Who are the best ONI players?

[Mr. Rimbaud]

From ALL the players we know, who are the ones with more knowledge about the game mechanics? For example, the top 5 players who could survive the most adverse situations and know the game in a minimalistic level?

[Nedix]

Brothgar, Francis, Tony to say the least. I'm sure there are pleeeeenty of other very good players.

[suxkar]

47 minutes ago, Nedix said:

Brothgar, Francis, Tony to say the least. I'm sure there are pleeeeenty of other very good players.

While these people are very good at the game and very entertaining (I have a weak spot for Francis), I've been impressed by the knowledge of some players here in the forums. I think some people like Nakomaru and Mathmatican know the game so well that thay are basically playing a different game compared to the one we basic mortals are playing  There are more of course whose name I don't remember right now. There was Oozinator too, but he disappeared after launch. God bless his soul, I enjoyed his posts.

[TripleM999]

i think, there are 5 kinds/levels of oni player:

1. What mechanic?

2. played by the mechanic

3. play against the mechanic

4. play with the mechanic

5. play the mechanic

[Nedix]

@suxkar as I said, I'm sure there are plenty of others, the ones you mentioned, also Wintermute, Lifegrow and so on. The game is way too complex for a top 10 because there are so many play styles. I for one play for fun and flattening the spikes of searing heat, leakages, waves of no food, scarce water, burning volcanoes, broken boilers while dealing with my dupes' tantrums and so on. When I'll be able able to manager these things properly then I will say I know how to play the game. And btw, I play the game from when mealwood needed water, when you started the game and you could immediately build a high-pressure vent, when you could build insulated tiles with abyssalite ... basically for a long time

[Gurgel]

The question is nonsense. ONI is far to diverse in the experience you can have. It makes no sense to define a "best" style.

Also, there are probably quite a few excellent players where you never get to see what they can do, because they care about playing the game, not about showing the world. 

[Mr. Rimbaud]

3 hours ago, Gurgel said:

The question is nonsense. ONI is far to diverse in the experience you can have. It makes no sense to define a "best" style.

Also, there are probably quite a few excellent players where you never get to see what they can do, because they care about playing the game, not about showing the world. 

I tried to be specific: 'the top 5 players who could survive the most adverse situations and know the game in a minimalistic level...'

But I do agree, it is too diverse. What I was thinking about was, if the game was more dinamic, with increasing dificulty levels as time passes, who would be the more flexible player. Because I think we can get easily confortable with the strategies we learn in the game. 

[Zarquan]

3 hours ago, Gurgel said:

The question is nonsense. ONI is far to diverse in the experience you can have. It makes no sense to define a "best" style.

Also, there are probably quite a few excellent players where you never get to see what they can do, because they care about playing the game, not about showing the world. 

I wouldn't say it's nonsense.  If there are a few highly skilled players on the forums, then following them and reading their posts makes a lot of sense. 

[TheMule]

12 hours ago, suxkar said:

While these people are very good at the game and very entertaining (I have a weak spot for Francis), I've been impressed by the knowledge of some players here in the forums. I think some people like Nakomaru and Mathmatican know the game so well that thay are basically playing a different game compared to the one we basic mortals are playing  There are more of course whose name I don't remember right now. There was Oozinator too, but he disappeared after launch. God bless his soul, I enjoyed his posts.

I second this. Actually, I raise with a Saturnus.

I like both Francis John and Brothgar, alongside with other youtubers. But I don't think FJ is into game mechanics. He's pretty vanilla when it comes to that. He likes crazy builds but it's more about the size or the concept. I've never seen him playing much with beads, or waterfalls. There's a little more about that from Brothgar but still... I'm a new player (relatively speaking, I started after launch), but a couple of times I was like "come on man even I know that!" when watching Brothgar's videos. 
 

That said, it's debatable that spending a lot of time in studying the quirks of the game makes you a better player. I don't even know if being able to do everything at 100% efficiency qualify you as a better player. As long as you get the job done it's a matter of personal taste how you do it.

I mean what is better? A complicated build that tames a CSV, managing to never let it overpressurize, and being self powered at the same time (maybe with a split turbine and bypass pumps) or as simple straightforward condenser with AT+ST, which manages to get almost all the water and consumes 200/300W on average? Some people love the idea of efficiency. But I often wonder "why bother?" I can get almost the same result investing 1/3 of ingame buiding time and 1/10 of my brain attention. Maybe I'm sitting on 300t of coal do I really care of saving 200/300W? Or do I keep a fast pace and only after cycle 1000 I start looking around and optimize stuff?

It's a matter of personal style. I know because my style has changed over time. I used to be about base efficiency and symmetry from the start... spending time thinking how to make rooms and ladders that would be upgradable all the way to cycle 1000+. I've restarted many times because I was unsatisfied of how the base looked like. Then one day I stopped caring... a new concept of efficiency was born that day for me... to get the most with  minimal effort. Now I build what I need when I need it w/o overthinking it. The faster I can solve a problem the sooner I can move to the next one. A solution requires manual intervention? I don't care, as long as it's reasonable and a notification warns me so I don't have to remember.

I'm now a horrible player by my own old standards. My bases are a mess (they do work tho...). Cots are scattered all around in random rooms, built on demand. Some are not even aligned with the standard 4 tile high ones. I don't care, as long as my dups get the bonus. But I find this playstyle vastly superior to my previous one. I'm definitely better at beating the game.

FJ's motto is "throw power at the problem". As long as you have power, there's nothing wrong with that. I actually like it.

[Slvrsrfr]

QuQuasar makes art. imho

[Baer]

The best Oni Players trow math over problems, like i never wouldn't even think about it. I mean, i know what happen when you accidently heat up oil and try to prevent that, because of the mess that comes with it. and then there sit there and try to get the most benefit from that. i build the way, the game told me to do.

i like francis the most, because he speaks fast and clear and did not force to be "funny" like other guys, who make noises or are terrible in cutting. he is easy to understand for not native english speaker, like me.

[OxCD]

It started on "who's the best player" and ended up on "who's the best streamer" or "who's the best demonstrator" (depending on the content support you use to follow).

I'll join Gurgel point of view here.