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shinysamurott9 · 3 months

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2024 Gametalk: Mega Man X5 Improvement Project

So I want to try making a thread or series of posts talking about all the games I play over this year. I'll start with this one, the Mega Man X5 Improvement Project

So I've played most of the main Megaman platformers via the Legacy Collections, haven't played BN completely, SF or Legends though. As anyone who has played the main platformers can tell you, quality can vary a lot, especially, especially with the X Series. Base X5 is definitely on the weaker end of the spectrum imo. It's not an awful game but it's a major step down from X4 and it has a lot of issues and poor execution. From what I've read a lot of that comes down to a significantly lower budget and little direction from Inafune beyond "Conclude the story".

I was aware of the improvement hack for a long while but I got curious about it a few days back and decided that I'd give it a shot, and frankly, I was extremely impressed. This game fixes, not every issue with X5, but a hell of a lot of them, along with a lot of miscellaneous changes. This includes, letting X use incomplete armours, Heart Tanks sharing between X and Zero, additional ways to get certain items, letting Zero get all Heart Tanks and all parts being obtainable with no worry about rank.

There's plenty of other notable changes like a proper retranslation to be more accurate to the original script and removal of RNG with the Shuttle, but the things mentioned above are the most important to me because let me tell you, they are absolute game changers when playing through. It allows you to be so much more flexible with the order you fight each boss, making the game so much more replayable, an essential element to Megaman games imo.

It really does feel like you can get a lot more out of the characters tool kits. The Gaea Armour is not just viable for X, but actually really good, because of some rebalancing, and the fact you're not locked out of using it until basically the end of the game. Many of the special weapons are given new functions. Like Dark Hold giving you Spike Immunity, F-Laser and Charged Tri Thunder being able to destroy the bomb in Duff Mcwhalen's stage, Zero's F Splasher being able to push Gaea Blocks and you can even re-enable the Fourth Armour’s Nova Strike if you want it.

There are some issues I have with the game though. Some of the original design decisions don't mesh well with the new changes, primarily the timer, which is made basically irrelevant by all the streamlining. It was never that big of a factor in a playthrough unless you wanted parts but now it's just kind of superfluous. A lot of the not great parts of the stages still aren't great. Duff Mcwhalen is still mostly an autoscroller, Volt Kraken still has the Bike Section, Zero Stage 1 is still a replica of Quick Man and the Shadow Devil still exists. The hack does what it can to remedy this like speeding up the autoscrollers, lowering the amount of energy items you need to get from the bike section to get the Falcon Armour Part and making it so you won't get caught on walls in Zero Stage 1. Shadow Devil still kinda suck though, especially as Zero.

I'm not gonna hold these issues against the hack or it's creators though as the ideal solution would be to completely rework or replace these elements with something better, which is definitely beyond the scope of a rom patch like this. What I will say though is while they did a lot to improve the Gaea Armour, in my playthroughs at least, the Falcon Armour felt really underutilised. It's entirely possible to get everything you would otherwise need Falcon for via other methods such as the more accessible parts, the updated Special Weapons, using Zero or some combination of these three factors. I literally never needed to use it on my second playthrough. This could be just down to my playstyle but in almost every situation, the Fourth or Gaea armours were strictly better in my opinion. I feel like if it had the ability to charge special weapons like X6 then it would at least be on par with the Fourth Armour. Maybe it would have more use in an X solo run but idk.

The complaints here are mostly minor. Overall, the hack is a fantastic piece of work, it improves on X5 in almost every aspect it can reasonably be expected to. I honestly think it brings X5 up to the same level as a lot of the better Megaman games. Maybe not as good as X1 , X2 or X4, but probably not far behind them. If you've ever played X5, like it or not, I'd heavily recommend this hack. I'd put it in A Tier easily.

Why did I rank it like it’s a tier list? Cause it is.

For the last year or so I've been progressively ranking all the games I've ever played. I thought it would be a neat way to look at everything. X5 Improvement ranks in A Tier between Pikmin 3 and Megaman ZX. I'll update it with each game i finish. Feel free to roast me for my taste in games.

#games i played #2024 Games talk #megaman #Megaman X #megaman x5 #zero megaman

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narcoticwriter · 2 years

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Giving an anon from a fanfic account what they asked for with no other reason than because I can.

Yes, I'm outing myself within like a week lmao, but a request for information is something I'm more than willing to fulfill.

Dearest anon, you asked on a @bumbleklee's account if I had the links, and I assure you I most certainly do.

For those of you who don't know, I am currently responsible for a few walls of text surrounding the realm of the so-called 'Genshin Impact Damage Meta-gaming' despite - and note this - never playing the game myself.

It's funny, considering that I specialize in the dealing of information and I don't really care if I don't have access to the game and do not want access at this time. I'm here to vibe and vibe only until the Venti rerun is officially announced. So really, I'm the filthiest casual in this place and the fandom would eat me alive outside of here. But!

I have also endowed myself with an unholy amount of knowledge surrounding the damage calculations specifically to the characters' respective toolkit and what their base numbers are built for. You can find some semblance of an explanation under '#going ham'. The pages are long and thick full of a summary of how damage works, but I focus on that specifically.

This is optional, by the way I wouldn't make you do that anon.

So in summary, I will be able to answer that request for you! You said you wanted five links, and while I have them, some of the ways that the material is presented is okay for me, but might not be your speed which is why I included some other ones for you that still have the desired impact because I highly doubt you want to read through a long-ass Reddit thread.

The links in question:

The Best Teams as of 2.4 (Simple explanation and top teams)

A Thorough List of All Possible Teams as of 2.4 (Complex explanations along with all the builds)

Keqing Mains (Has yet to be updated to all playable characters as they are tactful and take the utmost time to make sure there are no misconceptions)

Genshin Builds (Dedicated solely to building characters and party builds and from what I gather, very informative while simple to understand to the point that I may use it in the future)

Genshin Impact Damage Calculator (Simply plug in characters, artifacts, weapons, constellations, external buffs from party members, etc.; requires a little bit of learning how to navigate)

These sources are credible and have stood in the community long enough to be mentioned in a multitude of forums and for my personal use.

If you want my personal opinion, however, you will have to inquire further because the amount of times I clarified when no one asked me to is quite embarrassing ehe so that I don't overwhelm you with a full-blown analysis when you just want receipts.

I hope this helps you in whatever you're trying to build!

~ Meta anon (AKA the new menace on Genshin Tumblr that's clogging up the respective tags with my bullshit)

#going ham #genshin analysis #genshin meta #narky thinks #meta anon #genshin impact #first request??#genshin discourse #quick post #this took like fifteen minutes to make lmao

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secondhand-sheep-shack · 5 years

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So this is an update for followers.

I'm not okay. I'm functional and not at risk of doing anything to harm myself, please do not worry there.

I started on Lyrica 15 days ago. It worked great until it worked the wrong way. Lyrica has a black box warning of increased depression suicidal thoughts or actions.

When you already have depression, this added influence from medication is called drug-induced depression and Lyrica has a reputation for causing it in a lot of people. I'm one of the unlucky ones. I was fine until Saturday at work. It was like someone came over, snuck up behind me and flipped a switch I didn't know existed.

I suddenly wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything. Sunday I slept, all day. This was clue-by-four number 1 that I wasn't okay.

I woke up yesterday and I was well on my way to a severe bout of major depression.

Ben and I talked. Mom and I talked.

It didn't help. I was entirely apathetic to everything. But at least my arms didn't hurt, right?

I had a call with SupportLinc as part of our EAP through work. I called back at 1am last night and talked to a counselor. I messaged my doctor at 330 am asking for a medication change, hoping like hell that I wouldn't have to wait for an appointment next week. Because the nerve pain is getting worse because the cause isn't getting better, but more on that later.

I didn't know if I had the ability to DEAL with the pain, the anxiety at work, the bullshit at the end of my shift, and my brain being problematic for another week.

At 9am I woke up sore and mentally drained despite sleeping 6 hours. I don't get up until noon most days. I could not get comfortable and my brain was running through the worst of everything list. So I was awake, unfortunately.

Phone bears notification from the message service for the doctor. I hesitantly open the message thread, read the words and cried.

"Sounds like a good plan, I called in 30 days at the beginner dose. If in a week it's not enough, but your mental health is stable we'll adjust it upward. You should be able to pick it up at your convenience.

And then a notification from my pharmacy that my script was ready for pickup.

So I have a new medication. I'm pushing for the ortho consult and pushing them to do the surgery sooner rather than later, because I have enough trouble staying above water without meds dragging me down.

I don't want to take these things for the rest of my life, simply because I have an active job using my hands. But the diagnosis is carpal tunnel mild cubital tunnel impingement.

As much as adulting some days seems like more effort than it's worth, I remember that my meds cost me $3 and after working all day I have the ability to do 2-3 hours of crafts before my hands get pissed off and tell me to go to bed. Funny that the biggest stressor in my life is the biggest help to not be in some pain afterward.

Gauging parts doesn't hurt. Writing notes and measurements is torture.

Listening to my boss complain about the speed of my production and never hearing a good word is...disheartening.

He wonders why no one on southside tries anymore. Because even I get tired of being degraded by generalized statements day in and day out. Oddly most consider me the most positive upbeat attitude in the department.

They noticed that I wasn't myself yesterday.

I handed in paperwork at the end of the day.

Boss asks how I managed it. I had help. Even if all he did was load and unload and empty chip bins, I could focus on not blowing a drill.

He told me to look at the list and tell him what I saw.

9 - down.

8 - 360 front / 760 back.

GS1 - 450; GS2 - 140

K ran 590 total on 2 lines.

I ran 760 on 1.

I ran 160 more parts than the next highest total.

Everyone else ran 300 or less.

I left work feeling better because I knew without a doubt that I do more work on my 2 lines than anyone else on that side. K can only run if other lines (x6) are running well. 3 of those 6 were up yesterday.

This is rambly and jumbled and I apologize for my brain dump. This is how it goes lately. At least I didn't confuse a bunch of words this time. (Note that a goose is not footed bagpipes - don't ask)

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