Remove ads

Trails of Tera Steel (Kiseki-inspired Pokemon Academy Quest)

Reader mode
Mariana has the potential to match Nemona, but nobody really wants to dedicate every single AP in every single turn to doing so. So the gap will be there because Nemona absolutely will do that.

Ultimately, I would think keeping up with her enough to not be stomped flat would count as a success for the whole rivalry. Maybe get into the "Lucky rolls can see us through" tier. We aren't willing to match her dedication and that's okay. It might take Mariana a while to learn that truth, but that's what makes it interesting.
 
Nerdorama said:
She's not compared to the sun because we can just walk up to her. Or even touch her at all.

Personally I'd like to have an arc of steering off of this one-sided rivalry and coming to the realization that we can be a very, very good Pokémon battler without literally being The Very Best Like No One Ever Was. Aiming for Nemona and missing but hitting like an Eight Badge first year is still an absolutely incredible result, I just think the arc there is getting Mariana to realize that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think that that is an arc that works better if Marianna actually shoots for it for a good long while and continually fails before accepting the realisation that she's worthwhile anyway.

But;

I don't even really want Mary to go down this path at all. I've made noises towards this before, but like, to make it explicitly clear, I don't care for the plotline of the rivalry with Nemona. I like Nemona's canon story, and I'd prefer it if that wasn't disrupted like it inevitably would be if the rivalry plotline was focused on by the thread.

The thing is, though-

It's no secret amongst quest writers that questers tend to be really risk-averse. People will reach for whatever they think benefits them, but will typically play it as risk-averse as they can while still reaching for the more easily available shinies offered to them. Given the opportunity, it's really rare for readers of a quest to deliberately lean into a character conflict to push a story along.

That's my stance; I think that people are reaching for an attempt to rival Nemona, but people aren't actually leaning into that.

If people want a storyline about even trying and failing to match up to Nemona, then they should lean into that and actually dedicate a very significant amount of time to training and battling, not just one or two actions a week. That's still not likely to actually let Marianna actually equal Nemona; it'd just let her actually be a game-rival to her, someone eternally a step behind but still in the same league.

Otherwise, it's just funny to me to see people comparing the merits of spending 2 AP during a regular week or 3 AP during a field exercise to get Mary's first badge.

If people want to play into a one-sided rivalry with Nemona, the question shouldn't be "Do we want to spend AP in the Field Exercise or after the Field Exercise to get out badge". People should be looking forward and trying to figure out how they can possibly manage to get two badges prior to the second Field Exercise.

That's still probably going to leave Mary running behind Nemona, but like. Unless people want to actually pull a Nemona and dedicate practically everything just to battling and training, which I know the thread at large doesn't want to do, that's the best Mary's ever going to get. She's never going to actually catch that sun because Nemona is, frankly, a better trainer than she is.

(And that's fine, because a person's worth isn't dictated by how good a trainer they are. Nemona is a good person who's deeply interested in battling, she forms friendships around them and this provides her a constant drive to improve and in the world of Pokemon this actually makes her a person who's able to connect with others; and Mary is also a solid person who cares for the people around her and has deep anxieties but likes battling herself, and she is also a fully realized person with her own worth. Neither one of them is more of a person or even a better person than others; they just have different interests and skillsets than each other.)

It just frustrates me to see the thread trying to both have its cake and eat it too.

Engage in the rivalry with Nemona or don't. I just think the thread needs to pick a lane and not pretend like we can half-ass it and still get the storyline people want out of it.
 
As someone who also didn't and still doesn't particularly want the rivalry plotline other than as a means to feed into other ideas I find more interesting in the future, I'm not really sure what we're arguing about, other than possibly the idea that we haven't been dedicating as much AP as possible to training already. Looking for AP-efficiency here isn't about half-assing or avoiding risk, it's about finding time to fulfill our other minimum obligations (like not flunking out of school) and giving ourselves the best-odds chances of actually succeeding at the goals we've set for ourselves. Any AP spent on actually challenging a gym could also, potentially, be spent training or recruiting to be able to challenge that gym, which is why we've spent the vast majority of our AP so far on training, recruiting, and funding the training. Trying to do this in a smart way isn't half-assing it, and frankly I don't know what whole-assing it would look like if not doing what we're doing (or picking a different background that lets us avoid getting a job or trying to cheese KNOW XP, but that's not really feasible.)

Basically, I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone who's lukewarm on the one-sided rivalry plot (obviously my fixation here is the worldbuilding), but looking at it from an optimization perspective. I like optimizing things, and I'm unclear on why discussion on how to optimize the thread's current goals is counter to getting the character to try and achieve them (even if she's doomed and I find that doomedness more interesting than the idea of actually succeeding).
 
Tempera said:
If people want a storyline about even trying and failing to match up to Nemona, then they should lean into that and actually dedicate a very significant amount of time to training and battling, not just one or two actions a week. That's still not likely to actually let Marianna actually equal Nemona; it'd just let her actually be a game-rival to her, someone eternally a step behind but still in the same league.

Otherwise, it's just funny to me to see people comparing the merits of spending 2 AP during a regular week or 3 AP during a field exercise to get Mary's first badge.

If people want to play into a one-sided rivalry with Nemona, the question shouldn't be "Do we want to spend AP in the Field Exercise or after the Field Exercise to get out badge". People should be looking forward and trying to figure out how they can possibly manage to get two badges prior to the second Field Exercise.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I fundamentally disagree with that? Out of all the things we can currently do, there's maybe two actions that don't make us better at Pokémon battles in some manner, or contribute to it through knock-on effects. (And only the library if there's going to be some manner of battle format where the trainer directly joins their Pokémon on the field like we saw the knights do). The difference between us and Nemona is that we need to juggle ap while Nemona doesn't, she gets to move at the speed of QM fiat.
Nemona (presumably) doesn't have to track her budget to see if she can afford to do advanced battle instead of regular battle, she doesn't need to spend a third of her available time in a week to buy some items, both because that kind of simulation would be hell on the QM and because it wouldn't actually add anything.
Discussing whether it's better to spend weekly AP or FE AP on a gym is ultimately a question of which allows us to get a better return on the investment, which is hard to answer at the moment since we haven't seen the rewards for FEs and FE APs yet, but at the end of the day, unless we decide to go super hard on studying we'll always be spending three AP per week on becoming a stronger trainer in some fashion. The questions is just which AP is more efficient to spend on gyms in particular.
 
sheep-dodger said:
Nemona (presumably) doesn't have to track her budget to see if she can afford to do advanced battle instead of regular battle, she doesn't need to spend a third of her available time in a week to buy some items, both because that kind of simulation would be hell on the QM and because it wouldn't actually add anything.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
(Nemona is also stupidly rich. I'm not saying this to make her look bad, I'm saying that Pokémon battling costs money, and being born with it frees up a lot of time for more Pokémon battling.)
 
I'm okay with us pursuing a small "rivalry" with Nemona, but can concur we shouldn't pursue it at the expense of everything else. Especially since I'd rather have Mariana build up her bonds with other characters first.
 
My hopeful plans for the FE include:
Step 1: Catch a third Pokemon
Step 2: Challenge the gym so we can at least try to keep up with the sun
Step 3: Get involved in whatever local plot is going on in the area
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit
 
Mine are:

Catch a third pokémon,
Challenge the gym,
And also be involved with the plot.

Basically the same ngl. Lets chase the sun! Committing!!!
 
Nerdorama said:
(Nemona is also stupidly rich. I'm not saying this to make her look bad, I'm saying that Pokémon battling costs money, and being born with it frees up a lot of time for more Pokémon battling.)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yes, that's of course also a big difference between Mariana and many of her class mates, they simply don't have to do ranger work to earn the cash to get tutoring or advanced training, but for us that's a required activity that directly feeds into being able to advance as a trainer.
 
Shadowphyre said:
My hopeful plans for the FE include:
Step 1: Catch a third Pokemon
Step 2: Challenge the gym so we can at least try to keep up with the sun
Step 3: Get involved in whatever local plot is going on in the area
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
can't forget 'find a book or two that are part of an extensive series, and hopefully the first ones'

Edit: oh, and learn a card game, probably on the way there
 
Last edited:
Silly thought, but we get bonuses doing certain activities when we reach Bond 2 with certain character, like Nemona makes advanced battle a bit more effective. What bonus does Mariana grant to those she's bonded with?
 
StattStatt said:
Silly thought, but we get bonuses doing certain activities when we reach Bond 2 with certain character, like Nemona makes advanced battle a bit more effective. What bonus does Mariana grant to those she's bonded with?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmmmmmm ignoring the Inferiority Complex for a second, maybe a boost to the "Pokemon and Me" action? It's about caring for others (Pokémon in this case), is a PROW action, and gives Pokémon Materials (For cooking! Clearly). Feels like a accurate action to get a bonus on from Mariana.

As for what the actual bonus is... basic answer is just more PROW exp from it, less basic answer is getting double the amount of Pokémon Materials from the action. Could be fun.
 
Was thinking about the future lately, now that we're approaching the first FE and know a little more about the world (if the Plot does what it does best I expect my plans might change)

In terms of sensible goals, I don't see us being able to keep up with Nemona past Field Exercise 2, and unless we dedicate every action towards pokemon training she'll leave us in the dust by Field Exercise 3. This is fine, this relationship/rivalry (I suspect rivalry is just the pokemon world equivalent of Kismesis but that's besides the point) would get and arguably already is toxic on our part. We should seek more achievable goals. Not that trying to beat Nemona should be forever taken off the table, no, but doing it perhaps next year seems more suitable for our potentially stuffed schedule.

Instead, lets consider the following. 5-6th badge level by end of year is a fine minimum in my opinion, then we spend the summer checking out those Stakes and making sure they're still existing, train our team in addition to ourselves, and then sweep those last three-two gyms in our next year. Making inclusions for friends, gal pals, Plot, and potential duties like being a Ranger or Knight if we end up dedicating ourselves that early.

I'm advocating to doing the Stakes during our first summer break instead of sensibly waiting until our second or third year is entirely because I'm 50% sure we could handle merely looking in on the various Stakes situations, and 50% because I think messing up, becoming influenced, warped, or partially possessed by a demon god which would then have to be healed by the power of friendship and/or yuri would be a fun plotline. Let Elise and Erika have some fun with that. It's enrichment, we have to give the protagonist something to do, and hinting at our mysterious plotline would be interesting from a hypothetical player perspective.

Wait, would that make Elise's murkrow and Theadora mere red herrings, and us the actual Crow expy? Well, not really, the only thing that would fit is that we'd be secretly a villain, and even then in our hypothetical case it would be because we were possessed. So that doesn't count I think.

StattStatt said:
Silly thought, but we get bonuses doing certain activities when we reach Bond 2 with certain character, like Nemona makes advanced battle a bit more effective. What bonus does Mariana grant to those she's bonded with?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Panic. Either that or more Prowess.

Also, a complete side note. We should probably keep an eye on the Team Star plotline that should pop off some time this year. With the apparent endemic bully problem, that should make itself clear since as a foreigner we'd be an easy target, despite the fact that we're second to Nemona and a class president.
 
StattStatt said:
Silly thought, but we get bonuses doing certain activities when we reach Bond 2 with certain character, like Nemona makes advanced battle a bit more effective. What bonus does Mariana grant to those she's bonded with?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Bonus CHRM XP when taking actions that take care of others, higher level bonus is one free reroll of a CHRM check each week where they spend time with her.
 
KnownParadox said:
Wait, would that make Elise's murkrow and Theadora mere red herrings, and us the actual Crow expy? Well, not really, the only thing that would fit is that we'd be secretly a villain, and even then in our hypothetical case it would be because we were possessed. So that doesn't count I think.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"Who is the Crow expy?" is a question that will clearly never go away and will continuously pivot to new and interesting answers. You thought it was the bird? No it was Theodora. Oh but wait, are you sure it's Theodora? Because it could actually be us after fucking around too hard, and finding out.
KnownParadox said:
and 50% because I think messing up, becoming influenced, warped, or partially possessed by a demon god which would then have to be healed by the power of friendship and/or yuri would be a fun plotline. Let Elise and Erika have some fun with that. It's enrichment, we have to give the protagonist something to do, and hinting at our mysterious plotline would be interesting from a hypothetical player perspective.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I shouldn't support this because getting ourselves possessed is usually a bad idea. But god damn it if I'm not a fan of the narrative. Something about saving someone from possession by various forms of love (platonic, romantic, familial) always goes insanely hard for me.

I'm not sure the stakes would cause Mariana to get possessed anyway, but I'm down to fuck around and see if we find out.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top