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The Magical anti-journey of Maarek Farlander


Stradlin

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TLDR This picture tells it all really! GSF pilot of Republic Navy stuck in Trooper starter walker. Forever.

 

Hello, stranger! Its kinda lonely inside this Walker, so figured I'd put together some sort of a blog-like thing in an effort to keep the cabin fever away!

 

My goal is to lvl from 1 to 75 without ever leaving the trooper starter walker. Except to couple of occasional GSF matches.

 

I'm pretty sure nobody will end up reading this, but I decided my magical space adventure anti-journey needs some pretty strict and arbirtary rules established! Outlining them on a public platform makes it easier to remember and follow them.

 

Maarek's Magical anti-journey is made possible by two components:

A) You can fly GSF on lvl 1 character

B) If you esc out of trooper opening dialogue, door of that Walker will NEVER open!

 

Conclusion: I can ding all the way to lvl 75 without ever leaving the comfort of my Walker! I promise nobody has ever spend as much time on that thing as Maarek will! Imagine how well you get to know Gearbox in that isolation..

 

 

Arbirtary pointless Rules I've established for myself:

- It would be possible to "cheat" by leaving for guildship, or SH for example, then just teleporting back to my Walker. All of such pleasantries are forbidden! Fleet pass, quick travel and legacy transport forbidden as well ofc.

- I never leave the walker, but I can bring stuff in. I'll use stuff such as cartel collections, legacy summons for mailbox, legacy bank etc to their full benefit! They are kinda like floating debris for Robinson Crusoe.

- I've always wondered how my stats for GSF end up looking if I never join a single group. More importantly, It'd be weird to live in my walker of solitude ground side, but seek out grps for GSF! So I'll do solo queue exclusively in GSF. I did join a guild though.

 

Random stuff:

- I'll prolly post an occasonal video and whatnot.

- I bet I mess this up by spacebarring through that intro convo out of habit sometime. It pops up after each GSF match. All is fine as long as I remember to punish my esc.key!

- I prolly talk a little bit about ship builds thorough this weird, ridiculous experiment. Thorugh that, this might have some value for somebody who is GSF-curious.

- Random long winded obervations about GSF in general prolly happen!

- Name Maarek Farlander is an obscure referance to Keyan Farlander and Maarek Stele, player characters of classic X-Wing and Tie Fighter PC games.

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S01E01 - First steps and a Koiogran turn!

 

First roadsign along this magical anti-journey is to get enough credits to buy access to couple of legacy unlcoks! That way, I can pick up tons of droids and stuff from mail to keep me company! I get around 1k credits from a GSF match at lower levels. Mailbox is 50k. Maybe repair droid is better 1st investment. That way, I can vendor all the junk GSF gear crates give.

 

 

This is my life now. Socially distancing together with Gearbox and four technicians. I'm gonna get to know Gearbox real well I recon!

 

 

One thing people who don't do GSF usually never notice: it keeps very thorough stats about absolutely everything. Wins, losses, kills, deaths, KDR, amount of blaster shots fired!

 

Its generally speaking pretty tough to fly a stock ship. T1 Strikefighter Starguard(or Rycer on imp side) is an excellent machine that performs alright even in stock condition. Can't wait to get it bit more upgraded though. Obviously, I will mis out GSF intro quest and dailies. Later on, I can pick up weekly directly via the conquest menu though!

 

Had a really fun and interesting Sat match..but Geforce experience failed to record it so you just gonna have to take my word for it.

I wish there were more GSF maps. Pref ones reflecting major battles in-game. Like battle over Illum etc. This is 4th match of Maarek. There are GSF pilots that are total human computers when it comes to DMs, having respawn times and locations of buffs memorized, each asteroid carved to their minds. I'm almost always too harebrained to even try bothering with that, I just fly to places and shoot things.

 

I'll mostly be flying on T1 Strikefighter, Starguard. It is an ecellent, versatile ship that has some kind of a solution to offfer to most problems. Usually, thanks to daily and weekly missions, even ships not actively flown get upgrades. No terminals in this walker, so that isn't the case here.

 

Decided I'd upgrade the engines first. I almost always roll with retro thrusters normally. Giving Koiogran turn a spin for once. I want the t3 upgrade of engines, fast turning speed, ASAP. Retros are great, versatile engine component. They can be offensive, defensive just as easily. Can use them around satelites without really leaving it. Or prolong a joust vs another ship if you deem it a good move.Koiogran turn is more of a defensive ability. Feels useful bit less often than retros. 3rd option would be barrel roll, which doesn't really suit T1 strike imho. - it is a great escape and travel ability, but T1 is about killing, not escaping! And this..blog isn't exactly about travelling either,so!

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S01E02 - The Mysterious Visitor!!

 

I bet somebody here thought life inside the Republic Walker might get a little boring sometimes,right? WRONG!!!

 

Silence of Gearbox and technicans also starting to get under my skin. I wish they'd say something. Only dialogue Gearbox wants to have with me is one that'd take me away from my social distancing Walker and I refuse to pay such price for his company.

 

 

7 Matches played now. 4 wins, 3 defeats. Long streak of real good, high quality matchhes..

...as a result, my KD:R and win% got completely borked! Small price for good games. In general I prolly pay more attention to various stats on this character than usual. More I care about stats of my pilot chars, Sithier I usually fly. I sometimes keep checking/caring about win% of my chars, but I think its wise to consider all the rest as pretty trivial.

 

Reached level 10. Massive amount of various conq objectives immediately dinged, reached conq target for 1st time on this char.

 

As a lvl 10, I can start opening the GSF gear crates. You get one crate for each match. Crate is of higher quality if your team won. Each crate give fleet req, which makes building your ships so much faster and easier for anyone. If your character is a lowbie, these crates also drop some real nice looking/interesting gear from time to time. Once you ding 75, boxes kinda change and begin giving same junk you get from..anywhere at 75. So in some ways, pvp/GSF crates are more valuable if popped as a lowbie. Or at least much more interesting.

 

 

Thanks to conq credit tokens, I'm sitting on stuff worthy of lots of cash now! Just that I'd need a vendor to sell these things.

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S01E03 - Exciting discovery about the seats!

 

There's a total of 16 seats in the walker. I've counted them! That's also the max. size of an OPs team when we speak of actual instanced content. With all this evidence at hand, it feels safe to conclude full Squad of Repuiblic troopers amounts to 16 ppl! Good thing my walker has just Gearbox and 4 technicans, it'd get crowded with 16.

 

Our team can't quite shut down an excellent GS working for the enemy, which costs us the game. Was a great, even match. I bet I end up switching to my usual fav. components eventually; I greatly dislike my lasers, engines and missiles. All besides engines remain in stock condition, they'd start working better once upgraded ofc.

 

Cool thing about GSF - No ship is an obvious upgrade to another. Almost all of them have their own strenths and paths to victory. When it comes to components of ships, it is bit more clear cut. There are components, weapons and engine abilities that are just bad or unsuitable combinations. However, almost every ship has at least 2-3 unique builds that differ from one another and work fine in their own right. Stock build of Rycer works quite well as a defender of satelites. It feels terrible on DMs though.

 

Played 15 matches now. Got 40k credits made. 10k more and I can get repair bot, mailbox..all the good stuff!

 

It is a shame Maarek must be a trooper. Smugglers get cool looking Rep. Navy uniform bits from the pvp crates. Troopers get some awful low texture garbage instead.

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S01E04 - Gearbox

 

I'm detecting a steadily increasing amount of tension between Gearbox and I. I've made numerous attempts to initiate a casual conversation with him, but it isn't working out. He is perfectly willing to talk to me at any given time..but only if I agree to go through the opening cutscene dialogue that'd banish me out of my social distancing Walker. Other than that, he stonewalls me utterly. It is a diabolical catch 22, truly. Once I unlock mailbox via legacy perks, I tell Gearbox he can use it too if he wants to. Maybe that will break the ice.

 

25 matches played now! Stats took a real dive somewhere around 5-15 games played, but looks like I've recovered since then.

 

Bought couple of my favorite ships, such as T3 scout Spearpoint. Spearpoint's Tensor Field-ability boosts speed of the entire team at the beginning of the match. It is a move that is super easy to execute..and absolutely vital tool when fighting for satelites.

 

If your team gets stuck defending A and C satelites in Kuat Mesas, you usually in for an..eventful game.Its a very tough situation to defend, I always end up feeling like I'm not where I should be. If holding A and C, its all about figuring out which enemies are dangerous and making educated guesses on their moves.I guess wrong here couple of times. Assuming one prefers roaming and overactive busybody gameplay like I do, that is. Some hold ground on one specific satelite..It'd often be a better move. But also, less fun!

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  • 2 weeks later...

S01E05 - Sounds like Trouble!

I've been at this for 3 weeks now or something. Gradually, I'm discovering that not all that much is happening inside this walker!! Techincans just sit there. Gearbox, in his stern posture, keeps looking at the same closed door I so often stare. In many ways, he is a prisoner here just as I.

However!! Endless loop of sounds from the outside reminds us all how there is a vibrant, living world just behind that door. I can hear AA turret or such, and occasional explosions and blaster shots! Things might be quite still in the social distancing walker, but life goes on without us just fine it sounds like!

 

 

Sounds are very important in GSF too. Beyond obvious stuff like missile locks I mean. Every single laser cannon has its own, distinct sound for example. You can hear enemies who are close enough. Knowing whether it is Quad or Burst lasers they aiming at you is vital. Vicious and loud barking of T1 Strike's ion cannon is distinct and spells danger. Tight pewpewpew of all Imperial lasers differs from the sloppier sound of their Republic counterparts, which was grucial back when queue pool was still split in factions. Paying attention to this stuff can save lives! I swear, there is this unique engine sound that is meant to tell you if an enemy scout is close by..but it is super unreliable and happens in very sporadic fashion. I recon it is meant to be a nod to the iconic engine roar Tie fighters make in StaWa movies. You don't always hear everything you should, and chaos of battlefield makes it tricky to know which sounds are..relevant for you. Still, often sounds is all you have informing you about enemy at your 6 at first.

 

 

 

It is crazy how slowly ships get build when you can't do dailies or weeklies. I was sure fleet req. from each match would help more than it does. I've done 23 matches in Starguard and still have no weapons mastered. I also thought I could start picking weely missions via the conquest mission menu..but you'd need intro to GSF-mission completed in order to take the weekly. That one is available from fleet, which is ofc is a distant dream inside this walker.

 

 

 

. Teams are bit uneven, but a long, fun pitched battle for A satelite ends up happening anyway. Lasts non stop thrugh three quarters of the entire fight or something. I'm not expecting to do much living with my largely unbuild Spearpoint, so i waste my EMP missiles like there's no tomorrow. By the time I could really use some I'm all out.

 

Spearpoint is an excellent ship to have at start of a satelite match - Tensor field-ability boosts speed of the entire team. Many matches been settled 1 second after spawn, if teams are otherwise even but one side lacks tensors.

Spearpoint is a solid ship in satelite matches beyond the tensors. I'd still much rather switch to my Pike or Flashfire though. ..If I had either build even a little bit. Some people suicide soon as they tensor and switch to a different ship. I think its bad karma and usually just stick to Spearpoint til I die.

 

 

Maarek's lvl 29 now. Taken 32 matches of GSF. There'd be legacy perk boosting xp from GSF that I could buy..and I'd have tons of xp tokens for popping. I could also mail him the DvsL xp suit..but I can't be bothered to do any of that:p Slow n steady. I recon the walker looks pretty similar at 75.

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  • 1 month later...

S01E06 - GG!

 

I've played thousands of matches of GSF over the years. This one Maarek just ended up in must be in top-10 in terms of how G a G it was. It is rare for a satelite match to end due to time running out. I bet I've never before seen time run out before either team reaches even 900 points. At least one sat kept being contested through almost the entire match. Still solo-q only on Maarek, good thing a guildie ended up on same team!

 

This one was pretty high quality match through and through, plenty of vet pilots in air. Common compaint nowadays among GSF pilots is how match quality has kinda dropped.(Squadrons release meant many aces switched over. Plus plenty of new pilots stepped in due to Mando and Steam release.) Imo they kinda forget even teams make good games, rather than having tons of collective skill amassed. If top six best GSF pilots in the world are in same match and in same team, it prolly isn't a great game. If two piles of totally fresh pilots happen to be sorted in somewhat equal way, it can be a great and entertaining match. I think generally speaking, matches have been more even since summer than I remember them being in a long time. Played 4 matches yesterday. One was a 49-50 DM defeat, one was the match screenshotted above. Great nite to fly in space!

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  • 3 weeks later...

S01E07 - Plenty of pielot ppl

 

Generally speaking, GSF is always real busy when TOR is busy. When TOR hits some mid-expansion dead space, GSF, too, gets quieter. Even during normal times, new content patch typically always brings in some new pilots. "Thanks to" Covid, I guess pretty much all MMOs been living through some unprecedented surge in activity. Combine that, Steam release of last year and a brand new content patch and..yeah, loads of people. in GSF too. Some will stick around, most won't. Latest patch introduced brand new incentive for people to do GSF. It has resulted in more new pilots than I've seen in a long time. As a result, match quality is very low as all these new folks are still earning their wings so to speak. Over time, it amounts to net positive. Newbie pilot of today is murder machine from hell of tomororw!

 

Maarek's lvl 40 now! 54 matches played.

 

Since I can't pick daily/weekly missions, It is taking AGES to get stuff mastered. I still don't have a single ship completed. It def shows in my stats, as does the refusal to ever group up. I'm below my usual numbers, but not by much I suppose.

 

 

Speaking of new pilots,

Here is a guide written with brand new pilots in mind

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S01E08 - Building a ship

 

In case anyone interested of GSF ever actually reads this, here is my T1 Strike build. I wanted to build something I usually don't fly for Maarek. Normally, I prefer abit dumber and more offensive combination. (Retro thrusters and pro torps). Having said that, this build is growing on me.

 

Weapons

Great thing about T1 strike; it is an incredibly versatile ship. You'll find a veteran level pilot making case for each of the weapons it has available. Most ships in GSF have little something special going for them. T1 Strike can switch between two cannons, no other ship can do the same.

 

Heavy Lasers - Most agree these are a must. Excellent, strarter friendly long range weapon. Very easy to operate when compared to most other lasers. (Other lasers tend to have less forgiving range requirements) You almost never see a Strike without heavies chosen. I always roll with them too.

 

Ion Cannons - Medum range cannons. These do almost no damage to hull but melt enemy shields away so fast! I like the combo of Heabies+Ions well. Many veterans recommend Heavies and Quads instead. Whichever you pick, it is important to remember you can switch between the two lasers instantly. No delay whatsoever. So You wanna score a hit with heavy lasers on approach, switch to ions, melt shields away, switch back to heavies and finish the enemy. All of this in 2 seconds or so. If you roll with heavies and Quads, spamming between the two lasers gets even more wild and.. spammy. If you figure out a perfect rhythm to your heavy+quad fire (called pilediver in GSF lingo) the damage potential is huge. ..As long as enemy flies a straight line.

 

Concussion missiles Only picked these for sake of variety. They aren't bad. I like their speed debuff that I don't yet have unlocked on Maarek... Generally speaking, Proton Torpedos would be too good to pass. Small benefits of concussion missiles(bit more of them, bit shorter lock down timer) aren't enough to make these compare.They're good..but much worse than Proton torpedos. Third option, cluster misisles, have very limited uses in current meta. Clusters are great if you never plan to leave a satelite. Or if you are a new pilot who wants to figure out how missiles work -Clusters have huge firing arc and short lockl down timer, so getting locks with them is easy.

 

Shileds: Quick Charge Shield.

As with weapons, T1 strike has great and interesting shield options. Quick Charge Shield is very powerful, super easy to use and most popular by far. Directional shields are my personal favorite and have some things going for them.. Objectively speaking, they are inferior to QCS though.

 

Engines: Koiogran Turn -engine ability is very defensive in comparison to Retro Thrusters. Few second immunity to missile lock that is present for few seconds after you use the ability is a big deal. It is very tough for an enemy to manage pro torp hits on you with this.You lose some offensive options though, which sucks.

 

Capacitor: All options are good in their own way. Frequency Capacitor makes you burstier. Ii is also good at draining your weapons out of juice real fast. Which is why..

 

...why Magazine is Regen. Extender. Makes lasers load up faster. Efficient Targeting would be a very good option too.

 

Reactor: Large Reactor. Rare to see others being picked. Other two options decrease the regen delay and increase regen rates. Usually having meaty shield saves your life more often.

 

Thrusters: Turning Thrusters Makes your strike more agile and better at dogfights. It is my fav option..but picking it hurts a great deal; Regen thrusters are great too, they make engine boost load up faster. Ie, rolling with that would make you extremely fast.

 

As some sort of testament to balance and design of GSF, veterans and theorycrafters of the community agreeing on "cookiecutter optimal meta build" on any given ship is a surprisingly rare thing. Much depends on situation you building the ship for. T1 Strike could be build exclusively with fights around satelites in mind, for example. You can roll with a defensive survival builld, or some burstier gun-ho option. When it comes to the two ship-of-the-line strikes, (Rycer/Starguard an Quell/Pike) I always like to keep them as versatile pure killers as opposed to reducing either to some very specific purpose. In current meta, other ship types are less versatile and more suited for some specific specialist role now.

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  • 3 weeks later...

S01E09 - Walker Barbie

 

 

Obviously anyone reading this would never believe it, but life inside the Republic Walker can sometimes get a little bit boring. As a result, kinda paradoxically, I pay lots of attention to optimizing the gear of this character who will never kill a single mob! I make sure everything from pvp loot crates gets put to good use! Boltblaster set, when collected fully, doesn't look all that bad. I bet this is a pretty standard reward from daily heroics of certain lvl range too. That backbag is a massive moodkiller though. Smuigglers and agents get lots of really cool Navy-themed uniforms from those crates.

 

Now that I'm finally done mastering starguard, i began building some other ships I'd like to fly. Namely, all three scouts plus Pike. For many years after its release, GSF was bit more ..one dimensional than it is now, when it comes to balance. For few years, only 4-5 ships had a true place in a high quality match. Roaming, dogfights and killing would mostly happen on T2 scout(=Sting or Flashfire.) Strikefighters simply had no place in the sky. It was super high skill roof gameplay, but also kinda stale and imbalanced. Last major balance patch left GSF in much better condition, almost all the ships have legit uses now.

 

T2 scout is still an excellent asset in satelite matches. In practice, I think it kinda struggles to find a place in deathmatches now, if the game is of high quality. This one wasn't. In theory, T2 scout still makes an excellent Gunship hunter, even in Deathmatches. In practice, most good gunships can make sure you¨ll at least have to give quite a chase...during which sky is just very dangerous to a T2 Scout nowadays. If you fly to live, you often have to give these chases up and are reduced to "just" harassing the enemy. If you let tunnel vision take over and stick to chasing that slippery nasty GS, it is quite likely somebody will eventually gift you with mines, missiles and whatnot. In ye olden times, T2 scout pilot could much easier simply ignore or evade pressure from outside while chasing somebody. Still an excellent machine to take with you to a Sat match tho.

 

 

Match in the screenshot got played right after the weekly reset, when folks who been lucky enough to get GSF PO are there enjoying GSF!! Some remakrs about dibbing match quality or freeloaders been made over the past few weeks. This one wasn't a great match...but it wasn't terrible either: Lots of people with decent damage, low or no kills and terrible accuracy. That combination is usually a sign of new pilot trying their best. We've all been there.. Stats never tell the whole story, but based on the numbers of scoresheet alone, literally nobody was just sitting there freeloading.

 

PS!!!!!

Horrors witnessed in S1E2 began transpiring once more! Watch this!

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  • 2 weeks later...

S01 E10 - Hangar sucks!

 

Ships of GSF pilots are actual ..things in two places: In GSF matches and in Hangar menu you open by clicking the GSF icon on minimap. These are the only places where you can oggle at your ships, their customizations and whatnots. It is a shame hangar menu feels about as tangible as CM window preview screen of some armor you don't own. GSF Hangar isn't an actual place to go, just a menu window to browse. I am certain GSF would generate so much more cartel coins for BW if they had made Hangar an actual place you can visit with your in game character. It'd be cool to climb on your ship, watch as mechanics maintain it, check out your color mods and other customizations, Maybe have stuff like GSF achis appearing as posters on hangar's wall etc.

 

Even very low budget solutions could improve things a great deal:

 

 

Here are two images of two menus from two different games.

 

Hangar of Galactic Starfighter:

https://i.imgur.com/02O5Tzd.jpg

 

Hangar of World of Tanks:

https://i.imgur.com/zB4tUa3.jpg

 

 

In their respective games, these menus serve an identical purpose: look at your killing machine, customize it. Change the weapons and admire the paintjobs. Look at stats.. Change your crew. Change the ship/tank you take to the next battle. Enter the next battle. Both menus intend to give player an idea of a "hangar" where his warmachines are stored. Identical functionality..but world of difference in atmosphere and immersion.

 

As far as immersion is considered, hangar in world of tanks looks lived in. It smells of sweat, smoke and oil. Hangar of GSF is just an abstract menu. It features little besides a hologram of your ship sitting around pointlessly in big fat nothing.

 

 

It'd do wonders for immersion if GSF pilots felt like ship is an actual thing they take to and from battle. As it stands, ships don't really get to..occupy a space anywhere besides an up&running GSF match. Something as modest as new hangar graphics would go some ways to redeem this. Which, in turn would make various GSF cosmetics way more appealing to buy from the cash shop.

 

Hangar from Squadrons:

https://i.imgur.com/0uEw8yA.jpg

 

 

SWTOR has loads and loads of cool Starfighter imagery to be found. Even character creation screen featuires some atmospheric Starfighter launching business on the bcground. It is too bad none of ths stuff is in any way utilized for immersion/fluff department of GSF.

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S01E11 The nameless episode

 

I swear, 7 times out of 10 when I decide to record a match something weird happens. Usually Geforce shadowplay acting up. 2 times out of 10 recording works great, but match is just boring to watch. Pretty exciting one got recorded for once!

 

 

Matches sometimes being heavily stacked against or for your team is pretty much integral part of any pvp. In the long run, it is useful to find some way to make it entertaining or challenging for you regardless. Latter at least is easy to do if match is stacked against you. Always something to try or learn. See if you can survive in some trollish scout withot dying once. See if you learn something new about coping with pressure when operating a GS. Or see if youi manage to bloody the noses of the winning team by scoring top kills in a DM despite your team losing..etc etc. These..nuggets of fun are much harder to find if it is your side that is totally crushing the enemy. Writing bad GSf themed impro poetry in Ops chat is always an option, luckily.

 

..ANYWAY! All of that is kinda OT, this one was quite an exciting and even match. They almost managed to turn the match in the end. Prime example of being in a wrong ship at a wrong time from my part. My Pike isn'tbuild to chase agile scouts from satelites.

 

55 now! 20 more lvls. I am pretty sure I reach some sort of a GSF nirvana by doing this.

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  • 1 month later...

Sometimes, matches like this are the most rewarding ones. When odds are like 60-40 against your team, it is a great opportunity to get better at GSF and do well.

 

Maarek's lvl 68 now! Not that much left.. It'll be something like 200 GSF matches total go from 1 to 75 via GSF exclusively. Iirc I haven't played this char during any of the recent 2xXP weeks, not used XP tokens. So tis a performance free of doping!

 

Crazy how slow it is to get ships mastered without dailies and weeklies. Besides Star Guard, I fly tons of Flashfire and Spearpoint. Yet..after 150 matches or so, neither is mastered yet.

 

 

GSF remains much busier than it has been in years! It'll be bit disappointing if this renaissance won't result in any new GSF content.

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