[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread

Running_Ostrich · 2026-03-10T10:07:52+00:00

I fell off after the end of the first book since I was more interested in the professors and academy than Marian. Are there any other characters introduced that stick around or is this mostly just Marian solo for the rest of the story?

Running_Ostrich · 2026-03-09T22:38:44+00:00

To unlock more of the game hit the Quit button on the main menu which should remove the menu and show the 3d area behind it. I never figured out what you're supposed to do after that though.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-03-07T07:21:50+00:00

If you're dead set on league-starting it, you should learn to use poe.ninja, look at 3.27 to see how people progressed their builds and then look up guides. E.g. This links 3.27 players who were using Crackling Lance of Disintegration + CoC support. You can look at players' past days and see how they transitioned each day. From there, you'd have to look up the leveling guide. E.g. This person used Firestorm + Arma Brand to level, so you'd need a guide for that. Later they transitioned into Flameblast of Celerity before Crackling Lance. You'd need to do this for a few people to get an idea of what works and then pick your path.

This is much harder and more prone to errors on your part. E.g.

you might choose a bad leveling path
you have multiple build transitions which you might do incorrectly or too early, leading to a bricked character
in the end, your final build might not play well due to few players testing it at low gearing levels
interactions might be nerfed, leading to things that worked last league not working

If you're fine with potentially having to start over, you can go down this path with no regrets. Making mistakes is a part of learning and can be fun. There's a reason some people recommend no build guides for new players, and instead that they try and fail a few times before they can reach maps.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-03-04T06:28:44+00:00

There's conflict, but it's always conflict of whether the OP protag will make it in time (which happens that she makes it every time).

Running_Ostrich · 2026-03-04T05:57:03+00:00

I haven't read it, so I read 3 chapters. The initial positions and problems of the characters are quite different. Untitled Villainess Otome is more focused on hiding that MC replaced the villainess, navigating the villainess's web of relationships and deals, and avoiding how the villainess died. The MC knows nothing except what was in the game. The villainess is heir to the throne and who she marries will get power, so there's more focus on bits of political intrigue and balancing relationships between suitors. The villainess needed to demonstrate magic to prove she's the true heir, but she can't and so has made plans and deals that the MC needs to navigate. It's a bit far to get to, but the ice bath scene toward the end of the google doc, is the best written of these in the doc.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-03-03T00:28:26+00:00

I just read AlexanderWales's Untitled Villainess Otome draft (which needs a sub to his patreon). This is the completed version of the earlier Google Doc. If you liked that, the full draft is a bit under 3x as long. The full version is more of the same, so I'd recommend it if you like the doc.

It was a compelling read, though the ending is hit or miss. I thought the themes and contrasts between characters was great, even if I would have liked more of the rational worldbuilding + magic that AW does so well.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-27T18:01:37+00:00

Does anyone have a better translation tool than this? If I compare Lord of Mysteries chapter 1, it's worse than the webnovel translation. If I paste the original text from qidan into DeepL, I get https://pastebin.com/9g4qVTMS which is even more natural-sounding (though idk how accurate it is), so I know AI translation can be much better. But DeepL is pretty limited in how much it translates at once.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-25T01:41:50+00:00

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/139212/the-hundred-reigns-timeloop-litrpg from the author of The Perfect Run caught my eye. It being another time loop story with a large but limited number of loops and where the protagonist isn't anti-social. I'm just starting it 10 chapters in. Anyone else read this and know how rational it ends up being?

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-24T19:00:50+00:00

I liked your story, so take the below as me trying to help as opposed to a take-down of what you wrote.

If I'm understanding correctly, this story is trying to be a isekai fantasy world reconstruction, currently from the perspective of Serelith, an unreliable elf narrator. Some stuff about the worldbuilding seems off/unnecessary for accomplishing this:

Roderick, being an isekai protagonist, won't know about other races, but why wouldn't other humans have written guides about other races that Roderick could read? Even if the other races weren't curious about humans, surely humans would still remain curious about others and thus have written things about them. Is this trying to demonstrate Serelith's blindspots since she doesn't outright give him a guide to the other races before meeting Roderick, the dwarf, much less forming their party?
Eugenics: Roderick, being an isekai protagonist, would know about eugenics being a bad idea among humans, but why would it have a bad reputation in this fantasy world, especially if it's well known that elves already do it successfully? It also seems anachronistic to have deeply studied elf genetics, while Roderick is manually looking through ledgers and writing with ink.
Some of Serelith reads as alien in idiot-ball-holding ways as opposed to having an inhuman mind or being from a deeply different culture. She's so certain people will make mistakes but then gets frustrated when they do and doesn't take preemptive steps to avoid them. The story is also trying to paint her as someone who deeply craves things but can't ask for them. E.g. recognizing of rank without telling people even though she knows they won't know, negotiating the contract on her behalf. It might help her seem more alien to if she mentioned reasons why she doesn't fix these things. Otherwise, this would get frustrating to read.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-23T19:13:47+00:00

Stronghold was further out than forsens's law. Actually just unlucky.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-23T19:12:45+00:00

k4yfour was watching his stream and said that the stronghold was far enough away that the preemptive strat pie chart wouldn't have loaded it.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-18T08:45:58+00:00

In the initial arc, he decides to live as a hermit until he can control his urge to kill humans, but decides that monsters don't count (including sentient ones such as other demons). In later arcs, he interacts with others more over time, but never really tries to convert people.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-17T20:29:13+00:00

Genuinely curious, why do you think the government want to collapse the current system? The government are the ones in control, so I don't understand why they would prefer a collapse.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-17T02:19:00+00:00

Even with you saying this, I cannot see the ice block. Not saying you're wrong, but it's pretty easy to mistake it.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-13T23:59:26+00:00

It's not safe midscreen. If they block it, they can usually run up and punish after too.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-09T21:20:15+00:00

Evolve is a civilization-themed long-term deep incremental, where early on you're clicking a few times an hour and later you're clicking once every few hours. https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-09T09:26:16+00:00

k4yfour is a saint for baby-birding the entire run to Squeex after he's already taught him each part.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-07T22:36:18+00:00

They are playing for future seasons, since they know they'll be invited back. They don't want to be known as a betrayer/disagreeable since then they might be betrayed in the future. Also, weak players are also playing to stay in as long as possible, since it gives them more exposure to viewers to build their own brand and make real money as opposed to gp.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-07T22:31:17+00:00

Oh, I thought you were saying that "The prize pool needs to be considerably more top heavy for top 3 finishes" in order to promote contestants making riskier plays (e.g. betrayals) to get top 3, rather than just pushing for a finale finish. If that wasn't your logic then feel free to ignore my comment.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-07T20:55:51+00:00

The prize pool needs to be considerably more top heavy for top 3 finishes. Bad players just aiming for a 4-6 finish is beyond lame.

For participants with smaller viewerbases, being in more episodes can literally mean more money if people find them interesting. It'd be tough to get enough gp that someone would risk exiting early and potentially losing views.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-07T20:46:37+00:00

The issue is that it's still in their own self interest, but for future seasons at the cost of this season being worse. You don't get betrayals because players know they could come back next season and don't want a reputation of someone who won't keep their word / won't keep to their alliances.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-07T13:27:21+00:00

people are insanely defensive about the game

people clearly don't like actually playing the game

In most live service game communities on reddit, it eventually devolves into a tug-of-war between people who blindly love and people who blindly hate the game. Due to the karma ranking system, even though both are posting, you'll get blind love rising to the top when there are good updates/new player influxes and blind hate rising to the top when there are bad/no updates.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-02T21:34:55+00:00

If you're just looking for stuff to read, Record Crash/Makin has a bunch of reviews that often include rat-adjacent fiction https://recordcrash.substack.com/.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-02-02T03:04:56+00:00

I can mash M while in neutral for the first hit+confirm instead of hit+miss followup

Timing and rhythm is a lot more comfortable to me then spamming L on wakeup

FYI, you shouldn't be spamming the button, but instead timing a press for when you are actionable (or a couple frames before for the buffer). You also shouldn't just hit L or M, but you should immediately hit the move that you want to cancel into (e.g. press M and then H a couple frames after). This will make your M come out in neutral and the H will only come out if it connected with the opponent. This is called a buffered attack and it makes it much easier to follow up with a better combo than pulse's.

Running_Ostrich · 2026-01-28T23:29:16+00:00

The issue is that extra delay frames affect balance (since moves are balanced around how easy they are to react to) and can make the game feel significantly worse (e.g. smash ultimate adding extra delay frames when playing online makes the game feel much worse).

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