Tips for new or still learning players.

[Xardias]

Hi, so if you are reading this you probably came to start a topic or comment somewhere about how frustrating it is to get your ♥♥♥ kicked by high level players. Or something along those lines. To start with the obvious, we've all been there, getting our ♥♥♥ kicked and not understanding why. But things do natually start to click and you do eventually hold of the gameplay or even get some wins. I'm not great at the game but quite a few matches do feel trivial to me so hopefully I can help you understand why you are having a hard time.

There is a meta.

I know, it sucks. It exists in every game even Absolver with its fancy "make your own play style" thing but the good news is that most moves are actually viable and unique decks very much do exist. It pretty much boils down into "The Trifecta" and that is, you are using 3 specific moves no matter the deck. Body Blow, Back Tripped Kick, and Jumped Light Kick.

Body Blow
This is a strafing, mid, thrust punch. Its basically your get out of jail free card. All gaurd breaking, charging attacks, and alot of fast attacks are thrust or vertical. This move will let you counter all of them so long as you are timing it correctly but its also pretty forgiving on timing especially with good latency.

Back Tripped Kick
This is a fast, ducking, low sweep kick. It can quickly get you under alot of high attacks and easily break your opponents combo/pressure, and it catches windfall and basic dodge with ease.

Jumped Light Kick
This is a fast, jumping, mid, thrust kick. Its probably the strongest attack in the game. It comes out so fast that you can counter pretty much all low or slowish attacks whenever you want so long as you keep it at the ready. It breaks pressure/combos like crazy. If we are talking cheesey gameplay, this stuffs like Fondue.

How do I use them?
Ultimately, you just get used to them and feel them out. As far as building a deck with them, you want each of them to be the starter in a quadrent as such. https://imgur.com/a/XNJZ3Je This will let you use "The Trifecta" to its full potential and you can start your journey of being a meta slave. Grats!

Other things to note
If you look at the top left/right for the "heavy" attacks, youll notice that I'm using Side Kick and a gaurd break. Side Kick does tons of damage, comes out pretty fast, and is a overall good punisher. They both feed into each other so its easier to feint a gaurd break into a Side Kick. This is useful agaist all of the combat styles and pretty much most of the high level players use this setup in junction to "The Trifecta".

Some extra useful information.

All styles are pretty much equal. You just have to know how to play against them. But I do think a good forsaken or a really good stagger are the hardest to deal with.

Combat styles aren't nearly as useful as you think. I play forsaken and I throw out parries maybe a few times during a fight, or none depending on the person. The biggest issue I see with new players is they are throwing out parries or abosrbs or left/right dodges like crazy. This is only hindering you. Get used to using modfied attacks to break pressure more than your combat style. And only throw out parries or whatever when you are confidant and to keep your oppenent on their toes.

Basic dodge isnt very good. It costs a ton of stamina and does nothing to apply pressure on your oppenent. It really should only be used to reposition during iFrames, to get away from walls and ledges and thats it really.

Just fast decks arn't very good. When you first start playing, fast decks can seem like the end all best type of deck but this couldn't be further from the truth. Most good players can easily counter these decks.

Make a deck and stick with it. This is honestly one of the more important points. You need to play your deck to the point where its muscle memory. Once you start getting into higher level fights the last thing you need is to be missing gold links or not knowing what attack is coming out next. But don't be afraid to change things up here in there. I've scrapped plenty of decks but for the most part they have all felt the sameish.

Practice gold linking! Take your deck either into the world or just into meditation and just get down the gold link timings, drill it into your head, and get the muscle memory down to second nature.

Personal deck bulding note. I like my deck to have "contained" quadrants. Which means each quadrant, the third attack ends in the same quadrant it started in. So im just using three attacks when in a quadrant and using the "heavy" attacks to switch things up and switch between quadrants.

Lag is very much a thing! Try not to attribute all of your failures to lag, but there are quite a few matches where I feel powerless but its often that I cant time anything properly due to lag. So hang in there I guess, maybe we will get some dedicated servers(haha).

Don't Forget to gaurd!! Guarding is extremely useful especially agaisnt fast decks. Ultimately, think of gaurding as an opoortunity to study your opppnents attacks rather than just defending against them. Don't be afraid of being broken or even tanking an entire round. Studing your opponent's deck is the best thing you can do for your self and can help you learn things even after the match is over.

Thats it for now, I hope at least some of this was useful to someone. Comment if you have questions, I'm happy to answer. If some experienced players want to add anything or just say I'm wrong and call me gay and ♥♥♥♥ , that's fine too.

[Robert Zerker]

I think that might help some new players, indeed.

Some points, though :

- Body Blow will get countered by horizontal low sweeps

- Jumped Light Kick is actually fast, but not strong : it does interupt combo well but it doesn't do much damage and doesn't hit-stun much. You have to chain it into something with more "punch" to keep the advantage.

- Back Tripped Kick can be nullified by a windfall-up-avoïd. or simply a jumping attack.

- Using all those 3 as openers... Not quite sure it will work on the long run. Sure, it let you break your opponent's chainning but the downside is that those little tricks won't surprise a decent player for long.

- About Specials : sure, with such a deck you don't need it that much. And I think it's better to use them when you're sure to succeed. But relying only on moves with evade propreties to "get out of jail" will get you bad habits all the same. Best would be mixing, to get the opponent off-guard when needed.

- I have seen people trying to rely on the basic dodge to escape and fail at it badly. Don't ever use it for that purpose, unless you're in a back-stance and have 22+ mobility. And even then, I think some moves have enough range to catch you with the tracking.

- Gold chainning is important but it is also important not to gold chain everything, everytime. Delaying some attacks to break the rythm can help against a specias-addict.

- Guard a.k.a. Blocking : well, you don't need to block, like some do, as soon as the match begins. It's like an invitation card with "HIT me" on it. Only block when there's nothing else to do.
Also, when not blocking, you regen stamina faster. So if the enemy is out of reach(yours or his), don't block.

[totty]

1: meta moves work on people who don't know how the meta moves work. People who do will shut that down fast, parrying JLK, jumping btk, absorbing literally all moves listed. Those moves are good moves, JLK is very fast and an avoid, so it had two good properties, btk is a very fast horiontal sweep that gets you out of the tightest spots if slotted in right, and Body Blow has decent damage as well as an avoid property.
However I gotta disagree that if all of these were in a deck that it would be much of a challenge to defend against, especially since they are all (aside from avoid property), normals.
***OP, dunno if you ommited, but for sake of newbie education, you may have forgotten Grab Punch. But they fixed that move enough that people largely have moved on to charged haymayker or are using stopper moves and the high damage slower attacks as openers, over say, something like jumped light kick meta mess.

2. To directly contradict OP's suggestion (sorry brah, Iget what yer saying too), I heavily encourage players to never 'stick to one deck' as there is no 'winning deck' and no matter how well you play and nail inputs, there will always be a better deck down the match queue.
I would not have played 1.8k hours on just one deck, even if you're sure 'this is the one, i am unstoppable' winning for a while. Prepare for the rude awakening that no matter how crafted your deck, or how meta the meta meta, you're going to lose hard, and that is your que to strategize at square one.
Start over on another slot, don't pick the default quadrant suggestion, scroll down and select the redded-out stances and switch the ordering. Be creative with moves you don't like, or build entire decks around the use of one move alone.

2.5 The experience with moves YOU maybe don't use is still very important as it gives you the handle and muscle memory to intercept said move. Also, even if you build your decks based around how 'cool they look', take some time to look stupid, and pick a move and make yourself learn how to land it.
This is incredibly valuable in building viable decks over time, as metas and player variety evolves as it has been the last 7 Mo.
Every single move is important in Absolver so it's to your benefit to become familiar with them all, even '♥♥♥♥♥♥ moves' can be turned into throw-away-tactics to throw off an opponent. The more unexpected you are during a fight, the more you understand the 96 moves when you see them, the better. Do things stupid on purpose and see what happens, perhaps, don't use every deck slot, chain things closed and alt into open chains, etc. Bottleneck your Normal/Alt transitions on purpose. Go nuts and you might invent something awesome.
There's so much to do in this system that to rope yourself off and use metas or think there is a 'winning deck' will really miss out on the most ever-refreshing aspect of Absolver's strategy+execution combat improvement.

Last thing regarding OP's post; as a Kahlt player, if your opponent is using a deck full of guard breaks, for the love of all that's holy, learn to dodge.


3: I got a few of my own tips here, in case you're still reading:

Join the community on discord. It is a fighting game in an open world, with emotes, which is cool. But join the community as learning how to play is much easier with help. It's also the only actual very easy way to organize 3v3 matches which, while fun, usually have to be discord-prompted. It's worth it.

MY TIPS:

Your starter character and the picked style are only temporarily locked in. Don't re-roll if you don't like a style. If you join a school, you gain access and start learning the style of your school's mentor, as well as access to their deck,- which, upon use for both, will fill up meters and you will eventually 'unlock', and be able to keep the style forever. Don't leave a school before you have mastered/unlocked a style or your progress ( i don't know if they patched this ) will be lost until you join another. Addiotionally, the fastest way to learn all four styles, is to use the active ability against an easy NPC, a buddy, CT, etc.
Also don't use rakkio as your first school mentor, there are so many good stagger players that an NPC really doesn't need the numbers, haha.

Next, levels don't matter. Experience and learning what you're doing right, or wrong, from higher levels does. Levelling in Absolver is a currency prompted cosmetic status symbol for how long a player has played the game. Post level 60, you get cosmetics currency and your triangles go up. THat's it. There is no other advantage over a lower player. They may play better than you, but if a bronze fights a diamond, it might not be 100% fair as far as the skills earned from practice going head to head- but on the other end, the higher level player also has no idea if you're smurfing, or mega good out the gate and has to assume you're a threat. Not only that, the game is about practice, not winning which brings me to...

Winning is forgettable, losing should fuel you to adjust and learn and try again, rinse and repeat. Winning teaches you nothing, only affirming what you already suspected, and cementing possibly a formula that you will have trouble breaking from to build completely different, but informed and dangerous decks using other style moves, etc- so learn to lose with grace and if need be, record your footage and show it to another player so they can break down what you could do next time, or share your deck build on community discords for help tweaking etc. Find a sparring buddy and really learn your ability timings and limitations. Practice, rebuild, practice, gague success, modify, practice, modify, win, win, lose, rebuild, practice, test, lose, start from scratch and think differently about each move you place, where, and why.

Feignt. Feignting is incredibly important. First you need to get a handle on the flow of the combat, for sure, next, you need to learn to block strategically. Absolver's combat is a war of momentum, which can turn on a dime. If you have that hit-hit-hit momentum on an opponent, don't rely on a gold chain. Feight. Eventually your opponent will try and strike back, or use ability to avoid- Feignt, and hit your next sequenced/alt slot attack. This can win you matches alone.

To walk it back a step- emphasis on learning how to use block. Block a lot, in fact block all the damn time as a new player. just hold the button down. Blocking is going to 'bounce' certain attacks, allowing you an opening to strike fast. or fake-strike and slam with a heavy blow. Blocking is integral to keeping your life bar, but also how the rythm of the fight can change in your favor it you block and manage stamina better than your opponent.

Rechallenge the bosses. If you're not a huge PVP fan yet or get frustrated in your efforts to 'get gud', rechallenge Kuretz, Risryn, the twins. You will recieve additional gear rewards/weapons each of the 3x increase difficulty fight you win.

PM a grandmaster if you are needing a move, or join a school that has particular moves you want in it, so that you can either be tutor'd a move by the old training session trick/routine, or, look on google for what NPC's have what moves. The latter takes more time, and don't expect to unlock em all fast, especially sword moves. Ask a friend or Grand Master on steam or on discord.

Be polite, but start a fight!!!
Street fights out in the open world are important. It earns you xp, allows for more of a sparring session than a ego-altering win or loss in CT, and will quickly inform you on changes to your deck you'll be happy to have pointed out before going into CT. Every newbie is of two categories, the nervous and the bold. While neither has much combat experience yet, there's the timid, then there's the 'punch everything I see' player. Be more like the latter. First it introduces you to losing and hitting respawn without getting butthurt, helps trading moves, and for my personal interest, shoots some soul back into absolver when I see it. I used to get ganked all the time, but newbies tread lightly and whle sometimes I get a challenge...see that guy standing there? Front kick. And be polite, revive em as common courtesty. Or don't.

Absolver isn't for everyone, and everyone's path to success (however long it lasts for even the best of players)- will be different. You may rely entirely on ability to win with very light normals, or not use ability at all, and orchestrate your deck such that it's not needed.
Because of this diversity and variety, which i always find fresh and exciting to mess with and trial-by-fire test a new deck in CT matches, and lean what to change.

So to wrap up, Yes, learn the styles, all of them after you get loose handle on the combat systems, and some hours logged against live players. Next, spend as much tmie in your deck editor as you do hunting for new moves. Each loss means you're getting better if you are paying attention to why you lost. I have never felt in nearly 2k hours I've had an actually unfair disadvantage, only weakensses in my playing that i was stil learning to see.

Last, use your weapons deck as an opportunity to complete throw off your opponent with a very different set of moves that reverse the expectations on an opponent who has memorized your barehanded movelist. If you can manage it, you can equip weapon and unequp weapon mid string to suddenly have this seamless link-together of two decks. You don't have to wait for your turn to pull a weapon, and you don't have to wait for a pause in action, be fast on the draw and you can continue your momentum hits with a sudden new full string wtih bonus damage.

Give it all a shot, Absolver is nothing if not ripe with opportunity to fight literally however you want. There are no hard rules as to what 'works for sure without question' so play on and take screenshots of every deck you build for your expanding deck and mental/reflex arsenal.

[SHOKK♥]

Originally posted by bees:

There is a meta.

I know, it sucks. It exists in every game even Absolver with its fancy "make your own play style" thing but the good news is that most moves are actually viable and unique decks very much do exist. It pretty much boils down into "The Trifecta" and that is, you are using 3 specific moves no matter the deck. Body Blow, Back Tripped Kick, and Jumped Light Kick.

Body blow is no different than most strafing moves. I'd say Roll Back Fist is more annoying, even after it's range nerf, due to how much it moves your player model it creates really inconsistent moments.

Back Tripped Kick isn't the end all be all anymore due the changes to guard stun, and the fix to the acceleration bug that sped up moves.

Jump Light Kick again with the prior with the changes to Guard Stun is only good for countering horizontal low users (sweepers).


The True Current Meta is abusing Guard Stun, pretty much quit and throw the win to anyone abusing it(wow exp and combat trial levels is a big deal!). Just can't be asked to deal with these type of people who want the game to kill itself.

As stagger user, I got enough problems with my special being unresponsive and barely functioning, I don't need a move loop that makes it even more unresponsive.

[Xardias]

Originally posted by Streven:

A few questions:

-What is guard stun?

-Any tips on stat allocation?

-I'm using khalt. Should I be?

-What's normal que time for 1v1? I have tried to que up several times and haven't gotten a match yet.

Playing in the US during daytime last two days.

-What is gold linking?

-Is dodge>counter attack really not a viable tactic? Seems to work great so far.

-Pretty sure its the stun window when your gaurd is broken.

-Stats don't really matter, Health and stamina are what matter the most.

-Khalt is good, don't worry about it for now.

-For me its pretty fast even during the day. Some times it helps to quit to main screen and try again.

-Gold linking is when you attack your character briefly turns gold. This means that when you input your next attack at the right time you can attack faster and skip the ednign animation to attacks.

-Dodge is okay, when fighting people who know what they are doing its more annoying than anything.

[Robert Zerker]

-What is guard stun?

Originally posted by SHOKK:

The True Current Meta is abusing Guard Stun

I'm not sure if SHOKK was talking about "Block-Stun", when you get hit on your block, you can't input any actions for a few frames. Heavier moves inflict longer block-stun frames than faster moves) or, as replied bees, taking advantage of the fact that : when your stamina is negative (or very low) and you try to block, your guard "breaks" and you enter a stun-freeze state, you can't move or do anything for a few frames, leaving you defenseless, untill the stamina-regen kicks in (which happens quite fast)

You might haven't paid attention to it (as I have first) but it's quite notice-able when you look a video of a fight : when the block-Stun frames are over, there's a very quick flicker of blue light, hexagon-shaped shield type, meaning you 'recovered' from the blow.

Block-Stun Meta, as I understand it (and I might be totally wrong) shortens the window when any of your input can register :
when the Block-Stun frames are finally over (so you can actually do something) your opponent may have already reached (or close) the "hit-frames" of his next move, resulting in an almost instant connection, meaning he applies another Block-Stun on you if you were blocking (or he hits you and you get "Hit-Stun".)
Some chains of move only let a minimal "gap" between block-stuns so that it's nearly impossible for a human to (re)act, evenif you can predict/know the next move.

Hit-Stun frames are longer than Block-Stun ones, so you can't do anything at all (blocking won't register). Meta will try to lock you into that state untill you have no stamina left (so you end up in the stun-freeze state) untill your stamina-regen kickboost happens, but you might be already dead by then.


-Any tips on stat allocation?

Stats won't make you win or lose fights, but they're still important.

(Note that Mobility is only affected by the clothes you're wearing. Mobility doesn't affect the speed of your moves, only the distance of your basic dodge and your run speed, afaik.)

Your style gives you a boost to your stats (from massive 'A' to very tiny 'E') and then each move also has scaling damage depending on one or more stats. Same here, the range of the bonus is indicated by a letter. (and there you might find some 'S', which is an even more important bonus than 'A')
Would you like to min-max things, you would have to take a close look at your deck and see what stats would give you the best results in terms of damage scaling bonus.

Imho, Endurance >Vitality because blocking and dodge helps avoïding taking damage.
There are hard caps for max Stamina (255) and max Health (? can't remember) so don't waste points. (You can re-spec them once passed lvl 60, so no worry)


-What is gold linking?

"Gold-linking" or "perfect-timing" is when you input your next move at the 'right' time, allowing you to skip a certain amount of "recovery frames". It doesn't make your moves attack faster properly speaking, but it results in chaining moves faster.

(Note : there's a bar at the bottom of the UI, which can help you determine the right time to input you next move for gold-linking. You'll see each time you start a move, the bar start to fill. The first mark indicates the 'gold' input point. You should better rely on the audio and visual cues however, the 'proper' time being : arround when your hit connects to the opponent and your hear a thud, inputing your next move then will make your own character briefly flickers in yellow. The reason for the naming)


-Basic Dodge

If you want to escape the pressure, better not to use the basic dodge in most circumstances. I am not telling you it's impossible, but it's risky if you just do this in "panic mode".
Use the shockwave/earthquake powers if you can instead.

As I wrote above, unless you have a high mobility, a lot of moves will simply track you and hit you anyway just when the invicible frames ends. So, knowing your opponents' moves is a good start before trying to rely on that.

Of course, if you're a Khalt, you want to dodge the Guard Breaking moves, because they do a ton of Stamina damage on your block and they cancel your absorb. Good news : They're all direct attacks, so you can dodge to the side safely if you time it right.

Also, dodge consumes stamina. So it both depletes your blocking power and your offensive potential. Stamina management is how you don't get hit on your Health and it's how you can apply pressure by attacking with comboc. So, don't combo for too long either.


-Frames (I'll put that here since it might help)

"Frames" refer to a period of an animation, through which the 3D model will transition from a position to another. A single "frame" being a static, still, state of the model. In order to animate the model, each frame is designed to picture a fraction of the movement.

"Building/starting Frames" : those are when your move starts (input) untill they can actually hit.
"Hit frames" : those are when your move can connect and do damage if they do.
"Recovery frames" : those are the remaining/ending frames of the animation when not gold-linked into another (mistimed input or no input at all) so that your character is animated to transition to the stance he/she's meant to be in at the end of your move.

[Other Burg]

All of the above adds up to a great comprehensive guide, but since Absolver is both my first online and first competitive game maybe i can contribute a few things out of this perspective. There were and are many players starting because of the pve and it is a harsh time to find your place in pvp, especially when having roots in other genres. This goes out to everyone who generally isn't in pvp yet and hopefully prevents some people from rage quitting the game and ranting in the steam reviews. So, prior to messing around with decks, combos and optimization there are some basics that might help to keep you in the game - and, most important, to enjoy it!

First: Get used to the pace, force and cruelty of the game. As mentioned above, loosing brings no disadvantage. If you feel like your life is threatened: it isn't, just give your brain some time to realize. If you are getting upset or frustrated, take a break or roam around the pve; the forest and harbour are quite relaxing places! If the matchmaking is against you, think of it as a high level rpg area you stumbled in, or a boss fight you are not ready for yet ...

Second: Imo the most crucial thing to learn is switching beetween defense and attack. I know, that's obvious, but for a fighting game newbie it is also unknown territory. Best way to figure it out would indeed be diving into the community and spar with some people. But what, if you are a grouch regarding communication or just want to keep your privacy? As already stated above: Record yourself (or find your matches on twitch/youtube) and watch your fights. You will be amazed how much time you spend simply standing around thinking and literally just waiting for the next attack! Absolver does a bad job in teaching this, because most npcs (apart from bosses) take a solid break beetween short attack strings. Nice in the beginning, but do not expect it in pvp. Some players will give you space and time, most won't!

Which leads to combos: Somehow Absolver establishes a weird three-button-pattern, starting in the tutorial (press x-x-x to attack), continued in the deck layout and reinforced through many npcs. If you play offline a lot in the beginning, or stay in pve for quite a while, this tends to become a bad habit. Maybe because it is a very good method to remember your strings (at least for me), like "stance 1 x-x-x" does this and "stance 2 x-x-x" I use for that. Forget about it! Every single button combination possible is a combo and the only ending is you running out of stamina. If you are button mashing, this will sound familiar, if you try to always play controlled: allow the flow to take over sometimes! Certain attacks and moving opponents will mess up your stances and plans anyway, it's fine to just rely on your strings and continue pressing! Control and purpose will improve over time.

Which leads to pressure: Keep it up! If you are landing hits, do not stop, neither because a familiar string has ended nor because you do not know what comes next in your deck. Sounds harsh, but learn to be really mean. Again, the only limit is your stamina depleting. Your goal is to deal damage once you have the opportunity to. At some point, if you stay and learn more and more attacks or just join the right school, you may chose to cross the line and become the destroying berserker you once hated. That's fine, but you don't have to. Either way, you have to cope with bringing on pressure!

Which leads to getting out of pressure: Not easy, and even more difficult since such weird things like attack frame and direction data are used, which makes both dodging and even interrupting (with a fast attack) nearly impossible in many cases. I think almost everything regarding blocking, class avoids and counter attacks is well treated above, I just would like to make one addition on blocking: Yes, be patient, be a turtle, AND don't try to button mash out of a block, you likely will be hit! You may be successful, but on the long run you have to find an opening, no matter how many rounds or matches it will take! And some words about shards: Shockwave is a great panic button, but it resets the fight to neutral. So, expect the same destroying rush just starting again. Furthermore, as you tend to use it in the moments of guard breaks/highest damage, you will, on top of hitting you hard, often reward your opponent with the needed time and space to recover stamina - and then the rush starts again. That said, after shockwave you need a plan to follow! If you are confident by now, Earthquake is an alternative. It reliably interrupts your enemy and gives you the opportunity to start your own attack - just be quick!

Which leads to: Lower your goals! Do not expect to win against someone who played hundreds of hours and thousands of matches in your first days, not even week. Absolver takes a lot of time, training and dedication, especially if you are just starting with pvp gaming, the matchmaking can be frustrating and even players of the same level will be annoying. But hey, if you find the opening in a rushed string - and can finally utilize it - it's a success. When you take someone superior by surprise just by keeping the pressure up at the right time, it's a success (even if singular). When a combo works out as intended: Great, keep on!

Which leads to: Don't be afraid to play casual! If your fun is winning, then keep trying hard, this thread is a very good start. If not, but you are still with me: Get used to taking damage and loosing but ALSO find your way to maintain your fun in the game! Nobody forces you to play competitive. You can quit every trial (something I found out ridiculously late ...), if you don't feel like fighting against this silly attack loop or that silly fast string. Fool around, try stupid things, play naked, wear the chicken mask, play drunken style really drunk (recommended), whatever, some people will probably hate you, some will join you. Don't misunderstand me: Stay respectful, do not overdo it. The point is to chose your own learning curve - far away from sparring within the community and getting good - while still enjoying all of the game and its players. And then, sometimes it will happen: You get triggered by someone and switch to the "ok, now I try seriously"-mode and things will work out magically. Next time, you stumble upon someone and it matches perfectly - and suddenly you want to rematch and it does not feel like exhausting work anymore but fun. There you are, and now the story is your's ...

Personal note: I myself doubt that the people I want to catch will read steam discussions, especially down so far in the thread, but who knows, it complements the topic very well imo ... don't even know if there is some useful information above, but I think this low level approach would have helped me (remember, first fighting game). By the way, I really like the epic and forgiving threads recently after the steam discussions were mostly dead. Which leads to the last: My English ist quite rusty (is this even understandable in English?), I hope to keep up more or less!