- Location
- Required Location
Source?
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Source?
Parsing Dominions as Domino's threw me for a hell of a loop here.
Well, art optimization and new arts. Remember all those miscellaneous holes we were going to fill with dedicated Larceny/Stealth/Perception/Social/Spirit-Wrangling arts, but which we sort of gave up the endeavor because where the hell do we find room for all those meridians?
Now that we know about Art Optimization we can probably start building a sideboard once we've compressed a few arts. We could probably TRAIN them but not use them right now in fact. We might even want to pick Late Yellow->Green 1 arts so we can master them quickly, compress them down, then get the successor Green 2 art to actually be able to switch between sideboards.
iirc, @yrsillar's mentioned that the Dominions strategy game series was partial inspiration for the setting. In it, one of the schools of magic is Blood magic. Most Blood magic requires the blood sacrifice from people with special blood you've caught. One of the staple spells of the school kills a single blood slave and completely removes the mage's fatigue.
Pro tip: don't try to cast blood magic in combat underwater, the blood slaves typically all instantly drown.
Pro tip 2: be very careful with combat blood mage placement if you're Abysians(magical race with body temperatures so hot they set people near them on fire)
Real pro tip. Don't play Abysians
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Eh.
I am honestly less than impressed by all the ideas out there, given how we only have 24 turns to do the monster of a task Shenhua gave us. The only ideas I'm interested in are those that make our central board better and help us do that task, so Larceny/Perception.
E: I certainly don't want to mess with them at all right now. I'd much rather deal with the other stuff we already have.
- Location
- Staring into the void
The pizza build strat. Piece'a this, and a piece'a that.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Their blood mages are only really any good as Super combatants or thugs. That or you only use blood magic for ritual spells.Real pro tip. Don't play Abysians
If the challenge system was based off straight facepunching, that'd be correct, but we're very likely to have to challenge upwards based on our secondary skills, so you know, a Late Yellow->Green 1 art could be done in literally 2 actions or so, which is good for rounding out and building a sideboard.
The format REALLY likes sideboards.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Bored yet again. Attributes(stats) are bolded, numbers in parentheses denote how many thing are at that rank.
A (2)
Base Qi, Woodwind
B (8)
Dexterity, Available Qi, Initiative, Base Spiritual Defense (Armor), Base Spiritual Offense (Hit, Music),
Base Physical Offense (Hit 2, Music), Domain Weapon (Hit), Domain Weapon (Penetration)
C (21)
Wits, Resolve, Manipulation, Base Health, Speed, Combat Perception, Social Perception,
Base Physical Defense (Avoid), Base Physical Defense (Armor), Base Spiritual Defense (Avoid),
Base Physical Offense (Hit 1, Archery), Base Physical Offense (Penetration 2, Music), Base Spiritual Offense (Penetration, Music)
Domain Weapon (Avoid), Domain Weapon (Armor), Athletics, Stealth, Music, Archery, Dodge, Resilience
D (12)
Stamina, Intelligence, Base Physical Offense (Penetration 1, Archery), Base Physical Offense (Hit 3, Dance),
Formations, Perceptiveness, Survival, Empathy, Spirit Ken, Fade,
E (13)
Strength, Composure, Base Physical Offense (Penetration 3, Dance), Academics, Government,
Dance, Art, Beast Handling, Speech, Blades, Projection, Unarmed, Fortitude
F (3)
Presence, Craft, Polearms
G (1)
Domain Rank
H (1)
War
So something to note here for the curious. Our F Presence is drastically lowering our Music based Penetration. Strength E is lowering our dance based penetration, how hard it hits.
With all that in mind our primary skills and focuses are prominently at the A and B Rank. The ones that are not; our Music Penetration, Physical Defense Avoid and Armor, Spiritual Defense Avoid, and Domain Weapon Avoid and Armor.
These come from a combination of F Presence, which should be fixed this turn or the next, Dodge C and Fortitude E, Fade D. Can't really fix our Domain Weapon's Avoid and Armor because it is based on Dex and Music oddly, and Music is capped at C and Dex is hard to raise.
E: For more fun, tilt your head right and look at the rank list again. It looks a bit like a turtle.
E2: For more layman's interpretation, with our music we land hits as often as a starting Green and hurt as much as a peak Yellow. Of course none of this includes our Qualified bonuses, which show up when certain conditions are fulfilled like being in darkness or using Music arts. With that some of our important stuff moves up. This is also not entirely accurate because I didn't include the modifier numbers to the Ranks.
E3: The Dex and Music thing for our Domain Weapon's Avoid and Armor may be a typo, and it should be Woodwind. In which case that is much better.
A (2)
Base Qi, Woodwind
B (8)
Dexterity, Available Qi, Initiative, Base Spiritual Defense (Armor), Base Spiritual Offense (Hit, Music),
Base Physical Offense (Hit 2, Music), Domain Weapon (Hit), Domain Weapon (Penetration)
C (21)
Wits, Resolve, Manipulation, Base Health, Speed, Combat Perception, Social Perception,
Base Physical Defense (Avoid), Base Physical Defense (Armor), Base Spiritual Defense (Avoid),
Base Physical Offense (Hit 1, Archery), Base Physical Offense (Penetration 2, Music), Base Spiritual Offense (Penetration, Music)
Domain Weapon (Avoid), Domain Weapon (Armor), Athletics, Stealth, Music, Archery, Dodge, Resilience
D (12)
Stamina, Intelligence, Base Physical Offense (Penetration 1, Archery), Base Physical Offense (Hit 3, Dance),
Formations, Perceptiveness, Survival, Empathy, Spirit Ken, Fade,
E (13)
Strength, Composure, Base Physical Offense (Penetration 3, Dance), Academics, Government,
Dance, Art, Beast Handling, Speech, Blades, Projection, Unarmed, Fortitude
F (3)
Presence, Craft, Polearms
G (1)
Domain Rank
H (1)
War
So something to note here for the curious. Our F Presence is drastically lowering our Music based Penetration. Strength E is lowering our dance based penetration, how hard it hits.
With all that in mind our primary skills and focuses are prominently at the A and B Rank. The ones that are not; our Music Penetration, Physical Defense Avoid and Armor, Spiritual Defense Avoid, and Domain Weapon Avoid and Armor.
These come from a combination of F Presence, which should be fixed this turn or the next, Dodge C and Fortitude E, Fade D. Can't really fix our Domain Weapon's Avoid and Armor because it is based on Dex and Music oddly, and Music is capped at C and Dex is hard to raise.
E: For more fun, tilt your head right and look at the rank list again. It looks a bit like a turtle.
E2: For more layman's interpretation, with our music we land hits as often as a starting Green and hurt as much as a peak Yellow. Of course none of this includes our Qualified bonuses, which show up when certain conditions are fulfilled like being in darkness or using Music arts. With that some of our important stuff moves up. This is also not entirely accurate because I didn't include the modifier numbers to the Ranks.
E3: The Dex and Music thing for our Domain Weapon's Avoid and Armor may be a typo, and it should be Woodwind. In which case that is much better.
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- Location
- Required Location
Well, the RR version of FoD is back to being 14th place on the best rated list after scratching the top for a while. On the other hand @TehChron 's comment is back on the first page of top rated comments.
The patreon account has stayed on 499/500 $ per month for a while now(like more than a week, maybe ten days) and I understand why the person who last patreoned yrs did this:
It provides a strong incentive to the next reader to subscribe,as contributing just a single dollar to yrs would double the rate at which yrs is posting to RR and thus making that support count for a lot. being the pivotal person to affect such a change is always a cool feeling that the donators of the 492nd Dollar, the 12th Dollar or 503rd Dollar will always miss. This introduces a strong draw to contribute at least one Dollar to be that person.
So, whoever planned this, kudos.
I simply think that the patreon has not as much visibility as it could have and people not knowing how the current state of the patreon.
@yrsillar , seeing as it is thursday and therefore update day, could you include a little AN at the head or the bottom of the chapter in which you Point out the 499/500 situation and provide a link to your patreon intext? Or maybe include a small segment/AN in each chapter in which you thank your Patrons, thus advertising the patreon more without the need to strongly promoting it if this is something that would constitute 'begging' for you or make you otherwise uncomfortable.
The patreon account has stayed on 499/500 $ per month for a while now(like more than a week, maybe ten days) and I understand why the person who last patreoned yrs did this:
It provides a strong incentive to the next reader to subscribe,as contributing just a single dollar to yrs would double the rate at which yrs is posting to RR and thus making that support count for a lot. being the pivotal person to affect such a change is always a cool feeling that the donators of the 492nd Dollar, the 12th Dollar or 503rd Dollar will always miss. This introduces a strong draw to contribute at least one Dollar to be that person.
So, whoever planned this, kudos.
I simply think that the patreon has not as much visibility as it could have and people not knowing how the current state of the patreon.
@yrsillar , seeing as it is thursday and therefore update day, could you include a little AN at the head or the bottom of the chapter in which you Point out the 499/500 situation and provide a link to your patreon intext? Or maybe include a small segment/AN in each chapter in which you thank your Patrons, thus advertising the patreon more without the need to strongly promoting it if this is something that would constitute 'begging' for you or make you otherwise uncomfortable.
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Hey woah. We have 26 turns!
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
only 18 turns before the big intersect showdown
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
An other thing to worry about is that attribute training is heavily linked to Arts cultivation.
I doubt we'll have will be able to train all our relevant attributes/skills if we don't get new arts in green 2/3...
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
Yes, this is why I was really for going to the inner sect archive. Whatever we do, we have to realise that we need something like 6+ new arts when we are in Foundation green, especially if Foundation is the one with the bottleneck toward threshold (and so take a looong time).
It's very important we get inroads into what we want to get there early, so that we don't get trapped into a "fuck, we now don't have time to go looking, so go grab the nearest thing possible and not think". Hopefully we'll have access to FSS+, but even that is not certain, just very likely.
FYI, we currently seem to lack any way to train Fade, Resilience and Socialise/Spirit Ken that we probably want. It will be a pity if in Foundation we get completely unable to train any a lot of our main skill/stats, especially as we kinda want to do them as heavily as possible pre-tournament.
A late Yellow => Green 1 Art could be done in 2 actions or so if they fit us, but then they need another 2 actions of meridian crunching if we want to truly be able to sideboard them quickly rather than "just equip them for that one challenge where we can learn them for that specific challenge".
More relevant, however, is that a Green 1 art is going to be of very little help in a challenge between Green 3+. It won't be useless, I think, but it will be nigh-obsolete.
How do you know?
Judging by our other arts, the techniques aren't going to be of a significantly higher level, given that even our Yellow arts have C rank techs (which comparable to what we get from our Green 1 Arts). Yeah, the art will have a lesser Potency value, but I don't think we've had any indication of how much of a difference that makes. So how do you know that a Green 1 and a Green 3 art would have a major gap?
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
A few reasons.
First is obviously that while the system has changed, we can still take what the arts used to be as indication of their general potency. The difference between three cultivation level was always huge beforehand, and I don't see why it wouldn't be now. This is even more obvious now that that it seems all our arts have multiple levels per cultivation levels... or at least the ones we have. AE has 4 levels until it gets mastered in Green 3, and FSS has 3 until it gets mastered in Green 2. SCS likewise has 2 more until it get mastered in Green 2. TRF is the exception there with just one more level, though it wouldn't surprise me if it had a very significant success needed gap. This isn't even talking about how PLR has 7! levels from now and green 4.
Second, our green 1 arts with more arts levels have B ranked techs. This combined with greater potency is a big deal. I'll grant that it's hard to lock down exactly how important potency is right now, but everything we know about the setting should make it really important. Having an art with only B+ rank techs at Potency Green 3 is very, very unlikely to be on the same magnitude as one with C rank techs (if we get a new art that begins late) with Green 1 Potency.
Far Far Future
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
The Far Far Future
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Zheng Lie slipped into hall four. He searched quickly for any familiar faces in the near empty hall but of course found none. He was to be the first cultivator of the Zheng clan. His father was ecstatic, of course, seeing this as a chance to bring the Zheng clan to the greatest heights. To bring the mercantile empire of the Zheng clan up to the heavens! At least, that is what Zheng Lie managed to pick out during his father's drunken ramblings at the parties thrown in Zheng Lie's honor. The last week of his life had been the most confusing that Zheng Lie had ever managed to live through. In one week his father had tried to makeup for 14 years of neglect.. Now though, Zheng Lie was alone and he tried to desperately remember the half hearted lectures his tutors gave him on making friends. At this moment though he could only remember his father telling him to "make connectioshns s-s-so the Zsheng can ma-ma-get money!"
As Zheng Lie looked around at the sparsely populated room his attention was drawn to a boy with short blue hair with a pale green shirt with small golden whorls in a pattern he couldn't quite figure out. The boy had a writing station set out before him but did not seem to be writing anything just yet. The other people that were here had already formed groups of two or three and where talking quietly. This boy was the only other person alone. Moving before his confidence could desert him, Zheng Lie approached the front row.
As Zheng Lie approached, the boy turned to face him. Swallowing his heart Zheng Lie bowed to the stranger. "Greetings, this one is known as Zheng Lie. I was hoping you would allow this one the opportunity to speak with you as we wait." Zheng Lie held his breath. He was hoping that this humble approach would work.
"I of course do not mind. This one is known as Li Yong. I would be pleased to speak to a fellow early arrival. I hail from Fenghou. Where do you hail from?"
Zheng Lie felt his stomach ease. He could do this. As he gently took his seat he responded "I hail from Tonghou."
Li Yong gaze turned thoughtful. "Tonghou? I have heard that name before… ah! Is it not the city recently brought under the care of the Ling Clan?"
Zheng Lie blinked in surprise. That transition had happened five years ago. How was that recent? "It is as you say. The previous caretakers were deemed to have failed in their duties of maintaining the spirit wards along the trade roads." He still remembered the day the mists rolled into the city making it difficult to even breathe let alone walk anywhere. The next day the mists had left and his father had announced to the clan that the venerable Ling Clan had taken on all the tasks and duties that Tonghou would require. "Being in the care of the Ling clan has only brought prosperity to the city of Tonghou."
Li Yong chuffed in amusement. "Of course. Members of the Ling clan are quite zealous in taking care of any imperial duties that fall upon them. Is that not right Mei-Mei?"
Zheng Lie nearly tumbled out his seat as a soft voice spoke right next to him.
"Of course the Ling clan is zealous in imperial matters as all clans should be. And Yo-Yo please do not use that childish nickname anymore or I will have to come up even more childish nicknames for you."
Zheng Lie stared at the girl who had been sitting next to him for spirits knows how long. She wore a pitch black dress that had a silver edge at the hem, the sleeve ends, and the collar. She also wore a matching set of earrings that were a black circle chased with silver. She was resting her head on her hand as she gazed with a look that could be called disinterested were it not for the twinkle of amusement in her eyes. She was by far the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
Zheng Lie hastily stood to bow. "Ah.. Greetings, this one is known as…"
The soft voice cut him off. "Zheng Lie, yes. Please have a seat. There is no need to be so humble or formal. After all we are all still children."
Li Yong gave a wave towards the girl who had apparently been behind Zheng Lie the whole time without Zheng Lie noticing. "This is Ling Meizhen. Since our clans are ancient allies we have been friends our whole lives. Congratulations though Meizhen on a full yellow breakthrough. I had not realized you were so close when we last saw each other."
Ling Meizhen turned her gaze towards Li Yong. "Thank you Yong. My sister is mostly to credit for this state though. She wanted to shine as brightly as possible when she arrived here and so convinced grandfather to give us a training ground far closer to the guardian then normal. I still don't think I have washed all the sweat off. However, I also see that you have breached into silver. Congratulations as well."
Li Yong laughed slightly "I was given a new recipe soon after we parted last time. I have benefited greatly from the new pills I have made."
As the conversation turned towards topics and words that Zheng Lie did not understand his stomach started to twist and turn again. As he tried to swallow his heart again the door to the hall opened. Ling Meizhen's gaze snapped towards the sound.
Ling Meizhen's soft voice now had a slight ringing sound as if there was a distant bell inside her. "Wang Min, Red 1, Gold 2."
As Zheng Lie turned a questioning gaze towards Li Yong he saw there was already a small picture with the name, colors and numbers that Ling Meizhen had rattled off below it. As Li Yong meet his questioning gaze Li Yong gave a small shrug and a small smile.
While Li Yong set aside his brush he started speaking again. "It is best to know where as many people stand as possible to better understand what pills will be in greatest demand. Ling Meizhen as you can see is far better at seeing where people stand then most and is very helpful to this little reference project of mine."
Ling Meizhen's gaze was now resting on something near the front of the room. "Friends help friends."
Zheng Lie and his rapidly sinking stomach both had the feeling as though he had jumped into the deep end of a river without knowing he was jumping, or that he was near a river. Now he could only hope to keep his head above the waters he felt starting to climb at his neck.
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Well guys another omake. This one takes place quite far in the future. I have been thinking a great deal about how the Ling Clan might possibly look like in the future. This is an attempt at showing a possible future Ling clan from an outsider's perspective. I tried for some humorous interplay between two old friends and some one who has has confidence issues. Please enjoy and critique!
@yrsillar An Omake for the Omake Throne!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zheng Lie slipped into hall four. He searched quickly for any familiar faces in the near empty hall but of course found none. He was to be the first cultivator of the Zheng clan. His father was ecstatic, of course, seeing this as a chance to bring the Zheng clan to the greatest heights. To bring the mercantile empire of the Zheng clan up to the heavens! At least, that is what Zheng Lie managed to pick out during his father's drunken ramblings at the parties thrown in Zheng Lie's honor. The last week of his life had been the most confusing that Zheng Lie had ever managed to live through. In one week his father had tried to makeup for 14 years of neglect.. Now though, Zheng Lie was alone and he tried to desperately remember the half hearted lectures his tutors gave him on making friends. At this moment though he could only remember his father telling him to "make connectioshns s-s-so the Zsheng can ma-ma-get money!"
As Zheng Lie looked around at the sparsely populated room his attention was drawn to a boy with short blue hair with a pale green shirt with small golden whorls in a pattern he couldn't quite figure out. The boy had a writing station set out before him but did not seem to be writing anything just yet. The other people that were here had already formed groups of two or three and where talking quietly. This boy was the only other person alone. Moving before his confidence could desert him, Zheng Lie approached the front row.
As Zheng Lie approached, the boy turned to face him. Swallowing his heart Zheng Lie bowed to the stranger. "Greetings, this one is known as Zheng Lie. I was hoping you would allow this one the opportunity to speak with you as we wait." Zheng Lie held his breath. He was hoping that this humble approach would work.
"I of course do not mind. This one is known as Li Yong. I would be pleased to speak to a fellow early arrival. I hail from Fenghou. Where do you hail from?"
Zheng Lie felt his stomach ease. He could do this. As he gently took his seat he responded "I hail from Tonghou."
Li Yong gaze turned thoughtful. "Tonghou? I have heard that name before… ah! Is it not the city recently brought under the care of the Ling Clan?"
Zheng Lie blinked in surprise. That transition had happened five years ago. How was that recent? "It is as you say. The previous caretakers were deemed to have failed in their duties of maintaining the spirit wards along the trade roads." He still remembered the day the mists rolled into the city making it difficult to even breathe let alone walk anywhere. The next day the mists had left and his father had announced to the clan that the venerable Ling Clan had taken on all the tasks and duties that Tonghou would require. "Being in the care of the Ling clan has only brought prosperity to the city of Tonghou."
Li Yong chuffed in amusement. "Of course. Members of the Ling clan are quite zealous in taking care of any imperial duties that fall upon them. Is that not right Mei-Mei?"
Zheng Lie nearly tumbled out his seat as a soft voice spoke right next to him.
"Of course the Ling clan is zealous in imperial matters as all clans should be. And Yo-Yo please do not use that childish nickname anymore or I will have to come up even more childish nicknames for you."
Zheng Lie stared at the girl who had been sitting next to him for spirits knows how long. She wore a pitch black dress that had a silver edge at the hem, the sleeve ends, and the collar. She also wore a matching set of earrings that were a black circle chased with silver. She was resting her head on her hand as she gazed with a look that could be called disinterested were it not for the twinkle of amusement in her eyes. She was by far the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
Zheng Lie hastily stood to bow. "Ah.. Greetings, this one is known as…"
The soft voice cut him off. "Zheng Lie, yes. Please have a seat. There is no need to be so humble or formal. After all we are all still children."
Li Yong gave a wave towards the girl who had apparently been behind Zheng Lie the whole time without Zheng Lie noticing. "This is Ling Meizhen. Since our clans are ancient allies we have been friends our whole lives. Congratulations though Meizhen on a full yellow breakthrough. I had not realized you were so close when we last saw each other."
Ling Meizhen turned her gaze towards Li Yong. "Thank you Yong. My sister is mostly to credit for this state though. She wanted to shine as brightly as possible when she arrived here and so convinced grandfather to give us a training ground far closer to the guardian then normal. I still don't think I have washed all the sweat off. However, I also see that you have breached into silver. Congratulations as well."
Li Yong laughed slightly "I was given a new recipe soon after we parted last time. I have benefited greatly from the new pills I have made."
As the conversation turned towards topics and words that Zheng Lie did not understand his stomach started to twist and turn again. As he tried to swallow his heart again the door to the hall opened. Ling Meizhen's gaze snapped towards the sound.
Ling Meizhen's soft voice now had a slight ringing sound as if there was a distant bell inside her. "Wang Min, Red 1, Gold 2."
As Zheng Lie turned a questioning gaze towards Li Yong he saw there was already a small picture with the name, colors and numbers that Ling Meizhen had rattled off below it. As Li Yong meet his questioning gaze Li Yong gave a small shrug and a small smile.
While Li Yong set aside his brush he started speaking again. "It is best to know where as many people stand as possible to better understand what pills will be in greatest demand. Ling Meizhen as you can see is far better at seeing where people stand then most and is very helpful to this little reference project of mine."
Ling Meizhen's gaze was now resting on something near the front of the room. "Friends help friends."
Zheng Lie and his rapidly sinking stomach both had the feeling as though he had jumped into the deep end of a river without knowing he was jumping, or that he was near a river. Now he could only hope to keep his head above the waters he felt starting to climb at his neck.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well guys another omake. This one takes place quite far in the future. I have been thinking a great deal about how the Ling Clan might possibly look like in the future. This is an attempt at showing a possible future Ling clan from an outsider's perspective. I tried for some humorous interplay between two old friends and some one who has has confidence issues. Please enjoy and critique!
@yrsillar An Omake for the Omake Throne!
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If they were standalone, yes, but all those listed arts pertain to things our existing arts already support as a secondary feature. Which means they are winnable contests, especially if our opponents are themselves lacking(as is the case of the challenge format, makes it such that you almost never compete in your primary specialty unless on defense)
It is completely reasonable to expect arts which required more training to get to have greater impact. This is going to be true from a game design perspective if nothing else; if putting work into Arts didn't make them stronger than what is the even the point?
In fact, I would go so far as to say that if a pair of techs do roughly the same thing or even just serve the same role, then the one belonging to a Green 1 art is going to be completely eclipsed by the one in a Green 3 art, particularly if we assume the latter started at the same point and therefore has a LOT more XP invested into it than the former. For example, FSA has a single-target damage attack in the form of Hoarfrost Caress, so keeping any other single-target damage attacks is mostly useless. Best case scenario, we get a tech that comes at things from a different angle, making it better for a given situation. For example:
- An attack of a different element might help us if we are fighting someone who has extra Cold defenses, either via cultivation or one-use-item
- An attack that is Physical instead of Spiritual might do better against people with more focused Spiritual Defenses
- An attack that has greater range might allow us to engage earlier
That said, this only applies in so far as techs do the same thing, or at least things that can reasonably replace each other. One damage-dealing attack can easily be swapped out for another. Swapping out a debuff-focused attack for a damage-dealing one is a far worse fit; it isn't uncommon for us to meaningfully prefer the former to the latter or vice versa. A non-instant defensive move is an even worse match for an offensive move - the only thing they have in common is that they take up the same action slots, which means that one takes up room that could be used by another. And taking it one step further, any instant or reaction is completely separate from a damage-dealing attack; even if you have the best attack in the world, you'd still want some techs to fill your instant slots.
So, getting back to the original discussion. Your claim wasn't that that Green 3 arts were better than Green 1 arts, but that the latter would be "nigh-obsolete". I don't think we can go that fair. Insofar as said arts offer capabilities which are redundant with outer higher-tier arts, yes, you are correct. However, to the degree that such arts provide meaningfully distinct abilities, they are still useful.
Take Argent Mirror as an example. Imperturbable Peak gives us the ability to dispel weak techniques affecting our allies as long as the techniques were cast by someone with weaker cultivation than ourselves. You could have a hundred Yellow Soul cultivators casting E-rank debuffs on our allies (with presumably some smaller fraction of those debuffs actually "sticking"), and we could get rid of them with one ability. This capacity is niche, but it is non-trivial within its niche, and whatever Spiritual Defense art we may pick up and raise to Green 3 or whatever probably won't replicate that. In this niche, Imperturbable Peak is quite valuable. Similarly, until we pick up another art with illusion-breaking abilities, Discerning Gaze could be useful in combat, and until we pick up a good Perception Art it has utility use outside of combat. And of course the passive abilities of Argent Mirror will still be around no matter what art we pick up.
Regarding sideboards. I find that the new Meridian mechanics make side-boarding simultaneously more and less of a good idea.
One one hand, the ability to reduce the meridian requirements of Arts makes it possible to be somewhat more modular in equipping them. Reducing an art from e.g. 4 meridians to 2 means that it is much easier to fit without having to unequip a lot of permanent arts. It makes it more realistic to have sets of arts with matching meridians that can be directly swapped for each other without impacting anything else, and it makes it easier to make room for a sideboard in our art-loadout in the first place.
On the other hand, the new dynamics also make it cheaper to just make peripheral abilities part of your constant build. Previously, we would have had to guard every meridian jealously; now, we are likely to have extra room, at least until we max out our build. Given that we aren't anywhere near such a max right now, the idea of a sideboard mostly doesn't appeal outside of truly niche applications. I can see us putting a larceny art in a sideboard (to be loaded only when we are on a heist), or a crafting art (to be loaded only when we are working on Formations). However, for something even slightly broader like an Investigation art or a Social art, it feels like we'd run across situations where such arts could be useful often enough that it warrants taking the time to open extra meridians to have the arts equipped full-time.
I don't think @Arkeus is saying Green 1 arts are completely useless by Green 3. He's basically speculating on the nature of opposition we can expect to face, and intuiting that they would be lackluster in the face of our competition. And, like, art support also applies to higher Potency arts. But it's a higher Potency art then being supported. Passive bloat also isn't what it used to be, so....
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I guess that means that talent become more important then patronage at higher realms. You can't just be given upper grade arts you have to make them yourself.
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Definitely, yes.
But the thing is with the competition format, as far as we have been informed, suggests that the below scenarios are most common:
-Challenging a new rank would mean challenging against someone who would definitely pick the option that disfavors your most known abilities(for Ling Qi, this is Mass Combat and Stealth).
-Defending your rank would mean you choose an option which favors you the most out of your opponent's abilities.
Under this model, presuming logical opponents and a neutral Sect, the most common contest type in a vacuum is always going to be Secondary Competency vs Secondary Competency, because unless fighting a mirror match, the challenged party would always try to pick a test of the challenger's weakest skill that they defend against with their strongest applicable skill.
This is of course, oversimplifying, considering Yrs had mentioned that a possible format is that the Production Student might be assigned to build a defense while the Infiltrator Student might be tasked to penetrate said defense.
Your highest potency skill is likely to be more relevant with regards to sect missions and contributions, where you get to pick the best fit. It also applies best in a straight facepunch contest, which is invaluable in defending your rank.
Still, the proposed plan was definitely misunderstood then, because the Yellow -> Green1 sideboard includes picking up already optimised successor Green 2+ arts after you master the Yellow->Green art(in like, 1 action) and then compress its meridians down. If you're throwing a Green 1 sideboard as your sole capability against a Green 3 opponent then you have bigger problems, the sideboard is meant to expand the capability of your main deck in covering edge cases, not win a fight on its own.
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There's always the Sect Jobs and Duties with their Any option and no indication that isn't fully inclusive. I do agree that we need to know our options before hand.
Sounds like a waste of time, straight up. We have other shit to do, is my strongest refrain right now. Yellow -> Green 1 is around 1 to 2 actions. Compressing it is around 2 or 3. And there is no such thing as "already optimized Green 2 arts" because the optimization must be done by Ling Qi. So that's... quite possibly 5 to 8 or more actions with 4x action point expenditure to fully master the art, and then another 3 or 4 actions to compress it.
It also seems blatantly odd for the sect to not have means to encourage testing of primary competency.
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