#at least it's optimized

[itseghost]

more warden!! his name is kelwyn. im PLANNING spirit healer/blood mage for him but havent unlocked blood mage yet (but i did drink the tainted blood potion avernus made)

[patentedsun]

quick doodle lol

[bobzora]

various star rail doodles + a comic

[sskk-manifesto]

Atsushi Nakajima – Bungou Stray Dogs Season 3 (⇀‸↼‶)

[purplecatghostposts]

Enemies AU with Chat Noir and Argos except while Ladybug and Chat Noir are having a complicated Enemies-To-Tentative-Allies-To-Friends(?)-To-Genuine-Trust-To-Lovers Arc with Argos suffering just watching the whole charade of dancing around each other, the moment Ryuko comes into play, they speedrun that arc in record time and suddenly the tables have turned with Chat Noir third wheeling Feligami’s (Ryargos’?) flirt-fighting while he and Ladybug are still stuck in between the Friends(?) and Genuine Trust stage.

Ladybug would lecture Ryuko to stop making out with the enemy… If it weren’t surprisingly useful at keeping Argos at bay. (Should she start making out with Chat Noir? For tactical reasons, of course. She definitely doesn’t think about making out with Chat Noir for any other reasons, uh-uh.)

Also the tables have turned further because usually Chat Noir is giving Argos heart attacks with how reckless and self-sacrificial he is but now Chat Noir has to try and shake some sense into him because, “Félix, Félix, she can TAKE your brooch if she’s that close to you— she almost did!” And Argos, having recently made out with Ryuko, is still very dazed and in Loverboy Mode so he’s there like, “It’s… Fine. I can keep it safe.” Very unconvincingly and Chat Noir is like, “Do you think she’ll stop trying to take it??” And Argos smiles softly and says, “No.” and Chat Noir just. Stops trying to convince him not to kiss her and just tells him to be careful.

[noroalia]

dinners served! ive been playing around in zbrush and maya a lot recently and ended up making these because aurgh. ive been playing a lot of splatoon lately and the food always looks DELICIOUS

[strawglicks]

hi i think its rlly nice that, despite what Misty's been through, she keeps a mostly positive mindset and keeps trying to make friends. and i think its underdiscussed when it comes to them

misty is known as being tragic and sad and lonely, and while this is true, they also try to stay optimistic. despite their past with Barnacle Bessie and other suits, they continue trying to reach out and make friends.

When the toons first approach her in her battle, she invites them to learn Ip Dip with her. And at the end of her battle, she says she "hopes to share that pain with someone like you". She remains hopeful for friendship and connection despite what she's endured.

But i think this persistence can also be very harmful when she's desperate for that connection, shown through her relationship with William. They haven't left him alone, to the point he's claiming to have been harassed and stalked by them. Misty's desperation for friendship and connection has caused them to hurt other people, and I dont think that should be ignored either.

Misty deserves friendship like any other, but the way she goes about it can be harmful to both herself and the people around her. But her desperation also makes sense when you see how often she is turned down and rejected, for reasons she doesn't seem to understand (hence lines like, "I've done nothing wrong" and "I want to be friends with you toons. I don't see why it can't happen". They don't seem to fathom why toons and suits cannot be friends, despite the obvious war going on. They're very focused on themselves and the pain they've endured that they fail to pay attention to OTHERS' pain. Others like the toons and William.)

[rimeiii]

I return to WHB Tumblr to see how the game us doing and I see the fandom in shambles, damn. And after scrolling through the tag for a bit, I have...questions.

Yo how big is WHB now even? I stopped playing shortly after they introduced the paywalled Gabriel and that's one of the things I've seen several people complain about...

Like I understand the rest of the complaints - it's mostly the same complaints I've been having about the game prior to me quitting. Multiple decisions that seem to reinforce the idea that this game is heading down the P2W path, very anti-F2P practices in general, outrageous prices for the paid Nightmare Pass, no pity system on launch, the disaster that was the implementation of the Solomon's Seals gacha, the many bugs on launch especially, the small amount of farmable premium currency, and the list goes on...the pancake shop rework not only seems to be in line with the trajectory PB seems to be taking in terms of game decisions, but is also the straw that broke the camel's back for a lot of players.

But, uh, storage? Wasn't it like 2 GB tops on launch? That was reasonable I think, because Arknights was around that size on launch and back then, there was so little additional content. Only JP dubbing, no L2D E2 art or skins (the only L2D we had back then was Closure, the SHOPKEEP), 5 story chapters (which translated to 92 stages, in which around half have a Challenge Mode variant and with a large majority being unique maps), and no additional game modes.

For additional context, currently Arknights is ~6-7 GB on a fresh account with all language dubbing, and it gets bloated if you don't delete unused event data (it's ~9.7 GB for me and I have Arknights on my current phone ever since Near Light first hit Global, so just over 2 years now). Keep in mind Arknights is close to 4.5 years old in Global, and CN just celebrated their 5th anniversary a few months back.

Talking about storage, I don't think comparing WHB to older games and non-tower defense is fair either, since:

Older games in general are much easier on your device in terms of storage to content ratio and performance, mostly due to device limitations of the past requiring less sophisticated game mechanics and the devs sticking to these simpler mechanics even as time passes and technology gets more advanced. Gentle reminder that FGO is ~7 years old in NA, ~9 years old in JP, and ALSO doesn't download everything initially - afaik there's an option for that in the settings menu which bumps the total size up significantly (the wiki lists it as around 9-10 GB total).

Different genres and graphics mean different storage requirements. Anything 3D or open world will almost always have higher storage requirements compared to anything else. Path to Nowhere is around the same size as Arknights despite being younger due to the former using 3D models for their battle sprites, compared to the 2D chibis Arknights uses. Love and Deepspace, a ~5 months game, is huge because of how they do the cutscenes AND the stage-based action gameplay, but Wuthering Waves is closing the gap on size quickly despite being only ~1.5 months because it's an open world action RPG.

What I will say, though, is that WHB is not optimized well. Now I may be very unfair by comparing WHB to Punishing: Gray Raven, a game by the optimization gods known as Kurogames (people ran the PC PGR client on 2GB RAM laptops and my 4GB RAM laptop can run WuWa despite it using UE4 - an engine notorious for chugging on low end devices - albeit with lag spikes in the open world map), but when a 2D tower defense game fails to run as smoothly as a 3D action game with stylish and fast-paced combat, then we have a problem. For context, my 4GB RAM phone only has minor lag when I use a skill that has a lot of visual effects like Lee Hyperreal's Hypermatrix, but back when I played WHB I still experienced lag spikes when deploying units.

Again this all boils down to PB just not being used to the game format. Which is all well and good, Arknights was a huge departure from Girls Frontline too - a good portion of Arknights' devs worked on Girls Frontline before splitting off to work on Arknights. But what made Arknights succeed is how accessible and F2P friendly the game was, with smooth and solid gameplay as well as an engaging plot that discusses themes such as racism, discrimination, and the fragility of hope.

Of course you can argue that Arknights is a tower defense first, visual novel second. Unlike WHB, which is an otome game first, tower defense second. And I would agree, but only to a certain extent. Once you step into the realm of having Actual Combat Gameplay Elements then I believe it's your duty to make progression as reasonable as possible. Including a power gate is fine, but nothing too excessive - and certainly do not hold any significantly strong unit behind a paywall.

Because fun fact - in Arknights' entire runtime, there were only a handful of completely paywalled content:

Player icons from promotional packs for large events, particularly the Ambience Synesthesia concerts

Character skins from promotional packs, like the Exusiai and Guard Ch'en skins during the anime release

Purestream, a B4 Therapist Medic who was released as a WWF collab, where all sales from her $1 pack were donated to the WWF. Even then, she eventually became available for everyone, as she was later added to the Recruitment pool (use a resource obtained from Dailies for a chance to get units, some unique to the pool like Purestream). She was a decent healer, and her Module made her a good budget medic. Even then you're more likely using the Medics you've already built by then - for B4 budget options, Perfumer is usually better for multi-target healing and a party HP regen passive, while Sussurro is your go-to for strong single-target healing.

And guess what? None of these had any direct impact on gameplay during their paywalled period. Purestream wasn't even a B5 or B6 unit, yo. There are many better options for healers. I STILL USE THE B3 ANSEL AND HIBISCUS IN INTEGRATED STRATEGIES.

I'm just...PB's choices baffle me, and I do wish they can improve not just on the game performance standpoint, but in how they treat their playerbase in terms of in-game purchases. I hope I made that abundantly clear...

[desultory-novice]

March Kirby Birthdays!

Head's up, everyone! Following that zany little leap year day known as February 29th, we'll be heading into March, the month with the highest amount of Kirby Game/Character Birthdays! Everyone who wants to draw, write, or otherwise celebrate, mark your calendars!!

03/07 - Extra Epic Yarn (5 yrs old!) -it's just the port; no new characters introduced : )

03/16 - Star Allies (6 yrs old!) -The Three Mage Sisters (Flamberge, Francisca, and Zan) -Lord Hyness -Void Termina + Void

03/21 - DL 2 (29 yrs old!) + Super Star (28 yrs old!) -Rick, Coo, Kine -Gooey (alt 1 - first appearance) -Dark Matter Blade / Real Dark Matter -Bandanna Waddle Dee -The Meta-Knights (alt 1 - as a full crew w/ sailor dee and vul) -Marx -Galactic Nova

03/23 - Adventure (31 yrs old!) -Meta Knight -The Meta-Knights (alt 2 - first appearance; non-speaking) -Nightmare

03/24 - Canvas Curse (19 yrs old!) + Crystal Shards (24 yrs old!) -Drawcia -Ribbon -Adeleine (alt 1 - first appearance by this name) -Fairy Queen -Miracle Matter -02

03/25 - Forgotten Land (2 yrs old!) -Elfilin -The Beast Pack (Gorimondo, Clawroline, Sillydillo, Leongar) -Fecto Forgo + Fecto Elfilis

03/27 - Dream Land 3 (26 yrs old!) -Nago, Pitch, Chuchu -Gooey (alt 2 - first playable appearance) -Ado (alt 2 - first appearance if you believe Ado = Adeleine) -Zero

[sailforvalinor]

You ever think about how since Fullmetal Alchemist is owned by Square Enix, it isn’t strictly impossible for Edward and Alphonse Elric to appear in Kingdom Hearts

[3416]

anyway. this is maybe my favorite thread i’ve found on twitter the past couple days about why empathy directly translates to being able to enjoy sports regardless of the outcome. we’d all be better off and less bitter if we were willing to embrace the randomness of sport (especially ice hockey) or admit that the people we’re watching are actual people, lol. thank you twitter user himbeaux_on_ice for the logic in a sea of ugliness lkjsdklfjsdkl

[662607015]

finally got a big piece of code working but it runs so slow on my laptop now that i'm going to have to ask my supervisor for remote server access 🫠

[phospolipid-bilayer]

Opportunist + Broken = Voice of the Sycophant. Manipulative and miserable. He doesn't believe that he can become a better person.

[killyjae]

When evil stands to conquer all - his only hope: a firewall!

[stjohnstarling]

I've been playing around with Cohost a little bit since the news about Tumblr, mostly out of curiosity. I've heard about it before from artists mainly, and I can see why. They're completely committed to avoiding the mistake Tumblr made with its porn ban - to the point of not having an app at all so they don't need to worry about Apple's restrictions. The website is optimized for phones, though, and works perfectly well. It's owned by what seems to be a co-op of some kind, with at least semi-radical aspirations.

Honestly I kind of love the energy on there. All of the discussions I've seen have been very grounded and in good faith, and the vibes really bring me back to an earlier, less nasty internet. It's like wow, I remember when it was like this! The community is pretty tiny but more active than I expected. So, genuinely I hope this one takes off.

Also, it’s wall to wall full of furry porn (but filtered so you won't see it if you don't want to).

[sealrock]

my revamped au for achille has become canon and I must apologize in advance for the suffering he must go through