@Muttonhawk I've done some maths.

Let us consider just the repayment time for rebuilding an existing Holy Site, not the added complexity of having Might left to make more Holy Sites. Suppose the original Holy Site was worth x Might. You tear down the Holy Site and replace it with one worth y Might. You thus have y less Might, and your MPT is now y/2 rather than x/2. You break even once you reach Turn t, given by


For large y, this approaches 2, as for the repayment time of a new Holy Site.

For Capy's scenario with Arpeggio, an 8 Might Holy Site rebuilt for 32 Might, the repayment time will be 2 and 2/3 turns. For the Citadel, a 5 Might Holy Site, to break even within 3 Turns requires spending 15 Might. Spending 10 Might sees me break even in 4 Turns.

(Although, I need to consider things very carefully, since if I don't spend too much Might this Turn, I can finish Teknall's major project this Turn. Or I can wait until next Turn and not stress too much. But then I won't have the result of the project until later.)

I've done some maths.

oh god

Reasons I am aiming to become an engineer and not a scientist...

@BBeast Right mate, you're lucky you got me one and a half weeks after my statistical machine learning exam. Otherwise I would glaze over at that.

For large y, this approaches 2, as for the repayment time of a new Holy Site.

I'm going to assume this is the crunch of what you're trying to demonstrate.

And if I have interpreted it correctly, you have demonstrated that destroying and rebuilding holy sites gets close to being as beneficial as building new holy sites if the upgrade is big enough compared to the original cost. But it is capped at the benefit of a fresh holy site. Is that right?

If that's the case, recycling old, cheap, deflated holy sites might become a viable strategy if there's no turn restriction on rebuilding. I don't know if that's so good of a precedent to set. I mean, the existing system isn't the most robust thing in the world, but I don't want important places that may have story lore to be encouraged to be wrecked for the sake of might points.

Now, I have been travelling today, so I neither have the energy nor my own computer to better test out alternatives. I would like you, if you are willing, to experiment with the convergence you found. My immediate thought is to put a cap on how much you can rebuild a holy site into, proportional to its original cost (such as x2 original cost but that's a kinda stingy example) and also prevent a holy site from being rebuilt more than once every 1(?) turn(s?).

Doing it that way could ensure that wrecking and rebuilding never gets close enough to the breaking-even of building a fresh holy site to be worth the trouble. Or at least something like that idea could. Have a brainstorm. The end goal ought to be that destroying your own holy sites should not be beneficial to you in terms of net might.

If anyone has any thoughts on this, speak up! I could be talking fatigue-enduced crap at this point. Give your opinions.

I'm going to sleep now.

@Muttonhawk

If we cap rebuilding at 2x the original cost, then the repayment time is 4 Turns. If you keep accumulating Might, you would have enough Might to upgrade that Holy Site to double that cost after 2 more Turns. Without some other cap, this strategy allows exponential growth with a doubling time of 6 Turns.

(For comparison, a 3x cap makes the repayment time 3 Turns. Anything more makes the repayment time 2-and-a-bit Turns.)

If we put a time limit on how often you can repair a Holy Site, then it would need to be longer than 6 Turns to be effective at minimising abuse.

However, we also need to remember the original purpose of repairing Holy Sites- not to upgrade them, but to fix them if some IC event destroys them. If we make the time limit too long, then it can interfere with this process. If we tie repairing Holy Sites to the creating new Holy Sites timer, this would also interfere with the ability of a character to legitimately repair a destroyed Holy Site.

If our concern is people abusing the system to gain more power, I have a fairly robust and simple solution. Cap the amount by which a Holy Site can be upgraded/repaired to 2x the original cost, measured against when the Holy Site was first built. This prevents the exponential growth scenario, isn't too overpowered so as to not encourage it too much, while still allowing people some room to renovate existing Holy Sites and repair them whenever necessary.

I think I should just bite the bullet and announce a hiatus right away.

I'm nearly done with University, but I got a job a couple weeks back that takes a lot of my time and I don't know if I can keep up with my writing hobby (I haven't been able to keep up with it for the last several months, after all). My plan is to work really hard and look for ways to earn my way out of the country and then when everything's set in stone, I'll take the month prior to the flight off to rest and try to get back into this. As it stands, I'm too preoccupied with other stuff to even begin to wrap my head around writing.

Then again, life changes so I might find myself sneaking in some short posts once every few months... I do request that Astarte go missing, but if you need her for any plotline, feel free to use her.

Also I'll probably step in here every month or so to read what shenanigans my favorite gods are up to!

@Frettzo, understood, Frettzo. We know you've got a lot to deal with in real life. We wish you well, and we hope to see you around occasionally.

@Frettzo No worries, brother. Congratulations on the job!

Thanks for letting us know. We'll be here whenever you drop by to goof around with us.

If our concern is people abusing the system to gain more power, I have a fairly robust and simple solution. Cap the amount by which a Holy Site can be upgraded/repaired to 2x the original cost, measured against when the Holy Site was first built. This prevents the exponential growth scenario, isn't too overpowered so as to not encourage it too much, while still allowing people some room to renovate existing Holy Sites and repair them whenever necessary.

That works pretty well, actually. I'd be happy to have that instated.

@Cyclone Do Zephyrion's wiki page.

*wipes dirt off hands*

Now that there's a half-assed, half-complete wiki article that explains nothing about Xos or Aihtiraq, it's time for more posts with Xos and Aihtiraq.

Does anybody want to mess around with Aihtiraq? It's been a while since someone called on the Djinni Lord of Sugar Daddies and these days I've got piles of Might to spend.

@Cyclone

Aihtiraq: MAKE A WISH!
Tira: sjdodk dkke dpvpcl (Stand on your head and flip three times)
Tira: sorrow cfndejdnq (Then get me lunch)

I have a feeling this could actually work, since they're both just wanderers looking for interaction at this point. Also, realistically she'll need some help making it to New Chronos.

Anyone else heading there lately? @Kho maybe the Bard's hanging around?

Aihtiraq? A wanderer just looking for interaction?

How dare you. He's a benevolent, quasi-omniscient god that just so happens to prioritize fulfilling the foolish wishes of seemingly random individuals over actually helping civilization as a whole.

But yes, I'm down for Tira to encounter him.

I think I should just bite the bullet and announce a hiatus right away.

You'll be missed, but we'll eagerly await your return! Good luck man!

Also I'll probably step in here every month or so to read what shenanigans my favorite gods are up to!

Since literally all other contenders besides Vestec are gone, Vestarte is now good to go. Your favorite Chaos god (probably) won't die before that!

If anyone wants to know what Heartworm's lab looks like.



To imagine certain areas inside Jvan, picture this, designed for zero gravity and a hundred times the size.

If anyone wants to know what Heartworm's lab looks like.



To imagine certain areas inside Jvan, picture this, designed for zero gravity and a hundred times the size.

A friend showed me that a while back, and I immediately thought of Jvan. It is totally her style (and, by extension, Heartworm's style too).

First semester here is coming to a close and the examination period is starting, so I won't be able to get any work in on posts. I'm almost done with my next post but must put it on hold for now.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

The theme to the game Supreme Commander started playing in my head as I read the wiki article for the Prometheans. This has brought me into a superposed state of worry and awe.

...a post and possible accompanying sheets should float up from the void hopefully soon.

For a given definition of "soon", anyway. And the sheet isn't even done yet.

ants, but voidier

Vowzra's gonna be thrilled

Jvan's gonna see him spinning in his grave and be smug as hell

Heads up, fiberlings are biodiversity monitors, so Dust Crawlers will start to encounter mass hairball resistance once the affected zone spreads far enough. Osveril would do well to tip that balance in the Crawler's favour, though letting the grey zone spread too fast could tip off other gods.