So I bought my place a year and a half ago and the home inspector said the HVAC system was 26 years old, but working fine. It still works fine, but I’ve have a 2 tune ups on it now and both maintenance techs said the heat exchangers were failing and it was “dangerous” and needed to be replaced/repaired immediately. I’ve spoke with a different company and had quotes done on replacing the furnace/Air conditioner and they can do it this week. Should I just bite the bullet and replace it now before the summer months come and they possibly get really busy or this thing decides to stop working on the day it hits 100 outside? Or wait and see how much longer I can get out of this thing? I can pay for half right now and would need to take a loan out for the other half too.

Hi, I live in a 5 unit condo.
I bought the place in 2020. I live on the 2nd floor (unit 2), all of our units have their HVAC condenser on the roof. Prior to when I bought my unit, the previous owner replaced the roof top condenser with a new heat pump.
Lately, the 5th floor neighbor who is also the condo trustee has been complaining to me - he claims that when my condenser was installed, the installer 'sliced' the rubber roof, and now it's leaking. To have it repaired, it would require me to have my HVAC unit disconnected and moved temporarily.
I contacted the HVAC installer, and also the previous owner: both denied that claim. However, the previous owner did say that when another unit's condenser was moved (unit 3), their installed cause the initial roof damage.
The roof is considered part of the building envelope. I need some advise on how to proceed and what am I responsible for. In my opinion, since the leak is part of the building envelope, the entire HOA needs to pay for the following: - disconnect my HVAC equipment, and move it
- Repair the roof
Reconnect my HVAC equipment
Otherwise since the other unit damaged the roof initially, the other unit should pay for everything. What am I liable for here? Some advise will be really appreciated. My feeling is the condo trustee is trying to ping it on me to pay for everything since it's my unit, even though I had nothing to do with causing the initial leak in the first place.
Thanks a lot in advance!

Hey all. Haven't rented yet, but want to gather some information beforehand for both ourselves and possible future tenants for last time before making the decision.
Sorry for the long posts/questions.
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We are leaving Toronto for two years and haven't decided to sell the current home or move back to the city (after ~2 years). Ideally, we'd rent the home for 12 months to cover the mortgage (18 months if the tenant needs time) and then decide if to move back or sell based on job needs.
A lot of horror stories here and online about renting... I know tenants vary and the majority are good, but assuming the worst scenario/tenants (i.e. do things out of spite). Please don't be offended.
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Question 1
There are carpenter ants in the house, as far as we can tell it's from the woods outside, so we can't fully find/kill the colony. Before we sprayed the home, we see about 1-2 ants daily, and after the treatment 1-2 ants monthly. No roaches or bedbugs, but do have spiders and house centipedes as it's near the woods.
If I understand correctly, the landlord is responsible for all pest control if the tenant requests it, this is good (we'd like to keep the home in good condition too). Given the situation, if the ants/spiders/centipedes cannot be fully eliminated, what frequency does the landlord have to provide pest control? Can the tenant use this as a clause that the landlord neglects safe living conditions/repairs?
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Question 2
I know someone that's renting, and he said everything from changing the lightbulb is the landlord's responsibility. He would call up the landlord even if one bulb is out, refuse to change it himself (the landlord said he'd reimburse the cost of the bulb), make the landlord drive hours to his unit (or pay a contractor for a bulb change). Can this be real?
We are going to be away from the city, and it's an old house, there are going to be minor repairs and issues (i.e. take 1 second to flip the fuse panel if the fuse trip), we can't make those trips weekly.
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Question 3
Similar to the above, what about lawn mowing and snow removal? Again, it looks like the landlord's responsibility. Can we "discount" the rent on the contract if the tenant agrees to do it? How does everyone approach this situation? Third-party contractor?
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Question 4
I hope I don't get a lot of heat for this question. If after one year the tenant doesn't want to move out.
If we move back to Toronto, then assume we have to issue N12 and wait for 8-12 months for LTB, so it's at least straightforward...
If we decide to sell, I know it's not legal to ask the tenant to move out for this reason, so most likely cash for the key (from the posts here).
If we explain to the renter that the rental is for 1 year only before renting. Also thought about lower the rent for the inconvenience, as the goal is to cover the mortgage (but it might be more incentive for the tenant not to move out). So I guess both wouldn't work if the tenant decide to stay?
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Again, please don't be offended. I realize the rental market is bad for both tenants (high rent) and landlords (long LTB wait time). We want to be fair, but at the same time have to protect our interest too, so if all unfavorable solutions to the questions above, we would just eat the cost/interest/vacant tax/insurance for the 2 years and not rent out at all (or air bnb, or sell now but not likely to afford if decide to move back).
I will not likely reply but thank you all in advance.

Hello everyone. I recently platinummed the PSVITA version of Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time as my 28th platinum. It only took me 10 years, 4 weeks, 22 hours to do it. Did you know this game hides its true ending behind the platinum?
Anyway, I'd like to talk about the experience.
Sly 4 was a bit confusing and inconsistent to platinum. I get the feeling the game wants you to platinum it given how on every loading screen it shows you how much you've completed the trophies and collectibles for the game. And that there no missable trophies. But there are some decisions that don't help with that.
So I'd say there are around 3 groups of Trophies in this game.
The first group are the mandatory story trophies. Not much to say about these. There's nothing missable here and the names are quite cool. I do like looking at the percent completion to see how many players completed the PS VITA version of the game. Did you know that around 73% of players booted this game up and completed the prologue? And only around 25% of players even beat the game. The biggest drop happened around the start of Episode 2 since the completion dropped from around 60%to 48% for some reason.
The second group are the trophies for the collectibles and arcades. I'll talk about these later.
The third and final group of trophies are for miscellaneous challenges. I'll start with these first and highlight some of the notable ones that I missed on my first playthrough.
"Crazed Climber - Scale the dragon lair in under 90 seconds". This was one I missed during my original playthrough of the game. This requires you to climb a giant tower filled with traps in the mission "Mechanical Menace". And this one was really fun even though it took me like 3 attempts. Sly 4's movement and platforming is quite fun so having a mini speedrun challenge using Sir Galleth's moveset was a treat. The one criticism I have here is that the game drops a checkpoint as soon as you get to the top. If you haven't gotten the trophy by then and need to retry, you need to quit to the main menu/hideout and reselect the mission, skip through all the cutscenes and get back there which gets annoying. At least the tower is near the start of the mission.
"Ancient Warfare 3 - Crackshot 10 enemies within 65 seconds. Sly's ancestor, Tennessee "Kid" Cooper" has an ability similar to "Dead Eye" from Red Dead Redemption where he can slow down time, mark enemies and objects and then instantly shoot them dead called "Crackshot". I never got this trophy when I first played the game because there wasn't much opportunity to. There aren't large groups of enemies wandering around that you can casually get 10+ of them line up for you to shoot them. Plus, I was already good at shooting them normally. I tried running around in the open world trying to lure enemies but found it wasn't working. There's a mission in the game called "Blind Date" that throws lots of rabbit enemies that chuck TNT at you that worked better for me.
"Hubba Hubba - Don't miss a beat in the Carmelita dance game." This trophy is, without a doubt, the main reason to platinum this game on VITA instead of the PS3. So nobody can see you play this dumb minigame and call you a Furry. This trophy requires you to complete the minigame where Carmilita needs to disguise herself as a belly dancer and dance to distract guards while the Cooper gang try and open a door. You just need to hit the button prompts perfectly. So you can ignore the times the minigame asks you to shake the VITA from side to side like a champagne bottle to make Carmilita shake her ass (seriously, why does this game sexualize Carmilita so much? None of the past Sly games did it).
"Get To the Chopper - Don't take any damage during Up In Smoke." This one was actually fun. In the mission "Up in Smoke", you have to control an RC Helicopter and drop bombs on turrents while drones and mines chase you down. It was fun dodging and weaving through them. There are 3 phases to this mission and you have a checkpoint in between every phase. So if you mess up, you can just restart the checkpoint to the last phase. You don't need to avoid taking damage the whole way through which is nice.
"Unexpected Package - Place 60 bombs in enemy pockets with Bentley." When I first saw this trophy, I groaned. This would be a massive grind. And I had actually made it harder on myself. You see, normally, when you sneak up behind an enemy as Bentley and hold triangle, Bentley will try to put a bomb in the enemy's pocket. Larger enemies won't notice this but smaller enemies will. But the main issue is that I had previously unlocked the Heat Seeking upgrade for Bentley. Meaning sometimes, the bombs would "miss" and stick to an enemy guard's arms or legs instead. So it was annoying going around the hub world and planting bombs on guards.....until I remembered that I had purchased the upgrade for sleep bombs. My plan now was just to find a lone guard on a rooftop, try and place one sleep bomb into his back pocket and detonate it. He'd then fall asleep. Then I'd go to his sleeping body and try placing 5 sleeping bombs in his pocket and back away (the max you can place at any one time). When he wakes him, I'd detonate all 5 which set him to sleep and then repeat. Even if I'd "miss" a few bombs that would stick to their legs instead, I generally 3 or 4 bombs work perfectly. So it didn't take long to get all 60.
"Apollo Wins - Have the perfect workout during the Training Montage." During the mission "Getting Stronger", you have to do a training montage with Bob where you alternate through 6 minigames as you complete them with the minigames getting harder as you complete them. The trophy requires you to complete 10 randomly selected minigames without making a single mistake. If you mess up, you can restart the checkpoint to the beginning of the montage and have to play through a new set of 10 randomly selected minigames. The Minigames are "Slippery Slope" where you balance an egg on a beam using motion controls while penguins jump around on the floating iceberg you are standing on. "Penguin Popper" where Penguins are diving in front of you and you have to play baseball using them. "Sumo Slap" where you have to perform QTEs to push a giant penguin out of a Sumo Ring. "Duck and Cover" where penguins get launched at you from 4 different directions and you have to move the left stick to dodge them. "Super Sling" which requires you to use a catapult to launch a penguin at a flying pterodactyl. And "Whack a chump" which is Whack a Mole but with penguins. Some of which are fake and you should avoid.
Penguin Popper was easy. Once you get the timing down it's easy to get into a rhythm and hit the penguins since they don't vary when they dive. Whenever this popped into the rotation, I considered it a freebie. Sumo Slap was extremly easy. The button mashing was extremely generous. This was another freebie. Duck and Cover requires a bit more focus because of the timing and inconsistent patterns. It's not too challenging. Interestingly, I noticed that the VITA's speakers would reflect if the penguin was coming from the right or left but not above or below you. I guess headphones would make this easier but I had no need for it. I was generally glad when this popped up in the rotation. Whack a Chump was a bit harder than Penguin Popper because there is no set pattern and the additional challenge of not hitting the fake penguins. But it wasn't too bad. I was glad when this popped up in the rotation.
Super Sling and Slippery Slope were the 2 I dreaded and the ones I messed up the most on. Super Sling doesn't give you much indication of where your sling will go. The Pterodactyls have varied speeds so you can't rely on pattern recolonization and reactions. And there's time pressure as taking too long counts as a miss. And it kept popping up in the rotations for some reason!
Slippery Slope was stressful because of the motion controls and how wild later versions of it were.
"The Cooper Open - Have a 20 hit rally with Bentley in each hideout." There are 6 hideouts in the game. In each hideout there is a table tennis table where you as Sly can play a round of table tennis with Bentley. I question the inclusion of it but I suppose it can be a nice distraction. This trophy requires you get a sequences where both you and Bentley hit the ball back and forth 10 times each (or 20 times overall) without missing. And repeat for each of the 6 tables. I found Bentley kept messing up so I had to intentionally hold back and avoid making good shots and try and hit the ball towards him. The main issue is the fact you have to repeat it 6 times. I feel it would be better off just once and as nothing is really added by doing it 6 times. If anything, it's more annoying given the long load times to switch hideouts and Bentley's random AI.
"Hassan Would Be Proud - Pickpocket a full collection of every item in the game." Each of the 6 or so locations have around 3-4 items that can be pickpocketted from guards. The main issue with this trophy is that it doesn't keep track of which items you have already pickpocketed in any way. The game already tracks how many treasures and masks you've found per general area but not pickpocketted items.
I only got this trophy by planning on systematically going through every location in the game and pickpocketting every enemy item and noting down which ones I found.....only to get it in the first level when I used Murray's shake move on some rat enemies. Enemies that you never encounter or have a reason or opportunity to naturally pickpocket. I guess 2013 me had already gotten 99% of these items previously.
"Navigate Like Drake - Take a look at every map in every episode". I found this trophy really annoying. The way it works is that every location in the game, including linear interiors that are exclusive to missions and even the hideouts, have a map you can look at by pressing SELECT. The game doesn't keep track of which locations you've seen the map of. So I had to systamatically play the game from the first mission and press SELECT whenever I entered a new interior. Then quit out and play the next mission and repeat. It popped for me in Episode 4 so somehow, 2013 me had looked at all the maps in Episode 5 without realizing it.
I don't like this trophy. It doesn't really add anything. The player would already be looking at the maps in the hub worlds where they would be at their most useful since those are open world sections. They have no real reason to use the map in linear interiors. And even less useful in hideouts as these aren't even explorable. They are basically just menus that happen to have a 3D background. I'd be more forgiving of this trophy if the map showed collectibles at least. That way, players have more of a reason to use this feature.
Shout out to the Lazy Trunk Spa & Lounge. A secret area in the game that contains a mask collectible and counts for the trophy with a unique map. No mission ever goes here. So even if you were to play diligently and open the map for every area you encounter, you'd still miss this. I only knew this existed because the trophy guide I looked at told me about it so I decided to tag this area while doing the "Get to the Chopper" trophy.
"Hero Tech - Battle with a secret weapon" Once you collect 50 Sly masks. You unlock Ratchet's wrench from Ratchet and Clank. This weapon even turns the coins you collect into bolts. Collecting 60 Masks unlocks Cole's Amp from inFAMOUS. This can electrocute the enemies you hit. I chose to use Cole's Amp to get the trophy as a tribute to inFAMOUS. Killed by Ghost of Tsumia 😭. May it rest in peace. Gone too soon.
That covers all the miscellaneous trophies. Now for the collectibles and arcades.
Sly 4 has a bunch of different collectibles scattered in each of its 6 episodes.
Bottles: Each hub world contains 30 bottles. Collecting all of them gives you access to unlock a safe hidden somewhere in the hub world. Unlocking that safe rewards you a special treasure. Bottles make a "clinking" sound when you're near them so if you're having a hard time finding them, try going into the game's settings and turning down the music and voice sounds. If you find the safe in Episode 3, the special treasure it gives you will highlight bottles and safes in every other episode on your map which is quite nice. I wish the game did this more often. If it hides collectibles from the player, at least give the player an endgame ability to highlight them. It makes it more feasible and fun to complete these tasks instead of combing every last inch (or looking up a guide).
Treasures: Each hub world has around 11 treasures scattered all around. The gimmick here is that in order to collect them, you first need to find where they are in the hub world. Then once you pick them, you need to race back to your hideout under a certain time limit and without taking any damage. If you mess up, you need to repeat the process. The treasures generally require you to have all of Sly's costumes. And a couple require you to be playing as Sir Galleth because England has increased gravity for some reason. Some of these treasures are really well hidden. Requiring you to go to these holes in the middle of nowhere which then require you to switch between some of Sly's costumes. Like, if you open the map when picking some of these up, you'll find Sly is located beyond the borders of the area.
I found it way more fun to race back to the hideout than actually finding them. It was tedious to find many of them because of how well hidden they are. There is no tool or item in the game that can help mark them on your map. Well, I say that. Supposedly, if you have both the PS3 and VITA versions of the game and play them at the same time, you can use the VITA like a scannebinoculars to locate these treasures. And then use the Cross Save feature to nab them in both versions. I only have the VITA version so no luck for me. Again, I'd argue it would be better if there was an endgame upgrade or tool you could get that would mark the treasures like how the game does it for bottles. There isn't even a "clinking sound" or any help for these.
Anyway, collecting all the treasures for an episode unlocks the arcade machine minigame for that episode.
Also sidenote, but this game has the worst map screen that still somehow can be useful. The map gives a top down view of the area but with a blue filter. This makes it harder and more annoying to navigate and use landmarks for reference. Especially on the VITA with its smaller screen. There are also no icons on the map (aside from bottles, safes and objectives) or the ability to make your own markers. The VITA version makes it worse as you can't even use the buttons to navigate the map. You have to use the touchscreen even though that's not how it is in the PS3 version. But you can still use it to know where you are and where collectibles can be from guides. It's technically readable and useful but just barely. I've never seen a map in a game so perfectly walk the line between useful and annoying.
The next collectible are Sly Masks. There are 60 total and around 11 per Episode. Collecting them unlocks skins and some goodies. But the catch with them is that they can be anywhere. There can be a couple in the hub world. But also couple during select missions and even some in the arcade minigames. There's no way to know where any of them are. They generally tend to be really well hidden even if you are trying to scour every area.
Again, I wish there was a way to highlight them. The game's long load times make it a chore to switch episodes or missions so it's tedious to try searching for them manually.
Now it's time to talk about the arcades. Sly 4 has 3 arcade minigames that are used in both the main missions and have a harder version in the arcades in hideouts. The arcade versions of these minigames are harder, go on for much longer and can have secret paths that lead to portals that reward you with points and some of them even have Sly masks. You need to beat the high scores to get the trophies
The first minigame is "Alter Ego". This has you play this 2D auto scrolling twin stick shooter minigame where you must avoid enemies and collect these "ionic bits". Collecting 5 yellow bits levels you up so your weapons get more powerful. At level 10 you have shoot crazy fast, can launch missiles and have floating drones that can damage enemies around you. But whenever you take damage, you drop an entire level. And you get left behind as the level autoscrolls, you respawn at level 0. You can also collect blue bits which can give you a grenade explosion around you.
Personally, I don't really like this minigame. It's fine when playing casually as a change of pace but grinding the high score isn't great. Since it is an autoscroller it is entirely possible you don't have enough points to match the high score and you won't know until its too late, wasting your time. I also found the hitboxes a bit too small. Making items more annoying to pickup.
The key to success is finding the right balance between collecting yellow bits as they give points and level you up (and how high your level is acts as a multiplier for your score) and killing enemies since they give more points. As well as avoiding taking damage and maintaining level 10 as much as possible and knowing where the secret paths are so you can get more points as well as level up if you have messed up.
The second minigame is "System Cracker". Here, you guide a little space ship looking thing through 2D levels in top down twin stick shooting sections. This isn't an autoscroller. You need to explore levels looking for keys and shooting enemies. There are 3 ships you can switch between by going onto specific coloured pads and each ship has its pros and cons. The green ship you start with does decent damage and has decent health and can carry keys. So it's a jack of all trades master of none kinda ship. The pink ship literally resembles a tank. It fires slower and at a shorter range but does more damage and has more health. It's also necessary for destroying pink crystals to progress. The blue ship has floatier handling and faster speeds. Its shots also bounce off walls and it can draw a line which can activate switches and damage enemies. It is weaker than the green ship though.
I actually really enjoyed this minigame and was happy whenever it comes up. It even feels the most fleshed out of the 3. Like, I feel it could even be released as a small standalone game with some tweaking and expansion. I'd probably play a mobile version of this in my free time.
I like how varied the levels can be. You can have a lot of different threats and mini-puzzles and even scenarios where you have to keep switching between ships on the fly to damage enemies. Like, there's this one enemy that's made up of orange, blue and pink hexagons that require you to switch between all 3 ships and use their abilities to damage it. It's quite fun. Damage one ship takes is "saved" on that ship. So if you take 50% damage with the green ship and switch to the pink one, the pink one will have 100% health. But whenever you switch back to the green one, you will be back at 50% health. So mistakes have consequences requiring you to make decisions accounting for them without being too overbearing.
Beating the high scores for the associated arcades is very easy. For one, there is no time limit or pressure so you’re free to take your time and play carefully. On top of that, the mode is very generous with points. Whereas Alter Ego only gives you points for killing enemies and picking up bits (and you need to get and maintain a multiplier for decent times), System Cracker gives you points even for shooting obstacles and barricades in your way. In Alter Ego, I was scraping for points until the very end. In System Cracker, I had more than enough points by the halfway mark.
I suppose the game could have balanced this by increasing the points threshold and rewarding extra points for taking less time to complete sections but I’m not complaining.
The third and worst minigame is “Spark Chaser”. Here you must guide a little electric ball across these maze like areas with gaps that end your attempt if you fall down them and these pinball like bounce pads that bounce you really far. There’s also a time pressure. You have around 20 seconds to get as far as possible with more time added as you pick up these purple clock icons.
The biggest issue is that it’s entirely controlled by motion controls. And this makes me experience worse on VITA. Seriously, I very nearly quit playing. This post was almost titled “I gave up trying to Platinum Sly 4”.
With the PS3 version, at least titling the remote doesn’t also affect your view of the screen. You can look at the game and play it the same as you normally would. But in the VITA version, the “neutral” position where no input is registered by the system is placing the VITA flat with its screen facing up. The standard “screen facing you” position registers as down.
The end result is a frustrating experience. This minigame requires really fine precision given how easy it is to fall off and the time pressure requires you both be fast and more precise to collect time pickups. On top of that, your view is constantly being messed with due to how much you need to tilt the system from odd angles. Especially how tilting “up” really makes it hard to see. Oh, and the dialogue from Bentley as you bounce gets really annoying and repetitive.
It’s barely tolerable in regular missions since those don’t require as much precision or speed. And even then, the usage there in 2013 was suspect to begin with. I only completed this because there’s a cheese where if you can get enough time early on, you can then keep bouncing on certain pads which give around 20 points per bounce. When I played “normally”, I’d get around 300 points with the high score being 1000 points. Using the cheese, I averaged around 990 points and managed to get lucky to win with 1010 points.
Tangent Time:
I’ve said it before. Motion controls work best when they complement existing controls in an optional way or in more restrained ways. I love it when games have gyro aiming since that can help compensate when aiming with sticks with small fine corrections. It works here because the sticks do most of the work and the gyro sensors work where they are best suited.
Or in many mobile racing games, steering is often done by tilting your phone. I enjoy this because there is only one axis you need to tilt your phone, the screen often rotates in conjunction so your view is preserved and it’s more intuitive to feel the “range” of rotation and how it corresponds to steering.
Hell, even ignoring these approaches, motion can still be used in worthwhile ways. Such as by mapping an extra action that is infrequent if all other buttons are occupied. The Mario games on Wii map a “spin” when you jump and shake the remotes giving Mario a bit of grace allowing him to make slightly further jumps or correct a bad jump. Call of Duty MW1 on Wii allowed you to assign certain commands to custom motions of the controller and nunchuck. So you could map stuff like jumping, moving and shooting to buttons but map reloading to smacking the nunchuck to the Wii Mote or plunge the Wii Mote forward to do a melee attack or tilting the Wii Mote to bring out a grenade or alt fire.
Even Resistance 1: Fall of Man had a neat idea. You could quickly tilt the controller left to bring up the Scoreboard screen without needing to take your thumbs off the sticks or stop moving. The Soulsbourne games allow you to quickly do emotes without needing a menu by holding the interact button and quickly tilting the controller in certain directions.
I bring all this up to highlight how Sly 4’s use of motion controls are a failure on every level. They’re mostly used in place of minigames as the sole method of control. So all the issues of motion controls (such as the lack of broad control and feedback) are front and centre. The only place where the motion controls are understandable is when firing arrows as you can then control the arrow after it’s fired using both the sticks and gyro aiming. But even then, the lack of any ability to tune the gyro sensitivity or even invert the controls hampers any use it could have had.
I don’t mind the idea of Sly 4 having decent motion controls. There are places where I can see it being beneficial. In addition to shooting and guiding arrows, I can see it being useful when you have to use the binoculars. Especially as Bentley as you need to shoot darts precisely.
Or, here’s a gimmicky one: you can bind certain costumes or tools to also be selected by quickly tilting the system. Even though using the D-pad for a quick select would be faster, it would still be a better use of motion controls for Sly 4 than most of what’s currently there.
End Tangent.
Back to getting all the trophies, the final arcade machine, unlocked only when you’ve gotten all the treasures in every other episode, is very easy. It has “3 rooms”, one featuring every minigame thus far. But the high score requirements are really low and rooms aren’t as tough as prior versions. You can easily get the high score in the first area which is the Alter Ego one. Even if you miss it there, the second area is Spark Runner but you can keep reloading the checkpoint to preserve your score. So you can get some time clocks, reload a checkpoint when you’re close to running out of time or about to fall off and repeat until you get the high score.
You do need to get past the Spark Runner section to the 3rd and final section that uses System Cracker's gameplay in order to get a hidden Sly Mask, but it's far easier than the dedicated Spark Runner arcade minigame as the section is shorter, is more generous with Time Pickups, has easier level design and lets you reload a checkpoint if you're about to fail which doesn't end the run.
So yeah, Sly 4 Thieves in Time was....inconsistent game to platinum. I enjoyed the base gameplay, System Cracker, the various challenge trophies and the mini speedruns for collecting treasures. I didn't enjoy finding the collectibles and doing some of the other minigames. I hated Spark Runner.
If the game had more ways of tracking collectibles, fewer minigames and better load times, I'd gladly recommend it as a fun game to platinum.
As for the base game itself, I am mixed on it. The gameplay is arguably the best in the series. Sly's movement and costumes are so fun to play around with. Murray, Bentely and Sly's ancestors are also fun changes of pace during missions.
The story is lacking. My main issue is that it doesn't feel like it realizes its following up Sly 3. The story so casually undoes the ending of Sly 3 to get Sly 4's story going. I get it, that's what a sequel has to do. But the way it does it really undermines Sly 3. It's also much more lighthearted and doesn't have as much of a theme or focal point as its predecessors. Sly 1-3 explored the theme of legacy and the consequences of adhering to it so tightly. A major aspect of Sly 3 was Sly realizing the Cooper Vault wasn't worth dying for. It's what prompts him to fake his amnesia and retire with Carmilita in the end. So for Sly 4 to then have Sly have an itch to steal just for the fun of it, it's sending mixed messages here.
In addition, Sly is really casual about the fact Carmilita now knows about his betrayal and has broken up with him. Seems like that should have been a bigger deal. In fact, that kind of "casual-ness" persists throughout the story. Sly doesn't really have much of an arc or any real heartfelt moments with his ancestors. Nor do they seem to really care their decedent from the future is here with them.
If I could have tweaked the story to address these points, here's what I would have done:
I'd have the story open with Sly, Bentley and Murray enjoying their "retirement" and have no plans of thieving. I'd go so far as to have Sly even scoff at the idea of him ever wanting to be a thief. Then when the pages of the Thievus Racconus are dissapearing, Sly, Bentley and Murray have to reluctantly unretire to try stopping them. There would be dialogue during the opening mission of Sly being worried if they get caught as it would undo their happy ending. And then when Carmilita catches Sly, Sly at first is flustered and tries to explain the situation to Carmilita who isn't having any of Sly's BS. Sly is forcibly extracted by the gang and then they time travel. As they are time travelling. Sly is upset that, in order to go literally defend the Cooper Legacy, he has to give up his happy relationship and can't be repaired now. That even if they fix the problem, they'll be on the run forever now. Murray had to give up his professional career as well.
Already, I feel this introduction has a few things going for it. It respects the ending of Sly 3 and keeps the characters in more character, as well as putting more heat on Le Paradox. Sly 4 had to rip away the happy ending that was Sly 3. The characters know that and aren't happy about it. There is immediate consequences. And that heat can be directed at Le Paradox when he comes later.
I'd also like if all of the ancestors Sly met had different reactions to both him and the Cooper legacy and how it affects Sly's arc.
For example, lets say when he meets Riochi Cooper, Ricohi is initially disappointed in Sly as the future Cooper decendent as Sly doesn't act honourably or respect the legacy or something like this. Something that makes Sly start to question if it's even worth defending the Cooper Legacy. Bentely is the voice of reason here and mediator that gets the gang to work as well as they can.
Then when Sly meets Tennessee Cooper, Sly is initially expecting another traditionalist ancestor that cares a lot about the Cooper Legacy. But Tennessee is kinda the opposite of Riochi in that Tennasee doesn't care about the legacy in the same way. He adds his own spin and contributions but also uses the knowledge from it to do his own thing. Perhaps Tennessee is this Robin-Hood esque figure who uses his heisting skills to steal from the corrupt ruling class and give to the lower class. The point being that through Tennessee, Sly considers another aspect of the Cooper Legacy on how he's not that beholden to it and can potentially make it his own.
Then when Sly meets Bob, part of Bob's training is also from Sly as Sly teaches him some of the Cooper moves he knows. Since Bob is the first Cooper ancestor, he has no bias towards the legacy or any knowledge. So he's far more grateful and begins to use his new skills in helpful ways. Causing Sly to wonder if he could use the Cooper Legacy in more ways.
It's a similar situation for Sir Galleth. And for Selim, perhaps by that point, Sly has a newfound outlook and appreciation for the Cooper Legacy and ways on how he can improve it or make it his own that he encourages Selim not to retire or to retire in such a way where he could help people or something like that.
So yeah, there's this theme now of "Don't let the past define you now. You can make it your own and grow past its flaws". Which I feel would give Sly 4 more of a punch. I am basically copying Metal Gear Solid 4 and Assassin's Creed though.
I also feel it would be better if Penelope wasn't the villain of episode 4. It seems to contradict her character from past games and the explanation given for her heel turn doesn't really hold water. I feel the story would be better if Penelope had the role Dmitri has where she's their help in the present and the Knight was a new character. But if you need to have Penelope as the antagonist, have her be under mind control or something. That way the team has the conflict of how will they stop the plan without hurting their friend. But if you really insist on Penelope being a full on antagonist now by her own choice, perhaps flesh out her motivations more? Maybe something like "she sees how Bentley will never reach his full potential as the Bill Gates of the world because of his criminal past that requires him to lay low and not take public credit for his inventions. So she's trying to erase the Coopers so Bentley will have never met Sly". That would at least be more than "I want money".
Everything else, I feel works more or less.
I will note that the cliffhanger ending was a weird choice given that this game wasn't projected to sell well and kinda pigenholes any story Sly 5 would be going for. Plus, it being locked behind the platinum trophy means only a small portion of the few players that played Sly 4 would even know about it.
So yeah, that's my take on platinumming Sly 4: Thieves in Time. What do y'all think?
Next up for me is platinumming every Spider-Man game on PS VITA. See you then.

I apologize in advance if this isn't the right place to ask for help, I've been banned from the vape subs 😂 i figure this would have the most reach.
Is there anything that I can do to make a magnetic battery that isn't working hit? I have a PRTBL Nando. All other setting functions work, it just doesn't heat a cart or pull via the button or airflow.
Battery is charged, tried several adapters and carts. This happened while I was cleaning it (it was off, i let it dry). I'll try any possible solutions. It'll be a solid two weeks or more before customer support hits me up and i get a replacement/repair.

Good Afternoon,
I'm out here in the heat trying to fix this repair.
Questions:
1) what takes more effort to shrink or stretch metal?
2) If you use the stretching die, and overstretch, can you use a shrinking hammer to shrink it? ( instead of cumbersomely switching dies )
thanks

We’ve had a backup in my townhouse. Over the weekend my basement bathroom started to back up. I brought it a plumber who had a 50ft snake. He snake my house from the clean out inside the house and also a clean out right outside my townhouse.
I live in a townhouse in Maryland, Montgomery County. We have an HOA and the managements level of concern is none existing. I tried to look up in the bylaws but it is very vague who is responsible. 50ft seems long and excuse my ignorance but how far from my home is my responsibility? When is the HOA responsible to snake as well?

I live in North Texas and my home in a 1960’s pier and beam single story home. When I bought it a few years ago the home had new cellulose insulation in the attic (probably r30ish) and since then I’ve been doing incremental improvements in the efficiency of the home to help maintain a better conditioned house. Two years ago I did 3” of closed cell foam insulation in the crawl space and this helped tremendously with both dust and comfortability in the home. But since my a/c is located in the attic, peak summer is overly harsh on my house since the ducts have to struggle with the high heat in the attic.
To keep the post short I’ve done some research on how to improve the attic space but would like some advice.
1)Add 4-6” of open cell foam insulation to the underside of the roof. Leave in the cellulose insulation and maintain a vented attic through the use of soffit vents and attic fans (don’t have a ridge vent)
2)Add 4-6” of open cell foam insulation and encapsulate the attic. Add a fresh air intake for the gas furnace. Maybe leave cellulose insulation due to cost of getting it removed?
3)Add more cellulose insulation. Due to some repairs since then we have some low spots in several areas that could get improved. I’ve just heard that improving to r38 or higher has mitigating results.

Looking for advice / guidance / wisdom & some hope from people who have been through a similar experience. Below is a brief summary of my situation:
He acted like he was in love with me for 4 months, but self-doubt fucked it up.
Some context:
We live in separate cities 3 hours away. However, his hometown is where my college is, so navigating long distance wasn’t hard. This was such a genuine connection, and neither of us had ever been this involved with someone before. He had every intention of pursuing a commitment with me, and was open about his personal fear of commitment and how he tends to flee romantic situations because he doesn’t feel worthy of love. Still, he said he didn’t want to leave me, and we had a really strong connection and we were both helping one another be more open, honest, and intimate. He felt safe and accepted with me, vice verse.
However, my insecurities about navigating a further distance over summer break triggered an extremely unfortunate course of events.
I was supposed to meet his parents a few weeks ago, but it was a step he wasn’t ready to take, and now that I’ve had time to think, it wasn’t really one I was ready for either.
He broke up with me on the phone a few days before I was supposed to drive down and see him. We met in person to return belongings and try and get closure. He said he didn’t really have a specific reason for wanting to break up. He just said he “didn’t see a future” and didn’t want me to “get the wrong idea about our relationship by bringing me around his family.” He also said in the same convo that he “doesn’t want to get hurt,” and that he “liked where things were at and didn’t want them to change” and that he “cared too much about me to make me wait forever.” I’m struggling because he contradicted himself.
I apologized a few days after our last in person convo because. I put unfair pressure onto him and projected a lot of anxiety onto him. This fostered his uncertainty. He said I was special to him and we both agreed to take some time apart. We’ve been NC for 13 days.
I know where things went wrong. We’d been navigating long distance for awhile. I was anxious about summer break and spent the last month and a half of our relationship projecting some anxiety onto him. This definitely fostered uncertainty. During our last night together before I moved 3 hours away for the summer, I also got really drunk. He told me that he intended to have an important conversation with me, but instead spent the entire night taking care of me. During the break up that it really hurt his feelings because that was supposed to be a night for us to reconnect after not seeing one another for two weeks. A week or so ago I also sent him a pretty heated text and told him that if he wasn’t ready to take us seriously, that he needed to tell me. He tried to pull through for me, it was just too much to fast. I think it was a culmination of things that made him feel like he wasn’t doing enough, even though he was.
I didn’t even expect him to make this a serious relationship, I was willing to work at his pace, I just wanted him to acknowledge that he was in a relationship.
I sound like the villain in this situation, but he wasn’t perfect, and waited until he was breaking up with me to tell me all the things I wanted to hear. He wasn’t able to communicate boundaries. He wasn’t able to be honest with me, even when I was nothing but gracious and patient. We both made this relationship harder than it needed to be, and it was difficult for us both to walk away from such a genuine connection. I refuse to give up on someone I love when our problems are mendable, but I told him I respect his decision to end things. Space is healthy for us right now, but is this hopeless? How can I reconcile?
My new apartment is 2 miles off of the road he lives on, and I move in 3 weeks.
I’m so confused, and any guidance would be appreciated.

I have a large delta kite that I found at a garage sale many years ago. The dowel rods that came with it were already pretty wisened when I found it and have bent and snapped on several occasions when it has had an unfortunate encounter with a tree or high winds. I've been repairing it as this occurs (luckily not too oftern) by using bamboo sticks I harvest from a local overgrown patch in my community. My family is flying to NC for a beach trip this summer and I would really like to take it with me, and was looking at carbon fiber rods to create a frame I could disassemble and pack. Unfortunately, I cannot seeme to find any with metal connectors or even find the connector seperately.
Where can I find thing metal tubing that I can use to join peices of the frame when I need to use the kite? Any suggestions?

I have a medium to large house where the roof was damaged by hail. I am getting a new roof
I am also considering going solar. My heating is a gas furnace and I have two EVs
I am thinking of going solar, and online calculators show I have a decent roof that can get enough sunlight. My monthly average electric bill is about 130$ My questions are as follows

1. How do I find a good installer?
2. Are there things I should be considering as solar will go on a brand new roof?
3. Are there subsidies or tax benefits in NC and which is the best site to find them
4. I probably would get battery storage - what are the major pros and cons, especially in terms of having EVs at home? At least one of which has a V2L adapter possible, and thus feed certain circuit in the house back as emergency usage
5. Are people recovering some of the cost spent when the sell home (compared to non-solar homes in the neighborhood?)

So I live on a 2 acre property with my mom. A while ago, the riding mower we have stopped working because my mom left it out to the elements all winter (she's a hoarder so we had no room in the garage to put it). She refuses to get it repaired (she refuses to pay for a lot of things here, so a lot of things here remain broken). So instead, she bought a brand new self-propelled lawnmower to mow the lawn (around $500). It's not even a functional one! When we tried to mow it, it kept stalling because we either moved too fast or there was too much grass. Our yard consists of 2 acres, there are three buildings on the lot, the house, the garage, and the shed. The rest is all yard. My mother and I mowed the lawn with that mower and it took 3 days to mow because the mower is shit, but she refuses to return it. I've told her that the mower was trash and suggested she started to save up to fix the riding mower, and her response to that suggestion was, verbatim, "well why don't you pay for it?". Here's what makes me angry: my mother stays at my grandmother's for most of the month and that's a 45 minute drive. When my mom is away, she expects me to mow the ENTIRE lawn. All 2 acres. With that small shitty mower. If she leaves me with that, I refuse to do it unless she stays and helps. Am I the asshole here?
For context on why I won't pay for repairs: the reason I don't pay for repairs is because I can't. I already pay the electricity, the heat/AC, and the internet and whatever else we need. I'm on social security and only make 1.5k. I can't afford to repair anything. She, on the other hand, makes twice as much as me through social security and is also being paid by her old job (she is retired). The only things she pays for (as far as I know) are for her mortgage, her car, and her car insurance.

Title says it all. I had a Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 that somehow just broke after I wiped it with a clorox wipe. Not willing to pay the 600 to repair it.
I'm leaning towards something like the lenovo ideapad here, but was hoping for some suggestions.
I play most of my graphic intensive or processor intensive type of games on PS5. I will like the option to use the laptop it for light gaming for older games or things that I'll run on lower settings (not often). I will primarily be using it for videos and work.
Please give a suggestion - thanks!

Okay so I bought my laptop back in October 2020. The specifications are Intel core i5 10300H, NVIDIA GTX 1650, 16 GB RAM, Windows 11, 1TB HDD+256GB SSD. Today I opened it and I was trying to upgrade the HDD from 1 TB originally to a 2 TB drive. When I removed the original drive and put in the new one, I saw that it was not detecting it. It wasn't a big deal for me because i could just use that as an external drive. The laptop was working fine when I installed the 2 TB drive. Everything apart from it detecting the drive was well. Then I thought I'd just replace it back to the original 1 TB drive. But after I installed the 1TB back, the laptop won't start at all. It won't even charge. It doesn't detect it is plugged in. This laptop was repaired once under warranty. The laptop was freezing very often and they said it might be a motherboard issue but they replaced the heat sink and it was working fine. Now this issue. I was very careful with the upgrade and I am sure I didn't touch anything else apart from the battery which needs one screw removed to take the HDD out. But even then how did it work the first time and died the second time. I didn't do anything with the motherboard either. I had bought an extended warranty of 3 years at the time of my purchase so it is still valid. Is there anything I could do to fix this. If anyone has any idea what could have caused this issue please help me. I have windows installed in the separate 256 GB SSD so it is not a drive corruption issue. And will the warranty still apply or will I have to pay because I was trying to upgrade? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

A combination of woodpeckers, lack of gutters, poor original installation, and other moisture issues have meant my ~30 year old, mystery particle board material siding needs so many repairs, it just needs to be replaced. I live in the Midwest so we have big weather extremes, rain snow, ice, the whole thing. I want something that will last and not require me to paint it so I’m looking at finished LP Smartside. I have Hardie that replaced old cedar on one side but LP seems more economical for the rest and would look better and hopefully last longer than vinyl. I’m getting multiple quotes but I’m getting all kinds of conflicting info from contractors. If I were to consolidate their advice and preferences into a single conclusion it would be to rebuild my house as a brick fortress if I don’t want to replace my siding every 10 years because all the products are crap apparently. That seems wrong. I’m leaning toward LP for value and durability in extreme heat and cold. Does anyone have any experience with one product lasting better than others? It’s a huge investment so the research has left me overwhelmed. Thank you.

Hello new friends!
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I am looking for some help choosing a new HVAC system for a house we recently moved into. It's a 2-story, ~2400sq/ft home with 2 HVAC units (Gas Furnace) that are about ~17 years old and in need of replacement. I've got quotes from 2 solid installers that are very similar in price and reputation, but I'm not able to decide. I'm not asking for feedback on the quote itself, as I understand those posts are not very popular, but instead I want to get feedback on the type of systems we're looking at and if one is the clear front-runner or not. What it really comes down to is 1-stage compressor with a lifetime warranty, or a 2-stage compressor with 10yr warranty. I'm still not sure where I land on the Heat Pump choice, but Gas seems to be the better option as we'd have to run new wiring to accommodate the HP.
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We have solar panels on the house and efficiency is a high priority. We are located in NC, USA, so the summers can get pretty warm and the winters are fairly mild. From what I understand the installewarranty matters more than the actual parts being installed, and I see these installers as very similar.
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The first installer recommends Trane and quoted us for several variations, with the Gas Furnace/2-stage AC being the front runner. They also come with the option of 48-month 0% financing which is very attractive. They're a large regional company, not as large or easy to get a hold of as the other installer, but still very reasonable. They did the original install when the neighborhood was being built.
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The second installer recommends Goodman/Amana and did not quote us anything for heat pumps or a 2-stage compressor, they went up to an Amana version of the Daikin FIT for variable speed compressofan. They said the price of the variable speed was more than the 2-stage with current Amana discounts. They also come with the option of 18-month 0% financing, and have been incredibly patient + easy to reach for any questions. They're a larger regional company and have many techs employed so getting someone to come over quickly isn't a concern. They offer a lifetime warranty on the AC compressor.
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Both installers offer 10 yr parts+labor warranty, lifetime warranty on Heat Exchanger (for Gas Furnace).
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Bundle prices for 2 units

Installer 1 (Trane)
	Gas furnace w/2-stage AC (XR16 series, 16 SEER)	$25,700
	Dual Fuel w/2-stage AC (XR16 series, 16 SEER)	$29,000
	Heat Pump w/2-stage AC (XR16 series, 16 SEER)	$26,600
Installer 2 (Goodman)
	Gas furnace w/1-stage AC (16 SEER)	$25,000
	Gas furnace w/variable stage AC (17 SEER)	$31,000

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Feedback I'm looking for:

1. Does the lifetime warranty for the Goodman 1-stage compressor bring it to equal footing with the 10yr warranty of the Trane 2-stage compressor?
2. Is the 2-stage compressor expected to have a longer life than the 1-stage, and so the lifetime warranty isn't as important?
3. At the end of the day will the total power draw be about equal between Goodman and Trane Gas Furnace SEER16, as they have the same SEER rating?
4. Is a Heat Pump unit worth it? I hear conflicting remarks on cost/ROI/efficiency and am inclined to stay with Gas as I know that works.