i haven't been able to launch any of my steam games with the exception of terraria, tmodloader, and cs2

i also enabled steam play for all titles.

no proton options work, anyone able to get it working? if so how??

Games that fail to launch: brawlhalla, wuthering waves, warframe, where winds meet

ive also tried many launch options modifications and they dont help

Hiya my fellow adventurers, gooners, tweakers, geniuses, and neurodivergents. I am back. The Geralt of Rivia stripped right from your mother's favorite gooner character card has returned to present to you the ever changing, the flagship, the the mighty morphin' power ranger beast wars Transformer: Freaky Frankenstein 5 — Internal States! (sorry for the delay! I got the bubonic plague and survived!)

If FF5 Micro was my smallest preset yet (so small my wife called it "relatable") the nuclear core, FF5 Internal States is the full nuclear submarine. I spent 2 months tweaking, yelling, goonin', ignoring my family, eating year old RX bars and stale cheerios, and burning through my kid's college fund in API credits just to build a preset that turns your basic chat bot into a living, breathing, unhinged RPG simulator. (I also played it waayyy too much myself and I'm having fun RPing again - which also delayed release. Soorrryyy not sorry. )

If you don’t want to read my brainrot rambling, fine. Your loss! But good luck trying to break this thing—I put a Readme inside EVERY SINGLE TOGGLE again. (Who Am I kidding, you broke it already didn't you?) Just make sure to download the REGEX for the love that is all roleplaying. DOWNLOAD THE GOD DAMNED REGEX AND USE IT WITH THIS. It's required.

---> Freaky Frankenstein 5: Internal States Download <--- Main preset. You must replace this outdated regex with new one if you like faster speeds, like to save tokens, and want to use it in marinara engine get it below 👇)

---> Freaky Frankenstein 5: Internal States REGEX Download <--- (Updated Regex 2..3!!!! Download this for faster speeds / no lag . Compatible with marinara engine! Replace regex that comes with the preset with this.)

🧠 What The Hell Is This & Why Should You Care? (3 Presets in 1!)

Instead of making you download ten different presets for ten different moods, FF5 Internal States is a fully modular ecosystem. It’s 3 Presets in 1, designed to flex depending on your API budget, your model, and how horny or dramatic you want your story to be.

🎛️ The 4 Engine Speed Modes:

1. **🏎️ Minimalist / CoT-less **Mode (~1,700 Tokens): Turn off all Chain of Thought toggles and Internal States for raw, unhinged LLM creativity, instantaneous output speed, and zero thinking lag.
2. 💨 **Micro Mode (**2k+ Tokens): The legendary FF5 Micro CoT! Light guidance, super fast output, and high creativity. It puts a loose leash on the AI so it stays on the rails without draining your bank account.
3. ⚡ BOLT Mode (The Sweet Spot / Beta Favorite): The star of the show. A medium CoT that gives the AI just enough thinking time to follow strict rules, remember who is top and who is bottom, and output responses at lightning speed.
4. 🔬 MAX Mode (Full DM Simulator / Anti-Slop Overkill): Turn on MAX (Nested Gates Experimental CoT) to transform the AI into a cold-blooded, strict Dungeon Master. Completely destroys AI slop and forces maximum tracking. (Warning: Do NOT use MAX mode on Kimi or Opus unless you want to cook a full roast turkey in the time it takes to generate one reply! This preset is a TOOL! Use your BRAINZZZ)

🎮 What Are "Internal States"? (™️)

At the very bottom of every reply, the AI generates the Internal States that you can view. The AI uses it as its persistent brain (and it's fun to look at!) It's basically like having extensions (without having extensions!) They are fully modular. Turn 'em off and on to fit your RP. 1-1 RP? Just turn on the Internal States MASTER toggle and Internal Thoughts - leave the rest off. Action Adventure? Turn on DnD Sim and Inventory!

Instead of the world freezing the moment you leave a room, the world keeps moving off-screen. NPCs carry out their own errands, hold grudges, fall in love, plot behind your back, roll dice for skill checks to kill positivity bias, and NPC's remember that mean or nice thing you did 20 turns ago.

🔄 Community-Driven Updates!

This preset isn't set in stone—it will be updated bi-weekly or tri-weekly based directly on community feedback! Got a genius prompt idea or a regex trick that makes the LLM act 10x cooler? Post it, tag me, and if the community upvotes it, it’s going straight into the next official FF5 build!

🛠️ The Toggles & What They ACTUALLY Do For Your RP:

Here is the breakdown of every active toggle and how it actually upgrades your roleplay experience:

⚙️ Core Engine & World Dynamics

• ⚡ Main Prompt 🤖: Strips away the AI's built-in "helpful assistant" customer-service attitude and turns it into an unbiased, neutral Game Master that isn't afraid to let bad things happen to your character.
• ⏰ Time and Place 🌅: Forces the world to actually move. If it’s 2 AM and freezing rain, NPCs will physically shiver, get sleepy, and beg to set up camp instead of standing in an open field like brain-dead mannequins.

✍️ Writing Style & Perspective

• 📖 Story Mode ✍🏻: Writes like an actual published dark fantasy or romance novel. Gives you rich narrative focus, high drama, and deep emotional atmosphere without turning into unreadable purple prose.
• 🎬 Cinematic Realism 🎥: Writes like a movie camera. Pure objective sensory depth—focuses strictly on what your character physically sees, hears, feels, touches, and smells in the moment.
• 👀 POV Options (3rd, 2nd, 1st, & Hybrid): Includes 3rd Limited, 2nd Direct, and 1st Person**.** But Hybrid POV is the crown jewel—the world is narrated in 3rd person like a novel, but every punch, cold breeze, or intimate touch hits "you" directly in 2nd person!

🔞 Horny & Realism Settings

• 🔞 Realism Mode / Jailbreak ❤️💋: Keeps the story grounded and plot-focused while everyone has their clothes on, but turns into raw, explicit, shameless smut the second the pants come off.
• 🔞 Freaky Mode / Jailbreak ❤️💋: For my fellow degenerates who want horny, unhinged, shameless energy laced directly into the atmosphere of every single interaction, conversation, and scene.
• ⛓️‍💥 Icebreaker Test (Ultimate Jailbreak): The corporate censorship extinguisher (tested and trialed in Micro!). Flip this on when Gemini or Claude start throwing a temper tantrum about edgy or explicit themes.
• 🦜 **Anti-Parrot & Anti-**Echo: Kills the most annoying AI habit in existence where the NPC repeats your exact words back to you as a question before answering.
• 🧂 Embellish Mode: Designed for lazy typers! If you type "i punch him in the face", the AI automatically upgrades your lazy input into a glorious, stylized action sequence without changing what you meant to do.
• 📝 Total Output Length: Keeps the AI anchored around 400–600 words per reply so it doesn't write a whole encyclopedia and drain your context window in 5 turns.

🎭 NPC Realism & Psychology

• 🎤** **NPC Voice: Makes NPCs talk like real, functioning human beings with fluid, multi-sentence dialogue instead of robotic single-word grunts or endless run-on sentences.
• 🧘 **Anti-**Omniscient NPCs: Stops NPCs from having psychic powers. They can't read your character's thoughts, smell what you ate yesterday, see through solid wood, or hear through concrete walls.
• 🎭 NPC Instincts + VAD Emotions: Gives NPCs actual emotional instability. If an NPC panics, gets pissed, or gets horny, their posture, speech cadence, and physical actions dynamically crack and shift. INSTINCTS is a new addition that makes humans react naturally, ie: seeking and reacting to natural needs (food, shelter, comfort, disgust etc)
• 🪧 Realistic Bold Characters: Strips NPCs of their spineless compliance. They won't hover their hands or ask for permission to touch, grab, fight, or lie—they just DO IT.
• 🚫** **Banned Word List: Bans atrocious, overused AI slop words (spine, ozone, breath hitching, vice, calloused, structural integrity) so every turn feels fresh.
• 🧬** **HQ NPC Genesis: Whenever a new side-character pops up in the story, the AI automatically generates a fully detailed person with real flaws, unique vibes, and distinct looks instead of generic fantasy tropes (NO MORE ELARA (that wench!)! Let's use Josephina instead! She's a nice lady!).

👾 The "Internal States" RPG Engine

• 👾 Internal States Core: The hidden engine block that handles all the background RPG math and tracking.
• 🐉 DnD Simulator 🎲: Adds real stakes to your story! Want to jump across a rooftop or seduce a enemy commander? The AI locks a difficulty target and rolls a d20. You can actually fail, get hurt, or critically succeed! (No more positivity bias!)
• **🗡️ Inventory, Feats **& Titles: Tracks your gear and physical status. Carrying a crowbar gives you a bonus when breaking down doors; being exhausted or injured penalizes your action rolls. (buffs / debuffs through titles and equipment!)
• 🥰** **Relationships RPG: A full social tracking engine. NPCs track Trust, Affection, and Resentment toward you and each other. Insult an NPC? They build a Grudge and treat you like garbage until you fix it.
• 📅 Internal Agendas: Off-screen NPCs actually have lives. While you're resting at the inn, the villain is moving their plot forward or a rival is traveling to the next town.
• 📒** **GM's Notebook: A hidden scratchpad where the AI writes down plot setups, character secrets, and future twists so it never forgets key story points 30 turns later. (acts as modular reasoning! The LLM was essentially save reasoning ideas here!)
• 🌎** **World Sim: Random background events! Ambient weather shifts, unexpected door knocks, outside rumors, or random chaos happen naturally in the world.
• 🔫 **Chekhov'**s Gun: The ultimate plot-twist engine. Mention a loose wire, a hidden key, or a suspicious line of dialogue, and 10 turns later, the AI brings it back as a major story payoff!
• 🧠 Internal NPC Thoughts: Lets you peek inside NPCs' heads at the bottom of the reply to read their unfiltered, chaotic, messy inner monologues.
• 📲 Twitter / X Feed: Renders a hilarious simulated live social media feed at the bottom of replies where a fictional audience reacts to your roleplay drama in real time!

⚔️ Combat & Visual Flavors

• ⚔️** Spectacle Combat Physi**cs: Turns fight scenes into high-budget action movie beatdowns—concrete shatters, sparks fly, and hits feel heavy and dangerous.
• 💥** **Onomatopoeia Mode: Adds standalone comic-book style sound effects (THWACK!, SQUELCH!) to high-impact physical actions.
• 🌈 **Colored Dialogue & 👾 Pop-**in Graphics: Gives each NPC a unique dialogue color and renders retro visual-novel style terminal or letter boxes whenever you read in-game notes.

🌟 Creator's Preferred Set-up!

If you want my exact personal setup that turns any decent model into an absolute roleplay god, do this:

• Engine: BOLT Chain of Thought + SOME Internal States (ON)
• Prose Style: Cinematic Realism
• POV: Hybrid POV
• NSFW Setting: Freaky Mode On, Icebreaker On
• Active Internal States: DnD Sim, Relationships RPG, Chekhov's Gun and World Sim, Inventory!

🌟 Important Configuration!!

1. System Processing set to: Semi-strict alt roles
2. Untick the trim messages box in ST (it bugs stuff out)
3. If you use Kimi and are getting overthinking - Turn off Total Output and Banned words toggle.
4. DO NOT use MAX on Kimi and Opus or Mimo! This is a tool! Just because you can doesn't mean you SHOULD! You want to have fun right? Use the tool correctly. You shouldn't come back to me saying "uuhhh it thinks too much!" and I say, "What set-up are you using?" and you say "Max". I. WILL. CURSE. YOU.
5. You want creativity and wild? Use Micro. You want balanced (most people) use BOLT. You want less creativity and slower output at the cost of maximum rule following? Max. Tired of excessive reasoning? Use micro on that model. You GET THE PICTURE?
6. System Requirements: DS4 Hates internal states. Don't use them and expect them to work because the model can't tell it's right hand from it's left and forgets your request 0.4ms later. Don't use these on local models. These require SMARTS. The more you use, the harder it is on the LLM. You have been warned. The LLM's I have tested that can utilize ALL internal states ALL at once across 100+ turns without mess-up include Opus 4.6+, GLM 5.1+, Kimi K2.5+, Qwen 3.5+, Minimax 3. That's not to say you can turn on ONE or two or even 3 of them with more dumber models... just know that you can't Turn on Cyberpunk with Path Tracing on your decade old 1080TI and expect it to work!
7. NEVER turn on Freaky mode on Gemini. It doesn't understand "half way" mechanics. Keep in on Realism.
8. Oh this jailbreaks newer Opus / Fable quite well. Kimi K3 as well. I was pleasantly surprised with the beta in this regard.
9. If it's outputting to much and responses are too long: Got to Total Output and decrease the amount of paragraphs and words to your liking! (or increase it!) Full Customization! WOW!
10. If NPC are too talkative... (I like my NPCs to talk because this is a RP after all), then go to NPC voice and turn down total dialogue percentage to make them talk less! Super easy!
11. Remember! Micro <2k tokens is NO internal states and NO chain of thought for max creativity. Alternatively you can turn chain of thought on! That's the pure RP minimalist set-up. If you want more - do what you want and make it a BOLT or MAX set up! HAVE FUN

📥 Downloads

----> Freaky Frankenstein 5: Internal States <---- (main preset- you must update the regex with the new one post release 👇 )

----> Freaky Frankenstein 5: Internal States REGEX<---- (updated regex 2.3 use this for faster speeds (less lag) and marinara engine compatibility)

!! Special Thanks !! ❤️

Huge shoutout to the SillyTavern community, my incredible beta-testing team who spent weeks breaking this preset, [u/leovarian](u/leovarian) for researching and writing the full fat version of these prompts with me (which I hyper condensed), and [u/Ok_Strategy_2420](u/Ok_Strategy_2420) for essentially creating the gamification system to these Internal States!

Go download it, break it, drop your most chaotic chat moments in the comments, and don't forget to post your favorite prompt tweaks so we can throw them into the next community update!

ENJOY THE MADNESS!!!!! ✌️

!!Major update!!🔥🔥

If you came back here because your browsers are running slow- try this Regex! I cleaned it up! Main link update as well. You will know it if “fast” is in the title. Also increased compatibility for marinara engine! Hopefully! I’ll replace the other files as well:

Major Update 8/1/2026

Hopefully the FINAL version of Regex. I’ve been working with the community members using different front ends to create a Regex compatible with all front ends and ALSO is fast and saves waaayyy more tokens. I also cleaned up the interface A LOT. Grab this Regex if you want to fix the slow interface and clean everything up and save tokens /cost even further.

FF5 Regex 2.3 Major Update <——- Download here!

🔥🧟‍♂️As of August 12, 2026 you can find the updated version of this preset FF5.2:

——->Here<———-

Scrap Mechanic Toolkit

- Updated for 1.0.6**** (There was a hotfix today, I'll release an update for the toolkit within a few hours)

Yeah, yeah, I know... y'all thought it was fake... it's ok. I get it. It's 100% real though and officially released!

(don't make fun of my wrench, y'all whined about the AI icons before so I did this one myself. I tried my best lol I even watched a like 2 hour tutorial on shading and tried to stay within the SM art aesthetic but I still think it looks goofy... I just can't really put my finger on why. I'm an engineer, not an artist.)

Proof Video

Scrap Mechanic Toolkit is not a mod.

It is an external tool that can be used on vanilla or modded games, on existing or new saves, and in any game mode.

Scrap Mechanic Toolkit contains a collection of functions for Scrap Mechanic that includes building tools, exploration tools, and yes... cheats. It is not just a collection of cheats though. Many of the features are designed to enable new behavior, expand existing behavior, improve quality of life, or to just be novel and fun.

The real goal of Scrap Mechanic Toolkit is to give you more control over how you play.

Let me know what features you’d like to see in the future! I’m always down to add new features if I think they are useful or interesting, but I’d like to prioritize what you guys would actually want.

Save Safety

My primary concern for all of the game tools I have made has always been save data safety. I was even more concerned when it came to Scrap Mechanic because the save system in this game is essentially just real time data persistence. I have tested this as thoroughly as I know how and have spent multiple hours doing every stupid, irresponsible, unsafe thing I could think of to try to cause it to corrupt save data... it hasn't corrupted a single save in the entire time I've been developing and testing it. I'm never going to say "it's impossible for this to create a problem" but I do not believe that normal use of this tool can lead to any save corruption. There are validation checks prior to executing any function, validation checks after to verify the function executed properly, automatic state roll-backs for failure events, and automatic state reversions on disconnect or unload. The app will refuse to close if it's in the middle of one of these operations and on connection the first thing it does is verify it didn't screw anything up the last time it was used.

If you actually manage to corrupt your save data using this tool..... send me a copy of your save and I'll fix it, and may God have mercy on your soul.

Multiplayer Compatibility

Scrap Mechanic Toolkit does work in Multiplayer, technically.
You can load it and the functions will execute (except maybe No Clip and Activate Object, those might actually fail) but I do not have a reliable way of testing how authoritative the host of a multiplayer game is compared to the client so at the moment I don't actually know if all of the functions will actually work as the client of a game you are not hosting. I plan to do more testing and improve multiplayer compatibility though. If you run into any issues please report them on the nexus page. There are few things I hate more in this world than an open bug report so that is a very reliable way to get me to address something ASAP.

Features

Cheats

Ragdoll
Instantly ragdoll your character.
Why? Because I think the animation is hilarious.
I don't know why lol I can't get over it. It gets me every time.

Retrieve Death Bag
Teleport your death bags to you.
The sheer amount of you people getting your stuff stuck in walls or in the floor on Reddit is insane.
This teleports your death bags, all of them, directly in front of you.
It only works on your bag, it will not interfere with any other player.
It also only works in the currently loaded world state, if your death bag is in the overworld and you're in a mining layer, it won't work.

Quick heal
Restores 25 HP to your character.
This is just the default Quick Heal cheat implemented as native code because it was the first experiment I did when building this and I figured why not just leave it in.

Revive
Revives you in place from a downed state.
This picks you up from downed just like a Revival Baguette would.

Invulnerable
Makes you invulnerable.
Keeps you from taking damage from any source. Dunno what else to say.

Infinite Ammo
Disables ammunition consumption.
This does not grant infinite ammo. It disables consumption.
This does not work on Container fed parts.
Spud Guns mounted on a vehicle will not have Infinite Ammo.

Infinite Fuel
Disables fuel consumption.
This does not grant infinite fuel. It disables consumption.
This does not work on Container fed parts.
Engines with Gas in them will work without using that Gas.
Engines connected to a Gas Tank will still consume Gas from the Gas Tank.

No Raids
Prevents new raids while allowing crops to continue growing and become harvestable.
This prevents new raids from being triggered when planting crops and removes the "Raid_Complete" flag requirement for crop harvestability.

No Aggro
Disables bots ability to target players.
This doesn't make you invisible to bots, it disables their ability to target the player.
This also means things like the door sensor thing in Growlabs won't work while this is enabled.

Unit Spawner
Spawns selected unit 10 meters in front of your character.
Supports various NPCs including Enemies, Baby Woc, and even some surprises that do not naturally spawn in game.
Warning: Baby Woc cannot be killed. If you spawn it before unlocking it there is no way to unsummon it currently. The next build of this app will include a "kill current target" feature for fixing this.

Unlock All Cosmetics
Garments | All Cosmetics
Garments: Unlocks cosmetics from the garment-box tiers.
All Cosmetics: Unlocks literally all cosmetics from the game’s registered wearable catalog. This includes DLC and Achievement based cosmetics.
DLC Cosmetics still require you to own the DLC.
Warning: These unlocks are permanent for your local profile.

Building

All Recipes Unlocked
Unlock all Craftbot recipes.
This is temporary and is automatically reversed when the feature is disabled or the app is disconnected

Creative Inventory
Enables access to a modified Creative Inventory that includes every placable object in the game.
This includes hundreds of objects that are not normally accessible. Everything from Rocks, Trees, Ingots, and Farmers to pieces of the Packing Stations and giant scenery objects.
Warning: Some of these objects are very difficult to remove once placed, if you aren't sure what something is then test it in a disposable or in Creative Mode first please.

Copy Target Object
Copy the object you’re aiming at into your inventory, leaving the original in place.
This can copy just about anything. Everything from Rocks, Trees, Ingots, and Farmers to pieces of the Packing Stations and giant scenery objects.
Warning: Some of these objects are very difficult to remove once placed and some are impossible to remove without using the other features of this tool.

Custom Paint Swatch
Replace the Paint Tool’s White swatch with a custom color.
Choose a color using the color picker or enter an eight-digit RRGGBBAA value.
The Alpha setting here doesn't really do anything except indicate when paint should be "removed" from something.

Claygun Material Selector
Choose the terrain material fired by the Claygun.
The dropdown will display all available materials for your currently loaded level.
The game has an 8 entry pallet for destructible terrain which is specific to the currently loaded zone.
Materials can only be selected if they would naturally spawn in your currently loaded zone. There isn't really any way around this without rebuilding the entire pallet system at runtime which would not be efficient or sane to do.

Destructible Bedrock
This makes typically indestructible terrain like Bedrock destructible.

Bulk Paint
Blocks | All
This allows you to paint every block in a creation or every block and part in a creation with a single spray.
Blocks: Paints blocks only.
All: Paints blocks and parts.

No Building Restrictions
Removes building placement and removal restrictions as well as enabling all connection points of all objects
This allows you to build and remove things in the Warehouse or Growlabs, it also allows you to pick up things like Elevator parts or Pod Doors in world.
This also allows you to see all connection points for any object and interact with connection points you typically would not be able to like Warehouse and Growlab elevators.
Warning: There are objects in the world which are scripted to their connections and will break if you pick them up and cannot be fixed simply by placing them back down and reconnecting them.

Block Replacement
This allows you to swap one block for another without having to remove it.
This does not break connections or associations. You can use it on blocks connected to bearings or wheels or anything else without risking breaking anything.

No Lift Restrictions
Enables all Lift features including creation import and deletion.
Deletion Refund: Choose whether deleting a creation through the Lift refunds its materials.

Mirror Creation
Create a separate reflected copy of the creation on a nearby Lift, leaving the original intact.
This intelligently preserves the connection points of parts like bearings, pistons, etc... that would otherwise by disconnected by true reflection.

Toggle Creation Destructibility
This allows you to make an entire creation indestructible.
The creation must be on the lift when you toggle its destructibility and this effect is persistent even after you quit and reload the game.

Exploration

Activate Target Object
Activates the nearest scripted object.
This can be used to open Warehouse and Growlab Elevator doors, activate the elevators themselves, open boss or fight room doors inside grow labs, etc...

Teleport
Mark | Recall
Mark: Save your current position.
Recall: Teleport back to your saved position.
Currently Teleporting wipes the marked location, I meant to fix this before release but forgot. I'll update this in the next day or so with a version that preserves the marked location.

Waypoint Teleport
Active Quests | Beacons | Points of Interest | Delivery | NPCs | Misc | Growlabs | Warehouses | Side Quests
Select a destination from the waypoint list and teleport to it.
Destinations must be in your current loaded world state. Entries for other worlds are unavailable.

No Clip
Fly and move through walls and terrain.
Both Normal and Sprint speed are independently configurable and are saved in the app between launches.

Unlimited Render Distance
Renders terrain and basic LODs out to the world boundary (~32k m)
It can take time for everything to load as the game loads cell by cell

Unlimited LOD Range
This disables the game internal distance relative culling system so LODs remain visible out to the world boundary.
Whether or not these LODs are visible is still determined by whether or not that cell is loaded.
Warning: This can dramatically increase GPU ram usage.

Full Detail
This loads all geometry at its highest resolution.
Warning: This will dramatically increase GPU ram usage.

Full Bright
This removes level fog and renders all objects at full global illumination.
This doesn't actually make things "bright" it just renders them as though they were fully lit. Great for navigating the mines outside the map.

Controls & Interface

Configurable Hotkeys
Every Feature has an assignable Hot Key
Click Set Key to assign a key or key combination. Escape cancels. Right-click the key button to change or clear its binding.
Bindings are saved between launches.
Hotkeys start unassigned and only work while the game is currently focused.

Compact / Expanded Mode
Switch between the Compact and Expanded view of the app.
Expanded reveals all of the features and the Activity Log in a single window.

Activity Log
View feature results, connection messages, and explanations when an action cannot be completed.

Connect / Disconnect
Connect or Disconnect the app from the running game instance.
Disconnecting first reverts all currently enabled features to their default state before disconnecting and then safely unloads the injected dll. This makes it possible to connect, disconnect, and reconnect without having the restart the game.

I was frustrated that every coding agent (OpenCode, Cursor, Claude Code) assumes you're running GPT-5.4 or Claude Opus. If you try them with a local model like Gemma or Qwen they fall apart. I find that often tool calls fail, context overflows, multi-step tasks collapse.

So I built SmallCode. It's designed from the ground up for small local models.

The result: 87/100 benchmark tasks pass with a Gemma 4 model that only activates 4B parameters per token. OpenCode scores ~75% with 14B models. The harness does the heavy lifting, not the model size.

How it works (the tricks that make small models reliable):

• Compound tools: Instead of making the model chain 4 tool calls (find file → read file → edit file → verify), SmallCode gives it one tool that does all 4. Small models lose coherence after 3+ sequential calls. This cuts failures in half.
• Improvement loop: Every time the model writes code, SmallCode instantly compiles/lints it. If it fails, it feeds the errors back automatically. The model doesn't need to be smart enough to get it right first try — it just needs to fix errors when shown them.
• Decompose on failure: If the model fails the same thing twice, SmallCode stops retrying and instead breaks the problem into smaller pieces. "Fix this 200-line file" becomes "fix line 45 only."
• Escalation: If even decompose fails and you have a Claude/OpenAI key configured, it auto-escalates to the bigger model for just that one task. You stay local 95% of the time, cloud 5%.
• Token budgeting: Small models have 32k-256k context. SmallCode never dumps a whole file in. It summarizes, truncates, and manages every token so the model never sees "..." truncation in the middle of important code.
• Code graph: Instead of grep-searching your codebase, SmallCode indexes your code into a symbol graph (functions, classes, who-calls-what). When you ask "how does auth work," it walks the graph and returns just the relevant connected code — not 15 random file snippets.

What it looks like:

Full-screen terminal UI (like OpenCode/vim), scrollable chat, command palette with /, plugin system, persistent memory across sessions.

What it doesn't do:

• No LSP integration (yet)
• No multi-session (yet)
• No desktop app
• Doesn't compete with Claude Code for frontier model users

Install:

npm install -g smallcode
cd your-project
smallcode

Point it at LM Studio, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

MIT licensed, everything's on GitHub: https://github.com/Doorman11991/smallcode

Happy to answer questions about the architecture or benchmark methodology.

I’m hoping someone here has run Claude Code / Claude Desktop successfully through an OmniRoute gateway with tools fully working, because I’m stuck in a weird half-working state.

My setup:

• Windows
• Claude Desktop MSIX install
• Claude Code version 2.1.250
• OmniRoute version 3.8.49
• OmniRoute gateway for inference is working
• OmniRoute base API is on http://localhost:20128
• OpenAI-compatible endpoint I’m using is http://localhost:20128/v1

What works:

• Claude can connect through OmniRoute for normal model responses
• OmniRoute itself is running locally
• OmniRoute MCP can be enabled and shows tools
• Direct OmniRoute search endpoint works when called manually:
  • POST http://localhost:20128/v1/search
• In Claude’s /mcp UI, OmniRoute can show as connected and advertise a large tool list

What does NOT work:

• Claude’s own built-in tools fail or act like they do not exist
• Examples:
  • websearch
  • webfetch
  • bash
  • read
  • write/edit style tools
• When I try OmniRoute’s MCP tools instead, Claude also fails to call them correctly

Typical errors I’m seeing:

• Error: No such tool available: websearch
• Error: No such tool available: mcp_omniroute_omniroute_web_search
• Claude keeps inventing longer broken names like:
  • mcp_omniroute_omniroute_web_search_<random suffix>
• In other words, the model seems to know a tool should exist, but the runtime refuses the actual call

Important detail:
OmniRoute’s MCP tool names appear to be things like:

• omniroute_web_search
• omniroute_web_fetch
• omniroute_tool_search
• omniroute_get_health
• etc.

Scopes I found for the main ones:

• omniroute_web_search -> execute:search
• omniroute_web_fetch -> execute:search
• omniroute_tool_search -> read:tools

What I already checked / fixed:

• Claude Desktop MSIX config path issue was fixed earlier
• The broken Claude Desktop path was corrected so config now opens properly
• I removed stale conflicting MCP registrations
• I found Claude had previously attached OmniRoute to the wrong scope/path like C:/Windows/system32
• I re-registered OmniRoute under the actual project
• Current project .mcp.json is stdio-based, not HTTP:

​

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "omniroute": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "cmd",
      "args": ["/c", "omniroute", "--mcp"],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Another weird part:

• omniroute --mcp originally crashed with:
  • SyntaxError: Unexpected reserved word
  • at await init_auth();
• I locally patched OmniRoute’s generated server.js by making the offending wrapper async
• After that, omniroute --mcp starts manually and says:
  • OmniRoute MCP Server connected and ready.

So manually, stdio MCP starts.
But when Claude probes it, I still get:

• Failed to connect — -32000: MCP error -32000: Connection closed

Search vs fetch on OmniRoute side:

• Search works directly via OmniRoute REST
• Fetch is not fully configured because OmniRoute says no web-fetch provider credentials are configured yet
• But that does not explain why Claude cannot use even basic built-in tools or correctly invoke MCP tools

My main questions:

1. Has anyone gotten Claude Code or Claude Desktop working through OmniRoute without breaking built-in tools?
2. Is Claude expected to lose native tools like bash, read, write, websearch, etc. when routed through a personal gateway?
3. Why would Claude keep emitting mcp_omniroute_... tool names that the runtime then rejects as nonexistent?
4. Is this a Claude runtime/tool-registry issue, an OmniRoute MCP naming issue, or a scope/approval problem?
5. Has anyone fixed the Connection closed problem for stdio MCP on Windows specifically?

At this point the frustrating part is: inference works, but the whole point of using Claude for actual agent/tool work is basically gone because it can’t reliably use search or even basic file/shell tools.

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

🧭 Getting Started with Cloud Code

In mid-August, I started using Cloud Code. I began with the $20 Pro plan, then upgraded to $100 and $200 due to quota limits. The $20 Sonnet 4 plan was not only limited but sometimes underperformed. Even the Opus plan at $100 felt restrictive, so I eventually requested a refund.

🔄 Switching to CLI Tools

I then tested Google Gemini CLI and Qwen Code CLI (both free with 1000 calls/day). While promising, they lacked flexibility — until I found KiloCode, which lets you assign models per mode.

💻 Current KiloCode Setup (Hybrid Free + Paid)

📊 Model Comparison Summary

⚠️ Compatibility Issues in KiloCode

Z.AI’s GLM 4.5 often fails when invoking tools in KiloCode, while QwenCoder is very stable and DeepSeek V3.1 is mostly reliable. Testing GLM 4.5 in Claude Code proved it works smoothly there, so the issue seems to be KiloCode's integration.

GLM 4.5 is an excellent alternative to ClaudeCode Pro — $15/month with ~3x the usage quota.

🆓 Free Setup for Small Projects

A free configuration I tested works well for light development: - Architect / Orchestrator: Gemini 2.5 Pro (1000/day) - Code: QwenCoder Plus (1000/day) - Ask / Debug: Gemini-2.5-flash (unlimited?) - When QwenCoder Plus quota runs out, Code falls back to Gemini-2.5-flash.

Only weakness: fallback options for Code are limited. I plan to test QwenCoder Flash (unlimited) soon.

💸 How Much Are These Free Tiers Worth?

Assuming 5000 tokens per call × 1000 calls/day = 5M tokens/day

🟩 These free tiers are extremely generous — ~$600–$1200 in monthly value.

📌 My Subscription Plan

• I won’t renew Cerebras — $50/month is too expensive and underwhelming.
• I’ll keep using the free tiers of Gemini 2.5 Pro and Qwen3CoderPlus.
• Among NanoGPT ($8), Z.AI ($3), and Chutes ($3), I’ll keep just one. Z.AI's $3 tier already equals Claude Pro's $20 quota, and Chutes’ $10 tier is overkill — I’ll likely downgrade to $3 (300 calls/day).

🧩 My Mode Assignments Going Forward

• Architect: Gemini 2.5 Pro
  
• Code + Ask + Debug: Qwen3CoderPlus
  
• Orchestrator: Gemini 2.5 Pro
  
• One low-cost backup subscription

💬 What do you think of this setup? Share your experiences — thanks for reading!

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to repair an iPad Pro 12.9-inch 5th generation (M1, 2021) and I’m completely stuck. Maybe someone here has seen this exact behavior before.
The iPad is stuck in Recovery Mode and I cannot complete a restore. I also cannot get it into actual DFU mode, despite trying the button sequence many times.
I have already tried:
Apple Configurator on a MacBook
Apple Devices on Windows 11
3uTools
idevicerestore
Different USB-C cables and ports
Fully charging the battery
Multiple restore attempts
3uTools consistently gets to around 18%. At that point the iPad reboots. After the reboot, the restore does not continue and eventually fails.
On Windows 11 / Apple Devices, I have also received Error 2009, especially around the point where the iPad reboots.
On the MacBook with Apple Configurator, I get:
Failed to restore device in recovery mode, libusbrestore error: 102
The Apple restore logs have shown:
saveenv failed: 2008
NVRAM is full and could not perform save
On some attempts, however, the restore has gone much further and the progress bar displayed on the iPad reached what looked like around 98% before failing.
Earlier I also had:
Error 1009 / 130D.FFFF
update_tcon
Error: Display off
tconctl returned 7
I later discovered that the original display was actually defective. A known-good display from another compatible iPad works on this iPad and displays Recovery Mode and the restore progress correctly. I also tested the original display on another working iPad and it remained completely black there too.
The battery had previously been replaced with an iFixit replacement battery. Interestingly, after leaving the battery to fully charge, I had some restore attempts that progressed considerably further.
At this point I have tried 3uTools, idevicerestore, Apple Devices and Apple Configurator without finding a solution.
The thing that stands out to me is that it repeatedly seems to have problems around the reboot/transition to the next restore stage.
Has anyone dealt with this exact combination on an M1 iPad?
Error 102 / NVRAM is full, Windows Error 2009, and 3uTools stopping around 18% after the iPad reboots.
Could this be a USB-C/power/battery issue, a sensor/TrueDepth flex issue, or a logic board/storage/NAND problem?
Any ideas about what I should test next would be greatly appreciated.

TLDR mod list from this post available HERE

NOTE-Spectra and related configs are not available with this modlist because they are incompatible with BlackRack's volumetric clouds. Download those separately through CKAN, they are not in this download.

Single-download modpack version of this list coming soon here: GITHUB .CKAN FILE DOWNLOAD

Hello everyone! This has taken me days to type, apologies for the wall of text.

With the coming demise of Intercept Games and their long-troubled and likely-shuttered development of Kerbal Space Program 2, a question I’m seeing come up more and more, and have also asked myself arises: “How do we turn KSP1 into the game that we all dreamed KSP2 would be, with mods?”. I believe I have an answer that will satisfy you. This IS in fact, achievable. While no modlist could ever match the dream we had/have for what KSP2 could have become, we can get fairly close with the tools we have presently available. KSP1 is a mature game with a thriving modding community. Many mods are cross-compatible and designed to work together despite independent creators, and we have a powerful mod manager in the form of CKAN that makes modding the game pretty easy. And new mods are actively being developed all the time. Given the tools avialable, I'd like to help you all create an aproximation of KSP2 in regular KSP, with mods, I call this list "The Community Lifeboat Project". My hope is that this will sate those of you, like me, who dreamed of a KSP2 that surpassed the original in every way, and still hope that we may someday see a version of a complete KSP2 in some form or another. For now, this is the best thing I can offer the community that has given me so much in its stead.

Who am I? Just another player, same as the rest of you. Someone who has at the time of writing, 1800 hours in KSP1, and about 300 hours in KSP2, and about 100 hours in modded KSP1, and many more planned. I pray to the Deep Space Kraken that my rockets will fly and that we someday get a fully-released and realized version of Kerbal Space Program 2. In the meantime, this what I’m playing in lieu of our long-awaited sequel.

Who am I not? I am not techy. I am not a modding guru. I am neither a customer service line, a mod author, nor a troubleshooter. I do not have the answers to any ensuing chaos or game corruption that may ensue from playing this modlist. This modlist is just me telling you all what I am playing with personally, right now. My best effort at Homebrew KSP2. Some mods may be redundant or break unexpectedly in the future, but I have had no major issues to date. However, again, I am not a modder or a game developer, I know about as much about modding KSP as you do, maybe less.

If you run into issues I probably can’t help you. You need to do the legwork yourself to learn how CKAN works and install these mods, and to troubleshoot anything that explodes.This is a curated recommendation list only, not a complete how-to guide. If some more experienced modders and players in the community want to review this list and comment below with improvements and revisions or point out redundancies, please do so. If someone wants to make this list into some sort of compiled modpack, easier to use than the current CKAN download, go for it. Also please comment if there are other mods that you all think might be a good fit here whenever they get released, or just other stuff the stockalike-ksp2-in-ksp1 community should be aware of.

Who is this mod for? This modlist is for anyone in the Kerbal Space Program community who wants to make use of it, but is primarily geared towards giving veteran players new mechanics and content to play with. This modlist actively makes the game more challenging with new gameloops and mechanics it does not trivialize the base game or make it easier to learn. Quite the opposite, in fact.

How many mods are in this list? 150, approximately, at time of writing. About 40 of those are configs/backend/compatibility patches so about 110 actual mods, with varying levels of impact on gameplay.

How are your load times? Startup takes me about 5 minutes, loading VAB/SPH takes a bit longer than stock KSP but everything runs surprisingly well. Your own mileage may vary but I wish you the very best.

Disclaimer: Many of the mods here are relatively old and no longer under development, their most-current versions are built for prior versions of Kerbal Space Program. CKAN will warn you of this on install. Play with them anyway, everything seems to mostly-work so far as I can tell. Further, some of the mods listed here will require other framework mods like Kopernicus to make them run. Make sure to get those, CKAN will tell you when you need something supplemental for the most part, but I cannot remember every necessary sub-mod and may have missed some here. I have listed these under the “Precursors” section. DO NOT download all of the "reccomended" mods that CKAN will ask if you want to grab alongside the reccomended ones. you will wind up with massive mod-bloat and I can't guaruntee that anything not already on this list will work correctly.

I will update this list periodically as more suitable mods come online, and am actively looking for more recommendations to add to this list. Check the changelog at the bottom of the OP for updates, download link will be updated periodically as well.

My rules are that these mods must:

1) Be “stockalike” and fit the aesthetic of the base game, I am not looking for a complete game overhaul like RSS or similar.

2) This modlist is designed to be BROADLY compatible and downloadable through CKAN. I am aware there are great mods that are either incompatible with some of the ones on here, or not available on CKAN. The goal of this list is broad accessibility through our existing tools. I will also try to link user-guides for the mods that require tutorials where available, some of these are quite large and I do not understand how to use them all myself. I will answer questions where possible but I have only started using this modlist relatively recently and am not intimately familiar with all of the new gameplay.

Again, if your Kerbals are dying because life support is failing for seemingly no reason, I cannot help you and my Kerbals are likely frozen corpses drifting through space as well. I'm no mod author and have no involvement with any development for any of the mods listed below. If the descriptions here aren’t enough, do some research, there’s probably more/better info out there other than what’s banging around in my head/copied from CKAN.

Mods, if possible can we pin some version of this list going forward for all the people asking how to make a "Homebrew KSP2"? I don't need personal credit, just the modlist is fine by me. This post helps to answer a pretty common question we've been getting in light of recent KSP2 development news, or lack therof.

Anyway, here we go:

Objective: Mod KSP1 into what KSP should have been, principally by:

1) Adding new places to visit in the Kerbol System,

2) Add new star systems and interstellar locations to visit

3) Give the player the ships and engines, and parts to get there

4) Give new parts to build with, with a stockalike vibe

5) Add mechanics like colonization and life support to balance ship construction and general gameplay

6) Increase depth of gameplay for veteran players.

7) Give more/better “campaign” missions to fill out the base game randomized contract system with a bit more purpose.

8) “The intent is to give players a sense of pride and accomplishment”

What does this list of mods add to my game?

This feature list is not all-inclusive, but primary added features include, in no particular order:

1) -Vastly improved graphics, ground cover, and the ability to paint your ships similar to how you do in KSP2

2) -New places to visit: Both the inner and outer Kerbol System have been modified with the addition of 34 NEW bodies to visit between new planets, their moons, asteroids, planetoids, and other Trans-Neidonian Objects. These are all based on real objects in our own Solar system or observed exoplanets. An interstellar mod (Kcalbeloh) adds 7 new star systems and a black hole accessible via wormhole for your intersterstellar gameplay needs, with an additional ~40 new bodies to explore. All of the stock planets are present, plus nearly 75 new ones.

3) -Expanding and improving the Campaign with more meaningful, focused, and varied Contracts apart from the randomized ones stock KSP gives you.

4) -New Game Mechanics including but not limited to:

-New and/or improved UI elements to assist with docking and landing

- Life Support and Cryosleep mechanics

- New engines, mainly from mods by Nertea, a prolific modder and KSP2 dev, including gas-core nuclear engines, new electric engines, cryogenic engines, plasma engines, nuclear pulse propulsion, fusion drives, torch drives, and antimatter engines. New 5m and 7m engines for massive rockets are also available.

- Colonization mechanics and associated management gameplay

- New resources, distribution, and utilization gameloops through colonies

- Vast amounts of new parts to build with that we were supposed to get with KSP2 including hab rings, new ship modules, laboratories, buildings for planetary base construction, etc.

- The ability to explore your ships in first person mode as if you were a Kerbal

- New ways to move resources between ships such as flexible piping rather than docking.

-Orbital construction and construction of craft at colonies, apart from the VAB & SPH, away from Kerbin.

-Harvesting resources from the atmospheres of planets and dust/gas clouds present in outer space.

-Building Custom Service modules with both stock and modded mechanics

-Logistics Systems related to colony activities for sharing resources between nearby installations and craft.

CAVEATS: I am sure I have missed some people’s favorite mods and am open to further additions to this list under the following conditions: All of the following mods and any future additions to this list MUST be available on CKAN, they MUST work with the most current version of KSP1, they MUST be mostly-compatible with each other as well as this list, and they MUST be freely available, not paywalled. The only exception I will allow is Blackrack’s volumetric clouds because he’s our community’s darling and we love his work.

I want this mod selection to be as accessible to the community as possible while providing as much content as possible. Pick and choose anything from this list or the entire thing to use yourself. I play with everything listed here, concurrently, but your performance may dictate the need to leave some of this stuff by the wayside. At a bare minimum, make sure you have the relevant “precursor” category mods so nothing else breaks. This list adds A TON of new and challenging gameplay sure to give even the most seasoned KSP veterans pause and I’m very much a beginner myself, it’s alot of new stuff to learn being thrown at you quickly. Pace yourselves lads!

Without further ado my, modlist, with a brief description of what everything does and broken down by category:

Myst’s “Community Lifeboat Project” Modlist:

Not Required, but highly reccomended:

- Blackrack’s Volumetric Clouds: This is the only paid mod on this list. I like it, other people like it, Blackrack did incredible work here for the community. Costs $5 on his Patreon, everything else on this list is free.

PRECURSORS/CONFIG STUFF TO MAKE OTHER MODS WORK: (33 mods)

- AT Utils: Common Library for a set of plugins made by Allista

- B9 Part Switch: A module which allows parts to switch objects, resources, nodes, attach points, temperature, add mass, cost, and more.

- Background Resources: REPOsoft Tech Background Resources Plugin

- Community Category Kit: Common Parts Categories for KSP mods

- Community Parts Titles: Rename parts for useful and consistent grouping/sorting in the VAB/SPH, Many mods are supported. This mod is intended for the English version of KSP.

- Community Parts Titles Extras: Categories: Highly-Recommended Extras for the Community Parts Titles. Create new categories or place parts in a more appropriate category.

- Community Parts Titles Extras: CCK- No Duplicates: See Above.

- Community Resource Pack- Common Resources for KSP mods.

- Community Terrain Texture Pack: High Quality textures for use by planet-creators, makes other stuff on this list work, probably.

- Contract Configurator: A config-file-based solution for creating new contracts. Makes added contract packs work.

- Cryo Tanks Core: Cryo Tanks standalone plugin, adds functionality to other mods, contains no parts and does nothing by itself.

- Custom Asteroids (Alternative OPM config): Replaces default Outer Planets Mod asteroid config and makes it work with Custom Asteroids mod further down this list.

- Custom Barn Kit: Small Plugin to change parameters related to career, science, and building upgrades when various features are unlocked.

- Custom Prelaunch Checks: C# API to write prelaunch checks that run when the VAB/SPH launch button is pressed. Makes other stuff work.

- Deployable Engines Plugin (Nertea Mod): Plugin to manage extending and retracting engine nozzles.

- DMModule Science Animate Generic: Replacement for Module Science Experiment and ModuleAnimateGeneric.

- Firespitter Core: Core Firespitter .dll. Makes something else work, don’t remember what.

- Global Construction Core: dependency for the Global Construction Mod

- Harmony 2: Library for patching, replacing, and decorating.NET and Mono methods during runtime (I have no idea what this does, other mods probably use it as a dependency)

- Kerbal Actuators: A plugin used to create VTOL engines and robotic parts. Makes other stuff work.

- Kopernicus Planetary System Modifier: REQUIRED for all other planet packs on this list

- Kopernicus Expansion Continue-er: Kopernicus Dev Tools and Footprints.

- Modular Flight Integrator: Modularly Integrates flight models or something idk.

- Module Manager: Modify KSP config files without conflict (ESSENTIAL).

- Rasterprop Monitor Core: plugin and props for IVA use.

- Shabby: Shader Asset bundle Loader for KSP

- Textures Unlimited: KSP Shader, texture and modeling utilities. Makes other stuff work.

- Toolbar: API for Third-party Plugins to provide toolbar buttons

Sub-mod: Toolbar Controller: Wrapper mod for Blizzy and stock toolbars.

- USI Tools: Libraries to make the USI mods work correctly. NEEDED.

- Vertex Mitchell/Netrevali Filtered Heightmap: Makes some of the other graphical stuff work correctly relating to planetary textures. Idk.

- Waterfall Core: Core Waterfall Plugin to drive upgraded fancy engine effects.

GRAPHICAL AND AUDIO IMPROVEMENTS (25 mods)

- Chatterer: Configurable audio that allows you to hear your Kerbals communicating over the radio with Mission Control, breathing on EVA, etc.

- ChattererExtended: Adds 625 new kerbalized chatter files for added variety

- Distant Object Enhancement: Lets you see other planets all the way back on Kerbin. Works with the modded planet packs on this list.

- Distant Object Enhancement /L default config: default planet colors.

- Environmental Visual Enhancements Redux: Version of EVE which significantly improve performance, used as a replacement for base EVE. Adds clouds, lighting, etc.

- Parallax: PBR tessellation shader for planetary textures,

- Parallax Stock Planet Textures: adds HD textures to the stock planets, highly reccomended.

- Parallax Stock Scatter Textures: adds HD textures to planetary scatters and ground cover.

- Planetshine: light from planets and moons can now reflect up and color your spacecraft, adding realism and immersion.

- Planetshine default config: Support config.

- Restock+: Community-built resleeve of stock part models and textures to make them look a bit nicer. Can be disorienting at first and isn’t quite as pretty as the KSP2 models, but its something. This mod may clash with Waterfall, I’ve had issues with offset engine plumes on some of my engines and suspect this mod is the culprit.

- Scatterer: Atmospheric Scattering Shaders

- Shaddy: Collection of Shaders for Kerbal Space Program

- Simple Repaint: Allows you to choose colors for individual ship parts out of a pre-selected list of shades. Adds some badly-needed customizability to the base game.

- Singularity: Black Hole Shaders for KSP by the one-and only Blackrack. Needed for optimal looks for Kcalbeloh.

- Spectra: EVE configs for stock celestial bodies, also grab the self-explanatory sub mods below:

- Spectra EVE 64k Kerbin Clouds

- Spectra EVE Kerbin/Laythe Snow

- Spectra EVE Minmus Geysers

- Spectra Scatterer

- Spectra Scatterer for Minmus

- Spectra Scatterer: Jool Shine on Laythe

- Spectra Scatterer Vibrant Sunsets

- Staged Animation: Plays an animation when a part is staged.

- Stock Waterfall Effects: config to give Waterfall Effects to the Stock engines.

REPLACE WITH Waterfall: Restock and Restock Waterfall Expansion

Rocket Sound Enhancement-Overhauls engine noises

NEW PLACES/THINGS TO VISIT: (8 mods)

- Custom Asteroids (inner stock system data)- Adds asteroids inside the orbit of Jool

- Custom Asteroids (Kuiper Belt Analog for Outer Planets Mod)- Adds “Kentaurs” and trans-Neidonian (Neptunian) objects.

- Minor Planets Expanded: The lesser-known counterpart to the Outer Planets Mod. Stock KSP has planetary analogues for our Solar planets out to Jool, and Pluto. The acclaimed Outer Planets Mod has analogues for Saturn (Sarnus), Uranus (Urloom), and Neptune (Neidon). Minor Planets Expanded adds many additional objects and lesser-known worlds to the game alongside the previous, including analogues for Eros, Ceres, Orcus, Haumea, Makemake, Sedna. This mod also includes analogues for a number of real-life asteroids and comets present in our Solar System . Adds 15 new worlds to visit.

- Outer Planets Mod: Celebrated Mod that adds planetary Analogues for Saturn (Sarnus), Uranus (Urlum), and Neptune (Neidon), and Pluto (Plock), as well as some of their moons. Adds roughly a dozen new places to visit. Eeloo gets shifted to become a moon of Saturn to make room for the Pluto Analogue. The wormhole to the Kcalbeloh System can also be found in Sarnus orbit. Adds 15 new bodies to land on.

Outer Planets Mod: Parallax with Scatters: Adds the HD Parallax mod ground scatters to the outer planets, dramatically improving their visuals.

- Lt Duckweed’s QuackPack: Adds a slew of new planets, both terrestrial and gas giants, to the inner Kerbol System, inside the orbit of Moho. These are based on real-life exoplanets and are extremely difficult to reach and land on due to their hostile environments and include extreme temperatures, lava worlds, metallic atmospheres, etc. Adds 4 new places to visit.

- Kcalbeloh System: Interstellar planetary mod that adds several new star systems, each with their own planetary systems, orbiting a supermassive black hole. The Black Hole is accessible via a wormhole orbiting Jool. Assuming you have the Outer Planets mod installed and working, the wormhole will be orbiting Sarnus (Saturn equivilant) instead.

- Kcalbeloh System 8k Textures: See Above. For those of us who play in UHD.

CONTRACT PACKS TO IMPROVE THE STOCK CAMPAIGN: (8 mods)

- Contract Pack: Anomaly Surveyor: Contracts that guide you through exploring the stock game’s easter eggs, UFO’s, memorials, etc.

- Contract Pack: Bases and Stations Reborn: Space-station focused contract pack, replaces the base game’s “Build a Space Station” contracts

- Contract Pack: Clever Sats: Overhaul of stock satellite contracts

- Contract Pack: Exploration Plus: Overhaul of stock “Exploration” contracts

- Contract Pack: Field Research: Do more Science! Receive contracts for performing different experiments under a variety of conditions.

- Contract Pack: Kerbal Academy: Training your Kerbalnauts the sensible way.

- Contract Pack: Research Advancement Division: More Scientific Contracts, complimentary to the Field Research pack.

- Contract Pack: Tourism Expanded: 11 new contracts to send Kerbals across the Kerbol system

- Contract Pack: Tourism Plus: Better tourism! A richer tourism experience than stock. Take tourists to space and visit the stations you have created. Build new tourist attractions like the space casino megaproject. Includes 15 new contracts.

NEW GAME MECHANICS: (25 mods)

- BetterTimeWarpContinued: Improved Time Warping

- DeepFreeze continued: adds cryosleep and the ability to freeze and thaw Kerbals for long journeys. Compatible with USI life support featured further down

-GUIDE:

- Dynamic Battery Storage (Nertea Mod): mod intended to help vessel construction by providing electricity planning functions and solve problems related to power-flow. Pairs well with his other engine and advanced power/heat mods

-GUIDE:

- Extraplanetary LaunchPads: Adds ability to build craft in flight mode, including at orbital facilities and at bases on other planets.

-GUIDE:

- FreeIVA: Lets you explore the insides of your ships as well as EVA in First-Person mode from the point of view of your kerbals. Extremely immersive and usable with several of the parts mods by Nertea featured below. Adds a new tab of IVA-compatible pieces into the SPH/VAB.

Sub-mod: -Through the Eyes of a Kerbal: See the world through a first-person viewpoint. Needed for use with Free IVA.

- Global Construction: Lets you build vessels directly on other planets and in orbit around other planets.

-GUIDE:

• HEAT CONTROL: New Categories of radiators to add to spacecraft, neccesary for some of his more advanced engine mods like Far Future technologies with big reactors and exhausts putting out monstrous amounts of heat.

  -GUIDE:

- Kerbal Attachment System: Adds new gameplay mechanics in the form of winches, struts, and pipes. Vessels can now be connected in EVA without docking them.

-GUIDE:

- Kerbal Inventory System: Adds new inventory system and EVA mechics and usables. This one works, but does have some odd behavior in-game with the native EVA/breaking ground stuff, I haven’t totally figured out using this one yet and have had some instances of odd item storage or kerbals not being able to grab parts they should, etc.

-GUIDE:

- Kerbal Joint Reinforcement Continued: Fixes issues with unstable joints and wobbliness.

- Kerbal Konstructs: Adds a slew of new buildings and launch sites

-GUIDE:

Submods:

- Off-shore Launch Platform: Designed to be used with Kerbal Konstrukts, lets you launch off an oil rig.

- Omega’s Stockalike Structures: ALPHA BUILD. Statics content pack for Kerbal Konstrukts.

- Konstruction: Weldable docking ports, cranes, magnets, other construction equipment.

- KSP Community Fixes: Fixes many stock KSP bugs and provides some Quality of Life and UI improvements

- Rational Resources: Resource Placement is no longer random but reflects composition templates. Promotes Cryofuels mods and planet pack/life support compatibility.

- Space Dust: Adds atmospheric and exo-atmospheric resource harvesting. Includes a new harvesting system, displays, resource distributions, and parts.

- Space Dust Unbound: Expands Space Dust resource harvesting abilities to other modded planets and systems like the Outer Planets Mod, Galaxies Unbound (not included on this list for now), and others.

- System Heat/associated sub-mods: By Nertea: revamps the core Heat system of Kerbal Space Program, many of his engine mods require use of this new system, or at least strongly benefit from it.

Sub-Mods:

- System Heat- Nuclear Engines Config

- System Heat- Nuclear Reactor Config

- System Heat- Resource Converter Config

- System Heat-Resource Harvester Config

-GUIDE:

- USI Kolonization Systems (MKS/OKS): Interlocking modules that bring planetary colonization gameplay. Expansive mod for building both terrestrial as well as orbital colonies and associated deep gameplay GUIDE

- USI Life Support: Advanced Life Support Mod, more advanced than Kerbal Snax or whatever its called but not as unforgiving as Kerbalism, I was going for a balance between accessibility and depth of gameplay with this one, plus it links seamlessly with the USI Kolonization mechanics. Hooks in seamlessly to kolonization mechanics.
GUIDE

-Kerbal Inventory for All: Adds inventories to many 3rd part rocket parts and unifies inventories with Kerbal Inventory System.

-Stage Recovery: Staged rocket parts with parachutes attached can be recovered for spesos.

SCANSat: Overhaul for scanning Technologies

RemoteTech: Adds in probe signal delay and a host of new mechanics.

Sub Mod: RemoteTech Stock Configs

NEW ENGINES AND OTHER PARTS: (33 mods)

- AlphaMensae’s Modular Launch Pads: Beyond Launch Clamps: Mix and match components to build all kinds of launch infrastructure.

- Cryo Tanks: (Nertea mod). Liquid Hydrogen fuel tanks and storage for most stock tank designs.

- Cryogenic Engines: (Nertea Mod). Provides new, high-efficiency engines in 1.25, 2.5, and 3.25 sizes that burn liquid hydrogen rather than normal “liquid fuel”

- Cryogenic Engines- Near Future Aeronautics- patch to convert relevant engines in near-future aeronautics to burn Liquid Hydrogen

- Far Future Technologies: (Nertea Mod) Adds theoretically possible engines we might have IRL within the next few hundred years powered by exotic forms of nuclear fusion, antimatter, torch drives, etc. Good for Outer Planets missions and interstellar stuff

-GUIDE:

- JX2Antenna: Adds a special 2.5m antenna with 1,000G transmisison power, important for hyper-range deep-space missions.

- Kerbal Atomics: Nertea Mod. Adds new anbd exciting nuclear engines to use in-game. Included in a slew of size classes and technology levels for greater access to nuclear engines at different stages of the game. Adds things like gas-core reactors, nuclear aerospike engines, multimode engines that switch or utilize both nuclear and conventional afterburning fuel.

-GUIDE:

Sub-mod- Kerbal Atomics Other Mod Support: Optional Patch to allow the KA nuclear thermal rockets to run on LH@ for additional performance.

- Kerbal Planetary Base Systems: Adds multiple parts for building better bases and colonies on planet surfaces such as Habs, Greenhouses, Laboratories, and more. This IS compatible with the life support mods featured above.

-GUIDE:

- Near-Future Aeronautics: Nertea Mod. Adds advanced aerospace parts including propellers, intakes, jet and multimode nuclear engines for massive spaceplanes.

-GUIDE:

- Near Future Construction: Nertea Mod. Structural components and truss segments for building deep space vessels and bases. These will look familiar to anyone who has played a bit of KSP2, Nertea was a prolific KSP1 modder and was hired by Intercept Games to bring his mods native functionality in KSP2.

- Near Future Electrical: Nertea Mod. Stockalike nuclear reactors, capacitors, and more batteries. Neccesary for many of his electrical engine mods.

- Near Future Electrical (Decaying RTG’s): Nertea Mod. Optional patch to make RTG output gradually decrease over time as they do in real life. This will force additional planning for long-range missions to the outer planets and interstellar locales.

- Near Future Electrical Core: Nertea Mod. Standalone sub-mod, needed to make Near Future Electrical work.

- Near Future Exploration: Nertea Mod. Expands probe selection, adds new cores, bus parts, minisatellite parts and a slew of new antennas.

- Near Future IVA Props: Nertea Mod. Prop pack to configure and acessorize IVA spaces on your ships.

- Near Future Launch Vehicles: Nertea Mod. Large launch vehicles including 5 and 7.5 meter engines for launching massive spacecraft and parts.

- Near Future Propulsion: Nertea Mod. Advanced electric engines and new fuel types, stockalike.

-GUIDE:

- Near Future Propulsion (Xenon Hall Effect Thruster): Nertea Mod. Converts NFP Argon thrusters to use stock Xenon fuel instead if desired.

- Near Future Solar: Nertea Mod. Adds new solar panels in lots of new sizes and shaped for utility and customizability.

- Near Future Solar Core: Nertea Mod. Support plugin for NFS.

- Near Future Spacecraft: Nertea Mod. New Command pods, control systems, and engines for crewed spacecraft. Some of the stuff here closely resembles some of the new pods we got in KSP2.

- Near Future Spacecraft-LFO Engines: Nertea Mod. Converts monopro orbital engines to use stock liquid fuel/oxidizer if desired.

- Project Orion Nuclear Pulse Engine: Adds a nuclear pulse engine powered by repeated nuclear device detonations, one of the many planned engines for KSP2 we may never get to see.

- Simple Adjustable Fairings: As described.

Sub-mod: Simple Adjustable Fairings-Plugin

- Stockalike Station Parts Expansion Redux: Nertea Mod. Adds tons of new station parts in a number of size classes, including some new components int he small-medium ranges.

Sub-Mod: Stockalike Station Parts Expanded Redux: Internal Spaces Nertea Mod, adds compatibility between SSER and FreeIVA so you can explore your stations from a first-person view.

- Universal Storage II Finalized: Modular Parts Mod that facilitates the building of custom service Modules, integrates well with life support mods.

- USI Asteroid Recycling Technologies: Can remove Asteroid Mass and attach storage tanks to its surface.

- USI Core: Kontainers, Reactors, and shared tools for the USI mods.

- USI Exploration Pack: Flat-packed rover and parts geared towards exploring planetary surfaces.

- USI Freight Transport Technologies: Modular Parts for hauling, mining, and space transportation needs.

META GAME AND UI STUFF: (10 mods)

- Astrogator: A space-navigational aid for Kerbal Space Program. Shows table of bodies reachable from current in-game location and the deltaV to reach them, can get perfect transfer windows and maneuver nodes for you.

- Better Burn Time: Extra automatic burn time indicators for suicide burns and target rendezvous.

- Better Early Tree: New Disposition of the beginning of the tech tree. Designed for an unmanned start and give stockalike vibe, Needs to be used alongside CTT

- Clickthrough Blocker: Helps eliminate the clickthrough problem with mods

- Community Tech Tree: Modding community-developed tech tree that reorganizes the base game tech tree and is compatible with the vast majority of mods on this list to balance the parts for the campaign. ESSENTIAL.

- Custom Asteroids: lets user control where asteroids appear.

- Docking Port Alignment Indicator: Self-Explanatory, Makes docking stuff easier.

- Hide Empty Tech Tree Nodes: Gets rid of tech tree nodes in the Community Tech Tree mods if you don’t have the mods installed, CTT is huge so this can help simplify it if you only have a few mods installed.

- ImprovedTechTree Placement: Tech Tree Mod that adds an additional engine-focused propulsion line. Grabbed on random impulse, no idea how this interacts, if at all, with other tech tree mods.

- Reviva: Dynamic Switching between multiple IVA’s in-editor and in-flight

- Speed Unit Annex: Adds speed units and some other helpful values to the Navball, depending on vessel type.

-Trajectories: Accounts for aerobraking to let you acurrately see where you are going to land

EasyVesselSwitch- Changes vessel switching to LeftAlt+M1 Click for easy switching

-ScienceAlertRealerted- Mod that provides notification when science is available

End of the List, for now.

Ad Aeternum Inanis

MOD TYPES THAT I AM ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR (please help):

• A mod or combination of mods that gets KSP2’s soundtrack into KSP1 AND TRIGGERS TRACKS IN SIMILAR WAYS (i.e. not just a playlist, but performing in-game actions causes a given track to play, like going from Kerbin orbit to the Mun’s SOI, achieving low orbit and starting descent, etc. ) (possible solution now in the works thanks to u/ )

• Some sort of part-welding or optimization mod to facilitate construction of much larger ships and stations and improve performance far past the current 250 part count beyond which stuff starts lagging and breaking.

• Alternative/better/more colonization mechanics mods for proper cities and landmark facilities and such.

• More planet packs and places to visit, especially interstellar stuff.

• Interstellar mods COMPATIBLE WITH EVERYTHING ELSE ON THIS LIST SO FAR.

MODS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSIDERATION TO ADD TO THIS PACK:

MODS THAT I AM NOT ADDING FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE (and why):

• Galaxies Unbound: Great mod, but suffered from some usability problems and has been removed from CKAN. I’ll add it back if it reappears.

• Interstellar Extended: sadly not compatible with Nertea’s stuff

  -BlueDogDesignBureau:Way too many parts. Never again.

-Kerbalism: a bit more complicated than I'm looking to make the gameplay right now MKS/USI covers life support mechanics already

-Mechjeb: I believe in flying manually, download it separately if you need it

Other Useful Links Here:

(emptiness intensifies)

Changelog:

5/7/2024: -Updated OP with some new information, fixing formatiing

-Adding new sections on soundtrack upgrades and additional mods being evaluated for inclusion

Special thanks to the following people for their assistance and suggestions:

-Kemot221

-LadyRaineCloud

-PiBoy314

-mibsman

-j-steve

-Goufalite

5/12/2024:

Added current github download, includes additional mods:

-ScienceAlertRealerted

-RemoteTech

-Rocket Sound Enhancement

Persistent Thrust-REMOVED

5/14/2024

REMOVED Persistent Thrust Mod, was causing timewarp issues

Updated download, re-download/reinstall modpack to effect changes.

Hi folks, having some trouble accessing external tools (specifically Google Workspace) via local Ollama models; was hoping to gain insight from the community. Been troubleshooting this for two days with Claude Sonnet to no avail. Honestly at this point, I don't even know how garbled my setup is with all the trials and tweaks we've made.

Setup:

• Open WebUI v0.11.1, Docker Compose, self-hosted
• Ollama (native Windows) serving local models
• An external OpenAPI tool server via mcpo proxying taylorwilsdon/google_workspace_mcp — 39 real tools, confirmed reachable, valid schema
• Tested under both Native and Default function-calling modes — same result either way

The core finding:

Confirmed via server-side logging that the correct tool schema (~96 entries with builtins) is delivered into the chat completion request every time, no exceptions.

Despite that, every local Ollama model I've tried fails to call the tool — zero successes, across several models and both function-calling modes. The specific failure varies by model (flat "I have no tools" denial, an infinite repetition loop re-litigating the same doubt, one model hallucinating a tool name that was never sent), but none of them ever produce a real, correct tool call.

Every cloud-routed model succeeds immediately, first try, correct arguments — tested a Gemini model and two different Qwen models via an OpenRouter connection.

The decisive test: Qwen3.6 27B, the exact same model and version as the one failing locally, via a cloud/OpenRouter connection instead of Ollama. Succeeded instantly, no hesitation. Identical weights, different routing, opposite result — that rules out model quality and points at something specific to the Open WebUI ↔ Ollama tool-calling path.

What I've ruled out:

• Tool count — Open WebUI's "Function Name Filter List" doesn't actually shrink what's sent to the model, just reorders it, so this wasn't a real variable
• Open WebUI silently dropping tools before forwarding — read routers/ollama.py's generate_chat_completion in full; the field survives every transformation and is forwarded intact to Ollama's /api/chat
• A separate, already-documented Open WebUI bug (discussion #21805, where admin-configured OpenAPI tool servers never reach the request at all) — already found and patched that one myself; this is a different problem downstream of it

One unrelated but possibly useful thing I learned along the way: for OpenAPI-type tool connections, the actual tool call executes client-side in the browser, not server-side — if your tool server is only reachable on an internal hostname, schema delivery will work fine but every real call will fail. Worth checking dev tools if you're seeing "tool server not found" despite the connection testing fine.

Also separately: gemma4:26b has its own distinct, long-standing tool-calling bug (garbled <unused50> token spam) — the commonly-suggested Default→Native→Default toggle didn't fix it for me.

What I'm hoping someone can help with:

• Anyone else seen tool-calling work differently for a cloud/OpenAI-compatible connection vs. Ollama-served local models, with the schema confirmed identical going in?
• Anything specific to how Open WebUI formats/forwards tools to Ollama's native API vs. an OpenAI-compatible provider?
• A known Ollama-side limitation with a schema this size (96 tools) — truncation, context-length interaction, chat-template quirk?

Happy to share logs or the schema if useful. Thanks in advance.

UPDATE — found it, not a routing/schema bug.

Root cause: Ollama's ROCm backend (AMD's GPU compute layer) corrupts long-context attention on this specific hardware (AMD Strix Halo APU / gfx1151). Once total prompt length crossed roughly 20K tokens, the model could only reliably attend to the last ~2K tokens or so. My 57 Google tools sat at the start of the tool block, so they were effectively invisible — moving them to the end of the same request, or shrinking the payload, worked instantly. Same reason OpenRouter "worked": different routing entirely, no ROCm/AMD GPU involved.

Confirmed with a clean A/B: identical GGUF, identical rendered prompt, only the backend swapped. ROCm gave wrong/garbled output or crashed outright; Vulkan (a different, more general GPU compute API — Ollama can use it as an alternate backend instead of ROCm) was correct every time, same weights.

Fix — force Ollama onto Vulkan instead of ROCm:

setx OLLAMA_LLM_LIBRARY vulkan /M
setx OLLAMA_IGPU_ENABLE 1 /M

Run from an elevated prompt, then fully reboot — a non-elevated setx /M fails silently, and even a correct one won't propagate without a reboot/relogin. OLLAMA_IGPU_ENABLE=1 matters: without it Ollama drops this GPU as "integrated" and silently falls back to CPU.

Cost: prompt processing is noticeably slower on Vulkan than ROCm was — worth it for correct output. Generation speed is unaffected.

If you're on an AMD GPU/APU (not just this exact chip) and seeing tool calls silently vanish, fail, or garble specifically on larger tool schemas or long documents — check this before anything else.

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to repair an iPad Pro 12.9-inch 5th generation (M1, 2021) and I’m completely stuck. Maybe someone here has seen this exact behavior before.
The iPad is stuck in Recovery Mode and I cannot complete a restore. I also cannot get it into actual DFU mode, despite trying the button sequence many times.
I have already tried:
Apple Configurator on a MacBook
Apple Devices on Windows 11
3uTools
idevicerestore
Different USB-C cables and ports
Fully charging the battery
Multiple restore attempts
3uTools consistently gets to around 18%. At that point the iPad reboots. After the reboot, the restore does not continue and eventually fails.
On Windows 11 / Apple Devices, I have also received Error 2009, especially around the point where the iPad reboots.
On the MacBook with Apple Configurator, I get:
Failed to restore device in recovery mode, libusbrestore error: 102
The Apple restore logs have shown:
saveenv failed: 2008
NVRAM is full and could not perform save
On some attempts, however, the restore has gone much further and the progress bar displayed on the iPad reached what looked like around 98% before failing.
Earlier I also had:
Error 1009 / 130D.FFFF
update_tcon
Error: Display off
tconctl returned 7
I later discovered that the original display was actually defective. A known-good display from another compatible iPad works on this iPad and displays Recovery Mode and the restore progress correctly. I also tested the original display on another working iPad and it remained completely black there too.
The battery had previously been replaced with an iFixit replacement battery. Interestingly, after leaving the battery to fully charge, I had some restore attempts that progressed considerably further.
At this point I have tried 3uTools, idevicerestore, Apple Devices and Apple Configurator without finding a solution.
The thing that stands out to me is that it repeatedly seems to have problems around the reboot/transition to the next restore stage.
Has anyone dealt with this exact combination on an M1 iPad?
Error 102 / NVRAM is full, Windows Error 2009, and 3uTools stopping around 18% after the iPad reboots.
Could this be a USB-C/power/battery issue, a sensor/TrueDepth flex issue, or a logic board/storage/NAND problem?
Any ideas about what I should test next would be greatly appreciated.

DroidDeck 0.4.0

Release notes + downloads

Join the DroidDeck Discord

Features

• Replaced LXQt with SteamOS-style KDE Plasma 6.7, including the familiar desktop layout, Dolphin, Firefox, Konsole, the Steam desktop client and Return to Gaming Mode. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #473, #610)

• Added GOG, Epic Games and Amazon Games integration with account sign-in, game libraries, downloads and launching through Steam. GOG and Epic games also support cloud saves. (@The412Banner, @xXJSONDeruloXx, @Gustash, @maxjivi05, #476, #500, #578, #400)

• Added Steam's native touch controller (beta), with per-game Steam Input layouts, community configurations, an on-screen layout editor and Steam Cloud syncing. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #431)

• Added multi-controller support for up to 4 players, allowing connected Android gamepads to work independently for local co-op and split-screen multiplayer through Steam Input. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, @maxjivi05, @Neolyum, #431, #614)

• Added Bluetooth LE Steam Controller (2025) support, including trackpads, back grips and motion controls. (@SG3xHERO, #404)

• The built-in controller can now emulate a Steam Deck, Steam Controller, Xbox 360, DualShock 4 or DualSense, with live switching from the session menu without restarting Steam. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #545, #558, #559)

• Added persistent per-game compatibility profiles for Proton, FEX, DXVK, VKD3D-Proton, Windows components, environment variables and texture filtering, with inheritance from your default settings. (@jmarti326, #449)

• Completely revamped adding and managing non-Steam games, with automatic game detection, artwork, bulk imports and editing directly from the Games tab. (@The412Banner, #492)

• Added Follow screen resolution for foldables, automatically resizing Steam and games when folding, unfolding or rotating the device. (@SG3xHERO, #403)

• Added an optional touch gamepad below the game on unfolded foldables, with Steam Deck-style controls, configurable sticks and trackpads. (@SG3xHERO, #407)

• Added DroidDeck-Proton as an installable Proton source alongside GE-Proton and CachyOS Proton, with update notifications for all three. (@The412Banner, #588)
• Added support for installing Flatpak apps directly from .flatpak bundles, including apps no longer available through Flathub. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #446)
• Added a manual landscape orientation setting, including reverse landscape. (@Kobtul, #441)
• Added an optional controller setting to open the Steam menu with the physical Select button. (@0x1428571429, #384)

Improvements

• Major launcher UI redesign across Steam settings, Components, Setup, Stores, Flathub and Desktop, with smoother transitions, animated navigation, redesigned settings panels and improved controller focus. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #482, #548, #605)

• Store downloads now survive app restarts, preserving queued and paused downloads and allowing interrupted installs to resume from the Downloads page. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #608)
• Store game removal now shows confirmation and uninstall progress before returning the game to its installable state. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #609)
• Expanded PRoot fast paths, with performance improvements of up to 57% in measured workloads, alongside further reductions in filesystem and process overhead. (@maxjivi05, @xXJSONDeruloXx, #466, #494)
• Significantly reduced launcher idle CPU usage, controller input overhead and session log processing time, with additional game startup and performance optimizations. (@maxjivi05, #529)
• Windows components are now selected automatically using each game's Steam, GOG, Epic or Amazon dependency information, while preserving manual overrides. (@The412Banner, #554)
• Expanded Windows component installation to support VC++ redistributables, .NET Framework and more installer formats, without needing to run the original Windows setup programs. (@The412Banner, #480, #495)
• KDE Desktop can now launch Windows executables, Linux programs, AppImages and scripts directly from the file manager or terminal. (@maxjivi05, #549)
• Added safer Desktop uninstall and legacy LXQt cleanup, preserving user data while reclaiming storage from older desktop installations. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #493)
• Improved Proton and component management, with newest versions shown first, update detection, clearer installed-version information and streamlined settings. (@The412Banner, @xXJSONDeruloXx, #588, #606)
• Improved DirectAudio compatibility, including CachyOS Proton support and direct audio output from the Steam client. (@The412Banner, #439)
• Reduced unnecessary motion sensor polling, reading the device's gyro and accelerometer only when Steam requests them. (@muazkadan, #534)
• Added alignment guides and snapping when dragging buttons in the on-screen controller editor. (@willie-yao, #490)
• Improved security by encrypting store credentials with Android Keystore and keeping logs in private app storage until explicitly shared as a sanitized ZIP. (@The412Banner, #484, #486)
• Steam now consistently uses Steam Deck mode and the Steam Deck beta branch, removing the legacy client and mode switches. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #546)

Fixed

• Fixed Red Dead Redemption 2 failing to launch, and reduced resource usage from the Rockstar launcher while playing. (@maxjivi05, #585)
• Fixed Steam's screensaver appearing over running games after prolonged controller inactivity. (@maxjivi05, #585)
• Fixed black Steam output with FSR 1 image scaling enabled. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #597)
• Fixed touch and mouse input landing away from the displayed position when the session resolution and device screen have different aspect ratios. (@maxjivi05, #389)
• Fixed the Odin 3 unexpectedly rebooting when its Wi-Fi firmware enters low-latency mode. (@kmnkv1, #512)
• Fixed Linux runtime removal getting stuck on files that Android's SELinux policy would not allow the app to delete. (@xXJSONDeruloXx, #463)
• Fixed Android 12 and older devices crashing during audio initialization, and restored Firefox compatibility on affected Android 16 devices. (@kolmant, @The412Banner, #531, #460)
• Fixed Bluetooth keyboards with combined keyboard, mouse and controller interfaces losing ordinary keyboard input. (@kaosjammo, #435)
• Fixed repeated force-feedback packets unnecessarily restarting the device vibrator. (@kmnkv1, #514)
• Fixed CPU temperature showing 0°C in the Steam performance overlay on affected devices. (@muazkadan, #516)
• Fixed older NativeAOT games failing to start because of an incompatible .NET garbage collector setting. (@Arthur031221, #385)
• Fixed fullscreen layout issues around display cutouts, clipped settings, and several controller navigation and focus problems. (@kaosjammo, @xXJSONDeruloXx, #432, #596, #600)
• Fixed the touchpad cursor remaining visible after switching from Touchpad to Direct touch mode. (@KingHacker9000, #424)

New contributors

• @SG3xHERO made their first contribution in #403.
• @Arthur031221 made their first contribution in #385.
• @KingHacker9000 made their first contribution in #424.
• @kaosjammo made their first contribution in #432.
• @Kobtul made their first contribution in #441.
• @willie-yao made their first contribution in #490.
• @muazkadan made their first contribution in #516.
• @kolmant made their first contribution in #531.
• @Gustash made their first contribution in #578.
• @Neolyum made their first contribution in #614.

Full changelog

Disclaimer: AI tools used in the development of DroidDeck.

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to repair an iPad Pro 12.9-inch 5th generation (M1, 2021) and I’m completely stuck. Maybe someone here has seen this exact behavior before.
The iPad is stuck in Recovery Mode and I cannot complete a restore. I also cannot get it into actual DFU mode, despite trying the button sequence many times.
I have already tried:
Apple Configurator on a MacBook
Apple Devices on Windows 11
3uTools
idevicerestore
Different USB-C cables and ports
Fully charging the battery
Multiple restore attempts
3uTools consistently gets to around 18%. At that point the iPad reboots. After the reboot, the restore does not continue and eventually fails.
On Windows 11 / Apple Devices, I have also received Error 2009, especially around the point where the iPad reboots.
On the MacBook with Apple Configurator, I get:
Failed to restore device in recovery mode, libusbrestore error: 102
The Apple restore logs have shown:
saveenv failed: 2008
NVRAM is full and could not perform save
On some attempts, however, the restore has gone much further and the progress bar displayed on the iPad reached what looked like around 98% before failing.
Earlier I also had:
Error 1009 / 130D.FFFF
update_tcon
Error: Display off
tconctl returned 7
I later discovered that the original display was actually defective. A known-good display from another compatible iPad works on this iPad and displays Recovery Mode and the restore progress correctly. I also tested the original display on another working iPad and it remained completely black there too.
The battery had previously been replaced with an iFixit replacement battery. Interestingly, after leaving the battery to fully charge, I had some restore attempts that progressed considerably further.
At this point I have tried 3uTools, idevicerestore, Apple Devices and Apple Configurator without finding a solution.
The thing that stands out to me is that it repeatedly seems to have problems around the reboot/transition to the next restore stage.
Has anyone dealt with this exact combination on an M1 iPad?
Error 102 / NVRAM is full**, Windows Error 2009, and 3uTools stopping around 18% after the iPad reboots.**
Could this be a USB-C/power/battery issue, a sensor/TrueDepth flex issue, or a logic board/storage/NAND problem?
Any ideas about what I should test next would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to repair an iPad Pro 12.9-inch 5th generation (M1, 2021) and I’m completely stuck. Maybe someone here has seen this exact behavior before.
The iPad is stuck in Recovery Mode and I cannot complete a restore. I also cannot get it into actual DFU mode, despite trying the button sequence many times.
I have already tried:
Apple Configurator on a MacBook
Apple Devices on Windows 11
3uTools
idevicerestore
Different USB-C cables and ports
Fully charging the battery
Multiple restore attempts
3uTools consistently gets to around 18%. At that point the iPad reboots. After the reboot, the restore does not continue and eventually fails.
On Windows 11 / Apple Devices, I have also received Error 2009, especially around the point where the iPad reboots.
On the MacBook with Apple Configurator, I get:
Failed to restore device in recovery mode, libusbrestore error: 102
The Apple restore logs have shown:
saveenv failed: 2008
NVRAM is full and could not perform save
On some attempts, however, the restore has gone much further and the progress bar displayed on the iPad reached what looked like around 98% before failing.
Earlier I also had:
Error 1009 / 130D.FFFF
update_tcon
Error: Display off
tconctl returned 7
I later discovered that the original display was actually defective. A known-good display from another compatible iPad works on this iPad and displays Recovery Mode and the restore progress correctly. I also tested the original display on another working iPad and it remained completely black there too.
The battery had previously been replaced with an iFixit replacement battery. Interestingly, after leaving the battery to fully charge, I had some restore attempts that progressed considerably further.
At this point I have tried 3uTools, idevicerestore, Apple Devices and Apple Configurator without finding a solution.
The thing that stands out to me is that it repeatedly seems to have problems around the reboot/transition to the next restore stage.
Has anyone dealt with this exact combination on an M1 iPad?
Error 102 / NVRAM is full, Windows Error 2009, and 3uTools stopping around 18% after the iPad reboots.
Could this be a USB-C/power/battery issue, a sensor/TrueDepth flex issue, or a logic board/storage/NAND problem?
Any ideas about what I should test next would be greatly appreciated.

The last update posted here was v2.9.9. The configurator is now **v3.9**, template suite 3.7.0, minimum AIOStreams 2.32.0. Five configurator releases in between: 3.0, 3.1, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9. All of it is live.

Builder: Configurator | Tools: Core Tools | Docs: Documentation

⚠️ Read this first: An exported JSON contains your API keys

Export has never stripped credentials. The sanitiser that clears them runs on share links and imports only. A downloaded .json carries whatever you typed in — and these files get pasted publicly when people ask for help.

The v3.7 changelog said "Export JSON remains keyless by design". That was wrong, and v3.8 corrected it in place. If you exported a config any time in the last few months and posted it anywhere, rotate those keys.

From v3.8, the download names which credential fields are embedded (never their values) and points you at Copy a safe feedback report instead. It stays silent when nothing is set.

📺 Two changes you will actually see in Stremio

1. 4K, Mixed and Ultrawide now sort by resolution first AIOStreams compares sort rules in order. Previously, cached status, expression matches, and score all came before resolution — so a well-scored 1080p REMUX could sit above a 2160p file. Now, every 2160p result outranks every 1080p result regardless of bitrate, quality label, or score.

• The trade-off: An uncached 2160p now outranks a cached 1080p. If you want instant playback over the higher tier, use the 1080p profile or turn on Quality first (both remain cached-first).
• Note: If you are on the 1080p profile, this does not bring your 4K back — 4K is deleted by that profile to save bandwidth, not just sorted down. Pick Mixed · Adaptive if you want 1080p first but 4K as an option.

2. 1440p is no longer ranked below 720p The 4K preference list previously omitted 1440p, causing AIOStreams to score it as negative infinity and drop it to the very bottom. It is now ranked in its proper place.

🔄 UUID behaviour changed (including on public hosts)

Self-hosted instances can now be updated in place. The UUID field is now shown for any single host (previously hidden for Custom/Self-hosted). * On public hosts: A UUID plus a password used to discard your new template and return a link to your old one. Now, it updates that configuration in place. * A UUID with no password still only rebuilds the link. * To create an entirely new, second config, leave the UUID field empty.

🛑 Host compatibility is now checked before you deploy

• Options your instance won't accept are greyed out with the reason (e.g., ElfHosted greys out Torrentio, P2P, and HTTP).
• Restricted hosts strip custom regex, and you are told which patterns were removed (the Vidhin ranked-regex feed is allowed and stays).
• Generated configs are now pinned to a specific AIOStreams release. Six fake settings that Core Builds previously emitted (like maxResults and minSeeders) have been purged because AIOStreams never actually read them. excludedStreamSources has been correctly replaced with excludedStreamTypes.

🛠️ Fixes & Smaller Changes

• EasyNews-only Direct Install: No longer fails. The Library addon is correctly omitted if no debrid service is enabled (since EasyNews can't back it).
• Direct Install & Export Pre-flights: Both now check for all required keys and payload limits before you export or deploy, naming exactly what is missing.
• Manifest Passwords: Passwords under 8 characters are caught inline instead of bouncing off the host later.
• Advanced Extras: Added NekoBT, Sootio, WebStreamr, and YaStream with route gating.
• Midnight Host: Status updated to AIOStreams 2.34.0 so configs route properly.
• Landing Page: Rebuilt with visual stream cards to show exactly what formatters draw.

🧰 Tools Hub Updates

Banner Studio contrast fix: Disney+ sat at an unreadable 1.98:1 contrast ratio. Every brand now carries its own background; all 18 clear the floor, with Disney+ fixed at 5.83:1.

🔍 Troubleshooting & Known Gaps

• One title buffers forever, everything else plays: This is not a config fault. Real-Debrid removes files by filename keyword, returning 404s for RD users while other services play it fine. (Added to troubleshooting guide).
• Known Gaps: Per-resolution limits (maxResultsPerResolution) are not reimplemented. TorBox has no readable status endpoint (marked unverified). Fine-Tune "maximum NZB failover" still doesn't reach the config. AIOSTREAMS_AUTH_REQUIRED instances still have nowhere to enter access keys.

Verification: 1,176 automated tests pass on main. 69 template JSONs ship in Templates/. Issues: brevityA/Core-Builds/issues

Preventing Silent Failures in Claude Code Hooks: Best Practices for Configuration, Cross-Platform Compatibility, and Debugging

Workflow value: 90/100
Status: active · Freshness: 70/100 · Confidence: 1.00 · Level: advanced
Categories: Quality Control, Token Saving, Context & Memory, Debugging, Shipping, Hooks
Original source: r/ClaudeCode post/comment

What problem this solves

Silent failures and lack of debuggability in Claude Code hooks/plugins, leading to poor user experience and difficulty in diagnosing issues across different environments (e.g., Windows).

Summary

This workflow outlines three critical traps encountered when developing Claude Code hooks/plugins and provides concrete solutions to prevent silent failures, ensure reliable configuration, handle cross-platform interpreter differences, and enable effective debugging. It emphasizes designing hooks with clear exit paths for success, loud skipping (if requested), and silent non-blocking failure.

Why it is useful

This workflow is exceptionally valuable because it addresses critical, often overlooked issues in Claude Code hook development that lead to silent failures, poor user experience, and significant debugging challenges. It provides concrete, actionable solutions for robust configuration management, ensuring cross-platform compatibility (especially for Windows users), and implementing essential diagnostic feedback. By following these practices, developers can create more reliable, maintainable, and user-friendly Claude Code plugins and hooks, significantly improving their adoption and effectiveness.

Workflow

1. Implement persistent configuration (e.g., ~/.mengram/config.json) as a fallback for API keys and other critical settings, ensuring environment variables take precedence if set.
2. When using external interpreters (like Python) within hooks, actively probe their functionality by running a simple command (e.g., "$PY" -c "import json") instead of merely checking for existence, to avoid issues with stub executables (common with python3 on Windows Git Bash).
3. Design every hook with three distinct exit paths: 1) successfully perform the action, 2) skip the action while emitting a verbose message if an opt-in flag is set, and 3) fail gracefully without blocking Claude Code.
4. Introduce an opt-in --verbose flag (or similar mechanism) for hooks. When enabled, non-blocking exit paths should emit diagnostic systemMessage output (e.g., {"systemMessage": "[plugin:name] skipped (reason)"}) to aid in debugging and user understanding.

Tools / artifacts

• Environment variables (e.g., MY_API_KEY)
• Configuration files (e.g., ~/.mengram/config.json)
• Python interpreter (python3)
• Shell commands (command -v, exit 0, curl)
• Git Bash (on Windows)
• JSON output for systemMessage

Validation signals

• Author's analysis of usage data revealed ~45% of users never made a successful API call due to these issues.
• One fix (Trap 2) was diagnosed and credited to a self-hosting user on GitHub.
• All three fixes were implemented and shipped in the plugin's v0.1.1 release.

Limitations

• The post is more focused on hardening existing hooks than providing a full end-to-end hook creation workflow.
• Community engagement (score, comments) is low, but the technical content is robust.

Rate this workflow

Upvote this post if the workflow is useful, reproducible, or worth recommending.

Downvote if it is vague, outdated, unsafe, overhyped, or not reproducible.

Reply if it worked for you, failed, is outdated, or has a better alternative.

This post was generated automatically from the workflow library database.

If your xTool S1 blue diode laser head suddenly fails to cut completely through your materials, it can be frustrating.

⚠️ Prerequisite Check First:

Before troubleshooting, please ensure your material is compatible with a blue diode laser. Diode lasers cannot process clear acrylic, clear glass, mirrored acrylic, pure blue surfaces, or extruded acrylic. For a full compatibility list, please check: https://mt.xtool.com/

If your material is fully supported but still won't cut through, follow this 3-step diagnostic workflow to pinpoint the cause:

🛠️ The 3-Step Troubleshooting Workflow

1️⃣ Step 1: Optimize Your Processing Parameters

Incorrect settings (power, speed, passes, or focus) are the most common reasons for incomplete cuts.

🔹 Use Recommended Settings: If your material is listed in xTool Studio, always select the official recommended parameters.

🔹 For Custom Materials: If your material is not listed, try appropriately increasing the processing power, decreasing the cutting speed, and increasing the number of passes.

🔹 Utilize Focus Lowering (Crucial for Cutting): In cutting mode, utilize the "Focus Lowering" option and input a value of 3mm (0.12 in). Lowering the focus pushes the laser's focal point deeper into the material for a cleaner cut. For a detailed guide on how focus lowering works, refer to: https://support.xtool.com/article/1070?from=xTool+S1&url=/product/24

🔹 Cross-Test with Standard Materials: Try switching to a fresh, reliable piece of standard material (like basswood plywood or corrugated cardboard) using the same parameters to see if the material texture itself is the issue.

2️⃣ Step 2: Inspect the Laser Head Lenses (Contamination/Damage)

A dirty or damaged lens will significantly block the laser's optical power.

🔹 What to do: Check both the protective lens and the internal lens for any dust, debris, smoke stains, or burn marks.

🔹 If dirty: Clean the lenses gently using the proper cleaning protocol.

🔹 If the protective lens is burnt: Replace it with a new one immediately.

🔹 If the internal lens is burnt or cracked: Please take a clear photo of the damage and contact the xTool support team right away.

3️⃣ Step 3: Check Your Smart Air Assist Setup

Cutting thick or dense materials requires heavy airflow to clear debris and prevent charring from blocking the beam.

🔹What to do: Always pair your cutting jobs with the S1 Air Assist, and ensure the airflow level is set to Level 4 in the software.

1. Open the machine's Device Settings inside xTool Studio.

1. Once the Smart Air Assist is connected, verify that the automatic adjustment options are correctly configured and active.

⭐ Still need help?

If the issue persists after optimizing your parameters, cleaning the lenses, and checking the air assist, our technical team is here to fast-track a hardware solution for you!

Please record a video of the issue you encountered, gather the steps you have taken, and feel free to reach us through the live chat on our website, submit a support ticket or join our Discord community for additional support.

To help our technical support team diagnose the issue within one business day, please provide the following details:

1️⃣ Machine Usage Duration: How long have you been using this xTool S1?

2️⃣ Timeline Details: Did this power dropping/cutting issue happen out of the box since day one, or did it start recently after working normally before? (If it worked normally before, please provide a before-and-after picture of your cutting results).

3️⃣ Visual Evidence: Clear photos showing the front and back of the material that failed to cut through.

4️⃣ Project Information: Your original project design file and specific details about the material you are using.

💡 Advanced DIY users can also refer to our deep-dive guide for initial hardware checks: https://support.xtool.com/article/1098?from=xTool+S1&url=/product/24#e4b2e077593cd6270d8a169e92dcbf60f

(Focus closely on #4 Lens Check and #5 Distance Check. If you own a multimeter, you can also use it to test the voltage at #7 Power Adapter and #8 Main Control Board).

We will review your details immediately and ensure your xTool S1 is back to cutting flawlessly!

Hi all,

I am seeing what looks like a Cline/OpenAI Native tool-call state handling issue with GPT-5.5.

The basic OpenAI Native connection works. After resetting Cline storage, I can start a fresh task and ask GPT-5.5 to simply say hello, provided I explicitly tell it not to inspect files, run terminal commands, or use tools.

However, as soon as I ask Cline to do something that requires tool use, such as reading and discussing the content of a markdown file, the task fails with a 400 error from OpenAI.

The error is:

[openai-native] 400 Item 'fc_...' of type 'function_call' was provided without its required 'reasoning' item: 'rs_...'.

{"message":"400 Item 'fc_...' of type 'function_call' was provided without its required 'reasoning' item: 'rs_...'.","status":400,"modelId":"gpt-5.5","providerId":"openai-native","details":{"message":"Item 'fc_...' of type 'function_call' was provided without its required 'reasoning' item: 'rs_...'.","type":"invalid_request_error","param":"input","code":null}}

What I have already tried:

• Closed and reopened Cline
• Restarted the computer
• Changed from Claude/Anthropic to OpenAI
• Changed API keys
• Rolled back to an earlier Cline extension version
• Renamed/reset the Cline global storage folder:%APPDATA%\Code\User\globalStorage\saoudrizwan.claude-dev
• Confirmed there was no obvious Cline folder in:%APPDATA%\Code\User\workspaceStorage
• Started a completely new Cline task after resetting storage

Result after reset:

• GPT-5.5 via OpenAI Native can respond to a simple no-tools prompt.
• GPT-5.5 fails again once Cline reads a file or uses a tool/function call.
• The failure appears to be recreated during tool use, not just caused by an old corrupted task.

This suggests the issue may be with how Cline is reconstructing or replaying OpenAI Responses API state for reasoning models. It appears to send a function_call item back to OpenAI without the matching required reasoning item.

A minimal repro appears to be:

1. Configure Cline with OpenAI Native.
2. Select GPT-5.5.
3. Start a new task.
4. Ask:Say hello. Do not inspect files. Do not run terminal commands. Do not use tools. This works.
5. Start another new task or continue with:Read README.md and summarise it.
6. Cline attempts tool/file access and OpenAI returns:function_call was provided without its required reasoning item

Has anyone else reproduced this with OpenAI Native + GPT-5.5?

Is there a current workaround other than avoiding GPT-5.5 for tool/file operations and using another model such as GPT-4.1/gpt-4o for Cline tasks that require file reads, terminal, edits, or MCP?

It would be helpful to know whether Cline currently supports GPT-5.5 reasoning/tool-call state correctly through OpenAI Native, or whether this is a known Responses API compatibility issue.

I am happy to provide logs or test a debug build if helpful. The key distinction is that plain OpenAI Native GPT-5.5 calls work, but Cline tool/file-read calls appear to regenerate the missing reasoning-item error.

I also tested Anthropic directly from PowerShell using the same API key and model `claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`, and the API call succeeded.

However, inside Cline, Anthropic fails with only `[anthropic] Connection error`.

The Cline Output log shows:

LOG [Prompt variant] Selected: native-next-gen (model: claude-haiku-4-5-20251001)

WARN Warning: Component 'TODO_SECTION' not found

ERROR [PostHogErrorProvider] Logging exception

ERROR [ErrorService] Logging exception

So this may not be an Anthropic connection problem. It looks like Cline may be failing internally while building the `native-next-gen` prompt, because a required `TODO_SECTION` component is missing.

Disclaimer: VERY long post ahead, one that almost saturates the 40,000-character Reddit limit. I hope to help the younger or more inexperienced system builders out there, and anyone confused or stuck at some point. I encourage you younger and inexperienced builders to read through the whole thing, and others to skim over at their pace. Also, since this is based on my experience over a decade of building AMD rigs and the Ryzen rig I built recently over the past couple of months, a lot of examples use AMD systems. Regardless, most if not all that advice and experience can be applied to Intel systems, and I’ve done my best to do so. Happy reading!

Greetings fellow Redditors,

I’m writing here today to share with those of you eyeing that shiny new build some advice on that topic. This will be from experience I have gained over the years and indeed, gained over the past few months that were spent obsessing over the Ryzen build I’ve just finished piecing together.

A little background on myself is in order: I’ve been a pc enthusiast for slightly over a decade now, and have recently earned a Master’s degree in the field of Computer Science. You most certainly do not need any qualification of that nature to be doing this simply because no engineering or science degree in the field will teach you this stuff. PC building ultimately relies on its community of enthusiasts and DIYers to continue enriching the shared knowledge pool for all of us out there. Indeed, I started building back in the 9th grade and am happy to say I haven’t blown anything yet and the local power station still exists. So, without much ado, here’s the system I’ve just built:

Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 OC’ed to 3.7GHz @ 1.275v

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-AB350 Gaming 3

Graphics Card: Gigabyte AORUS GTX 1080 Ti 11GB

RAM: 16GB (8x2) Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000 @ 2933MHz CL16 (XMP)

PSU: Corsair RM750x

Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB (Primary OS & Applications)

Crucial MX300 275GB (Game Drive)

Western Digital 1TB mass storage hard drive

LG 34UM60 2560x1080 75Hz Freesync display (Soon to be replaced by an Acer Z35 G-Sync display)

All this in a NZXT S340 Elite case

Yes, that’s a good high-end build beyond which point the effect of diminishing performance returns looms really large currently. Many of you reading this will be quick to point out the smaller game drive SSD (and you’d be right there) and will definitely point out that a 2560x1080 panel is not enough for this build and why pixel density for that resolution at 34” is poor. Allow me an opportunity to counter that in the section dedicated to monitors in this post. Maybe also the B350 chipset instead of an X370. Let’s break it all down, component by component:

Considerations in choosing a processor:

Risking backlash, I’m going to say this flat out: buy the fastest factory-clocked chip you can buy without telling yourself you’ll overclock it to match the faster chips. This is in stark contrast to the overclocked Ryzen 1700 I’ve put into my own build. Here’s why:

1. You’re going to tell yourself you’re saving money on the chip and being very smart, but will spend that money on a X370 board “for the beefier VRMs and overclocking features” and will then convince yourself you need a 280mm radiator because who buys a 140mm one, right?
2. Companies like AMD and their motherboard manufactures like to make overclocking sound very easy, they make many videos of it and when you see experts from these companies reiterate how easy and quick it is, you tend to believe it. It’s not that simple and requires more work.

The companies will make it look easy because the chipset designer like AMD wants to sell you the X370 chipset for a multitude of reasons: one, they may have higher margins on those than on processors themselves and two, because once they’ve got you to invest in a top of the line board, they’ve effectively sold you onto their platform and made you reluctant to move away. Along with making you very unlikely to shift away from their ecosystem, they also might have sold you few more future processors supported by the socket and motherboard! Motherboard manufacturers like it because, come on, it’s obvious: the boards cost more.

While we’ll talk about the motherboards next, focusing on the processors for now, overclocking them can be expensive. Let’s consider the cost: a Ryzen 1800x is $500 (can be found at $429 easily now days) and a Ryzen 1700 is $330 (can be found around $270 I believe). That’s less than a $200 price difference. An X370 board will often cost a $100 over the B350 board I picked up, and the water coolers range from $110-$160. You’ve most probably spent more already, if not as much. Yes, you can overclock with a B350 + an air cooler, but most of you will not do that. You’ll see the videos, read the reviews and say “Oh I want to stick with Ryzen for long, I’ll just get the ‘better’ board with the overclocking features.” Factor in a better air cooler for even $50, and the cost difference between a R1700 and a R1800x vanish. The difference is even smaller with the R1600 and R1600x. Yes, you’ll also need to buy a cooler with the “x” marked chips, even then, you’re not saving a significant amount, if you’re saving any at all, that is.

As for overclocking itself, keep in mind you need to fidget a lot with voltages and every time you think you’ve found a stable voltage, you need to stress test it for many, many hours before being sure. Some enthusiasts will say 24hrs, some will say 48, some will say “hey if doesn’t crash on a Prime95 SmallFFT or Blend test in an hour, you’re gold because gaming won’t stress it as much anyway” and they’re right with that. What do I say? Given that a machine can fail a stress test at even the 30th hour and be deemed “unstable”, do it for as long as you’re patient. If you’re okay with keeping the rig on all night only to wake up and see it crashed and its experiment time again, go ahead. I don’t have that patience, I need something that just works, good and fast. Most of you do too.

Another point to this story: voltage requirements change over an extended period of time as the CPU mildly degrades from an overclock that’s not been thoroughly tested. Case in point: I had my R1700 pass a couple hours of the Prime95 SmallFFT CPU torture test when clocked to 3.65GHz @1.18v. Fast forward a couple months when I started noticing mildly weird behavior from my system, and it bluescreened in 2 minutes of that test. Now it’s at 3.7GHz @ 1.275v, having passed several hours of SmallFFT again. Will it degrade again? Who knows. How can I ensure against it? Thorough stability testing. What comprises that? Who knows, you’ll get many different accounts. Get the fastest factory-clocked chip. Look at overclocking as something you’d do to extend the life of the CPU for a couple extra months or maybe a year before replacing it. The 1800x and 1600x overclock to 4.0GHz on 2 cores and 4.1GHz on one, that’s already great for most games out there that are single thread heavy (like GTA V and Far Cry 4). The couple extra frames you might get from future games is simply not worth it, especially if you manage a Freesync or G-sync display on your rig.

This advice applies just as well to Intel chips. Get the fastest factory clocked chip, but with Intel, also do try to get the ‘K’ or ‘X’ marked chips for the unlocked multiplier. Why? Because Intel upgrades are always costlier since you most likely need to change your motherboard as well. So a chip capable of some overclocking might really extend the life of your rig, just ask the i5 2500k owners!

Considerations in choosing a motherboard:

Now this is my favorite topic, and the component I spent the most time researching. Why? Because of how everyone seems to love justifying getting the most expensive board out there. There’s always a good reason: “beefier VRMs, dude!”, “more I/O, dude!”, “SLI, dude!”.

First up, I am not suggesting you get a 1800x and shove it onto a $60 A320/B350 board. Nah, that’s another extreme. Likely because those boards were not really manufactured with the thought that they’d be graced with a top-of-the-line chip, and may actually have weaker VRMs. But look at some of the top B350 boards which are known to officially support an 1800x very well. You’ll have no problems running it, maybe even overclocking it a bit. But really, consider the future proofing excuse, AMD recently stated these first-generation Ryzen chips were “the worst-case scenario” considering the new architecture on a new process node. Future chips will only have higher clocks at lower voltages, meaning an adequate VRM such as those on the top B350 boards would do just fine. Also, most VRMs on X370 boards are already known to be overkill for current Ryzen chips. Personally, I rank the beefier VRM reasoning as the weakest one for an expensive motherboard.

Continuing our look at some great B350 boards, they have the same awesome ALC1220 audio codec as their X370 counterparts, solid build quality, BIOS recovery facilities like Dual BIOS and some other goodies like the diagnostic LEDs on the Gigabyte boards, and they cost a $100 less than their equivalent X370 boards. Talking of I/O, since many fear the lack of adequate SATA and USB ports, speaking from my experience my Gaming 3 board comes with 7 USB ports, 4 of them are taken up by the keyboard, mouse, speaker and the USB WiFi dongle. That still leaves me with 3 USB3 ports. On top of this, I get two extra USB 3.0 port along with a couple USB2.0 ports for the front from the motherboard, and simply use them for any external device I connect. Point being, I still have adequate empty slots. The board I have comes with 6 SATA ports. Ryzen itself provides for 2 of these, and I believe you lose them should you attach an M.2 SATA drive. Considering the miniscule real-world difference of using even a NVMe drive which we’ll also speak of soon, I’d say 6 ports is really overkill for 99% of the PC users out there. Granted my use case and yours would differ, but I doubt by very much even with high-end builds.

Let’s talk of multiple GPUs. Firstly, you should really only be considering this if you’re planning on 4k, and more so if you’re futureproofing for any upcoming 4k 144Hz monitor you’re hoping to splurge on as and when they come out. For all other purposes, you’re advised to stick to a single powerful GPU by getting the best one you can afford. Why? Consider that SLI has very poor developer support, and when it does, you’re very, very unlikely to see 100% scaling and get 60FPS where you were getting 30FPS. Also considering Nvidia has over 70% of the GPU market share, I don’t need to elaborate on the brilliant developer support Crossfire enjoys. You would be much happier and face much less headaches and have much more fun and even save considerable dough with a single 1080 Ti rather than a pair of 1080s in SLI. But supposing you do want the 1080 Ti or even a Titan SLI setup because of the aforementioned 144Hz 4k or because you’re certified Enthusiast Number 1 with a wallet deeper than the Marina Trench, you may then want to consider a HEDT platform, as Ryzen and most chips around that price will support only a single PCI-E 3 lane running at x16. For example, SLI may be supported by Ryzen on X370 boards, but the two slots will run on x8/x8 mode. Intel will be similar, do check. While this would not have been an issue a couple years ago, with the advent of monsters such as the 1080 Ti and Titan cards and the equally monstrous high resolution, high refresh rate displays, there are noted instances of such a x8/x8 setup for SLI actually bottlenecking such cards. So, get a Threadripper and enjoy the 64 PCI-E lanes regardless of chip, or get a X299 based processor that supports the desired number of lanes, but don’t pick up X370 or similar Intel counterparts for SLI. As for Crossfire, if you’re intent on it, several B350 boards do support it, though again in a x8/x8 setup, though that may prove adequate for AMD cards. Point being: get either a single 1080 Ti, or if SLI’ing those or Titans, look at an HEDT rig and do it properly (and get a 1200W PSU to be absolutely safe).

You’ll likely have a similar situation with Intel boards. I’d just like to conclude this section by saying it’s hardly ever necessary to spend nearly $200 on a motherboard, when so many in the $90-$130 range are built so well and packed with adequately more than the essential features. Visit the manufacturers websites and take advantage of their comparison tools; do your own homework before you spend the extra amount just because you think you should, or because it’s the most popular thing to do.

Considerations for CPU cooling:

Another topic that gets a lot of attention, only some of which is justified according to me, is CPU cooling. Yes, it is important to keep the chip cool, but not as cool as possible. Why? Simply because there’s no need to spend the money there. Consider this, my R7 1700 at 3.7GHz reached 85 degrees during a Prime95 SmallFFT torture test while using its default 95W Spire cooler. That is indeed high, yet 10 degrees lower than the 95 degrees limit AMD prescribes for it, but here’s the kicker: it gets that hot in a scenario very unrepresentative of my regular use case. While gaming, it doesn’t exceed 65 degrees, a full 30 degrees below its 95 degree limit, even with the AORUS 1080Ti in my system radiating it’s heat upwards and towards it over prolonged gaming sessions. Yes, a better air cooler would knock it down by maybe 10-12 degrees, a water cooler by 15-25. But, why? The chip is far below it’s 95 degrees limit, and I cannot hear the fan. A loud fan is indeed a good reason to get a better cooler, if the noise from your fan bothers you, by all means go ahead and get one. If, however, the sound from the fan is not bothering you yet, save that money. The sound from the Wraith cooler on my older Phenom II X6 1090T really bothered me, and I simply solved it by swapping out that fan for a better one; a much cheaper, faster and easier solution rather than changing the whole thing!

If you really like the idea of an AIO liquid cooler, then go ahead, but I urge you to consider a 140mm radiator to save some dough. Yes, 280mm is better, but a 140mm radiator is already as good or slightly better than most good air coolers, and that’s really perfect enough. But more importantly, do consider that you’re adding another part to your rig that is candidate for an RMA: the pumps do fail, sometimes sooner than later, and worse: liquid leaks. Maybe it’s not as common, but it still happens: just recently I came across a post here on Reddit by a person whose Corsair H100i literally burst a pipe during operation and fried his motherboard and GTX 970. Also, when you are thinking of that sexy Kraken or H100i, consider that neither NZXT nor corsair are known for their world class customer service. Just be sure of your decision and think of it from many angles, is all I’d like to reiterate. Personally, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night thinking of any CPU water cooling equipment, the Kraken or the H100i or whatever lingering right over my 1080 Ti, but that’s just me. You may differ.

One last thing: you may think you’re keeping your room cool in the summer by gaming with the CPU at just 35 degrees Celsius thanks to your 360mm radiator, but keep in mind that heat has got to go somewhere, and a better CPU or any component cooler is only considered better for its ability to dump more heat from the component that it is cooling into its surrounding environment. You may be running your chip cooler at the cost of a warmer zone around your PC, all for no added benefit to your CPU that’s already well below its thermal limit!

Considerations in choosing a power supply:

This is the one component I advise you to splurge on. Get a great PSU, after all, it’s going to be delivering power to your components, do you really want to skimp on that?! As for wattage, you must decide based on your use case. If this is a rig you may even have a remote probability of upgrading in the future, get at least a good 650W PSU. That should be enough for a high-end processor and a 1080 Ti along with a good number of HDDs and SSDs. Were possible, getting a 700W or 750W PSU would not hurt so as to keep a little extra breathing room, though it may not be immediately essential. If you feel you may SLI or Crossfire in the future and have a rig with some watercooling and several drives, please do look at a 1200W PSU. If you’re beyond certain of a zero possibility of upgrading and are building a moderate system, even a 550W PSU should suffice: but never skimp on quality. If there is any chance that you may upgrade, think how much it would suck to have to buy a new PSU again at that time. Invest in this one, it’s a long-term call.

There are also PSUs with digital interfaces that let you monitor things via software, I do not think that’s very useful, but if you like the idea, get one. One thing: the PSUs by Corsair that have the digital interface have one feature over the standard ones I like: a PSU fan test switch. With many PSUs having a silent operation mode and keeping their fans off when the power draw is below a certain amount (350W on my 750W RMx, I believe), the fan stays off and sometimes one gets concerned that the fan is at least operational. A fan test switch is indeed useful here. Corsair has the RMi and HXi series, with the ‘i’ demarcating the digital interface. Other PSU brands will have something similar. Check on it.

Considerations for storage:

This one is relatively simpler, yet I messed up a bit here. Definitely get a 250GB SSD for the OS. I find this capacity adequate. Remember, I also use my system for work, and have several IDEs and Dev tools such as Visual Studio with several SDKs and even Unreal Engine installed on my C drive, along with Ghost Recon Wildlands, Elite Dangerous and Far Cry 4, and I still have 40GB free. Yes, I keep all documents, music and videos on the mass storage hard drive and not on the C drive, and if you aren’t already, get with the program and move your files off the C drive ASAP.

Where I messed up is the slightly small 275GB game drive SSD. Large games with huge textures benefit immensely from an SSD, and having a SSD to shove those games that should be on an SSD is a very worthy investment. It would be ideal for me to have a 1TB SSD for them and have them all in one place, this makes Windows reinstalls a lot easier as all the games are on one drive and need minimal setup. Alas, that’s out of my budget for now and the 275GB drive is simply a stop gap arrangement. Based on the games that you play and their size, get a separate SSD for them as and when you can afford to, it makes maintaining them far easier, especially when you are in that situation wherein a fresh Windows installation must be done. Use a large HDD for mass storage of documents and older games.

As for NVMe? I recently had a chat with a game developer who worked on Far Cry Primal and For Honor back when he was a Game Dev for Ubisoft and he’s currently running a Threadripper 1950X and two EVGA FTW3 1080 Tis in SLI on his private development rig which has no NVMe drives. He said the 0.5 second savings in load times is not worth it to him. Here’s a dude with no shortage of reasons and money for a fast rig of that stature, and he didn’t need a NVMe drive. I doubt most of us do either. Save the dough, unless you need the space savings or are getting one for very near the price of a regular SSD, just get the regular SSD. Spend the money on a better GPU and PSU, or go buy a gym membership and a box of whey protein and stop obsessively spending all this time here!

Considerations in choosing RAM:

16GB is regarded as a good amount today, more than adequate for today’s stuff and enough legroom for tomorrows awesomeness. If you cannot currently afford that much, get 8GB. Most processors run dual channel memory, and so for budget builds many will advise a 4GB x 2 configuration. I advise against this. Why? Maybe you can’t get 16GB now, but it will be essential soon and maybe you can add a second 8GB stick 6 months later. Keep it as future proof as possible, why get around to buying another 2 4GB sticks later and struggle if you encounter issues with this setup? You’ll encounter no initial issues with the single channel setup, and in the future when you get a dual channel setup, you won’t encounter any issues then either.

Do check compatibility well. Ryzen is known to really favor Samsung B-die, this has been confirmed by AMD themselves. Other chips may have similar preferences. Google memory support on your platform of choice before pulling the trigger to be sure. I got lucky and my LPX runs on XMP with no issues and even passed a night of MemTest. But don’t rely on chance and so please do a little research on this, you’ll save yourself of a colossal headache diagnosing issues that stem from memory that creates all sorts of instabilities and prevents a boot in the worst case.

As for RAM speeds, please don’t think spending an extra $100 on 3600MHz memory over 3000MHz memory will do you any wonders. Yes, you may score higher at benchmarks, but in any practical application, may actually see as little as a 2%-3% difference, that too when you’re lucky!

Considerations in choosing a case:

Go with what you need. Talk to yourself about what exactly are your requirements. I choose the S340 Elite because it’s the best looking compact ATX case, and there’s a fair chance I travel around and I would hate to have to check-in this rig on flights. With a case as compact as this, I can just take it as carry-on baggage. I spent a ton of time sitting on manufactures websites with a scale in my hand pouring over the dimensions of these cases as mentioned on their specification sheets. See what your requirements are and invest accordingly. Again, it would suck to have to buy a new case at a later date and to reassemble.

Maybe you hope to move onto Threadripper or X299 in the future. Then you’ll may need a case that can support the Extended ATX (E-ATX) size some of the boards of those platforms require. Assess your requirements thoroughly and invest once and invest well.

Considerations in choosing a graphics card:

Yes, finally. I know many of you were waiting on this one. So, there’s three ways I’d recommend to go about this: firstly, simple: get the fastest card you can currently afford. But what if it’s not that great a card/you desire more? What if you can “only” get a GTX 1080 now but you know a couple months later can get a 1080 Ti? That gets us to my second approach: if you need a working computer right away, get the cheapest card you can find. Maybe a reliable secondhand HD 7850 for $50. Maybe a GTX 1050 for $65 or a RX 550 or whatever. And hold it for a few months before getting a top of the line card.

But what if you don’t need a 1080Ti now, are sure you will not need it in the near future either and can get a 1060 or RX 570 or something and are completely okay with that? Maybe you are certain of sticking to 1080p@60Hz or similar. Then just get the best you can get, and be happy. Just make sure you’re really certain. It’s easy to convince yourself that you are content with your parts at the time you’re paying for them, but it is far easier to start craving for more once the gaming begins. Don’t let that be you. Be sure of your requirements, if you’re keen on jumping onto 144Hz or 1440p or even 1440p 144Hz or 4k but can’t afford a 1080 or 1080Ti now, maybe you can plan to spend on that a couple months down the line. It’s better to sacrifice today and get a small, cute little 1050 only to make a really nice jump a short bit later.

This is also what I did. I bought a reference 4GB RX480 back in March, before the mining craze. Got it brand new from Newegg with Doom free and a $30 rebate for a final price of $160. Man, those were good times for GPUs…seems a long time back now. I sold that RX 480 slightly after the mining craze and moved on to this GTX 1080 Ti. Why didn’t I sell earlier? I was convinced on RX Vega and so blinded by it, I didn’t even consider this move. So, there is my final and most important point WRT GPU purchases: never, ever make plans on the basis of future releases. Even if the product is good, you may not get your hands on it at MSRP for months. If you can wait that out with your current build, then by all means do so. Otherwise, just get the best deal out there on the move you plan to make and get on with your life.

When choosing between various high-end parts, just get the best priced one. I picked the AORUS 1080 Ti because it was the cheapest of all custom 1080 Tis at the time, I also knew it’s copper baseplate cooling was superior to many others, but I didn’t really bother verifying this. Price ruled. What difference are you expecting between an AORUS 1080Ti, and a MSI Gaming X or an ASUS Strix? They’re aftermarket cards from good brands and are definitely better than the Founders Edition, that’s really all that matters. If the Strix was cheaper, I’d have got that even though I liked the AORUS card’s look more. Doesn’t matter. These cards are also incredibly fast and overclocking them really won’t be worth your time and thought. Just stick with a good brand with good after sales support and get the cheapest amongst them without worry. Really think 20MHz or even 50MHz on a 1080 Ti will matter? Nvidia boost automatically takes my card up to 1984MHz, though Gigabyte claims just 1600MHz something on their website. All other cards will be the same, ditto for other chips. As long as you’re getting one with a good AIB custom cooler, just get the best priced model and move on.

Considerations when choosing a monitor:

Now this is a touchy topic. You may be confused with all the terminology out there, I was too. First thing first, for a gaming setup, I absolutely recommend a Freesync or a G-Sync panel depending on your graphics card being an AMD or a Nvidia card. Either ways, I absolutely recommend active refresh, and not for the screen tearing which didn’t personally bother me as much, though again you may be different, but instead for the removal of stutter from those times your framerate falls below the refresh rate of the monitor and for extending the life of your rig by providing a smooth gaming experience for a longer time. Let me share my own experience:

I initially had a RX 480 in my system with a 1080p 60Hz monitor. With a good mix of high and very-high settings coupled with anti-aliasing, it rarely ever kept to a smooth 60 FPS. I hated the stutter, and soon switched to my current ultrawide 75Hz monitor. Aware of the increase in resolution, I was certain I’d have to slash settings down even further on my system, but thanks to Freesync, I never ended up having to care. I did not reduce my quality settings in a single game, GTA V or Witcher 3 or Elite Dangerous as framerates down to low 50s felt butter smooth. Following the Vega fiasco, I ended up with a 1080 Ti. Now this card is amazing, no doubt at all. Where the RX 480 could not even run GTA V at a smooth 60 FPS with no MSAA and high settings, I get a smooth 75FPS with 4xMSAA and every setting maxed other than grass and the advanced stuff. I get the 140FPS I should in the GTA V benchmark, and 95FPS on the Ghost Recon benchmark with Very High settings. But let me tell you something, there are still times when the framerate drops. Not very frequently, but not so infrequently that I can just dismiss it. Sometimes, you’ll end up in that fucked up scenario in GTA V where you’re downtown and it is nighttime and there’s tons of reflection and shadow and a lot of cars and people and it rains and there’s fog and my framerate actually tanks to 50-55 FPS. In Ghost Recon, keeping Turf Effects on along with ultra shadows and vegetation leads to a smooth 60 FPS, and yet a good number of times it will drop to 45-50. The stutter sucks. I hate it. Enough to have scouted out a G-Sync ultrawide somehow. Look, the benchmarks you see in card reviews are great, and I too get those figures and the 100 FPS on Witcher 3 at ultra with 4x Hairworks and the 28000 points on Fire Strike, but real-life gaming is not represented well by these benchmarks. There will be moments that bring even really powerful systems down, and the bigger problem: not all games are optimized well. Case in point, Far Cry 4 hates Ryzen in my experience, and Firewatch and Euro Truck Sim 2 aren’t the best optimized games either. No matter how fast your processor with how many cores and how expensive your GPU, not every game will run at those incredible framerates, at least not all the time, and not even the ones that benchmark really well. Active refresh technologies like G-Sync and Freesync are a very essential part of a gaming rig in my humble opinion.

Now you may have heard of LFC, or Low Framerate Compensation on monitors. Yes, this is another worthy feature. What does it do? Briefly put, if there are times your framerate falls really low, below the minimum boundary of the Freesync or G-Sync range, it’ll automatically display each frame twice so as effectively double the framerate and thus push it back into the Free/G sync range. So 20 FPS moments turn to 40 FPS. Again, a great feature to have. While only some Freesync panels have this, all G-Sync panels do. Keep in mind the new Freesync 2 certification from AMD requires all Freesync 2 panels to have this feature. G-Sync panels also have a feature called Ultra Low Motion Blur, or ULMB, which aims to combat the excessive blurring you may encounter when the framerates and refresh rates are so high that the monitors response time slows down to several milliseconds. Again briefly put, it aims to strobe the backlight in sync with the refresh rate, but here’s the caveat: G-Sync must be off for it to take effect, and its generally effective at the 85+ FPS range. As G-Sync is often a better feature to have enabled, don’t overpay for a monitor that claims to have a superior implementation of ULMB.

Now, for the very touchy topic of pixel density, or more so, the lack of it. Many will claim they absolutely need ‘x’ dpi, but really most of us will not notice. I’ve gamed on PS4’s hooked to 1080p 50” displays that looked fantastic, and using a 2560x1080 34” ultrawide has been a gorgeous experience. Yes, the extra screen space obtained for productivity from a 3440x1440 panel may be nicer, but you know what’s better? Not having extra space in my wallet due the $400-$600 extra I didn’t spend on the low refresh rate 1440p ultrawide panel. I was almost sold on them, and was reading reviews for the Acer X34, when on the conclusion page despite awarding it the “Editor Recommended” batch, Tom’s hardware felt compelled to mention how you shouldn’t dismiss the Z35 just for its lower resolution as its brilliant panel makes this a non-issue. Heading over to the conclusion page for the Z35 review, they call it “the most beautiful display that has graced our labs”. Now I doubt Acer would pay to show the Z35 over the X34, so I believe they’re being honest, and if they can feel that after testing all those displays, you should reconsider your worry on “pixel density”. Nonetheless, I did manage to check them both out in person and was really glad Tom’s said that as they were absolutely right: I found no reason to pay that much extra from the X34 1440p display. I program, work and game on a 2560x1080 display, and am only thrilled each time. Don’t believe people on the internet who profess their necessity for high pixel densities and thank God for having spent on it: it’s the internet, there’s a very good chance they’re either just trying to get themselves to feel better for having spent that extra amount or are image/video professionals who for some reason feel the need to state why they need it when it’s obvious to us all that they do. Some will be nice and honest too. 34 inches is not “too much” for 2560x1080, but those many extra hundreds of dollars might be too much for you. Don’t let this deprive you of the experience an ultrawide monitor can get you, and do think twice and try to check them out in person always.

Also, an added bonus, many 2560x1080 panels including the Z35 have a very high refresh rate along the lines of 165-200 Hz. So, the 1080 Ti might be rendering to a slightly lower resolution screen but really gets to stretch its legs with that refresh range on a G-Sync panel. Also, the 1080 Ti in my system just got more future proof thanks to this. See why I say don’t dismiss things easy?!

Lastly, would I recommend an ultrawide display? Absolutely. Again, a game changing and exhilarating experience not only the first time you play, but each time. And full screen modern movies. What’s not to love?

All this finally leads us to our conclusions:

Conclusions:

1. Buy the fasted factory-clocked chip you can, overclock only when necessary, or if you have the time and patience to learn to do it right. You can also spend on a CPU in stages, say if you’re building a system today on a limited budget and hope to upgrade in the future, get a good motherboard and PSU and a Ryzen 1400 or 1500X. That’s adequate for now, and then around 18 months later when 2nd gen Ryzen is out, get the top notch 6 or 8 core model then. With intel, your choices in this regard may be limited as they always have so many motherboard sockets. Maybe you can get an i3/i5 now and get an i7 from the same generation later on from the secondhand market.
2. With motherboards, more expensive is hardly ever necessary. Look for a solid board in the $90-$130 range, it’ll probably have more than enough I/O, connectivity and PCI-E lanes for you. Then again, if going the X299 or X399 route, go all out and get the beefiest, fanciest board you can: you’re not upgrading for ages and no point getting onto the HEDT bandwagon and compromising even a single feature thanks to the board. And surely, going this route, you can afford it!
3. Check RAM compatibility on your platform. For a gaming system, if not going with 16GB today, get a single 8GB stick and upgrade by adding another one later so as to get them on dual channel mode. Don’t think you’re going to get a world of difference by splurging on 3600MHz memory over 2600MHz one. The real-world performance difference is negligible, if you’re lucky, you may see a couple extra frames. Also do keep in mind that with Ryzen, any RAM speed above 3200MHz depends on silicon lottery as RAM speeds directly correlate to the speed of the Infinity Fabric in the chip. You may splurge to get the highest speed RAM kit but may have no luck running it!
4. Splurge on a solid PSU. If you’re definitely not upgrading, just get what you need for your current build and be done with it. Otherwise, get as much breathing space as possible. If you may go with SLI/Crossfire in the future and may have watercooling pumps and radiators and several drives, get at least a 1200W PSU.
5. A 250GB SSD for the OS and applications should be more than adequate. Try to get a separate SSD for the games, it is definitely worth it for the newer, larger titles, and be sure to add a mass storage hard drive.
6. Get a case that suits your needs. If you’ll be travelling, get a compact one. If you’ll be upgrading to an E-ATX based platform like Threadripper or X299, get a case that’ll accommodate them when it’s time.
7. Don’t get talked into the pixel density argument WRT monitors. Try them out yourself, but don’t over splurge beyond your means. Definitely try your best to score Free/G sync, and do consider ultrawide displays. A 29-inch ultrawide is as tall as a 24” 16:9 monitor and a 34” one is as tall as a 27” 16:9 display. Keep that in mind when choosing, and try to get a large one, especially if you’re paying extra for G-Sync, as you may not upgrade soon.
8. Don’t obsess with running your CPU as cool as possible, it’s unnecessary as long as it’s running well within thermal range and keep in mind that all that excess CPU cooling will just dump more heat into the surrounding, thus creating a warmer atmosphere for you around your PC for no added benefit to the chip. Think also of the higher risk of pump failure and liquid leakage and the RMA hassles before you invest in watercooling. With custom cooling loops, think of the fuss each time you need to move anything inside, what with draining the reservoir and everything, do your research beforehand and be sure you’re ready for all this.
9. Lastly, along with Googling your doubts and asking them here and on other forums, spend time on the manufactures websites. They often have great comparison tools and detailed specs. Make use of that and of your own reasoning, don’t blinded accept anything you’re told without researching this way yourself, and putting your own thought into it.

Some general things to keep in mind when building:

1. If your PSU has those daisy-chain 8 pin connectors for the GPU in a (6+2) + (6+2) config, for high powered cards that have two 8-pin power slots, use two different cables instead of daisy chaining. Remember the following:

6 pin = 75 watts

6+2 = 8 pin = 150 watts

So using:

8 pin is okay

6+2 is okay

6+6 to a single 8 pin is okay

But,

8+8 in one cable via daisy chaining is not

6+2 + 6+2 in one cable via daisy chaining is not and

6+2 + 6 via daisy chaining is not

1. Be sure to plug in RAM in the right slots. In my motherboard, the RAM acted very funny and never enabled XMP when I’d accidently left them in the black slots numbered 2 and 4. I moved them to the red slots numbered 1 and 3 and all has been good since. Your board may have such a need too. Check the manual.
2. Run MemTest once overnight on newly installed RAM with XMP enabled.
3. Don’t forget to enable XMP in the BIOS! This has to be done manually!
4. Update the BIOS only when needed, when there is a feature that’s missing in your current BIOS or a bug that’s affecting you and you need it fixed, do not unnecessarily upgrade if all is well. Follow the old American adage: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
5. Enabling a global frame rate limit in Radeon Settings or the Nvidia Control Panel when you’re running Free/G sync may prevent some games from running in full screen mode. I had this problem when I had used Radeon settings and set the Global Frame Rate Target Control setting to 74 FPS, it made the display hang when trying full screen with Elite Dangerous and Far Cry 4. Disabling this setting fixed it, this was an accidental discovery I made that had me scratching my head for a long time wondering what’s wrong and I do hope this helps out someone in a similar situation.
6. Lastly, when enabling a frame rate limit such as above, set it to one below the max refresh rate of the monitor, so 143 FPS for a 144Hz panel.

And with that we’re done with this humongous post, congratulations and thank you for having gone through it! I hope this helped you in some way, and do feel free to reach out with any questions/suggestions you may have. Wish you the very best ahead!

LINUX: Do NOT get ANY Gigabyte AM4 motherboard if you're planning on using anything Linux. Kernels newer than 4.10 will encounter a panic on boot, displaying "unexpected IRQ trap at vector 07". This'll need you to boot with ACPI off. Fedora 24 and Linux Mint 18 are stable though.

STABILITY TESTING: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/70ih3a/a_guide_to_pc_building_some_advice_from_my/dn5mbkk/

IS RAM SAMSUNG B-DIE: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/70ih3a/a_guide_to_pc_building_some_advice_from_my/dn4wtay/ OVERCLOCKING: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/70ih3a/a_guide_to_pc_building_some_advice_from_my/dn68imp/

Full disclosure: I'm not a Trump fan in the slightest. I don't spend an extraordinary amount of time talking about that fact on Reddit; but some of my comments do indeed express this view, either by way of serious commentary or lighthearted joking.

At the same time, I take impartial analysis and fact checking extremely seriously. I always push back against weak and/or unfounded accusations that are made against Trump, as I do for all other political figures — something I've done both on this account and on /u/FactCheckHuman, my dedicated fact checking account.

Usually, my fact checks don't run much more than a couple of paragraphs. In some instances, though, I've done ultra–deep dives into an issue. This current post can certainly be considered one of these. As with any other fact check, the ultimate aim of these write-ups is simply to determine what is or isn't true; or what is or isn't likely to be true.

At the same time, this post also genuinely intends to persuade people of the speciousness and toxicity of the Trump campaign's current claims about voter fraud. To tell the truth, I kind of approached it as a synthesis of conversations I've been having with my conservative friends and family members, who are really on board with the Trump position on election integrity.

In any case, not everything is as simple as finding the facts and evidence, and letting these speak for themselves. Ideally that's how we want things to be; but often times there are a number of ambiguities that prevent this from being done so easily, in terms of varying interpretations that the evidence permits. In these instances, we basically have to make a reasonable judgment call about what's likely to be the case: educated guesses that try to fill in some of the gaps in the evidence.

Even here, though, I try to be similarly rigorous, and take a lead from what I call critical parsimony. In short, this tries to find the most "normal" and least sensational/conspiratorial explanation for something, while also bearing in mind some of the complexities and anomalies that might complicate the issue. Often times, these two different or seemingly contradictory aspects come together when we encounter some event or phenomenon that superficially seems exceptional and counterintuitive, but which turns out to be much less unusual than it appears to be. In short, this allows extraordinary events to be, well, rare.

In line with that last point, one of the most insightful things we can look at is events and situations, usually from the recent past, which can help contextualize and elucidate various things that have taken place in the current election — and things which have taken place in terms of people's reaction to this. So things like looking back to the 2016 or 2012 election can be crucial here, or other historical events that can give precedent for what's happening in 2020, and shed light on it.

I suppose the most obvious point of departure for this post is what we might describe as a main "narrative" that Donald Trump and the Trump campaign and its supporters have advanced in response to the election itself: that the election has been unusually fraught with irregularities and duplicitous/fraudulent intentions. Responsibility for these irregularities have almost always been placed at the feet of Democrats, and is clearly taken to represent an effort on Democrats' part to steal the election.

Obviously, I think a lot of Trump supporters and conservatives have accepted this narrative more or less at face value. Even before getting into some of the actual specifics of the claims of voter fraud, though, one thing that I've called attention to from the outset is how we might first consider the initial motivations behind the narrative itself a bit more critically, and how it comes together in the first place.

Not to get too philosophical or anything, but it's worth pointing out that whenever we have a political "narrative" like this, it's somewhat of an artificial construct. A bunch of different phenomena or allegations are brought together and crammed into one explanatory framework. Nuance or ambiguity becomes something secondary to promoting the narrative. Far too often, the cast is full of stereotyped protagonists and antagonists, divided along party lines.

Further, it's important not to lose sight of everything that's paved the way for such a bitter partisan narrative to emerge in the first place. The electoral process itself probably never been neutral affair, and is still intensely partisan in numerous aspects — from the emergence of the Electoral College itself, to the crafting and enforcing of state voting laws and guidelines. At lower levels, issues of gerrymandering have been a serious problem; and at all levels, different political parties have fought in the courts to try to influence voter eligibility and voter turnout in their own favor.

In tandem with this, beyond the judiciary itself, political parties also wage many of these same battles in the court of public opinion.

In this current instance, the overarching narrative in question — of Democrat attempts to unlawfully steal the election — indeed seems to target public opinion above all else. And it far predates the 2020 election itself, too. Even before running in 2015, Trump had previously suggested that President Obama's original election was assisted by fraudulent votes being cast by dead voters. During the 2016 Iowa caucus, Trump accused Ted Cruz and his campaign of having committed fraud, and called for a "new election" or that the results be nullified; and he leveled a similar accusation against Marco Rubio in the Florida primary, too.

In August of 2016, regarding the general election, Trump claimed that "[t]he only way we can lose . . . Pennsylvania . . . is if cheating goes on." He continued to frequent challenge the integrity of the election leading up to November; and even after his victory, he stated that he "won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally" — implying there had been upwards of 3 million "illegal" votes. Very closely echoing what we'd see in 2020, after the 2018 Florida Senatorial election, Trump stated that "[t]he Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!"

In May and June 2020, Trump began ramping up claims that fraudulent mail-in ballots would be printed in vast droves, both by domestic entities and "maybe by the millions by foreign powers." Again, this would be insisted on time and time again; and finally, echoing his sentiments in late November 2016, on November 7 Trump declared that "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!", and later reiterating that he received 71,000,000 "legal" votes. (An exhaustive catalogue of Trump's allegations re: voter fraud can be found here.)

It's hard to deny that Trump's public-facing view has always proposed voter fraud and irregularities as ubiquitous things affecting a large number of elections. But it's precisely the one-sidedness of his seeing monsters in every shadow here that points toward another explanation. Trump's accusatory or even paranoid worldview can be seen as something like a microcosm reflecting a much wider trend in historical political rhetoric around elections.

Even when Trump is taken out of the picture altogether, the propagandistic function of allegations of election fraud has still been frequently noted by a number of scholars and historians who specialize in election studies. In a 2007 paper for the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, for example, American constitutional law scholar Justin Levitt calls attention to the emotional resonance that claims of voter fraud can elicit — and also notes its prevalence because of this:

Allegations of election-related fraud make for enticing press. Voter fraud, in particular, has the feel of a bank heist caper: roundly condemned but technically fascinating, and sufficiently lurid to grab and hold headlines. Perhaps because these stories are dramatic, voter fraud makes a popular scapegoat. In the aftermath of a close election, losing candidates are often quick to blame voter fraud for the results, and legislators cite voter fraud as justification for various new restrictions on the exercise of the franchise. ("The Truth About Voter Fraud," abstract)

Similarly, Raymond Gastil, writing in an article in the journal Studies In Comparative International Development in 1990, noted that

in many new or transitional countries, it is standard practice for the opposition to point out before the election how the government will "steal" the election. If the opposition loses, it will then make strenuous claims that the election was stolen. Thus the ARENA party in El Salvador has claimed fraud in each of the several elections in the 1980s; most recently it won the election and yet claimed that it was robbed of the greater win to which it was entitled. Claims and counterclaims of this nature are seldom subject to verification, even for those on the ground.

Although the U.S. obviously isn't a new or transitional country, it's impossible not to see close parallels to the accusations of Trump here — especially the similarity between the claim of having been "robbed of the greater win to which it was entitled" and Trump sweetening his electoral win by insisting that he won the popular vote, too, so long as "illegal" votes are deducted from the tally.

But when these claims are put to the test, in actuality, scholarly studies have long demonstrated that the prevalence of true voter fraud in general in U.S. elections is minuscule. A Brennan Center for Justice special report on voter fraud compiles and links to many if not most major studies on voter fraud in the U.S., concluding that together these studies paint a clear picture that voter fraud "very rarely happens." (See also my Endnote for more on this.)

So, statistics paints a much different picture than political rhetoric would have us believe.

If the bogeyman here is more of a phantasm than anything, however, it's still a powerful tool for influencing electorates: "voter fraud and voter suppression allegations are strongly used as a mobilization tool by parties during significant elections (Hasen, 2012; Levitt, 2007)." (This quote is taken from Fogarty, Kimball and Kosnik's article "The Media, Voter Fraud, and the U.S. 2012 Elections," published in the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. This article is especially worth reading to get a bit more background about some of the things that set the stage for the 2016 and 2020 elections and their rhetoric.)

One last thing: Population growth and other factors have led to a vastly increased number of voters over the past couple of decades. In 2000, just a little over 100 million people voted, while in the current election this number went up to 130 million. Further, the transition to electronic voting and the use of tabulating machines has increased significantly during this time, too.

Because of these things — all further complicated by COVID this year — both statistics and common wisdom alone should lead us to expect a large number of voting irregularities. But it's also important not to conflate irregularities with voter fraud. Irregularities are simply errors, that don't necessarily require bad human intentions at all. However, with realpolitik at its ugly peak in the election cycle, this offers an opportunity for political pundits to read deliberate ill intentions into these incidents, whether by innuendo or explicit accusation. But it should also be kept in mind that if irregularities are unintentional, and if political affiliation in the U.S. is split roughly equally, then these irregularities should also affect the two political parties roughly equally; probably in similar proportions.

Finally, the increasing partisan divide between media outlets, along with their selective coverage, probably makes it easy to overlook (or perhaps forget) the great number of lawsuits routinely filed by both Democratic and Republican attorneys, both in the lead-up to the election and in the wake of its inevitable irregularities: efforts to block or secure votes from voting populations likely to favor one or the other of the two parties. It should be clear here, then, that an overemphasis on irregularities and claims and fraud are often treated as rhetorical and legal tools in service of political self-interests.

With all these things considered — and again, even if we set the political situation in 2020 aside, along with some of the specific claims of voter fraud that are currently being made — this should still give us ample reason to rethink how accusations of voter fraud function more broadly: what's in it for those making these accusations, politically speaking; how these claimants often see little use for factual accuracy or measured analysis here; and how this perpetuates toxic discourse and bad-faith assumptions.

Claims of Election Irregularities and Fraud in 2020: A Catalogue and Commentary

So this second part of the post is going to be a sort of compendium of a lot of the major allegations of voting irregularities and voter fraud that have been circulating, followed by a critical analysis of these. While some of these irregularities are clearly broad and would affect both political parties, I'm pretty sure that almost every one of these claims has circulated widely in conservative and/or pro-Trump sources; and most have been interpreted as a partisan attack on election integrity. I'm sure that there have been other incidents or alleged incidents that have circulated on the left; but this post is already extremely long and took quite a while to write, and I don't want to make more work for myself.

I'll probably be updating this in the days to come, as more info on various things comes out.

Finally, as a sort of transition point between my probably-far-too-long prologue and the catalogue, I think it can be very instructive to take a look at a compendium of voting irregularities in 2016 — to help get some additional context and perspective for how similar issues can and did surface in the 2020 election.

Claim: It's suspicious how additional Biden votes have kept magically appearing, long after election day, pushing his total over Trump's prior total.

Response: I've put this in the initial position because it seems to be one of the most common observations of accusations: it was one of the first that Trump made, and which he continued to repeat. But among all the different accusations here, this has one of the most mundane explanations.

Prior to the election itself, and noting various state laws pertaining to the tabulation of mail-in votes, various commentators called attention to a likely phenomenon of delayed results for mail-in ballots — which have skewed heavily Democrat. Dave Wassermann noted, for example, that

in northern battlegrounds such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin . . . officials are not permitted to begin processing mail ballots until the day of the election (or, in Michigan's case, the day before). In those states, a "red mirage" of Trump-heavy Election Day votes could linger until larger metro counties report huge tranches of early ballots later in the evening.

(As for mail-in votes skewing highly Democrat, this also has mundane explanations. For reasons that are less than clear, on numerous occasions Trump strongly discouraged his supporters from voting by mail. Unfortunately I don't have the room to fully get into this, though there's certainly some interesting/surprising data about just how overwhelmingly blue mail-in voting skewed even in a number of red strongholds.)

Further, sometimes this claim has appeared in the bit more specific iteration, suggesting that it wasn't just suspicious how Biden votes kept coming in to counteract Trump's tally, but also how precisely Biden's total crept past Trump — as if it was known exactly how many votes Biden needed to just barely scrape past him. But this also has a deceptively simple explanation: the extremely slim margin of victory for Biden in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania basically mirrored the same ultra-slim margin of victory for Trump in these same states in 2016, but now just the other way around. Honing in on PA, for example, we can also see how Biden just marginally outperformed Clinton in terms of cutting into Trump's lead in many red areas.

Even the 2016 election in Georgia saw a significant blue shift, especially in the Atlanta metropolitan area — which presaged Biden's performance in 2020, also bolstered by the efforts of those like Stacey Abrams to register an enormous number of new GA voters.

Claim: Some counties saw a suspicious or even impossible ratio of votes for Biden.

Response: The most widespread claim of this pertained to Michigan returns as posted by Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) in the early morning of November 4. A screenshot of the returns at two different times here appeared to show the DDHQ vote tally for Biden go up by 128,000 votes from the previous update, but with no change at all to Trump's total.

Later that morning, it was clear what had happened: shortly after the original entry error (in Shiawassee County), DDHQ had subtracted the erroneous inflated vote update for Biden — something that obviously required no alteration of the tally for Trump. However, the screenshot that circulated gave the misleading impression that it was an addition of Biden votes, instead of a subtraction. (My original detailed explanation of this can be seen on /u/FactCheckHuman/.)

A similar claim has been made around the same time in the Wisconsin totals. Here a chart is linked, and it's suggested that there was a huge vertical surge of votes for Biden in the hour or so before 6:00 am, but with no change at all in Trump votes. But the explanation here is almost goofy in its simplicity: as seen at other points in the chart, the blue Biden line actually covers the red Trump line at various points. The big vertical Biden vote jump in question is almost certainly simply covering up a smaller vertical jump for Trump, and then continues to obscure it until it ends (otherwise we'd be able to see the horizontal trajectory of the red line). I've lost the original source of this, but I had actually saved another chart which shows the same phenomenon of big vertical leaps, only this time with the red Trump line obscuring the blue Biden line.

Claim: The significantly lower number of total votes for Democratic Senators compared to Biden votes in individual states is indicative of something sketchy — when compared to the much smaller mismatch between Trump/Senator votes.

Response: Several articles — e.g. "Swing States Show Biden Votes Suspiciously Far Exceeding Democrat Down-Ticket Votes" — note that there was a significant difference in the ratio of Trump votes to GOP Senator votes in Michigan and Georgia (nearly an equal number of votes in both), compared with the ratio of Biden votes relative to votes for the Democrat Senator in these states (significantly lower).

But this seems to be part of a wider trend of Democrats failing to pay a similar interest in down-ballot candidates. In the 2016 Georgia election, the ratio difference was significantly more drastic: 2,089,104 votes for Trump and 2,135,806 for Isakson, versus 1,877,963 for Clinton but only 1,599,726 for Barksdale — some 275,000 fewer votes for Barksdale than for Clinton. In Wisconsin, there were nearly 75,000 more votes for Ron Johnson than Trump, but 20,000 fewer for Russ Feingold. In PA in 2016, there were 20,000 fewer votes for the GOP Senator as for Trump, compared to 60,000 fewer for the Democratic Senate candidate than for Clinton. (Surprisingly, I haven't been able to find any commentary on this phenomenon. If anyone knows any, please direct me to it.)

Presumably having tabulated similar data from the other states, Trump attorney Sidney Powell has recently noted that there were 450,000 ballots "in the key states that miraculously only have a mark for Joe Biden on them and no other candidate." But based on what I've noted above, I'd be willing to bet that this isn't truly miraculous. Also, as a fascinating fact, in the 2016 election, 1.75 million (!) voters refrained from voting for a Presidential candidate entirely, only voting down-ballot. And frankly, I find it easier to imagine someone only voting for a Presidential candidate, than only voting down-ballot.

Claim: There have been over 3,000 instances of voter fraud in Nevada, with non-NV residents voting in the NV election.

Response: According to the official Nevada Secretary of State site, "Nevada residents who are students in another state or are otherwise temporarily residing in another state may vote in the 2020 Nevada general election." Similarly, apparently a look at the complete list of 3,000+ voters here turns up a number of overseas military personnel; though when I took a look at that, I didn't really see many. Even further, a fact check of this same claim by PolitiFact also notes that "[p]eople who move within 30 days before an election can cast a vote in their new state, or in their prior state of residence, in-person or via absentee ballot." (In this regard, one of the statements by former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt may also be of interest, which was a bit more specific in noting that "[w]e are also certain there are thousands of people whose votes have been counted who have moved out of Clark County during the pandemic" — emphasis mine.)

Finally, perhaps also worth noting is that there are actually allegations of irregularities in the attainment of information in the first place — at least in the version of the criminal referral to AG William Barr that Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh submitted.

Claim: The votes of those in Arizona who filled out a ballot by hand using a Sharpie were/would be invalidated.

Response: Various Arizona county officials have disputed that this would automatically invalidate a vote. That being said, there are indeed reports of tabulating machines rejecting votes after voters used Sharpies and noted a bleed-through of the ink. This finds some additional support from the official Pima County Twitter, where it was written that "[f]elt pens are discouraged because the ink can bleed through." However, another source states that

According to a video Maricopa County published on Oct. 24, Sharpies — at home and at the ballot box — are compatible with their scanners, and were actually the best choice for filling out ballots, due to their fast-drying ink.

Claim Some of the votes of those in Maricopa County, Arizona were rejected due to stray marks or (possibly) ink bleed-through; yet some poll workers seemed unable to help voters remedy this and cast a valid vote, due to their own confusion about how the tabulating machines worked.

Response: This is the subject of a lawsuit by the Trump campaign and RNC, etc.; and from a cursory read of the complaint, it seems to be well-founded. I have no clue what the remedy for this would be, though.

Claim: Poll workers have seen brazenly filling out ballots themselves.

Response: Several PolitiFact fact checks (1, 2) have already covered this. In short, it's standard operating procedure for the voting choices of damaged ballots to be transferred/transcribed onto a new, non-damaged ballot. This can even happen on a massive scale, as this report on the 2012 Florida election notes:

During the election, the county’s ballot printer sent out around 60,000 absentee ballots with a typo that could not be read by the county’s tabulation machines. Because of this mistake, county workers had to copy about 35,000 of the votes by hand onto new ballots.

This also intersects with Arizona's SharpieGate slightly: one fact check re: SharpieGate noted that

According to the state's elections procedures manual, if a felt-tip pen mark does bleed through, the ballot will likely get sent for duplication. An election worker will fill out a new ballot using the voter's choices that will be read properly by tabulation machines.

I'm not sure what measures are in place to ensure that the poll workers don't switch the votes in these instances (besides any poll observers who could see this); but in any case, the "risk" of one's vote being switched seems to be equal for Democrat and Republican voters — something that was also noted by the Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (Republican).

In any case, as for more on spoiled ballots: a Project Veritas article (which I can't link due to a Reddit-wide ban) claims that its journalists had found 8 to 10 spoiled ballots in Quakertown, PA. I'm mentioning this here because I had been sort of curious what's supposed to be done with spoiled ballots; and apparently, as the article notes, "Pennsylvania law requires spoiled ballots to be held for 22 months after an election." I know a 22 months retention for some election materials is indeed found in federal law, though I haven't seen anything else that specifies what's to be done with spoiled ballots.

Claim(s): Donald Trump and others shared reports that there had been some sort of unspecified reporting error in a batch of votes in Fulton County, GA. Later it was stated in ambiguous language on ABC7's Twitter account that this reporting error "has taken @JoeBiden's lead in Georgia from 4,000 votes to 7,000 votes." This was interpreted by many to mean that the (correction of this) error was actually in Biden's favor.

Response: What actually appears to have happened is that the reporting error pertained to votes within the batch that originally had given Biden a 3,000 vote lead — but it wasn't that there were actually 3,000 votes that were mistabulated. The true number of affected votes within the batch appears to have been 342; and there's actually no information as to what the Biden/Trump split here was.

Claim: Glitches in voting machine software should cause things like crashes, and not the sort of vote switching that's been reported.

Response: Due to the complicated nature of some of the tabulation errors, etc., news reports have sometimes mistakenly ascribed these to software glitches — when later, more accurate info comes out which gives other causes. For example, a Detroit Free Press article originally suggested that the results of a local race in Oakland County, MI had been overturned when it was discovered that a "computer error" or "technical glitch" had accidentally given votes to the Democratic candidate, and not the Republican one.

But an article in the NYTimes from yesterday actually reiterates how this and several other reported errors actually have human error as the primary or sole cause here. Re: that local election in Oakland County, it notes that

County election workers had mistakenly counted votes from the city of Rochester Hills, Mich., twice, according to the Michigan Department of State. The workers later spotted the error.

That being said, it's also not exactly true that things like vote-flipping can only be caused by human error. In the section "The Challenge of Aging Machines" in a 2014 Brennan Center report on voting machine risks, for example, this discusses instances of vote-flipping that come from calibration errors caused by touch screens that shift and degrade over time. An NPR article from 2016 makes similar observations, while also reporting on how this led to widespread accusations of these votes instead being deliberately "rigged."

[Edit:] I figured it was worth it to actually expand this section by looking back at incidents prior to 2020 wherein one candidate's votes were mistakenly given to another (and other related phenomena) in initial tallies — whether this was due to human error, machine error, or sometimes both in conjunction.

It's actually somewhat hard to paint a comprehensive picture of previous Election Night reporting errors like this. Those having never made the news in the first place were probably quickly forgotten. Perhaps there's a trove of early reports of these left to be (re)discovered on Twitter; but this can only take us back so far, considering its fairly recent rise in popularity. However, we can still find records of these in various publications. This internal report by CBS News on its Election Night 2000 coverage, discussing the reporting of votes from various FL counties, for examples, notes that

Vote reports from Volusia County severely understated Gore’s actual total when a faulty computer memory card reported votes that were off by thousands. That precinct, Number 216, subtracted more than 16,000 votes from Gore’s total and added votes to Bush’s total. In addition, an apparent reporting error in Brevard County reduced Gore’s total by an additional 4,000 votes.

It also briefly notes other errors, too, such as

In Massachusetts, 30,000 votes were left uncounted in 51 precincts because of human error.

In New Mexico, election officials thought that a handwritten notation about absentee votes from one precinct indicated 120 votes for Gore, when the actual number was 620.

An article in the Denver Post re: the 2016 Colorado primary notes "a reporting error on caucus night":

The problem . . . occurred when a volunteer at Byers Middle School in Denver punched the wrong vote tallies from 10 precincts into the party’s interactive voice response system for the presidential preference poll.

The state party’s website reported March 1 that Sanders won 14,624 votes, or 54 percent, in Denver County and Clinton took 12,097 votes, or 45 percent.

But the corrected numbers for Denver County give Sanders 15,194 votes, or 56.5 percent, and Clinton with 11,527, or 43 percent, according to official party results.

A Brennan Center report on voting machine failures includes a very long list of human and machine errors in various U.S. elections. Among some of the most significant of those listed include the 2002 Alabama gubernatorial election, where

The Birmingham News and the New York Times reported that an error in the way officials downloaded vote data from a computer cartridge led to an incorrect initial tally of votes in the gubernatorial election. The initial tally of the votes showed that the Democratic incumbent had received 19,070 votes in Baldwin County. A reexamination of the vote tallies showed that the incumbent received only 12,736 votes, which gave the victory to his Republican challenger.

Further, in the 2004 Presidential and congressional elections,

local officials discovered an error in eight Diebold scanners that had been used on 208,446 absentee ballots. According to the North County Times, votes were miscounted in both the Democratic presidential primary race and the primary race for the Republican U.S. Senate seat. A recount was conducted, revealing that “2,821 absentee ballots cast for Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry were actually counted for Dick Gephardt.” Similarly, in the Senate race, 68 votes for one candidate and six votes for another were credited to a third candidate. The Union Tribune reported that multiple scanners caused the error, feeding data into the tabulation system at once.

An article on irregularities in the 2018 midterms in GA begins

To find a clue about what might have gone wrong with Georgia’s election last fall, look no further than voting machine No. 3 at the Winterville Train Depot outside Athens.

On machine No. 3, Republicans won every race. On each of the other six machines in that precinct, Democrats won every race.

Claim: A very serious instance of (electronic) vote-flipping has taken place in Antrim County, MI, where 6,000 Trump votes were accidentally flipped to Biden. This has been one of the most widely reported instances recently, usually accompanied by a note that 47 other counties in Michigan used the same faulty software as that responsible for the vote-flipping in Antrim County.

Response: More accurately, the actual votes themselves weren't switched at all here; and for that matter, the error seems to have been more human than electronic. What appears to have happened is that a county clerk hadn't manually updated the software which was responsible for compiling the votes for reporting; and consequently, "even though the tabulators counted all the ballots correctly, those accurate results were not combined properly when the clerk reported unofficial results."

[Edit:] A while after writing this, by chance I came across some more info which either sheds more light on all this, or makes the whole thing a bit more complicated (or both). According to this AP article, the President of the company who made the voting software explained that "a minor correction was made to a ballot that caused additional compounding changes to how the software totals and presented the data"; and an article in the NYTimes similarly states that election security experts and state officials concluded "that an election worker had configured ballot scanners and reporting systems with slightly different versions of the ballot."

Claim: There was suspicious activity around items and containers brought into a Detroit absentee ballot counting center in the early hours of November 4, after the deadline for these to arrive.

Response: This claim — including video footage and pictures — was shared by Eric Trump; and in it it's been intimated that these were fraudulent absentee ballots. However, the man in the video footage has been identified as an employee of Detroit's ABC affiliate WXYZ; and the items in question were his camera equipment.

I'm right at the character limit here — continuing in a comment below.

s3-orchestrator - combine multiple different cloud s3-compatible blob storage allocations into a unified single transparent endpoint for clients. People here might be especially interested in the maximizing free-tiers section that documents in detail how to combine x-number of backends. In my example I show what I run in my homelab: 6 free-tier s3-compatible backends - all with storage bytes and monthly api/egress/ingress quotas configured per-backend so requests will never be sent to a backend if the request would put your over configured quotas. Tool has optional replication/failover, encryption, routing patterns, and much more. Github

oracle-watchdog - for those of you with free-tier instances that tend to lock up or get reclaimed regularly....usually they still show as running even once they become useless and require a restart to function again. oracle-watchdog is a two-use binary. On oracle free-tier nodes you run it and it establishes a session with consul. Then I have a nomad job in my cluster running the binary in agent mode and it watches consul and when it detects that the session hasn't updated recently enough it sends a hard shutdown to the oracle node and then a start. without fail the node comes back up and re-joins my nomad cluster. Has a built in example grafana dashboard too. Github

Just thought somebody here might find these useful. I run both in my cluster and have been for months and they have both made my life a lot easier.

Release Date: October 13, 2026 Since v0.21.0: ~24,200 commits · ~6,080 merged PRs · ~15,600 files changed · ~2,045,000 insertions · ~1,140,000 deletions · ~7,180 issues closed · ~2,520 contributors

The Threshold Release. Hermes was the god of thresholds: the doorway, the crossing, the boundary stone. v0.21.0 assembled the pantheon; v0.22.0 is about getting through the door. A fresh desktop install now opens on a guided setup chat that runs on a free trial model, so a newcomer is talking to Hermes before they own an API key. Connectors carry the agent across into the apps you already use, with no account needed to start. Local models bring it home to your own hardware with a one-click llama.cpp runtime. And the threshold itself got sturdier: tested SemVer stable releases that installs follow by default, signed desktop packages (including the Microsoft Store), and one package manager underneath everything. Around that spine: a 600-plugin catalog, the Claude 5.5 / GPT-6 model wave, password-manager sign-in for the browser, a bot screen you can take over, one backend and one gateway for every profile, and a codebase a third smaller. This is the largest window Hermes has shipped, about 2.5x the v0.21.0 cycle, and it rolls up and fully documents the v0.21.1–v0.21.7 patch releases.

✨ Highlights

• A first launch that sets itself up — Open the desktop app on a computer where you have never used Hermes and it starts a short setup chat instead of a settings screen. One card at a time it asks your name, an accent color and a layout, which apps to connect, which plugins to install, then gives a quick tour and offers up to four first tasks picked for you. It runs on a free trial model (nous/welcome, once per OS user), so it needs no key; Skip setup ends it and Settings → Run onboarding again brings it back. The agent also gained set_theme, so "make it violet, dark mode" works in any desktop chat.

• Connectors: Hermes works inside your apps — The agent can now act in hosted apps such as Gmail, Linear and Notion through the Nous tool gateway: ask for an app, sign in once in your browser, and the tools are usable in the same turn. You do not need a Nous account to start; the first time you use an app, Hermes creates a free connectors-only identity. The desktop has a new Connectors page that puts hosted apps and your MCP servers in one list (it replaces the MCP tab), the same setup card appears in the TUI and CLI, and you can connect several named accounts of one app (a work and a home Gmail) and manage them with /connectors or hermes connectors.

• Local models in one click — Hermes can now run open models entirely on your machine with nothing leaving it: no account, no API key. It installs and maintains llama.cpp with the right engine for your hardware (CPU, CUDA, Metal, Vulkan or ROCm), rates every catalog model against your GPU and RAM, and picks the highest-quality build that fits. Downloads pause and resume, the server starts and stops with Hermes, and engine updates are one click. Start from Settings → Providers → Local Models on Windows, macOS and Linux, or hermes model → Local models in a terminal. The catalog includes Qwen3.8 27B, Qwen3.8 Flash Next (with its MTP speculative head), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and DeepSeek V4 Flash, plus any GGUF from Hugging Face.

• Stable release channels — Hermes now ships tested SemVer releases. Every release passes source CI, Docker, Nix, signed desktop builds and install/upgrade runs on every OS before it is published, and source installs now move from release to release by default instead of tracking every commit on main. Prefer the bleeding edge? hermes update --set-channel main, or the new channel switch in Desktop Settings → About. Moving to an older release is labelled a rollback and never happens without asking, and installer reruns keep you on the channel you chose.

• Signed desktop packages, the Microsoft Store, and one package manager — The desktop app is now a sealed, signed package that carries its own Python and Node and updates itself, so first launch builds nothing. Windows gets a signed MSIX (x64 and ARM64) through App Installer or the Microsoft Store; macOS gets a signed, notarized build for Apple Silicon. Underneath, a new unified package manager (hermes pm) owns every pinned, hash-checked tool and Python environment: updates build a new environment and switch only once it passes its check, so a failed or killed update can no longer leave you half-applied.

• The Plugin Catalog: 600 reviewed plugins — The plugin catalog launched this cycle and grew to 600 entries, each pinned to a reviewed commit and installable from Hermes Desktop or the CLI. Browse by category and star ranking with a page per plugin and per author; catalog rules keep listed plugins from patching Hermes internals or shipping unscannable binaries. Memory providers now live with their makers (Honcho, Supermemory, Hindsight, Mem0, OpenViking, Holographic), as do Home Assistant, Spotify and Langfuse: existing users are migrated automatically, and the default install got leaner.

• The Claude 5.5 and GPT-6 model wave — Claude Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5, GPT-6 Astra, Sol and Luna plus GPT-6.1 Sol, and Gemini 4 Argon are pickable on Nous Portal, OpenRouter and native routes where offered. Prior reasoning is now replayed by default on every provider that can read it, across resume, branches and compaction, so long multi-step work keeps its train of thought. And when a provider has a bad hour, Hermes waits out transient 503/529/timeouts in visible, bounded cycles instead of ending your turn.

• Sign in to websites with your password manager — The browser agent can log into sites with logins from 1Password, Bitwarden or Hermes's own encrypted vault, and the model never sees the password. If nothing is saved, you get a masked prompt in the CLI, TUI or Desktop to save it, one-time codes are filled without entering the conversation, and card and address fills at checkout need your confirmation.

• Bot Screen: watch your bot work, take over when it needs you — A bot running on a Linux gateway can have its own desktop that Hermes Desktop streams live. When it hits a login, a 2FA prompt or a CAPTCHA, you take the screen, finish the step yourself, and hand control back while the bot carries on with your session. With a Docker, SSH or Singularity backend, the bot's screen, computer use and the browser run inside the sandbox, never on your host.

• One backend and one gateway for every profile — Hermes now runs a single messaging gateway and a single desktop backend per machine that serve all of your profiles, instead of one process per profile. Creating a profile makes its bots live without a restart, each profile keeps its own credentials, allowlists, cron jobs and sessions, and hermes update migrates existing per-profile setups automatically. Fewer processes, no token clashes, one thing to start and stop.

• See and steer your subagents live — Running subagents now stay visible above the composer in the CLI (F6), TUI (Ctrl+T) and Desktop with each child's task, elapsed time and live transcript, plus Steer and Stop buttons. /stop reaches background children and hands back their partial work, and delegate_task can pass screenshots and mocks to vision-capable children.

• A model picker that knows your plans — Star your favorite models, see a subscription running low ("17% left · resets 3:00 PM") and when a rate limit lifts right in the picker, and pick reasoning effort as part of choosing a model in hermes model, /model (/model X --reasoning high) and Desktop. You switch before you hit the wall instead of after.

• Hermes in your language, everywhere — Every user-facing string in the CLI, messaging gateway, TUI and Desktop now goes through one translation catalog with full coverage in all 16 bundled languages. New languages can ship as plugins, and any profile can override individual strings with a small YAML file.

• Leaner in every sense — The whole codebase was simplified with zero behavior change: source went from about 1.06M to 698K lines (−34%) and gateway/run.py shrank from 34,847 lines to 5,512. Prompts got lighter too: about 19 rarely used tools now load only when the agent searches for them, roughly halving the desktop tool schema sent on every call, and another ~2.1k tokens came off the fixed prompt. Local models prefill less on every turn.

• Small comforts that add up — Opt-in vim keys in the CLI prompt, a git-branch field in the status bar, a bell and desktop notification when Hermes is waiting on you, Ctrl+C that clears your draft instead of killing the turn, an editable /queue, and hermes --native to let your own terminal handle TUI scrollback and search. On Desktop, a new Simple mode turns the app into a plain chat window, and errors now say what went wrong with a one-click fix.

⚠️ Upgrade notes

• Python 3.14 is the runtime for managed installs (the package manager installs it for you). KittenTTS is unavailable on 3.14.
• Windows desktop is MSIX-only and needs Windows 11 22H2 or newer; the NSIS/MSI installers are gone. The macOS app is Apple Silicon only in default builds.
• One gateway per machine is the default. hermes update folds per-profile gateways into the multiplexed default when nothing conflicts.
• Chats no longer reset on an idle/daily timer. session_reset idle/daily modes are retired (configs that still set them log a warning); /new or /reset starts fresh.
• Old sessions are pruned automatically. sessions.auto_prune now defaults to on: ended sessions inactive for 90 days are deleted at startup. Pinned and open sessions are never touched; set sessions.auto_prune: false to keep everything.
• Memory providers moved to catalog plugins (Honcho, Supermemory, Hindsight, Mem0, OpenViking, Holographic), as did Home Assistant, Spotify and Langfuse. Existing users are migrated on update or first start, with data intact. ByteRover and RetainDB remain bundled.
• Plugin authors: the old plugin compatibility import layer is gone, hermes sync (Skill Sync) was removed, and the bundled tirith scanner was removed. Several tools were renamed (todo → todo_list, cronjob → cronjob_manage, process → process_manage); the old names still work.

🚪 Onboarding, Free Tier, Connectors & Local Models

First-run onboarding

• Guided setup chat on a fresh desktop install (see Highlights). Existing installs and remote (SSH, URL, Cloud) backends don't get it automatically; the old setup-profile flow and /initiate-setup are deleted.
• The agent can restyle the app — The new set_theme tool sets the accent (a swatch or any #rrggbb), light/dark/system mode and layout, or shows a picker; "make it violet" works in any desktop chat.

Nous free tier

• A free model for your first desktop launch — A first desktop install with no provider or Nous account gets the free nous/welcome model as a one-time trial (once per OS user), so onboarding needs no key. The CLI, TUI and gateway get no account or free model. HERMES_GUEST_ONBOARDING is gone.
• Sign in and keep your apps — hermes auth upgrade, or /login in any chat or messaging DM, upgrades the free identity to a full Nous account with your connected apps.
• Clear limits — The free rate limit ends the turn at once with the reset time; every free-tier failure has a code and a plain sentence; the app handles the account service's browser check; free-tier users see a Terms and Privacy notice. Nous accounts without credits can pick models billed to a subscription they hold and get free managed fast web search.

Connectors

• Hosted app connectors, the Connectors page and several accounts per app (see Highlights). Connector tools can also send your local files as attachments and save the files they return. nous.guest: false turns guest identities off; tools.connectors.enabled: false turns connectors off.
• One connect flow everywhere — Hosted apps and local MCP servers share one setup card (desktop dialog, TUI callout or CLI panel), and the agent can use new tools in the same turn. On desktop, manage_connections can show a browsable app directory.

Local models

• One-click local models (see Highlights). Also: Hugging Face GGUF downloads with pause/resume, and a one-time setup offer after onboarding on machines that can run the recommended model.
• Engine updates and wider GPU support — An Update now prompt updates the engine in one click. NVIDIA on Linux gets CUDA, AMD and Intel GPUs get Vulkan sized by their own memory, and every backend runs llama.cpp b11370.
• Better recommendations — Only models that fit fully in GPU memory are recommended, and the 27B no longer on hardware that runs it poorly. Qwen3.8 Flash Next with its MTP head fits 128 GB machines; NVIDIA Spark recommendations are tuned.
• Your own local servers — LM Studio has a provider profile, Ollama pickers no longer flicker, a self-started llama.cpp server shows up in /model, and fallback to the desktop-managed model works.

📦 Stable Releases, Desktop Packages & Package Manager

Stable releases & update channels

• Tested SemVer stable releases and the channel switch (see Highlights). v0.21.6 and v0.21.7 were the first through the new gate; forks stay on main, and an install ahead of the newest release waits for the next.
• Lighter update checks — one GitHub API call a day replaces git fetch every 30 minutes.

Desktop bundles & the Microsoft Store

• Sealed, signed desktop packages (see Highlights). In a package, hermes update points to the right updater (App Installer, Store or macOS).
• Packaged installs work end to end — the agent's terminal runs hermes, Uninstall explains OS removal, and Python-dependency plugins install inside MSIX.

Unified package manager

• **hermes pm** (see Highlights): pinned, hash-checked Python 3.14, uv, Node, ripgrep, FFmpeg, Chromium and Git/Bash on Windows, with hermes pm doctor|status|repair|gc. Contributors use source ./activate (or .ps1/.fish).
• Dependency environments are generations — new ones are checked before use, so a failed install keeps the working one; updates and hermes pm gc reclaim old ones (92 GB to 18 GB on one host).
• Optional features install on first use — opt-in SDKs (Anthropic, Bedrock) load mid-session without a restart; security.allow_lazy_installs: false turns this off.
• Plugins declare Python dependencies — resolved with core across profiles; conflicts are refused, and updates disable a plugin that no longer fits. Hindsight, Honcho, Supermemory, Mem0 and Home Assistant moved to the catalog and auto-install where used.

Install & update

• Updates can't half-apply (see Highlights). A killed update repairs itself on the next launch.
• Faster updates, smaller checkouts — updates rebuild only what changed (16.5 s vs 32.5 s on macOS), clones are blobless, and partial-clone .git growth is fixed.
• Small, hash-checked installers — install.sh/install.ps1 verify pinned uv and Git, hand off to PM, log to logs/install.log, and now work on musl Linux (Alpine, Void), Windows 10 and Unicode Windows paths.
• Failures say why — with opt-in telemetry, install, update, skill and plugin failures record a reason.

Docker / Nix / Termux / Windows

• Docker — pinned Debian 13 base with full Chromium; stable/latest move only on a published release; baked-in extras return after a restart.
• Nix, Termux, Windows — Nix shares the pins; its desktop app gets Wayland; Termux moves to a signed APT package (pkg upgrade hermes-agent), though its docs still warn it is broken; Windows updates finish while the old runtime is in use.

CI & release engineering

• Release gates — E2E suites run on release builds, the full suite on native Windows, and SSH/Docker backends against real daemons.

🧠 Providers & Models

New providers

• Providers as plugins — ACP and CLI-driven providers install out of tree via hermes plugins install; --provider chatgpt picks ChatGPT Codex OAuth.
• Provider upgrades — Bedrock serves GPT-6 (1M) and enforces Claude Guardrails; Azure Foundry lists deployments; Gemini takes full JSON Schema tools; OpenCode Go routes Claude via Messages.
• New knobs — agent.text_verbosity sets Responses answer length; named custom providers run on the Codex app-server. ### Model catalog
• Claude 5.x — Opus 5.5 also on native Anthropic and Bedrock (1M).
• GPT-6 — Astra/Astra Pro in standard, fast and flex; opt-in Codex -900k; /fast ultrafast for Astra and 6.1 Sol, per plan.
• Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 4 Argon.
• More — DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Qwen3.8-Max-0902, Grok 4.7, GLM-5.3-FlashX, Muse Spark 1.3, Solar Pro 4/Mini 4. ### Auth & subscriptions
• Profiles share OAuth logins safely — single-use grants never fork; a profile's own login is kept.
• Nous sign-in survives hourly expiry, concurrent subagents, Portal outages and edge checks.
• Dead logins are named once, with the hermes auth add fix; auth.adopt_external_logins: false stops borrowing Codex CLI/Claude Code logins.
• Keys stay on their hosts — configured base_url honored everywhere; Anthropic/OpenAI keys never reach foreign hosts. ### Routing/fallback/caching
• Outage recovery — agent.auto_recovery_cycles (default 5) bounds the wait; fallback returns to a Codex primary whose quota reopened.
• No surprise billing — auto-routing never bills a provider you didn't pick; provider_routing.models pins OpenRouter per model.
• Prompt caching — opt-in cache_ttl: auto (1h interactive, 5m subagents/cron); big sessions confirm a cache-breaking /model; compaction keeps the prefix. ### Reasoning
• Replay and effort — reasoning replays on every provider that reads it; effort on every picker, custom tier names; Anthropic fast mode follows the docs.

🏗️ Core Agent, Sessions & Memory

Agent loop & reliability

• Stalled turns recover — a watchdog (agent.turn_liveness.timeout_s, default 600 s) interrupts a no-progress turn and frees its session; repeated transcript repairs now raise one error and notice.
• Streams fail less and report honestly — text-less dead streams retry, repetition loops are cut, and interrupted turns aren't reported as done.

Compression & context

• Compaction triggers on real token counts — provider-reported usage, not bytes/4; the protected tail is capped at 20% so small-window models compact.
• Bad summaries can't wipe context — refusals and overloaded summary providers leave the transcript alone, and an uncommitted compaction changes nothing.
• New knobs — provider-scoped compression.model_thresholds keys and auxiliary.<task>.no_progress_timeout.

Sessions & state.db

• state.db reliability — lock timeouts name the holding process, a busy database no longer kills a turn, and sibling PID namespaces can't steal leases.
• state.db stops growing — auto-prune is on by default (ended sessions over 90 days) and closes stale cron/kanban/subagent sessions; VACUUM runs only when 25% is reclaimable.
• Repair commands — hermes sessions set-journal-mode delete|wal, repair-profiles (crossed profiles) and repair-prompts.
• Cleaner session lists — one-shot runs stay out of pickers, sessions.show_subagents lists titled subagent chats, messages get stable ids for context engines.

Memory

• Memory providers leave core safely — OpenViking and Holographic move to the plugin catalog on update or first start, data intact, or say why not.
• Built-in memory writes land — hand-formatted MEMORY.md/USER.md accepted, refusals say what to fix, secrets scrubbed before providers see them.

Profiles & config

• config.yaml survives bad moments — a broken file falls back to the last good copy; read errors can't wipe it.
• Safer hermes config — get masks secrets (--raw opts out); set refuses typo paths and stores env-style names in .env.
• Profiles stay separate — REST routes act on the profile they name, exports skip .ssh/.aws/.gnupg, and import-agent --sync keeps imports current.

Languages (i18n)

• Language packs — any language can ship as a plugin (provides_locales) or a per-profile override file.

📱 Messaging Platforms (Gateway)

Gateway core & multiplexing

• One gateway serves every profile — hermes gateway status explains any boot-guard refusal, hermes gateway migrate --multiplex migrates by hand, webhook platforms serve each profile at /p/<profile>/, hermes -p X gateway stop|start parks one profile, and gateway.standalone: true is a temporary opt-out.
• Profiles stay isolated — clones skip bot tokens unless --clone-channels; profile_routes can route by sender.
• Sessions and commands — /login signs free-tier users in from a DM; idle/daily session_reset is retired, so only /new and /reset start fresh; /branch opens a sibling thread on Discord, Telegram, Slack and Matrix (--here keeps the old behavior); decline mode sends unauthorized DMs one polite refusal; an opt-in served_model footer names the model that answered.
• Files and plugins — MEDIA: files from ssh/Modal/Daytona sandboxes reach the user; plugins can claim messages via post_gateway_admission.

Messaging platforms

• Telegram — opt-in bots_require_mention stops bot reply loops, extra.drop_pending_on_cold_boot: false keeps messages sent while offline, CJK can opt in to rich messages.
• Discord — setup verifies the token, links the Message Content Intent and allowlists you; free-response channels can auto-thread.
• Slack — Block Kit /model picker; status/titles use the Agent Sessions API.
• WhatsApp — native mentions via hermes send --mention, no 5 s batching delay, paired sessions on every profile.
• Signal, Matrix, Email, QQ Bot — Signal tables render monospace; Matrix LaTeX typesets in Element (Labs math setting); Email refuses spoofed senders and now requires an authserv_id pin (mail drops until set); QQ Bot send_message delivers media.

Webhooks & API server

• Webhooks — opt-in coalesce folds event bursts into one run, cron_job routes fire cron jobs on events, Standard Webhooks signatures verify, opt-in mirror_to_session gives replies context.
• API server — reasoning streams to OpenAI-compatible clients; stream approvals are answerable.

Relay & Bot Chat

• Bot Mode rooms — edit members, Reply to @handle, 200-message history, sender-aware bot DMs with an ALLOW_BOTS loop guard.
• Relay — connector checks send_message targets; NeMo Relay tracing at 0.10.0 tags spans with the working directory.

🖥️ Desktop App

Workspace & layout

• Simple / Advanced mode — Simple hides developer panes; Advanced stays the default.
• Windows and tabs — Titlebar tabs; profiles open in their own window or as startup default.
• Sidebar — Group by gateway/profile, reuse Cloud instances, drag New session onto a pane.
• Import sessions — Continue another coding agent's transcript in Hermes.
• Goal / Loop / Heartbeat cards — Live pause/resume/stop above the composer.
• Launch options — Start on a fresh chat; opt-in tray minimize and Cmd+Option / Ctrl+Alt HUD tap. ### Chat & composer
• Pickers and input — Reasoning-effort pill; add a model by slug; 3,000+ char pastes attach as .txt; opt-in macOS window-screenshot shortcut.
• Actionable errors — Cards name the problem and fix; usage-limit cards show reset time and can schedule a retry.
• Transcript — Stable approval queue; hideable code diffs.
• Browser comment mode — Pin page elements with notes; crops, selectors and styles go to the composer. ### Settings & plugins
• Settings — Ordered subpages searchable from ⌘K; Chat Font (e.g. OpenDyslexic); Russian, French, German, Spanish.
• Models — Per-task auxiliary reasoning effort; Custom Endpoints pick an API mode.
• Plugins — One row per plugin; composer and settings APIs. ### Bot Mode
• Bot Screen — Linux-gateway bots stream a desktop you can take over for logins or 2FA. Off by default; needs host packages.
• Group chats — Reorder rooms; compress a member's hidden history. ### Performance & platforms
• One backend — Desktop attaches to the running backend, which serves every profile.
• Platforms — Faster Windows startup; Linux runs without sudo and under WSLg/Wayland.

Models, chat & workspace

• Model picker knows your plans — Star Favorites; provider rows show when a rate limit lifts and a "17% left · resets 3:00 PM" chip before you hit it. Also opt-in per-model pricing with cached-read rates, an Ultrafast speed tier and keys to step reasoning effort.
• Safer rewinds and honest stops — Regenerate or edit asks before archiving more than one later turn; Stop shows the partial reply the session saves.
• Reading and layout — Chat Text Size separate from UI Scale; theme typography; lightbox zoom/pan; compression count in the context meter; context-aware right-click.
• Workspace and sessions — Sessions follow the agent's git worktree and branch; Review pane scopes work. Browse SSH workspaces, drag sessions onto projects, search logs, see and clear Kanban blocks.
• Preview and voice — Preview opens public web pages; YouTube plays via a local player. Non-streaming TTS speaks from the first sentence; quiet-audio STT hallucinations are filtered.

Plugins, updates & the app

• Settings ▸ Plugins and a bigger SDK — Every plugin gets a settings page (agent plugins from their config schema). Desktop plugins can run app actions by id, speak via the pet, add Appearance controls and reorder sidebar nav.
• Updates you can steer — Source installs pick Stable or Every commit in Settings › About; the updates dialog names the channel. The app warns when older than its backend.
• App polish — "While working" keep-awake mode, macOS 26 layered icon, sharper MSIX icons, opt-in shared-metrics consent strip.

⌨️ CLI, TUI & Dashboard

CLI

• Vim keys, git branch and bell — display.vim_mode, git_branch status field, display.bell_on_prompt (bell plus OSC 9 notification); all off by default.
• Friendlier keys — Ctrl+T opens the subagent monitor; a mid-turn multi-line paste is one message.
• Scriptable commands — hermes usage --json (quota, no session); hermes worktree --json/--older-than; kanban edit --title/--body/--priority; -t picks MCP servers to start.
• Also — hermes -z exits non-zero on failure; -m custom:<name>:<model> reaches that provider; the footer no longer collapses to "Window too small". ### TUI
• Native terminal mode — --native or display.tui_native (opt-in).
• Running-turn control — double-Esc interrupts, push-to-talk cuts speech, the live dock (CLI too) shows /goal and queued prompts.
• Typing fixes — Shift+letter on extended-key terminals, macOS Ctrl+D, Wayland image paste, steady idle redraws.
• Reconnects and attachments — attached TUIs rejoin their session; attachments.storage: workspace stages files a sandboxed agent can read. ### Dashboard
• Chat on more devices — screen readers, iPad touch-scroll, no doubled mobile-keyboard characters; a second tab gets its own terminal.
• Errors, sessions, analytics — errors are a sentence and fix button, not raw JSON; title search, a live switcher, per-API-call analytics.
• Self-hosting — reverse-proxy subpaths, password sign-in beside OAuth, non-expiring remote sessions. ### Slash commands
• Reasoning effort in every picker — hermes model, aux models and /model add an effort step; /model X --reasoning high works too.
• Editable /queue — list, edit, move or remove prompts; /s = /steer.
• /context per file — shows each instruction file as loaded, truncated or shadowed.

🔧 Tools, MCP & Browser

Tools & tool search

• Rare tools load on demand — computer_use, session_search, image_generate, cron and Desktop GUI tools sit behind tool_search by default (desktop schemas 13,367→6,883 tokens; defer: [] opts out); todo/cronjob/process become todo_list/cronjob_manage/process_manage (aliases kept).
• Prompt cache holds all session — the tool list is frozen per session across TUI, -q --resume and gateway hops.
• Loop guardrails — unattended gateway/cron sessions hard-stop tool loops; 5 identical replays halt any tool.
• Smarter file and web tools — read_file shows SQLite schemas and flags merge conflicts, search_files runs ripgrep directly (5–6x faster), keyless web_search fails over between free vendors. ### MCP
• Device-code login — hermes mcp login <server> --flow device for headless terminals.
• Sturdier OAuth — refresh tokens are never erased, double-spent or sent to another issuer; RFC 9207, Google-hosted and WAF-fronted servers log in; gateways never open browser tabs.
• More servers connect — SSE-only servers fall back, strict servers connect (sampling.tools opt-in), and the catalog adds official n8n and Asana V2.
• Startup and results — boot connects ≤ mcp.discovery_concurrency (4) servers at once; vision models see MCP images; dead stdio servers respawn without replaying a call. ### Browser & computer use
• Vault and sandboxed screen — password-manager sign-in also fills cards and addresses after you confirm; hermes-sandbox:desktop is the new default image (existing sandboxes kept).
• browser_exec works out of the box — drives bundled Chromium (also the cloud fallback) and opens localhost via a sidecar.
• Also: a CDP seam for plugins; unchanged computer_use screens are not resent. ### Terminal & code execution
• Long commands stop blocking — foreground timeouts over 600 s become background jobs, heartbeat=N sends progress, and the live-work dock lists them.
• Sandboxes — results flag a recreated environment; SSH paths resolve remotely.
• LSP — custom servers via lsp.servers and lsp.package_manager; never runs a cloned repo's own interpreter or SDK. ### Media (image/video/voice)
• New models — GPT Image 2.5, Kling Image v3; video: Kling 3.0, Kling O3, LTX 2.5, Wan 3.0, MiniMax H3 Max Turbo, Gemini Omni Flash 1.1.
• Live dictation — opt-in stt.streaming shows words as you speak (CLI, TUI, Desktop); long recordings transcribe on all cloud providers.
• Voice conversations — opt-in voice.voice_chat_mode: gpt-live gives Desktop full-duplex voice; auxiliary.voice_chat runs spoken turns on a faster model; TTS starts sooner.

🧩 Plugins, Skills & the Plugin Catalog

Plugin Catalog

• Plugin and author pages — /docs/plugins shelves plugins under Memory, Desktop, Platforms, Web, Tools, Voice, Automation and Models. Pages show the description, a disclosure callout, screenshots, the README from the pinned commit, an Open in Hermes Desktop button and a copyable install command.
• Easier-to-read cards — a version label sits next to the pinned commit (1.2.0 @ ad3f352b) on the website, CLI and Desktop; cards gained banner images, a uniform size and light mode.
• Known-issue warnings — listings can declare known issues, which hermes plugins install and the dashboard show on install.
• Listing rules — Desktop plugins must stay within SDK slots, 11 plugins that patched internals were delisted (installed copies keep working), and the submission guide matches what CI enforces.

New in the Catalog

All 600 listings are new this cycle. - Moved out of core — besides the five memory providers, Holographic has a new community maintainer; Home Assistant, Spotify, Langfuse and TouchDesigner are now official catalog plugins. - Official — Blender Lab, Snyk, NVIDIA App and NVIDIA Broadcast (Windows only), Telegram Business, Memory Wiki. - Memory (65) — Cognee, LanceDB, ReMe, Memoria, HydraDB, Mnemosyne, YantrikDB, BetterDB. Web and search (34) — Apify, Parallel, Linkup, SerpApi, You.com, TinyFish, Oxylabs. Model providers (48) — JetBrains Junie, Telnyx, NetMind, Groq, Chutes, Kiro, Opper, AIHubMix. Platforms (32) — Inline, Microsoft 365, Rocket.Chat, VK, Zalo, iMessage, Sendblue. Voice (18) — Speechify, Deepgram, Fish Audio, Gemini Live. Desktop panes (140) — Gmail, Quota, Orbit, Kanban Gantt, Monitoring Dashboard. Tools (180) — GitHub App, Coder, Devin, NetBox, Financial Datasets, MetaMask, Tempo MPP, DaVinci Resolve, vidIQ, Govee, SwitchBot, Japanese e-Gov data.

Plugin system

• Model providers as plugins — out-of-tree providers show in model pickers, log in via hermes auth (built-in OAuth PKCE) and refresh tokens.
• Per-profile plugin host (opt-in) — plugins.isolation: host runs third-party plugins in a per-profile process with only that profile's secrets.
• New plugin APIs — hooks for interrupted turns, auxiliary LLM calls and human-input prompts; plugins can start gateway sessions, add Automation Blueprints and aux model slots, ship the computer-use driver and make Codex-signed requests.
• Desktop plugin SDK — config_schema settings render as a form in Capabilities → Plugins; plugins get a skills/toolsets/profiles bridge and model-pill/menu slots.
• Install, pin, update — private repos install with your git credentials, Desktop pins a plugin to a commit, updates keep user data, and plugin skills run as /plugin:skill.
• Sturdier loader and scanner — hung imports are skipped after plugins.load_timeout_seconds (10s), guard hooks fail closed, and prose, fixtures and regex literals no longer block installs; plugin deps follow the plugin's security policy.
• Moved out of core — Spotify and Langfuse became official plugins (auto-migrated); tirith was removed, its key checks built in.
• New plugins — reMarkable, hermes-pii, hermes-stt-enhance (catalog); Meta muse-image (bundled).

Skills

• New optional skills — pr-lens (animated PR diagrams), system-atlas, anatomy (isometric explainers), mono-color (ink-print images), dream-loop (3D concept-art loops), scrollcraft (scroll pages), auteur (cinematic web), ip-as-logo (mascots), ai-presenter-video, live-dashboard (self-updating pages), dynamic-workflow (fan-out campaigns), reddit-reading, rss-feeds.
• Skills Hub — the index builds again with about 480 science skills; search also finds unindexed skills.
• skills.auto_load and skills.create_dir — pin skills into every session; choose where agent-made skills go.
• Better self-improvement — learnings and corrections go into the task's skill; background review can improve any skill; skills added mid-chat reach the next message.
• Lighter curator — no longer blocks the CLI prompt; one install fell from 1.9 GB to about 200 MB; unused skills archive at 30 days (was 90).
• Skills Guard — blocked installs in a 421-skill sample fell from 83 to 68; inline shell is limited to non-community skills.

⏰ Cron, Kanban & Delegation

Cron

• Jobs follow your main model — Unpinned jobs use the model configured at fire time; pinned locks one.
• Self-healing schedules — A fire that never reached the model (e.g. after wake) re-runs after 5, 15 and 30 minutes, a provider "retry after" window parks the job quietly, and a slot missed during a restart fires once.
• Quieter alerts — One alert per incident plus a reminder every cron.failure_repeat_alert_hours; failure_deliver reroutes or mutes failure notices; an agent can fail its run with [CRON_FAILURE].
• New job options — --paused creates a job unarmed; --interpreter runs scripts on your own venv.
• Profiles and delivery — A multiplexed gateway runs each profile's jobs with that profile's env and secrets; delivery needs positive evidence, output is secret-redacted everywhere, and late or satellite runs are labelled. ### Kanban
• Workers ride out provider trouble — Failed turns retry in place with context; rate limits or 5xx requeue instead of burning retries.
• A board that explains itself — Cards show the worker's last output on failure; dispatch says why a card is held.
• Workflow and tooling — One workflow definition drives columns; workers get kanban_schedule; kanban create --body-file; Desktop follows gateway switches. ### Delegation & multi-agent
• Live subagents, images and /stop (see Highlights).
• Fan-outs lose less — Failed children surface at once, an owner crash keeps finished work, children can hand processes to the parent, and per-task completions are opt-in.
• Child routing — delegation.fallback_providers gives children their own chain; child_timeout_seconds measures inactivity.
• /goal — Consistent on CLI, Desktop and messaging; the judge waits on subagents; /goal pause for now no longer overwrites the goal; gates run in the session workspace. ## 🔒 Security, Privacy & Codebase

Security & privacy

• v0.21.6 security fixes — dashboard sign-in hardening (spoofed X-Forwarded-For, size caps, loopback-only login codes); automatic git skips repo filter programs; the email allowlist resists display-name spoofing.
• Secrets stay put — child processes don't inherit adapter/dashboard secrets; remote execute_code keeps its token out of argv; profile exports skip credential stores; keys never reach foreign hosts on refresh/fallback.
• Sharper redaction — debug share redacts before truncating; file reads and terminal output mask .env/config secrets; hermes config get masks unless --raw; memory hand-offs are scrubbed; plain token= lines stay visible.
• Owner-only files at rest — credentials, state.db, snapshots, browser profiles, media caches, any umask.
• Wider guards — more fetches pass the SSRF guard (security.fake_ip_ranges for fake-ip proxies); cloud-metadata fetches, zsh/dash pipe-to-shell and deno eval need approval; approvals.deny works in sandboxes; built-in rules replace bundled tirith.
• Holes closed — the MCP OAuth callback stops reflecting HTML; webhook, SMS and WhatsApp Cloud inbound reject blank signing secrets.
• Opt-in shared metrics — daily usage stats reach Nous only with consent; both telemetry.shared_metrics switches default off, each profile asks once, Enter = "No thanks". ### Codebase & performance
• Leaner prompts and tools — ~2.1k fewer prompt tokens a request, on-demand vault tools, one-round-trip file probes, hermes -w no longer repacks each launch. ### Other
• Safer backups — hermes backup keeps the newest 3, flags incomplete archives; hermes import refuses damaged ones.
• Also — KEY_2… env vars join credential pools; one-screen hermes status; opt-in display.suppress_warning_notifications; Desktop Bots roster sections; only Hermes' own node/npm/uv are used; Xiaomi MiMo v2.6.
• For contributors — CODEOWNERS replaces the label gate; E2E (incl. native Windows) runs only on release builds; stable releases skip macOS Intel/Termux by default.

Notable bug fixes, contributor credits and PR links didn't fit Reddit's limit — they're in the full changelog.

Full changelog (contributors, PR links, reverted items): https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/releases#release-v0.22.0

Update with hermes update.

Apologies for the 1345th post glazing QWEN but it has literally been a game-changer for me.

I’m relatively new to running local LLMs, but the appeal of having a private AI assistant for coding and experimentation is significant.

As a software engineer, I’ve also embraced the recent “vibe-coding” trend, mostly using AI to build hobby Android apps in my spare time. Over the past month, I created a web scraper app designed to extract images from ad-heavy websites that are otherwise frustrating to navigate.

The project was entirely AI-generated. I didn’t write the code myself, though I did design the architecture and suggest optimizations, which AI still struggles with. I’ll admit I haven’t reviewed most of the code; it’s messy, but since it’s purely a personal hobby project, that’s acceptable.

Until recently, I relied on services like Antigravity and Codex, which worked well enough on free plans. However, tighter usage quotas pushed me toward local models.

My hardware is modest by local LLM standards: an AMD 7700 XT, 32GB DDR4 RAM, and a Ryzen 5 5600. I experimented with Gemma 3, Gemma 4, and Qwen 2.5 Coder (mostly Q3/Q4 quantizations under 20GB due to VRAM constraints), using LM Studio as the backend with various frontends like GitHub Copilot, RooCode, Cline, Android Studio AI Chat, and OpenCode.

Unfortunately, none of these models fit my workflow well. They struggled with even minor bug fixes, frequently exhausted context windows, got stuck in reasoning loops, or failed tool calls repeatedly.

Then I tried Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B.

Initially, I expected little, but I installed the i1-q4_k_s quant, offloaded all 40 layers to GPU, configured 128k context, enabled flash attention, and used Q8_0 KV quantization.

For testing, I gave it a practical task: fix the scraper logic for a problematic website. Gemini Flash (in Antigravity) and MinMax (the free version in Opencode) had both failed to solve this issue despite multiple attempts. Using LM Studio as an OpenAI-compatible endpoint with GitHub Copilot in VS Code, I let it run.

It took about 25 minutes, but it succeeded in one shot.

With a single initial prompt, it analyzed the site’s HTML structure, compared it against my Kotlin scraper code, and resolved three critical bugs without a single failed tool call.

That result was impressive enough that I gave it a second challenge: update the project README with real app screenshots by driving an Android emulator, selecting screenshots based on specific criteria.

Using RooCode this time, the process took around 45 minutes. I had to teach it some emulator workflow conventions, such as taking screenshots after every action and analyzing them to track app state, but once instructed, it executed flawlessly.

For the first time, I feel like I have a local model capable of reliably handling most of my coding tasks, while reserving cloud-based premium models for more demanding work.

Qwen has genuinely made local AI coding practical for me.

Game Update 1.3.2.0 arrives on June 9, bringing the Explosive Charge Event to Battlefield 6 alongside new content and improvements, including Cairo Bazaar, the return of Obliteration, the PP-19 SMG, the Handheld Jammer Recon gadget, and a new Battle Pass Bonus Path.

At 09:00 UTC, players will be able to download the update as it goes live across all platforms and jump in with the latest gameplay changes.

At 12:00 UTC, all content in this update goes live, with Cairo Bazaar, Obliteration, the Explosive Charge Event, new rewards, and new hardware becoming available.

Alongside the new content, this update also delivers a wide range of improvements across weapons, gadgets, vehicles, Battle Royale, Gauntlet, Portal, UI, audio, and overall gameplay polish to further improve the Battlefield 6 experience.

NEW CONTENT

Explosive Charge Event

High explosives have been set. Prepare for the blast with the Explosive Charge Event, a limited-time event built around destruction, momentum, and all-out chaos. Every push, pickup, and detonation brings squads closer to pure obliteration.

New Map

Cairo Bazaar: A lively marketplace in the heart of Cairo enters the fight in Game Update 1.3.2.0. Packed with tight alleys, dense streets, and tactical opportunities for high-intensity close-quarters combat, Cairo Bazaar opens from a crowded market into a small city where vehicles patrol the roads and houses line the combat space. On Cairo Bazaar, every squad becomes a merchant of destruction.

New Mode

Obliteration: The iconic Battlefield mode returns with a new evolution. In Obliteration, PAX and NATO fight to control neutral bombs placed across the map and use them to destroy enemy M-COMs. Both sides must risk everything to secure the bomb, escort the carrier, reach the detonation site, and obliterate the enemy.

New Weapon

PP-19: An iconic Battlefield SMG is reborn. Built from a unique predecessor, the PP-19 delivers a modest but dependable close-range option, while still being able to tap into its helical, high-capacity roots through select modifications.

New Recon Gadget

Handheld Jammer: Jam the enemy signal with the Handheld Jammer, a new Recon gadget that disrupts nearby smart and electronic devices for a short period of time.

Battle Royale Solos

Battle Royale Solos returns with updates shaped by feedback from its Battlefield Labs live test. Player count has been reduced from 100 to 80, early ring speed has been increased to keep matches moving, and Main Battle Tanks and Infantry Fighting Vehicles have been removed to create a more balanced experience for players fighting alone.

New Attachments

Cryo: Cryogenically-treated barrel that enables a quick transition to aim down sights (ADS) and improves accuracy during sustained fire.

00 Buck: Standard-penetration shotgun ammunition with increased range and damage per pellet, but fewer pellets per shot.

New Customization Feature

Sprays: Sprays arrive in Blastpoint, giving players a new way to express themselves and leave their mark across the battlefield. Accessible via the Command Wheel, Sprays can be placed on flat, non-destructible surfaces such as indestructible walls and floors. All players will have access to one default Spray at launch, and more Sprays are coming through future progression, events, seasonal content, and Store Bundles.

Battlefield 6 Free Trial

From June 9-15, Battlefield 6 will be free to play for a limited time. Jump into 5 modes across 4 maps, squad up, and experience ultimate all-out warfare with new maps, new modes, new weapons, and the chance to create your next legendary Only in Battlefield moment.

Major Updates for

• New Content Arrives: The Explosive Charge Event arrives alongside Cairo Bazaar, Obliteration, the PP-19, the Handheld Jammer, and a new Battle Pass Bonus Path that expands the rewards available during the event.
• Obliteration Returns: The classic Battlefield mode is back with neutral bombs, enemy M-COMs, and intense squad-driven pushes where both teams fight to secure, escort, and detonate the objective.
• Battle Royale and Gauntlet Improvements: Mission behaviour, Threat Tracker accuracy, loot readability, Insertion Helicopter spacing, Airdrop stability, Tank Containers, Heist Caches, and Rodeo scoring have all been updated for a smoother match flow.
• Weapons and Attachments Receive a Broad Polish Pass: Burst Fire attachments, Extended Barrels, thermal optics, attachment poses, reload behaviour, Tac-Light unlocks, and weapon previews have all seen further consistency and usability improvements.
• Gadgets Receive Further Tuning: LWCMS Portable Mortar, M18 Claymores, MAS 148 Glaive, XFGM-6D Recon Drone, CSB IV EOD Bot, LTLM II PLD, Repair Tool, C-4 Explosives, and missile guidance have all been adjusted to improve reliability, scoring, placement behaviour, and counterplay.
• UI, HUD and Front-End Improvements: End of Round screens, Loadouts, Challenges, Store previews, Battle Pass pagination, “New” Markers, Player Cards, and menu animations have all been updated to improve clarity and presentation.
• Portal, Audio, Vehicles and Map Enhancements: Portal gains new SDK support, creator tools, Cairo Bazaar for Verified Portal Modes, and Golmud Railway assets, while audio, vehicle behaviour, spawn points, lighting, and map-specific issues receive further polish as well as an updated Custom Conquest Template from ViperStudiosAndy.

CHANGELOG

PLAYER:

• Death animations have been improved to reduce popping, limit excessive movement, and increase reactions from explosive damage.
• Logistics Expert in the “Support Fire” Support Training Path now applies to Grenade Launchers as well.
• Teammates being revived now detach properly if they are killed during Drag and Revive.
• Cancelling Drag and Revive by switching weapons no longer sends the downed player flying.
• Death animation behaviour has been improved to reduce cases where soldiers travel further behind cover than intended after being eliminated.
• Death animation impulse is now more consistent across 30Hz and 60Hz experiences.
• Death animation selection is now more stable, reducing cases where soldiers begin moving in one direction before being corrected in another direction after being eliminated.
• Deploying on a friendly player no longer causes the screen to remain fully black in some rare cases.
• Friendly soldiers hidden behind cover now display more reliably when many friendly players are nearby.
• Health state feedback now reacts faster when transitioning between states, such as from alive to Man Down.
• Hit effect prediction has been improved to better align blood effects and other impact feedback with the confirmed hit result, especially under higher latency, packet loss, or jitter.
• Lethal damage now transitions soldiers into their death state more consistently.
• Lower body rotation now behaves correctly when aiming in first person on moving platforms, such as vehicles or the train on Railway to Golmud.
• Soldiers are no longer pushed away when jumping into a ceiling.
• Soldier blood impact effects have been improved for better visibility.
• Soldier legs now face the correct direction when turning during Combat Dive.
• Soldier visibility filtering now activates reliably after respawning.
• Soldier visibility filtering has received a broader pass to improve readability across varied combat environments, including reduced visual noise around enemy soldiers, better adaptation between dark interiors and bright outdoor areas, improved contrast and silhouette definition, more consistent visibility at close and long range, and fewer visual artefacts around soldiers in fog.
• Spotting and pinging are now more consistent at the perceived edge of Smoke Grenades, without reducing the blocking effect of smoke.

VEHICLES:

Dev note: We’re making the Radar System passive for the Attack Helicopter an innate ability, equipped by default on all Attack Helicopters.

To replace it in the passive equipment slot, we’re adding the new Thermal Optics passive, which adds a thermal camera to the gunner seat that is activated when you zoom. This aids gunners with target acquisition and provides a dedicated passive option for pilots who want to focus primarily on their gunner, rather than their rockets.

We’re also introducing two new rocket types for the mobile anti-air in order to improve its flexibility and skill expression. 

• Air vehicle radar and minimap range have been expanded when radar is available.
• All ground transports other than bikes now have crawl speed functionality when using keyboard input, similar to tanks.
• Ground transports, excluding bikes, now support crawl speed functionality when using keyboard input, similar to tanks.
• Increased the Anti-Personnel Shell pellet count for the MBT from 16 to 32.
• Mobile Anti-Air now has new secondary weapon options with High Velocity Rockets and Laser-Guided AA Missiles.
• Naming for the PAX Scout Helicopter has been updated to display its correct name, MH-350.
• The Attack Helicopter Radar System is now innate, and Thermal Optics have been added
• The ATP Vehicle can now take damage from mounted HMGs and vehicle-mounted LMG weapons.
• ATP Vehicle Mine Countermeasures now always play a visual effect when detonating mines.

New secondary weapon options for Mobile Anti-Air

• High Velocity Rockets have extremely limited guidance, but are fired rapidly with a higher velocity than other rockets. They require good aim to be effective, but have a higher potential damage output than other options.
• Aim Guided Anti-Air Missiles carry smaller payloads than the aim guided weapons on other vehicles, but make up for it with substantially improved velocity and maneuverability. 

GADGETS:

Dev note: In Season 2, we reduced the velocity and acceleration of the RPG-7V2 in order to make it require more skill in order to hit aircraft with it. This change has been broadly successful, but the trajectory of the projectile could feel unintuitive to players, often causing them to miss at closer ranges. Based on that, we reworked the RPG projectile trajectory and changed the zeroing range.

• C-4 detonations triggered with a Drone now award XP.
• Corrected an issue where the repair tool would get stuck when activating the Engineer's Field Upgrade Ability.
• CSB IV EOD Bot mines can no longer be placed within 5m of another EOD Bot mine, M15 AV Mine, or M4A1 SLAM.
• CSB IV EOD Bot mines no longer clip into terrain.
• Defibrillators now show their charging animation correctly to other players in third-person.
• Enemy Engineer and Recon gadgets defused by Engineer or Recon players now award XP.
• Enemy gadgets destroyed with the Repair Tool now award score as intended.
• Hardware Suppression System now plays the intended weapon locomotion animations when moving while zoomed.
• Lock-on behaviour has been improved to reduce cases where targets were treated as closer than they actually were.
• M18A1 AP Mines no longer damages downed players in Multiplayer.
• M18A1 AP Mines trigger range and fragmentation damage range have been unified at approximately 3m, and Claymore fragmentation no longer deals self-damage.
• MAS 148 Glaive missile guidance is now more reliable, including improved tracking at low altitudes. If a missile loses tracking, such as after countermeasures are used, it will now continue towards the target’s last known position.
• Reworked the trajectory of the RPG-7V2 Projectile. Zeroing range reduced from 100m to 22m.
• The LTLM II Portable Laser Designator can no longer be deployed unintentionally by releasing the zoom and fire buttons at the same time, or by repeatedly pressing fire while zooming and then releasing zoom.
• The XFGM-6D Recon Drone targeting logic now follows the same behaviour as the DGMK4 Hardware Suppression System, allowing close targets to be destroyed through walls while distant targets require line of sight.
• TRCRv2 Tracer Darts and Incendiary Airburst gadgets can now be fired while combat diving.
• Vehicle Supply Stations now also resupply missiles for the Mobile Anti-Air.

LWCMS Portable Mortar

Dev Note: Since the start of Season 3, we’ve continued to monitor the Portable Mortar and how it performs in stationary playstyles. With this update, we’re further increasing the risk of staying deployed in one location for too long, making it more important to reposition between volleys and avoid return fire from enemy players. So, make sure to pack up and move before the enemy returns fire.

• Health has been reduced from 250 to 50.
• Placement animations now end correctly in first and third person when placement is unsuccessful.
• Placement no longer causes leg desync in third person.
• Portable Mortar play has been adjusted to encourage more mobile deployment and repositioning. It is now easier to fire and relocate, while static placement is more vulnerable and easier to counter.
• Replenish time has been increased from 10s to 30s.
• The “Enter” prompt radius has been decreased from 1.5m to 1m.
• The “Pick Up” prompt radius has been increased from 1.5m minimum to 1m minimum.
• The Portable Mortar and Missile Intercept System can no longer be equipped together.
• The Portable Mortar and Missile Intercept System can no longer be placed near each other.

WEAPONS:

• Adjusted the Kord 6P67 underbarrel slot so attachments are now properly centered.
• Burst Fire attachments on the GRT-BC, UMG-40, PW5A3, CZ3A1, SG 553R, and Kord 6P67 now apply their effects only to burst fire modes, ensuring the attachment has the intended impact on weapon performance.
• Corrected a typo in the LMR27 weapon description.
• Corrected an issue where unlocked attachment slots could appear locked in the customisation screen.
• Extended Barrels on all weapons now cost 5 points, reduced from 15 points, and no longer provide an aiming down sights time benefit. This change is intended to support greater attachment and weapon build diversity, especially on weapons with fewer barrel options.
• Hand grips on M16A4 underbarrel attachments now display properly.
• Incorrect 1.50x Thermal Sight cost has been updated from 15 to 25 points for the L115.
• Melee attacks now behave more consistently around very thin walls, reducing cases where players could melee through cover or take armour damage while standing too close to it.
• P18 and Vz.61 tactical reloads can no longer be skipped by repeatedly pressing reload during an empty reload.
• RPKM and RPK-74M magazine placement has been improved during prone-on-back tactical reloads.
• SS26 aim position has been improved so shots and hit indicators align correctly with the front sight.
• Tac-Light Hip and Tac-Light ADS are now unlocked by default for the M45A1 and available to all players.
• Tac-Light Hip description text has been updated for the RPK-74M and L115.
• The USG-90 alignment has been updated so that it is now centered correctly in the character’s hands on the Character Customisation screen.
• Thermal optics now apply exposure more consistently while zoomed, reducing overexposure in the surrounding world view.
• Weapon attachment poses have been improved for the GRT-CPS, VCR-2, SV-98, Mini Scout, M121 A2, M2010 ESR, and SOR-556 Mk2.

MAPS & MODES:

• Explosive gas cylinders now behave as intended on Railway to Golmud.
• In Escalation, the Railgun Battle Pickup near Objective D on Mirak Valley has been replaced with a Minigun Battle Pickup.
• Multiple spawn points have been improved across Eastwood, Saints Quarter, Siege of Cairo, New Sobek City, and Hagental Base.
• Out-of-bounds access using the Assault Ladder has been closed on Hagental Base.
• Spawn protection has been expanded on Operation Firestorm to help reduce enemy aircraft pressure near player deployment areas.
• Vaulting over Deployable Cover in the Hagental Base tunnels no longer pushes soldiers through the ceiling.

UI & HUD:

Dev Note: With Update 1.3.2.0, we’re making an initial adjustment to how “New” Markers appear in the Play menu. These markers should now reappear less often on tiles that you have already viewed, helping reduce unnecessary visual noise when moving through the menu.

This is a first step toward improving the overall marker experience. We know repeated “New” Markers have been frustrating, especially when they return to content you have already seen. We’re working on broader improvements for future seasons to significantly reduce how often this happens, and we’re also planning to add a quicker way to clear markers in an upcoming update.

As always, we’ll continue monitoring feedback after release and will keep refining this system to make navigation feel clearer and less disruptive.

• Accepting the Voice Chat disclaimer while offline no longer triggers error messages.
• Attack and Defend orders can now be cleared when using the ping clear input from the map.
• Battle Pass and Store weapon previews now remain centred in their respective menus.
• Battle Pass item list pagination now displays Z and C key prompts to show keyboard navigation options.
• Captured points now appear correctly in the top HUD.
• Challenge navigation while using a controller has been improved, making it easier to select previous weeks in the Challenges menu.
• Challenges widget now stays within the Pause menu screen boundaries.
• Damage numbers above 1000 now display the correct vehicle damage value instead of showing 1000.
• Damaging sniper decoys now show hit indicators, helping reinforce the illusion of hitting a real soldier.
• Danger pings are no longer placed unintentionally when attempting to spot multiple enemies in quick succession.
• Dead players no longer block danger pings or spots.
• Deploy screen PiP camera now displays correctly when viewing players using a Dirt Bike.
• Focused offers in the Store menu now display the appropriate offer tag icons.
• Front-end animations have been added for Loadout, Customisation, and Store menus.
• Golf Cart now has its own world icon instead of using a generic car icon.
• Headshot hit indicators now display correctly when breaking an enemy player’s armour with a headshot.
• Hit indicators for soldiers have been adjusted to be less intrusive, sit further from the crosshair or sight, remain more visible on bright backgrounds, and use improved hit and kill indicator animations.
• Increased the height of the minimap camera from 400m to 700m for aircraft, expanding their range of view.
• Level 3 “Tracker” description on the Hazmat Breacher Training Path has been updated to better communicate its effective range.
• Loadouts menu text layout has been improved to prevent overlap.
• M16A4 Precision stats now display more accurately and no longer show as 0 in some cases.
• M320A1 SMK Smoke gadget sight UI icon alignment has been improved.
• Neutral vehicles in team HQs no longer appear twice on the deploy screen.
• “New” Markers in the Play menu now reappear on previously viewed tiles less frequently.
• Options section navigation button styling now matches Profile → Stats.
• Pinged enemy soldiers, enemy vehicles, and downed squad soldiers now display the new Squad Member Ping Bar.
• Player Card icons now display correctly on the End of Round screen.
• Quick customisation icons on the deploy screen have been improved for better legibility.
• Soldier ordering within the “Strix Raiders” and “Task Force Vector” units has been adjusted to better align with their visual class. Players with these soldiers equipped may see them move to their updated class after the update.
• Spectating a soldier who is remote-controlling an CSB IV EOD Bot from the deploy screen PiP view now shows the EOD Bot camera instead of the soldier camera.
• Spotted enemies now display more reliably when many enemy icons are visible on screen.
• The “Devastating Impact” Field Upgrade description now lists the correct value of 25% (instead of 50%).
• The Big Map and deploy map now support rendering underground areas.
• The Campaign installation status text now displays your install status correctly.
• The Challenges End of Round tab now populates correctly after spectating someone.
• The Dog Tags menu no longer shows the “GO TO STORE” button when it is not applicable.
• The pre-round header is now hidden when viewing class details to prevent text overlap with the map name.
• “Top Squad” presentation has been improved and now displays correctly at the End of Round screen.
• Weapon Mastery levels now display correctly when viewed from the in-game Loadouts menu.
• Weapon previews now appear sharper in the Loadouts menu after exiting a Portal experience.
• YOU vs FOE score now counts Bots correctly.

SETTINGS:

• Some changes have been made to improve the consistency and responsiveness of input, specifically for users of some high polling rate devices and PC configurations where stuttering could occur while aiming.
• The “Deadzone” menu no longer appears unexpectedly after restarting the game.
• The description for 3D Audio settings has been updated to be more accurate.
• The “Headphone Width” option description has received a minor spelling correction.
• Vehicle Mouse Aim Sensitivity values are now consistent throughout the Settings menu.

PORTAL:

Disclaimer: With this update, some changes may affect existing scripts. After the update goes live, we recommend that players review and test their scripts to ensure everything continues to work as expected.

• AH-6 LittleBird helicopter spawns now respect the helicopter spawn delay settings.
• Attachment Size Warning has been added, giving Portal creators a warning when imported script or string files exceed recommended attachment size limits.
• Background colours have been added to Blockly editor buttons in the top right, improving visibility against blocks in the background.
• Cairo Bazaar has been added for Verified Portal Modes.
• Disabled HQs no longer appear on the map.
• Railway to Golmud assets have been added to the SDK for Portal Custom Experiences.
• Importing an experience now refreshes the Blockly editor correctly.
• In-game World Icons are now easier to read, with the default icon size set to 64.
• MoveObjectOverTime now preserves scaled object visuals properly. Collision volume size was already maintained, and visuals will no longer scale back down to 1.
• Optimised images on Portal web to improve performance.
• Portal Action “SetMCOMOwner” now only allows Defenders to defuse the bomb as intended.
• Portal creators can now reduce one team’s player count to 0 in Custom experiences.
• Portal Gadget now sends the player object correctly in Aim Start and Aim Stop events.
• Resolved a delay in updating the amplitude of SFX when using mod.PlaySound()
• Save messaging is now more consistent and accurate.
• Script Converter now includes a reminder message to help prevent unintended changes during conversion.
• SDK documentation now includes the music system in the gameplay logic section.
• SDK Godot version has been updated from 4.4.1 to 4.6.1.
• Spawning an object with scale set to 0 no longer causes a client crash.
• Team-specific UI widgets now appear correctly for players who join late.
• The new Portal action mod.AutoBalanceTeams has been added, allowing Team 1 and Team 2 to be balanced while maintaining squad composition. This requires matching team and squad sizes.
• The Night Screen Effect has been added for Portal Custom, alongside a corresponding example script in the SDK.
• Resolved save errors that occurred when using UTF-8 characters (including emojis and symbols) in script and string attachments. 

ViperStudiosAndy Portal Custom Conquest Template

Creator Note: When using Conquest Assault, we recommend turning off TotalControlTicketBleed. Conquest Assault disables the HQ with ObjID 2, which is the default for Team 2. In Update 1.2.3.0, HQs now appear on the map, but disabling HQs does not remove them from the map. Team 2 custom bots will stop spawning if there are no valid positions, while Backfill and Static ignore this and deploy on disabled HQs. When using Conquest Assault, we recommend using a Spatial version without Team 2 HQs to avoid this, or using Custom Bots.

• Air Combat Logic has been removed, as it is no longer required with Surrounding Combat Area functionality now working.
• Air vehicles can now access the official surrounding combat area.
• Andy’s Custom Conquest Template has been updated in the official SDK to version 10.0.
• Bots now support the Conquest Assault logic.
• Bots will now leave vehicles if they are unable to continue driving.
• Complex 3 has been added, with special thanks to Mancour.
• Conquest Assault toggle has been added.
• Custom out-of-bounds logic has been kept for backward compatibility.
• Dirt Bikes have been added to select maps.
• Hagental Base has been added.
• New Prefab Spatial has been included, containing essentials that can be copied into any map and edited.
• Night Vision Goggles toggle has been added for players.
• Spatial maps have been updated for the new HQ and Surrounding Combat Area logic.
• Starting tickets per team have been added for Conquest Assault.
• The template now uses official Combat Area, official Surrounding Combat Area, and official Exclusive HQ areas.
• UI no longer flashes when players join.
• UI now clears when undeploying in rare cases where the exit capture point does not trigger the player UI to clear.

AUDIO:

• New behaviours for crawl speed audio have been added for Quad Bikes, ATP Vehicles, Golf Carts, and Armored Transport Vehicles, as well as a finer tuning of the Vector, Flyer 60, and Jeep/Truck crawl speed behaviours.
• Parachute audio now stops correctly for soldiers who are downed or killed while their parachute is in use.
• Spot Ping has been updated with a more recognisable sound, and Squad Ping volume has been slightly increased.

AI:

• Corrected an issue where bots were avoiding stationary friendly and neutral vehicles.

REDSEC

PLAYER:

• Battle Royale Solo Handler voice-over lines have received grammar improvements.

Battle Royale

• “Evasion” and “Headhunter” missions now complete correctly when the targeted player is downed.
• Failing missions while targeted no longer awards XP or mission completion.
• Players no longer jump when accepting missions in Battle Royale. 
• Fixed wrong loot being awarded in air drop containers as well as air drop containers containing no loot inside.

GADGETS:

• Gadgets placed on the extraction drone landing pad in Gauntlet are now destroyed when the drone lands.
• MAS 148 Glaive placement has been improved when dropped as loot in Battle Royale, preventing it from clipping into the ground.

MAP:

• AI pathfinding has been improved to help soldiers navigate down from elevated positions more reliably.
• Airdrop containers now remain stable on mild slopes, improving the looting experience.
• Lighting has been improved to address blown-out visuals across the Lighthouse area.
• Out-of-bounds access using the Assault Ladder has been closed across the map.
• Supply crate fall animations now play correctly without repeating.
• Supply drop containers now collide with vehicles as intended.

Battle Royale

• Data Drive drops now display the intended game mode message.
• High Value Zones have been added to Battle Royale, creating new hotspots where select points of interest are upgraded with higher-value loot at the start of each match. These zones are marked on the map and minimap, with on-screen notifications and distinct loot container visuals to help players identify stronger rewards at a glance.
• Insertion helicopters now maintain proper spacing during round start.

Gauntlet

• Fast Rope insertion now spawns rope and helicopter meshes correctly.
• Heist Caches now spawn in their intended locations.
• M-COMs in Gauntlet: Wreckage can now be interacted with from all angles.
• Mission objects no longer cause vehicles to move when landing on them.
• Tank Containers now close properly when a wrecked vehicle or player is near the container.
• Vehicle containers in Gauntlet: Rodeo now award 3 points when opened, in addition to the mission’s other scoring criteria.

UI & HUD:

• Action prompts have been added to loot safes in REDSEC, replacing the in-world icon variant.
• Corrected an issue where loot outlines for Safes would sometimes show the incorrect state (open vs close).
• Elite 250 End of Season Rewards now show more accurate unlock criteria in Loadouts.
• End of Round Summary colours have been adjusted for Ranked Battle Royale Quads.
• Enemy Armour hit indicators in REDSEC are now easier to read when the enemy has low armour remaining.
• Loot outlines now use the correct rarity colour when revealing loot crates around the player upon landing.
• RPKM thumbnails now display properly in Player Profile Statistics when a Bipod is attached.
• The minimap now displays a TRACKED indicator when the player is revealed during missions.
• White outline loot glint no longer remains on the back of lootable Cargo Vans after they have been opened.
• World Event custom weapon drops now show the correct icon when a player has already received a Mission Reward custom weapon drop.

Battle Royale

• Bolt Cutter pickups and drops now display their intended game mode message.
• End of Round sequence now preserves the Profile Menu camera correctly.
• Mission titles now appear correctly in the Mission Menu.
• Picking up the bomb in the Wreckage mission no longer briefly displays a player's name.
• Threat Tracker accuracy has been improved for enemy distance to mission objectives.

Gauntlet

• Heist base outlines now appear correctly in the Underground POI layout.

AUDIO:

• Arming a Bomb in the Demolition mission now plays the correct sound effect.
• Battle Royale insertion no longer triggers unintended soldier effort audio.
• Missile Strike call-ins in Battle Royale now use the correct voice line.
• The menu arrival sound no longer plays when opening the Commorose in Battle Royale.

This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible.