• The site has now migrated to Xenforo 2. If you see any issues with the forum operation, please post them in the feedback thread.
  • An addendum to Rule 3 regarding fan-translated works of things such as Web Novels has been made. Please see here for details.
  • RIP @Silver Swallow
  • Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
  • For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
  • Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
  • Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.
  • The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.

Esquestria: The House of the Sun - A pony cultist experience

Reader mode
ses said:
We never did it before and we're never going to do it now and you know that. If the Bureau wants manuscripts they can go do Expeditions on the taxpayer's dime and bring new level 5+ books to us.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Maybe, maybe not. But we definitely won't if we get rid of the only method we have of making it more efficient.

Edit:
ses said:
But actually writing manuscripts is terrible action efficiency for leveling up the Library, and the laptop only increases its efficiency by 33%, which isn't anywhere near enough to make it good. (1 AP to make 2 reagents, 2 AP to make 4 manuscripts, for 3 per 4 manuscripts instead of 4 per 4 manuscripts. Compared to 1 AP per 3 manuscripts when reading books. All we need is expeditions on taxpayer funds to get the books with!)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Or, just, craft a single reagent with a free action? We don't need a reagent every single turn, now that the Name Brigade will be finished soon, and how often we'd want to write manuscripts is limited by the Bureau's ability to unlock Lores in the first place. I'm not saying we rely entirely on manuscripts to level them up, but like, if we hit Level 5 and write some manuscripts for that Lore, that's effectively two targeted Level 4 books. Like, for example! By hitting Moth 5 (incl. reading the Moth book) and writing two manuscripts for 1 AP via lapdog, the Bureau can just... hit Moth 3. Immediately. Or if we read that Knock 5 book, two at-will Level 4 manuscripts can move that up from Knock 2 to Knock 3. Which is important, because Level 3 is when infrastructure bonuses start to happen, at least according to the previous framework (and I suspect Bird would really like to show them off at least a little bit), and narratively that's when some of our Bureau agents start getting their Realization powers.

Edit 2: Or to put it another way, I'm not saying we level up the Bureau solely on manuscripts, but that we should use the lapdog to make manuscripts in the instances where two Level 4 books (or Level 3, depending on the Lore) directly translates into "the Bureau Lore Level goes up to Level 3+".
 
Last edited:
I consider the Free Forge Reagent action to be straightforwardly a half-action.

It's important enough and if we didn't have it we'd spend Velvet AP on reagent crafting fairly often, and have spent Velvet AP on reagent crafting before even with us having it. So I'm fine rounding it up from like 45% of an action to just saying it's straightforwardly worth half an AP.

And uh.... I doubt that we're going to stop needing that Forge action slot anytime soon. Jade needs SH reagents to not risk failure at scrying, Calling of Influence is a thing we may be interested in doing in the future, especially if we want to do another run at the Ruined Church, Lantern reagents are always good for supercharging scries even if Selene is throwing +70 at the lantern end, we're probably going to need to Forge's Redemption shining armor in the next 3 turns even if we didn't take the opportunity to do it next turn (either a forge reagent to do it ourselves or a Grail reagent for the Forge name to do it), reagents never stop being useful.
 
Last edited:
ses said:
I consider the Free Forge Reagent action to be straightforwardly a half-action.

It's important enough and if we didn't have it we'd spend Velvet AP on reagent crafting fairly often, and have spent a Velvet AP on reagent crafting before even with us having it. So I'm fine rounding it up from like 45% of an action to just saying it's straightforwardly worth half an AP.

And uh.... I doubt that we're going to stop needing that Forge action slot anytime soon. Jade needs SH reagents to not risk failure at scrying, Calling of Influence is a thing we may be interested in doing in the future, especially if we want to do another run at the Ruined Church, Lantern reagents are always good for supercharging scries even if Selene is throwing +70 at the lantern end, we're probably going to need to Forge's Redemption shining armor in the next 3 turns even if we didn't take the opportunity to do it next turn (either a forge reagent to do it ourselves or a Grail reagent for the Forge name to do it), reagents never stop being useful.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I didn't say we wouldn't need it, I said we shouldn't need one every single turn. And using a Lantern reagent on a Lantern artifact-boosted Selene scry would seriously just be a waste of bits; if we need something with more oomph than a +70, then that's when you throw Baldomare at the problem. And Jade being slightly unreliable at RotT's SH check is... mostly a nonissue currently, considering that we still don't have anywhere for her to actually do 2+ circle rituals when Rarity isn't out on commission, and can be solved by getting a slightly better SH artifact (you know, by going on expeditions, which you have said you want to do).

Edit: Somewhat unrelated, but @OurLadyOfWires, does "searching for new expeditions" count for the purposes of DoA's expedition specialty bonus?
 
Last edited:
Lots of scry actions are "thresholds of goodies" scries, not fixed-DC scries! Baldomare will use reagents sometimes if we're doing something like Assaulting an Opponent or otherwise doing scrying where more information is progressively better. Scouting expeditions in general is a situation where more bonuses are always better, and we have some big name expeditions on our list that could use Name numbers with big bonuses on top. It's incidental to the main point that "I dont think there will be a turn in the next 4 turns where we dont have an important use for our forge reagent action" seeing as next turn's is spoken for for Forge Name, and we're probably going to need another for Shining at some point in the next 4 turns, as well as we're probably going to make a SH reagent for Jade at least once in the next 4 turns as I doubt we will have exactly a level 5 SH artifact on turns 23 or 24, as well as we're probably going to need one for a Calling of Influence in preparation for Ruined church. That's 4 right there even without anything new and unexpected in store.

Like, I'm not saying sacrifice it for 15 bits, but for 40 bits I'd take that deal. For 80 bits we'd be a fool not to. It's just a question to ask the QM if it's possible at all, especially since the probability of us using it remains low. The arguments we might use it may be true, but even then it's exactly the sort of action that ends up getting cut first when we have any other priorities.

@OurLadyOfWires If we have the Bureau converted as well as introduced to the Lores does that mean our need to find a 3circle site has been obviated? You've been strict in the past but at some point I feel like we've earned the ability to use Bureau facilities. Or at least the right to use a Commissioner action to get one set up or something.
 
Last edited:
Okay we have Mareinette as Cadance stand-in and Velvet as Luna. Who should be our Celestia replacement? :V

Sveta08 said:
... Ah, heh.
You know? I don't know why we would, but now, we could...
Have Velvet, pretending she's Luna, be replaced by Mareinette, pretending she's Velvet, pretending she's Luna.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, about that. @OurLadyOfWires I asked before if Mareinette can befriend Midday Dew in place of Velvet. You said that she can't because Velvet does not trust her enough as we never used her for Velvet social actions at that time. Since then we used her to befriend Rich family and more importantly to replace Cadance for a day. So is this still the case?

ses said:
@OurLadyOfWires I feel like, thematically, the fact that we have a functioning laptop computer from a 21st century dimension should count as a Forge reagent for the Rite of Joyous Reforging. Like, come on. It fits too well for Tinkering to not be sacrificable as a decent Forge pseudo-artifact. You should consider allowing this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'd rather keep it in reserve in case that at some point we can justify having institution knowledge to Celestia. Something like closer connections to Eclipse or Lore information that we took from Gardeners could possibly justify it and then we would only need to ensure that Velvet level is not being higher than Bureau's. Not high chance of it, but still. And someone already asked QM how Velvet plans to hide Bureau Lores from Celestia so it may depend on the answer.
 
ses said:
Lots of scry actions are "thresholds of goodies" scries, not fixed-DC scries! Baldomare will use reagents sometimes if we're doing something like Assaulting an Opponent or otherwise doing scrying where more information is progressively better. Scouting expeditions in general is a situation where more bonuses are always better, and we have some big name expeditions on our list that could use Name numbers with big bonuses on top.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Sure, bigger number is better, but bigger number isn't always necessary or worth the opportunity cost. We could throw a Level 3 Lantern reagent at every RotT ever, but that doesn't mean we should when it would mean that we're out another 45 bits on top of the ritual cost that could have instead been spent on expeditions, Sacraments, rituals, renewing Biedde (if we decide to keep him around), renewing Mareinette's contract, etc. If Baldomare/Selene is scrying something Big and Important like All In or BtRC Part 3, then yeah, it would make sense to boost the ritual with a reagent (esp. for All In). But for stuff like, "find me an expedition with a Knock 5 artifact", "find an expedition with lots of books", "where tf is Windy", it's just... not going to be worth it imo if the base roll from Selene is already at a +70, and Baldomare at a +110 w/ reroll vs. doing something else with those bits and/or reagent.

Edit: Also, again! I'm not saying we just make manuscripts whenever for the hell of it. I'm saying that we should make them in the specific instance where doing so gets the Bureau to the Level 3 breakpoint, because that breakpoint is important both narratively and presumably mechanically. That's when our agents start getting Realizations, and when infrastructure bonuses should start being a thing that we benefit from. Especially if we want to use these guys for expeditions.
 
Last edited:
ses said:
Only criticism is that Drummer Clap is a mare.

Drummer Clap is our new The Enforcer. Which Bureau constable is going to be our new Stewardship advisor? Because we need bits. Hopefully when we get one established they're better at their job than Windy was.

And yes indeed Velvet did learn very well from the Master how to run a cult the Moth way. It's very funny how we're the only member of the Inner Circle who was truly into the Moth way. No wonder the Master was disappointed we didn't take a Moth Brand. Imagine the alternate timeline where we did and were able to take Master's invitation after The Brazen Step but before Trigger Event. Though we wouldn't have been able to Morning, An Afternoon, a History without the reroll that we wouldnt have had if we hadn't taken a SH brand, and that was a true core moment of the quest.

Of course if we had taken a Moth brand we wouldn't have lost Baldomare so the entire timeline would have gone completely off the rails.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Thanks for saying the only criticism of my joke was the gender of Drummer Clap, however I don't think I actually said Drummer clap was male? Is the term Mafioso speciffically for male members of the Mob? I could possibly see someone reading it that way from the 'his partner' in there but that was for Reproach's partner in the investigation.

Also in a way some people could say that the most Moth Brand for a Moth Adept is a brand that isn't a Moth Brand, if they particullarly resonate with the secrecy and unreason parts of Moth then surely the biggest secret of all is the Lore that is truelly the center of your world or even what makes the least sense to do other than choose otherwise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ses
I want to start working on a turn plan but I can't because we don't know the follower stuff yet and it's importaaaaaant :-(
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

  • ... and 4 more.
    • Total: 10 (members: 8, guests: 2)
    Back
    Top