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exoticalmonde · 13 days

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Arknights Chapter XIII - The Whirlpool That Is Passion (Part IV)

Wow, relishing the Logos art while also staying tuned to what happens in the chapters for REAL this time? Well, all I can say before we continue is a reminder:

WARNING: This post is going to contain a lot of yapping from me about Hoederer and how much I love him and will also have a LOT of spoilers.

This kind of reminds me of 'The Lion's Song' because there was a person there, I think, who wanted to commemorate all the soldiers' lives in paintings I think. Those who passed away in the war he'd send to their families. But I don't remember how that ended honestly...

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Sometimes I forget their dynamic and because I don't usually use W and don't pay attention to her that much (considering she is Pinkie's crazy wife to deal with), she ends up saying something so out of the left field I get vertigo.

"GOOD NEWS THOUGH-" **Insert explosion**

W: [Hard to say. There's an old hag kind of keeping me at arm's length from their beloved 'Doctor'.]

Yes, and boy do I feel safe with her.

I will learn to use the word lollapalooza unironically.

HAVE ANY OF YOU HEARD OF A WAY TO KILL A LITCH?

YEAH? IS IT BECOMING PROBLEMATIC NOW?

This is terrible to say and at the meantime gosh has it been since chapter 9 that we have been crying and suffering from litches.

13-2 Before: The Injury At Hand

...

Oh... Oh god what is that?

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In the following story, we're in the POV of Guard who we know from a couple chapters before, but I forgot about him as a whole. Which I am sorry for, because he's turning out pretty cool. He took part in saving the Doctor from Ursus initially, but after staying behind and being a little affected by the situation and the worsening of the situation leads to the death of Ace and Scout.

Now we are reminded that he's part of Nine's gang - Reunion, or what was left of it, being picked up again after Talula... Who didn't even stay at Rhodes for long enough, she got kidnapped again and is basically being used as some type of glue for the group even though she is falling apart herself, not willing to off herself but not wanting to continue the same path she was forced to take.

We met him in chapter 7 again before Lungmen and Chernobog were about to crash.

I've also forgotten what is reunion doing here out of all places. They are putting themselves between a rock and a hard place while also saving lives... Since, apparently, Victorians are very openly against the infected and the presence of Litches, Sarkaz and originium in general is going to lead to many, many infected.

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Not to mention having to leave their homes. I know I will lose my soul if I actually have to abandon my house for any reason. They just get what they can use, not just something they find precious that should be carried, and they have to leave. Marauders could be in any corner, you can't really take valuables, so you just have your life, some clothes, perhaps enough food until you HOPE you find somebody who can help.

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I love the hair gel detail, why is everybody talking about this now? What does it matter if your hair looks good or not, you are half-dead 63% of the time! We all have depression and look after each other only because it's easier than to allow yourself to affect the mentality of someone else by being allowed to slack off.

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Oh no, he has a headache. You have been assigned the Ebenholz disease.

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Also, imagine having rock cancer and suddenly the place where you work is like 'No, you don't actually get insurance for *checks list* dying, so it would be best if you get fired and maybe go home to see your kids for like 2 days before perishing because we have NOTHING to help with.'

That's the type of health-ism we are talking about.

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Unfortunately, Guard decided that just searching for medicine, meddling in politics, meeting people, going on operations, saving people, treating people for free most of the time, hiring operators and ALL WE ARE TRYING TO DO. Is not enough. Infected need the aggression, to put themselves out there and...

We see how different the Sarkaz and general Infected are, and both sides take different approaches with the same outcome. It's tragic and useless, and it creates even more problems that are hard to mend in the hearts of people who are afraid.

#arknights #doctor of ri shenanigans #doctor of ri #doctor arknights #arknights chapter 13 #arknights chapter update #arknights hoederer #arknights vendela #arknights verdant #arknights pulls #arknightc gacha #arknights ines #arknights w #arknights babbling #the whirlpool that is passion #eve is insane again #also a winner #arknights guard #arknights story

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thegreatyin · 2 months

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im going to be so normal when cn arknights 4.5 anniversary event zwillingstürme im herbst comes to global. im literally going to be so fucking normal. you can trust me. im going to be so chill and calm and collected about it. im going to reach record breaking amounts of so fucking normal

#im also mildly terrified that it'll be bad. but i digress.#yin-thoughts #arknights #im also hyped for chapter 13 albeit not for the reasons everyone else probably is.#im just really excited for ebenholz to invent the number 3 #also fia apparently gets her next module that update which ive heard is REALLY good for her. hype

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azteriot · 3 months

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Randomly checking up notifs on this place and see people liking my old Funeral of Dead Butterflies fanart makes me wanna draw them again or just more gijinka in general

Or.... you know, actually using Tumblr like my Pixiv lol -- thank you for stopping by! 🙌

Haven't republished some stuff from 2022-2023 but the second half of 2023 had been quite a downhill for me unfortunately

Hope I could draw more as well as start maintaining as a storytelling streamer somehow, wanna try to make a good use of my second and third language

#azt_draws #im just tagging this so my lowkey life update/announcement about whatever tf how i do along with art #bro i havent even cleared limbus company chapter 5 yet i used to be a PatchDayClear dude for projmoon games aaaaaa #right now im just either building houses in sims or playing ffxiv while having arknights or grandchase on auto-farm #and somehow returned to arcaea #my thumbs have ascended thanks to existentialistic lesbian rhythm mobile game

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stelladess · 3 months

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EDIT: I only now found there are more complete translations of the new lorebook, that may alter things here quite a bit depending on if it touches on relevant stuff. Ill probably write a more easy to follow and updated version of this post when I got less schoolwork anyway so yeah. Arknights Theory: The nature of the Lord of Fiends powers and the purpose of the black crown. IDK how to spoiler and non of what I find onlines helps with that so just know... spoilers ahead. I also wanna say that I havnt double checked a lot of this stuff, I did for some of it but id like to re-read a bunch of this when some of the CN only stuff has come to global anyway. So take with a grain of salt is all im saying that I remember right since I dont remember exactly where to find all of this info, altough I will mentioned where I thought I got it from for various evidence. So tl;dr here is that I think Amiya´s powers is actually about manipulating originium, the memory, emotion and energy blasts (also making a sword) is all extensions of that and NOT fully distinct powers like some believe, also the Lord of Fiends has to have oripathy. Also the black crown was made by Priestess to eventually facilitate her resurrection and the reason doctor convinced Theresa to transfer her powers to Amiya was part of that plan. Now, why do I think all this? Starting on Amiya´s powers. While dialogue indicates some skilled casters *can* learn multiple types of arts, Amiya is not a skilled caster. She is very powerful but not particularily skilled at it. Her powers are ALL derived from the originium arts her oripathy and Lord of Fiends nature grants her. She also had all these powers pretty much from moment 1 it seems so it seems unlikely she learned it trough practice to do many different things. So its likely one ability that is just very broad in its usage, similarily to how Rosmontis´s powers work (if I remember right Kal´tsit even says their powers are very similar in nature). Amiya can do energy blasts, view memories and sense emotions... according to Kal´tsit in chapter 7 the way sarkaz prophecies work is basically that thoughts are stored in originium allowing other sarkaz to tap into the memories in that originium to calculate a likely outcome with multiple people´s brains. So originium can store thoughts/minds. And by extension memory would be a part of that. There is also clearly stuff relating to the dead but ive heard several CN server events have gone into that more so I dont wanna speak about anything regarding dead souls until that comes to global because I do not wanna go reading very complicated lore stuff in a language I dont understand really, so ill adjust or drop this theory as nescesary based on future information of course. So, then the emotions and memory stuff is covered, making the sword is also simple, its just made of originium. So the energy blasts? Well the main way originium is used is as a power source and its required to cast arts for those without oripathy (who have originium inside them to channel arts anyway). Another piece of evidence here is that Manfred could disrupt Amiya´s arts with his own, which seem to revolve around detonating or manipulating the energy in originium, allowing him to harm Amiya when she tried to gather up energy from nearby originium. When she pushes herself extra hard she probably draws extra power from the originium in her own body, which is why it has such a negative effect on her physically even compared to other casters. This, and a bit from the new lorebook revealing the first Lord of Fiends was the first person with Oripathy, is why I think the Lord of Fiends HAS to have Oripathy.

So, with that established, why do I think the Black Crown is meant to resurrect Priestess? First of all, the Black Crown or Civilight Etherna, is tech from the advanced precursor civilization (it was not found by them but invented by them, its directly referenced as a different project to the AMa projects, which is part of what Kal´tsit is refered to by certain beings in the know about the previous civilization, the crown also resembles Mon3tr in appearance). Its stated in Amiya´s module that its purpose is to store information, memories and emotion. And we know for a fact that they were capable of brain uploading, as seen with Friston in Lonetrail. Its original purpose was as a historical record, but that doesnt mean it cant have been altered later. Priestess is stated by Friston to have created Originium, something we will likely learn more about in the Victoria arc on account of certain reveals in chapter 13. Since Originium is so closely linked to the crown, by virtue of the first infected being the first Lord of Fiends, originium was clearly created in relation to something to do with the Crown. And well.. when Priestess put the doctor into the sarcophagus she said they would be reunited and their love would outlast the stars. Despite her seeming convinced she would die.... Kal´tsit seems to have been either created or turned into what she is now by Priestess too, or well by their people at least. But for dramatic convenience I think Priestess makes the most sense. I think the crown getting linked to the sarkaz collective unconcious/dead souls (this is the part im most uncertain about because there is so little info on this on global especially) was NEVER part of the plan. Since it seems likely the previous civilization created the ancients (animal people) to drive the sarkaz away (and also be slave labour, this isnt like 100% confirmed but there is some hints for this) I suspect they saw the sarkaz as lower beings and had never considered the crown would link up with them. So I think the original purpose was that some sort of great calamity fell upon their people, Priestess tried to store her mind in the Black Crown in some process that led to the creation of Originium and because the first person to down the crown was a sarkaz made her unable to do what she originally intended, possessing a later wearer of the crown and reunite with the doctor. This part is of course pure speculation as well with very little evidence, but it does line up somewhat. And I think some of the concept trailers supports the idea the crown can let someone store their mind to take over a later host (altough not with Priestess specifically).

So, fast forward to Amiya... she was born in Rim Billiton a normal cautus girl, her family were miners and lived on a normal landship in Rim Billiton... but one day disaster struck and the ship got destroyed in a horrible disaster. This is all gone into more in To the Grinning Valley but was already implied beforehand. To the Grinning Valley is also interesting for several reasons to this theory, they explicitly call attention to how strange it is that the doctor would bring Amiya with them after finding her in the wreckage. Saving her is in line with their behavior, but why bring her along? Its common in Rim Billiton for miners to adopt other children. Why not leave here somewhere? Why bring her with them to Babel? And this isnt just Amiya wondering or an outside observer, we find out from Savage that Kal´tsit doesnt know why the doctor did what they did. And whats more, Kal´tsit believes the doctor convinced Theresa to transfer her powers to Amiya, and since no previous Lord of Fiends had done so directly, the crown picked a successor, I think the doctor also taught Theresa how she could directly move it, circumventing the dead souls of the sarkaz will being imposed on the crown´s choices. So, why Amiya? Kal´tsit either doesnt have any idea why or just didnt want to tell Savage, but it is clear that she NEVER agreed with the decision. We have some ideas why Theresa did it, Amiya not being a sarkaz would mean she would be less strongly influenced by the dead souls and the lords of kazdel would refuse to follow her. Or at least chapter 12 and 13 heavily implies this was her motive. But why did the doctor want that? In To the Grinning Valley the question of if the doctor always intended to use Amiya for that from the start and grew to care about her over time, or if they took her in with no ill intentions and then got the idea later out of desperation, is raised but left unanswered because the doctor cant remember, and no one else knows why.

I believe the doctor also wished to undermine the crown´s link to the sarkaz, and that the plan was to use Amiya as a vessel for resurrecting Priestess. And it is an interesting topic, its often brought up how much even pre amnesia doctor cared about Amiya... but in To the Grinning Valley we focus a bit on the insecurity and uncertainty Amiya and Savage have about *why*. Savage telling an anecdote about a friend who went bad after fame got to their head and admitting she doesnt know which is worse, if the doctor did love Amiya and their circumstances made them so willing to trample over what they loved that they would force the black crown on her, or if the doctor had always been intending to just use Amiya for that purpose. And Amiya admitting she never knew why doc would care for her so much. And here is an interesting thing... in anything post victoria arc, we have NEVER seen Amiya and the doctor interact so far. Amiya is in Arturia´s oprec but otherwise she hasnt been on screen post victoria arc. To the Grinning Valley is set before it. The doctor has been doing all manner of things all over Terra in that time period, but Amiya isnt there with them, she is still with Rhodes Island is clear though. So... does Amiya and the doctor still have a good relationship post Victoria arc? Doc clearly cares for Amiya still, when Rosmontis talks about missing Amiya in Lonetrail (she had been away for some weeks or months, unclear) doc agrees that they miss her too, but they dont really go into any detail and are talking about both Amiya and Logos. Depending on what we learn in the later chapters of the Victoria arc, I could see Amiya feeling rather betrayed by the doctor. Not to the point of completely cutting them out but that it might still make her a bit more distant to them. I think it would be interesting to see how Amiya would take it if she learned that the doctor had originally intended to use her for very selfish end goals. Surely the thought has crossed her mind and she just isnt willing to entertain it, but if she learns something in the climax of the Victoria arc that shakes her absolute confidence in the doctor? That could be a pretty big deal. We already know Amiya has a habit of rather then accepting people wronged her first try to look for excuses. What Theresa did to her Amiya refuses to admit is wrong even when directly pointed out to her how messed up it was (chapter 8 Rosmontis compares what Theresa did to Amiya with what Loken did to her). She isntead focuses on how she must be failing to live up to Theresa´s expectations, an idea NO ONE tried to put into her head as far as we can tell. Altough it is a little unclear because she gets VERY defensive about it when the Damazti Cluster suggests she was forced into her role at Rhodes and given too heavy responsibilities to carry. Will she do this this time as well? Look for excuses why what doctor did was "justified"? But in chapter 13 she also finds meaning in rejecting the legacy of the black crown and that she will use its powers purely for her own ideals and not worry about what its purpose is. With that in mind how would that color her perception of finding out an even older purpose for it that implicates the pre amnesia doctor?

#arknights #amiya arknights #doctor arknights #arknights priestess #theory #this bnuy really needs therapy #civilight etherna

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magical-regical · 7 months

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Y'all okay,

I started playing 'What in Hell is Bad', it's basically an 18+ version of 'Obey Me' and yea this game is spicy.

Anyway, big surprise, out of all the sexy demons I've interacted with so far, two of them I've done the sideways tango with, my favorite character is this guy

Who's not even a demon. He's the childhood best friend character.

But plot wise he takes care of the MC before the whole demon thing, knows how to cook, and I'm pretty sure was ready to search through the entire world to find them when they had to take and extended visit to Hell.

What more could you want in a man? A decent dic— according to MC he has that too so check mate.

More thoughts about the game itself under the cut if you're interested.

I just finished chapter one, and can I just say this game is hard, in every sense of the word.

It's a new game by a smaller developer so it's full of bugs but I've heard the devs do try their best to patch them ASAP so I don't hold that against them. Aside from my boy Satan not hitting water enemies, even though devs said they patched that a few updates ago, it's mostly QoL improvements that can be made to make the game just overall more enjoyable including but not limited to:

A pity system? Maybe? I don't know if this game has pity or not on their gacha machines and if they do I'd like to know how screwed I am because I have no self-control and have been doing single pulls on the hot boy gacha instead of saving up and doing 10-pulls so I wanna know if it's better to do 10-pulls or if it literally makes no difference because I just go until I hit pity like in arknights.

Skipping the cut scene that plays when you gacha because I swear that's one of the main reasons you can't play this game in public no matter how discreet you try to be lmao

Opening multiple chests at once and levelling up multiple times in one go because as far as I know, right now you need to click one by one for both of these.

Maybe a thing where it just takes you to the part of the story you're currently in instead of making you click through chapter select and scrolling to it.

A shortcut button to the gacha screen, secret club, and dark sanctuary (resource grind stages). They're core aspects of the game yet you can't get to them without going through the home screen.

Auto deploy and auto play for the resource grinding stages

Setting an L-rank character (side note, it's really funny that the highest rank of cards is rank 'L') as your homescreen boi is really awkward because it always ends up zoomed in on one part so you can't actually see the full boi.

This last one I feel like is just a personal thing but why is it three red keys per single pull for the hot boy gacha? Three just feels like such a random number lmao. Ig they mostly want you to use the red gems, which are grind-able to some extent, to buy the keys from the store.

Overall tho, I enjoy it. I like the tower defense like combat system and being able to move units around is actually pretty fun. So yea give it a try, see if it's your cup of tea.

#whb #what in hell is bad #whb minhyeok #whb satan

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dlartistanon · 3 months

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Do you know a place where we can see all Arknights CGs and character sheets? I used to use Aceship, but it seems their gallery hasn't been up-to-date for a while; I can't find any chapter 13 or Virtuosa event stuff anywhere there.

Oh, I normally visit Aceship too, but if it hasn't been updated, then that's a shame. I looked around and I think the PRTS Wiki has a section with sprites and CGS, but I don't know if it has all of them.

Aceship, despite the gallery being cluttered and hella unorganized, was good because it had all the different individual expressions for character sprites, which I don't know another place that does.

#dltext #anonymous #if someone does know though please tell me

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bobbile-blog · 5 months

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Arknights Lore Recap: End of 2023

Here I was, thinking my last post would be sufficient, but they keep on adding more gosh darn lore. Half a year has gone by since my last post, so I thought I'd update things and make another post of "where is everyone at the moment" to help keep all these plotlines straight. So, here's the sequel! More events, more organization since it's no longer a half-assed post I wrote on my phone in an hour, and you'd better believe we've got more lore to get through.

(Of course, spoilers for the current state of basically everything in Global, though they'll be the kind of "current events" spoilers to help you understand where we are at the moment)

Currently Active Plotlines:

Main Story act II: Main story chapters/ What the Firelight Casts, Amiya/ Siege/ Stainless/ Shining/ W/ Kal'tsit/ Doctor/ Closure/ etc.

Act 2 is in full swing, and oh boy do we have some politics to wade through. The general idea, minimizing spoilers, is that the Royal Court of the Sarkaz have taken over Londinum and intend to expand further using the catastrophe-creating superweapon The Shard. They're led by Theresis and the (mostly) united Sarkaz lords, and with a mercenary army they basically rule Victoria as an occupying power. Their power is concentrated in Londinum, the only city they really formally occupy, but as they control the seat of the country's power they effectively have the rest of the country at their mercy.

Opposing them are a number of factions. Firstly, the coalition of Victorian Nobles that have ruled the country (and that technically invited the Sarkaz to Victoria in the first place) want the throne again. There are a few specific nobles we deal with in ch12 but the implication is the politics will be elaborated on in the next chapter so we'll leave it there, the point is that they're the Victorian establishment trying to go back to old Victoria which means they suck. They're also working with Dublinn, who are collaborating with the Duke of Wellington(?) who is sympathetic to their causes. The Nobles have just recently gone to formal war with the Sarkaz, but they also all hate each other and will absolutely stab each other in the back whenever possible.

Besides them, there are also a couple of smaller underground resistance factions. The Londinum Self-salvation Corps, or Eartha, is a guarilla resistance movement who is currently getting their asses handed to them by the Sarkaz. They basically existed solely because the Sarkaz hadn't bothered to wipe them out yet, and have currently evacuated all of their surviving personnel out of the city. Additionally, there's a group of Victorian soldiers led by Commander Skamandros who have been sticking their noses into things. If I recall correctly, they're trying to evacuate Londinum as well.

Finally, we have Rhodes Island. We're here because of the classic D&D reason of "well all our plotlines seem to end up in this general area so I guess that's where we're going". Amiya and Kal'tsit feel somewhat responsible for not stopping Theresis and Amiya specifically is probably the only person with the right to challenge Theresis for the throne of the Sarkaz. Bagpipe and Reed (and Ch'en) are dealing with Dublinn things, so they have to be around here. Shining is a Confessarius and her evil wizard family is supporting Theresis so she's got stuff to do there. Siege is the last surviving member of the Victorian Royal family, so she's bound by blood and obligation to reclaim the throne, as well as just generally wanting to help the people of Victoria. Hoderer is currently in the employ of the Sarkaz and Innes is working in Londinum as a spy for Rhodes Island, so W wants to head there too. There's a lot going on, far too much to describe, so I'll leave things at "we have half a dozen personal plotlines to pursue there" so I can move on to the actual side events.

The Devil's Dragonball Fusion Dance: Ancient Forge(?)/ Who is Real/ Invitation to Wine/ Where Vernal Winds will Never Blow, Nian/ Dusk/ Ling/ Chong Yue/ Lava/ Kroos/ Lee/ Waai Fu/ Lin/ Zuo Le/Liang Xun

This one is updated pretty regularly as the CN new year event. The short lore overview is that Yan used to be populated by godlike beings called Feranmuts. Feranmuts fought a war with people, which concluded when a Feranmut named Sui betrayed his people because they wanted to be the only one with their kind of powers. After the war, the emperor of Yan (China analogue) split him into 12 fragments which eventually developed their own identities and personalities - these are the Sui siblings, i.e. Nian, Dusk, Ling, Chong Yue, etc. Once all twelve of these siblings meet again, they will reform back into Sui and they'll probably take over the world or whatever. We don't know exactly but it won't be good.

There are currently three parties interested in gathering the siblings, and one trying to prevent them. Firstly, the Second Brother (who is currently unnamed) is just a little crazy, and is currently working with the Yanese ministry of rites to revive Sui. We don't know a ton about him, but we know he's somehow split himself into fragments and scattered himself across the land. Secondly, Ya is another Feranmut that survived the old war and wants revenge on Yan and Sui. They want Sui revived so they can have a proper form of revenge on Them, and are currently in control of the Shanhaizhong bandits kinda just causing issues wherever They can. Finally, Nian and her siblings at Rhodes Island also want to gather the siblings, but not to re-form Sui. She has some sort of plan to bring the siblings together without losing themselves, and is working with Rhodes Island to accomplish it. Similarly, we don't know a lot about her plan, but they're generally the protagonists of the events. Finally, Zuo Le is an official in a Yanese organization called the Sui Regulator, whose job is to monitor and secure the remaining Feranmuts and the fragments of Sui. Zuo Le is doing his best, but he's a little out of his weight class, so most of what he does is follow the Sui fragments around and try to figure out what the hell is going on.

The Call of We Many: Grani and the Knight’s Treasure/ Under Tides/ Stultifera Navis/ Mizuki and Caerula Arbor (Integrated Strategies 3), Skadi/ Specter/ Gladiia/ Kal’tsit.

Was updated pretty frequently as an anniversary event, but they seem to have thrown us a big lore dump with Caerula Arbor and left it at that for the time being, which is understandable. The lore here is the Seaborn are a race decended from some early Feranmuts who are basically a constantly-evolving devouring swarm. They exist to consume and assimilate all of the life on the planet, and unless we are very very careful and work very very quickly they are going to do just that.

The state of the plot at the moment is a little odd. Because Mizuki and Caerula Arbor isn't canon, the plot is still at the end of Stultifera Navis. Specter has recovered her self, and the team of Abyssal hunters is delving deeper into the current state of the seaborn. Their former leader, Ulpanius, has shown up to warn them not to return to Aegir, and while the Stultifera Navis sank the lighthouse was recovered and some trinkets from the ship made it back. We aren't really sure where we're going from here, but it's not necessarily to Caerula Arbor. Basically, the canon lore of IS3 is that on a mission to the Iberian Coastline, the Doctor and Mizuki found a weird seaborn monument, and Mizuki used their connection to the Seaborn's minds to look into alternate timelines and show them to the Doctor. That means that while the events of the story are not canon, the Doctor may still know and reference the events in the story. I'm not going to go over all of IS3 because there's so much of it but you can find a rough summary here.

Fangs of the Signiori dei Lupi: Hinted earlier in the main story/ Il Siracusano, Texas/ Emperor/ Lapland/ Projekt Red/ Lunacub.

This is the newest of these plots, set up in Il Siracusano and presumably proceeding from there. The Feraerus are supernatural talking animals that we’ve encountered a couple of times throughout the story, like the High Priest or the Emperor. They are connected with the land and are almost akin to guardians of it. They don’t need Originium for their magic, and are tied to the setting in ways we don’t quite understand yet. More importantly to us, though, they’re involved in their own power struggles and contests among each other. This underscored the drama in Il Siracusano - the whole Bellone family was propped up by the wolf Feraerus Zarro as part of an ancient game in which the wolves pick champions, called Fangs, who fight each other in a Battle Royale to decide the pack’s next alpha a la the fake wolf study. We know a couple of the fangs - Lunacub is one and Bernardo was another before his death, but Projekt Red is also a Fang, as well as Crownslayer’s mentor, so we’ll probably be coming back to this conflict in the future. It's unclear how we'll approach it, though, as Bernardo and Lunacub's files seem to imply that the eventual goal will breaking free of this game.

Law and Otherwise: Guide Ahead, Fiametta/ Mostima/ Andoain/ Cecile/ Lemuen/ Pope Yvangelista XI/ Law/ Executor/ Enforcer

This one hasn't been super developed yet, but it's worth including with both Hortus de Escapismo and Zwillingstürme im Herbst coming up. Laterano, the city of the Sankta, is governed by immutable laws that are engraved onto the very bodies of the Sankta. In Guide Ahead, Andoain seeks to ask the Pope the question of why the Sankta do not help the people of the world. He learns that the laws that bind the Sankta are real, physical commandments enforced by Law, a robotic entity similar to the Preserver from Lonetrail, and the consequences and exceptions relating to the law are entirely at its discretion. The law is what it is because Law says so.

The Sami Icefields

This hasn’t technically gotten an event yet, besides that one story in Operational Intelligence, but I’m including it as an honorable mention because we’re going there for IS4. The Icefields are up north of Ursus, and they are terrifying. You remember the Emperor’s Blade, the one that kicks your ass in WD-8? Yeah we only see three of them in the game because the rest are busy fighting against the Eldritch demons constantly invading from the Sami Icefields. Let’s please never go there ever, thanks.

Finished Plotlines:

These two are complete plots, which I'm including for posterity and the worldstate. Spoilers for all of these events, but I'll try to keep things to the present so as to not spoil too much.

The Grand Knight Major: Maria Nearl/ Pinus Sylvestris/ Near Light/ Obscure Wanderer, Blemishine/ Zofia/ Nearl/ The Followers/ Flametail/ Ashlock/ Fartooth/ Wildmane/ Justice Knight my beloved/ Gravel/ Platinum/ Roy/ Monique/ Młynar.

Margaret Nearl won the 24th Major and became the Grand Knight, and has since stayed in Kazimierz to improve living conditions for the infected and push back against the General Chamber of Commerce. The Armorless Union has mostly been decapitated - the Platinum defected, the Lazurites have disappeared and taken on new identities, and the Darksteel has promised to stay away from Margaret and Rhodes Island. Pinus Sylvestris and most of the rest of the Nearls are now on the landship, working for Rhodes Island.

A New Age is Upon Us: Mansfield Break/ Dorothy’s Vision/ Lonetrail/ the second Records of Originium comic (which has an official translation that you should absolutely read it’s really good)/ the Friston-3 event whenever Yostar decides to get around to releasing it, Silence/ Ptilopsis/ Saria/ Ifrit/ Dorothy/ Mulesyse/ Ferdinand/ Rosemontis/ Ho’olheyak/ Kirsten.

After the events of Project Horizon, Terra has forever been changed. For just a fleeting moment, every living being in Terra looked up and saw the stars for the first time. The consequences of this aren't totally clear just yet, but it will almost have rippling effects across the world and marks a shift in the game's story as a whole. We also received confirmation of just who the Doctor truly is, and a look behind the curtain of Terra's history. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that nothing is the same after Lonetrail.

In more specific character terms, though, Saria is the new control of Rhine lab, with Silence as her assistant and ethics advisor. Ifrit is a big girl now, and practically a different character entirely from who she was at the start of the game - seriously, her character arc might be my favorite in the game. Rosemontis has also similarly faced her past and come out stronger, and not only Directors Dorothy and Mulesyse but also Maylander agent Ho'olheyak have come over to Rhodes Island in the chaos after Project Horizon. Finally, Rhodes Island has uncovered the real powers lying behind the scenes of Columbian Politics, but have in turn been noticed themselves. We are no longer in the shadows, and it would be wise to keep that in mind.

#arknights #all quiet under the thunder #what the firelight casts #Invitation to wine #where vernal winds will never blow #under tides #stultifera navis #Mizuki and caerula arbor #il siracusano #guide ahead #near light #Lonetrail #arknights story #arknights spoilers #spoilers

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rimeiii · 7 months

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I'm just gonna go ahead and say it despite my fear of getring backlash:

I am not a fan with how WHB handles the usage of Solomon's Tears.

(Rant post, feel free to skip over, rest under the cut. I just needed to get this out of my chest.)

Thank god they've made a statement about the availability of Tears, but in my opinion, their way of handling this is the equivalent of slapping a bandaid on a gaping wound - it fails to address the root of the issue that's making Tears such a necessary material in the first place, it being several aspects of the game design.

There have been several design choices that confuse me when it comes to WHB, which I would chalk up to WHB being PB's very first game that purely isn't otome. But these design choices often involve game balancing issues, which for me personally directly impacts my enjoyment of the game. And it is these design choices that immediately impact the need for Tears, and why the initial update changing the availability of these Tears sparked so much controversy.

But before that, I have some menial complaints that can be chalked up to me being spoiled by other games. First of all, the large amounts of filler stages, while normal for a gacha, still doesn't make it a fun experience to play through - especially when there are barely any changes to the stage layouts. The only reason why Plants vs Zombies were able to do this is because of the way their stages are set up:

Stages 1, 3, 6, and 8 introduce a new mechanic/zombie

Stages 2, 4, 7, and 9 are harder stages that test what you knew from the previous stage

Stage 5 is a minigame stage

Stage 10 is a conveyor belt boss stage

Every stage gives you a new plant, oftentimes one that is relevant to the new mechanic/zombie at play/about to be introduced (for example, Puff Shrooms upon ending 1-10, a 0 Sun plant with shorter range that helps in earlygame because the next world is nighttime, which means no Sun from the sky)

As for the other TD games in the market? Arknights has different maps for each story stage. So does Path to Nowhere, from what I recall. If there are filler stages, they're very few and far in between. It's why Granblue Fantasy changed their story chapters to no longer have a solo battle at each segment - it hinders the storytelling.

One of the most baffling things in my opinion is the fact that the game has the same upgrade requirements for all units regardless of rarity. This is such a weird design choice for me because in most games, lower rarities are cheaper when it comes to upgrade costs.

For comparison's sake, some screenshots I took for promoting S and A+ ranks.

Belial, an S-rank Marksman, requires 22k Gold, 22k Books, 10 Tears, and 22 Fire Jellybeans.

It's the same for the A+ Healer Morax, save for the elemental jelly beans which is changed to his element, Light. And this is the same amount needed for upgrading L characters as well.

This design choice isn't particularly good, in my opinion. It bottlenecks players and puts them in a mindset position of "upgrading anything apart from Ls and some choice S/A+ ranks is a resource sink". It makes people think that building anything except the strongest of units isn't worth it, which in turn renders the existence of lower rarity/weaker units moot, especially considering the scarcity of the Tears in the first place. Because why would you raise them if you're going to gain more of an advantage from building these high-rarity units? You're going to get a more immediate and significant power boost by upgrading Ls in the first place.

This is even more pronounced in WHB specifically because in most gachas, lower rarity units tend to require less to upgrade. Take a look at the E2 requirements of three Tactician Vanguards in Arknights, in which Elite upgrades are the closest approximation to promotion in WHB.

Beanstalk is the lowest rarity of the archetype at 4*, and her E2 material requirements consist of two types of tier 3 materials (Coagulating Gel and Manganese Ore, both with blue borders), Vanguard Chip Packs, and LMD.

Then you have the 5* Blacknight, whose material requirements now include a tier 4 material (Incandescent Alloy Block, with a pink border) in addition to a tier 3 material (Loxic Kohl), Vanguard Dualchips (crafted from Vanguard Chip Packs and Chip Catalysts, both of which are farmable regardless), and more LMD.

And finally, the 6* Vigil, whose material requirements are now a tier 5 material (Crystalline Electronic Unit, with a yellow border) and a tier 4 material (Optimized Device), more Vanguard Dualchips (4 to Blacknight's 3), and even more LMD.

Yet in other games, I don't mind raising lower rarity units - for several reasons, depending on the game. In Granblue Fantasy (despite my complaints about how quickly the meta evolves and how lim-centric it is), SR units serve as the stopgap for party comps until you can fill out your roster with SSR characters, and some of these SR characters still see use like Lyria. In other games like Fire Emblem Heroes, Memento Mori, and Princess Connect: ReDive, all units gain the potential to hit the highest rarity - I have a Yukari (originally a 1* unit) ready to hit 6* in PriConne, while I have a +9 merged 5* Fallen Takumi (farmable unit at 3*/4* base) in FEH. Arknights' case is more nuanced, where it's partly the same case as GBF, but also the fact that lower rarity units can fit into niches that high rarity units don't fill.

With these other games, I never feel like raising a lower rarity unit is a waste of resources. The costs of uncapping characters in general is negligible in GBF, except for the Eternals and the Evokers - those of which are reasonably time-gated because of their sheer meta impact and how strong they are compared to all other characters. Except for particularly egregious cases like Tsukinogi, every single Arknights Operator has their uses, and they often see use in Integrated Strategies.

And let's not get into the debacle that are skill levels, because of course you need more materials for that. I don't mind having high costs for optimizing skills - Masteries in Arknights works like that, after all. Pictured below is the cost of M3-ing Bagpipe's third skill.

That's right - a tier 5 (Bipolar Nanoflake) and tier 4 (Oriron Block) material. And luckily, you can farm for all of these skill upgrade materials outside of events, crafting the higher tiers as necessary. There is less opportunity cost for me to E2 my 4* and 5* units because I can just farm the materials again anyways - and even then I some Masteries on these units are amazing. S1M3 Myrtle (4*) is probably the best DP generator in the game, while S2M3 Lappland (5*) also helps with her skill uptime.

Then you go back to WHB's skill upgrades, which mind you is also the same cost between rarities, and guess what else you need?

Yep. Tears. A ludicrous amount of it, considering its availability. And let's not even get into the Tears required for the Unholy Board, if that matters to you (and it does, because it also gives buffs for your L units).

This skews the game balance towards the L units even more. Ideally you'd be raising skill levels once your units reach high levels, because everything is percentage based and the lower your base stats, the lower effect these skill levels have on your skills. But that just means you'll still need Tears because, well, you still need to promote. And remember the opportunity cost again, because all rarities have the same skill upgrade cost, further incentivizing you building Ls and ignoring everything else.

It's ridiculous.

And the added nail in the coffin: the reduced rewards that basically halved the amount of Tears you get.

I seriously, genuinely hope they take the availability of Solomon's Tears as well as game balancing into consideration when performing the next balance patch. Because otherwise, I can't see this game being an enjoyable experience for me moving forward.

Unless, this was the intended way the game was designed, in which I just...I have no more words to say.

#what in hell is bad #rimei rambles #rant post #cw rant #i'm just tired man #other games catching my eye #and i'm heavily considering dropping this game #i've been playing lovebrush and enjoying it #and reverse 1999 is coming in a few days #chapter 12 in ak too #i'll hold out until i see what they cook up on the 25th #but otherwise i'm afraid this might be goodbye

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foxgirlplushie · 6 months

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Do you ever update a fic after. Literally a year?

Haha me neither (technically it was 364 days) but there's a new chapter of foxes/wolf/knives out now go read it!!

#my fics #arknights #if you werent aware f/w/k is my ongoing 'cutter/frostleaf/red navigate polyamory' fic! go read it its very good if i say so myself #in this current chapter frostleaf finally broachs the subject of 'hey i want to keep dating you but maybe also date red' with cutter!#it goes mostly alright

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enihk-writes · 6 months

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hello this is enihk-writes

i go by the name eni here online. my most used pronouns are she/they, but i actually lean more towards being agender so really any pronouns are okay with me! last i checked, my mbti is infj, but i have heard of things like that changing so don't quote me on that. i am a '01 liner, so you do the math on how old i am lol

i write for a few different fandoms, all of which can be found under the tag #eni's fandom list

all of my writing can be found under #enihkwrites and the main masterlist for all my work can be found under the line

i also use AO3 to post most of my longer, multi-chapter works using the pseud enihk (2871) if you want to see what else i have

there are no rules in terms of requests, anything goes as long as it's not nsfw/smut though asking for dead-dove-do-not-eat darker content is okay, i will still vet through and avoid what i am uncomfortable with. something to note is that i am very slow to update so do take that in mind if you want to send in a request

other tags i often use are #eni's small talk corner for talking about anything and everything. the tag #enihkposts is more for shit-posting or for updates for my wips, keke it's like russian roulette

bye-bye and see you when i see you ♡

LONG-FORM FICS

🌸화산귀환 | Return of the Blossoming Blade🌸

[thunder bolts in a clear sky] — UPDATING mhdd!chung myung x afab!she/her!reader (QUEER-PLATONIC)

[what comes after] — MOVING + UPDATING pbss!chung myung x tang bo (EVERYONE LIVES AU)

🌞🌛原神 | Genshin Impact🌜🌞

an outlander's field's notes : PART 1 [tales of a coffee shop in another world] — WIP + MOVING everyone + ambiguous!she/her!reader (CHARACTER STUDY)

an outlander's field's notes : PART 2 [a sinner's ode] — WIP old teyvat + afab!she/her!reader + fem!OC (WORLD BUILDING)

ONE-SHOTS, DRABBLES AND OTHER SHORT-FORM FICS

🌸화산귀환 | Return of the Blossoming Blade🌸

[homecoming] pbss!chung myung x gn!they/them!reader

[i got my red dress on tonight, dancing in the dark, in the pale moonlight] baek cheon x afab!she/her!reader [PART 01 ║ PART 02]

[日久见人心] mhdd!chung myung + afab!she/her!reader (PLATONIC)

[alone at the edge of the universe humming a tune] mhdd!chung myung (CHARACTER FOCUS)

[you look so pretty and i love this view] yu iseol x afab!she/her!reader

[kiss, kiss, kiss, 단 하루도 빼먹지 말고] various!hwasan men x gn!reader (OR) various!hwasan men x preferred pairing

[when i was still the one you want] various!hwasan characters x gn!reader

建筑部长老 / ARCHITECT!READER (SERIES) [hard to recall] pbss!chung myung x gn!they/them!reader

인권유린상자 / STUCK IN A BOX (SERIES?) [needed proximity] baek cheon x afab!reader (+18 MATURE / SMUT CONTENT)

[sincerely] lee songbaek x gn!they/them!reader

[eyes closed] baek cheon x afab!reader (+18 MATURE / SMUT CONTENT)

[shared body] pre-possessed!cho sam (HEADCANNONS / THOUGHTS)

[haunting] tang bo x chung myung

[at the end of a burnt wick] tang bo x afab!she/her!reader

除夕 / LUNAR NEW YEAR'S EVE (SEASONAL FICS) [before the year ends] various!hwasan men x gn!reader

[someone older] older!multi-fandom men (TANG GUNAK) x gn!they/them!reader

[rotbb headcanons_001] pbss!chung myung , mhdd!chung myung (HOW HE REJECTS SOMEONE)

[rotbb headcanons_002] tang bo x chung myung (TANG BO'S PALM LINES HEADCANONS)

🌠崩坏：星穹铁道 | Honkai: Star Rail🌠

[of yearnful kisses and an un-relinquished old flame] blade/ren x gn!reader

[forget-me-not] jing yuan x gn!reader

[someone older] older!multi-fandom men (JING YUAN) x gn!they/them!reader

🌞🌛原神 | Genshin Impact🌜🌞

[17:24] albedo x gn!reader

[so this is love, so this is what makes life divine] various!genshin men x gn!reader

[someone older] older!multi-fandom men (ZHONGLI + NEUVILETTE) x gn!they/them!reader

🧪終わりのセラフ | Owari no Seraph | Seraph of the End🧪

[tangerine] shinya x gn!reader

[island] shinya x gn!reader

👺광마회귀 | Return of the Mad Demon👺

[someone older] older!multi-fandom men (DOKGO) x gn!they/them!reader

🥽🚧明日方舟 | Arknights🚧🥽

[someone older] older!multi-fandom men (CHONGYUE) x gn!they/them!reader

⏱⏳重返未来：1999 | Reverse: 1999⏳⏱

[someone older] older!multi-fandom men (SHAMANE) x gn!they/them!reader

👊🔮呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen🔮👊

[someone older] older!multi-fandom men (HIGURUMA) x gn!they/them!reader

🧧🀄極楽街三番通の件 | Gokurakugai Sanban-doori no Ken🀄🧧

[someone older] older!multi-fandom men (RYU) x gn!they/them!reader

#eni's fandom list #enihkwrites #eni's masterlist #eni's small talk corner #enihkposts

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exoticalmonde · 13 days

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Arknights Chapter XIII - The Whirlpool That Is Passion (Part V)

ALSO, a reminder that I am currently waiting for the new event, so perhaps I am going to move through the story of that before finishing Chapter 13 here. I already got through all the levels, so I need to just read the story. HOWEVER, since this is also a Leithanien event and that means I AM A WINNER (together with Dr. Lundi who is cuffing Arturia to herself to make sure she doesn't run amock), there will be an update about the pulls later.

WARNING: This post is going to contain a lot of yapping from me about Hoederer and how much I love him and will also have a LOT of spoilers.

As I was saying... Health-ism.

---

LIKE WE DON'T HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO YOU SUDDENLY START EXPLODING US ARE YOU NOT HAPPY WITH ALREADY BEING A TORN-DOWN COUNTRY LEAVE THEM ALONE GOOD GOD.

Yeah? They're trying to attack out of nowhere, desperate and mostly just ravaged by the war? Crawled out of the trenches like 3km away? I wonder what could be the reason for Victorians to do that.

---

Absolute utter control of the situation, I REALLY regret not paying attention to Guard. One day... One day I will reread everything and perhaps finally start noticing things that are important in the story.

---

I'm so mad. He's the problem. That's the problem. Victoria obviously is not adept at keeping them, just like all the other countries we have seen so far. They never learn.

---

For context, the Angry NCO was asking whether despicable people get infected, or if Infected people are just despicable; and suddenly Guard shoots a:

---

They didn't even get inhibitors. As chaos breaks, people who have never had to hold a weapon suddenly have to face a foe and pull the trigger. Nothing to help them, nothing to make it easier. Simply cannon fodder to buy time until the big pieces come to a conclusion on what they have to do...

But this is how it works.

But what about their backs?

---

First of all - he's a gonner.

Second of all... OH GOD, HE'S A GONNER!!!

---

I was not here for the R6 Siege event where they explained the entire problem with corpses of Infected, and those who did not really notice what was happening with Frostnova at the time couldn't have possibly known either.

The horrifying part about this conversation is the realization that they were lied to: The troops heard explosions, and crackling, the same as the one they are hearing here, but they were told that it was just artillery.

In reality, this is the sound that the bodies begin making when they are ready to erupt. Well... Erupt is not a good word. Explode is an option, but that's too gruesome to imagine. Basically, the bodies of the infected proceed to deteriorate and the sickness spreads so quickly that it becomes unstable, and the way that Oripathy spreads further is by disintegrating the victim into a cloud of originium particles.

This makes it impossible for this body to stay so close to camp being a health hazard for those that have survived and are recuperating. Unfortunately, I feel like they will have to be sent away.

But it's fascinating to see it MENTIONED finally, after so many years of hints.

---

For this level, this is what I have used, but technically speaking all you need is a Mountain, a good sniper, a Mudrock, a good caster and a medic defender. I made Ebenholz hold the bottom line, but then the enemy there slipped and I almost failed at holding him down with Hoederer (who wasn't max level at the time). I also took Heidi (but any bard will do) for the passive healing on Mudrock because she was not enjoying her time back under the cannon.

youtube

This is the video I used as a guide.

A reminder that the Environmental Conditions are: Touches of the Sanguinarch have significantly increased HP.

Bring additional blockers with high enough damage to put in front of the bottom blue box so Heidi can kind of heal them while they deal with the problematic ones.

---

13-2 After: The Injury At Hand

But accidents happen...

Ah... canon-typical loss.

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arkiwii · 7 months

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Arknights (duh) 19, Saria/Silence 4, Kafka 6!

alright alright rubbing hands together

Fandom (19)

It's pretty hard to think about a behind-the-scenes trivia, but if I have to give an interesting one, I heard from a friend (so my sources may suck) that Lowlight left Girls Frontline because of the character treatment being awful. If that's the case, my thoughts on it are that I think this is a really positive thing to consider for Arknights, and why I find most character extremely attaching or interesting. I just think it gives hope for the evolution of the characters in the future, if this goal is still in sight

Ship (4)

The entirety of Rhine Lab, whassup /j

For real, I'd say some other characters in Rhine Lab may have picked it up - first of all Lammy and Albert. We forget about these two but they're simply just loveable. I'd say they pretty much saw the chimestry, which is also why their first thought when Silence asked for help was to ask if she asked Saria before. And they both sound like those friends who would do the little funny tricks to force these two together

A sad one I think about is Parvis. I mean c'mon, this guy is so homophobic. He probably saw that there was something going on which is the main reason he cut Silence from seeing Saria again. Aka this bitch just decided to ruin it all (and succeeded)

Muelsyse, of course. She doesn't know Silence or even interacted with her, but THIS BONUS CHAPTER, when she looks at Saria's feather when she asks if coffee candies can help a Liberi's sleep schedule. This look of 🏳️‍🌈? She definitely went like "hold up", I think about it everyday

I'm really unable to tell if Ptilopsis would or not have picked it. It took her a moment to actually consider Silence as a friend? At least she only did so when they were in Rhodes Island? (When she "updates" her relationship with Silence as "friends" in her Operator Record) It just makes me wonder how easily she can understand relations with people, I wouldn't be surprised if she struggled to, but also I like to think that she guessed the strong familial bond between the three of them.

Character (6)

KAFKA!!

Oh boy, I have yet seen the fanfics in the Kafka tag on AO3, you just reminded me. I have read some already but not really looked into it

I just checked, most of them are rated E or have Kafka as just a cameo. I don't wanna read the horrors

BUT an AU I'd love to read about her mmmhh... I'd love a Fantasy AU, mostly because Rhine Lab has a LOT of Fantasy AU potential, Dorothy's skin speaks for me on that one. Having Kafka as some kind of thief or something in the like...

Another one would be if she never met Silence. What would have happened? We know she already knew Pinecone, maybe she would hang out around her, or maybe she would have gotten worse...

And a last one that almost got canon, Rhine Lab Kafka! I have no idea what she would do because I doubt she has any scientific knowledge, but Silence once proposed her the idea - what would have happened?

But regardless we need more Kafka fics in general, please give love and attention to my little bird - and I should write a cool one about her, maybe just going freeform about her past in Columbia, it would be cute,,

#arknights #olivia silence #saria #kafka arknights #ask game #askiwi

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moonlit-tulip · 2 years

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There's a pattern I've noticed in several video games, over the past decade-ish, of putting their worst feet forward during their early segments. Starting out, over the course of their initial hours, with weak writing, uninteresting gameplay, or otherwise low-quality content, relative to what shows up in the later sections, then slowly ramping up in quality as the player progresses, in such a way as to make their opening segments' quality unrepresentatively low.

Traditional game design wisdom, as I understand it, holds that one is supposed to do the opposite of this. Start, in the beginning, with one's strongest content, in order to hook players and get them to keep playing. Devote more development effort to content more players will see, which tends to mean the content earliest in the game—before there's been much player attrition, and before too many different branching choices have been made—gets the most effort put into making it good.

(Tutorials tacked onto games' beginnings as an afterthought, with minimal development time put into them, are an unfortunate exception to this tradition; but they at least tend to be short, in most games where they exist at all.)

To the best of my ability to discern, the inversion of that common wisdom—the pattern where the earliest parts of a game tend to be the weakest—tends to be a product, not of deliberate developer choice to prioritize the quality of the later sections, but rather of specific modern development patterns. In particular: the move towards digital distribution as a default, and the resulting popularization of live-service games.

Back in the old days, games were released as largely-unitary things. A studio would develop a game until it was complete—or until they hit their deadline and had to rush out a release despite its incompleteness, in many cases—and then that would be the game. There would, potentially, be a handful of expansions released, for particularly successful games, but the only games which tended to receive routine content updates as far as I'm aware were MMOs.

Now, though, digital distribution is the norm, and it's considered routine and default for game developers to release a game initially in substantially incomplete state and then to slowly flesh it out over the course of many subsequent iterative content updates. One sees this most obviously in games following the Early Access model, but it shows up plenty even in games not following that model, as with the various gacha games which release with an incomplete story which then gets continued over many successive updates.

The thing about this change in development patterns, though, is: when the developers are releasing the game in an iterative fashion like that, it means that the early parts of the game will be the parts made when the developers were least experienced. And, while some development teams will go back and make major changes to bring the early game up to later quality standards—Terraria, for instance, has had extensive updates to its early game over the years—many development teams will instead prioritize adding new things over fixing old things, to better retain the interest of those players they already have.

What results, then, is a quality curve wherein, the later one is in the game, the better the game is, not because this is actually an optimal way to lay out a game from the standpoint of expected quality-of-player-experience, but because the developers were better when they were developing the later parts than when they were developing the earlier parts. And thus, in a pattern directly opposite of the traditionally-recommended one, the early game is the weakest part, and some fraction of the players who might well have enjoyed the game as a whole will be driven off by that relative weakness.

(Two examples of this which have particularly struck me are Arknights, whose first several story chapters largely failed to draw me in but whose event stories and later story chapters were very good once I stuck the game out for long enough to reach them, and Grim Dawn, whose first act managed to be such a perfect storm of weak level design, unengaging combat, and failure-to-show-off-most-of-the-game's-strongest-points that, despite my having gone into it on release very much wanting to like it, I only managed to take a playthrough far enough into it to recognize the game as genuinely good this year, more than six years after its initial release.)

#Archive #Video Games #Arknights #Grim Dawn

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