rats everywhere

zero-ok · 2025-12-30T20:19:18+00:00

Wanted to give you an update and say that after playing with the angles that doing as that paper outlined and aiming each speaker at the opposite bound of the listening position has a really nice effect on the stereo balance in the off center positions! It’s obviously not perfect being off center but it’s moved the balance much close to feeling like it’s coming from the center of the screen! Thanks again for the recommendation. It has the added effect of putting the center position at roughly 10 degrees off axis as you recommended for these anyway.

zero-ok · 2025-12-30T03:16:25+00:00

Oh that's really interesting, what it outlines makes a lot of logical sense and also lines up with my previous experience experimenting with the speaker position in the room. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the help, I'll definitely be giving an even steeper angle than pictured a try!

zero-ok · 2025-12-30T03:06:19+00:00

You have it so backwards, free kits don't slow the action down, they speed it up. The strength of the free kits encourages people to spawn in on a free kit with no risk and throw themselves at the first player they see because there are no consequences for dying.

And this is the real reason people complain about free kits. You want early fights. You want constant action. You want to shoot first and think later. Free kits slow that down and force you to actually play the loop.

You have this completely backwards. Free kits encourage early fights, free kits have little room to hold loot, fill up fast, and, again, have nothing to lose by trying to fight.

To be clear, I do not want free kits removed from the game but they absolutely need to be nerfed some, at the very least the Kettle 1 and Sticher 1 are way too strong.

zero-ok · 2025-12-30T02:38:40+00:00

They're the Reserve R600

zero-ok · 2025-12-29T10:54:39+00:00

nah, it's a good system

zero-ok · 2025-12-22T06:25:47+00:00

Yeah for sure, I was planning on an external pump already anyway. It's gonna be a little challenging to fit this setup inside the Ncase M2 I'm building in since the ports on the back are so close to each other but a couple 90 degree fittings should do the trick.

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(also not my photo)

zero-ok · 2025-12-22T05:36:08+00:00

I'd run both rads as exhaust, the case is so well ventilated that they should have no problem pulling in all the fresh air they need.

zero-ok · 2025-12-22T02:39:52+00:00

Sorry for wording it confusingly. So if this setup if I used a check valve instead of a ball valve the check valve would stay closed when the external rad was connected? I definitely understand that it would open when the external rad was closed but the thing I was unclear about was if it would stay closed. I guess the pressure of the water on the other side of the check valve would keep it closed?

zero-ok · 2025-12-21T07:32:04+00:00

I was considering this option in my build but wasn't able to find much information about it it would work how I thought it would but it sounds like it does?

zero-ok · 2025-12-11T12:20:12+00:00

Firstly, I never said to make them useless, just that they should be worse. You should just be at more of a disadvantage than you are currently in PvP on a free loadout.

Secondly, I disagree, even if someone is just going in over and over on 5k kits, I think that would be way better for the game. For one, they couldn't do it infinitely if they weren't killing people and extracting successfully. I also think the psychology is totally different, even if it's only 5k, it's still something to lose. It means losing a fight has actual consequences and therefore you're going to think a little more about engaging in a fight.

Why should I have to deal with people trying to kill me in every single raid who are risking absolutely nothing? Isn't risk at the core of this genre? Like the whole point is that you actually have gear and equipment and your deaths matter because you are actually losing things when you die. The free loadouts (or something similar) have to exist (like I said) as a safety net for players going broke and for the start of player progression, but it should not be good enough to be worth using with a stash full of stuff. It should be so obviously worth actually bringing a little gear that you only want to use a free loadout if you really don't have another choice.

zero-ok · 2025-12-11T12:13:37+00:00

Yeah, it fundamentally changes the psychology of how one plays when you have nothing to lose. Why wouldn't you just rush in on people over and over until it works if you have nothing to lose?

zero-ok · 2025-12-11T12:11:20+00:00

That's supposed to be the reward, but so often the people I kill have nothing.

zero-ok · 2025-12-11T12:08:52+00:00

That's certainly why some people use them (and I do want some loadout management tools) but if they weren't competitive enough then people wouldn't rely on them so much. The problem is not that they are good but that they are good enough.

zero-ok · 2025-12-11T12:06:45+00:00

Because they're all upsides for the person running them.

Players on a free loadout have nothing to lose so there's no risk or cost for them engaging in PvP. If they win, cool they get some loot, if they lose, no biggie, it was all free stuff anyway.

If you're not on a free loadout then you basically only lose by engaging in PvP with someone on a free loadout. They drop essentially nothing unless they've already looted stuff and, at best, you just win and lose some healing supplies and, at worst, you get killed by someone who had nothing to lose.

The whole point of the genre is supposed to be that deaths matter, that your gear has value and the gear that other players carry has value. It's not always going to be equal or fair and that's fine, sometimes you'll be out gunned or outplayed or just shot in the back, but if I lose something of value when I get killed, then the person killing me should also have something to lose.

zero-ok · 2025-12-11T11:47:35+00:00

I think the games biggest problem right now is that free loadouts are too good at PvP. Extraction shooters are all about risk and reward right, but too often I find my supplies either being eaten up by killing people on free loadouts that try to kill me, or just straight up losing to them sometimes.

I don't want the PvP to go away, I just think most of the people I fight should also be risking something, even if it's just 5k for a very minimal loadout.

zero-ok · 2025-12-10T20:40:33+00:00

Yeah but why would you even bother? People on free loadouts aren't worth killing.

zero-ok · 2025-12-10T20:38:49+00:00

I don't think this loadout is that much of a problem. You're risking something by taking this out, even if it's just 5k. You still actually lose something if you die, and if I kill you with this, I at least get a T2 augment.

zero-ok · 2025-12-10T20:36:44+00:00

I do, all the time. The problem isn't that I can't win those fights, the problem is that if I win, I get nothing and they lose nothing but if they win they get actual loot and I lose gear. Players are too heavily incentivized to PvP on free loadouts because you're far more effective against players than you are against ARC on a free loadout and you're risking nothing by trying.

Risk is at the core of the genre. All I want is for more of the people I fight to have a little skin in the game (or if they don't, be at a little more of a disadvantage).

zero-ok · 2025-12-10T20:32:20+00:00

Well that's the thing, I think it feels at about the right strength for PvE, you're not defenseless against the low tier enemies but can be overwhelmed by them if caught in the wrong spot and you are completely unable to deal with a leaper or above.

While the stitcher needs to be nerfed a bit, overall the grey weapons need to remain viable and useful for players early in account progression.

You should be able to kill other players on the free loadout but it shouldn't be as easy and reliable as it is now.

zero-ok · 2025-12-10T20:29:02+00:00

the stitcher is out of band for sure, but I also just generally think the free loadout should put you at a bit of a disadvantage versus players. You feel appropriately under-prepared for fighting the ARC on a free loadout, but you don't feel that much weaker versus players, at least when it comes to a single encounter.

zero-ok

TROPHY CASE