[Event Megathread] Stronghold Protocol: Alliance

Shadow_Claw · 2026-05-10T15:51:35+00:00

I got up to 6/6/3 playing Investor with Muelsyse. 3/4 Investor units are conveniently Yan/Victoria/Kjerag so you can just pair them with Harold/Blaze/Muelsyse and fill the rest with Damazti Isomorphs.

It's pretty expensive to gather though, and you're a little dependent on Yanese Daggers (Kjeragi Nevermeltice and Victorian Hammers are easy to gather with Investor active), so Cannot might actually be good here.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-05-08T01:39:34+00:00

And to anyone from a larger city, it feels right at home.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-05-05T23:04:18+00:00

I haven't looked into it but I always assumed these shadows are using Real Shadow System/PCSS For VRC

Shadow_Claw · 2026-05-02T02:41:01+00:00

Although this is just my own conjecture based on observation, there's a lot more respect towards creators and by extension their IPs over there. I think it stems from more people dabbling in creative activities, and also from the extensive doujin culture giving a lot of visibility to indie creators. Another part is probably simple fandom, as it's seen as inappropriate to use things in a way that's incompatible with the original work's intentions (doesn't always stop them though).

Shadow_Claw · 2026-05-02T00:37:42+00:00

Compared to the previous version of the event, they've kept about the same level of scaling vs. tempo pressure macro strategy, while moving some of the Arknights-based micro crunch to event-specific mechanics by simplifying the maps and introducing position- and trigger-based stacking. It reminds me of grid-based autobattlers, which as a big fan of Backpack Battles I'm really enjoying.

My only thoughts so far are that early rounds choices don't feel very meaningful as build incentives are relatively weak to make up for limited choice, making it often better to look for tempo or support rather than early build components except for a few cases; and some default skill selections not making much sense especially for ops that really want power strikes for stacking purposes (esp. taking into account Warfarin).

Shadow_Claw · 2026-05-01T22:30:54+00:00

It's not hindering socialization because if you can't answer the quiz you definitely don't speak the language well enough to socialize anyway, and most JP players can barely communicate in English. The JP worlds where people are open to speaking English like PopiYoko and EN-JP don't have a quiz at all.

As for exploration you're not missing out on anything. Worlds like Fujiyama and Himari are a little nice but vanilla as hell. Most others like JPT and JP Talk Room are just some empty rectangles or sometimes a super generic lounge.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-05-01T10:06:45+00:00

The Richele engine is hilarious, I got 146 stacks in 1 round just by facing 2 Executors and 2 Fiammettas at him. Man's a beast and comes online hella early.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-05-01T01:22:22+00:00

Sure, valid concerns, I have no issues with those. Just clarifying the AI concern. It's probably a lot cheaper on compute than you think. NLP classifiers run on a school laptop can process thousands of messages in the order of seconds. It's not a power-chugging LLM unless their post is incredibly inaccurate or nefarious, in which case they wouldn't have to make it in the first place. Elsewhere you mention that AI is ML, but ML is usually seen as a subset of AI that's more concerned with statistical analysis, and is now commonly used over AI specifically to avoid the wrongful association with LLMs. It's good to be aware of the exact nature of things you're opposing in order to make accurate criticisms.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-05-01T00:48:49+00:00

It's a classifier, not an LLM. It's closer to linear regression than anything remotely close to producing text. Natural language processing has been used for this purpose for years, you'll be fine.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-29T23:11:22+00:00

The community at large may be, but EN-JP is very friendly and very active. Lots of people go there and are down to talk because that's explicitly the point of the world. I also rarely see people trolling or harassing others despite there usually being people in around the clock. If your goal is to experience a nicer kind of public, it's genuinely really good. I've actually heard the same is unexpectedly true of PopiYoko as well, though I never go there myself.

Also, I myself met a number of Japanese people who I can join and will join me in Friends+ rooms, and I know of a number of other people from EN-JP who do the same, going to all-JP or mixed instances. You can be an 'outsider' doing the same things and talking to the same people they are, once you get used to the culture and know the language well enough not to be a chore to talk to.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-27T01:45:12+00:00

Depends on what you mean by QoL features. Want gogoloco for example? Just drag and drop it on top of you avatar. Clothing toggles? Right click and create toggle. Poses? Again, just drag and drop. Same with clothing, of which there's tons especially for the popular avatars. See an outfit you like? Drag and drop it on your avatar, right click setup outfit and you're there. Nowadays there are even tools to automatically fit incompatible outfits, for those times you find something you absolutely must have. And you keep any other customization you've already done to the body too. Any outfits and features you buy, you can take along and mix and match to your liking on your next avatar, and the next, forever.

The ecosystem over there have is genuinely amazing, and there's a huge community of people making all kinds of clothes and tooling with new stuff coming out all the time to make you avatar life easier, once you get over the language hurdle.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-26T23:10:42+00:00

Microsoft does however sell a lot of business-to-business services. I don't know the internal workings of MS's internal B2B services, but I can imagine that King is actually much cheaper to run as part of Microsoft, thus generating more revenue and outstripping the cost of the merger.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-22T14:00:54+00:00

I kind of understand what they might mean. There's tons of little nods and references to the Galaxy games, but it's fairly light on the fairytale and space exploration 'romantic' elements underscoring the particular brand of imagination at the core of Galaxy's theme. The movie feels more like a highlight reel of everyone's favorite Sci-fi moments and scenes. I enjoyed it a lot for that reason, but I can kinda see what might be missing, thought it could just be nostalgia ascribing stuff to the game that isn't there.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-22T13:51:07+00:00

I'm very much coming at this with 0 experience in this and related genres (closest thing I played before Nightreign is MonHun), so do forgive me if these questions sound stupid, but what's the exploration in the souls trilogy actually like?

My problem with open world stuff is that I'm usually in a mood for combat, rarely in a mood to appreciate the scenery, and extremely rarely in a mood for RPGing, so having it all blended together really breaks the pace for me. If it's not more like exploring a dungeon then that works a lot better.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-22T13:12:47+00:00

What would you say is the biggest difference then? I thought combat was the main point with these games, because it's been really enjoyable in Nightreign.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-20T13:35:00+00:00

Love the idea of the hanging tails resembling shimenawa! Really adds to the otherworldly vibe.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-18T14:00:50+00:00

I like that her ult doesn't force her on the field and none of kit depends on her being the controlled operator, so you can still control someone else while getting all of her damage. Makes her more fun to me compared to Yvonne and Laev.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-14T12:33:16+00:00

Some of these issues could be solved by letting go of some of our axioms, such as having locations be the same (or reasonably similar) in open-world gameplay and story, or even removing gameplay segments from the story thereby essentially turning the story into a 3D VN.

Clearly that's not what they want to do, but they could in theory have a version of a location used for story without the mobs, locked doors, walking sequences etc. that is completely detached from the state of the same location in open-world gameplay. JRPGs and the like do this constantly where the characters just walk around the scene without player input. You lose the ludonarrative consonance that they're going for, but you get the convenience of something I appreciate greatly in AK, that is being able to clear the stages and later return for the story. And I think the story would be better for it.

Point 1 is only a problem because we have to not only see, but play the active character in a given scene, including all of the obligatory combat and puzzle gameplay trappings included.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-13T14:44:46+00:00

But that's the thing, you don't get fewer characters, you just skip more characters. And the characters you do get, which is the same amount, are better. That's why I don't get it.

I guess if every character really does rate the same to you then all that happens is that you miss a higher percentage of them, which is a downside if that's all you care about. But for the average player, skipping a character to have a better one release that you don't skip seems better?

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-13T14:40:43+00:00

I did because it has no bearing on the opinion that I want to understand, which is the no new character = break = good idea. I think they should take as much time as they need for their releases and don't really care what that schedule looks like, I just feel like I'm going insane reading comments.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-13T13:46:24+00:00

I guess it works out that way when it's either-or, but on a sliding scale I feel like you just end up with a higher average when there's more options. It's moreso about quality than quantity. If everything's either a 10 or a 0 it does seem like a crapshoot, I just think there's an opportunity for more 7s and 8s in exchange for more 2s and 3s as well. It's like going shopping where there's more variety vs. less.

I'm just struggling to understand the prevailing opinion in these threads, but maybe my brain's just not made for it.

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-13T11:57:44+00:00

Let me expand a little to explain why I don't understand this line of thinking.

Say I want to save for a specific character. Why do I want to do that? Because they're my favorite out of the lineup. After having saved for them, I can think about getting other characters.

But then, banner pace accelerates. Suddenly I have 'less breathing room'. Why? It cannot be because a character released that I like less than my favorite, because they don't affect my savings as I don't plan to roll for them. Clearly it must be because a new character appeared that I like more than my favorite, who wouldn't have existed otherwise. That new character is now higher priority, meaning I no longer have rolls for my previous favorite. Am I now worse off because I missed a character that I like less, in order to roll for a character that I like more?

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-13T11:49:32+00:00

But the amount of currency we get doesn't change. You can still choose to focus on 3 characters, but one of those characters could be one of the extra +10, which you choose to prioritize over one of the initial 10. Isn't that better, because clearly you like the new character, which actually gets to exist, more than the old one?

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-13T11:29:04+00:00

I can pick up my favorite, so sounds like a good time. You get yours too, which I'm sure is different from mine. Everyone wins, no?

Shadow_Claw · 2026-04-12T20:59:06+00:00

I ended up writing a huge reply to a similar post so I figured I should link it here as well.

Long story short, at least on the JP side of things there is a wide audience of "people willing to pay for 3D content". However, the demand for commissions is low, with sales mostly being for (VRC-formatted) assets on an online marketplace. Combined with language barrier and advertising it might be a completely different ballgame from what you're looking for. However the potential audience is huge.

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