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NEWS [UO.Com] Ask & Answer No. 14

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2013 Feb 04 14:54 GMT
In this week's Ask & Answer we received many questions requesting changes and our developers give a glimpse of what is being planned.

UO Auctions

Question: Have the dev team considered adding further to the high seas content? it seems most gave up a life at sea when they realized the resources it takes to run a ship. but piracy/bounty hunting are fantastic parts of the game. do you think that perhaps a hand in system for titles might bring attention back? perhaps items gained from merchant/pirate vessels could be handed in at Serpents Hold/Buccaneers Den for the Pirate/ the Bounty Hunter Titles? (Treasure Seeker)

Kyronix: We have talked about different ways to enhance High Seas content and provide a greater reward for the requisite investment as well as having a look at balancing that investment. A portion of the upcoming armor revamp will involve acquiring components for customization that will be available through a variety of means including pirate and merchant ship cargo.

Mesanna: We are also planning to add one or two deep water encounters…maybe of the ghostly kind =)

It is fairly well know that books are often abused by the criminal element in UO and game master response so poor, how about a slight adjustment to the books decay time? Like the same time as death robes. This would terminate the abuse. Anyone wishing to broadcast normal information may use house runes, like any other establishment or vendor mall... and lock said book down on their step. It would be a lot easier on everyone playing inside the rules. ~ (Mindy Hit-Girl - Atlantic)

Mesanna: I happen to agree with this, if we reduce the time books will stay on the ground it’s going to be all books, so everyone will have to be very careful when placing books that are going to be locked down in a house.



UO Japan

"+20 power scroll" drop rate seems to be decreased recently. Did you make any changes to the drop rate recently? (Nickname eli)

Phoenix: We have not adjusted power scroll drop rates in any recent publish.



Ultima Online Bibliothek

Would there please be a possibility to give blacksmiths the ability to smelt crafted metal items back into ingots?
At the moment each time I need an item smelted back, I need to log to a different character with mining skill. Although this doesn't take ages, it IS a bit of a hassle. A tailor can unravel the leather and cloth that was crafted, so I think it would make sense that a blacksmith can do the same. Many thanks! (Tarragon Slayer)

Phoenix: We agree,time permitting we will slip it in the upcoming publish if not we will do it in the next publish.


It sometimes feels like having bardic skills enhanced using equipment (like jewelry) is inferior to having real skill of the same amount. When using Spellsongs of the bard masteries it is obvious that having 107 skill and using a +13 skill ring the effect is much lower than having natural 120 skill. Aside from bard masteries the gut feeling is that success chances using a bardic skill, like Discordance, on a monster also is lower. Granted, that might be tinted by expectations and the unlucky streaks the random numbers seem to have frequently, but this is why I would like to see a confirmation that it is just a wrong impression. (Pcuvush)

Phoenix: Many skill checks and skill effects utilize the character’s base unmodified skill value. In many cases this is by design, to mitigate the power of skill from items. But, we are willing to review particular skill checks if there is a clear bug or other good reason. For example, we are investigating an issue with differences in results from Stealth depending on whether you use the skill directly or attempt to walk while hidden.

In the case of bard masteries, making their effects be based on real skill was intentional. For basic Discordance, the chance and power of the effect are based on modified skill values.


Hello, though the High Seas add on has added a lot of fun to the fisherman's profession there are some things that don't seem to make sense for me.
a) Most of the fish can't be sold to anyone, not the fisher NPC, cooks, inkeepers and so on will buy it. Even cut or cooked (miso soup is only 1 gp each and very heavy, needs to have high level cooking) there is little market for it.
For a beginning char that wants to be a professional fisherman and earn money to buy a boat by selling what he fished it's very frustrating and even impossible. It's the same or even worse with crustacean, nobody wants the unnamed ones except brit library, they can't even be used by cooks in any recipe.

b) The fishmonger quests.
While I like fishing I really hate using traps to get crustacean. Still I have to do so if I want to advance in the fishmonger quests and hope get a 120 scroll one day.
Couldn't we choose a carriere path : fish or crustacean or both from the beginning and only get quests related to the path we chose ? The specific path (only one kind) could be slower to raise prestige I don't mind that as long as I don't have to use traps even again in my UO life!
One of the reasons I don't like getting crustacean (the most important being that I find it boring but that's personal) is because of the traps we have to use.
Traps are heavy, they are short lived so you need a lot, they are expensive, they can't be crafted (I though my GM carpenter/tinker could but no, nothing in there to be able to do so).

An example:
I needed to get 20 fred lobster,I used 40 traps to do so.
1 trap is 144 gp, I spent 7200 gp to get those lobsters.
I didn't even get 10 of one kind of any of the other named ones in the process (smallest quantity for the fishmonger quest).
As I pointed first in this post, the unamed ones I got are completely useless, except as donation to the brit library.
Using a sum of money to buy traps, get and then give crustacean may give more reward points than if you had just directly given the same sum of money to the libary, though I didn't do the math to confirm this, but the time spent doing so doesn't make it worthwile in my opinion.
In the same time, using my fishing pole that didn't cost me anything (wood shopped and pole crafted by one of my chars) except the 10 gp to insure it, I could get enough fish to earn as many reward points or even more. As a bonus I would get White pearls, delicate scales, T-Maps, special fishing nets and MIBS, not counting the leather/scales from the sea serpents I would kill.
It also would be much less boring though that is my ersonal point of view and not an objective argument. Still I know I'm not the only one with this opinion.
If you do BODS in tailoring and blacksmith profession you earn a reward on top of being paid some real money for your work.
In the fisherman profession you don't get money, how are you supposed to make a living of it then ?
Once again comparing taloring/blacksmith profession with fisherman : in the two first ones you can get a title (fame) by doing BODS and never have to fight in your life, while a fisherman will get an internal reputation in the guild allowing him to get better quests/rewards but has no mean to get a title just by his profession.
It's not as important in my opinion than my other arguments but still I though it deserved to be pointed out.
If some though could be given to those issues I think it would improve greatly the fisherman playstyle!
Thanks, (Jeza)


Kyronix: This is a valid point and we’ll look at ensuring the wares of the sea provide a basic level of financial support for Britannia’s fisherman. While being able to handpick which quests you are offered isn’t a feasible solution, adding lobster traps to the crafting system is something that can certainly be done to ease the financial burden.

Phoenix: We are not 100% happy with how crab and lobster fishing works. At its core is a game of risk and reward, but we think that it is not well balanced. We would like to make some real improvements to this system, but we always have battling priorities.



UO Stratics

Origin Store:
Why there is no Stygian Abyss expansion packge to buy in Brazil? (Marcus Lessa)
Hello. For a lot of time we don't have High Seas addon in Russian Origin Store. We have only Stygian Abyss, BUT we have Captain's Set which players cant use without High Seas addon. Please add High Seas addon to the Russian Origin Store. Thanks! ( tangar)


Mesanna: I will address this with the Origin store and get back to you when I have an answer.


Is there any plan to allow a single command to set the Security of all items within a Locked Down container at once, to save having to manually set each individual item? This would be of intense usefulness for those of us who maintain public libraries of Books, Runes, Soulstones etc...( Adol)

Phoenix: Making some good convenience and usability improvements in house security is high on my list. Time permitting, I will work to address issues specifically related to locked down books and soulstones, and add ways to better manage the security of lockdowns in a container hierarchy in batch.


Would you consider having a way to remove unwanted Mods from weapons/armor. It is disappointing to find a great 100% poison weapon to imbue for your dextor, only to have a mage weapon property on it taking up property weight and 1 of the imbue spots.
Several possible options:
1. Open up modded weapons/armor to reforging
2. A craftable acid that cleans off all mods indescriminately
3. A craftable acid that cleans off 1 mod randomly
4. Multiple acids that work on different groups(Casting, Combat. misc)
5. Store purchased item that lets you select the undesirable mod to remove
The acid could be a difficult process, having to collect rare ingredients, alchemist to create and acid, and needing a chemist/smith/imbuer to apply. Something like what is necessary to remove the damage increase property. (swroberts)


Phoenix: I am generally in favor of allowing more powerful options for imbuing and re-forging, but doing so needs to be balanced. Generally, the balance should work along these lines: Powerful, Cheap, Durable – you can only have two. So, removing an undesirable item property may be workable if doing so caused a significant durability reduction and prevented use of Powder of Fortifying, reducing the item’s life span significantly. Alternatively, it could do something like apply a large multiplier to the item insurance cost, or require great expense to repair.

I am interested in getting some feedback on how this and other item improvements (like removal of Cursed or Cannot Be Repaired) can be done in a fair and balanced way that would also be acceptable to most players.


Lorgus was kind enough to answer to a post about drops on certain critters, Slasher, Medusa, Narvey and the items they might drop; Night Eyes, Slither, Tangle, but it ended up being a complete dead end.There are players who have spent HOURS (days and prob months) killing Medusa and have yet to get a Slither. Same goes for Tangles off of Narvery. Then there are some player who wander in for the first time and Wala Slither / Tangle.As a long time player and killer of both of these bosses in particular I think we are entitled to finally get and answer to why these drop or don't. Also what is the value of items on each critter ex; stone dragons tooth - slither of off Medusa?Or it is time to implement Doom rules (time, # kills) to produce a drop.TY Lorgus for trying but since you aren't there anymore someone in the know needs to produce some answers. (weins201)

Phoenix: These bosses have very low chances of generating special drops that include SoTs, certain artifacts, and some other things. On each death, the boss makes ONE roll to drop a special item. If the item is generated, then it is given to a random top attacker. So, even in a small group, your chance of getting the special drop is close to 1 in 100, and the chance of getting the specific drop you want is even smaller. It’s straight probability, with no weighting or anything. This means that on rare occasions someone might get the perfect drop the first time they fight. But due to the nature of probability, these items are never 100% guaranteed to drop. For example, for an event that happens 1 time in 500, then there is a 13.5% chance that the event will not happen in 1,000 consecutive trials. But, it could also happen more than once – for those same odds and 1000 trials, there is a 0.5% chance that the event could happen five times, averaging one every 200 trials.
When events have low probability of happening, it takes a very large number of trials before the rate of occurrence of the event converges to the actual odds.
TL;DR: Lady Luck is fickle.

Continue reading...
 

BeaIank

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Well, this issue with items not being available at Origin store was also addressed at Ask & Answer #3, but there is still no Stygian Abyss at Brazil origin store. :(

Is there a way for us to report these missing items directly to our local Origin store to see if the local managers will do something about it? It might fix the problem faster that way.
 

CovenantX

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Them answers seem to be getting more specific, I'm liking it.
 

Theo_GL

Grand Poobah
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What makes me the most angry about this proposed publish is that not only will it make me rebuild suits for all my hand to hand combat characters - the OLD suits were made using Forged Metal Artifact tool to make pieces of armor I had a reasonable expectation would be valuable in the future. If you want to wax everyones existing armor -then give every account a 20 use forged metal artifact tool so we can rebuild suits.

This is apparently the new way of making money in UO - change the game so you have to go rebuy stuff from the UO store.
 

Gameboy

Sage
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Stratics Legend
What makes me the most angry about this proposed publish is that not only will it make me rebuild suits for all my hand to hand combat characters - the OLD suits were made using Forged Metal Artifact tool to make pieces of armor I had a reasonable expectation would be valuable in the future. If you want to wax everyones existing armor -then give every account a 20 use forged metal artifact tool so we can rebuild suits.

This is apparently the new way of making money in UO - change the game so you have to go rebuy stuff from the UO store.
What items would you be buying at the UO store?
 

tangar

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Origin Store:
Hello. For a lot of time we don't have High Seas addon in Russian Origin Store. We have only Stygian Abyss, BUT we have Captain's Set which players cant use without High Seas addon. Please add High Seas addon to the Russian Origin Store. Thanks! ( tangar)

Mesanna: I will address this with the Origin store and get back to you when I have an answer.
Its really great thing when you feel that you have a hookup with developers. I'm exited =)

Thank you, Mesanna! All players from Russia send you best wishes!
 
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cazador

Grand Inquisitor
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Stratics Legend
Thank god they are focusing on the majority for once..fishing is in dire need! thank you for clarifying these issues that have been pressing the UO community since high seas launch..

/End Sarcasm for the slow of thought
 

KLOMP

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Mesanna: We are also planning to add one or two deep water encounters…maybe of the ghostly kind =)
Why don't you start by putting something someone might want on Charybdis? I mean you added a whole new boss and gave it nothing but some trash 'epiphany' armor and the playerbase ignored it.
 

Blood Ghoul

Sage
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Guess I should stop trying to buy/trade the motherload for one of those +20 stealth cloaks if they are looking at changing something related to the skill.

BG
 

Kojak

Slightly Crazed
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Why don't you start by putting something someone might want on Charybdis? I mean you added a whole new boss and gave it nothing but some trash 'epiphany' armor and the playerbase ignored it.
that's because the hit point regen never worked/proc'd/went off - I tried everything I could think of - if it does work, the effect is so small as to be invisible
 

Mentiras

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I am interested in getting some feedback on how this and other item improvements (like removal of Cursed or Cannot Be Repaired) can be done in a fair and balanced way that would also be acceptable to most players.
The only mod that I am in favor of removing is the -100 luck property, I think if we were allowed to remove the cursed or cannot be repaired property there would be to many "godly" items flooding the market. But if that is the direction we go in give me a good week or two heads up and ill stockpile all my cursed cannot be repaired legendary items and make a legendary suit ;)
 

Obsidian

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The Slither and Tangle drop rate needs to be based on a points system and not completely random. I would like my many encounters to each time give me a higher chance of getting my desired drop so I know my time is a well spent investment.
 

Dag Nabbit

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Thank god they are focusing on the majority for once..fishing is in dire need! thank you for clarifying these issues that have been pressing the UO community since high seas launch..

/End Sarcasm for the slow of thought
From your statement here and the signature that you use,should I understand that if all the questions answered aren't about PvP,and only PvP, in the Ask and Answer thread,it is a waste of time?
 

Eric Ravenwind

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Game
2013 Feb 04 14:54 GMT

If the item is generated, then it is given to a random top ATTACKER

i have a problem with this. Why aren't players who heal, cure the group and their pets allowed to get a shot at an item. There has to be a way for the devs to make it possible for support roles to get a chance for a drop.

Guys, please consider it..
 
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MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
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How come no one asked what they are doing for Valentines? Be coming up soon.
 

Kyronix

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i have a problem with this. Why aren't players who heal, cure the group and their pets allowed to get a shot at an item. There has to be a way for the devs to make it possible for support roles to get a chance for a drop.

Guys, please consider it..

Top attacker is a bit of a misnomer here because it does not specifically refer to the individual that has done the most damage. It's forever been defined as "top attacker" so referring to it as that is really just a result of its legacy function. The "top attacker" list is actually calculated based on three values, damage dealt to the mob, damage healed from the mob, and damage taken by the mob. Whether or not you make it onto the "top attacker" list is a result of how you perform in those three categories. This was done specifically to give support roles a chance at making it onto that list and thereby getting a drop.
 

cdavbar

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Would you consider having a way to remove unwanted Mods from weapons/armor. It is disappointing to find a great 100% poison weapon to imbue for your dextor, only to have a mage weapon property on it taking up property weight and 1 of the imbue spots.
Several possible options:
1. Open up modded weapons/armor to reforging
2. A craftable acid that cleans off all mods indescriminately
3. A craftable acid that cleans off 1 mod randomly
4. Multiple acids that work on different groups(Casting, Combat. misc)
5. Store purchased item that lets you select the undesirable mod to remove
The acid could be a difficult process, having to collect rare ingredients, alchemist to create and acid, and needing a chemist/smith/imbuer to apply. Something like what is necessary to remove the damage increase property. (swroberts)

Phoenix: I am generally in favor of allowing more powerful options for imbuing and re-forging, but doing so needs to be balanced. Generally, the balance should work along these lines: Powerful, Cheap, Durable – you can only have two. So, removing an undesirable item property may be workable if doing so caused a significant durability reduction and prevented use of Powder of Fortifying, reducing the item’s life span significantly. Alternatively, it could do something like apply a large multiplier to the item insurance cost, or require great expense to repair.

I am interested in getting some feedback on how this and other item improvements (like removal of Cursed or Cannot Be Repaired) can be done in a fair and balanced way that would also be acceptable to most players.
I would be interested in something like this. I like your idea Phoenix of reducing durability. Say, using the item to remove an unwanted mod will reduce the items durability by 100, and AFTER using the mod removing item, it can no longer be PoF'd. If the items durability is less then 100 it will simply break and be destroyed. If people have used PoF on it to get to 255, it is then reduced to 155 after using the PoF. It is very important in this scenario that after using the item, it cannot have PoF used on it as that would negate the -100 durability penalty imposed for removing the mod.

As far as ways to get the mod off, please NO MORE ORIGIN STORE ITEMS as mentioned by swroberts in line 5 of his question. I have virtually stopped crafting due to forged tools available in the stores. If UO was a free to play system with a store for extra's then sure, but we all pay to play this game, and ever since forged tools, only those crafters with extra real life cash to throw or houses full of checks to buy a tool from someone else in the game that has the real life cash to spend can get ahead in the crafting world. Something so powerful should have never been added. Whereas I don't ever predict or see UO removing it from the store, they should never add anything else along those lines to the store again. Of course, you could always throw fishermen, or t-hunters a bone and make a one use tool a 1 in 2500 or even 1 in 5000 chance of dropping on a fished up chest or treasure chest.

As far as Cursed property removal, the penalties could go along the same lines of removing an unwanted mod. This would ensure cursed artifacts NEVER live up to their un-cursed counterparts. If Cursed items did not lose durability but instead had some other sort of negative factor imposed, it would be imparitive that it be labeled somehow so that unsuspecting buys know what they are buying.

Cannot Be Repaired. You could have a quest that requires you handing over X amount of jars of PoF. In exchange for handing over those jars, the quest giver will either give you a once use item that will remove the Cannot Be Repaired property. On the other hand, after completing the quest you would be able to drop the item on the quest giver which would remove the property, and the item would bounce back into your pack.

While these suggestions aren't perfect, it is a start.
 

cdavbar

Lore Master
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The Slither and Tangle drop rate needs to be based on a points system and not completely random. I would like my many encounters to each time give me a higher chance of getting my desired drop so I know my time is a well spent investment.
No, with the ease of soloing both Medusa and Navery, I like the rarity of the drops. I have gotten 2 tangles and 2 slithers since SA came out. Making a point system would reduce the value of said items because you could literally just keep count of how many instances you have completed. Instead of being a rare drop, it now essentially becomes a quest reward (Kill Navery 150 times, get tangle, Kill Medusa 300 times, get slither).
 

cdavbar

Lore Master
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And please don't follow the usual tactic of making new stuff drop pretty consistently in the first few weeks after a publish and then adjust the drop rate because greedy people start complaining that the drop rate is too high and their merchant characters are suffering as a result.
Ever since ML came out this almost always seems to be the case. There seems to be a catering to those who want the reward right away, which takes away from those who have always done that type of work for a living in UO.
 

Assia Penryn

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Top attacker is a bit of a misnomer here because it does not specifically refer to the individual that has done the most damage. It's forever been defined as "top attacker" so referring to it as that is really just a result of its legacy function. The "top attacker" list is actually calculated based on three values, damage dealt to the mob, damage healed from the mob, and damage taken by the mob. Whether or not you make it onto the "top attacker" list is a result of how you perform in those three categories. This was done specifically to give support roles a chance at making it onto that list and thereby getting a drop.
Great info. Can you enlighten how that works with pets? Does the damage a pet does, gets and is healed factor in for tamers getting the drop?
 

MalagAste

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Top attacker is a bit of a misnomer here because it does not specifically refer to the individual that has done the most damage. It's forever been defined as "top attacker" so referring to it as that is really just a result of its legacy function. The "top attacker" list is actually calculated based on three values, damage dealt to the mob, damage healed from the mob, and damage taken by the mob. Whether or not you make it onto the "top attacker" list is a result of how you perform in those three categories. This was done specifically to give support roles a chance at making it onto that list and thereby getting a drop.
But it is NOT working as intended. Basically the only people getting drops now are Gargish throwers in wraith form and tamers with pets.

Archers can't compete as they simply can't do the damage... I used to once in awhile qualify for a drop.... since the changes no matter what I do I haven't seen a single drop.... but I sure have seen a massive increase in the number of wraith form throwers... and they KNOW it. I can't even half the time earn looting rights at all. And from what Pinco's tells me I'm doing upwards of 5 to 7k total in damage to the monsters. Oh and I'm certainly taking PLENTY of damage and healing ..... And why doesn't rezing folk count towards healing?????? I'm forever rezing folk. Which costs me big time on my compassion.

And another thing to keep in mind while you are making all these changes...... ARCHERS are the ONLY class that actually has expendables.... Since mages use 100%LRC suits anymore Archers are pretty much the only ones who are screwed when a battle rages on..... Once I'm out of Ammo I pretty well finished. No other class is dependent on an expendable resource anymore. So unlike other classes I also can't carry squat.... I have barely enough room for curse... Once I load up on slayer weapons, bandages, pots and petals I'm fully loaded down ...... I have no room to loot. I have ammo I need to carry.....

Mages don't need to carry regs anymore so they don't suffer the weight issue, dexers don't need ammo so they aren't suffering it..... throwers never lose their weapon either. Only archers are tied to an expendable resource anymore.

So while you are "balancing" things please keep that in mind..... I don't have room for another 400 pots of refresh for your changes to my stamina.
 

Kyronix

UO Designer
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Great info. Can you enlighten how that works with pets? Does the damage a pet does, gets and is healed factor in for tamers getting the drop?
It does, however, on most boss level monsters pet damage is scaled.
 

Chalmai

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
I needed to get 20 fred lobster,I used 40 traps to do so.
1 trap is 144 gp, I spent 7200 gp to get those lobsters.
I didn't even get 10 of one kind of any of the other named ones in the process (smallest quantity for the fishmonger quest).
If you are losing lobster traps that badly, then you are not using them correctly. My Fisherman can have out about 25 at a time and not lose a single one, unless I get busy chatting. To keep from losing them you have to keep "refreshing" them by pulling out the empties and replacing again. I do this in rounds. Have your backpack empty or fairly "light", have a pack animal nearby for when pack gets full, place out your traps, start with 4-6 till you get the hang of it, once first trap goes "bob", gather and replace ALL traps (even the empties) in same order of original placement. Always keep one empty trap in pack for faster replacement of a filled trap. Once you start your "rounds" these are the actions to take: remove trap from water, replace with new trap, empty full trap, lather, rinse, repeat till pack is full, then empty on your handy pack animal. Having both an empty trap and full trap on hot keys (if using EC) is a great help.
Hope this helps.
 
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