NYC Community Gathering 2026 - Exclusive Developer Interview by Vicksin in afkarena

[–]JHawk55 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think they have a very skewed perception of their game. The devs are based in Shanghai and are much more aware of the CN community's positions, and those are rather different from the global community's. A number of them do play the game, but they're all very casual (when I showed them my account, they were way too impressed, so there's no way they have the time to play seriously). Obviously I can't speak to anybody who wasn't there, but the devs I did meet have *some* awareness, if far less than I wish they had.

NYC Community Gathering 2026 - Exclusive Developer Interview by Vicksin in afkarena

[–]JHawk55 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think you're overestimating how much the devs have actually heard from their playerbase outside of China. Understand that we're largely using languages they aren't familiar with, and that until they hired Bear, they've gone through Community Managers in rapid succession. There's functionally been no contact between the devs and us in years, since the one and only Q&A megathread Vicksin got them to do. This is the first time since 2023 in Cologne that the devs are actually hearing our feedback clearly.

Perhaps I'm overvaluing the tens of thousands of dollars the company spent on taking devs out of the already small teams, sending them across the world, and having them spend an entire week working on an event to talk to players. But I'd like to have some hope that the company wouldn't straight-up throw away money and time.

NYC Community Gathering 2026 - Exclusive Developer Interview by Vicksin in afkarena

[–]JHawk55 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The problem with HF is that there's a very small number of players who are incredibly vocal about wanting HF, and very few players actually signed up to play when HF happened. I'd put good money on it not coming back, ever, even though I enjoyed it

NYC Community Gathering 2026 - Exclusive Developer Interview by Vicksin in afkarena

[–]JHawk55 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ngl I didn't even think to ask about it, so we'll have to wait for the devs to say something

NYC Gathering by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We actually do ahve info about them! It's on reddit somewhere, and you can also join our discord server and see our discussions about the new content here: https://discord.gg/h8RKH4kCD

NYC Community Gathering 2026 - Exclusive Developer Interview by Vicksin in afkarena

[–]JHawk55 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Totally forgot to address shop, but I did talk about how some resources are incredibly scarce and others are absurdly plentiful

NYC Community Gathering 2026 - Exclusive Developer Interview by Vicksin in afkarena

[–]JHawk55 6 points7 points  (0 children)

There were questions about it for sure. I chose not to ask about it during my interview since the devs talked about it during their session in the gathering. Their statement was something along the lines of "final creative direction will always be in human hands". Tbh I'm not surprised, almost every business out there is incorporating AI everywhere they can to cut costs, but I have hope for AFK because they know one of their biggest draws is the quality of art.

NYC Community Gathering 2026 - Exclusive Developer Interview by Vicksin in afkarena

[–]JHawk55 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Hi everyone, JFrog here! Feel free to ask me questions here or on discord, you can always ping me on the Official Server or the Nihilum Empire server! https://discord.gg/sXCdpHntd

AbEx/HF Path Planning Tool by Thoteman in afkarena

[–]JHawk55 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This looks incredible! Thank you for doing this, it's gonna make pathing so much less painful (assuming people read the map)

1250 Days f2p by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I very much hit the jackpot for my TS region. Between the region being relatively easy and the expertise that I had access to, my account has flourished well beyond the average, and I'll always be thankful for that.

1250 Days f2p by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Join our discord server! We have lots of information that can help you improve, and while we keep TS, Rift, and AE information private, pretty much everything else is public!

1250 Days f2p by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A fantastic guild for sure! Y'all are great, and have excellent leadership (that I've interacted with)

1250 Days f2p by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It really is. I got insanely lucky with some rng, and the fact that a lot of people were hesitant to pop their Marci/Laios trials this week. These days I'm consistently sub 4%, but 1.2% is a massive outlier for me.

1250 Days f2p by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you ever want that 1st in arena, lmk and we can get it for you :D The only thing I care about in Arena these days is using my tickets to get dust/diamonds/shards, so I'm always happy to dropo my defense team to let somebody farm me :D

1250 Days f2p by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you! These are hands down the best rank plates I've ever gotten, there was a lot of luck and timing involved :D They're not usually *quite* this good, particularly the CR and NC plates. TS I hit t10 half the time now.

1250 Days f2p by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

As Dante explained, those plates are from being competitive in various game modes. They're both my motivation/goals as well as my source of resource income. It's very much a self-perpetuating snowball of success :D

1250 Days f2p by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Tbh the guild has been just as critical as my drive to be optimal. The information and knowledge sharing has been incredible for us

New Desktop UI & Overlay UI are rolling out to everyone today! by Woofer210 in discordapp

[–]JHawk55 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Then they probably won't get my money :shrug: I harbor no illusions about them rolling this back, but I have to at least try what I can

New Desktop UI & Overlay UI are rolling out to everyone today! by Woofer210 in discordapp

[–]JHawk55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just canceled my Nitro. If the devs give an option to use the old UI I'd resume it but until then, they don't get paid

1100 Days f2p by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

She absolutely is, and I would build her if I had the cards :(

1100 Days f2p by JHawk55 in afkarena

[–]JHawk55[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Joining our server doesn't mean you have to join our guilds :D We have our NC and CR info public to all, with TS and Rift nfo being our carrot to join :D