Ah the great horror of not knowing how the fuck the mechanics work and so you must trust others to guide the way. Now with our death thing becoming the lord of a fiery underworld of ash and smoke is a option. I don't want to be evil but being the powerful black god of death that waits for all at the end is something I could see as being nice. And drowning the world in sulfur and toxic clouds at a later date of course.
Would recommend you check out the other two Amber Age quests or at least the previous one by Powerofmind. They are decent reads and even though the mechanics generally changed they will give you an idea of how things work and the terminology.
Here are some links.
[X] The Ash Pits (Unlocked by Ash Field Tile): Your shrine passively produces a UNIQUE mortal luxury resource every turn.
[X] Preside over the Death Rites at Kut (Unlocked by Settlement DOGMA/Ritualist Skill) (Generates DE): Free
[X] Inspire within Influence (Unlocked by Inspire) (Generates Faith progress): 3 DE
-[X] Inspire Medicine Men (Unlocked by Toil (Medicine subtype)) (Generates ???))
[X] Burial Shrine (Unlocked by Death Aspect): Your shrine accumulates 0.5 DE each turn, increasing by 0.5 for each 5 population in the supporting settlement.
[X] Stave off Death at Kut (Unlocked by Settlement DEPENDENCY/Toil Skill) (Increases Kut Growth): Free
[X] Burial Shrine (Unlocked by Death Aspect): Your shrine accumulates 0.5 DE each turn, increasing by 0.5 for each 5 population in the supporting settlement.
[X] Stave off Death at Kut (Unlocked by Settlement DEPENDENCY/Toil Skill) (Increases Kut Growth): Free
[X] Burial Shrine (Unlocked by Death Aspect): Your shrine accumulates 0.5 DE each turn, increasing by 0.5 for each 5 population in the supporting settlement.
[X] Preside over the Death Rites at Kut (Unlocked by Settlement DOGMA/Ritualist Skill) (Generates DE): Free
[X] Clairvoyance (Unlocked by Mysticism/Genius Loci) (Reveals a map tile up to INFLUENCE+2 away from a shrine): DE 0-2, Max 2 times per turn (based on distance from max influence)
Ok, here's my thinking. I feel like Ash Pits are going to be an upgrade we should buy later rather than right now. There are lots of other luxury goods in the area, and while the Holy Ash will likely be an important ritual item, we don't have the resources to actually sustain rituals and the like on a significant scale just yet. We need to pin down the basics, and that means more DE now.
While Death Rites will generate bonus DE, I think we'll see better returns if we focus on getting the Burial Shrine to improve not just our base DE generation, but our growth rate. It will scale with our population, and with Stave Off Death we can get our population to grow very quickly in these first few turns.
Additionally, the ash makeup in our first proto-ritual evoked an aged, wizened appearance. Working towards some kind of apsect of age/the elderly is likely to be very valuable to us, given that we are a knowledge/mysticism/death spirit, and our inspirations (our bread and butter) will be for things like medicine and story tellers.
So my suggestion is to push up our population fast for more DE income, compounded by the burial shrine, and then buy the Ash resource and the Death Rites once we have a little more of a base established.
Let's go Deathless Ones.
[X] Burial Shrine (Unlocked by Death Aspect): Your shrine accumulates 0.5 DE each turn, increasing by 0.5 for each 5 population in the supporting settlement.
[X] Stave off Death at Kut (Unlocked by Settlement DEPENDENCY/Toil Skill) (Increases Kut Growth): Free
[X] Clairvoyance (Unlocked by Mysticism/Genius Loci) (Reveals a map tile up to INFLUENCE+2 away from a shrine): DE 0-2, Max 2 times per turn (based on distance from max influence)
tl;dr When it's this early and we're this weak, the first thing to do is start fortifying our growth rate- that's best served through Stave Off Death + Burial Shrine.
Adhoc vote count started by Ekans Ekans Ekans on Apr 25, 2018 at 3:28 PM, finished with 580 posts and 22 votes.
[X] Preside over the Death Rites at Kut (Unlocked by Settlement DOGMA/Ritualist Skill) (Generates DE): Free
[X] Clairvoyance (Unlocked by Mysticism/Genius Loci) (Reveals a map tile up to INFLUENCE+2 away from a shrine): DE 0-2, Max 2 times per turn (based on distance from max influence)
[X] Burial Shrine (Unlocked by Death Aspect): Your shrine accumulates 0.5 DE each turn, increasing by 0.5 for each 5 population in the supporting settlement.
[X] Clairvoyance (Unlocked by Mysticism/Genius Loci) (Reveals a map tile up to INFLUENCE+2 away from a shrine): DE 2, Max 2 times per turn(based on distance from max influence)
[X] Clairvoyance (Unlocked by Mysticism/Genius Loci) (Reveals a map tile up to INFLUENCE+2 away from a shrine): DE 0-2, Max 2 times per turn (based on distance from max influence) 1 DE
[X] Burial Shrine (Unlocked by Death Aspect): Your shrine accumulates 0.5 DE each turn, increasing by 0.5 for each 5 population in the supporting settlement.
[X] Stave off Death at Kut (Unlocked by Settlement DEPENDENCY/Toil Skill) (Increases Kut Growth): Free
Like, right now we can't really USE Ash Pits very well yet. We need the bonus DE.
But more importantly, we're still small so we're best served taking the only growth trait (Stave), and that definitely pairs best with Burial Shrine. We just don't really have a lot of DE to work with yet. Ash is a luxury in more than one sense. We need to focus on staples right now.
Uhhhh? I'm just advocating for what I think are better choices. ALL of these options are key upgrades, and we're near-guaranteed to get all of them eventually. Whatever we don't get now, we'll presumably buy later. Is there really a need to target me personally over that?
[X] Focused Reach (Unlocked by Genius Loci): Your shrine passively counts as having 1 additional influence when determining it's influence range.
This one I stand behind. We are the Crevice of Death. The Ashen End. The Bottomless Hole. It doesn't matter if you are buried with Us, if you live in Our village or how your life ends. As long as you live and die on this island, you are within Our domain.
That is what is +1 Range means. With it we will be able to rule all before we even expand. Who needs growth when your passive range covers all you desire?
[X] Preside over the Death Rites at Kut (Unlocked by Settlement DOGMA/Ritualist Skill) (Generates DE): Free
This is where my vote changes. Power is Power, and Power is what we need if we want to actually do something useful. While free growth sounds good, do recall that it's only the amount of growth a zero-cost action can give.
[X] Clairvoyance (Unlocked by Mysticism/Genius Loci) (Reveals a map tile up to INFLUENCE+2 away from a shrine): DE 0-2, Max 2 times per turn (based on distance from max influence) 1 DE
This one's also still here, and I will not lie, part of my reasoning for using this is that I hope to find some unfriendly people to smite. I ain't letting us have that ability without flexing it at least once earlygame!
Uhhhh? I'm just advocating for what I think are better choices. ALL of these options are key upgrades, and we're near-guaranteed to get all of them eventually. Whatever we don't get now, we'll presumably buy later. Is there really a need to target me personally over that?
Sorry, we just remember you as the guy who kept making reasonable plans that ended up winning, so for us outspoken minorities the Triple Reversed Snake kinda became a final boss to beat if we wanted to get our desires through. ^^'
VERY WELL THEN! Behold this plan, that shall spell the end of all!
[X] Plan The Shadow Sees All
-[X] Focused Reach (Unlocked by Genius Loci): Your shrine passively counts as having 1 additional influence when determining it's influence range.
-[X] Preside over the Death Rites at Kut (Unlocked by Settlement DOGMA/Ritualist Skill) (Generates DE): Free
-[X] Clairvoyance (Unlocked by Mysticism/Genius Loci) (Reveals a map tile up to INFLUENCE+2 away from a shrine): DE 0-2, Max 2 times per turn (Two Squares left of our Shrine) 1 DE
Whether you are living, dead or the land itself, rest assured that Siah'Ah Ikki is watching!
I would also like to point the synergy between Clairvoyance and boosting our Influence range.
[X] Burial Shrine (Unlocked by Death Aspect): Your shrine accumulates 0.5 DE each turn, increasing by 0.5 for each 5 population in the supporting settlement.
[X] Stave off Death at Kut (Unlocked by Settlement DEPENDENCY/Toil Skill) (Increases Kut Growth): Free
[X] Clairvoyance (Unlocked by Mysticism/Genius Loci) (Reveals a map tile up to INFLUENCE+2 away from a shrine): DE 0-2, Max 2 times per turn (based on distance from max influence)
Switching to Ekans as I have been convinced our special brand of ash can be put off and I'd like to see our old mortals perform funny dances tbh.
The price is also based on how far away you get from Max Influence. So not only do we get to pick one square further away, we also get to pick one square further away for free.
... BRB, adding a free action to The Shadow Sees All.
