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Argue posted:Is the kinda bad part the part I complained about before or is that yet to come? I am on chapter 242 where Yeah, I was referring to the Hasse stuff in general. IIRC it's pretty smooth sailing from there, other than a couple slightly slow bits. I'd completely forgotten about Angelica's magic sword that yells at her, I should get around to rereading it one of these days.
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Jun 9, 2019 08:39
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Argue posted:I've said this in the past but I like the obsessive detail Honzuki gets into but sometimes it gets really hard when you're only at an intermediate level in Japanese and you have to wade through chapters like "Measuring my bodyguard for her new clothes" and have to Google japanese fashion words, etc etc. Yeah, relatively early there was a cooking chapter...so many words I'd never seen before 
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Jun 9, 2019 12:47
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Sounds like I have a lot to look forward to. At least I'll get to read it before Kenkyo 300  I'm relieved Myne finally makes a friend, I was getting worried for awhile that she'd go without making an honest connection with anyone in the world and it'd get lonely to read.
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Jun 9, 2019 12:50
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I came across some person who's translating a condensed version of Honzuki; skipping entire chapters. I don't think you can get a full picture of the story from it but a lot of highlight chapters have been translated, like the first big Trombe fight, and the dream world chapters, etc. The grammar is... passable; it's a cut above machine translation for sure but nowhere near blastron's quality. On the other hand, the choices for the nouns are... questionable, IMO. "Blue Templar" and "Blue Witch" for 青神官 and 青巫女, and loving "Sylphstar" for Sylvester. If any of you really need a fix, it's here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X7MJdmCc-ZzxrnIeR5r9oWsGhftgkSJ6sKqnUru1mRo/edit#gid=0 But you'd be skipping a lot of stuff that happens inbetween.
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Jun 9, 2019 15:32
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Tamba posted:Yeah, relatively early there was a cooking chapter...so many words I'd never seen before you can usually skip isekai cooking chapters since it's just people going apeshit over soy sauce
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Jun 9, 2019 15:38
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that's the best part of isekais But also her cooking tribulations involve her moaning that she doesn't have soy sauce and not having enough knowledge to recreate it herself so she just makes other dishes that just don't hold a candle to food with soy sauce
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Jun 9, 2019 15:53
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tbh soy sauce is pretty great so if i went to a world without it i'd probably miss it too
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Jun 9, 2019 15:58
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i've been reading the summoner is going off and on for a while. it seems like a nothing little wn that consists entirely of some guy playing a vrmmo, nothing particularly interesting or noteworthy. however, it takes place entirely within the mmo, with no real life scenes and barely a mention of anything but the game. the mc's harmless quirk is that he enjoys hand to hand combat despite leveling a job with no particular bonuses for it, blah blah blah, nothing new. except, it's not a harmless quirk. it's becoming increasingly clear that the mc is a hosed up martial arts sadist straight out of baki. i really don't know what to make of this.
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Jun 10, 2019 18:53
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So in xianxia novels, where are "spirit stones" (灵石) supposed to come from? Are they naturally occurring, or does someone spend all day making them and imbuing them with qi, or what?
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Jun 10, 2019 19:31
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Clipperton posted:So in xianxia novels, where are "spirit stones" (灵石) supposed to come from? Are they naturally occurring, or does someone spend all day making them and imbuing them with qi, or what? I believe they mine them.
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Jun 10, 2019 19:41
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Megazver posted:I believe they mine them. I've read some novels where they are made.
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Jun 10, 2019 19:43
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They’re manufactured in the Cradle novels, for example (or scales are, which is the in universe equivalent of a training tool/currency). It really just depends on the property, but generally speaking I’d say they’re a naturally occurring mineral.
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Jun 10, 2019 19:48
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Awesome, thanks everyone!
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Jun 10, 2019 19:57
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I believe in Forge of Destiny they're naturally occurring minerals (I think she finds some during some excursion she goes on with Su Ling and Li Suyin), and I'm guessing that's taken from other Xianxias. Speaking of which, I finally caught up with the recent Threads of Destiny updates. I was fairly pleased that the readers chose the cool-sounding movement art after the moon quest, though the defensive art would have gone a long way towards giving Ling Qi a more conceptually coherent set of arts (the Deepwood Vitality/Thousand Rings Unbreaking - forget its "core" name - art really clashes with her whole aesthetic, but it still sees a ton of use since it's apparently really good). The author of that series is so good at creating a lot of interesting "quests" for Ling Qi to go on. Each individual story has its own neat little set of events, and I often find myself wondering what was planned for the choices not taken (particularly with the recent moon quest stuff). I feel like the density of substantive content has actually increased in Threads of Destiny compared with FoD, with it feeling like less time is spent on more "mundane" actions/activities. It's also neat to see the cast expanding as she meets more characters within the Inner Sect.
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Jun 11, 2019 03:29
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Argue posted:that's the best part of isekais that sounds like the most awful chapter imaginable, because it means there will be more soy sauce whining to come
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Jun 11, 2019 04:03
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:i've been reading the summoner is going off and on for a while. it seems like a nothing little wn that consists entirely of some guy playing a vrmmo, nothing particularly interesting or noteworthy. however, it takes place entirely within the mmo, with no real life scenes and barely a mention of anything but the game. the mc's harmless quirk is that he enjoys hand to hand combat despite leveling a job with no particular bonuses for it, blah blah blah, nothing new. except, it's not a harmless quirk. it's becoming increasingly clear that the mc is a hosed up martial arts sadist straight out of baki. Uh. Summoner was infamous for being the absolute longest web novel, for a long time. It's since been passed, but it finished at over 25,000 pages in length. I think half of that is just stat sheets, though.
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Jun 11, 2019 11:33
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Ytlaya posted:I believe in Forge of Destiny they're naturally occurring minerals (I think she finds some during some excursion she goes on with Su Ling and Li Suyin), and I'm guessing that's taken from other Xianxias. She actually did get something more thematically coherent at the end of Foreshock with the same general tactical purpose. playing up the futility of shooting into the void of space instead of just super vitality and hardness.
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Jun 11, 2019 15:58
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Alectai posted:She actually did get something more thematically coherent at the end of Foreshock with the same general tactical purpose. playing up the futility of shooting into the void of space instead of just super vitality and hardness. Yeah, I saw that, though it's not entirely clear to me how that fits into the Cai's whole theme (those were all Cai arts, right? Or were they just arts owned by the Cai?). It's also not really a complete replacement, since it seems important to have something that actually directly mitigates damage; I got the impression from the language of that art that it was a "completely blocks stuff until it doesn't" sort of thing, which is a bit more risky. The Thousand Ring Fortress technique directly increases her vitality and acts as armor that lessens damage even if it doesn't totally block it. Unrelated, but the whole thing with Ling Qi's mother makes it even more baffling that basic information on how to cultivate isn't somehow spread among the proles, since it seems like there's no reason why pretty much anyone can't at least become awakened (which is itself sufficient to dramatically increase ones' health and presumably lifespan*). edit: I really hope that the author manages to avoid burning out for long enough to reach the point where Ling Qi's sister begins cultivating. Really curious to see what direction she takes. Unfortunately it seems inherently impossible that this story will ever actually end, due to its scope, though I'm hoping we'll at least finish the Sect. * I believe only Yellow soul has had its lifespan increase made explicit (~200 years), though it seems implied that Red also gives you some extra time. Speaking of which, I was a bit surprised to find out that it was apparently stated at some point that even White souls only live ~1000 years; I expected the absolute top (before becoming a Great Spirit anyway) to involve living longer than that; it's only 5x as long as a Yellow Soul lives). Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Jun 12, 2019 |
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Jun 12, 2019 01:28
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Ytlaya posted:Yeah, I saw that, though it's not entirely clear to me how that fits into the Cai's whole theme (those were all Cai arts, right? Or were they just arts owned by the Cai?). It's also not really a complete replacement, since it seems important to have something that actually directly mitigates damage; I got the impression from the language of that art that it was a "completely blocks stuff until it doesn't" sort of thing, which is a bit more risky. The Thousand Ring Fortress technique directly increases her vitality and acts as armor that lessens damage even if it doesn't totally block it. They were arts the Cai traded for with the Bai, who got them from assorted sources. EDIT: By the way, the math wonks seem satisfied with it as a replacement for TRF, and I generally trust them on things like that.
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Jun 12, 2019 02:34
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Ytlaya posted:Unrelated, but the whole thing with Ling Qi's mother makes it even more baffling that basic information on how to cultivate isn't somehow spread among the proles, since it seems like there's no reason why pretty much anyone can't at least become awakened (which is itself sufficient to dramatically increase ones' health and presumably lifespan*). Sure there is. It costs spirit stones for people to become awakened, and the general population being less genius-talented than Ling Qi means less efficiency with said stones which are already getting hoarded up by big clans/sects like jealous dragons, so people just don't get to do it.
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Jun 13, 2019 02:45
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Ytlaya posted:I believe in Forge of Destiny they're naturally occurring minerals (I think she finds some during some excursion she goes on with Su Ling and Li Suyin), and I'm guessing that's taken from other Xianxias. One day Fatty Hao will get his due
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Jun 13, 2019 02:45
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Also if you're Talent 1 you literally can't cultivate. I'm pretty sure most commoners are actually Talent 1.
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Jun 13, 2019 08:53
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One thing I somehow missed (but saw in the wiki) is that apparently Cai Shenhua is some sort of absolute freak who reached the top cultivation realm by the age of 50 (and the second to top by the age of 40). That seems pretty wild and has got to have some relevance regarding the broader meta-plot.SerSpook posted:Also if you're Talent 1 you literally can't cultivate. I'm pretty sure most commoners are actually Talent 1. Cultivation world kinda sucks; there's this transcendental state where you basically become a true Part Of The World with the ability to perceive what reality is really like, and a large portion of (most?) people can't ever reach this state. Though it seems like it should be entirely possible to, over time/generations, give everyone some level of cultivation ability. After all, it seems implied that it's genetic enough that the great clans have a ~100% chance of their children being capable of cultivation. Speaking of which - do we know if barbarians also have a majority of their populations who aren't cultivators? I'm curious about various things regarding the barbarian tribes. booksnake posted:Sure there is. It costs spirit stones for people to become awakened, and the general population being less genius-talented than Ling Qi means less efficiency with said stones which are already getting hoarded up by big clans/sects like jealous dragons, so people just don't get to do it. I'm willing to accept "the clans are greedy like all rich people and aren't even wiling to spare a pittance to allow the proles to cultivate" as an explanation, yeah. Though in practice the scale of things increases such that it shouldn't be hard to provide enough stones to do basic Red/Yellow realm cultivation to pretty much everyone if the will were there (in some hypothetical socialist cultivator world anyways). Its Rinaldo posted:One day Fatty Hao will get his due I wonder if choices other than Street Rat/Prisoner could have resulted in main characters who weren't even among the talented disciples (and never made it into the Inner Sect as a result). It seems like, at the very least, the Noble and Soldier options have enough talent to at least stay in the vicinity of the top (though it's more uncertain in their case), and I guess the other options might be able to craft their way into the Inner Sect. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Jun 13, 2019 |
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Jun 13, 2019 19:52
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Ytlaya posted:One thing I somehow missed (but saw in the wiki) is that apparently Cai Shenhua is some sort of absolute freak who reached the top cultivation realm by the age of 50 (and the second to top by the age of 40). That seems pretty wild and has got to have some relevance regarding the broader meta-plot. Fun fact: she was Indigo at age 40, which Ling Qi can potentially manage, if she can keep up the flow of resources and find time for cultivation. She went through Violet and Prism in a ten year time-span. She has some kind of cheat, it's just a question of what, and if it can be shared. e: I think Talent with the Barbarian tribes gets kind of wonky, depending on the method of cultivation. A lot more making pacts with spirits, often from a position of weakness, that I think gets around the low Talent issue. But it also makes it a lot harder to reach the greatest of heights. The Empire's system is very stable in comparison, and keeps humans in the driver's seat, even if it's very resource intensive--including human resources, of talented kids. SerSpook fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Jun 13, 2019 |
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Jun 13, 2019 21:06
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Ytlaya posted:One thing I somehow missed (but saw in the wiki) is that apparently Cai Shenhua is some sort of absolute freak who reached the top cultivation realm by the age of 50 (and the second to top by the age of 40). That seems pretty wild and has got to have some relevance regarding the broader meta-plot. As for the other origins, it’s been generally agreed that Han Jian is the noble birth option and Gan Flexington is the soldier.
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Jun 13, 2019 21:35
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Its Rinaldo posted:As for the other origins, it’s been generally agreed that Han Jian is the noble birth option and Gan Flexington is the soldier. Yeah, this is why I assumed that either of those options could have resulted in staying near-ish to the top. That being said, it seems like lower talent would result in an increasingly growing gap over time, though I get the impression that gaps between sub-stages of the third realm aren't quite as massive as the gap between a second and third realm cultivator, despite requiring similar amounts of time. For example, Ling Qi and Cai (I forget if Cai is second or third stage, and Ling Qi is first or second?) beat that fifth stage Bai dude, whereas it seems like the AoE ability of a third realm cultivator can defeat whole groups of second realm cultivators. SerSpook posted:Fun fact: she was Indigo at age 40, which Ling Qi can potentially manage, if she can keep up the flow of resources and find time for cultivation. She went through Violet and Prism in a ten year time-span. Yeah, this is what I was referring to with "and the second to the top by the age of 40." I get the impression Ling Qi's current progress gives no real way to predict how fast she'll progress at higher realms, but I don't think she's really progressing at an unheard of rate (just a sort of top-tier one). Apparently reaching fourth realm during ones' time at the sect doesn't generally happen (that one scouting trainer dude was still in third realm - I believe the 6th or 7th stage? - and was ranked 6th among inner sect disciples), and if the time spent in higher realms continues to increase I don't see how reaching Indigo by 40 would work out if you progress in a remotely normal manner. Unrelated, but I hope we see some other "patron spirits" at some point. Like, did Xiulan also get to talk to some fire spirit before her whole tribulation?
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Jun 14, 2019 01:55
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Ytlaya posted:Yeah, this is why I assumed that either of those options could have resulted in staying near-ish to the top. That being said, it seems like lower talent would result in an increasingly growing gap over time, though I get the impression that gaps between sub-stages of the third realm aren't quite as massive as the gap between a second and third realm cultivator, despite requiring similar amounts of time. For example, Ling Qi and Cai (I forget if Cai is second or third stage, and Ling Qi is first or second?) beat that fifth stage Bai dude, whereas it seems like the AoE ability of a third realm cultivator can defeat whole groups of second realm cultivators. Indigo is not the second to the top. That is Prism. Indigo is right after Cyan. Indigo by 40 isn't an unheard of or crazy fast feat, which is the point of what I'm saying. It is what a dedicated, well supplied, and talented cultivator can achieve. Shenhua is not an unheard of Talent or anything, she found some sort of bullshit cheat. She jumped the final two ranks before White in ten years. Ling Qi is currently Green 2 and will hit Green 5 or 6 before she leaves the Sect, and is on track to be Cyan by 20 or so, assuming she has the time and resources. Indigo by age 40 is a pretty viable thing for her, if she has the time and resources going forward--which is kind of hard to predict.
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Jun 14, 2019 09:07
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Its Rinaldo posted:As for the other origins, it’s been generally agreed that Han Jian is the noble birth option and Gan Flexington is the soldier. Given other details about the noble birth, I /think/ it would have been more likely to be Fan Yu, the noble option. :Scream:
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Jun 14, 2019 15:04
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clearly the noble option would have been Gu Xiulan, and we would have lost the coin flip and died and the quest would have ended uncerimoniusly midway through.
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Jun 14, 2019 15:14
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Its Rinaldo posted:Gan Flexington is the soldier. Disagree. His origin is too wrapped up in Cai's for there to be much of a choice. I think it's Chu Song.
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Jun 14, 2019 15:20
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Arkeus posted:Given other details about the noble birth, I /think/ it would have been more likely to be Fan Yu, the noble option.  as if anybody would chose to be Fan Yu. Even Fan Yu doesn’t want to be Fan Yu7c Nickel posted:Disagree. His origin is too wrapped up in Cai's for there to be much of a choice. I think it's Chu Song. Soldier option is a commoner Origin. Chu Song is a noble, if one from a shattere house It’s not a perfect match but it gels
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Jun 15, 2019 22:39
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Its Rinaldo posted:
My controversial Fan Yu opinion is that he was just a dumb teenager and will probably be a decent guy in a year or two. Unrelated, but do we know anything about how commoners normally perform in the Sect? All of the examples we know are pretty high-tier, but it could be that we're just not hearing about all the random commoners who don't stand out. But since commoners are only selected to join the Sect if they're talented to begin with, it wouldn't be that strange if they generally performed better on average than most nobles in the Sect. Like, all the commoners we're aware of perform at a level that would likely put you at the absolute top of most normal years (Ling Qi, Ji Rong, Shen Hu, and Gan Guangli), with Ling Qi's year only having the exceptional "monsters" notably ahead of them (Cai/Bai/Sun). 7c Nickel posted:Disagree. His origin is too wrapped up in Cai's for there to be much of a choice. I think it's Chu Song. Do we even know if the other options had their backgrounds predecided to that extent? As just vague templates, it could just be possible that Gan Guangli* only follows the Soldier's template from a gameplay perspective, rather than matching all narrative aspects. * I can never figure out when to use both names in Chinese. I get the impression that it's common to use both (my Chinese coworker would usually be called LastName FirstName by other Chinese people), but it sometimes feels awkward when one or both names have multiple syllables (my coworker had two one-syllable names, like Ling Qi). SerSpook posted:Indigo is not the second to the top. That is Prism. Indigo is right after Cyan. Indigo by 40 isn't an unheard of or crazy fast feat, which is the point of what I'm saying. It is what a dedicated, well supplied, and talented cultivator can achieve. Shenhua is not an unheard of Talent or anything, she found some sort of bullshit cheat. She jumped the final two ranks before White in ten years. Oh sorry, forgot about Prism. I was just mixing up Indigo with Prism, rather than thinking that Cai Shenhua reached Indigo by 40. Also, my mind was just blown by realizing that the cultivation levels progress according to the rainbow/color wheel, lol. This was probably immediately obvious to most people. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Jun 15, 2019 |
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Jun 15, 2019 23:49
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Cai Renxiang and Gan Guangli are Satsuki and Gamagoori from Kill la Kill, prove me wrong. Sun Liling is Ryuko.
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Jun 16, 2019 02:54
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Avulsion posted:Cai Renxiang and Gan Guangli are Satsuki and Gamagoori from Kill la Kill, prove me wrong. I don't have the quote immediately to hand, but Yrsillar has said as much about Renxiang's inspiration in the original Forge of Destiny thread. There's a small scattering of mentions as to who is a reference to what if you go digging around.
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Jun 16, 2019 03:45
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Ytlaya posted:* I can never figure out when to use both names in Chinese. I get the impression that it's common to use both (my Chinese coworker would usually be called LastName FirstName by other Chinese people), but it sometimes feels awkward when one or both names have multiple syllables (my coworker had two one-syllable names, like Ling Qi). In my experience, if the first name is one character/syllable, then it sounds weird to use it by itself in Mandarin. It sounds fine if it's two characters. So saying Guangli would be fine in Chinese and Gan Guangli would be fine too, but saying Qi instead of Ling Qi would sound weird. But since you're using English what sounds weird in Chinese doesn't really matter.
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Jun 16, 2019 04:07
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Its Rinaldo posted:Soldier option is a commoner Origin. Chu Song is a noble, if one from a shattere house The Chu are not a noble clan anymore, anything else is rebellion against our rightful liege, Cai Shenhua  Ytlaya posted:
There's actually another stage between Indigo and Prism even. Cai Shenhua literally jumped two or even three realms (depending on how far into Indigo she was) in a ten year time period, when going from Cyan to Indigo took like 20 before. It's fuckin' crazy.
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Jun 16, 2019 14:32
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Arbitrary Number posted:In my experience, if the first name is one character/syllable, then it sounds weird to use it by itself in Mandarin. It sounds fine if it's two characters. So saying Guangli would be fine in Chinese and Gan Guangli would be fine too, but saying Qi instead of Ling Qi would sound weird. But since you're using English what sounds weird in Chinese doesn't really matter. People pretty much never use one syllable names by themselves, it would just sound weird. I also just found out that some compound surnames apparently fromed from merged surnames that got passed on. (Some surnames were Partricial + Matricial surname, in that order, with the Patricial character being passed on by the son).
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Jun 16, 2019 15:15
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Ytlaya posted:Unrelated, but do we know anything about how commoners normally perform in the Sect? All of the examples we know are pretty high-tier, but it could be that we're just not hearing about all the random commoners who don't stand out. But since commoners are only selected to join the Sect if they're talented to begin with, it wouldn't be that strange if they generally performed better on average than most nobles in the Sect. Like, all the commoners we're aware of perform at a level that would likely put you at the absolute top of most normal years (Ling Qi, Ji Rong, Shen Hu, and Gan Guangli), with Ling Qi's year only having the exceptional "monsters" notably ahead of them (Cai/Bai/Sun). I mean, commoners are also usually normal or equal to average nobles - higher talent, lower resources, equal drive. Talent isn't enough in and of itself. In RR's Bonus chapter, Faculty Meeting, the elders discuss the "charity cases" from the Ministry of Integrity. quote:“Do let it rest, you two,” she chided. “We will be discussing our high status guests enough, I think. Why not speak of the other gems we have been given to polish?” quote:Oh sorry, forgot about Prism. I was just mixing up Indigo with Prism, rather than thinking that Cai Shenhua reached Indigo by 40. So Cai Shenhua jumped three realms (Indigo, Prism, White) to White in 10 years. She outdid Sun Shao, who jumped two realms (Prism, White) to White in 10 years as well. Avulsion posted:Cai Renxiang and Gan Guangli are Satsuki and Gamagoori from Kill la Kill, prove me wrong. Yes, CRX and GG's inspiration was revealed, but note that it 's just an inspiration and NOT an expy. Sun Liling's inspiration was more Ranko Saotome.
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Jun 16, 2019 15:22
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CCG has finally reached the Duel at the Forbidden City, and also the invention of the Song Shuhang Speedometer you can tell how fast a flying sword is moving by the color of his face, very useful
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Jun 16, 2019 18:17
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Katreus posted:
Sun Liling fights in clothes made out of her blood and leads an insurrection against the student government.
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Jun 16, 2019 18:48
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