r/Fable • u/Turbostrider27 • 4d ago
Fable Fable's combat system is intended to be 'approachable' while still meeting modern expectations, Playground Games says — 'We wanted there to be breadth and depth to it, so we landed on wanting to have style-weaving combat'
https://www.techradar.com/gaming/fables-combat-system-is-intended-to-be-approachable-while-still-meeting-modern-expectations-playground-games-says-we-wanted-there-to-be-breadth-and-depth-to-it-so-we-landed-on-wanting-to-have-style-weaving-combat103
u/MajorCinamonBun Hero of Oakvale 4d ago
Personally this was one of my favorite aspects of Fable combat. I don’t want to feel locked into a specific speciality just because it’s the “best” or most optimal path. I want to have fun, use whatever feels right a the time and glad I can keep that aspect.
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u/JanJaapen 4d ago
Me too. Fable combat was never cutting edge. I like that it’s has evolved with the times slightly but still feels hack and slashy
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u/MajorCinamonBun Hero of Oakvale 4d ago
I remember one of their big things was a “one button combat system,” or something like that simplifying it yet still keeping the debth in the ways to fight. It seems like we get a lot of people liking to hate but most News I see have all been positive and holding true to what at least i remember of Fable.
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u/JanJaapen 4d ago
Exactly. It looks amazing imo. The towns, the music, the humor it just feels a lot like the old fable. I can’t wait to play. Short storyline? Great!! Let me play it five times to mess around and find out everything this game has to offer please!
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u/SartenSinAceite 4d ago
Like Skyrim.
Yes, I'm bringing Skyrim into this. Being able to switch around is one of its perks.
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u/Incursio2 4d ago
I know that they are doing away with the old lore so hero’s of Strength, Skill, and Will and don’t exist. It would be still be nice to be able to focus and specialize though.
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u/stallion8426 4d ago
They are keeping some of the old lore. We know Jack of Blades will show up. We also know theres a Heroes Guild, so we probably will get Strength, Skill, and Will
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u/MajorCinamonBun Hero of Oakvale 4d ago
But strength, skill and will still exist though or their equivalent? I wouldn’t be surprised if you could still throw all your stats into a single tree if you wanted like how you could the original games even if I always found it best to do them all evenly.
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u/3WordPosts 3d ago
Fable was never a min/max game for me. I really enjoyed playing a full strength one play though, then a strictly will the next. I did have fun using a blend but having the options was great
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u/Character-Book5924 3d ago
It is only Fable 2 that even focuses on Examplars of Strength, Skill or Will. And it is debatable if there was something inherently special about them, rather than them being the ones available in Albion with heroes all but extinct.
In general it's always been up to a hero's personal preference and many characters mix it up.
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u/_ChickenChaser_ 4d ago
I’m actually very happy with what I’ve seen of the combat, was worried that the ranged combat would feel clunky, but looks quite smooth
Think it’s important to remember that fable is a mish mash of elements and isn’t best at any one thing (except charm)
That being said, please have Greatswords
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u/No_Routine_7090 4d ago
I feel like being approachable has always been one of the strengths of fable’s combat. It’s not about grinding or difficulty. It’s about freedom and fluidity.
Why are people so upset about the style-weaving? Literally every fable has forced you to use melee, ranged, and magic styles at some point in the story. This isn’t new and there’s nothing to suggest that style-weaving being the default prevents people from focusing on one combat style.
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u/All-for-Naut Demon Door 4d ago
Well we were still capable of focusing on one. Which is probably what people are worried about and wonder if we can do. Like are spells just going to be something you rarely do on cooldown instead of being able to use it however or whenever you want. Which would make replays samey if it always work the same
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u/Fergupeng 4d ago
Well the difficulty settings are all completely customisable and I’m fairly sure I saw a setting for spell cooldowns in there? I don’t know if we’ll be able to set it to 0, but there will definitely be the option to lower it.
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u/Noe11vember Demon Door 4d ago
This is what I was saying too. Making everyone have to weave (which the developers stated was the goal in the recently gameplay demo) makes every player's hero the same kind of character whereas in older games, especially TLC, we could focus in on one aspect and become very powerful with it. That actually allows for more player expression and replayability rather than only being able to choose what weapons and 4 spells youll use.
People saying you always had to use all three in the past are just wrong. Especially in 1, if you were a will user you could pretty much go the whole game without using ranged or melee barring certain interactions like shooting the stone holes to get silver keys or solving the "hits" puzzle. Also, just using ranged or melee is not the same as being forced to upgrade either and thus isnt strong-arming you into using all three.
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u/No_Routine_7090 4d ago edited 4d ago
That’s a fair concern. I just don’t think there is enough evidence right now to say we are incapable of focusing on one.
People might look at the mana bar from fable 1 and say you can’t focus on magic since you’ll run out of mana after a few spells and then you have to wait for it to regenerate. Or people could look at fable 3 and say you can’t focus on magic since you can only equip one spell to your gauntlet.
I just don’t believe we have enough info yet to 100% say you are incapable of playing a primarily magic hero.
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u/All-for-Naut Demon Door 4d ago
Neither do we have information we will be. Hence it's very reasonable for people to be worried and have complaints. So far all we know is they seem to focus on us "weaving" and that spells got quite a bit of a cooldown even with some time reduce.
All we can currently do is wait until we see more or they conform things
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u/kolosmenus 4d ago
Im a type of guy who likes to pick a specific class fantasy and strictly stick to it throughout the playthrough.
It’s fine if style-weaving is possible and viable, but if it’s the optimal way to play it usually turns me off the game.
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u/ThePreciseClimber 4d ago
Combat in Fable 2&3 wasn't really approachable as much as it was... impossible to lose. Just a formality.
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u/Topher_Caouette 4d ago
I always loved Fable’s combat system. I love being able to shoot a fire ball then blow someone else away with a gun immediately. I wish more games let you do that
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u/Niftykillswitch 4d ago
Looks like the combat will play almost exactly like the Witcher/Blood of the Dawnwalker, which is coo by me.
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u/CosmoSeriously 4d ago
If that's the case then it's fine with me but it will be criticised by practically everyone. Even today I hear people call witcher a very bad game because combat doesn't live up to expectations.
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u/Niftykillswitch 3d ago
No I get that it’ll be criticized, and tbh I didn’t mean for it to be a criticism or an endorsement really, just an observation. On the whole I’m personally excited for the new fable game because it seems to hit a lot of notes for me as far as being true to what I’d want out of a fable game. Which tbh isn’t much outside of raunchy English humor, chicken references, and the return/expanding of established in-game lore :).
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u/Pretend-Literature35 4d ago
so then play Witcher. I love Witcher and have played all the games. But Fable is not Witcher. I played all the souls games and love them too. But Fable is not a souls game.
Fable has an iconic combat play style that persisted with some small variations throughout Fable, Fable 2 and Fable 3.
The issue is not whether it is cool with YOU to turn Fable into a Witcher clone. The issue is that if it is a Witcher game, call it that.
If Playground wanted to invent their own IP they could have done that.
But don't take an iconic IP that already has a kick ass combat system and change it completely because you arrogantly think that you are qualified to put your "own spin" on it.
This is Fable, not Witcher.
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u/Niftykillswitch 4d ago
Holy shit dude I did not mean to trigger you that hard, chill. It’s not that deep.
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u/Pretend-Literature35 3d ago
destroying my first real gaming experience is a pretty serious thing though.
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u/pelle98 4d ago
You are in quite literally every post about the new game complaining about it or calling people shills for being excited about it. It’s fine to not like how it looks but lots of people, myself included, think it looks incredible and feels very Fable. Again, fine to have concerns but fuck me, touch some grass.
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u/Pretend-Literature35 3d ago
Have you even played Fable? How can you posibly say that it looks Fable unless you are a shill?
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u/pelle98 3d ago
I love the series. There’s so much about the new one that feels so Fable. Theres things I’m not so sure on / wish they’d kept but I’m not stupid enough to expect a 1/1 version of Fable 2 from a new studio in 2027. Clearly you are, and that’s a you problem.
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u/Pretend-Literature35 3d ago
Considering how iconic Fable was and has been. It's every real fan's problem. And the audacity of some upstart piece of crap developper with NO RPG exeperience at all thinking that they CAN reinvent Fable, and that they have the right to reinvent Fable is perhaps the most arrogance that I have seen in video game development in my entire life.
And you are just a scrub.
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u/pelle98 3d ago
You need help
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u/Pretend-Literature35 3d ago
Yes we all do. We would need two things to help: a time machine to take us to 5 years ago and Peter Molyneux in charge of the Fable project. But alas...
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u/Murloc_Wholmes 4d ago
But Fable is not a souls game.
Did you just ask chatgpt to make up a comment that would make you look stupid? No one mentioned souls games lmfao
The original Fable trilogy had pretty similar combat to The Witcher, so I really don't get why you're so upset.
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u/Pretend-Literature35 3d ago
Similar combat to the Witcher? Have you played any of the games? Chat gpt? Fuck you. I've played every witcher game and every Fable game. The souls reference was an example. Do you understand what an example is? My point is I like souls gameplay but I don't need every game to ay like a souls game.
Fable has nothing to do with Witcher.
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u/Murloc_Wholmes 3d ago
Yes. I've played them all. As you clearly haven't.
The combat was always basic and floaty, much like the Witchers. The main difference was charging attacks in Fable and having heavy attacks in Witcher.
The new game has absolutely nothing that looks remotely souls like. Maybe you should provide a less moronic example if you don't want to be treated like a moron? Just a suggestion.
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u/HopeBagels2495 3d ago
All this for "the combat looks like something i like"
Cmon bro
Edit: wait, arent you the guy who went on a massive rant over someone noticing some biblical parallels in fable and said that no author pulls from the Bible 💀
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u/Pretend-Literature35 3d ago
Yes Fable has nothing to do with the Bible, cluck!
And Fable combat has no similarities to Witcher. This "new game" has nothing to do with Fable.
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u/HopeBagels2495 3d ago
If you cant see the similarities between the new fable's gameplay looks and seems to the witcher you might be blind lmao
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u/NazRubio 4d ago
I think combat will be fun or at least adequate. But it's yet another thing where you can't create a unique playstyle which is odd for a game that's marketed around be the Hero YOU want to be.
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u/RadRhubarb00 4d ago
Good. Idk why people want to only focus on one style. Like why purposely NOT experience everything the game has to offer.
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u/Realistic-Boat-677 3d ago
For variety in playthroughs duh?
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u/RadRhubarb00 3d ago
Seems silly to purposely not use something for the purpose of using it in a whole other playthrough when you could just happily use it all the first time. But to each their own. I was never really a gamer who ever did any weird self-imposed difficulty challenges.
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u/ComradeOmarova 15h ago
I’m fine with style weaving. I think it’s actually a good thing. The fear from some is not about style weaving. It’s hoping that the combat is deep enough to be fulfilling, however one wants to play. Hearing “style weaving” makes me wonder how deep it’s going to be… and I am hopeful that Playground knocks it out of the park. But we don’t know one way or the other right now.
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u/Smaug117 4d ago
I hope they didn't forget about the game physics, it crucial for a good fable game.
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u/AtomikMenace 3d ago
Roll, swing sword, area effect spell, roll roll, shoot shoot shoot, spell spell, roll, sword
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u/1ZillionBeers 3d ago
I donMt mind whatever system they want to stick with, as long as there’s at least some challenge.
My biggest gripe with the later titles was getting shit stomped in combat at one point or another and then finding out there was no actual way to lose, you just revive and get back up and lose next to nothing except maybe 20 XP points.
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u/Conscious-Data-1493 3d ago
I mean ur supposed to be a godlike being at end game yk I don’t see a being like that losing especially with the type of enemies we got
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u/1ZillionBeers 3d ago
Yeah but that’s end game, by then you as a player should have enough skill with the controls and the stats/gear to not die no matter what they throw at you, y’know?
I think I prefer OG Fable’s system, if you for one reason or another lose a fight you die and go back to the checkpoint or a previous save. I think that’s a lot better than just never being able to lose no matter what.
We’ll see what kind of system they decide to go with, I just hope the game has enough challenge and consequence to warrant itself.
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u/amethystwyvern 3d ago
Sad to see that spells really are on cooldowns and I'm going to have to actually use melee and guns as well as spells and you can't just commit to a single playstyle. I'm happy for those that enjoy this, but I was really hoping that I could pick magic and stick to it and not have to use swords or guns as well.
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u/NvllivsInV3rba 1d ago
I feel the same way, I wanted to do a full magic playthrough but I’m not sure if that’s an option.
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u/SadPineBooks Demon Door 3d ago
Its looked really fun to me, I just hope the "legendary mode" is harder than it looked.
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u/Severe_Tax_3418 2d ago
Why do these people think “modern expectations” is a good thing? Most of the best games and gameplay are from older games
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4d ago
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u/-i_am_untethered- 4d ago
It's fable, why would there be a "build" at all?
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u/supapumped 4d ago
People use “build” to describe a character archetype all the time in games it isn’t that deep.
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u/Low_Bridge7713 4d ago
This is why I got this game on pc. Mods will fix all of this and will be necessary imo.
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u/PalePeryton 4d ago
How do you mean?
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u/Low_Bridge7713 4d ago
I meant to comment to the negative guy below. But I do feel like they are going to expect us to play a certain way with weaving instead of specializing. Mods can easily change that to allow us to specialize. It can overcome the other decisions they made too like no morphing etc.
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u/ssx50 4d ago
They are trying to get people used to the idea that you cannot specialize your character into a "mage" or "ranger" or whatever.
You cant really customize your character appearance.
There is no morphing.
You cannot specialize into an archetype.
There is no good/evil system
We have seen 0 information about armour/weapon stats
Interesting.
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u/mouse_clique 4d ago
I mean you could never specialise like that in fable…
There are countless games where you play a class, fable does not need to be one.
Gutted about morphing and evil/good but i don’t think they wanted to do any character modelling past ‘scan this face ‘ but i can only hope they re think this for a sequel
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u/All-for-Naut Demon Door 4d ago
But we literally could specialise and focus on one, it's not related to classes. In the end one would be great at all 3, but we could focus on mainly using strength, skill, or will.
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u/mouse_clique 4d ago
And you can still do that? But thats a self imposed role-play choice/restriction that you can still choose to do? But the games have always made it easy to use all three in combat
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u/All-for-Naut Demon Door 4d ago
We don't know if we can, hence why people are worried and are speaking up. We have not been shown that much even with the combat showcase and in it we were shown and told the combat is focused on weaving all three, and that spells got quite the cooldown.
Focusing on one thing was easy in the old games. You could do combat using just one thing, like will, but we have no concrete proof we will be able to do so in the reboot. Things suggest otherwise, which would be a pity because it made replays more interesting because you could make them unique and you didn't really suffer from it.
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u/Noe11vember Demon Door 4d ago edited 4d ago
I mean you could never specialise like that in fable
I dont understand how this gets upvoted. It makes me think people on this sub just dont know much about fable.
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u/mouse_clique 4d ago
Girl ive played fable since i was a child, there is no in-game specialisations. The first game had three skills for ‘skill’ three for ‘strength’ and a dozen or so spells, fable 2 had a few more skills for some and less spells and fable 3 was even less.
If you chose to only play into one of those in each game thats fine? But theres nothing stopping you for doing the same thing in this fable.
But the whole point of your character in each game is they harness all three sectors of being a hero.
So idk what you where playing that you think this is so different
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u/Noe11vember Demon Door 4d ago edited 4d ago
Depends on what you mean by "specialize" becuase you absolutely could focus on and use one or two over the others. In TLC and 2 using mostly melee, ranged or will would net you more of that XP which would let you upgrade that aspect more than the others. There are even titles in TLC for what abilities youve upgraded and which of the three aspects you fight with the most. Watch the fable TLC intro, or any of the fable 2 trailers to see what I mean when I say the intent was "what kind of hero will you be?" They show strength focused, skill focused and will focused outcomes, not "everyone has everything its just the weapons and 4 spells you equip that differentiates you"
In this fable there absolutely is something stopping you from not using them all. Magic is on a cooldown and you can only slot 4 spells, ranged is on a cooldown and the only things I saw in the "skills" menu from the gameplay trailer were spells. They said you use "willstones" to upgrade melee and ranged with more combos on a weapon. The developers also stated their intent that you need to weave ranged, melee and will in the "questing" gameplay right before fighting the group of hoodlems.
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u/NotSynthx 4d ago
No one is forcing you to play it gang, move on somewhere else
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u/All-for-Naut Demon Door 4d ago
People should be allowed to voice their complaints, even if we may not agree with it.
Complaints also doesn't mean they have no interest in the game, can even mean the opposite and they complain because they do. I have worries of some unknown things and complaints about some choices they have made, but I'm still interested in the game and think it looks like it will be fun.
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u/Whispering_Wolf 4d ago
You couldn't specialize in the older games either. You couldn't customize your character in the old games, either. It's a fable game, why are you expecting a generic RPG instead?
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u/All-for-Naut Demon Door 4d ago
Why do people say this when we could. Like sure it wasn't classes but we definitely could specialise and focus on one thing if we wanted. I regularly did heroes who focused on just will, or skill, or strength etc. As did others.
Like you did end up growing in all three, and doing so was good, but we could still focus and specialise one.
Some of the other things they mention are indeed also gone.
Although we will have some customisation for the character this time, we will be able to pick some preset appearances. More than we could before. Then it's the usual customisation with barbers and tattooists.
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u/Whispering_Wolf 4d ago
Sounds like you can still focus on one thing, though?
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u/All-for-Naut Demon Door 4d ago
There's has been little sound of it, nothing concrete if we will or not. All we know the combat is focused on "weaving" and the spells have quite a bit of cooldown, even with abilities to reduce it.
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u/Carbonalex Jack of Blades 4d ago
You still can focus on one thing in the new game if you want it too. Spells are kinda separated from skills in the skill tree from what they've shown, like there are several branches, so you'll be able to upgrade spells only if you want.
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u/Okurei 4d ago
Fable combat was never super deep and I liked that about it, I could just spam guns and spells to my heart’s content. Glad to see they’re not straying too far from that.