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Game Journal: "Cybil"

#61 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 06 February 2020 - 03:51 PM

Added a new weapon today!

An uzi to be specific. The game is only mostly fantasy themed and I've had the idea for how the weapon would work for a long time.
Because of the way combat works, anything that can land you some guaranteed or high probability hits is very valuable.
The uzi is basically "pray and spray", but if you shoot enough bullets at once, some of them are bound to hit the target.
It's also the only weapon that doesn't fit neatly into either the "melee" or the "throwable" category.
Basically, melee weapons have bad accuracy but decent damage, while throwables have good accuracy, but low damage and are one-use.
The uzi is sort of a combo of traits of both types.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 06 February 2020 - 03:52 PM

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#62 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 18 February 2020 - 04:36 PM

Lots of good progress made over the last couple weeks:

- Several new over world areas and dungeons added.
- A new enemy type added.
- A couple new features added that give the player better information on their status/what varying items do.
- Boss tower 2 completed entirely.
- Close to finishing boss tower 3.
- New NPCs, puzzles and stores added.
- Some new enemy battle graphics added and boss graphics added/changed.
- Several bug fixes and changes to game balance.

The game is divided in two by a river that can only be crossed after certain things have been accomplished.
The west side of the bridge is going to be by far the biggest area and it is almost completed at this point.

There's still some significant milestones left to get done, so the game is still somewhat far from completion.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 18 February 2020 - 04:40 PM

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#63 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 18 February 2020 - 08:04 PM

Just a few screenshots to show some tangible progress.

Posted Image

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#64 User is offline   Graham 

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Posted 23 February 2020 - 05:52 PM

I love how stylized your game is! It has a unique look and it shows that you’ve been working on refining that look with each successive game you’ve made. Glad to see it coming together!
Currently working on Servo for MegaZeux, I hope to complete it by the middle of 2015? Who knows...

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#65 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 24 February 2020 - 10:13 AM

View PostGraham, on 23 February 2020 - 06:52 PM, said:

I love how stylized your game is! It has a unique look and it shows that you’ve been working on refining that look with each successive game you’ve made. Glad to see it coming together!


Thanks, I'm glad that it doesn't look like total poop.

Fun fact: The way I draw the characters was originally based on a screenshot from Maniac Mansion, since I needed a reference from something with really low res faces.

Posted Image

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 24 February 2020 - 10:13 AM

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#66 User is offline   Graham 

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Posted 25 February 2020 - 05:38 AM

Huh! I like your art better. ;-)
Currently working on Servo for MegaZeux, I hope to complete it by the middle of 2015? Who knows...

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#67 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 25 February 2020 - 12:23 PM

Those nice square pixels though. Any MZX'er would envy those!
Gotta learn to love the rectangle.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 25 February 2020 - 12:24 PM

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#68 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 04 March 2020 - 08:56 AM

Right now, the main concern is fixing a pretty bad bug that I've discovered.
It is possible to exit a screen by touching an object that teleports the player, right between the point where an enemy sets an "encounter" flag to 1 and the point where it locks player movement. Apparently the enemy robots are so slow to run through those lines, that it's not that hard to replicate the issue by placing an enemy right next to an exit and then try to exit after the enemy starts initiating combat with you. It creates a whole lot of serious problems and no fix that I've tried to insert into the enemy script works, since they don't execute fast enough.
What does seem to work so far is to modify all screen-exit robots in the game to check if "encounter" is equal to 1 and simply go to an empty label if that's the case.
I need to test if that is also breakable. At least, based on a quick last minute attempt last night before I went to bed, it certainly requires much tighter timing to break, if it's even possible. The previous varying fixes I attempted all still gave the player about ½ a second to break the game, which is too likely to happen on accident since enemies will often roam around close to screen-exiting scripts of varying kinds.

So I have possibly found the solution, but I'm concerned that the order in which MZX deals with on screen objects will mean that the "touch" command will be registered before "encounter" has been set to 1, but after the enemy has started initiating combat, if the enemy is placed in a way where it will be second in priority to the screen exit script that the player tries to touch. I'm gonna test it thoroughly later.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 04 March 2020 - 08:58 AM

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#69 User is offline   Graham 

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 03:29 AM

How high is your “commands” counter set? If I’m not mistaken, the default is 40, which you may be hitting that limit and that could be the delay you are referring to. Maybe try setting it to 1000?
Currently working on Servo for MegaZeux, I hope to complete it by the middle of 2015? Who knows...

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#70 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 08:42 AM

View PostGraham, on 06 March 2020 - 04:29 AM, said:

How high is your “commands” counter set? If I’m not mistaken, the default is 40, which you may be hitting that limit and that could be the delay you are referring to. Maybe try setting it to 1000?


I think that's something I badly need to read up on... I'm not even 100% sure how that works. I do have a lot of stuff running at once, especially on boards with enemies.
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#71 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 09:46 AM

In the Megazeux online help, I found the section "Cycles and Board Scans - How MZX Processes Robots". So far, so good.
But at the end of the section, it says:

"For more detailed information about what commands end cycles and
when, read cycles_and_commands.txt in the additional
documentation."


Is that referring to another place on the site? I can't seem to find it.
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#72 User is offline   Lachesis 

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Posted 06 March 2020 - 10:37 PM

That file is available in the source package and on the GitHub repository. I'll check with Terryn to see if we should ship this with releases or change the reference in the help file (I don't see any harm in adding this to releases...).
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#73 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 07:15 AM

I think adding a folder to MZX releases with a few helpful .txt files would be neat and do no harm - considering modern hard drive sizes and all that.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 09 March 2020 - 07:18 AM

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#74 User is offline   Lachesis 

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Posted 09 March 2020 - 07:28 PM

MZX already ships with a docs folder that contains mzxhelp.html, keycodes.html, joystick.html, platform_matrix.html, changelog.txt, macro.txt (describes adding Robotic macros to config.txt), and now cycles_and_commands.txt. The problem isn't disk space/download size so much as a lot of the docs included in the source but not in releases are fairly technical and presumably not that useful to users. cycles_and_commands.txt is an exception to that; most of the info in that file was even directly in the help file in 1.xx (and ideally it'll be added back into the help file soon).

Another good candidate for being included in releases is the file format documentation, though it's currently incomplete.
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#75 User is offline   hseiken 

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 12:11 AM

View PostLachesis, on 09 March 2020 - 02:28 PM, said:

MZX already ships with a docs folder that contains mzxhelp.html, keycodes.html, joystick.html, platform_matrix.html, changelog.txt, macro.txt (describes adding Robotic macros to config.txt), and now cycles_and_commands.txt. The problem isn't disk space/download size so much as a lot of the docs included in the source but not in releases are fairly technical and presumably not that useful to users. cycles_and_commands.txt is an exception to that; most of the info in that file was even directly in the help file in 1.xx (and ideally it'll be added back into the help file soon).

Another good candidate for being included in releases is the file format documentation, though it's currently incomplete.


LOL I totally didn't know all that stuff was in there. I actually just programmed my own keycode finder and wrote down whatever numbers spit out...that would've saved me time. I should look in that docs folder for the first time... lol
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#76 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 05:57 PM

View PostGraham, on 06 March 2020 - 04:29 AM, said:

How high is your “commands” counter set? If I’m not mistaken, the default is 40, which you may be hitting that limit and that could be the delay you are referring to. Maybe try setting it to 1000?


I finally got around to trying this and it doesn't make any difference. The enemy that's supposed to lock the player still doesn't get that far before the exit-screen script teleports the player. So I'm gonna have to go for a much more work intensive workaround now. If only I'd discovered this way earlier, I could have done the roaming enemies' scripts differently, but that would require manually editing hundres of robots by now.
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#77 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 08:02 PM

Ok, so after a load of tedious, repetitive editing, it seems the bug is finally fixed!

Next step is that I'm playtesting the game in 2.92c and moving the project over to that version of Megazeux.
The higher amount of global robot memory will allow me to do some interesting things that I wasn't sure I'd have room for before the move,
so that's exciting.

It's been a long while since I've tested the game, so I'm finding various things I might want to add or change. Not bugs, just
things that have more to do with balancing and how interesting I think the various areas are.

Towns need some more NPCs, and there seems to be a lot more health available than I expected. Maybe too much! There are two higher difficulty levels
to wrestle with, so maybe it's ok... Low level healing items are what's plentiful - and they're not great in combat. So maybe it's really ok.
I'll decide after I've played some more of the game.

However, there is one thing that annoys the hell out of me: Can't you get rid of that damn mouse cursor? The game doesn't need it, and it's pretty annoying to have to move it out of the way when it starts in the middle of the screen. It would also be confusing to people who don't know MZX already.
I'd love to put a thing in to the global robot that kills that damn thing off at the very start of the game.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 19 March 2020 - 08:04 PM

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#78 User is offline   ThDPro 

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Posted 21 March 2020 - 12:13 AM

set "cursorstate" 0 comes to mind

EDIT: realizing the the thrust of the question, do you want the cursor to be out of text boxes as well? Cause that's the only place it'll show up unless you're using it elsewhere in the game, in which case, you may be able to just set MOUSEX & MOUSEY it put it in the corner... (? I suppose, I don't know robotic as well as 20 year old thud did.)

This post has been edited by ThDPro: 21 March 2020 - 12:17 AM

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#79 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 21 March 2020 - 11:34 AM

View PostThDPro, on 21 March 2020 - 01:13 AM, said:

set "cursorstate" 0 comes to mind

EDIT: realizing the the thrust of the question, do you want the cursor to be out of text boxes as well? Cause that's the only place it'll show up unless you're using it elsewhere in the game, in which case, you may be able to just set MOUSEX & MOUSEY it put it in the corner... (? I suppose, I don't know robotic as well as 20 year old thud did.)


Yes, the problem is exactly that I don't want the cursor to be visible in text boxes. That big white rectangle is pretty annoying. Sure, you can move it out of the way, but it's pretty bad from a usability perspective that a game that does not use the mouse suddenly has a mouse cursor in text boxes that will sit there and block some random character out in the middle of the screen in text boxes, until you realize you have to grab the mouse and move it out of the way. It's just confusing for anyone who doesn't know MZX and it's quirks.

The solution I'd need would have to be something that requires me to just put something into the global robot. It's far too late to edit hundreds of individual scripts, so if that's the only way, I'm gonna have to just suck it up and deal with that cursor hovering right there every time one starts the game.

EDIT: I tried setting "mousex" and "mousey" to 0, but it's still visible in the top corner and the user can just move it, so it would not really be a solution. Then I'd have to make some robot that constantly cycles and forces the cursor to stay up there, plus maybe making it black, but that's a solution that feels pretty bad, so I'm not doing that :/

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 21 March 2020 - 11:46 AM

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#80 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 21 March 2020 - 11:52 AM

I'm currently combing through all mentions of the word "cursor" in the help file.

This one might be interesting:

"Added a "system_mouse" config.txt option that allows the
mouse cursor to be replaced with the system mouse cursor,
rather than being drawn by MegaZeux."


It doesn't make it go away, but but if it makes the cursor look like the Windows system cursor, at least users will understand that it's a mouse cursor and not some graphics glitch.
I'm planning on uploading the game outside of Digitalmzx with the whole Megazeux program and all things configured in advance. Only people who know Megazeux would download it
as a world file package anyway - and MegaZeux user know what that white rectangle is. So it would kinda fix my problem.

Call me silly for worrying about such a minor issue, but I'm an obsessive perfectionist by nature :p

EDIT: Never mind... the setting didn't do what I thought it would do, as the cursor would still be a big white rectangle in the text boxes. The search
for potential solutions goes on. It's not hugely problematic, but I'm gonna put a bit more effort into trying to get rid of it.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 21 March 2020 - 11:57 AM

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#81 User is offline   Lachesis 

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Posted 22 March 2020 - 01:41 AM

I can confirm that putting "system_mouse = 1" in config.txt should do what you're looking for. I can't replicate the MZX cursor ever appearing with that setting enabled in either 2.92c or 2.83, so I'm not sure what the issue is.
"Let's just say I'm a GOOD hacker, AND virus maker. I'm sure you wouldn't like to pay for another PC would you?"

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#82 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 23 March 2020 - 01:14 PM

I swear that I did the exact same thing last time, but this time, when editing the config.txt again and setting system_mouse to 1 again, it works. Last time I commented the line out again after it seemed not to work. Maybe I had MZX open at the time that I edited the config file, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure that I restarted it, but I must have done something wrong. It does indeed work now.
Now I just have to figure out if that's what I want.
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#83 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 20 April 2020 - 06:59 AM

Found another nasty bug and spent some time being frustrated about it until I finally found a solution.

But then I got a lot of good work done on my game. Basically, 4 out of 7 "boss towers" are complete now, and all areas in the main portion of the game are done.

There are still things left to do:

- The story needs to be fully implemented.
- There's still no music at all.
- The 3 boss towers and the final dungeon that make up the "end game" need to be made.
- Undoubtedly, I'll discover multitudes of bugs, typos, etc. as I try to wrap the game up.

But I feel like having the whole early-to-mid game wrapped up is a huge milestone. Strictly speaking, the game could be wrapped up right now and feel
like a proper, complete game - but I'm going to be patient and stick to the plan.
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#84 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 27 April 2020 - 06:13 AM

Took a little breather from Megazeux and spent some time working on an old ZZT game that's been half complete since 2001 or something like that.
It's now 99% done! Yay!

Not that that helps me with my Megazeux game. But it was nice to look at another game project for a while and it doesn't have to take too long, since ZZT is vastly simpler than Megazeux. It's both a blessing and a curse to be able to do - comparatively - anything, in MZX.

There is a ZZT archive online, but I don't know if they accept new titles. ZZT looks pretty much dead these days.
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#85 User is offline   Lachesis 

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Posted 27 April 2020 - 07:15 AM

z2/zzt.org is fairly dead but ZZT itself isn't (in fact, asie just reconstructed ZZT's source code recently and created somewhat of a ZZT hacking craze). You'll have better luck submitting your ZZT game to the Museum of ZZT, which is actively maintained by Dr. Dos.
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#86 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 27 April 2020 - 08:43 AM

Interesting. Fingers crossed for a really good Windows version of the engine down the line. Maybe one with expanded color options and such built in without the need for tool kits or external editors like KevEdit. It's a horribly dated engine, but it's simply fun to make games in, and it's got a legacy worth preserving.

Huh. Dr. Dos. I was running several of his Youtube videos in the background while working on the game. I didn't know he ran that website, but it sure sounds like the place to send my game. Got two more of the same size that I want to wrap up in the same way when I feel like putting more time into ZZT.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 27 April 2020 - 08:45 AM

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#87 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 27 April 2020 - 08:44 AM

oops

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 27 April 2020 - 08:44 AM

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#88 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 04 May 2020 - 08:41 AM

Debating with myself whether to include a few things into the game that... are kind of feature creep, but also kind of cool. I'm wondering if there are any size restrictions for MZX uploads... since if I include loads of sound and music, it might hit a 100mb rather than a neat 10mb or less.

I remember some old projects having separate world file and sound downloads... is this still the practice?

Also did a lot more work on the game. It's just growing and growing at a steady pace. The .mzx file itself is almost 5mb at this point. I'm wondering how long the game would be if I did a playtest and played through all existing content. I imagine at least a handful hours, maybe more? A test I did of a small vertical slice a long time ago took half an hour, and it was a very small portion of the game. I'd be happy with just a small handful hours in total play time.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 04 May 2020 - 08:46 AM

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#89 User is offline   Lachesis 

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Posted 04 May 2020 - 10:23 PM

The archive upload limit is about 100 MB. Generally games aren't uploaded with separate music archives anymore, but if your ZIP exceeds that limit you might have to split it. I wouldn't worry about the size of the .MZX file since they (particularly worlds with a lot of Robotic) tend to compress very well. 5MB is impressive, though!

Not sure what kinds of sound files you're using or considering but techniques I've used to reduce the archive size of my games before are: converting all .WAV files to .OGG (including sound effects), using MOD/S3M/XM/IT/RAD files instead, or (when using MOD/S3M/XM/IT) downsampling or replacing any large samples and optimizing out unused samples.
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#90 User is offline   MicMotorhead 

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Posted 05 May 2020 - 06:28 AM

View PostLachesis, on 04 May 2020 - 11:23 PM, said:

The archive upload limit is about 100 MB. Generally games aren't uploaded with separate music archives anymore, but if your ZIP exceeds that limit you might have to split it. I wouldn't worry about the size of the .MZX file since they (particularly worlds with a lot of Robotic) tend to compress very well. 5MB is impressive, though!

Not sure what kinds of sound files you're using or considering but techniques I've used to reduce the archive size of my games before are: converting all .WAV files to .OGG (including sound effects), using MOD/S3M/XM/IT/RAD files instead, or (when using MOD/S3M/XM/IT) downsampling or replacing any large samples and optimizing out unused samples.


The total might end up being a lot less than 100, but I still haven't decided on the format for my music. My .wav sound effect files are outright tiny in size, but in the past, I haven't always been happy with the sound quality of .ogg music of the highest level of compression.

Due to some details about how the music will have to work, I'm undecided if it will be something like .mod files or .ogg files. Can the "play (file.filename)" command also play modules, with endless looping? I've only used it with .wav and .ogg files so far - which as far as music goes has the downside that there's no looping.

One thing I know for sure is that the embedded "set board music" function won't work for my game. My game handles all board-to-board transitions through teleports, which doesn't seem to work quite right with the alt+N music function. I'm probably going to make a script on each board that sets and checks a current track ID and only plays a new track if the track ID it wants to be playing is different from the current one. Accomplishes the same thing!

And I think my world file is big for two reasons. 1) The game world is actually starting to be pretty large. 2) Maybe my code isn't as clean as it could be and there's a lot of redundancy in robots with lots of copies. The game works really well, but I think a real programmer would get a headache from looking through my code!

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 05 May 2020 - 06:29 AM

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