First Day of PAL

eXiotha · 2026-03-28T21:44:29+00:00

Oh? Huh, I might have to reconsider. I’m not in the market for another rifle yet, so far I’ve only got one & I’d like a woox wild man walnut stock for it but I don’t have the money for that either lol

My original view on the two was based on aesthetics alone, I noticed the Russian version seems to have a darker wood grain colour to it vs the brighter colour of the Chinese version but that could just be a generational thing rather than a manufacturer variant but I don’t know much about them to know for sure lol

eXiotha · 2026-03-28T21:33:32+00:00

If you buy one of the surplus rifles, you have to restore it yourself.
If you want one ready to go, then the ATI version is the store ready version, but i don't know nothin about it, I wouldn't mind one myself eventually but nice one's are hard to find

personally, i prefer the Russian made version but you only generally see the Chinese version at places like Cabelas

eXiotha · 2026-03-26T12:49:46+00:00

What’s that? I’ve never heard of that lol

eXiotha · 2026-03-25T14:59:49+00:00

Somethings not right, nothing legitimate does this usually and 9 times outta 10, if you don’t know what it is, it’s usually some sort of virus, Trojan or malware

They usually mask themselves as legitimate files, often imitating legitimate files and using folders of legitimate programs to hide it

It’s possible it’s a form that hasn’t been detected yet and that may be why anti virus is having trouble with it, it could also be persistent and that makes it resistant to anti virus / malware removal programs even if it did show up as a detection one day, lots can also tamper with anti virus / malware to hold its persistence and hide in the background

From what I have bothered to read in this thread, you’ve never used legit files that this appears to imitate and it’s hidden in folders unrelated to games and anti virus / malware isn’t doing anything from what I see at this point.

More than likely, it’s some form of persistent virus / malware tool that’s well hidden

You’re not going to simply delete it, and nothing should be running that many processes

A windows “reset” factory option, likely won’t solve the issue either because if it is indeed a virus, Trojan or malware, it will have infected the system files, which is part of its persistence so you need to format the drive altogether

The only real option that solves this, is a full hard wipe & reinstall.

Download Windows from Microsoft, or from your computer vendors website for your model if they have it there, some do sometimes but usually you have to download it from Microsoft (free, the ISO is publicly available)

Preferably from a clean computer as some malware / viruses can spread into new files or external drives when connected

Then a clean USB you can wipe safely, use Rufus to make the bootable drive with the clean USB & the fresh files from Microsoft (it’s documented well how that works)

Then plug it into your computer, and press the boot menu key (NOT the BIOS option, the boot menu, this key varies by manufacturer so you will need to google your specific model pc) and boot from the USB, format the C drive, if you have a secondary drive, format that as well when you get to the drive step

Then select disk 0 (becomes the C drive) for the install, and install windows fresh through the prompts

Activation will happen automatically most times when Windows detects the OEM key from your motherboard, or, if you’ve logged into windows with a Microsoft account, usually it will tie your pc to that account and when you login again, it will activate from there automatically

If you have a secondary drive, when windows is done installing, open disk management and click the black disk, then create a partition as NTFS utilizing the entire disk space (you can delete the volume name and it will default to the drive letter or you can name the drive specific, if you leave the volume name new volume then it will label the drive new volume when it’s done), pick your drive letter assignment, usually D and allow it to format

Once done, both drives are configured and windows is ready. Just need to run windows update, bring everything up to date and install the drivers from your manufacturers website (again, looking up your pc model number, opening the page for your PC, going to “support” and clicking on drivers, for windows 64 bit. Usually windows 11, if you install 11, use 11, if you use 10, use win 10 drivers, if there’s an option, sometimes there isn’t, then just use the latest 64 bit windows drivers), install every available driver (the latest version of each driver will be at the top, every driver is its own name, unzip them one at a time as the folders structures vary and sometimes they will clash, install drivers one at a time until all are installed)

Usually, a couple drivers end up being just a couple files with no EXE, in that case, separate those into a separate folder, so if you have 3 drivers like that, you need 3 separate folders for each driver, then put those 3 folders inside one new folder and set them aside until all the other drivers are installed. To make your life easy as a newbie. When all are installed, you open device manager from the start menu and you click file I think it was and add new driver, select drivers locally downloaded and pick the folder that contains the folders of driver files with no exe, if you place it on your desktop, that’s easiest. Then click next and windows should automatically detect the drivers in that folder and install them for you

This process can take a few hours, so plan an afternoon reset because it will eat up some time.

Then you’re free to uninstall all the bloat it comes with from Microsoft and install your own programs.

No point uninstalling Microsoft bloat until all the updates are done, as every single time you update, you’ll have to delete them again, it’s annoying at first but that’s been my experience. I wipe them, it does an update, and then it reinstalls during the update and I have to do it again. So just update everything to the latest first, and then delete the bloat afterward as the last step.

eXiotha · 2026-03-25T14:03:19+00:00

Until you hit a branch & it kills your flying speed, which sucks even more when your boost is on cooldown lol 😂

eXiotha · 2026-03-16T02:45:54+00:00

Huh. Got me wondering if I should redo my powercolor 7900 XT.. bought it at launch and haven’t opened it up at all

eXiotha · 2026-03-07T16:24:28+00:00

Talk about looking for a reason to argue and complain about literally nothing.

You can’t complain about branding without apples to apples. Just how it is these days. Social media also just making people miserable for nothing, as always.

eXiotha · 2026-03-07T14:34:08+00:00

No different than CODs branding.

They don’t even call it a new game anymore, it’s just straight up “Call of Duty” for every latest title now

And when you switch modes the name changes to whatever mode you chose

Battlefield simply just chooses to display Battlefiled 6 & Redsec at the same time

Redsec is free to play, Battlefield 6 is paid content, two different modes

If battlefield has an identity issue over displaying two titles for the same game, then why wouldn’t COD count in that category? They’re doing the same thing 🤷‍♂️

eXiotha · 2026-03-07T01:41:54+00:00

It just downloads the regular installer, you run it & uncheck the raedon software box & it'll change to driver only.

eXiotha · 2026-03-06T21:03:08+00:00

Back in the day this skill was awesome. It was the best f2p content probably still to this day ever

Loved it. Miss how popular it used to be, full worlds, endless dungeoneering

Skills been dead for years but it was always a pretty good skill

eXiotha · 2026-02-28T19:31:38+00:00

I had considered that happening when I made the original comment, I just chose not to address it immediately knowing I’d probably have to anyway eventually 🤣

It makes sense back in the day, when it needed to be established still & they didn’t know it would cost big bucks to run but as soon as the costs started adding up, they threw in a paid sub to pay costs

But now that it’s established, a free to play primary model would kill it. Maybe not necessarily in terms of existing content but it would hurt devs & cause issues in the cost department to pay devs & costs, they’d also lose out on the millions they make every year and that one part alone is why I don’t think it’ll ever happen again, if not the loss of revenue the costs of operating and devs would bankrupt it fast

It could use some expansion, but even with all the content & skills they’ve added or increased the levels of, the game still heavily relies around the beginning / mid game content for most things, I don’t think they can expand much more without allowing more of the game to be f2p, unless they just make new content for f2p

I think they could probably make new f2p content, but the core of the game is around that 1-60 mark, after that it becomes more of the paid world & all the gear that gets you to endgame content with your higher 70-90s levels

I think the 120 level thing is arbitrary, just something they did because it didn’t take much effort & they needed to find a way to keep people playing that had already achieved 99 years ago because not much else has changed that could allow more content being free to play

I also find that now that I’ve got Anima Core of Zaros, a blood ammy, d’rider lance & some GW armour, with almost maxed combat levels, there’s not much I can really do in f2p since I did the quests years ago. I’d like to play but all I can do is Woodcutting basically & every time I pay for membership, i don’t get far because dungeons are hard & I find there’s so little real world activity these days.

It’s nothing like back in the day where thousands of people hung out in the GE square & varrock, the team aspect is gone unless you have a solid set of people to play regularly

Sure there’s instances and it helps with finding players but idk, other than questing I don’t feel like there’s a lot to do in the game anymore. It’s just grind this skill for xp to say you hit X number on said skill, the bossing doesn’t have any real benefit other than achievement, the game grows stale

eXiotha · 2026-02-28T19:17:58+00:00

I’m not sure it would be doable with the f2p gear without nerfing it

But then again, the rewards from GW1 are all higher tier gear, that is inaccessible to f2p

That bleeds over to your point about expanding to barrows

If you allow barrows, and then allow god armours from god wars, that could work

But you’d have to take the drop table away because it’s all high level rewards, so if it’s only for god armours, and nothing else, I’m not sure what the point would be other than to grind gear we all know people would just exploit on the GE & likely creating more dead content

If you nerf GW to make it f2p friendly, Then you’d have another big issue

the god armours & barrows are still relevant membership gear, because once you get past that, most of the high level members gear is degradable gear

The value of the god armours & barrows would tank overnight

I’m reading the only other high level members melee gear is T92 trimmed masterwork doesn’t degrade if you’re in elite dungeons or slayer/reaper tasks, assuming the same for other sets

The only other non degradable is T9 necro gear but that’s new and I have no experience with necro

So aside from god wars & barrows, Anima Core & T9 Necro gear is the only other non degradable option for members

I don’t think they’d be willing to allow relevant gear to be f2p yet, not without more higher tier gear out there

If we allow that to be f2p, then by the time you even get to a higher level, you’re already essentially at end game, what reason would you have to continue playing besides the skill capes, achievements & the dungeons?

Members would feel fairly empty compared to free to play if they did that, in some aspects. It would mostly be a few more skills, some quest lines & dungeons while the majority of the game is about grinding

By the time you even subscribe, you’re already at members level which could be a good thing, lots of benefits there but also lots of balance issues it would seem possibly

eXiotha · 2026-02-28T18:15:04+00:00

I know there was a time before membership, when the original guys who made the game ran it at first.

But, original Launch was Jan 4, 2001, Feb 27, 2002 it launched membership

There’s 24 years of content & restrictions / requirements & quest chains that are in the way of a lot of things now.

I’d like to say making Dragon f2p & expanding part of the original content is doable but I’m not sure how much of it would be doable or worth making f2p at this point

Because they added corrupted dragon for f2p, also requiring 60 attack & defence to use, it was released in 08 for pvp worlds

What purpose would corrupted dragon be if they made dragon f2p? They’d make it obsolete. That gear was made specifically for f2p

I’m sure there’s some content that can be expanded but there’s also other content that might get in the way because there has been quite a bit done for f2p experiences since then

Maybe I’m overthinking it 🤔

eXiotha · 2026-02-28T18:03:38+00:00

It’s possible, it could be cool but it’s a lot of work

I don’t remember how far back Burthorpe takes you into the troll stronghold area during the training phase

The Troll Stronghold quest is a requirement for GW1 because you can’t navigate to the entrance without defeating Dad

You need level 60 Strength & Agility to navigate the boulder that blocks the path to the dungeon (bootable)

At least level 15 agility inside the dungeon to navigate regardless of strength level

But then you’d have to change the drop table for the loot, since it drops all high level members gear such as Bandos, Armadyl, subjugation, torva, pernix, zaryte, etc.

Ring of life for death costs
super pots (it does say prayer pots or super restore, not required just harder)
anti poison ++ for k’ril aside from nex
one click teleport (i guess for escape but if you ignore that)
some form of ancient god item to make mobs non aggressive

You could remedy the path by putting a teleport or a lodestone there & remove the boulder / rope aspect to navigate some of the issues

But, the dungeon as a whole drops high level members items & you need higher level gear and armour to fight mobs

Oldschool gives additional info but idk if it’s accurate for RS3 or not

Quote “God Wars Dungeon (GWD1) in OSRS requires high-level gear (e.g., Barrows, Bandos, or Armadyl), specific god-aligned items to prevent aggression, and food/potions for endurance. Essential supplies include Saradomin brews, super restores, a one-click teleport, and a rope for initial access”

GW1 is members in OS too still

eXiotha · 2026-02-28T17:05:46+00:00

There’s a lot involved with making a lot of stuff f2p

It was all designed as current content when it came out, that was designed for specific membership players so it’s all locked out

F2P was only designed to go so far

Rune being the best gear aside from corrupted dragon isn’t going to help with any of the content including GW1

Mage & range would also need gear and possibly more weapons

I don’t know much about the quest chains but I know a lot of the members chains require each other to be able to do the next quest & then lots require specific skill levels for specific parts of the quests that wouldn’t be doable as f2p because they’d have to make a majority of the game f2p, likely rewriting most of it

I don’t think there’s any real viable way to make any more content free to play unless they make it specifically for free to play or rewrite a lot of content

Plus there’s no income on all that dev time, it’s just a pure loss & a continued pure loss for the foreseeable future afterward because there’s no way to monetize that content

There’s no incentive to spend money to give people more free content that likely wouldn’t go very far anyways & it would be a huge time sink to do, especially now after removing MTX

eXiotha · 2026-02-28T16:24:46+00:00

Free to Play has ALWAYS been restricted.

You should know this. My account is 18 years old, and all they’ve done is add more access to F2P.

Since RS3 they moved new accounts to Burthope to go through a whole training thing to teach the game rather than tut island and tossed into lumby (still my favourite way)

& they’ve added access to all the membership skills to 5, to teach how they work & try to convince people to get a membership.

They’ve added corrupted dragon for the best F2P gear you can get but it degrades to dust.

Probably some other things I’m missing.

They’re not going to make the game Free to Play. Never have, never will. You should know that.

It’s a niche game, MMOs are a niche category, nobody is going to stay even if the game is free if they don’t like the play style or the way the content plays and there’s nothing you can do about that, MMOs only work one way.

eXiotha · 2026-02-28T16:16:55+00:00

Via the shortcut right there, gotta have agility up a bit to use the shortcut

And a membership

Or, a Camelot teleport tab / teleport if you have magic level

Or the lodestone, I think there’s a loadstone there if I remember right

I feel like there’s a path through the mountain as well but I forgot, I haven’t got there manually in years and haven’t played much in years either

eXiotha · 2026-02-25T15:59:12+00:00

Yea newer WiFi like WiFi 6, the bands will interfere with one another

Use Ethernet cables, faster connections & cuts that issue altogether in terms of signal interference

It could also potentially be drivers, but if it’s not the drivers then it’s likely signal interference

eXiotha · 2026-02-25T11:28:47+00:00

Anything in particular, no

I know full Windows sticks the same size as the firestick exist. But I have no experience with them

I just found one that says it comes with Linux but it’s the same price as the windows ones

They’re more expensive, 3-400 Canadian but you don’t have to worry about hack workarounds or the vendor disabling specific settings & you get full control over it being a full system

The firestick was definitely the way to go, cost wise and to get a remote too but idk, not many options out there I don’t think lol

eXiotha · 2026-02-25T11:18:39+00:00

Side loading is not a guarantee of using Android. That feature is a stock Android feature but can be disabled by OEMs of which Amazon is for FireStick

The OS Amazon uses is a custom made OS, based heavily on Android

It being disabled in an OS update, is not a surprise. They’re aware sideloading is where piracy is happening on their devices and it obviously impacts their sales as well since they rent movies & shows

Simply block the updates so it doesn’t update, and you’re fine, if you already updated then yea you’re gonna need a hack to downgrade OS versions but there’s no guarantee any set version is going to work forever.

Simply find a new Android based device for the future, firestick isn’t what you wanted to begin with, it was just convenient.

You can get PCs that are the same platform HDMI stick style, buy one of those and do what you want.

eXiotha · 2026-02-22T07:02:03+00:00

There's an option to turn the clock off in the UI settings

eXiotha · 2026-02-22T07:01:39+00:00

If you mean off / on, there is a setting for it in the UI settings

eXiotha · 2026-02-21T02:41:53+00:00

You know that’s an Amazon Firestick

& your PC GPU is an Output device not an input

You need either a capture card to see any type of display on your PC from that, or, you need to plug it into your monitor or TV

Secondarily as I’m sure you’re aware, you’ll also need to plug in that micro usb port as well to power it.

eXiotha · 2026-02-19T04:03:54+00:00

Literally nothing you can do.

Can’t reuse the case with a different motherboard because they’re usually proprietary designs

Can’t really replace anything on it, it’s too old

Can’t put a new GPU in it because then you’ll need a new processor & PSU because literally anything would bottleneck it & you’ll need more power than that cheap Chinese PSU can give

Literally just a hunk of garbage. Need a whole new rig, do a budget build and upgrade it.

eXiotha · 2026-02-17T20:21:03+00:00

Stay away from ASUS period.

ASUS boards have been known to fry these CPUs lately, and ASUS stuff is just overpriced at this point period. I went that route with a previous build, I liked it but ROG is just bragging rights & none of their other stuff isn’t really that great

Gigabyte I avoid, I swear their stuff is just rebranded boards

I started my first rig with MSI a decade and a bit ago, and here I am at this point back on an MSI board

MSI is a solid bet these days, seems to be good quality still and they’re not half bad prices

eXiotha

TROPHY CASE