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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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Alectai said:
Hmm, about half of our net income on personal growth, the other hand tucked away for future development and investments as our default setup, assuming no major investments are on the horizon?

Maybe a budget of 33 GS worth on personal growth right now, leaving us with 30 a month for building our nest egg up, which we draw on for major investments?
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Half and half sounds good for now, but as we start getting more cultivators I think going closer to 1/3 each to ourselves, other cultivators, and long term investments would make sense. Exact values depend on what the situation actually ends up being of course.

Not part of this vote, but we also should invest most of our wealth, either into personal infrastructure or things which generate wealth to support our clan going forward. Probably keep 50-100GS as our emergency liquidity? I like the idea of investing in Xiangman, 🌳 is best.
 
It is amusing that the budget for growing the cultivators of the Ling Household (outside of Ling Qi and her spirits) doesn't even register as a blip on the fiscal sheets.
 
Thor's Twin said:
Wow... Zhengui is going to be a chonky boy.

No wonder there are so few Xuanwu if this is the upkeep they need to keep growing at the green stage. That's just monstrous. Left unattended, they would have to be walking ecological disasters, consuming everything in their path. Or they grow very slowly and Zhengui is speed running it.
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they do. One of the major things xuan shi's clans does is depopulate any place they stay in to feed the turtles, the giant amounts of fish and spirits need to be consumed any time they swim--which is why the sea people hate them, as the sea people are treated as resource drops for farming fish and sea life.
 
Alectai said:
Remember, it's 500 RSS and 50 YSS to a single GSS.

It is, quite literally, pennies.
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Servant: How... how expensive is it really for me to advance in cultivation?
Ling Qi: Hmmm? Oh, it's a rounding error.
Servant: A... a rounding error?
Ling Qi: Yeah.
Servant: The wealth to give me a life expectancy of about one hundred years... is a rounding error?
Ling Qi: Yup.
 
yrsillar said:
"...I want to know how the descendants of Tsu the Diviner… Tsu the uniter, who walked far and spoke to countless peoples, descended into fearful isolationism," after trailing off, Ling Qi found herself reordering her words, trying to better express her thought. She knew it still wasn't any kind of easy or narrow question still.

Meng Dan let out a long sigh, pinching his nose between his fingers even as he chuckled. "Remind me not to invite you to any kind of symposium in the west. You would have us in a fistfight in minutes."
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Yeah that was a very divisive question but it also proves her point.

yrsillar said:
"Finding any answers to that beyond baseless speculation will be a difficult task, but not one that is beyond me. I accept your challenge, Ling Qi."

She glanced back over her shoulder. "That isn't the point of the request."

"Isn't it?"

She flicked her gaze away from his. She supposed there was no getting around that. She knew she was not giving an easy task here.

"I'll have something to show you myself, a… historical source you'll enjoy, so don't consider it merely an obligation," Ling Qi said. If anyone else would want to pick at Huisheng's blossom filled skull it would be Meng Dan.

His eyes lit up with intrigue. "Oh, now I am even more curious. As if I needed more motivation."
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Skeleton Grandpa would be interesting to him.

yrsillar said:
"You make it sound so dry. I now have another young man courting me, and it will be in official capacity soon," Ling Qi said, resting her face in her hand.

Cai Renxiang studied her, brows drawn together. "You are not as distressed by this as I had assumed. It was my intent that the work task would keep things professional. Was this so?"

Ling Qi slid herself into the seat across from Renxiang. The little office in the manor was practically a copy of the one Renxiang had at the manor, cut down in size. Her friend did not shy from simply repeating what worked.

"Where it wasn't, we did that on our own after the last show," Ling Qi said, before pausing. "N-not that there was anything untoward, we merely went to the hanging gardens afterward to talk."

Cai renxiang's eyebrows, which had been steadily climbing toward her hairline, ceased their rise. "I see… You have changed."

"..I have. It's not a thing I will run away from… that I need to run away from," Ling Qi said, shaking her head. "But enough of that. I'll navigate that matter in the future… How did things go for you?"
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LQ has undergone lots of personal growth and all that.

yrsillar said:
"I know the Princes are all wed already. A grandchild then?"

"Great Grandchild or a grand nephew, I know no more than that yet. It seems even now there are some final discussions."

"...Which do not include you?"

"Why would they? It is not as if my opinion would have any affect on Mother's decision."

Ling Qi winced. Renxiang wasn't even bitter really, she stated that so matter of factly. She wasn't even putting on a strong face. To Renxiang that was simply a statement no different than commenting on the color of Xiangmen's leaves.
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Nobles do Nobles stuff.

yrsillar said:
Ling Qi let those words fade into silence. She did not know what she would do if she were in Renxiang's position, but she knew she would not be half so calm or accepting of it. Even with her resolution she had found in the nightmare, the thought of the decision being wholly out of her hands turned her stomach.

…But then, Renxiang had told her before her opinions on marriage. A contract, no different than any business matter or alliance save in the details and the length of the term. It was funny back then, she hadn't really believed those were Renxiang's real thoughts, It was simply too different and alien from her own thoughts, stripped of the fears that gnawed at her heels.

Her friend WAS a bit anxious, but it wasn't about the same things Ling Qi would be.
Honestly. These eyes she'd cultivated made the world seem so strange sometimes. No wonder most people had such trouble really holding in their mind that other people could be so different than themselves.
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They have very different world views and LQ understands that.

yrsillar said:
"...The salt grotto up on the plateau, its too far away for Shenglu to work on yet, but it is an excellent site for my cultivation," she sniffed. "Assuming I have my ladies guarantee that it will be part of the eventual Ling clan lands."

She put on her best haughty noblewoman's voice.

"I see, for your leal service, I will gladly make this guarantee," Cai Renxiang replied, with only a small hint of an unserious drawl.

She stared at Ling Qi. Ling Qi stared back.
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I like that they mimic each other's voices.

yrsillar said:
Personal Wealth 800 Green Stones

Monthly Income: 63 Green Stones

Gross Income: 115
Cai Stipend: 100 Green Stones
Zhengui Fertilizer: 10 Green Stones
Hanyi Revenue: 5 Green Stones

Monthly Upkeep: 52

Cultivation: (20 base-12Cultivation Art) 8
Zhengui: 30 Green Stones
Hanyi: 5 Green Stones
Qiyi: 2 Green Stones
Sixiang: 5 Green Stones
Household: 2 Green Stones
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That's a good amount of money and the greatest expenses are Cultivation and Zhengui.

yrsillar said:
Drugs are represented as dice added to your xp progression for base cultivation. The results of these dice rolls are added to your cultivation art and any site bonuses before being multiplied by talent.

The total bonus granted by Drug Dice cannot exceed half of your cultivation art baseline. You may purchase maximum dice equal to your Third realm stage. Special Pills/Elixirs may bypass this, as indicated in their descriptions.

Drug Dice are purchased at the start of each turn from your personal wealth

Similarly, Sites will give either flat XP or dice to be rolled when determining cultivation

Personal Wealth is measured in Green Stones. You have a strong starting pool of personal wealth, but your monthly income comes almost entirely from your Cai stipend right now
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Cultivation boosters are nice to have.

Karthak Urzak said:
How adorable. She hasn't yet realized that the whole guacamole will be Ling clan land once Renxiang isn't running it anymore, an outcome she made inevitable once she installed Zhengui as Spirit King.
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Alectai said:
It's why Ling Qi is such an adorable bean from the perspective of a leader, she gets invested giga hard and doesn't make unreasonable demands in turn.

EDIT: But yeah, spend half, split the other half in half, one of those into savings, the other into an Investment Fund to turn into more money over time. We can use our Savings as a piggybank for major projects or Surprise Expenses.
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Renxiang is grateful she lucked out with someone like LQ.
 
With the right combo we could probably add about 200 XP a month to our total, which is normally 990 plus some extras.

So we'd change it from four months to the next level of Green to 3-ish. I think? Though this would be a big investment.
 
Gabrloi said:
they do. One of the major things xuan shi's clans does is depopulate any place they stay in to feed the turtles, the giant amounts of fish and spirits need to be consumed any time they swim--which is why the sea people hate them, as the sea people are treated as resource drops for farming fish and sea life.
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Don't full-grown Xuanwu also massively boost the fertility of the area around them? Like what Zhengui is doing with his ash but up to 11?
 
33/30 is good, though given the exact cost it's more likely to be 32/31 or 34/29
Personally in favor of the latter. The extra xp might matter a lot, but if an investment costs enough that our personal wealth can't pay for it, one or two stones won't matter as much. And we got a war soon
The Laurent said:
With the right combo we could probably add about 200 XP a month to our total, which is normally 990 plus some extras.



So we'd change it from four months to the next level of Green to 3-ish. I think? Though this would be a big investment.
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Not even that expensive. With 34/29, we can get 1d10+4d6, which averages about 20. Multiply by 6, 120. Multiply that by 1.5 from having the insights and concept levels, it's 180
Almost 200 and still leaving us half the money
If we wanna go all in, we can do 3d10+2d8. Will cost us 46 stones, but will net us average 25.5, or 230 xp.
 
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LQ:
Food $200
Data $150
Rent $800
Drugs $3,600
Utility $150
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying

CRX:
@LQ Spend less on drugs

LQ:
@CRX no
 
Ok, so having done out the math in the dice and costs, TL;DR smaller dice are more efficient, but less effective. So we should be buying 5 dice this turn, and then adjust the sizes based on how much we want to spend.

Some example thresholds:
1/3 drugs (21 GS) = 3d4, 2d6 (average 14.5)
1/2 drugs (30 GS) = 5d6 (average 17.5)
2/3 drugs (40 GS) = 5d8 (average 22.5)
MAX DRUGS (46 GS) = 3d10, 2d8 (average 25.5)
 
Will maybe adjust the mechanics text for prominence tomorrow but just noting you may buy a maximum number of dice equal to your green cultivation stage, so 5 right now
 
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