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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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I don't really see exploration as being a good move here?

Like, we've literally just come off a massive adventure, we've got lots of plot to do, and our plans involve absurd amounts of cultivation and drugs (3.5 months of physical cultivation in a single turn, UGM/WHR to 5, RME mastered) that kind of demands some degree of focus. With us already doing significant RME cultivation, weaving in a bit more RME refinement on top of that fits well narratively.
 
I will note that, as big of an exploration fan that I am, I also agree that exploration right now is not great. We just had some major exploration happen on our trip to the Land of Always Winter, with the Hui secret lair and the forest of ancient pines, and I think now would be a great time to capitalize on the gains from that exploration. Specifically chugging through RME so we can use the Divining tools we acquired better. This, hopefully, will allow us to do even more exploration in later turns, especially if we are able to capitalize on the Dreaming compass and the Dream portal as well.

We have a lot of tools that will be amazing to use for exploration, but I feel that we have to pump up our ability to explore first and the current winning plan does just that.
 
Valmond said:
Whatever we choose to vote, now might be the time to do all the things we need to be in the sect to do.
We can mod arts anywhere, in theory, things like moon map are not quite so permissive.
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I second this. The moon map needs to see some use in the next 6 turns. And we might want to spend some time in the Archives while we still can.

[X] Plan: Drug-fueled adventure (+Explore, -RME Mod)
 
Just going to put in, I like the explore option (I've really been wanting to use that map) so I edited my earlier vote.

I hear that we just went off on an adventure, but still we are going to be doing arts modification and all irregardless while having full access to explore the sect is definitely on the clock.
 
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I mean, there's a reason for for that: exploration is bad. The whole turn system we're currently running on completely undermines it - it made more sense when cultivation and social/activity actions were all things that had to be traded off against each other, but doesn't really work now.

The financial return is bad and we're good on sites, so by and large in their current state they're bad as cultivation actions. Simultaneously, they aren't well worked into the actual narrative, and these days there tends not to be room for them. It needs us to have empty space or free slice of life activity actions in a turn that can be filled with the exploration instead, which we could kind of do at the start but now we've got too much stuff built up.

My feeling is that fixes for it would require yrs giving us a bunch of exploration options with specific goals rather than rng, and then only allowing us to vote for them if he feels there is room in that turn.
 
Explore was... alright before the whole 'there's a war going on' thing happened.

Like, unless the exploration action directly impacts the war itself, there's a certain degree of narrative and character arc undermining going on if you follow up the last two dramatic war-weary interludes with 'and now Ling Qi is off to go play in the mountains because it's not an opportunity that'll be available for very long.' There are ways to spin it, but most of them fall flat in the face of the fact that the driving impetus behind them is literally 'we're preparing to leave the sect and want all the bennies we can get before we go'.

I think that explore works well as a continuation of previous events if:

1) We're using the artifacts we looted from the Hui and more test-driving them than actually exploring.
2) The explore action is an excuse to socialize more than an actual exploration action (we just went to a strange, faraway land with strange, faraway people - there's bound to be some curious onlookers) and the exploration action is pulling double duty as a social action.
3) Ling Qi is using the exploration action as a means of accomplishing an important personal goal (dealing with the heart demon, uncapping a skill, etc.)

Otherwise, it's cluttering up the story with another useless divergence from the main plotline. I'm not even sure what tangible benefits you'd want out of an explore action. More treasure? More riches? Another art?
 
You know when exploration is gonna become really useful? When we get our fief.

I know that doesn't help with the moon map issue, I just wanna point out that we are gonna have a lot of impetus to explore.

Between looking for cultivation sites, special resources, spirits to come to an accord with or barring that defeat, and just surveying and mapping the land in general, I am expecting a lot of explore actions in the future. I'm excited.
 
[x] Plan: Drug-fueled adventure (+Explore, -RME Mod)

Absolutely no idea what this plan is about, but some exploring sounds like fun.
 
Since it's apparently not been communicated well enough, the idea to mod RME has been in the works for a while now, here's the relevant info:
  • With SSC's bonus base xp toward tinkering with music arts, the action spent should be free or even xp-positive, a pretty relevant factor since currently we're only on track for turn 13 G5 if we get the full 500xp for an RME mod action, as well as maximum moon xp over 2 turns (give or take a junior pill that helps spiritual).

  • Skill plans so far had us train up Perceptiveness again in hopes of getting a better fitting perception skill than Intensive Focus, it's currently capped and we'd be a lot better positioned to direct a second advanced skill by having both our perception arts actually tuned to our preference.

  • The actual suggested change is most likely replacing Projection with Music; the aesthetic of "hearing-based perception" is not the consensus opinion, I for one would like something leaning more on the exotic universal connection aspect of music; and would definitely like to keep the wisps as a strong aesthetic element. It's not as if the plan vote is the last place to make the call as we'll get an art mod mini-arc same as with HDW.

  • The long-term goal here is a successor fusion between HDW and RME into a unified perception art that covers all our varied needs and lets us grow into the flavor of divination we'd like to spec in. Successors are expensive as hell, and for narrative significance reasons we definitely want FSS+ first, but we do want it fairly soon after, and setting up a coherent fusion at all will be a lot easier if we lay the groundwork here by modifying RME to fit better.
tl;dr:
- RME mod is worth 1-2AP of spiritual (helps a lot).
- core mod is adding music, aesthetic specifics will be decided by further art mod votes.
- perceptiveness is capped and waiting on a new advancement.
- best time to tinker with it (jump from lv2 to lv5/mastery).
- provisional work toward an eventual fusion-successor.
 
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Black Noise said:

  • The actual suggested change is most likely replacing Projection with Music; the aesthetic of "hearing-based perception" is not the consensus opinion, I for one would like something leaning more on the exotic universal connection aspect of music; and would definitely like to keep the wisps as a strong aesthetic element. It's not as if the plan vote is the last place to make the call as we'll get an art mod mini-arc same as with HDW.
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I mean there's negative intent to get rid of the wisps - hell, they're a core part of the current HDW/RME fusion concept!

And I see the exotic music components as just being the higher level mystical expression of how we hear and percieve things? The only reason I emphasise hearing here is because I actually want, you know, basic perception abilities related to that that don't require us to play music. i.e. the big issue with HDW.
 
[X] Plan: Drug-fueled adventure (+Explore, -RME Mod)

Doesn't seem likely to catch up, but Adventure ho! A free AP seems like the best time to finally explore, which iirc doesn't happen very often.
 
Braidtugger said:
And , imo, I don't think that would be a fair choice, because us voters are predisposed to wanting the shiny in front of us.
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One choice is a serious career choice lasting several years (probably) and the other is a month-long party. They're inherently asymmetrical. It would be ridiculous if they had the same upfront potential. However, the choice to go tourney is a risk-averse choice to maintain the status quo. We're guaranteed to get other options after the tourney that will have the equivalent potential of the iceplomat route. But it's a wait and see conservative option. We're the MC; it's not like we won't be getting other shiny opportunities no matter what we do.
So, if you specifically dislike the diplomat route for us, vote tourney and sooner or later we're guaranteed another (probably more empire focused) option of similar or greater potential in six months. If you do like the diplomat route, well then it's now or never.
Saying that because it's shiny it prejudices the vote really underestimates the power of conservatism.
 
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