General / QoL

• Dark Mode is now available as a setting and on by default. We also tied down the guy (who wrote the flashingly bright note about seizures) in a opthalmic speculum, in a dark room while opening and closing the said bright note for 3 hours.
• Light Mode uses grayish / genshin-impact-blue color scheme.
• Users can now map keys in settings.
• New user center setting : Allow Teyvat Times to publish my in-game alias (not username) and last 4 digits of my UID (When you set a world record of hunting fowl and etc.)
• Added setting for persistent aiming mode. If turned on, your character will try to get back to aiming mode even when you dash or you are knocked back.
• Going in and out of aiming mode is now much smoother. You can still dash, cast skills and still keep the cursor on. Inspired by Tombraider? Idk why I wrote this.
• When crafting an item and you run out of materials for it, the item selected stays in place and will not scroll all the way down.
• When choosing characters for the abyss, the preview button to see which enemies you will face is also there.
• When finishing an abyss floor, you can return to the abyss menu without ending the "run" to collect rewards or browse around.
• Fixed a bug with sucrose/xinqiu bonus materials when crafting.
• Fixed a bug with razor's c1 constellation not increasing his damage and not displaying a buff indicator.
• All buffs are now grouped/stacked by icon category, attack/defense/regen etc. Hovering the cursor in the grouped icon will display verbose info. (e.g. thrilling dragon tales, character talent, gouba pepper etc).
• Daily Login Bonus is permanent.
• Claim All and Repeat Buttons are now available in Blacksmith, Battlepass, Expeditions and the Like.
• VA/CV list is displayed instead of current selected voice language in character details. (e.g. if you go to a character screen, and have english voice language, you will only see english voice actor and you have to change language just to find out who the cn and jp voice actor is)
• Hide ui/hud setting and dedicated hotkey is added for creating fan-made cinematics.
• Unless it is an artifact or a weapon, an item previously recorded and consumed will no longer display as "new"
• Added shield bar on top of health bar
• Added party icon on the top right ui and a dedicated hotkey to switch parties
• Added hotkey to switch to your saved Comps 1 to 4
• Resin is now always visible at the top of UI (without needing to open up the map)
• Moved UID a bit further down by 2px so it doesn't overlap with the buttons
• Changed UID Opacity by 75% and has grayish text color, inspired by "windows is not activated"
• Added a space character on the launcher download text (e.g. "Downloading75%" into "Downloading 75%")
• Bonus damage from element-affected status (e.g. "deal 15% increased damage against cryo affected enemies" are enclosed in parentheses
• Expedition Slot Remembers Last Character Used
• Expedition Slot Remembers Last Hour Used
• All map objects are navigatable for consistent experience. and are not overridden by quests. You will always be directed towards the one you choose.
• Navigated Map Object Always Display Their Distance and Light Beacon (e.g. Leylines not having those)
• Added enemy weakspot zones with varying degrees (green,orange,red) in the adventurer's handbook, if you kill 150 of a certain enemy type. Humanoid types generally have the head as a weakspot.
• Fraction of Fraction of a bullet time effect and a red particle glows when you hit the weakest spot of an enemy.
• Reading and Clearing Story/Voice Lines syncs across all devices you own.
• Statues' Remaning Healing Energy now Visible on the Tower Itself. Dat Glowy thingies deplete when you use them.
• Statue's First Healing Tick Revives Fallen Characters by 10hp%. Second Healing Tick is Full Restoration or until Remaining Healing Energy Allows it.
• Critical strike Indicator
• Enemies in the handbook are dynamically arranged by type , then alphabetically. All hypostasis are lined up.
• All enemies are displayed in the handbook regardless of what region you currently are.
• Journal (J) is now binded to (F1), since this is where you look commissions for rather than the Adventurer Handbook (F1)
• Journal , Handbook and Archive are compressed and combined.
• We bought a time machine and went back to the time when we did the hypostasis event. The last challenge in the event is now a new hypostasis after the three old hypostasis.
• Andrius's Boss Fight is now properly a Trounce Domain, For consistency with other weekly boss.
• Changing a Team Member in your active roster won't override that slot in your saved team comp
• Active Roster and Saved Team Comps are now a seperate thing
• Selecting a Saved Team Comp will replace the Active Roster (so you can replace one member before "deploying")
• Clicking Deploy in a Saved Team Comps will immediately send you back to the game
• Switching Party Members is smoother than an oiled tits smooth, regardless of network latency. Especially in Single Player Mode.
• Resource and Player Position in the map has better visual clarity. (Imagine klee collecting wolf berries or philly mushrooms)
• Option to adjust map size , and resource/player icons.
• PC , map pin size collision reduced. If I clicked Taishan Mansion, I meant Taishan Mansion.
• Mora , Artifact Limits and etc always visible in inventory screen regardless of which tab you are on
• Blacksmith remembers the quantity of ores you refine
• Adventurer's Handbook remembers the last filter you used when browsing enemies (all, elite ,boss)
• Adventurer's Handbook points you the next enemy you are hunting (when you kill 1 ruin guard, you dont have to open handbook again to see the next one in the map)
• Adventure's Handbook knows ALL of the elite enemy locations. The list seem to be manually added instead of dynamic, possibly due to chest concealment similar mechanic. If you hunt ruin guards, I think the book only lists 4 of them in the whole map.

Gameplay

• Training dummy added near favonius hq. You have to do a story quest and spend resource to have it constructed.
• Enemies now have a difficulty rating. The higher the difficulty rating is, the higher character xp/gold they will provide. XP scales off your adventure rank level. Extra Large enemies have a guaranteed chance to drop 1-4* artifacts. They will respawn longer as a consequence. It doesn't make sense that a huge lawachurl and smol hilichurl both give 20xp.
• First and Second Dash now have different color indicators.
• If you used 2 dashes consecutively, a subtle glow/indicator pops around your character for when you are able to dash again. Inspired by Deadcells.
• Added Treasure Compass for Dragonspire.
• All excess anemoculus/geoculus/dendroculus and crimson agate can now be traded in the antiques shop.
• Treasure Compass will automatically change depending on what region you are on. If you don't have a treasure compass for that region, it will remain unchanged from what is the last equipped.
• Treasure Compass search radius is increased region wide. It will point the "nearest" treasure chest's direction. The color of the direction changes the farther you are.
• Treasure Compass will now consider puzzles as treasure, and display a different indicator. It won't tell you what steps to take to open it, though.
• Added a domain for gladiator and wanderer's troupe artifact sets. Artifact drop rate from world bosses are FURTHER reduced. Weekly boss artifact drops are unaffected.
• Prototypes will now drop at least once in the last weekly boss you face, if you are unlucky. The chance to acquire multiple prototypes within a week is unchanged. Drop rate is reduced consequently.
• World Boss Artifact Drop Rates are now visible in the adventurer's handbook.
• Prototype Drop Rates are now visible.
• Domain Artifact Drop Rates are now visible.
• 1-3* Weapons are now craftable. They will require a shit ton of ores and materials. Cold Steel for instance will require 200 pieces of mint.
• Added 6 new craftable weapons. Of course it will require prototypes you f2p piece of shit.
• Craftables, Shops and Loot have higher priority versus signboards and npc.
• Monsters and Enemies have higher priority (when attacking or casting skills) versus ores and flaming/freezing flowers and other resource objects.
• You can now equip up to 3 gadgets.
• New Action : long pressing a gadget opens up Gadget Wheel to switch gadgets without opening the inventory. Gadget goes into long cooldown.
• Domains now consider your condensed resin before saying you are out of resin.
• After completing a domain challenge, The start challenge object will respawn in the center of the arena. Game will no longer go into a loading screen. This is for the console peasants.
• When claiming domain challenge rewards, it also displays how much condensed resin you have (so you know you can still do 1 more, or gtfo) when it asks if you want to continue or leave
• Anemo Hypostasis will die if you manage to collect all the orbs, for a more consistent experience with other hypostasis.
• Weekly boss timers are now consistent. (Some have none , some at top, some at bottom)
• Dvalin's Mini Cutscene will hold your altitude (if you are gliding) when it triggers
• Childe's Mini Cutscene is now automatically skippable (named "skip when already viewed once" found in settings).
• Food is now sortable by type.
• When choosing a revival food, the icon sizes are reduced and displayed in a grid rather than a long line. When in single player mode it slows down time. Like witcher 3 or tomb raider.
• MRE can now hold all types of food, up to 3 slots.
• You can long click/hold the MRE button and switch the food it holds. Goes into long cooldown.
• Charged Longsword and Bow Attacks (for claymoreless comps) will now allow you to mine ores more effectively. This affects rock shield wall hilichurls as well.
• No one uses claymore charged attacks, even with stunned enemies. Claymore charged attacks now deal increasing damage the longer it was charged uninterrupted. You will get staggered and take more damage as a consequence. The last attack of a charged attack deals more damage and wipes half of the planet's population.
• Constellation can now be toggled on/off

Gacha / Shop

• The first cheapest crystal top up (60+60) has been buffed to (80+80) crystals. We realized it wasn't even enough for a single pull and we laughed until our sides hurt. As a tiny token of goodwill this will retroactively affect everyone who purchased this item for n amount of times the person has purchased this item.
• All in-game currencies (primo/fate/genesis/future except mora) are always displayed in the topright corner when wishing and shopping.
• Pity Counter. When it reaches 75 it glows like christmas.
• Gifting of purchase is now possible. In the case of chargebacks , the gifter gets banned. Gifts can only be sent after 60 days of purchase, and usable by the recipient after a week. Maximum of 1 gift per month.
• Gifter must have a track record of >= $20 of purchase within the last 3 months.
• Gifting is a sensitive topic. Chargeback scams fucks up game companies, banks and third party payment platforms.
• Purchase history and total is added to track expenses.
• Gambling addicition reminders when you rage spend. Also alerts a mhy employee when huge purchases are being made in error. It displays a huge red alert on the employees screen.

In Consideration

• Reworked Elemantal Mastery to also increase Elemental Skill Damage by 25% (base, some current/future characters might interact with less or more) of your total Elem Mastery. Consequently, Skill Damage from Attack Ratios are lowered. Think of ad/ap ratios in League of Legends.
• Character skills to deal compound damage of physical+element when using a weapon (e.g. diluc smash bouncing off pyro slimes, despite his big sword being sharp and shiny)

Items

• Wind Catcher Gadget now refills with anemo energy particles.
• Prototype Aminus/Archaic's proc cooldown refinement is restored. (Used to be 15/14/13/12/10)
• Boar Traps are now craftable and equippable as a gadget. You can leave it up to 48 hours to check if you caught something.
• Cast net are now craftable and equippable as a gadget. Can be used to catch multiple fish and crystal flies.
• Crab Traps , can be left in the wild for 48 hours and catches 3 crabs per trap.
• Inflatable balloon for safe swimming. Requires anemo slime materials.
• Portable towers no longer expire.
• Portable towers max deployed count is increased up to 5.
• Condensed Resin can now be used on World Boss
• Condensed Resin cap increased to 5.
• Artifact Inventory Limit increased to 5000.
• Weapon Cooldown Indicator displayed as status icon (sacrificial sword, archaic, etc)
• Seelie Companions give 1% passive bonus CharXP(Blue), CompanionXP(Purple), Mora(Gold)
• Crafting Table no longer consumable
• Portable Cooker no longer consumable (requires fuel , 1 fire stamen = 3 uses)
• Portable Warmer no longer consumable (requires fuel , 1 fire stamen = 3 uses)
• Items mined are ores
• Refined ores are ingots
• Option to refine Magical Crystal Chunk without resin, but with immensely increased cost and time

Coop

• You can see the general direction and how far an ally is like in pubg.
• In-game voice chat for random players in matchmaking

Battlepass / 12 Episode Anime

• Battlepass can now have excess points up to 3000xp , for the times when you do your reputation bounty and missions earlier before the next battlepass comes out.
• When a new Battlepass starts, it starts on mondays , so no mission gets left out. All excess days until the next new-battlepass-monday are dynamic and flexible.
• When using a condensed resin in a domain, it counts as 2 domains cleared in the Battlepass
• Cooking ingredients (sugar, bacon, cheese, etc) counts as cooking in the Battlepass
• You don't need to switch tabs in the battlepass when using claim all. Clicking claim all, claims all.
• New battlepass campaign for 12 episode anime. Milestones are displayed on website and forum. Sales earned are transparent in game and website. Inspired by dota 2 international.
• Percentage of battlepass campaign sales will go to anime funding.
• Having at least 1 season of anime puts mihoyo in the "mainstream" status in the leagues of Fate, Princess Connect, Grand Blue etc. It solidifies the IP.

Quests

• Option to abandon story quests (restart from scratch) to prevent blocking of coop
• Repeatable Quests Ideas below. Coop and matchmaking is enabled. 15~30 minutes long, walking pace. Not mandatory for daily activity/event/battlepass for people with little time to play. Gives worthwile rewards (3 pieces of adventurer's wit, 5k mora etc)
• Long escort caravan mission, from Mondstadt all the way to Liyue. From Springvale to Liyue. People and Caravan must survive. Enjoy the beautiful world of Teyvat, optional pit stops, coop chat/discord, region guard checkpoints and enemy ambush. Multiple client routes available. Go through dragonspire for a shorter, but more dangerous path. Get harassed by Fatui at borders. Board a ship and load the caravan. Get checked by Border Patrol for smuggled goods and diseases.
• Repeatable Town defense without towers. Defend the Town from hordes of invaders. Something fun with coop.
• Fatui and Friends Battle Royale. All npcs and doors disabled. You and the fatui bots duke it out. Healing only comes from special food that you pick up. Matchmaking enabled.
• Beach Defense. Prevent the Fatui from invading the coastline. Your friends rain arrows from starsnatch cliff.
• Beach to Mondstadt/Springvale goods escort services.

Elemental Reactions

• Vaporize's Steam deals aoe damage
• Overloads damage (electro->pyro) now deals x1.5 (pyro) damage
• Overloads damage (pyro->electro) now deals x2 (pyro) damage.
• Overload's knockback decreased significantly
• Superconduct's damage (electro->cryo) now deals 2x (cryo) damage
• Superconduct's damage (cryo->electro) now deals 1.5x (cryo) damage
• Superconduct's negative armor debuff is moved to Melt
• Melt gains the negative armor debuff due to the sudden temperature change, making surfaces brittle.
• Melt damage consequently reduced. (pyro->hydro) at x1.4% , (hydro->pyro) at x1.8%
• Geo New Reaction : Smoldering Rock or something (pyro->geo)(reverse not applicable) deals x0.3 (pyro damage) on top of crystallize
• Geo New Reaction : Mud or something (hydro->geo)(geo->hydro) deals x0.1 (geo damage) on top of crystallize, slows enemy movement
• Geo New Reaction : Snow or something (hydro->geo)(reverse not applicable) deals x0.2 (cryo damage) on top of crystallize, slows enemy attack speed
• Geo New Reaction : Seeds or something (dendro->geo) deals x0.1 (dendro damage) on top of crystallize, restores 3% of your hp. Or entangle. Prevents enemy movement (can still attacc and cast spells)

Enemies

• Enemies inside domains and abyss have their return-to-spawn-point-then-regenerate-to-full-health disabled.
• Enemy AI a bit smarter. Those with mobility skills (whopper, smol geovishap, cycin mages) won't follow you to drown in the water. The game will not check if you are wet , but if you are in a swimming state.
• Enemies attack cycle improve. Fixed bug when enemies stop attacking. Baedou Problems.
• Hydro Abyss Mage's and Hydro Fatui Gunner's Hydro Barrier now takes the same damage rate/ratio from opposing elements (cryo,electro) for consistency.
• Hydro barrier new opposing element : Geo. It makes it harder to maintain the water shield due to the mud soaking up the water and adding weight.
• Boss Childe's Spirit Whale Attack generates water in the sides of the arena, pushing you towards the center. You must have enough stamina to keep dashing to the sides before he does this, or you will have to perfectly dodge the spirit whale attack.
• Hydro SamaChurl now heals at a rate of +300/HoT per AR Milestone instead of percentage. This is for when you are hunting a LawaChurl Bounty that is near dead and healed to full health in 3 seconds. Having a fixed amount of healing ensures that it is big enough for the intended smaller enemies and portionally good enough for large enemies. The other option is to use different healing ratios for small and large enemies.
• Queen of Pain , I mean Cycin Mages have a stagger window when they are about to cast their almost-undispellable shield
• Zed , I mean Shadow Fatui Agent makes use of his shadows to dodge your attack sometimes.
• Smol Geo Vishap now drops less geo shields
• Smol Geo Vishap now uses his rolling attack near you, not 150m away from you.
• Smol Geo Vishap now burrows a bit less frequently
• Ruin Hunter doesn't stay in the air up and raining artillery forever , in consideration of bowless comps
• Fatui Cryo and Hydro Gunner Turn Rate Reduced by 10% when on Spray Mode.
• Primo GeoVishap now has a tired/exhausted animation, instead of standing still and looking at you and what life could have been for 10 seconds.
• Primo GeoVishap spin attack now has a 0.2 dodge window (previously none) and Spin Radius Decreased by 100m.

Characters

• Dvalin's Cutscene when you dispel his barrier is removed and much smoother. He just falls in place and no clipping.
• Character's "Main Stat" is now visible in attributes. Previously you can only know it when ascending or when using google, or if you really have a big brain.
• All characters passive talents are now combat related.
• All characters now have their own cooking/exploration/crafting/smithing talents. It is possible not to have OR have multiple talents in each category. We get it , everyone can taste what a good gravy is, but not everyone can make a good gravy.

Ayaka

• Alternate sprint binded to a different hotkey.
• Yes I came from the future.

Albedo

• Elevator can be activated to go up and down by using the F key.
• C2 stack counter / indicator via particles (think of razor geo sigils)
• C4 plunged attack covers albedo's sword in geo energy (like noelle, but smol)
• C6 crystallize shield has a different shape (leaf)

Amber

• Increased ultimate radius by a tiny bit.
• Allow targeting of ulimate by holding the ultimate button.
• If baron bunny is present in the ultimate radius, it will absorb all pyro damage and deal it as bonus damage when it blows up.
• If baron bunny was "charged" with pyro rain and hit with a C2 charged shot, it will trigger a micheal bay explosion animation.

Barbara

• Restored Barbara's Energetic Voice Lines
• New Lines sold seperately as Dark Barbara™ , comes with a Dark Dress
• C6 Revive indicator is now visible as a buff.
• C4 now generates flying energy particles instead of instantly regaining energy. Mind you that this is a fucking nerf to this piece of shit healer that freezes you. It's just that there's no flying particles when you use this hero.

Beidou

• Casting the elemental skill applies a strong taunt and re-initializes enemies attack loop.
• Bullet Time effect added when triggering a perfect counter, when playing in single player mode.
• The ultimate's chain lightning deals tiny spark damage if it didn't jump.
• C2 chain lightning has a different color.
• C4 buff is triggered when you do a perfect counter (Taking damage to activate a skill promotes bad gameplay)
• C4 perfect counter grants the maximum damage bonus
• C4 shield has a different color.
• C6 has aura on the ground (inspired by Dota 2's Necrophos , but purple)

Bennet

• C6 Ultimate pyro infusion just adds pyro damage to your attacks, and won't convert them fully into pyro.
• C6 Ultimate restores up to 100% hp.

Childe

• Improved manly posture when in aiming mode
• C4 Riptide slash and flash uses different coloparticles/animation
• C6 has an indicator when it works and when it is available

Chongyun

• Cryo Field's Cryo infusion just adds cryo damage to your attacks, and won't convert them fully into cryo.

Diluc

• What seriously? You really want more?
• Fuck this guy in particular
• Elemental Sword Duration Indicator added
• C6 his flames has some bluish tint

Diona

• Fixed shield duration bug and increased by additional 1.1 seconds per claw.
• Shield ratio based off max hp increased by 10%
• C2 reduces skill cooldown by -2 seonds (press) and -4 (hold). The coop shield is added by default out of the box. Anything coop should not be locked behind a paywall because it will hurt the game and fanbase.
• C4 has been reworked to grant normal and aimed uncharged shots 25% chance to deal charged attack shots.
• C6 radius is increased and uses a different color.

Fischl

• Ultimate now deals tiny bit of damage per 0.2 seconds tick when making contact with enemies (aside from getting hit by lightning once)
• Ultimate can fly/pass through thorn walls. I'm looking at you Dendro Samachurl.
• Shadow Raven Let Night F---!!!
• C4 Ultimate hp restored now scales off damage dealt by the ult.

Ganyu

• holding the elemental skill allows you to aim and won't make you backdash
• C4 Freezing Field changes color intensity per damage increase
• C6 free frost charged arrow now works with normal unaimed attacks.
• C6 uses a different particle color. Sometime it turns into a bazooka.

Jean

• Reduced Increased swaying of boobs by a tiny amount while holding the skill. You can kinda feel them slapping against your face. You can almost describe their softness and warmth in a minimum of 10 pages apart from you going sommelier describing how deep her sweat tastes like.
• Jean's Charged Attack Launch Height is too damn high that you cant even hit the enemy, so - Reworked Jean's Charged Attack : Holding the attack button launches the enemy in the air. If you keep holding it down you will perform 3 slashes in the air. If you let go early you will stay on the ground.
• Base Attack Increased by +5
• Jean can now pick up the slimes dropped by enemies and use it against them for a bighead move
• Ultimate radius is increased
• Ultimate Wall Mechanic Reversed. Enemies are now trapped inside. When you use your skill (usually to regain energy) you can air-wall slam them. Block Projectiles from outside.
• If any of you actually played jean support, a normal person would use ult to heal, cast skill to regain energy, then switch back to other characters. It doesn't make fucking sense to push them outside your wind arena because you want to fight inside the swirl/healing zone.
• Ultimate swirls every 0.2 seconds , depending on what elements are inside. Field Changes Color Each Time Like a Disco Ball
• Ultimate now slowly succs enemies to the center(without lifting them up)
• Ultimate Damage is consequently reduced.
• C1 Uses a different colored windblast
• C2 Buff Indicator
• C4 uses a different color wind field
• C6 Ultimate is now an aura and moves with you. To break away from "buffed area" convention.
• C6 Ultimate will get you to keep the windsaber for the ult's duration
• C6 Shield Buff Indicator via Particle and Status Icon

Kaeya

• Base attack incresed by 5
• Elemental Skill (Hold) Sprays Ice , think of Igni but Ice in Witcher 3 or DND's Burning Hands
• C2 Icicles light up when you defeat an enemy indicating that it really works
• C4 Barrier is of different shape
• C6 uses a different icicle particle for bling purposes

Keqing

• Aiming mode feels a lot smoother. You can aim while moving and cursor immediately shows and the kungfu pose is only done when throwing the stilleto.
• When in single player mode, casting your ultimate produces a bullet time effect.
• C4 Buff Indicator
• C6 Description is confusing as fuck.
• C6 Buff indicator
• C6 Makes your sword light up like a lightsaber.

Klee

• Imroved Torch/Bonfire/Campfire and the likes Lockon (if there's any to begin with)
• Throwing Jumpty Dumpty provides 0.1s iframe during her spin
• Ult is now no longer greedy. Pyro satellites remain when you switch characters, making our lovable klee open up for support options. Child support.
• C4 is now manually triggered, Pressing q again will make her explode, bigger damage based off remaining duration. less duration left, less damage.
• C6 klee uses different bombs

Lisa

• A lingerie shop is opened in Mondstadt to change her pantsu, socks and garter belt style and colors. Black Leather Tight Suit™ Sold Seperately.
• Option to wear glasses as a Librarian added.
• Climbing voice volume is re-mastered in asmr microphone, in all languages.
• Requires "i am of legal age" consent in the user center
• Elemental skill (press) aoe slightly increased.
• Base attack increased by 15.

Mona

• Alternate dash is now binded to alt key.
• Hydro Puppet now deals half damage upon cast and half damage upon explosion.
• C6 normal attacks use a different attack animation.

MC (Anemo)

• Palm vortex can be casted in midair to break your fall (but not propel you up)

MC (Geo)

• When you overlap geo boulders (aimed mode) it will trigger the geo explosion of the older rock, then replace it with a new one

Ningguang

• Holding the skill button surrounds her in mini jade screens , unable to perform any action until it is released or ends. Useful for cinematic stuff. Imagine tanking childe's whale attack. Or someone wants to recreate triple rashomon scene.
• C6 has a chance to use different attack animation.
• C6 star jade now resembles a primo gem.

Noelle

• Elemental Sword Duration Indicator added
• C1 heals have a special effect and voice line when conditions are met.
• C2 upgrade uses a different charged attack animation.
• C4 uses a different barrier color
• C6 upgrade uses different ult (possibly red with the same hue as her skirt) color.

Qiqi

• C2 reworked as -15% attack debuff
• C4 reworked as -20% elemental resistance debuff
• C6 cooldown/availability indicator.
• C6 has a different bling/color

Razor

• Transformation Duration Indicator added
• C1 increased damage now really works
• C1 now has a buff indicator that it really works
• C2 now has a special crit indicator
• C4 armor shred now has a (claw mark) armor shred indicator that it really works
• C4 (hold) has increased damage so it doesn't feel left out. It also has electro explosions similar to when you mine an electric ore as a special effect to indicate that you are C4 and have a big PP.
• C6 covers your sword with electricity (like diluc) when it is charged and ready
• Yes I play razor a lot.

Sucrose

• Fixed crafting bug not producing any bonus when using large quantities (say 100+)
• Improved lock on when blowing off dandelion flowers. Idk how she keeps missing them even at point blank range, Hell , at any given range.
• C1 if you overlap the wind nukes the second one will be a 0.1s delay then it will go off with a slightly bigger radius
• C2 ult has a different color
• C4 has an indicator that it works
• C6 buff indicator

Venti

• Wind current generated by skill (hold) allows him to fall slower without gliding, and allows him to shoot wind lasers. Ehe
• C2 Charged Shot produces a bullet time effect when shot at point blank or if all 3 arrows hit a single enemy. Sometimes he draws the holy lyre and it transforms into a primitive shotgun.
• C4 buff indicator.
• C6 uses different vacuum color

Xiangling

• Ultimate deals additional damage when cast at point blank because you get stab and bonk while she is twirling her spear.
• C2 last attack leaves a flaming trail special effect (inspired by kyo or iori from king of fighters)
• C6 upon cast, Xianling automatically does a speed-up full normal attack combo and then releases the pyronado normally (while covered in flames or some shit). If you are in single player mode and there are no other enemies within 150 radius the ult will cause the screen to black out, like in legend of legaia.
• C6 during the ultimate if it contacts with gouba's flames it produces micheal bay effects while raining carpet bombs and shit.
• Yes flat is justice.

Xingqiu

• Floating Swords Duration added
• Fixed crafting bug not producing any bonus when using large quantities (say 100+)
• C4 Allows you to hold the elemental skill for double backflips (inspired by law from tekken) cooldown is 1 month.
• C4 Elem Skill leaves a faint rainbow (when ulted)
• C6 Swords emit faint rainbow color. Rainbow power motherf-

Xinyan

• Hitting large enemies counts as 2 enemies.
• C1 buff indicator
• C2's level 3 shield has some bluish flames
• C6 charged attack uses a diffent attack animation or has an indicator that it works

Xiao

• Transformation Duration Indicator added
• C2 now leaves a trail of anemo energy that deals tiny bit of damage , trail lasts for 1 second and deals at 0.2s intervals.
• C6 plunge attack counts large enemies as 2.
• C6 plunge-attack-no-cooldown-empowered-dashes uses a different particle color and produces a bullet time effect when used for the 3rd time onwards. useful for cinematic purposes
• C6 during the bullet time you can sneak in a normal attack once per dash
• Bullet time is always disabled in multiplayer

Zhongli

• Increased pillar aoe by a tiny bit
• Generates energy particles per pulse, maximum of 1 enemy per pillar
• Base attack increased by 5
• Travelers can redeem promo code "WHOSYOURDADDY" for additional +5 damage, regardless if they have the hero or not.
• Attack ratios increased by 3% per attack category.
• C1 has a slightly bigger dong eherm statue
• C4 Chaos Meteor errrr I mean Order Meteor has a different rock color
• C6 shield uses a different color , come on you get the drift already.
• C6 Meteor is affected by the element of the barrier you are wearing. The element is dealt as secondary damage, primary damage is still geo. (flaming space rock?)

Why different coloparticles/animation when you have C1-C6 upgrade?

It makes whales feels special, and it gives F2P players something to aspire for. It makes you want to spend with all the bling. Particle recolor is easy peasy and can be deployed within minutes. Attack animations on the other hand are time consuming. It almost always put smile in people's faces when a whale shows up in a ferrari. "Dude check this out a C6 GeoDaddy joined my domain run. Look at the size of his statue. Oh my what a BIG meteor."

Why are you doing this?

It's just for my amusement. I'm still adding random thoughts now that 1.3 has launched. I don't care if nothing gets implemented. I would nut hard in my shorts with QoL and alleged bug/bugfixes mentioned in this post more than anything.

Afterword

Leave your thoughts below. Sorry and not sorry for the broken engrish , feel free to copy and paste whatever, use it wherever idc as long as it doesn't annoy or harm someone. Translate it in your language etc. No credits needed etc. Let your mind flow

After-Afterword

• Thanks for the awards and all kinds of reception
• You guys are awesome and insane that's a shit load of awards thank you.

Update Thank you for all the comments below. I've tried to include as many tips and fail safes you have mentioned, in this post. I do recommend people read the comments as I may have missed some.
Firstly, thank you to this excellent community my PC is now built and working (pics to come in another post). I thought here are some lessons I learnt in building the PC, researching and other bits I thought would be worth sharing, as a lot of this I never had even heard about. Some will be obvious and others less so. I should note, that I'm not a pro or someone who does this regularly, just someone who spent a while reading around, so feel free to correct/highlight any mistakes, and I'll try to update the post. The descriptions, aren't really meant to be a full lesson about each part and will be lacking a lot of detail, but are more a jumping board for further reading if anyone is interested. For full information on building a PC I highly recommend looking around on YouTube and other sources.
If I get anything wrong, please correct me and I'll update.
On Monitors:

1. If you are after 144Hz 1440p gaming, use a Display Port (DP) cable, not a HDMI, if you can. As you could be hampering your refresh rate, (https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/features/displayport-vs-hdmi-better-for-gaming) Update Although you could be fine if you are using HDMI 2.1, see link for more details
2. Freesync vs Gsync. For simplicity, both these technologies aim to match performance on screen with your GPU. Freesync works with Radeon, GSync with NVidia (although some Freesync monitors will be GSync compatible, likewise for the otherway around). It's complicated and due to changes in the standards over the years it can vary from monitor to monitor. Make sure to do research on the specific monitor you're wanting to get/have. If you are buying a new monitor keep this in mind. https://www.viewsonic.com/library/entertainment/g-sync-vs-free-sync-explained UpdateAccording to comments freesync monitors will almost always work with Nvidia. As always, do read around about it.
3. Windows by default is set to have a refresh rate of 60Hz, if you have a higher spec monitor you can change this to match your monitor in "Advanced Display settings".

RAM (All except point 1 was completely new to me)

1. 2 Sticks of 8GB Ram will perform better than 1 stick of 16GB Ram (https://techguided.com/single-channel-vs-dual-channel-vs-quad-channel/). Also when installing them, put them in the correct channels, check your Motherboard for details.
2. Your motherboard will prefer your dual channel RAM to be in specific slots. I had an issue where I couldn't get the maximum performance of my RAM which I had placed in slots 1 and 3, but the moment I put them in 2 and 4 it worked perfectly. Check your motherboard manual.
3. Enable XMP in Bios (This might also be called DOCP or A-XMP). This will vary between motherboards, but if you don't your 3200MHz ram is likely running a lot slower. In my build, XMP wouldn't work till I put the RAM in the correct channels, hope this saves someone the hours I spent finding this out ;) Update You can use Task manager to verify you have done this correctly. 3b. Someone pointed this out XMP may void your CPU's processor (https://community.amd.com/t5/processors/xmp-profile-ram-3200-mhz-and-amd-warranty-policy-for-ryzen/td-p/145798) (https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/XMP-Warranty-void/td-p/1196241). If anyone knows any more, please message me directly so I can add the details. This was mentioned by someone in the comments and I would rather pass the information and ask you to do your own checking as well.
4. When picking RAM, frequency matters, but so does CAS Latency. You want high frequency but low CAS (CL) latency. I'd recommend doing more reading about it, if you want to know more I'd recommend doing some more reading, but the "true latency" can be calculated as TL = CL * 2000/Freq. E.g. CL 18 3600Mhz Ram has a TL of 10ns. Update Someone who actually knows what they are talking about found point (4) confusing if not perhaps misguided and I recommend you read their post here (https://www.reddit.com/buildapc/comments/kis9r5/lessons_i_learnt_the_longhard_way_so_you_dont/ggtdudd?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
5. Ensure the speed of the RAM is compatible with the board you are looking to purchase (or visa versa).
6. Motherboards will have Qualified Vendor Lists, listing RAM they have tested and certified to work. This may be worth looking at. Just because your RAM isn't on the list doesn't mean it won't work, or won't overclock, it just means it hasn't been certified to, so do take this into consideration. (I found this in my build, while it was from Crucial and some Crucial RAM was on the QVL, mine wasn't. Thankfully it was fine.)

Motherboards

1. Newer processors (e.g. at time of writing many AMD motherboards require a bios update for the 5000 series AMD CPU) may require you to install a new BIOS before they can be detected. Not all motherboards can have their bios updated without a CPU installed. When shopping for your motherboard looking to see if it does USB Bios flashback should be considered. This was completely new to me and glad I learnt it in time.*Addition* Newer motherboards don't require bios updates and so won't need this feature, though you will have to check.
2. Different mother boards are compatible with different CPUs, pick your CPU first
3. CPU coolers may need different mountings depending on the CPU. When picking your cooler keep this in mind, you may need to ensure there is an adaptor. Additions from the comments
4. Not all mother boards have connectors for front IO USB-C. If this is important to you and part of your case, it's worth looking into.
5. Using an M.2 usually disables some of your SATA ports. If you are planning on using all your SATA ports, make sure to check to see if this happens and how it happens on your chosen mother board.
6. Some motherboards are built with Debug LEDs now that will help you diagnose problems.
7. If you are after RGB effects, ensure your motherboard is compatible with the effects you want to add. There are 5V and 12V headers, so make sure they match. I'd recommend looking into this more yourself, as I've likely vastly oversimplified. (https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?110272-What-do-5v-and-12v-RGB-cables-look-like-you-ask#:%7E:text=You%20can%20also%20see%20the,as%20shown%20on%20these%20photos)

CPU

1. Some CPU's have integrated graphics. If you don't want to buy a dedicated graphics card, you need to purchase one of these CPU's. You then plug your monitor into the motherboard.
2. CPU's have a Thermal Design Power, if you are not using the stock cooler read up on it (https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/tdp-thermal-design-power-definition,5764.html)

Component compatibility

1. Make sure all your components are compatible. PC Part Picker (https://pcpartpicker.com/) is generally pretty good at this. If uncertain, this is a wonderful community to ask.

Power supply

1. PC Part Picker gives you a good idea as to how much power your system will need, if not check the graphics card you intend to buy. Not all machines need a 1000W behemoth. Picking the right one will save you money
2. Power supplies come with a rating standard e.g. Bronze+ etc..., this is basically their efficiency. (https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/what-80-plus-levels-mean,36721.html). I think it's safe to suggest people should at least go for Bronze.
3. Make sure your PSU fits in your case. I bought an ATX PSU, then decided on the 011 Dynamic Mini case, only realise it needed a SFX (smaller) PSU. I ended up going for a different case. Likewise an SFX PSU may not have the cable length you need or fit as snuggly in an ATX case (source: comments section)
4. Look into the build quality of the PSU. A faulty PSU can cause serious issues down the line, so it is worth taking time look at PSU Tier lists and review. (Link provided by several commenters https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/)

Tools (OP Note: I've only tried Ninite)

1. Ninite (https://ninite.com/) Is an easy way to download all the basic programs one tends to install onto a fresh Windows install, without having to go to 10-15 websites. E.g. you can select to install Chrome, Zoom, Steam, OpenOffice all from one installer. If you keep the install, it can also be re-run to update all the software in one swoop.
2. Patch My PC (https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/patch_my_pc.html) Patches software on your PC (Thank you to the sys admin in the comments for this.)
3. Chocolatey (https://chocolatey.org/) A powerful command line way to install and upgrade software.

Storage

1. M2 drives can be SATA or NVMe, NVMe is faster. (M2 drives are generally plugged directly into the mother board, for anyone who until recently was using a hard disk drive and considered SSDs "fancy")
2. I highly recommend reading this comment (https://www.reddit.com/buildapc/comments/kis9r5/lessons_i_learnt_the_longhard_way_so_you_dont/ggtn00w/?context=3) as it contains stuff I was unaware of.

Case

1. If your case has bottom intake or exhaust vents, don't put it directly on carpet, as it can block the air flow. (Yup....I did need to be told this ^_^, my previous computer just didn't have any bottom intake, hell it hardly had any intake).
2. Make sure your mother board, PSU, GPU and all your components fit in the case. This is particularly worth noting if you are going for a micro ATX or a ITX case. Worth noting is to remember to include fans + GPU length, any additional length caused by radiators (if you water cool), the size of your CPU cooler (if you air cool) Additions from the comments
3. When considering your case, if you are water cooling, "Room for 2x 140mm fans does not always mean room for a radiator as well". Make sure to double check the clearance. Measure twice buy once.

Advice on building (Notes and horror stories from the comments) 1. Many new coolers come with pre-applied thermal paste. If yours doesn't don't forget to apply it, to the CPU (See videos by people with more experience/knowledge than me on what to do). 2. Remember your mother board I/O shield (advice from the comments about making sure to put it in before you install the motherboard, mine came with it attached). 3. Make sure the CPU is correctly installed before you clasp it down. 4. If your motherboard has two slots to install a GPU. One of them (normally the top) will provide better performance. Make sure to use the correct one. 5. Make sure your CPU cooler doesn't block a RAM slot. In making my PC the AMD wraith has a notch on one side with the AMD logo, thankfully I put the RAM in first, so I swiftly learnt that I had to rotate the cooler 180 degrees to get it to fit. 6. If you can avoid it, do not build your computer on carpet (and do not stand on carpet when building) and be aware of static when building. If this is your first build, do some reading around this. Wear a static bracelet and attach it to something grounded. 7. Remember if you have a dedicated graphics card. Plug your monitor into the graphics card, not the motherboard. 8. If you are installing fans, make sure they are in the correct direction. 9. When playing the radiator of your AIO (if you are using one) make sure part of it is higher than the pump (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbGomv195sk) 10. It's often worth the time to read the motherboard manual. 11. This may sound silly, but cables and the sockets on the PSU are often labelled. Be aware of this, it will help you in the build.
More subjective advice

1. I've been recommend by numerous people to go for Gold+ PSUs, with often being stated that while its more efficient, it will also be better made. Your budget may dictate otherwise. If you look through the comments you will frequently find the advice "don't cheap out on the PSU and go for at least Gold"
2. For most users if your CPU comes with a stock cooler. It will be good enough. You can always change it later. If your planning to overclock, you likely know more than me, so feel free to ignore. Update According to the comments, AMD stock coolers tend to be considered good enough, Intel, not so much.
3. A LOT of people below have said "Do not mix cables from different PSU manufacturers." as they are not universal. I don't know anything about this, so do some additional reading if you are considering doing so. Update From further comments this is something to take serious. Update from further comments, the word of advice is "Do your research before using cables not supplied with the PSU you are using."

Further notes from the comments: Below are points I've read in the comments that might be worth drawing to people attention. Please read around the topic if it applies to you. 1. One person has said XMP causes their Oculus Rift to do weird things.
Hope this helps some people. Addition I recommend reading the comments, as many people have put in their own tips/horror stories ;)
Take care all and Merry Christmas.

Note: Many of the links are to the Amity Arena Library, a website devoted to the game which includes tracking the history of it through patchnotes and a running history of what cards entered and left the meta. Their website was a valuable resource for this post.

Mobile gaming has taken off like a wildfire since the advent of the smartphone boosted the average processing power a phone could carry. Initially it took the form of crossing over older, more easily runnable games onto the mobile market to... mixed success, but in recent years we've seen both the West and East use mobile gaming to replace the old fashioned movie tie in game. It's easily accessable, has a much wider reach than consoles or PC, you can take it on the go and standards are inherently lower for mobile games than they are a full 60 dollar game.
Since the 2010s, mobile gaming has shifted to what's called the "Freemium" module. The game itself is free to download and start playing, but is insideously designed with obnoxious paywalls or artificial limiters put in place to limit how much you can play each day. If the game is part of a pre-existing franchise, additional money can be made through a premium currency or a chance to obtain high-powered units by rolling a slot machine random chance mechanic. And thus, gacha gaming was born. This sub has had several threads in the past on high profile gacha games, such as the monolithic Fate Grand/Order, Pokemon Go or Genshin Impact. One of the more popular things to roll for in gachas as a consequence is wallpapers for your homescreen, especially for high-grade units as they're usually animated to move a little bit on the homescreen. Today we're looking a low to mid-tier gacha game that rose and fell with the advent of one catgirl. Let's talk RWBY.
RWBY is an online web anime made by Rooster Teeth focusing on four prospective monster hunters who get embroiled in a world-spanning shadow war. It's of debatable quality in matters of animation, combat, voice acting, story, worldbuilding, romance, and it's kind of a little racist if I'm being honest, but one of the major positives of RWBY is that the series tends to have good character design. Series creator Monty Oum set in the guidelines for the show while making it that most if not every design should be made to be cosplay friendly, hence why most of the outfits have things most costume designers haven't heard of like... pockets. And Rooster Teeth, above all else, likes making money. So they know people like RWBY's character designs, enough so that in 2017 plans were made to release a gacha game themed around RWBY called Amity Arena, which would be developed by Korean company NHN Entertainment.
Amity Arena is a PvP tower defense game. Each player controls two turrets and a tower and has three minutes to use units themed from the show to destroy the other player's structures. Whoever took out more wins, destroying a tower is an instant victory. When the game launched, it had three tiers for units- Common (generally held for mooks or low-tier characters in the show), Rare (roughly protagonist-level or elite mooks go here) and Epic (High tier characters usually with an active ability that did lots of damage or stopped enemies in their tracks). The game launched in October 2018 to generally positive reviews from both mobile game players and RWBY fans alike. Fans were happy to get a lot of new official art for the characters in the game and the base gameplay loop was fun. Criticism at the time was largely themed around the lack of content besides PVP matches and some issues with the meta but overall, the launch went well. Each month, the developers would add new units, including popular characters like Neopolitian, Cinder Fall, Zwei the dog, and more.
But everything changed with February 20th 2019, which introduced Neon Katt, the titular catgirl (RWBY characters are themed around fairytales, except for Neon, who is themed around Nyan Cat, and her partner Flynt Coal, who is themed off a potentially racist joke made by Rooster Teeth).
Neon is a character from RWBY Volume 3 who's part of a team that RWBY face during a tournament arc. Her partner, Flynt Coal, was part of the game at launch, and Neon would join him a few months later. Neon in the show is a cocky fighter who taunts the heroes and zips around on rollarskates, which in-game is represented by Neon skating towards the nearest enemy structure to her and hitting it, while all units within a radius of Neon are taunted and provoked into attacking her above all other targets unless they-selves are coded to hit structures. On its own, not a bad idea for a unit, but Neon came with four big caveats:

• Neon was the fourth corner of the square that became known as the Artillery Arena meta, which saw Neon, Cinder (who had an AOE ability she could use which was wide enough to hit a turret and tower and single-handedly killed the entire launch meta of using fragile swarm units), Zwei (an on-summon high damage AOE on any part of the map) and Penny (another AOE ability that instead did chip damage and locked a location down) turn the game's meta into a chip game. Every player ran at least one of the above cards, if only to counter the others. Neon was the universal counter in being anti-swarm and the hardest to stop, especially at launch where her taunt range was so large, it could grab units from the other lane.
  
• Neon launched with a unit weight of "Heavy", which meant that if she was behind a unit she could push it on her way to the turret. This launched a sub-meta where Neon was placed behind a larger unit such as the Ursa (which like Neon was a unit that focused on structures but was made slow to cover its tankiness), to push them towards the turret faster. This was called Disco Bear. They eventually patched this so Neon phased through units by making her a lightweight.
  
• Neon couldn't die. She was invincible until she hit a structure, which combined with her taunt meant that Neon was very annoying to fight and could lock down an entire lane of the battlefield by being placed well and taunting enemies to let you prepare a counter.
  
• Neon was a very cheap unit to summon. Amity Arena uses a mechanic called "Aura" where all units cost a certain amount and it recharges over the match- for instance, protagonist Ruby Rose has a Rare card that costs four Aura to summon, while Weiss Schnee has two rares that cost three and five. Neo only cost two Aura, which made her one of the cheapest units of the game and thus disproportionately powerful for her cost and easy to cycle through your deck so you could spam her.
  

From the word go, Neon is an unpopular unit; she's clearly overbalanced and elements such as the Disco Bear glitch have players thinking she'll have to get knocked down in a nerf- she'll either be made slower, more expensive, or able to die pre-hitting a structure, right?
Neon doesn't show up in the next patch. Instead, before she's fixed, an entire new class of units called Legendaries are introduced, and this is where the game goes full gacha. Legendaries were meant to represent the highest tier characters in the game, the ones who were either the most popular characters or the highest-tier fighters in the show. Or in some cases, the popular ships such as combo cards for White Rose (Ruby/Weiss), Bumblebee (Blake/Yang) and Flower Power (Ren/Nora). Legendaries, representing their value, were impossibly rare and had an infinitely small chance of actually appearing (The most reliable method was to buy the premium chests and hope you'd roll a Legendary, which often cost tons of money), and if you did get one, there was no way to guess which Legendary you'd actually get. Some such as White Rose and Adam were high tier units, others like Hazel or Checkmate were... kinda broken at launch. The playerbase isn't happy at this, especially as free to play players are left out in the cold and reliant on the game giving them high tier units effectively out of pity.
Neon would get a small nerf in the April patch which lessened her taunt range and killed the Disco Bear meta, but her invincibility would be left untouched, even as players submitted feedback regarding how to make it more efficient. The official Amity Arena discord has a weekly feedback section on Tuesdays where players could submit up to four suggestions on how to nerf/buff units and general requests for quality of life such as "Can this character get a new skin from this part of the show," or "Can we have an option to lower music volume that's not just muting all music?" (they never did add that second request) Neon would then remain in this state until the November patch, despite constant weekly requests for a Neon rework, and all it would do is make Neon functionally mortal, in that she had a flat shield bar of 20 that would be lowered by one for each attack before the next hit would kill her. Neon could now die... but your chances of actually doing enough damage to stop her were slim, and regardless, you were now at a serious Aura defecit.
It took seven months for this one unit to get a substantial nerf, all while the game added new units every week and the number of units being affected by patches each month began to gradually sink. To round up some of the major issues people had with Amity that developed throughout 2019 alongside Neon's general existance making life hell:

• Common units were meant to be chump fodder, but could level up the most amount of times with a level cap at 13. This meant longer-term units that had a long time to level such as the Xiong Family card, the AK-130s the Beowolf Pack, or the White Fang gunners, could become shockingly strong if players grinded the money up to reach max level.
  
• A pre-existing divide between free players and players willing to burn money IRL to get access to premium currencies led to a huge disparity in play. Free players have long complained about how hard it is to scrounge money together to level up units at higher costs as even the basic currency of Lien is hard to get large quantities of (you get a certain amount every match win but otherwise you need to burn the Schnee Premium Dust currency for the highest payouts, but SPD is also needed for shop resets, buying crates or unlocking cosmetics). The developers used to do frequent double weekends where all gains were doubled for a weekend, but these became less and less frequent as time went on. Legendaries only added to the divide, as their rarity was bad enough for players willing to spend money (one player, known as one of the largest whales in the community, in trying to get Sienna Khan, reported burning nearly nine hundred dollars on her, while taking nearly six hundred to get the Ice Flower card).
  
• One actual counter was born to fight Neon in the Argus Shield, a stationary unit that existed solely to stall units and take damage. At 2 Aura, it was the first structure to counter Neon, which allevated one of the primary problems with Neon in that no way to counter her was cost-efficient for an enemy player. They buffed the Wall to 3 Aura eventually which killed that hope, and all this happened before Neon's November nerf.
  
• The Summer of 2019 saw a large number of defensive units released; alongside the Argus Shield, several different units were released themed around turrets for the technological kingdom of Atlas, such as the Beam Turret. The Atlesian Burrow Gun was the straw that broke the camel's back and made for a miserable meta as the Burrow Gun would only appear (and be available to take damage) when a unit entered its range. These three units together were all very overpowered on launch and led to a large exodus of players sick of defensive and chip-based metas, especially as what few offensive units that were good enough to counter these metas (such as Professor Port and Adam Taurus) were often nerfed into the ground within a month of release.
  
• Also around this time it became apparent that the developers were unable to meet the quotas that Rooster Teeth was forcing on them. The social media team admitted that a certain number of units needed to be in the game in time for Winter 2019 when Volume 7 was set to start, and as the year went on more and more game-breaking bugs were being found in units, or they were at best horrifically undertuned or overpowered. The Apathy was perhaps the largest case of this, as an unfound bug pre-release meant that the Apathy (who have a passive ability that let them self-duplicate) had no cap on their power, meaning that they could immediately overwhelm defenses and in the case of some phones, be such a resource hog the phone would crash. Many Legendary units were especially guilty of being under-tuned due to low Legendary availability meaning they were simply weren't powerful enough to compare with high-levelled units. Checkmate's ability simply didn't work at launch, and Neon made several more such as Hazel Rainart a joke. May Marigold's invisibility bubble would have been an interesting game changer... were it not for a bug that made it that units placed in the bubble still played their sound lines, meaning players knew what to expect. Things were so bad that when Flower Power launched and wasn't broken or needed an emergency patch, the playerbase were shocked.
  

Unfortunately, the Novemember patch did little to stop the problems with Neon, and a new problem would rear its head for Christmas: Jinn. This unit embodied many of the problems players had: She was a Legendary so it would be hard for free players to get her, and only added to the sheer number of Legendaries that were out there. She was another structure card, and she was horrifically broken. Stopping time for seven seconds in an area around any friendly units, Jinn broke the game overnight, with players horrified at how little playtesting she'd clearly had. Most chip units now couldn't damage structures as Jinn simply could stop time and freeze the turret for the duration of the attack. And to make matters worse? She cost two Aura, meaning it was very easy to cycle a deck and start Jinn spamming.
And yet at two aura she was still one of the only cost-efficient Neon counters... until they patched her to be worth three Aura instead. Talking of the feline menace, January saw Neon get a HP nerf that set her shield at 14. Finally, Neon could be realistically be taken out, still at an Aura defecit but at least it can be countered and now they just have to raise her Aura- why are you buffing her game?
Less than a month later, Neon got, of all things, a buff. Her HP shield was set at 20, and her attacks now did double damage. This is around the point where a lot of players begin to suspect the developers aren't listening to feedback and more long-term players dip out or drop the game. Neon got touched one more time in April, which slowed her down (which itself was a problem as Neon's lessened speed on spawn simply made her better at generating aggro), she dealt 10% less damage and made it somewhat easier to hit her enough to kill her, but a new problem was on the horizon. Because Neon was now no longer the game's White Whale for patches.
Meet the White Fang Gunner Barracks. Added in September 2019, the Barracks fell under many player's radar simply because they were horrifically undertuned. Their gimmick was that every few seconds, a White Fang Gunner would spawn, with three spawning on death. In April, as Neon got her last appearance in the patches, the Barracks got a huge buff and became the centerpiece of the meta; they now spawned two Gunners, which made them immensely valuable for just five Aura. You could overwhelm many anti-swarm units before they had a chance, and shred your way through turrets.
The Barracks would then go six months before this overtuning was rectified, barring one nerf in August that lowered their health to try and stem the tide of units. To sum up every other thing that went wrong during the year meta-wise:

• The playercount was getting so low that players were able to make lists of the AI bots the developers had in place so lower-level players had a challenge (Amity breaks up players by a trophy system where you gain trophies with every win, and by this point most of the active players were in the 2500 to 3500 range. This also meant new players steamrolled through the lower levels only to hit a brick wall in the 3000 range, with the only reliable solution being to willingly lose matches until you were in your optimal range and grind victories until you reached a certain level.
  
• The patches became more and more threadbare, going from 8+ units getting changed each month in early 2019 to three units at most getting changed in 2020 patches outside of the anniversary patch going back to the golden days of eight. The only area where they didn't get more threadbare was in the cosmetics and emotes that the developers were cranking out, all of which were only available through hours of grinding or premium currencies. This was despite the fact that the units were being released slower, going from once a week to once a fortnite.
  
• The majority of units added in 2020 were Epic or Legendary tier, which were the hardest to get for free players unless they got lucky and they were added to the store (and if they had the lien as a Legendary in the store costs a flat 40,000 Lien). One Common and four Epics were released compared to twelve Epics and seven Legendaries. The release of Moonslice Adam especially was annoying for this regard, as Adam already had a Legendary released (at least for Team RWBY, each of them headlined a Legendary when it came to the team attack cards), and this was clearly done to pander to Adam's fans again as his first unit saw a spike in interest in the game. The math was done and showed how artifically scarce Legendaries were made.
  
• The undeovertuning was still in play. Colossus is seen as one of the worst cards in the entire game because of its gimmick. I have literally never seen anyone play it. Flynt became overtuned and now he's a staple thanks to his trumpet's AOE attack being able to hurt turrets and shred most units. Launcher Nora was an especially overtuned unit thanks to her high-damage constant AOE barrage and long range meaning she could annhilate most anything if given enough cover. Even after patches she's still dangerous. September saw the White Fang Dropship Formation added, which was widely seen as a terrible unit and done as an emergency addition because the planned unit for September in the Grimm Seer had to be cut last minute for technical reasons.
  
• The game has barely had significant content added since launch, with the primary gameplay still just being PVP. Barring Battle of Beacon (a mode where you can play as Ruby and Weiss and fend off Grimm which most players just use to grind chests, and no, they still haven't added Blake or Yang) and Plaza (a lobby where you can dress up as a character and run around Beacon), the game has added no new features and quality of life content players have requested since launch (rerolling in the shop, Superior Crates having guaranteed Legendary spawn rates) have been released at a snail's pace (you still can't reroll Legendaries if you're looking for a specific unit). Academies where players can unite to trade units and chat still lacks features that have been requested for years such as the ability to delete messages. And Plaza immediately went to hell because players were doing erotic role play in the chats and after people came forward with proof that minors were being sexually harassed in the Plaza or being coerced into side-channels, the dev response was to... just turn off the chat entirely instead of banning the accounts or implementing moderation. This also removed the chatlog which deleted a lot of the evidence of said harassment.
  

As OctobeNovember comes in, the players are getting more and more furious. The weekly feedback includes a near constant demand for an acknowledgement from the developers given how often it feels like the feedback is being ignored. The social media team get caught several times hyping up how the coming patch would address player concerns, only for said patch to lack those units. The meta has been locked down to the Xiong Family, Flynt, Launcher Nora, Spider-Mines and the hell-cat herself in Neon. Everyone runs at least one of these, people run meta decks not because they want to, but because it's the only way to have a chance of victory.
And then in December, things implode. The patch for the month was set to launch on December 10th with the monthly event missions. But when the clock rolls around, the event missions (which usually take about two weeks to do if you're doing as many as you can a day)... has a six day timer. And the update doesn't come out. The art team doesn't release new unit art. The shop has no special timed bundles. There's no patch notes. And then the Twitter team who've been hard carrying the game through... actually talking to the players and acknowledging the grievances they have... admitted that they don't know what's going on either. The best guess is that the devs have come down with Covid, but no statements to confirm or deny this leave it as guesswork. The timer eventually got reset and people could do the event, but then on Christmas itself, another issue.
Ruby has appeared in the plaza on Halloween (her canonical birthday) and Christmas, and if you go talk to her you get free stuff. But on Christmas people, people discovered that Ruby was talking as if you'd already talked to her. Because they hadn't updated Ruby yet for 2020. She still thought it was 2019 so if you'd talked to her then for goodies, she had none now. They patched it eventually but a lot of people didn't see this fix before the timer ran out to get the free stuff.
Some have resorted to memes to cope with the fact that the game just seems to have died out of the blue. Others have been trying to desperately rally the players and find a way to save it. Some resorted to friendly mockery of the whales who'd spent thousands on a game that seems to be dying (seriously though gacha games need to curb this shit but they won't because whales are godsends for their bank balances).
If the game doesn't get an update in January then two months without new content will mark the end, and the already significant playercount drops will only increase. And it's hard to say if any one thing could have turned Amity Arena's fate around beyond just "Have a better balancing team who can respond better to feedback." Neon began the time of death, but by the time December rolled around the meta was in a horrifically toxic place where if you wanted to make any progession, you had to get down and dirty with the pigs. The team just constantly failed to balance problem units outside of their emergency hotfixes of Jinn, and more often then not they went after units and buffed or nerfed them at random going off playcounts to determine what needed fixing instead of the actual written feedback they were getting. It's clear from the references to the show and some of the attempts to reach out to the community that at least one person in the team genuinely wanted to make the good appealing to RWBY fans, but somewhere during the game's lifespan, they lost their way. Less focus needed to be put on how to milk the players, and instead focusing on making a game sustainable and enjoyable enough to warrant the cosmetics and emotes. The game's failure ultimately isn't on the playerbase. It's on the people who were actually making the game who chose to slack off because they thought it acceptable to do so.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: HOT OFF THE PRESSES, I JUMPED THE GUN
Had I waited one more day, my story would have had a far more sudden ending, as the game just announced its shutdown for January.
RIP.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a young teen growing up in far North Austin, it was a popular custom for many boys in the neighborhood to assemble at the local Stop-N-Go after school on a regular basis for some Grand Champion level tournaments in Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The collective insistence of our mothers and fathers to get out of the house, get some exercise, and refrain from playing NES or Sega on the television only led us to seek out more video games at the convenience store down the road. Much allowance and lunch money was spent as well as hours that should have been devoted to homework among the 8 or 9 regular boys in attendance, often challenging each other to 'Best of 5' matches. I myself played Dhalsim and SubZero, and not very well, so I rarely ever made it to the 5th match. The store workers frequently kicked us out for the day only to have us return when they weren't working the counter anymore if not the next day.
There is something about that which has been lost in the present day. While people can today download the latest games on Steam or PSN or in the app store on your smartphone, you can't just find arcade games in stores and restaurants like you used to be able to. And so the fun of a spontaneous 8 or 10 person multiplayer video game tournament has been confined to places like bars, pool halls, Pinballz or Dave&Busters.
But in truth it was that ubiquity of arcade video games, how you could find them in any old 7-11 or Laundromat, which is what killed the original arcades of the early 1980s before the Great Crash of 1983 when home video game consoles started to catch up to what you saw in the arcade.
I was born in the mid 1970s so I missed out on Pong. I was kindergarten age when the Golden Age of Arcade Games took place in the early 1980s. There used to be a place called Skateworld on Anderson Mill Road that was primarily for roller skating but had a respectable arcade in its own right. It was there that I honed my skills on the original Tron, Pac Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, and so many others. In the 1980s I remember visiting all the same mall arcades as others in my age group. There was Aladdin's Castle in Barton Creek Mall, The Gold Mine in Highland, and another Gold Mine in Northcross which was eventually renamed Tilt. Westgate Mall also had an arcade but being a north austin kid I never went there until later in the mid 1990s. There were also places like Malibu Grand Prix and Showbiz Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheeze, all of which had fairly large arcades for kids which were the secondary attraction.
If you're of a certain age you will remember Einsteins and LeFun on the Drag. They were there for a few decades going back way before the Slacker era. Lesser known is that the UT Student Union basement used to have an arcade that was comparable to either or both of those places. Back in the pre-9/11 days it was much easier to sneak in if you even vaguely looked like you could be a UT student.
But there was another place I was too young to have experienced called Smitty's up further north on 183 at Lake Creek in the early 1980s. I never got to go there but I always heard about it from older kids at the time. It was supposed to have been two stories of wall to wall games with a small snack bar. I guess at the time it served a mostly older teen crowd from Westwood High School and for that reason younger kids my age weren't having birthday parties there. It wasn't around very long, just a few years during the Golden Age of Arcades.
It is with almost-forgotten early arcades like that in mind that I wanted to share with y'all some examples of places from The Golden Age of the Video Arcade in Austin using some old Statesman articles I've found. Maybe someone of a certain age on here will remember them. I was curious what they were like, having missed out by being slightly too young to have experienced most of them first hand. I also wanted to see the original reaction to them in the press. I had a feeling there was some pushback from school/parent/civic groups on these facilities showing up in neighborhood strip malls or next to schools, and I was right to suspect. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's list off some places of interest. Be sure to speak up if you remember going to any of these, even if it was just for some other kid's birthday party. Unfortunately some of the only mentions about a place are reports of a crime being committed there, such as our first few examples.
Forgotten Arcade #1
Fun House/Play Time Arcade - 2820 Guadalupe
June 15, 1975

ARCADE ENTHUSIASM
A gang fight involving 20 30 people erupted early Saturday morning in front of an arcade on Guadalupe Street. The owner of the Fun House Arcade at 282J Guadalupe told police pool cues, lug wrenches, fists and a shotgun were displayed during the flurry. Police are unsure what started the fisticuffs, but one witness at the scene said it pitted Chicanos against Anglos. During the fight the owner of the arcade said a green car stopped at the side of the arcade and witnesses reported the barrel of a shotgun sticking out. The crowd wisely scattered and only a 23-year-old man was left lying on the ground. He told police he doesn't know what happened.

March 3, 1976

ARCADE ROBBED
A former employee of Play Time Arcade, 2820 Guadalupe, was charged Tuesday in connection with the Tuesday afternoon robbery of his former business. Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Ronnie Magee, 22, of 1009 Aggie Lane, Apt. 306. Arcade attendant Sam Garner said he had played pool with the suspect an hour before the robbery. He told police the man had been fired from the business two weeks earlier. Police said a man walked in the arcade about 2:45 p m. with a blue steel pistol and took $180. Magee is charged with first degree aggravated robbery. Bond was set on the charge at $15,000.

First it was called Fun House and then renamed Play Time a year later. I'm not sure what kind of arcade games beyond Pong and maybe Asteroids they could have had at this place. The peak of the Pinball craze was supposed to be around 1979, so they might have had a few pinball machines as well. A quick search of youtube will show you a few examples of 1976 video games like Death Race. The location is next to Ken's Donuts where PokeBowl is today where the old Baskin Robbins location was for many years.
Forgotten Arcade #2
Green Goth - 1121 Springdale Road
May 15, 1984

A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to a January 1983 murder in East Austin and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jim Crowell Jr. of Austin admitted shooting 17-year-old Anthony Rodriguez in the chest with a shotgun after the two argued outside the Green Goth, a games arcade at 1121 Springdale Road, on Jan. 23, 1983. Crowell had argued with Rodriguez and a friend of Rodriguez at the arcade, police said. Crowell then went to his house, got a shotgun and returned to the arcade, witnesses said. When the two friends left the arcade, Rodriguez was shot Several weeks ago Crowell had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors for an eight-year prison term, but District Judge Bob Perkins would not accept the sentence, saying it was shorter than sentences in similar cases. After further plea bargaining, Crowell accepted the 15-year prison sentence.

I can't find anything else on Green Goth except reports about this incident with a murder there. There is at least one other report from 1983 around the time of Crowell's arrest that also refer to it as an arcade but reports the manager said the argument started over a game of pool. It's possible this place might have been more known for pool.
Forgotten Arcades #3 & #4
Games, Etc. - 1302 S. First St
Muther's Arcade - 2532 Guadalupe St
August 23, 1983

Losing the magic touch - Video Arcades have trouble winning the money game
It was going to be so easy for Lawrence Villegas, a video game junkie who thought he could make a fast buck by opening up an arcade where kids could plunk down an endless supply of quarters to play Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids. Villegas got together with a few friends, purchased about 30 video games and opened Games, Etc. at 1302 S. First St in 1980. .,--.... For a while, things, went great Kids waited in line to spend their money to drive race cars, slay dragons and save the universe.
AT THE BEGINNING of 1982, however, the bottom fell out, and Villegas' revenues fell from $400 a week to $25. Today, Games, Etc. is vacant Villegas, 30, who is now working for his parents at Tony's Tortilla Factory, hasn't decided what he'll do with the building. "I was hooked on Asteroids, and I opened the business to get other people hooked, too," Villegas said. "But people started getting bored, and it wasn't worth keeping the place open. In the end, I sold some machines for so little it made me sick."
VILLEGAS ISNT the only video game operator to experience hard times, video game manufacturers and distributors 'It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100 .
Pac-Man's a lost cause. Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Ronnie Roark says. In the past year, business has dropped 25 percent to 65 percent throughout the country, they say. Most predict business will get even worse before the market stabilizes. Video game manufacturers and operators say there are several reasons for the sharp and rapid decline: Many video games can now be played at home on television, so there's no reason to go to an arcade. The novelty of video games has worn off. It has been more than a decade since the first ones hit the market The decline can be traced directly to oversaturation or the market arcade owners say. The number of games in Austin has quadrupled since 1981, and it's not uncommon to see them in coin-operated laundries, convenience stores and restaurants.
WITH SO MANY games to choose from, local operators say, Austinites be came bored. Arcades still take in thousands of dollars each week, but managers and owners say most of the money is going to a select group of newer games, while dozens of others sit idle.
"After awhile, they all seem the same," said Dan Moyed, 22, as he relaxed at Muther's Arcade at 2532 Guadalupe St "You get to know what the game is going to do before it does. You can play without even thinking about it" Arcade owners say that that, in a nutshell, is why the market is stagnating.
IN THE PAST 18 months, Ronnie Roark, owner of the Back Room at 2015 E. Riverside Drive, said his video business has dropped 65 to 75 percent Roark, . who supplied about 160 video games to several Austin bars and arcades, said the instant success of the games is what led to their demise. "The technology is not keeping up with people's demand for change," said Roark, who bought his first video game in 1972. "The average game is popular for two or three months. We're sending back games that are less than five months old."
Roark said the market began dropping in March 1982 and has been declining steadily ever since. "The drop started before University of Texas students left for the summer in 1982," Roark said. "We expected a 25 percent drop in business, and we got that, and more. It's never really picked up since then. - "It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100. 1 was shocked when I looked over my books and saw how much things had dropped."
TO COMBAT THE slump, Roark said, he and some arcade owners last year cut the price of playing. Even that didn't help, he said. Old favorites, such as Pac-Man, which once took in hundreds of dollars each week, he said, now make less than $3 each. "Pac-Man's a lost cause," he said. "Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Hardest hit by the slump are the owners of the machines, who pay $3,500 to $5,000 for new products and split the proceeds with the businesses that house them.
SALEM JOSEPH, owner of Austin Amusement and Vending Co., said his business is off 40 percent in the past year. Worse yet, some of his customers began returning their machines, and he's having a hard time putting them back in service. "Two years ago, a machine would generate enough money to pay for itself in six months,' said Joseph, who supplies about 250 games to arcades. "Now that same machine takes 18 months to pay for itself." As a result, Joseph said, he'll buy fewer than 15 new machines this year, down from the 30 to 50 he used to buy. And about 50 machines are sitting idle in his warehouse.
"I get calls every day from people who want to sell me their machines," Joseph said. "But I can't buy them. The manufacturers won't buy them from me." ARCADE OWNERS and game manufacturers hope the advent of laser disc video games will buoy the market Don Osborne, vice president of marketing for Atari, one of the largest manufacturers of video games, said he expects laser disc games to bring a 25 percent increase in revenues next year. The new games are programmed to give players choices that may affect the outcome of the game, Os borne said. "Like the record and movie industries, the video game industry is dependent on products that stimulate the imagination," Osborne said "One of the reasons we're in a valley is that we weren't coming up with those kinds of products."
THE FIRST of the laser dis games, Dragonslayer and Star Wan hit the market about two months ago. Noel Kerns, assistant manager of The Gold Mine Arcade in Northcross Mall, says the new games are responsible for a $l,000-a-week increase in revenues. Still, Kerns said, the Gold Mine' total sales are down 20 percent iron last summer. However, he remain optimistic about the future of the video game industry. "Where else can you come out of the rain and drive a Formula One race car or save the universe?" hi asked.
Others aren't so optimistic. Roark predicted the slump will force half of all operators out of business and will last two more years. "Right now, we've got a great sup ply and almost no demand," Roark said. "That's going to have to change before things get- significantly better."

Well there is a lot to take from that long article, among other things, that the author confused "Dragonslayer" with "Dragon's Lair". I lol'd.
Anyone who has been to Emo's East, formerly known as The Back Room, knows they have arcade games and pool, but it's mostly closed when there isn't a show. That shouldn't count as an arcade, even though the former owner Ronnie Roark was apparently one of the top suppliers of cabinet games to the area during the Golden Era. Any pool hall probably had a few arcade games at the time, too, but that's not the same as being an arcade.
We also learn from the same article of two forgotten arcades: Muthers at 2522 Guadalupe where today there is a Mediterranean food restaurant, and another called Games, Etc. at 1302 S.First that today is the site of an El Mercado restaurant. But the article is mostly about showing us how bad the effects were from the crash at the end of the Golden Era. It was very hard for the early arcades to survive with increasing competition from home game consoles and personal computers, and the proliferation of the games into stores and restaurants.
Forgotten Arcades #5 #6 & #7
Computer Madness - 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Electronic Encounters - 1701 W Ben White Blvd (Southwood Mall)
The Outer Limits Amusements Center - 1409 W. Oltorf
March 4, 1982

'Quartermania' stalks South Austin
School officials, parents worried about effects of video games
A fear Is haunting the video game business. "We call it 'quartermania.' That's fear of running out of quarters," said Steve Stackable, co-owner of Computer Madness, a video game and foosball arcade at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. The "quartermania" fear extends to South Austin households and schools, as well. There it's a fear of students running out of lunch money and classes to play the games. Local school officials and Austin police are monitoring the craze. They're concerned that computer hotspots could become undesirable "hangouts" for students, or that truancy could increase because students (high-school age and younger) will skip school to defend their galaxies against The Tempest.
So far police fears have not been substantiated. Department spokesmen say that although more than half the burglaries in the city are committed by juveniles during the daytime, they know of no connection between the break-ins and kids trying to feed their video habit But school and parental worries about misspent time and money continue. The public outcry in September 1980 against proposals to put electronic game arcades near two South Austin schools helped persuade city officials to reject the applications. One proposed location was near Barton Hills Elementary School. The other was South Ridge Plaza at William Cannon Drive and South First Street across from Bedlchek Junior High School.
Bedichek principal B.G. Henry said he spoke against the arcade because "of the potential attraction it had for our kids. I personally feel kids are so drawn to these things, that It might encourage them to leave the school building and play hookey. Those things have so much compulsion, kids are drawn to them like a magnet Kids can get addicted to them and throw away money, maybe their lunch money. I'm not against the video games. They may be beneficial with eye-hand coordination or even with mathematics, but when you mix the video games during school hours and near school buildings, you might be asking for problems you don't need."
A contingent from nearby Pleasant Hill Elementary School joined Bedichek in the fight back in 1980, although principal Kay Beyer said she received her first formal call about the games last Week from a mother complaining that her child was spending lunch money on them. Beyer added that no truancy problems have been related to video game-playing at a nearby 7-11 store. Allen Poehl, amusement game coordinator for Austin's 7-11 stores, said company policy rules out any game-playing by school-age youth during school hours. Fulmore Junior High principal Bill Armentrout said he is working closely with operators of a nearby 7-1 1 store to make sure their policy is enforced.
The convenience store itself, and not necessarily the video games, is a drawing card for older students and drop-outs, Armentrout said. Porter Junior High principal Marjorie Ball said that while video games aren't a big cause of truancy, "the money (spent on the games) is a big factor." Ball said she has made arrangements with nearby businesses to call the school it students are playing the games during school hours. "My concern is that kids are basically unsupervised, especially at the 24-hour grocery stores. That's a late hour for kids to be out. I would like to see them (games) unplugged at 10 p.m.," adds Joslin Elementary principal Wayne Rider.
Several proprietors of video game hot-spots say they sympathize with the concerns of parents and school officials. No one under 18 is admitted without a parent to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre at 4211 S. Lamar. That rule, says night manager David Dunagan, "keeps it from being a high school hangout. This is a family place." Jerry Zollar, owner of J.J. Subs in West Wood Shopping Center on Bee Cave Road, rewards the A's on the report cards of Eanes school district students with free video games. "It's kind of a community thing we do in a different way. I've heard from both teachers and parents . . . they thought this was a good idea," said Zollar.
Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall last year was renovated into a brightly lit arcade. "We're trying to get away from the dark, barroom-type place. We want this to be a place for family entertainment We won't let kids stay here during school hours without a written note from their parents, and we're pretty strict about that," said manager Kelly Roberts. Joyce Houston, who manages The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf St. along with her husband, said, "I wouldn't let my children go into some of the arcades I've visited. I'm a concerned parent, too. We wanted a place where the whole family could come and enjoy themselves."

Well you can see which way the tone of all these articles is going. There were some crimes committed at some arcades but all of them tended to have a negative reputation for various reasons. Parents and teachers were very skeptical of the arcades being in the neighborhoods to the point of petitioning the City Government to restrict them. Three arcades are mentioned besides Chuck-E-Cheese. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall, The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf, and Computer Madness, a "video game and foosball arcade" at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Forgotten Arcade #8
Smitty's Galaxy of Games - Lake Creek Parkway
February 25, 1982

Arcades fighting negative image
Video games have swept across America, and Williamson and Travis counties have not been immune. In a two-part series, Neighbor examines the effects the coin-operated machines have had on suburban and small-town life.
Cities have outlawed them, religious leaders have denounced them and distraught mothers have lost countless children to their voracious appetites. And still they march on, stronger and more numerous than before. A new disease? Maybe. A wave of invading aliens from outer space? On occasion. A new type of addiction? Certainly. The culprit? Video games. Although the electronic game explosion has been mushrooming throughout the nation's urban areas for the past few years, its rippling effects have just recently been felt in the suburban fringes of North Austin and Williamson County.
In the past year, at least seven arcades armed with dozens of neon quarter-snatchers have sprung up to lure teens with thundering noises and thousands of flashing seek-and-destroy commands. Critics say arcades are dens of iniquity where children fall prey to the evils of gambling. But arcade owners say something entirely different. "Everybody fights them (arcades), they think they are a haven for drug addicts. It's just not true," said Larry Grant of Austin, who opened Eagle's Nest Fun and Games on North Austin Avenue in Georgetown last September. "These kids are great" Grant said the gameroom "gives teenagers a place to come. Some only play the games and some only talk.
In Georgetown, if you're from the high school, this is it." He said he's had very few disturbances, and asks "undesirables" to leave. "We've had a couple of rowdies. That's why I don't have any pool tables they tend to attract that type of crowd," Grant said.
Providing a place for teens to congregate was also the reason behind Ron and Carol Smith's decision to open Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway at the entrance to Anderson Mill. "We have three teenage sons, and as soon as the oldest could drive, it became immediately apparent that there was no place to go around here," said Ron, an IBM employee who lives in Spicewood at Balcones. "This prompted us to want to open something." The business, which opened in August, has been a huge success with both parents and youngsters. "Hundreds of parents have come to check out our establishment before allowing their children to come, and what they see is a clean, safe environment managed by adults and parents," Ron said. "We've developed an outstanding rapport with the community." Video arcades "have a reputation that we have to fight," said Carol.
Kathy McCoy of Georgetown, who last October opened Krazy Korner on Willis Street in Leander, agrees. "We've got a real good group of kids," she said. "There's no violence, no nothing. Parents can always find their kids at Krazy Korner."
While all the arcade owners contacted reported that business is healthy, if not necessarily lucrative, it's not as easy for video entrepreneurs to turn a profit as one might imagine. A sizeable investment is required. Ron Smith paid between $2,800 and $5,000 for each of the 30 electronic diversions at his gameroom.
Grant said his average video game grosses about $50 a week, and his "absolute worst" game, Armor Attack, only $20 a week. The top machines (Defender and Pac-Man) can suck in an easy $125 a week. That's a lot of quarters, 500 to be exact but the Eagle's Nest and Krazy Korner pass half of them on to Neelley Vending Company of Austin which rents them their machines. "At 25 cents a shot, it takes an awful lot of people to pay the bills," said Tom Hatfield, district manager for Neelley.
He added that an owner's personality and the arcade's location can make or break the venture. The game parlor must be run "by an understanding person, someone with patience," Hatfield said. "They cannot be too demanding on the kids, yet they can't let them run all over them." And they must be located in a spot "with lots of foot traffic," such as a shopping center or near a good restaurant, he said. "And being close to a school really helps." "Video games are going to be here permanently, but we're going to see some operations not going because of the competition," which includes machines in virtually every convenience store and supermarket, Hatfield said.

This article talks about three arcades. One in Georgetown called Eagles Nest, another in Leander called Krazy Korner, and a third called Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway "on the fringes of North Austin". This is the one I remember the older kids talking about when I was a little kid. There was once a movie theater across the street from the Westwood High School football stadium and behind that was Smitty's. Today I think the building was bulldozed long ago and the space is part of the expanded onramp to 183 today. Eventually another unrelated arcade was built next to the theater that became Alamo Lakeline. It was another site of some unrecorded epic Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat tournaments in the 90s.
But the article written before the end of the Golden Era tell us much about the pushback I was talking about earlier. Early arcades were seen as "dirty" places in some circles, and the owners of the arcades in Williamson County had to stress how "clean" their establishments were. This other article from a couple of weeks later tells of how area school officials weren't worried about video games and tells us more arcades in Round Rock and Cedar Park. Apparently the end of the golden age lasted a bit longer than usual in this area.
At some point in the next few years the bubble burst, and places like Smitty's were gone by the late 80s. But the distributors quoted earlier were right that arcade games weren't going completely away. In the mid 1980s LeFun opened up next in the Scientology building at 2200 Guadalupe on the drag. Down a few doors past what used be a coffee shop and a CVS was Einsteins Arcade. Both of those survived into the 21st century. I remember the last time I was at Einsteins I got my ass beat in Tekken by a kid half my age. heheh
That's all for today. There were no Bonus Pics in the UT archive of arcades (other than the classical architectural definition). I wanted to pass on some Bonus newspaper articles (remember to click and zoom in with the buttons on the right to read) about Austin arcades anyway but first a small story.
I mentioned earlier the secret of the UT Student Union. I have no idea what it looks like now but in the 90s there was a sizable arcade in with the bowling alley in the basement. Back in 1994 when I used to sneak in, they featured this bizarre early attempt at virtual reality games. I found an old Michael Barnes Statesman article about it dated February 11, 1994. Some highlights:

Hundreds of students and curiosity-seekers lined up at the University of Texas Union to play three to five minutes of Dactyl Nightmare, Flying Aces or V-Tol, three-dimensional games from Kramer Entertainment. Nasty weather delayed the unloading of four huge trunks containing the machines, which resemble low pulpits. Still, players waited intently for a chance to shoot down a fighter jet, operate a tilt-wing Harrier or tangle with a pterodactyl. Today, tickets will go on sale in the Texas Union lobby at 11:30 a.m. for playing slots between noon and 6 p.m.
Players, fitted with full helmets, throttles and power packs, stood on shiny gray and yellow platforms surrounded by a circular guard rail. Seen behind the helmet's goggles were computer simulated landscapes, not unlike the most sophisticated video games, with controls and enemies viewed in deep space. "You're on a platform waiting to fight a human figure," said Jeff Vaughn, 19, of Dactyl Nightmare. "A pterodactyl swoops down and tries to pick you up. You have to fight it off. You are in the space and can see your own body and all around you. But if you try to walk, you have to use that joy stick to get around."
"I let the pterodactyl carry me away so I could look down and scan the board," said Tom Bowen of the same game. "That was the way I found out where the other player was." "Yeah, it's cool just to stand there and not do anything," Vaughn said. The mostly young, mostly male crowd included the usual gaming fanatics, looking haggard and tense behind glasses and beards. A smattering of women and children also pressed forward in a line that snaked past the lobby and into the Union's retail shops.
"I don't know why more women don't play. Maybe because the games are so violent," said Jennifer Webb, 24, a psychology major whose poor eyesight kept her from becoming a fighter pilot in real life. "If the Air Force won't take me, virtual reality will." "They use stereo optics moving at something like 60 frames a second," said computer science major Alex Aquila, 19. "The images are still pretty blocky. But once you play it, you'll want to play it again and again." With such demand for virtual reality, some gamesters wondered why an Austin video arcade has not invested in at least one machine.

The gameplay looked like this.
Bonus Article #1 - "Video fans play for own reasons" (Malibu Grand Prix) - March 11, 1982
Bonus Article #2 - "Pac-Man Cartridge Piques Interest" - April 13, 1982
Bonus Article #3 - "Video Games Fail Consumer" - January 29, 1984
Bonus Article #4 - "Nintendoholics/Modems Unite" - January 25, 1989
Bonus Article #5 and pt 2 "Two girls missing for a night found at arcade" (truly dedicated young gamers) - August 7, 2003

I spent the last weeks downloading every single app offer on Swagbucks UK to sort through the ones that are, and are not, worth doing. These are all available on Swagbucks 'Discover' page.
If this list helps, and you are not on swagbucks already please consider joining using my referral link here for an extra 300SB when you make your first earnings, worth £3ish, (non ref, no bonus ). If there's anything I've missed please comment!

• Board Kings Android lvl11 - took 1 week, add the max friends, check the Boardkings subreddit for help adding friends
• TikTok - SB for downloading tiktok, joining, and keeping on your phone for 2 days. Easy.
• Elvenar Academy, reach Magical Academy - took 3 days with active gameplay, however can be done 99% passively with very little gameplay whatsoever, as you just need to wait until you have enough books to upgrade the research tree to magical academy.
• Lords Mobile: Kingdom Wars - took about a week to upgrade to 14, active gameplay and regular checking in..
• Club Vegas: Online Slot Machines with Bonus - about 3 days, leave on minimum spins and leave your phone running. Semi-passive.
• Pop! Slots Level 26 - about 5 days, leave on minimum spins and leave your phone running. Semi-passive.
• King of Avalon - about 1 week, join a powerful guild.
• Harvest Land: Farm and City Building - About a week of active gameplay. I'd only advise this if you actually somewhat enjoy the game, as this one can be a slog if you're not enjoying it
• Star Slots - Lvl 110 - this one was long, required leaving phone running spins overnight, unsure if worth the time/effort.

For each of these games there are usually free coin link aggregate websites, or links on the apps official Facebook group - Just google '[Game Name] free credit/coins'. You will find this for many of these games, and it will level you up faster. It is also worth checking any subreddits dedicated to the games, as there are usually helpful redditors about.

• The Walking Dead: Road to Survival (requires 99p spend, but conversion is worth over £2 in Amazon vouchers). I used free Google Play credit I made from Google Opinions app for this. (these 'purchase required' offers are actually a good way to convert your unwanted Google Play credit into over double their value in Amazon vouchers).

Avoid: Trumps Empire (worst game ever, took too long), King's Throne Game of Lust (took too long, and was gross), Game of Kings: Blood Throne lvl22 (almost impossible without purchases, level 20-21 takes 6 months without power-ups apparently), War Games: Commander lvl21 (seems easy enough at the beginning, but then becomes almost impossible without purchases, you won't find out until it's too late)
Note: Make sure to compare between: ayeT, OfferToro, Revenue Universe etc. as some of Swagbucks Partners offer more SB than others for these apps and it changes constantly. Offers come and go, and fluctuate in value all the time. 130SB=£1 in Amazon vouchers at the best conversion rate (converting to £10 vouchers). So figure out if something is actually worth your time.
When you reach the required level: Take a screenshot as proof, close and reopen the game (I read this updates your progress on their servers), and wait 1 week for SB to credit, do not delete the app right away, wait until credited. If no credit after 1 week, contact SB support with the screenshot. Have never failed to be credited, but have had to chase up a couple of times.