[LP CYOA] 傳

[Tribute]

24-30>18-24>12-18 for me.

 

[Azira]

24-30>18-24>12-18 months of training

 

[Tribute]

What is everyone in such a rush to do in a mere year and a half?

They're operating on the logic that we're missing a bunch of quests/sidequests in the meantime, which may or may not be true, depending on how treave's timeline works. It might slide around enough to have us run into that same sort of stuff no matter how long we spend on Maniac Island (within reason, at least), or we may indeed be missing things we don't know about the longer we stay here.

Personally I'm operating under the assumption that what we're doing right now is acquiring and developing a toolset for when we go adventuring, hence things like picking up Saber proficiency, Artistic skill, and a Wudu pet if people go for that.

 

[Absinthe]

Hm, wait.

 

[Nevill]

I don't care about the techniques for now, I care about the stats and skill. When those are sufficiently high enough, techniques will naturally flow forth-- techniques from Jing, mind you, not by necessity his teachers as must happen if he's not sufficiently skilled or buffed in stats. Going by my plan puts Jing firmly in the master tier of combat and gives greater room to grow in his skill. I'd rather build a firm base than languish forever in sidequest hell like we've been doing.

Yeah, well, good for Jing.

Look at how much shit would go down if Zhang didn't kick us out from the island in time:
Yao would have been executed
Guo Fu would have been framed as Zhang Jue's disciple and God knows what would have happened to him and his wife (he was assaulted in the city)
Yu would have remained in custody
Pirates would have been exterminated (eventually)
Yunzi would get captured by the secret police, or would have rotten away at the Mansion
Chanfeng would have been executed.
Shun would get himself in trouble, a civil war might have happened.
The Fire Cult might have won, crushing the pugilistic world and opening the path to invasion.

All in six months' work.

I am sure it is nice to be a recluse and sit on the island training to be the ultimate fighter, but when you are not there when people need you, what good does that do you?

 

[Rex Feral]

Ok my packages will try to maximise certain combat skills as to become a master in one certain aspect.

1) Unarmed mastery - 1 year and 5 months

14 - the core of the package, it will bring us at 8/8 unarmed (6 months)
19 - as an unarmed technique, it comes in synergy with 14, and we will probably master the technique bringing it to the same level as our Wuying Leipo Kick (2 months)
25 - +3 stat boost, and a must have in all my packages (6 months)
26 - Works great ONLY with unarmed, as we need to physically touch our opponents (3 months)

This build will bring us at 8/8 unarmed skill while having 2 unarmed techniques maximised.

2) Sword mastery - 1 year and 6 months

15 - a technique we can only learn here and besides that, the japanese were the masters of the sword of their time. We could sure learn from them for some exotic moves that other sword fighters might not recognise (3 months)
16 - A must have if we go with swords against Huashan (3 months)
20 - A new technique come with the advantage that others don't have counters for it yet. Besides it has potential, as Yang Xue's personal technique was devised by himself. (3 months)
25 - again a must have. (6 months)

I am not choosing 13 because it only offers us +1 sword and we already hit cap with the above mentioned ones, who also provide interesting techniques.

This build will bring us at a whooping 9/9 sword skill with a ton of new techniques to improve on.

Maybe I'll come up later with some more.

 

[Esquilax]

24-30 is an absolutely insane interval of time. How many essential techniques could there possibly be that would require us to stick around for two and a half years for? There is a huge difference between taking the techniques we need and the techniques that we simply want. I am very surprised that despite the fact that we've grown so much as a martial artist in the span of only six months, that now all we want to do is rest on our laurels and shut our eyes out to the rest of the world. The Douchebag Generation is consolidating their power, Shun's enemies are still in the shadows, and worst of all, some Tibetan fuck is trying to move in on our harem. Unacceptable.

 

[ScubaV]

24-30>18-24>12-18 months of training

This. I think 24-30 months is perfect. We don't skimp out on training and we still get 6-12 months before the Summit which is plenty of time to visit Yunzi, investigate potential Huashan tomfoolery, and do other random side quests.

 

[Rex Feral]

12 -18 > 18 - 24

 

[Kipeci]

If you have no martial arts techniques then you can still get the shit kicked out of you. As for skills, look at how much we have improved in our Unarmed Skill, Swords (the fight against Guo Fu) and countless other skills since we left Yinhu Island last time. As much as I am in support of improving our END stat, I'm only doing so in service of maximizing the asset that is our neigong. Techniques matter a lot and Nevill makes a great point that we've managed to progress a ton in a very short period of time. Staying here for over a year is probably good, but there is definitely a point of diminishing returns as you stick around for techniques that you don't really need but think are cool.

Except we do have martial arts techniques already, many of them being very powerful ones, and the skill set-up my plan gives allows us to pick up many more and think them up on the spot in addition to being able to boost Jing to a state with 11 strength and 13 agility on top of eight martial arts skill. Try getting the shit kicked out of you when the opponent can't touch you. The reason these skills take so long to learn is that they require a massive investment of time when we've built them up enough as we have, think about it-- are you seriously saying that we're more likely to pick up strength and unarmed boosts from dicking around and catching ghosts or whatever for two years than we would from wrestling under the Zhang Jue's regimen? These bonuses have already dried up in the absence of particularly EXTREME cases like Yang Xue, and I'd rather cut for the good stuff rather than go back out to sidequest hell.

On a side note, what are you even hoping to get out of endurance? Our qi's not related to our endurance anymore, if you want to boost neigong then vote for the qi draining rate boost as well as the neigong one, don't go hoping for anything from the endurance.

Don't be surprised if the likes of Bai Jiutian, Yunzi and Guo Fu manage to surpass us because they've actually been out there doing shit.

Remember how Jing was relatively weak because instead of training he'd been spending his time walking around catching ghosts and things instead of taking the options to train? I wonder what happens if we keep on doing that while they're intensely training themselves.

Jing's problem is that he coasts on his strength instead of training FFS, don't enable him by gallivanting off when treave said that nothing irreversible happens in less than three years when we should have him locked in for constant training.

 

[ScubaV]

24-30 is an absolutely insane interval of time. How many essential techniques could there possibly be that would require us to stick around for two and a half years for? There is a huge difference between taking the techniques we need and the techniques that we simply want. I am very surprised that despite the fact that we've grown so much as a martial artist in the span of only six months, that now all we want to do is rest on our laurels and shut our eyes out to the rest of the world. The Douchebag Generation is consolidating their power, Shun's enemies are still in the shadows, and worst of all, some Tibetan fuck is trying to move in on our harem. Unacceptable.

Heresy straight from the mouth of a supposed spokesman for the LORD Zhang Jue Appreciation Society? Wow. I had thought you would respect his greatness and teachings more than that. Cast out the heathen and let the tigers rend him limb from limb!

 

[Absinthe]

Nevill, you up for this? 5 (+4 throwing), 10 (+4 traps), 20 (+1 sword, Yuchang tech), 22 (+1 Per / Reikan), 25 (+1 all physical / neigong): 12 months total

I can get behind that. The first two also give us a lot of uses for our wudu silk technique.

 

[Kipeci]

Yeah, well, good for Jing.

Look at how much shit would go down if Zhang didn't kick us out from the island in time:
Yao would have been executed
Guo Fu would have been framed as Zhang Jue's disciple and God knows what would have happened to him and his wife (he was assaulted in the city)
Yu would have remained in custody
Pirates would have been exterminated (eventually)
Yunzi would get captured by the secret police, or would have rotten away at the Mansion
Chanfeng would have been executed.
Shun would get himself in trouble, a civil war might have happened.
The Fire Cult might have won, crushing the pugilistic world and opening the path to invasion.

All in six months' work.

I am sure it is nice to be a recluse and sit on the island training to be the ultimate fighter, but when you are not there when people need you, what good does that do you?

You're right in that this has been a turbulent time. However:

As for things going on in the world, if you stay quiet on your island there will not be any massive, irreversible changes (from my point of view) till the third year in which the Huashan Summit arrives, but whether or not you want to train up to then and beyond, or jump back into the plot earlier, is up to you. There will be minor events from a narrative perspective that might yield good power-ups out in the world, but I won't reveal when those are going to happen.

If we always need to be rushing off somewhere to check how things are with some guy or another, we'll never get anywhere. I'd much rather that we establish Jing as a master at this young age so that he can do something... if tragedy visits his friends while he's in training, at least we'll have the power to avenge them. It makes for a better story, anyway.

 

[Esquilax]

Heresy straight from the mouth of a supposed spokesman for the LORD Zhang Jue Appreciation Society? Wow. I had thought you would respect his greatness and teachings more than that. Cast out the heathen and let the tigers rend him limb from limb!

Zhang Jue (pbuh), in his infinite kindness and mercy, has offered us the choice of how long we stay:

For now, you had a test to take.

Though, rather than a test, it felt more like an assignment. Master Zhang had tasked you with creating your own training regimen: it would take as long as you liked. If you wished, he had said, you could stay here for five years until you felt ready to leave the island. However, the both of you knew that the world would move on without you, and that you had other commitments you had to keep.

In that way, it is a test: a test of how much time you are willing to give up to devote to training. For Master Zhang the answer would be simple – he would devote as much time as was necessary, regardless of how the world turned… but he is asking for your answer, not his.

“I would have expected you to demand that I reach the same answer as you, Master,” you said.

“You are not me,” he replied. “Your adventures out in the world have showed me that much.” He paused, before continuing. “I encountered Wang Zhengchong shortly before he fought the Fire Temple’s master.”

You grinned. “So that is why you are using this approach?”

Zhang only smiled sinisterly, looking down at you. “Come to your own conclusions about the path you must take.”

 

[ScubaV]

As for things going on in the world, if you stay quiet on your island there will not be any massive, irreversible changes (from my point of view) till the third year in which the Huashan Summit arrives, but whether or not you want to train up to then and beyond, or jump back into the plot earlier, is up to you. There will be minor events from a narrative perspective that might yield good power-ups out in the world, but I won't reveal when those are going to happen. Also, devoting your time to training also means more time for your enemies to entrench themselves, and less time building good relationships with the various factions. Or spoiling those relationships, as it may.

Quoting for reference.

 

[Kipeci]

Zhang Jue (pbuh), in his infinite kindness and mercy, has offered us the choice of how long we stay:

And yet you think little enough of his teachings that we'd just pick up anything he has to offer by waltzing around the pugilistic world anyway. Hm.

 

[TOME]

18-24 months. Artistic, traps, reikan, neigong, qi stealing and end boost. That's 18 months and you can still fit a sword boost or two in the time limit.

 

[Nevill]

Jing's problem is that he coasts on his strength instead of training FFS, don't enable him by gallivanting off when treave said that nothing irreversible happens in less than three years when we should have him locked in for constant training.

Nothing irreversible as compared to what?

I am sure everything that happens is irreversible by nature. Nothing major (massive) that can not be fixed, perhaps?

Well, let's see how this relates to the six months we had already spent:

If Yao died, would it be major, from a narrative standpoint? We didn't see him much in the story since he left, so probably not.
Can Guo Fu being killed be considered major, from a viewpoint of Jing who is yet to leave the island? No, we didn't know the guy at all, we would not have known anything about it.
The pirates being exterminated? Same deal.
Yunzi captured? Jing didn't see her since what, 14? Is it really major?
Shun probably would have been, though.

Not meeting Yang Xue, the Saint, Yandi, Qilin is 'nothing irreversible', too. I would not trade these for just 'a training'. Not to mention, some of them gave you a training of their own.

There are things to do and people to meet in the world. We have done plenty, and there is plenty to do still. 'Nothing irreversible' relates to my question about China being invaded or Shun being killed or some major plot elements like that. It does not mean that everyone and everyrthing is going to be fine while you take your sweet time polishing your nails.

 

[Absinthe]

Guys we learn much more from adventuring than we do from training anyway. In the past 9 months we've got an insane amount of boosts. Lets just go with 12 months.

 

[Tribute]

There will be minor events from a narrative perspective that might yield good power-ups out in the world, but I won't reveal when those are going to happen.

I imagine this is going to be the primary argument against staying for three years.

treave, is there any chance we can learn the spider-rearing technique on the road? I doubt we're not going to be taking Qilin with us or going to see the Wudu again sometime soon.

 

[Nevill]

18-24 months. Artistic, traps, reikan, neigong, qi stealing and end boost. That's 18 months and you can still fit a sword boost or two in the time limit.

TOME, just remember that if you are voting for the time period, you are voting for the upper limit. People will cram that period until there is no space left.

So if you are fine with 18 months, please vote 12-18. It will be 18 anyway.

 

[ScubaV]

There isn't enough aloe vera in the world to soothe the amount of butthurt this update is going to generate.

 

[TOME]

I'm starting to think treave did this on purpose. Drop an update with +30 good choices and sit back with popcorn and watch Codex tear itself apart.

 

[Absinthe]

TOME, yeah, that's kind of obvious. Once I saw that voting list I was just thinking to myself "Well shit this is going to be a monster to resolve votes on."

 

[Kipeci]

We've met enough people. We don't need to neglect Jing's training so that we can chat up every bro in every village of China and defend all of them from the bandits, running from one village to the next to cry about the inevitable deaths. People die, life goes on. I want Jing to be the strongest. If it's not a figure like Yunzi, Cao'er or Qilin (and Yunzi definitely counts as a major character) or the most important of our bro circle then I honestly don't care. Jing's been way too lenient on training already and we've been talking about ways to correct it, now that we have the option open to subject him to rigorous training we're going to run off after barely a year?

Guys we learn much more from adventuring than we do from training anyway. In the past 9 months we've got an insane amount of boosts. 12 months. No more.

I'm sure that treave woud leave an obvious loophole in the form of adventuring to get all the skills within two minutes of adventuring out because that sure beats extensive training for months in terms of getting better at things.

There will be minor events from a narrative perspective that might yield good power-ups out in the world, but I won't reveal when those are going to happen.

doesn't scream out that we'll be having skill-ups passed out like candy, and anyway we'd have precious little choice at what sort of skills are increased. Did you want to increase combat techniques, perhaps? Well, maybe it turns out that rejecting personal tutelage under the eyes of Zhang Jue, strongest pugilist left in China was a bad idea and we're only able to scrounge up boosts for drinking and sleight of hand on that particular sidequest, whatever it is. Oops! We don't know what we'd get, so don't depend on adventuring to single-handedly bring us up to master level.

We've taken forever to go through a six month stretch of sidequests here anyway, you'd still have that amount if you went for the essential package of my idea for training. Why spend years out there?