The End (?) of Miru Bot, What It Means to the Site, and a Reality Check
Have you wondered why there are very few resources in English? Let’s look at the most recent example with Miru Bot, to unveil some of the reasons.
In short, Miru Bot/DadGuide development has stopped (not shut down). Note that this isn’t to stir up drama – It is something I hope everything realize is ongoing, and what may be happening as a result. Either way, not good.
(Cover image not by me.)
How it started: Dungeon data
Long story short – Miru Bot team has been working on generating dungeon data (enemies, HP, skill set, etc.), to basically rescue/help out our favorite PDX Database for dungeons. Really, dungeons are released much more frequently than in the past, and are much more complicated with the various skill sets each enemy has. It takes more than 1-2 people for such a high maintenance project.
The team managed to get most things done over weeks of work. Despite what’s done, the accuracy of the dungeon data is a tough subject, so help was certainly needed to verify data. We started off looking for people on Discord server, where many of the more dedicated players are. For weeks, no one showed up to help.
TR (tactical_retreat), the creator of Miru Bot, made a post on the PAD Subreddit asking for some help, and received little attention. (Whole post is below)
With this little attention in possibly one of the biggest breakthroughs, it became quite discouraging to continue, and he decided to discontinue further development of Miru Bot and DadGuide.
This does not mean Miru Bot is shutting down, but it means no more project developments.
Help needed: reviewers for auto-generated public dungeon data from PuzzleAndDragons
Cate’s followup
Shortly after discontinuation was announced, Cate led another discussion on the disappointment and sadness we face. It’s very sad to see that something everyone complains/asks for is happening, yet no one showed up help.
The incoming apocalypse
Let’s list some major places that can be affected with this…
- Discord servers. Many major PAD Discord servers use Miru Bot, either public or private version. This is how a lot of devoted players find out what each card does, or instantly get information on small things (like % of which a latent gives).
- DadGuide (Android only). DadGuide runs on Miru Bot’s data, so that’s a direct hit there.
- Blogging Mama. The multi-region guerrilla dungeon schedule runs on Miru Bot too. If any drastic changes happen to guerrilla dungeons, I will have to remove it from the page. As well I would not be able to add details to stats for new cards (like Limit break stats).
Pretty crazy that one person can affect a number of resources altogether, right?
Reality check
All resources in PAD are maintained by a sheer number of people. Here we have 1 admin (me), and Chu helping out on code. Ken and Cate help out on posting. This is sadly that’s more than other resources: Our good friend Allie (owner of Ilmina.com) has only two people, and so did PADherder before support stopped. PDX Database has always been 2-4 people working behind the scenes.
In total, there are less than 20 people behind all English PAD resources, and half of them are on team Miru Bot.
None of us are obligated to do anything. Everyone involved puts in hours upon hours of their free time into the content others enjoy. None of us are trying to be “famous” or “popular”, we do what we can for the game we barely have time to enjoy. There are some insensitive people who go as far as say we should quit the game.
While there are things too late to be changed at this point, as a content creator I’d like to remind everyone the following.
What you can do, as a vocal reader
Quit complaining/shaming.
No one is perfect. If mistakes are there, phrase things in a less attacking manner. I, along with many content creators (including Miru Bot, PADherder, PDX Database) have received more messages shaming on small errors, and complaints that things are not up in the most timely fashion. TR and Cate have people complain about the smallest typo in Miru Bot display. Don’t even get me started on PDX. Most of us simply hear the vocal complaints.
Even GungHo JP makes mistakes on their site, why wouldn’t we all?
Give constructive feedback.
Tell us what kind of content you like seeing. A lot of what happens is because we just do what we want. If you want others to spend their free time to make your wish come true, ask nicely.
That said, be realistic in the feedback too. Some things are just out of our powers.
Using our site for example, the countdown timer for all events happened because Kennori asked. I live in Japan and would never have issues reading JST times, and it’s impossible to add features/fix errors we aren’t aware of. After a night of coding, it happened and everyone is happy. How many of you have benefited from that one little feature that Ken suggested?
What you can do as a lurker, or a PAD player in general
Many of you quietly read and/or are too shy to reply. I’m not here to force people to be vocal,
Don’t take resources for granted.
Especially good resources. Unfortunately most of the feedback seen are the errors/negative things, it’s super rare to see a compliment or a positive feedback, considering the effort put in.
Again, none of us are obligated to do anything. We always say it’s easier for us to do nothing than to do anything, which is sadly true.
If you can spend a lot to roll in a REM, you can afford to support a resource.
I know I’ll sound like a charity, but really, all it takes is $1 to make a difference (in fact it shows you do care and are thankful for the content that’s being sent out).
In fact, appreciation doesn’t have to be provided in the form of money. Even a small thank you can brighten someone’s day. It’s rare for us to get thank you messages, until we really ask for it (which is quite meaningless). Which brings me to the next point…
Sharing is caring.
If you can’t donate, thank the people who did stuff. If you used the resource and found it helpful, share it with others. Give content creators a reason to continue.
Some will say, “You should be doing it because you enjoy it, and not for compliment”. But at the same time, I would like those people who think that to try making contents for no appreciation. Motivation has to come from somewhere.
(On subreddit) Support those helpful ones with upvote and comments
The more attention you give to shitposts, the more of them you’ll see. Certainly some are good and well thought out, but there are even more bad posts that gains a lot of attention. The real information posts often get little attention.
Then what do you get? You would have a community of misinformed players, “stupid” or recurring questions, and the lack of awareness of contents. I applaud you all for reading this post, since you’re here to keep up with news from Japanese version. It’s sad but this is still the minority – certainly it’s something I’d hope to change, but it shouldn’t be done by me alone.
It doesn’t help when some refer to the important game information as “boring information”. Really, I’m just here dealing with boring information for hours daily. Doesn’t sound fun, right?
Final message
Again, Miru Bot isn’t shutting down, it’s no longer developed. At the moment we have no clue what’s going to happen, but we shall see.
Treasure what we have now. Many of us are still upset over what happened, but it’s a wake-up call for the entire community. Be thankful, and show your appreciation before it’s way too late. That said, I’m not here to blame the community for all that happened, but I do think that it would not have ended this way if more communication happened.
What’s done is done, and moving forward – I just hope to see more communication between content creators and the readers. Sometimes we just are stuck in the programming/designing/blogging world and has no clue what readers really want. Little things really help. 🙂
P.S.: Yesterday I was at the PAD Convention and got TR something, before learning about all this… It will go to TR as my appreciation for everything he has taught and done for me and the community.
P.P.S.: No matter how negative I sound, I’m not closing this site. At the most I’ll slow down updates. I signed up to help out Upc on PDX Database, and this is how I’m helping out.
P.P.P.S: I’ll be donate to TR to ensure Miru Bot/DadGuide stay alive too. And please don’t feel obligated to donate to me – Donate to the other resources too. The purpose of this post is not a fundraising for this site, after all. I thank you all for the kind comments, and I hope current and future content creators gain some momentum to continue striving from reading all this.
[speech name=kennori]
Miru bot is an important tool that the Discord community needs; vets and new players alike benefit from the information it provides which was supplied by a wonderful team of people who saw the potential Miru had and used it to share content with all of discord. I’m still new in the community, but the work behind Miru bot as well as the kindness shown to me by Reni, Chu, and the others are the reason I got involved… so seeing this happen really upsets me.
As much as I wish this weren’t happening, I stand behind TR’s decision. It can be disheartening to work so hard on something to quell an issue the entire PAD community has been having for some time, then when you ask for help no one shows interest; let alone some of the absurd comments to come out of this event.
I will say, it might be too late for Miru bot… but there are other resources you can help out with if you guys really feel bad about this or unsure if you can help. I used to think I wouldn’t be of much help but Reni and the others found a place for me. If you guys really enjoy the nice things other contributors give out; reach out and offer assistance… even if it may sound tedious; anything helps.
You would think there are a lot of people behind the scenes helping… but as Reni said, there’s very few; so help of any kind is appreciated; even a thank you goes a long way. No one will know you want to help unless you speak up first. [/speech]
It’s really upsetting to hear that MiruBot + DadGuide are having this happen. 🙁 MiruBot especially, it’s a bot I really enjoy using even in just private groupchats with friends, because it’s a really convenient reference for things like skillup fodder, general thoughts on REM lineups, and as a monster reference! All the NA PAD resources I use end up dead or lagging behind, first PDX + PadGuide and now MiruBot + DadGuide; I’m at the point where I don’t really need the help or reference quite as much anymore at this point, but it must be frustrating for newer players.
I’ll have to fish around for donation links for the resources that are still active, I definitely appreciate Ilmina.org popping up.
PDX actually isn’t dead, since there’s the monster side and dungeon side. The monster side is almost caught up for JP contents (thanks to Upc). But with how the dungeons are now, it’s almost impossible for the number of people we have at the back end.
Even when people help, they run away after seeing how tedious things are. It’s pretty depressing in general.
I feel bummed as well with all this, especially when the last push would have gotten dungeon data to DadGuide. All this makes me appreciate how crazy PDX is, and still is for having data for so many things despite parts being dated.
I’m really lucky to have everyone helping, plus you all showing appreciation. I hope more bloggers/resource creators will get this warm treatment too! It really gives all of us hope.
Are you guys actively seeking help on things like the Blog or PDX Server? What Ken put as a comment here has resonated with me quite a bit, and i’d possibly want to try my hand in at least being of some assistance, if at all possible, especially after the loss of an important tool like Miru Bot.
If there’s anything I need the most help on, it’s actually ideas. I welcome any ideas on what you all like to see on the blog – To be honest I don’t know what readers want to see/read/need, and I do overlook the simplest things too (like the countdown timer)!
I’ve also toyed around (and started) on a PAD glossary, but it’s not a super well thought out project so I’ve stalled a bit on it. If there’s any interest, I’d push for it to be completed too.
Team compositions would be greatly appreciated. Sometimes it gets hard to navigate on game8. I know team comps should be taken with a grain of salt, but ideas are greatly appreciated because the monster book is always growing.
Hmm, good point. Game8 is definitely one of the hardest sites to navigate even for me. I can discuss with Chu and Cate about adding team comps, if they’re interested it’s doable! Thanks for the idea!!
(I don’t trust my team building ability to even try doing it myself)
Even though this post is depressing, just wanna say that I enjoyed the illustrations/doodles a lot.
otsu
LOL thanks, glad you enjoyed it as much as I did!
Honestly, when I see a post on Reddit and discord about needing help I always
1.ignore because I assume you need some logic in coding which I do not have.
Assume someone with more experience will help the person.
Don’t want to be extra stress for the person and be yelled at 🙁 or feel like they secretly want me gone and would prefer soloing it.
Not caring doesn’t enter my mind at all, it’s just a bit confusing sometimes wondering what the person needs help with and how you can personally help imo.
I like how you keep us up to date with the Japan news my friend. I have in the past used Google translation but things just don’t make sense after clicking translate lol. For a while I was in the dark about what was going on in Japan till I came across your site. This is my go to place now and I use this more than the pad Reddit and forums. Wish the best and that you keep doing what you are doing.
Yeah, admittedly the Reddit post wasn’t worded in the most understandable way. I think the assumption is pretty common, but it ends up with no one helping. A lot of this came from miscommunication too, unfortunately. >_<
Believe it or not – 4 years ago I was on the same boat with Japan news, using Google Translate and misunderstanding every single thing! Admittedly I’m not perfect in Japanese still, but I’m glad the little bit I know is making a difference to you. Unless anything bad happens to me or PAD (knock on wood), I don’t see myself giving up. 🙂
I want you (and everyone on your team) to know that I greatly appreciate and love you all and your site. This is one of my main places to go for anything new for PAD and that while I might not be able to do much to help, me (and I’m sure many others) are here for you guys all the way.
I want you to know that I read the comment and I feel pumped to see that you feel this way!! 🙂
Hi Reni, I came over from the subreddit after seeing your reply. Firstly, in hindsight I feel like I was being a little aggressive and being rather hypocritical, and I apologise if my reply came off as offensive. Especially when I don’t use Discord so I don’t know the Discord side of things or the full impact of halting development on Mirubot.
Anyway, I think there are many more people who will be willing to help with non-technical work, so if the Mirubot team finds a way to separate the technical and non-technical work, it may be possible to find more help. If someone can pick up where TR left off, I like many is willing to offer my assistance with the non-technical work. Given that dungeons are the main problem here, I have no problems with doing data comparison between Mirubot and Skyozora or some trustworthy Japanese resource since I am quite used to such tedious work.
If y’all need help with anything, come back to reddit and there will be people waiting 😀
Lunarstrom
Hey Lunarstrom, I didn’t feel it was too aggressive – Your points were valid, and I’m sure you are not the only one feeling that way!
My best hope, of course, is that TR takes nice break and comes back to all this with a fresh mind. At the moment I have no clue what non-technical work there is, but if anything happens and we need crowd help, I’ll try to post on here and reddit too. 🙂
Again, thanks for reaching out – I really appreciate your advice!
I wish I can help on anything but I didn’t know about it until now
I also wish it didn’t turn out this way… 🙁
Miru Bot was the best resource that we had for quick card info and for any news regarding both NA/JP. As a veteran in both PAD and Discord, I have seen the bot improve and change over time, which shows how great TR, Reni, and the other staff have been doing to help keeping it thrive.
I am not upset at the no more development of the bot itself, but upset at how none of the community was willing to participate in supporting TB, Reni, the staff, and the helpful members, towards the growth of MiruBot.
TL;DR Thank you TR, Reni, and staff and mod for MiruBot.
For the non-staff members of both Discord and Reddit who refused to help, shame on you. Just shame on you.
Hispanic Zuoh
PADGuide Community Server Mod
Hey Zuoh,
As a Miru admin I barely did much – All the work was done by everyone on board. TR, Cate, chu, Moo, River, and Ripper are the ones who made all of this possible. Admittedly we’re all spoiled by how good the bot is, Miru really is a good girl!
In terms of the participation, the more comments I read, the more I agree that both sides are at fault here. For most the community, it may be hard to understand what TR wants, but at the same time anyone can ask what is needed to participate in the project. As many said, it ultimately is miscommunication that resulted in all this.
Admittedly there are certainly a lot of times I do feel that a lot of people don’t want to help and feel discouraged, would love to shame everyone to the same degree as well. But at the same time, there are a lot more who just aren’t aware of things happening… I wouldn’t blame the community fully on this. Let’s not shame everyone so much and focus on what we all can do as a community instead! Bring back the positivity. 🙂
So, I have coding experience and I definitely enjoy this sort of content. I am not sure how much time I would be able to put in but I would be willing to help. I never knew about any of this stuff: why PADX went down, what is going on with some of the other sites, I never even knew that half of these sites existed (I found this one 3 months ago). I love this game and I really appreciate the people who put the time in to make these sites. However, I can’t help if I don’t even know that there is a problem and I don’t want to join a PAD discord server. If you actually need help, please get as many sites as you can to broadcast it or just ask on yours. I visited PADX for a while and as far as I could tell, they never asked for help.
We all love the game, and would like to make it better! If I didn’t join PDX, I’d know none of this as well till I witness it first hand.
As a moderator on PDX, even I feel helpless because I also can’t code to save anyone, and I can only watch the few behind the scene handle the work. I feel that many of the people behind the resources are quite independent, and don’t really know what others can help them with (I mean… I fall in the same trap too). A lot of us aren’t best at getting our points and feelings across, as you can probably tell from how poorly written this post was…
To be honest, one of the reason this site started was because I didn’t want to lock all this info behind Discord. It turned out to be the best decision I’ve made in PAD. Likely better than trading for that Valentine’s Sonia I never used.
Certainly with all the overwhelming responses in this post, I’m confident now that if any resources need help, I can broadcast on the blog if they want me to. Thank you for the suggestion!
I sent a feedback to the Miru team thanking them. For the blog, I read it daily to keep up with what’s shaking in Japan to see what comes in the future for NA. I’ll upvote for you so you know I’m here <3
Thank you for the continuous support! <3 The Miru team really needs it, way more than I do! 🙂
I honestly think that you should demand help from those who utilize your tools made for the public for their auto promotion.
This can sound harsh but in reality they are showing how good they are thanks to all the information you provide. Without your team we, NA, are meaningless compared to the JP server. And we should all be more than welcome.
My feel is that as long as NA (and JP server players who can’t read Japanese) can be informed about news without much errors, that’s more than I can really ask for in return. One of my goals is to keep NA players more in the loop about JP news, and I think… it’s working? But I do see where you’re coming from – It’s certainly a harsh reality.
Honestly though, most of the team, including myself are NA players too. We are glad all this benefit you all, and I hope it stays that way!
I don’t want to sound like I am forcing others to help while in reality i don’t do a thing too.
But you are right. Right now your blog is the main source of all PAD info, at least for me and I am certain to most of the community.
We may be selfish but I also believe that we are all gratefull because the reality is that we are in a position that without your team we would be just blind as I stated before.
I may not be able to help but since I play PAD that I know all the tools, content and info that are translated by you takes real time work and when I see something like “why?” or “is it dead?” it just makes me feel bad in all honesty. It also pains me because sometimes people just take things for granted. And this is when I say thank you.
You already contributed a lot more than you imagine by leaving messages here. Trust me, it means a lot to finally hear from people! Admittedly I have a love-hate relationship with comments, I like it when people talk and I feel like I’m doing something right, but the perfectionist in me dislikes making errors and always scared to see errors pointed out. I guess that’s what I get for working in Japan…
To be honest though, I have never thought the blog can get to this point, especially when I was also in the blind in the past. 4 years ago I was also relying on others’ translations for any JP news (Padpadblog is still my hero)! When I started the site as a blog, I told Ken that I’m happy if I even get 10 views a day on the blog, when all this started.
It pains me a ton to see those “dead” comments too. If I were to explain to people, it’s hard for them to understand since they aren’t in the same shoe. I have been accused for being too work up and toxic over people constantly saying “PDX is dead” (I know I do still, haha).
By yeah… As much as everyone needs the site, we all on the creator end do need you all too. A message weigh more than most think. I’m still sad to see what happened to Miru Bot, but if that didn’t happen, I don’t think I can get myself to write this emotional post and see all the heartwarming comments. I hope TR and all PAD content creators can feel the same warmth too.
Didn’t know this was going on but I am thankful for everything. seriously!
I’m thankful to see you guys always sticking around and commenting! I sometimes forget to reply but I do read all of them. 🙂
How can I help? Don’t code, but I’m willing to try whatever
Even if you can’t code, we welcome new ideas or suggestions! 🙂
Now of course, dungeon data is something we all desire but is a complicated matter that is currently outside of my abilities. It makes me appreciate how Upc kept up with it for so long on PDX…
Just wanted to voice my support. For what it’s worth, this site has become the number one resource for JP news on the PAD Forum, although there are only a handful of regulars on the forum these days. We appreciate what you do.
I don’t use Reddit, so I hadn’t heard anything about the issues with Miru Bot. It sounds frustrating for everyone involved, although I expect that if people understood what kind of assistance was being requested, a community of helpers could be built up. I think most people appreciate the help of sites like this, even if a vocal minority likes to complain.
I don’t know how much overall demand there is for help in the English language community these days. There was a time when the NA version of PAD seemed to be dying off, but possibly usage has increased again with the greater amount of content in NA in the past several months? It’s difficult for my to gauge, since most people left the forum when it was having technical difficulties / when Discord and other options were becoming available. Certainly there was a period when a lot of long-time users quit, but I wonder if there’s an NA resurgence these days.
Hey Drgn, been a while (though i do lurk on Forum still so I see you a ton)! Thank you for the kind words, I’m happy to see that it helps you all. I used to depend on forum for translated news, it’s nice to be able to give back!
With Miru Bot – that was the initial hope, to gather a community of helpers to help. With all the communication errors though, messages get lost, weeks of frustration bursts. Once frustrated it’s hard to stop that negativity blowing up and forget the good part of the community. It’s definitely something we have to learn still.
With how scattered the NA community is, it’s hard to gauge. Though what I can safely say through watching the blog metrics is that there is still demand for English, specifically NA contents.
From experience, I do enjoy Discord a lot, but it has its own problems. It’s better as a quick in-person help than looking for long-term help and/or searching for recurring questions. Subreddit has the most users, but posts sink too fast and can be hard to find. To me, forum has its charm. Personally I’d like to see revival of the forum, because that’d solve those issues… Though we all know how hard that is.
Is this an April fools?
I wish I can say that. 🙁
This site is by far the best resource that PAD has ever had in my 5 yrs of playing this game. It is professional looking, well maintained, detailed, and super fast, as well as being cute and aesthetically tidy. I honestly thought it was someone’s paid project when it appeared because it was so feature complete.
I have understood ever since PadX started to falter that the dungeon data is a huge and un-fun-looking challenge on the back end. So I’ve honestly just gotten into the habit of going without it and depending on Chrome translations of other-language resources.
But for daily news – details of collabs, buffs, announcements and so forth – there is no replacement for what you do here. This site is a treasure for all English language readers.
As a consumer of content I am not usually inclined to comment, my default is to just think about things I’ve read on my own. So I have been one of probably many silent appreciators of the site who read it every day like clockwork, frequently bookmark pages, and refer back to things such as collab guides, but there is no outward sign of how much I use it. I’m sure there are plenty of readers like me who really lean on this site but haven’t taken any action to engage in the slightest way. Frankly we probably don’t even remember to upvote news posts as much as stupid yet amusing memes.
When there are things we can do that help you out – whether it’s dollars or simply appreciation, or engagement via comments – please continue to ask us for that help. Obviously you have asked before, you have been quite clear here, and stuff like upvoting is just basic and super obvious stuff that you shouldn’t have to remind people to do….
But I guess what I’m saying is that I am sorry that we as consumers have failed content creators in general these last few years. There is a pretty sizable community for this game yet a big disconnect between the few people who create content & those who consume it.
I would be super devastated if the same fate of Miru bot, Pad guide, Dad guide etc was to come to this site.
Your point about “if you have money to spend on stones then consider also dollars here and there for resources” really struck home for me. I don’t whale but I definitely spend .99 cents or $10 here and there… but this site is worth way more to me than any single roll on any fest. I will go ahead and hit the Patreon.
Hi Anafielle,
Many thanks for the kind words! As a super noob at programming, I’m glad you enjoy the site. 🙂
The more I talk to people, the more I see that the community thinks getting dungeon data is simply peek into the game data and get numbers. Or all of the site is automatically generated. Honestly we all wish it were that easy… In the old days we have dungeons that have at most 2-3 skill sets used in order, now we have ones that do a million things depending on HP or selected conditions. Trust me, if I had the coding ability to even do anything, I would’ve “revived” PDX myself. But of course I don’t know how to do any of that (not a CS major here), all I can do is sit, translate, and format JP news to my liking.
After thinking over the past few days, I would not totally fault consumers in this disconnection between consumers and creators. There are creators who prefer to be anonymous, and some don’t know how, and/or doesn’t have time to reach out. Many of creators, with exception of most streamers, don’t communicate with the readers. In a way it’s like a long distance relationship between two sides: you need some communication otherwise both ends will have their own assumptions and things fall apart (like Miru Bot). I don’t have a good solution to it myself, besides encouraging discussion and hope everyone reaching out.
With the whole “if you have money to spend on stones then consider also dollars here and there for resources” part, I was really thinking about how PadGuide was, more so than this site. I’m sure many have seen others complaining that $5 costs too much to remove the ads on PadGuide, while spending easily 10x more to roll in egg machines. It’s just painful, especially none of us are doing this for profit (I’d immediately fill the site with ads, and put the site behind a pay wall, if I really am going for money lol).
What I can promise is that I will try my best to keep the site running till the end of PAD. There’s certainly a lot of times I’d like to quit and shut the site (the PDX team gets an ton of me whining on a weekly basis, sorry guys), but in all honesty I really can’t be selfish when it’s everyone’s contribution that makes all this possible.
On behalf of the entire team, I thank you for finding the site valuable and support the site. 🙂
Was wondering if I had a setting off in the discord I’m currently using Miru bot in, whenever use current commands such as ^shouldiroll or ^guide ranking it shows the previous ranking and the rem or collab from a week earlier, however when using the same commands in another discord I’m in it gives the current results. Is this a problem on my end? If so how would I go about fixing it?
I’m guessing you’re using Public Miru Bot, while the other is Private Miru Bot. The difference between the two is one week delay, and that Private version is only for the larger servers. Nothing is wrong on your end, the bot was made that way so there’s unfortunately no fix…
Update: TR just pointed out to me that it’s a 1 day delay between the private and public versions of Miru Bot, so it’s probably the delay that causes the discrepancies you noticed!
Your work is awesome
i’ve been playing PAD for 1 year now pretty much every single day with my girlfriend, i am one of the silent readers, and i’m really thankfull for all you’ve done for the community, i’m ashamed to realise i’ve never written a thank you, even though it would take 5s to put as a comment at each post you’ve made… That’s really bad, i’m sorry i never did it before so here it’s : THANK YOU for all you’ve done that i eagerly read every day
I’m not sure how i can help ? I’m also not a coding guy sorry:( as i’ve read you’re more looking for ideas or what people may want or focus on ? So here’s my feedback :
I’d say your blog provides exactly what i want from it : a translation of news from japan.
News for NA are well enough covered with their twitter i dont need more.
the only time i go to discord is when i’m looking for new bff on resets
REM analisys are great but i often disagree on things here and there with what is said on PDX academy or other sites, maybe i should give my feedback i dont know i dont really want to offend people ^^ i’ll do one on mh review let’s try it !!
About PADX dungeon database : i believe it’s a wonderfull thing if there were no problem maintaining it but i will quite always use youtube channels like sgt502 for annihilation or score dungeons, i will use PADX only for arena to check which floors have absorb shields
The most important part i’m looking for in PADX is the monster database and the filters to help me create teams since a huge part of what makes a good monster is what can be built around, which leaders are available, subs or weapon assist to help me decide if i want to heavy roll or not. Those filters are really not up to date, that would be something i would enjoy seeing improved, if i can help let me know
I’m a wanna-be game designer (more boardgame/card game than video game) hence the interest in PAD ^^ so i put a lot of time into team building and i’m loving it, trying to figure out which monsters can go together for what content is great in PAD, so if you’re looking for REM review or team building advices/help/state of the game i would be happy to help
Again thanks for all the work
Hi Shamrodia,
First off, thank you for commenting! I’m sure this whole message took you more than 5s to write, which makes it even more special!
Second, holy smokes feeeeedback yay! I’m glad the news on blog is exactly what you wanted! To be honest, I’m trying to see if there are ways to make a NA news blog out of the current infrastructure, with the least amount of work possible. So far I’d say my coding attempt is a massive failure (LOL). We will see if I will have some breakthrough in solving the issues though. 🙂
For REM analysis, I do find that a lot of it depends on what the writer likes/enjoy playing, so the value of each card can differ a lot. Plus sometimes we just miss stuff. It’s perfectly fine to disagree and bring up constructive comments and discussion! It shows that you’re thinking about the cards carefully, which is a good thing. 🙂
For PDX Database – I’ll try my best to bug our admins about the filters. I’m equally annoyed LOL. I don’t know the back end side of things enough, but if the team needs help on, I’ll make it as noticeable as possible on the blog if admins let me!
To be honest, if you have thoughts/reviews about monsters in selected collabs and such, feel free to leave a comment on the post! I read every comment and can always link/refer to it in the original post. I also welcome ideas on what to write, since sometimes we all are clueless on what people want to read about! (Though I’m sure no one wants to read about my PAD life…. “Dear diary, I logged in for my free stone, and went into a dungeon. Sleep time”)
And strive for that designer dream! Make a better board game than PAD’s board game (ok bad example but you know what I mean)! 🙂
hu not working ? T_T
trying to add another reply but it’s not working T_T maybe it’s too long ?
Weird, but comment section has always been somewhat ghetto…. T_T
I do visit Blogging Mama almost everyday, it saddens me alot. How can we helped then to make it run well again ?
When the news reached me I wish it was an April Fools joke, but it wasn’t. :\ Miru Bot will keep running as long as no drastic changes happen/break down. Some of the bot’s admins (who can code, which means not me) will try their best to maintain it. I have told TR that if funds run out, I’ll pay for the expenses too.
At least for the time being, we should be safe. Let’s hope for the best though.
I am a long time player… originally on EU but have just been on JP for the last few years.
As an IOS player (so no Dadguide) who has never used Discord, the events of the last few days have come out of the blue for me… and it really saddens me that people who work so hard to contribute to a community that I really value feel under-appreciated. I check in with the PAD subreddit and this website every day.
As someone who exclusively plays JP, this website has been fantastic since it started. Giving all the information I want, presented clearly, to allow me to get the most out of playing JP. I think this website has been a big part of sustaining my interest in PAD since EU died.
The amount of PAD time I have (like, I suppose, many people) ebbs and flows depending on work. However, I would like to help out whenever I can. When, I have the time, I go through new players boxes who ask for help on the subreddit. Because of my total lack of understanding of any kind of coding, I thought that I would not be able to help in any other way.
In terms of constructive feedback –
I think if help were needed, it would be good to ask on here. As I said, I check in with this site on a daily basis while never using Discord and things can get missed on Reddit.
Also, don’t underestimate the fear-factor for some people regarding anything that looks like it might need technical know-how… I am definitely one of those people.
When I read something like “all that is required is to look over output from Mirubot”… that just looks intimidating to me… however simple it seems to the person writing that and however simple it may actually be… I feel like my grandmother getting into a cold-sweat about her cell phone ringing. This is not a criticism of anyone… it may well be genuinely very simple. However, if it was set out with clear instructions for someone who can use an internet browser and that’s about it… I would certainly be in to help when I can and maybe others too.
Once more, thank you so much for putting time an effort into this site. It’s such a great resource and I am sure many other people appreciate it as deeply as I do.
Hi ex-EU player,
One of the initial motivations of the site was EU players needing actual resources to continue/restart their PAD journey. I’m glad you, along with many EU friends, have found JP enjoyable!
It’s great to hear that you go back to help newer players! I don’t have the same amount of time/patience anymore, nor the knowledge to quickly judge how to proceed with a box to do it, so I genuinely think it’s awesome. You may not know how to code (ok I don’t too), but what you do still makes a difference to PAD players. Keep it up!
It’s good to hear from many, you included, that I can safely ask for help on the blog! I certainly can agree that Discord and the bot can be really intimidating to many, and I recognize that a lot of people just aren’t interested in joining, and that’s perfectly fine. Part of what I hope to push for is easier access to Miru Bot contents, perhaps on blog so that no one really misses out on things by not being on Discord. I don’t know how I’d accomplish that at the moment – It’ll probably require me to learn more on coding before I can make it possible. We shall see though!
Once again, thank you so much for your comment and compliment to the site. Don’t hesitate to leave more messages if you have more comments, ideas, etc! 🙂
Dang it…tried adding 2 long comments but don’t see them here…guess I have to break it into 3 if I’m going to convey everything I thought of on the original day…great… anyways, I’ll remember most of it by the next 5 hours so it’ll be okay for me actually doing this again. Shadow Lurker though with lots of things to say so since I can’t edit here, I’ll add to the replies as I go over the next 10 hours.
Sorry, I actually just learned earlier that there’s a limit in comments length (shows how much I know LOL)…. I await for your long feedback!!
Okay, since I’m going to be doing some buttons on Tuesday Dungeon, let’s begin shall we? Lol…
1stly, one of the things I denoted here was how much I use your site to share news of Rolls & Cards on my little place of PAD, adding tons of random commentary to make it even more funnier, though keeping to the original of how much I get my info from here. I’m a frequent Discord User, but on Reddit I don’t go much because if it isn’t me coming here 1st, I know nothing on the outside world. Now I do want to congratulate you on the site & how much it has grown for the past 18 months I’ve been using it to share my news on things JP. I also don’t care much about how fast it is translated, as long as it is translated & done well doing it. Because there’s a massive human undertaking on this game & expecting it 100% Right all the time, hell we’re humans so we ARE BOUND to get it wrong from time to time, which I have accepted because even with my news commentary I got it wrong…lol…
This is part 2:
I understand where TR would be coming from, besides, I actually really appreciate what TR has been doing with Miru Bot & I’ve had some fun times getting on people with Miru, quickly deleting my comment when I ask her to say something {the 1st time we got Kira, I would have jokes about Miru asking us to give her Kira’s Soul to become more powerful. Saying that “I can smell her Soul…give it to me!!” Lol!!! It was the instant that we beat Kira so it was rather so funny when we did it there.} just to make the times a little more fun because we’re a small family in my small server so it helps a bunch when we can look up things quickly for Cards, skill ups or even the Gems for some bosses so we know what we’re working with. The Limit Broken Stats for some cards or even just general stuff about certain Bosses {Hexazeon & Gilles Legato to name 2 whom are a Puzzle to Beat before we can take them down}. I used to rely so much on PDX for everything & PDG until… I started to move away from it as it started to be less worthy of updates & more on trying to keep it afloat. Reddit & Discord came to be for me, yet I still would rather something of a different taste. Then came here, which I appreciated everything from how it started to how it grew to what it is now + Miru. So seeing it go, it is a big hit to me.
Guess I’ll have to wait 1 more day to put Parts 3 & 4 {they’re smaller so it should go under the (hmmm…1024?) Character limit?} so I’ll find something to put it on to keep it there. I’ll have maybe a 5% chance to add anything to it so I’ll chop them up & send it.
Oh 1024 is the character limit? I actually didn’t know… I’ll see if I can expand it or something. o_O
Lol I think I broke it… hahaha Okay, how we talk on this now, & then when I figure out something, Parts 3 & 4 will show up. I absolutely know nothing on how I broke this thing, maybe because of how much I’ve to say & how close to home this really is to me. Having been on both sides of this matter, it really does hit very close to home. Let’s hope though that we can continue & grow from this, & you’ve my support & appreciation on everything you’ve been doing thus far Team!
LOL well through all this I learned about the character limit in this box, lessoned learned! (Sorry for the trouble, it was not something I’d even expect)
Back to the subject – Thanks for the compliment, it’s crazy how the site has evolved within 18 months! Most who have/are working with me would know how much of a perfectionist I can be, so hearing that I can slow down a bit on update definitely removes some stress off my shoulder. 🙂 Fether (our great Subreddit mod) used to remind me that it’s not about speed but quality, which is something I often forget…
In regards to Miru Bot, your story made me smile! I’m sure many share the same experience as you and have greatly benefited from Miru Bot’s great features. I hope TR himself is also reading this to see how his little daughter has positively impacted everyone!
I too hope that not only our team, but all content creators to gain more support from this. Let’s all continue making PAD enjoyable! 🙂
Let’s see… How can I do this without blowing a hole into it this time…
http://bit.ly/HeartfeltComment
Hmmm…
TADA!! It Stuck!! I knew my old friend would come in handy…
This should be okay to use on Comments if one is willing to make a account here & start doing these things. {Sure would work on the Subreddit when it comes to posting tons of links in 1 go. Just making all the custom links & use the Monster ID Numbers, paste once & change the Numbers to get a new photo…well, that’s me anyway.}
Holy smokes I’m sorry that my comments section failed so much that you had to use GDoc!
Your story in Part 3 really hits home for me – I’m glad I’m not alone! “Why bother” is the most common question I ask every Friday night, when a truck load of news fly in and I wonder why I’m not at a bar drinking instead.
I used to be in my own dark hole too – I prefer lurking and doing nothing but playing PAD. You have my respect for posting as well. 🙂
With Miru Bot, at least everything is automated. As long as nothing breaks, it’ll be fine… At least, there are a few Miru Bot admins who stepped up to try to maintain her, keeping her alive. I secretly hope TR himself gets a good break and will come back for this. I treat this as sending his daughter to a summer camp (lol).
The other good news I can tell you is that PDX isn’t (too) dead, it’s updating (in fact the front page updated… to a version 16.3 banner finally)! Let’s see how it will grow though. I feel a bit more hopeful. 🙂
Tackling the dungeons is really an insane task. I’m a potato when it comes to coding, so I can only watch everyone do their magic and maybe cheer them on. It saddens me to witness all this from start to finish when I can’t do anything productive to help too. Many thinks it’s as simple as getting the data from the game, but understanding the data is no trivial task. If it’s so easy, it’d be done by now, in year 7 of PAD.
It’s crazy how much feels this post brought out, and I’m seriously thankful to finally hear from all of you. All the warm messages here definitely given many content creator hope. We certainly don’t feel so lonely anymore. 🙂
Let’s try it part 1 :
Well i have the habbit to write wall of text xD again i’m still a bit ashamed not to thank you every time i read an article you’ve spend time on, it’s just bad internet habbit
On an NA news you cant make another blog like PDX academy ? Or you’re trying to have it inside Blogging Mama ? If it’s the second i guess you need another « tab » to seperate JP and NA news i guess, i dont know much about coding there too sorry xD. But again i’m not sure about the added value to the official gungho america twitter, maybe when a collab come to NA having a link to the « old » post made in JP ? The thing i’m missing for the twitter account is what to do on events that are not REM related, things like when they put a buffed PAL event or an invade latent TAMADRA or right now there is a monster xp x1,5 in training arena which is great, maybe having a post about the common strategies to beat it would interest people ? Same when a new dungeon appear like libertas, a post about how to beat it or farm it is what i would like to know, same with ranking dungeons. Things i get from sgt502 on youtube to be fair.
I hope you’ll get thing working somehow good luck/work on that xD take-my-energy ?!
Hey Shamrodia,
Please don’t try to thank every article, it gets tiring REALLY fast lol!
So for NA news, I’m on the same train of thought – something like the news end but with NA news. The tricky bit that I had a dilemma with was to repost anything that is identical between NA/JP, which I’ve discussed with Ken and Chu and had a solution, which finally worked as of this morning!! (It took me 2+ weeks to figure out what my mistake was, it was silly). I can reassure you that it’s in the works, and with today’s breakthrough I think it’s 70% ready. Almost there for NA news! (And poor Ken because he’ll likely have to help maintaining it)
I like the idea of “how to beat a selected descended dungeon”! Previously I was looking at it in a farming standpoint and worried about constantly updating it, but if it’s a floor by floor strategy and just a few links here and there, I think it should be doable even by a noob like me. I gotta look into it a bit more to see how time consuming it will be for me though!
But yeah, it’ll be kinda crazy to turn the blog into JP/NA for reals, we shall see how this plan turns out. 🙂
maybe not every single one but sometimes ^^
I dont know why i cant post more as reply or new post, being long or short :s i had other parts in my initial answer but i guess here is not the right place to post that, are you on discord or somewhere else maybe more stable ?
For NA news, congratulation on fixing your problem !!!! i’m eager to see the results when it comes ! if you need help dont hesitate
yeah ! that reply worked !!!!! xD
“Sending his daughter to Summer Camp” Lol!! Very cute… Besides, she grew up well so far. Still needs to ditch that Void Shield of hers…hate to VPK her {Void Pierce Kill} on her own dungeon… grr lol!
I’m hopeful for the V16.3 Update that you pointed out. Let’s also hope that Crystal Sonia {Blonia} changes to Sonia-Clea 1 day…
I honestly thought that the data gathering taks of the dungeons were to be insanely hard too. I’m also a potato when it comes to coding, so I can relate to that. Thankfully altogether it’s slowly “blossoming again”…slowly…
Lastly, the feelings it brought out, it was a shellshock to me truthfully. So I’m very happy to know that you all don’t feel so alone. You’re not alone in this, {Grr Alan Walker!!! Lol} I’ll return back to my Black Hole, but I’ll pop out every now & then when the needs arise. Like the Dungeon Bonus point out. Do know this wouldn’t be the last time I’ll pop out of my Shadows though. Tata though & may the Big Blogging Mama be showed with happiness!!