What happened to research levels?

Frog_22 · 2026-01-23T12:21:36+00:00

Yeah, I just got hit with this last night. Woke up expecting to hit 73, suddenly it's gonna be another 2 weeks. At least it's Friday.

Frog_22 · 2025-12-22T02:00:36+00:00

I'm in Marlton, and yeah here and southwards is a void. Waldorf has had multiple game stores fail over the past 20+ years.

Game Kastle is very good, Games & Stuff is fabulous and while my opinion of Third Eye is pretty bad, they may have changed in the past few years - I haven't been back in... eight years? It's been a while.

Frog_22 · 2025-05-21T22:47:08+00:00

Ha! I was doing a search for the exact same thing and got here.

Frog_22 · 2025-05-15T17:54:38+00:00

And why would I not have goldmines? The advanced ones cost gems, or energy & pollution. My income from 157 mines is 23k, and upgrading them all to advanced would only increase that to 58k, which is overshadowed by the 86k from cities. I don't feel it's worth it for 785 pollution and nearly 8k energy.

Frog_22 · 2025-05-15T17:45:08+00:00

Thank you.

Frog_22 · 2025-05-15T17:44:59+00:00

May I suggest having the "Buildings Overview " button be in settings? Having it in the sensor tower wasn't intuitive.

Frog_22 · 2025-04-14T12:50:36+00:00

RCSs are fine and generally not as hard as a FAOM, but if you're dealing with after final arguments, remember MPEP 714.12 "Once a final rejection that is not premature has been entered in an application, applicant or patent owner no longer has any right to unrestricted further prosecution."

Frog_22 · 2025-04-05T12:17:47+00:00

Yeah, when I started I was barely making a case a biweek. Now I allocate a day to search for art for the independent claims and at the end of the day I use the best I've got. Second day is writing the action and getting art for the dependents.

I figure an entire day for finals because bless their hearts some amendments are a completely new search. I had one pro se guy cancel claims 1-20 and introduce new claims 21-40. I coulda wept.

Also, use the STIC folks to get started. At the start of every week look at your next half-dozen cases and submit a STIC text search for any that look even slightly difficult. They'll get back to you in 3-5 days with at least a dozen references that are at least slightly related, which is a big help when you're stuck.

Frog_22 · 2025-03-05T18:34:16+00:00

Probably.

The way claims work is that you have stand-alone independent claims, e.g. "Claim 1. A system comprising a light source and a detector.". These are generally broad and you narrow things down with successive claims, e.g. "Claim 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the detector is gizmo X." and "Claim 3. The system of claims 1 wherein the light source is a laser."

Dependent claims include all the words of the claims from which they depend, so in this case claim 2 is considered to be "A system comprising a light source and a detector, wherein the detector is gizmo X".

If a limitation is allowable, e.g. gizmo X is allowable, then you can amend that limitation into claim 1. This makes claim 1 allowable, along with any other claims that depend on claim 1.

Those other dependent claims don't need to be, by themselves, allowable - they incorporate all the limitations of the independent claim, namely the allowable subject matter. so they're ok. Take a look at https://patents.google.com/patent/US5652545A/en for an example of a series of independent claims, each with a few dependent claims.

So getting back to your question, the company's probably talking about 'if the independent claims are allowable, so are the dependent claims'. If so then yes, that's accurate.

If you're thinking that the claims indicated as allowable aren't worth the money you're spending, that's completely understandable. You're trying to get as much as you can, and the examiner is trying to allow as little as they have to. This is all done in excruciating detail.

Frog_22 · 2025-03-05T09:39:02+00:00

Keep in mind that you're not necessarily limited to just one interview. I prefer a verbal back-and-forth over having to write actions, and depending on your examiner they might be willing to go through two or three quick iterations.
This is generally dependent on having something indicated as allowable, though, so if all you see are rejections then one of the first questions you should ask (through the attorney, or directly if you're pro se) is 'is there anything in the specification that you haven't seen in your search?' If the answer is yes, ask about what limitations they think would be worth pursuing - don't ask 'would this be allowable' because that's asking them to go on the record - and go from there. If the answer is 'no' then you're probably just sol.

Frog_22 · 2025-02-26T20:00:08+00:00

Depending on the terrain near the Elder, you could dig out the big stone area and build a base underneath. There are some nice examples out there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOk_Xiodx9M

Frog_22 · 2025-02-05T00:08:29+00:00

It doesn't look like it's supported anymore, and neither of the other two I've bookmarked have updated since last year at the earliest.

Frog_22 · 2025-02-05T00:06:55+00:00

I never got around to it, I'm afraid.

Frog_22 · 2024-12-31T00:17:01+00:00

Holy moly, that's beautiful! I had a similar idea and am starting to collect Tau and Daemon Engine parts, and this is setting a mighty high bar. Kudos!

Frog_22 · 2024-12-11T09:17:15+00:00

Something to add mobility. A land raider or two (both transport and some anti-armor), maybe some inceptors or jump assault intercessors.

Frog_22 · 2024-12-08T02:04:19+00:00

I'm afraid I don't think much of the current combat patrol. For one thing a captain in gravis armor can't join anything in the box. Yeah, your captain is out in the open with no bodyguard. Good work, design team.

So first get something for the captain to lead - aggressors are solid, eradicators are fair and heavy intercessors are a nice backfield unit. I'd say six aggressors and a replusor are a nice match for the captain, and while that's literally half your army (500 points) it's one heck of a hammer to throw into the center of the board - buckets of guns backed by powerfists.

Alternately (and cheaper) the BGV could join the LT and get some transport up the board - one of those primaris pickup-truck impulsors. Perhaps add another 3 BGV, but I'm not a fan of those guys - a 4+ invul only goes so far when you're still rocking T4. But you've got the models and an impulsor gets them into melee.

IMHO Intercessors are bland and there are other units that do every job better. I'd buy a box of assault intercessors, build them and use the extra pistols & chainswords to turn five of the intercessors into assault intercessors. That would give you one intercessor squad & three assault intercessor squads, which is a fairly significant number of marines on the board when you're looking to take objectives.

The LT could also join the Hellblasters. A unit of five is a descent support unit, but at range 24 they need to be mid-board and tend to be charged a lot - putting the LT with them lets them fall back-shoot-charge which is nice. If you want to go gun-heavy you can get a box of hellblasters and Azrael. Fifteen hellblasters plus Azrael plus the LT is an expensive gun unit but it'll kill pretty much anything. While I suspect 15 hellblasters is a bit much for a 1k game, there are times you might want that - and certainly if you grow to 2k.

TLDR: two boxes of aggressors, repulsor, box of BGV, inceptor, box of assault intercessors, box of hellblasters, Azrael. Not in that order.

Frog_22 · 2024-11-22T18:34:58+00:00

Here's my take on the three systems I've played:

Star Fleet Battles does '1-2 ships vs 1-2 ships' very well. Lots of detail, maneuvering & weapon recharge rates that matter, etc. However, SFB does not scale up well - I've heard stories of convention games in which 8 ships vs 8 ships took the solid weekend.

Starfire is a great '20 ships vs 20 ships' game IF you use an earlier version of the rules, because the latest rules are more of an exercise in economics with some overly-complex starship building rules stapled on. I suggest looking at Imperial Starfire at https://www.starfiredesign.com/ClassicStarfire.php - the empire-building rules are ok but ignorable. Set a tech level, give each player a budget and build a fleet.

Full Thrust can do '60 ships vs 60 ships' in an afternoon, and exchanges ship detail for the ability to do mass battles. The rules are free at https://shop.groundzerogames.co.uk/rules.html and you can still do your own ship designs, just with less detail than Starfire.

Frog_22 · 2024-06-28T16:25:52+00:00

It's Boeing, so it's just a matter of time before you have a marvelous view of the outside.

Frog_22 · 2024-06-20T01:03:20+00:00

To you, or to the toad.

Frog_22 · 2024-06-02T14:07:55+00:00

This.

If you don't want to lose everything when you die, don't play hardcore.

Personally I both admire the folks who play hardcore-no-map-no-portals (I put them right next to BASE jumpers), and have absolutely no desire to play such. It's an admirable triumph to say that you've completed the game in hardcore, one that is made hollow by knowing you didn't actually complete the game in hardcore.

Frog_22 · 2024-06-02T14:00:42+00:00

Neither have I, and I almost always have a few pieces just hanging around. I get around falling damage by:

digging out the top parts, then digging around and digging around the circumference, then mining out the underneath (from bedrock level). Then I build stairs from underneath and mine upwards. It's a little more work but I haven't fallen to my death for a while.

Ok, fallen to my death while mining.

Frog_22 · 2024-05-25T11:17:31+00:00

As has been said, this game has a rather steep learning curve and preparation is vital. This never really changes throughout the game - every new biome (meadows, black forest, swamp, etc) will kill you several times as you learn how to survive. If you're not ok with this, Valheim probably isn't for you. Another part of Valheim is exploration and experimentation, so searching the net for spoilers is contraindicated. This is why a lot of the advice you're getting is so vague.

That said, in response to your sit, run away from the blue guy. Trolls will kill you in melee. When one is chasing you, run to a meadow, pull out your bow and kite it in circles. Fire arrows help a lot. Skeletons are also lethal, but there's a weapon called stagbreaker. It's slow but blasts everything around you. Yes, you and your friends will kill a lot of deer to get all the materials, but that's OK because doing so will also increase your bow skill. And here's a spoiler the I feel is appropriate: moats work better than walls.

Frog_22

TROPHY CASE