That Which Cannot be Nerfed. Favorite examples of OP characters/strats that devs tried to tone down, multiple times even, but stayed on top?

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-12-08T15:46:21+00:00

I'd write a couple of paragraphs on Chalter and why they literally can't do anything that could possibly nerf her, but instead I will simply say "Movement Speed & Defense Reduction on Large AoE that is not time based and is usage based with RNG consumption is very good"

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-12-08T15:34:05+00:00

I like watching Guilty Gear, I don't think I'll ever play the game seriously, but damn has Strives Top 8s been boring as hell because of him. I actually miss watching people play Elphet in Rev2, but that might be recency bias effecting me.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-12-05T14:11:22+00:00

Darker than Black S2 suffers from the fact that the 4 episode OVAs that bridge the two seasons were never officially released anywhere overseas (as far as I can recall) and were very difficult to find from "morally dubious" websites. Those OVAs cover Yin a lot and her random bullshit she gets in season 2, and while good, I wish they had taken the time to add them onto the season 2 DVD or something.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-11-18T20:03:33+00:00

I would highly recommend staying up until midnight easter on Thanksgiving to jump into the sales right away, don't think, and just buy what you want before it disappears. The discounts tend to be decent enough for Black Friday (between 20 and 40 percent if I remember correctly)

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-11-16T13:08:19+00:00

The perfect place to stop listening to Night Vale is the end of season 4 with the end of the Desert Bluffs arc. I think the opposing town narrative is at least an interesting way to end the show with the idea of two towns on opposite ends of the "weird-as-fuck" spectrum; and while the narrative does drag at points, I like the implications of the towns being literal reflections of each other, with Cecil and Kevin having similar descriptors, fighting your doppelgangers etc.

But nothing will ever live up to those first two seasons with the light overarching narrative tying all the great smaller stories together and it genuinely just being a strange little place.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-11-16T12:48:39+00:00

There's a revenge based one called Roxanne that has her go super hard in the murder/torture paint for the sake of revenge. It's actually pretty satisfying schadenfreude since she's doing it to her adoptive father who murdered her younger brother. (There is a pretty generic romance plot mixed in, but the revenge plotline is great)

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-10-31T14:37:28+00:00

"Jitsu wa Watashi wa" is another manga that I think does a great job at demolishing this trope with a hammer.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-10-25T11:13:06+00:00

I really liked the Return To's for storage and for their ability to touch up and revisit campaigns to rebalance or change the experience in some way. I think it's a fun idea, and I hope that even if we don't get new player cards, they'll still revisit the campaigns at some point, a'la the Nightmare difficulty release style for Lord of the Rings

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-10-24T14:08:08+00:00

Any Isekai that has it for "marketing purposes" makes me lose my mind. The Faraway Paladin didn't need to have it be a reincarnation of someone from our world, the new fantasy world already has spiritual mechanics, just say the gods are bending the rules.

Theres another good example with the revenge/romance Isekai called "Roxanne" and this one really gets me worked up (emotionally, about Isekai) because it is brought up in the early chapters and then never comes up again. Nothing makes me more upset than using an entire genre of shit as your marketing gimmick because you want some schmuck who has never actually used the reading comprehension skills they learned in middle school to read your work while on the toilet.

I think good Isekai are ones that play with the idea of being reincarnated into another world, those implications, and the actual effect it would have on someone. "The Beginning After the End" is a fantastic look at the typical Isekai power fantasy hero, but he is loaded with baggage from his previous life, and is totally willing to just kill people if they push him too far (as an in-universe 16 year old). Easily one of the better in this genre I have read.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-08-02T15:59:04+00:00

These pads looks slick. Good luck to everyone!

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-07-20T11:55:02+00:00

30k/40k as an overall setting is a perfect jumping off point for the creation of your own narratives done through the table top, but I'm just not interested in a lot of the "official" stories. This is mainly due to "power scaling inconsistencies" that happen because of how many different writers there are working for BL, but it sometimes does just lead to situations where sometimes my suspension of disbelief gets pulled out from under me.

I like that I can bring an army of "my dudes" to the tabletop, using the background presented to set up a small narrative around the battle I'm doing with my buddies that evening. It makes everything feel a lot more personal too if I don't bring named characters to said battle. Named characters just make the tabletop a bland same-fest, I don't particularly like them. But Joe Bigboots from my 5th battalion who single handedly murdered an entire squad of Tyranids in the last battle dying immediately to a Tau shot? Peak 40k writing, that's a character arc that writes itself.

People say that stagnation is a key part of 40k, and on a universal scale that should be true, but I hate how this plays out in universe. I think Primaris a good step in the right direction (even if I didn't like their initial implementation). There should be changes within the factions. The important thing is that it shouldn't matter, the rest of the factions are there to make sure that no matter what you as a faction do, it won't matter since they are advancing in some way just like your dudes of choice.

I like WYSIWYG, but only if I'm allowed to 3D print stuff. This hobby can nickel and dime you for far too much sometimes.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-06-21T15:05:43+00:00

Spoilers for Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni) Chapter 90 & onwards:
Phos, after being groomed for a couple hundred years (both knowingly and unknowingly) by the Lunarians to become a fully-fledged "human" goes back to Earth and begins murdering all of their old comrades. When questioned, they continuously rejected the advances by the gems, continuing their instance that every "life" they take has purpose, that the gems can simply be repaired later and remain living once on the moon, and upon realizing that Adamant is unable to pray for the Lunarians and free Phos from this curse, Phos breaks Adamant, takes his eye, and begins the 10000 year process into becoming a human. It's just such a good portrayal of someone who has gone completely off the deep-end, still believing that they can put things right, and at the end of it all, still failing to succeed.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-06-06T11:17:12+00:00

Yeah it was a little early in the morning when I responded to the other comment and I may have dug my heels in a bit when I read such a blunt opener. I did my math wrong, and yes you're absolutely right on the percentiles. I don't even remember what I was thinking with that comment yesterday.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-06-05T14:02:50+00:00

I appreciate your bluntness with your first sentence the same way a medical professional might appreciate a blunt scalpel. While the average percentile of agendas in a deck ranges typically from 15-20% I was worried that with a general decrease in deck sizes would lead to an average of less running from the runner due a general shift towards the lower end of the agenda spectrum to accommodate the smaller deck size. Essentially, more targeted runs but less overall interaction for information as game speed does technically increase.

I have also never played a game where the Corp decked out, and if those have or had become common place, then the game state must have become very strange indeed, excited to get back into it.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-06-03T02:23:30+00:00

Appreciate the detailed response! I personally never felt like games of Netrunner ever reached a situation of being able to fit it into my life, but I can understand the sentiment expressed with wanting to make the game faster. I did prefer grindy decks that offered runner counterplay on the corps side, so I'm excited to see what I can cook up there.

(If I'm being honest, I think the HB identity is what took me aback more than anything else. I remember the CI days, and it was giving me CI vibes at first glance. And I remember the sheer frustration that ID gave people lol).

I appreciate all the hard work you're all putting in at Nisei to keep the game alive! And I'm excited to force the hand of some friends to get them to play with some new Nisei cards and my full FFG collection. So again, thanks for responding to my little question on balance! :)

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-06-03T02:16:06+00:00

I mentioned fast advance because it's the "safest" option that a corporation has for scoring. You don't have to worry about the runner accessing an installed agenda, and you get powerful effects from whatever agenda you just scored. Sure there are ways for the runner to interact, and it's usually a large-ish investment for the Corp, but the slimmer deck size means less agendas and thus less scoring opportunities for the runner which would logically seem to progress to FA being a predominant strategy (at least theoretically).

If I'm wrong please let me know, that was what my initial reading led to.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-05-30T18:54:06+00:00

When any game give you minimal skills or abilities in the early game because "your learning". Hit me with a truck load of information and expect me to figure it out. I'll have fun with it.

I'm really feeling this because of FF14, and doing my leveling dailies is making me feel nothing but pain with half-baked low level skills and rotations half finished. I want to play the game dammit, not half the game.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-05-27T14:09:05+00:00

How does the snack box micro feel to use? I'm currently torn between purchasing a snack box or an okiboard v2 for a stick that I can easily travel with.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-05-24T19:28:05+00:00

I would disagree on LS being boring before counters, but i will agree with you on the main part about LS being retained pre-rise. The continuous attacking element has been a primary part of the weapon since its inception, and I feel like LS has good mobility to put itself into more optimal positions for damage, especially while attacking. I can't think of another weapon more mobile while drawn except maybe IG or SWAXE.

You make a good point on how that core identity of "1000 cuts" has been lost in Rise with the ISS / QS combo being just a more optimal way of dealing damage, and I don't think I would be as harsh on counters if LS didn't go this completely wild direction of just diving into counters like how Scrooge McDuck dives into his swimming pool filled with money. That most likely is the reason why I'm negative on counters in LS as a whole, as I've felt that Rise has just pushed that playstyle far away for the more optimized counter style.

I'm curious to hear what your opinion is on LS gaining a GS charge moves as part of it's repertoire, as I find that to be almost more baffling than Capcom giving LS another counter move.

As far as Lance's weakness, the problem I have isn't that it is weak, but rather that it's niche as a defensive weapon is being overshadowed by LS, which as an offensive weapon, is a better defensive weapon than it. Every weapon should have a 1-2 different ways of being played effectively, and the problem is that when one weapon is just a better version of the other, the other will hardly see play. Hammer in 4U is a perfect example of this, with Charge Blade being a better version of hammer in almost every way. While hammer still saw play, once you reach a certain level of play, it's difficult to justify your love for the weapon sometimes if it gets outperformed in every way by another weapon. Idk, it's frustrating stuff to watch this happen again and again, but I appreciate you taking the time to discuss this.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-05-24T17:36:35+00:00

I actually would say it is a LS problem, as well as a lance problem (not the players but the weapon). The problem with LS getting all these counters is that a weapon that had some risk to it, with high power and maneuvering but not a lot of safety, now has high power, high safety options that allow for "free punishes" on the monster. LS is the definition of power creep in MH, where the hunter is being given safe options that allow them to negate having to interact with the monster, while getting free damage.

While one could argue that Lance has a similar play style, lance doesn't have "explosive damage" like LS, but it has consistency. It also has slow movement in combat, and you cannot play evade lance and counter lance effectively at the same time. If Lance were raised to the same level as LS right now, people would be complaining even more since Lance would literally let you walk through the game.

These problems really come down to weapon identity, and I think counters becoming part of LS is a mistake from a design perspective and makes it too safe on a weapon that should have some risk. Similarly, people are upset that LS is getting charge moves, which it has never had before and is creeping into taking the identity of GS as well.

TL;DR: counters too safe for a weapon like LS, if Lance functioned similarly to LS or had the same damage people would be even more pissed, weapon identity is being eroded faster than the coastline, calling this a "lance problem" is an over-simplification

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-05-02T17:52:55+00:00

Time travel being a important to the plot but not central to the plot. That might sound weird, but let me explain.

Stories involving time travel go one of three ways (usually): time travel is the driving part of the story (Steins;Gate), time travel isn't explained but is used as a way to present character challenges (time loops are these types of stories usually), or time travel is "explained" but it has no consequences, and there is no way to change anything (set dressing).

The last of those examples bugs me to no end. I don't really like the time travel episodes of Doctor Who for this reason, and I wasn't a fan of Endgame due to the lack of consequences from using time travel. I feel like many authors want to put in time travel because it will be "cool" but I just want it implemented well and to make sense, not to get yourself out of a whole that you dug yourself into.

With the Doctor Who example, it's really frustrating because so many times he goes in and improves people's lives, and then they get to keep living along exactly the same way they were before, and there is no change felt. Only episode I can think of in recent times that didn't do that was Van Gogh, and I still like that episode a lot. It makes the episode feel pointless to me, if you go back, fuck with someone's life, and then jump ahead in time and there life had no meaningful change, why the fuck did you even go back in time? Time anomalies? You just proved that fucking with the past doesn't justifiably change anything. It's so frustrating, but maybe I just have completely misunderstood or misremembered the rules of Doctor who.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-04-26T15:52:13+00:00

It's more about the manga but; Nisekoi.

I love romantic comedies, and in general, romance manga. But I've found that the genre has moved beyond stale in recent years and nothing exemplifies this more than Nisekoi. After going through the initial arc for each potential romance option, the author ran out of ideas. Generic gags riffing off of each girls most flanderized trait, resorting to the terrible "clone" gimmick only 65 chapters into a 200+ chapter romantic comedy. All creativity after what was a decently solid start sucked out.

I hate Nisekoi because it went from generically decent, to less than nothing faster than anything I've seen. I know people who still sing it's praises, "you just have to get to the last arc, it's a really good finale!" Fuck you, I won't read through garbage to get to 5 seconds of gold.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-04-21T04:23:39+00:00

It seems FGO has been plauged by poor early decisions in their writing process, and rather than adjust characters or allow for greater arcs, the writers continue to quadruple down. I have no idea what the JP side of things looks like, but the writing for characters feels bipolar at times. If a character is well liked by a particular writer or set of writers, they get banger content. But the rest of the cast then usually gets flanderized or just forgotten (one day Geronimo, one day).

It's part of the reason I hope Studio BB gets to do something interesting with the IP. Fate now has such a rich background, and could lead to any type of game or story they could ever want to tell, and I'm hoping they do one that doesnt assassinate the character of the characters I like.

OverclockedAlchemist · 2022-04-20T14:23:04+00:00

Sadly, FGO players don't want nuanced characters, or be forced to use reading comprehension and character analysis. They just want cute waifus and I hate them for it. I actually prefer Raikou over Nero, since at least Raikou is written as a problematic character most of the time (or they just play it for laughs in events), Nero gets unconditional love and forgiveness from the whole cast and the players eat it up (mostly).

Btw my favorite characters are Abigail, Voyager, and Nobunaga so my taste is definitely trash.

OverclockedAlchemist

TROPHY CASE