I recently binge read the story and a small amount of the thread (I've seen virtually none of the vote tallies); this quest is a big part of why I finally made an SV account.
It's been said repeatedly, but I'll say it again from the perspective of having read all 540K words in the latter half of July. I like that there are more things available to do than time to do them. I like that the questers have to prioritize Taylor's time and their other resources. I like that quest lines often have availability time limits on them, and I like that events and other actors continue to move when we aren't focused on them.
You designed this quest such that anything we choose to do has explicit opportunity costs. Good. Keep it that way.
What I don't like is the apparent pattern of things we don't choose to do getting worse over time because we choose not to do them. That feels less like opportunity costs and more like a trolley problem made of more simultaneous wildfires than we have resources to deal with. How bad will each get, how fast, what will they threaten, and when will they burn out? No idea.
That we have no idea is expected and good, that it feels like a trolley problem made of fires instead of tracks, or at some non-combat times some analogy involving bailing water from one or more boats, is not.
This is not to say that is actually what is going on. I recognize there are plenty of things we haven't done that, to the best of our knowledge, have not come back to bite us. I recognize that confirmation bias is in play, as is sensationalism bias no doubt. I recognize that other characters on the side of good that the questers do not control are doing things off screen, often quite competently.
But it still feels like everything slides downhill when we turn our backs. Despite (ample, now that I think about it) evidence to the contrary, it feels like nothing gets done without our direct involvement. Moreover, it feels like things always get worse without our direct involvement.
If it could feel less like we are, as another called it, the Only Competent Woman, that would probably solve most of this issue.
Is that what is actually happening? Perhaps not. But that is the perception.
I'm not suggesting that things be accomplished optimally when we don't choose to do them, nor to our satisfaction, nor even at all where appropriate. Certainly not that we be rewarded for things we did not do; a neutral resolution is usually fine. Just that we don't lament not doing them beyond the lost opportunity in most cases.
On a different note,
@Almech_Alfarion suggested that for entering combat we vote on Rules of Engagement, possibly from an established list, instead of on tactics. What level of force to use, the manner of entering combat, what fighting style to use. Do we want to prioritize takedowns, captures, defense of self and others, avoiding collateral, keeping the fight contained, stalling for time, or what?
No plan survives contact with the enemy, but while which tactics to use change unpredictably at a moment's notice, strategy informs which set or what type of tactics are in service of the goal.
I would suggest that where our plans get down to the level of tactics, they not extend beyond the opening moves. But that specifically is more on the players.
I also second that Taylor's default spell list be expanded beyond flight, flare shooter, and flare blade, particularly with certain rules of engagement. Telekinesis, for example, I only recall her using in combat in the temple on the alternate Earth, despite its great versatility. In the recent fight, had she thought fast, she may have been able to snag 'Blue Valkyrie' with a ring bind, or perhaps a frost beam.
To be fair, it seems like the readers also forgot, given that they sprung for the capture trap to solve that issue in future, with nary a mention of ring bind.
Flight, flare shooter, and flare blade I still expect to be her most used spells and generally her go-to's, but others, especially those she has mastered, I would expect to be a thought away when appropriate for the situation.
As a mostly unrelated question, what does Taylor do in her guesstimated hundred and forty or so hours off screen each week, other than school and sleep?
