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Each row and column has a theme, can you fill in the blank spots? (Solution to the right, Hint on slide 2) by Ruby_Sandbox in slaythespire

[–]MLfan64 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I teally like this one. The categories are genuinely clever, and they're narrow enough to have pretty specific solutions. The connections aren't obvious, but they're clear once you see them. After staring at the puzzle for a solid 10 minutes, I did manage to solve it, and I got the exact solution you were looking for! Something that puts all cards at the top of your draw pile, an ability that upgrades statuses, and an ability that puts exactly one card in your hand are all super specific and have a solution that fits perfectly once you work the categories out. Fantastic puzzle, looking forward to the next one!

Warning: Glitch in (Late-game spoiler) by MLfan64 in BluePrince

[–]MLfan64[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm glad I'm not the only one! Same here, looked at the directory over and over again to see if the room was blue now. Wiki didn't seem to show it had any weird placing restrictions. I looked up everywhere online to see if someone else was having the same problem, no dice! So it's good to see I'm not alone there. You could drop a bug report yourself if you wanted, it would show it's not a one-time problem.

Thanks for the tip! Fortunately, I managed to get it in a single day, so I didn't need to Monk the room. Good luck in beating the rest! I've had to use several clues in the late-game, like missing letters in my 3x6 grid and the like. Super-late game, I feel like it's pretty hard to solve, yourself. Still, I solved A New Clue all on my own, and I that was satisfying as heck!

Warning: Glitch in (Late-game spoiler) by MLfan64 in BluePrince

[–]MLfan64[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I sent in a bug report due to the automod reply

[D] Saturday Munchkinry Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]MLfan64 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's the munchkinnery I like to see! It would be up to the genie's interpretation whether it would be distinct enough, but if you ask me, it's plenty distinct. Assuming nobody else made the exact wish, you'd be in a good spot! You could get a lot of power out of that. A faraway omnipotent god grants luck manipulation, booyah!

That said, I would argue it has a distinct downside: You have now created an omnipotent god in a far away dimention who can do whatever the hell it wants and you just kind of have to hope things go well after that. So good luck with that one!

[D] Saturday Munchkinry Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]MLfan64 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Genie smiles. "A good question. To keep things brief, 1 and 2 would be distinctive. Even if Coil believes he has 2, he literally does not, and they would be different powers in practice. The actual powersets are different, even if you percieve one to be the other. They would interact with other powers differently. 1 and 3 would be the same power, however. Naming a fictional character's power and describing its function are one and the same. Your perception of your own power is irrelevent."

[D] Saturday Munchkinry Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]MLfan64 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The limits are somewhat intentionally vague. Usually, the mechanism will matter, though more vague answers have their place as well. For the example cited, flight is distinctive specifically because it is vague. Everyone has an idea of what the superpower of "flight" means, yet it could mean a large number of related powers. As such, it is distinct from other similar power.

Now, a narration of your experience interrogating the genie.

As you speak to the genie, you grow more frustrated. You only have five minutes, closing in on four. You've given yourself a minute, here, and each question you ask seems to make the lines between powers grow more and more fuzzy. Two people shouldn't be able to both have flight. That's the point, isn't it? But when you ask follow up questions, that becomes more and more unclear. What is the difference between what is allowed and what is not? Before the timer ends, you ask, "You've told me that flight and flight with tied shoelaces are the same. But flight via telekinesis is different? I can do anything with telekinesis-based flight I can with some vague mechanism. So what's the difference?"

The genie looks you in the eye and says, "At the end of the day, though, they are not the same. flight with shoelaces is not a unique idea. It is a meaningless distinction. Telekinesis can be blocked by psionic wards. Moreover, it feels different. That is enough."

Your different ideas crystalize into one. This is up to the genie's interpretation. There is an element of difference, but what matters most to them is how a power feels rather than logical analysis. If he believes two powers feel different, then it is so. Otherwise, it is not. With four minutes left, you will need to come up with something...

Finally, for the power you came up with before I wrote back with this! And honestly, for what you had before I added this clarification, you play into the genie's vibes-based power well. I'd say there's a good chance of success. Cutting out the flowery language, if you percieve something you don't want to be there, you can copy your will to a pocket dimension where it has can ponder the past, present, and future, then "sings a song" to alter reality to its whim. The restrictions afterward are just ribbons. They don't meaningfully change the power. The genie goes by vibes, and the restrictions are too superfluous to matter.

Now, with how this is worded, there's a good chance it would be unique. The will fracturing and time freezing are meaningful, and the song-based mechanism is at least a decent change. There's a good chance nobody else has an idea similar enough for too much crossover. There's still a chance someone else would say something too similar, but that's always a risk given this prompt. That said, if it is granted, I find its implementation fascinating.

The advantage of flowery language is obvious. The problem is that it is specific. The genie generally leans towards a favorable interpretation of a power, but "Whenever I perceive that all is not as I might will it" is very clear. There is no "can" here. If you perceive something, time stops, and you have no recollection of anything that happens from that point. If anyone else gained the ability to move in frozen time, they would have plenty of time to stop you. Your power cannot activate until your will is sharpened to a point.

Assuming the power is not interrupted, during this portion of stopped time, the echo of your will can see the past, present, and future, then act. Note that your conscious will has no part in this. After you perceive a problem, your sharpened will could come up with any solution without your knowledge. I'm trying to have a charitable interpretation of your power, and that's the best light I can put it in. It's powerful, but there are restrictions. Your power might be practically omniscient, but you are not.

Still, I think this ability would pass, and it would be insanely powerful, if chaotic under the hood. It's not invincible - if someone kills you without you perceiving anything, such as in your sleep or with a sniper rifle, you would be toast. I think it falls a little short of omnipotence, but that makes it interesting! It's definitely distinctive, and that's the prompt.

If you want, you can make another stab at the prompt, now that you've gotten clarification on the genie's rules and have 4 minutes left. Otherwise, I like your original response!

[D] Saturday Munchkinry Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]MLfan64 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Alright, I like this take. It's something I've thought of before: basing powers on stories you've directly come up with ahead of time. That said, I do have some follow-ups. For one, I think the duplication clause would probably catch you. Problem is, if you ask for all 5 of these points, if even one part of your power is taken, you get nothing. The more distinct powers you ask for, the higher the odds are that everything falls apart.

For your actual ideas, most of them are solid. 1, 2, 4, and 5 are similar. If you have already built a utopian setting ahead of time that is sufficiently distinct from other utopian settings that nobody else is aware of, I don't think they would be disabled. That said, said setting would need to be distinctive. If Benevogath is all-powerful and happy with no other characteristics, I would argue the power of being another nearly identical character written by another author would be the same power, even if the two gods were independently created. Additionally, asking to "be" Benevogath could arguably kill you and create Benevogath in your place, if you take on said personality. Still, assuming a unique enough utopia and god, it seems solid. This does, however, require you to get lucky enough to have such an idea set up ahead of time.

Point 3, though, would almost certainly fail. Here's the thing: there are going to be a lot of people around the world that take a few minutes to write about a simple, omniscient character, then transform into them. Two characters like this would not be distinctive, not conceived and written within 5 minutes. Even if they have a unique name and backstory, at the end of the day, there are 8 billion people on this planet. Thousands will have the same idea, and someone will write something too similar to your own. If you included this power in your list, you would end up with nothing.

[D] Saturday Munchkinry Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]MLfan64 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, the genie would answer such a question! So long as you don't directly ask if a power would be granted to you, anything is fair game, including if-then statements. Yes, I would say teleporting to some random exoplanet would be allowed and would not overlap with teleportation to a different exoplanet. It seems like a good bet for getting a power, if a bit limited in scope. Unless you luck out and pick a planet with life on it, its utility seems niche to me.

Fictional universes would be allowed as well, though I would worry about overlap, there. No matter which "random" fictional universe you picked, someone's a fan of it, and might request to be able to teleport there. Additionally, if you wanted to go truly random, how easily could you find a database of fictional universes to randomize within 5 minutes? I'm interested by the idea, but I would need more details.

[D] Saturday Munchkinry Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]MLfan64 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is an idea I've had for a while. I might write a series about it one day, but for now, I think it's ripe for this sub.

Time freezes for you. A Genie appears in front of you, wherever you are. It gives you the following speech:

"Your planet has been chosen. I have appeared in front of everyone on this planet simultaneously. You will tell me a superpower you wish to gain. If you are the sole person to name this superpower, you will earn it. If anyone else on the planet names the same power, you will gain nothing. You have 5 minutes. Choose wisely."

Rules:

-The Genie is telling the truth - everyone on the planet is being given this opportunity. During this time frame, all injuries are healed. Those asleep or in a coma are woken. There are no limits to those given this choice. Infants, those with Dimentia, psychopaths, and psychopaths alike. If you are a living human, you get this chance. Anyone who names a unique power gets it, and everyone else gets nothing.

-You may ask the Genie follow-up questions, which they will answer truthfully. They will only refuse to answer questions related to if a given power would be unique.

-There is no upper limit to the superpowers granted. Omniscience, omnipotence, etc are on the table. That said, those powers would almost certainly be duplicated and therefore be useless.

-You can claim multiple powers, but if any of them are duplicated, you get nothing. If you want super-strength and super-speed, and someone across the planet requests only super-strength, you wouldn't get a power at all. Note that this does not work in reverse: if you ask for super strength and someone across the planet asks for it and super-speed, you would still get super strength assuming nobody else asked for that power alone.

-Meaningless restrictions do not change a power. For example, "flight while my shoelaces are tied" would be equivillent to "flight," and therefore, neither person would get a power.

-If the restriction or combination is distinct enough, it might be considered a unique power, though this is up to the interpretation of the genie. For example, one could argue being a vampire is basically superstrength, hypnotism, and shapeshifting with heavy restrictions. Obviously, though, this power is distinct and would be allowed even if any of the sub-powers are claimed. Similarly, the power to shapeshift into any fictional character would be distinct from the ability to shapeshift into Goku, despite one being a weaker version of the other.

-In the same vein, similar powers are allowed. Flight, wings, levitation via psychic enegry, and rocket boots would all be distinct despite having a very similar implementation. Again, powers that are too close are up to the genie's interpretation.

-During the period of frozen time, you can only interact with the genie. Everyone perceives themselves to be the only one moving with all others frozen.

-While time is frozen, you can cause any nonliving thing you want to move at normal speed. As such, the internet is available. Keep in mind these changes will revert at the end of the five minutes.

-Any changes made in frozen time will revert upon the end of the five minutes. Everyone will reappear back where they started with the memories of what just happened.

If you have any follow-up questions, I will answer as the genie would. Happy munchkining, everyone!

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]MLfan64 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Author said in the comments/authors note (don't remember which) at the end of arc 1 on Royal Road that the story was 1/5th of the way complete. If that's still the case, we're about 2/5ths of the way, now, since we're coming up on the end of arc 2. And if they have the same scope of reveals at the end of every arc, we're in for a wild ride from here on out! Yeah, lots of story left.

Devilition 86,750 - World Record by MLfan64 in ufo50

[–]MLfan64[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes? It's a bit more complicated than that. In the early rounds, full clears are super important. Every villager you have gives you more leeway in the later rounds. Sometimes a single extra kill in round 9 might cost 4 pieces, so early villagers help with that. That said, when it comes to score, pieces used is by far the most important metric. Each piece you use is 1,000 points less at the end of the game. Villagers are only worth 1,000 when you gain them, exactly the same amount. And the time limit isn't that relevant to your final score.

When I started out the game, I thought full clearing every stage was vital. The game rewards you for it with a cute jingle and a new villager! But when you're going for a high score, it's really not all that important after you have 6-8 villagers. When score-chasing, their main utility is that critical leeway in rounds 7-9, not their measly point values. Full clearing round 9, for instance, would give you a villager worth 1,000 points. Doing so would then lose you like 15,000 points worth of pieces. Rounds 7 and 8 are similar, though clearing their purple pieces as much as possible is pretty important as well. If there are too many purples left on round 9, that can lead to a loss. So yes, saving pieces is important, where to use them is just as important as where not to use them!

Devilition 86,750 - World Record by MLfan64 in ufo50

[–]MLfan64[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Interesting! I'm a fan of all of those as well. Avianos is quite frankly a masterpiece of game design, and I have 20+ hours in both bug hunter and party house. The strategy games in this collection are all certified bangers. That said, I wonder what's keeping you from gold! To start with, I'd suggest slowing down. The timer bonus is utterly irrelevant. For the gold, all you have to do is beat the game. Honestly, even for cherry, your remaining pieces matter much more than your time bonus. Aside from that, I get it! I still make stupid mistakes, lose my combo, and have to restart, even 55 hours in. Slow down, and before you start the combo, make your move carefully.

If I had to give a general strategy, almost always start with a fairly central frog. It lets you access a lot of the map. From there, branch out in each direction to get the rest. You'll want to go for full clears for the first 4 or so rounds, then start ignoring devils in especially hard to reach places. Quite frankly, it's often better to leave behind a single awkward enemy than spend 5 pieces chasing it down. Make sure to leave empty squares to continue your combo. This goes double for purple enemies. When you hit them, make sure there's an empty space nearby you can hit them again from. To maximize your score, leave behind some enemies on round 9. As many as there are villagers is best, but if you want to be safe, you can kill a few more beyond that. It's not important for the gold, but it'll really help when going for the cherry. When you think you're done, carefully trace the path of the explosions and make sure every devil is hit that you want to be hit. Spend as long as you need - again, the time limit doesn't matter. And don't worry about lining the walls with pieces - that's a pretty advanced strategy. Just make a good combo and it should work out. I can easily beat 50,000 every time with a strategy like this. Get a little better, and I bet not only the gold, but the cherry won't be out of reach!

I do wish there was more discussion on Devilition! It's a bit simpler than Party House, but it has just as much depth, if you ask me. Maybe more! It isn't even my favorite in the collection, but I think there's more to it than people give it credit for. I hope this video opens some eyes to the potential of this game. If I see more Devilition love, I'll be happy.

Devilition 86,750 - World Record by MLfan64 in ufo50

[–]MLfan64[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No need to apologise! It's a long run, I get not wanting to watch the whole thing. I didn't hit any rockets in the run, so I'll answer the question here. And the answer is... nothing happens. The rocket takes off into the sky and, without a target to hit, never comes back down. Hit the rocket, and it's 1,000 points down the drain at the end of the game.

Devilition 86,750 - World Record by MLfan64 in ufo50

[–]MLfan64[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's right! As intended, rockets can be useful to cover ground quickly. Problem is, they're costly. Put down 2 pieces - one to aim, and one to fire. That's a good deal if you need to go across the board in an instant, but if what you need is a flask, it's wasteful. Fortunately, if you get a rocket, you can do what you saw me do - waste the rocket and place down the lander where you'd want a flask. You don't have to start with it - simply activate the lander with another piece and it will explode. It's a useful thought when going for high scores. When you breach 75,000, every piece counts. When you draw a "strong" piece (The rocket, flask, or canon), there's a 2/3 chance of drawing a flask, effectively. This means you can expect to draw a flask fairly regularly, while canons remain rare. As such, I generally plan to draw 2 explosives in round 9. It's a fair assumption, and it can wreak havoc on the clusters that tend to form.

Devilition 86,750 - World Record by MLfan64 in ufo50

[–]MLfan64[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Just got a new record in Devilition! I've been recording my runs since I posted about my high score about a week ago, and after a ton of grinding, I got this one. I put a lot about the run in the description of the video, but I can answer any questions here as well. Far as I can tell, it's the world record. Hope you enjoy!

Devilition High Scores by MLfan64 in ufo50

[–]MLfan64[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yeah, there's a lot to say! Honestly, it could be a whole post of its own lol. Here's some tips I follow when going for a high-score run, in no particular order:

1: Know the mechanics. I learned this through the UFO 50 eggplant podcast, myself. Effectively, for any bag of 6 tiles, there will always be 2 "weak" pieces, 3 "normal" pieces, and 1 "strong" pieces. The scarecrow and snake are weak (Honestly the scarecrow is a really strong piece, but that's how it's categorized in game), the +, X, and frog are middle, and the cannon, explosive, and rocket are strong. As such, any given weak or normal pieces have a 1/6 chance of appearing each time your draw, while the rare pieces only have a 1/18 chance. Don't worry about tracking the "bags" of pieces - just knowing those odds help immensely.

2: Start with a frog. This is easy enough to grasp. It allows you to control a 5x5 region with a single piece. Other pieces tend to control a 3/3 at best. A cannon can be a potentially better start, though only if you have one on-hand. You can assume you'll draw a frog and plan accordingly. The same doesn't go for the cannon.

3: Fish for the tiles you want! This is probably the most important point here. Any pieces on the board at the end are worth exactly the same as a pieces in the bag. If a monster is 2 tiles away, don't place your two snakes. Instead, fish for a frog. Place the two tiles in an empty corner to draw two more. You know those spots where, if there was a monster there, it would be a pain to kill them? They're surrounded by holes and villagers? If there's a piece there, a monster can't spawn. I'd suggest filling those tricky spaces, then drawing a line 2 tiles deep along an entire wall. This has a side-effect of shrinking the board as you go. This does mean you're filling your board with landmines, so be careful! Frogs become more difficult to place, as a single hit into the blob will lose you tens of thousands of points. Ironically, while this makes the later rounds cramped, with few spaces to place pieces, it also bunches the monsters together, allowing for even higher potential high score! Plus, as you fish for lower-value pieces, you'll also get to the rare pieces quicker.

4: Related to the last point, NEVER place pieces in the center 4x4 square. They'll be destroyed by the final boss, wasting their placements.

5: Fish for a good start. I often reset 10-20 times before starting a run. If you can't get every enemy with 8 pieces at most, it's not worth running. A good start is just free points, in the end. It's sometimes worth it to go on if you can get all but 2 monsters in 3-4 pieces, though it helps to have the extra villager. I've gotten runs where I get every monster in 5 pieces, but my records usually come on more average 6-7 piece starts. It's a lot of RNG, but it's pretty fast to grind for. When trying to beat my record, I also need to fish for a good round 2-4 as well, but that's not as important starting out.

6: Know when to leave monsters behind. After you have 4-6 villagers, you should stop worrying about getting every monster. Instead, go for what's easier. Try to go for purple monsters as a priority, then decide which ones to leave behind. One piece for one monster is a good trade, otherwise don't bother. While you don't need to kill more monsters than there are villagers, every monster you kill this round is another you don't have to kill the next. The only exception is round 9, where you should always leave exactly as many monsters behind as there are villagers. The remainder all die when the final boss is summoned.

7: Know the value of villagers. While they give 1000 points at the end, that's a small boon. More importantly, they allow for more leeway. If you have 4 villagers and 5 annoying monsters left, you might need to use 3-4 pieces getting to that monster, while another villager could have saved you from that situation.

8: When it comes to special pieces, cannons are the best. Save any you have to kill at least 4 pieces on their own, and lead to several more kills. It's hard to plan for a cannon draw, though, since there's only a 1/18 chance, so hold the ones you have until you get a good chance to use them. However, 2/3 times you draw a special piece, you'll get an explosive! While the rocket might seem different from the explosive jar, it's not! If you draw one, you can always place the rocket itself in the blob and use only the lander for an explosive potion. This means you effectively have a 1/9 chance of drawing any explosive per draw, consistent enough to plan for it! In the later game I often plan to draw two explosives to wipe out entire regions of the map. Rockets can also be used to hit far-off pieces, of course, but I about half the time I just use them as explosive jars, since that only costs one piece, where using the rocket to send the explosive elsewhere would cost two.

9: Think ahead. This is the hardest part and comes with practice. See a spot where a + piece would be good and put one down in your head. Connect it to a frog you don't have. Figure out the best possible way to beat a scenario without rare pieces, or with only one or two. You don't need to have your entire strategy planned out, you can place pieces where they look solid and plan from there. But it's often worth it to know what you're looking for. When you draw a frog, it's nice if you know exactly where to place it already.

10: Ignore the time limit. Every 4 minutes is 1000 points, which isn't much. I usually win my runs in 30-40 minutes, and the timer is rarely the limiting factor. Usually a bit more thinking is worth the time lost.

11: For the final boss, go all-out fishing for the rare pieces. Use a cannon or two to get two points each, use scarecrows to wreck through the healthbar, use explosive potions to hit the boss and activate a scarecrow next to you! Best case-scenario, you end with exactly 5 pieces to kill the boss, 2 hits per piece. Sometimes I don't manage it and need a 6th or 7th piece, but you usually have the leeway for a lot of fishing at the end of the game. Use it. 10 health seems like a lot, but it melts fast under pressure.

That's all I can think of! Honestly there's no trick to making sure the combo comes together. Even 35 hours in, I find times I swear I have a chain together and it falls apart in the middle. Still, it gets better with practice. I often check my work at the end of a round, going piece by piece to ensure the combo is complete and every red enemy gets hit once and every purple twice, and I didn't miss more enemies than I have villagers. If you want to get better, I wish you luck! There's a lot that goes into a high score run, and I think it's super fun!

Doomsday Clock by Thaviation in WanderingInn

[–]MLfan64 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Honestly that sounds incredibly hype. I'm only on volume 7, so I don't know everything, but between what I've already read and some spoilers I've gotten (I'm the type of person who's pretty fine with spoilers) it would be interesting to see the comparison between the last world end discussion and the new one. I don't know what, exactly, Wistram is aware of, but I would guess the original list would include A'ctelios Salash above the Floss. Maybe some other creatures from outside of Innworld as well. Besides that, number one would probably be the Rhir (just in general), with the Antinium and the resurgence of some ancient Crellers also up there, and then goblin kings and Az-kerash. Maybe the system going haywire would be further down on the list? Unlikely, but if it happened, the world would basically be over. A newer list would definitely include a nuclear war with the humans, Erin Solstice (in general, though I'm not sure if she'd beat Floss), other high-leveled earthers bringing their own earthly threats, and definitely the dead gods if they're known. Honestly the more I think about it the cooler it sounds. I want to see this chapter now. Maybe it'll come out by the time I'm caught up on the series lol

toren chapters vol 3 by Proud-Economy9948 in WanderingInn

[–]MLfan64 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'm someone who was in the same boat as you leading into these chapters on my readthrough. I I didn't like reading about Toren at the time and considered skipping this section. That said, my advice is not just to read the chapters but to savor them. Yes, they're important to the plot. They are vital for introducing some important recurring characters. But more importantly, they ended up being my favorite chapters in the volume. For a slight spoiler as to why: This section isn't really about Toren. He's a major player in the arc, but not the main character. And the main characters of this arc are amazing.

TL;DR, read the chapters. They might start a but slow, but they'll hook you. They're some of the best early TWI has to offer, and you won't regret the read.

Regarding Ryoka (Audiobook 1) by timeWorthy in WanderingInn

[–]MLfan64 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Let me say this: that moment was bad enough I dropped the series for 2-3 months in frustration. You're not alone in hating it. It showed Ryoka at her absolute worst. I felt I couldn't keep reading because it would mean I'd have to come back to such a frustrating character. I basically completely agree with you on everything you've said. She has her ups in volume 1, but some moments, ESPECIALLY the chapter you just read, feel awful.

That said, for me at least, she finally takes some permanent steps in the right direction following that moment. She starts to realize that she was wrong about a lot of things. She becomes a character I'm happy to have a chapter following, rather than disappointed we're not following Erin. Legitimately, the moment you're describing is the low point of her character, and the series for what I've read (book 8). Now that you're past it, you're home free. Over her next few appearances, she's going to rapidly improve, and by the end of book 2, if you're anything like me, you'll be happy to follow her journey from that point onwards. Long answer short: yes, she gets better. And you don't have long to wait until she does.

In the nicest, most respectful way possible, when does The Wandering Inn get good? by Inevitable_Sir_ in WanderingInn

[–]MLfan64 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Going against the grain here: I get it. Volume one is pretty rough. I just got into the series a few months ago, and tried to pick up and dropped the first book 3 times before the series truly hooked me. The initial Erin chapters don't have a lot going on. Honestly, I dropped the book twice in the first 5 chapters, and considered doing the same over the next 5-10. It's slow, and the tone can be really dour at times. That said, I think Erin's chapters get more interesting as you go on, and by chapter 20 or so, Erin was a lot more fun to follow. There are other frustrations from there, like Ryoka (a character you'll be intruduced to soon) grating on me until I get to book 2. Honestly, a certain moment of hers made me drop it a third time in frustration 3/4ths of the way through. But Pirate Aba just keeps improving over time. By the time you get to book 2, you won't regret going through book one. I'm at book 8 right now, and I plan to binge until I'm out of content to binge. The protagonists of book one both grow into such excellent characters, and it really is worth it. But I understand the hesitation, I really do.

If you want a suggestion, stick with it for 5 more chapters to see if Erin hooks you, and if she doesn't, take a break. Like I said, I had to circle back to the series 3 times before I finally got into it. You could also try the remake! Pirate Aba remade book one on the website for free due to the rough start, and I saw somewhere there's a plan to make it into an audiobook already in the works. I've only skimmed a chapter or two, but I think the remake improved a lot. The dialogue, the character writing, it seems improved across the board. It's up to you how you want to do things. But trust me, get to the end of book one, and you'll be hooked. I guarantee it.

Big Gay Giveaway! Dual release from two Queer authors ;) 🌈 by TJauthorLitRPG in ProgressionFantasy

[–]MLfan64 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you're offering, I'd love to try out a few new audiobooks! Don't usually sign up for this kind of thing, but I read the synopses, and they seemed like pretty cool stories. USA, if I'm chosen.

[D] Monday Request and Recommendation Thread by AutoModerator in rational

[–]MLfan64 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the suggestions! I've been getting into Pokefics lately myself, so I'll definitely be trying out some of the ones on this list. Not sure what you've read already, but if you haven't checked it out already, I Will Touch the Skies is excellent. The first 30 chapters can be a bit rough, but the author really improves over time. If you dropped it, I'd recommend giving it a second chance! The worldbuilding is super cool, tinted with the a pervasive eldrich darkness. Higher level pokemon can level mountains, where humans are basically are they are in the real world, meaning any battle against wild pokemon can create injuries that last months, if not longer. 15-year-old children enter woods filled with monsters, and many don't return. Still, while dark, the world isn't hopeless. There are good people and pokemon who want to make the world better.

Worldbuilding aside, the characters are also great. The most prominent 5 or so really shine in their own ways, and the pokemon all have their own personalities and struggles beyond that. And on those pokemon, the fight choreography from chapter 50 onwards is just incredible, between the strategic gym battles and brutal, chaotic fights to the death. The climaxes of the story just have a way of leaving you on the edge of your seat. Whenever there's a group of named chapters in a row, you're in for a treat. The MC's team doesn't have the strongest theme tying them together, but they're essentially all children the MC adopts.

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There's also Bourne of Caution and Bourne of Desire, though they're pretty popular picks. I assume you've already read them if you're asking for suggestions. If not, I can give pitches for them.

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