NTE Developers forget to remove AI watermark

[u/YourLilyInaPot]

In their newest update 1.3, a new area has been added, along with it came new fishing spots and fishing catches.

One of their fishing assets contains the watermark from Doubao (豆包) a popular Chinese AI chatbot assistant with image and video generation powered by Seedance (Bytedance).

This has sparked heated debate amongst Chinese players, while not hardly criticizing the use of AI they do make fun of the fact that Doubao’s AI image generation watermark comes from the free version of the app, with many comments calling them cheap, criticizing their carelessness and questioning the real reason behind their low production costs.

To quote one of the comments:

“AI is fine, but using Doubao is just funny. The free version no less.”

Other comments talk about AI across the Chinese gaming industry, how other companies such as Hoyoverse and Netease have self-developed AI tools while Hotta Studio uses an AI chatbot assistant.

To put it on perspective, asking Doubao to generate an image is very similar to asking ChatGPT.

Quote from another comment:

“Doubao Doubao, help me generate a game asset of a purple crowned seahorse.”

I’ll add that the Chinese community already knew about the extent of AI usage in Neverness to Everness, though they weren’t expecting to see Doubao of all things.

As of this post, the watermark has been removed with the asset remaining the same otherwise.

[u/jenniuinely]

This sums up my issue with the character designs as well, going all the way back to ToF. So many of the characters just feel like a mess because it’s just a bunch of shit slapped on + fan service. I still play NTE but I don’t really understand the amount of people that praise the character designs, they all just kinda look goofy and a hot mess

[u/PetableCats → u/jenniuinely]

Agreed that most are a hot mess - but imo there are some simpler ones that just look good: Daffodil's city outfit is hands-down my favorite in this and most games i've played. A jacket, jeans and shirt with some patches - simple and works

similar imo with Nanally's default and school outfit, Lacrimosa's home design or Hotori's Orchid skin. They are simple and that simplicity is something alot of people really miss after the over-(even if well-)designed characters in Genshin, HSR or ZZZ

hella wish hotta would continue with those types of skins, not a fan of most designs after Shinku...

[u/avelineaurora → u/jenniuinely]

Because a lot of them are really good? I definitely agree a lot look like a hot mess, but the more urban styled ones do all have really nice designs. I'm still really ticked Haniel is an A-rank, lol.