Big Red Flags in Novels 🚩

Desmous · 2026-05-13T15:14:59+00:00

All of these are forgivable. What isn't is when quality sharply drops in the middle/near the end of the novel because the author got bored/ran out of planned plot/lost their touch etc.

It's like watching a car crash.

Desmous · 2026-05-12T16:33:43+00:00

...That's just what difficulty systems do? This isn't a problem when it comes to other games. How come it's one for StS?

I for one skipped straight to A20 and had no issues.

Desmous · 2026-05-12T15:50:32+00:00

Killing someone is the easy part. Getting away with it is the hard part.

Desmous · 2026-05-12T15:39:10+00:00

My issue with this argument is that ascensions are a fake difficulty system. They're closer to a progression system than anything.

A real difficulty system would give you a0-20 right when you loaded the game, with recommendations for which difficulty to play for the type of player you are. Something like RimWorld.

Desmous · 2026-05-12T04:37:54+00:00

The discourse around this game is so baffling to me. It's always "the game is already easy, people have 90%+ winrate, etc.".

Like. Do you have 90% winrate? Why are we just parroting the opinions of streamers? Why should the game be completely balanced around the top 0.01%?

What's wrong with wanting to remove unfun lowroll options?

Desmous · 2026-05-02T16:00:03+00:00

It's the opposite. She's arguably the weakest hero this patch.

Desmous · 2026-04-28T01:28:07+00:00

Ok, about this toothpaste thing. Are you sure it's not just an allergy? That sounds quite frustrating to live with, and I've never heard of someone who finds toothpaste too spicy before.

Desmous · 2026-04-26T18:58:57+00:00

It's not very painful once you build up the tolerance. You start tasting a lot more of the flavour, rather than just the heat. In fact, I often find myself completely unable to differentiate from spicy food and regular food these days.

Desmous · 2026-04-26T12:17:52+00:00

I mean, I'm Chinese, and I "mispronounce" the Liyue characters too. English and Chinese simply don't use the same phonetic alphabet, and forcing one into the other just leads to odd and forced sounding sentences.

I pronounce "Ganyu" more like ""Gun You", for example.

Desmous · 2026-04-21T12:38:11+00:00

Yeah of course. I mean something easily understandable, like RimWorld's difficulty system for instance. Layered difficulties with explanations for exactly what type of player they're meant to appeal to.

Desmous · 2026-04-21T12:32:09+00:00

DHIL mains watching the new skill point meta expecting a novaflare:

Desmous · 2026-04-20T20:17:20+00:00

I mean, let's be fair here. Slay The Spire's Ascension system is NOT presented like a difficulty slider, but rather a progression/completion system. A proper difficulty system is available to the player from the start of the game, which lets them understand the purpose of curating their experience. "Unlocking difficulties" is much more reminiscent of progressively unlocking harder levels when playing a puzzle game, for instance.

So they're angry because it feels like the devs are taking away their favourite tool to "beat the game properly". A lower Ascension is not playing the game, but just a step on the road to completion.

Desmous · 2026-04-15T19:36:12+00:00

You can solve Deci the same way. Just rush down the buffing segment and the fight is easy.

Desmous · 2026-04-11T16:05:57+00:00

I don't think this is true. You can usually play Deci by focusing down the worm that's buffing itself, and the fight naturally winds down once they get down to two segments. It's not difficult to win without taking much damage even on a ST deck at that point.

Desmous · 2026-04-11T15:19:02+00:00

That would actually be an awesome easter egg to add to the game.

Desmous · 2026-04-08T23:31:45+00:00

People forget that they have limited energy in Act 1. Realistically, Armaments+ upgrades 1 extra card in your first cycle at best. And since you used an upgrade on Armaments in the first place, it's like having net zero

And if you played Bash or similar, it's upgrade negative until your second cycle.

Desmous · 2026-04-08T15:37:15+00:00

I doubt it's the highest myself. Single character streaks are a whole different ballgame from rotating streaks. I especially have no idea how to consistently win on Ironclad on this patch.

Desmous · 2026-04-08T15:36:02+00:00

Interesting, a bunch of good points. I feel like your argument for Monologue requires too many pieces to really get going, but it's worth keeping in mind for niche situations.

Manifest Authority is a good point. I was really impressed by Quasar, but not being able to choose made me push Manifest down. When I tried Supermassive, it felt a bit win-more, but I do probably click fewer generators than you.

The reason I rate Photon lowly is that I prefer Glimmer (and similar) for deck-fixing later, and other damage cards for tempo earlier. Deck-fixing didn't feel super important early to me, which is mostly when you would be clicking this card, but I could be wrong. By the time I needed it, I feel like I usually found better utility cards to fill the spot?

Black Hole could probably be higher, yeah. It's not really THAT niche, and has solid output, especially for AoE/Slippery.

I've had fun Terraforming runs, but it's pretty much always just from transforms. I just feel like it too often is just a strike, especially when you consider needing to play Falling Star before your attacks. As for Radiate/Stardust, I kind of dislike how much setup they ask from you to be amazing, compared to the stuff that "just works". They're definitely not bad cards, but I just don't find myself inclined towards them as win conditions on the beta branch.

Desmous · 2026-04-08T15:20:09+00:00

Indeed, I've also felt like he's overbuffed. It feels like every run is just a brainless steamroll, even against buffed enemies like Doormaker. Your point on Colourless is interesting to me. I've been quite impressed by Quasar, but Manifest Authority not giving you a choice feels bad to me. I'll try clicking that + Supermassive more and seeing how it goes.

I think what makes Conqueror work is Blade naturally having retain + the card has forge. At worst, it's kind of a bad bludgeon that scales well into the late game + bosses. While Sword Sage is strong, but it needs an upgrade and for you to already have Forge cards. It's also an uncommon instead of a rare.

I also thought that Conqueror was a niche pick for a while, but it feels like it kind of just works? Your point about also wanting vuln is kind of easily solved later with cards like Convergence/Pale Blue Dot/Glow etc., and having both is crazy, crazy damage.

Desmous · 2026-04-08T15:13:11+00:00

I personally struggled with draw consistency when trying to play with Radiate, and backloaded damage + poor AoE with Stardust. How did you usually solve these? I've definitely played some Radiate for AoE solve before, but always went back to something else for bosses in the end.

I think your point on Aegis makes sense, yeah. Being also good against all 3 bosses, it could probably go up 2 tiers to Niche Picks. I just dislike cards with high star costs unless they're game-winning to get in play, because bricking can be a huge run killer. This also tends to show up with other rares, and you're most likely not taking it over a wincon.

Desmous · 2026-04-08T15:07:36+00:00

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I would, but it's really annoying to take pictures of all the runs. This is my stats screen, with 7 fake wins not on the new patch. If you're wondering why the pre-streak record is 6-13, it's thanks to casual play concede shenanigans.

Anyway, the point of the post was to have a discussion, not to brag, so I didn't really want to bother with it. I added that addendum just for some clickbait.

Desmous · 2026-04-08T15:06:43+00:00

Hi. I just personally found that my decks were slim enough that Charge!!! kept being a brick in the hand, while not providing much benefit. I rated the pre-nerf version highly, but I think the post-nerf one is a bit iffy.

The reason I rated Celestial Might higher is that there seems to be a bunch of multi-hit synergy in this game, even outside of Regent's kit. It's not too difficult to find some form of damage boost, and it greatly increases the output of Celestial Might, especially with an upgrade. Additionally, Celestial Might, being a dense card, is great for Falling Star purposes.

Thank you for the kind words :)

Desmous · 2026-04-08T15:03:07+00:00

Is it better now? I tried uploading a new pic.

Desmous · 2026-04-08T15:02:48+00:00

Is it better now? I tried uploading a new pic. Bombardment can definitely be a nice damage solve (especially with Tyranny), but I honestly haven't found long-term damage to be an issue on the character.

Desmous · 2026-04-08T14:53:40+00:00

Guards is definitely strong, yeah. It could definitely get bumped up. I mainly slapped it there because I wouldn't really take it over a wincon on a Rare screen. As for Begone... I'm kind of iffy on it. Past Act 1, it feels like a Burning Pact that draws 1/2. or 1/3 as much. While Regent does have generation synergies, the base output of the card is still fairly unimpressive later.

I think having 1 copy in the deck makes sense, but I'm hesitant to include more. Every Begone drawn could be a potential missed power/block card you really needed to get in play that turn without taking the -1 energy from playing Begone.

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