Just a regular update (more than a bit self-indulgent, but hey, this is an LJ after all)
So life? Not really. When I'm not stalking about five Let's Plays, I've been hanging out on the KOEIWarriors forum's Multi Raid 2 thread. It's been quite fun, formed some Social Links with several posters (topics: the need for badass women in the SSM series, pale vs. Asian skin, Jiang Wei, and Lu Meng needing to be decloned/made awesome) I've racked up 51 posts on that one thread. (I have 51 posts total on that account, so, uh, I guess you know where I've been lurking.) I've also helped break the forum's news of the announcement and release of the first demo, as well as described the new card system because I am obsessed holy shit what is wrong with me.
It's going to be a great game, as Omega Force've put a lot more effort into both the battle system and supplemental systems. For example, the officer cards now grant buffs, debuffs and elemental status attacks in an area of the map depending on the elements, kingdom and type of the officers assigned to said area. Basically the Wu Xing system is integrated much more into all of the various parts of the game. Battles are much smoother, with actual difficulty selections for each quest, a camera that cooperates most of the time, and the option to take AI generals into battle with the player's character, all making soloing much easier. Enemies also don't break out of combos after only three hits as often, though they do have new tricks: disappearing enemies like Shi Huangdi sort of escape the targeting cursor when they phase out, so you have to keep poking the D-Pad to try and bring it back up. The enemy AI apparently changes depending on difficulty level, and the new magical beasties are both really friggin' cool and absolutely adorable. :3
The only real downside (besides the fact that it is still a month-and-a-half away) is that it makes the first game look like a tech demo. :/ I need to finish it at some point, I do have a maxed out Yue Ying after all. She actually got an incredible stat total; I think only Zhang He's (by only 10 points), Lu Xun's (5 points), Huang Gai's (5 again), Wei Yan (15 points, which I love because Wei Yan is a criminally underloved officer), Guan Ping (15 again) and Zhao Yun's (a whopping 83 points, what the hell KOEI) stat total is better. This means Lady Huang is ranked seventh in terms of stat total and has a better one than Lu Bu. So, yeah, the stat spreads are really weird in MR1; a lot of the best officers have lousy or weirdly concentrated stats. That said, Ma Chao and Zhuge Liang's stats haven't been posted on the wiki yet, though I doubt they'll unseat Yue Ying. :3 The growth grade for stats is also somewhat misleading; certain officers with a D in a stat will nonetheless have it outdo a C-ranked growth, usually due to a high starting value.
Zhang He has a wonderful stat spread: he's got great attack, Musou and movement, while still having decent defence, HP and resistance. I love Junyi so much. <3 If they swapped either defence or HP for movement and gave him something other than a sword-type weapon, he'd be perfect (for the MR1 system that is; it seems like high Musou may end up being problematic in MR2, as it was in SSM4, since certain skills can be activated based on the percentage of the gauge rather than the raw numbers). :3 So here's hoping Boyue doesn't get any D or E ranked stats. (He shouldn't, his main trait is his versatility.)
On the subject of finishing MR1: I hate Lu Bu. He, Sun Jian, Zhou Yu and Dong Zhuo all need to jump off a cliff into a pit of flaming tiger gods and die. (No, I don't care that each and every one of them has been dead for over 1800 years; clearly more perishing is required of them.)
I have my character almost completely finalised for Exalted, and she will be so much fun to roleplay. Older cat-lady who is a freaking invisible spear ninja and has an adorkable ocelot Lunar Mate, hells yes.
It's going to be a great game, as Omega Force've put a lot more effort into both the battle system and supplemental systems. For example, the officer cards now grant buffs, debuffs and elemental status attacks in an area of the map depending on the elements, kingdom and type of the officers assigned to said area. Basically the Wu Xing system is integrated much more into all of the various parts of the game. Battles are much smoother, with actual difficulty selections for each quest, a camera that cooperates most of the time, and the option to take AI generals into battle with the player's character, all making soloing much easier. Enemies also don't break out of combos after only three hits as often, though they do have new tricks: disappearing enemies like Shi Huangdi sort of escape the targeting cursor when they phase out, so you have to keep poking the D-Pad to try and bring it back up. The enemy AI apparently changes depending on difficulty level, and the new magical beasties are both really friggin' cool and absolutely adorable. :3
The only real downside (besides the fact that it is still a month-and-a-half away) is that it makes the first game look like a tech demo. :/ I need to finish it at some point, I do have a maxed out Yue Ying after all. She actually got an incredible stat total; I think only Zhang He's (by only 10 points), Lu Xun's (5 points), Huang Gai's (5 again), Wei Yan (15 points, which I love because Wei Yan is a criminally underloved officer), Guan Ping (15 again) and Zhao Yun's (a whopping 83 points, what the hell KOEI) stat total is better. This means Lady Huang is ranked seventh in terms of stat total and has a better one than Lu Bu. So, yeah, the stat spreads are really weird in MR1; a lot of the best officers have lousy or weirdly concentrated stats. That said, Ma Chao and Zhuge Liang's stats haven't been posted on the wiki yet, though I doubt they'll unseat Yue Ying. :3 The growth grade for stats is also somewhat misleading; certain officers with a D in a stat will nonetheless have it outdo a C-ranked growth, usually due to a high starting value.
Zhang He has a wonderful stat spread: he's got great attack, Musou and movement, while still having decent defence, HP and resistance. I love Junyi so much. <3 If they swapped either defence or HP for movement and gave him something other than a sword-type weapon, he'd be perfect (for the MR1 system that is; it seems like high Musou may end up being problematic in MR2, as it was in SSM4, since certain skills can be activated based on the percentage of the gauge rather than the raw numbers). :3 So here's hoping Boyue doesn't get any D or E ranked stats. (He shouldn't, his main trait is his versatility.)
On the subject of finishing MR1: I hate Lu Bu. He, Sun Jian, Zhou Yu and Dong Zhuo all need to jump off a cliff into a pit of flaming tiger gods and die. (No, I don't care that each and every one of them has been dead for over 1800 years; clearly more perishing is required of them.)
I have my character almost completely finalised for Exalted, and she will be so much fun to roleplay. Older cat-lady who is a freaking invisible spear ninja and has an adorkable ocelot Lunar Mate, hells yes.