Destiny Child General April 29

 Made some changes to my World Boss lineup. I swapped out Pantheon for Water Chang'e, mostly because she is level 50. I'm looking to maybe swap some other low level characters for maxed ones - I think the increase in power is going to massively offset the low levels, especially since grinding them out isn't really going well right now. I also selected the Babel as my first magic mirror reward for an extra uncap.

1. Thetis
2. Babel
3. Theophano
4. SwimDavi
5. SB Mona
6. N Mona
7. Giltine
8. Leo
9. Z Mars
10. Luin
11. Marfdat
12. Thantanos
13. Virupa
14. Navi
15. Maat
16. Bathory
17. Kalarti
18. Mercury
19. Lupin
20. Pantheon

This team is scoring the mid 400's pretty consistent, with a power rating of 113k. I'm going to spend some time on equipment and that should give some boosts. World Boss is really enjoyable if you have a couple of minutes - as I mentioned earlier it gives you a chance to explore your roster, but it also gives a lot of room to experiment with different lineups.

Destiny Child General - April 28 (Wyatt World Boss Update)

 The new child is on the title screen. I can't help make the "W" from Arknights comparison.

Davi's Reasonable Summon? Did we know we were getting this? I'm not normally one to complain about "free" but the implementation is kind of awful. Aside the general awfulness of in-game mobile advertising, the 2 hour delay between them is really frustrating. As for the ads themselves, I'm currently getting the really bizarre torture porn ones (She is naked - make her take a bath or measure her for new clothes!) plus the forced interactions and the automatic opening of the app store, it just really cheapens the overall experience. I've always felt like DC was a more or less premium product but these ads are not in line with that.

New Devil Pass is up and final reward is Theophano and the associated Hot Spring skins, so that is always nice.

As for the World Boss itself, I'm using this guide, which I found on reddit. Creator attribution is included in the image.

Right now I've got

1. Thetis
2. Babel
3. Theophano
4. SwimDavi
5. SB Mona
6. N Mona
7. Giltine
8. Leo
9. Z Mars
10. Luin
11. Marfdat
12. Thantanos
13. Virupa
14. Navi
15. Maat
16. Bathory
17. Kalarti
18. Mercury
19. Lupin
20. Pantheon

Un-optimized its a 108k power level... first battle was...407k damage. When I say un-optimized I mean some of them are level 1 and I think the only ones with gear are my PvP/General Use teams. I really like World Boss for the ability to use different units, and for the ability for the whales to carry me. The event is still a little overwhelming - even that chart is pretty difficult to master.

Going in Blind - FGO

I've of course been vaguely aware of Fate: Grand Order for a long, long time. One of the longest running and most successful Gachas, especially of the original generation, it is hard to not be around the genre and industry and not know what it is. It apparently gets regular newspaper coverage in Japan and is known enough that non-gamers play it and possibly even follow the story. In the series "Nocchi wants to play games!" that Perfume does it is mentioned that Nocchi played FGO.

So, I've recently decided that maybe it is time for me to give it a try. I should try all the classics, plus I'm told that once you get through the story, most of the game runs off a weekly cycle where you don't necessarily need to login daily. Sounds good, I'll work my way through it.

But I'm going to do things a little differently - I want to go in blind. Completely blind. No FAQs. No tier lists. No pre-bought accounts. No Discord or Reddit. Just download the game and start playing.

That also means no re-rolling, although I'm not big into re-rolling in any case, for a lot of reasons. I also might spend, I might not, who knows. I'm not opposed, but I'm also not eager to start dropping money on something casual (also, I've heard that while it can be easy to play cheap, maxing a single character is an expensive proposition).

So here we go, my blind playthrough of FGO memorialized.

Pre play - The app has been loaded on my phone for weeks, but I've never clicked it. Here goes.

Day 1 - Do YoU WaNt tO AlLoW NoTiFiCaTiOnS? Sure... I'm lonely and no one texts me anyways.

Small update that took F O R E V E R

The game loads for a long time, and then it asks if I want to pull the update. I don't really have a choice, so here goes. While the game updates, it presents the character blurbs. I scroll through a couple, nothing really stands out, then... Leonidas? Like 300 Spartans Leonidas? The text says yes.

Scroll a couple more - CHARLES BABBAGE, mathematician and so called "father of the computer?" Class "caster" sure... sure...

(At this point the app inexplicably crashes, I start it up again, fearing I've got to start the update over. Fortunately it has saved my place, but gives me a couple more Servants to read about).

The download finishes and here we are. I'm asked to pick a region and the selection is bizarre - its like the US plus Southeast Asia minus Japan. Of course I ignore all the ToS and whatever and here we go.

The text starts scrolling and of course its a computer narrating a selection process, and then, since we are "waiting" for a reboot, it gives me a demo fight. It seems pretty straightforward, there is a card system with bonuses based on class, colors, and chaining. Straightforward enough, and it runs easily enough. Strict turn based, which is enjoyable for me personally and definitely a throwback.

In fact, the game drips in nostalgia for me. Way back when, the PSX was king and Final Fantasy VII was the hottest ticket in town. It was polished, the translation was good, but it also clearly wasn't made in America. FGO's presentation reminds me of FFVII a lot. The dialogue boxes are blue gradients with thick borders. Picking an option gives a chunky explosion sound. The way the characters talk, the music... it calls back to a time long past, and I'm a little bit lost in the nostalgia.

Of course, the sweet but struggling nerd is now
a warrior with a big shield and her
midriff out!

The story is scrolling past in and we've got these characters Lev, Mash, and Dr. Roman. The conversations are really tough to get through. It is that awkward anime style heavy on exposition to explain things. I think it is just showing its age as someone gives me a lengthy backstory about the spaceship we exist on or who is in charge or why we aren't on Earth or something... I've more or less zoned out.

Oh... this is interesting the dates are everywhere now! Its 2017 in the game! January 30th, 2004 is important! I'm regretting not knowing when the game was released now. As we walk through the tropes (paired up with a plucky person who struggles, there is a selection ceremony, I'm one of the chose recruits but somehow not supposed to be here, I have a fainting disease) of course an alarm sounds and now we are somewhere else as the world collapses around us.

I can already see that "limited time" honeypot...

Uh... did Mash just DIE? Maybe this is darker than I thought... oh wait, no, even better, its not sexy warrior Mash. Hahahahaha, what?

Another sort of tutorial battle and the game is picking up - the abilities are amazing. Obscurant Wall of Chalk and Transient Wall of Snowflakes. Amazing - is it a madlib, a rough translation, procedurally generated or is this just how this game works. I'm really excited now.

This battle ends, and the currencies start to flow. I earn stars, I earn QP, I earn Bond, some other form of EXP, and some items. This all feels familiar... and then the dialogue starts back up, and suddenly I realize its late, and I can't read this anymore, and I turn it off.

Early Thoughts on Disgaea RPG Gacha

 At this point, the Disgaea RPG Gacha has been out for about a week or so, and people are starting to find their legs, so I thought I'd contribute a little coverage quickly.

The launch was, as expected from publisher Boltrend, an unmitigated disaster that surely hurt the game's long-term prospects. There were intermittent outages, which were generally fine and within the acceptable limits for a new gacha, but a couple days in, there was a real disaster. Somehow, there was a problem, and for whatever reason, Boltrend didn't take the game down, they let it run, and eventually rolled back the server... causing people to lose any gameplay during the time, but also caused them to lose their gacha rolls, including paid rolls.

What... the... actual...

Then, they announced some pretty lackluster compensations - they did restore lost purchases, but it seems as though people still lost their rolls, even if they were super lucky. I wasn't playing during the time (and I haven't spent yet) so I'm not fully up on the details, but all in all it was pretty gross overall.

I've posted this online elsewhere, but my theory is that Boltrend had some sort of SLA they had to meet, and figured if they took the game offline they would have lost more than the disaster that the rollback caused, which is why they handled it like they did. Still, this is one that will probably be remembered for a while, if nothing else for the sheer audacity of it all.

As for the game itself, there is good and bad. On the bad side, Boltrend has followed its model for Idola and launched the game with a very popular event from the JP server even though it makes no sense for the game - with Idola it was the Summer Beach event which was released in like November and also referenced a lot of story that never happened in the main game, for Disgaea, its a Christmas event in... April... But - to Boltrend's credit there are some good gacha characters to pull, basically Santa versions of the regular ones. But again, why do I need regular Florine if I already have Santa Florine? The event itself has been noted for being a pretty much impossible grind for all but the most dedicated/biggest spenders, but this doesn't mean "only the most dedicated can clear the rewards" it means "only the most dedicated can get the character reward that is kind of baseline even if they don't get the other bonus items." I've spent a fair amount of time with the game and will not even clear the character rewards.

Also in true Boltrend fashion, there are some pretty serious issues with the event - the bonus points stack in a way that the in-game text specifically says will not happen - but it works out to be better for players so I guess it gets a pass.

Ok, so that's the news, what are my initial thoughts on the game? I'll likely do a full review later but from where I sit right now, its solid but a bit forgettable. This game is a G R I N D in the same way Saga Re is - not only is there near unlimited progression with the characters, but there is progression with each of the 8 or so weapon types. Each character has both character specific and weapon specific skills, and those skills each have their own progression. Individual pieces of equipment also have their own levelling progression (which I admittedly have only scratched the surface of).

One thing I am a bit worried about is how this will play out when new characters are released in 6 months... will my current team be so far over-levelled that it doesn't matter? Will I have to put my regular progression on hold for 6 months to bring up a  new character?

On the other hand, I really like the "reincarnation" mechanic, where essentially your characters hit a level cap and can reincarnate like an idle game. They start back at level 1, get a stat boost and a new higher cap. To help keep things moving, the game also scales down the exp requirements some. This game gets the idle game "THE NUMBERS ALWAYS GO UP" thing very right, which feels good. Also the sheer amount of things to level means there is always something to do. On the other hand, there is no true "auto until out of stamina" and each battle requires 6 or 7 button presses to start, so you need to commit time to play, or have a job where you can tap your phone once a minute all day.

Like many gachas I play, I don't have any experience with the Disgaea IP, so I'm not that excited about the characters to collect (I'm actually enjoying the Santa set I have just because they look cool in Santa hats...) nor does the story interest me. I'm skipping it all for the most part. The graphics are simple but the game does present nicely in portrait and the menus are... fine (the character screens are a little crowded).

How much will I invest? At this point, probably $0 real world dollars. I didn't even bother with the "any spend get a character" unlock. How long will I play? Maybe for a while - its an easy grinder that fills that "I WANT PROGRESS TODAY" emotion.

Idola - Daily Schedule

 I've seen a lot of people talking about the Daily Flow for Idola so I figured I'd add my two cents:

First, the server for the US version resets every day at 12 noon Eastern Standard Time. What happens are server reset:

1. Arena chances are refilled
2. Daily Achievements are reset
3. 
   Login gifts are reset
4. Top Up gift is reset (as are any daily top up bonuses)
5. Symbol shop is restocked
6. Support system is reset
1. Your new support line up is available
2. Your receive any support bonuses
7. Bonus stamina is refilled
8. Usually, but not always, timed events change
1. Banners begin/end
2. Limited time quests begin/end
1. And the special achievements that might go with them

Interestingly enough, there appears to be another daily reset that happens between midnight and 3am Eastern Time - first, this appears to be when the weekly event reset (Idola ranking and Arena ranking) begins, but this is also when the In-Game news gets pushed out.

So - for your daily activities, make sure they are done before Noon Eastern each day if you want to get full value.

So everyday, this is what I'm (and you) should be doing:

1. Clearing your daily achievements

1. Create an Idola

2. Challenge an Idola

3. Run a quest

4. Do a Gacha Pull

This should be your bare minimum, and it also makes sure that you will get all of your daily free rewards, be they general login bonuses or for a special login event that is running.

2. Burn your Idola challenges

3. Do your 6 Arena battles

4. Burn your stamina and your 2x bonus refills

These are your basic participation things. I put the Idola challenges first but that is somewhat deceiving, because these refill every 2 or so hours and require no effort. If you are really pressed on time, or just can't be bothered, you can auto through them nearly instantaneously. This is sort of your personal balance on activity. For me personally, I try to avoid the Quick Challenge auto battles, in favor of actually selecting the Idola, my party, and support, but then set that battle to auto. I find that this is a good balance of activity and points. Occasionally I will manually fight these out, but the difference between manual and auto is pretty negligible.

The more important ones here are the Arena battles and general Stamina. Stamina recharges slowly in this game and is expensive to refill - Stamina pots are few and far between. You need stamina for 1) clearing content, 2) grinding collection event rewards, 3) leveling your characters, and 4) leveling your affinity. You can offload the leveling a bit through the books, but that will start to burn you Meesta pretty quickly. Ideally, you want your stamina to always be refilling - anytime its at max, you aren't earning, so try to keep spending it. It comes back so slowly this isn't hard. Twice per day you can hit the "Bonus" button on the home screen for 50-75 or so additional stamina. I'd really try to burn your full amount, plus both bonuses, everyday.

For the PvP Arena you get 6 challenges per day. You can bet any number of these in an Arena battle, but their is no bonus for betting more than one at a time, so shrewd players don't. I've only done it when it was 11:59 and I wanted to try to get my matches done. It actually is very important you earn as much Arena coins as possible unless you are a complete whale as Arena coins are essentially a "free" gacha chance for enabling your daily achievement without spending currency.

5. Clear the Symbol Shop

I confess, this is a new one for me, as I didn't realize how good of a deal these all are. It is absolutely recommended you buy all you can afford, with the exception of the Idola cores. So far, as a daily player from launch, I've got about 4,000 sitting around and there doesn't seem to be much to do with them other than using 10 every 2 hours. Of course, you will also likely find yourself with plenty of unspent Meesta so maybe its not such a big deal to spend the 50k each day on the cores. Your call.

6. Check Event banners for expiring events and unearned rewards

1. Check the banner to see if you've cleared the event

2. Check each mission to see if there are additional rewards

3. Check the item exchange to see if you have unspent event currency

4. Check the Achievements tab to see if there are any expiring achievements

So far the time limited events have been really enjoyable but also very random in their timing. The first part of the summer quest just disappeared without warning, leaving many players with unearned rewards. Some events only hang around for 4 days. Events offer essentially free rewards and should be cleared as much as possible. These are the things I like to check and prioritize once I've done my daily habits.

8. Check Gacha Banners for expiring Banners

Depending on what type of person you are, you might, or might not, want to skim the Gacha Banners each day. For me, personally, I find it easy to look but not touch, so I like to roll through them, see what there is, and consider my options. If you find that looking means burning a pile of gems or your credit card, maybe just keep track of the social media and plan your pulls that way.

9. Plan upgrades

If I've done everything and still want to interact with the game, I like to spend some time looking for my next improvement. I like to go to the Setup/Enhance screens and look through my characters, symbols, and weapons owned pages and see if anything catches my eye, and then see what kind of upgrades I can afford, and make plans based around that.

10. See if GachaJay posted a Youtube video, check the reddit and the discords.

What I've Been Playing - SaGa Re:Universe

 What I've been playing recently: Romancing SaGa Re: Universe

This is a pretty standard PvE Gacha in the traditional Japanese style, based on an old JRPG property of the same name.

I'm not familiar with the underlying IP, but it appears that the games follow characters through different time periods (or maybe "life-periods" is more accurate), so the same character can be in the game multiple times under multiple "styles." It has a little bit of the waifu time going on, but it isn't offensive and certainly isn't something you won't want to play around your friends. The storylines themselves ranges from self-serious JRPG fare to goofy side-stories to ridiculous love plots. Honestly, I'm skipping a lot of it, what I do take a look at is fine.

The gameplay itself is decent enough - it is turn-based but there is a lot that isn't shown. For example, turn order is unpredictable and you can't often predict or know the health/stats of the non-boss enemies. That said, there is plenty of strategy and it seems like there is a lot of depth, and so far I'm enjoying the parts I've been able to engage with.

This game isn't full auto. Sure, there is plenty of auto grinding, but there is no "set it and forget it" gameplay. On the one hand, this is a game that rewards commitment and you will get ahead by grinding hours per day. On the other hand, you could probably play this game occasionally as long as you were willing to get in at times and grind up the characters you need, you could then use them to clear a lot of the content when you get around to it. Most of the timed events don't give irreplaceable rewards.

In terms of monetization, it has been ok so far. Without PvP, there doesn't seem to be balance issues, but it also is clear that using the best units is the best way to clear a lot of the content. Banners are frequent and typically tie those units to in-game events (like bonus drop % rates on the event item currency) so there is always an incentive to pull heavily, even if there isn't a meta defining character available. On the other hand, I haven't yet felt like I had to pull through $100's to ensure I had a specific character going forward.

My biggest gripe so far is that all of the banners are different and it can be hard to know what each one is doing. Some limit your pulls, some are pay only, some go into the larger pool quickly, some have pity timers... the information is published for each, but it can be hard, especially for a new player that is not up on the vocab, to figure out how to approach each one. If this were one of your first gachas, there would be no way.

I'm interested enough to keep playing, so we might see updates in the future.

Guild Wars Week of May 4, 2020 - Day 4 Red

Day 4: Red Day

Yesterday's Defense - 0 for 0 not attacked.




My red defense team is Doomed Axe, Spider Queen, Maraji Queen, and Leprechaun, using a level 38 Archer. Its a solid team and does a nice amount of exploding. It is one of those teams that is defeatable but you never know when its just going to go off and ruin someone's day.

My red attack team is Doomed Helm, Qilin, Obsidius and Gimlet Stormbrew. This is a really, really solid team, but I'll be honest, its lost before, and sometimes, if you can't get alignment, it just takes forever to win. It uses my good old level 54 Frostmage for the general PVP benefits.

Fight 1 - Titan team rated 4,842 with War and Peace, Sheggra, Queen Mab, and King Silenus. Fight went amazing - just had the mana I needed at all times. 3,278 points.

Fight 2 - Warlord team rated 6,075. Gaard's Wall, Glaycion, Winter Imp, Queen Mab. 1,387 points.

Fight 3 - A Bard team rated 8,529. Lapina Explorer, King Silenus, Blade Dancer, and a +9 Orpheus' Lute. This figtht went really well and was ridiculously easy. I suppose I just got lucky with my first Qilin that cascaded me to full mana all around. 1,506 points.

Fight 4 -  A Warpriest team rated 10,105. Warpriest! Wow. The team is Green Golem, KingBloodwood, Alderfather, and a +6 Vile Flask. Unfortunately, it was almost entirely un-traited, and a fairly easy win. It looks like it has the potential to be competitive, someone just needs to start grinding explores. 1,644 Guild Wars points.

Fight 5 - Assassin team rated 11,154 made up of a maxed Runic Blade, Sunbird, King Highforge, and Viper. Decent troops but I'm not seeing a ton of synergy here. This team was tough on pure stats - it just took a long time, and a lot of moves firing, to bring them down, even though I never felt threatened., 1,705 points for this one.