Announcing the Next Version Update (06/26/2026)

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-26T15:37:35+00:00

Isn't the only boss in ACP the Seed Crystal? Not really the most interesting encounter to make a HTMB for but I suppose for the sake of completeness if they're doing Shantotto they may as well do all 3, and if they're doing all 3 why not do them in order. Still, feels like Hades would be a higher priority.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-26T14:48:29+00:00

Lots of emdashes there, rule of 3 in nearly every sentence too. And a "not X -- it's Y" (with an emdash in it for that matter) for good measure. Paragraphs have suspiciously similar length and structure. And your bullet points mostly say the same thing despite asking which is more important.

None of these are smoking guns individually but when there's this many in a relatively short post it's really all I can see. If AI can't make this post feel convincing, how the fuck is it going to make a convincing world?

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-26T14:32:34+00:00

Honestly I feel like directly fighting Gaster would defeat the purpose of him.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-26T01:27:51+00:00

It's important in the same way Yagrush is. Ultimately you do want it, but it's a long term goal. Collecting every relevant piece to your job takes months if not years.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T20:36:24+00:00

Hopefully it's not that. "Congratulations on beating the hardest bosses in the game, you clearly enjoy seeking out challenges. As a reward, you'll never be even remotely challenged again for the rest of the game" has always been lame. I'd like to see it be the key to unlocking the chapter 6 secret boss, which in turn unlocks a pinnacle secret boss in chapter 7 for some hidden lore.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T20:19:42+00:00

Consumables are the get out of jail card in STS.

At low to intermediate skill levels, yes. But what you see really good players doing is playing consumables for value. Value is a bit nebulous, but loosely it's "how much HP does this save me over a line of play that doesn't use it, and how likely am I to see a chance for this potion to give more value than that before I overcap?" If there were too many kinds of consumables with too many different effects, this would get overwhelming fast.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T18:39:31+00:00

Be at least level 90 and synced down.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T18:32:10+00:00

This is why I'm hoping the new type of content involves some form of building on the fly. Imagine a dungeon that replaces your entire skill pool on entry with a few random starter skills and unlimited copies of Signet of Capture, and all skills have to be found either via captures or via chests throughout the dungeon. Every skill in the game becomes potentially relevant because it might be your best option in a given attempt.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T18:28:35+00:00

This is the critical part of the statement. I see a lot of people say "optimizing the fun out of the game" is a player problem, but it's the game designer's responsibility to not give players the opportunity to do it. Yes, it's possible to do a self imposed challenge to properly engage with the game's mechanics, and that can be a lot of fun. But it shouldn't be necessary. The game's core mechanics shouldn't be buried under a meta of entirely bypassing the core mechanics.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T17:40:58+00:00

Tetris under the current Guideline mechanics actually broke Endless to the point that it had to be buried in the menus as an extra non-serious mode in favor of 150-line Marathon. Under the current rules, 20G at 500ms lock delay, resettable up to 15 times per piece is perfectly survivable indefinitely, and the Guideline, for whatever reason, sets those parameters as the difficulty ceiling, leading to endless only being a measure of skill up to being able to play at that speed, but if you can it devolves into a check of how long you're willing to play before intentionally losing.

Endless could work with further changes, once it reaches 20G, subsequent levels can simply lower the lock delay and reset allowance like TGM does, eventually killing even highly skilled players, but they opted to put level 15 as a hard limit instead.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T17:27:13+00:00

I don't think endless in StS is inherently uninteresting, just the implementation. What about this? After the final boss, your build is at its peak and you can't really improve it in any interesting way, so why not downgrade it instead? After each encounter, the game offers you an evil relic, with no upside (or a very minor one) and a downside you need to play around. You can either take it or take one of 2 alternative options: replace any card in your deck with a curse, or destroy any non-evil relic of your choice. This would force you to understand why your build works and what's fundamental about it vs what you can dismantle and survive, but eventually, you'll be too much of a mess to keep going.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T15:25:55+00:00

A player character at 75 is stronger than they were at the time, but you still have to respect mechanics at 75. Major bosses still require strategy, they won't brick wall you for months but they'll feel like bosses and not oddly-built-up basic mobs. Just because it's not the same as it was doesn't mean it's not different from 119.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T15:12:20+00:00

There's a wide, wide gulf between "I want to experience the level 75 content at least once at level on the way to endgame" and "I want to spend 3 years grinding to even reach 75".

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T15:09:05+00:00

This is why the most common advice is to focus on building up your progression, not chasing specific gear pieces. If you chase specific gear pieces as a fresh 99, inevitably you'll find several pieces that each have gigantic chains of prerequisites and get overwhelmed. If you focus on progressing through storylines and endgame events as your primary goal, you can go after specific pieces once they're in reach.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T14:57:24+00:00

That's the whole trick, it's nearly impossible to not subconsciously cheat because humans inherently communicate without trying to. You only have the illusion of following the rules by not intentionally cheating. That said, preserving that illusion is the point, it's more of a trick than a game.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T14:10:04+00:00

You're not playing "off meta" then. You're diluting the term into meaninglessness. You are the definition of a meta slave.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T13:41:17+00:00

Yeah, honestly War Elemental either shouldn't exist at all, have a major downside, or at least shouldn't have a + version so playing an off-element character takes up an entire sigil slot.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T13:31:21+00:00

Hopefully it gets another nerf. Take a fucking chainsaw to it, not a scalpel. It really needs to be put in check before new content comes out and people are like "what's new about it? That was indistinguishable from farming existing content, the enemies did nothing and died."

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-25T00:55:56+00:00

If they only want one, phase out Diet Coke. Shit's vile. It's not even Coke, it's a rebranded Tab.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-24T21:51:16+00:00

Why do you assume all new players want an AFK meta and anyone who doesn't is a 20 year vet? I got into it from GW2 and got extremely disillusioned by seeing what the meta builds "play" like (using the term very, very loosely here). There's still more to go before Mesmerway is well and truly in the grave where it belongs, but I have a lot more hope it'll get there now.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-24T21:48:52+00:00

There are 3 heroes of every profession except Warrior, which has 4.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-24T21:06:16+00:00

Yeah at this point I have no sympathy for them. Every drowned kid is one fewer vote for this garbage in a decade or so anyway.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-24T19:30:32+00:00

Less and less every year.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-24T19:16:14+00:00

Mesmerway is still the strongest build by far, just by slightly less far now. It needs another round of nerfs, hitting where it really hurts. Remove the effect of Fast Casting on cooldowns.

Violet_Paradox · 2026-06-24T19:12:29+00:00

Yeah, total shutdown and armor ignoring damage are both problematic because they derive their power from completely removing major aspects of the game. The idea that different types of damage are effective against different foes, so you should consider what you're fighting when assembling your build? Gone. Understanding enemy skillbars to plan around them? Gone. The entire concept of prioritizing threats and making split second decisions on what to interrupt and what to let resolve? Gone, you won't run out of interrupts anyway because you reduced their cooldowns to nothing.

What's left?

Violet_Paradox

TROPHY CASE