223 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
223 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
{ role=config }
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``` =toml
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created_at = "2024-11-02T05:13:44+01:00"
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```
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{ role=description }
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:::
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A discussion on pretty much every aspect of the mobile rhythm game "Arcaea".
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:::
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# Why I love arcaea
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## What is arcaea
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- explain the base mechanics
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## What makes a good rhythm game
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- I don't need to reinvent the wheel here, I can link that one `mental checkpoint` video
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## Gameplay
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### Scoring
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#### How does scoring work?
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{% [[[ %}
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The game judges the way the player hits (or fails to do so) every note by quantizing the inputs into [a few judgements](https://arcaea.fandom.com/wiki/Scoring): a PURE judgement is awarded within a 50ms timing window, the more lenient FAR judgement has twice as much (100ms), with all the other notes being marked as LOST. Moreover, an optional tighter (25ms) timing window awards the MAX PURE (usually referred to as "shiny pure" by the community) judgement.
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{ title="Lagrange's extras: Ghost tapping" character="lagrange" id="ghost-tapping" }
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::: char-aside
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The game only awards judgements for notes in the chart. That is, tapping while no notes are nearby will not influence the score in any way! This turns out to be quite useful, leading to what is referred to as "ghost tapping", which can be a useful way to keep the rhythm or have fun with the chart. An example of this in action can be seen in [this clip][A clip of @gba553 PMing ℵ~0~] of [@gba553](https://www.youtube.com/@Gba553) timing the final pair of tricky notes in [ℵ~0~][The ℵ~0~ chart].
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[A clip of @gba553 PMing ℵ~0~]: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxY9g3nlFz8ZnPDTcn4yIofGdrFIxP3mYz?si=yI6Vs-_qpztONwtu
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[The ℵ~0~ chart]: https://arcaea.fandom.com/wiki/Aleph-0
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:::
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The score is then calculated using a 2:1 PURE to FAR ratio (that is, every PURE is awarded 2 points and every FAR is awarded 1), the result of which is scaled up so $`10,000,000` is the maximum possible score. Finally, the game awards one additional point for each MAX PURE, which is why perfect scores are usually a bit over $`10,000,000`. This exact form of scoring is present in many other rhythm games. For instance, [Sound Voltex][] uses the exact same judgement ratio!
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[Sound Voltex]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Voltex
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A play with no LOST judgements is called a "full recall" (also known as a "full combo" in other games). Furthermore, a play with no FAR judgements is called a "pure memory" (also known as an "all perfect" in other games, and commonly abbreviated as a "PM"). Finally, a play where every note was hit perfectly (that is, one where everything is a MAX PURE) is called a "max pure memory" (commonly abbreviated as "MPM" by the community).
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{title="Lagrange's extras: The scoring formula" character="lagrange" id="scoring-formula" }
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::: char-aside
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Let's write the score formula in a nice, closed form!
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Let $`m`, $`p`, $`f` and $`l` denote the amount of MAX PURE, PURE, FAR and LOST notes respectively. The final score can then be computed as
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$$`m + \left\lfloor (2(m + p) + f) \frac{10'000'000}{2(m + p + f + l)} \right\rfloor`
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:::
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While full recalls and max-PMs are certainly celebrated by players and the larger community alike, PMs are usually the sweet spot between accurate play and fun which many Arcaea players strive for. This is usually the case because the game hardly rewards (if acknowledge at all) plays that are better than a PM (this will become obvious when we discuss the game's rating system).
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{title="Lagrange's extras: ζ-scoring" character="lagrange" id="ex-scoring"}
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::: long-aside
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UWAAA, but what if we wanted MAX PURE notes to have a more major contribution to the score? For one, we could start by giving them their own place in the scoring ratio. What would a good ratio look like? A naive approach idea would be to keep the same rate of growth and go with a ratio of 4\:2\:1 for MAX PURE to PURE to FAR. Sadly, issues arise because this can lead to PMs possibly producing terrible scores — it's too big of a departure from the original formula. It turns out the aforementioned [Sound Voltex][] has already figured out a solution with their optional "EX-scoring" system, which uses a ratio of 5\:4\:2, thus awarding 1.25x the normal points for a MAX PURE.
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Calling this "EX-scoring" in the context of Arcaea would be confusing (EX being an in-game grade and all), hence I decided to call the Arcaea equivalent of the system "ζ-scoring". In particular, we can compute the ζ-score by only knowing the base score and the number of notes in the chart (call it $`n`) as follows:
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1. Start by finding the difference a single FAR has on the score, i.e. the ratio $`\frac{10,000,000}{2n}`.
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2. Perform euclidean division on the score by the amount calculated in step 1, producing the number of points $`2(m + p) + f` as the quotient and the number of shinies (i.e. $`m`) as the remainder (we make some assumptions about the maximum number of notes in a chart, but said assumptions haven't been broken by any chart except Testify BYD; Fortunately, Testify BYD does not break the algorithm because arcs and hold notes can only be awarded a MAX PURE or a LOST judgement)
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3. Double the quotient from step 2 and add the remainder to form the final expression of $`5m + 4p + 2f`, which can then be scaled up so $`10,000,000` is the maximum score again.
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With a bit of care put into working around the floor function in the actual scoring formula, and performing the computations in a manner that avoids any risks of floating point arithmetic errors, one can implement a very reliable score converter. For instance, the score tracking Arcaea discord bot I'm developing has ζ-scoring well-integrated into everything!
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:::
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{% ]]] %}
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#### Why arcaea's scoring rocks
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{% [[[ %}
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From the description I've written up above, it's pretty clear that Arcaea's scoring system only cares about one thing — accuracy. In contrast, certain games (notably [OSU!][], [Phigros][], and more) take a different approach, rewarding additional points when players hit a series of multiple notes in a row, with said bonus usually scaling with the length of the so-called combo. This bonus could for example consist of a mulitplier (ala OSU!), or a linear score increase (ala Phigros). This approach does have certain advantages:
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[OSU!]: https://osu.ppy.sh/
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[Phigros]: https://phigros.fandom.com/wiki/Phigros_Wiki
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1. Live competitions for games like OSU! are extremely tense to watch, due to every drop in combo having a huge impact on the standings.
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2. Combo-based scoring can help certain styles of charting — for instance, more suspense can be built towards the end of a song, added emphasis can be put on certain short-but-difficult sections, etc.
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3. There's an intuitive feeling that "not messing up"=good.
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All that being said, I think combo-based scoring is FUCKING IDIOTIC. It can BURN IN HELL. Actually, scrap that, Satan doesn't deserve the torture of dealing with combo-based scoring. Just... erase it from history... please????? God is dead, and game developers killed him when they thought combo=score was an idea worth leaving into their games.
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Ok, sorry, I will calm down now. Back to the analytic style I go. I think combo-based scoring breaks some very nice properties I like having in my scoring system:
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1. For combo-based scoring, a tiny change in inputs (i.e., a single dropped note in the middle of a chart) can have a dramatic impact on the final score. This feels wrong onto itself, but leads us to the next point:
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2. For combo-based scoring, the final score can often be unexpected if the player hasn't paid attention to it throughout the chart. I'm not sure what the best way to put this is, but while playing Phigros, I very often found myself thinking "hmm, I did decently well this time, but there's a ~3.000.000 range my score could land anywhere in". In contrast, I often found myself being shockingly good at predicting my score after finishing an Arcaea play. Combos introduce more complicated arithmetic to the process, which indirectly makes the overall result less intuitive for our brains.
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3. Combo based scoring makes playing the game annoying. I'm not kidding, every time I mess up in the exact middle of a chart in Phigros, I feel my soul leaving my body, and lose all motivation to keep playing the game. At that point, I might as well restart the chart — even if I've played perfectly thus far, there's mathematically no way for me to beat my PB from that game state anymore.
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4. Combo based scoring encourages bad practices, like learning to cheese certain patterns by slightly sacrificing accuracy in favour of keeping the combo alive. In contrast, accuracy-based scoring encourages players to find unique ways to handle certain patterns without compromising on accuracy (for example, funky multi-finger playstyles in Arcaea).
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5. Combo-based scoring reduces the number of intermediate goals the player can set for themselves. When I was first getting into Arcaea, I set a goal of full-recalling a FTR 7 chart. Not long after, I managed to do that on ["Brand new world"][A PM of "Brand new world"]. While I was happy with my achievement, my score was barely an AA (that is, my accuracy was slightly higher than 95%)!
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[A PM of "Brand new world"]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as0dIU6CCNk
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In a game like OSU!, I could either eye the harder goal of PMing the chart (which, at the time, I was far from skilled enough to do), or start ignoring the score and looking at accuracy instead — greatly worsening the play experience, with things like the game's UI, grading system, and rating computations all revolving around scores.
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On the other hand, as an Arcaea player, I was able to simply set my next goal of EX-ing the chart (and so could you in any other accuracy-based scored game). Awesome!
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Overall, I think Arcaea's (and by extension, many other similar games') scoring system is awesome, and activey contributes to the experience in a positive manner.
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::: aside
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_On [2024-10-28]{ role="date" }, the [OSU!](https://osu.ppy.sh/) team [announced][pp-combo-removal] the removal of the combo element of their PP system._
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[pp-combo-removal]: https://osu.ppy.sh/home/news/2024-10-28-performance-points-star-rating-updates
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:::
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{% ]]] %}
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### Expressivity
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{% [[[ %}
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- go through a few charts showing how unique the charting is between them
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- I feel like arcaea charts are a lot more memorable to me than other rhythm game charts, because of the added third dimenssion
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- sky note placement alone adds a lot of depth to existing patterns like streams or trills
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- wait, there's more! Talk about BYD charts
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{% ]]] %}
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### Course mode
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Arcaea's [course mode][Course mode on the Arcaea wiki] functions similarly to [dan courses in Maimai][Dan courses in Maimai] or [the Skill Analyzer mode in Sound Voltex][Sound Voltex Skill Analyzer]. Each course consists of four distinct charts the player must clear in a row. The life gauge is set to hard mode, and life does not reset between levels.
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[Course mode on the Arcaea wiki]: https://arcaea.fandom.com/wiki/Course_Mode
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[Dan courses in Maimai]: https://silentblue.remywiki.com/maimai:FiNALE_Course
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[Sound Voltex Skill Analyzer]: https://remywiki.com/SKILL_ANALYZER
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The reward for completing a course consists of a negligible amount of fragments, and a cool-looking profile banner. On [2024-05-21]{ role="date" }, Lowiro announced a new set of subscription benefits for [Arcaea Online](#arc-online), including a new profile banner being unlocked every month. As a result, the course mode banners are now less common throughout the community, although they're still there.
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I personally really like the course mode system, although it feels very underdeveloped. There's been no new courses added since the mode got introduced in 2022, and there's little incentive to replay courses once they've been cleared. Moreover, the steep stamina cost means players are likely to only try playing through a course once they're confident they can easily clear every chart involved, removing any element of suspense. Unlike Sound Voltex's Skill Analyzer, there's only one course for each difficulty, which is not helping in the variety department.
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One nice thing about the mode is that players can use warped shards to play through a course without owning all the songs involved. While nice in theory, warped shards are quite grindy to unlock, and come in very limited quantities, so this isn't very big in the grand scheme of things.
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### Unlocks and progression
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- Why world mode grindy:(
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- PTT gating charts is actually cool
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- Anomalies cool but I'm so bad at fray lmfao
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- mention LMW's video, and comment my quick thoughts on it
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## Improvement
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{% [[[ %}
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### Potential
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#### How does potential work?
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#### Potential — a potentially flawed system
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- f2p players are disadvantaged
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- r10 makes ceratin playstyles bad
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#### PTT pushing
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- it can be fun!
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- it's harder to do without tracking
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- it can negatively effect your enjoyment of the game & your mental health
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#### The Arcaea Online controversy
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- why b30 tracking is important
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- can help set mini challenges (raise my floor up to 12.10ptt)
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- cool for sharing around
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-
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- do you need to track your b30?
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- there used to be discord bots for b30 tracking
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- arcaea online offered an official way to do this
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- some people protested in very uncivilised manners, got banned, story ended
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- some people use spreadsheets
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- the legend says there's still working bots out there, but who knows :)
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{ #arc-online }
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#### Arcaea Online — an annoying business practice
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- value is better than at launch
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- a lot of the provided value is a cure for a self-inflicted poison
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- I hate subscriptions
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- The website is horrible outside of mobile
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#### The shimmers of the moon
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- my own way of tracking b30
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### Collecting PMs
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- it's a super rewarding way to improve!
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- orthogonal to ptt pushing, thus can be used to take breaks from that
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### Improvement for us mortals
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- setting your own goals (i.e. trying to EX+ every 9 when I was getting better at it)
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{% ]]] %}
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## The story
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- gay
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- uhhh, read more of the story
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- it's not that great character-wise
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- the world building is awesome
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- I'm not a pjsekai player, but watching [thing] on youtube made me cry way more than the arcaea story ever could
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## UI and QOL
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- They finally allow making the pause button harder to hit!
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- Pretty good offset setup
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- Some light mode charts are painful
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## Pricing
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- omg, no gacha, so cool!
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- they do use FOMO and other toxic tactics
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- eh, still a bit expensive
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## The community
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- one of the discord rules is a bit extreme but whatever
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- queer friendly
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## Hardware
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### Thumb vs index play
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- thumbs = skill issue for me
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- both are viable, even thumbs on tablet is!
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- [guest paragraph by dyuan]
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### The slipping issue
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{% [[[ The slipping issue %}
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Every Arcaea player (barring thumb gods) will eventually have to deal with their device slipping during play — it's inevitable once you get to a certain level. Tokaku demonstrated this nicely in her [Finger Sleeve review video][Tokaku's Finger Sleeve video]. Fortunately, solving this is not super expensive. I personally use an anti-slip mat. I won't provide any product links, but you should be able to find those for cheap in a lot of places. Alternatively, you can go for the aforementioned finger sleeves — they can be bought in bulk for pretty cheap (do not waste your money on Razer's overpriced sets). Some people have had luck with covers made of certain materials, although I haven't tested this myself. Finally, if you're really desperate, you can try my friend Fatal's solution: putting toilet paper under your device!
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[Tokaku's Finger Sleeve video]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=31V1h3ZiXag
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{% ]]] %}
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### Sliding across large screens
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- finger gloves fix this I guess but ion use them
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- greasy devices aleviate this a bit, but lead my fingertip skin to tear a lot
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- certain kinds of matte screen protectors fix the issue!
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{ title="Arcaea and posture" character="lagrange" }
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::: aside
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Not sure what the proper posture is, but I've found myself doing much better when putting some pillows on my chair so I sit slightly higher
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