Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

[occipitallobe]

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There are four fields you need to fill out.

Omake Link, which is just a link to your first omake for the turn. This makes it easier for me to read them as I do the update - without this it's tough to know off the bat which omake were written this turn, and to properly

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[occipitallobe]

I believe it should be : "Ten million stavraton, in return for a permanent reduction in their fees on the Scorpion Road. I estimate a loss of one million or so stavraton every 20 years."

Click to shrink...

Fixed up, thanks. And yes, that's definitely accurate.

These don't match. Assuming from other text that 9 is the correct amount.


@occipitallobe If we used the [] increasing wealth personal action can we spend some of the increased income this turn? I assume not.

Tough choices. Technique palace repair is usually 40 wealth, so this is 65% reduction on fixing it. It would be a big boost. At the moment above qi condensation we are individually weaker on average than others, made up for by our formations techniques. Getting our 5k foundation establishments stronger is pretty huge. On the other hand, we got burned last time on a general rather than specific boost. Plus it requires the loan and taking nothing else.

Click to shrink...

No, you can only spend wealth you have, with the Loan being an exception. Increasing wealth isn't reliable enough to spend future wealth.

Fixed as well, by the by.

 

[Katana1515]

Oh god, the Technique Palace is back to tempt us to spend all our wealth at the crucial moment!

All I know right now is that I want to say no to the loan (permanent income deductions are not cool) and the Jingshen tariff reductions. Feeding precious Wealth to the enemy who's gunning for an Economic Victory seems like it should be a nonstarter.

Edit: looking at folks arguments, I might have been too quick to turn down the loan. Choosing War to the Knife was a huge gamble already, we might as well double down and reap the rewards.

As for the Clan Focus, War Prep seems the obvious choice, increasing our chance at victory and our readiness for surprise attacks. Its also worth remembering that a bigger victory in the coming war should lead to more spoils in terms of annexed land. Though I could see Fortification being popular again, we have so many different fronts to worry about. I could also be open to arguments for an economic turn, since our super experienced commander already seems confident in victory and we just don't have enough Wealth for all the things we want to do, particularly if we want a reserve for the next set of trials.

Our personal action seems likely to be wasted whatever we pick. I don't see Old Cannibal not showing up unless things go really well or extremely poorly.

EDIT: Also wanted to come back and say I am really excited about the changes to the Good Seed System. Probably going to have Min try and Aid the Clan this turn.

Need to get back to the Omake chalk face and mine out some more words.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Dmitry Kascheev
Fate - Found a Celestial Chicken Egg (+10 cultivation), eating it immediately. Escaped from the angered parents unharmed though his clothes were badly pecked. While this did not help him overmuch, he broke through to Foundation Establishment.
Impact - 4 (+0)
Cultivation - Early FB 1
Cultivation-Year Equivalent - 100 years (+0)
Health - Healthy -> Healthy

Festus Sarantapechos
Fate - Came upon a valuable nest of Celestial Chicken Eggs (+20 Cultivation) as the parents were chasing away another trespasser. Ate the valuable eggs for a cultivation boost.
Impact - 3 (+0)
Cultivation - 9th Heavenstage
Cultivation-Year Equivalent - 107 years (+19)
Health - Healthy -> Healthy

...

Matthaias Outi
Fate - Attacked by two rampaging Celestial Chickens, returning to their nests. Truly unlucky (+2 Wound Steps). Without the judicious use of a treasure, would have been killed.
Impact - 8 (+8)
Cultivation - 7th Heavenstage
Cultivation-Year Equivalent - 50 (+0)
Health - Badly Wounded -> Dead (LST INTERRUPT) -> Badly Wounded -> Wounded

Click to shrink...

@occipitallobe , I have to say, I love the double brick joke you set up here.

 

[Olivebirdy]

[X] The best defense is a Well-Trained Army
-[X] Take the Loan. Permanent -1 Wealth per turn, +10 Wealth now.
-[X] Training Soldiers - Raising Disciples to higher Realms is all well and good, but training them to be perfect members of Formations is better. Ensure your Clan is trained and ready for war. Your readiness to go to war will increase significantly, though this fades over time.
-[X] Investigate Fu Tong personally
-[X] Build the Ten Thousand Forts (5 Wealth)
-[X] Attempt to improve the Technique Palace (14 Wealth)





If Manuel investigates Fu Tong personally, that will save us 11 Wealth, which we can then use on the Technique Palace. He's very very good at investigation.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Though, uh, it is very much possible that Fu Tong is a trap specifically intended to draw Manuel's attention.

This was foreshadowed in Manuel's meeting with Old Cannibal- old monsters do things like that.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

So, it's time. All that matters now is winning the war.

[X] Take the Loan. Permanent -1 Wealth per turn, +10 Wealth now.

We should make more than 1 wealth off our winnings this war. If we don't, we're screwed anyways.

[X] Training Soldiers - Raising Disciples to higher Realms is all well and good, but training them to be perfect members of Formations is better. Ensure your Clan is trained and ready for war. Your readiness to go to war will increase significantly, though this fades over time.

It's wartime, of course we're training soldiers.

[X] Build the Ten Thousand Forts (5 Wealth)

More military infrastructure, built off the latest in doctrine coming from across the mountains? Why not.

[X] Offer Jingshen Scorpion Road Tribute Reductions (5 Wealth)

I don't trust Jingshen to not try and strike if we're making too good gains against the cannibals - or if they manage to start grinding us down, for that matter. Buying them off hurts in the long run, but this entire war is mortgaging the long run for the short run

This actually leaves us unable to buy anything else! (beyond more Mercs, which I don't think is wise or cost effective)

So for personal actions I'd support

[X] Investigate Fu Tong personally

Old Cannibal has invested substantial resources in stopping us seeing whatever is going on there. This could be a bluff, but for someone as old and as canny as Old Cannibal, it'll be a heads he wins, tails we lose - there's something there worth defending, but he's expecting us to make a play for it. I don't think it's going to be worth burning 11 wealth and our Golden Eye Array on, though - save resources for later instead. Just risk Manuel's person instead, he's also skilled enough and good at ferreting out secrets to work out the exact right play here.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Why would we bother with the loan if we're not going to spend the money up front? We have 9 Wealth in the bank that we aren't mortgaging the farm for.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

Why would we bother with the loan if we're not going to spend the money up front? We have 9 Wealth in the bank that we aren't mortgaging the farm for.

Click to shrink...

If we want to buy more than one 5-wealth option this turn, we need the loan, and they'll be plenty of uses for wealth next turn aswell I'm sure. While I doubt this loan opportunity will still be open then.

 

[Shard]

Paying Jingshen does not seem like a good idea to me, it shows weakness to them. And also accelerates the Jingshen Doomclock.

 

[Taut_Templar]

Seems to me the war is triple-faceted in its nature. There's the conventional conflict, which thanks to extensive effort and investment on our part is slanted in our favor. Undoubtedly the Cannibals - or at least their leader - are aware of this, and thus aren't planning to just shove their hands into our prepared meat grinder. So, our energy must be split into a second aspect: discovering and countering the trump card(s) they have up their sleeve to alter the strategic calculus. Fu Tong being the major, but probably not only, example of this.

However, there's a third dimension to the conflict we have to consider - our war is ultimately a melee de trios - and the Jingshen have significant incentive to devise a Pyrrhic victory. We need to figure out how to prevent an intervention while not also feeding into their long-term plan of economic domination, which is no mean feat.

 

[LordEdric]

[X] Take the Loan. Permanent -1 Wealth per turn, +10 Wealth now.
[X] Training Soldiers - Raising Disciples to higher Realms is all well and good, but training them to be perfect members of Formations is better. Ensure your Clan is trained and ready for war. Your readiness to go to war will increase significantly, though this fades over time.
[X] Build the Ten Thousand Forts (5 Wealth)
[X] Attempt to improve the Technique Palace (14 Wealth)
[X] Investigate Fu Tong personally

mid we take the loan, might as well use the money on the palace, otherwise don't that the loan and still stick with the forts

 

[Garlak]

IIRC, Aliki Floros is missing from this turn's Good Seeds report entirely. She only had a Good Seed entry for the previous turn back in end of November just before Year 120 End - Council Meeting. Not this turn. Did something happen or Alectai decide something, or did things just 'oops' a bit, or nothing, or what?

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We've got Child Corse Gulper's body. Well, we've had Child Corpse Gulper's body; dunno if it's still useable for a trick yet.

Can it still be used for a trick?

And on the opposite end of that; can it be used as a trick or ploy against us? i.e. Old Cannibal knows that we've got Child Corpse Gulper's body, and that we're the Formations Clan, and that Old Gold is the tricky and underhanded Old Monster (all of them are, but Manuel is the guy with 'Good Guy Xehanort' as the character pitch inspiration as Alectai put it). Could he be expecting Manuel to do something -- or to have already done something -- with Child Corpse Gulper's body?

If not though... Can we use CCG's body to get insight into the Cannibals' maps and intrigue and arrays and stuff? (Or is Old Cannibal planning a reverse-voodoo for if we do that; we look in using CCG's access, and he blinds whatever we used to look in...)

Still, maybe we could use it as a bait or lure for the majority of the Cannibals' forces. Maybe lure in a bunch of Core Formation Elders with bait of "Look! Here's a juicy Nascent Soul body, imagine what would happen if you could get to it and eat it!"

 

[Olivebirdy]

Juturna Cerintha
Fate - Quietly building up a small business empire - no notable encounters or major events. Cultivated most diligently, using her profits to propel herself into the 10th Heavenstage.
Impact - 1 (+1)
Cultivation - 10th Heavenstage
Cultivation-Year Equivalent - 117 years (+30)
Health - Healthy -> Healthy

Click to shrink...

It's really nice to see Juturna cultivating through mercantilism. It's a nice and peaceful way to progress, with mutually beneficial interactions, as opposed to fighting. I'm gonna try to continue expansion next turn too. Question about the format: Does +1 mean she got another Impact this turn? If so, her total Impact should be 2, as she already had 1 from a counter-dharmic technique.

 

[Sirrocco]

Okay, I admit that I dont' fully understand how the fate roll system works, but I thought I understood Impact.

Achille Adephos
Fate - Met a powerful wounded Blazing Bear, slaying it and forging its pelt into a powerful Fire-Resistant Bear-Cloak (+2 Impact). Recovered from his wounds.
Impact - 0 (+0)
Cultivation - 10th Heavenstage
Cultivation-Year Equivalent - 140 years (+1)
Health - Lightly Wounded -> Healthy

Click to shrink...

Shouldnt' his impact be 2 now?

Xiuying Ten Jiang
Omake Reward: LST
Fate - Entering the Qiguai Secret Realm, Xiuying found herself in possession of several key things. While she was unable to find any treasures at first, her sale of noodles made her popular, even among those who hated the Clan. Several cultivators who would have ordinarily slew her for her nature instead gave her tips (one awkwardly flirting with her in what she presumed was an attempt to gain a discount) as to where to find valuable treasures, and eventually she was able to uncover Thousand-Year Spirit Wheat, a powerful sheaf of wheat that she was able to pound into flour, and from there, made noodles. It seemed a logical thing to do - if one had a pill cauldron, forge pills. If one had a noodle stand, make noodles. She only had enough wheat for one bowl, but it advanced her cultivation significantly (+40 Cultivation). Shortly after, she found a most peculiar thing, that nobody else could sense. A fragment of Sword Intent (+4 Impact), merely... floating in the air. As though it had been waiting for her. As it entered her dantian, she found herself on the road to cutting without a blade, able to use her mere intent to cut to actually cut, though only rarely. Shortly after, however, she was met by a band of Yuan Clan young masters who loathed noodles, and beat her viciously. They aimed to kill her, and only with the use of a treasure did she escape (Badly Wounded). She decided to leave, and they ambushed her again. Had she not used her second treasure, they would have killed her outright, but she escaped without further wounds.
Impact - 10 (+6)
Cultivation - Foundation Establishment 4-Pillar
Cultivation-Year Equivalent - 73 years (+41)
Health - Healthy -> Dead (LST interrupt) -> Badly Wounded -> Dead (LST interrupt) -> Badly Wounded

Click to shrink...

Did she gain 4 impact, or 6?

 

[TehChron]

Can it still be used for a trick?

Click to shrink...

Not anymore. The Blood Key we made from his leg wouldve represented a significant asset for sabotaging the Blood Cannibals in the lead up to this war if it hadnt been for the damage we took from the Trials.

I've spoken to Occi constantly about this. But Corpse Gulpers body was phased out of being relevant to anything important last turn at the latest.

 

[ReaderOfFate]

Okay, I admit that I dont' fully understand how the fate roll system works, but I thought I understood Impact.


Shouldnt' his impact be 2 now?

Did she gain 4 impact, or 6?

Click to shrink...

This is mainly because of pasting errors between the sheet and the thread, not due to the system.

I'll bring up the mistakes to Occi, though due to time zones he'll only end up seeing it at night where I am.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Garlak]

What about something like this for the turn:

[ ] Empower the Golden Eye Array to See Inside Fu Tong (11 Wealth)

So we can use our array to see what's there. And meanwhile, for the Manuel action... We have that multi-colored lightning thing. Let's stack more trappery and bait and so on.

> Set a trap for Old Cannibal

I mean... In a previous update, Heraclius outright said 'He could plan and try to tilt things all he wanted, but if Manuel decided to have a bad day against Old Cannibal, then that was it for the Clan.'

The most important thing Manuel can do in this war is to not-die to Old Cannibal. And the second most important thing is to kill Old Cannibal.

So, let's focus on that. Lean into that. Instead of spending two actions on finding out what's going on in Fu Tong, we leave that to the Golden Eye Array. And meanwhile, we have Manuel focus his action on preparing for a fight with Old Cannibal.

It's the most important, and delicate, thing that Manuel can do.

Because if he dies we lose.

And if he wins? If Old Cannibal dies instead? Well, then we can win. If that happens, then the day is ours to lose; victory is ours and we just have to make sure the Cannibals don't do enough damage going down that we go into a death spiral from their death throes.

 

[TehChron]

Set a trap for Old Cannibal

Click to shrink...

We have that though.

Manuel belched out the tribulation lightning near the Golden Eye Array. Which is noted to be one of many. What'll force Old Cannibal to actually step onto the battlefield is forcing whatever he has going on in that city to go to waste.

This most likely isnt a gamble on Old Cannibals part. So the best way to handle this is to knock the proverbial wheels out from his cart before it really gets going.

So, let's focus on that. Lean into that. Instead of spending two actions on finding out what's going on in Fu Tong, we leave that to the Golden Eye Array. And meanwhile, we have Manuel focus his action on preparing for a fight with Old Cannibal.

Click to shrink...

Or you could use my plan, which is "Use the array to find out, then let Manuel mess around with it to maximum effect".

Sabotage and setting traps is also within Manuel's purview.

The resources to block a city from the Golden Eye Array require Nascent Soul relevant investment of resources.

Its not.something Old Cannibal will be able to have more than one of.

So sabotaging it directly is a huge step towards forcing Old Cannibal.into that favorable.battle on our terms.

 

[no.]

[X] Plan For An Ace Up The Sleeve(?)

If we don't do the palace now then I suspect we probably never will. We're never ever going to save up enough income normally because we're always stretched to the breaking point, so fuck it. Let's jury-rig it, rip the band-aid off.

edit: this post somehow took three hours to send. Editing it to join a good bandwagon.

Edit 2: changed my mind.

 

[TehChron]

???

What?

We're literally going from crisis to crisis constantly. And have only had the technique palace for three turns.

Proclaiming that we're never gonna finish it when the plan had always been to start repairing it after we got out of this century intact is a bit premature, you know?

 

[ReaderOfFate]

[X] Plan For An Ace Up The Sleeve(?)

 

[Olivebirdy]

[X] Take the Loan. Permanent -1 Wealth per turn, +10 Wealth now.
[X] Intrigue (Battle Blood Cannibal Sect)
[X] Attempt to improve the Technique Palace (14 Wealth)
If we don't do the palace now then I suspect we probably never will. We're never ever going to save up enough income normally because we're always stretched to the breaking point, so fuck it. Let's jury-rig it, rip the band-aid off.

Click to shrink...

What do you want Manuel to focus on?

 

[moon-llama]

Diomedes adventures in dishwashing.

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"And stay out!"
As the front door was flung open one could see three figures thrown out in rapid succession, landing in a heap in front of the inn.
The inn was an old weathered building composed out of wood and stones
Curiously the building seemed to sport several hastily patched holes and broken windows.

"Do you know who I am!" shouted one of the fallen figures as he staggered to his feet.
"my father is the guard captain, kowtow to me now or I will have"
the arrogant youth words were suddenly cut off as the inn door opened once more, and a chair was thrown out hitting his face before the inn door closed with a final noise.

The passerby's murmured as they gathered into a crowd
"This is the third one this week"
"isn't he a cultivator?"
"ole Feng seems to have gotten himself some cultivators as bodyguards, this one was at the fourth stage"
"really? you would think after his inn got wrecked last year he would just leave his business and retire, where would he get the funds".

As the three youths picked themselves redfaced from the ground and left in clear anger
the crowd slowly dispersed their interest spent.
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Diomedes turned around as he saw the trio leaving, through a crack in the door.
"Good job"He heard a voice grunt gruffly.

Old Feng was a crotchety old man who seemed like he would keel over and died every second now,
only to stay alive by sheer inertia and annoyance to the world around him.

Diomedes was put in his debt after a tragic incident with an arrogant young master, a chicken, several spirit stones
and three bags of various kitchen implements that led to the destruction of the tavern.

While he tried to make amends by paying for the reconstruction of the tavern, old Feng refused his money and from what Diomedes could have sworn was sheer pettiness,
used what seemed to be enough blackmail to take down a small city, and had the local centurion reassign him to dishwashing duty at the tavern after rebuilding it until old Feng decided his debt repaid.

"now go back to the washroom the dishes are not going to wash themselves!" As Diomedes groaned in affirmation and began to move old Feng cackled out after him
" oh and that chair is added to your debt you brat!"
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And so continue Diomede's adventures in the service industry, this time as an almighty dishwasher!
For turn eight I will pick a tribulation boost for the omake bonus
and would like to have Diomedes attempt to reach the 12th stage before breaking through.


@Alectai

 

[no.]

???

What?

We're literally going from crisis to crisis constantly. And have only had the technique palace for three turns.

Proclaiming that we're never gonna finish it when the plan had always been to start repairing it after we got out of this century intact is a bit premature, you know?

Click to shrink...

From a pure gameplay perspective, I don't think there's ever not going to be a pressing issue. If there wasn't then we'd build up too fast. Once the cannibals are dealt with the Devil Bees or Jingshen will become a problem again. There's always something, which means we're always incentivized to spend everything. Because of that, I think it's very unlikely that we'll ever save up 40-80 wealth. So as long as this opportunity is here I think it's worth springing for.

 

[TehChron]

Except our financial situation has a major inflection point where saving up 40 wealth or so over a couple.turns is incredibly plausible. Given we're in a third of the poorest portion of.the region with a curse of poverty hampering our income.even further

Once we take down the blood.cannibals and break the curse of poverty that can and will change. Moreover, this time period since game.start has been blatantly abnormal in terms of number of crises to manage. Once the Blood Cannibals are broken our fortunes will improve drastically

Your assumption has no genuine basis. 40-80.may not be plausible under current circumstances...but those circumstances will be changing very very soon. Which has been the plan from the start.