Well, what did we learn? The initial vision, while disturbing, wasn't really helpful. At least I now knew what the enemy looked like, vaguely. However, all of the answers I received were basically riddles. 'Stone is an obstacle' might be the best way of rephrasing the first bit. So carving out floor space wasn't wrong. To 'fill the world with life and joy'... If we took that literally, it meant creatures? Maybe plants as well. Or were they considered creatures too? I'd have to look.
The dungeon growing and raising the 'rate of coalescence' seemed like it was referring to floor carving as well, assuming that meant CP regeneration. I had no idea what 'the void' was referring to, though. 'Draw from your creatures' seemed to double down on creating creatures as a source of CP. Which was weird. If anything they cost CP. Or maybe it was just because they could do tasks that would normally cost me CP? No, that wouldn't fulfill the requirement of increasing my CP regeneration.
The enemy being my sustenance, while slightly sickening to imagine, lined up with a later line. 'Subsume their power'. So maybe just defeating enemies would make me stronger, like in a video game. That wouldn't help me now though. I needed CP to defeat the creatures, so earning it from defeating them would be too little too late.
So the conclusion was to carve floor space and create creatures to inhabit it. There might be other methods hidden inside the 'answer', but hopefully they would become apparent over time. Well, I was planning on doing both of those things anyways, but I guess I should focus on the creatures over the floor space?
As for raising the capacity, I had a theory. 'Overfill the Crystal Core'. It also mentioned condensing and crystallizing it. So maybe it was literally just a question of letting the CP go up when it was at capacity. The times it went up were probably because I was at the limit and didn't spend it. Maybe I could accelerate the process using magic or something to directly condense the CP. She also suggested 'collecting shards of her core'. But I had no idea where to find those. A bit unfortunate, since I probably wouldn't let my CP hit the cap again. I had a lot of stuff to do.
My last question may have been a waste. As for the little post script she tacked on at the end, I don't know if it was good or bad to be liked by Nyx. And her little motivational quote was cute but not helpful. I wouldn't share the spell just in case, but the whole reason I used it was to share what I learned on this forum. If I shared the exact wording, people might even figure out things I missed.
It didn't take long to type everything out. Just the first two answers, of course. And my interpretation for anyone who didn't know what to start with. I wasn't sure how to explain where I got it, so I just didn't. Anyone who cared could just make up their own explanations. In the meantime, I moved to the Cost Effective Monster thread.
It was a warzone.
Well, before that, there were some basic rules and a few heavily edited posts that explained everything that had been discovered about creatures so far. For example, certain creatures had innate 'abilities' they were born with. These were classed in two types, with one being based on the natural body parts a creature was born with, and the other being a knowledge so inherently tied to a creature's identity that it was just created knowing it.
The other things worth noting were; type, subraces, number, repopulation, and stat distribution. Type was just a way of sorting the monsters out, though there were a few spells and traps that targeted or ignored creatures based on type. For subraces, it seemed like there were multiple varieties of some monsters, and more could be created through the Evolution menu. The number was mostly irrelevant. For some small or weak creatures, more than one could be created with a single CP.
Repopulation was apparently very important and complicated. When creatures were happy and well managed, they would spontaneously create more of themselves. Uh huh. Anyways, certain creatures took longer to 'repop', and some could have more than one child at a time. Having high numbers appear quickly meant less CP spent on creating new creatures.
Lastly was stat distribution. It seemed like 'stat' referred to the Body, Heart, Mind, and Spirit that I'd noticed before but hadn't gone back to confirm yet... Based on what the thread said, the 'Soul' stat wasn't relevant, though nobody said why. I'd have to check myself. It seemed like creatures with more complex stats needed more CP to make, and would be that much more effective as a result. However, the only way to raise stats was through the Evolution menu, which cost CP. Meaning, it was important to start out with a creature that had the stats you wanted if you didn't want to spend CP to upgrade them.
It seemed everyone had their own personal favorite monster that they believed everyone should be using. Goblins were popular because they had balanced stats and a high 'repop' rate for the low low price of 5 CP. Humans at 10 CP managed to increase their stats, but had a lower repop rate. Kobolds were popular because they were only slightly weaker than Goblins but had a tunneling ability that let them dig out rooms for themselves. Some crazy sort suggested Giant Ants, for the same reason. I admit their stats and skills were somewhat appealing, but we're talking about giant ants here... Anyways, there were a lot of posts, and nobody seemed to be able to agree on which creatures to use.
I was sort of floundering, until I read a relatively new post on the thread.
| #122 Fros.Ted |
| >> 117 In the Bestiary the baddies are super strong and thry get stronger the longer the invasion goes. You cant use some small fry goblins if you actually wanna live. You gotta use super strong monsters like the the giants. Expensive but better tahn nothing. |
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"What Bestiary? I haven't seen anything like that!" I said it out loud. Well, whatever, it's not like I had to worry about the neighbors. I typed it out and received an answer almost instantly.
| #125 Fros.Ted |
| >> 124 Dum? Its the book icon next to the CC button in the Interface. Global Database its called. Bestiary is inside. |
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I sighed. This was going to take a lot of time again, wasn't it?
The Interface suddenly buzzed in my pocket, causing me to squeal. I pulled it out and tapped the envelope angrily.
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Congratulations on surviving '1' day! '0' Core breaches registered thus far. Keep up the good work! |
On a side note, what sorts of monsters would you readers use? And what type of dungeon would you aim for?
Others have already said why so I'll summarize.
1- Cheap monsters that reproduce fast and make tunnels.
2- Animals or monsters that reproduce quickly as food (horn rabbits or something like that).
3- Many plants that can survive the environment and expand or monsters involved with nature to do that.
4- Some couples of strong monsters (or with the ability to fortify themselves) even if they reproduce slowly. Humans, dwarves, bestman, elves, orks and the like are good choices, all are known in the stories to have some ability to build defenses, weapons and learn combat in group.
Yup, that's about the best layout generally speaking.
Thanks for the chapter.
If your creatures are the basic method of generating CP, and the area of the dungeon sets the max regen (not sure if you are going that direction with it, but seems like a reasonable thought if empty rooms don't generate CP but are involved in CP generation), and you are likely to be among the first to be invaded, then there are several ways to go about the first batch of critters, but regardless of the approach, they all end in 1 thing: combat.
Probably what I would do is see if I could get a giant ant queen or a bunch of kobolds and see if a colony could be generated for cheap to dig tunnels. After that, since stone and dirt will likely be the most common resource for a while, I would look for a create golem/ doll/ whatever type spell that can turn that resource into combat potential. After that would be investing CP into critters that can fight in tunnels (or make their own as well) and have combat potential. Personally would go with water elementals or something similar if possible. You know, the ability to say everything in this tunnel is going to be forcibly pushed to the start of the tunnel and/ or drowned can be quite effective if the enemy isn't expecting it. Between golems and elementals, most weaker enemies should be taken care of, unless it's a hard-core difficulty from the start. Of course not expecting an army from the start, but I would imagine that a few of each should be possible with starting resources.
One other thing to look out for, especially in complex systems with supporting powers: an advisor summon. If summons come with skills or knowledge, then there could be, hidden or in plain sight, a summon that comes with knowledge to instruct the basics to the folk that summon them.
You've made a lot of good points that characters have already started to implement. I didn't even consider using stone to make creatures, which was an oversight on my part too. Unfortunately, (spoiler for next chapter)
It is hardcore difficulty from the start.
I think it's probably too late to implement an advisor summon though, considering about two thirds of the stuff they'd talk about has already been covered. Or maybe The Voices of the Chorus counts, lol.
@Cipiteca396 You asked for what we'd do.
One other thing I'd be looking into would be summons that use MP instead of CP, or critters that can summon or create more, and not in a normal reproducing way. Basically, using other non CP resources for more minions. I'd probably invest in a necromancer to make use of the bodies that'll probably occur from the invasions.
Regarding advisor summons, they don't need to particularly be specific to information about system: could be a strategist, magic teacher, or even an adventurer.
Also, could be the system advisors are something that other characters found instead of the Voices of the Chorus. Could be a limited number/ luck kinda thing to explain why MC doesn't get a system specific advisor.
@BobTheLost Yup yup. I'm happy to see so many responses too.
Just like with the golems, I didn't even consider summoning, lol. I did consider necromancy though. I'll talk about it more in the first forum chapter. And I guess I'll tack on golemancy too now.
Outside of system advisors, I do have specialist units like dwarves that are 'born' knowing things like Artificing or Military strategy. The main problem is... Well, I have a Side Story planned that will explain it.
@Cipiteca396 if you want one other area, considering our more tech based world: robots, androids, cyborgs, battle suits and mechs.
I wouldn't go this direction personally, as I'd rather go the magic route if given the option, but it can be very effective, once manufacturing is setup, for getting high combat power for a bit of material cost.
Similar to golems, dolls, automates, and any other magically animated beings but less magic and more tech. Though having magic should enable cutting a few corners to get to combat effective versions. Might not be very useful for the MC, but I'd imagine a few otaku/weeb, engineer, and mad scientist character types might go in any of those directions, or even all of them. You know someone is going to spend a massive amount of CP on their very own working Gundam, or try to make a Terminator, or mass produce Droids if able.
@BobTheLost I don't want to spoil too much, but there's a reason this book is in the Sci-Fi genre, lol. If you want a small spoiler, I unfortunately couldn't find all of the minor tags I wanted, but a few of them made it in.