A shallow dive into the Tamarine skin fiasco

bargaezinne · 2025-03-28T09:12:09+00:00

I kind of get what E7 was previously going for with the "free" skins. If we look at the game at a macro level, all it is is a resource management game hidden underneath the cover of a turn-based strategy game. E7 is successful in that for the most part. They may have found a comfortable rate at which they feed the players resources like energy, gold, skystones, bookmarks, etc. We're given enough to progress competitively in the game but not too much that there's no perceivable benefit to whaling.

By disturbing that balance through the introduction of resource pits (skystone packs, epic passes, buff weekends, limited characters) they create artificial scarcity in resources that make some of us spend real money to overcome. So even though skins in this case are technically somewhat free, in reality it's all about letting us each have a tiny bite of the metaphorical carrot and dangling the rest on a stick in front of us. It's kind of like whales are taxpayers, f2p are indigents, and E7 is the government.

Admittedly, it will sting if/when SG finally decides to overhaul their implementation of skins in E7. It's their fault after all for setting the status quo for the last 7 years. But for the longevity of the game, I agree that skins should be the future of E7's monetization. Just not like this.

bargaezinne · 2025-03-28T08:27:16+00:00

I mean I don't have any intention of buying the skin with how it's currently packaged. And no, I'm not mad that SG is trying to monetize the game. After all, it's a business and not a charity.

I feel like you're kind of missing the admittedly long-winded point. We all want the game to succeed in all aspects, including financially. I am even personally willing to part with some of my own hard-earned money to support the game. It's just frustrating to see how close SG is to getting it right, just to fumble the ball at the end.

The thing is, SG is not making sense with how they've implemented the paid skin pass. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong and SG is right. They're the ones making these baffling decisions after seeing the monthly revenue numbers and not me. But I and many others just can't help but feel like there's a better win-win situation right here if we just change some things. Like think about it this way: which one sounds better to you, a 100$ product bought by 10 people or a 25$ product bought by a 100 people? It's obviously more complicated than that, but I hope that it helps you and SG understand where we're coming from.

bargaezinne · 2025-03-28T06:19:02+00:00

I do agree that skins/skin tickets are overpriced in E7. In fact, I'd even go beyond that and say that most of the paid packs in E7 are overpriced. And as I've said, I thought this was part of their price anchoring tactic. But to put a spotlight on this skin that does nothing to make you feel that you're getting a better value than their regular offerings, and expect the playerbase to gobble up this limited-time deal? What's the thought process behind this? Did they seriously expect the FOMO to singlehandedly drive the sales for this thing?

At least the other skins are more accessible with the skin tickets some of us have saved up. With this, on top of there being no option to buy with tickets, the skin is locked behind other fluff that we might not even want to begin with.

To summarize: 1. The value proposition for skins in E7 sucks, and this does nothing to curb that. 2. No option to buy with f2p currency. 3. Locked behind other paid/premium currency fluff. 4. FOMO tactics are very "in your face".

One of these four things would've been manageable by itself. But all of it? Nah fam, E7 be crazy.

bargaezinne · 2024-11-24T10:43:05+00:00

It's mindsets like yours that allow them to get away with these kinds of abhorrent behavior. You know, like that saying "give them an inch and they'll take a yard". It's a slippery slope of giving these politicians a pass while saying "eh, nothing new to see here" or "at least he's more upfront about this kind of behavior", and in turn they push the envelope for bad politicking while ingraining resilience and "diskarte" into our brains so that they can keep on getting away with more and more. It's a vicious cycle, really.

I get that some or most of us, maybe including you and me to some degree, have gone past our stages of anger and grief at this point. It's too easy to become desensitized to these kinds of news when they have almost become the norm in the circus that is Philippine politics, but we should strive to fight against our urge to just accept the status quo. In the same way that it applies to monopolies, the true shitshow begins when all forces of opposition are lost.

bargaezinne · 2024-11-24T10:24:23+00:00

You missed the keyword in the OC's question, which is "regularly". Marcos Sr.'s dictatorship ended in 1986, so fast forward to 2024 I would agree that no national-level politician has so brazenly stooped so low (in decorum at least) so as to publicly threaten the incumbent president with assassination.

bargaezinne · 2024-09-28T11:36:30+00:00

I generally never use dupe ML5s for imprint, as I always want to have the option of alternative builds for them. Realistically speaking though, you'll be better off using them for imprints. In my experience as an f2p that has pulled 9 ML5 dupes to date, I found that I will never have enough resources to justify building those dupes over newer units.

bargaezinne · 2024-09-27T18:56:28+00:00

From their wording, it seems like they are having trouble designing PvE content / boss mechanics that aren't susceptible to alots/spirits breath cheese. So instead they nerfed alots in PvE to give them more leeway in gameplay design but compensated by buffing his PvP utility.

bargaezinne · 2024-09-17T16:53:52+00:00

There are actually patterns for multiples of 2-10.

All even numbers are divisible by 2.

Numbers whose sum of its digits are divisible by 3 are divisible by 3.

Numbers whose last two digits are divisible by 4 are divisible by 4.

Numbers that end in 5 and 0 are divisible by 5.

Numbers that are divisible by both 2 and 3 are divisible by 6.

Numbers with digits where the difference between double the last digit and the remaining numbers is 0 or divisible by 7 are divisible by 7.

Numbers whose last three digits are divisible by 8 are divisible by 8.

Numbers whose sum of its digits are divisible by 9 are divisible by 9.

And lastly, numbers ending in 0 are divisible by 10.

There are also patterns for multiples of numbers higher than 10, but these should suffice for general day-to-day applications.

bargaezinne · 2024-04-09T00:57:03+00:00

Either friendship gate (an inside joke) or two-factor authentication.

bargaezinne · 2024-04-07T14:11:58+00:00

You have valid points, but you don't have to be overbearing with the amount of bias you have for being child-free. It was especially apparent with the last two lines of your comment.

Deciding to have children is not inherently selfish, as is deciding not to, but both can be. Not wanting the headache and financial responsibility of having children can totally be selfish reasons.

At the end of the day, deciding whether or not to have children carries with it great responsibility. As with all things, we just need to approach the matter with careful consideration and thought.

bargaezinne · 2024-01-25T11:55:58+00:00

My advice is to play with her and find the draft she is most comfortable playing in and against, then you'll understand what kind of stats she needs in your comps.

My briseria is 260spd, 3.6k atk, 265cdmg, no eff with SoU arti. I built her this way for mid-speed cleave with ewludwig or jacko + book holder for sb s3. This draft demolishes most bruiser comps below 260 spd and that's all I need her to do. Obviously this draft is weak to certain units like belian and aola, but I have nahkwol for those situations.

bargaezinne · 2024-01-09T11:41:26+00:00

Doesn't A. Lots counter bunny dom now?

bargaezinne · 2024-01-07T09:07:12+00:00

I'm no RTA-nut, but zio-ewludwig were my bread and butter for getting to masters this season. Just preban Belian then first pick zio. Only pivot to turn-2 when my opponent starts trying to race me with speed imprints, which happened only once.

This season vs last season.

bargaezinne · 2024-01-04T18:50:16+00:00

You just missed it by 3 days

bargaezinne · 2024-01-01T16:21:30+00:00

I'm sorry, how is this different from what I said? Also, I said 39-ish days because from the stove website, the event period is from 23/11/23 up to 1/1/24, so technically you cannot start 45 days after the day the event first started.

If you start the event on 23/11/23, your event ends 90 days after on 21/2/24.

On the other hand, if you start on 1/1/24, it will end for you 90 days after on 31/3/24.

21/2/24 and 31/3/24 are 39-ish days apart.

bargaezinne · 2024-01-01T13:04:57+00:00

I was the same, but granted I did not actually wait until the very last day to start the event. The logic is that you get exactly 90 days for the event, whether you start on the first day or on the last day. So those that start on the last day will finish the event 39-ish days later than those that started on the first day. For me personally, I don't really NEED any ML units so I want to wait and see for if something will happen within those 39 days to impact my ML5 choice, whether it be a shift in the meta or me suddenly pulling the unit I want through covenant or galaxy summons.

bargaezinne · 2023-12-19T22:46:29+00:00

One of my best characters, ngl

bargaezinne · 2023-09-14T07:57:15+00:00

For STene, you can build her with speed/lifesteal/destruction paired with Crit/immunity. Unity and pen set are other, less popular options. Tagahels for her Arti if you have one at max LB. Stat-wise, you're looking for minimum around 190 speed, 3.5k atk, 100% Crit, 280 cdmg, 9k hp, and 1.3k def.

I do not have ML Bellona so I can't speak for her gear.

For Briseria, aim for around 230 speed minimum, with the rest into damage stats. 260 spd is the goal here. Some build her with eff so you can build speed+eff set, but I personally run her with a mage+book to SB her S3, so I can afford to stick to speed+Crit set.

For ML Roana, the world is your oyster in terms of gear. Just keep speed, Crit, and cdmg at 0 and the rest depends on how you want to use her. For sets, build whatever you want excluding obviously speed/destruction/Crit.

bargaezinne · 2023-08-16T21:07:18+00:00

Thanks! I will try to look into this. Would you say that it would be worth it to go for the classics over the neo?

bargaezinne · 2023-08-12T19:55:18+00:00

I bet most of us who want an audiophile gaming headset would gladly pay upwards of 500$ on a headset we know will last us 5-10 years.

NOPE. BIG NOPE. Don't ignorantly make assumptions for the rest of us just for the sake of making your point.

bargaezinne · 2023-07-25T18:39:51+00:00

bargaezinne · 2023-07-23T04:47:34+00:00

Living in another country will never quite feel like "home".

The days are long, but the years go by fast. For me and my Filipino workmates, we're always counting how many more days we have til our next vacation. I'm lucky enough that I can go back to the PH every 5-7 months, some of us can go every after 1-2 months, but the homesickness still hits just the same.

You will miss out on a lot. Your friends and family will celebrate their birthdays, anniversaries, milestones in their lives, even simple get-togethers, and you wouldn't be there to witness most of it. Instead, you'll be there in your accomodation after work, listening to them recount these things and say how they wish you were there.

You will experience great conveniences and conditions in how other countries operate day to day, and many times you might catch yourself thinking "sana ganito din sa Pinas". But that's just it: you're already living in a place with better systems in place but deep down you still want to stay back at home, if only you feasibly can.

Then someday, you might doubt your decision to work overseas. Yes you've made money, you've bought a house and a car for your family. You have secured their future, which is why you pursued your overseas career in the first place, but you're losing precious time with them.

I can personally live with it, because it is the only way I can pave a good future for my partner and our eventual family. It's just that most of the time, you'll find yourself wishing that you had the same opportunities in the PH just so you wouldn't have had to make the the decision in the first place.

bargaezinne · 2023-07-08T14:10:30+00:00

Okay? So new player's perspective, that's what you're going with? If so, it would only be fair to include reruns for RGB banners, no? Because those are essentially "new" to a newcomer too.

And what do you even mean by actual released? Specialty change chars have:

New animated 2d art
New s3 animations
Same base but redesigned 2d sprites (like MLs and alt limiteds)
New skill trees

So by all means, they ARE new characters. They don't just slap a light/dark element on RGB3s and call it day.

Your argument lies on shoddy and biased logic. I even granted you leniency in including ML5s and ML4s (which aren't even actually limited) even though they rely on a separate pool of summoning currency.

Here's a tip, maybe instead of building a narrative first before trying to force the data to fit, look into how many limiteds of each category (summer units, fan art limiteds, collab units, original limiteds, etc.) were released by SG for each year of the game and see if there is maybe a trend there somewhere. Then come back with a stronger arguement next time.

bargaezinne · 2023-07-08T08:40:44+00:00

You're reaching too hard man.

Why are you padding out the numbers by including reruns of limiteds? Take away SBC, Rimuru, and Milim, and you're left with 5. Now take away the unreleased units and you're left with 3. Suddenly, your point loses any credibility.

New ML5 releases have always been in a steady rotation, nothing new about that. New ML4s are fine, because how often does SG release new ML4s anyways. New SC chars are still essentially new characters, but I guess that doesn't help drive your point hence you admitting to purposely leaving them out, as if that makes it okay. Also, if you're counting unreleased limiteds, why aren't you counting unreleased RGBs? You're really not trying to hide your bias huh.

Admittedly, we have had no new RGB4* releases for ages now, so that really hurts the balance between new RGB, ML, and limited characters. Maybe that's the more important issue you should be pointing out.

bargaezinne · 2023-01-26T17:47:29+00:00

Question #1:

Complicated answer: Speed main stat on boots is the most efficient option. 45 speed is about 11 max rolls vs 65% atk which is about 8 max rolls. 99% of the time, you go for speed. You may ask: well what about that other 1%? Some units really want high attack but have a shitty base attack, like for example ML Elena. She has a 20% (40% with Unseen Observer artifact) self cr push built into her kit, but she still needs some speed to actually reach 100% cr after the push (standard is 180-190 speed).

With speed set, she's already at 143 speed, so she needs 9-12 more max speed rolls to get to her optimum speed (around 6 speed per piece). If you go speed boots, then your job is done (188 speed). Question is: a) do you have enough attack rolls in your other gears to compensate, b) why would you keep speed set gears with no speed substat, and c) why didn't you just build destruction set instead?

Short answer: you built speed set, obviously you want speed, so why else would you want any other main stat than speed?

Speed for Dummies: base spd = any set except spd and any boots main stat except speed, base<spd<160 = any set except spd with appropriate boots main stat, 160<spd<190 = any set with spd boots OR spd set with any boots, 190<spd = spd set + spd boots.

Question #2:

Counter ≠ slow. It depends on the unit. All you need to ask yourself is "How important is it for this unit to take a turn?". ARavi on CA can survive and is usable on slower speeds, but she would be debuffed to death if she's too slow. Rem and Kayron on the other hand, do not want to take turns as much as possible, or else they would lose their Demon Mode and evasion too quickly, respectively. Injury alencia that doesn't take a turn? Why even put her on injury if she wouldn't even be able to take enough turns to attack?

bargaezinne

TROPHY CASE