Beware the wrath of Fatty Hao!
Forge of Destiny(Xianxia Quest)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
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- Cyberspace
There's also various group stage into finals stage and some really weird formats that show up in xianxia.
Besides all of our other advantages as laid out by @CircleTheSkies we are also richer than Ji Rong. Getting a free green stone every month or so from renting out the pill furnace could be enough on its own to offset his talent advantage.
The production track is somewhat safer in that a science fair style competition means that if you are one of the eight best production people then you will get promoted. OTOH, Ling Qi is very far from the top eight, and doesn't even know how far she is from the top eight or who's ahead of her.
Per @SynchronizedWritersBlock's post, we are very unlikely to see a random pairing single elimination tournament. It's likely that they will either seed by cultivation or divide people into pods and seed by pod record.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
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I'm pretty sure that this is how it is done, I seem to recall Yrs saying something to this effect at one early point in the quest.
Don't fully remember though, only got a vague impression it works like this.
- Location
- Cyberspace
That'd be the simplest format I'd expect to see.
More likely than that would be a group stage with four groups, with each group choosing the top two or four through some method. Those top performers then are seeded against one another in a simple finals.
Seeding would be something like last of one group facing the first of another. That means someone will strive for first in their group (it means an easier fight to get into the top eight), while giving those who just had a bit of bad luck a long shot at clawing their way back.
It also gives the right level of match to show off to the empire for the new inner sect disciples. And for the sect as a whole.
More likely than that would be a group stage with four groups, with each group choosing the top two or four through some method. Those top performers then are seeded against one another in a simple finals.
Seeding would be something like last of one group facing the first of another. That means someone will strive for first in their group (it means an easier fight to get into the top eight), while giving those who just had a bit of bad luck a long shot at clawing their way back.
It also gives the right level of match to show off to the empire for the new inner sect disciples. And for the sect as a whole.
- Location
- Athens, Greece
Can someone calculate how many dice we can roll for Physical/Spiritual/Qi cultivation in a five-action week, using all non-unique bonuses? I.e. talent+art+max stones+market-bought pills+location bonus? I am getting an average of 528 dice per five-action week, including the rerolled 1s, thus about 274 physical/spiritual successes plus 197 bonus qi successes from pills/arts/location. 5 of our weeks used for cultivation should be enough to hit Green/Bronze Appraisal even if each costs 600 successes, plus increase our Qi by 15. Our other 5 weeks should be used for missions, social stuff, and art cultivation, giving about 5 more Qi with the right pills and hopefully maxing our combat arts.
This is the kind of preparation I'd like us to do, consolidating our current build, paying attention to friends/allies, and having Zhengui cultivate along with us. Since he doesn't need to do missions like us, there's probably enough time for him to break into Green by the time of the tournament if we feed him enough cores.
BTW, I haven't seen prices for either yellow or green stones anywhere, and green stones haven't been included in the plan at all. (yellows have 'cause we got enough for 5 weeks)
This is the kind of preparation I'd like us to do, consolidating our current build, paying attention to friends/allies, and having Zhengui cultivate along with us. Since he doesn't need to do missions like us, there's probably enough time for him to break into Green by the time of the tournament if we feed him enough cores.
BTW, I haven't seen prices for either yellow or green stones anywhere, and green stones haven't been included in the plan at all. (yellows have 'cause we got enough for 5 weeks)
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- Location
- United States of America
I'm not too sure what you were talking about in the previous paragraphs as I'm confused by what you mean by a "5 action week" (spending 5 actions a week on one thing?) but I can answer this question
A Yellow Spirit Stone costs 10 Red Spirit Stones. A green Spirit Stone costs 500 Red Spirit Stones.
As far as not using Greens for plans, we don't have the capability of using them at the moment even if we wanted to. To use a Green Spirit stone you need to be at Green or Bronze in cultivation. Same with Yellow spirit stones, Cyan Spirit stones, and so on and so forth.
A yellow is 10 red stones. A green is 500.
- Location
- Athens, Greece
So once we break into Green, we'll be able to use 3 red, 3 yellow, and 1 green stone, right? Assuming we somehow find 500 rss needed for the green.
Can't use reds once you're in green.
Also, we don't know yet what pills we can buy from Fatty, unfortunately. Nor are we sure about what pills will still work in green.
- Location
- United States of America
Not... exactly. It's a bit more complicated than that. I'm just going to point you towards the tutorial on Spirit Stone usage!
So, the first thing is that this quote deals with is which spirit stones that we can use, which is actually calculated, if I remember correctly, by the highest stage we are at. So, if we were Green 1 and Late Silver, then we could use a green stone.
However, the number of Spirit stones we can use is calculated by the lowest stage we are at, should all stages be numbered. So if we were Green 1 and Late Silver, then we figure out what "number" late silver is to figure out how many spirit stones we can use. (Early-mid-late gold [3] early-mid-late silver [3]) This means that late silver is 6th in the order, and so we can use 6 Spirit stones.
There is also a problem in using Red Spirit Stones in Green, as I don't believe you can do that. I don't know, however, if we can switch the Reds into Yellows.
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Mmm... we'll see; the rules might shift. I mean, take Late Yellow/Late Silver. Can use 3Y/3R, which would be (5 + 10 + 10 + 1 + 2 + 2 = ) +30 dice. Then take Early Green/Early Bronze, which would be (? + 5 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 =) 55 + whatever the first Green gives (25, perhaps? Making it 80 dice). Actually, for that matter, it'd probably be better for Early Green/Early Bronze Ling Qi to go all Yellow - which would give her 65 dice, and would require her to spend 60 red stones a week (while a green stone would give her +15(?) dice for another 490 red stones). A green stone would be a special treat - used perhaps for a later meridian week* or when an art would need just a few more dice to reliably advance**.
The other possibility is "nope; only three stages in Yellow, so no more than three yellow stones (or four with no green stone) can be used", of course.
* A net gain of 35 dice would mean that Ling Qi can probably reliably get another dozen meridians before her next failure, actually... given her existing arts actually will only need 11 meridians, and she can use a green stone to lift the soft limit on meridians even further. More comfortable about her getting a new art now.
** Of course, if EPC advances to give a virtual green spirit stone, then Ling Qi is in happy times indeed - saving a total of 510 stones a week that she can spend on her many drug habits.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the way that GSS worked is that you only need one of them a month.
Remember how we saw the dragon, and he actually was wearing a Green Spirit Stone? That hadn't just crumbled to dust the moment he drew from it?
So when you start tapping a Green Spirit Stone (And probably the Cyan Spirit Stones later), you fill up--and it remains with a strong reserve for later, but generally gets worn down by the end of a month and crumbles then.
They're super expensive, but they last a good while too. And when you include the fact that we know that at least some arts in the Third Realm require Green Spirit Stones to be Cultivated, you get a point where someone'll work over the course of a month to afford a Green Spirit Stone for that month's Cultivation. Fits in too with what we know about the scale getting longer after the Tournament.
Now, with that in mind, I don't think EPC will give a Green Spirit Stone's bonuses permanently--what I do think it might do is remove the Virtual Yellow Spirit Stone from consideration, but exchange it for "You always are considered to have absorbed a Green Spirit Stone for the purpose of training Arts." Which fits the overall theme so far about how Eight Phase Ceremony as taught by the Grinning Moon lets you reduce your reliance on resources by filching them from unorthodox places. You still don't get the dice benefits of having consumed a Green Spirit Stone (I'd be surprised if it wasn't 25 for the first one and then 50 for each one afterwards, if you're such a lunatic that you can afford to burn multiple GSS for your Cultivation), but it's steady progress that's independent of the ups and downs of fortune, since accumulating a full stack of YSS is trivial even at our level.
Remember how we saw the dragon, and he actually was wearing a Green Spirit Stone? That hadn't just crumbled to dust the moment he drew from it?
So when you start tapping a Green Spirit Stone (And probably the Cyan Spirit Stones later), you fill up--and it remains with a strong reserve for later, but generally gets worn down by the end of a month and crumbles then.
They're super expensive, but they last a good while too. And when you include the fact that we know that at least some arts in the Third Realm require Green Spirit Stones to be Cultivated, you get a point where someone'll work over the course of a month to afford a Green Spirit Stone for that month's Cultivation. Fits in too with what we know about the scale getting longer after the Tournament.
Now, with that in mind, I don't think EPC will give a Green Spirit Stone's bonuses permanently--what I do think it might do is remove the Virtual Yellow Spirit Stone from consideration, but exchange it for "You always are considered to have absorbed a Green Spirit Stone for the purpose of training Arts." Which fits the overall theme so far about how Eight Phase Ceremony as taught by the Grinning Moon lets you reduce your reliance on resources by filching them from unorthodox places. You still don't get the dice benefits of having consumed a Green Spirit Stone (I'd be surprised if it wasn't 25 for the first one and then 50 for each one afterwards, if you're such a lunatic that you can afford to burn multiple GSS for your Cultivation), but it's steady progress that's independent of the ups and downs of fortune, since accumulating a full stack of YSS is trivial even at our level.
NaanContributor
Provider of delicious flatbread, and nothing else.
- Location
- Hawaii
Do spirits even need stones to Cultivate? Zhengui certainly hasn't used any yet, only eating spirit cores.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
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It might depend on the spirit, where some varieties can use stones to speed up their growth. It may also be that the Green Stone we saw on the dragon was literally growing from it as a part of its physiology.
As far as we know, most spirits 'naturally' cultivate up to their racial peak without any assistance beyond their diet, but judging by Zhengui plowing through spirit cores and spirit herbs so rapidly, they seem to be working like cultivation drugs for them.
So I'm looking at the tournament and assuming the Elders aren't idiots and actually want to stage good fights(as we know, there will be dignitaries who deem it worth their time to view). I'm guessing at a few predicted elements:
-They likely want each of the Green cultivators to open with a fight against a Yellow cultivator. This ensures as many Greens make it to the second round as possible.
-They likely want each of the Monsters to fight one of the stronger non-Monsters to showcase their abilities before it goes into Monster-offs.
-There will be a Sun vs Cai match. This will be highly anticipated.
-There will be a Sun vs Bai match. This will be highly anticipated(at present the power levels points to this being the very last match for drama purposes).
-Sun and Bai have a chance to cause anyone who fights them seriously to disqualify because they do aggravated damage for their best stuff, which puts pressure to make an early concession to avoid being too wrecked for subsequent fights.
-They'd totally seed friends against friends.
-There's likely to be a Ji Rong/Ling Qi match slated. It's low stakes politics, but putting the Fight Da Powa talented commoner against the Work With Authority talented commoner together makes for a good show.
--By the same standards, Ling Qi vs Sun Liling is practically inevitable. Sun had clashed against Ling Qi multiple times, but Ling Qi has always managed to slip away without actual loss even when she got taken out that time.
-Fights are unlikely to be exclusively in a close quarters whiteroom arena, its quite feasible for the Sect to set up Trial-like formation dimensions to fight in.
Hmm....
Mmm, unless you mean "spread the best students out so they don't eliminate each other in the first round" this wouldn't really make sense. You don't want the strongest students eliminating each other, you want them crushing the weaker students first.
What I would guess, however, is that the second years are separated out to some degree. We know that it's supposed to get harder to get into the Inner Sect as the years pass, for the obvious reason that someone who takes 2 years to hit early green is arguably less talented than someone who hit peak yellow in 1 year. You don't want the older students beating more talented younger ones into the Inner Sect just because they've had more time.
Seed by cultivation: person with the highest cultivation is seed 1. Next highest is seed 2. Next highest is seed 3... seed 1 fights the last seed, seed 2 fights the second to last, and so on.
If there are more than 40 people signed up for the tournament I would expect some kind of pod system rather than a single elimination bracket.
- Location
- Athens, Greece
Which is precisely why we nèed better defense to avoid getting curbstomped early. Theres going to be a dozen greens at the tournament so if our fight with Ji Rong comes early, he has a chance to kick us off the top 8. One he will take. Even if he doesn't, he and Sun might hit us with enough aggravated to cripple or disable for a couple of months.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
I'm expecting it to be the other way round. CRX and Sun Liling's status are higher than Meizhen's, so their fight should be the 'crown' of the tournament unless they get knocked off. So if it's a tournament with single defeat, I am expecting Meizhen vs Sun Liling to be the demi-finals, and CRX vs Sun Liling the finals. Other possibilities is that Meizhen vs CRX is demi, and then the winner is finale.
This would be if Shenhua prefers CRX to have more 'difficulties' on her path, so that she can show off more.
Ling Qi is good against aggravated damage- not good enough against Cui, yet, but she already can turn 2 aggravated per hits into 2 lethals. If we account for FS, this means that even Cui cannot deal any aggravated to us, much less Sun Liling (and Ji Rong is out of the question).
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- Location
- Cyberspace
I'd argue that arranged "top-billing" fights where a pairing is wanted to be displayed to an audience are unlikely to be early in the festivities for a variety of reasons:
1. You need to establish both fighters as strong - so they need to fight other people first.
2. You don't know if there's a dark horse that you didn't spot during the seeding.
3. You build up to the more important fights. If you have them occur early, then the audience's impression fades.
4. You want to give the fighters a chance to see each other in action so they don't get too blindsided and the fight's over in the first moment.
5. You want the fighters to warm up, work out any kinks and generally be prepared.
That's all assuming that there's certain matchups that the sect will do their best to make sure occurs, of course.
On aggravated damage...
Thousand Ring Fortress said:
She has an instant technique that downgrades the first two damage taken each round - including aggravated. And she can spent 3 qi to negate a point of damage (not sure if it's also once per round or whether it can be repeated as many times as necessary). So that's 3 aggravated turned into 2 lethal. And I would be rather surprised if TRF wasn't mastered by the tournament.
TRF also gives some lovely armor - 3 points, two of which can only be bypassed by "perfect damage". And physical defense dice, of course (as does Argent Storm and Sable Crescent Step, both of which should have advanced some before the tournament as well). Sable Crescent Step gives a point of "perfect defense" as well.
EDIT: Arkeus beat me to it on the damage downgrading, but the rest is also relevant to your concerns.
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- Location
- Staring into the void
Idea for Ling Qi's next spirit beast
Would be wind/wood or wind/dark
Edit: Flying and stealth, an awesome combo
Edit2: It might even be wind/moon
Would be wind/wood or wind/dark
Edit: Flying and stealth, an awesome combo
Edit2: It might even be wind/moon
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- Location
- Athens, Greece
That's a good move, yes. However, don't we already have ways to dispel buffs on hit? Our enemies all know we got lots of buffs by now, so they can prepare their own dispel-on-hit effects. This is why we need to max our passives more than anything else.
A guy like Ji Rong or Gan Guangli picking up a dispel art faces the same problems that Ling Qi would picking up a flaming sword art (it offers bonuses in case we run into zombies!). The dispel would be orthogonal to everything else he's doing and probably wouldn't have synergy with his various passives and equipment boosts.
It's worth being aware of stuff like our dispel arrows but Ling Qi is better positioned than most to break contact and reapply buffs in the face of a dispel.