

Can't get a replacement cable for Nest IQ Outdoor Cam - any other options?

So a few weeks ago - in the middle of the night - my IQ Outdoor went offline. Did the usual troubleshooting of resetting everything etc and could not fix. I have 2 other Nest cams which haven't skipped a beat.
Eventually narrowed it down to the cable or camera - Google sent me a new camera (under warranty) but not a new cable. Still doesn't work. When I plug in a normal USB C I get a red light on both the old and new cameras - so they seem to work but I understand it needs a higher quality cable than what you would use on the phone
Hence the problem must be with the cable. Google support say they can't currently send accessories - no reason why - they just say they can't (maybe COVID related?). I've tried complaining but just get the same message.
So now I have a dead camera (and it's for house security)
Are there any 3rd party options? The ones I saw don't look reliable. Or has anyone else managed to persuade them to send a replacement?
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Book Review: Intellectuals and Society, by Thomas Sowell

Why don’t I hear more about Thomas Sowell?
He’s written five new books in the last ten years. I couldn’t find sales figures for them, but three did well enough that new editions have already been published. And in the same period another three from his back catalog were revised and reissued.
He’s a PhD economist and served in the U.S. Marines. He’s published nearly 40 books in six decades, and wrote a widely syndicated column. He’s covered topics ranging from theoretical economics to autism spectrum disorders to affirmative action.
The topics he’s written on recently certainly aren’t ignored: housing policy, the amassing of power by elites, race relations, economic inequality, and education. But I couldn’t find a single one discussed on the New York Times website (I did a Google search for sowell “name of each book”).
It’s not like I’ve never heard of him - I read a lot of politics and economics. I’ve encountered references to him, mostly by conservatives and libertarians. When I was a teenager one of my uncles insisted that I read one of his economics books. But given how prolific he is, it’s a little weird that he doesn’t come up more.
Is it because he’s old? Sowell retired from his column in 2016, at age 86. Is discussion of his work mostly offline, where I won’t come across it? Is it aimed at people who physically read the newspaper and meet every morning at the diner to discuss it? Could be, but I doubt it - he’s been online since at least 1998.
Is it because he’s sort of a boring conservative? We don’t need to discuss his work, because it’s just the usual kids-these-days, pull-up-by-your-bootstraps, let’s-restore-traditional-values fare? Possibly - his column archive is full of that stuff. However, I would say corresponding things about Paul Krugman, and I see him discussed all the time.
He’s so invisible lately that Scott called him “the late Thomas Sowell” in 2016. What’s the deal? I read Intellectuals and Society (2010) to see what the lack of fuss is about.
The Slate Star Codex reader will have encountered versions of the ideas in Intellectuals and Society elsewhere. Let’s locate the book in idea-space by using these more familiar points as a reference.
First, Nassim Taleb’s notion that intellectuals are often “lecturing birds on how to fly.” In Antifragile (2012), he argues that elite academics steal ideas from lowly practitioners and repackage them as their own. “Scientists” (said disdainfully) develop overly-simplistic models of phenomena that engineers (said with approval) have harnessed through trial-and-error. “Economists” (said with a sneer) claim that pricing derivatives requires Nobel-level mathematical ability, in spite of the fact that options traders (said with great admiration) regularly do it while inebriated.
Second, Taleb’s “intellectual yet idiot” label. In Skin in the Game (2018), he describes IYIs as creatures that inhabit "specialized outlets, think tanks, the media, and university social science departments." They are New Yorker-reading, TED Talk-watching, technocrat-voting sheep. They pay lip service to tolerance and diversity, but would never “[go] out drinking with a minority cab driver.” When their preferred policies fail, they switch to favoring some new policy without questioning what went wrong.
Third, Charles Murray’s “cognitive elite” class. In The Bell Curve (1994) and Coming Apart (2012) he argues that high-IQ individuals are becoming (a) more powerful, and (b) increasingly isolated. The power means that they can implement policies that favor their type of intelligence. The isolation means that the policies they implement to “help” the rest of society will be misguided and harmful.
Fourth, James C. Scott’s characterization of top-down decision-making as being driven by a “high modernist” aesthetic preference. In Seeing Like a State (1998), he criticizes elites with “rational” ideas about how forests should be managed, farms should be run, cities should be laid out. His thesis is that technocratic plans often ignore local knowledge, steamroll practices honed by cultural evolution, and produce worse outcomes at higher costs.
Sowell’s style isn’t anything like Taleb’s, Murray’s, or Scott’s. Sowell is assertive and unsparing, but he’s not sarcastic or belligerent like Taleb. Sowell makes references to empirical studies, but doesn’t present you with his own phrenological tables like Murray (joking!). He makes points in almost every paragraph, rather than spending time presenting background information like Scott. But if you grok those books, you'll grok Intellectuals and Society.
The notion that ties these ideas together in Sowell’s book is: “aren’t liberal elites the worst?” Sowell rails against the liberal media for its selective reporting. He rails against liberal politicians for their simplistic economic policies. He rails against liberal academics for employing verbal virtuosity to obscure the aims of their ideology...
Intellectuals and Society is mostly a screed. Sowell runs through a list of left-wing talking points (e.g., environmentalism, social justice, and especially economics) and pokes holes in them. Although he’s aware that he’s an intellectual himself (a newspaper columnist employed by a think tank, even), the book is remarkably unreflective.
Don’t get me wrong - Sowell is very good at poking holes in left-wing talking points. But he takes his shots and moves on, making little attempt to understand or steelman weak arguments. And he doesn’t mind borrowing from the other side when it suits him, like doing verbal gymnastics instead of discussing the substance of an issue. For instance, he argues at length that talking about the “distribution” of wealth is fallacious, because wealth is “created,” not “distributed.” He’s got very little criticism for his own side.
I liked some of the points Sowell makes about “the transfer of decisions from those with personal experience and a stake in the outcome to those with neither.” For example, he criticizes intellectuals who want to limit or ban payday lending and check cashing firms. Might they be interfering with something they don’t understand? This line of questioning fits in with UPenn professor Lisa Servon’s work. After working as a teller at a check-cashing store, she found that low-income people are often making rational choices when they use these services. “[P]eople who don't have a lot of money know where every penny goes,” she said in an interview with NPR. In many cases she found that traditional, non-”predatory” banks were more expensive to use.
Other sections I didn’t like as much. Take this passage:
While virtually anyone could name a list of medical, scientific or technological things that have made the lives of today's generation better than that of people in the past, including people just one generation ago, it would be a challenge for even a highly informed person to name three ways in which our lives today are better as a result of the ideas of sociologists or deconstructionists.
Like, he’s obviously correct about this. But couldn’t we say the same thing about, say, think tanks? I love a good policy white paper, but I can’t name three that have made a meaningful difference in my life.
Achilles: Come on, you know why nobody discusses Thomas Sowell.
The Tortoise: Is this going to be one of those “liberals control the media” things.
Achilles: Yes. He’s a black conservative. Leftists can’t stand that sort of thing.
The Tortoise: Citation needed.
Achilles: He didn't have a Wikipedia article until a vandal created one to call him an Uncle Tom.
The Tortoise: Touche. But the right loves to hold up conservative minorities. Why has he been mostly absent from Republican-friendly media for the last several years?
Achilles: Touche...
I think the answer is this: Thomas Sowell’s work hasn’t seen much mainstream discussion in the last decade because it’s drifted away from original ideas and arguments and toward partisan bomb-throwing.
A lot of the change seems to be related to Barack Obama, whom Sowell detested (and presumably still detests). In a 2009 column, Sowell suggested that Obama’s weakness would lead to “Sharia law” coming to America. That sparked some commentary along the lines of “Has he lost a step? He used to be so good.”
My sense is that Sowell’s recent books are like the later Rolling Stones records: they might have sold a lot of copies, but only die-hard fans discussed them at any length. The references I’ve seen to Sowell in recent years are mostly like “Oh, Thomas Sowell! His 1987 book really changed my view of conservatism.” Or “That book he wrote on delayed speech was really useful to me as a new parent!”
(Incidentally, I can’t help but wonder about the connection between Sowell’s disdain for “verbal virtuosity” in arguments from intellectuals and his interest in late-talking children. It’s all the more interesting, because Sowell is a confident and compelling speaker, even in his old age.)
I’m somewhat disappointed by this. I’d like for there to be a thriving scene for intelligent conservatives to join. I have sympathy for some conservative ideas, but I’ve been turned off by the right’s slide into populism, nationalism, and endless discussions of Donald Trump.
(For what it’s worth, I also have sympathy for liberal ideas, and I’m unhappy about what’s happening on the left too.)
Sowell’s decline isn’t absolute: there’s interesting stuff in Intellectuals and Society, and probably more in his last few books. His 2018 interview with the libertarian Reason magazine is thoughtful and reflective. But I think the mainstream silence about his recent work functions as sort of a benign neglect.
In summary: I think if you’re going to read only one Thomas Sowell book, Intellectuals and Society shouldn’t be it. If you’re interested in its ideas, Skin In The Game is a more fun read. Nonetheless, I’m curious enough to read some other Sowell books from earlier in his career.
Lastly: I started writing this review several weeks ago. Since then, Thomas Sowell has been dominating Paul Krugman in online interest. So pretend I posted this in late April.
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Factoid Q&A

Q: How is IQ gained with boost calculated?
Q: Are the Lessons (IQ upgrade) worth it?
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NF's Grand Prix: A retrospective look and personal ratings

After 7 GPs, I thought I'd go over every GP again and give my personal rating for it. Take it with a grain of salt. Every GP is rated based on:

Nitro Tour

Nitro Tour was the first GP and for a long time the only GP that introduced more than 3 characters (5 to be exact). It's probably no surprise, but the Nitro Squad has stood the test of time and the characters have evolved to fan favorites, where they are played by a large number of people. I consider the Nitro Squad to be the best addition to the roster we have gotten so far. The Nitro Squad not only brought the Trophy Girls back, but also Tawna who has had her first major appearance ever since Crash 1 (if we exclude the NST remake, since that's technically not a new appearance). The Nitro Squad was redesigned to look much more distinct and they also received so much more personality than they ever had. THIS is how you reimagine characters.
The cosmetics during Nitro Tour were great. A lot of racing themed skins (Racer Crunch, Biker Crash, Biker Tiny ...), which I think really fits to the genre of the game. It's also worth mentioning that the Nitro Tour is still the only GP where every GP character received a legendary skin. The Motorsport Skins are awesome (even though I'm not the biggest fan of Motorsport Liz and Ami) but Motorsport Tawna is still my favorite skin in the game to this day. I also generally think Motorsport skins fit the game a lot. Besides skins, we also got a lot of good yet simple paint jobs, although the elusive Tawna Pink was not available for a long time until October. The myriad of paint jobs is unmatched by any GP to this day. The twilight wheels were decent, although I feel the design didn't really match the theme of the GP well. It's also the same wheels every time, except a different color, which makes it a bit repetitive. As far as karts go, those were decent additions but the one that stood out was probably the Le Chaux, because it was brought back from CTTR and is among the best looking kart bodies.
Twilight Tour is a solid track. It's moderately long and features blue fire, which makes it somewhat fun to drive. The gameplay balance on the track is rather wonky, with only one faster STP. The access to the fast STP can even be trapped easily, which can make the track a bit more unfun to play when items are in effect. Aside from that, the track features no special dynamics or hazards and is a bit more on the bland side, but it's still a solid track overall and resembles the egyptian levels from Crash 3. It's also worth noticing that Twilight Tour is one of the few tracks that have no major collision issues, something that is quite rare in NF.
We got a few gameplay updates during Nitro Tour, although no major ones, except for a few improvements to the online mode. Nitro Tour introduced podium animations to the online mode, skin icons to the mini-map, the wumpa coin end-of-race report, the Velo mask for CNK villains and a bunch of bugfixes. Overall, Nitro Tour was a good GP and is still my favorite so far.

Back N. Time

Coming from Nitro Tour, people had high expectations for Back N. Time. I think most people can relate when I say these expectations were utterly crushed. We got Baby T, who is alright? I guess. He looks cute but he doesn't really have any personality is kinda just there to look cute. But Baby T isn't even the issue: It's Baby Crash and Baby Coco. I think it's no secret that nearly nobody likes them and they lack any personality whatsoever. They gave Baby Coco the Acceleration stats which made her basically no distinct from Coco except that she was more ugly. Baby Crash received the even worse end with being a turning character and back then, when there was no engine swap, that basically sealed your fate as "you are never getting played".
The cosmetics were decent. A lot of the stone age and futuristic skins looked good and fit the theme of the GP, but the gold reward aka Fake Baby T was really underwhelming. I don't see Baby T often at all nowadays, but if he is played then it's basically never the Fake Baby T skin. There was also the one or other outlier skin like Nerd Fake Crash, which didn't really fit the GP at all. Aside from the skins, we got a few paint jobs and the lava wheels, but I don't think either of those were really notable at all. The lava wheels also looked pretty ugly and had the same issue as the twilight wheels: They are all the same, just a different color. As for the karts, I think those looked pretty well. The Mammoth kart was nice (if a bit big) and the Probulot was introduced as the first hovering kart after Oxide's Hoverkart. The Nostalginator was kinda slapped on and didn't really fit the GP at all.
Prehistoric Playground is easily the best track visually ... but you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. PP has severe collision issues, the worst of any track. Its gameplay balance is complete garbage with the fastest STP on the track being located right at the start after a set of crates and there is no other STP until the end of the track. This track isn't fun to play at all and it isn't even fun to time trial because you can just die at any point to some random collision. This is still an issue, even now. And it's a lot worse on PP than on any other track.
We also didn't get any gameplay updates during most of this GP and communication from Activision/Beenox was basically dead. Things changed near the end of the GP when the super engine was introduced as an item in race mode, the Warp Orb and Clock spawn rate was decreased and the item distribution rate online was changed.
Despite the gameplay updates, I think Back N. Time was the worst GP we have had so far.

Spyro and Friends

After the massive letdown that Back N. Time was, Spyro and Friends raised the bar a little bit higher again. Spyro was probably one of the most wanted additions and seeing crossovers with characters from other franchises is usually always well received. Considering that many Crash Fans are also Spyro Fans and vice versa, a Spyro themed GP might have been just the right idea.
Besides Spyro himself though, the new characters were a bit of a weird choice. Gnasty Gnorc being part of what is called "Spyro and FRIENDS" and then we also got Hunter, who isn't exactly a fan favorite. Gnasty wasn't really that popular and since he was also a turning character, nobody really played him. They made the right choice by making Spyro a speed character, but that's as far as it goes. Nowadays, Gnasty and Hunter are almost dead picks and Spyro is the only remaining character left from that GP that is actually played to some degree.
The skins weren't that great either and lot of potential ideas were wasted. Now I know, the GP was more based around Spyro 1, which is why we got skins like Wizard Komodo Joe. At the same time, they gave us Hunter and ignored content from Spyro 2 and Spyro 3. They could have gone with an Elora skin for Coco or a Sgt. Byrd skin for Penta, but none of those ideas made it into the game. Instead we got Viking Polar, Evil Coco and Evil Crunch. Spyro having no gold reward (and thus no legendary skin) was the biggest letdown because he was the first GP character at the time who did not have a gold reward. Evil Coco and Evil Crunch were kinda slapped on as well, just for the sake of giving more popular characters something for the fans. The paint jobs though, were awesome. They looked absolutely gorgeous and even the wheels looked really amazing. My only issue about the wheels that's all just the same again with only differences in color and that the wheels look a bit weird on the classic kart (because they are shaped like an orb), but that's really just me. The kart bodies were also good and fit the Spyro theme, especially the Spyromobile is among my favorite kart bodies in general.
Spyro Circuit though is a whole different issue in itself. It's no surprise at this point that the gameplay balance on this track is horrible. The portals respawn you in the same location every time (you can influence where you spawn vertically, but only to a small degree) and it's possible to put items right on the spot where you spawn. If someone gets ahead then he can keep his lead for free because he can just place items after the portals that are extremely hard to avoid. The track also has frustrating out of bounds parts on the grass and it's rather easy to land on those. Visually though, the track is decent and it's fun to play it in itemless racing or time trial.
Spyro and Friends had no gameplay updates, except those that came at the start of the GP. They fixed some lap skips, added categories to the customization menu, changed the sort order of paint jobs, made the GP menu and pitstop accessible online and introduced various other small improvements and bugfixes. Still though, no major changes.
I think the Spyro and Friends GP was kind of a letdown in many areas, but it wasn't a bad GP by any means. It just felt like wasted potential.


The Spooky GP is not known for its characters or cosmetics, but rather for the most important improvement we have gotten in an update so far: Engine Swap! Engine Swap was given to us along with a new class called "Drift" that has since become a class that rivals Acceleration in popularity. Being able to finally play your preferred class with any character greatly improved the character variation online and the new Drift class is also the second best class after Speed. For many people, the new class and the Engine Swap option brought interest to the game back and that's why I think the Spooky GP gave us the best gameplay update so far. Besides Engine Swap, we also got various other small improvements, such as: Offline weekend bonus, AI drivers don't use Warp Orbs and Clocks anymore online, a new Cup has been added and the Nitro payout from quick challenges has been doubled.
Spooky was the GP of the villains. Nina Cortex, N. Brio and Komodo Moe all returned and that made Koala Kong the only missing OG Trilogy villain at that point in time. I dare to say that N. Brio and Komodo Moe aren't the most popular characters, but Nina for sure has her following and considering that she had appeared in CTTR before, I do think she was a good addition to the roster. With the addition of Engine Swap, the default classes didn't really matter anymore as well.
The biggest letdown of Spooky were the cosmetics. The kart bodies were very playful, although pretty huge and especially the Phantom just feels horrible to drive for me because it's so big. This time around, we also got our first animated paint jobs and wheels, both of which I found to be very distracting. The ghost wheels additionally have a weird distortion effect and I found it to be too distracting to enjoy it. I don't really use any of the paint jobs or wheels we got during spooky anymore. Some of the wheels were decent (like the Skull Rider wheels) but that's as far as it goes. We got the one or other nice skin (mainly Witch Tawna and Werewolf Tiny), but the gold reward was another letdown because Ragdoll Nina doesn't exactly look that great either.
Nina's Nightmare is a good track. It's simple with a good atmosphere, features blue fire and the first set of item crates is not directly at the start, which makes the track less of an item hell. The track is also the first GP track with a hazard trigger and features an interesting hazard in the form of some slime that just slows you down, but doesn't kill your reserves. I still like to play this track even to this day, which shows that it has stood the test of time.
All things considered, Spooky GP was a solid GP. Cosmetics were a bit of a downer but everything else made up for it.

Neon Cirus

Spooky ended on a high note and nobody knew if Neon Circus would be able to keep up. People who had looked at datamines before knew what was likely to come, even though datamines aren't necessarily 100% correct all the time.
Pasadena O'possum, Ebeneezer von Clutch and Koala Kong all returned in Neon Circus. Kong was the last missing villain from the OG Trilogy and Pasandena and von Clutch were the last 2 missing characters from CTTR. In that sense, Neon Circus completed 2 rosters at the same time. Von Clutch has kept his personality with his weird german shouting (he even kept his accent in the german dub), Kong looks as buff as ever but a lot of Pasadena's personality was sadly lost in translation. Her quotes have become more generic and her podium animation is rather generic as well. I like Pasadena but I feel like they stripped her of her character. King Chicken is our first original character in NF but sadly he lacks a bit in personality and backstory and is kinda just a meme at this point. I do admit though, the way of unlocking him is pretty creative and a nice challenge.
The new cosmetics from Neon Circus were awesome. We got Circus Skins for the Trophy Girls and other circus themed skins for Nash and Cortex. Farmer N. Gin and Rustic Fake Crash were a bit of a weird choice but I honestly can't complain too much. We got some animated paint jobs and animated wheels, but this time around the animations were much more tame and the wheels even had different designs in different colors to offer some more variation. While the pressurizer was bit too big of a kart for my liking, I liked the daredevil (it's a shame the rotational axis has an offset ...) and its wheels and we also got our third hovering kart in the form of the Nitro Bumper.
The track is where Neon Circus falls apart though. Koala Carnival is nothing. Really, nothing at all. It's a circle. The track offers nothing that could make you enjoy it in the slightest. It has mostly straights and is very wide, which makes items like missiles overly powerful because you can't play around them. There is also only one STP in the entire track, which doesn't help to balance the track either. In my opinion, Koala Carnival is the worst GP track and the worst track in the game in general.
To even out the massive disappointment of Koala Carnival, we received 2 major updates: A checkpoint system and a new game mode called Ring Rally. The checkpoint system was very much needed as lap skips have been a constant issue in NF ever since its release. The new checkpoint system fixed pretty much all lap skips and mega shortcuts, except for 2 instances on Meteor Gorge and Thunder Struck (those 2 shortcuts still exist). Ring Rally is a super fun mode with its own leaderboard that cannot be glitched due to the way Ring Rally works. Ring Rally shows many advanced shortcuts that even the Oxide Ghost doesn't take and with that mode, Beenox also finally acknowledged the "timppa SC" on Thunder Struck as they went out of their way and placed rings on it. For a long time we were unsure if this SC is intentional or even wanted but Beenox gave us green light to use it freely. Another gameplay update we received was a major buff in nitro bonuses as you can now equip up to 70% bonus, which makes completing the bar much less of a grind.
Neon Circus definitely continued strong where Spooky ended. While Koala Carnival wasn't the most enjoyable experience, all other updates and especially Ring Rally (which allowed to experience all existing tracks in a different way) definitely made more than up for it.

Winter Festival

A lot of speculation existed about Winter Festival because the silhouette on the roadmap didn't fit to any existing Crash Bandicoot character. People speculated it to be Fasty, a scrapped character that has been rumored to have been planned for CTR (he wasn't, but we've already gone over this). When Winter Festival went live, people were proven to be correct: The new character was indeed Fasty ... or rather Hasty, as he was reimagined.
Winter Festival is only the second GP after Nitro Tour to introduce more than 3 characters. Yaya Panda returned and made her first appearance on a home console game. Her redesign was received well and she has become a popular character since. With Yaya returning, every character who has ever been playable in a Crash racing game was now in NF. Aside from Yaya and Hasty, we also got Chick & Stew who only acted as commentators in CTTR and NF so far. Lastly, Rilla Roo returned after his long absence from the Crash games since Crash Bash and with him returning, every character who has ever been playable in a Crash game was now playable in NF as well. Sadly, Rilla Roo's design didn't live up to people's expectations and his redesign is generally regarded to be very poor. This was a bit of a letdown since many people had wished for Rilla Roo to keep his signature facial expression that made him a meme.
The cosmetics this time around were all based around Christmas and are thus very festive. I like most of them visually, but I think they are too much tied to Christmas and I don't really see me using them much after Christmas. We got sweet cosmetics like the Donut Wheels or Chocolate paint jobs, but they are too playful for my liking. As far as the karts go, we got the Snowplower which was a pretty neat idea, but we also got the Candy Cone kart that just creeps the fuck out of me. The Nitro Sleigh is the fourth hovering kart in the game and was a nice idea as well, even though I don't like hovering karts. The skins were pretty good: I like Winter Tawna, Reindeer Crash and I even liked the Pajamas for the babies. It was a cute idea all things considered. The gold reward this time around was also pretty epic again, with Blizzard Rider Hasty being one of the best legendary skins in my opinion.
Gingerbread Joyride is one of the best GP tracks. It's one of the few tracks in general that don't have major collision issues (aside from a certain snow pile in the first SC) and is thus very fun to play. It also features blue fire and has a rather difficult layout that makes the track much more difficult to play than all the other GP tracks we got before. I liked the challenge that driving this track posed, although I think it has some small issues in multiplayer. It only features one STP that is in the beginning of the track and the first SC is very narrow and can be trapped with items easily. Aside from that, I have no other issues with the track.
Winter Festival introduced a very important update to us: A buff to the Warp Orb. The Warp Orb has always been known to be rather slow and was rarely able to catch up to good players on long tracks or blue fire tracks. Starting with Winter Festival, the Warp Orb travels blazingly fast and it's now impossible to outrun it, making it much more reliable. It also now follows players on most SCs and split sections, although the latter one still needs work in a few instances. Sadly, we didn't get any other notable gamplay updates during Winter Festival, but even then, I think Winter Festival is one of the best GPs we've had so far.


For a long time, we were unsure if the GPs would even continue after December since the roadmap ended there. The surprise was there when the Activision blog post announced a new GP called "Rustland" that would start in January.
People had already expected it, but there was just no way for Beenox to continue releasing as many characters as they did before. We only got 1 character this time and that was Megamix. I do admit, I like Megamix, his redesign looks awesome but the euphoria about a new character wears off pretty fast. Megamix himself is a rather obscure character from The Huge Adventure and I think many people didn't even know him beforehand.
We got rust skins for all the base 8 characters + Nina and I have to say, the skins look absolutely fantastic. I can say the same about the paint jobs honestly. And also about the wheels. They fit so well to the theme of the GP and they look great on their own as well. My only gripe with the cosmetics are the kart bodies because 2 of them are extremely big and especially The Nuke is now the biggest kart in the game. I'm not a fan of big karts, but here we are. The third kart is also a hovering kart and those are already inferior because the nitro wheels don't work for them.
The new track called Megamix Mania was initially the highlight for me. It's harder than even Gingerbread Joyride, it's long and it has blue fire again. This track is really difficult because it's so narrow and it's easy to hit a wall or literally anything else. But I like it, the difficulty is really what we needed because I always felt that most GP tracks are too easy and don't feel rewarding enough. Sadly, the track has some issues with items. Like on Prehistoric Playground, the track has a set of item crates immediately at the start before the STP, which can make it pretty frustrating to play. It also has many blind corners that can be trapped with items easily. Lastly, there are a few nasty invisible walls that are easy to hit and can ruin your race if you are not careful enough. It was found later on that Megamix Mania also has balance issues in itemless play. Since the mines trigger when someone drives nearby, they hit players in the back earlier due to the online mode desync. This makes the race skewed too much towards the player in 1st place and allows him to keep an easy lead while the players in the back struggle with catching up effectively.
As far as gameplay updates go, we didn't get any major ones this time as well. We got the new Apocalypse Mask, that protects everyone on Megamix Mania and everyone who has a Rustland skin equipped. We also finally got the country flag stickers back, after their long absence from the game since the end of Nitro Tour. A few days into the GP, we also got the TGA Update after which Crash holds the TGA trophy on the title screen, although that update didn't really affect anything.
I think Rustland was among the weaker GPs. I still like it more than Back N. Time and Spyro and Friends, but it's definitely not my favorite one.

Past and Future

I'm looking forward to the last GP to some degree, mainly because of the datamined and teased gameplay improvements. However, I don't want to go too much into detail there because no spoilerinos. I don't think GPs in general were that great of an experience but maybe the last GP will indeed dethrone the Nitro Tour for me. If you want to hear my general gripes with the GP system, read further.
My scoring was based on a relative scale of what the GPs wanted to be. I don't think any GP was particularly enjoyable for me and I can't say I'm glad we had them. The GPs stayed in my mind as cosmetic updates, mindless grinding and frustrating challenges. There are no particular positives that I associate with GPs. Gameplay updates? You don't need GPs for that, other companies update their games regularly and don't need such a system in place.
My issue with the GPs is their focus on collectibles. You have to fill the nitro bar and you get points by doing challenges. The challenges didn't really require skill to any capacity and were really just grinding. Playing with Penta on Blizzard Bluff? Collecting 800 ring in Ring Rally? Do a time trial? Come on, this was nothing more than a joke. There were no particular challenges that proved to be a challenge. Even the challenges where you had to beat an N. Tropy or Oxide ghost on a track were nothing more than a joke as well. Complete a lap on Deep Sea Driving under 34s? Good challenge, but they allowed it to be cheesed in relic race. The quick challenges, daily challenges and weekly challenges were pretty much the same in every single GP. No variation. The themed challenges and pro challenges had some sort of variation but also a lot of dumb stuff like hitting 2 people with a bomb at the same time. Some pro challenges were a bit funny (like winning against someone by using the champion kart) but you have to have 30 IQ to really think of yourself as a skilled player just because you have the champion kart.
It is widely known that the online mode of NF is complete garbage. But then you had these frustrating challenges like the Passive Rider, that required you to wait for an eternity in matchmaking until the required track popped up and then you had to be lucky enough for the track to actually be chosen, the lobby not to disband and you to actually win the race. The time trial challenges were also frustrating for people who time trial a lot. I remember some time during september, there was a challenge where you had to beat your time on Inferno Island. Me being a time trialer, I had tied X_RTW's world record on that track at the time (1:31.86). If I would have been capable of beating the time, I would have done it. I know this is a me issue and 99.9999% of all other players don't have it. But I assume there are at least some other players who are just trying their best on every track and then having a challenge that says "be better than your best" when you already grinded a track for hours or days is not exactly what you want to see.
The GP challenges became repetitive after Nitro Tour and the fact that they required only grinding did not help them. The GP challenges should have been much more flexible and reward skilled play. Every shortcut should have given you a bonus, more points for difficult shortcuts. Just little things like that. Every perfect boost should have given you extra nitro. Every full lap completed without losing fire should have given you extra nitro. There's a lot of good ideas on how to make the system more flexible and less of a 20 IQ grind, but none of those ideas made it into the game.
As for the GP leaderboards, I think that speaks for itself. Some people mistake the GP leaderboard for an actual skill-based ranking when it's really just "who grinds the most". Few people who are high on the GP leaderboard are actually good players. I don't want to call out any player in particular here, but I think you've made your own experiences in that regard.
Another issue that had been brought up a lot during Nitro Tour was the decreased variation of customization setups. Every GP had a selection of items associated with it that had the nitro bonus that made reaching the gold reward much easier. During Nitro Tour, only GP content had a bonus, which is why we saw so many Megumis, Amis and people who used the Le Chaux. This was improved starting with Back N. Time where older cosmetics received a nitro bonus as well. But that didn't really fix the core issue that most players online would pick cosmetics that had the nitro bonus. Despite all the customization possibilites, you would only ever see a handful during the GP season and true variation only during the downtime between a GP ending and the next one starting. Despite this game offering billions of customization options, you were actually pretty limited when you wanted to be optimal. I am a classic kart purist and with the exception of December, playing the classic kart was always a direct punishment for me because it made me get less nitro points. Why did it have to be like that? I don't understand it. Just let me play what I want. Offering hundreds of cosmetics but punishing you for picking 90% of those doesn't really leave a good impression.
That's all I had to say. Peace.
submitted by CTR_Garma to crashbandicoot [link] [comments]

[Trailforks + Garmin] Ideas for Better Integration

Hey guys, I'm a new owner of a Garmin Edge 530 and trying to get my bearings for using it with Trailforks. I have only taken it out for a couple rides and already see some ways it could be made so much easier.
If any other users have found better ways to do things, or have your own suggestions for improvement, post em up! If you like any of my ideas, please feel free to copy them and send to the email address below. It takes more than one person showing interest in something to devote development resources.
Here is an email I just sent to the Trailforks developers ( [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) ):

I really love the app, and am hoping to find more efficient ways to use it with my Garmin Edge 530. My goal is to quickly download all the trails for a given region onto my Garmin for use offline. Currently, this is the only process I have found:
It is possible that there is a better way, that I am just not aware of. I certainly hope you have some insight for me, as this can take a really long time for large regions! If that is the current method, could I suggest a couple features that would make things so much easier for the user?

submitted by Craboulas to MTB [link] [comments]

(Almost) Three Weeks In, My Impressions So Far

submitted by DemiseBehindBlueEyes to ecobee [link] [comments]

Official r/NBA2K 2K20 Wishlist Thread 6 (will be sent to 2K)

MyCAREER — Player Creation (Builds/Archetypes)


MyCAREER — Playground AKA Park

MyCAREER — Pro-Am and Jordan Rec Center

MyCAREER — Neighborhood (including Clothes/Open-World/Events)



Overall Gameplay


submitted by yyy2k to NBA2k [link] [comments]

FIFA Career Mode Improvement (DRAFT)

FIFA Career Mode Improvement (DRAFT)

New Attributes/stats
Weak foot ground passing: 1-5
Weak foot lob passing: 1-5
Weak foot finishing: 1-5
Weak foot long shots: 1-5
Weak foot dribbling: 1-5
Weak foot crossing: 1-5
Weak foot standing volley: 1-5
Dribbling success stat (CPU only): 0-100 this is a very important stat, it’s part of what, along with player tendencies will make Messi and Neymar actually play like they do in real life. This makes the game way more authentic, and playing against top tier dribblers on legendary, intimidating. In NBA 2K when playing against Kyrie on Hall of Fame difficulty, I feel as though I'm playing against an actual simulated version of Kyrie Irving. In FIFA that authenticity is non-existent. The fear of playing Messi or Neymar isn't there. Another reason this stat is important is, just because two players have the same dribbling stat i.e dribbling: 88, that doesn’t mean they share the same take on/duel success rate. This stat should be based on real life dribbling success rates.
Player Tendencies
Player tendencies will finally effect the traits a player has in his bio. A player with the ‘flair’ trait must have his fancy passing tendency above 35. A 'player with the 'team-player, trait must have first touch passing 50 and above
Passing Tendencies
First-touch ground passing (like Jorginho, Diawara, and Busquets): 0-100
Through balls: 0-100
Lob passing: 0-100
Lob through balls: 0-100
Finesse lob passing: 0-100
Finesse lob through balls (like Messi): 0-100
Weak foot ground passing: 0-100
Weak foot lob passing: 0-100
Forced passing: 0-100
Fancy passing: 0-100
Outside foot passing: 0-100
Outside foot shot: 0-100
Early cross: 0-100
Outside foot cross (like Quaresma): 0-100
Shooting Tendencies
Shooting volume: 0-100
Long shot (18-20 yards): 0-100
Long shot (20+ yards): 0-100
Finesse shot: 0-100
Finesse long shot (Messi’s attempts finesse long shots more than he does standard or driven long shots, the same with Toni Kroos): 0-100
Chip shot: 0-100
Standing volley: 0-100
Acrobatic Volley (agility should have nothing to do with this tendency): 0-100
Weak foot finishing: 0-100
Weak foot long shot (18-20 yards): 0-100
Weak foot long shot (20+ yards) (Cristiano tends to hit 20+ yard long shots with his left foot): 0-100
Weak foot finesse long shot: 0-100
Outside foot shot: 0-100
Fake shot: 0-100
Ball Retention/Dribbling Tendencies
Dribbling volume: 0-100
Take on 1v1: 0-100
Take on 2nd defender (after dribbling past 1st): 0-100
Take on 3rd defender (after dribbling past 2nd): 0-100
Take on 4th (or more) defender (after dribbling past 3rd): 0-100
Dribble vs double/team: 0-100
Straight/simple dribbling vs skill moves (When the player attempts to beat a defender or dodge a tackle this tendency determines if the player uses skill moves to achieve that feat or simple dribbling ; Otherwise without defenders in close proximity the player will dribble normal) [Messi/Kovacic vs NeymaC.Ronaldo]: 0-100
La Croqueta/foundation move: 0-100
Sombrero: 0-100
Double sombrero (like Neymar): 0-100
Finesse Dribbling: 0-100
Weak foot dribbling: 0-100
Draw foul: 0-100
Showboat (Ronaldo flip/flap, juggling, FANCY TOUCHES): 0-100
Skill Move Tendencies (Skill move star-level effects skill moves player is able to perform)
Heel chop: 0-100
Etc, etc, etc,
- Make the Maradona a two star move
- Add IQ to skill moves, no random skill moves that have the CPU dribble out of bounds, etc,
Defensive Tendencies
Aggression (player tendency to tackle in general): 0-100
Stand tackle (tendency to stand tackle): 0-100
Slide tackle (tendency to slide tackle): 0-100
Smart foul 0-100
Goalkeeper Tendencies
Rush out of box (sweeper keeper): 0-100
Rush off line 1 v 1: 0-100
Injury Tendencies
Torso: 0-100
Right thigh: 0-100
Right calf: 0-100
Right foot: 0-100
Left thigh: 0-100
Left calf: 0-100
Left foot: 0-100
Situational/Field Position Tendencies
- Pitch side preference/heat map (activates only if player is playing a forward position [LW, RW, CF, Striker], or as a CAM, LAM, RAM, RM, and LM)[values must add up to 100]. Example: Messi's natural heat map may be as follows: Left 10% Right: 50% Center: 40%
Cut inside when on the left: 0-100
Cut inside when on the right: 0-100
Cross when on the left: 0-100
Cross when on the right: 0-100’
Switch play: 0-100
- Make goalkeeper stats mean more. This is important because every keeper can’t pass out the back, whether ground or lob passing, like Alisson, Ter Stegen, and Kepa. However, when playing against every single CPU controlled team, no matter the keeper, every keeper seems to have perfect touch, and accurate ground and lob passing. This also has to do with the fact that every CPU controlled team plays tiki taka, it’s been like this since I’ve been playing EA Sports FIFA and is one of the biggest problems the game has in terms of maximizing the potential it could have a real Football/Soccer simulator. But more on that later. Also add sweeper keeper trait/tendency
- Allow the adding of secondary, and third positions in Manager Mode and offline. This is probably the most obvious and easiest change that can be introduced in EA Sports FIFA Career Mode. A good example of why this is needed is the peculiar absence of the CM (center midfield) position when editing players, but that very same position is a position that many players have in game. For example, James Rodriguez is a CAM, and if in Career Mode I want Bayern or Real Madrid to play a 4-3-3 with one CDM, and two CMs, what happens is, when simulating with James on the bench, instead of him subbing on, he will rarely get playing time, and lower rated players, who’s positions are CM will get playing time ahead of him. Countless examples occur like that with multiple teams. If I’m playing a 3-5-2 and I have two wingbacks as on either side, and they neither have LM or RM as a secondary position, when I simulate a month or two months worth of matches, the AI benches them and puts outside midfielders or wingers in those positions. Also, sometimes a player might have abilities to adequately play another position, and adding secondary positions to said player like managers do in real life, would be a cool and innovate addition.
- Have the AI give you advice on certain things in the form of an assistant manager: Your assistant manager relays to you what prospects should be called up from the youth academy, what formation and tactics you should use in an upcoming match, which player’s morale is low, etc. Player can toggle which topics they want assistants with and which ones they can handle on their own
- Add realistic second, third, and fourth captaincy. At Barcelona, if Messi gets subbed off, there’s a systematic line of who gets the armband. Most clubs have that, and it would be a cool nuance to add to the game
- Change how completed dribbling is tallied, it’s almost never tallied, and when it is, it seems arbitrary
The Tiki Taka problem****: All teams don’t play pass and move football, and out of the ones that do, some of them change their build-up play and tactics when faced with superior opposition, so that leaves a select few who stick to their guns no matter the opposition. Solution: Split tactics up into two categories: MANAGERIAL TACTICS which describe a managers personal tactics and TEAM SPECIFIC TACTICS which describe what each individuals role is in said managers tactics. Every manager should have their own unique tactical idiosyncrasies and preferred formation(s).
Pressing type (pressing vs counter-pressing): There is aggressive pressing that is done in an opponents half which aims to proactively change the “phases of play” (counter-pressing) and there is regular defensive organization, that every team employs one the opponent is in their half of the pitch. EA Sports FIFA already has normal defensive organization, but it is very basic. Categories such as “width” and depth” don't fully encompass how teams defend in their own half. The game doesn’t allow the option of adding formations for when a team is defending the ball in their own half and add to the fact that some teams, apply a different formation when defending compared to there offensive formation, while others teams keep the same formation in defensive and offensive phases of play.
Most importantly is the difference between defense organization in your own half vs counter-pressing the opponent in their half of the pitch. FIFA doesn’t have counter-pressing. The game has weird mix of defensive organization in your own half, but applies the same tactics when the ball is in the opponests half. There’s no nuance. Manchester City in all their counter-pressing glory still, have a defense setup/organization they use when defending in their own half. How a team counter-presses in an opponents half, versus how the line up in defense organization in their own half are two different things. Sadly, EA Sports FIFA doesn’t show that difference. Also, not all teams counter-press, and some teams counter-press against opposition around their level but totally abandon count-pressing when faced with far superior opposition. Swansea might counter-press against Queens Park Rangers, but will abandon in and stick solely to defensive organization when playing Man City or Liverpool. Mourniho teams rarely, if counter-press at all. EA please, I and many other hardcore Career Mode enthusiast are tired of playing against literally any team and seeing the same types of pressing and defensive organization.
There are FOUR main types of counter-pressing that should definitely be added to the game. These are: Space Oriented counter-pressing, Man Oriented counter-pressing, and Passing-Lane Oriented counter-pressing. Adding this to the game provides real life manager “DNA” to the game. When you play Manchester City, it should feel like you’re playing against a Pep managed City squad. City press in a sort of ball/space oriented way. When you play Liverpool it should feel like you’re playing Liverpool. Liverpool presses in using passing-lane oriented counter-pressing. These types of counter-pressing can be explained at the website
Takeaways: There has to be separate tactics for how a team sets up its defense in its own half vs how the counter-press in the opponents half, IF AT ALL (Mourniho’s teams don’t usually counter-press)
Realistic team play: As stated earlier you, not all teams defend or counter-press the same. Even more importantly is the Tiki Taka problem I mentioned in the beginning. In EA Sports FIFA, every team plays tiki taka, pass and move football, when playing on Legendary difficulty. I’m pretty good at FIFA and love playing tiki taka football myself, and defeating a Legendary CPU no matter how strong the team isn’t impossibly difficult. The problem is, seeing every team play the SAME EXACT way is demoralizing. I gets tiring playing Stoke, or Athletic Bilbao and not being able to witness any significant differences in how they play. It’s all tiki taka. This is where managerial tactics and other new features come in. First, for managerial tactics: Managerial tactics will replace team tactics. Sprus don’t play the way they do because their style of play is intrinsic to the team itself; they play the way they do because of their coach, Pochettino. If Mourinho becomes the manager, their style of play will drastically change, both on defense and offense. So what is now in EA Sports FIFA as team specific tactics, these should now be Manager specific tactics. Each manager should have a coaching grade, which determines how long it takes for a team to adhere to his tactics 100% (D- to A+) Here’s an example template:
Mauricio Pochettino Nationality: Argentina
Current club: Tottenham Hotspur
Coaching grade: A (94)
Tactical Decisions: B+ (84) [This effects pre match tactics, as well as live or in match tactics. Examples of pre-match tactics that the CPU can utilize are: formation changes, specific man-marking, starting a particular player because of a good match up, or good form against a certain team. Examples of live tactics are: Formation changes as well, if the coach is sees a weaknesses in current formation or because of a sub, determining whether to start hoofing long balls via the keeper because of a sustained and successful counter-press by the opposition (these will be further elaborated on below)]
Man management: B (84)
Preferred formation: 4-2-3-1 (80%}
Secondary formation: 4-2-2-2 (10%)
Third Formation: 3-5-2 (10%)
Offensive Style: Possession based (determined by values below)
Build-up play
~Build up from the back: 85 (out of 0-100)
~Long-ball (keeper): 10
~Play long, diagonal balls through center backs: 25
~One CM drop between center backs: 35
In opposition half
~Ball progession (conservative-aggressive [do they do safe sideways passes in oppositions half to find weak points or do they advance it as fast as possible): 55
~Off ball movement (organized vs free movement): 50
~ Inter play (one-twos): 75
Final third
~ Inter-play (one-twos): 85
~ Incisive runs: 35
~ Shooting (in previous FIFA’s shooting used to determine the frequency of shots a team took AS WELL as how wide the team spread itself in the final third, these should be mutually exclusive): 65
~ **Width*\*: 50
~ Crossing (crossing in previous FIFA’s used to determine how wide wingers or outside midfielders position themselves in the final third, how far the fullbacks pushed up, as well as how often a team crossed, these two should not be intermingled with each other, just how shooting and width should no be intermingled): 50 (this stat is really crossing vs cutbacks, a higher value means teams prefer to cross into the box often and have players in the box to attack said crosses, a low vale means the team would rather cutback to a teammate at the to of the box or recycle the ball back into play instead of crossing the ball)
~ Fullback overlapping aggressiveness: 65
Defensive Style
In oppositions half
~Counter-press on opponents build up: 85
Type of counter-press: Pass-lane oriented
~Get back in defensive organization when possession lost in oppositions half or counter-press to aggressively get the ball back (higher value means the latter, lower value the former): 90
~Counter-press superior teams (this is extremely important, weaker clubs rarely counter-press significantly superior teams): 55
Counter-pressing style (only available to managers with at least an 84 coaching grade): Passing-Lane oriented counter-pressing
~ Tackling: 25
Own half/Defensive organization
Defensive formation: 4-5-1
~ Compactness: 45
~ Press wings: 65
~ Press midfield: 75
~ Tackling: 75
Also add SMART AI that plays extra hard when down on aggregate in Champions League
Youth Academy
- Each team should have a U15, U17, and U19 squad, in Manager mode. These squads should be randomly generated at the beginning and how good each teams youth squads are should be based on the teams youth academy star level
- Each team should have a youth academy star level (1-5). Not only does it determine how highly rated your randomly generated players in your three youth squads are, it also determines how good your scouts are at onset. If 5 stars, you get two 5 star experience and judgment scout and one 4 star experience and judgment scout. Star-level also effects how fast your youth players still in academy grow, it also effects the end of year growth
- FIFA does show the importance each team places on youth development, but it’s not nuanced enough. For example, just because a team places huge importance on youth development doesn’t mean they simultaneously place an importance on youth integration. Example: Chelsea FC (before Lampard). Chelsea place an importance on youth development which is why they’ve had the best youth academy in Great Britain for almost a decade. However, they don’t place an importance of actually promoting those youth products to the first team. So in a Manager mode, there should be two separate categories, one for the importance of youth development which parameters would be to sign at least 10 new youths to the club, if, for example the team in question placed a ‘very important’ emphasis on youth development. While, a club that placed a ‘critical’ emphasis on youth integration would require a manager to promote at least 3 academy players to the senior squad. These things are similar but NOT the same.
- Have a max of 5 youth academy scouts
- Allow at least two scouts in home country
- Since there will be U15 squads, players should be able to scout players as young as 12 and have them in that pseudo-academy that has been in place in previous FIFAs, until their old enough to play for the U15s.
- AI actively places promising academy players who are too good for their age group, in higher age groups
- Youth players who play at least 10 games in a higher age group have grow +2 at the end of the year in overall
- Managers should be able to call up any 16 year old and up player in their teams academy and subsequently be allowed to put them back down to their respected youth squad.
- Add youth leagues for the U15, U17, and U19 squads. They can be generically name ‘U19 League’ if proper licensing cannot be obtained
- Add the UEFA Youth League. Generic version is fine if license cannot be obtained
- Have U21 international squads for every country in the game
- Add youth international competition like the Toulon Tournament, U17 and U19 Euros, U20 South American Championship, and the U17 and U19 World Cup. Generic versions of these tournaments will do, if licenses cannot be procured
- Speed stat should be realistic for prospects, a 17 year old 68 pace winger should not be 92 pace by the time he’s 25 no matter how well he grows. In real life, fast players were fast when they were young, and their pace gradually increased normally over time. Bellerín wasn’t 68 pace at 15 and now the pace he is now. Maybe he was 84 or 82 but never 68.
- Be able to poach youth players from other academies
- Fix Barça B and other reserve team issues that pop up. Since Barça B is Barcelona’s reserve team. They should be incorporated into the fold of Barcelona’s academy in Career Mode
- You can be a manager starting at one of the club’s youth teams and making your way up the ladder, increasing your coaching stats, such as your coaching grade, man management etc.
- You can be a player starting in any clubs youth squad, making your way to the senior side if you’re lucky. There should be a console achievement and in-game reward for making your debut for your boyhood club
- Each country should have an individual talent rating, of 1-5, this determines the likelihood of finding a great prospects
Dear EA Sports FIFA division, if any of you devs read everything I detailed in the draft, I appreciate it. If you actually try to implement these things, you guys have the potential to create one of the best football/soccer franchises ever, even eclipsing your own standards and accolades.
Thanks for you time and consideration,
- A career mode fan
submitted by Tacticalogistics to FifaCareers [link] [comments]

Adding additional strategies, systems, and create a play to all game modes, online and offline.

In the sport of hockey there are so many more strategies and systems then the 3-4 we must cycle through and choose from every game, and it's been this way for years, oversimplifying the game in all zones. and delegitimizing the potential hockey IQ of the user, and boxing in the abilities of AI. I would like to see EA truly consult and work with pro hockey experts at incorporating more diverse and competent systems and strats, while revitalizing and bringing back the much adored "create-a-play" option for the user team captain to have options to utilize in game offline and online, even in EASHL club to practice with user team-mates and battle out online. I believe this alone may tremendously increase the overall enjoyment and competency of the game. What are your thoughts?
Also, please improve the effectiveness of North American style, fundamental dump-and-chase forecheck hockey. As well as adding an option for defensemen to chip/sauce the puck "high off the glass" out of the zone and into mid ice (yet not all the way down the ice for icing) to relieve pressure, all the while allowing proper and intelligent line changes. No more AI taking line changes on the rush in the midst of a breakout or breakaway pass!!!
Also would like more options (bring back custom cameras) in the audio visual settings to truly customize and have a legit user friendly experience. Such as change color of puck and allow puck visibility in traffic and when on the boards behind goal line in D-zone. Allow a puck trail if desired. Also allow custom ice color (or simply get rid of outdoor drop in mode and bring back indoor) so as to not blind the user.
I really don't believe for the $80+ most of us spend/have already spent on this game that it's too much to ask, should've happened years ago!!
submitted by OozyZamboozy to EA_NHL [link] [comments]

Jump Shot Mechanics/Tips

Hey everyone, I’ve seen quite a few posts/clips with people asking why they are missing open shots or what they can do to improve their percentages. I commented something similar on a post recently trying to help, but I figured I would make a bigger post for more people to see.
Here are just a few tips/explanations on how the jump shot mechanics work in 2K19. These aren’t in any order of importance.

Shot Meter

The most common complaint I see is “why am I missing this full bar?” Well, the shot meter lies a little bit in 2K, especially in online modes. A full bar is actually a little bit late as it is toward the end/past the green window. The make percentages drop drastically outside/at the edges of the window. You really want a small sliver of space at the end of your meter. We have found that the meter under your feet is a little more accurate than the meter by your head. We tried to mock what the green window looks like on the shot meter on our mini game here.
I really recommend getting used to the animations/building muscle memory and ignoring the meter if possible. Some releases have better “visual cues” on when to release than others. (more on that later)

Shot Feedback

This goes with the meter. There is not “good” feedback this year. You can be right in the middle of the green window and it will say early or late still. This is 2K’s fix for people complaining that they kept missing good feedback shots. Generally it is better to have early feedback than late.


There is a lot of justifiable complaints on how many mid-range shots miss this year. In past 2Ks, mid-range shots were pretty much automatic with every build in the game. 2K seemed to overcorrect that a little bit with this version. They actually made the green/make windows smaller than 3pt shots, but they made the percentages higher. So you need to be better at timing for mid-range shots than you do with 3pt shots.
This test was done with Base 43 at 75 mid-range and 75 3pt
Shot Type Earliest Green Green Window Green % Total Make %
Mid-Range 505mS 25mS 50% 81%
3pt 501mS 41mS 50% 73%

Catch and Shoot

Another factor big factor with shooting is when to hit the shoot button on catch and shoot shots. I did this as well before discovering this, but if you press shoot before the ball gets to you it shifts your green window early and decreases the size of the window significantly making it much harder to time the shot. In an ideal world, you would catch the ball, let your feet set, and then shoot giving you the best chance to make the shot, but obviously you don’t always have time for that. If you have to shoot right away, its best to hit the shoot button as soon as the ball touches your hands. We try to explain that a little more in this video.

Game Modes

We get this all the time, “Can you give me a rec jumper and a park jumper?” Jumpers are not better in one game mode vs the other. There are a few factors that can make them feel different.
First, the difficulties are different in each mode. We don’t know how exactly since 2K likes to keep that information to themselves (so they can change the sliders). But the different difficulties make the same jumper have different sized green windows/make percentages.
Second, the latency is different between the game modes. I generally find park to be laggier than rec which makes the timing feel different. If you play park for a month straight, you will be used to shooting on park and rec will feel way off. It goes both ways, if you get used to rec, then park will feel horrible.

Input Lag

Speaking of latency, we all know 2K’s servers are… not the best. With these online modes, the latency can affect you differently on different days, times of day, game instances, people in the instance, offline vs online modes, etc. There are a lot of factors that can delay you worse on some days than others. This is the reason why some shots feel “broke” some days. I would highly recommend playing plugged into the router vs over Wi-Fi if possible. If you can’t be plugged in directly, I’d look into a powerline adapter (depending on your house).
This suggestion is really only for the people who take this game seriously and have the means to do it. But playing on a monitor instead of a large TV makes a world of difference. The input lag is so much worse on a big TV.
I do recommend to power cycle your console every once in a while. Sometimes your console just needs a nice reboot


I’ve seen some rumors that attributes only matter if they end in 0 or 5 or something crazy, but that’s not really true, but there are 3 ratings that do change how some shots work.
60 – If your shot is below a 60, there is a big fall off in your make percentages/size of the green window. At a 60, with shooting badges, you should be able to hit at least 50-55% from the corner. My slashing shot creator has a 62 3 ball right now with silver cornecatch and shoot. He’s hitting around 60% from the corner. My pure lock SG has a 60 3 ball with silver corner and he hits at least 55%.
74 – This is a weird mechanic. But at 74 compared to a 75 3 ball, your shot speed is very different. Being below 75 shifts your green window about 40mS quicker than above a 74. The window size/make percentages are roughly equal too. So if you are making a new build, I’d recommend increasing your wingspan, so you max at 74 instead of 75. I’m not really saying that 74 > 80 or anything, but if you do have the choice between 74 and 75, go with 74. This video talks about it a little bit.
86 – This is the big one we found this year. If you have at least an 86 open shot 3 or mid, you can unlock what we call the Pure Green Window. What is it? There is a smaller Pure Green Window inside the normal green window, where if you time your shot correctly (and are open) then the shot will have a 100% make percentage. This window is small (but bigger with certain shots). This video breaks it down a little more.
Different bases have different ratings required to unlock this Pure Green Window. For example, Base 8 requires an 89 open shot 3 while Giannis requires a 99. I do apologize but this data is found on the premium side of our site, so I can’t really go into more detail on the best shot for these windows. I will say Durant only takes an 86 open shot 3 with a good sized pure green window (8ms), but this shot is a little too slow for me.

Shot Speed

This is just a little chart showing how changing the shot speed in the custom shot change the Aldridge base.
As you can see it shifts the green window around by about 22mS with each change of speed. The green window size doesn’t really change that much so we generally recommend going with the quickest option.


There is a lot of misinformation out there on what releases actually do. The biggest one is that they change shot speed. They do not change the speed of the shot. Here is a video on our best way to show “proof”
We have tried several different combinations on changing the releases, but the speed and make percentages came out the same no matter which releases we used on the same base.
So what do they do? First, different releases can give you better “visual cues” on when to let go of the shoot button at the ideal time. I’m not really an expert on this, there are a ton of videos out there on it though. I know Agent loves his visual cues. Second, higher releases do help with contested shots slightly. If you have ever shot with Eric Gordon or Shawn Marion, you know this is true. Some of the highest releases in the game are Duncan, Aldridge, and Larry Bird. Personally I’ve been using Bird/Gay 60/40 for a couple of years. I’m not saying it’s the best release, it’s just what I am used to. I actually think I found it on this sub during 2k17.


Whether you like it or not, some shots are better than others in 2k. I will say some of the differences are minor though. People always ask what the “best base” is and its really hard to say. Some bases work well for some people, but they don’t work well for others. I personally cannot time the quicker ones well so that rules out shots like LA, 11, 9, 101 etc. I have the use the medium speed shots. Bases have different sized green windows, different shot speeds, and different chances to green or go in.
I’m sure this is the big thing everyone wants to know about, and I am sorry, but the shot stats are on the premium side of the site as well. I am sorry.
There are a lot of helpful people on this sub (I do notice a few premium guys as well) and they are very good about recommending good shots. Be sure to use the search function as the question has been asked a few times.


Timing is the most important game mechanic in determining shot success. (shot IQ being a big mental factor) You have to get as close to the middle of the green window as possible. I would pick a shot where the timing feels comfortable to you and practice it. It will take some time to get used to the shot. You can’t just equip one, go 2/7 in a game and determine the shot is bad. You have to build the muscle memory and then your percentages will go up.


After all of this, sometimes you can do everything right and time it perfectly, but it still misses. Occasionally you can take poorly timed, moving, contested shots and it somehow goes in. There is some RNG involved and it can be frustrating. I’m not here to give an opinion how the state of shooting in 2K, just here to try and help a few people out.
This was a little longer than I was planning on, but I hope any of the tips help or give a better understanding of how the game works. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer I will say my best response rate is through Twitter DMs, but I try to answer everything I’m tagged in on here as well.
submitted by NBA2kLab to NBA2k [link] [comments]

MAME 0.207

MAME 0.207

It’s almost the end of February, and more importantly it’s time for MAME 0.207 to be released! We’ve added two Nintendo Game & Watch titles this month: Fire (wide screen) and Snoopy Tennis. If you’re at all interested in plug-and-play TV games, this is going to be a huge update, with all the newly-supported JAKKS Pacific titles, including Disney Princess, Dragon Ball Z, Nicktoons, Spider-Man, and Wheel of Fortune, as well as a number of matching Game-Keys. The other big batch of additions this month comes in the form of a whole lot of e-kara cartridge dumps from Japan. For younger players, we’re steadily filling out the V.Smile software list, with eighteen newly supported titles. The VGM software list has been updated with the latest video game music rips, and we’ve added some more original floppy dumps and clean cracks to the Apple II software lists.
With the latest improvements to the MIPS R4000 CPU, WD33C93 SCSI and SGI Newport graphics emulation, it’s possible to install and run IRIX in MAME. This is a milestone achievement, and wouldn’t have been possible without some amazing dedication and collaboration on the part of the contributors and team members involved. With the addition of graphics and mouse support, Windows 1.0 runs on MAME’s Tandy 2000 emulation. MAME continues to add additional variants of supported systems, including the HP 9825T and the Esselte Modulab educational system.
Newly supported arcade games include an earlier prototype of Rise of the Robots, bootlegs of Ghost Chaser Densei and The Glob, and additional versions of Raiden Fighters 2, Guardian Storm, Pasha Pasha Champ, Lethal Enforcers, and X-Men. General usability improvements include friendlier Apple II disassembly, the restoration of key map support in SDL builds (Linux/macOS), and better initial window positioning on Windows.

MAMETesters Bugs Fixed

New working machines

New working clones

Machines promoted to working

Clones promoted to working

New machines marked as NOT_WORKING

New clones marked as NOT_WORKING

New working software list additions

Software list items promoted to working

New NOT_WORKING software list additions

Translations added or modified

Source Changes

submitted by cuavas to emulation [link] [comments]

My guide to decoding Meteor M2 images

My guide to decoding Meteor M2 images
IMPORTANT: This guide is for the older Meteor M2 and NOT the recently launched Meteor M N2-2, the software is a little different for the N2-2. I added a link to the software required for the N2-2 in the end.
ALSO IMPORTANT: This thread is almost 6 months old and will be archived. That means I can't update it anymore and might contain outdated information. As of 13/08/2019 (DD/MM/YYYY), this guide is still valid. I'm working on updating my site and I will post a link to it here. Any changes will be added there when this thread is archived.
Link to updated guide:
I decided to make this guide because I think most guides make it look too complicated for what it really is and are often outdated with broken links. This guide is based on the way I decoded my first Meteor images.
This guide is made for Windows, but I'm pretty sure you can do this on Linux too with the help of Wine.
Please note: This is my way of doing it and is one of the many ways to do it. Also, English isn't my first language, please tell me in the comments when I made a mistake or when I'm unclear about something.
A few images I made with my guide.
Basic knowledge of the SDR is required, also you need to know the basics from SDR#

Installing and downloading the required programs

Installing the QPSK Demodulator plugin
Direct download
Source page (Use Google Translate if you don't speak Russian)
  1. Open the downloaded file called '' with your favourite archive opener (something like WinRAR)
  2. Open the folder meteor
  3. Copy the line from 'MagicLine.txt' and add it in the 'Plugins.xml' file. This file is located in the same directory as SDRSharp.exe. Please note that the line needs to be added between the tags.
  4. Copy and paste 'SDRSharp.Meteor.dll' and 'SDRSharp.PluginsCom.dll' in the same folder where SDRSharp.exe is located.
You now installed the QPSK Demodulator plugin for SDR#.
Downloading LRTPoffLineDecoder.exe
The original download is offline (probably forever), but I'll link it anyway. original file
Luckily there is a mirror. Mirrored file
  1. Unpack the included exe file and save it in an easy to access location. We will need it later.
Downloading LRPT Image Processor
Direct download
Source page (You can donate if you want to support them)
  1. Open the downloaded file called ''
  2. Make a new folder called 'LrptImageProcessor'.
  3. Copy all the contents from the zip file and paste them into the folder you just made.
Optional: It might be handy if you move 'LRPToffLineDecoder.exe' from the previous step into that folder too. This way everything is nicely together.

Receiving and demodulating the Meteor M2 signal

Now comes the fun part of receiving and demodulating the signal. Please make sure that any noise reduction plugins are off.
  1. Open up SDR# and go to the frequency for the Meteor M2 (currently 137.900 MHz As of 09/08/2019 (DD/MM/YYYY), Meteor M2 has switched to 137.100 MHz. It is unknown if this change is permanent! )
  2. Set the modulation type to WFM, the bandwidth to 150,000 Hz and turn Correct IQ on.
  3. Scroll down in the left window till you see 'Meteor Demodulator'. Set the modulation type to QPSK and the symbol rate to 72000.
  4. Make sure the box next to Demodulator is checked.
  5. Also make sure that the box next to File is checked and click start next to the text 'Write 0.00 MB'.
  6. The box next to tracking and TCP Socket
can be turned off.
  1. Your settings should look like this
Screenshot of the Meteor Demodulator tab
  1. Now wait till you have a signal from the satellite. It might be handy to record the baseband under the recording tab to playback the pass later if something went wrong.
  2. If the signal is strong you'll see a spike in the middle of the signal. Drag the red line from the frequency selector to the same place as the line in the spectrum. For me it is around 137.903.500 137.103.500 Hz. If you did this correctly, you'll see locked next to the frequency in the Meteor Demodulator tab.
Spectrum with the center line in it
The demodulator locked on to the signal
When the satellite pass is over, click stop in the demodulator tab. If everything went according to plan, you should have generated and file that looks something like '2019_02_23_LRPT_10-38-28.s' in the same folder as SDRSharp.exe

Decoding the demodulated signal

Open LRPToffLineDecoder.exe from the location you saved it in. When the window pops up, click the button that says '72K' and open the .s file from the previous step. The program will now decode the file. This can take some time depending on the speed of your computer. The program is done when the top loading bar is full and the bottom one empty, the stop button is also greyed out. If the first two channels are black, you probably recorded a night pass. The third channel is infrared and should now have an image.
Now make sure that the settings for the colour channels are correct. They should look like this:
R: 0.5 - 0.7
G: 0.7 - 1.1
B: 10.5 - 11.5
Important: Meteor has maintenance on the IR channels once in a while, they are then turned off for a few days. During this time channel 1,2,3 are active (0.5-0.7 , 0.7 - 1.1 & 1.6 - 1.8).
By default the B(lue) channel is 1.6 - 1.8. You can change this by clicking on it and selecting 10.5 - 11.5. Now click on Generate RGB. You should now have a new window with a red and blue image. If the image is red and black, then you have a night pass.
Click on 'Save' in the top left of the new new window. This will make a .bmp file in the same location as your .s file.

Stretching and viewing the data from the image

Open LrptImageProcessor.exe in the LrptImageProcessor folder. When the program opens click on 'File' in the top left, then click on 'Open...'. Go to the folder where your just generated .bmp file is located (by default in the same folder as SDRSharp.exe) and open it. There is a big chance the program will stop responding, this is normal and just wait. When the program responds again, you will be greeted with your image. Click on RGB-122 tab and you there you have it: your image in colour! But nothing is to scale yet and everything is thin. This can be solved by going to 'Options' -> 'Setup ...' and make sure 'Correct geometry' is checked. While you're there tick the button next to 'JPG' under 'Output format'. When you're done, click 'Done' (duhh...). The program might freeze again. If the image is upside down due to the pass being South to North, click on 'Options' and click 'Rotate'. Again, the program might freeze for a moment.
If your RGB-122 image is pure black, switch to InfraRed instead. You will now have a less colourful image of the dark.
After you've made the necessary changes, all the images should have been generated in the same folder as the original .bmp file.
Fun thing: The program shows the temperature from the location of your cursor in the bottom left.

Congratulations on pulling your first image from the Meteor M2 satellite!

Required software for Meteor M N2-2: Full credit for the above link goes to u/happysat77
submitted by melvin2204 to RTLSDR [link] [comments]

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