|
Next four Worth the Candle chapters currently being edited and seem due to be released soon. Patreon for 24 hour early chapter drops and discord access.
|
#
?
May 22, 2018 07:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 20, 2024 10:35 |
|
Doctor w-rw-rw- posted:Next four Worth the Candle chapters currently being edited and seem due to be released soon. Another story which you're not involved with, I'm sure?
|
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2018 07:18
|
|
|
Katreus posted:Yep. Although more of the sneaky plan type rather than power spam (at least for the main character). I dunno, when Cat, Zuzu, Captain, et al really pull out the stops there are some pretty spectacular set-piece battles.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2018 07:33
|
|
|
I'd go so far as to say that Prac Guide has some of the better battles/fights/action sequences in web serials.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2018 09:00
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:Another story which you're not involved with, I'm sure? Not involved with. Just happened to get on the discord early; noticed the changes before anyone else. And on that note I've reduced my involvement in worm community to essentially nil, though I'm still supporting the tech.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2018 09:35
|
|
|
ward 7.3 is up Arc 7 has been a lot more morose than I expected. I know that Wildbow has plans to put out a donation arc covering the Boston Games event (since he was feeling that pushing out 3 chapters/week was going to effect quality of the work). I saw someone claim it was planned to be at a high rate (like 1/day) but I have no source on that claim. I sort of wonder if we're building up to a small time jump (month or two, and rain/ashley out on work release like Taylor was), or if it'll be right into something big while two of the heavy hitters for the team are benched.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2018 16:35
|
|
|
I'm really enjoying Practical Guide to Evil so far. The setting is really interesting. Because I'm bad at visualizing characters, I tried googling a couple characters to see if anyone had done character art (Catherine and Black Knight, particularly since I don't think the latter had any description yet other than "green eyes and between 5 and 6 feet tall") and was kind of sadly amused at a couple Catherine illustrations with white skin and straight/wavy brown hair, despite it explicitly describing her as having dark skin and (I think black) curly hair. I interpret the former as having a sort of dark-skinned arabic or hispanic kinda skin tone. This picture is particularly lol, given the story also describes her as having a strong jaw and angular face - it's almost the complete opposite of the way the story describes her appearance: https://sandara.deviantart.com/art/Face-02-610078715
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2018 03:48
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:I'm really enjoying Practical Guide to Evil so far. The setting is really interesting. https://sandara.deviantart.com/art/Catherine-Foundling-608331843
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2018 04:05
|
|
|
Ah, google image search has failed me then, because it gave both pictures with her name attached to them. (edit: it seems like it picked it up from the "related images" that appear when viewing the image you linked) (still straight hair tho)
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2018 23:19
|
|
|
But... from chapter one? “I snorted at that. Booker’s skin and hair were as dark as mine: we both had Deoraithe blood running through our veins.... I used the polished copper plate hung up on the wall to make sure there was no blood showing on my face, cursing under my breath when I realized that the blood clot on my lip wasn’t going anywhere. The dark-skinned girl looking back at me from the surface looked like she’d seen better days, I had to admit. I’d never been what you would call pretty – chin too strong, cheekbones too angular – but the way my dark locks stuck to the top of my head had me looking like a drenched urchin girl. A few strands of hair had come loose from the ponytail I kept them in so I shook loose the wooden clip” New practical Guide chapter so is she getting a name when she comes back or are we stuck until either a more climactic moment or just never? Was the reference to gods from hierophant about him or about her?
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2018 00:12
|
|
|
builds character posted:New practical Guide chapter so is she getting a name when she comes back or are we stuck until either a more climactic moment or just never? Was the reference to gods from hierophant about him or about her? What are the odds that she's actually fine, and those are just a pair of glamours to draw attention? After all that talk about avoiding obvious pivots, it seems odd that she'd drop a magical superweapon as an opening act without assuming it would blow up in her face.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2018 00:29
|
|
|
Cryophage posted:What are the odds that she's actually fine, and those are just a pair of glamours to draw attention? Yeah the way hellhound contemplates the stupidity of opening up with such a massive blow,given there is always pushback,I would hope they knew something was going to happen. Fighting pilgrim and saint of swords is probably what it was like fighting the calamities when they had ranger. Also ranger is totally going to kill saint of swords.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2018 05:34
|
|
|
Rozala of the Malanzas.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2018 07:38
|
|
|
Cryophage posted:What are the odds that she's actually fine, and those are just a pair of glamours to draw attention? Prac guide: If Cat was awake to receive the delegation the crusader army would end right away, it doesn't make any sense to Cat to win so thoroughly without paying any price; it's athematic. On the other hand both Archer and Larat are still unaccounted for, Larat can open portals to bus the Deoraithe army (and I think that Hakram accompanies them?) and IIRC Cat mentioned that any plan that relies on her sole ability to turn the tide and sweep the heroes is doomed to fail. The next few chapters will probably be from the POV of other characters until Cat and Masego wake up. SITB fucked around with this message at 20:43 on May 24, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 24, 2018 11:36
|
|
|
Worth the Candle just fired off like five chapters.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2018 18:29
|
|
|
SITB posted:Prac guide: until Cat and Masego wake up. Suppose that cat's body is not in flux because of the strike, but because it weakened her enough that Akua is making a play to take it over, and may, at least temporarily, win.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2018 23:55
|
|
|
More Practical Guide: Anyone else getting the sense that part of Pilgrim and Saint's plan is to try to turn Catherine? The Heavens have tried it once already after all, and the exchange late in the interlude about how what's going on isn't a villain's story and then Saint questioning Pilgrim if he's sure of what he saw--sure that she desires peace--suggests that's something being considered at least. I am very curious what other magical bullshit Cat has ready to go though. Re-reading the prologue to this book, she's been collecting the souls and/or aspects of Heroes she's been killing. She's been making them into... something. Or at least that's the implication.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2018 08:55
|
|
|
Lone Goat posted:Worth the Candle just fired off like five chapters. I like worth the candle but it’s been like 10 chapters about the time room Could’ve been done in a lot fewer words.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2018 10:52
|
|
|
Hey Milky Moor, I caught up on Not All Heroes last night. It's pretty good! I bounced off it at the end of chapter 1, but got sucked in when I gave it another chance. I see where more of your criticisms with Worm are coming from, though I'm still not sure I agree.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2018 18:01
|
|
|
Tom Clancy is Dead posted:Hey Milky Moor, I caught up on Not All Heroes last night. It's pretty good! I bounced off it at the end of chapter 1, but got sucked in when I gave it another chance. I see where more of your criticisms with Worm are coming from, though I'm still not sure I agree. When does it actually get good? Because I tried reading it at some point and it was still boring as gently caress after like 10 entries.
|
|
#
?
May 25, 2018 18:37
|
|
|
Lone Goat posted:When does it actually get good? Because I tried reading it at some point and it was still boring as gently caress after like 10 entries. That's about where I stopped the first time around. I think it was sometime in the next chapter that I started liking it, and chapter 3 is where it really picks up. Edit: Thinking about it more, I think it suffers for starting off with the perspective switching. I think it would be better served by following a single character as the setting is first being introduced. While the payoff of the pieces fitting together later is nice, the switching starts before I cared about anyone. I had to read a lot more (to the point where I stopped and might never have started again) before anything happened or I was interested in their fates and I became hooked by the story Tom Clancy is Dead fucked around with this message at 21:49 on May 25, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 25, 2018 19:20
|
|
Tom Clancy is Dead posted:Hey Milky Moor, I caught up on Not All Heroes last night. It's pretty good! I bounced off it at the end of chapter 1, but got sucked in when I gave it another chance. I see where more of your criticisms with Worm are coming from, though I'm still not sure I agree. Hey, thanks! Funnily enough, since starting up NAH, I've had a few so email back and forths where I'm the one defending Worm against criticism that -- to me! -- are just totally out there. Tom Clancy is Dead posted:That's about where I stopped the first time around. I think it was sometime in the next chapter that I started liking it, and chapter 3 is where it really picks up. It's also a complete pain in the rear end to write sometimes. It requires a lot more planning and forethought, which means it all becomes shaky when I hit rough patches in my outline. I'm not sure if it wouldn't have been better to begin the story earlier, as opposed to being so in media res. It does, however, burn a bit slowly. But that's what amount to a first draft for you. I see why so many serials seem to go for first-person perspective because it's so much easier to write. But sticking behind Sabra's eyes might be too familiar or cliche, sticking behind Leopard might be too maddening, and Fisher too depressing.
|
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2018 02:07
|
|
|
Milky Moor posted:It's also a complete pain in the rear end to write sometimes. It requires a lot more planning and forethought, which means it all becomes shaky when I hit rough patches in my outline. I'm not sure if it wouldn't have been better to begin the story earlier, as opposed to being so in media res. It does, however, burn a bit slowly. But that's what amount to a first draft for you. Don't get me wrong, I like the blend that you have going now. I mostly found it hard to get started with, I think you might want a chapter or two from a single perspective to start as the hook before branching out to the trinity.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2018 04:41
|
|
|
I'm continuing to enjoy Practical Guide to Evil, though I feel like maybe it should have spent longer on Catherine prior to her meeting Black; like, her personality is obviously pretty abnormal in various ways, but we don't really see (at least not yet) how she ended up at that point. What drove her to fight in the Pit and why is she so ridiculously bold with everything she does (to the point where it almost comes as impulsive)? I'm also a little unclear on what their world is like. I get that there's this evil empire of Praes, and it apparently conquered Callow, which presumably was previously ruled by a Good-aligned kingdom. I don't really have a good idea of where this other Good-aligned kingdom is in relation to Praes, though, or how big the Empire is in the context of the world as a whole. Is the Good/Evil stuff largely split up by region/country, or do Evil people pop up in Good-aligned countries in the same way Heroes can apparently pop up in Praes-controlled areas? edit: I like Black a lot; he's an interesting dude. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 07:00 on May 26, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 26, 2018 06:57
|
|
|
Just google for maps, there are a few.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2018 09:08
|
|
|
There is a "Art, Maps and Other" button at the top of every page.
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2018 11:11
|
|
|
Ward Ashley's trigger scene was rough, although I'd know roughly what happened to her from a character sheet Wildbow had made previously. Her control issues make a lot of sense when you consider that her shard is basically a propulsion system that causes planetary destruction when used as intended. Even scaled down, any minute miscalculation is going to be on a massive scale. Not that I think the guard being an rear end in a top hat would justify Ashley doing anything but it seems like a pretty bad idea to deliberately throw your weight around at her, since the first person who is going to die if she loses control is, well, you. When literally the only thing keeping her from killing everyone and walking away is her own self-control, you don't have to like her and you don't have to trust her but you certainly shouldn't needle her past what's necessary to do your job. Of course, the flipside is that Ashley is on such an emotional hair-trigger that she interprets things as needling when they're not supposed to be... probably especially if it comes from large men who resemble her (original template's) father.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 00:06
|
|
|
Ward The bit with the guard honestly weirded me out a bit. It would've made perfect sense in Taylor's story, because she hated authority figures and tended to interpret everything they said or did in as maximally negative a light as possible, but I assume that since we're seeing him through Ashley's eyes I assume he was acting almost exactly as depicted, and have trouble believing that the parahuman justice system would survive with guards who were that dickish and aggressive to unknown villains. Also on Damsel, I was never clear- even the original DoD was a overdramatic yet easily-foiled B-villain, was that just part of her personality or implied to be shard fuckery? I vaguely remember reading that the best way for her to achieve synergy with her shard and keep it happy was by acting the part of a B-villain, even as she knew that it would ultimately lead to a proverbial pie in the face, but that may've been outdated WoG or just old discussion I'm misremembering.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 03:38
|
|
|
Omi no Kami posted:Ward As for your main question, I've always understood it as both. She's got something like cptsd from growing up in the environment she grew up, which primes her to see everything as a threat because it sounds like her father interpreted literally everything as a personal slight and reacted as such. When nothing in your environment is safe and everything can set a person who has power over you off, everything does become a genuine threat. That's bad enough, but it's something that can be worked through, especially with love and support, except Ashley's literal physical hair trigger of her fingers resulted in the death of the person who provided that love and support for her. Her father instilled in her a fear of cops, probably because he's a piece of poo poo who didn't want her going to them, so even though going to the PRT would have actually been her best option at that point, she was already primed to see them as the enemy. Furthermore, her power is so destructive and so hard for her to control that it isolated her from people, because by being around them she'd endanger them, a lesson she learned so very harshly with her mother. So, that's a fairly potent combination of entirely mundane mental health issues. Her shard compounds things, obviously, in the way they compound and complicate things for all natural parahumans. I believe original Damsel felt that her Shard punished her for perceived failure with obsessive thought loops, but I'm not sure if punishment is the right term, more that there was a feedback loop... I mean, Wildbow says that parahumans mentally influence their shards to an equal degree, so all the shard really wanted to do initially was just put her in combative situations, the fact that she was avoidant enough to lay low as long as possible before exploding outward is probably not on the shard, but might have made things worse when they did boil over? Like, it seems like the original Ashley had a pattern of trying to stay alone and nonharmful as long as possible before something would set her off and she'd go on a spree, and given how far the PRT was going to make sure she didn't run out of food and supplies, I wonder if she really did have very good synergy with her shard, after all. There's more of a conflict there than we see with Bonesaw.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 04:38
|
|
|
Oh, I found the WoG I was thinking of! Apparently her specific shard's core drive is for superiority- it wants her to be ambitious and fight to get to the top, and pre-Bonesaw the flare ups got worse and more inconvenient when she wasn't fighting for supremacy. Apparently the original DoD's villain monologues were like a drug, they gave her relief from the shard's conflict drive in situations when she couldn't actually achieve superiority in a situation.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 04:48
|
|
|
Omi no Kami posted:Oh, I found the WoG I was thinking of! Apparently her specific shard's core drive is for superiority- it wants her to be ambitious and fight to get to the top, and pre-Bonesaw the flare ups got worse and more inconvenient when she wasn't fighting for supremacy. Apparently the original DoD's villain monologues were like a drug, they gave her relief from the shard's conflict drive in situations when she couldn't actually achieve superiority in a situation. Man, I overthink things!
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 05:20
|
|
|
Not to over-analyze the text, but I do find it interesting to compare and contrast how DoD and Ashley/DoD II handle the same shard- Ashley seems much more explicitly aware of the shards and their function, and it seems like a lot of her behavior (buying nice stuff, bragging, doing her own low-key monologues) are being consciously employed as coping mechanisms to deal with her conflict drive, whereas since DoD never had insight into how the shards worked a lot of her habits were learned/instinctual behavior. It's a bit of a reach, but you could argue that Ashley is consciously using (or being taught to use) cognitive behavioral therapy to manage her shard, whereas the original DoD was essentially self-medicating with her villain career.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 06:01
|
|
|
I blitzed through all of a practical guide to evil and loved it. This being said i feel like I skipped over a lot of subtext between the end of book 3 and the start of book 4. Black made a lot of very stupid decisions and his fall from grace while fighting the white knight was loving idiotic, it felt very ham fisted that they had a literal "heavens intervening" moment to one shot him when he'd played chess the entire fight and won. It seemed like the author needed an excuse for black to make a bunch of decisions that was going to set Catherine up to turn on him. Also: I really don't get what's going on with Catherine's body at all anymore, I know she's a duke of winter now - basically the only one left and that it's literally been turning her into a Fae, but I feel like there's more to it than this and I'm not sure what I'm missing. tithin fucked around with this message at 07:23 on May 27, 2018 |
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 06:08
|
|
|
PracGuide: I enjoyed the heck out of the first book, mostly enjoyed the second one, kinda-sorta enjoyed the third, but I haven't even been following the fourth. The military stuff was fun, but rules lawyering plots work best if the reader understands the rules, and it feels like every time the writer gets stuck in a corner or isn't quite sure how to accomplish a necessary plot beat, we learn about a new rule/exception/story/whatever that somehow solves all of the problems and accelerates the plot to where the author wants it. I just wanted to read a gritty fantasy story about a pessimistic jerk who uses the power of literacy to plan and execute clever lateral plays that leverage the rules without ever quite breaking them, and I don't like that I'm now reading a story about a winter elf chosen one dropping oceans on people.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 06:42
|
|
|
Omi no Kami posted:Not to over-analyze the text, but I do find it interesting to compare and contrast how DoD and Ashley/DoD II handle the same shard- Ashley seems much more explicitly aware of the shards and their function, and it seems like a lot of her behavior (buying nice stuff, bragging, doing her own low-key monologues) are being consciously employed as coping mechanisms to deal with her conflict drive, whereas since DoD never had insight into how the shards worked a lot of her habits were learned/instinctual behavior. It's a bit of a reach, but you could argue that Ashley is consciously using (or being taught to use) cognitive behavioral therapy to manage her shard, whereas the original DoD was essentially self-medicating with her villain career. DoD was probably so easily foiled not just because of a lack of control but because she fell into a lot of rote behaviors and bad decisions but because her heart wasn't super into it?
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 17:23
|
|
|
To be honest, Ashley's power seems like it would be super weak (but in a dangerous way) in the context of a solo villain. I'm actually a little surprised that the original DoD managed to stay in action so long; her power seems like the sort of thing where 1. you'd end up killing some people at some point, accidentally or otherwise, and 2. it's impossible to imprison her unless it's something like the Birdcage, since it can punch through any normal material, and it seems like those two things would end up resulting in either her being sent to the Birdcage or being killed (which would be easy to do, since she falls in the category of parahuman who would be very vulnerable to guns). It lends itself better to team work, where she can be deployed in situations that make use of her strengths and her teammates can cover her (very obvious) weaknesses.
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 18:39
|
|
|
I've got a feeling she won't be shown to be actively killing people with her power, since that'd be something to make the PRT inclined to lock her up. Most likely intimidation and such. I also think that the reason she fails to be a villain is that she really doesn't have any grasp on how to be a successful villain, just a drive to be at the top of the pile (and a power that lets her at least claim personal power even if she doesn't know how to leverage that into a successful group).
|
|
#
?
May 27, 2018 21:35
|
|
|
ZypherIM posted:I've got a feeling she won't be shown to be actively killing people with her power, since that'd be something to make the PRT inclined to lock her up. Most likely intimidation and such. I also think that the reason she fails to be a villain is that she really doesn't have any grasp on how to be a successful villain, just a drive to be at the top of the pile (and a power that lets her at least claim personal power even if she doesn't know how to leverage that into a successful group).
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2018 00:31
|
|
|
Practical Guide: I can't wait to see what Juniper has planned but also worried about the consequences of deploying goblin fire after what we learned previously. Will that technically break the agreement and allow angelic intervention?
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2018 14:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 20, 2024 10:35 |
|
|
New Ward chapter: Looks like it's fanservice appearances time in today's chapter. I'm a simple reader conditioned to respond positively to this. Looking forward to more of them in good ol' Boston. Really missed Accord. Did not need to know that detail about our good friend Bad Apple however.
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2018 16:32
|
|