A couple of topics spring to mind after the Kei conversation. I don't know if her solution was good or not because I didn't think about that part. My read-through of that chapter was with the "character emotions" lens since that's my priority, not "practical solutions" lens. That said, let's assume she had a better solution. If so, there's a weird thing for me in terms of gameplay in that she'd be offering a new solution on her own instead of optimizing our ideas...
About Narrative & Meta Stuff: Kei says "hey, you should've come to me because I could've created an alternate solution for you to consider". If Kei gave us that option at that time though, that's the QMs basically giving us good answers to the problem. If that would've worked then that's fine, but I feel like the meta and atmosphere of the quest changes if we're given solutions freely. Especially if we're allowed to keep doing that. The situation will eventually have to change so we can't keep using the "Ask an Expert" lifeline (ex. in a combat crisis, the party is forcibly split by mechanisms we're not allowed to interrupt like with the caves. For social problems, Kei or Mari end up acting erratically so it's less comfortable to just ask them). Otherwise we'd just keep doing that.
I perceive a balance in my head about game balance here. On the left, you have "Think for Yourselves, Players". On the right you have "Rational Simulation + Do Whatever is Optimal". We will naturally tend to the right because that's optimal. The experts will usually be smarter than us when it comes to details or socials because they live in that world 24/7 and we don't - that's their field of strength, not ours. Also, Kei is just straight up smarter than us, and is written by QMs who are really flippin' smart. That said, if we keep using Ask an Expert, things will change so we can't do this as much because that's not fun. Eventually we'll be forced left side of this scale. Currently I feel like we didn't talk to Kei in so long about anything story-changing. We stayed really heavily on the left side of the scale meta-wise with her. Frustrated, Kei says "Use Me!" When we talk to her, she gives a wholeeeee bunch of free information about what'll happen with necromancy. This pushes things back to the right side of scale to incentivize us to use "Ask an Expert" again. If we do that too much, though...
I don't recall reading this topic because I skim discussion when I'm away, but I'm sure this has been a topic of discussion many times. Please bear with me though, because I don't know the answer everyone decided on and I want to know what it is. Consider the following situation:
1) Crisis occurs. The best idea as the leader is to say "Mari, Kei. My goal in navigating this crisis is to have X outcome. Thoughts on best solutions to get there?" Even if you have your own solution, this is the smartest thing to do first because crowd-thinking is good and Kei in particular is really smart. This outsources the thinking component to the QMs. Obviously this is bad for a quest.
Looking at the phrasing always being thrown around though, I see Kei is usually referred to as a Plan Optimizer. I'm guessing what happened is early into the quest, this problem became apparent so the gameplay idea became "Players comes up with long-term ideas, Kei/Mari (QMs) point out what could go wrong, Players decide what to change or whether to persist." This balance is probably always re-adjusting. If this is the meta that's fine, however in this context Kei saying "Let me come up with alternate ideas" felt weird. Was what Kei said legit from a gameplay perspective? If we asked her back then, would she have offered this plan? (Again, no comments on whether the plan works or not).
And a more general question. When this discussion occurred before (because I'm sure it has), what was the conclusion about "Ask an Expert"?
Disclaimer: I don't post often so I'm an unknown. CCnJ on my thoughts for context: This quest is awesome, the players are amazing, the QMs are fantastic. I'm an idiot so bear with me, this is a genuine question about game balance. How does "Ask an Expect" work?
About Kei and Player Rapport with the MfD Cast: IRL, I use the concept of rapport a lot. I think it applies very well to stories, too. One of my strongest metrics I use to decide how much I like a character is "How did this character make me feel?" Once I feel sufficiently positive about a character a rapport is established, and then I'm invested in them through thick-and-thin. If they start acting negatively, a good rapport shields that and I'll look past it because they're in my monkey-sphere. If someone makes you feel too bad for too long, then rapport breaks and you decide "why bother". Without rapport, the positives of a character become muted and the negatives become enhanced (often unfairly so).
I notice from reading posts that people seem to have different levels of rapport with Kei. Given her personality, I can absolutely see why opinions on her might vary. My own opinion on her was fluctuating on a strong back-and-forth throughout this chapter.
I current am feeling really positively inclined towards her. With all of her context and history, the way I ended up perceiving her at the end of this chapter was our sister saying "Please just talk to me more! I'm feeling hurt and maybe I'm fucking up too and if I am sorry. Let's be a stronger pair again!" She didn't come off as too unreasonable, just hurt and wanting to talk more. And she really gave off vibes that she's unequivocally on our side, no bullshit.
Course, the big problem is Mari. The toxic Mari-Kei relationship is what was fucking up everything. My stance on it is that Kei should at the least, be civil. Quit the negativity and learn to manage that internal Emotional Damage™. When you're feeling hurt, just say that you're feeling hurt but don't be an asshole about it. I think Mari was doing fine in that respect (unless that's just my Mari bias).
For the sake of fun, I'm going to share my un-asked for current rapport levels with characters as a reader. I wonder which of my opinions differ from the majority, and in what direction? Hazou doesn't count for obvious reasons.
Noburi: High rapport. I feel like we neglect him in terms of seeing him in plans, which makes me feel guilty. Despite that, every time we do see him it's like he doesn't give a fuck about that. He's always stable and chill. It got called out in this update that he's the guy that's genuinely just never causing any headaches. It's kind of funny because he was always starting shit at the beginning of the quest. I feel relaxed when I see him on-screen.
Kei: Mid-High rapport. Reminds me of some IRL friends/family that are great in many respects, but having narrow perspective really screws them over sometimes. She's trying her best, though, and the Hazou interactions still feel like a step in the right direction despite all the consistent mess-ups that occur along the way. Loved the feel of this last chapter, on balance. Hate her Mari interactions, though. I usually get anticipatory feelings for what's coming next when she's on screen.
Snowflake: High rapport. All the fantastic-ness of Kei with none of the Mari toxicity. I feel like every recent scene she's in is cute or makes me smile. I ship it
Mari: High rapport. She straight up mentioned torturing people and doing horrible things and I still didn't bat an eye. Something about the direction of her character arc was perfect from my perspective. I don't even know what it is, but whatever it was established a really strong rapport. As expected of the social spec, I suppose. My favourite character by a landslide. Consistently makes me feel interested or positive when she's on-screen.
Kagome: High rapport. I honestly kind of ignored him for most of the beginning and middle of the story (other than as a source of comedy with his whole... Kagome-ness), but in the latest 1/3rd of the story I felt like he shines whenever he shows up. He has those crazy uncle vibes, but that latest (non-canon?) confrontation with Ritsuo was hair-raising. So now the crazy uncle vibes are tempered with hidden badass vibes.
Akane: Low rapport. Surprisingly, I've almost never felt positive about her character. She's the bright one in theory, but in practice she's either feeling strong negative feelings, or feeling neutral-warm feelings that I suspect are a mask for her negative feelings. Her issues are never really resolved, so you know at her core she's not going to be happy. I usually don't feel anything when she's on screen. When she's depressed, I just feel sad.
Jiraiya: Medium rapport. Was definitely cool and interesting when he was around, I just think he didn't have enough time for that to develop further for me.
Yuno: High rapport. Heckin' love her after that marriage counselling chapter and the last few fights she came out to. Love every scene she's in. I love how she fights to understand a culture that's completely alien to her in such an endearing and realistic way. I also love how that's emotionally balanced with her Yuno-ness.
Orochimaru: Is rapport even allowed with this guy? He creeps me the hell out, but man is he a fantastic character. I'm always interested when he's on-screen, that's for sure. I just don't feel safe if he's getting extra screen-time, lol.
Tsunade: Medium rapport. She's cool and I'm always interested in when she's on screen, much like the other Sannin. Only limited by the screen-time because of the direction of our player choices. Unlike Orochimaru, though, I'd actually want her to get more screen time.
Ami: No rapport. It never really got established for me, but then her actions progressed as if the rapport was there which I took negatively. I probably just can't keep up with hyper-genius thinking. Historically made me feel very wary or nervous whenever she was on-screen. The last dance thing was more positive, so I guess I'm tentatively neutral there. I don't necessarily like reading her directly, but I like it when people analyze some of the little social-spec things that she does. RandomOTP often has really interesting interpretations about her.
Ino: High rapport. Her conversation topics are either positive in theme, or if conversation is heavy it's always handled with good framing. Feels stable. Tends to make me feel relaxed.
Shikamaru: Mid-High rapport. Seems like a cool guy who often just Doesn't Have Time For This Shit™. Didn't have a magic solution for the latest problem, but that's life. I appreciate the level-headedness. Makes me feel relaxed.
Asuma: Medium rapport. I actually love this guy when he's on-screen. The only reason it's Medium and not High is because I have to emotionally distance myself from him just in-case he messes with the team with this new situation. I wouldn't even blame him for doing what he thinks is best given his situation and everything. But he seems as chill as a Hokage could be, given his job. If you tell me he studied at that Fire Temple with the monks in MfD verse as he did in Kishimoto canon, I would 100% believe it. Makes me feel relaxed.
Naruto: Medium rapport. I kinda like his style even though he hates our guts half the time. I'm usually interested in what's he's thinking when he's on-screen because of his Kishimoto protagonist status, though.
Haru: High rapport. I ironically like him as a character even as he sticks to his guns of not liking us, lol. Didn't expect it, but he feels honest in his own way. Ironically training for spymaster role. Recently, I feel generally interested when he's on-screen.
