A lot of people have jumped on avoiding the Bai aura if it makes things easier (#elementalbalance), however I haven't seen much discussion of how we should be handling the situation.
In Meizhen's interlude we saw that one of her issues was her father. Specifically, that he wasn't able to handle the Bai. She's probably being reminded of that right now, which will make her feel like pushing away from us. While our impulse might be to ease off, and try to return things to normal, I would suggest that that's easier said tban done. The cat is out of the bag now, and it's likely to significantly impact Meizhen's perception of our long term relationship.
Importantly, if we want to stick with Meizhen long term, we have to be able to be able to ignore the terror.
Now, doubling down and beating our head against her aura possibly isn't the best way to handle it, and this is something we should be discussing. It might be better, for instance to back off to recover before trying again, or to wait until we have AMA2. However, we do need to deal with it at some point.
Eh, I actually think we do need to bang our heads against it a bit. This isn't a nice part of training, and subjecting ourselves to it is important. We do need to talk to Meizhen about it though before it becomes a real issue. Only one plan has "Drop the mental training", but I'm against that plan for several reasons beyond that, so it's not a big deal to me.
In Meizhen's interlude we saw that one of her issues was her father. Specifically, that he wasn't able to handle the Bai. She's probably being reminded of that right now, which will make her feel like pushing away from us. While our impulse might be to ease off, and try to return things to normal, I would suggest that that's easier said tban done. The cat is out of the bag now, and it's likely to significantly impact Meizhen's perception of our long term relationship.
Importantly, if we want to stick with Meizhen long term, we have to be able to be able to ignore the terror.
On Bai fear aura, if we don't make progress in the next week, I will vote/make a plan that push AMA to its second level.
Being terrified of our friend is neither good mentally nor on a cultivator level (I am not sure if just fear of one person would be enough to damage one talent, but it certainly won't help). The loss of efficiency is for me acceptable so long it let Ling Qi keep her best friend.
On a completely different note, for the disciple tutoring, let's not forget that they lived on the same moutain as us. It's perfectly possible that they would know (and be willing to tell) of hidden treasure (be it cultivation sites or dungeons). Uh. By the way, that's information that we should try to get out of vanquished outer sect disciples. Loosing a few talisman forknowing dungeons, ... is perfectly worth it for me.
So is the issue with the Meizhen fear action that people feel it is implying to her that we are not interested in training with her because of it? I guess I can see it as a worry. Perhaps just ignoring it until we no longer feel it is the correct course of action...
So is the issue with the Meizhen fear action that people feel it is implying to her that we are not interested in training with her because of it? I guess I can see it as a worry. Perhaps just ignoring it until we no longer feel it is the correct course of action...
That's the standard Meizhen option that came with the update. And it's tacked on to a Meizhen training option as well. I wouldn't worry about us backing down, though maybe talking to her about it to see if she'll tone it down a bit.
So is the issue with the Meizhen fear action that people feel it is implying to her that we are not interested in training with her because of it? I guess I can see it as a worry. Perhaps just ignoring it until we no longer feel it is the correct course of action...
...ok, i want to say this is dumb, but this is actually kind of genius? Gimme a cheat sheet of all the places on the mountains the Elders prepped special tests.
That... it can't be so easy. Can it? It's essentially what gamefaqs is.
...ok, i want to say this is dumb, but this is actually kind of genius? Gimme a cheat sheet of all the places on the mountains the Elders prepped special tests.
That... it can't be so easy. Can it? It's essentially what gamefaqs is.
As you said, can't be that easy. Lots of disciples have older brothers/etc in older years. The sect wouldn't let those have a cheat sheet from the get go.
Thinking about it I really do sympathize with Xiulan's urge to gain glory through combat. Look at every other yellow faction at the meeting. They are all doing things. Cai is making a government, Sun is recruiting additional yellows to her cause, Kang is also recruiting more yellows and building a small legion of Reds to follow his whims. Meanwhile Jian is.... hiding from Xiulan and hunting bears with his friends. They aren't even growing stronger faster than anyone else doing that.
Jian's leadership of his group honestly seems really odd to me. He was clearly sent to the Sect to shape up or get out of the way, so focusing on growing stronger personally is obvious, but you would think he would be trying to show off leadership in other ways as well. He isn't trying to expand his group past Ling Qi, who requested a spot. I would think he would be trying to hit up some of the promising Reds or one or two of the fresh yellows to really join up for real, considering Ling Qi doesn't seem all in on his group. I'm honestly not sure what would be the right move for his group aside from trying to resolve the love triangle but I kind of doubt he is going for it if he knows. Xiulan taking the lead on proving that their group has some power honestly seems like the best thing that could happen to the lot of them (aside from love triangle resolution).
I am somewhat worried that the reason behind why the snek dungeon used teleport was to move it every year to prevent people from doing exactly what I want to, but cultivation sites should be safe from that, I suppose.
Nah it wouldn't work as the elders most likely reset the mountain every year and change around the environment to avoid diciples with older siblings getting unfair advantages
I don't really see the Meizhen action add-on as quitting. Just talking through our thoughts with her. Letting her know were still her friend...stuff like that. More of a reassurance type thing. Ling Qi can take it. Anytime she gets scared she seems to muster the resolve to continue and training is meant to do stuff like this. Especially considering that she ignores the passive aura anyways. If not now when? Relationships are strengthened through adversity.
Maybe tell us how much a cultivator basic bow would cost and what the bonuses are and im not agaisnt checking if maybe were boss with spears lol. Not the legendary bow were keeping forever as someone said . Maybe 25 stones or something like that.
Alright, I did it again guys! I have more math for people to sink their teeth into. I haven't done much with the Qi or the meridian aspect, or the various arts we want to learn, but this should give people a rough estimate of a time frame until we are able to reach green/bronze. I don't know if this is going to be helpful, but I figured I had the time and it wouldn't hurt.
The purpose of this math is to demonstrate our ability to reach Green and Bronze with plenty of time before the tournament. These numbers do not calculate the extra growth or fallbacks that we may encounter along the way to Green and Bronze, but instead, provide a rough estimate of what our base growth is looking like for the foreseeable future. These numbers also do not take into account overflow or single bursts of cultivation.
Rough Numbers
Mid → Late Yellow
240 successes
Mid → Late Silver
240 successes
Late → Peak Yellow
360 successes
Late → Peak Silver
360 Successes
Average rolls for Spiritual cultivation without pills
Talent + EPC + Vent + Stones
6 + 5 + 8 + 20 = 39
39/2 = 19 successes + 2 auto's = 21 successes per action
Average rolls for Physical cultivation without pills
Talent + EPC + Vent + Stones
6 + 5 + 8 + 20 = 39
39/2 = 19 successes + 2 auto's = 21 successes per action
Actions for getting the next step
Actions required to get from Mid to Late Yellow
240 successes / 21 successes per action = 11.43 actions
Actions required to get from Mid to Late Silver
240 successes / 21 successes per action = 11.43 actions
Actions required to get from Late to Peak yellow
360 successes / 21 successes per action = 17.14 actions
Actions required to get from Late to Peak Silver
360 Successes / 21 successes per action = 17.14 actions
Total number of actions to get from Mid to Peak Yellow
11.43 actions + 17.14 actions = 28.57 actions
Total number of actions to get from Mid to Peak Yellow
11.43 actions + 17.14 actions = 28.57 actions
Actions required to get from Late to Peak yellow
360 successes / 30 successes per action = 12 actions
Actions required to get from Late to Peak Silver
360 Successes / 31 successes per action = 11.61 actions
Total number of actions required to get from Mid to Peak Yellow
9.48 actions + 12 actions = 21.48 actions
Total number of actions required to get from Mid to Peak Silver
7.2 actions + 11.61 actions = 18.81 actions
Meridians
This is assuming we will want 30 meridians by the time we wish to break into Green/Bronze
Meridians cost us M + 3. (This is because the first Meridian cost 5 successes while AS reduced the cost of Meridians by 1, so, (M + 4 - 1) would be the actual formula. This means that we have 12 Meridians at the moment. The next meridian would be the 13th meaning (13 + 3) = 16 successes for that Meridian, and so on and so forth.
So in order to get 30 meridians, we need to figure out how many meridians we need to reach that number.
30-12 = 18
18 Meridians are what are needed to reach the 30 meridian benchmark. Now, I'm sure that there is a math formula to make this easier, but I'm going to do it the long way because I suck at math.
16 + 17 + 18 + 19 + 20 + 21 + 22 + 23 + 24 + 25 + 26 + 27 + 28 + 29 + 30 + 31 + 32 + 33 = 441
This means that we need to get 441 successes in 18 attempts, conversely, this means that we need to throw 882 dice at the problem over 18 attempts. Notably, the amount of dice needed for each attempt will increase over time to reach the pinnacle at the 18th meridian. In order to open the 18th Meridian with an average chance of success, we would need 66 dice thrown at the problem. The dice we do have is:
Talent + Pills + Stones = ???
6 + 3 + 30 (Assuming Late Yellow/Silver) = 39
So we would need to add a whole lot more dice to open it up in one round. Lets add the +5 from sable, + 5 from High Sun and the + 10 from tutoring and the + 7 from AS
Talent + Pills + Stones + Sable + Highsun + AS + Tutoring
6 + 3 + 30 + 5 + 5 + 7 + 10 = 66.
That would be just barely enough to pass the last meridian on average. I hope that there are better meridian pills in the shop or the trainer gives us +15 instead of +10.
This also means that there need to be at least 18 different actions taken to get to the 30 meridian mark.
For ease of math, these equations will be assuming 10 weeks at max pill and stone consumption which would then switch into 13 weeks of max pill and stone consumption. The reason for this is that I don't want to do multiple math formulas for the difference in time between achieving Late Yellow and Late Silver.
Red Stone consumption for Mid Yellow/Silver
Full pills + Full stones
Steady growth pill + White Heart Elixir + Flowing Rivers Elixir + Bear Marrow Elixir + 3 Red Spirit Stones = ???
8 + 6 + 6 + 4 + 3 = 27 Red Spirit Stones a week
Total number of spirit stones consumed during Mid Yellow/Silver
27 x 10 = 270 Red Spirit stones.
Red Stone Consumption for Late Yellow/Silver
Full pills + Full stones
Steady growth pill + White Heart Elixir + Flowing Rivers Elixir + Bear Marrow Elixir + 3 Red Spirit Stones + 1 Yellow stone (10 Red Spirit Stones) = ???
8 + 6 + 6 + 4 + 3 + 10 = 37 Red Spirit Stones a week
Total number of spirit stones consumed during Mid Yellow/Silver
37 x 13 = 481 Red Spirit stones.
Total consumption for all of Yellow/Silver
270 + 481 = 751 Red Spirit Stones
Qi
We had 38 qi when Meizhen told us to get half again for the attempt to break through to Green/Bronze.
38/2 = 19
19+38 = 57
This means around 57 was what Meizhen was talking about. However, since we can't know how accurate her estimation of our qi is, it would be prudent to round up and add +1 to the result to bring us over any threshold that would exist. This would bring us to a target number of 61 qi.
At the moment we have 41 qi. So to figure out how much qi we need, we take 61 - 41.
61 - 41 = 20 qi.
This means that we need a total of 20 qi to get to the target number. Now since to expand the qi it takes (base qi +1) we need to figure out what our base qi is. Our base qi is 28. This means that it takes 29 qi to expand up a level, and that increases by 1 each time. Back to the long math style!
29 + 30 + 31 + 32 + 33 + 34 + 35 + 36 + 37 + 38 + 39 + 40 + 41 + 42 + 43 + 44 + 45 + 46 + 47 + 48 = 770 Successes
It will take about 770 Successes to expand our qi to 61, which means about 1440 dice thrown at the problem. The Bear Marrow Elixir will take the edge of of that with physical cultivation, but it is still going to take a lot of work to get there. Since we need to get 48 successes for the last level, it will take 96 dice to reach it. The dice we can throw at the problem are:
Talent + Vent + Pills + Stones =??
6 + 8 + 7 + 30 = 51 dice.
With only 51 dice to throw at the problem, it will probably take 2 actions per qi cultivation to get the benchmark. This would equate to about 40 individual actions to reach there.
The number of weeks left until the tournament.
These numbers are after a rough estimate after week 19. This means I will be counting week 20 until week 52.
52 weeks in a year - 19 weeks in the past = 33 weeks
This means that there are roughly 33 weeks left until the tournament that is occurring at the end of the year.
What these numbers mean!
With the steady growth elixir and other medicines, and if we give one full action per week to each cultivation category, we should be able to get to Peak yellow and Peak Silver at weeks 43 and weeks 41 respectively. This would give us 3 weeks to break through into Green and 5 weeks to break into Bronze.
I also haven't calculated the time to get the meridians we want or the amount of qi, or the arts we would want. All of these are various elements that we need to be aware of and balance if we want to have the needed parts that were recommended by Bai Meizhen. Hopefully, these numbers can help other people plan long term strategies and figure out where they would like Ling Qi to be cultivation wise for the tournament.
So there it is. I hope I provided enough material to sink some teeth into. Hopefully, I got the math right. If not don't be afraid to tag me and tell me where I went wrong, I'll be sure to make the subsequent edits.
The conclusion that the math details is that we should have plenty of time before the tournament to get to Green and Bronze. However, I haven't calculated how long it will take to get meridians nor have I calculated the speed boost that having EPC 2 will bring or that having a third spirit stone will bring. So, I am firmly in the belief that we can get to Green and Bronze with the meridians, Qi, and arts we need to win it.
@Thor's Twin, your patterns don't fit the Red patterns. As in Red was early=> mid 20, mid=> late 40, late=> peak 60. It follows that this would be 120 to mid/ 240 to late/ 360 to Peak.
Maybe the pattern increases, but so far everything indicates peak will be 360.
EDIT: You also seem to have forgotten we get another yellow stone at late, but heh.
...ok, i want to say this is dumb, but this is actually kind of genius? Gimme a cheat sheet of all the places on the mountains the Elders prepped special tests.
That... it can't be so easy. Can it? It's essentially what gamefaqs is.
So incredibly dumb it wrap all the way back to genius. That's my moto.
I am somewhat worried that the reason behind why the snek dungeon used teleport was to move it every year to prevent people from doing exactly what I want to, but cultivation sites should be safe from that, I suppose.
Nah it wouldn't work as the elders most likely reset the mountain every year and change around the environment to avoid diciples with older siblings getting unfair advantages
What they said. Also there is another possible problem, unless we get lucky or approach many different outer disciples, we would only get info on cultivation sites that they themselves discovered (unless the elders reshape the mountain to such an extent that cultivation sites get changed/moved around, in which case, we would get nothing).
Nah it wouldn't work as the elders most likely reset the mountain every year and change around the environment to avoid diciples with older siblings getting unfair advantages
I do think that it is possible that the elders don't change/move around cultivation sites though, knowing the location doesn't actually give you that much of an advantage since you still have to deal with the illusions (as Meizhen demonstrated) and any guardians. Admittedly, this argument could be applied to the tests but those are a.) likely easier to move around given the whole teleporting formations thing, and b.) give greater rewards than just finding a cultivation site.
I am also slightly unsure how much they care about unfair advantages and what counts as an unfair advantage versus being lucky. Su Ling got to ignore half of the challenge of finding the Argent Vent afterall. And if you specify an advantage that comes from your family as being unfair, I will have to point out the fact that her ability to ignore illusions also comes from who her family is.
That said, it is certainly possible that they do, in fact, change everything about the mountain each year and I myself do not really know which is more likely. I just greatly enjoy playing devil's advocate. (Do I do find it likely that they at least change the location of the tests each year.)
@Thor's Twin - it might be helpful to nix everything that assumes we aren't using medicines, because we will be. Just budget +7 for spiritual and +10 for physical, and call it a day.
