Addressing things point by point because there are some fundamental misunderstandings.
I'm not sure how I feel about the role of a cultivator and his refusal of needs. To give you an example, once playing Sims I was able to disable all the needs in order to constantly develop skills, as you can guess it was one of the most boring gaming experiences.
On the other hand, the theme of the great sacrifice, which takes us to the transcendental level, is quite interesting to me, but the second problem with the cultivator also grows from here. I'm not sure we'll be able to unlock the full potential of this theme, in my experience players don't like to sacrifice anything and this approach can make this powerful role average at best.
So for one, we don't get to just cut things out willy nilly, we need to actively grow to a point where we can shed those burdens in character. It's not a knife that we use to cut out parts, it's moving past that "burden" to the point where it no longer troubles you. It provides for extremely strong character growth intrinsically. To assume this will be "average" is an insane take. Even just taking out despair causes our motivation to skyrocket, which is well worth the cost already and beyond what any of the other options call for. Not to mention it scales passively, and very well as per birdsie. Also Loafer is going to be very cautious (another wog), and will start by only cutting out the smallest parts he can. We will literally not be able to play the way you're describing, and birdsie literally said it's the strongest option available, thus justifying the cost.
The problem is that we will not look for a middle ground, but try to give as little as possible by getting as much as possible. Every time I think about it, I almost feel the approach of endless arguments about what we should leave and what we should sacrifice.
Personally, I am not inspired by such a prospect, in my opinion it will distract a lot of attention from all other things.
I meant that if we are allowed to press the self-development button endlessly without the need to be distracted by needs, then we will press and press this button without being distracted by anything else, including social interaction and storylines.
As I said above, it's not a button. Literally can't be used like that. Since it encourages self growth to be used at all it actually encourages Loafer to step outside his comfort zone and grow as a person.
Oh, didn't know this. I thought that was the only way we would be able to reach 25 credits, even with omakes, discounts and other stuff.
But yes, I also meant being able to actually get new stuff instead of starting at 0.
We got an absurd multiplier that puts the cultivator within our purchasing power if the thread generates enough content and develops good arguments. Meta currency is always best spent at pivotal moments, and this is THE pivotal moment. We're setting our power set for the rest of the quest, this is the last time to save. That 25 SC will never be worth more than it is right now.
I agree that the physical strings are not interesting. I would vote for other methods of fighting you or other would find interesting.
To explain further why I dislike the cultivator gameplay, I agree with what Fghubyygvb and others have said.
The cultivators is a much more internally focused path, that leaves the strengths and weaknesses of the MC, has less social stuff, and doesn't really look like it fits much? Yes, much power and all that, but it's just very meh. And if we start sacrificing stuff like sloth, we lose what made the character interesting and unique. Less of a journey where the mc becomes better and more of a complete change of who the mc is, how he acts and what he cares about.
To define the character based purely on his greatest tragedy is just strange to me. Is he not more than his despair at his lack of agency? Should we not be trying our best to help him grow into the best possible version of himself? Again I think a lot of this is from a heavy misunderstanding of how "cutting things out" works, it's a very involved process.
I'm aware of these factors, and my position stands. I said "costs 25 Credits and advances by the method of sheering off bits of self; though it has practical benefits for the Loafer, it strikes me as fundamentally undesirable."; the method of sheering off bits of self seems like a bad plan even perfectly selectively. Rather soon, you'd run out of truly low-hanging fruit.
(and 18 is less than 25 but is still pretty high.)
"sheering off bits of self" is more "shedding the burdens you carry", with a heavy amount of interpretation of what constitutes a burden. We don't have to sacrifice everything about ourselves, in fact no one wants to. It's completely within our power to use the role in a way that allows the Loafer to move past his character flaws and still retain his humanity. Not to mention, that's already what the loafer wants since WoG he's gonna be very cautious with these powers.
