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[Seanspeed]

My only question would be what sort of window for release we're looking at. I can be patient. I have been. I'm still very much excited by this and I think it'll likely be an incredible game.

It would just be nice to know generally when I might be able to enjoy this incredible game!

I also don't feel that these 'clones' are really a threat. Some of them look ok, but Starbound looks to have the art style, scale and polish to make it the one worth playing. I suppose if you're a junkie for this sort of game, there could be room for others, but I like too many other games to invest my time into too many Starbounds.

 

[Weltall Zero]

I thought that was obvious :V

You'd be surprised how many catchphrases go around memetically without everyone involved knowing the source.

I also don't feel that these 'clones' are really a threat. Some of them look ok, but Starbound looks to have the art style, scale and polish to make it the one worth playing. I suppose if you're a junkie for this sort of game, there could be room for others, but I like too many other games to invest my time into too many Starbounds.

Yeah, exactly the reason I didn't get the bundle myself. If I had infinite time, I would, but as it is Starbound is a huge enough time investment. It's also demonstrated to be the one with the highest quality and amount of content.

 

[Mengy]

Hey guys, I work at Chucklefish on Starbound. I usually read the forums but only just encountered this thread! I'm one of the newer hires but feel free to ask me stuff if you want to know something.

Hiya, and welcome!

The only real question I would have is: how long until the new tiered progression system is patched in with the one large galaxy to explore instead of individual tiered off galaxies? I already have played like 70 hours of the game but I'm now waiting until the new progression system is in place until I start playing again.


Tell everyone at Chucklefish that Starbound is a great game already, I'm looking very forward to playing it more in the near future! The wait has been hard though...

 

[Supernorn]

Hiya, and welcome!

The only real question I would have is: how long until the new tiered progression system is patched in with the one large galaxy to explore instead of individual tiered off galaxies? I already have played like 70 hours of the game but I'm now waiting until the new progression system is in place until I start playing again.


Tell everyone at Chucklefish that Starbound is a great game already, I'm looking very forward to playing it more in the near future! The wait has been hard though...

While i'm reluctant to give out any estimated dates that would bite me in the ass down the line, It's likely that there'll be a stable update sooner rather than later.

We're making a lot of good progress and we're well aware that people are waiting (some impatiently) for what should be a fairly significant update, both in new content and changes to the existing game. We're currently working on Tier 2 of the new progression system, which is going to be a lot of fun!

Thanks for the kind words, I assure you everyone at Chucklefish appreciates it!

 

[HaRyu]

Hey guys, I work at Chucklefish on Starbound. I usually read the forums but only just encountered this thread! I'm one of the newer hires but feel free to ask me stuff if you want to know something.

You don't have to out them, but do you happen to know if any other Chucklefish guys lurking about on GAF?

And just a suggestion, as you guys get closer to taking the game out of Beta, having a bunch of you guys do an AMA for GAF would be nice.

 

[CrunchyFrog]

The whole "it's 1.0 when we say it's 1.0" post falls short when you realize they haven't even put in everything they initially promised when the game was first revealed/preorderable, especially all of the arguably inconsequential stuff they've busied themselves with in the meantime (Starbound is the very thesis on feature creep and indie development). You can put it on early access with the giant disclaimer that the game still is missing a ton of features, that I'm fine with, but to say that Starbound is currently a whole game much less the game they sold people on is just bullshit.

You have a bunch of gimmicky and unfinished sub systems like crafting, ship building, musical instruments, lore books, and the like. Single player progression outside of a handful of bosses and the ore tier grind is still bland as hell. The quest system proper still doesn't exist. The current poor combat system is in the middle of an extensive rewrite, and it's backed by an even more poorly balanced loot system. Redigit also mentions himself the numerous bugs that still run through all of these. To the dev team's credit, however, what Starbound currently does have going for it is a LOT of decorative items/npc's/mobs (this team has some of the most talented and hard working sprite artists I've seen), a particularly impressive planet generation engine, and the mini/microdungeons already rival some of those found in Terraria (though they are much too few and far between).

But outside of these there's very little of real substance yet, so IMHO to call the game's current state as anything other than a midway alpha is disingenuous and borderline scammy. As of right now it's an albeit nice looking but extremely content deprived terraria clone in space, and I guarantee if it were released as such it would be laughed off the Steam top 100 faster than you can say development hell. The game has the potential to be great, someday, but it sure isn't anywhere near it right now.

 

[Retro]

I can't even begin to take your opinion seriously when you're naming the developer of Terraria in your entitled rant about Starbound.

 

[Onemic]

ehhh, that aside I'd agree with most of what he said. The game would not be considered completely finished yet if it actually released in anyone's minds. The fact that they're making this excuse to themselves is sorta troubling.

 

[Seil]

I think the argument is sound. Is it what they, or anyone would consider "final" for what was promised for Starbound? No. But is it a fully playable game with a decent chunk of content? Yes.

That is to say, it's not 1.0 for Starbound, but it's certainly something that could've been released and been better than some trash that's released as such.

If we remove what we expect of Starbound, we have a ton of biomes, blocks, collectibles, lots of tiers of gear, procedural planets and monsters... Many, many hours of content. And far more tangible content than say, Minecraft, even now much past it's "official release".

Would it have been an absolutely amazing, top selling game? Perhaps not. Would it have been criticized? Probably. But a proper, playable game? Yeah. Plenty of balance issues and whatnot, but that just makes it a poorly balanced game. Still a game.

---

That said, yeah, the wait and progress may not have lived up to everyone's expectations so far. But they're still working actively. They're still making progress. They've just realized perhaps they underestimated what lay ahead. That said, I'm still looking forward to 1.0, and I check out nightlies on occasion. I logged plenty of hours and got plenty of entertainment from the game in an even earlier state than now, though.

 

[JustProgress]

The whole "it's 1.0 when we say it's 1.0" post falls short when you realize they haven't even put in everything they initially promised when the game was first revealed/preorderable, especially all of the arguably inconsequential stuff they've busied themselves with in the meantime (Starbound is the very thesis on feature creep and indie development). You can put it on early access with the giant disclaimer that the game still is missing a ton of features, that I'm fine with, but to say that Starbound is currently a whole game much less the game they sold people on is just bullshit.

You have a bunch of gimmicky and unfinished sub systems like crafting, ship building, musical instruments, lore books, and the like. Single player progression outside of a handful of bosses and the ore tier grind is still bland as hell. The quest system proper still doesn't exist. The current poor combat system is in the middle of an extensive rewrite, and it's backed by an even more poorly balanced loot system. Redigit also mentions himself the numerous bugs that still run through all of these. To the dev team's credit, however, what Starbound currently does have going for it is a LOT of decorative items/npc's/mobs (this team has some of the most talented and hard working sprite artists I've seen), a particularly impressive planet generation engine, and the mini/microdungeons already rival some of those found in Terraria (though they are much too few and far between).

But outside of these there's very little of real substance yet, so IMHO to call the game's current state as anything other than a midway alpha is disingenuous and borderline scammy. As of right now it's an albeit nice looking but extremely content deprived terraria clone in space, and I guarantee if it were released as such it would be laughed off the Steam top 100 faster than you can say development hell. The game has the potential to be great, someday, but it sure isn't anywhere near it right now.

Yep. Given they have all of our money, they probably don't mind taking their time.

 

[Supernorn]

The argument is essentially, we'd rather have a 1.0 we were proud of releasing over rushing something out as 1.0 just to appease people that want a 'final product'. And I think most people would feel the same way about that.

There's a lot of stuff in the game that has been changed via feedback, based on things that people weren't happy with. And we'd like to add a lot more content, including the stuff that was promised. That doesn't somehow detract from the current 'stable' release being a playable game that people have put hundreds of hours into.

 

[HaRyu]

Supernorn, you posted something about the Novakids on the blog.

Could we take that to mean that phase 2 is going to roll out soon?

 

[Morokh]

All the drama made me want to check the latest Nightly

downloading now !

 

[HaRyu]

All the drama made me want to check the latest Nightly

downloading now !

Well, while infuriating, at least its in that other thread.

Hopefully I can try out the NovaKids later tonight. (not implying there's anything special, just want to try playing as one)

 

[Morokh]

Well, while infuriating, at least its in that other thread.

Hopefully I can try out the NovaKids later tonight. (not implying there's anything special, just want to try playing as one)

No luck for me : crash on startup

Will try the next one

 

[SomedayTheFire]

No luck for me : crash on startup

Will try the next one

I was getting that you need to backup and delete some files from the Starbound folder.

 

[HaRyu]

No luck for me : crash on startup

Will try the next one

Backup your user files.

Then through the Steam client, right click on Starbound, click on properties. Look around for the option to delete all local content. That should uninstall the game. Just in case, after you do that, find the Starbound folder and delete it. Then download/install the game.

 

[Seil]

No luck for me : crash on startup

Will try the next one

Backup your user files.

Then through the Steam client, right click on Starbound, click on properties. Look around for the option to delete all local content. That should uninstall the game. Just in case, after you do that, find the Starbound folder and delete it. Then download/install the game.

Can also try just deleting the player and universe foldersI(after backing them up of course) along with the starbound.config. But yeah, if that doesn't work, go for a clean install.

 

[Tiyuri]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say thank you for the support and I hope you enjoy what we've been working on so far. There's a ton more to come and we're working day in day out to get it to you.

 

[Enco]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say thank you for the support and I hope you enjoy what we've been working on so far. There's a ton more to come and we're working day in day out to get it to you.

Oh snap.

Nice to see you on GAF!

I think a lot of people are being unfair with the recent comments.

I don't think everything is being handled perfectly but from the many dodgy kickstarters I'm not as worried about you guys.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say thank you for the support and I hope you enjoy what we've been working on so far. There's a ton more to come and we're working day in day out to get it to you.

Hi! Keep up the good work.

 

[Retro]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say thank you for the support and I hope you enjoy what we've been working on so far. There's a ton more to come and we're working day in day out to get it to you.

Hey, welcome to GAF!

Just... um... Stay out of that other Starbound thread, it's not GAF's proudest moment and a lot of folks in there are just drive-by posting grievances about Early Access in general without knowing the details of Starbound's situation.

Also, since we have your ear (eyes?) for once, thanks for all of the great work you and everyone else at Chucklefish have been doing. I know it seems like a tide of hatred has swollen up around your game, but remember that it's only the usual vocal minority and that most players are genuinely happy with your game and eagerly awaiting more; they just don't take to the internet in numbers sufficient to counter the hate.

Hell, you have no idea how many edits I had to make to the original post in this thread just to get the fact across that this is a pre-release version of the game.

 

[Agkel]

Just dropping by to say hi to the usuals HaRyu, Retro etc... Its been a while, I think its time for me to get back into SB! The bad thing about not playing SB for months is, well no SB for months. The good thing though, is I get to spend a lot of time reading on the changes and get all hyped up again. Also, welcome to Chuckle staff, you have made an amazing game and I would like to congratu,ate you for bringing SB into an awesome reality. Thanks for the game and keep up the good work!

 

[Morokh]

Thanks guys, worked !


Hi Tiy !

 

[Tiyuri]

Nice to meet you guys, thanks for the welcome. I've actually been lurking gaf for a long long time and I should definitely post more.

Sorry that updates have been so slow, we're new to this whole development/PR thing. But they're slow for the right reasons. The game is getting a ton of love, it's all we work on every day and it's going places.

 

[Enco]

To be honest I can't imagine how shitty it must be to work on something for so long and have your PR posts misunderstood and watch a witch hunt unfold.

I think a lot of issues would have been solved/avoided with some different wording

 

[VandalD]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say thank you for the support and I hope you enjoy what we've been working on so far. There's a ton more to come and we're working day in day out to get it to you.

Nice to see you posting here. Definitely looking forward to the next big update.

 

[JustProgress]

Hey, welcome to GAF!

Just... um... Stay out of that other Starbound thread, it's not GAF's proudest moment and a lot of folks in there are just drive-by posting grievances about Early Access in general without knowing the details of Starbound's situation.

Also, since we have your ear (eyes?) for once, thanks for all of the great work you and everyone else at Chucklefish have been doing. I know it seems like a tide of hatred has swollen up around your game, but remember that it's only the usual vocal minority and that most players are genuinely happy with your game and eagerly awaiting more; they just don't take to the internet in numbers sufficient to counter the hate.

Hell, you have no idea how many edits I had to make to the original post in this thread just to get the fact across that this is a pre-release version of the game.

lol. They should hire you for PR

 

[Retro]

lol. They should hire you for PR

Yeah, I get that a lot. Seems like you have to hate everything (the more irrational, the better) to be a "gamer" these days, and anything beyond a detached sense of mild enjoyment while playing is being an "astroturfing PR stealth-marketing shill".

 

[iosefe]

Nice to meet you guys, thanks for the welcome. I've actually been lurking gaf for a long long time and I should definitely post more.

Sorry that updates have been so slow, we're new to this whole development/PR thing. But they're slow for the right reasons. The game is getting a ton of love, it's all we work on every day and it's going places.

question about nightlies. is there a way to go back to the regular build if you choose to activate nightly builds? aside from a full reinstall, because that's tedious. this has kept me from trying it

And thank you for your game, iv'e really enjoyed what i've played of it, and props to your composer

 

[Kouriozan]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say thank you for the support and I hope you enjoy what we've been working on so far. There's a ton more to come and we're working day in day out to get it to you.

Welcome
Starbound is really a nice game, I have pre-ordered the first day and I love what you and your team have done so far, obviously I can't wait for more content!
Keep up the good work!

 

[Seil]

question about nightlies. is there a way to go back to the regular build if you choose to activate nightly builds? aside from a full reinstall, because that's tedious. this has kept me from trying it

And thank you for your game, iv'e really enjoyed what i've played of it, and props to your composer

Back up the whole game first? I have multiple versions of the game in playable states haha.

 

[iosefe]

Back up the whole game first? I have multiple versions of the game in playable states haha.

yeah, i guess that works... i'm just a little lazy, thats all

 

[HaRyu]

Nice to meet you guys, thanks for the welcome. I've actually been lurking gaf for a long long time and I should definitely post more.

Sorry that updates have been so slow, we're new to this whole development/PR thing. But they're slow for the right reasons. The game is getting a ton of love, it's all we work on every day and it's going places.

Oh sweet, hi Tiyuri!

I'm using your nightly builds, so I personally wouldn't call them slow. But thank you and the rest of your people for all the work you've put in.

BTW, I'm going to pester you (and as many people from Chucklefish) for a GAF AMA, but hold off on that thought until you're close to an actual release.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

Nice to meet you guys, thanks for the welcome. I've actually been lurking gaf for a long long time and I should definitely post more.

Sorry that updates have been so slow, we're new to this whole development/PR thing. But they're slow for the right reasons. The game is getting a ton of love, it's all we work on every day and it's going places.

Meh, I work in game development too.

It's just a case of gamers not knowing about game development.

 

[Nohar]

Well, that was unexpected.

Welcome to NeoGAF Tiyuri.

 

[Skab]

Nice to meet you guys, thanks for the welcome. I've actually been lurking gaf for a long long time and I should definitely post more.

Sorry that updates have been so slow, we're new to this whole development/PR thing. But they're slow for the right reasons. The game is getting a ton of love, it's all we work on every day and it's going places.

Welcome!

 

[duckroll]

Nice to meet you guys, thanks for the welcome. I've actually been lurking gaf for a long long time and I should definitely post more.

Sorry that updates have been so slow, we're new to this whole development/PR thing. But they're slow for the right reasons. The game is getting a ton of love, it's all we work on every day and it's going places.

Hey, welcome to GAF! Hope we don't scare you guys away, but we tend to be pretty honest about our feelings here.

I've been a big fan of Terraria so it was cool to see you branch out onto something more ambitious while Relogic returned from his break to work on Terraria again. Pretty much win-win. With regards to Starbound though, I picked it up with a bunch of friends when the Early Access started, but just couldn't really get far into it before feeling how incomplete it was. I think it was definitely released way too early compared to even Terraria, but once things hit a point where it actually feels like a complete game, I'm sure we'll be back. Hopefully that's sooner rather than later!

 

[HaRyu]

All right, just going to drop some info about some impressions about the current nightlies, for those of you who'd rather not suffer through them. I am going to assume that you:

a) Only have the latest official update installed
b) Don't go to the blog to get information
​

Essentially, back when I said I was going to do nightlies, I tried it for a few days, then stopped. Not because I got bored, but because other games came out, and I have a short attention span.

Anyway, messed around with them again tonight, so...

-New quests were added. Looks like they added more of of the intial "tutorial" quests.
-AI on the ship is now functional. Basically, when you start off, you're pretty much locked in the ship, and can't get out. You have to activate the ship computer, and do some "internal repairs" and bring some systems back on-line.
-Novakids are in. (Whee)
-This is very important: Normal mode, if you die, you now lose pixels and ore. Not all the ore, but I'm not sure if you lose an entire stack (or stacks), or just some of it. For some of us who like to "bloodport" when we're deep underground, this does put a damper on that particular exploit now. I think the added penalty is fine though, should make us all a little more careful when we're carrying ores on our characters.​

I'd have more to add, but see, I died, after mining some copper ore. So... lost that ore, so a little pissed. Needed a break.

 

[Blizzard]

All right, just going to drop some info about some impressions about the current nightlies, for those of you who'd rather not suffer through them. I am going to assume that you:

a) Only have the latest official update installed
b) Don't go to the blog to get information
​

Essentially, back when I said I was going to do nightlies, I tried it for a few days, then stopped. Not because I got bored, but because other games came out, and I have a short attention span.

Anyway, messed around with them again tonight, so...

-New quests were added. Looks like they added more of of the intial "tutorial" quests.
-AI on the ship is now functional. Basically, when you start off, you're pretty much locked in the ship, and can't get out. You have to activate the ship computer, and do some "internal repairs" and bring some systems back on-line.
-Novakids are in. (Whee)
-This is very important: Normal mode, if you die, you now lose pixels and ore. Not all the ore, but I'm not sure if you lose an entire stack (or stacks), or just some of it. For some of us who like to "bloodport" when we're deep underground, this does put a damper on that particular exploit now. I think the added penalty is fine though, should make us all a little more careful when we're carrying ores on our characters.​

I'd have more to add, but see, I died, after mining some copper ore. So... lost that ore, so a little pissed. Needed a break.

That is a little concerning, since of all the improvements I might be happy for, I don't think "making ore MORE tedious/slow to farm and bring back" is one of them.

It takes long enough to farm and keep ore for buildings / items / materials / whatever in my opinion, unless there are balancing factors that make up for the change.

 

[HaRyu]

That is a little concerning, since of all the improvements I might be happy for, I don't think "making ore MORE tedious/slow to farm and bring back" is one of them.

It takes long enough to farm and keep ore for buildings / items / materials / whatever in my opinion, unless there are balancing factors that make up for the change.

Well, when I died, I only had what... 16 pieces of Copper Ore? But it didn't touch my Gold Ore (only had 6 pieces). I didn't have that much to begin with, so I can't say for certain exactly how much of a penalty it is. (A stack? A percentage? How is ore chosen if its to be lost? Is it random? From lowest quality to highest?) While I personally dont think it should be a problem, I also don't know exactly how much a penalty it is when it comes to ore.

If a dev can chime in as to what the exact penalty entails, that would be great.

 

[VandalD]

Well, when I died, I only had what... 16 pieces of Copper Ore? But it didn't touch my Gold Ore (only had 6 pieces). I didn't have that much to begin with, so I can't say for certain exactly how much of a penalty it is. (A stack? A percentage? How is ore chosen if its to be lost? Is it random? From lowest quality to highest?) While I personally dont think it should be a problem, I also don't know exactly how much a penalty it is when it comes to ore.

If a dev can chime in as to what the exact penalty entails, that would be great.

Sounds a bit excessive. I wonder if it's a bug or an experiment. I already didn't want to die because I'd lose pixels, and those are used in just about everything.

Thanks for posting about the nightly build, by the way.

 

[HaRyu]

Messing around with it a bit before I head off to work, but I can at least now say:

THE BAD NEWS: Ore also includes bars. Now, still don't know if that's ALL the ore you're carrying, because I've only dug up a few pieces of copper.

THE GOOD NEWS: In sort of a Dark/Demon Souls fashion, if you can make it back to the place where you died, you can pick up the ore you dropped. TBH, I have no idea if on the higher difficulty, where you drop everything you can go and pick them up if you can make it back there, since I've never played on the higher setting.

 

[Sarcasm]

How do I get the nightly? Also whats better to use opengl or the other one?

 

[HaRyu]

How do I get the nightly? Also whats better to use opengl or the other one?

Note: BACKUP YOUR PLAYER AND WORLD FILES FIRST!

Open up Steam, go to your Library.
Right click on Starbound, go to Properties.
I don't remember the exact tab, but I think its the 3rd or 4th one from the left, in the drop down menu, you want to opt-in for the Nightly.

Probably best if you uninstall your Starbound game before you go to Nightlies. But if you don't, if you get an error message when you start the game up, you'll probably have to uninstall the game anyway. To uninstall, right click on Starbound, and delete Local Content. I would also just delete the Starbound folder that way its fresh (which is why I recommend backing up your user files). Also, your user files may not be compatible with the Nightlies anyway.

Cant be stressed enough, Nightlies can be buggy. Don't not even attempt to play the Nightlies if you can't stand bugs. With that being said, the current Nightlies (as of yesterday) seems to be relatively bug-free.

BTW, if you wish to go back to the Stable releases, delete Local Content, go back to the drop-down menu, and just set it back to the Stable release. You can then put your user files back in the Starbound folder. Everything should work as if you've never touched the Nightlies.

---
I use whatever works, for the Nightlies, for some reason, I have to use OpenGL sometimes (it crashes if I try to use the normal method). I'm not seeing any real difference though.

 

[HaRyu]

So, finally fixed the ship (somewhat).

So, the initial missions you have to do, are pretty straightforward tutorials about certain concepts for the game (crafting, hunting, etc). Its more than what we originally had in the official build.

I do have an issue with ONE mission. As you finish missions, it'll come to a point where it looks like you did everything. Nearly. If you check your mission list, you'll see you still have one mission left, and that's to fix your ship. But it doesn't tell you what you have to do.

However, the AI on the ship actually tells you what you have to do, and its very easy to miss what it says. Luckily, you can just visit the AI anytime and check the parameters, but it can be missed if you're not paying attention. With that being said, to fix your ship, you need 1000 pixels and 20 core fragments (new type of ore).

---
If you've played the official build, some of you may have noticed that there really wasnt any real reason to actually dig into a planet. At most, you could just scout the surface, scavenge, and maybe dig a little bit down, but you can usually do all your business on the planet surgface without investing in any deep mining time.

The core fragments actually require you to dig deep. I'm assuming this was done to force players to at least commit to doing some deep mining. How deep? I cant really say for sure, but took me about 20 minutes of digging? Now, I didnt dig a shaft straight down, I dug in a zig zag pattern (because I wanted an easily navigable way to run back up to the surface), with more or less a 45 degree angle slope. On this particular character and planet, didnt really run into a lot of underground caverns, so that may attribute to the overall time. Also as much as possible, tried to dig in soft/regular dirt, but if I had to go too much out of my way, also opted to dig through stone. Also note, the best pickaxe you can have at this stage is just a silver one.

Now, no telling how important core fragments are AFTER these initial missions (hopefully, not a one time thing and hopefully you can use them for crafting). Also hopefully, as you go to more difficult planets, like most other ores, you'll find more of them, and more of them closer to the surface.

---
Current nightlies seem to have a bug involving the outposts. Once you fix your ship, the most you can do is travel around your current system. If you try to land at an outpost, you'll end up on some chunk of rock, completely submerged in lava. Luckliy, you don't die outright, and you can port back to your ship before you die (if your health wasnt too low). In the system I'm currently in, there's two outposts, but both are the same, rock in lava. Google search is turning up that this bug seems to be fairly recent, but figured those of you who are messing with the nightlies, that you can't visit outposts right now (they apparently worked before).

That's it for now.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Good write up. Maybe when you're playing next time I will hop on. I need to put more time in.

 

[XT Vengeance]

That all sounds great. I still can't wait for this game to be finished.

 

[HaRyu]

Oh, one quick thing. Few posts back, I said it was possible to pick up any ore you've lost when you die. Now, I'm not really sure anymore.

Lately, when I die, I try to run back to where I lost the ore, but its not there. I'm not sure anymore if picking up the dropped ore was a bug, or me not finding the ore anymore is a bug.

So... uhm, for now, just assume when you die, you lose ore, and its gone for good.

 

[Duress]

Damn, HaRyu! You're doing more testing than most people.