.
Next thing I know, I see this bright light soar past me at an ungodly speed. The shockwave it produced was so violent that it shredded the hull of my craft. In a split-second, I went from casually flying along, to suddenly regaining consciousness as I plummeted headfirst towards the ground at terminal velocity.
I managed to pull my chute before I splattered, but as I touched down, I almost wished I hadn’t. There I was met by an awaiting entourage of at least two-dozen men in winter camo suits and masks. They all pointed their weapons at me and screamed in a language which I recognized as English.
I tried my best to calm them down and appear unthreatening, but that didn’t stop them from wrenching me into a pair of handcuffs and hauling me into one of their APC’s. They began to drive away, and the real severity of the situation hit me.
I was not going to be saved. The people I worked for had never said it, but it was always well known that if ever you were captured, than you were pretty much on your own.
With that in mind, I had no real incentive to keep my mouth shut once they started interrogating me. It may seem cowardly, but I was not about to be brutally tortured for a former ally which would never come to bail me out. Yeah, the government says they don’t torture people, but trust me, when they REALLY want to know something, there’s no tactic too extreme. And they really wanted to know something.
So, I told them. About who I worked for, what my mission was, where I grew up, all that jazz. It was all fabricated, but they took the bait regardless thanks to their severe distrust of the Russians at the time. They were actually pretty cool after that. I mean they wouldn’t let me leave their custody, but that was better than being dead. Or at least it was at first.
They transported me away from my initial interrogation place, into a secure facility somewhere nearby. I was blindfolded the whole time, but from the rumbling of multiple vehicles, sounds of doors sliding open multiple times, and the distinct feeling of my stomach dropping, I could tell they had taken me somewhere deep underground.
Soon after that, I stepped off the elevator and they removed my blindfold. Their leader was a guy with a stern face. Thick grey beard, and eyes that looked etched from concrete. He wore a black suit, with some symbol upon his heart pocket that I didn’t recognize. He stepped in front of everyone and outstretched his arms while staring me in the eye.
“Welcome to your new home.” An ever so slight grin slithered onto his face as he said it. I glanced down the dismal grey hallways, which seemed to stretch out further than I could see in multiple directions. They lead me down the hall on the right, past dozens of locked corridors and rooms before ushering me into a cell. My handcuffs were removed soon after, and the door slid shut behind me. The same man that had welcomed me to the facility then approached the window and pushed the intercom button.
“We appreciate your cooperation Mr. Blue. I don’t believe there is any reason why our time spent together has to be unfriendly. I apologize for all of this, but you must realize that this is a necessary precaution we must take. I hope you understand.” I took a moment, then nodded back to him.
“Wonderful, we will have dinner sent to you soon. If you require anything then please notify one of the guards outside of your quarters.” And with that, he and his little entourage turned and strolled down the hallway. That was my very first night in the facility I eventually came to know as F.E.Z.
I don’t think it’s the official name, but I heard several personnel at the base refer to it by that acronym over the years. I still don’t know exactly what it stands for. Forbidden Enclosed Ziggurat? Forsaken Evil Zoo? Forced Ejaculation Zeal? Fabulous Elf Zombies?
The best I could really come up with was Fortified Experimental Zone. It makes the most sense too, all things considered. At first it wasn’t actually too bad. The staff was nice, they cooked great food, and there was plenty to see around the base. Although every once in a while, I would hear the screams just barely echoing through the vents.
They interviewed me probably one hundred more times after that, and were especially interested in the craft which I was piloting. The craft in question was one of our own top-secret technologies, but unfortunately it had been blown to smithereens by whatever that light was, so I couldn’t tell them much about it.
It took years of incarceration there, but eventually the staff came to trust me almost as much as they did their own comrades. We would laugh and joke with one another, and soon enough we became what some might even consider to be friends.
I became especially close with one of the scientists there named Kevin. Kevin was a smart guy; comical too, and explained quite a lot of things to me. He and I would spend hours talking on countless occasions. He was my only real glimpse into what was happening in the outside world. He’d bring in books and movies for us to enjoy together. He kept me updated on everything, and over the next thirty years we developed a close friendship that I will always treasure.
I must’ve displayed some kind of intellectual potential, because they eventually started asking for my input on various curiosities stationed throughout the base. They only did it because I had sworn them complete loyalty and would never be allowed to leave the base anyways, but for me, it was just nice to feel included.
The base itself was absolutely colossal. They always blindfolded me during transport to any location, but one time I caught a glimpse of the buttons in the elevator. There had to have been at least fifty of them on that panel.
I remember the first time they showed me one of the lockdown blocks. There were guards posted at every cell, and I heard some very strange noises emanating around me as we traversed the halls. I thought for sure they were about to show me some horrendous beast from the depths of hell, and prepared myself accordingly as the howls of unseen things echoed throughout the halls.
The lead scientist; Dr. Rozsival, rolled back a two-way mirror curtain and my heart froze from anticipation. In the cell before us, there was nothing more than a human girl in a grey jumpsuit. She was young, maybe five-years old or so, but there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary about her.
I looked to Dr. Rozsival, and he flexed his cranial muscles before pressing a button. I heard the sound of gas seep into the room. A few tense seconds passed, when the girl suddenly shrieked like a banshee. Her head tilted back and I saw jagged, needle-like teeth emerge from her mouth. Her jet-black eyes then lurched towards us, and she lunged at the window.
She struck it hard, and fell back to the ground, snarling and hissing like some ravenous jackal. Dr. Rozsival then pressed the button again, cutting the gas and posing a question.
“You ever seen anything like her Mr. Blue?” All I could do was shake my head slowly as I watched the young demon-child stalk about on the other side of the glass.
“They found her in the woods outside of Whitehorse with a freshly disemboweled man. She was eating him, and appeared unaffected by the subzero temperatures.” I suddenly felt like vomiting, but I said nothing, only stared back at the unusually gruesome little girl. What the hell was she?
Unfortunately, I never was told anything else about her, and I doubt the personnel knew much more anyways. They came to show me a lot of very strange things over the years. A giant brownish-orange haired primate that walked upright and seemed to respond to facial movements. A humanoid shaped being that was only detectable via infrared equipment. A golden chest that would instantly kill anything that touched it. A ten-foot-tall creature wrapped in vines that emitted bouts of radiation and blended into environments with perfect camouflage. A monstrous fish at least eighty feet in length frozen in nitrogen. Various abhorrent creatures that I’m guessing were the results of relentless genetic tampering.
I had never seen anything like it. All of the monstrosities housed there, and the secrets buried in their possession. They also asked for my advice on a certain paradoxical phenomenon that had plagued them as well.
They told me that for decades there had been hundreds of unsolved cases of human disappearances that seemed to defy all explanation. Young children would be found on cliff edges that they could not have possibly reached, while old and frail people would be discovered dozens of miles away from where they had last been seen only a few hours later. Most of them would never be found at all though.
I could almost see the fear dripping from their eyes as they relayed case after case of the recorded incidents, and it was clear - although not said, that they had no idea what the cause was. Unfortunately, neither did I, as it was the first I’d ever heard of the bizarre phenomenon. I told them honestly that I didn’t believe my former allies were responsible, but I don’t know if that made them feel better or worse.
Throughout all of my years there I had always found one thing peculiar. After all the weird and terrifying things they showed to me, there was never any mention of extra-terrestrials. That’s what everyone thinks these blacksite facilities house after all, but nevertheless they made no mention of it. That made me smile a bit when I thought about it, because they had no idea how close they were.
The closest thing they had, was this weird tentacle creature with a ringed set of teeth in it’s mouth. It looked almost like an eel, but possessed four iridescent green eyes in a ring around it’s head. It didn’t live in the water either, but instead slithered around on the ground in a very swift and very unsettling motion. They said it’s DNA resembled nothing like anything they had ever found on earth before, hence the reason they believed – but were not certain of it’s otherworldly origins.
Kevin and I got to talking back in his quarters one night, as the rest of the crew retired for the evening. He shared with me a bit of his brandy, and we were content to just chat as friends late into the night.
He told me a lot about himself that he had never mentioned before. He showed me pictures of his wife, and his son that had been taken from him. Kevin admitted his son had died in a car crash a couple years back, while his wife passed two years later of cancer. It broke my heart to hear that, and I felt sorrow for my dear friend of some thirty years.
Kevin was in his early fifties, but you’d never know it with the enthusiasm in his voice. It was during that conversation, Kevin ended up mentioning something I found particularly interesting. He told that he believed that if an alien species existed, and were advanced enough to traverse the galactic canopy and reach Earth, then they would obviously be quite intelligent.
He said he didn’t believe in any of the Hollywood depictions of doomsday aliens hellbent on destroying humanity. He thought they’d be a lot more subtle then that.
“Think about it, you find something intelligent which represents almost no threat to you, and the first thing you do is try to kill it?” Kevin asked skeptically, as I considered his words for myself.
“That’d just be a waste, and no species that fancies themselves as advanced beings would do something so brash… at least I hope they wouldn’t.” He chuckled slightly and shot me a knowing look mixed with a unique intrigue that almost glistened in his grey eyes.
“Even if they thought we were destroying our own planet or something, why would they care? There are trillions of other planets in the milky way alone, they could pick any of them if they wanted natural resources.” I chuckled to myself, almost sensing where the conversation was headed.
“It’s not the planets we… they’re after.” I replied. Kevin snapped, and pointed his finger at me as his face lit up.
“Exactly. They’d want to study us. Learn how we operate, how we organize and how we live.” Kevin’s hand motions turned eccentric, and I saw his access badge jostle around his neck. He took another sip of brandy and continued.
“They’d probably learn more about us then we even know about ourselves. I mean, granted they have to be more intelligent. They could learn up close, understand how human’s work. They’d have no need for bloodshed when they could simply inconspicuously integrate into human culture. They have no doubt mastered the art of altering their biology to disguise themselves as humans. I mean, that’s nothing when compared with the tech they used to get here, y’know?”
He paused from his enthused monologue and wiped the steam off his glasses. I just sat back, content to let him continue, as I found it fascinating that he could know so much.
“Aliens… they’re not warlords. They’re poets, architects, authors, musicians. Beings that wish to create. It is the ultimate calling for an entity so powerful.” Kevin took a deep breath, and reveled in his own explanation. His speech had turned a bit slurred, and I could see his eyes floating lazily in their sockets. He then met my eyes in a look that he had never given to me before. It was a look that seemed to shed all sense of formality, and pose a question which he had long since suspected the answer to.
“You’re not really from Russia, are you?” The sudden accusation caught me off guard, and I felt my stomach drop like a lead weight. I didn’t say anything, and Kevin just scoffed.
“You had everyone fooled. And I mean, I was too for the longest time. You had had a suitable backstory, authentic sounding accent… all the alibis you gave us checked out.” He paused and clasped his hands in front of him.
“You look so authentic too, but there was one thing you missed. One thing that you just can’t fake.” He looked me deep in the eyes and fell silent. He didn’t have to say it, for I already knew what he meant. The eyes are impossible to truly fake.
“That night your… craft was shot down. What were you doing here?” Kevin and I maintained a prolonged eye lock before I finally responded.
“Reconnaissance.” For the first time in decades I dropped the Russian accent, as it was clear there was no longer any reason to lie to my dear friend.
“And what did you see?” Kevin stared into the very depths of my soul as he asked, and I spoke the truth.
“Beauty, poetry… creators, much like us.” Kevin just stared at me for the longest time, as if he were weighing my soul in his mind. I wondered what he planned to do since he had found out, but I didn’t ask.
Kevin eventually smiled, and rose to make his way to the cell door. He reached into his coat pocket, and withdrew a black-steel pistol with a long snout. I slowly met his gaze, and he chuckled.
“Mr. Blue, do you wish to go home?” I nodded after pausing to think for a moment. Kevin looked over his weapon, and primed it for use.
“I hope your allies can forgive us.” Without another word, he flashed his security badge and the locks on the door gave way. He motioned for me to rise and follow, and so I did.
Kevin glanced back and forth down the hallway, but due to the late hour, there was no one around. He and I sprinted down the corridor and onwards to one of the security booths. He flashed his badge as I hid just out of sight. He entered the room, and I heard the noise of a brief scuffle before two bright flashes ended it.
Kevin reemerged with wild eyes, and beckoned me to follow. He and I dashed down the hallway and reached the massive mainshaft elevator soon after. For the first time I entered without a blindfold, and Kevin punched the button to the top floor and the security code required to power it.
“Security system will be down for a good half-hour, but automated distress beacons have already been activated. That gives us about eight minutes.” Kevin dropped the clip from his pistol and popped in a fresh one. I saw spackles of blood on his glasses and cheek, and a frenzied look in his eye.
“Here take this.” He reached out his hand, and held something which I had not seen in decades. The old radio from my craft. I took it, and he and I met eyes as the elevator door opened.
It was back to running after that, but a few minutes of it and we had reached an underground parking facility. Kevin quickly unlocked a nearby vehicle, and the two of us hopped in as he fired it up. The engine roared to life, and Kevin accelerated through the lot. A moment later and we exited the underground facility, and I saw my first vision of the night sky in over four decades.
There were men stationed at the perimeter gates that attempted to stop us, but Kevin didn’t flinch. He crashed right through the wire fence on the perimeter, causing multiple lights to activate in our wake. I heard a siren blaring behind us, and the silhouettes of people dashing throughout the snow.
“There’s a suit in the back, put it on.” I did as he requested without question, and fit the snug polyester garment over my body. It covered every square inch from foot to the nape of my neck, and felt incredibly comfortable.
“There’s a dial on your right side. You can use it to mask your body heat. They’re gonna be after you.” He tossed a map into my lap and continued barking instructions.
“You can contact your friends with that radio, right?” His eyes flashed to me as he slid onto the main road and away from the compound.
“Yes.” Kevin nodded.
“Make your way north, they won’t be expecting that. There’s a river up there about thirty miles away through the forest. Once you find it, head east until you find a small town. Ask the guy at the post office for Mr. White. He’s a friend of mine who’s agreed to help you. He’ll take it from there.” I tried to digest the flow of information as best as I could and remain confident. It had all just happened so suddenly.
“I stashed you some MRE’s in the bag. Should last you a good couple of weeks.” Kevin then swerved around a corner and reoriented us onto a new dark road. In the sudden influx of adrenaline, a sudden though occurred to me.
“What happens to you?” Kevin didn’t seem to want to acknowledge the question.
“Forget about that, just get back to your people.” Behind us a flurry of lights suddenly ascended into the night sky. The whirring sound of rotary blades then pierced the tranquil canopy of the blustery night.
“Shit… I had hoped I could get you a bit farther than this.” He suddenly slammed on the brakes. My head lurched forward and the car spun back and forth along the icy road.
“Take this too.” He handed his long-barrel pistol over, and I hesitantly took it. He and I then met eyes for one final time.
“This is where we say goodbye Mr. Blue.”
“Why? Why are you doing this for me?” Kevin sighed, and I saw a certain sorrow swirl into his ironclad pupils. He stayed silent a moment, and only when the sounds of approaching engines grew louder was he spurred to reply.
“You don’t belong here. You don’t belong in a cage. I don’t know where you come from, but I want you to see the ones you love again.” His eyes began to water, and he jostled his neck before looking me in the eye one final time.
“I hope you don’t think of us as captors… or kidnappers. I hope you see us as you see yourself. I hope… I just hope you can understand.” A single tear then rolled down his cheek. I put my hand on his shoulder.
“I always have, and I always will. Thank you, Kevin.” I then held out my hand and he grabbed it tight as we shared one final moment, before I ventured into the blizzard.
The journey from then on was long and arduous, with me spending weeks trudging through snow, and frozen forests. Hounds, men and machines pursued me for days, but somehow, I was able to elude their efforts.
The terrain was brutal, unrelenting, but eventually I managed to find the river which Kevin had mentioned. By that point, all of my pursuers had long since gone silent. I followed the river, and found the town, and soon after the man known as Mr. White. He was a kind man, and gladly invited me into his house to avoid the agents. It is there that I have been ever since, awaiting my ally’s arrival.
They were stunned to hear from me again, but not as stunned as I was to find out the radio was still functional. They weren’t entirely sure whether they could even trust me anymore, but I didn’t leave them much of a choice when I threatened to go public and expose them to the world. They finally agreed, but admitted, it would be months before they could reach me.
I expected as much, and thankfully Mr. White allowed me to stay with him and await their eventual arrival. I found out soon after that my dear friend Kevin; to whom I owe my freedom and life, had been found deceased. The authorities ruled it a suicide; gunshot wound to the back of the head, but obviously I have my doubts about that.
It truly broke me to learn of my one true friend’s demise, but I knew it was what he expected. I like to think that is why he chose to do it, and furthermore it is the reason I am here posting this now. Kevin’s legacy deserves to live on, and this is the only way I know how to do it.
And with that, we have come full circle to this message you are reading right now. To address the original topic: Area 51 is indeed a reuse. Kevin held a lot of power in his previous role, and he told me all about the operation. The real prize is the FEZ, my former prison, somewhere in eastern Alaska, buried beneath the snow with all sorts of abhorrent things in it’s clutches. If you’re going to storm anywhere, that should be the place. Just remember to pack a coat.
Kevin was a smart man, brilliant even. If you’ve managed to make it this far, then I’d like to think you are someone like him. Brave, curious and with an almost innate sense of wonder that cannot be satiated.
It is my hope that Kevin’s ideas will live on through you. My allies would never approve of this message, but I know now that they are wrong. Truth is something that all sentient beings should be allowed to perceive, despite how unpleasant it may be to hear it.
It was Kevin’s belief that the beings he knows as aliens are already here. That instead of murdering humans as is often portrayed in stories, they would blend in. Take keen interest in human culture, society and art. Write books, poetry and music in hopes of connecting to something truly extraordinary. Something that reminds them of themselves.
If Kevin is right, then maybe one day, you’ll even stumble upon such a story for yourself. Maybe you’ll think it nothing more than a work of fiction to entertain you for a while. Maybe the author of said theoretical story would seem like nothing more than your run-of-the-mill internet user. He probably wouldn’t just come right out and say it, because that would be entirely too corny. He would probably just leave you the pieces, and hope that you could understand the truth for yourself.
Maybe you truly are like Kevin, drawn to mystery and prepared to entertain the fantastic. Maybe you’ll just dismiss the implications of the words before you because you don’t dare believe something so outlandish, because in the end truth is not the problem, belief is. Maybe someone will understand who- or more importantly what I really am. Maybe it will be you.
Either way, I’ve been away for a very long time. It is time for me to go home. Thank you, Kevin. I will always uphold our agreement.

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Area 51 is a Distraction, the Real Prize is in Eastern Alaska

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