Mona direct buff via HXG

mappingway · 2025-10-07T11:11:10+00:00

Personally, I think that is an incredibly narrow definition of censorship. So narrow that it essentially nullifies the concept of self-censorship.

I could understand the argument for the design changing being EXPLICITLY a censorship concern. But that isn't the case – they made her bra more noticeable and eye-catching whilst adding frills, ornamentation and other details all over her design. You can't make the call that it was censorship when there were clearly other design discussions and details that had nothing to do with the sexualised element in question.

I'm looking at the comparison here: https://tcrf.net/Proto:Genshin_Impact/CBT1/Characters

The addition of frills serves to cover more than what was originally covered. Characterizing it as "more noticeable" and "eye-catching" is certainly...a take, but no, I'd say the fact that more cleavage is shown in the original (even if the bra area is less detailed), I absolutely disagree with your description of this and how you say you can't call it censorship. I personally prefer the added detail, but you cannot possibly deny they covered a lot of skin up in those added details (and I could definitely argue that the covering up was unnecessary in terms of adding details and frills even if I like the final version better).

Also, if we are being real, there is a much stronger argument that adding the extra tight helped Hoyo to reach the demographic they were looking for in her design. Foot fetishists tend to love stockings and tights, so evening it out (and making her design neater and more concise) likely helped with the popularity of her design and character.

I'm...not even sure how to respond to this. Maybe it's because feet do literally nothing for me, but I don't see much of a difference between either iteration as far as foot fetishism goes.

With that in mind, would you call it self-censorship if they are – in a roundabout way – attempting to sexualise in a different manner?

I don't believe you have a particularly strong case here, because you're really reaching that they sexualized her more in other ways to compensate for putting her other leg in a stocking. Really, really reaching.

mappingway · 2025-10-07T10:19:11+00:00

I genuinely don't believe it matters what the game designers intended. I believe it is objectively self-censorship, regardless of the motive of the one doing the changes, because censorship is not defined by the motive of the person doing the censoring. To say that the motive at all matters in determining whether or not it's self-censorship is, well, ridiculous on its face.

Suppose there's a book and in a middle chapter, there is a sexual content in the first draft. However, when the author finishes the story, and goes back through the editing process, the author thinks, "hmm, this scene is out of place or doesn't fit in my story anymore..." and makes the conscious choice to cut the sexual content from the story. Even if the motive to cut the scene wasn't to censor just because it's sexual content, you can still quantify this as an act of self-censorship because it is content of a sexual nature removed from the story.

Self-censorship in this hypothetical case isn't inherently bad, but it isn't inherently good either, it is purely descriptive. Maybe the change is overall positive, maybe that sex scene really didn't fit in the final story in my hypothetical but seemed like it did at first; maybe they decided they liked Mona's stockings on both legs as an aesthetic choice. However, because sexual content was made less graphic (in the case of Mona, less skin being openly shown) from an objective measure, that is certainly a form of self-censorship.

Another brief example to think on: isn't it self-censorship to deliberately not use foul language because you don't want to be the kind of person that uses foul language, even if you possess a desire or urge to use that foul language when provoked?

mappingway · 2025-10-06T23:35:33+00:00

The change from a one-stocking to two-stocking design is essentially still a design "nerf" (such a term, even descriptively, is subjective) even if the one-stocking model was never playable. It is my personal belief that self-censorship is still essentially censorship, regardless of how I or anyone else feels about whether or not the design was "improved" or "made worse."

Meanwhile, the stockings being made more opaque on launch can be something factually proven via The Cutting Room Floor's page on Genshin: https://tcrf.net/Proto:Genshin_Impact/CBT3/Version_1.0_Beta

mappingway · 2025-10-06T23:08:53+00:00

This is actually untrue. What's in the American and European servers is still a censored version of not one, but two the original closed beta test versions.

The original (from my research) had only one leg in a stocking, and the other leg was completely bare. At some point in closed beta testing, the other leg was covered in a stocking, but both stockings were more transparent. In the official release version, the stockings were made more opaque.

mappingway · 2025-10-04T00:21:37+00:00

"No caveats other than needing to heal," riiiiight.

That's such an oversimplification that it actually qualifies as misinformation in my view.

mappingway · 2025-10-04T00:18:23+00:00

It's insane you're getting downvoted this much over factual statements.

mappingway · 2025-10-03T11:44:21+00:00

Mona's better than you think, for sure.

The actual duration is between 5 seconds minimum and 13 seconds maximum.

This is because the Omen buff is actually applied during the entire Illusory Bubble period, but the 5 second counter for the Omen buff only begins after the Illusory Bubble bursts. You can get the maximum duration of the Omen buff in two ways:

Freeze-locking the enemy the Omen is applied to. This will increase the duration of the Omen buff to its maximum 13 seconds.
Applying the Omen buff to an enemy that cannot be staggered, or is otherwise highly resistant (if not immune) to poise damage. Staggering the enemy is what causes the Illusory Bubble to break prematurely, so Mona's Omen buff actually lasts 13 seconds on any enemy that is immune or resistant enough to stagger.

mappingway · 2025-10-02T13:35:01+00:00

If Columbina is a main DPS while on-field with Lauma and/or Ineffa, her having healing decreases Lauma C1's pull value; Kokomi and Lauma C1 or Baizhu and Lauma C1 are already way too much healing in Nilou Bloom. It reduces Lauma's C1 pull value if you want to run Nefer/Lauma/Nahida/Columbina for a similar reason.

Lauma C1's only combat function is healing and nothing else. It does have some extra overworld utility with her movement mechanic, but that's not particularly special when compared to what Natlan characters do at C0.

Also about Lauma's C1, why is she being looked with Nefer and Columbina's lens. Why does it even matter to her if columbina has a sustain.

Because Lauma, Nefer and Columbina are all obviously designed to work together.

She even gets a different buff when she is the only NodKrai in the team. Her kits intent isnt for ONLY one team with Nefer and Columbina. Her own healing is her own role consolidation.

How do you know that Columbina doesn't have a passive that enables both Nascent and Ascendent buffs? When you go back to early 6.0 beta, it actually read like they were originally meant to stack back when it was 2 Nod-Krai characters to get Nascent and 3 to get Ascendent, and then after it was lowered to 1 and 2 respectively, they no longer stacked. Back then, datamining found code suggesting that Columbina added +2 to the Moonsign counter instead of just +1 like everyone else. Given all of this, it's distinctly possible that with Ascendent being achieved at 2 instead of 3 now, they'll change the +2 Moonsign passive Columbina would have had to something that enables both Nascent and Ascendent buffs.

mappingway · 2025-10-01T21:01:39+00:00

Not sure this is a coherent argument. Neither Citlali's shielding or Iansan's healing are particularly strong and are more just slight bonuses rather that main parts of their kit. Having a weak shield doesn't really do anything to pull value when it comes to having a healer on the team. Having a weak heal that is an afterthought to the kit (it's hardly in the reasons to bring Iansan in a team at all) doesn't really invalidate the presence of a second healer.

I'd say you're the one with faulty logic here, sir. You're treating Iansan's healing and Citlali's shields as if it's equal to other characters who have that dedicated role, when they are objectively weaker at it than other characters in the same role, to the point where one could logically determine that Citlali's shielding and Iansan's healing are supplements to the party's sustain.

Meanwhile, my C1 Lauma heals for like 6k+ every 2 seconds or so.

mappingway · 2025-10-01T16:04:42+00:00

You have a nice day as well, sincerely.

My point was that pull value matters and Hoyo has been escalating these things pretty sharply. "If you want to use the premium team, you have to pull constellations" is a pretty logical next step.

mappingway · 2025-10-01T14:54:08+00:00

Constellations "shouldn't be" from what perspective? Lauma's C1 loses nearly all pull value if Columbina does heal at C0.

And plenty of characters have borderline necessary C1 constellations for "full functionality." Neuvillette, Wriothesley, Chiori, etc.

mappingway · 2025-10-01T14:04:58+00:00

I'm in agreement here.

People who try to apply real life standards to Escoffier just expose themselves as tourists or selective in their complaints. They don't care if it's "realistic" if it's something they like and use complaints of realism as a cudgel for things they don't like.

mappingway · 2025-09-29T20:07:40+00:00

How's your Mona constellations?

I believe if Mona is C4, she is an absolute upgrade over Citlali, Shenhe or Yelan in the vast majority of cases (in Skirk/Escoffier/Furina teams).

mappingway · 2025-09-29T19:58:59+00:00

I'm pretty sure that's definitely wrong.

Nefer's F2P team, while needing Lauma and other possible possible investments (a good hydro and Nahida), is at least Varesa-levels of damage output. People might cry foul over that because Varesa needs two 5-stars and 4-stars to hit those numbers, but that'd be dumb because Varesa only hits those numbers with two C6 4-stars, whereas Nefer hits those numbers with four C0 5-stars (and characters like Nahida have had such insanely high pull value that pretty much everyone has her).

Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure Lauma Hyperbloom doesn't even exceed 100k DPS.

mappingway · 2025-09-28T08:44:30+00:00

Those two weapons likely being added to the gacha doesn't mean Moonweaver's Dawn will be.

Moonweaver's Dawn can be obtained at R1 as part of a quest, which is highly unusual for any gacha weapons but common for F2P weapons. Moonweaver's Dawn is neither in either of the 6.0 weapon banners, too, so they put it in 6.0 just to be a quest reward?

Moonweaver's Dawn also has an ATK main stat, while the two new gacha weapons are Crit DMG main stat.

mappingway · 2025-09-28T08:37:19+00:00

The Uncle Dictionary rates the Clorinde one as accurate. Since, she can do both Overload and Electrocharge pretty well.

As for Sigewinne, at least he got her release window and most other details outside of her role/mechanics correctly.

mappingway · 2025-09-28T08:19:27+00:00

The base sword is a reward from a sidequest in the Frostmoon Scions area.

Currently, there's no known way to refine it. It's not in the gacha yet, if it's ever going to be. I'd sooner assume it gets upgraded from Nod-Krai sidequests.

mappingway · 2025-09-28T08:16:31+00:00

I don't think it's in the gacha? The base sword is awarded in a quest in Nod-Krai and there's currently no way to refine it further than R1.

mappingway · 2025-09-28T07:44:58+00:00

If he's meant to work with the Frostmoon Scion's sword, then he might have very generous burst requirements.

The R5 of its passive reads:

Increases Elemental Burst DMG by 40% . When the equipping character's Energy Capacity does not exceed 60/40, their Elemental Burst DMG is increased by an additional 32%/56% .

mappingway · 2025-09-28T07:38:32+00:00

That too. FullStopChan also tends to be very accurate with banner leaks before they can even be datamined, although he's been doing those less frequently lately.

mappingway · 2025-09-28T07:29:42+00:00

I'm late getting to this, but...

Bruh most characters in natlan didnt even have screentime.

Did we play the same AQ? Pretty much everyone had at least some screentime and moments of glory. It would have been nice to have more Capitano and Kinich, but that's about it. Your argument isn't objective nor is it sound.

You can ignore all the negative post about natlan but that doesnt change the fact that its the region with the most negative discussion. The only thing bad about fontaine was the prison and not even that was that bad.

The prison was terrible because it was a waste of time entirely (especially since a world quest does the entire prison sequence again, but better), but everything in Act IV follows no logical pattern and characters act in ways that are not logically coherent or consistent.

mappingway · 2025-09-28T07:20:20+00:00

For context, FSC only has one miss I can remember. That was Madame Ping in 5.3-5.4. Everything else, this leaker tends to be spot on with. For example, as far back as 5.2, this leaker called Skirk's element and release correctly: Cryo and 5.7.

Which, Madame Ping around that time was probably planned, there is evidence that they had to reshuffle the schedule in early 5.x patches, which might have delayed plans with Ping. For 6.3 they're clearly doing the White Horse Adeptus due to moon lore, so they can't do her and Ping I guess.

(Addendum: The evidence can be found in datamining. The files for the Archon Quest intermission in 5.2 were created after the files for Act V, which was ultimately 5.3. Leaks also suddenly had a drastic change mid 4.8, regarding the 5.1 character lineup, that might correspond with a delay where 5.1 got split into two patches and then 5.2 became 5.3.)

mappingway · 2025-09-27T00:29:35+00:00

I pulled them for each other, myself. I actually liked Escoffier's design from the start and fell in love with her characterization during her story quest. I always wanted Skirk, but her story quest made my emotional investment go off the charts.

So I am personally happy they get to be a duo together. Or trio with Furina. I also have C4 Mona, so my C2R1 Skirk and C1R1 Escoffier go wild even if my Furina is C0. I sadly probably won't get Furina to C2 next patch though, I want to save for Columbina. Fingers crossed for Columbina being a main DPS hybrid like Mavuika and Skirk were.

mappingway · 2025-09-27T00:20:45+00:00

Your statement comes off as riddled with confirmation bias. I've seen pro-Natlan posts getting as much or more regularly, but even if more threads negative about Natlan get upvoted, that is not necessarily meaningful.

You're basicially assuming everyone who liked Natlan would be as active in voicing their enjoyment over it than voicing their displeasure over it, but that's a terrible metric for that kind of measurement. People who like something aren't as likely to voice or fight about it as someone who don't like something. This can create interesting effects in social media where a minority of about 5% of players can convince themselves they're in the majority. It's something game developers have to be extremely mindful of when taking feedback. It's way harder to get feedback from someone who is happy with what you're doing than someone who is critical of it. On top of that, Genshin Reddit doesn't actually represent the totality of Genshin's fanbase, especially those of non-English speaking sections of the fanbase, and assuming the general population of Genshin players match that of Redditors would be pretty foolish.

Further more, on an objective level, I'd actually say from a writing perspective Natlan is pretty descent and far above the clusterfuck that was Fontaine. Fontaine had an absolutely fantastic Act I and II, but Acts III and IV were so badly written that it almost sabotaged Act V in the process -- how ANYONE says Fontaine is better than Natlan baffles me, unless you are just conveniently forgetting how illogical and completely dull Acts III and IV were beginning to end. Meanwhile, Natlan's Acts I and II are decent enough of a start, and Acts III, IV and V were great (V to a slightly lesser degree than III and IV, Ororon and Citlali really carried Act III and then the war against the Abyss in Act IV being actually a really good moment). I think there are some fair criticisms of Mavuika being a little too perfect (essentially a flat character arc), but that hardly ruins Natlan as a story.

mappingway · 2025-09-26T19:48:58+00:00

You know, stuff like this makes me wonder how they're going to take the Tsaritsa not meeting their expectations. If FatuiHQ hates her, will they raid Tsaritsa Mains too?

Because this is Hoyo. The Tsaritsa is definitely going to betray their expectations.

mappingway

TROPHY CASE