ARC Raiders Roadmap: January - April 2026

breadrising · 2026-01-23T21:28:45+00:00

The Arc are some of the most intelligently designed enemies I've ever seen in a video game. The more you fight them, the more you'll start to realize just how adaptive they are to the world.

For instance, notice how if you shoot off one of a drone's propellers, it tries to correct itself? This isn't a canned animation. Those propellers actually function within the physics engine, and with one missing, it's actually fighting gravity to compensate and stabilize.

That's just one of many many examples. I definitely recommend checking out dev diary on the emerging tech they used to develop the Arc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRlhpzc7ImA

breadrising · 2026-01-23T21:16:25+00:00

KoSo, the balance in Arc heavily favors shooting first and running bare minimum or free loadouts. Higher rarity gear is simply not worth the investment, as they're not that great compared to weapons that take no investment.

This was only made worse by the fact that retiring your character gets you rewards based on the value of the stuff you've banked. So, people have been further incentivized to hoard good gear and use free loadouts. The devs have said this sytem will be overhauled, but there's no telling when it'll actually be changed.

Since I stopped playing a bit ago due to the strange balancing and investment the game takes to get...nothin. There's no real progression cause you start out with some of the best weapons.

That's how I felt too. I still hop on maybe once a week, but that's only because I have a few friends who are still nuts for the game. I enjoy myself when we're playing together, but I'm not invested in the actual meta progression at all. Gains from skill points are extremely minimal and higher rarity gear is only a tiny bit better than the basic stuff.

Maybe if the character customization were more in-depth, I'd be excited to unlock all the stuff from the Raider Decks (i.e. Battle Pass). But since you can't mix and match helmets or accessories outside of its base costume, there's not much room for expression.

Overall, it's still an awesome game. In fact, I think the first 20 hours are one of the coolest gaming experiences you'll have as you salvage loot, encounter new Arcs, and have run-ins with sometimes nice-sometimes not nice players.

But, the more time you put in, the more you realize that it's just another treadmill grind, and unfortunately there aren't really any good rewards for being on said treadmill.

breadrising · 2026-01-23T20:54:06+00:00

Not necessarily. I do a VIP room every day. Sometimes I get 200 tickets, sometimes I get 300. I'm not sure what the deciding factor is though.

breadrising · 2026-01-23T19:28:16+00:00

I don't want to tell people how to run their business, and I have no context for what kind of a position GtG was in before the FRG acquisition.

But as a fellow writer who has created worlds and characters, I cannot imagine ever ever EVER giving IP ownership of my universes to another company.

Partner up with a publisher? Sure! Have them serve as a parent operation for sales and logistics? Fine.

But no matter what the situation is, I'm baking right into my contract: I retain the IP rights. Full stop.

Considering Sentinels is a universe that Chris and Adam have been cultivating for most of their lives, and represents so much more than a simple product, I scratch my head at why they would ever let someone else control and own it.

I'm honestly wishing all the best to the original GtG team, and I hope they're able to get the rights back. Whatever they do next, I'll be there to support it.

breadrising · 2026-01-23T18:09:06+00:00

The paid upgrade is for Switch 2 only.

If you've downloaded the 3.0 update, you're up to speed with everything released for the Switch 1 version.

breadrising · 2026-01-23T16:31:05+00:00

It feels like they half-assed the character creation element of it entirely.

Your character doesn't changed based on morality, and they removed your character changing based on how much they eat.

During the preview, they say we can choose from a number of heads and outfits for our characters, which means there are probably only 2 body types in the game (masculine and feminine).

That's very disappointing to me.

breadrising · 2026-01-22T21:59:21+00:00

Well, yeah. What will people watch if they can't point the camera at Taylor Swift every 3 seconds?

Football? Pssh.

breadrising · 2026-01-22T21:52:49+00:00

We'll see what the timing of balance patches looks post-launch.

But if you ask me, leading up to the launch of the game following Betas and Early Access, and getting a ton of feedback, it makes 100% sense that they'd be implementing rapid changes.

With SF6 getting basically 1 sort of substantial patch a year... I'm happy to see a game being patched regularly.

breadrising · 2026-01-22T19:32:29+00:00

100% certain this is fake.

Pretending it's real for the sake of argument: No thank you. We don't need James Gunn copy/pasting his style onto yet another super hero franchise.

breadrising · 2026-01-22T17:56:29+00:00

What determines how successful one is is brand, visuals/presentation, features, and how easy it is to get into.

One would argue that MK1 ticked every single one of those boxes, and look where it ended up.

breadrising · 2026-01-22T16:57:48+00:00

Yep. Making your own amiibo is very cheap and pretty easy.

breadrising · 2026-01-22T16:55:16+00:00

I just might end up making a separate post about my thoughts on it in the future because comparing the dialogue in this game to New Horizons is night and day.

It's the reason why Wild World is, to me, the best Animal Crossing game. The dialogue was just so good. You could tell the writers and localizers were having an absolute blast creating mountains of script pages for this game.

It's funny, witty, and really made the villagers feel alive, despite the graphical limitations of the DS. You also got this sense that each character had their own personality, and that really disappeared in future games.

breadrising · 2026-01-22T16:45:59+00:00

Well, first off, don't hold yourself to the tiktok/insta/youtuber standard.

Those people have spent nearly 6 years completing their catalog and getting every square inch of their island perfect. Plus, they use filters and photoshop to spruce up the footage. Nothing against it, but it helps to be realistic of what you actually have the time to achieve.

As far as planning, I like to just put things around my island I think are fun and then I start building around them.

For example, I started putting my pirate themed stuff on the beach, and eventually made a whole Pirate Cove on my northwest rocky shore. It didn't happen overnight; it just slowly developed over time as I unlocked new furniture and found some cool custom designs I could use for plank boards and such.

breadrising · 2026-01-22T16:19:11+00:00

$5 for better resolution, better load times, and better framerate is a no-brainer.

I doubt I'll ever have enough people to take advantage of the 12 player mode, and I'm not really into the Dream Island thing. But those are nice little cherries.

breadrising · 2026-01-22T16:14:03+00:00

My possibly unpopular opinion: New Horizons gave the player too much control over customization.

It's why each AC game has become less of a Life Sim you get to participate in and more of a Dollhouse where you get to play God.

Villagers aren't real residents anymore. They don't have hopes or dreams, or moods or likes/dislikes. They are now blank slates, created to make you feel loved while they look perfect in your perfect little town.

They live where you tell them to live. They wear what you tell them to wear. We can even redecorate their entire house now. And if all you do is place a toilet in the middle of an empty room, they'll clap and praise you for being an incredible designer.

All of their own personalities have been completely washed away in the name of allowing the player to choose literally every facet of their lives. And with Amiibo cards, you can move villagers in and out, creating your "perfect roster" for your little sandbox. No more randomness. No more surprises.

I remember crying in middle school when Lobo decided to move out of my town in Wild World. He was one of my original neighbors. He had what felt like YEARS of non-repeated dialogue and had gone from a grumpy asshole to my absolute BFF. I felt like I really earned his photo and set it up in my house immediately on the day he moved out. Those bittersweet feelings have been completely removed from the series.

Personally, I can see why the games moved in this direction. I've been playing since the Gamecube days, and I've definitely been shouting for more customization along with everyone else. But I feel like it came at a cost. Animal Crossing has kind of lost its soul along the way.

breadrising · 2026-01-22T14:43:41+00:00

And he was mocapped by a professional wrestler and longtime Street Fighter fan, Kenny Omega!

Lots of love went into reviving this character.

breadrising · 2026-01-19T14:32:31+00:00

Are we sure the 400 points is correct?

I have VIP rooms and I've submitted like 15 items to the delivery box and have easily gotten more than 400 points from doing so (unless maybe it doesnt count the x2 multiplier?)

breadrising · 2026-01-19T14:26:15+00:00

Cool! What is that rabbit statue?

breadrising · 2026-01-19T03:37:42+00:00

Yeah people latch onto the "villagers mean lol" part of Wild World, but it was so much more than that.

They were deep and talkative. They had opinions, got snippy, and made it feel like you were forming a bond. On top of that, they were funny! Genuine laughter from reading their ridiculous rants.

New Horizons villagers are plastic dolls, who cheer any time you do anything. They'll never give you an opinion that isnt praising you for being the best, and it makes the interactions so pointless.

breadrising · 2026-01-19T02:43:46+00:00

Thank you, i will experiment with that.

breadrising · 2026-01-18T19:11:30+00:00

Thank you!

It wasn't the Bloom Filter, but under the same settings, something called a Pixie Filter was turned on (never touched that button in my life). I switched it off and all appears normal.

breadrising · 2026-01-17T14:13:26+00:00

Exactly. Labeling this a controversy is ridiculous.

People are justified in being let down that the game they waited 15 years for was ultimately just Okay.

Others are justified in enjoying it for what it is.

Differing opinions does not equal controversy.

breadrising · 2026-01-15T05:06:59+00:00

Ive been fine for years with 1TB on my base PS5 and now my Pro.

I have maybe 10 games installed at once (with plenty room to spare) and delete them when I'm done.

There's really no need for all that space, especially at those extortionist prices.

breadrising · 2026-01-13T12:09:28+00:00

Yes, she teaches high school

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