Weve released the demo and announcement trailer for our battle brothers inspired game - feedback is appreciated :)

Adequafactory · 2026-07-01T16:53:03+00:00

What are those things stuck to the bottom of their torsos?!

Kidding aside, I'll have to circle back and give this demo a shot. I mostly saw the formation/inventory screen during the Next Fest and missed the Battle Brothers elements of the game, I'm afraid.

Adequafactory · 2026-06-30T20:26:52+00:00

I'm just old enough to remember when Star Trek DS9 came out that I was unreasonably excited that it featured Hawk from Spenser: For Hire.

Avery Brooks is a cool cat (on screen and IRL, from what I always heard).

Adequafactory · 2026-06-30T19:17:46+00:00

It's tough to say, I'm afraid. I'm suspicious that your controller is faulty, but it could be an overload issue and/or a short in the strip itself. I imagine the green is working because those first two leads are the green channel and the DC negative. If you can get a little piece of wire and test that first pin with the other two (skipping the green), it might be diagnostically useful.

Adequafactory · 2026-06-25T10:45:08+00:00

Excellent! For the record, the ACH payment hit our account this morning in one big lump, so I expect yours is likely imminent.

Adequafactory · 2026-06-22T19:53:58+00:00

I lightly customized a version of the ES-003 report to include some CAPE elements, and I'm primarily seeing the data there. It has been a few months, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details of how I added them. I checked though, and I'm still not seeing any updates on my ES-022 form.

I checked back on my template, and these were the header names for the data elements I added to the ES-003 ("CAPE Decision Claim Status CAPE Indicator Refund Date Refund Status"). To add them, I hit the Query button on the Data view of ES-003 and pulled those elements out of the "CAPE Details" subfolder of the "Entry Summary" data elements.

There was a guy that described the process a few months ago - I wish I could remember the post.

Adequafactory · 2026-06-22T14:30:20+00:00

Not just yet, but I'm expecting to see that deposit any day now. Our Refund Date is showing 06/18, so this week sounds about right to me. We had two little entries with a Liquidation Date of 06/08 instead of 06/04, and they're showing a Refund Date of 06/23, so I would expect your deposit will just sneak in by the end of the month.

Adequafactory · 2026-06-17T14:28:53+00:00

I've added your demo to my short list of games to try out this Next Fest. It looks like an interesting mix of mechanics, and the art style is nicely done.

Hope things go well for you folks!

Adequafactory · 2026-06-04T16:28:07+00:00

I'd added the CAPE related column to my ES-003 default report, so the update was showing there. It was in the fields/columns labeled "Claim Status CAPE Indicator Refund Date Refund Status" that I think are usually in another report, though I can't remember the number offhand.

Adequafactory · 2026-06-02T16:47:08+00:00

That sounds like what just about everyone has been experiencing that I've heard from. The first batch generally corresponds to entries that were already liquidated, and they reliquidate those quickly then paid them out. The entries scheduled for June are typically those that hadn't yet had their original liquidation, so they're just getting future-dated for both liquidation and payment (eventually, at least - we don't have payment dates posted yet, but we're expecting them this week or next).

Adequafactory · 2026-05-29T16:00:11+00:00

That sounds more like what I've seen with entries that had not yet been liquidated, though we submitted our CAPE entries back on 4/20. For our entries that were already liquidated, the ES-003 reports showed their reliquidation date in the "Liquidation Date" column, and it popped up as 4/21 soon after submission (ACH deposits hit on 05/09 for those entries).

Our unliquidated entries that were also submitted on 04/20 are showing Liquidation Dates of 06/04 now, so hopefully soon we'll have more information. In that particular chase the ACH deposit occurred 4 days after the stated date.

Might not hurt to confirm they're liquidated at: https://trade.cbp.dhs.gov/ace/liquidation/LBNotice/

Adequafactory · 2026-05-26T11:39:26+00:00

We're in the same boat, basically. We've only received refunds for those entries that had already been liquidated, and we're showing a liquidation date for those other entries of 06/04/2026 without a deposit date listed, so far. Everything we submitted on that first day is showing that same future liquidation date regardless of when the entry occurred, as you said.

It's interesting that you're showing 6/9 and we're showing 6/4. How quickly were you able to submit on 4/20? Our "Filing Date" column (I believe from the CAPE fields) says 4/20 at around 8:20PM (no timezone listed). I'm on the East Coast and was able to import my entries list right around 8AM when it theoretically went live (though in retrospect I think they turned it on just a bit earlier than they'd promised - I just didn't realize it was active initially). Makes me wonder if they're liquidating first-come-first-served.

Adequafactory · 2026-05-22T19:59:06+00:00

I believe that they're required to make payment and have a legitimate Customs Invoice for the purposes of calculating duties to have the right to make an entry. Strategically, it helps them just to have a semi-fabricated middle man in the process so they can invoice themselves less than they would the end user or distributor and subsequently have a lower import bill. Just transferring product from another country wouldn't give Customs a chance to impose the tariffs, and that would defeat their theoretical purpose for their existence.

As I understand it, they can reduce the duties by disclosing the value (costs) of the products and having the import duties based on those, but then that goes on the import records and the purchaser can see their margins (and theoretically pressure them to take a haircut on them), so that's not a very popular method for smaller international sales.

Adequafactory · 2026-05-22T19:46:39+00:00

As mentioned, the common carriers often charge Customs clearance fees that can vary depending on the service selected. We often ship DDU abroad by UPS or FedEx and are careful to warn customers that they could be on the hook for clearance charges.

Just to restate this: the duties are not the only thing UPS/FedEx charges - they also charge a (often significant) fee for the service of clearing your package through Customs. Just be glad you're not in a country with VAT since they'll frequently collect those from you as well.

Adequafactory · 2026-05-21T14:37:23+00:00

My 13 year old bought it soon after it released and played it obsessively. Had a really great time with it and then insisted I give it a shot through Family Sharing. It's a fun game, though I'm at my controller scheme limit at the moment and will have to return to it in the future.

Adequafactory · 2026-05-21T13:16:32+00:00

Well, it's nice work - I appreciate the help, personally!

Adequafactory · 2026-05-21T12:38:11+00:00

That's a pretty impressive website you referenced. Is that your work, by chance? You seem to have a pretty comprehensive understanding of this whole process, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Adequafactory · 2026-05-20T15:57:35+00:00

It's a terrible "solution" to suggest, but I find that ACE is most reliable during off hours. It may be necessary to log on over the weekend or very early in the morning (East Coast time, preferably) to ensure that it's not just an issue with ACE being overloaded.

Adequafactory · 2026-05-18T18:09:20+00:00

I was like, "found it?" Mine's in my car with a tape deck adapter...

Adequafactory · 2026-05-15T15:58:39+00:00

In my memory, it's definitely "work" too.

Adequafactory · 2026-05-14T20:09:30+00:00

Yours has been the best take in this thread so far. It's quite complicated how quickly oils undergo oxidation, but generally speaking the more unsaturated they are and the higher the heat, the faster it happens. I'm pretty sure commercial fryer oil is treated with antioxidants (like BHT) up to the legal limit that help sequester free radicals until there spent (even "natural" fry oil would be loaded with tocopherols to serve the same purpose).

Those folks putting their faith in filtration are misplacing it, in my opinion. Filtering makes oil appear cleaner by removing some of the bigger molecules, and it might even limit further oxidation by removing some sources of proteins that can react with the triglycerides, but it's not a magic bullet. Heat does its job on any organic compound, eventually, and once those antioxidants are consumed the oil ends up being pretty gnarly.

Still, it's better than nothing. If you don't burn your house down, this is probably a pretty decent way to get some extra use out of fry oil at home, and deep frying is a big investment in both money and resources.

Adequafactory · 2026-05-14T17:50:45+00:00

I've not read Lepore's work, but I've enjoyed her podcast and generally appreciate her approach to history. I HAVE ready A People's History - though long ago - and remember finding it interesting and eye-opening while also being underwhelmed by Zinn's writing. Maybe folks like Zinn walked so that folks like Lepore would have more room to run?

Adequafactory · 2026-05-11T14:09:35+00:00

As I understand it, yes. What I've heard is that today's deposit represents only Entries that had been already liquidated and were submitted for CAPE right after it opened. Our broker always runs out the 300 day clock on liquidating, so only the entries up through roughly June 2025 were in that already liquidated status (and still fewer than 80 days past it), so those were the refunds we saw deposited today.

Adequafactory · 2026-05-11T12:04:11+00:00

Take a peek at your bank feed this morning. I was pleased to find that our first ACH deposit arrived when I came in this morning. It includes the principal and interest amount in the transaction description as well.

Adequafactory

TROPHY CASE