Enlightenment

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Tzeneetch and Nurgle…
That plays oddly with Yon'a specialties, but not entirely?
Like for Tzeneetch, it sounds weird but is a god of Hope. I can see that glomming onto a Doctor to lure them into bad things, and given his focus on Magic it almost feels like a natural slide into Necromacy.
Nurgle plays into the durability we got via Diamond Body and Iron Kettle…

So that's something to note going forward…
 
[X] Heavy Weapons
[X] Communications

Going with this combo since it seems like a natural extension of Yon's displayed endurance and sensibility.

Also, it's notable that this vote is not something that Yon is choosing himself, or not solely his choice. This is in part what specialty he's being assigned. Consequently, unanimity here might have a different effect from normal.
 
Aabcehmu said:
[X] Heavy Weapons
[X] Communications

Going with this combo since it seems like a natural extension of Yon's displayed endurance and sensibility.

Also, it's notable that this vote is not something that Yon is choosing himself, or not solely his choice. This is in part what specialty he's being assigned. Consequently, unanimity here might have a different effect from normal.
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I think Communications here is meant to mean Military Communications, relaying information between squads and such, rather than social skills or the like.

I've said it earlier, but I feel like it's going to be something we'd be better off leaving to someone else in our squad.
 
Guest99 said:
I think Communications here is meant to mean Military Communications, relaying information between squads and such, rather than social skills or the like.

I've said it earlier, but I feel like it's going to be something we'd be better off leaving to someone else in our squad.
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Yeah, I expect it's going to be using radio and other military comms systems, maybe even computers.

I do think it's important, because even apart from social opportunity, it means information advantage. Intrinsically, they'd be teaching Yon about who he'll be speaking with, and that means learning more about what he's gotten himself into and the warband he's joined.
 
Abby Normal said:
As for the vote, my first instinct is heavy or special weapons, but again from my limited 40k knowledge i'm under the impression that a number of heavy or special weapons are rather prone to damaging the user on a semi-regular basis. Maybe thats just over-charged plasma weapons tho? Hm. Going for the special training is also something i'm torn about. either one is part of our major advantages, but it means in-universe coming up lacking for specialist skills...which if i'm right about the split in God alignment, probably is fine or even good in the eyes of the nurgle drill instructors, but bad in the eyes of the possibly tzeentch coded superior officers in the Lotus Eye proper... Of course, these are both metagaming concerns, but...
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That's usually just plasma weaponry outside of things like daemon weapons (and we're not going to be wielding those anytime soon) or things like Mechanicus Rad weaponry. If anything, Diamond Body+Heavy/Special weapons seems even stronger in that context because overcharged plasma weapons are really lethal to be on the receiving end of- being able to tank the backlash of using those sort of weapons makes Yon much more lethal/valuable.
 
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Guest99 said:
Counter-point: Diamond Body is what gives us our very hand incredible Stamina, which is what got us so much favour this time around. Our consistent ability to endure is intrinsically tied to this specific skill, and is very much a respected trait among our trainers.
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I'm pretty sure it was the combination of Diamond Body and Iron Kettle Stomach that let Yon go on for as long as he did. Diamond Body gave him the physical endurance that got him far enough to go from the middle of the back to the front of the pack comparatively. Iron Kettle Stomach then allowed him to take in more spiritual essence with every breath to supplement his physical endurance when he would otherwise begin flagging. Even then, after his body gave out and this round of testing concluded, he was able to use Iron Kettle Stomach to essentially reprocess fatigue toxins (mundane and spiritual) to help keep himself conscious.
TLDR: His Diamond Body is the outcome, but without Iron Kettle Stomach to fuel it, Yon would not have performed as well as he did.

Edit: Right, should throw in a vote:

[X] Special: Iron Kettle Belly

Edit 2: Took off my second vote. Not sure on a secondary specialty, but I really do think there's a lot of value to be had from Iron Kettle Stomach.
 
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[X] Special: Iron Kettle Belly

Counterpoint to the Diamond Body argument, we also noticed that the food we received is not spiritually filling, but we were able to derive some energy from the very air we breathe. Recuperating, let alone advancing our cultivation is going to be difficult out here.So we need to take a page from the Inca and get better at it. We need to be able to get the most that we can of every single piece of cultivation resource we can get. That will be the key to keeping our stamina up.

[X] Heavy Weapons
 
I'm curious why the emphasis on marksmanship, it's not particularly safe, it's not contingent on durability, nor particularly visible/prestigious, and it doesn't really seem to play into our strengths besides Yon being reasonably intelligent and pragmatic. I suppose if we're trying to desert it might make things slightly easier but being the designated marksman
 
Karugus said:
I'm curious why the emphasis on marksmanship, it's not particularly safe, it's not contingent on durability, nor particularly visible/prestigious, and it doesn't really seem to play into our strengths besides Yon being reasonably intelligent and pragmatic. I suppose if we're trying to desert it might make things slightly easier but being the designated marksman
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We're not going to be a designated marksman either, we're going to be a squad leader. Honestly if people want a "get better at personal combat" pick, they should be grabbing assault I'd say, since that sounds like actual melee stuff, which Yon has at least some familiarity with. I doubt Yon has ever held a gun before.
 
The part that confuses me is Communication being the second most popular pick. Like, it's good to have someone to do it, but I really don't see how it fits with Yon's build? Leadership I would understand, but Military Communications is a very specific role that I genuinely don't see us needing to fill on our own, given, well, 20-man squad leader.
 
[X] Leadership
[] Special Weapons
[X] Heavy Weapons

I don't know if being a sergeant is enough to get issued a fancy pistol in a heavy infantry regiment, but I'm sure would like to try for it. Unfortunately doubt it's going to win though, so heavy it is.
 
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Sivantic said:
[X] Special: Iron Kettle Belly

Counterpoint to the Diamond Body argument, we also noticed that the food we received is not spiritually filling, but we were able to derive some energy from the very air we breathe. Recuperating, let alone advancing our cultivation is going to be difficult out here.So we need to take a page from the Inca and get better at it. We need to be able to get the most that we can of every single piece of cultivation resource we can get. That will be the key to keeping our stamina up.

[X] Heavy Weapons
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Good Point

[X] Special: Iron Kettle Belly
[X] Heavy Weapons
 
Guest99 said:
The part that confuses me is Communication being the second most popular pick. Like, it's good to have someone to do it, but I really don't see how it fits with Yon's build? Leadership I would understand, but Military Communications is a very specific role that I genuinely don't see us needing to fill on our own, given, well, 20-man squad leader.
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It means information. Communications training means being told who we'll be talking with, other units in the warband, the codenames for tanks and vehicles and how to recognize them, and the names of the celestials and the etiquette of how to speak with them without giving offense.

If this was in any way a normal person doing normal basic boot camp, I'd agree, but Yon completely lacks context for so much important stuff. Comms specialty is a way of getting that context.
 
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I know SV is prone to some incredibly clever argument to convince itself that actually we should learn to be a machine gunner/mechanic and that leveraging our exceptional traits is not important. But I would like to remind people that our Xianxia Bullshit combined with our good judgement are why we came first in our class and received extra privileges. We need to leverage our "spiritual" abilities here and expand upon them to survive and get further privileges and promotion; Chaos armies are a kind of rickety ladder where you have to keep moving up or you get chewed up. Also sometimes you die by trying to move up but whelp, them's the breaks.

What we need to do here is both leverage our unique advantages in a way that lets us move up, without putting ourselves in a position where we're essentially going to be cannon fodder. Anyway, plan time.

[X] Communications
[X] Special: Diamond Body

This plan has a theory behind it.

The kind of fighting that we're going to be seeing a lot on a Warhammer 40,000 battlefield is often very reminiscent of the First World War (or the war in Ukraine, today). It also has various kinds of hellish electronic warfare going on. (Also like the war Ukraine actually, although sometimes the "hellish" part is literal and your radio will start speaking in tongues.) You know what that means? Message runners.

Yon's signature strengths are his immense physical toughness and endurance, and his excellent grip on the language compared to his peers. You know what that makes him really well-suited for on a psuedo-WW1 battlefield? Running messages from the command trenches to the front lines and back again. It also means that rather than leading an infantry platoon into machine gun fire, or trying to man a machine-gun or mortar position being overrun by ornery Imperial Guardsmen or other Chaos warbands, we are doing a job that is important and definitely dangerous, but crucially, mostly behind our own lines.

It also puts us in close proximity with officers and commanders who will start to see how useful we are. This is a route to eventually getting better jobs than "point this multilaser at those charging Bloodletters", or "try leading your conscript platoon to charge a Daemon-Engine with breaching charges", which is where I think a lot of other potential career paths for a junior officer in a heavy infantry regiment will end up.
 
Skippy said:
Yon's signature strengths are his immense physical toughness and endurance, and his excellent grip on the language compared to his peers. You know what that makes him really well-suited for on a psuedo-WW1 battlefield? Running messages from the command trenches to the front lines and back again. It also means that rather than leading an infantry platoon into machine gun fire, or trying to man a machine-gun or mortar position being overrun by ornery Imperial Guardsmen or other Chaos warbands, we are doing a job that is important and definitely dangerous, but crucially, mostly behind our own lines.
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Problem: we've been directly told we're all going to be squad leaders. Yon isn't going to be a messenger runner, he's going to be the person giving and receiving messages from runners going back and forth.
 
Skippy said:
[X] Plan: Messenger
-[X] Communications
-[X] Special: Diamond Body

This plan has a theory behind it.

The kind of fighting that we're going to be seeing a lot on a Warhammer 40,000 battlefield is often very reminiscent of the First World War (or the war in Ukraine, today). It also has various kinds of hellish electronic warfare going on. (Also like the war Ukraine actually.) You know what that means? Message runners.

Yon's signature strengths are his immense physical toughness and endurance, and his excellent grip on the language compared to his peers. You know what that makes him really well-suited for on a psuedo-WW1 battlefield? Running messages from the command trenches to the front lines and back again. It also means that rather than leading an infantry platoon into machine gun fire, or trying to man a machine-gun or mortar position being overrun by ornery Imperial Guardsmen or other Chaos warbands, we are doing a job that is important and definitely dangerous, but crucially, mostly behind our own lines.

It also puts us in close proximity with officers and commanders who will start to see how useful we are. This is a route to eventually getting better jobs than "point this multilaser at those charging Bloodletters", or "try leading your conscript platoon to charge a Daemon-Engine with breaching charges", which is where I think a lot of other potential career paths for a junior officer in a heavy infantry regiment will end up.
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Would you be willing to consider switching out Diamond Body for Iron Kettle Stomach ( or Belly as it is in this vote)? It would still offer us additional endurance while on the move, and it would speed our recovery time while we aren't on the move, both of which we saw during this update. It would also let us make additional use of any cultivation material we do get, and given what you've pointed out here, we'll need to get as much use out of every scrap as we can get.
 
Man the armsmen really are pushing the cultivators really far, it looks like endurance and obedience are the thing they're testing which makes sense given they're looking for soldiers.

The fact that Yon took the language implantation so well, focused on stamina in his training and body refining, was pacing himself meant that he gave a great showing. Yon seems to have earned somer respect for lasting so long and people are just to tired to really dislike him actively.

The Lotus Eye 1st seems to be the first regiment from the Sect which is a double edged sword since it lets Yon have first mover opportunity but it also makes it so they have more expectations. Becoming Heavy Infantry is high risk and high reward, there's also the whole personal slave thing which is messed up but given how we're on the side of Cultivation Chaos it's to be expected.

It's good that Yon is able to understand the pecking order, he's able to understand that just because someone is weaker then him doesn't mean they aren't more important and powerful then him. He's knew that there was going to be a lot of deaths from people who where stupid and hotheaded and then those deaths happened.

Looks like Yon isn't getting more training in medical stuff because only the best will be getting that but due to Yon's experience with learning new things and handling various objects he has more of a knack for learning the new stuff.

[X] Special: Diamond Body

This is what got Yon respect and it's what lets him push through basic.

[X] Marksmanship

Adapting to the new form of combat is useful.
 
It's explicitly pointed out that the technique training is just us having extra free time to spend on training them, not us being particularly talented in their use. Trading an actual talent for extra time seems like a net loss in the long-run, because leveraging our talents to be good at our job (Heavy Infantry) seems to be at least as useful as working on our physicality, and something that will continue to benefit us in the long run.
 
dash931 said:
Problem: we've been directly told we're all going to be squad leaders. Yon isn't going to be a messenger runner, he's going to be the person giving and receiving messages from runners going back and forth.
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Junior officers being chosen to be a "runner" for command is pretty typical in most periods.

Either way, having the sheer physical resilience to avoid getting killed when we are in an artillery barrage is IMO more useful than knowing the maintenance manual for a heavy stubber off-by-heart. We want to be useful and be kept alive; if we are commanding a platoon then we have people in it whose job it is to actually fire and maintain the crew-served weapons.

catDreaming said:
Would you be willing to consider switching out Diamond Body for Iron Kettle Stomach ( or Belly as it is in this vote)? It would still offer us additional endurance while on the move, and it would speed our recovery time while we aren't on the move, both of which we saw during this update. It would also let us make additional use of any cultivation material we do get, and given what you've pointed out here, we'll need to get as much use out of every scrap as we can get.
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Sivantic said:
Not that being incredibly tough does not help your endurance, but I am pretty sure it was his Iron Kettle Belly and pulling energy from the air that let him endure for so long.
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Iron Kettle Belly is also super-useful but I felt Diamond Body (as the most directly related to our resilience and not-dying-ness when exposed to most physical trauma) was the first priority given we are entering the world of shrapnel, machine guns, and grenades.

But honestly I wouldn't be averse to approval-voting for both. I think we just definitely want one cultivation-related thing, and then Communications or Leadership.
 
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[X] Special: Iron Kettle Belly
[X] Heavy Weapons

I'm gonna throw something out there. Isn't the warp, like super corruptive?

I think one of the key things to keep in mind is that the chaos alignment can be pretty negative and that iron kettle can help deal with the spiritual impurities. This seems like a critical skill to learn and learn early.
 
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