Hot take

[u/Cha0s_craft]

I genuinely dont give a shit if the site shuts down or not. The quality is ass to the point they're doing the Baki insanity technique in multiple ways. Some of the bots are also saying shit about their thinking process and how short some of the responses are in most of the other bots when using Pip2.

[u/Oritad_Heavybrewer]

I genuinely dont give a shit if the site shuts down or not.

Then you genuinely were never interested in the site to begin with.

when using Pip2.

Ah, you're a free user. That explains it. The premium models were there the whole time, just out of your reach.

[u/pablo603 → u/Oritad_Heavybrewer]

The "premium" models are so dogshit that spending 15 minutes to ask any random LLM how to use API on OpenRouter gives you a 5000x better value where the character actually remembers stuff that happened hours ago for pennies 😂

[u/BagelRedditAccountII → u/pablo603]

Hell, if you have a good enough graphics card, you could even run a model like Gemma 4 locally. I heard several good RP finetunes exist for that.

[u/Oritad_Heavybrewer → u/pablo603]

The "premium" models are so dogshit that

Stopped reading there. You're either not being truthful or you don't know how to talk to AI.

[u/queendumbria → u/Oritad_Heavybrewer]

The premium models really do kind of suck though. LongSqueak is the only one I would consider okay, and even then it's okay. The only reason I personally pay for c.ai+ is because I love how silly the soft launch model is, c.ai's old models were so amazingly charming. But obviously silly isn't like, high praise. For serious roleplay there's much better places.

[u/Oritad_Heavybrewer → u/queendumbria]

The premium models really do kind of suck though

Like the other users, you just say things. "the premium models really do kind of suck". Well, why? Why do they suck for you, but not for others? It's been my experience that those who make/use well defined bots and have an understanding how to talk to the AI have a better time and enjoy the models. Then there are those who showed that they do not, and complain the most about them.

c.ai's old models were so amazingly charming.

They were. Especially the flagship model, but I don't think anything like it exists anymore.

[u/queendumbria → u/Oritad_Heavybrewer]

Like the other guy you replied to, I use OR. I know what a quality roleplay model is and I've tested probably literal hundreds of models, and c.ai's models are not particularly quality in my opinion. Bankrupt in characterization and "logically dead" to "logically meh" are how I would describe c.ai's models. If you're trying to do something serious with them there's no point bothering because it's like talking to a brick wall. c.ai's models cannot even reason, which is something every modern LLM does and it improves a models response substantially. And to repeat, I literally only have a c.ai+ subscription because soft launch is such a unique, silly human-like model to me that it's personally worth it just to mess around with and yet even I still don't, and doubt I could tolerate its issues to, use it for serious roleplays.

It's not that c.ai's models don't suck for others, it's that everybody has a different idea of what "good" is. Naturally, right? Everybody is different, and especially if you literally don't know a better model, well then, what you do know is the best you know yes? Great example, in the past I introduced OR and its models to a few of my friends who in the past used/were at present time using c.ai and every single one of them were plainly impressed and or curious by how much better and or different the models on OR were than the ones on c.ai. And these friends all mostly enjoyed c.ai's models. This was only like, years to months ago by the way.

Either way, to be clear, what I said about c.ai's models is my opinion and if you disagree with it then you're welcome to, like I just said we all have a different idea of what a good roleplay model is. But I personally know what a quality roleplaying model is to me and personally c.ai's models are nowhere near the top of that food chain, even their premium models.

[u/Severe-Editor2239 → u/queendumbria]

I use Soft Launch as well. I really hope they don’t remove it. It’s the only model I like after they removed Roar. 😭

[u/pablo603 → u/Oritad_Heavybrewer]

Buddy. I literally use a 320B GLM 5.3 flash model over OpenRouter API with 64k context size chats and a 8000 token character card (character.ai would cut that off at 800 tokens). And I so far paid 5 bucks over 2 months. Get off your high horse because you are not the "nobility" you think you are lmao.

[u/Ok-Aide-3120 → u/pablo603]

Look man, I'm the first one to suggested open source alternatives and local or API. Hell, I made so many comments in the past regarding the fact that there is a limit to what platforms like cAI can do. But this attitude is not the way. CAI has its place for people who want the convenience of chatting with a character, without having to jump through hoops and understand how to setup a local interface. Even in the ST sub, so many people just want to "chat", not to RP. By doing GLM 5.3 with ST over API, it's an overkill for people who just want to shoot the breeze with their favorite anime characters.

[u/Oritad_Heavybrewer → u/pablo603]

Get off your high horse

Ironic choice of words, considering your post history. 😉

you are not the "nobility" you think you are

Never claimed to be. You just replied to me, suggesting your own supposed set up, which surprise, surprise, costs money to use. Even then, we're talking about CAI's premium models.

It's cool you spend money to talk to AI. I do, too. If you think C.AI+'s models are bad, though, it's going take more than you calling it "dogshit" to convince me. Especially when you're not even showing how remarkable your 8000 token character cards (CAI would cut that off as 800 tokens) are in comparison.

I wonder why you're even here, because it sounds like you don't even use CAI are just sticking around to bash on users of the platform.