#PVE Viable

[wyldblunt]

MALICE MY FRIEND MALICEW. MALICE SWORDSHADOW SPOTTED. THATS ALL I CARE ABOUT

[beta-lactam-allergic]

Redid this post as I realise one of the two image showed too much of my computer room

So anyway, this is just me bragging about getting another character in Arknights without spending any money by being patient whilst some whale probably spent a few hundred on getting the same character when she was released. I mean yes, whales are good for keeping the game financially viable, but I need to spend that money on food & rent, so I can't be that whale. It's a PvE game, you don't need the latest units to win if you have skill, & if it was PvP, I wouldn't play because there's no point playing a PvP gacha as a F2P or just non-whale.

[huggingtentacles]

My boyfriend was an avid Elden Ring enjoyer, he put several hundred hours into just playing PvE, and since he really, really liked/was good at dark souls 3 PVP, he wanted to get into Elden Ring PVP. He made an entire build around PVP and played it to endgame, only to find out that apparently PVP isn't viable on PC (he only owns a PC) because of latency issues caused by the anti cheat software. As a PVP enthusiast, can you give any input at all? Is the only solution really to just buy a PS5? He's extremely sad because he put so much work into that character and now he can't even play it, and he's lost basically all his enthusiasm for the game because of it

There is Seamless Coop mod that from what I've heard fixes the issue because you launch the game without EAC which causes the lag. They added invasions recently! And there are mods for cool arenas and such. However I don't know how active it really is, I don't know how to install it, I've never played it. But this might be your best option.

Although I must say buying a ps5 is a good idea it's not just for ER PvP it's just a great gaming platform. You need a subscription to play online but otherwise it's just better in every way, no hackers no scripters good FPS fast loading screens, just really good stuff. If seamless coop sucks consider it

[caliblorn]

I WANT TO TRY A LOW HEALTH VAMPIRE BUILD WITH CRUVA BUT CAN I REALLY PULL IT OFF?!? AND WOULD IT BE VIABLE FOR PVE?

[woethehero]

Wyrd RPG Blog Post #2 - Combat Discussion

Hey Hero! Check out the much improved lettering of the name lmao.

Welcome back! This time were discussing the Combat mechanics and what has been worked on so far. Some things are in better spots than others, but everything is open to criticism. Everything is subject to changing as review and testing occurs.

We're going to be covering a lot, prepare! Just as a reference for what I'm going to be talking about today:

Asymmetrical Combat (PvE, PvP, GM and Players)

Health Systems (Core, Health, Armor, and Magic Protection)

Defining Enemies (Minion, Elite, Champion, Boss)

Phases of Combat (Move!, Fire!, Fight!, Plan!)

Grouping (For Friend and Foe, Individuals or Squads)

Player and Foe Actions

Combat for this system has a very large amount of influences, but you can expect turn orders to play like a war game may. This has been a very interesting thing to try and adapt to a TTRPG combat system, as I quickly figured out why you don't often see tactical/squad based gameplay in RPGs. Regardless, we're going to try our best anyways.

Asymmetrical Combat

It's important to understand right away that the design behind the combat is that GM's take on a largely different role in play than the players do. Players control their Champions in a much more specific and detailed way than most creatures the GM is responsible for, specifically in PvE, which will be the intended way to play.

Player Characters have access to Effort, a plethora of abilities and items, and a custom understanding of how to operate their character. At the head of the table, the GM has a much more simple task in playing the monsters. I wanted the GM side to foundationally be scalable from small encounters to massive battles without much change required in how things are played. As anyone who has played more than a couple sessions of any TTRPG with combat in it, it can be really slow.

I don't want to rush the players, but I do want most of the time to be spent on their decision making and thoughtfulness. The game is aimed to be a little more difficult than others and discourage direct fighting all the time, not without tipping the scales first anyways, so naturally the players are encouraged to be genuinely thoughtful.

As for PvP, I currently don't have the desire to incorporate PvP into the balancing process of enemy types, champion abilities and equipment, etc. This is an RPG first and foremost with war game style combat that's focused on the players. I don't see myself ever wanting this to be a competitively viable project, but a cooperative one most definitely. Doesn't mean I won't change my mind later though!

Health, for Friends and Foe

For Player Characters, Health has a bit more going on and is broken into 3 distinct categories, Armor, Health, and Core.

Armor Pips (AP): Like a standard Health Pip, but it has it's own armor save of at least Armor 2, up to Armor 5, determined by the equipment of the character. Once they run out of Armor Pips, damage defaults to Health Pips.

Health Pips (HP): Your flesh and blood, typically takes damage directly without intervention. If unarmored, be very careful! Once you run out of Health Pips, any damage goes to Core.

Core Health Pips (CHP): A small number representing your resistance to fatal damage. When taking damage at Core, all incoming damage is reduced to 1. This represents great injury or mental anguish. Healing Core Wounds takes a long time, and when you run out of Core, you die. Most characters have at a minimum 2. Protect it well!

There was originally an idea for another layer of armor called Magic Armor Pips, but after further ideation were later moved, as Armor Pips had changed quite a lot from first conception. Now Magic Protection is going to be a type of spell ability to allow different types of mechanical advantages to occur that deny damage from going through. Armor Pips were originally going to work the same for Foes as well, but when testing on a larger scale, it got to be way too difficult to determine how groups take damage where and when, so a more simplistic design was created in attempt to remedy this. This actually has worked out so far, because Asymmetrical Combat and GM ease of management are big goals of the design.

For Foes, it depends on how they're defined.

How Foes are Defined

Minion / Grunt / Gribbly - The "Bandit Sniper" "Skeleton Swordsman" "Gob Thug", the nameless guys who populate dungeons and typically exist more in numbers. They can have specializations, but are ultimately disposable. Typically with limited action choices, d6 table outcomes, and basic fighting styles. They don't worry about managing Effort (just get exhausted after some time).

✴ no Effort maintenance, no Core, base Armor #.

Elite - A step up above, often found as particularly capable leadership for Minions, but also in small groups to form dangerous Elite squads. They have a broader selection of abilities usually requiring some strategizing from the GM. Actions are more advanced and may involve more GM focus, but doesn't require managing Effort. Elites have Core HP and can React.

✴ no Effort maintenance, but wider range of actions, and they do have Core, still Armor #. (Armor # doesn't apply to Core)

Champion - Equal complexity to the players in some regard. Player Characters may face opponent Champions. Not frequent in a fight and can be viewed as a "mini-boss" of sorts. Effort will need to be managed by the GM and Health will behave the same as players. (Core HP, HP, Armor)

✴ very similar to Player Characters in complexity, same Health system AND Effort maintenance.

Hero/Boss - Behave in rules beyond what's available to players. The scale of them varies, but their defining factors are usually unique abilities not seen elsewhere in the game specific to the unit. Some abilities or actions stretch beyond what is otherwise mechanically possible within the game, primarily for fun, lore flavoring, or to express otherworldly power. Huge BBEGs or characters "Achieving Daemonhood" type stuff, so special occasion things.

✴ a step beyond normal design, allowed to break some rules to provide unique challenge and/or flavor.

Combat Battle Phases:

Alright! This is the more War-Gamey part of the combat system. Fans of Warhammer will likely notice similarities. There are currently 4 Distinct Phases for Combat:

Move! (positioning, determining engagements)

Fire! (ranged abilities and attacks)

Fight! (melee abilities and attacks)

Plan! (time for decision making, grouping, or bailing)

A turn begins at Move!, which is Regen applies. Effort must be carefully maintained through each round. At the beginning of each phase, participating group of combatants must Roll Off to see who has priority.

Roll Offs

Each acting unit rolls a d12 to determine turn order for each phase to determine in what order things happen. For all phases, the lower number goes first, then the next, and so on until the lowest.

Winning a Roll Off means you have Priority, which looks a little different each Phase.

Move!: When you have Priority on Moving, it means you as a Player can elect to Move or React. If you end your movement in proximity to a Foe, you are considered to be Engaged, where neither can leave without first attempting to Disengage. If you want to lock someone up in a fight where they are, that's the time to Go. If you want to wait and React to what a Foe does before you Move, you can put yourself behind them in turn order so you can Move afterwards.

- If you're the target of a React, you cannot React and must Move! (I don't love this one, but I don't want players to feel punished by moving first, then another enemy moves out of range) - Minions cannot React, but Elites and up can. - Critical 1's on Move! Roll Offs grant extra movement. 12's cannot React, even to other 12's.

Fire!: Having Priority on Fire! means your ranged attack goes off before someone else's. In a shootout with multiple combatants, this could mean your shot interrupts or takes out a Foe before they can Fire their attack.

- Unique to Fire! is the Cover mechanic. Cover utilizes terrain pieces of different sizes, determined by the GM of giving Cover 1-4, acting as a secondary armor save. Fire! targets that decided to Hunker Down get an additional Cover 1. - Critical 1's on Fire! give you an auto-success on your next action.

Fight!: Units Engaged in a Fight! roll for Priority to see who gets to hit first and who defends, followed by a reversal.

- Previously, the Fight! System was the Roll Off determines who is on the offensive and who is on the defensive, meaning there was an Attacker and Defender and that was it. This lead to cool interactions of one party being on the defensive or have dramatic back and forth, but quickly fell apart in encounters where multiple combatants were fighting, so a more traditional wargame "my turn your turn" is something I'm going to try for now. It currently forces a lot more energy usage from the champions than the previous iteration, but I don't hate that.a - Critical 1's on Fight! Give you an auto-success on your next action.

Plan! doesn't Roll Off, this is just time for thinking and changing things up. Namely, reconfiguring grouping or bailing on the fight.

When you decide to Bail!, you and your party escape the encounter. I currently haven't set up any mechanics for how this works, as it's yet to be something people wanna do in basic testing. I'm currently debating between letting it be an easy out but with immediate penalties, or setting up a more complex mini game of trying to escape that may lend to a chase. Regardless, I don't want players to ever feel trapped in an encounter they know they don't wanna do anymore. It's purely unfun.

Last note on Roll Offs, I'm currently experimenting with an character mechanic called Speed, which would affect Roll Off successes. I'm either going to make it a Stat for characters to build or not, or make it a property of actions/weapons/traits, or a third option I haven't thought of yet.

Character and Unit Grouping

As combat is designed to be scalable with the size of the engagement, the grouping of enemies may change. In the beginning of a character's career, it may be common for the Party to fight a number of opponents approximate to their party total. For contained instances like this, having each unit act independently or maybe in pairs is fine.

However, enemies may appear in larger numbers or be working together more strategically. Player Characters may also have their own minions or companions to manage and running them all separately is just too much slog. Before any encounter or during Plan!, you can revisit squad configurations and Group Up or Split Up as makes sense to the table, as long as units are able to make the changes happen, such as being in relative proximity or have some form of communication from distance.

In cases like these, say you have 4 town guard under the command of a character, you'd roll them together as a single acting unit. 1 Roll Off die for all 4 as they act cohesively, Move or React all together, 4d6 to determine attacks and defenses, etc.

During Plan!, you could decide to split up those guard and give two to an ally. Or regain control of all 4 again. You could pair up with another Champion to ensure you act together at the same time during your phases if you have something planned.

Foe Actions

Minions and Elites, the bulk of what Player's may encounter, play very simply. Champions and Bosses are more related to players actions, but will be explored further on in a future post.

On a Minion and Elite level, their Attacks and Defenses are prepared on a d6 table for each action that the GM simply has to pop a d6 on to see how they behave.

Let's look at this Gob Thug. Whenever it's their time to Fight!, the GM will roll a d6 to determine their outcome depending on if they're in Defense or Offensive stances. If there are multiple of the same unit in the group, you can roll multiple d6 to determine them all. Here are examples of some abilities minions may have.

For Attacking, Spiked Mace:

1 - 1 Damage w Crush 1

2-3 - 1 Damage

4-6 - Miss

Short Bow:

1 - 2 Damage

2-3 - 1 Damage

4-6 - Miss

For Defending, Wooden Shield:

1 - Block 2

2-3 - Block 1

4-6 - Fail to Block

Basic Weapon Block:

1-2 Block 1

3-6 Fail to Block

Player Actions

An Action on the Player side requires Effort to complete to determine how well the task is performed, unlike a simple pop of a d6. Primarily, this is for things that require some Skill or Attribute to perform, like making an attack with a particular weapon, disengaging from a fight, performing an ability, etc.

The inspiration behind this system is Pathfinder 2E's Degrees of Success, of Critical Fail, Fail, Success, Critical Success. However in this, there isn't critical failure, and the highest success result written is considered the best or "critical" success.

By default, totaling below the minimum successes needed on a roll means total failure, you did not do what you intended. It simply fails. Some actions can specifically mention consequences of failure or change the cost of success around depending on the nature of the action. Some actions could even include failure as one of the lower results or as a result of overshooting.

Additionally, so far in the default, we've been doing 3 basic degrees.

For example, a plain Short Sword may look like this:

Slash

1 Success: 1 Damage

2-3 Successes: 2 Damage

4+ Successes: 3

Damage

Pommel Strike

0-1: Miss, Trigger Target Riposte

2: 1 Damage, Crush 1 (Reduce Target Armor)

3+: 2 Damage, Crush 1

Weapons as a basis are currently thought having some basic actions that come with it with fixed outcomes. They're not restricted to this, think of them more as a template. You can alter the success requirements, add more outcomes, add new attack types for the weapon, give it custom properties, and so on.

There is still a strong spirit of "can I do this?" available in the game. My partner is a fan of flipping or throwing furniture on enemies during testing, which grants them cover or improvisational damage. For these instances, I've just been asking for "Toughness Checks, 1-3 successes" depending on what they're trying to move.

Wrap Up

This is everything done for Combat so far, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I know it was a lot so I appreciate you reading up, just a lot to get caught up on as I'm starting this documentation process a bit after the fact.

The next post is going to cover Character Creation, attributes, skills, and current stat ideas I'm playing with. Moving forward from this post, things will have a much more exploratory and uncertain tone as I'm sharing more so my less polished ideas, which I hope encourages more discussion in the future from anyone with their own ideas or concerns!

Thanks for reading Hero (:

See you in the next one!

Woe <3

[ashinaisshin]

thought about my experience with some of the “souls-likes” i played recently and how my experience differed for each game. if i made time vs my git-gudness graphs for four games in particular (sekiro, elden ring, armored core vi, and sifu – i also played them in this order with some other games in between), they’d kinda look like this. explanation/rant about each game under cut…

sekiro: contrary to the common “it’s very hard at the start but once it clicks everything is a cakewalk” experience that i’ve heard many people had with sekiro, i felt like i was more in a loop of “i got gud - nope i didn’t - i got gud - nope” while i gradually improved in general over time during NG. then on NG+ i saw just how much easier everything became and went “wow i really got better at this game” (and proceeded to get clapped again by the difficulty of a charmless run on NG++)

elden ring: i had a slow start, not only about the combat itself but also just understanding all the stats and weapons and items etc.. but after stormveil i think i sorta got the hang of things and proceeded from there relatively smoothly, at least more smoothly than i expected (with some big bumps on hard bosses ofc), though i also felt like i never got as gud at ER as the other games by the end of NG, hence the flatter curve with a lower end point on my ER graph

armored core vi: i felt like i was honestly clueless about how to play ac6 for a VERY LONG TIME, maybe all the way till 1/2 or even 2/3 of NG, where i kept hitting walls after walls (though for some reason i still couldn’t put the game down lol), but then at some point things started to make sense. the more i played the easier things got, and in the end after NG++ i think ac6 is the “easiest” among these 4 games (only talking about pve) once you more or less master the mechanics. i think my initial trip up was probably mainly due to my unwillingness to understand the parts and builds, which imo is a lot more critical to a smooth progression through ac6 (especially during NG) compared to the other games. “banging head against bosses to learn patterns” was honestly a pretty viable strategy for the other games but less so for ac6

sifu: i think i was learning the game slowly but steadily at the start, a large part of it thanks to the extremely helpful training mode, but it was still a bumpy road, and kuroki especially was a big road block. i spent the most amount of time redoing the museum level and grinded XP there. but once i unlocked all the skills and got toward the end of NG/start of NG+, at one point i actually had a “click” where i just suddenly started playing the game a lot better, and i finished NG+ with wude ending much sooner than i thought. i’m still pretty clueless about how to combo and have yet to try master difficulty though, and i'm ready to get obliterated again lol

[zydrateacademy]

Current Activities in ESO #7

A lot of my gameplay has been catchup by day, RP by night.

I had a decent windfall of selling a chunk of crowns for 19mil gold, and I've spent the bulk of that decorating several households to serve as heist targets for thief-based RP with variable difficulty. I mentioned that in the last post.

I was trying to conserve my last few mil to buy and decorate the upcoming Merryvine villa in Gold Road. However I kept getting into gearing and re-gearing old and new alts to make them playable. Some of my older alts had a far too hefty reliance on Briarheart and Hundings when the new(ish) Order's Wrath set for crit is now the go-to baby. I set up one of my arcanists as a tank and following a build online got incredibly expensive, utilizing those runes that cost ~90k each (they buff all three stats). That tank set is stupidly well geared now, but I still generally prefer healing. I've been slowly but surely trying to gear up a lot of my "most used" alts for double duty. DPS in overland, questing, zone clearing, etc, but having a heal/tank set for faster queues and generally having more to offer my roster than others.

Exception being perhaps my werewolf orc, whom I've retooled with Oakensoul. She has some insane light attack crits and can almost braindead her gameplay but she's so much more viable than the basic bow/bow bitch that threw cliff racers at people.

I've discovered I don't much care for B/B builds anymore except in one scenario; Battlegrounds. It's fun to plug away with poison-based arrows, whittling down enemy HP bars while it takes them several seconds to figure out where all that damage is coming from. Sure I get spotted and gunned down like I usually do, I'm not invisible, but it's fun to join already in-progress fights and plug away before they realize where that damage is coming from.

An exception to this exception is that my main necromancer. The class just isn't very fun to play at all. Our main sources of damage are all deeply flawed. Their biggest his is the blastbones skill that every Necro build uses but it takes a full 3 seconds to even leave the ground. By that time the trash pack might be dead already, or against single target bosses that's 3 seconds of not doing very much else. You have a skeleton pet (usually archer, I don't even know what the other morph is because nobody uses it) that only lasts 16 seconds and only shoots every so often, but mostly serves as another corpse to use once it goes down. Then there's the corpse-based laser beam that's very awkward to use and position reliant, and in certain boss fights your position may matter more than the laser beam. So that's another DPS loss.

I couldn't even play melee necro because you spend your whole rotation summoning blastbones, throwing the skull, or using some other skill that I found myself not swinging my weapons at all. Just a clunky cooldown chase. Gross.

The good thing is, she has a functional heal kit so that's another queue in the bag usually. Not as good as my arcanist healer whom is amazing, but still feels better to play than any kind of DPS.

On an RP standpoint, I've joined and left a couple of RP guilds. Well, more on the cusp of being kicked before just quitting to maintain my own dignity.

I won't name any names but it was a guild based on the Brotherhood. I have an assassin character and wanted to put her to use. They had this fun little system where they had a discord bot that would spit out a target, custom added. It gave more variance to overworld stabbing because it feels like base-game DB radiants just send you to the same six places over and over. So it was fun to get a change in scenery, and even helped push my assassin girl to collect a few wayshrines from lesser-seen towns. It also tied in their promotion system. Normally I wouldn't like PvE achievements leaking into RP promotions but it was a fun thing to do. The guild was also heavily hybridized, they had a lot of their membership that don't RP at all.

I found this culture to be a bit taxing. They had this strangest system of using local chat for OOC and only RPing in emotes, which I have never seen before (in any RP setting, ever). They claimed it was for filtering purposes.

There was also a jarring moment where, after claiming I was doing OOC movements, went around to take OOC screenshots of their promotion event. I have a reshade and screenshot helper mod to help me get very cinematic shots but while my UI was hidden apparently I was getting yelled at for being on the main stage where all of the officers were. I had already specified I was OOC but they claimed I was "breaking the sanctity of the ceremony". So my first day in there, it felt as though I had joined a guild of people that were incapable of keeping their attention on anything specific. Can't differentiate any posts between IC and OOC, and can't handle a crouched, hiding character in a corner taking cool screenshots of your proceedings.

I was in this guild for a solid three weeks or so but eventually an officer contacted me about there having been multiple complaints against me. It felt like this post's situation all over again, though the officer here was significantly more diplomatic than that link. I just got the "I've gotten complaints about you" vibe when a large portion of this guild barely interacted with me at all to know otherwise.

Basically my style or personality was conflicting with people. Naturally I never got any specifics or names so I couldn't defend myself properly. According to this officer my previously mentioned conflicts about the way their do their RP, I was trying to set my standards as "THE" standard. While I was in fact, trying to make conversation and understanding their way a bit better. But it rubbed some people the wrong way. I decided instead of being shadow-shunned by several people I would just leave. The options were to shut my own personality down and be much more silent in the guild (which defeats the fucking purpose of RP as a hobby), or continue to RP and interact with a guild where I know there's several people purposefully avoiding interaction with my character because they didn't like me as a player. I just can't really handle being in a guild where I know most people don't want to interact with me. Or is it most? Or is it just two or three complainers? I have no idea! Because the officers that have these conversations never tell me!

This happened before in another guild I quite liked. Though a while ago, back when I was much more active in 2021. I liked that guild, its systems, but the officer of the 'roguey' sub-faction in the guild just decided he didn't like how I spoke to him (completely ICly, mind you) and chastised me for that.

And much like that guild from three years ago, this Dark Brotherhood one wasn't all bad. In some cases I'd even recommend it to people, but it would come with a few asterisks and extra thoughts on the matter to those who would care to hear it.

Kinda put me off for a couple days. I'm not really sure how to adjust my own self when approaching a future RP guild to replace my lost 5th slot. Do I just... talk less? It's certainly some food for thought.

[volskayadottxt]

time to engage in some Speculation*

*seriously, don't pretend i have secret insider info

**i could be booboo the fool here

***thats why im posting this here (no one reads this really) and not on twitter and im already beginning to have second thoughts abt keeping it up so we'll see i guess

i'm not gonna say that aaron's blog post today isn't pr-washed, it totally is (wouldn't get published otherwise). i didn't expect to see any blame laid at the foot of corporate mismanagement. but what i did expect (and did see) is creative mismanagement i've (and others) suspected for a hot minute.

team 4 originally thinking of themselves as an 'mmo team' post-ow launch, with their ultimate goal being the rebuilding of project titan, explains so many strange creative decisions kaplan and the old leadership made prior to his departure. they never really saw ow as we saw ow. we saw it as a fun competitive shooter. they saw it as a stepping stone on the way to creating this massive mmofps.

early in ow's history there were so many weird balancing decisions (example: trying to make each hero equally viable in all situations, balancing around quick play). before the closed beta, im pretty sure they only wanted ow to be playable in dedicated teams of 6. meaning no solo queue. which seems like a REALLY weird decision for a competitive fps, right?

well, now it makes sense. they saw ow as this small part into building this big mmo. chasing that white whale that was project titan. and yeah, in hindsight, easy to think "well they couldn't make it work once, why did they think they could the next time?" well they probably didn't expect ow to be a big runaway success, either. they might've felt like they had the right idea, wrong approach.

it also explains (although i think budgets fall into this as well) why they didn't want to just build a new team for ow2's endgame pve. they saw team 4 as the team that did "everything." that handled the whole franchise.

ironically, we probably wouldn't have gotten archives or (in august) ow2's story missions if it wasn't for that creative vision. we know from former ow producer tracy kennedy that kaplan was thinking of a sequel before ow1 even shipped. that was ow2 and its pve, and eventually... ow3?? the mmo?? so it was something they'd prolly planned to start exploring early in ow1's life cycle.

this also explains why the original ow2 announcement in 2019 was so controversial (thats ignoring the whole blitzchung stuff, which i have zero desire to talk about). i remember kaplan being... kinda hostile in some interviews. like, he was interviewed by nathan grayson during blizzcon 2019 for kotaku. in the published version, grayson expressed frustration that ow1's development had been put on ice for a sequel he didn't really want or expect. kaplan mentioned this first interview in a second interview later (although grayson wasn't mentioned by name). like, he was being professional abt it i guess, but he was clearly upset grayson did not understand the vision and sorta accused him of insulting his team (which i don't think grayson was trying to do, either).

but also--how were we supposed to react? we had no idea the goal was to make titan again. we just assumed ow would function like lol or dota. i guess i can't help but be a little angry. i think the team meant nothing but the best, but a lot of fandom angst could've been avoided if we were told abt what ow1 was (a stepping stone to a larger project) instead of what we thought it was (an always supported online game).

this of course ignores all the corporate mismanagement, which i suspect Jason The Video Game Reporter Guy will cover in the next few weeks. i hold no love for kotick and his goons. but if what aaron is saying is at least marginally true, then the old vision was also a problem. its very easy to lay all the blame at abk corporate and a lot should be, but someone had to pull the creative plug earlier i feel.

at the very least, we now have leadership that's willing to make the tough choices, i guess? i'm certain the mentality of many will be "well they should've done this years ago" but hindsight is 20/20. i'd rather focus on rebuilding now (which is what i think the goal is). and while i have issues w ow2 in it's current state, there's also quite a bit of things i like, and quite a lot of goodwill their narrative team has fostered with me (it helps that the lore/characters/story are my favorite thing perhaps).

i also don't really "blame" aaron or jared. it sucks they've become the face of this when it was a different team, with different members, different structure, different makeup. yes aaron was there but he also wasn't director or ep. jared's been at blizz for like 6 months. i'm not saying trust them wholeheartedly but also... don't treat them inhumanly either.

[sapphic-scylla]

So I usually try to re-up this every once in a while to make sure those people that follow my Destiny 2 stuff and actively struggle with or have hit a stopgap in their attempts to improve at the game or finding it hard to enjoy the game at a base level.

Things You Should Know About Destiny 2 that will help you improve:

Survivability is the most important thing. I know. A lot of Destiny players tell you that having good damage numbers is the most important thing and using the best weapons will help you achieve that. They’re wrong. Ten out of ten times, I would pick the person who knows how to survive but doesn’t have the best damage over the guy that can rack up 3 mil damage but I have to pick up 4 times an encounter. Eventually, damage becomes an issue, but that can be fixed in-game by loadouts and will not help you if you’re dying consistently.

Weapon choice doesn’t matter as much as you think. When you’re picking a loadout, a staple ideal to look for is to cover your bases. PvP is a little more lenient on this, but in PvE, you want to fight smart. One weapon for ad clear/stunning champions, a high-value melter, and a DPS machine. These roles can swap around and doesn’t always come from the same slot. Use what makes you comfortable, but know when your loadout isn’t cutting it. Use a little common sense. If you’re using a sidearm in a large group of ads that are in a wide space and you’re dying a lot or you’re attempting to use a sword on a flying boss for dps, maybe that’s a cue to switch it up.

Every subclass has bonuses. Finding synergy within the subclass you like to use is important and every class is viable as long as you’re capable of leveraging your abilities to keep you alive. There are times where you may have to switch to something else but it’s very rare and only in the highest end of content (GMs and Master Raids).

Comfortability beats effectiveness every time. Some weapons just outright don’t feel good to you. I feel that way with several weapons that sit squarely in the meta. That’s ok. Find a replacement. It’s better yo se what you’re good with than to play worse because you’re using something you don’t like.

Just because a weapon isn’t good now doesn’t mean it won’t be good in the future. I see a lot of people make this mistake. Every weapon is a patch away from being the next big thing. This doesn’t mean you have to pick up one of everything, but if you like something and it’s not good at the time, don’t just delete it. One day, a patch will come and that weapon will feel great and the people around you might be scrambling for that weapon while you already have one. On the inverse, all good weapons eventually get hit with a nerf. Make sure your skill set is well rounded so that you aren’t spending two weeks after the sandbox changes reacquainting yourself with the new meta.

Game Sense outweighs weapon choice. Igneous Hammer, Witherhoard, and Jotunn cannot save you if you don’t have good game sense. Learning to position and shoot with your team and complimenting their play styles, flanking in tandem with your squad and knowing when to turn and run, and knowing when hiding and peek shooting is detrimental to your ability to win are all very important skills that will improve your game massively.

[photog-crafty]

The Chernobog was a really cool idea that was executed poorly. Having a dedicated missile carrier to counter aircraft was a good addition in theory, but it was armored with wet paper towels and took ages to set up while having a unique radar icon that magnetized bandits right to you. It wasn't until a few years later when the localized off-radar ability was introduced that it became even remotely viable, and even then, nine times out of ten it was better to just use the explosive sniper anyway. None of us ever bothered using the Chernobog in combat and we instead spent our time Cargobobbing cars under its missile turret and using it as an atom smasher.

You knew you'd won a shitter stomp when they pulled out the ol' ragetank. The TM-01 Khanjali was the surest sign that its owner was angry at something, be it getting dogpiled by a crew or getting ventilated by laggy overpowered NPCs. The real fun of the Khanjali was in wedging telephone poles between its chassis and turret and spinning really fast to make the physics engine freak out and launch the tank across the map.

When I saw there was a car being added with a controllable gun turret on the roof, my first impulse was to paint it up like the car from Super Spy Hunter for the NES. The Weaponized Tampa made heists and PvE missions downright hilarious, being able to scream around corners with guns blazing. Who cared if it could hardly hit the broad side of a barn?

In yet another example of the developers being horribly out of touch with their fanbase, the Caracara was added to get an F-150 Raptor into the game, but specifically as a knockoff of a 6x6 conversion of one. And then they added a gun turret to the back for kicks. It was fun to use as a party Technical, don't get me wrong, but many of us were much more welcoming of the later Caracara 4x4.

Gee Barrage, how come your mom lets you have two gun turrets? This truck was my first choice to bring to heists when playing with randoms, because having not one but two mounted guns grabbed their attention and ensured there was no fighting over who got to play with the big shooty. It was like one of those fancy minivans with the TVs in the back.

Before we had the Khanjali, we had the APC. Being slightly faster and fully amphibious made it loads of fun to bring to missions that had you recovering cargo from the ocean. Seeing one of these with a proper driver and gunner duo was actually pretty scary, and since you needed a crew to operate one of these effectively, I found it fitting to do this one up with glitched Benny's wheels and a shiny purple paint job to pay homage to the Third Street Saints. Did you know that that was why my character wore purple headphones?

The Insurgent Pick-up Custom, affectionately known as the Gunsurgent, was the best way to calm down a noisy session all the way from its Pegasus predecessor's introduction in 2015 to the present day. Even memebikes had to watch their step around it. Whenever this big guy came out of the garage, it was officially go time. Turned out there weren't many problems that a rolling block of steel with a Ma Deuce on the roof couldn't solve.

Despite being lauded for its stealth capabilities, having the same radar icon as an average street car, it was always easy to spot a Vigilante coming because you'd see said icon doing a pirouette every couple of blocks. Not many drivers could handle the Vigilante's boost function, and its low ground clearance made it prone to getting violently hung up on bits of terrain that other cars would completely ignore. It was even more groan-inducing trying to use its missiles and watching them go sailing straight underneath the vehicles you were trying to hit. The Vigilante was amazing at pushing other cars around, though, especially that cursed Humane Labs monkey van, and parking it against a wall to launch cars with its rocket boost was a ride you could charge admission for.

Never in the history of GTA has a vehicle had a redemption arc as glorious as that of the Dune FAV. On release, it wasn't anything special, as its occupants were exposed and its mounted gun had a very limited traversal, and it only became more hated as time passed because the developers, in their infinite wisdom, had decided to bind the proximity mine function to the same button as the horn, making it all too easy to blow yourself to smithereens when trying to give a friendly beep. This problem was exacerbated in the Dune FAVs used for bunker sales, as now the mine button not only took the place of the horn button, but also that of the one used by every other bunker sale vehicle to drop a shipment, so giving that friendly beep on your way to deliver was going to cost you a hell of a lot more than just 500 GTA-bucks. Many of my friends and crew writhed at the sight of these buggies for years until the release of the Up-N-Atomizer physics gun, at which point the lowly Dune FAV got a new lease on life by being the only vehicle in the game that allowed the driver to use the Up-N-Atomizer as a drive-by weapon. Filled with newfound vigor, the Dune FAV made its triumphant return to the battlefield, bringing joy and physics fun to everyone, and we all lived ragdolly ever after.

For quite a while, I looked down my nose at the humble Nightshark. It was just a smaller Insurgent, right? Why would I bother owning one when I already had an Insurgent? But then it went on sale, and I gave it a try out of boredom, and my game plan was changed forever. This thing was a feisty little mountain goat. It was kind of like a small Insurgent, yes, but that smaller size meant it had much more get-up-and-go than its bigger brother, and it was much more comfortable when taken off the beaten path. I actually kept mine in the back of my Mobile Operations Center, where it could be summoned without having to wait for the mechanic to pick up the phone, as an emergency escape vehicle. This foresight proved quite useful, as one of the Nightshark's most important qualities proved to be that it was able to tank a memebike's full complement of missiles and keep running. This, combined with its lack of a unique radar icon, made it ideal for defensive play, and once we learned that breaking the driver's door off made it easy to score eject kills, it became ideal for just about everything.

[nfreak]

This pve build is actually nuts and is the thing that convinced me to try that recent solo flawless dungeon marathon. Lots of fun, and completely viable!

[sarcosuchus--imperator]

There was a design switch from "this game should be fun!" To "this game should be a viable competitive experience " and that switch killed the game.

I think overwatch died the instant they added a role-queue. It actually makes the game complete garbage.

Before role queue: everyone wants to play DPS, but you will not win unless someone plays a healer or tank. This makes healer / tank players valuable and impactful! People appreciate your presence, its fun to help other people, and it often feels like you won the game by choosing to play mercy. This is a big part of what makes those roles fun. And if your team sucks, or are rude to you? You can swap to someone else, and focus on having your own fun. The biggest downside is the occasional bully trying to assign people roles. and sometimes it's your time to suck it up and not play DPS for a round.

(The other issue is that tank stacking is too powerful in professional tournament, But who even cares??)

The Brilliant solution to this problem was to force a 2-2-2 team comp across all game modes. Now DPS feels entitled to a permanently full healthbar because they waited 30 minutes for the privilege of playing junkrat. Playing healer is unimpactful and demanding. You can't just swap to mercy and start winning. You gotta out-heal the other team with a massive target on your back while being blamed for every loss.

It's so unfun, Blizzard starts paying people to play healer, in the form of tickets to skip the wait to play DPS. If your game is so unfun that you need to PAY people to play it? You fucked up.

You can't even escape to a quick casual match, because it uses the same rule set. You can play no limits in the arcade, but all heros are balanced around 2-2-2 now, so it's basically just a joke. And overwatch 2 doubled down on this shit. Tanks are completely asymmetrical, and completely break the arcade. ANYTHING other than the 1-2-2 format is basically unplayable.

The reason people were so excited for PvE was because it sounded like a more casual, relaxed experience for normal people. And people wanted that because Blizzard had DEMOLISHED the fun casual mode they already had, for no reason!

Just...keep the core experience intact and let the professional scene set up extra rules as needed. It's not that hard!

I'm still not over how hard Blizzard fumbled Overwatch

[huggingtentacles]

45/45 Int/Faith. 15 arcane. Sword of night and flame and Pince of Death staff in right hand, no skill shield and Golden Order seal in left. 10 spell slots. What spells do you choose, and in what order?

Prince of Death's staff is bad for int/faith builds and the only reason you would ever use it would be for death sorceries. If you want better overall damage, use Gelmir staff.

That being said.

Catch flame, Night Maiden's Mist, Ancient Death Rancour, Explosive Ghostflame, Stone of Gurranq, Death lightning, Frenzied Burst, Protection of the Erdtree, Bestial Vitality.

I've never played with death sorceries but I know they're good. I've never played with dragon incantations so I'm not recommending those.

Also, this is a PvP setup. In PvE it would be a different one.

Utilize Night Maiden's Mist to block doorways and tight corridors. Explosive Ghostflame for ambushes. If the situation calls for close quarters combat, use catch flame. Death Lightning is your one-shot machine. Cast protection of the Erdtree against casters.

Maybe switch Stone of Gurranq and Night Maiden's Mist for easier combos with catch flame. I prefer having it close to respond to unexpected situations.

On lower levels Fia's Mist would be very fun ans viable, but not on higher levels unfortunately.

[gameinfoxtbr]

Space Shooter Latest Update and News

Space Shooter is still enjoyable because of the space shooting game variety, exciting boss combat, and Space Shooter Latest Update and News. The game is developed by Rocketads Ltd which has been constantly updating the game and adding new content, patches, and events. As always, in this post, we’ll discuss new features and changes that took place in Space Shooter so that you won’t get lost. 🚀

🛸 What’s New in the Latest Space Shooter Update?

https://spaceshooter.online/

Special Planet Event - Earn Bombs Easily!

Welcome to a mysterious planet with a special level where you can easily collect bombs!

only 10 lucky users who answer correctly will receive an exclusive reward!

100 gems, 20 silver, 50,000 coins, and 10 unicards

Deadline: Oct 15 Good luck!

Don't miss your chance to be one of the lucky few! Thanks,

From Space Shooter Team. 1. New Ships and Pilots This new update has added two new ships for players to control each with their special powers and hits. These ships are intended to assist you in gaining victory in both campaign and PvP battles. - Nova Raider: A fast strike vessel with homing torpedoes and a powered-up armor system. - Galactic Falcon: A heavily armored, slow-moving ship that sports strong long-distance firepower and is good for the PvE modes. 2. PvP Matchmaking Improvements Over the years, the call for an improved method of matchmaking for PvP has been made by so many players and the developers have finally listened. The update also brings a modification in the rating list where skilled players will be matched so that PvP battles will be strategic and fun. 3. Seasonal Event: Space Invasion The Space Invasion is now a new and temporary event that invites the players to endure successive enemy hordes to receive immense bonuses. This event’s completion will be rewarded with additional ship skins, gems, and other rare items. If you’d like step-by-step instructions on how to make optimal use of this new content, please read the news Space Shooter Game Guide.

GameInfoX

🎮 Balance Changes and Bug Fixes

This update also brings several balances to change the gameplay as follows: Here’s what’s been tweaked: 1. Ship Balancing A few of the strongest ship classes, including Phoenix Star and Void Thunder become slightly less powerful for the sake of balance. On the other hand, B-Tier ships like Comet Blazer have been rebalanced to be offered as more viable for PVP and PvE. To get specifics on how these changes impact the grand scheme of the game, head over to the Space Shooter Tier List to learn how the ships have been ranked following the update. 2. Bug Fixes A few annoying bugs have been squashed, including: - Improved hitbox detection: Several players complained that bullets shot by enemies were striking their ship when they tried to avoid it. This has now been fixed. - Login issues resolved: A few players were facing some issues such as login issues during peak hours. This issue has been addressed in the latest patch.

GameInfoX

💥 Upcoming Features: What’s on the Horizon?

The creators of Space Shooter are already hinting at fantastic future updates. Here's what players can look forward to in upcoming releases: 1. New Multiplayer Modes The new mode being considered for implementation is a co-op mode where players play alongside each other and have enemies to fight. This mode is expected to add a new layer of strategy to the game because a player can coordinate two or more ships that possess different capabilities to counter more challenging levels. 2. More Ships and Skins In an official statement, the developers have admitted that there is a plan to integrate three new ships and other ship skins in subsequent updates. New ships themselves will have some sort of special abilities so the players can test out with different tactics. Get in touch with Space Shooter Developer and get to know the newest features and announcements.

💎 New Space Shooter Gift Codes

The update also has another new gift code that is wonderful for the gamer to get the chance to effortlessly accumulate a bunch of free gems, coins, and other special features that are available for redemption through the settings option. To have the complete list of codes check out Space Shooter Game Codes.

🚀 Tips to Maximize the Latest Update

Who is interested in getting the most out of the new Space Shooter update? Here are some expert tips to help you get ahead: 1. Upgrade New Ships ASAP The new ships introduced as Nova Raider and Galactic Falcon are powerful units of your fleet. They need to be upgraded often so ensure to gather as many events, daily quests, and gifts resources to advance them as soon as possible. 2. Master PvP with Matchmaking Now that things like PvP matchmaking have been made better, it is time to hone yourself up for the task. Change ship and/or pilot and check if this combination is suitable for the new rank because of the American system. 3. Join the Space Invasion Event Try the limited-time Space Invasion event where you earn exclusive items such as skin for a ship, gems, and power-ups. Thus, higher-level challenges reward the best prizes – so try to level up your ships to participate! To see more tips, you may visit the Space Shooter Game Guide to find out how to master the new update.

🔥 Why Space Shooter Updates Keep Players Hooked

Because of the constant stream of new levels and upgrades, Space Shooter continues to be one of the favorites. Here are some of the key reasons why the updates keep players coming back: 1. New Challenges Every update brings new levels, bosses, and events, which is good because it always provides us with new material. The developers make a point to deliver something new to be on the lookout for with each update. 2. Balance and Fair Play Based on player feedback, the developers set ship power levels in such a manner that one particular ship does not become overpowering for the rest of the ships for too long. Such commitment ensures that the levels of competition are maintained and the game does not take sides. 3. Community Engagement The Space Shooter Developer team uses social networks and often interacts with players. They include not only the collective feedback of a million players but also make the game feel like it belongs to everyone, in a way. To also get updated with all the new changes simply click on the Space Shooter Developer page link.

GameInfoX

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q-1 Which features have been added to the new version of Space Shooter?A-1 This update is composed of new ships, matchmaking enhancement, balance change, bug correction, and the addition of the Space Invasion event.Q-2 Where can Space Shooter gift codes be redeemed?A-2 For the redemption of these codes, players have to visit the ‘settings’ option and then they can enter the code under the ‘redeem ‘option with the code. Below, you can check the updated codes:Q-3 What is a Space Invasion event?A-3 The Space Invasion is an event available only for a limited time and requires the players to defeat waves of enemies to gain ship skins and gems.Q-4 When does Space Shooter come out with new updates?A-4 The developers release updates quite often; several times a year, at least once in several months, they add new things, events, and improvements.Q-5 How do I know of its next updates in the future?A-5 The official announcement will be posted on the Space Shooter Developer’s page, as well as in the Space Shooter Latest Updates and News section of the website.Q-6 Is there a list of newly available ships in the latest update?A-6 Yes, the latest update introduces two new ships: Mark II Nova Raider and T cloud-7 Galactic Falcon.

Conclusion

In the wake of the new update players are to expect new ships, enhanced PvP matching, balance adjustments, and an interesting event. Whether you are an amateur player or a professional player, there’s no better time to come back and discover all new additions. New missions, updated tasks, and active users make Space Shooter one of the best space combat games on mobile platforms to this day. The Space Invasion event is still ongoing, so remember to join it and use the most recent gift codes to begin with! Word Count: 1,058 Read the full article

[genkishoujo]

monetized gambling that you can sell to people legally has been a business strategy in free to play games for as long as i can remember, as far back as 2004 in Nexon mmorpgs that sold "Gachapons". i absolutely understand hating that mechanic and i do too, but the fact is that ZZZ, Star Rail, and Genshin Impact you can clear everything in those games by simply playing them. "free to play" is a real, viable option because the stupid gambling system they force you to use gives you enough currency to get enough characters and weapons from playing it, and the actual games themselves aren't hard. it's all exploration, writing, storytelling, character design, music, and fan engagement -- the gambling is a buildup of everything else so that you WANT to swipe, and you are making the ACTIVE DECISION to do so because you don't want to miss out/she's so cute/his animations are soooo cool/he does so many numbers/whatever. you don't actually NEED these characters to play these games, which is a huge departure from other games in the mobile industry such as Puzzle and Dragons, Fate: GO, Princess Connect RE:Dive, Cookie Run Kingdom, AFK Arena, Idolm@ster, Youkai Watch, pretty much any card-style JP gacha game or western mobile game requires you to have the newest (usually limited) characters or upgrades to progress past a certain point, the meta of the game is designed that way. many of these games incorporate social PvP/PvE competitive elements to create artificial barriers that further incentivize swiping on their own gambling systems so that you can compete/experience that content with your friends, or even lock paid currency farms behind these rotating meta game modes. while Star Rail/Genshin/ZZZ/WuWa/PGR have their own versions of this, it is absolutely treated as extraneous bonus content designed for people who have nothing left to do in the game, and offers scraps of rewards. Spiral Abyss gives you two pulls for fully clearing it (36 stars). Star Rail Memory of Chaos is clearable to a high degree using free characters, weapons, and grindable gear, and even if you clear it the rewards rotate on a monthly/bimonthly basis, so it's not exactly intended to be a source of income the way that PvP in Priconne/NIKKE affect your paid currency payouts every month. in Genshin, Star Rail, ZZZ (and even Kuro Games' games) you can pick it up, download it, and run through everything, even as a casual player who spends $0, but to the people with disposable income that are desperate for more content (or already have habits built from other games in the industry lol), they have the option to pay more to play slots for cute animated characters that, in the long run, won't have much bearing on whether or not you can actually experience everything. If you stick with these games, you will get enough characters and weapons to clear content, and even if you have to use 4 stars you can grind out the gear your characters wear to make them strong enough to handle just about anything. additionally, i just want to point out that Kuro and Hoyo both have extremely generous pities in these games. Even in Honkai Impact 3rd, the precursor to Star Rail, Hoyo implemented alot of these mechanics I mentioned above in order to force people into pulling for the newest characters and all their gacha weapons, but they had a pity system, which was not common in gachas originally. Puzzle and Dragons, one of the original JP mobile gachas, NEVER guaranteed you ANYTHING you pulled on until forced to by competition from other games. Arknights, Priconne, Fate: GO, and a whole slew of idol anime mobile games hesitantly implemented a 300 pull hard pity on certain banners after competition from other games, including Genshin, and backlash from the community.

these games all have predatory business models built on trying to get you to pull on their slot machines. but if you're gonna hate on the industry at least understand that the games are one thing, and the gambling simulator they wall their waifus behind is another.

[myramillan]

Weapon Options For Rogues

If they're looking to loot as lots as viable and get out quick, then Lockpick Expert and Creep can be the first-rate mixture. It all relies upon at the state of affairs.

Does The Rogue Even Have Armor Options? The squishier training in Dark And Darker Gold truely do have fewer alternatives with regards to Armor. While Fighters and Clerics seem to have at least a handful of Armor alternatives committed to them, there are just a few gadgets tied specifically to the Rogue:

Doublet Marauder Outfit Rogue Cowl Outside of these unique portions, Rogues generally simply need to search for any non-magnificence-precise Armor piece that does not impede their motion speed at all.

Armor and Weapon options are certainly wherein the Rogue is the maximum boring. While different classes like the Fighter or Barbarian have most of these diverse Weapon options, nearly all of Rogues use daggers. There's most effective one Weapon that Rogue players use outside of daggers, the Rapier, and even then the overall playstyle is pretty similar to using a Dagger. In any case, these are the Weapons that paintings high-quality on a Rogue, indexed from exceptional to worst:

Castillion Dagger Kris Dagger Rapier Rondel Dagger Closing Thoughts & General Tips Other than that, all of the elements of the Rogue gamers need to recognise come from honestly getting experience playing the class. In terms of what stats to search for on Armor or Weapons, Rogues have a tendency to advantage the maximum from buffs to their True Damage, Agility, Max Health, Weapon Damage, and Physical Power. Outside of that, all it's left are some simple hints for the ones simply beginning out with a Rogue

Never Try & Solo A Team: While the Rogue can regularly win in 1v1s, it's nearly impossible for them to overcome a whole group like a nicely-geared Fighter or professional Barbarian may want to. Solo Rogue gamers need to avoid groups in any respect fees. Getting The Drop On Someone Is The Most Important Thing: Taking a person by means of marvel is so much extra essential than getting one unfastened hit in at the same time as they are distracted through an NPC enemy.

Players who abruptly begin getting shanked by way of Rogues tend to panic, lock up, and open themselves as much as even extra free stabs. Don't Worry Too Much About Fighting PvE Enemies: Fighting in opposition to the NPC monsters is in which the Rogue can simply warfare quite a chunk of Dark And Darker Gold for sale, more often than now not it's better to just kite them, run around, and near doorways at the back of them. Crouching While Stabbing Actually Works: Like in a whole lot of first-character shooters, crouching mid-combat can in reality turn the tides quite regularly.