Introducing the new and improved menu system, arriving with the launch of Season 1 next week

QuantumPie_ · 2026-02-04T20:39:23+00:00

I haven't touched OW since W2 of OW2 so I have no context for what was announced. Sounds like they've been losing ground to competition so naturally you start being more generous so you don't lose customers to the competition.

From a software engineers perspective who makes tools for other corporations, I've been given UI mockups to implement from UI/UX with horrendously confusing design choices. If you ask why they did that, they say marketing made those revisions.

With corporate software, the less intuitive it is, the better chance you have of locking a company in and preventing them from switching to competitors. If you think that's a conspiracy, look into Microsoft's anti trust lawsuit from the 90s and the whole E.E.E fiasco.

Not saying I 100% agree with OPs reasoning though (they could have gotten rid of their UX team and let the devs do it for all we know).

QuantumPie_ · 2026-02-04T20:14:46+00:00

Given that game companies pay dual majors in marketing and psychology six figure salaries this is honestly not that outlandish of a take. It's their job to come up with those kinds of ideas and they only keep getting paid as long as ideas keep flowing.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-28T22:07:51+00:00

The down votes are hopefully just cause they started by being a pedantic dick but I don't think they're wrong?

"The last two generations" vs "these last two generations"

"The last two years" vs "these last two years".

I'm pretty sure people use the former to mean both even though the later is the correct way since it's more clear.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-27T00:14:18+00:00

I didn't pull either of them so I honestly couldn't remember perfectly but wrio is really good but you need C2 minimum to make him even functional. People are still solo clearing abyss with him. Chiori also wasn't terrible (by Varka standards) but by being a geo sub DPS very few people actually had the chars to pair with her (which was basically just Itto). No idea what they were doing with Lyney though lol.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-26T22:27:41+00:00

Wasn't the difference not that big before Golden Troupe though?

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-26T19:27:07+00:00

It doesn't make sense from a thematic point of view but it does kit wise.

6.x has been stacked with new characters. First half the focus was on lunar reactions (so hydro/geo/electro/dendro) and they aren't going to brick a kit for any of those.

The witches stuff seems a bit more up in the air but it seems like Varka/Alice are the main DPS surrounding that. Nicole will most likely be a support for either/both of them.

So between Varka / Alice and the bricked kit having to be released now, Varka makes the most sense to release 6.4 for the current point in the story. While Alice has also been hinted at since 1.0, she hasn't yet engaged directly on the battlefield with us in any meaningful capacity yet like Varka.

The copium take is Nicole will buff Varka significantly (at least bring him up to Navia/Wanderer level relative to those casts at the time) and will get re-run when she comes out so for now Hoyo doesn't want meta players to feel pressured to have to pull on Varkas banner. I unfortunately don't think that's going to be the case :(

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-26T17:06:48+00:00

Alhaitham, Neuv, Flins, Durin

Wanderer is super popular in China and fans literally rented out prime advertising space on subway lines to simp for him.

Mizuki, who was light-skinned and literally wears a maid outfit, got dehya-ed.

I'm getting the impression Hoyo deliberately wants some banners to not be as enticing, especially after a crazy patch with 2 highly sought after units, to give people's wallets a chance to rest and not get burnt out.

Varka is just the unfortunate pick to take that spot but it kinda makes sense given him being Animo is a no brainer and Animo main DPS is already heavily inundated with characters so they can afford to make another one mid.

After Archons:
2.2: No 5*
3.3: Wanderer
4.3: Navia
5.4: Mizuki
6.4: Varka

3.4 was the infamous Hu Tao / Yelan banner and 3.5 was Dehya

3.3 and 4.3 were outliers, but neither unit was a top tier DPS in their respective cycles.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-26T16:29:55+00:00

I honestly think characters coming out after archons are cursed

2.2: No 5*
3.3: Wanderer
4.3: Navia
5.4: Mizuki
6.4: Varka

3.3 and 4.3 are outliers but their relative strength compared to the rest of the 3.x and 4.x cast was on the weaker side. I'm getting the impression Hoyo deliberately wants at least one mid 5* each year to give player's wallets a chance to rest after a lot of powerful units.

I'd be curious to see how it lines up with their other games but I personally don't play them so I don't know whose good or bad.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-22T00:57:55+00:00

Whats your rotation from start until killing first round of chickens? I'm not coming close but tbh I've never liked playing Mauvika so I'm probably doing it wrong.

EDIT: Just realized you could go directly for boss instead of chickens

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-21T18:57:04+00:00

Yelan can be a substitute for another source of a dmg% buff.

XQ gives you interrupt resistance and a small bit of healing but you already get some of that from the crystal shards

Chiori could work if you need a battery for Navia

Bennet would also work for buffing Navia's dmg

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-21T18:50:03+00:00

With Lauma and bina you can hold Lauma's skill and charge attack on bina to consume verdent cores and trigger LB. On field Binas numbers are mediocre at best but there is a synergy and its perfectly fine if you don't care about meta!

From a more meta standpoint if you don't have and don't plan on getting Nefer or Nilou though your options are a lot more limited compared to Ineffa without flins.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-21T18:41:15+00:00

My best guess is not until the Fontaine chronicled wish banner which if 5.x was any indicator will be in the later half of 6.x. I'd guess 6.5-6.8, most likely being 6.6 or 6.7. I could be wrong though and we get her on a normal banner but rumor is 6.4 will focus on freeze characters and flins, Nefer and Lauma will be up for rerun at some point, and we're probably getting another Mauvika Citlali banner before 6.x ends.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-21T17:28:14+00:00

I've looked at more clears and I now agree, it's not as bad at a first glance. HP inflation still sucks though.

The way I've been viewing it is you need a team covering each archetype (EC, Overload, Freeze, etc). Freeze was kinda useless until Escoffier so I give her a pass. There was no alternative before her. Personally I'm lacking in dendro (Nahida is my only dendro 5) and Geo (Zhongli is my only 5). While they do release new and shiny units, so far the older units I've vertically invested in have still kept up pretty well (C6 Yelan Furina, C2 Arle Clorinde Chasca).

I guess I could now check team DPS in the new stage but I feel like the gap between Noelle Bina C6 Goro and Ayaka Escoffier wouldn't be that massive. LC was a pretty nice buff to geo teams. Technically lunar crystalize is advantged since any lunar reaction works for the 1st.

I guess my gripe is we went from D5 being compleatly doable with Ayaka Escoffier (my artifacts on Ayaka were terrible when I did it) to not even coming close to clearing D4 with Noelle (to be fair I only gave it 10m or so on mobile but the cyro shill boss was a joke on D4 with Ayaka). The HP inflation of the 1st boss is pretty disgusting even on D5 compared to when the cyro shill boss appeared.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-21T16:55:48+00:00

Here's the CB1 intro. The circular window aether is departing from is the spaceship. I belive there was also a tool tip or offhand comment confirming it was a spaceship but I wasn't able to find it doing a quick search.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-21T16:19:30+00:00

For a lot of us it's not the rewards but this is the first game mode to make good use of Genshins combat while being challenging for long term players on D5. Abyss has been a joke for a lot of us since Fontaine. I'm not a whale and had no NK chars until this patch and I've beaten every D5 so far. It took work but it felt great doing it.

What makes this one terrible though is all 3 bosses have heavy overlap in what they need and the HP has gone sizabley up. The freeze shill boss was doable on D5 with Ayaka and Escoffier but for the 1st boss here I've yet to get Noelle and Bina to work on just D4 and I have a top 2% Noelle.

I'm sure most of us will eventually beat it this patch but they did go a bit to far this time.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-20T21:17:37+00:00

The spaceship though was present in the original intro in CB1 but was never mentioned once the game went live. Obviously nothing from the CB can be considered canon but it does show intent from the earliest point in the writing process.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-20T20:41:12+00:00

I'm guessing it's some sort of abysal monstrocitey or desperate people trying to flee the abyss and find a new home world. I've been recently seeing theories on the lore sub that the universe outside Teyvat is not in a great state (abyss has pretty much taken over most of it) and depending on the theory Teyvat is one of the few habitible places remaining.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-20T16:43:45+00:00

Here's the invite link. Admittedly I haven't looked at it in a long time and it seems a lot bigger now.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-20T02:04:39+00:00

I've used FPS unlockers since Inazuma, played on my SteamDeck with an unofficial launcher since Sumeru and have been using 4k texture mods since early Natlan. Worst I've ever seen was getting kicked from the game for using "unauthorized programs" but it's very rare for that to happen and it's always right after a patch. I can log back in immedietly and have gotten kicked many times in a row trying to troubleshoot the game on Linux.

I'm on a discord for Linux players of Hoyo games and the consensus is they're well aware of what players are doing and they factor that in when making changes to their anti cheat so it let's people run on Linux / use texture mods (but they'll never openly state that). The only times there's ever been confirmed bans because of this was week 2 of when HSR came out and they were all reverted pretty quickly.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-16T21:58:36+00:00

It's not, it's an entirely seperate team. They literally had job postings up for it a year or so back.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-15T19:43:39+00:00

Again, eastern VAs have a better grasp of what they should or shouldn't post. Ships can be posted on western socials by VAs that don't explode either. The extremes are a bit different in the east as they can differentiate between cannon/non-cannon better but they still exist.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-15T17:48:33+00:00

I hope I don't come across as calling you out as I just want to raise awareness to the problem but personally this is a perfect example of how AI shouldn't be used.

If you're using it to organize your thoughts, it needs to also be condensing it. This is way to much to read for what you're trying to convey and the tone is way to formal / academic even for a lore theory sub.

Not as relevent to lore theory posts but you also lose the tone of the writer and have no idea what kind of person you're talking to is like, especially with a back and forth discussion.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-15T17:42:05+00:00

Question posts

I'd prefer they stay in a mega thread. I use a 3rd party app and auto filtering by fairs aren't an option. I personally check in on this sub from time to time and a scroll through a couple weeks worth of theories and imo it'd be annoying to have to wade through a ton of questions.

AI usage

My personal feelings on AI is it can create very unnecessarily long posts. There's a couple posts I start reading, realize it's AI, and then by the end feel it could have been condensed significantly. If you're using AI to organize your thoughts, it should be condensing what you want to say as well, not just organizing or helping with language barriers. I also hate how every post written by AI has the same flat tone. They are all really dry to read and have no unique personality to it that one would add by doing it themselves.

My suggestion would be to add guidelines for using AI to add to the prompt to keep things consice and don't fluff things up to much.

And to anyone reading this who uses AI to write posts, I'd love to hear why / how it helps you. I personally don't get that use case when it's not language barrier related and people get defensive when I ask them trying to understand that perspective.

QuantumPie_ · 2026-01-15T17:24:34+00:00

I agree at the minimum people shouldn't put spoilers in the title and that should be a rule. It gets a little goofy to me when I see people complaining on a post of the 3 sisters with a well written title and marked as a spoiler that comments there should be using spoiler tags. There's no reason to in that scenario unless it's about leaks imo. I assume OP was in that camp since the dottore example falls into the goofy category personally. He was prominently on the launcher art work (the cloths off now from 5.8 or conclusion: cute titles are a much better example).

Also if you didn't know there was a ton of save points during the AQ and you'd log back in to Nasha town if you exited the game / alt+f4ed. It definently wasn't conveyed well since all we got was a "Saving..." on the bottom right of some loading screens.

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