So, it occurs to me that sacraments do not advance us towards winning.
They are tools, sure, but they are also a gigantic AP sink that isn't finding and killing an outsider. So we should drop omnilore and pick sacraments based entirely on what we actually need to have to kill.
eh, yes and no. Sacraments give us options that are likely to help with near everything. there hasn't been a single realization that hasn't been very useful at times, and we assume Sacraments are Realizations on steroids.
...actually, I suppose teh Heart Realization has never been used, but that's because we've avoided going to zero health. It's still nice to have that extra bit of insurance.
In any case, as we proceed we are likely to get to the lvl 4 caps. As we do, it's only sensible to unlock the sacraments, especially if they're not too expensive.
I expect it won't be worth it to pursue the lvl 6 though, unless we get lucky with books or have no other uses for our Names...
I think completionism is actually a trap. The more time we spend not winning, the more things can go wrong, and the more we will lose.
Let mansus burn behind us. We know the only think that matters is the climb ahead, right? So thinks everyone who climbs past the blank plains.
well, to a point it certainly is. But the Mansus has been fascinating, and each and every location has offered us something of value... except maybe the Dry Well?
Sorry? The author absolutely comes up with these situations. He writes the actions of all our enemies and determines what our options are. The fact that I admire a well-balanced moral dilemma doesn't mean I ignore that there is a person doing the balancing.
The point is he doesn't write updates from the perspective of "how do I have things happen so that I might insert an RA option here", but "ok, this is how I feel things should happen, given Velvet's plans and what I know the other characters are doing in the background. Is there any problem that could be "solved" by an RA AND that the Wolf would be "willing" to "help" with?"
The normal consequences of actions in the world are what Bird decides they will be.
This isn't a roguelike.
So we are going to have more chances to choose an RA, because that's the story that is being told, and to make it an actual dilemma the other options are going to be horrific. But that's a task the author takes on, not a situation the author has no choice in.
You're missing the point, that Bird is writing the story from the perspective of "These are all the elements in play, how should they naturally develop?"
In a way, his approach is to try and have the characters and situations happen by themselves, with him "narrating" more than "deciding" what happens, because things happen as they HAVE to when the characters behave in a consistent manner.
Which is to say, we get a chance to use RAs only when it makes sense for us to get such a chance, and not when the Author would just like us to do one.
Yeah gonna have to disagree with you there. Good and evil aren't just labels you can slap on top of arbitrary logic. They are the codification of intuitions we all have. So I can judge something evil without needing to bow to its own internal view of the situation.
And Mansus, with the woods included, have not been shown to have anything good in them.
It might be the fact that this is a horror game, but every location has been dangerous in one way or another, none have had anything nice or kind or relaxing, and every time we've learned more it's been accompanied by trauma.
This might be a case of what has been shown through horror lense rather than what is "really" there, but tbh that style of argument feels a lot like flat earthers.
So I don't really feel bad for breaking parts of it. It isn't worth preserving.
At best, it is worth remaking. But mansus is not Glory- it's the thing that prevents Glory.
The Mansus is no more evil than a predator animal would be. Morality just doesn't apply.
Nobody is FORCED to enter the Mansus and go through its dangers. It's a choice the cultists made because they want power.
If they didn't want the power, they'd be welcomed to go on and have normal, peaceful lives.
To climb the mansus is to face a series of challenges, and to learn and grow from them.
Unless you fail. But everyone who climbs should understand there's dangers in the climb.
and the Mansus is not "the thing that prevent Glory". It's
the path to Glory. The obstacles are meant to protect it from threats, including the "evil" gods (Gods from Nowhere, implied to be worse than any of the NORMAL Hours, representing such things as pestilence, domination, cancers, parasites and so on) and the Worms.
Now, there ARE evil things in the Mansus. The main ones we saw in Quest would be the Wolf (obviously) and Mareinette. The Master too, up to a point.
And remember that, as Baldomare said, "The Mansus and the Wake are the same thing". Would you call the world evil because it has diseases, predators, wars, tyrants, corrupt politicians, criminals and so on?
By their very nature the lores are important in a cultist sim quest. We don't actually know how we're gonna find/kill/whatever the outsiders yet, and as such we don't know which lores/sacraments are essential, just that we need them to keep advancing our lores, and expanding our powers/die roll numbers. Nor do we exert a lot of control over which lores we find scraps for most of the time. While we shouldn't go crazy with trying to get all the sacraments fast, we're going to want to keep working on them as they come up barring a more specific plan forward, which we don't have yet, and the paths we're seeing so far won't let us rush things anyway.
I wonder... we're going to get the SH sacrament in a turn or two, at this rate. Should we bother trying to reach SH 6 at all?
The trend is clear that each level is worth more than the previous one (though lvl 2 is kinda disappointing in that it offers nothing new), so lvl 6 might be worth a lot... but then again, it presumably requires 6 scraps, and at this point our only reliable source is Baldomare, and we need her for scrying, Lantern lessons/Sacraments, summoning Maids, possibly Memory of Light and so on...
And if we happened to find a lvl 5 or 6 SH book we'd likely want to give it to her rather than read it ourselves anyway...
Lores are also a gigantic timesink that do not advance us towards the goal we have. If you are doing a project, you want to only have the tools you need to compete it, not every possible tool, especially if tool collection keeps you from working on the project.
Except we have multiple projects/dangers we have to deal with, and no one single tool is enough for all of them. And having all the high level rolls has helped us a lot, saving us lots of actions in the Mansus as we failed very few challenges (blank door the first time, gift of agony first time, Running away from Mareinette) and only the first time it actually slowed us down by ONE turn.
it has also helped in making the summons easy and reliable, saving us on multiple rerolls...
And each level is worth more than the previous ones. lvl 3 was a useful power, lvl 4 was a reroll, now lvl 5 is going to be an even MORE useful power, and they open options for us, which we need.
