So, what if Soldier Boy got hoodwinked and thrust into the Universe of the Vampire Diaries without explanation? It is a very magical world after all, lets say Soldier Boy was summoned into the world:
To start, how effective would Soldier Boy be as a "vampire hunter" in this universe? I'd like to immediately state however, Soldier Boy completely wipes the floor with all base level vampires ranging in ages 0-500 no questions even asked, it's no competition. It's the older vampires where it gets more interesting.
In the Vampire Diaries universe, Vampires are of the "magical" variety of Vampire, this means their physical strength grows in proportion to their age, older the vampire? the stronger the powerhouse they are, however they come with some downsides.
Vampires here are soft, meaning they do not have superhuman durability in the same way vampires from Twilight do. They have soft skin, same as humans, Vampire Diary Vamps have immensely strong supernatural strength that defies the laws of the physical world. This does not translate into actual durability like it does with Supes in The Boys or even Vampires from Twilight. You could completely puncture a vampires skin with something as ordinary as pocket knife if you they allowed you to.
Now it's worth mentioning, vampires here do have strengthened constitution, greatly so with age. They can push their bodies past their limits far past what a human could, for example; Wooden bullets, have a weakening effect on typical vampires, draining their strength and temporarily weakening the vampire. This doesn't occur in any meaningful capacity in elder vampires.
Healing Factor & Durability What Vampires in this universe do have going for them to keep them sturdy and robust, is their absolutely cracked Healing Factors, just about on par with the likes of Wolverine and Deadpool. Vampires can regenerate from any physical injury ranging from a few seconds, to minutes. Vampire healing factor does work faster and more aggressively when on a healthy and regular diet of human blood. Extreme organ injury however is where it will take much longer, up to days. At one point, one of the main protagonists eyes were both gouged out, his eyes regenerated in full in a couple days time with much discomfort.
If a vampires body were to be punctured and a major organ ripped out or crushed, the vampire would be out of commission for a couple days. Also, vamps can easily re-attach dismembered limbs.
Now, if all vampires here had going for them was scaling strength with age and the healing factor, they wouldn't be much of a threat for most supes, much less Solder Boy. However, Vampires here do have two abilities that allow them to outclass most supes from the Boys. There's also another tier of Vampire I have not yet mentioned.
Super speed and mind control (or mind compulsion) Vamps have super speed, can travel anywhere in a in the world in a flash as long as it is reasonably reachable on foot, vampires will appear as not much more than a blur to the human eye when moving at super speed. It's clear from observing in though, that Vampires cannot take full advantage of their super speed, as in Vampires cannot use their super speed at all times during combat, hence they do not ever fight each other at maximum super speed without stopping. This is likely stemmed from vampire diaries being magical in nature, and not truly physical. As amazing as these powers are, they have their limitations, as logically speaking, if something could move like a blur across a country, obviously they should be capable of fighting at full super speed 100% of the time nonstop, but they cannot.
Essentially, vampire super speed cannot walk and chew bubblegum at the same time, which is a massive drawback of the ability.
Mind control
All vampires, both fresh and original have the ability to compel a human being to do whatever they want and wipe memories, this ability alone would completely humiliate the majority of supes in The Boys universe, however when it comes to Soldier Boy, I do not believe this ability would work. The reason why? Mindstorm.
In The Boys there is one supe known as Mindstorm, his ability revolves around making eye contact with a target, and "scrambling their brains", this is done by knocking the victim unconscious and putting them into a never ending coma of nightmares. There are other aspects of his power but i will not be mentioning them, Mindstorms ability arguably outclasses that of even vampires. While vampire compulsion would be more than enough to enthrall supes on a widescale, Soldier Boy demonstrated extreme resistance to Mindstorms ability, at most Mindstorm was able to temporarily stun Soldier Boy, it was only with physical blows by other super strength supes and an extremely toxic compound to knock out soldier boy that would've killed any regular human instantly, that Soldier Boy was able to be knocked out, and even then, Soldier Boy was not put into a coma from Mindstorm, he was just put to sleep from the potent knockout agent used.
I do not believe Soldier Boy would be put down or even stunned from Vampire compulsion, his mental fortitude and strength is too high. As vampire compulsion cannot "stun" in the first place unlike Mindstorms ability.
So how does Soldier Boy actually measure up in a fight with Vampires? Including Elder Vamps upwards of 1,000 yrs old?
Regarding regular vampires, Soldier Boy clearly outright overpowers regular vampires, in fact I think most vampires would be terrified of Soldier Boy when noticing they cannot pierce his skin or overpower him. The most regular vampires could do is attack soldier boy at speed with varying levels of success, but would be completely incapable of actually harming him.
Most regular vampires of age who are in touch with vampire society would possibly resort to asking for forgiveness out of terror that they've angered an elder vampire, not understanding what Soldier Boy is.
When it comes to Original vampires, Vampires ranging from ages 900-1000 Every vampire ability is upgraded and surpasses usual vampires, more strength, faster speed, faster healing factors, higher levels of pain tolerance. -- But again, not actual physical durability from damage.
This is where Soldier Boy could potentially be up for a fight, however there are issues with even this tier of vampire. Soldier Boys strength is noted to be just under Homelander, of which Queen Maeve, as powerful as she was being the #2 supe in phsyical strength, is still weaker than Soldier Boy. Herself being completely unable to threaten Homelander in a fight.
Soldier Boy was capable of standing up to Homelander in a limited capacity, but was overpowered once Homelander got serious with grappling. Now back to Original Vampires, while their strength is much beyond regular vampires, I still do not see enough evidence it would be enough to overpower Soldier Boy. While Soldier Boy could be easily knocked around in a fight, thrown, tossed. SB would still be far too dangerous for an OG Vampire to dare grapple with, once Soldier Boy gets a grip on the body, its over. There is no fight beyond that point. Once Soldier Boy gets ahold of a vampire even at that age, there is little they can do to stop themselves from being mangled, ripped apart and ultimately completely crushed beyond repair.
Soldier Boy is far too invulnerable and strong to be taken out by vampires. At the end of the day he can be knocked around because of vampire super speed, but it would never be enough. Their bodies are too soft to stand a chance in a fight regardless of age.
In fact, I personally think Soldier Boy posesses a higher level of invulnerability than Homelander, as he beared no bruises after his scrap with Homelander, unlike the latter.
There is one more character of Legendary status in the Vampire Diaries universe, known as the Vampire who hunts Vampires. Whom is said to be still stronger than original vampires, at 1000, however it's implied this is due to him being in excellent physical condition prior to turning, hence having his natural strength further amplified by the magical nature of vampire strength.
I still was not convinced it is enough.

Hi everyone.
I recently upgraded to a 34" ultrawide 1440p monitor, I think it looks great.
I'm having issues with what I think is a dpi scaling issue, not a tech guy but just what I understand from reading stuff.
Basically in some games my graphics go blurry or ultra sharp when doing certain things.
For example. In diablo 4 my graphics appear OK until I move something in inventory then they go super sharp. In world of warcraft graphics are fine, until I don't move the camera, then they go soft or blurry.
It's a really annoying 3rd world problem, which I feel silly asking about.
I've tried the suggested compatibility dpi scaling, tried changing to windowed mode and back. Just can't seem to fix the issue. I'm not sure what I doing in the nvidia control panel so don't want to mess too much with that.
Does anyone have any idea what the issue is, and of possible how to fix it..
For reference my desktop resolution is 3440 x 1440 and scale is 100%. Same settings on my games.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Important terms:

• TTK: Time to kill. The amount of time from the moment you being shooting until your target dies.
• Optimal TTK: The amount of time to kill when landing weak point hits/critical hits.
• Non-optimal TKK: The amount of time to kill when landing non weak point hits.

Helldivers 2 is probably the game with the biggest difference in optimal and non-optimal ttk of any game I have ever seen. This is an experience that players are not use to and is one that is responsible for the complete disconnect between "balance" and the experience of most players.
In most games Optimal and non-optimal TTK are relatively close with optimal ttk being a "reward" for good aim rather than non-optimal ttk being a punishment for average aim. In Helldivers 2 landing weak spot hits is firmly in the mandatory camp rather than a reward.

Here are some of the most egregious examples:

Anti Tank

Bile Titan Vs Recoilless or Quasar

• Optimal TTK: 2 headshots. (Recoilless 6 sec, Quasar 21 sec )
• Non-optimal TTK: 8 body shots. (Recoilless: 42 sec requires resupply, Quasar 129 sec )

Charger Vs Recoilless or Quasar

• Optimal TTK: 1 headshot (Recoilless instant, Quasar 3 sec)
• Non-optimal TTK: 3 body shots ( Recoilless 12 sec, Quasar 54 seconds)

Primary Weapons

Devastator Vs Liberator Pen

• Optimal TTK: 3 headshots ( 0.3 sec)
• Non-optimal TTK: 45 body shots ( 8 sec including reload)

A medium Pen rifle taking 45 body shots to kill a medium enemy is worthless. You would be better off spending those 45 shots fishing for 3 headshots which you could do with the base Liberator.

This trend repeats throughout the entire gun roster. The guns that people use and enjoy are the only guns that don't follow this rule.

Breaker Incendiary vs all

• No matter where you shoot enemies the dot kills them in a fairly consistent time frame. Bot's in particular don't care where you shoot them they die in a similar time frame.

Jar-5 Dominator Vs Devastators

• Optimal TTK: 1 headshot (0 sec)
• Non-optimal TTK: 3-4 torso shots ( 0.75-1 sec)

Plas-1 Scorcher Vs Devastators

• Optimal TTK: 2 headshots ( 0.25 sec)
• Non-optimal TTK: 7 torso shots ( 1.75 sec)

Conclusion:
While every single gun is capable of beaming enemies down in a very short time frame, the "good" guns are the ones where failing to hit the optimal TTK is not overly punished. There isn't a single player of this game who is nailing the optimal ttk on every enemy in every fight. The nature of the game makes this impossible.
You can't expect players to take upwards of 8 seconds to kill a single enemy in a game where a standard fight has you engage 15 or 20 of these enemies.
The overall TTK does NOT need to go down. The non-optimal TTK needs to be compressed closer to the optimal TTK for a large number of weapons so that when not hitting constant headshots players don't feel helpless.

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I am selling Ti8 and ti9 and ti10 Immortals and Collector's Cache and not buying them.
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Buyer goes first, no exceptions unless you have a reputable rep
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Buyers go first, add me now if interested for 30 days cooldown, make sure to leave a comment on my profile . 20% reserve fee required at the time of reserving cache sets.

August 2023 Collector's Cache 

Hero	August 2023 Collector's Cache	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Snapfire	Snailfire (Very Rare)	35$
Marci	Brightfist (Rare)	20$	2 Sold!
Spectre	Crescent Huntress	12$
Kunkka	Sea Spirit	12$	1 Sold!
Abaddon	Spectral Shadow	12$
Wraith King	Tyrant of the Veil	10$
Primal Beast	Primeval Abomination	10$
Storm Spirit	Beast of Thunder	10$
Legion Commander	Triumph of the Imperatrix	10$
Dawnbreaker	Astral Herald	10$
Jakiro	Ancestral Heritage	10$
Dazzle	Dezun Vipe	8$
Hoodwink	Tomo'kan Footsoldier	8$	1 Sold!
Alchemist	Taur Rider	8$	1 Sold!
Death Prophet	Darkwood Eulogy	8$

Diretide 2022 Collector's Cache II 

Hero	Diretide 2022 Collector's Cache II	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Void Spirit	Sublime Equilibrium (Very Rare)	30$	3 Sold!
Anti Mage)	Brands of the Reaper (Rare)	25$	1 Sold!
Treant	Grudges of the Gallows Tree (Rare)	20$	2 Sold!
Legion Commander	Bird of Prey	15$	2 Sold!
Phantom Assassin	Darkfeather Factioneer	12$	2 Sold!
Pudge	Cursed Cryptbreaker	10$	1 Sold!
Doom	Dawn of Darkness Foretold	10$
Brewmaster	The Wilding Tiger	10$	3 Sold!
Night Stalker	Feasts of Forever	8$	2 Sold!
Techies	War Rig Eradicators	8$	2 Sold!
Huskar	Sacred Chamber Guardian	5$
Vengeful Spirit	Acrimonies of Obsession	8$	1 Sold!
Clinkz	Withering Pain	8$
Alchemist	Darkbrew's Transgression	8$
Oracle	Transcendent Path	10$	5 Sold!
Silencer	Grand Suppressor	6$	1 Sold!

Diretide 2022 Collector's Cache I 

Hero	Diretide 2022 Collector's Cache	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Primal Beast	Dark Behemoth (Very Rare)	55$	4 Sold!
Invoker	Angel of Vex (Rare)	20$	4 Sold!
MARCI	Blue Horizons (Rare)	20$	5 Sold!
Hoodwink	Shadowleaf Insurgent	20$	10 Sold! - 2 left
Spectre	Spoils of the Shadowveil	10$	4 Sold!
Faceless Void	Chines of the Inquisitor	10$	2 Sold!
Ursa	Trophies of the Hallowed Hunt	8$
Riki	Scarlet Subversion	12$	3 Sold!
Terrorblade	Forgotten Station	10$	2 Sold!
Monkey King	Champion of the Fire Lotus	10$	2 Sold!
Snapfire	Whippersnapper	12$	6 Sold!
Chen	Hounds of obsession	8$	3 Sold!
Clockwerk	Seadog's Stash	8$	1 Sold!
Phoenix	Crimson Dawn	8$	1 Sold!
Undying	Dirge Amplifier	10$
Witch Doctor	Deathstitch Shaman	8$
Dawnbreaker	Starlorn Adjudicator	15$	8 Sold!

Aghanim's 2021 Collector's Cache 

Hero	Aghanim's 2021 Collector's Cache	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Ogre Magi	Pyrexae Polymorph Perfected	15$	4 Sold!
Phantom Lancer	Scales of the Shadow Walker	10$	3 Sold!
Clockwerk	Apex Automated	10$	4 Sold!- 1 left
chen	Perils of the Red Banks	5$	3 Sold!
Broodmother	Widow of the Undermount Gloom	10$	5 Sold!
Mars	Forgotten Fate	5$	3 Sold!
Alchemist	Cosmic Concoctioneers	15$	5 Sold! - 1 left
Abaddon	Blightfall	10$	2 Sold!

 Nemestice 2021 Collector's Cache 

Hero	Nemestice 2021 Collector's Cache	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Doom	Litany of the Damned	10$	2 Sold!
Dark Willow	Twilight Hex	5$	3 Sold!
Enigma	Astral Terminus	5$	4 Sold!
Enchantress	Caerulean Star	8$	2 Sold!
Winter Wyvern	Defender of the Brumal Crest	12$	8 Sold!

Collector Cache Sets 2020 1 + 2 

Hero	The International 2020	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Faceless Void	Claszureme Incursion	65$	5 Sold! - 1 left
Keeper of the Light	The King Of Thieves	10$	4 Sold!
Rubick	Carousal of the Mystic Masquerade	10$	3 Sold!
Skywrath Mage	Secrets of the Celestial	10$	4 Sold! - 1 left
Phoenix	Blaze of Oblivion	8$	3 Sold!

Collector Cache Sets 2019 

Hero	The International 2019	Price (CSGO keys)	Reserved/Sold
Pudge	Dapper Disguise	15$	3 Sold
Warlock	Tribal Pathways	10$	1 Sold
Clockwerk	Directive of the Sunbound	10$	2 Sold
Bloodseeker	Fury of the Bloodforge	20$	4 Sold
Broodmother	Automaton Antiquity	10$	4 sold
Wraith King	Grim Destiny	12$	7 Sold- 1 left
Tusk	Distinguished Expeditionary	12$	2 Sold
Venomancer	Verdant Predator	15$	6 Sold - 1left!
Batrider	Prized Acquisitions	8$	3 Sold
Huskar	Pursuit of the Ember Demons	15$	7 Sold- 1 left
chen	Priest of the Proudsilver Clan	10$	7 Sold- 1 left

Collector Cache[1] + [2] Sets 

The International 2018	Price (CSGO keys)	Reserved/Sold
Stonemarch Sovereign [Wraith King]	15$	3 Sold - 1left
Pattern of the Silken Queen [Broodmother]	3$	1 sold
Shimmer of the Anointed [Nyx]	5$	3 Sold!
Pillar of the Fractured Citadel [Spirit Breaker]	5$	3 Sold
Loaded Prospects [Brewmaster]	5$	6 Sold

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Inventor

The patch that's been stewing on the PTR for a while has hit Live, you can read the official changelog here: https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/heroes-of-the-storm/24096021/heroes-of-the-storm-live-patch-notes-may-21-2024
Because I think these notes are a bit shambolic, I'll do an edit of them. I was going to go through all of it, but I didn't. Just making some changes where I feel like it. If something is in the patch notes, it's a part of the patch. If it's not, but it's in this list, then it's a part of the patch. I didn't edit this post much, I just didn't like how the quickcast and buff bar stuff was layed out, as well as the Junkrat & D.Va's decaying damage.

ARAM

See official notes

Balance & Design Updates

Arthas

• Maximum Health increased from 2860 to 2980
• Health Regeneration increased from 5.957 to 6.208
• Death Coil (Q)
  • Healing increased from 262 to 290(!!!!)
• Frozen Tempest (E)
  • Mana cost per second reduced from 13 to 11

Talents

• Level 13
  • Biting Cold (E)
    • Additional damage updated to be treated as an additive bonus, instead of a multiplicative bonus
• Level 16
  • Embrace Death (Q)
    • Additional damage updated to be treated as an additive bonus, instead of a multiplicative bonus

D.Va

• Self-Destruct (E)
  • Damage decay now occurs after the center of the target is at least 4 distance away from the exploding Mech
  • This features an additional targeting circle while the ability is hovered, visible only to D.Va

Gall

• Gall's damage effects have been updated to more completely gain the benefit of effects applied to Cho'Gall
  • If Cho is granted Spell Leech, then Gall's Spell Damage will heal Cho for the amount of Spell Leech granted to Cho
  • Spellpower effects will now consistently effect Gall's Damage

Hogger

• Rage
  • Decay rate per second increased from 10 to 13

Talents

• Level 1
  • On the Prowl (Active)
    • Cooldown increased from 40 seconds to 45 seconds
    • Activating On the Prowl now instantly prevents Rage from Decaying
    • Passive Healing per second reduced from 8 to 7
• Level 4
  • Brute Force (Q)
    • Damage bonus granted from slamming an enemy Hero into terrain reduced from 8 to 6
• Level 13
  • Dust Devil (E)
    • Armor duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds
    • Armor granted when below 50 Rage increased from 20 to 25
  • Pummel (E)
    • Spellpower reduction reduced from 50% to 30%

Junkrat

• Steel Trap (E)
  
  • Cooldown increased from 12 seconds to 15 seconds
• RIP-Tire (Heroic)
  
  • Damage decay now occurs after the center of the target is at least 1.5 distance away from the RIP-Tire
  • This features a radius indicator around the RIP-Tire while active, visible only to Junkrat

Talents

• Level 1
  • Extra-Wound Timers (Q)
    • Additional damage reduced from 120% to 100%
• Level 7
  • Dirty Trickster (D)
    • Cooldown increased from 12 seconds to 20 seconds

Rehgar

• Basic Attack
  • Damage reduced from 115 to 110
  • Additional damage from Ghost Wolf reduced from 75% to 60%
• Lightning Shield (W)
  • Mana restored for each target hit reduced from 2 to 1

Talents

• Level 1
  • Stormcaller (W)
    • Maximum stacks reduced from 200 to 100
• Level 7
  • Blood and Thunder (D)
    • Reduced the amount of Mana restored to Rehgar from 5% of his maximum to 4% of his maximum
  • Grounded Totem (E)
    • Attack Speed reduction reduced from 25% to 15%
• Level 16
  • Earthgrasp Totem (W)
    • Damage reduced from 115 to 90

Stukov

• Lurking Arm (E)
  • Automatic Cancel range increased from 1 to 5
    • This is only possible with Conveyer Belts

Yrel

• Sacred Ground (Heroic)
  • Cooldown reduced from 40 seconds to 25 seconds
  • Mana cost removed

Talents

• Level 1
  • Maraad's Insight (Passive)
    • Healing increased from 140 to 160
• Level 4
  • Aegis of Light (E)
    • Armor increased from 30 to 40
    • Duration increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds
• Level 16
  • Templar's Verdict (W)
    • Damage reduced from 7% of the targets maximum to 5% of the targets maximum
    • Armor reduction reduced from 20 to 15

User Interface & Game Experience

Death Recap

• Experience granted to the enemy team is now visible
• Fixed an issue causing Abathur's Volatile Mutation to display as an empty ability
• Fixed an issue causing Stukov's Ranged Basic Attacks granted by Fetid Touch to display as an empty ability
• Fixed an issue causing Valla's Gloom Healing to display as an empty ability
• Fixed an issue causing Rehgar's Hunger of the Wolf to add two entries when healing Rehgar
• Fixed an issue causing Zul'jin's Amani Rage to add two entries when healing Zul'jin
• Fixed an issue causing Zul'jin's Amani Resilience to add two entries when healing Zul'jin
• Fixed an issue causing Kerrigan's Assimilation Mastery to display as Healing when granting Kerrigan shields
• Fixed an issue causing Kerrigan's Siphoning Impact to display as Healing when granting Kerrigan shields
• Brightwing's Invisible Friends Healing updated to display as Invisible Friends, instead of as Blink Heal
• The Butcher's Fires of Hell damage updated to display as Fires of Hell, instead of as Furnace Blast

• The Buff Bar has seen a number of adjustments, with some Heroes also having the display order updated to match talent tiers
  • Artanis
    • Shield Surge will now dispay while below its health threshold
    • Final Cut will now display while below its health threshold
  • Arthas
    • Icy Talons will now display while active
  • Deathwing
    • Heat Wave will now display while active
  • Gall
    • Ogre Rampage will now display while active
  • Hanzo
    • Fleet of Foot will now display while active
  • Johanna
    • Holy Fury will now be displayed, showing the number of stacks and remaining duration of those stacks
  • Lunara
    • Hippity Hop will now display while active
    • Splintered Spear will now display while active
    • Wild Vigor will now display while active
    • Invigorating Spores will now display while active
    • Star Wood Spear will now display while active
  • Malfurion
    • Lunar Shower will now be displayed, showing the number of stacks and the remaining duration of those stacks
  • Qhira
    • Chainsaw will now display while active
    • The Hunted will now be displayed, showing the number of stacks and the remaining duration of those stacks
  • Samuro
    • Press the Attack will now be displayed, showing the number of stacks and the remaining duration of those stacks
  • Tyrande
    • Darnassian Archery will now display the remaining duration the stacks, alongside the stack count
  • Uther
    • Holy Fire will now be displayed, showing the number of stacks and the remaining duration of those stacks
  • Xul
    • Rapid Harvest will now be displayed, showing the number of stacks and the remaining duration of those stacks
  • Zeratul
    • Psionic Strength will now be displayed, showing the number of stacks and the remaining duration of those stacks

• Health Indicators have been added to a number of Heroes
  • Alarak's Ruthless Momentum
  • Blaze's Adrenaline Stimpack
  • Malfurion's Ysera's Gift
  • Muradin's Third Wind
  • Stukov's Reactive Ballistospores
  • The Butcher's Enraged
  • Uther's Beacon of Light
  • Varian's Second Wind
  • Zul'jin's Recklessness

Abathur

• Quest reward and progress indicators will no longer be displayed for Ultimate Evolution clones

Alarak

• Deadly Charge will now feature a channel bar, which pulses while fully charged
• Counter-Strike now features a cast bar

Anduin

• Lightwell's Button now features an indicator around it, displaying the number of remaining activations
• Renew now displays its remaining duration as an overhead diplay on allies, similar to Malfurion's Regrowth or Whitemane's Zeal

Artanis

• Trait will now glow while below Shield Surge's health threshold

The Butcher

• Butcher's Brand button now features a duration indicator for the most recently targeted enemy around it

Chromie

• Quantum Overdrive's button now features a duration indicator around it
• Blessing of the Bronze's button now features a duration indicator around it

E.T.C.

• Guitar Solo's button now features a duration indicator around it

Junkrat

• Frag Launcher Grenades empowered Extra-Wound Timer now feature a slight pulsing animation, which is visible to both teams

Li-Ming

• Disintegrate can now be cancelled by pressing Stop or Hold Fire, which can be done while Disintegrate's double-click protection is active

Lunara

• Noxious Blossom's button will now glow if the cooldown reduction from Acceleration Contamination is active
• Crippling Spores's button will now pulse if activating it would activate Endless Spores

Mal'Ganis

• If Seeker Swarm has been selected, then Carrion Swarm will display a range indicator to Mal'Ganis to show the search radius of Seeker Swarm

Medivh

• Portal's button now features a duration indicator around it

Murky

• Respawn Eggs will now display a radius indicator to Murky if Fish Eye has been selected

Orphea

• Lurking Terror's button now features a duration indicator around it

Qhira

• Blood Rage's healing when activated is now displayed in her status

Ragnaros

• Submerge now features a healing preview indicator

Samuro

• Mirror Image now features guides if click-targeted by pressing the button with the mouse cursor
• Wind Walk now features a healing preview indicator
• Image Transmission can now be activated without targeting if there is only one active Mirror Image
• Image Transmission will now be disabled while there are not active Mirror Images
• Dance of Death now features a chime indicator once it has been activated, only heard by Samuro
• Deflection's Armor has been updated to display its duration while active

Stitches

• Shambling Horror's button updated to feature a duration indicator, instead of glowing
• Fixed an issue causing Digestive Juices to not display a damage preview

The Lost Vikings

• Added a cooldown indicator to the stasus for Olaf's Charge passive ability

Valeera

• Smoke Bomb's button now features a duration indicator around it

Whitemane

• Zeal's button now features a duration indicator around it for the active component

• Quest will no longer display floating indicators around targets that are out of the quest-recievers vision, and will now instaed around the reciever
• Time Stop will now display with the highest priority in Heroic health plates
  
• The Quick Cast menu has been updated to remove some reduntant entries, as there were listings for abilities that were not customisable, as they are untargeted abilities, or were buttons not able to be activated
  
  • Arthas's Sacrifice Ghoul now inherits settings from Army of the Dead(Untargeted)
  • Ana's Healing Darts granted by Rapid Reload has been updated to inherit settings from Healing Dart
  • Ana's Cancel Eye of Horus now inherits settings from Eye of Horus(Untargeted)
  • Auriel's Ressurect Self has been removed(Untargeted)
  • Blaze's Bunker Abilities have been added(Flamethrower and Oil Spill)
  • The Butcher's Fresh Meat has been removed(Used for pinging quest progress)
  • Chromie's Detonate Time Trap now inherits from Time Trap(Untargeted)
  • Chromie's Cancel Slowing Sands now inherits from Slowing Sands(Untargeted)
  • Deckard's Cancel Stay Awhile and Listen now inherits from Stay Awhile and Listen(Untargeted)
  • Dehaka's Cancel Burrow now inherits from Burrow(Untargeted)
  • D.Va's Attack now inherits from the standard Attack
  • D.Va's Retarget Defense Matrix now inherits from Defense Matrix
  • D.Va's Cancel Defense Matrix now inherits from Defense Matrix(Untargeted)
  • E.T.C.'s Rockstar has been removed(Used as an empty trait button)
  • Gall's Shadowbolt Reactivation has been removed(Untargeted)
  • Fixed an issue causing Garrosh's Into the Fray to display as Lok-tar Ogar!
  • Garrosh's Double Up has been removed(Untargeted)
  • Garrosh's Seasoned Soldier has been removed(This talent was setup as an active talent, causing it to display in the quick cast settings)
  • Gul'dan's Free Life Tap granted from Darkness Within now inherits from Life Tag(Untargeted)
  • Gul'dan's Cancel Drain Life now inherits from Drain Life(Untargeted)
  • Hogger's Cancel Hogg Wild now inherits from Hogg Wild(Untargeted)
  • Hogger's Cancel Loot Hoart now inherits from Loot Hoard(Untargeted)
  • Hogger's Cancel Hoardapult now inherits from Hoardapult(Untargeted)
  • Junkrat's RIP-Tire Jump has been removed(Untargeted)
  • Li Li's Cancel Jug of 1,000 Cups now inherits from Jug of 1,000 Cups, instead of Diablo's Lightning Breath(yes, it did that)
  • Lucio's Attack now inherits from the standard Attack
  • Murky's Cancel March of the Murlocs now inherits from March of the Murlocs(Untargeted)
  • Ragnaros's Molten Core Sulfuras Smash now inherits from standard Sulfuras Smash
  • Samuro's Cancel Bladestorm now inherits from Bladestorm(Untargeted)
  • Samuro's Mirror Image Critical Strike has been removed(Untargeted)
  • Stukov's Cancel Lurking Arm has been removed(Untargeted)
  • Tracer's Attack now inherits from the standard Attack
  • Tracer's Locked and Loaded now inherits from Reload(Untargeted)
  • Tychus's Run and Gun while using Overkill now inherits from standard Run and Gun
  • Valeera's Cancel Stealth now inherits from Stealth(Untargeted)
  • Whitemane's Cancel Inquisition/Clemency now inherits from Inquisition(Untargeted)
  • Zeratul's Seeker in the Dark has been removed(Untargeted)
  • Zul'jin's Forest Medicine Regeneration now inherits from Regeneration(Untargeted)
  • Zul'jin's Cancel Berserker now inherits from Berserker(Untargeted)

Bug Fix Notes

Fixed an issue that caused talent text to be truncated on hero select screens

This was done by extending the talent simple text display.

Fixed an issue that caused location targeted abilities to be cancelled by conveyor belts.

This was done by increasing the Range Slop on a bunch of abilities. This also fixes an issue where Deathwing's Lava Pool could be cancelled while being cast if moved by something like Nazeebo's Zombie Wall, and has the change noted above for Stukov's Lurking Arm

Fixed an issue that caused Heroes with non standard height to cause target-facing effects to face the incorrect location.

To give two examples, Kharazim's Way of the Hundred Fist, and Tychus's Overkill. They would face towards the model origin, so something like a Falstad, a target hit by Gravity Lapse, or an Junkrat currently flying with Concussion Mine would have these Heroes look pretty funky.

Blackheart's Bay: Updated coin warning indicator to be consistently colored

This wouldn't display as coloured when capturing Mercenary Camps or killing Heroes with Doubloons

Cursed Hollow: Fixed an issue that caused Cursed Hollow Call for Help ability warning to display incorrectly

Same as the non-standard height thing above
Now, undocumented changes, copied from an earlier post:

• Mount-like abilities will no longer be able to have their cooldowns pinged to your team
• Chen's Combo Strikes now features a unique animation on the triggering attack
• Chen's Enough to Share has had its old animation restored
• Fixed an issue causing Kerrigan's shield healers to modify her death recap
• Fixed an issue causing Leoric's Drain Essence to modify his death recap
• Fixed an issue causing Force Armor to not be granted if a 4th cast of Magic Missiles hits an enemy Hero while the 1st cast of Magic Missiles is active
• Fixed an issue causing Mecha Tassadar to ride the Toy Train incorrectly if he is using the skin specific mount

To start I like to give some background. I have worked with sockets in both C# and Java for different kinds of applications ranging from game servers to web servers. So I am quite familiar with it at this point. One of them is on GitHub: AdvancedSockets. Also, while I work on both Windows and Linux I primarily use Linux desktop.
This month I decided I like to learn more about doing socket programming in C++ as a project I am working on could benefit from this. A quick research pointed me to some SO articles and tutorials. But all of them are using the socket API in C. Not once did I find anything about a high-level socket library in C++.
Okay.. no prob right? I decided to give C sockets a try. Surely it isn't that hard? After all I got experience already! And sure enough it didn't take me long to get a TCP client up 'n running. But then.. I learned. It only works on *NIX systems. Yep. For some reason, Windows does it differently. Imagine my surprise when I learned it required a near complete rewrite of my code because now I had to approach it differently just for WinSock.
Okay, a couple of days and cursing later. I managed to make a TCP client that connects to my humble Java server both on Linux and Windows. Cool. Now, time for timeouts. Doing so in C# and Java is easy enough. Surely it cannot be such a problem in C, right? Setting read and write timeouts was easy enough. Just using setsockopt and I am good to go. Now as for connection timeouts. Maybe also with setsockopt? Nope, need to unblock the whole damn socket and need to do stuff with either select or poll apparently. Never read anything about them and neither did I find any useful docs aside from the manual text I get in CLion. SO articles make me only more confused about the subject too.
And if that isn't bad enough. Some answers on SO claim I should avoid select all together and use poll instead. But I fail to find any good examples or tutorials about the use of poll while I find examples for select. And who is to say it is even the right approach as of today? Honestly it is getting frustrating at this point. I am not interested in writing a TCP socket class like this. I am only interested in using a TCP socket class. I only went this far because it didn't seem to be so much work at first. But I am having a hard time wrapping my head around it. Therefore I would like to ask:

1. Is there actually good documentation for socket programming in C?
2. How to set connection timeouts the right way?
3. Is there actually an up-to-date cross-platform C++ sockets library that I can use instead?

TLDR;
Screw socket programming in C. Any good tutorials on C sockets and how to set a connection timeout with a C socket the right way? Is there actually an up-to-date cross-platform C++ sockets library that I can use instead?
My current progress can be located here: https://github.com/thebonejarmearqanore-sockets.

YI reported a revenue decline of 4.6% to $488.7 million in Q1 2024, but achieved operational profitability and reduced operating expenses by 20.6%.

Key Metrics

Revenue	$488.7M	-4.6%
Gross Profit	$28.9M
	Operating Expenses	$28.4M
	Operating Expenses Growth	-20.6%
	Net Income	$0.5M

Segment Performance

• B2B (revenue - $3452.009M, profit - $190.906M, growth - -3.7%) - B2B segment includes product and service revenue. Product revenue decreased by 3.7% and service revenue decreased by 1.4% year-over-year.
• B2C (revenue - $76.42M, profit - $17.627M, growth - -32.3%) - B2C segment includes product and service revenue. Product revenue decreased by 32.3% and service revenue decreased by 33.4% year-over-year.

Business Highlights

• Turned to Quarterly Operational Profitability for the First Time
• Operating Expenses as a Percentage of Revenues Decreased 120 Basis Points YoY to 5.8%
• Achieved Positive Operating Cash Flow
• Successfully elevated operational efficiency after disciplined expense optimization across the whole organization.
• Made novel supply chain advancement that will unlock new growth opportunities, highlighted by our launch of a new delivery and transit model for streamlining logistics and saving fulfilment costs.

Guidance
Future Business Drivers: - Delivering one-stop shopping experiences supported by the most comprehensive and cost-effective product portfolio. - Strengthened partnership with pharmaceutical companies. - Strategic investments in operational efficiency. - Relentless commitment to digitalization and AI innovation.
Expectations: MISS
The reported revenue of $488.7 million is significantly below the analyst's expectation of $3.26 billion for the current year, indicating a substantial discrepancy. However, the company has managed to turn to quarterly operational profitability and reduce operating expenses, which were not specifically forecasted by analysts.

Games being released buggy and unfinished, everything having dlc that cost as much as the base game, extra download able content, pay to win items, games being 100% online cosmetic items that do fuck all but cost a fortune.
Some of these things are fine in moderation or if it goes with the style of game but it's EVERY SINGLE FUCKING GAME!
Train simulator for example has over $2000 worth of dlc! That's fucked up.
GTA 5 is a relatively short game with no extras whatsoever, most of the game is online which is unplayable because of idiots that ruin it for you by blowing you up the second you log on or just fucking you about in lobbies.
Pokemon go, yes it's free to play but it's hard for new players to get into as you need so much money for some events and coins which is very difficult for rural players.
Fifa, being the exact same game every year just with different skins and slightly better graphics but somehow people still pay for it.
And for a game to have most of these features is insane. Like what's the point in ingame currency IF YOU CANT MAKE THE MONEY IN GAME! You always have to pay for it so why even have in game money?
Open world games are barely games, it's just a whole host of side quests and mini games that are never ending. Like the witcher 3 for example. I've had that game since lock down and I tried my best to do everything on the map but it just ended up being mind numbing grinding which I'm sure some people like but I don't and it's a big part of what's on the map. Assasians creed and fall out are other good examples of this.
Mobile games are pretty bad. Constant ads, pay for everything or be constantly behind everyone else with no hope for any decent progression and being bombarded with notifications to log in every day or you loose your streak even though there's no worth while price for it.
It's all just a big money grab which I get, they need money, but why pay over $100 to pre order a game that you get later than promised and is so full of bugs it's unplayable.
Yes some bugs are always going to happen, yes schedules change, but it's honestly every single game.
I miss the days of completed games being released, you get the entirety of the game, for one price and everyone had to put in the same effort to get the fancy end game items rather than just buying them online.
I know, this is the way the world is now. Completing the story and having some post game stuff was always fun in pokemon but now completing the main story isn't enough, you've gotta complete hours of post game "content" which is usually online stuff or boring grinding or dlc that you need to pay a fortune for.
Absolutely keep these features, in some game, not all of them in every game. Make more offline content for those that don't like playing online and for the love of all that is holy, complete a game before its released, fuck your corporate deadlines, I'd rather wait for a game I can actually play and enjoy.
And finally some games need to know when to die like world of warcraft or Minecraft. The spaghetti code on these games is insane making it very hard for them to add something new in the game without fucking up something old. I would happily pay monthly for wow and Minecraft actually cared about their customers to make their games better.
And finally LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. Do they not do any research anymore? Like the entire community asked for this one very specific thing and you added a very shitty knock off version that kinda resembles it.
The whole industry just infuriates me right now.

Sometimes I wish I had two extra sets of hands and fingers. I spend a couple hours writing ideas one through three down, and in the meantime ideas six and seven are already fading. I just can't write it all down fast enough.
This is a settting utterly unrelated to any of my previous work. I hope you enjoy it.
The sound was deafening. Each thump of the godhammers fully drove the breath out of Darian’s lungs. Scintillating tears into the aster glittered maliciously across the fields, the parallax of the stars within the only hint of their fathomless depths. The earth itself bled with the wounds of combat, great rivers of molten red oozing across what was once a verdant plain stretching across the horizon.
Darian fell to his knees beneath another salvo of the godhammers, gasping for the air forced from his chest once again. Across the field of mayhem, another gilded God fell. The curious absence of sound that came with another astral rip left his ears ringing, and when he blinked, the soon to be dead form of golden flesh had been lost to another of those malevolent gashes. If he squinted, he could even see where the air itself was sucked into the void, rustling the ichor-soaked grasses just beneath the hole in the world. And still, the Gods came—towering oh so high—to rain their fury upon the ranks to his left and right. Lightning and fire, winds and rain—all of it paled in comparison to the gilded bolts of Godly power. All of it save the godhammers.
Even as scores of his own fell, Darian had focus only for one thing—the next target. The gargantuan figure of blinding gold, moving ponderously slow for its size, had taken another mile-long step forward. He could feel the earth buckle under the God's footfall. His gaze had narrowed, tunneling as the elemental energy within and around him fled—channeled so carefully, so swiftly, into the godhammer beside him. As the mass of metal and crystal began to hum once more, Darian thought back. Just a year ago, humanity had made that fateful discovery. The Gods themselves were frauds. Not in their godliness, nor in their Reign, but in their place within the world. They had usurped what was not theirs.
As the godhammers thumped their gut-wrenching salvos once more—and another God fell into the abyss—Darian’s vision wavered. He was running out of energy. It was frustrating. The very energy of the Gods was their undoing. Their golden machinations were the cause of his people's unraveling. In a world where the elements had reigned supreme, where the minds of the earth, and sea, and sky roamed free, the Gods—the Goh’Dharin—were interlopers.
They came from beyond the stars themselves. They fell into the Astral sea, and sought to conquer. When the Elemental Lord of that plane cast them out, they began again. Through Fire, through Water, through Air, and through Earth. It was only when they fell into the Confluence between it all—so it was learned—that the great elemental titans, off-spring of the Lords, were found to be corruptible. That was an interesting thing to Darian. The idea that he, in another age, would have been nothing more than a construct of earth and fire were it not for the influence of the Gods. Theirs was an energy unlike anything within the five planes. It was an insidious thing, this “Life” of theirs.
The war could maybe have been avoided were it not for those clairvoyants said to have originated from the Astral and the Sea. They were the ones to discover the why of it all. The Gods infected others, harvested the results, and used it all to make more of themselves. The elementals of the planes had been made into a macabre combination of breeding stock and harvest.
The screech of gilt lightning overhead brought Darian back to the now. It was dangerous, that golden tinge. It spoke of Godly energy, and it had become clear that the Gods could just as easily take as give. The rather unfortunate nature of that infectious “Life” meant that, once taken away, those previously afflicted simply ceased to be. There was no returning to a prior elemental state. In that way, it was important to avoid the stuff. Or, as Darian intended, to deal with it outright.
With a throaty yell, the man slammed his fist into the churned mud beneath his feet. A mighty effort and a yank of his arm brought not just his hand free, but a towering spire of bedrock too. And just in time. The golden lightning striking for his heart met an unyielding stone instead. Molten rock splattered wildly, but Darian paid little heed. Another of the Gods had taken a step forward, and he needed to ready his godhammer once more. It was a wonderful example of diplomacy, that thing. A messy contrivance capitalizing on all of the specialties of each of the races, from the Sylvan folk of water and aster, to his own Dwarven people of fire and earth.
The concept, at its core, was simple. Open a hole into one of the Planes, and strand the Gods for the elemental Lords to deal with. Of course, with how haphazardly it had all been thrown together, the effect was hardly consistent. It seemed more common for the astral plane to consume a God than any of the others. And just as well—Darian shuddered to think of the havoc that the ichor would inevitably wreak within the earth. Better that most of it went to the stars.
And if a thing could be more noxious than the “Life” these Gods forced upon the elements, it was their “Death.” A dark, metallic brown liquid, it oozed and ate through anything it touched, sinking with unfathomable density to the lowest points it could reach. Better that the stuff be lost in the aster than fester within the earth or water. But even as Darian had that thought, he couldn’t help but feel concern for the aster itself. The realm of stars. The lights beyond the clouds. What might that murky fluid do to the stars themselves? Darian shuddered quietly.
His attention was forced back to the chaos at hand when a deluge of water knocked him off his feet. He had no time for confusion or affront, because a bolt of blinding gold shattered the godhammer he had just been standing beside. The resulting implosion would have taken him with it were it not for the foresight of the Sylvan sending him down this newly made river.
He and they exchanged a wave before he was carried out of sight. He wasn’t worried. Tricky though they may be, with their rules and their etiquette, the Sylvan folk were masters of strategy. It was likely he was being sent where he was needed most. It wasn’t any surprise to him when he found himself coming up on another godhammer—quite deep into the battlefield at this point—on its last legs.
Around it were Sylphs. Some seemed panicked, others appeared to be struggling with the mess. And no wonder. It was humming a dangerous tune, that thing. It was obviously damaged, and those children of the water and the air had not even the foggiest on how to fix it. If Darian didn’t step in they’d face the same fate he narrowly avoided. With that in mind, the man grunted, hauling his sopping body out of the water and striding on stocky legs to the machine. This one seemed primarily the work of his sort and the Ifrit. Unsurprising that these Sylphs were at a loss. Well, that just meant he had an easier time of taking the thing in hand.
Shouldering aside one of the more flighty fellows, he placed his hands right on the glowing red core of this particular armament. The sizzling of water turned steam was an afterthought for him. What was more important was stablizing the energies running rampant. If he could get this thing operational again, he could start firing on the asses of the Gods themselves. He grinned fiercely at the idea.
What a wonderful time to be alive.

Hi reddit, this is my first and hopefully only post. I dont feel like I can talk to anyone I know so hopefully a bunch of strangers on the internet can help!
Me (25F) and my boyfriend (25M) have been together 10 months and were talking for a while before that. When we first got together, things were great, he really was my best friend and we laughed at everything and enjoyed spending time together and were always so excited to meet each other whenever we could. It still is that way but over the last couple of months, I feel like we have hit a couple rough patches where we were inches away from breaking up.
He is a great guy, he is patient when I have mood swings, he's got a great heart and is really close to his family and is such an intelligent guy. Everyone thinks we're great for each other and his parents are basically my surrogate parents at this point. We have always had a very playful relationship and are very affectionate with each other.
Over the past couple of months we have had multiple blowups and have just not been getting along super well. I have this tendency of shutting down the second something is wrong and I end up keeping quiet and not telling him what is wrong. It is a problem I have always had where I go quiet and deal with things by myself until I feel better and I will be alright. I can acknowledge how unhealthy it is but it has helped my cope through alot of situations.
I realized I had been doing it alot more over the last few months and it has really put a strain on our relationship. Sometimes it is because he makes a joke about something I dont like or something I say for example and then I go silent, and we go the whole night not speaking. He is very patient and always asks me repeatedly what is wrong. Apart of it has been because of how unstable I have felt with my living situation. My lease ended and I ended up moving in with him and his family for a while, and it has made me feel incredibly unsettled and just like I have no place to call my own.
His family is really loud and they all shout at each other and at the start of our relationship I said to him, I don't have any real dealbreakers (besides cheating obviously) but the one thing I cannot deal with is someone shouting at me. Not because I dont deserve to be shouted at but because I just shut down when someone shouts at me, I find it to be the least effective way to communicate and frankly I dont respect it. I just put a wall up and end up disliking the person shouting at me.
Yesterday we went to play tennis together and we were having a good time before I got tired out of nowhere, my stomach was feeling a little funny and I had the urge to puke but stuck it out. I told him I needed a couple minutes to sit but he insisted we keep going as we only had an hour booked. I said I was tired and immediately my game fell short because I was feeling lethargic. He thought I was taking the piss and not taking it seriously (because sometimes I do that) and he got very pissed off and started shouting at me that I had no right to be tired as I was working from home whereas he was out at work and had to drive back and forth and still made the effort to show up well to tennis.
It reminded me of when my dad shouted at me as a child and I just hated it.
We ended up leaving our tennis session and in the car he spent the entire ride telling me how tired he was of my mood swings and how I ruin everything we do together and how he's tired in general of my attitude. I am not typing this way to sound sympathetic I am genuinely trying to paint an honest picture. The whole car ride I stayed silent and listened because ultimately he was right. He got so mad he stopped my the side of the road and started yelling and grabbed me and this is when I started crying.
We finally got back and I went to take the bins out the whole time he was still yelling at me and he went to do them too and I pushed him because I was already pulling it but he was so insistent and when I went to grab the bin again he shoved me hard and I stumbled and cried running into the house. After there was a little more shouting and I just went to my room and he tried coming in to my room to make up and apologize but I was honestly too numb from the evening.
He kept trying to make up and at one point climbed into bed and cried and apologized for shouting and pushing me and that he never wants to hurt me and he was really sorry.
We exchanged a couple passive messages where I alluded to wanting to break up but I just am not sure what to do. Am i disrespecting myself by not leaving, I know I have alot to work on myself about and I know he puts up with alot with me, and I genuinely do love him, but I want both of us to be happy and in a healthy relationship. Is this one of those situations where we both need to work on ourselves together or apart? Please advise.
Thank you reddit.

I felt things were going pretty good until 3, and then 3 is deceptively good but also really damning for this as a franchise.
The Geth are codified as "emotional beings" right off the bat, and a lot of the previous "sci-fi babble" is put out of focus for more bombastic, emotional writing and "movie"-scriptwriting. Even the most amazing parts of 3 IMO suffer from going overboard into sensational > authentic writing.
I felt prior to ME3 that this was a highly cinematic series that wasn't shy of being a video game. Even ME2, which became very cinematic and "cool", still rounded off its newfound edge, by having characters talk sometimes at length about really nitty-gritty details, or often use the language of the universe itself to explain things. It wasn't afraid of being very geeky about it either, with the Rachni Concierge appearing on Illium and talking like they're larping in a DnD game. Talking to Legion just had me sitting "Huh. All right. Uh-huh." in ME2 because it felt like pages and pages of a world I didn't know being presented objectively. I loved every word of it. Even the main story in 2, thin and "irrelevant" as it is, has a lot of nice details I like, like gathering everyone around the table multiple times throughout, and people coming from different mentalities towards what has to be done. Miranda trying to remain objective, Jacob rushing ahead with fatalist logic, and Mordin and EDI delivering exposition.
There are a number of things in 3 that are retained, but even similar scenes feel watered down to me. Instead of that usual explanatory writing, an assembly-meeting on the ship has exposition by EDI that's like "This is a cannon that can synchronize to the fleet" and Shepard kinda cutting into it, "So you mean I can use this to fire with the whole fleet." where it comes across to me, as a player, like there's a mentality shift on the part of the devs that's like "The player doesn't care about that, that's boring!" but I fell in love with Mass Effect because it always allows you to dig deep into how everything works.
As a result ME3 feels very skimpy on actual lore development to me, and just kinda gives these cookie-cutter answers, like the Krogan "suddenly" having this area on Tuchanka conveniently on the exit-side of the tunnel that shows a glimpse of "oh they actually used to be super duper organized and virtuous!" but hey it's an action level and the game is on rails, so "we have no time for that, that's boring!"
And at every turn I'm like "I actually wanna talk for an hour about this stuff" but the writing is like "Ohh war is rough!" and it just moves on.
Another situation as an example is the Sanctuary Level. Cerberus is IMHO mistakenly planted as just a straight up "mwahaha" villain in this game, when ME2 decided to lift them away from that cookie-cutter role (and they were just side-fluff back then...) but they're still a little bit mysterious on the topic of "They think we should control the Reapers, yet they are themselves probably indoctrianted, or does Illusive Man really have something, and if he does, is it justified?" The theme similar to Mordin and Maelon in ME2 is in effect again, and that was pretty interesting in the wake of the impossible situation the Reapers put us in, and Garrus also had some conversations that gave ME3 some substance where he talks about "Ruthless calculous" -- the idea that if you're backed against a wall and have to choose between losing or sacrificing something, would you accept victory on immoral terms? Anyway, the Sanctuary level has this feeling of "wait, maybe... no." about Cerberus having actually been on the cusp of some reverse-engineering of the Reapers, and meanwhile Miranda's sister is taken hostage by the dad, and you confront the dad, but it's reduced to just the hostage situation. Then you kill him and all deliberations of what any of this stuff was goes out the window (literally) with him.
There's often this feeling in ME3 to me that they're using emotional writing to mask not knowing their own narrative, and it really became crystal clear at the end when the Catalyst appeared and his half-answers confuse fans into endless debating of points that have no details, and themes that aren't really informed by the rest of the story. The whole Crucible plot was a time-sink that allowed the writers to stall the entire main plot of "How to Stop The Reapers" and they postponed any answers for literally the entirety of ME3 hedging things on "The Catalyst" which is an ever-moving goal-post. First nothing is done but they say "The Catalyst is missing." Then you run errands because you need an army because "it's war". Then they go back to "Psst. We know something about the Catalyst" and you go there, it alludes to some mysterious stuff about Cycles, but then Kai Leng appears and dumbs the story down into a cartoon plot for 10 minutes.
Then you chase down Cerberus and find the Catalyst again but he's like "I'm not the Catalyst, it's the Citadel" and you're like "why couldn't we just line up the size of the thing in the blueprint and realize it ourselves..." and then you meet the Catalyst and it's like "I'm actually the boy", and the boy is like "No one has met the Catalyst before, only you" and it's like, so who the fuck designed the Crucible then? Did they know that the Citadel who is not the Prothean who didn't design the thing who wasn't the Innusannon either designed the-- etc.
Overall, I just felt like ME3 was the story where "the writers didn't know" or something, and it shines through in the dialogue where the usual "detail-porn" was traded off for cheaply emotionally manipulative "movie" writing and ends up making a lot of the story feel superficial, and at that point even the characters don't carry it well when they're lacking the plot and usual minutia to portray their likeable characteristics against an interesting lore. And perhaps more importantly, the game doesn't have its "Battle for the Citadel" or "Suicide Mission" moment of Epic Catharsis because it lacks this substance, so there is no thematically resounding moment of excellence towards the end, cuz all the buildup of details is missing this time.
I felt like ME3 was the story that bastardized the franchise.

Everyone talks about restricting and how it makes them feel in control but I feel the exact opposite. I am 30 and struggled with ana from 13-25 years old on/off. I considered myself fully recovered up until March when my relapse began. I was sick of being overweight and just snapped. I have lost a drastic amount in two months. Honestly I needed to lose the weight but now I don’t know how I am going to stop. I am addicted to checking the scale.
This relapse feels different than the past. This time I feel like I can do it “better than I ever could”. I love the results I am seeing but I hate the CONSTANT thoughts about losing weight. The obsessive thoughts are torture. I feel completely out of control. The two yogurts I eat in a day are hard to put down and it gives me anxiety because although I like the results I am scared. I’m scared of gaining, I’m scared of feeling ashamed after eating, I’m scared of getting sick later down the line, I’m scared of brain fog and how its impacting my work performance, I’m scared that I’m going to start losing my hair. Sometimes it takes me 20 minutes to eat one fucking yogurt and I feel like a useless human being who can’t function and that really upsets me.
Maybe I used to feel a sense of control from my anorexia as a teen but as an adult it feels different, imo. I work at a restaurant and my regulars and coworkers are all starting to make comments about my weight loss every day and it makes me so uncomfortable. I don’t know what to tell people without feeling like I’m going to shut down.
I really don’t know what to do because I definitely want to lose more. I just hate how this feels and I know I need help but I don’t don’t want to gain anything back. I just am afraid of fainting on the job or getting pulled into HR (my job is so fucking nosy)
Anyways thank you for listening to my rant. I haven’t been able to talk to anyone about this and holding it all together has been really hard. I would love to hear from anyone to feel a little less alone. (bonus points if you are over 27) 💖💖💖