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Yes, we must grow our sect so that the Sunflower Law can expand!
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Feb 27, 2020 05:27
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How can Top Hats Monthly be the Top Hat, and his disciples the Top Disciples, unless we CULTIVATE?
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Feb 27, 2020 06:22
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A young man who aspires to follow a certain legend, he seeks to master the art of crafting and create equipment and weapons to rival the heavens themselves, and also possess the power to stand in combat with them by his side. When he arrives at the door of the rebuilding Cult of Ben, he greets the men inside with a simple greeting. "Greetings, honoured disciples and master of the sect... My name is Huo Zhen. If there would be charity and generosity in the sacred hearts inside all of you, to accept someone like me, I would be owing a debt as great as the heavens themselves."
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Feb 27, 2020 07:37
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Arcanuse posted:From observation, Lighting seems important for mood; higher mood will be... Helpful, probably? Good for mood is good for home. That’s why they need the best room, best cloth, great feng shui, compatible treasure, good food, entertainment, get high pills, and... that’s about it. Divinity cultivation, however, need to be neutral mood I think.
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Feb 27, 2020 16:08
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Nyaa posted:Mood is a big deal for inner student. They have a new stat call Mental State that greatly affects their cultivation progress. Too low and they can demonize from demoralization. Are heart devils or Qi deviation a thing in this game? Divinity cultivation requiring neutral mood makes sense as they're trying to contemplate laws and need a calm mind for that. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if the devs of this game are big Er-gen fans as the cultivation system in this game seems like a nearly one for one copy of Er-gen's cultivation system. If you don't mind too much Nyaa, Id love getting to sperg out for the thread on the things already introduced in the game and about cultivation novels in general. That way anyone not familiar can have a better idea of what's going on! I figure I'd ask first so I wouldn't step on your toes if you were going to do a write up yourself.
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Feb 27, 2020 17:41
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SaffronKit posted:Are heart devils or Qi deviation a thing in this game? I do know you can grow spirit plant through element deviation. quote:sperg
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Feb 27, 2020 18:01
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Nyaa posted:Do it. As soon as I get home from work in 5ish hours so I ain't typing on phone. Then the sperg will commence. 
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Feb 27, 2020 18:06
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Let us first visit the nearest village to find more people to
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Feb 27, 2020 23:29
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Greeting dao brothers and sisters. Daoist SaffronKit here to share this one's insights and thoughts into the Dao of Cultivation Novels with those initiates mostly unfamiliar with the concept. As for those already familiar with this particular dao, pardon this little one for displaying my slight skill in front of an expert. Feel free to add any additional insights to the subject of these posts, as the dao is vast and impossible for one person to fully explore even one single path. This one has but walked this path for a short 3 years with a limited, singular view point and hope it can provide some insight into Cultivation novels. Cultivation Novels, what are they? Cultivation novels are a (large) sub-genre of xianxia. Xianxia is a genre influenced by Chinese mythology, Taoism, Buddhism, Chinese martial arts, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and other traditional Chinese elements. Xianxia became popular during the Republic of China era, but it was the 1932 novel Legend of the Sword Heros from Zu Mountain. Xianxia then became popularized in the 2000s in the west when fan translation sites picked up such novels as Stellar Transformations, Coiling Dragon, Martial God Asura, and I Shall Seal the Heavens. Eventually official translations of these novels were provided by sites like Wuxiaworld.com and Webnovel.com. But Daoist SaffronKit, that doesn't tell you anything about Cultivation novels? True, however a firm foundation is important when pursing the dao. This is but the most basic of foundations, but good enough for starters. Back to the subject matter, cultivation novels typically happen within a fantasy world (typically) based on ancient china and involve a system in which mortals may cultivate a system or systems to improve their body, mind and spirit in the pursuit of the Dao. Typically cultivation in pursuit of the Dao provides benefits that are mundane as improving health, improved looks, a longer life to as fantastical as controlling the elements, communicating with other daoists across long distances with ones mind/spirit, flying through the air on swords/clouds/using spirit power, etc. Cultivation happens over long periods of time, typically starting at weeks/months scaling up to years, decades, centuries and even millennia! By nature the settings of cultivation novels lend themselves especially well to long running series of books which a good author can make excellent use of to entertain readers, while bad authors... well... it can get a bit boring and repetitive. Cultivation novels have many tropes but as a whole the primary plot line that runs through any cultivation novel is pretty much the same. The MC of the novel is given a reason to cultivate, said MC follows the system of cultivation to its peak accruing (or not) riches, bitches and most importantly, all encompassing power to do whatever they please with. Seriously, it should really come as no surprise to anyone that most cultivation novels end with the MC as the figurative and/or literal god of the setting. But that's spoilers you say? Not at all, as the ancient Chinese proverb states "Life is about the journey, not the destination." So to is the cultivation novel, and a long journey it is. What are some of the typical tropes of a cultivation novel? The list goes on and on, but for the most part there are there are a few major tropes that encompass the majority of cultivation novel MCs and plots. The following are what I consider the major tropes: A) The MC is a lowly mortal who, by some twist of fate, is swept on to the path of cultivation whether they like it or not. Coincidentally they're actually pretty good at this whole cultivation thing and through luck/fate reach the pinnacle of the Dao. B) The MC reincarnated after dying in a futile/frustrating manner, usually after they had a troubled/difficult start to their previous life's cultivation but became a fairly powerful figure before being killed by others for reasons. C) Revenge. Yes, that simple, usually because some rear end in a top hat came around and murdered the poo poo out of their family/clan for fun and/or profit. Miraculously the MC manages to survive and of course cultivates to achieve his/her vengence. There are of course more tropes, but frankly these are really the main three that you'll see in some variation. Frankly I could go on about this subject, but I think I'll leave it at that to let the thread absorb and digest. Hopefully my fellow dao brothers and sisters can attain some enlightenment from my bit of knowledge.
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Feb 28, 2020 01:23
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 Building a sect from scratch with all sorts of proper facilities would requires a long time for sister Slaan. To alleviate the suffering of his elder sister, sect master Hats know he must  Thankfully, there is a village not far away filled with meatier folks than other cities. They will make great builders and farmers indeed.  Our sect is so poor; the sect master has to fly with a tree stick. Let’s hope he will find some artist or crafter.  Thanks to Radio Free Kobold’s lucky scouting effort, he found a lot of Lost Box (random resource) and Rotting Corpse (random weapon) all over the place. Maybe a big caravan crashed here in the past? It will take some times to salvage them, but they are on high priority.  To prove how lucky Radio Free Kobold have been with his exploration, Happerry got attacked by a Not-Hungry wolf on the second box search.  The mysterious elder has no choice but to leave his favorite bedroom to rescue him.  The wolf went down in seconds after the elder one-shot invisible snipe it on the roof and goes stright back to his room. To give you context on how fast that kill happened – The uninjured Happerry is only half way done opening that box.  Day 2 10:00PM Sleep hour comes. Hats will make contact with the village soon. ------------ Day 2 Lootbox: Marble Mace Iron Blade x 2 Indigo Cloth X 120 Yellow cloth X 60 Iron Ore x 45 Brown Rock X 20 Boar Hide X 60 Iron Sword Marble X20 We could use some woods, but we get a lot of clothing materials instead.  Slaan will build a Tailor Workshop tomorrow, but no one is good at tailoring.  At the same time, Happerry will be making blocks for various advance buildings.  Hats brought home some beef instead.  Thanks, Hats.  *Sigh* Hats will visit the town and spent a few days there to chance more encounters.  On the bright side, Happerry makes enough brick to build sect furniture-things!  The most important of all is the Orrery (did Happerry name this thing?) It reveals the Feng Shui auspiciousness of every objects at their placement. A helpful guide to build a Feng Shui positive sect. ------- Day 3 Lootbox Rabbit Pelt X 60 Iron Ore X 30 Iron Bow Goldsilk Wood Bow The caravan certainly deserves its misfortune for killing so many rabbits.  We are blessed for doing the opposite.  The dark history of rabbit slaughtering put Happerry in a bad mood.  We need to build entertainment room to keep people motivated.  OH YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING! NO RESOURCE!?  Everyone is assign to logging and crafting!  Work that aging young bone of yours!  The universe is in harmony and balance; For every bad news, we have good news - The completion of the Orrery. As you can see, planning an earth element bed next to this earth element Orrery provide a little audacious to the overall Sect feng Shui, and the room it’s in.  Through the audacious lens, we get a quick view of the audacious level of various buildings and furniture. Red is bad, green is good.  The well is auspicious (deep green color) due to its inherent water element as a well and the wood element construction material. Water ‘feed’ to Wood. Clockwise rotation is good harmony.  The Cult of Bèn isn’t the only one progressing in time. News event of other sect can alters the dynamics of the world powers: Becoming stronger, have a feud with someone, someone got a power up, etc. Note: Pretty sure I already translated these news events, but they are not implemented to the mod yet.  Now that we have a Feng Shui scanner, it’s time to improve our huts. Slaan and Arcanuse gets their double bed! A ‘bigger’ room for Hats when he come back.  Day 4, 2:58pm He’s not coming back for a long time.  All these constructions finally caused an injury on Slaan. Thankfully, it’s minor enough to heal by itself without needing medical attention or healing elixir.  After days of flying on a tree stick, Hats finally arrived at Fengcheng town. Although kidnapping will get us a lot of new students, it would give us a bad reputation if we get caught. Thankfully, Hats’ gender-‘neutraling’ features should attracts similar amount of admirers.  He made them run here themselves.   Day 4, 9:40 PM Things are finally looking up. It’s amazing how a little remodeling makes everything looks better
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Feb 28, 2020 03:45
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If these potential disciples can't find the Path to the Sect, then how could they ever find a Way To The Dao? It was good for Master Hat to have them run here
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Feb 28, 2020 03:55
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I dunno how, I dunno when, but we should probably try to get a set of buildings in the shape of the Bèn character (笨) eventually.
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Feb 28, 2020 04:34
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The journey is the important matter.
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Feb 28, 2020 05:51
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Huh, apparently the Sunflower Refining law is OP. It have the strongest combat power of the starter laws, and very easy to accommodate elementally due to the abundance resource of Earth and Metal element. Mountain rocks are earth, more abundant than trees, and iron/metal for furniture. Yes, sleeping on iron bed is good feng shui. 
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Feb 28, 2020 14:29
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Nyaa posted:Huh, apparently the Sunflower Refining law is OP. It have the strongest combat power of the starter laws, and very easy to accommodate elementally due to the abundance resource of Earth and Metal element. It is. Good for back, good for spine. Good for inner disciple learning to shut up and not whine.
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Feb 28, 2020 14:45
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If we were to keep our wooden house, it would need Fire furniture, which is bad because they raise the room temperature and could burn down the house.  Our huts will absolutely ignite with a fire bed, but really great feng shui! 
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Feb 28, 2020 14:55
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Maximise Feng Shui then 
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Feb 28, 2020 16:45
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...Wood huts with proper fire feng shui should be larger, (more room to keep flammable walls away from fire furniture), and kept away from other huts. Non-flammable wall between the
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Feb 28, 2020 17:04
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Nyaa posted:Yes, sleeping on iron bed is good feng shui. As established in the Cultivation Simulator prequel Dwarf Fortress, sleeping on a solid stone bed is prestigious, good for health, and easy way to improve fortress wealth. Very good.
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Feb 28, 2020 17:28
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That was way more words I've ever posted on a subject in the LP forums than I ever expected to. Hope it was somewhat helpful to folks, I can also be a little less in character as a daoist and just talk about smaller bits that have come up in the game that are relevant. Heart devils are a thing! So is the dao, which is different than cultivation (merit) laws that disciples practice! Among other things. Let me know if y'all are particularly interested in hearing about anything in particular.Nyaa posted:Huh, apparently the Sunflower Refining law is OP. It have the strongest combat power of the starter laws, and very easy to accommodate elementally due to the abundance resource of Earth and Metal element. While I wouldn't be surprised if the Sunflower Refining had a drawback later, the fact is the highest combat power is hilarious to no end for me. Feng shui also isn't brought up nearly at all in most cultivation novels so I look forward to what this game does with it.
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Feb 28, 2020 17:30
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SaffronKit posted:cultivation (merit) laws that disciples practice! Among other things. Let me know if y'all are particularly interested in hearing about anything Nyaa fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Feb 28, 2020 |
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Feb 28, 2020 17:44
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Nyaa posted:Can you explain why it is called Law? I assume it’s like scientific law that proof how the universe works, and Sunflower Refinement proves (by our ancestors) losing your dong can makes you immortal. Disclaimer: What I am about to say is pretty much all personal conjecture rather than hard facts from sources I can cite easily/at all. What are cultivation laws? This is actually a pretty easy question to answer, cultivation laws are essentially a method or technique to refine and develop one's body /spirit/qi. Typically a cultivation law can be considered the base or framework for development along a specific Dao path and can encompass a range of techniques or skills that can only be used with said cultivation law. They can also range from trash tier to heaven defying in terms of effectiveness and ease of practice. In layman's terms, some cultivation laws are poo poo. Even if you practice it to perfection and have 100% compatibility with it, golden poo poo is still poo poo, ya dig? Conversely, cracked old jade is still jade, and far more valuable than poo poo. As a direct response to Nyaa's question, they aren't really a scientific law that proves how the universe works per say, as no real scientific method of development occurs. It's more like a dude stumbling around in a dark room finally finding the light switch and turning it on and yelling "EUREKA! I've discovered how light works!" He then writes down his insights in how he stumbled around in the darkness, found the light switch by probably sheer luck turned it on. And that's the start of a cultivation law. Basically calling it a law is sort of a misnomer? It's more a law in the sense regulation like governmental laws. Follow this law and achieve success (advancement of cultivation level)! Go outside the law and get punished (qi deviation). Speculative spoilers for later cultivation levels in the game: Cultivation Simulator's cultivation system appears to be based heavily upon Er Gen's cultivation system in his novels. Essentially, the demimmortal(demigod) and immortal (god) levels are where cultivators start contemplating actual laws of the universe, which are a separate thing from cultivation laws. This explains why demigods and gods prefer a neutral mindset over a positive mindset. Evil Kit fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Feb 28, 2020 |
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Feb 28, 2020 18:05
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No, no, divinity cultivation is the second way for mortal to cultivate into immortality via buddism with neutral mindset. Our Daoist way of cultivation should still prefer happy mindset.
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Feb 28, 2020 18:29
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Wish I'd seen this sooner so I could have suggested the name Goat Sect.
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Feb 28, 2020 18:48
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I don't think Hats will be happy about reversing puberty: the Dao way.
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Feb 28, 2020 19:46
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Nyaa posted:No, no, divinity cultivation is the second way for mortal to cultivate into immortality via buddism with neutral mindset. Eh, in most novels I've read divinity is a separate concept from Buddhism cultivation which is simply an alternative way of cultivating to the reach the Dao. This could be considered different in this game, but in my experience the highest cultivation levels are all equivalent to godhood/divinity of some form or another. Depending on your cultivation novel immortality may even be an impossible task regardless of achieving divinity of some sort, although typically cultivators at that level live long enough (literal millennia) it sort of doesn't make a difference to us mortals.
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Feb 28, 2020 20:06
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Maybe you are right. I never managed to get an immortal, so that might be the case. The next major update will have demonic cultivation, which I assume will need you to be in sad/angry mood.
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Feb 28, 2020 20:14
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Nyaa posted:Maybe you are right. I never managed to get an immortal, so that might be the case. Wouldn't be surprised if killing babies and sacrificing virgins is necessary for demonic cultivation as well. ... I'm only half joking. 
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Feb 28, 2020 20:18
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Well of course. It would hardly be demonic if it was sacrificing a few leaves of lettuce now would it?
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Feb 28, 2020 20:32
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I do hope it requires beating a monkey and then eat the monk to rank up.
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Feb 28, 2020 20:40
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See I learned that demonic cultivation is necromancy and blood magic that makes you grumpier and more stupid about your feelings for your crush.
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Feb 28, 2020 20:49
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hopeandjoy posted:See I learned that demonic cultivation is necromancy and blood magic that makes you grumpier and more stupid about your feelings for your crush. That is only the tip of the iceberg. Depending on the novel it can range from those things (though sometimes necromancy is actually sort of okay? It's weird). Blood magic is pretty typical, though it can range in severity from sacrificing animals or other species, humans or just full on genocides. Feelings are usually secondary and typically involve into a frenzy of blood lust and baser emotions in general, I'm kind of curious what subgenre you actually read to get this idea. For uh... research purposes. Yeah. Demonic cultivation can also vary from novel to novel in both its nomenclature and what it actually involves. Basically Demonic cultivation isn't always called demonic cultivation!
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Feb 28, 2020 22:32
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SaffronKit posted:I'm kind of curious what subgenre you actually read to get this idea. For uh... research purposes. Yeah. I read what’s pretty much the most popular danmei novel in the English speaking internet at the moment. MXTX’s novels are, as expected for that particular genre, light on the specifics of cultivation, but she assumes you’ve read enough to know what it is and as such all the fan translations have pages of translator’s notes on the topics. Xiaxian being The cnovel genre means that there are tons of BL ones.
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Feb 28, 2020 23:25
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hopeandjoy posted:See I learned that demonic cultivation is necromancy and blood magic that makes you grumpier and more stupid about your feelings for your crush.
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Feb 28, 2020 23:27
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My reply is very Trap Sprung but like. I spent like a decade ashamed about the fact I read BL which means I don’t really have enough energy to pretend.
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Feb 28, 2020 23:29
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hopeandjoy posted:I read what’s pretty much the most popular danmei novel in the English speaking internet at the moment. That's actually pretty neat! While I'm not a particular fan of BL genres in general, would you recommend it based on the plot writing, character development or world building? A combination thereof is also fine too, I'll frankly give anything a (brief) try to see if it jives but if it's mostly just a sappy romance novel I typically pass. And frankly, I think it's important to enjoy and be able to admit to what you read, even if maybe people you generally talk to it about will never ever understand what the hell you've started rambling about. Hell, I usually just don't mention what I like to read (xianxia atm) because how do you explain that?
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Feb 28, 2020 23:58
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SaffronKit posted:That's actually pretty neat! While I'm not a particular fan of BL genres in general, would you recommend it based on the plot writing, character development or world building? A combination thereof is also fine too, I'll frankly give anything a (brief) try to see if it jives but if it's mostly just a sappy romance novel I typically pass. I thought the plot and characters in her novels are good for BL and I generally prefer more plot based ones because I can only take so many romance tropes, but it’s still very much a romance novel. With sex at the end. I guess I would give it a try if you don’t mind that and see what you think? Her first novel is a isekai comedy (still BL) that makes fun of bad xianxia novels. It’s mentioned at one point that the novel the protag transmigrated to has 10,000 chapters. I thought that was a comedic complete over Exaggeration. Turns out it’s just a comedic regular exaggeration.
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Feb 29, 2020 00:15
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hopeandjoy posted:I thought the plot and characters in her novels are good for BL and I generally prefer more plot based ones because I can only take so many romance tropes, but it’s still very much a romance novel. With sex at the end. I guess I would give it a try if you don’t mind that and see what you think? Sounds like some of the terrible western novels I'll only vaguely admit to have read. I'll give them a try! I'll also mention again if you want to try reading some non-romance xianxia take a peak at wuxiaworld. There is a very large range of the genre there, and typically all the novels range from mediocre with at least one strong point to genuinely good writing. Seriously, everyone with any interest in this thread and xianxia in general needs to take a poke at reading A Will Eternal. Actually good writing and character development! Fun and engaging plot! A turtle!
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Feb 29, 2020 00:59
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SaffronKit posted:Sounds like some of the terrible western novels I'll only vaguely admit to have read. I'll give them a try! Webnovel.com has some good ones too: Cultivation Chatroom, Lord of the Mysteries, and some others. Didn't get into A Will Eternal, but liked I Shall Seal The Heavens. At least, until he left the planet - got a bit too rote at that point. Though stripping his ancestral holy ground bare of valuables, replacing it with things worth a tiny fraction of the cost, was good. As far as this game goes, I grabbed it myself. Rough figuring everything out, even with what little guide exists and the discord of helpful people, but I've already poured hours into it. Just designing a nice sect is fun already, much less managing the feng shui of every room. Heat management too, via certain materials... I'm hoping to learn a lot from this LP, since parts are intuitive enough, but other aspects are not so much.
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Feb 29, 2020 01:16
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To be a little less coy, the novel I’m primarily talking about is The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, or Ma Dao Zu Shi by MXTX. Basic summary is as follows: Wei Wuxian invented demonic cultivation, becoming the scourge of the cultivation world. He was finally killed in a siege, and may have been directly killed by his own former martial brother. After 13 years, he’s suddenly revived into the body of a disgraced cultivator. Only a few short days after that, he’s captured by his old frienemy Lan Wangji and taken back to Lan Wangji’s sect. What follows is a murder mystery that could take down the whole cultivation world, and also reveal the truth of what actually went down for Wei Wuxian. Additionally, if you are interested in the summary but worries about the romance novel thing, the drama for censorship reasons removes the romance and replaces it with bromance. The drama is called The Untamed and is on Netflix. As in, US Netflix. MXTX has other novels that I also think are good, but that one is considered her best. (Her first is an isekai about a guy who gets isekai’d into the body of a minor antagonist in a stallion xianxia nove and decides to change his fate, leading to the protag falling in love with him instead. The third is about an Immortal who, even though he’s the laughingstock of the Haavens, ascends for the third time, but has also caught the eye of one of the four main Demons for ~reasons~.) They are all very, very much romances, but the characters and plots are enjoyable and her humor is fun.
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Feb 29, 2020 01:22
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