Profile for Or else o'erleap.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Or else o'erleap. |
| Member number | 335 |
| Title | Law Bringer |
| Postcount | 14579 |
| Homepage | http://www.polarisboard.net |
| Registered | Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Magey Questions in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 20 2004 12:32
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Cloud of Blades is always good if you've got a priest. You don't get experience if the wall kills them, but your enemies are left dead. Rakshasi are the only ones that are impossible to take down with spells. The others have resistance to everything, and the drakes are immune to fire, but if you keep throwing spells at them they'll keel over eventually. —Alorael, who finds himself very much missing Wound from the Exiles against resistant foes like these. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Avernum 4 in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 20 2004 06:37
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All known continents are settled. The Empire could always have missed one or two. Diplomacy with the Dead certainly implies the existence of new frontiers. —Alorael, who would rather see more of Avernum anyway. There are probably caves farther west that haven't been explored much, there are deeper caves, there is more of Upper Avernum, there are the vahnatai and slith lands, and when all else fails, the narrator can inform you that you are in a new part of Avernum whether you like and understand it or not. [ Saturday, November 20, 2004 06:38: Message edited by: Novah Philology ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Who is your favorite exile? in The Exile Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, November 19 2004 11:39
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How could you forget Khoth? He's one of the more memorable dragons. —Alorael, who agrees that Pyrog wasn't as much of a challenge as other dragons. His giant hordes don't add much, either. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Avernum 4 in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, November 19 2004 11:34
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If you give your creations in Geneforge at least two intelligence, and you should, you can control them. They'll ignore you and run around crazily if get close to death, but for the most part you have control of them. If you're looking for large battles, I suggest you revisit the Ornotha Ziggurat. The battle in front of it is sizeable, and it amply demonstrates why Jeff didn't throw in a whole lot of large fights of that sort. It's slow, confusing, and not a whole lot of fun. Smaller fights with interesting enemies and terrain provide more satisfying tactical challenges. Games like the one you described are generally called adventures, not RPGs (though since neither term is very technically defined, the distinction is rather blurred). Either that or RPGs with very odd battle systems. —Alorael, who still doesn't think Avernum 4 will become a large-scale tactical warfare strategy game. Jeff goes for adventurers and only adventurers, and none of his engines work particularly well with massive battles. He could design the sparkly new A4 engine around it, but all signs indicate that he wouldn't do such a thing. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| One-PC Parties Rule in Nethergate | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, November 17 2004 18:38
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I haven't even tried to play with singletons, but here are my utterly untested thoughts. A Roman singleton warrior with minimal druidic abilities can simply crush, kill, and destroy, as you found. A lone Celt doesn't have the melee power to do that, but since Celts don't really have any armor anyway, a half decent warrior with druid spells is feasible. Basically, one could kill weak or almost dead enemies with a sword or spear and plenty of Battle Rage and use spells to kill things and to stay healthy and buffed. It would be a skill balancing act for a long time and it would require large stocks of potions, but once the character learns Hero of Old it should become a walk in the park. —Alorael, who figures he need not mention the (bug-abusing) method for starting off with Hero of Old. If you do that you really shouldn't have much trouble past the very early parts of the game. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Connection Speed in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, November 17 2004 13:20
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That's not memory, that's disk space. And that's more money than I would spend on a whole computer. Maybe I'd buy that if I had the money and a pressing need for more space than I could imagine needing for any non-commercial purpose, but I don't think that's exactly intended for the average "lay" consumer. —Alorael, who has 192 megs of RAM, placing him neatly between categories. He also goes under the category of having Javascript and techically Java, although the latter tends to crash his computer. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| I want the Mithril sword! in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, November 16 2004 12:51
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You're also better off using the lump of metal from Athron to get another Mithril Blade. The Beastslayer you get from the dragons is worth using against the Alien Beasts if you're weak, but the Mithril Sword more than makes up for the damage with extra AP, and you can use that against anyone. —Alorael, who has now confused himself. In E3 you can get more than one sword, but in A3 he's not sure you can. It's enormously irritating to have to wait around for it once, too. Twice may not be necessary if you only have one sword-wielding fighter. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Does anyone have the old versions of Exile? in The Exile Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, November 15 2004 18:08
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It made combat interesting, especially with enemies' tendency to use Slow as much as possible and then some. I meant that E1 and E2 got new graphics, not E3. It has always had the same graphics, and its graphics invaded the other two. —Alorael, who is also pretty sure that Exile went through an intermediate graphics set between the crude originals and pretty E3 graphics. They were something like the E2 graphics. Does that ring bells for anyone? [ Monday, November 15, 2004 18:10: Message edited by: Amuck ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| How do you perceive what you imagine? in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, November 15 2004 13:24
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If I'm trying to picture something that happened or an object, I think in pictures. If I'm talking to myself silently or remembering information, I think in "written" text (images again), although it's not real text and I can think much faster than I can read, obvoiusly. The only time I think in sounds is when I am specifically trying to recall sounds. Even remembered conversations often become transcripts unless I work at recollecting the tones used. No, I am not particularly good at picking up the subtext cues from speech. [Edit: Thinking in text and transmitting thoughts to fingers are entirely different matters, as this failure shows.] —Alorael, who suspects that all of these forms of thinking are just rationalizations of a process that has very little to do with actual senses. Blind people probably think in much the same way as anyone else. It's only their perceptions of thought that are necessarily different. [ Monday, November 15, 2004 18:09: Message edited by: Amuck ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Avernum 4 in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, November 14 2004 09:53
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Jeff has already all but stated outright that he won't try strategy games. It's in one of the interviews, but it'll take some digging to find it. He has gone back on promises before, but in this case I think we can expect him to stick with what he knows how to make and, more importantly, what he knows he can sell. —Alorael, who would be more than happy to get reasonably challenging AI again. Geneforge has a little bit, and BoA can add some, but there wasn't any in A3. So if fights actually require some thinking, it will be a step forward. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Shameless Plug in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 13 2004 21:03
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The maps you can buy in A3 show that Karnold Province ends east of Colchis and Farport. Colchis is so close to Krizsan that it logically belongs in the same province. Farport is only on the map showing Bigail, which it clearly is not part of. You're right that it probably belongs in Karnold Province, though, regardless of the map cutoff. —Alorael, who also has to thank Arancaytar for copying the maps and saving him a few minutes looking for them with ResEdit. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Lost hardrive, lost 6 registered games in Tech Support | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 13 2004 20:51
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I don't know what waiting you've experienced, Arenax. I've gotten new registration codes by email in less than two days and new ones by phone immediately. Using a phone should also take care of any problems you have from switching to a new email. —Alorael, who had a lovely time with an old Performa that ate hard disks. He went through three of them in two months, and each time required new passwords. Spiderweb was very helpful about it. No matter what you think of Jeff's BoE/BoA policies, Spiderweb's customer service is top notch. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Avernum 4 in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 13 2004 18:19
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The screenshots are from Geneforge 3, not A4. Geneforge 3 is still using the same engine, though with little modifications like the inventory screen. We have neither seen nor heard anything about A4 except a promise of niftiness. —Alorael, who very much hopes to see that niftiness. He could use a little more nift in his life. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Geneforge 3 Screenshots.... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 13 2004 18:16
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Real 3D also requires a great deal more programming, including knowledge of how to program stuff in 3D, I'd presume. Even if you find a way to avoid needing the simplest of physics engines (for calculating the trajectories of arrows and whatnot), it would be a huge undertaking, and it would take Spiderweb into the same arena as games like Neverwinter Nights. Basically, it's a losing proposition. —Alorael, who is perfectly happy with Avernum's pseudo-3D heights and Geneforges semi-3D graphics. The engine of the latter is another matter entirely, but it's not the graphics' fault. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| When i heal my self i use essence ... how i get back? in Geneforge Series | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 13 2004 09:25
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When you enter any town area, like Vakkiri, you automatically regain all your health an essence not tied up in creations. Be sure to clear areas so you can always get back to to a town. —Alorael, who finds it slightly irritating to have to leave a town and return if he uses any essence while in it. It was probably made that way to make combat in towns an actual challenge, but it gets annoying. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| When i heal my self i use essence ... how i get back? in Geneforge | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 13 2004 09:25
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When you enter any town area, like Vakkiri, you automatically regain all your health an essence not tied up in creations. Be sure to clear areas so you can always get back to to a town. —Alorael, who finds it slightly irritating to have to leave a town and return if he uses any essence while in it. It was probably made that way to make combat in towns an actual challenge, but it gets annoying. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| future games in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 13 2004 09:17
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Jeff doesn't read these boards. Jeff couldn't take suggestions from these boards if he read them. In fact, he'd carefully avoid taking suggestions to avoid lawsuits. Jeff already has his next few games planned. Even if he read these boards and didn't care about lawsuits, you'd have better luck suggesting in a few years. —Alorael, who contends that a futuristic RPG is not inherently better than a fantasy RPG or a pseudo sci-fi RPG like Geneforge. It's all in the execution, and nothing said here will help with that. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Avernum 4 in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 13 2004 09:12
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Jeff already handed evolution over to BoE and BoA. If he starts mucking around and changing/making history, the designers of some scenarios will be justifiably upset. At the Gallows presents one of those other continents. What if Jeff decides that it's actually completely different? We're also assuming that A4 won't be a huge departure from its predecessors. You don't play Erika, you play a party created by you. (Besides, playing Erika would probably mangle Chains). After the Geneforges, it's possible that Jeff will try conflicting endings, but that would also be different from the other Avernums, so the open-ended plot also seems unlikely. We don't know exactly what Jeff has in mind, but we know (or think we know) what he's most likely to do. There are problems with it. If the game is really good, he'll probably be forgiven, but if the game isn't stunning and it messes up Blades of Exile/Avernum, everyone will be justifiably annoyed with him. —Alorael, who supposes this topic revival isn't terrible even after a month. At least the post has actual contents instead of "me too!" or some such noncommunication. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Geneforge 3 Screenshots.... in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, November 13 2004 09:04
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"I am hear [sic] to tell you two things." Looks like there's still a little bit of work to be done. It still looks pretty good, especially with the smooth lighting, but without a nicer engine I'm still staying away. —Alorael, who is more interested in the ability to "use the new crafting skills to create powerful weapons, wands, and magical items." Sounds interesting, at least. What's the chance it will be all that and a soda? Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| A strange topic, for the neat freaks in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, November 12 2004 19:44
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The idea was to make dropping a one click process. Click the drop button, and the widget is placed in the space its erstwhile bearer occupies. I guess Jeff didn't see much call for specific item placement. —Alorael, who agrees that Nethergate has nicer dropping option. In BoA, that could be even more of an issue. Now it's not possible to place the ritual items on the altar. Leaving them on the mat before the altar just isn't the same. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Shah mat in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, November 11 2004 11:39
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Arafat was definnitely an obstacle to the creation of a Palestinian state. The 2000 summit at Camp David was almost everything the Palestinians asked for, and probably the best they could wring from hostile Israelis. Arafat's refusal probably set the peace process back decades. Part of that setback was Sharon and company. Even if the new Palestinian leader is a paragon, Sharon will impede progress. I note that Arafat isn't even being allowed burial in Jerusalem. That seems rather unnecessarily confrontational to me... —Alorael, who will continue to watch and hope. However, without a clear Palestinian leader, a cordial Israeli leader, or an America that could mediate peace without appearing completely hypocritical, things look bleak. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Guys!I am back after a year!Do i missed you?if you help me you will be rewarded in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, November 11 2004 11:35
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Thank you all for this failure of civility. This topic deserves to die the death. While I do not wish death on anyone, several people at least deserve to be sniped in the foot for posting unhelpfully as well. —Alorael, who doesn't know of any sites with maps of any of the vahnatai tests. The help Kelandon gave should be enough to get through. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| OS in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, November 10 2004 17:45
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Exile 3 is the only Spiderweb game made for Linux, and I understand that it wasn't Jeff who ported it. I can't even find any sign of it now. Basically, Jeff has shown no inclination towards porting his games to Linux. —Alorael, who isn't sure he could afford to. Porting takes quite a while, and the Linux crowd is both fairly small and likely to be able to run Spiderweb games on other OSes. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Economy of Rights not Ownership in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, November 10 2004 12:43
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On the other hand, most mortgages on houses are really protracted purchases. You pay more overall, but you pay it slower so you can actually afford the house. Evictions aren't all that common, and most people either sell their houses and repay the loans (but buy new houses with new loans) or pay off the mortgage after living in the house for 30 years. It's not a great system, but I don't quite see it as a form of capitalist exploitation of the masses, either. The difference is that the banks don't go out of their way to foreclose and confiscate your house. Mostly they just want the money you borrowed plus interest. —Alorael, who does find the new idea of leasing everything unnerving. Most people seem to manage fiscal responsibility when it comes to houses, but when all the furniture is leased, to say nothing of the car in the driveway, people tend to screw up more. This is especially true with all the "you don't have to pay for X months!" deals. X months later, someone's dream life falls apart when the bills start pouring in. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| A Hypothetical in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, November 8 2004 12:28
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Let's work with the assumption that one doubles one's net worth or gets an indeterminately large but significant chunk of money, whichever is greater. I think I'd do it. I'm misanthropic enough to believe that the person who dies probably wasn't all that significant anyway and I'm not exactly going to be wracked by guilt if I have no idea who died because of me. I would try to do worthwhile things with the money I got, but in the end, it's still a selfish decision. However, as Thuryl points out, every time we have a good meal, we could instead be having a meal that leaves us hungry and donating a few dollars or just cents to starving people. I don't know about you, but I don't do that. Rationally, I'd say that it's probably a hard-wired biological imperative to get ahead at the expense of others to propagate one's genes, but it doesn't really matter why, does it? [Edit: Upon further reflection, I'm no longer sure. It may well be part of my hatred of all humankind that makes me think that I could cheerfully do away with a stranger, but I don't know. If someone actually made the offer, I'm not so sure I could actually take it.] —Alorael, who considers this part of his misanthropy. He has a strong feeling that he'd dislike himself a lot if he had to look at himself from an outside perspective. Maybe not as much as he dislikes some people, but he'd definitely fail to make his own mensch list. [ Monday, November 08, 2004 12:31: Message edited by: Akashic Correction Fluid ] Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |