User blog:Fairingrey/Thoughts 7-11-14: The Alliance and other misc. things

''Meta has the best butt ever. And a totally rockin' body. 完了''

Opening
I don't write these too frequently, but when I do I try to make them as extensive as possible. I reserve the shorter posts for more humorous things. Like, you know. Cute girls and laughs. Anyways, people who read my blogs and keep up with them, you know the deal. As for new readers, you can go through all my previous blogposts/diaries here.

But in short, this blogpost series reflects my thoughts. That includes what has happened as of late to the game, trends that I'd like to cover, tips, etc. It also includes some thoughts involving myself.

I'll be going over some other things, but the latter half of this post will deal with the Alliance, something anyone that plays VC should be familiar with.

The Name Change
So anyone who has me added probably knows already about my name change from May★ to Spica. I guess I can come out with the reason that I've gotten kind of bored of my previous name. Though to think of it, it sounds kind of strange to put it that way.

I'd feel wrong to leave out the reason that I wanted to stick with the star naming theme that I've kept with in my kingdom. If you've visited, then you know that one kingdom is named Vega and the other is named Altair. Both of them are stars in the constellation Lyra's Summer Triangle and celebrated in the Japanese festival Tanabata. And if you've watched Bakemonogatari, then you should definitely be familiar with supercell's Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari at the 1:36 mark in the song. Album version, of course. You haven't listened to much anisong if you don't have supercell's Today is a Beautiful Day!

You know what the amusing thing is, too, is that Tanabata's first festivities also start on July 7th of the Gregorian calendar, which is the same day I've changed my name to Spica. Although Spica is in a different constellation altogether, being the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, it still was a coincidence that stood out to me.

And if it's Tanabata, I wonder where Orihime should be? Maybe that will be a revisited theme for the next event?

Anyways, rest assured. My name change hasn't affected me much except for the people that have revisited me over the last day to make sure that they don't suddenly have someone they never knew added. Also, my alliance members are having a blast with it. I'll let the pictures explain for themselves.



So that's that. Maybe it's not that I've gotten 'bored' of it, but simply because I wanted to make my name reflect a new aesthetic.



Last Event's Ranking
Been putting this off, but once again thanks to all my senders who went out on an arm and a leg to feed me bunches and bunches of stuff. I know people get lazy and things like that and I do prune my list somewhat frequently, but regardless the efforts were well spent.

Speaking of ranking in the last event though, we've had several members in our alliance rank in the top 100 last event. It's good to see the activity although it does kinda show off we're kinda crazy?

But this is something I'll reflect on.

Also, the more boxes I have to get through, the further away I am from making HSR Ragnarok. I just wish, wish, wish I made her amal HSR before I started opening boxes for Dark Alice, since keys gave me waaaay too many swords. Maybe one day nubee will implement something to clean out the presents box faster, but I have no idea when that day will come.



To People Who Duel Me
Remember in my last post I mentioned some things to do to burn resources if you're capped and have nothing to send on? Well, here's something attractive for anyone that has such a thing as I do.

Prepping a really strong DEF team. With an absurdly high unit cost and maxed stats in every card.

Ok, so don't know what the trend might be but I'm rather joyous to have random people I don't know do my bidding to get spare resources out of the way. I'm not quite sure why people do this. Maybe it has to do with the upcoming ADs? Maybe they want to test out their AD team's mettle against a pointlessly strong DEF team to anyone with maxed AoE cards? OR MAYBE THEY JUST WANT TO MAKE ME MAD? What if they're genuinely friendly and just want to help me out…?

But I'm happy. So thank you, people who attack my troops. As you can see in the screenshot up there, I'm losing troops to people defeating my team. However, great Mother Russia always has more troops to send to the eastern wall. Those supplyhouses aren't going to drain themselves!

And yes, I do have everything maxed save for my resource generators. And I do not plan on selling anything anytime soon. Building obelisks/girl statues is really boring, and really slow.

Blaze and Apple are repeat offenders. If you're reading this, feel free to comrade me! I'm willing to send you FAWs for your loving efforts. teehee

To Comrades Who Visit
If you're a comrade of mine, I'm happy you visit. That resource boost is really useful for the extra experience, you know! I visit back if you have, or I'm feeling particularly fond of your sends and want to check out your kingdom for a moment.

To Randoms Who Visit
If you're not a comrade of mine, go ahead and visit so I can stalk your kingdom too. And possibly add you. Though, do read this if you want an idea of the kind of people I add. Your chances of being added will probably rise the better you fill out those reqs.

But really, otherwise, if you try to add me when you lack trees and stuff (considering the sale this game just had on jewel buildings) I will promptly decline. I'm being a bit more picky than usual, but only because I think that there shouldn't be a reason to lack those things if you're a smart enthusiast that likes making smart decisions in a very grindy game.

Otherwise, since I get a lot of visitors, it's tough to pick and choose. So uh, here's some extra tips for adding me that pertain no relevance to activity within the game. Though, this won't help you add me if you don't fulfill the activity reqs first.
 * Favorites:
 * Any card illustrated by AkkeyJin
 * Fenrir
 * Any other of the first 3 box summons
 * Adonis, Therapy, Sophie, Ragnarok, Spenta Mainyu, Metatron, Nyx, Zenobia, Orihime, Joker, Diana, Lilim, Belphegor
 * Angel
 * Most cards illustrated by Usaginezumi (Rabbit Mouse)
 * Most cards by piko²gram
 * NOT Orc.
 * Name that's easy to read
 * I can read kana just fine, some kanji's okay too.
 * Difficult time with Chinese
 * Name that's cute or catchy
 * MMMV
 * Kingdom that's cute
 * My kingdom not cute yet ;_; so many other things to do first
 * Sends that don't disappear crazy fast
 * ...I know mine disappear crazy fast.
 * Responsible for sending to AWKs and not moochers if said person is not AWK yet.
 * Visits me!

Boxes
Believe me, I think this is the worst it's ever been this weekend. I'm stuck on the 30th of June, and I'm going to furiously open boxes. This is why this blog took me some time to write.



And Lastly
Kelerik joined our alliance last Thursday and he's trying to rank. Senders, go help him out maybe? His ID's 2w2xx.

I don't know if he'll make it, but he farmed a lot last night on top of his other duties. I'd send more stuff his way but... I got... boxes.

Alliance
Ok, FINALLY, we're at this part. Thank you for keeping up with me, even if I happen to be furiously opening boxes. Anyways, let's start up the more serious discussion.

Basic Functions
Anyone should be familiar with alliances by now if you're active and like making smart decisions in your quest to collect all the cute girls and stuff. Simply put, being without an alliance is tough, and even being in a semi-active alliance is better than slowly crawling towards AWK/FAWK status on your bare comrades' list. Because 5 comrades aren't all going to respond very fast compared to the possible 6-15 members that see it.

But the meta has definitely changed. Alliances, as you know, serve the basic functions of:
 * Requesting for help with AW/FAW
 * Resource bonuses
 * Goddess Worship
 * Some semblance of communication between comrades via the Alliance Board/bulletin.

Trend
However, given how prevalent FAW events have been in this game and since they look like they're slated to stick around for nubee knows how long, some things have changed. Maybe for less or more apparent reasons, depending on where you stand with your alliance.

And this goes hand in hand with the new alliance rank update to 15 and the recent ADs we've been having. The ADs have been catching more of an eye now only since the release of AD exclusive UR rewards like Harmonia and Pup. You gettem, hot rods!

So then, what's important? Yeah. That's the only important thing. And that's a really important thing. Why?
 * Alliance rank 15 allows any single alliance to have a maximum of 30 members.

Extrapolating the Reasons
Let's extrapolate the reasons why, given the basic functions of an alliance: So there you have it, these are the things to keep track of, but what kind of members are alliances looking for nowadays? For anyone that seriously wants to take their FAW card slapping games to the next level, FAW trading alliances are now actually a thing, and they are some of the most reliable ways to get a brand new batch of senders and sharers given you share back. And this is probably the biggest reason why:
 * Requesting for help with AW/FAW ― The more members in an alliance, the more FAW that gets shared in an alliance due to every member participating in sends.
 * Resource bonuses ― Constant. Ignore this.
 * Goddess Worship ― The more members in an alliance that donate consistently everyday lead to quicker drops of the Goddess being worshipped.
 * Some semblance of communication between comrades via the Alliance Board/bulletin ― YMMV, depending on what kind of communication system an alliance uses outside the game, since this one, well, sucks.

Because you'll get a LOT more mileage from sends.

Ok, think about this. As a sharer, trader, backsender, regular sender, what have you, you are only allowed to send to 5 people outside your alliance at most. In an ideal world, you're getting back 5x the amount which you send, but you're always going to miss some due to other people playing favoritism or just not seeing you online on their list, or maybe some other reason, like being slow.

But regardless, you're sending to 5 people at the most. 5. Even an alliance at rank 1 with 15 members, if 6 of those members are online at that time and see your send, they have a chance to get rid of it quicker than some of the people you've invited.

That's why in an active alliance you tend to see FAWs disappear much more quickly in comparison to those who don't have a very active alliance. This is not to say that less active alliances are bad by any means, but more active alliances offer that much of an incentive to join. You get more, you receive more, and the more members that participate in this method of sharing increases the potential for sends shared by some proportional factor, since the more you send, the more comrades attend, and the more of those comrades that will send back to you regardless of the situation instead of picking favorites or whoever's online first on their list.

Leadership and Advice
How are these alliances usually led, you ask? Well, FAW sharing is a major component of it, but participation in AD also helps a lot to unlock more member slots for more potential senders. And an active FAW sharing alliance will usually have both of these components integrated into their requirements. Take Athena's Fury, for example, the alliance I currently am in.

I've mentioned earlier that we have had a number of our members rank in the top 100 and more in the top 300 each event. Part of it can be attributed to the sends we get from sharing FAWs with each other, but the best way to know is to see for yourself. All I know is that it is a tried method, and it definitely works to our benefit.

However, it is also important to note that the method of participating in FAW focused alliance is that it is a means, not an end. Alliance FAWs are indeed very helpful, but it also falls on one's shoulders to carry the rest of their points through adding their own senders and traders.

And to that degree, FAW focused alliances are also very helpful for advice. Since we've had so many rankers in the top 100 or so, some of us are experienced enough to give input to new and upcoming members who also want to rank and earn the ranking UR reward.

And they probably cover much more than I do in these blogposts. It's a wellspring of information that one might find more useful than scrounging online sometimes for more specific questions he or she might have. Even I might not be as experienced as my alliance leader in answering some of the questions that come up.

Advice to Those Joining a FAW Focused Alliance
Don't be afraid, that's the biggest part. It seems like a daunting requirement to have to send all the FAWs you get on a constant basis, but as long as you share and keep up with the sharing as a soft guideline, then you'll do fine and get somewhere. Anyone that's trying to rank seriously has to work hard for their ranking points anyway, and even if you aren't a ranker, you still have that opportunity to participate in ranking for an event if you choose to.

And don't be afraid to ask questions that you can't seem to find a clear answer to! Most members are more than willing to help out and give you advice, long as you're in the right kind of alliance.

Last thing to keep in mind is that most if not all of these alliances require that you have to be able to subdue regular AWs on your own. This isn't such a grand requirement if you've been exposed to the game for a while, but if you're new you might have to work your way up the ranks first in a more casual alliance or finding very loyal assisters. You can find more about assisters in my very first blog post.

Closing
Anyways, thanks for reading! I know this is long as hell, but do bear with me! I was supposed to publish this 2 days ago but I had an exam and stuff, but now it's the weekend and I finally finished writing this.

Once again, thanks to everyone who helped me out during ranking, thanks for reading this, and leave a comment if you have any comments or questions!

As I understand it, a lot more people than I think that play this game read my posts, so uh, awesome. Makes me happy that my ahem THOUGHTS aren't going to waste.

Now excuse me I have more boxes to attend to. ;_;