'Dreamfall Chapters – Book One' Releasing Oct 21

Check out the screens here.

Check out the Official website here.

Check out the developer video here.



Happy Gaming!

Ana

Thanks, Ana. This will be exciting news for many.

Thanks Ana, this is terrific news.

Great news, Ana. Thanks!

Thanks Ana, I see GOG will have the game also. I don't know if you have to go to steam to install it or not.
Richard

Thanks for the heads up, Richard - the GOG version will not be involved with Steam.

Great than that's where I will buy it Marian. This is the right one isn't it,DREAMFALL CHAPTERS SEASON PASS.
Richard

Thanks, Ana! I received an e-mail about this and had this reaction - I think I will be hibernating that day once I get home from work.

Thank you, BrownEyedTigre

Thank you Ana. I am so excited!

I just ordered it from GOG,$29.79.
Richard

Let us know what you think of the first episode, Richard, after it's released.

Marion, how many episodes are there. How far apart are they. Will let you know how the game is.
Richard

According to Ana's post above:



I think I read somewhere that they plan on releasing the episodes (Books) about six weeks apart, but don't quote me on that one.

Interesting interview here.

do you know if it is run with a mouse or a keyboard?

The game's description at Steam states it as having a "3D point-and-click interface". That could possibly still include some use of the keyboard, though, as the previous game had.

Great interview, thanks Ana. I also love that close up of Zoe in their picture gallery.

I have been sooooooooooooo waiting for this and now I notice that GOG has it classified as Adventure ACTION. Has anyone any idea how much action will be involved?

ErnestineZ, it's an adventure game for sure. There is no combat or stealth. There may be one or two instances where you have to do something quickly, but it looks no worse than something you may find in an old King's Quest game, and even then, you get the opportunity to try again right away. Mostly, it's just going to be exploration based. I'm really not sure why GOG lists it as Action. Maybe because Dreamfall was Action/Adventure, they expect it to follow suit? Anyway, I really don't think you have anything to worry about.

Thanks Venus..... I ordered it today!!!!

You're welcome, ErnestineZ! Enjoy the game!!

Thank you SO MUCH, Marian. You are there with so much HELP AND INFO. I can't begin to imagine your patience, again, thank you.

I hope you all enjoy the game.

Do you have any trouble downloaded Dreamfall Chapters. I went to GOG and I think it's ready to download. It says the webpage can't be found. Maybe it's to soon. I clicked on Windows installer English. It looks like it wants to install.
Richard

Kjos

It may be awhile here is a report from the development team to kick start backers that was sent out in today's email. Yesterday they spelled out several bugs causing loss of speech, dropping of saves, failure to start game and periodic crashes.

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#65
Launch update, updated!



Posted by Red Thread Games



Hello!

Sorry for spamming your inboxes, but we figured this is an important enough morning/day/afternoon/evening/night to justify multiple updates. Hopefully there will only be ONE more.

(If you didn't read the previous update yet, do so now! And then come back for good news!)

We have fixed the subtitle/voice bug, we believe we've fixed the save-game bug and we're currently testing the Mac crash bug. In other words: progress! Of course, things might still go terribly wrong, but let's just cross fingers, toes, tentacles and hope for the best.

What will happen now is that we are building (making) new versions of the game for all platforms, the whole team will play through those, and then, if things look good, we will publish to Steam/GOG/Humble as quickly as possible.

We sincerely apologise for the delays and we hope we haven't turned anyone into pirates or ruined anyone's days/nights/birthdays. We do believe the wait has been worth it in order to get the best possible experience, and we hope you all agree!

We will send out one more update when things are in place and ready to roll (or if things go tragically awry; let's hope not) so stay tuned for that.

Stay patient, folks!

Team RTG

Yeah, I'm still waiting myself. I qualify for early access, but it was only offered for Steam. So I'm still waiting for my GOG key.

Thanks so much for that info oldmariner That answers a lot of questions. Do you need a steam key from GOG?
Richard

They said yesterday the keys will be mailed out and the game launched after the bugs are fixed. By the sound of this e-mail they are working on them but it is doubtful it is going to happen today. They also said, (yesterday) once the bugs are fixed the team will conduct full play throughs on multiple machines to make certain everything is working. As of this am since they are still working on it I expect it will be awhile. Early access keys have not been sent out yet they are waiting like everybody else.

Kjos

Yes I'm waiting, "The team" will be sending GOG, Steam, and Humble bundle keys as soon as they can. No asked me which one I want so I'm not sure how this is going to work

Oldmariner, early access keys have been sent out, but only through Steam. So theoretically I could play the game if I wanted to. It's sitting there taunting me. But I strongly prefer GOG if given the option, and as far as I know, as a backer I can only pick one or the other. So there goes my early access.

Venus, I don't think you can play it at stream. They might have the keys but this sounds like they don't have the game. This is yesterday's update

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Hi all,

Unfortunately, due to some last-minute snags, we will NOT be releasing at 1800 CEST today. There are some critical bugs in the latest version (one of which is also in yesterday's early access version) that affect, amongst other things, character voices and save-games.

We definitely do not want to release a potentially broken version to everyone on Steam, GOG and the Humble Store, and so we're working hard to fix these bugs before publishing the game.

Here's what can happen with our current, broken version:

After loading an auto-save, you get stuck. This can be fixed by reloading the save-game, but that's not a great user experience, obviously.
After switching the subtitles on or off, you lose the character voices. The voices come back again after a while, but this can ruin the experience of playing the game.
Mac version crashes on load. This is a new bug, and shouldn't be too hard to fix, but it's obviously quite critical!

There are a couple of smaller bugs in addition to this, but those are the major ones. We're working on fixing them right now, and we don't think it's going to take too long, but we do have to run through the game multiple times on multiple computers before we can publish again.

For those of you who have not yet redeemed your Steam keys (and additional content

With any luck, it won't be a late evening at Casa Red Thread, but we will keep y'all updated!

Team RTG

The early access people do have the game. Several of them are already posting in the spoiler forum here - http://redthreadgames.com/forum/forum/24-dfc-story-lore-spoiler-warning/. I've had the key available since last night, but I haven't used it, even though it's painful to watch all these people already playing the game. Hopefully, they'll get it sorted out soon. Ragnar has been posting updates on Twitter. I just wish we'd been given the option to choose which service we wanted to use, but maybe the others sites didn't allow for that. Still would have been nice to know ahead of time.

Early access folks are indeed playing.

Ana

How are you supposed to get the key? Do they e-mail you a choice of keys or what? Who determines what key I get? Does anybody know?

Well, that's that. GOG keys won't be out until tomorrow. Not their fault of course, but it looks like I took off work early for nothing.

@oldmariner, did you check your humble account? Only Steam is up so far if you want to use that. Otherwise, you'll have to wait for the other options.

Did you pledge on Kickstarter? If you did you would see it on the tier you pledged for. Early access is the 75 dollar tier.

Hello All,
I have a dumb question. If you are a backer for this where do you download the game from? I have an email from them a few months back, but it doesn't tell me where to download the game from. I'm so confused. Sorry....any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Barbara

Sly One, do you have a Humble account? They send all of your keys/extras there. If you don't have one, it's easy enough to create one, and as long as you use the same e-mail address you pledged with on Kickstarter, your rewards should be on your page.

EDIT: Here is a link if you need exact instructions - http://redthreadgames.com/forum/topic/319-how-to-claim-a-humble-page-forum-badge/.

EDIT 2: Never mind, it doesn't look as though they mention how to create an account. Here is a link to Humble if that helps - https://www.humblebundle.com/.

Venus..

Thank you so very much. I just figured it out but you helped me alot and I appreciate it. Sometimes I am so dumb I surprise myself. Thanks again!

You're welcome, and glad you got it to work. Let me know what you think of the game, since I may end up having to wait several days for my GOG key.

I understand that Ana but no one ever told me how a key is to be delivered. I do not have early access. An e-mail came from Kick starter an hour ago saying they are uploading drm free downloads to Humble and they should be ready soon. Ok fine, however I do have a Humble account I bought one game them a year ago. A steam key which I don't want showed up in that account. But so far there is no ability to do the direct drm free download. There is no info about it on Humble regarding when and if it will be available.

It appears the download and steam keys are passed through Humble only. Because no one ever communicated to me how keys were to be dispersed. I understood (apparently wrongly)I would have a choice between Humble, Gog or Steam.

That is why I raised the question because until an hour ago I had no idea how this works. You can get the game from steam through Humble right now. So if I prefer to get this from GOG the answer is tough darts. Let's see if Humble delivers the direct download. Previously I sent a question to Humble and it took four weeks to get an answer. I guess I will have to wait. I just wondered if anyone here had a clue of how this works. I asked these questions of the developers weeks ago and have not gotten a response.

OMG..let's hope that's not the case. But I will let you know what I think. Hopefully you will be playing soon.

Thanks, and I hope not, too! Enjoy the game.

oldmariner, they will send you the GoG key when it's ready.

Received this email from Red Thread around 6:08 PM today:

So the delay in sending GOG keys is probably normal.

Jenny, I know I got that e-mail, too, hence my earlier post. It's just frustrating, as I pledged on an early access tier, yet I'm getting my game later than everyone else, since I prefer GOG. It's no one's fault, really, it's just hard watching everyone else play a couple of days in advance while I'm still waiting. I'm sure there are others in the same boat as well.

I hope you guys have better luck than I did. To begin with no key choices were sent to me by Red Thread Games. No one asked what I wanted but when I looked in my Humble account the game sat there waiting to be downloaded all 1.315.194 KBs worth. This is at 8:30 Pacific Time. Three hours later the game was downloaded. Problem Windows Extractor, Win Zip and 7 Zip all agreed the Dreamfall Chapters X86.zip folder is either empty or corrupted. It did not appear empty according to Win Explorer.

I used Humble's direct download, not their bit torrent download version. Then I tried the bit torrent route with the same result, not exactly that file was 101 kb of empty or corrupted. The news is at 30 minutes after midnight pacific it took only 10 minutes to download 1.315.194 KBs worth of corrupted or empty. Being pig headed I Tried a third time getting the same result. It is now 4 am eastern 1 am here is bad enough. At least it's a good hour to download.

I hope you guys don't run into this. Of course I filed a "Ticket" with Humble, the last time it took three weeks to get an answer. Let's hope book 2 does not come out before I get an answer. Of course I'll stifle the sarcasm and try again tomorrow. How did Red Thread know I had a Humble Account to send it there? I don't really expect to wake up in the morning to find a key over at GOG. Like I said Red Thread never asked what key I wanted or even told me they sent one to Humble. At this point I am feeling like I'm 0 for 2 with this Kickstarter [blip]. Oh well lesson learned, run far far away when they come begging for money.

I really do hope you guys have better luck than I have.

Sorry to you're having so much trouble, oldmariner. According to this update, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redthread/dreamfall-chapters-the-longest-journey/posts/1025847, the Humble key was corrupted somehow, and they're waiting for the store to open so they can fix the issue. If you want a GOG key, you can request one. Also, you can use the Steam key. I went ahead and used mine, since they said we get both keys now if we prefer a GOG version, as everything took so long. I assume it's the same if you want Humble. Others who have used their early access said they could still use their Humble keys as well, so if you're in a hurry you can always use the Steam key and download the other later.

At the risk of sounding like a total dummy.....I'm still confused about how this works. I did an early pledge of $25. I haven't received any emails regarding the game download yet. How do I know if I get it from Steam, GoG or someplace else? I've never heard of Humble before, do I need to sign up for that? Or do I need to send a request for a GoG key?
Sorry for being so clueless, but this was my first Kickstarter pledge.

UruKat

I received a message from redthread saying this



The e-mail you used to back the game must be the e-mail you use to the reply noted in the above text to request a GOG key.

It is likely they sent your key to Humble without telling you, nobody told me either. According to Venus above you can have both now. They also said this in the e-mail

The DRM-free Humble Windows and Mac versions are both broken. We know. We don't know how or why that happened, but until the U.S. West Coast wakes up, we can't fix it. The problem is on the other side of the ocean, and as soon as they're online, it will be taken care of. Our sincerest apologies.

I understand why you are confused they didn't tell me anything either.

Venus

Thank you for that update, I did request a GOG key I'm planning on waiting as I do not have a Steam account and do not want one. I will consider gifting that if they allow me to do so. Of course I have not heard from Humble yet, I don't expect to as under normal time it takes weeks to get a response. I'm sure they are inundated with questions related to this debacle. You'd think Humble would have checked that file before placing it on their servers allowing (how many) to sit up waiting for a corrupted file to finish downloading. I don't mean to sound harsh or present as a curmudgeon but good grief, check the file how hard is it. There were so many people downloading last night it took three hours for my first. The second time after midnight (Here) it took ten minutes. It tells you their servers must have been jammed. Yes, there must be thousands of unhappy campers hammering Humble support. Check the files.

I, too, have been allocated a "Steam" key so I have sent an email to the support address provided.

It's such a shame that this initial release has been so badly marred

Ok, I sent a request for the GOG key, but I still haven't heard anything. Does it matter if I get the game from GOG or Steam or Humble? Is there a difference? I just signed up for Humble today, never heard of it before. I'm using the same email address each time. I guess it must have something to do with the delay. I guess it's best to wait until they fix the bugs anyway. What is the advantage of getting it through Gog as oppoesd to Steam?

Urukat

If there is a file in your Humble account allowing you to download the game (I assume they fixed it if it's there. I have not heard from Humble if they have yet go ahead and download it.) You should have both a download and a Steam Key there. Is there a difference between Humble and GOG? I'm not sure, I prefer GOG. I bought one game from Humble, Blackwell, last year. It worked as promised with no issues. I believe Humble is a good company and they suffered this debacle and will make it good. Basically the choice is yours. Who knows how long before the GOG key shows up. Red Thread admitted there was no way in their system for you to choose what you wanted and then no one told you you have a Humble key.

I'd say if it is there grab it.

Thanks oldmariner.....so far, I haven't received any info from anyone regarding the game. Nothing shows in Humble, GOG, Steam or an email. I guess it will be coming in some form eventually. sigh....

Oldmariner and UruKat, I just got my GOG key a few minutes ago, so they are sending them out. It's just probably taking them a while to get to everyone individually. When I look in my own Humble account, it's still showing up as 1.3 GB, so I imagine it isn't fixed yet. I assume the issue there is on Humble's end, and unfortunately there's nothing Red Thread can do until they open. Though I assume it would have to be soon, as they're in the US on the west coast. Humble and GOG are both DRM free, so you don't have anything to worry about if that's your concern. You can probably just pick whichever shows up first.

Believe me, I understand the frustration. I was an early access backer, and wasn't able to play the game until today. At least I know I should get early access for the remaining chapters since I was allowed to use my Steam key on top of the GOG key. I understand not wanting to use Steam at all, though. Really hope it gets resolved for everyone soon! If it helps at all, I think the game is fantastic from what I've played so far. It's worth waiting for.

Thanks Venus! I can't wait to play it!!

You're welcome, UruKat. Hope it shows up for you soon!!

Urukat

I requested a GOG key mere minutes before you and Red Thread sent it. I'm downloading from GOG now. You should get it soon. No response from Humble yet and it is not fixed. I downloaded a file a few minutes ago and it's corrupted.

I believe I said that after checking with them but no one listened.....

Sorry Ana, I must have missed your post. Been so enamored with the game, I'm probably inadvertently skimming things. The Europolis section is so huge, I'm going to spend hours just exploring before I even get to the main part of the game.

It is not that no one was listening. I heard you when you said they will send a GOG key.

My point was and is the reason I asked about it in the first place. The issue is no one involved in production of this game ever gave me an option of choosing what key I wanted. They have no ability to know if I have a Gog, Humble or Steam account. What was I supposed to do guess where they were going to send it? They never said to me directly keys were going to Humble and if you wanted a GOG you to ask for it.

Finally today well after hours of frustration with corrupted files Red Thread sent an e-mail saying I could request a GOG key. I did and they sent it. They admitted in their e-mail of this morning they did not have an option where backers could choose what key they wanted. As evidenced by the developer's e-mail of 8:30 am Eastern time.


It was never a case of not listening, it is a matter of poor communication from the TEAM.

As of an hour ago the files at Humble were still corrupted. Still no response from Humble. As I said earlier Humble never informed me that a key arrived in my account yesterday. The update from Red Thread yesterday afternoon is was tipped me off to go to Humble to see. Otherwise I would never have found the corrupted files at Humble.

Yes, and if you donated at a level that should have allowed you to get "special edition" content, you STILL only got a key that included the minimum content.

YAY! Got my key for GOG in an email today!

Still waiting for mine

Mad did you check Humble Bundle? It appears they have fixed the download. It seems keys were sent there for a lot of people without telling them. They never told me and found both a drm free download and a steam key there in my account. As you may have read they were corrupted. I just looked and file sizes were changed and the "Coming soon" message has been removed.

I've been playing this game for a little while and have played through 4 or 5 save points. Yes I said "save points" and I am a little peeved. The two things that I dislike the most about the current trend of adventure games are Episodes and Save Points. This game has it both. Had I known that they were going to do this to the game I probably wouldn't have put my money into kickstarter.

Would I have bought the game anyway? I probably would have waited until the final episode and then bought the whole thing and grumbled about the save points. I know I could still do that as a kickstarter contributor but, since I was sent the codes to get this episode I don't have the willpower to wait.

Anyway I felt a rant coming on. I don't like games that don't let you save at will and require you to play to a particular point. Plus I don't even know where the save points are so when I stop playing and come back I always have to repeat actions to get back to the point I left off. Grrrrrrrrr

The good is though that the graphics are great and, so far, it has played smooth. I had some trouble getting used to finding the hot spots and wish they had built in some type of help system to find them. If, as it has been said, there is no combat as there was in the previous Dreamfall it may be enjoyable in spite of having to suffer through "save points".

Hi oldmariner

Although I've downloaded several games from Humble Bundle I've never actually "set up an account" with them.

However, I have an email from them listing the keys they've allocated to me for all the games I've bought from them and the list includes the "Steam" key they allocated to me this week for Dreamfall Chapters.

So I've replied to that email and asked for a GOG key instead of a STEAM key.

Hopefully they will reply soon.

Cheers.

Mad

EDIT :

Ooooo-eeeer !! Not happy to read your post about the saving system, oldman.
I, too, really dislike not being able to save when I want

I have an account with them because I bought a game there over a year ago. When you go to your library they offer a choice of activating the Steam Key or a opting for a direct download. You can take one or the other. There is a link in your library to add previously bought games.

If you were to set up the account you might be able to add this game to your library. If you do not receive your GOG key soon perhaps that is an option to explore. You'd have to use the same email that steam key was sent to.

Apparently Red Thread has no intention of supplying the special edition bonus material, either through Steam or GOG. Instead they expect you to have a Humble Bundle account.
http://redthreadgames.com/forum/topic/69...ing-new-thread/
And if you don't have a Humble Bundle account, what then?
Does Red Thread create an account for you without telling you?
Or do they simply forget about giving you any of the bonus content?

IMO Red Thread are doing bait-and-switch by not supplying the bonus content/special edition through the contributor's choice of Steam or GOG.

Thanks, oldman.

I have at last received acknowledgement that my GOG key request has reached them. So I'll wait and see what comes of that before I do anything else.

I know they will be pretty busy right now

Mad, if you set up a Humble account you can add the previously purchased games into your library.

Did you request the GOG key from them? Don't you have to request that from Red Thread?

Hi oldbroad

I explained in an earlier post on this thread, oldbroad, why I have contacted Humble for a GOG key.

And I am waiting to hear back from them before I do anything else

Cheers.

Mad

Hi Mad

Did you get GOG keys from Humble for the other games you bought from them? I'm just curious because I've only seen Steam keys there but I haven't made too many purchases from them.

Mad you don't get your GOG key from Humble you have to ask Red Thread for it. Here is the addy support@redthreadgames.com

Well, I got my reply from Humble and it was that I need to contact Red Thread !!
So I will email THEM now.
[You had it right, oldmariner, but I wanted to hear their reply first as it was Humble that sent me the Steam key.]

I have very few Steam games, oldbroad, and only keys to two of them were sent to me from Humble, so I can only presume the others from Humble were GOG keys.

Thanks Mad.
Good Luck getting your GOG key. Hope you're playing soon!

I may be wrong on this Mad, but I read somewhere that if you requested a GOG key when they had already sent one to Humble. You could keep both. Humble is the keeper of Steam Keys giving you a choice of drm free download or steam. You can't do both. If you don't Humble download you can use the steam key. You download from Gog. The question becomes can you then gift the steam key?

I believe it was Red Thread in one of their e-mails that said because of the corrupted files you can keep both the Gog and the Humble.

There have been occasions when a developer or publisher has specifically stated you can give a key if you get a steam and gog version but that was not the case here so far. They are giving *you* permission to use both, not to give it away. If everyone did that the sales would be significantly affected and without revenue they would not be making more games.

Exactly. I was able to keep all three of my keys, which I thought was extremely generous of them. Yes, there have been some problems with release, but things happen and they are doing their best to resolve all the issues. They are a very small team, so it takes a while sometimes. I was a bit frustrated with the wait, too, but I imagine the following episodes will have a smoother release.

A lot of people still haven't received keys, and they say they're still working through the hundreds of emails.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redthread/dreamfall-chapters-the-longest-journey/comments

Ideally that could have been avoided by having a better system in place for key distribution, but apparently they were more focussed on completing the game and getting something out there, even if it was only a corrupt copy at Humble. I'm surprised Humble doesn't have some sort of system in place to verify the game files weren't corrupt.

Apparently Red Thread puts updates on Twitter
https://twitter.com/RagnarTornquist

Some people don't like depending on Twitter, and would rather the updates be at the Red Thread website.
http://redthreadgames.com/forum/topic/678-kickstarter-update-67-goghumble-info/page-17

So much for "early access" though.
That's one thing they couldn't deliver, and it's too late for it now -- at least for the first Episode.

True, and I was a victim of that early access fiasco. Being able to keep all three keys more than made it up for me in the end, though. Hopefully the remaining episodes will go more smoothly. Thanks for all the links, Jenny. Sorry to hear that there are still people struggling to get their keys. I think it would have been easier had they made the GOG/Steam option a poll choice as other Kickstarters have done rather than having people send them manual e-mails for the GOG option. I was lucky to get mine right away, but when you're dealing with hundreds of individual e-mails like that, it has to make things a lot harder. Hopefully, they'll handle it differently next time if they have another Kickstarter.

This is getting to be a very long thread - so maybe by the time it gets a bit longer I'll be able to return and report I've been sent a GOG key !!

Hope so

I hope so, Mad!!

Me, too, venus

I have finally received my GOG key for Dreamfall Chapters - which came with this message :-
"Please note that this key is not for the GOG Special Edition, the additional content will have to be redeemed through Humble."

Does the "Special Edition" contain some thing I actually need ??
[I am rather loathe to get involved in messing with any more stuff ]

And will I need a separate key for each episode released ??

Mad, all of the special edition extras will be given to backers on Humble, which is why we only get the standard GOG edition. We are only allowed one copy of the extras. I would have preferred getting them through GOG, but I understand why they are doing it this way. You will not need a separate GOG key for each episode, as the key you were given was for a season pass, which is all they offer. So no worries there. Glad you finally got your copy. Hope you enjoy the game.

To play the game, no.
The map might have been useful, but there will probably be walkthroughs available soon enough if you get lost.

If you decide you want any of the extra content, you can get the "upgrade" at ***GOG***
The extra content they list for the "upgrade" at GOG includes

If you want any of this stuff downloadable from your GOG account, some of it isn't even available yet, so you might wait and see if the upgrade shows up on a GOG 75% off sale.

Having donated $110 for their Kickstarter (mainly to get the grossly overpriced "Boxed Collector's Edition" which won't be available for years -- if ever), I'm not inclined to spend another $10 for the upgrade. Even $2.50 (75% off) is barely tolerable because I feel like I already spent too much. I do NOT understand why supporters in the relevant tiers aren't provided with "Special editions" at their choice of GOG or Steam, and I will certainly remember that for any future Red Thread Kickstarters.

Thanks venus and Jenny100

I'm not at all bothered about the extras you describe so will be well satisfied with "just the game".
Once all the episodes are available and it actually IS a complete game, that is !!

These Kickstarted "boxed" versions are way too pricey for me so my pledges never reach those giddy heights but I'm shocked to read that you fear you won't get what you pledged for, Jenny100

Mad, there's no reason to think we won't get the boxed copies. It's just that we have to wait until all the episodes are out. I've downloaded all my extras from Humble, though they have a tendency to hide them there, so I had to do some searching. Let me know if you do decide you want them and need help finding them.

Thanks for your kind offer of help, venus, but I'm quite sure I won't be bothering with any extras