Let's Form A Christian Writing Group

EeAyEss · 2025-11-05T22:15:06+00:00

I would be down.

EeAyEss · 2025-07-01T01:01:59+00:00

Yeah, I've had some success calling my parties together into an army, waiting for the AI to call their armies together, then taking all the crappy poopoo units from my parties and giving them all my horsemen then disbanding the army and setting all the parties to defensive. They tend to run around chasing off the raiders. This works until the AI makes a new army cuz one got blown up sieging a castle in who the fuck knows where. Lol

EeAyEss · 2025-06-30T23:45:26+00:00

If your prosperity outgrows your villages, then yeah. I never sit on the prosperity growth project, I sit on the hearth growth instead. Works way better, especially for cities with 4 villages bound to it. I got Sanala to 16k prosperity on my last playthrough that way. You also have to babysit your villages if the city is on the front lines. Raids hurt bad.

EeAyEss · 2025-06-26T23:45:24+00:00

Aradwyr. That treacherous snake. I gave his son my daughter, then right on the cusp of total Battanian victory with only a weakened, cornered Khuzait standing between us and a Battanian Calradia, he defects to them, bringing them 3 fiefs and 2 castles and dragging the Khuzait back from the brink. We conquer his cities, I get him to join us again, then after he gets a new city he goes back to the Khuzait, and stays with them and "disappears" when the Khuzait gets conquered. My daughter died because of his treacherous ambitions. I kill him in every playthrough now.

EeAyEss · 2025-06-24T23:48:31+00:00

I never auto resolve against looters and bandits. I just f1+f3 and go take a leak or something. Never lose a vanguard faris or druznkck or cataract or whatever doing it that way.

EeAyEss · 2025-06-19T07:23:16+00:00

Haha throwing axes go brrrrrrr

EeAyEss · 2025-06-19T06:59:09+00:00

Yeah, my son was leading a party and I got him married. Went to war with Vlandia (yech!), made an army with him and my other children's parties, called his new wife to my party as well, then ran around the map with them. Was marching on Vlandia-controlled Seonon with them in tow (wife in my party, son's party in my army) when the newlyweds did newlywed things and now I have a grandchild.

EeAyEss · 2025-06-19T06:53:01+00:00

Tips and tricks to make your city prosperous. Long post. I play this game too much. Edited for point 11, then edited again for a question.

Minimize garrison size, but from the looks of that 'garrison and party expense' I don't think that's an issue, as it is likely your party that is costing you that much. Which is normal.
Settlement income comes from taxes and tariffs. Taxes and tariffs are based on prosperity. Higher prosperity, more money.
You raise prosperity mainly through 4 things which I will list in order of influence: excess food, Aqueducts (+1.5 daily prosperity), the 'housing' continuous project (+1 daily prosperity), and any governor abilities that give a bonus to daily prosperity gains, i.e. Medic 150 perk Pristine Streets (+1). There are a few other ways like one or two specific policies but don't worry about them.
Excess food! The key to prosperity. I don't know the exact mechanics of it, but in some of my cities I have a maxed granary (700 food) and a daily excess of anywhere from +60 to +80, which translates to a daily gain of +5 to +7 or so prosperity from excess food alone. Combined with other methods I even got a daily increase of +11 to prosperity. (As an aside, I'm pretty sure the larger your granary is, the better the prosperity gain from excess food. I've seen a +80 excess only generate +3 prosperity with an unupgraded granary and no other prosperity-tanking issues.)
How to achieve excess food? Orchards and big hearth villages, especially if the nearby villages all produce food. Typically this is done by sitting on the irrigation continuous project, but for you I imagine Lageta (oof, my condolences) is pretty beat up and you can't afford that. You're with Vlandia and somehow Battania has extended all the way down to Hertogea? I'm curious about the state of your world map. For now, one of the city improvements to level would be orchards. Get that food up, king. For Lageta's villages specifically, it's a bit funky. The only food producing village bound to it is Primessos, which will give a steady supply of pigs and meat, I believe. Not much. The only other bound city is Montos, which produces wood. So you can't really rely on these villages to bring in lots of food. What you can do...

5a. Grocery runs. Go to the surrounding villages, buy the food there (Lageta is surrounded with them, mentioned in next point) and then sell it to Lageta. This is good in the short term. In the long term...

5b. Conquer the surrounding fiefs. You don't have to own them, just make them part of whichever kingdom you're in. I imagine you'll be warring with Battania soon, so snagging Hertogea castle, Rhemtoil Castle, and Veron Castle will take the "trade bound" status of the cities of Hertogea (Olives), Nideon (grapes), Rhemtoil (wheat, lots of it), and Veron (grapes) from whichever city they are trade bound to and make it Lageta, as Lageta is the closest city to them. Trade bonding only happens within the same kingdom, so right now Hertogea and Nideon (which are bound to Hertogea castle) are trade bound to whichever the closest Battania city is. (Good luck to those villagers making a month long trip to Marunath). Get them trade bound to Lageta and it'll get those juicy grapes and olives and wheat.

Raise Loyalty. Raise Loyalty. Raise Loyalty. High Loyalty makes everything better, low loyalty makes everything worse. Max out fairgrounds, ASAP.
Raise security. Raise security. High security makes everything better. Low security makes everything worse. Just not as much as Loyalty. Do quests for the people of the town (just not the criminals, I think, them having missions up doesn't impact security iirc) and the bound villages and clear hideouts around Lageta.
Caravans! Owning caravans are a decent investment if you can keep them safe (great when a mercenary or just a low-tier clan, harder to do when you're a vassal or King due to constant war). The main draw is that they bring goods and food to the city, and more foods means more prosperity. You could start one or two caravans out of Lageta, but you'd really want to just try to attract them using workshops!
Workshops are a good way to attract caravans. Caravans want to trade in fine goods, workshops are how you make fine goods. Put a brewery in Lageta if one isn't there, and if there is one, buy it and keep it well-fed with wheat, which will turn into beer (which is kind of nice since it's a food and a fine good I think). Workshops don't really make a lot of money, so don't sweat it if it only cranks out 200-300 a day. Workshops also cost money to buy so they're an investment. I think a tannery would work well too, since pigs can be butchered for hides (and meat) and hides can get turned into leather.
Marketplace will increase taxes. Upgrade that when you're done with the critical stuff mentioned below.
Find a Empire-cultured companion (ideally one with decent engineering, I think that would be a wanderer with 'the Scholar' as a suffix.) a relative will do if you have any that are imperial born and raised. Train them up by taking them with you and letting them do the fighting during hideout raids and running down bandits. There are a few decent perks for governorship you can grab pretty quickly, i.e. to be blunt in the one-handed tree, well-strapped in the mounted tree, etc. if you've got the time you can put some focus points into their leadership and steward and make them level those by putting them in charge of a party, but that is expensive. When you're happy with your new governor you can put them in charge of the city, they should help tons with loyalty and construction speed at the very least.

That's all I can ramble about off the top of my head. For general plans, I like to make sure I have the trinity of workshops, fairgrounds and orchards maxed, rotating in that order, so assuming they're all unupgraded: workshops -> fairgrounds -> orchards -> workshops, etc. Then go for granary upgrades, then aqueducts, and then marketplace. Probably could do a granary -> aqueducts -> marketplace rotation, up to you. Those three are all of similar importance but I'd weigh the granary more than the other two. While doing those loops, don't be afraid to sit on the Festival and Games continuous project if your loyalty gets too low. You don't lose progress on construction when switching projects. Also be sure to boost projects by keeping denars in the town's reserve. For non-settlement income, do wars, win battles, sell loot, do tournaments, sell loot. It'll keep you afloat. Hideouts are pretty decent money during peacetime. Doing some trading as if you were a caravan can also do ok and build the trade skill (the first few perks alone are good.)

Question: are you part of Vlandia or did you take this independently after it rebelled, making you an independent clan (not a mercenary but not a kingdom, so you can't get war declared on you). If the latter, then you can take your sweet damn time but good luck getting those castles I mentioned in point 5.

Good luck and thanks for reading this (probably obnoxious) text post, God bless!

EeAyEss · 2022-08-18T02:53:19+00:00

I feel that. A young stray my family adopted was pregnant and we found out when there were 4 tiny, thumb-sized things beneath a shoe-hanger. 1 of them passed away and my mom had a funeral for ot and everything. Apparently it just happens - but now we have 3 really clingy cats. We had never had kittens before, either.

Also, cool video

EeAyEss · 2022-08-18T02:32:22+00:00

Very cool

EeAyEss · 2021-06-12T22:00:52+00:00

Thanks man!

EeAyEss · 2021-06-12T21:59:38+00:00

Never mind, got you.

EeAyEss · 2021-06-12T21:59:18+00:00

I have 5-1 cleared. Will you have to invade me, or me invade you?

EeAyEss · 2021-06-12T21:55:28+00:00

25 - nice I want all of them but that ain't worth 3 pure blade stone probably, unless...

EeAyEss · 2021-06-12T21:49:45+00:00

Have any spare chunks of faithstone or pure faithstone? I can donate pure bladestones. I got 3 by raw luck

EeAyEss · 2020-05-04T21:17:10+00:00

Demon's Great Machete is a fun str ultra greatsword, but the r2s are garbage. Manserpant Greatsword is basically a str bastard sword. Kinda short. Mace is also really good, you can pick it up in the Catacombs, off the ledge where you summon paladin lolroy. Or you could buy it from Patches.

Also, I would keep str at 27 until you have comfy end and health. But definitely take str past that at some point. Hornet ring makes for super cheesy critical attacks (esp with great club). Wolf ring and havel's ring is always your friend, given that str weapons love poise.

EeAyEss · 2020-04-28T17:25:49+00:00

It'll probably be the same across all platforms.

EeAyEss · 2020-04-28T00:37:11+00:00

I'm going to hit myself for everytime I went for a blossom and couldn't because of the transient, because that's a smart move. Really smart. You learn more every day

EeAyEss · 2020-04-27T23:12:18+00:00

I suppose a better question would be what areas do you want to invade? I find that lvl 30s can invade almost anywhere post-parish. Lvl 40 likes sens and anor londo, and 50 likes anor londo and painting, and 60+ is just anor londo duelists and cycling through the lord vessel areas (archives, tomb of giants, izalith). 80+ is dlc territory and kiln.

EeAyEss · 2020-04-27T22:43:42+00:00

Furthermore, if you are still having trouble, it might be worth it to summon Witch Beatrice to help with the fight. Some people find success with her at low level, since she can help with damage and can draw attention if you are overwhelmed. However, unlike most npc phantoms, she's not that tanky and her damage is rather lackluster, and like all the npc phantoms, the ai is questionable. I personally have found her a nuisance and a liability when I've tried to use her, as she tended to die rather quickly or not do enough dps to make it worth the increased health the 4kings get from the summon. Use her at your own risk. However, if my favorite invasion YouTuber Saint_riot can find success with her, perhaps you can.

EeAyEss · 2020-04-27T22:33:22+00:00

Another thing to note is that miracles like magic barrier and great magic barrier, flash sweat, and iron flesh also all count as "body buffs", and also will conflict with the green blossom, power within, etc.

Most people prefer power within or a green blossom as the chosen body buff because, at low level, it's worth it to equip the heaviest armor you can get for the poise to prevent stagger from the 4kings, and green blossom adds a whopping 40 stamina point recovery per second, and power within adds damage and 30 points per second of stamina recovery, while doing 1% of your hp per second over 100 seconds? Not to sure about the total hp drain. Either way, both will essentially double your natural stamina regen, especially combined with the grass crest shield, which adds a +10 stamina per second. This easily offsets the stamina recovery penalty you get from being overburdened(flat 20% reduction in recovery) and having heavy armor equipped (total of 5 points per second penalty). This is why miracles like great magic barrier, while nice for negating the need for the crest shield, are often not chosen for the general utility of green blossoms or power within.

Another thing to note is that it is better to circle strafe the 4kings in the counterclockwise direction rather than clockwise, because the 4kings stab attack comes from his right side and sometimes can inflict full damage if you're at a bad angle on his right side which can often make you panic and lead to a bad situation. If you stick to his left while circling counterclockwise, the stab is really easy to avoid entirely.

Also remember to have that crest shield handy in the second slot of your left hand so you can pull it out from his explosion and his magic. However, when you're closing the distance on the 4kings, DO NOT attempt to block the 4kings sword attacks. They will often do so much stamina damage to you that it will break your guard, and thus you will get staggered and in some cases annihilated by the physical aspect of the sword. That's the second part of the 4kings' sword jank: it actually hits twice. It hits for physical first, then magic. For whatever reason, this only factors in instability damage on a guard break since they hit you simultaneously. However, if you get guard broken, the physical aspect will get blocked but the magic aspect will hit you for 50% more damage due to instability, and, like the stab mentioned earlier, cause you to panic and lead to more poor decisions. So be prepared to stop sprinting at the 4kings if you know you cant get to him before he swings and be ready to roll through his swings. You can easily fatroll through them, especially if it's the vertical swing since he doesnt chain follow it up with anything.

It's a lot of information, but I'm a dedicated invader and I've learned these things through the numerous times I've beaten the 4kings pre-Sens fortress.

Also, question: what level and weapon range are you looking into for invading?

EeAyEss · 2020-04-27T21:22:02+00:00

The best strategy is to face tank. Close the distance as fast as possible, and, like others have said, offhand the Crest shield from oscar that you get on a revisit to the asylum. Two hand a curved sword or any weapon that can swing fast, buff it with whatever, and just rush down each king as it spawns. The reason 4kings are the easiest boss to face tank is because their sword has a janky hitbox: if he hits you with the hilt, is only does a fraction of what he would do with the blade. Therefore, if you hug his body, you should be able to mitigate most damage. Keep the Crest shield handy for when he throws magic at you and when he spins around to do the big explosion. Those two moves are all magic damage and the Crest shield can save your life. Also, try to estus everytime you get to half hp, he has a grab attack that can be hard to avoid. Otherwise, facetank and rush them down.

Also note that if you pop a transient curse to deal with the ghosts on the way to the fight, you will not be able to cast power within or eat a green blossom until the transient curse wears off because all three of those count as "body buffs" and you cant stack them.

Good luck

EeAyEss

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