Build-A-BattlefieldIve watched enough leaked Battlefield Labs gameplay to convince me that Battlefield is finally getting this one fundamental thing right, at leastDICE and all the other teams currently working on the next Battlefield are, finally, building on what came before.Image credit: VG247 Article by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on March 10, 2025 A few weeks ago, EA officially gave name to its testing initiative for the next Battlefield. The publisher revealed Battlefield Labs as the new banner for all things community testing-related, and subsequently opened player sign-ups.The website was hammered for days, with hundreds of thousands of players showing interest, to the point that queue times were in the several hours, with thousands waiting in each. Some of those players actually managed to get in, and over the past week, a few mavericks have been sharing gameplay from the test.Having been a Battlefield fan since BF2, its hard not to be impressed by what I saw. More than that, I was quite surprised how little my feelings have to do with the surprisingly well-puttogether state the build appears to be in.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. One of the longest running gripes Battlefield fans have had with the series is how DICE seemingly has to start from scratch with every new Battlefield game it develops. Unlike competitor Call of Duty, a lot of the technical advancements, gameplay features and mechanics developed for the previous game get thrown out when the developer starts working on the next one.Some of that is to be expected, especially as Battlefield switches historical eras and settings with almost every new game, but most of the well-established, beloved features rarely get iterated upon. I remember feeling frustrated to see Battlefield 2042 doing away with Battlefield 5s exceptional movement mechanics. Battlefield 5 brought so many fundamental improvements to the way your character feels that, if anything, they only needed to be adjusted somewhat for the next game, not thrown out entirely.You can apply the same logic to so, so many other features and mechanics everyone liked that inexplicably ended up being one-hit wonders. The Behemoths, infantry charges and Operations mode from Battlefield 1, the more complex destruction and fortification systems of Battlefield 5. Going further back, so many things we loved in BF3 and BF4 were either ignored (vehicle mechanics), or made worse in later iterations (test range). Are we going back to the good old days? | Image credit: DICESo, imagine my surprise to watch all that low-quality Battlefield Labs footage and see that Battlefield 5s crouch run, combat dive and landing roll are all alive and well in the upcoming game. Body dragging, a feature DICE advertised prior to that games launch, but never managed to actually make it work in the final game, is working just fine in the build.In fact, the way contextual leaning works - which started with Battlefield 5 - can be spotted here, and appears to be working more smoothly, too! Imagine that, a feature being iterated upon in the new game and not thrown out entirely.It is clear, however, that the next Battlefield is taking most of its cues from BF4 - at least in appearance. The HUD and UI are very much modern iterations of that games look, and you can even spot that games in-match Field Upgrade progression system.Theres a clear distinction between classes - both in their visuals and silhouettes, as well as their functions. Some of that may change and evolve over time, of course - EA is very much banking on selling Warzone-like skins - but whats there today is a solid foundation.Another element that evolved from Battlefield 5 is destruction, and its especially impressive to see how reactive the system is to different types of damage. A tank rolling through a building will leave a certain mark thats a lot different from the one left by a grenade going off indoors. This could be EA's final stand. | Image credit: DICEThe map itself appears to be inspired more by the close-quarters skirmishes of BF3s Seine Crossing and BC2s Arica Harbor. Pre-destroyed buildings create pathways that force players to meet, while others are left for players to discover and create on their own.So far, this looks like Battlefield: All the Hits. It may sound tacky to play on nostalgia there, but Battlefield has really never done that. Its one thing to bring back an old map, and something else entirely to create a game that feels like an amalgamation of the best parts of earlier games.For my money, this is the best way to bring people back to one of the best shooters in the space, and remind them of why they fell in love with it in the first place.

Image: CapcomCapcom is having a huge eShop sale right now in the US, with up to 75% off of some of the studio's biggest IPs. Thanks to the ever-reliable Wario64 for bringing this to our attention!Monster Hunter is among the biggest here, and while the franchise is currently eating up everyone's free time on other consoles, those curious about what MonHun is might be tempted to dive into Monster Hunter Rise on Switch at a heavily discounted price of $9.99 or $19.99 if you want it bundled with the expansion, Sunbreak.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube798kWatch on YouTube Resident Evil, Ace Attorney, and Mega Man also feature heavily in the sale, which ends on March 30th 2025 at 11:59pm PST. We've laid out the discounts for games below, but if you want to see DLC prices too, then have a look at the eShop page itself.GameDiscountSale PriceAce Attorney Anthology40%$35.99Ace Attorney Investigations Collection25%$29.99Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy40%$29.99Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle50%$9.99Capcom Fighting Bundle66%$19.99Capcom Fighting Collection60%$15.99Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen83%$4.99Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective50%$14.99Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection66%$9.99Mega Man 1166%$9.99Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection50%$29.99Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 150%$19.99Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 250%$19.99Mega Man Legacy Collection46%$7.99Mega Man Legacy Collection 260%$7.99Mega Man X Legacy Collection60%$7.99Mega Man X Legacy Collection 260%$7.99Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection66%$9.99Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate75%$9.99Monster Hunter Rise75%$9.99Monster Hunter Rise Deluxe Edition68%$15.99Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak75%$9.99Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak Deluxe Edition70%$14.99Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak75%$14.99Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak Deluxe71%$19.99Monster Hunter Stories33%$19.99Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin25%$29.99Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin Deluxe Edition30%$34.99Monster Hunter Stories Collection41%$34.99Monster Hunter Stories Deluxe Collection42%$39.99Onimusha: Warlords50%$9.99Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy66%$9.99Resident Evil 050%$9.99Resident Evil50%$9.99Resident Evil 2 Cloud75%$9.99Resident Evil 3 Cloud66%$9.99Resident Evil 450%$9.99Resident Evil 550%$9.99Resident Evil 650%$9.99Resident Evil 7 biohazard Cloud60%$15.99Resident Evil Revelations60%$7.99Resident Evil Revelations 260%$7.99Resident Evil Village60%$15.99Shinsekai Into the Depths50%$9.99Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection66%$9.99The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles60%$15.99Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers50%$19.99Capcom Arcade Stadium Bundle60%$15.99Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium Bundle60%$15.99Look, if you're one of the few people who haven't grabbed Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen for under $5, you've got another chance here.Otherwise, that's a lot of choice and some steep cuts, too. Capcom is firing on all cylinders and has some good grace behind it over recent years. What bodes for the company when the Switch 2 lands later this year? Who knows!Let us know if you're snapping up any of these deals in the comments. Push SquareWilds thing, I think I love youThe tables turnBut we still want one[source nintendo.com, via x.com]Related GamesSee AlsoShare:00 Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesCapcom Provides Update On Game Changes In 'Fighting Collection 2'Here's what you can expectWas That Pokmon Legends: Z-A Footage Running On Switch 2? Digital Foundry Weighs InPrepare for a pretty obvious answerVideo: Digital Foundry's Technical Analysis Of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection 2.0 UpdateMGS2 and 3 have definitely "improved"Hamster's Arcade Archives Celebrates Eight Years Of Switch eShop Releases"Thank you for your unwavering support"

Two initiatives to create a more open web, where users are in control of their own digital identities and data, may be coming together. At SXSW 2025, entrepreneur Frank McCourt, whose Project Liberty is developing open internet infrastructure (and is throwing its hat in the ring as a potential buyer for TikTok), announced that his organization has been in discussions with internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee about an integration with Solid, his open source project aimed at giving people control over their own data.In a panel at SXSW, McCourt shared that his team had talked to Tim Berners-Lee about Solid, adding that Project Liberty is compatible with Solid.Though he didnt announce an official partnership, McCourt suggested that discussions were underway on a future collaboration.Were debating, or talking, right now about how to incorporate that him and Solid, his Solid Pods into the project, McCourt teased.Berners-Lee, known as the father of the World Wide Web, announced in 2018 he had been working with a small team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop Solid. He had also tapped British engineer John Bruce to head up Inrupt, a startup built on top of the open source project.Inrupt has gone on to launch a privacy platform aimed at enterprises, where people control their data in online storage entities called Personal Online Data Stores, or Pods for short.With similar missions in mind, Berners-Lee has been supportive of Project Libertys efforts. He even backed its TikTok bid, saying: This project has my support. The web I invented was to provide power and value to individuals, which they do not have at the moment.However, there has not been a formal collaboration between Solid and Inrupt and Project Liberty, the latter of which is focused on the development of Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP).That protocol today is being adopted by a handful of apps and other projects, including MeWe; Soar.com (founded by Ancestry.coms Paul Allen to build apps through a studio model); and the permissionless blockchain Frequency (developed by Project Liberty Labs).Project Liberty also recently announced a partnership with Free Our Feeds, an effort focused on protecting the AT Protocol, which powers Blueskys social network.

Were only a few months into 2025, but the recent hack of U.S. edtech giant PowerSchool is on track to be one of the biggest education data breaches in recent years.PowerSchool, which provides K-12 software to more than 18,000 schools to support some 60 million students across North America, first disclosed the data breach in early January 2025.The California-based company, which Bain Capital acquired for $5.6 billion, said an unknown hacker used a single compromised credential to breach its customer support portal in December 2024, allowing further access to the companys school information system, PowerSchool SIS, which schools use to manage student records, grades, attendance, and enrollment.While PowerSchool has been open about some aspects of the breach for example, PowerSchool told TechCrunch that the breached PowerSource portal did not support multi-factor authentication at the time of the incident several important questions remain unanswered months on.TechCrunch sent PowerSchool a list of outstanding questions about the incident, which potentially affects millions of students.PowerSchool spokesperson Beth Keebler declined to answer our questions, saying that all updates related to the breach would be posted on the companys incident page. On January 29, the company said it began notifying individuals affected by the breach and state regulators.Many of the companys customers also have outstanding questions about the breach, forcing those affected to work together to investigate the hack.In early March, PowerSchool published its data breach postmortem, as prepared by CrowdStrike, two months after PowerSchool customers were told it would be released. While many of the details in the report were known, CrowdStrike confirmed that a hacker had access to PowerSchools systems as early as August 2024.Here are some of the questions that remain unanswered.PowerSchool hasnt said how many students or staff are affectedTechCrunch has heard from PowerSchool customers that the scale of the data breach could be massive. But PowerSchool has repeatedly declined to say how many schools and individuals are affected, despite telling TechCrunch that it had identified the schools and districts whose data was involved in this incident.Bleeping Computer, citing multiple sources, reported in January that the hacker responsible for the PowerSchool breach accessed the personal data of more than 62 million students and 9.5 million teachers.When asked by TechCrunch, PowerSchool declined to confirm whether this number was accurate.PowerSchools filings with state attorneys general and communications from breached schools, however, suggest that millions of people likely had personal information stolen in the data breach.In a filing with the Texas attorney general, PowerSchool confirmed that almost 800,000 state residents had data stolen. A January filing with Maines attorney general said at least 33,000 residents were affected, but this has since been updated to say the number of impacted individuals is to be determined.The Toronto District School Board, Canadas largest school board that serves approximately 240,000 students each year, said the hacker may have accessed some 40 years worth of student data, with the data of almost 1.5 million students taken in the breach.Californias Menlo Park City School District also confirmed the hacker accessed information on all current students and staff which respectively number around 2,700 students and 400 staff as well as students and staff dating back to the start of the 2009-10 school year.PowerSchool hasnt said what types of data were stolenNot only do we not know how many people were affected, but we also dont know how much or what types of data were accessed during the breach.In a communication shared with customers in January, seen by TechCrunch, PowerSchool said the hacker stole sensitive personal information on students and teachers, including students grades, attendance, and demographics. The companys incident page also states that stolen data may have included Social Security numbers and medical data, but says that due to differences in customer requirements, the information exfiltrated for any given individual varied across our customer base.TechCrunch has heard from multiple schools affected by the incident that all of their historical student and teacher data was compromised.One person who works at an affected school district told TechCrunch that the stolen data includes highly sensitive student data, such as information about parental access rights to their children, restraining orders, and information about when certain students need to take their medications.A source speaking with TechCrunch in February revealed that PowerSchool has provided affected schools with a SIS Self Service tool that can query and summarize PowerSchool customer data to show what data is stored in their systems. PowerSchool told affected schools, however, that the tool may not precisely reflect data that was exfiltrated at the time of the incident.Its not known if PowerSchool has its own technical means, such as logs, to determine which types of data were stolen from specific school districts.PowerSchool wont say how much it paid the hacker responsible for the breachPowerSchool told TechCrunch that the organization had taken appropriate steps to prevent the stolen data from being published. In the communication shared with customers, the company confirmed that it worked with a cyber-extortion incident response company to negotiate with the threat actors responsible for the breach.This all but confirms that PowerSchool paid a ransom to the attackers that breached its systems. However, when asked by TechCrunch, the company refused to say how much it paid, or how much the hacker demanded.We dont know what evidence PowerSchool received that the stolen data has been deletedPowerSchools Keebler told TechCrunch that the company does not anticipate the data being shared or made public and that it believes the data has been deleted without any further replication or dissemination.However, the company has repeatedly declined to say what evidence it has received to suggest that the stolen data had been deleted. Early reports said the company received video proof, but PowerSchool wouldnt confirm or deny when asked by TechCrunch.Even then, proof of deletion is by no means a guarantee that the hacker is still not in possession of the data; the U.K.s recent takedown of the LockBit ransomware gang unearthed evidence that the gang still had data belonging to victims who had paid a ransom demand.The hacker behind the data breach is not yet knownOne of the biggest unknowns about the PowerSchool cyberattack is who was responsible. The company has been in communication with the hacker but has refused to reveal their identity, if known. CyberSteward, the Canadian incident response organization that PowerSchool worked with to negotiate, did not respond to TechCrunchs questions.CrowdStrikes forensic report leaves questions unansweredFollowing PowerSchools release of its CrowdStrike forensic report in March, one person at a school affected by the breach told TechCrunch that the findings were underwhelming.The report confirmed the breach was caused by a compromised credential, but the root cause of how the compromised credential was acquired and used remains unknown.Marc Racine, chief executive of the Boston-based education technology consulting firm RootED Solutions, told TechCrunch that while the report provides some detail, there is not enough information to understand what went wrong.Its not known exactly how far back PowerSchools breach actually goesOne new detail in the CrowdStrike report is that a hacker had access to PowerSchools network between August 16, 2024, and September 17, 2024.The access was gained using the same compromised credentials used in Decembers breach, and the hacker accessed PowerSchools PowerSource, the same customer support portal compromised in December to gain access to PowerSchools school information system.CrowdStrike said, however, that there is not enough evidence to conclude this is the same threat actor responsible for Decembers breach due to insufficient logs.But the findings suggest that the hacker or multiple hackers may have had access to PowerSchools network for months before the access was detected.Do you have more information about the PowerSchool data breach? Wed love to hear from you. From a non-work device, you can contact Carly Page securely on Signal at +44 1536 853968 or via email at carly.page@techcrunch.com.

To download, simply join our newsletter and you will get an e-mail back with download instructions. If youre already part of the newsletter you can find previous e-mails from me which will all have download instructions. You will receive this free 3D model but youll also get our 500+ other 3D freebies as well!

New Milford, Connecticut, is a milieu stocked with white church steeples, salt box houses, an expansive town green, and the Housatonic River. The waterways name is derived from the Indigenous peoples who lived there before English settler-colonization in the early 18th century. Today, the Housatonic River is prone to flooding, and its shores are dotted with abandoned factory complexes where industry used to flourish. A new resiliency plan by WXY, New Milford Riverfront Renewal Plan, will help shore up the banks of the Housatonic while also offering a roadmap for better utilizing abandoned brownfield sites that flank the river and recharging the towns local economy.Work on the masterplan will focus on 60 acres along the Housatonic River. It will start around Youngs Field and Bridge Street, and incrementally move northward. It will create access from commercial thoroughfares like Bank and Railroad Street, lined with local businesses, crossing over railroad tracks to a lawn of playgrounds and recreational fields. In recent years the businesses along Bank and Railroad Street have changed hands or closed up shop, an economically minded masterplan has the potential to proffer much-needed increased foot traffic.The plan will deliver new and improved green space. (Courtesy WXY)The New Milford Riverfront Renewal Plan is the result of a lengthy community engagement process with stakeholders in Connecticut. WXY is known for such collaborative undertakings: Take for instance the New York City offices work at the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx, or with New York City Public Schools. The masterplan, WXY said, is arranged around four thematic areas: Arts and culture, recreation, sustainability, and walkability. Its overall goal is to transform downtown New Milford into a vibrant town center. Renderings show new ice skating rinks, pavilions, and other recreational amenities along the Housatonic River bank, with housing and other programming beyond.The New Milford town green regularly hosts concerts and festivals throughout the year. (Courtesy WXY)Pathways along the Housatonic River flood in the event of heavy rain. (Courtesy WXY)The initiative started in 2016 when a developer proposed a new gas power plant just outside of downtown New Milford, on a former factory site. The town fought the plan, and then started thinking about the future. It became clear that a masterplan was needed for economic and environmental resiliency. In 2018, New Milford earned a state Brownfield Area-Wide Revitalization Grant of $170,000 to develop the master plan. The New Milford Riverfront Renewal Plan was issued in 2020, four years after the boondoggle over the gas plant factory.Now, five years later, WXY has been awarded the contract to proceed with the masterplan. The town council recently approved $449,550 for the commission. WXY will spearhead the plan and serve as lead urban designer.Access to the river shoreline from downtown New Milford will be improved. (Courtesy WXY)The initiative is backed by New Milfords Brownfield Area Revitalization Steering Committee, a commission tasked with transforming the areas brownfields from from liabilities to community assets, WXY said in a statement. The program is being financed by the Connecticut Department of Economic Community Development Brownfield Area Revitalization Grant program.Liba Fuhrman, Riverfront Revitalization Committee chair, told local reporters the plan will strengthen the function, sense of place, economic vitality and transportation infrastructure of the study area, creating a blueprint for revitalization with a focus on high-quality reuse of town-owned property and private properties.

Max Strang had a distinct advantage when designing this single-family residence in the northern Florida Keys. The secluded 2-acre site is surrounded on three sides by beach and tropical forest, with the Atlantic Ocean glistening from the shoreline. Privacy was not a concern at all, the architect, principal of Florida-based STRANG, told AN. Every now and then you get some boats through there, but its wide open. The location, and lack of constraints, allowed Strang to flex the principles of what he calls environmental modernism, a site-driven, climate-conscious approach with a reliance on local materials where appropriate. For this project, the philosophy invited the use of coral rock along the base and an abundance of windows to connect the built and natural environments. It also prompted elevating the 2-story house 10 feet above the sands on cylindrical concrete columns, creating pathways for storm surges with the intention of preventing damage in the event of sea level rise and from the increasingly powerful hurricanes that regularly threaten the region. The structure and property necessitate a focus on resiliency.The secluded 2-acre site is surrounded on three sides by beach and tropical forest. (Kris Tamburello)What drives itand what drives a lot of our workare the passive design features and keeping the house very narrow, Strang said. You can maximize the daylighting, the crossventilation, and the connection to the outdoors. The house also features a curvature that Strang said is unusual for his firm but operates in response to the site and the prime views.Louvered screens and overhangs help with shading and cooling. (Kris Tamburello)The Van der Vlugt Residence, built as a primary residence for a family whose children attended the same school as Strangs, is a 5,800-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 2-office showcase of the architects philosophies. Its somewhat austere aesthetic represents design choices, including sly references to the famed Sarasota School of Paul Rudolph and Gene Leedy, such as using the space beneath the house as a covered outdoor living area. Strang described the house as pretty raw aesthetically, because of the exposed concrete, though he noted that the board-formed treatment provides texture; the feature is used throughout the interior as well, complementing the minimalist design by Dutch designer Loes Slokkers. The breezeway, or outdoor foyer, as Strang called it, serves as the main entry to an openair spiral staircase finished in microcement that ascends into the main level. About halfway up the lower portion of the stairs, there is the door that takes you inside the house itself, Strang said. That puts you in the great room; the staircase actually divides the living room from the kitchen and dining room. Past the living room, on the main floor, is an owners suite with a bathroom placed at the end of the house, a counterintuitive move, according to Strang. This allowed for the bed to be placed centrally, offering panoramic views of the Florida Straits.A spiral staircase finished in microcement acts as a sort of joint connector for the homes curvature. (Kris Tamburello)Its a really sexy master bedroom, Strang said. Upstairs, the second level features two childrens bedrooms and a main office with a covered terrace and spectacular ocean views.Floor to ceiling impact windows showcase the tropical views while providing a buffer from high winds. (Kris Tamburello)The impact of these views would have been lessened had the house been built at ground level with less sturdy materials. Strang addressed the need for Florida architects to account for sea level rise and storm surge at an Archtober event with AN executive editor Jack Murphy at DOM Interiors last fall. It was also an urgent topic in his 2023 monograph Subtropic: The Architecture of [STRANG], in which he wrote, The rewards for building higher clearly outweigh all the upfront costs. Heat and sunshine are other factors that influenced the design and materials at the Van der Vlugt Residence. Louvered screens and overhangs throughout the exterior help with shading and cooling, while the floor-to-ceiling windows are impact glass built to withstand hurricane-force winds; for particularly exposed windows, wood slats offer extra protection.The space beneath the house functions as a covered outdoor living area. (Kris Tamburello)This is not your typical Keys house, Strang said, alluding to the traditional beach shack look of much of the regional architecture. This ones going to be here a lot longer.Project SpecificationsArchitect: STRANGLandscape design: STRANGInterior design: Slokkers DesignStructural engineer: G2 ConsultingMEP engineer: JWL (electrical)General contractor: Tri-Tech ConstructionWindows and doors: ES WindowsRoofing: KemperLighting: Coastal Systems (exterior)Appliances: GaggenauFixtures: Plumbing fixtures by CEA, toilets by Duravit

Eight Strategies For Health Insurers To Repair And Enhance CXForresterIn 2024, trust in health insurers hit a three-year low, with just 56% of consumers reporting that they trust their health insurer to do what is in their best interest. The industrys Customer Experience Index (CX Index) score also hit a five-year low, underscoring significant shortcomings. The most basic reasons why an insurer exists, such as processes transactions quickly, landed among the top drivers of CX. Performance on this driver and others has been decreasing since 2022. To climb out of this hole, here are eight things health insurers must do:Start your listening tour now. Dont just imagine what customers might be going through. Immerse yourself in the customers world and experiences by conducting the right kinds of research. Analyze your existing data first. Show that youre listening by acknowledging these issues and demonstrating empathy to rebuild trust.Communicate your plan. Be transparent about what you learn and what you are going to change. Transparency is a key lever of trust. If its a customer-facing change, tell them how you plan to do it and set expectations for how long it will take to deliver. Follow the same approach if the change is more targeted to the experience of providers, employers, brokers, or other key ecosystem partners.Stop paying lip service and start taking action. People know empty promises when they hear them. Focus on incremental improvements that you can deliver quickly. Demonstrate that you will continue to listen and collect feedback to stay on the right track. Ensure adequate investment for improvements to the experience yes, health insurance leaders, the ROI is there. The right improvements can deliver value to members, providers, and insurers.Cocreate with your customers. Engage and collaborate with your customers at each phase of creating experiences not only to test the solutions youve already created but also to identify needs and problems and ideate solutions. What is their job to be done? Are you helping them with what they need or chasing what you think they want? Place a special focus on collaborating with groups that are often left behind, such as customers with disabilities. Customer obsession means putting the customer at the center of your leadership, strategy, and operations. Get aligned to customer needs and build experiences that work for them, and then the business outcomes will follow.Get the basics right to rebuild trust. Rebuilding trust, especially for health insurers, hinges on competence, reliability, and accountability. Understand your customers, clarify complex processes, and prioritize their value perception over yours. Value creation is based on an exchange what customers get versus what they give up and its influenced by their value network. For instance, unexpected bills, like a $25 copay, can negatively impact their experience with you due to misunderstandings about cost-sharing.Revisit broken processes. Today, 77% of healthcare practitioners report that health insurers create additional hurdles to patients getting the care they need, with just 20% agreeing that the policies and procedures established by health insurers align well with the needs of their patients. Explore gold-carding and waiving prior authorization for specific procedures.Focus on improving CX not scores. Yes, you will see the impact on scores like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer satisfaction. Customers have been loudly expressing their frustration and anger. These emotions are not new. Feedback is a gift (even when someone shouts it at you). Tear it open and use it to meaningfully to move the needle on CX.Prepare for the next crisis. Health insurers lacking a crisis communication plan risk long-term reputational and financial damage to their company. Develop a response plan now, including how you will communicate with customers and the public across all relevant channels.Join us at CX Summit North America from June 2326 in Nashville to delve into these topics. Reserve your spot to join the conversation.This post was written by Principal Analyst Arielle Trzcinski and it originally appeared here.

Space Marines, Rogue Traders, Xenos and more come together as the main characters of a Warhammer 40k ... [+] Wrath & Glory campaign.Cubicle 7 EntertainmentThe Warhammer universe offers several times and places for fans who want to engage with its themes of war and corruption. One of the most popular is Warhammer 40,000 where humanity has spread across the galaxy as the warmongering Imperium of Man. This setting has spread across miniatures games, fiction, video games and tabletop roleplaying games.Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory from Cubicle 7 Entertainment gives players a chance to not just play members of the Empire but also other species part of Aeldari and Ork factions. There is a Humble Bundle going on now that includes much of the line that includes the core book, rules expansions, enemy books and adventures. Here are some highlights of the best books contained within this digital PDF collection.Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory CorebookWarhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory lets players build their groups from different archetypes. They are brought together as agents of one of the power players in Gilead Sector and sent on missions to advance their patrons agenda. The game uses a d6 pool system which counts individual dice successes toward a target number.Gilead Sector is a unique setting within Warhammer 40,000 because a warp anomaly has cut it off from the greater empire. This isolation forces unusual alliances between factions that would normally be at war with one another. Theres still plenty of intrigue and battle to be had but its up to the Game Master to decide who is on the side of the players and who is planning a betrayal.The group chooses at what tier they wish to start, which determines the skills, abilities and resources the players have access to. Games looking for the classic zero to hero progression of most role playing games start at tier 1, while games that want to jump right into bein a power player in Gilead can start at tier 4. While not a part of this bundle, Vow of Absolution expands the game to tier 5 by adding the Adeptus Astartes of the Absolvers chapter as playable character options.Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory SourcebooksThe Forsaken System Players Guide expands things for the whole table. It goes into deeper detail on the planets within Gilead Sector and the factions vying for control. There are also several new archetypes and playable alien species.The Redacted Records books include additional options for players. There are more archetypes, talent selections and other choices that expand customization options. The books also offer more detail on how to play out character ascension when someone jumps to a new tier and the story options that might play out.These books also have great inspiration for game masters. Not only is there a section on generating the abandoned dungeons in space known as Space Hulks, some example entries are also available. There are additional campaign frameworks details alongside new patrons that can function as allies, rivals or likely both during the run of a series.Game Masters will also enjoy the Threat Assessment books. GMs always need more bad guys and these books delve into the enemy factions that make life in Gilead complicated. More than simple collections of stat blocks, these books also provide succinct details for enemies dripping with Warhammer lore.Threat Assessment: Xenos give players plenty of alien species to battle and some background for players who make alien characters. Threat Assessment: Daemons & Heretics offers creatures from the warp to slay and chaos-infected humans to purge. Of course, this being the Warhammer 40k universe, players might be just as likely to make secret alliances with these heretical creatures and pick up one of the archetypes in these books with their Game Masters permission.Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory AdventuresThe Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory Starter Set is a great place to start playing the game. It includes pre-made characters and a short self contained adventure featuring the players trying to escape a Chaos infected ship. For groups that want to continue, there are story hooks that can use the box as a jumping off point of the campaign.Fans who want to bring the carnage of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 to the tabletop can check out Purge The Swarm. This adventure allows players to play characters from the game in a story set in that part of the universe. Its a great selection for Game Masters who want to hook in video game fans.The Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory Humble Bundle runs from now through March 22nd.

The big picture: Recent solar energy research highlights the potential for a future where solar panels play a pivotal role in reducing dependence on carbon-emitting energy sources. As scientists develop more efficient solar cells, this vision becomes increasingly within reach and could positively affect global temperatures. Proponents have long touted solar power as a cleaner alternative to traditional fossil fuels. New research finds it could play a significant role in mitigating global climate change. The study published in Nature delves into the potential of widespread solar adoption to reduce Earth's rising temperature, focusing on the impact of installing solar panels on most compatible rooftops worldwide. The findings indicate that such an initiative could lower the planet's average surface temperature by 0.13 degrees Celsius.To assess the feasibility of this approach, researchers from China, Germany, Italy, and Sweden employed geospatial data mining and artificial intelligence to estimate the global rooftop area. Their calculations revealed 286,393 square kilometers, or 110,576 square miles, of available rooftop space.Click to enlarge.However, they also considered the challenges associated with solar adoption, including disparities in economic resources and technical expertise across different regions. For instance, wealthy nations tend to have an easier time implementing solar technology due to better infrastructure and more trained personnel.The team further analyzed how different geographic zones could influence solar output. For example, rooftop solar panels in regions like the Southwestern United States could produce more energy than in areas with less sunlight, such as Troms, Norway.Using geographic rooftop area clusters to determine regional solar feasibility, the researchers estimated how much of each region's carbon-producing energy sources could be replaced by solar power. They project that widespread solar adoption could reduce carbon emissions sufficiently to lower global temperatures by 0.05 to 0.13 degrees Celsius by 2050. // Related StoriesClick to enlarge.While the study highlights the potential of solar power, it should be tempered with a grain of salt. It merely demonstrates solar's capabilities rather than a practical roadmap for immediate implementation. Placing solar panels on every compatible roof worldwide would be highly challenging.Nonetheless, the research underscores the importance of transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy sources in combating climate change. As scientists continue to develop more efficient solar cells and explore innovative ways to harness solar power beyond rooftop installations, the potential for solar energy to mitigate global warming is even more significant.