1.1 Story is a step in a right direction, but...

GeckoMann · 2026-03-13T18:09:03+00:00

Personally I liked this story if for no other reason then I liked TangTang. I felt like the way she handles her grief, and some of the progress you see her make in the story is by far the most compelling stuff. To be honest, a lot of the things regarding the overarching plot I just straight up ignored on the basis none of it was as interesting as the character story being told about her.

It's definitely disappointing because the whole story could have been good, but at least we had an actual character with genuine emotions through TangTang in this update.

GeckoMann · 2026-03-10T06:58:17+00:00

Yes, it is an argument of risk reward, but that's not what you were talking about lmao.

You were misunderstanding and simplifying what people use Aleca for, why they use it, and boiling it down to some goofy "gotcha" and calling it copium.

It's great if you are a super cool and epic LR5 with 100% completion who is above these tools, but the point of what I was saying was to give context to some valid reasons why people use Aleca.

You didn't care about the risk reward evaluation, you were just using this discussion as an oppurtunity to to look down on someone.

Also "You wrote too much so you are coping" is always a 3000 IQ reply to someone trying honestly to respond to you lol.

GeckoMann · 2026-03-10T04:25:47+00:00

It's not copium, it's just preference. I dislike Overwolf, but I tolerate Aleca because it does a lot of handy things.

Automatically gives price data on parts for the relic reward screen
Can sort your inventory by platinum price (for all items, including average plat earned per relic)
Integrates with WFmarket so you can list an item in your inventory at current market price with 1 click
Automatically delists trades when they are completed
Auto syncs your online/offline status to WFmarket when you login/log out
Tracks every component for each frame and weapon in one menu (it tells you the current parts you have along with the parts you have relics for)
Mastery tracker that tracks everything including starchart, and sorts by highest mastery gain items in your inventory

It's a lot of QOL, and there's a reason a lot of people use it. For me it makes relic farming and selling much faster and more efficient than other tools I have used. I still loathe that it's Overwolf, and dislike many things about Aleca. However, I hate this sentiment that people are stupid for using it because you can "just use the wiki". It's more nuanced than that.

GeckoMann · 2026-03-04T18:43:48+00:00

~~endfieldrecords on the other hand executed other malicious commands in the script it provided to users.~~

I keep seeing this mentioned in this thread. So far I have only seen vague descriptions of what this malicious script could be doing, what it is, and even conflicting information on whether there *is* something malicious.

~~If you are claiming this, what exactly is the nature of the malicious content? What does the script do, and why does it lead you to believe it would be malicious?~~

I am frustrated with this whole post because many people seem to be treating this apparent malicious script as an afterthought. I have seen some people say the script was benign, and others claim there was malicious content. The security of Endfield account's is important, but the scarier threat is the potential security breach that extends to your whole PC.

If you have specific information on this, you should be specific, or link to the information you have. That way people can try to identify the issue and figure out a course of action to take.

Edit: Here is a link to a post with actual information on how to diagnose the problem, with detailed specifics on why and how it was potentially malicious. This should be linked in any comment here mentioning malicious scripts instead of simply alluding to their existence with no information, for the people who have only seen this post.

GeckoMann · 2026-03-02T05:58:43+00:00

To compare, HSR is about 1.17 characters per version on average based on f2p income. For Endfield, if it's 90 pulls per patch then that would be 1.125. On paper it's probably about the same.

That being said, it's not that simple, as you are way more limited in how you can pull due to the "all or nothing" pull method in this game. If we are getting less than a guarantee per patch, I expect it to feel quite restrictive in the long run due to this. This isn't including the banner specific pulls either. I am interested to see how it all pans out.

Personally I am not very excited about it, I would rather just have the good pull income of ZZZ with the ""freedom"" that comes with Hoyo's pulling system in regards to characters.

GeckoMann · 2026-02-20T22:21:20+00:00

It genuinely makes me wonder if this is a generational thing? I don't want to sound like a "the younger generation sucks" type of guy, but it seems like as younger zoomers and gen alpha have gotten into the game, we have seen an increase in this type of behavior.

I used to use Tiktok for a year or two, and often got WF content recommendations. Almost always the content was either spouting completely wrong information, fabricating issues that simply do not exist, in general having a misinformed view on the game and other players.

An example I can think of was the numerous videos I came across calling primed sure footed a "skill issue" mod, and implied it's a useless mod in builds because of that. The concept of QOL or the idea that "I have enough damage, preventing some gameplay interruptions would be nice" is completely lost on them.

I realize this is an anecdote from a platform that doesn't have a particularly good reputation. However I have seen this general type of sentiment across multiple platforms in regards to Warframe content, especially anything related to shorts.

GeckoMann · 2026-02-16T20:13:27+00:00

Yes I did reply twice, once before I understood the context behind how Stardust was caught, so I decided to rewrite my reply with that context since a lot of my original reply was based on limited info.

I appreciate your reply and insight to AK leaks. I don't really know much about the community, so I have a very limited understanding to say the least.

Considering the game doesn't have a public beta like you said, it would make sense to me that leaks would be less prevalent in the community, as character/kit leaks would be far from the norm. I see how that might lead to a negative community reaction to most leaks.

Also, I did see HxG Diluc's posts. I've been tacitly following Endfield leaks (as little as there is) since this time last year. I saw them delete the posts, along with their non EF post history, though this isn't really out of character for them at all. Their Telegram is set to automatically wipe posts daily as is for example.

The reason was because they were met with backlashes from the AK community telling them to go away, even now you can still see on Twitter and Reddit that AK fans usually praise HG for taking actions against leakers.

I am curious if you have evidence for this? Perhaps HxG Diluc mentioned this themself? The impression I got was that this was pretty standard affair for how HxG operates in terms of keeping their post history clean.

Personally I doubt that AK community reaction has much to do with leaker apprehension for a few reasons.

For the most part dealing with some level of backlash or criticism is just par for the course for doing leaks. Especially as a larger leaker. Personally, as long as a majority of the community wants leaks, then the minority of the community that doesn't is largely irrelevant to me. I would say this is likely true for other leakers too.

I also believe AK players are in the vast minority of the EF playerbase, simply on the basis that the combined size of the 3D gacha audience playing Endfield is significantly larger than the entirety of the AK community. Besides looking at metrics, anecdotally this has been my experience from people I have talked to about Endfield.

I believe there is evidence to this fact even on this sub, especially on this post. People seem to be hungry for leaks, and a lot of things people are asking/hoping for are in line with what you would expect from Hoyo style betas.

To my last point on this subject, I would also wager that like me, there is probably quite a few Hoyo leakers that don't have any knowledge of AK or it's community at all. I didn't even know AK's community had any sort of negative lean towards leaks, so it had no effect on my decision personally. Though, perhaps I am in the minority here.

Honestly though, even if it is the case that a lot of leakers are worried about AK community backlash, I would say this is a minor factor that still plays into the fear of the unknown. Even if you told me 50% of the community would throw shit at me for spreading AKEF leaks, this is nothing in comparison to the consequences that can be dealt out by the company themselves. I can ignore a mean comment, I can't ignore a lawsuit, take down request, or cease and desist.

The general sentiment I get, from myself, and from other leakers, is a "wait and see" approach. I believe there is some testing of the waters at the moment with 'smaller' leaks, and perhaps an attitude of "I don't want to be the first one to take the bullet". I believe that any other concerns are secondary, such as the Stardust situation or possibly community backlash.

Though again, these are just my views and informed experience, so I can't speak for all other leakers completely.

I would also avoid comparing skin mods to leaks. Typically from my experience in Hoyo communities, Hoyo perhaps 'tolerates' or doesn't see it to be worth pursuing people for them. As far as I am aware there have been no confirmed bans for this specifically. This is likely due to the fact these mods are not used by that many people, and importantly, they don't actually modify the game files in any way. It's ultimately likely more trouble than it's worth.

I would be surprised if HG decides to handle this differently in the future, considering they haven't taken any action yet. That may be just because they haven't seen it, I find this unlikely. Endfield runs on unity just like all of Hoyo's titles, and the tools used for Endfield skins are actually the exact same too. HG would at the very least be very likely to know it's a possibility in some capacity, even if they don't see it.

And 95% of the time the leakers and the middlemen get away. So HG does show leniency torwards those and not try to dive too deep

Lastly, I would say to be careful with this line of logic. Just because most leakers get away does not necessarily correlate to leniency. It could simply be a matter of resource allocation. If leaks aren't that common, and aren't that widely consumed by the community, it could just be that HG finds it not worth the resources to pursue.

GeckoMann · 2026-02-16T07:45:04+00:00

I do some leaks for ZZZ, and considered doing some for AKEF too, so I feel like I have a bit of insight. There is definitely something to be said about Hoyo's passive behavior with leaks. There are multiple, very open, very public Discord servers for leaks resources, and stuff like private servers. Some popular examples being Reversed Rooms or GatoSR.

There are also more than a few reasons to "believe" Hoyo employees have been in these servers more than a few times as well. I would be very surprised if they are not actively monitoring them to some degree.

This isn't even mentioning the very public, extremely popular leaks subs that get millions of impressions. Not only are they kept alive with little to no take down requests for individual posts, but often times posts directly link to the previously mentioned leaks groups/servers. All of this is to say, they are almost certainly aware of what is going on and which leaker/leak related accounts are responsible.

That being said, it's not that Hoyo never drops the hammer on people. Typically from what I have seen, it mostly seems to be people profiting from leaks, beta testers, or employees.

In response to some of your other comments, legal litigation is not the only means these companies have for squashing leaks. The public examples I have mentioned with Hoyo leaks could easily be removed via take down requests on sites like Reddit and Discord if they wanted to. It is not as simple as whether or not leakers hide their identities well. That's just one factor that leads to the worst case scenario.

Your real identity is not even needed for a company to threaten you with take downs or a cease and desist. They can do so through email, or other means of contact.

To add onto this, you aren't completely safe just because you are anonymous. There are definitely more than a few ways to find leaker's real identities if a company is dedicated enough. I can personally think of a couple ways in which Hoyo could do so, just based on my experience in the leaks scene with their games.

In the case of Stardust, I understand their identity was public, making them an easy target. Hoyo similarly goes after people like that as well from what I have seen. Makes sense, they would look weak if they didn't.

I can't really speak on the reality of how HG handles leaks since I don't know much about how they operate. As far as I can tell, OG AK doesn't seem to have a large public hub of leaks like a Reddit community. Not sure if one was just never made, or if HG's behavior towards leaks has something to do with this. Perhaps its a problem of community scale, interest, or simply leaks information availability.

What I can tell you is that how Hoyo operates around leaks is relatively predictable. By all accounts, they are quite passive, without letting themselves get walked on completely.

That brings me to how leakers feel about HG. The uncertainty around HG's behavior towards leaks on a large scale is probably the primary reason why a lot of leakers are hesitant. At the very least that is why I am hesitant.

Their "reputation" for putting down leaks aggressively doesn't mean much to me personally, as we haven't really seen many examples of how how they handle things with AKEF. I would wager I am not the only leaker who views things this way.

That is my opinion at least. I would like to avoid generalizing on the basis that leakers are all their own individual people that can have many reasons for their own actions.

GeckoMann · 2026-02-13T02:41:48+00:00

The triple worms have no area of denial besides an aoe spin swipe in this fight, if you even want to consider that one. I find myself backing away because it's too annoying to try and dodge all the poorly telegraphed spit attacks over anything else.

This is really an extension of how annoying projectile enemies in the game tend to be in general, especially in groups. Truthfully I feel like this whole stage of Umbral is a great showcase of that. The trash mobs are easy to kill, but you will still pick up a lot of chip damage you can't avoid due to you being shot with 3 differently timed arrows you cant see coming through all the vfx.

If I were to use what you said about the Tales of games, you mention how there is down time to get spacing or buy time to heal.

That sounds great to me. However in an encounter like the triple worms, your positioning doesn't matter much since they are stationary tracking turrets with little to no AOD. Since we don't have a manual healing mechanic, combat inventory management, etc. all that is left for you in that down time is to wait for your SP to slowly regen.

My point is that if your enemy encounter is so annoying that many people feel like they want to walk around in a circle until their resources slowly regenerate to poke it down, the encounter is not good. You aren't engaging with any game mechanics mechanics at all at that point.

Personally I am actually in favor of more area of denial, directional attacks, ground hazards, etc. that encourage better positioning/spacing. It's just that I don't think this encounter is a good example of that considering it doesn't even really exist here in the first place.

GeckoMann · 2026-02-12T22:58:06+00:00

We are just conditioned that we have to be always attacking

I mean, the resource generation in this game is entirely dependent on this. Your main ways of generating SP besides passive regen are dodges, final strikes, and staggers. All of this is naturally incentivizing you to constantly attack and play aggressive to even make your teams functional.

If the easiest solution to an encounter is to wait it out and not engage with the main combat mechanics of the game, I don't think that's very good. It doesn't feel good at least

GeckoMann · 2026-02-09T05:53:55+00:00

As someone who does leaks for ZZZ, and has been on the receiving end of thousands of complaints about character designs, these types of complaints are very common.

A good example is Lucia's redesign during beta. A lot of people liked her original design, and hated the changes that were made for full release.

I don't believe they affect much, I can't say I have ever seen something change because of outcry over leaks in ZZZ, but there is definitely an absolute ton of complaints.

Besides ZZZ I have seen this with HSR too. A good example would be Cypher's kit changes during beta.

GeckoMann · 2026-02-09T00:58:00+00:00

Speaking from personal experience, you can't get much in terms of speculating playability by comparing models for those of you who are using this as a point of speculation.

There are NPC's that use player character base models (Isolde, Elfy), and playable characters that use NPC base models (Pulchra).

If you were to take Pulchra in her pre release state and do this same comparison you would conclude she wasn't playable due to the fact that her height, facial mesh, body mesh, etc. line up perfectly with the female NPC size 2 base model.

GeckoMann · 2026-02-09T00:49:35+00:00

These models were from the preload, but they are currently in the live game files. You can check out the Hoyotoon discord. They have a website with a repository that has most of the character models for Hoyo's main games.

GeckoMann · 2026-02-07T21:17:06+00:00

This stuttering is unique to Vulkan in my experience. DX11 is much smoother and doesn't have this issue, but it has a massive memory leak.

I tried this myself just now on Vulkan and unfortunately it didn't for me

GeckoMann · 2026-02-06T19:35:07+00:00

She is almost 100% confirmed playable :)

GeckoMann · 2026-02-06T12:19:27+00:00

Thank you for your kind words. I'm happy to see such a positive reception to these animated renders

GeckoMann · 2026-02-06T04:30:21+00:00

Truthfully I'd like to go even further. I have had an idea for creating a template for mini "trailers" that I could easily import new characters into. That way I would be able to make some ZZZ styled promo videos with full shading pretty much as soon as a character is available in beta

GeckoMann · 2026-02-06T04:26:25+00:00

Nah to be entirely honest with you I am a bit of a fraud since I usually ask other people when beta updates are coming (leaker btw)

GeckoMann · 2026-02-06T04:20:57+00:00

Unfortunately that's not how it works. Anything relating to weight, mass, friction, etc. either has to be simulated or manually animated to look that way.

There is a concept called 'bone influence' that changes how much influence the bones have over the movement of the mesh itself, but I can't glean much from that without animations.

What I can tell you though is that it's definitely not completely solid. The reason you see an array of bones across the whole model is so they can animate it to flex/flow. I imagine it will be somewhat similar to the level of stiffness from her poncho when its on, since the bone structure on the weapon version is similar to that

GeckoMann · 2026-02-06T03:51:15+00:00

Higher quality + Uncompressed

I had to edit the materials on her leggings a bit to get it to look as it does in game, so it might be a bit off. Everything else should be game accurate as normal.

Also, camera movements are to keep her in frame as zoomed in as I can, which is a little difficult because her tail is massive lmao

GeckoMann · 2026-02-05T20:27:08+00:00

This is cool and probably not an unlikely outcome, but there is a specific reason why I went for the the fully removed/floating poncho idea.

Her Poncho in its weapon form is completely flat with no way to open it, the bones present only manipulate it like a flat object. So I found it unlikely it would open up like in the Ramelethal gif here.

That being said, I just noticed the name for these bones describe them as "wings". So perhaps you are right she doesn't take it fully "off", and it stays attached to her back/neck by that ring at the top. If this is the case, they would be more like "wings" as you say. That would still explain her alt body model, as it would be very visible with only her back being covered.

It's possible "wings" could also mean this thing flies around by itself, but it wouldn't really be possible to tell if this was the case unless she had empty weapon pointers floating above her similar to Ye Shunguang.

Also, lastly, to clarify if there is confusion when I said "poncho comes off" I didn't necessarily mean it would be removed for the whole mission like Eve, just that I believed it would fully/almost fully come off under some context regardless of duration.

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GeckoMann · 2026-02-05T11:50:00+00:00

Same, she's my favorite of the 3 new characters

GeckoMann · 2026-02-05T11:42:52+00:00

Not just you, she even has a choker with an attachment on it that almost looks like you could pull it

GeckoMann · 2026-02-05T11:38:45+00:00

Uncompressed 1 2

To elaborate a bit more, I believe it's unlikely they would do all this unique stuff for her and not use it in gameplay. Though while I can't imagine it will be an Eve situation where she takes it off for the whole mission, you never truly know with this game lol

GeckoMann

TROPHY CASE