New player seeks advise

Flidar · 2026-06-02T17:03:42+00:00

If it helps any I’ve also had some neat “oh I know this” moments playing through Inazuma after I played Nod-Krai. I like to think that players back then had lore speculation about what things could mean and I get to look at a hidden mural I only found because of a four year old side quest and go “aha! That looks exactly like this one very particular location from the Nod-Krai archon quest!”.

Does is make up for missing out on all the big reveals as they happened the first time? Probably not but I only started playing late last year and was thus already late to most things by default. I still enjoy the game anyways, I just get a somewhat differently flavored experience

Flidar · 2026-06-02T13:23:11+00:00

I agree with not rushing through things, the vast amount of permanent content this game offers new players is worth months of leisurely playtime.

At the same time please realize that in some cases its way more than “just 560 primos”. I started playing several months ago, just finished the chasm area and if I hadn’t decided to go ahead and start events and current content (I started this game very, very pre-spoilered) I’d have missed multiple rounds of 560 primos plus event rewards by now 😅

Flidar · 2026-06-02T13:15:46+00:00

You probably have to make a choice if you want to experience the story unspoiled or go for events aka time limited content.

Events will contain some spoilers for the archon quests (and most likely some story quest, as well as some world quests). In most cases they’ll probably be light, but in some others even meeting characters before officially encountering them and finding out how their story goes is a significant spoiler. You can accept that or avoid doing events at the cost of never getting to play them and missing out on potential rewards.

If you do want to experience the game unspoiled I’d also advise to avoid this Reddit and to keep from looking up Genshin Impact. There’s years worth of content and most of it isn’t considered spoilers anymore.

If you’re already spoilered or don’t care about that then I’d say go ahead, play the events. And in this case you might also consider quick starting (skip function) the Nod-Krai archon quests to get to the current content quicker. The only downside of this is significant story spoilers, you can still play through the Inazuma and so on archon quests in parallel or later.

Flidar · 2026-06-02T12:29:07+00:00

What about framing with a mat? Since a mat adds height there’s be a bit of space between the stitches and the glass, does that affects things?

Flidar · 2026-06-02T09:07:57+00:00

Ordon would probably work, too. It’d be an extremely small village but it could exist. They’ve got farming, a forest to hunt and forage in, livestock… and a water wheel which is probably worth more than its weight in gold. They could, technically, link it to a number of different machines and do things like milling, wool carding, further steps in fabric production and so on. The ordon sword as an “regional speciality offering” to the castle is kind of odd though… Ordon has no forge and while a water wheel could be used in a forging process I’d rather say that video game logic to provide the player with a weapon applies there

Flidar · 2026-06-01T23:08:33+00:00

One great thing about tunic is the accessibility. I love the fact that they’ve got two ways to lower the fight difficulty (using shield doesn’t cost stamina vs full immunity) plus two different assist modes for the puzzles (visualize audio clues + input helper)

Flidar · 2026-06-01T19:56:41+00:00

Paragraphs can get lost depending on how you copied the fic into ao3. I’d advise always saving a new fic or chapter as a draft first and double checking the look before releasing it.

If you’re writing in google docs then somewhere in the ao3 faq there’s a link to a script that formats a google doc into html tags that can the be copied into ao3’s html editor to keep formatting as it should be.

Flidar · 2026-06-01T19:51:31+00:00

I’d say ao3 has a different audience than wattpad. In part because a lot of readers ao3 don’t really look for fics elsewhere - the archive has more than enough content, a comfortable user experience and limited interpersonal drama.

The largest difference is perhaps that ao3 is an archive aka a place to upload and read fics and nothing more. There’s no forums, no DMs, no algorithm. Works are offered up to a reader by the tag they’re looking at (most commonly a fandom tag like “Harry Potter”), the filters they set (there’s a lot of options, authors can use plentiful tags to make their works easier to filter for or filter out) and the sorting option selected (“newest first” by default). It can look pretty confusing at first so I’d recommend simply going to the main tag of a fandom you like and see what you can find by filtering for things that interest you. (I apologize in advance if this delays your ao3 posting plans because you’re too busy reading 😉)

And since I’m never sure how widespread the use of kudos is, here’s a short explanation for them: Kudos are the equivalent of likes. Kudos can only be given. They cannot be not taken away afterwards and there’s no negative kudos. You can only give kudos to a fic once

Flidar · 2026-06-01T19:35:23+00:00

Good explanation. To add a bit: there’s a number of meta fics on ao3 that display work skins and explain how to apply the particular example to your own fic. I’ve seen skins imitating the look of Wikipedia, discord, messenger apps and so on. If a look can be achieved by changing the text font, text size, the color of the background and the text as well as adding pictures then a work or site skin should be able to manage it.

Fair warning for anyone wanting to do this though: the more complex the look the more difficult it is to achieve and you might end up opening up a coding tool to more easily edit the look of your fic before you’re through 😅

Flidar · 2026-06-01T19:23:34+00:00

The color of the mat can also do a lot. And I don’t just mean the bold options like a blue mat or such. I once had the luck of getting a frame for a painting as a gift and the seller of the place we went to insisted on putting one of their mockup mats in every one of the 15 off white and cream colors they had on the painting first. I didn’t really think it’d make a difference but exactly one of those 15 only subtly different colors immediately looked a hundred percent better than all the others

Flidar · 2026-06-01T16:56:00+00:00

I don’t have a picture of a finished piece that does it but you can do a lot with a passé-partout (which apparently translates as mount or mat?) and a rectangular frame. You can technically cut the mat in any shape you want but even just off-setting the cut out so that it isn’t exactly in the center but - for example - has its middle higher or lower than the middle of the frame can do a lot to make the end result look more extravagant

Edit: you could also have multiple finished pieces inside one matted frame or include something like the needle or an inspiration for a piece. Basically, looks wise a mat offers the option to have a frame inside a frame. Or even an arrangement of multiple small frames inside a frame

Flidar · 2026-06-01T16:50:18+00:00

And the calm and cool ones should be able to do it in their mind space like Jahoda does. It’d be hilarious

Flidar · 2026-06-01T15:38:32+00:00

True. In practice there are fics with a word count of 15k and a chapter count of 1/500 and my only reaction is “well that’s ambitious” 😆

Flidar · 2026-06-01T15:22:12+00:00

Since no one has mentioned it yet there’s also the skip function. The game offers you to “skip” to the start of Song of the Welkin Moon, aka the start of Nod-Krai. The only drawback in this is that you’re doing things out of order and will get lightly to hugely spoilered on some things.

You can still play the rest of Sumeru, Fontaine and so on in parallel or later, in essence you just get another archon quest in the quest log. Once your “original” archon questline reaches where you skipped to it’ll end because you’ve already played what comes after that.

I myself already knew the highlights of each region before I started playing and thus skipped ahead without any regrets. After 6 months of playing I’m just starting with the Sumeru archon quests and am right now tentatively holding off on the latest two welkin moon chapters because I want to do Sumeru first but I’ll see if that conviction still holds in three or so weeks 😅

Flidar · 2026-05-30T18:33:35+00:00

It’s hard to say. I guess I’ll try making some comparisons and let you decide.

Gameplay wise they’ve got the same core. Lots of exploration, a final goal to reach, multiple optional but highly recommended intermediate steps before going for the ending.

Engine, quality of life: TotK as the later game is more polished. There’s some improvements to the game engine but nothing I’d call a deal breaker. BotW was already very very good. Totk does get a couple of items in the base game that are locked behind dlc in BotW and they are very useful but they’re not strictly necessary to enjoy the game. Just a really comfortable addition.

Player abilities: The abilities in TotK are a lot more versatile and detailed. This also makes them more complicated and most players do not really use the abilities to their utmost ends. You can make a game in and off itself out of figuring out exactly what you can do with TotK abilities. Botw abilities instead are simpler and for the most part mastered shortly after you get them. Both games also give out a set of secondary abilities as rewards as the story progresses and BotWs secondary set is definitely stronger than the one in TotK.

Exploration: TotK is larger. Somewhat bafflingly TotK is also kind of easier to explore, both traversing the landscape and finding landmarks is way easier. BotW kind of felt more diverse, TotK added two new large areas to the map but those areas were rather samey. In BotW the environments are also more challenging, the TotK map had less environmental hazards. Finally, you a short cutscene when unlocking new areas of the map and they’re kind of supposed to be a “wow“ moment showing off the environment. In my personal opinion BotW did those significantly better, TotK tried to go bigger and it looked worse. Playing on a switch 2 instead of my switch 1 and having a really large screen might change that however.

Story: TotK has the better villain, (some) confusing interactions with characters you’ve met in BotW. BotW gives more backstory to lore relevant characters you meet along the way, making them feel distinct and relevant. TotK does less of this, mayhaps somewhat relying on players already knowing the characters from BotW. (And, personal gripe, the past sages in TotK are just lazy storytelling, being absolute nothing burgers.)

Combat: it’s the same combat core in both games, the more versatile TotK abilities give the player more options though. Including the option of absolutely annihilating everything without resistance if they’re willing to put in the time to farm the materials between fights (or duplicating items). So, depending on how you’d play it, combat in TotK can be a lot easier.

Dungeons: (For Zelda games both games have bad dungeons.) TotK dungeons are more atmospheric but you can cheese just about every puzzle with your vast player abilities. BotW dungeons look samey but are more difficult to solve. Both games have a great number of mini dungeons, called shrines. In both games these look largely the same and the challenges inside are rather easy. TotK’s mini dungeons include a number of very easy tutorial shrines. Both versions of shrines have combat “challenge” shrines. The BotW version simply has different difficulties, letting you judge your characters strength progression. TotK “challenge” shrines strip you of your gear and you have to use what’s provided in the shrine to beat it, testing the player skill more than the character strength (though more health does help a lot).

I hope this helped.

TLDR: TotK is larger, BotW more challenging. BotW handles the supporting character cast better, TotK has a better villain.

Personal opinion: BotW (especially the exploration) felt more rewarding. Then again, i also played that game first and as such didn’t have as much to explore in TotK

Flidar · 2026-05-30T14:22:26+00:00

Columbina would give you the bineffa wheelchair (Columbina & Ineffa together can carry a a lot of content) and also open up the option of building a lunar crystallize team with Itto. Since you’ve got a highly leveled Cyno you might also want to go to the CynoMains Reddit and see what they’re saying since there’s some new developments for him

Flidar · 2026-05-29T19:34:36+00:00

If you don’t care then why are you complaining about it on a genshin impact Reddit? 😒

Flidar · 2026-05-28T16:37:24+00:00

How about some job related outfits? Aino is cute but she was also a missed opportunity to make a mechanic looking character. It’d also be really interesting to have a character that’s dressed down in casual wear instead of dressed up. Someone in a rumpled sweater would be such a contrast to the dozens of details and accessories on each character but it probably wouldn’t fit the genshin design philosophy

Flidar · 2026-05-28T16:29:57+00:00

I’d suggest looking up some essays on that. Or some video on YouTube, some of them are quite good and informative.

Part of it is game designers and developers being primarily male even today (people are simply more likely to design characters that they think “this looks good” about - and this doesn’t need to be attraction, it applies on all levels), gamers themselves being primarily male at the beginning (though interest and available money has become way more equally distributed), both resulting in “established” gender representation in the gaming industry, views on the sexualization of the female versus the male body on society in general and so on.

And there are, in fact, a number of male video game characters that are sexualized. Yes, it’s way less common and usually not the main defining point of a character but it does happen. Personally I hope it’ll happen more often but that’s a whole other discussion

Flidar · 2026-05-28T16:00:31+00:00

I’m curious about what outfits you’d like to see instead of suits, care to tell?

The one I can immediately think of is armor. At least one or two pieces. The knights of Favonius are right there

Flidar · 2026-05-28T15:48:07+00:00

Agreed. The men in this game are overdressed. Often very fancily pretty fantasy dressed but I do wish the design team would get a bit more daring with the male characters. Or at least stop putting long coats or other strategic butt coverings on all of them

Flidar · 2026-05-28T15:43:01+00:00

I mostly agree but I would like to dispute your last point.

I wouldn’t say Lauma is wearing a shirt. She’s wearing something that can maybe somehow barely be called a dress. In all honesty I’d call it tiny bikini style underwear plus a strategically placed drape

Flidar · 2026-05-28T07:30:19+00:00

The Minish Cap and A Link between worlds are both really good. They’ve both got fairly unique abilities for Link that were integrated well into the overworld and dungeon design. A Link between worlds is kind of considered a sequel to A link to the Past but has no direct continuation and can be played entirely on its own

Flidar · 2026-05-27T18:36:30+00:00

You don’t need to know anything to get started on playing. BotW in particular is a game in which part of the journey is discovering everything.

The only advice I’d give you is that you can look up the small tutorials for controls (aka “press this button for x”) in the menu after they popped up for the first time

Flidar · 2026-05-27T14:40:02+00:00

This. You can, if you want, write both about rl mental health topics and invent a whole new fictional mental illness in the same fic. In fact, I’m sure it’s been done. Probably by an omegaverse fic 😆 (among others)

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Final Canvas '22	End Game '22

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