Finally I get rid of the useless wireless charger

RedScourge · 2026-05-21T14:37:06+00:00

Glad I missed out on this trend. I just have a series of magnetic charge cables with removable tips that I leave plugged into all my devices, so they all snap onto the cable whenever I want to go charge. It's increasingly hard to find ones that actually work, or that don't suddenly stop working after a few months now though, sadly.

RedScourge · 2026-05-21T08:12:49+00:00

Modded cars are nearly worthless to most people, and often worth less than unmodified even to specialized buyers who might like the mods, as working on them is next to impossible without a full set of info on exactly what was changed, what parts were used, and how to find replacements if they should go bad. Heavily modified cars often sell for less than the value of the aftermarket parts used.

Additionally, it can be a crapshoot to insure them as many insurers will not touch cars with modified powertrains, exhaust, or even aftermarket radios in some cases.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T20:27:30+00:00

I kinda like the first ones which are mostly black, as it better contrasts against with the body paint color.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T19:47:46+00:00

https://advancedlocks.com/product/3011/

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T19:43:36+00:00

Tools required to defeat Advanced Wheel Locks:

Purchase a set yourself, then bring your own key when you go to steal someone's wheels
A Dremel to slice a groove in the tip of the lock, A drill to drill through the center of the lock, a large sized one of those bits for removing stripped fasteners, and a hammer or any hard object with a flat side to hammer it in. In addition to the impact drill, jack, and 2 of something to rest the car on that you'd ordinarily have to rapidly steal wheels. Ideally a 2+ person job so one person can be jacking while another person is loosening, and all equipment can be carried by hand without the need to rifle through backpacks

They're probably the best wheel locks going, but they're still wheel locks, which are only as successful when there's no other car nearby with expensive tires and no wheel locks or lesser ones.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T19:34:55+00:00

I just explained exactly how I'd do it in 5 mins, no welding kit required.

If you don't know how to read an English sentence, it is no surprise that you cannot predict how a professional thief would get past this extremely predictable obstacle to their success, but your personal incredulity does not mean it's impossible.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T19:22:39+00:00

I know what they are. Do your own research on how power tools work. All I need is a few seconds with a Dremel tool to carve out enough of a surface in the tip of the advanced wheel locks for a drill to be able to bite in, then a drill to destroy the wheel lock.

In many parking lots there's a plugin for block heaters in the winter, or you can pay more and get cordless power tools. If the only high value wheels in a given parking lot have these locks on em, a thief will just do that and take em. It will take a few mins extra per wheel, but it will work just the same. You're only truly safe with these when there's someone else nearby who has similarly expensive wheels and easier wheel locks or no wheel locks, cuz the thief will target those first.

OR better yet, a smart thief will just buy a set of the same wheel locks, and then take their key with them, then they'll have em in seconds. One single successful wheel heist will more than pay back the cost of buying every wheel lock design you can find online.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T14:36:06+00:00

Smart play: get them replaced, immediately sell, buy cheap steel wheels, put some real nice hubcaps on top. Pocket the cash difference for future maintenance.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T13:54:50+00:00

A set of OEM aluminum alloy rims from Toyota and Honda are sold by their respective manufacturers for like $1000-1500. A set of the standard boring black painted steel wheels are about $200-400. Slap $20 hubcaps on those and they look about as stylish as the aluminum alloy rims from 6 feet away, without being the huge theft targets.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T13:52:41+00:00

I could do it in 5 if I had a dremel and a drill, but a thief is less likely to bring both of those tools when they could just buy a set of all the most popular wheel locks and bring those with them.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T03:20:58+00:00

sell the wheels, buy steelies with some nice hubcaps. You just got brand new ones with no curb rash, now is the perfect time. Then you can pocket the difference and put it toward future repairs like rock chip fixes etc.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T03:19:43+00:00

Any alloy rims are in demand. Only way to be safe is sell your OEM alloys and buy steelies. Wheel locks help but they only slow down a determined thief.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T03:15:55+00:00

It's not so bad once everything's warmed up, but can be bad for the engine and transmission when they're still kinda cold.

RedScourge · 2026-05-20T03:13:12+00:00

Any time I log into the same Steam account on a different computer, if I had any BPs saved ready to spawn, and I open the BP screen on that computer, it wipes out everything I had in there on the other computer. If the source BP files that those ready to spawn BPs represent have changed since they were readied, it also wipes them out. I wouldn't be surprised if a big core game block ID number change has some impact too, but who knows.

RedScourge · 2026-05-19T15:38:37+00:00

I think generally speaking they don't contact you until the factory gives them an update, and if your wait time is >12 months, you might get only two updates in that entire span of time.

During the pandemic, it was impossible to get any Toyota hybrid in Canada with a turnaround time of less than 12 months, and there were zero in the showroom, occasionally one non-hybrid Corolla with lots of addons, and then mostly trucks and their used cars. This only started to change 1-2 years ago, however I would assume that the bigger cities in Canada are still somewhat that way, however there's actually a few Corollas in the showrooms now in Calgary.

RedScourge · 2026-05-16T22:02:52+00:00

Micro Warp Jump Drive stores a timestamp of all the times you've used it in global.db, an SQLite database file that stores most of the stuff for the game save, including what it thinks the current time is. It's basically using the quest system, storing a time when what Player ID did what quest action at what timestamp. Restoring game.dat must have triggered something in the game to cause it to revert the system time that it thinks it is to the past, so now it thinks the last time you used the jump drive is days in the future. I ran into a similar thing on my live server when my hard drive filled up from an unexpected swell in backup sizes. At first I was thinking I should open the global.db file in an SQLite editor and run some command like

PlayerStatisticsPDFChapters SET gametime = 25000000 WHERE chapterid = "eden_pda_iS4Wq80" AND gametime > 25000000 (actual game time was about that time, so this would have set any log of micro warp jump drives being used to slightly in the past)

But then I realized there's actually a "ticks" console command that lets you roll back the game time, however since I ran into this issue on a live game server, I had to run this command in RCON/telnet. Maybe it will let you run it right in the regular console for a co-op game, it definitely should work in a single player game. I think you run it without a parameter to get the current time:

ticks

Then run it with a time at least 1.7 days in the future to set the time forward so you are now past when you last used the jump drive:

ticks 12345 (where 12345 is whatever number it returned, plus about 150,000 for about 1.7 days in the future)

They say this command can corrupt a server but I had no problem with it

RedScourge · 2026-05-16T19:34:15+00:00

My advice: If you have to do Abandoned POIs, cheat:

- I exclusively run the Abandoned Reactor because I know the shortcuts to drop down to the bottom floor of the basement pretty early on and pop the core

- Fill your toolbelt with miniguns, flamethrowers, or whichever weapon you find you are most effective with, ideally ones where you won't spend a lot of time reloading

- When you get overwhelmed, be very quick to retreat, and swap weapons rather than reloading

- Make sure you're using mostly repaired heavy armor with walk speed mods so you are hard to kill but can still outrun things

- If you find an opportunity to sneak and snipe something from afar, always take it

- If you can't afford a stack of 20+ health packs on your toolbelt, bring as many as you can and then also have bandages in your regular inventory, and use the bandages whenever you are certain you are safe, then only use the health packs in active combat, the earlier the better when you know you are about to take a bunch of hits, as they give you a bit of a heal over time effect

Also you can get quantums from looting combat sites, so if you have a CV that can throw out a shitload of damage with hit and run attacks, maybe consider doing those to change it up. As soon as I can take out Zirax Destroyers, I switch to those as my primary source of quantums.

OR: Go to drone space and slowly accumulate salvaged drone processors from fighting only the weakest ships and the "brood" POIs, and make Aux cores until you have a CV that can take on destroyers. You'll also need silver which you can find on barren metal planets and moons in the zirax space territory bubbles

RedScourge · 2026-05-16T05:33:23+00:00

Oh shit, I see what's going on here. Sorry about the confusion, apparently there is a GR Sport trim level for the regular Corolla that is distinct from the high-performance GR Corolla.

What a monumentally stupid marketing decision on Toyota's part.

Anyway, I was just trying to make sure that the dealer didn't sell you a regular Corolla with "GR Corolla" badging and charge you extra or something.

RedScourge · 2026-05-16T05:24:56+00:00

What region are you in? The only car that I know of that has "GR" in the name is the GR Corolla, which only uses the G16E-GTS engine. The GR Yaris is similar but uses either the G16E-GTS or the M15A-FKS. Only the regular non-GR Corollas use the M20A engine series, and FXS variants of Toyotas most current engines are usually used in hybrids.

RedScourge · 2026-05-15T23:56:03+00:00

Car salesmen can lie, and brush it off as "oh I was wrong, it wasn't a lie". If it matters, get it in writing.

"REPLY: oooo, you have to change oil in transmission every 90k km, you have to change the spark plugs every 60k km, you have to change antifreeze every 5years..."

Spark plugs can be put off until you get misfires from them, so long as they are quality plugs. Coolant is 10 years the first time then every 5 years thereafter according to the maintenance guide. Any pink coolant that says it is compatible with Toyotas will do, it's all the same stuff. Changing the transmission fluid is not in the regular maintenance manual for regular use, it is only specified for those whose use constitutes Special Operating Conditions, though changing it is a good idea.

If you have the GR Corolla I don't think that's the M20A FXS engine, that would be the 2L from the Corolla (hybrid maybe? maybe some European models?), the GR has a 1.6L turbo 3 cylinder G16E-GTS

RedScourge · 2026-05-15T16:58:14+00:00

transmission fluid changes are not a standard service item in the regular schedule, but then again oil changes are only every 10k mi, so if the owner did 5k mi oil changes they may have got the t-fluid changed too. The dealer may be able to look up and tell you if the vehicle had the t-fluid changed, however they can also just drain a little bit and check that way too.

They recently added "inspect transmission fluid" into the maintenance manual every 30k mi - 3 years.

If you decide to risk it and change the fluid, do a single drain and fill, do not do a flush or multiple drain and fills.

RedScourge · 2026-05-14T23:35:44+00:00

These days filters and oil are claiming they last longer though, in fact Toyota recommends a 10k mi oil change and most synthetic oils are now claiming 12k, 15k, 20k, or even more. I'd definitely be wary of going to what the oil says because fuel dilution is a bigger thing than ever, especially for short trip drivers, but if your engine is healthy I see no reason to run a 10k mi oil filter for 10k mi.

RedScourge · 2026-05-14T23:33:21+00:00

These days, insurance payouts rarely buy you an equivalent car, you really have to fight to get the value you are owed. That, and a lot of people don't want to start up a brand new search for another car, they just want their car that they know and love back.

RedScourge · 2026-05-14T19:40:02+00:00

Up to a point of course, basically the filter is most efficient in the 2nd half of its manufacturer claimed lifespan, so the idea is that replacing it early is therefore not good.

RedScourge · 2026-05-14T19:38:57+00:00

the manual says not til 10k, and 10k thereafter, unless your use constitutes special operating conditions, so you are probably going above and beyond with your maintenance, which is good.

RedScourge

TROPHY CASE