[EMS] Level 220!

Time to get started with Lacheln's chapter soon.

[EMS] Oda Coins!

Here's a question! Imagine if this is the fourth Sengoku High event that you've participated on the same character as always. Last time, way before the migration happened (thus, the "EMS-modified version" of this event), you managed to obtain three Sengoku Badges - the Sanada Yukimura Badge, Honda Tadakatsu Badge and the Uesugi Kenshin Badge. It took a staggering and painful amount of three-thousand Oda Coins to obtain these. You turned in the quest you got from Nobunaga and received the Sengoku Secret Manual skill (which now goes by the name Warring States Manifesto).

Now, after the migration, you are going to experience the GMS version of Sengoku High - and instead of those three Sengoku Badges, you can now get the original three Totems. Again, for another three-thousand Oda Coins. Which means you can obtain three Totems you can wear, unlike the previous EMS one where you purchase three badges but can only equip one. In addition, Nobunaga has another quest you have completed before - collect all three Sengoku Totems to learn the "Sengoku Secret Manual" Skill. But wait - you already have the Sengoku Secret Manual from the "EMS version" - does this mean you would obtain a second Sengoku Secret Manual?

The answer is very simple. Unfortunately you won't get a second Sengoku Secret Manual. Nothing happens when you turn in this quest - because you already have the skill. But hey, at least you know the answer right? Where the hell are you supposed to get this answer elsewhere anyway!?

At least that means you're safe to turn in that quest if you're going to aim for the three Sengoku Totems - i.e. if you have missed out on the Madhouse Event or you haven't done the Afterlands or Alishan continent yet, or prefer not to run temporary totems from Dong Fang Shen Zhou (a.k.a. Shanghai).

That aside - let's get to a subject called Oda Coins, a recurring event-related currency for the Sengoku High event - which is a Zipangu-based reskin of the Red Leaf High event, but with much more generous rewards than the most-likely-now-retired-and-replaced "Red Leaf" variant.

Let's just get this already mentioned as soon as possible: despite the shop having plenty of amazing loot, chances are even with the five Reward Points entree coupons and your daily entree you would end up between 700 and 800 coins or something - just a bit too short on any of the "1000 Oda Coin-tiered loot", which is most likely the ones people would prefer to obtain first. Unfortunately this event is just too short with daily entrees to really get past a four-digit number.

And if you wonder where the heck I got those 5000 coins from, given this is still the first day of the event - I did some extensive grind to give you (or read: myself) the answer to that anecdote that this particular blogpost started with. And well, of course I don't pay for entree tickets with NX! I had near to 25.000 Maple Points left from previous events.
Anyway - if you also wonder where those other two-thousand-and-two-hundred coins went into - two-thousand of it went into the new Pocket and Badge. But we'll get back to them later on (including why the heck I would invest so many Maple Points in items like these).

For the people who are interested: if you guys want to hear what I would recommend to obtain first - I'd say if you have a bit of Maple Points (or NX) left and available to spend in events like these, the Sengoku Hakase Badge (1000 coins) is probably the most preferable option out there. It has much higher clean stats than the Ghost Ship Exorcist, including one additional slot for upgrading, and it has also one higher tier of Potential (which means it can get higher Potential results, i.e. 13% STR, rather than 12%) because it is Level 151+. In addition to that (but this is really a minor thing though and a very big "if"), you could get multiple Sengoku Hakase Badges in case you'd ever lost or destroyed (i.e. Equipment Trace) your Hakase Badge. Which you can't with Ghost Ship Exorcist - you'll only get one of those per character.

About all of the other pockets and "cheaper Badges" - if I would be honest, they are "meh". They really have quite a number of amazing stats, including the flat HP/MP and Speed/Jump, however - it's just the discouraging price. If they would've been a lot cheaper I would've recommended them for sure. Especially for higher Maximum Movement Speed-based classes (at and beyond 160 speed) where a lot of players refuse to take equipment that has Speed/Jump by default on it - this could be a good alternative to get those maxed out without sacrificing too many other slots, if you wanted to. But 300, 600 and/or 800 for those just seem too expensive and those Oda Coins are probably spent better elsewhere. Don't forget that there's also some pretty good (cheaper and common) alternatives for pockets out there as well - unlike the Ghost Ship Exorcist vs Sengoku Hakase Badge debate, there isn't really Potential/Scrolling/Enhancing involved with pockets (yet).

Last but not least - 3000 coins for Sengoku Secret Manual feels rather steep. Even if the skill can be useful at times. At least, this would most likely only apply if you already have good Totems (i.e. Madhouse) and don't have the Sengoku Secret Manual yet. Don't forget that the only reason why I've been able to get mine in the past was because I kept my Oda Coins already from the very first Sengoku High Event - which was before it was known that this event was going to be recurring in the first place. If you have the Maple Points / funds available for it, and you really feel like getting the skill - sure, why not?

Just for the people who are curious: you should get approx 70-something coins each run with 2x Drop (i.e. Lucky Winter). 2x Drop is already enough to get the maximum amount of coins from every boss on each stage.
The "Big Spider" Familiar alone isn't enough for that.

Anyway, to get back on the "why the hell did you get the Pocket and Badge?" - it's simple and I can understand it seems unnecessary to get these in the first place. I just prefer to run my own build and everything. Fun is a rather important thing to me - and having more Zipangu-related equipment, or stuff that seems rather controversial to choose nowadays - those kind of stuff are the things I just not only want to run, but also can get them to work.
There is a difference to that.

If there is really something in all of this "Oda Coin fever" that can always be in your favor, it's to keep the Oda Coins after this event! You never know, right?

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] Work in Progress: Hailfire Droid (Feb 6, 2017)

Phew, it has been a while! A shameful 17 (!) months. But if there is no blogpost, it does not mean there is no progress! On the contrary, there's been quite some work behind the scenes!

First things first: similar to what I did with the Constructor, the Hailfire Droid has been redesigned from scratch. That is right: I have entirely disassembled the original assembly and improved upon certain issues that was glaring to myself.

Just before we move on, I want to inform you all that the following "Work In Progress blogposts" for my MK Projects will be using the "[Lego] Work In Progress: Something (Date)" template from now on. However, I will not change any of the previous blogposts and that is to prevent some possible issues with hyperlinking.

One of the first major issues that the original design suffered from was how the wheels were connected to the head. Every wheel assembly was connected individually, which gave the Hailfire quite some unwanted flex when driving. The connection between the wheels and the head is now done through one rigid V-shaped spine which improves the stability while driving but also improves the durability of this model a lot!

The wheel assemblies have been redesigned on a few points, mostly ones you cannot really see from the outside. The original frames had a few structural issues because I lacked a number of parts, which was before I was working with Bricklink - now that I have the right pieces I need in the right quantities, that issue has been resolved. This also brought the opportunity to work on some gear-related parts where some gears had a tiny bit of backlash (which is now resolved) and I have also been able to use some of those new and fancy redesigns of gears which immediately had some positive effect on the driving "feel". Being more clever with space, it also allowed me to add more counterweights - right now, the Hailfire Droid weighs almost two kilograms.

And last but definitely not least, perhaps the most aesthetic change of the entire Hailfire Droid project is the face. In the previous version of the Hailfire Droid, the face was built from a lot of hinges connected to other hinges and such, which caused it to be a nightmare for my OCD because touching the face would result in either having sub assemblies to fall off or the entire face to move. There was no frame behind the face; this was definitely something that needed to change.

The entire head section has been redesigned in order to accommodate this change. In the previous version, the frame was built around the battery box, receivers and the sub assembly that gives the bottom cannon its forward movement. This caused the frame to have a few structural weaknesses, mostly around the center. As of now, instead of having a frame around certain sub assemblies, there is one frame that is also directly connected to the V-shaped spine, and components can be connected to this main frame directly.

The face is actually pretty dense in parts, because there is a lot of Technic-to-System assemblies hidden underneath all those brown wedges, plates and slopes. It might not look like it, but you can almost lift the entire Hailfire Droid from those brown cheeks! And even if the main opening around the main eye looks fragile, it is not the case at all - the frame assembly where this "eyebrow" is mounted on is connected to the main spine and to the same assembly as the cheeks (which means the "eyebrow" assembly won't go anywhere).

Well, in addition to all of that, there's even more - probably a bit too much to get really into detail without making this blogpost a bit too lengthy. All in all, pretty good improvements. Did you know that there was even a redesign in between this version and the previous one? Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of that point of development - the time between the in-between and the current version was rather short, hence the lack of any images.

Here, have a GIF - it's the least I can do.

Anyway, that's it for this overview - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 219!

Hi guys! Earlier today I hit Level 219! Man, these levels surely has gone rather fast since we've gotten a change in the EXP gained from bosses now did we?

If the following speed keeps up like this, I'll hit Level 220 later this month! Sounds good.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!