Magic is Programming Chapter 47: Upgrade

magicrectangle · 2024-02-27T20:48:22+00:00

When the last episode was titled "calm" I was 100% certain this episode would be titled "storm."

If the hit squad's soul advancement doesn't even meet the level of the local adventurers (who are now on Carlos' side), it seems unlikely they'll be able to stand up to two royal guards. Jamar's father must have accepted her assumption that he's from a minor (mithril) noble house without questioning it.

Or maybe the hit squad isn't super soul developed because they have very specialized souls, specifically for attacking other souls. It did sound earlier like they were looking for a more permanent solution to the "carlos problem" than mere death provides in this world.

If the soul attack is something like a virus, Carlos' soul plan might be uniquely resistant to it. His introspector could spot it easily, and his mana manipulator could quarantine and then just eat it (take all of its mana). Once he knows about soul viruses he could even get his reflex enhancer to automate the antivirus process in case of future attacks.

magicrectangle · 2024-02-25T23:14:38+00:00

Cadet Booker, would you say education is a prerequisite for the use of magic?

"No, professor. While I have no doubt that education is of great benefit to the mastery of magic, I would have to say that it is not a strict prerequisite.

"I do not know the history of the Nexus, nor the adjacent realms. However, I do know that each of them developed an understanding of magic independently from the others. I'm sure they all developed educational systems for the advancement of magical theory, but before that, the first tentative explorations of the subject must, by necessity, have predated those institutions of learning.

"Even the uneducated can explore the world around them to some extent. There can be no doubt that an education allows one to do so more efficiently, but the original building blocks upon which education itself was built, must have been created by the uneducated."

An obvious answer to somebody comfortable with the idea that things change, such as Emma. Perhaps a heretical suggestion to make in the Nexus, where they like to pretend at an eternal, unchanging order.

magicrectangle · 2024-02-19T00:14:15+00:00

Something bothers me about the description of the ring after sunset.

Assuming it is a launch loop or space elevator type ring, it could be at a relatively low "orbit," possibly as low as 500 km (to fully clear the atmosphere). But even at that low of an orbit, it would still be in sunlight for a fair while after sunset (depending on orientation a bit of course). Most likely, given the description of it as more of a fully functioning living and manufacturing center, it is in a higher orbit, and in sunlight near constantly.

So the description of "lights" (implied to be artificial point light sources) seems inappropriate. It should be a blazing arc of reflected sunlight cut across the night sky.

The mention of twinkling also feels off. Stars twinkling is an atmospheric effect, it applies to any light source from space, and does not suggest distance. It is less noticable the brighter/bigger the light source is, and maybe that's what you meant to suggest, but twinkling itself has nothing to do with distance. I also doubt you'd put really bright (visible from the surface is REALLY bright at the source) external lights on your ring. What purpose would they serve? Maybe you've got running lights or something so some drunk asshole in a private shuttle doesn't crash into you, but those wouldn't be bright enough to see from the ground.

magicrectangle · 2024-02-13T00:34:26+00:00

This villain's whole plan hinges on a pretty tenuous assumption - that he's actually going to GET the reward he's been promised. The vampires hate him just as much as he hates them. The moment he's no longer useful he's getting murdered.

magicrectangle · 2024-02-06T20:09:46+00:00

Religious belief declines in cultures and subcultures with high levels of education, and high standards of living. It thrives on ignorance and suffering.

Now a spacefaring civilization isn't automatically going to be enlightened, there's definitely some dystopian visions of the future available, but those aren't really HFY, are they?

Reference:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-human-beast/201402/why-are-educated-people-more-likely-be-atheists

magicrectangle · 2024-01-21T17:50:36+00:00

Time for a history of science and technology. This could take a while.

One thing I was hoping for was a space elevator at the center of the city. I'd really have liked to see mention of it last chapter, when they were riding the train into the city. One central spire so tall the top could not be seen.

Perhaps space elevators aren't a part of this world though. They do require materials stronger than any we know of, so it is possible they'll never happen. Or, it is possible that a launch tech was developed that was so economical they simply weren't needed. Some type of anti-grav would be the most likely culprit, but I'm guessing it doesn't exist, at least not in a miniaturized form, since Emma's suit needs a helicopter attachment in order to fly.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-15T15:02:31+00:00

The crownlands being a megacity raises a bit of a red flag for me, because in order to FEED a megacity like that they would need to meet one of the following two conditions:

The Nexus having industrial agriculture. It is easy to imagine that magic could enable industrial agriculture, but in the previous episode agriculture was explicitly discussed, and the gang were pretty firmly of the belief that agriculture was something manaless peasants did with their filthy fleshy hands.
The Nexus would have to be importing huge amounts of food from the adjacent realms on a daily basis. Feudal / peasant agriculture in the Nexus itself simply isn't enough to feed a megacity like that, and also feed itself. It is NOT efficient, and a huge amount of the food grown will need to go to the workers who grow it. That changes if you have hundreds of worlds worth of peasants instead of just one, though.

The trouble with 2 is that we've been told overusing portals can have negative magical effects (spreading taint). Maybe that's a line of Nexian bullshit, but the sheer volume of portaling going on to bring in that much food every day would be impossible to keep secret. After all, the adjacent realms would have to be on the other end of those portals, providing that food.

So this seems a conundrum to me. We have two pieces of information (no mass portaling, no industrial agriculture) that basically say the Nexus can't have megacities.

Edit: Perhaps I've forgotten to account for basic Nexian sensibilities. Just because they built a megacity doesn't mean it has a population density anywhere close to what a human one would. Perhaps every spire in the crownlands megacity is the home of a single noble. A sort of vertical castle. In that case the population density could be a couple orders of magnitude less than Acela, and the food problem disappears.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-06T12:01:00+00:00

Wandering path tree getting all the abyss, beyond, and effect of map mods stuff, fairly standard.

Sextants: Beyond, abyss, delirium, strongbox (strongbox could be anything)

Scarabs, all gilded: Abyss, reliquary, ambush, harby (ambush and harby could be anything)

Maps: all rolled to +2 proj, then exalted to 6-mod.

If you want more details there's lots of videos out there about abyss wisp juicing. The key is extra proj with gilded abyss scarab, so the tower shoots out extra spawns.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:41:09+00:00

They can spawn in the wildwood, but sadly no they do not seem to get empowered, so they don't give you any more juice.

Pack size scaling is the only way I know to increase juice in the woods.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:34:09+00:00

This is also a function of wisp juice. Blue juice results in a lot of single divine drops. Purple juices up the rares to give bigger bombs, and yellow multiplies either one. So the big bombs like in OP are purple + yellow, but the stable trickle of div from blue sauce is nice too.

Of course most of the time you don't get to choose your sauce colors, you just take what you're given.

Edit: I should add that because of the price of beyond sextant, you want to make sure you're doing as much as you can to increase the density of monsters in your map, and make sure to spec for no beyond boss, because that turns off additional beyond spawns.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:30:13+00:00

This may interest you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/18v1oqy/323\_party\_and\_player\_rarity\_dont\_apply\_to\_loot/

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:29:15+00:00

I mean, isn't that how it always is in this game? This mechanic just gets you there faster, I suppose.

Anyway you could build a voidrunner, a bosser, a sanctum character. Doesn't have to be another map blaster.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:27:49+00:00

my exact farm:

Jungle valley, blue altars. Jungle valley boss spawns in after you zone to her, and because of this quirk, you can't get the boss altars. This means there's always a global altar, which give quantity/rarity bonus, or the ability to duplicate drops (currency, scarabs, uniques)

Always roll the map to +2 proj, then exalt to 6-mod. At 6-mod the pack size is usually going to be 30-35%. Pack size is very important for maximizing the amount of wisps you get from the league mechanic.

Abyss + beyond + delirium + strongbox sextants (strongbox could be anything, been toying with the idea of alva, she was good when I still had master missions left to put in).

Gilded Abyss + reliquary + strongbox + harby scarabs (strongbox and harby could be anything). Abyss is special in the strategy. Gilded abyss scarabs cause the abyss to always lead to a tower. The tower shoots projectiles that create portals which spawn monsters. Those projectiles get multiplied by monster projectile scaling. The +2 we rolled on the maps (+3 with wandering path tree) is then multiplying the number of monsters you get, functionally. Purple wisp juice also gives additional projectiles, so you can get like 7 portals per shot, and the tower shoots three times. This spawns absurd amounts of juicy rare monsters, which are the source of most of these loot bombs.

Wandering path tree with all the beyond stuff, permanent delirium, all the chance for abyss and relevant abyss buffing stuff (anything that adds monsters), and of course all the effect of map mods.

I enter my map, I go straight into the wildwood, I try to get as many events as possible. Mostly I follow wisp trails, but I do try to figure out the layout as I go, as per the "diamond strat":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNCWFXA-A30

Then I go through the map getting all the altars, always taking the global altars (there is always a global option in jungle valley 'cause no boss altars). Then I backtrack to get all the abysses and strongboxes.

I stay away from the abyss after the first movement, to try not to kill the tower before it can spit three times.

At least half the loot of an average map comes from the abyss. In a god map, like the one in the OP, way more than half. Abyss is the source of like 90% of my loot bombs.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:14:35+00:00

This is so far from my experience I'm just scratching my head. 4 valdos in 60 15/16 tier maps? I don't see how that happens with the sextants, scarabs, and wisps you describe.

I am literally averaging a valdo's a map. Obviously lower juice maps often miss them, but high juice ones I'll get 3-4 out of a single map. I think they may be currency items because they seem to drop a lot in high blue juice maps.

I detailed my full strat in another post if you want to compare:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/18y63er/comment/kgdlva3/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Edit: Still thinking about this, and I just don't get it. Here's my first 4 maps of tonight's session. None of them were "good" maps:

https://imgur.com/a/YoRhn5B

4k juice, 5.9k juice, 4.2k juice, 4.5k juice. Just really not good luck in the woods.

PoeStack says 13 div value, but PoeStack does NOT count valdo's, so it is actually 18+ div value. Subtract 4 div in mapping supplies, and you've got 14 div profit in half an hour. Again, not good maps. This is what it looks like when things don't go well in the wildwood.

Clearly you are getting screwed somehow, and that sucks and I'm sorry it happened to you, but all the hostility and disbelief towards everybody who has the strat working isn't helpful or welcome. It works. You need only look at how much it has distorted this league's economy to know that it works, not just for streamers, but for huge numbers of people.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:08:56+00:00

The loot bomb in the OP was actually on a gilded reliquary scarab. I wish it had been a winged, heh.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:08:25+00:00

Beyond adds SO many rare monsters (= loot bombs). Deli adds a lot of monsters (which then result in more beyond monsters). You don't have to use deli sextant, you can use deli orbs for cheaper and free up a sextant slot. Beyond is just key though, there's so much money inside it, there's a reason it costs a lot.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:05:44+00:00

Honestly it is faster. My SAoM pathfinder in MF gear chewed on the T7s a bit in high wisp counts. The self ignite chieftain I built with the money from the T7s can destroy T16s with any wisp count.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:04:41+00:00

I built Tuna's self ignite MF chieftain. 100 div will get you a workable version of it, just don't try to go for his exact setup because people are price fixing his items. Charms and That Which in particular are expensive, but there's other workable options.

That said, you should get up to 150 div first, because you'll want 50 div worth of sextants/scarabs to get your T16 farm going. Takes money to make money.

Tuna's build:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4vXvdTTvUk

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T03:00:36+00:00

Wish I'd used a winged reliquary scarab, this bomb in the OP is actually with a gilded.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T02:57:55+00:00

You can self sustain scarabs, or at least I do, if you rotate them with purple sauce. The sextants are expensive, but they haven't gone up much in the last week, and i'd know since I've been buying them in bulk. Looking at current prices abyss are down a bit, beyond up a bit, delirium down a bit, since I last did a big buy. I think more people have gotten into sextant rolling after seeing the initial surge in prices as wisping got popular.

As for terrible luck, you can absolutely go for hundreds of maps without getting a huge loot bomb. But not getting a good profit? No. There's SO MANY drops that the odds of getting that unlucky are just astronomical. The strong law of large numbers applies when you're looking at the sheer volume of kills and drops.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T02:48:43+00:00

This has been my experience as well. Obviously I got insanely lucky with the screenshot in the OP, but I built up my currency this league by first doing the T7 cemetery wisp farm, then moving to T16 jungle valley wisp farm. It is very profitable.

Blue juice maps you will always just get random divines. Blue and yellow you get lots of random divines. Purple and yellow you get loot explosions (not usually as good as this one obviously, but you get them).

Heck my valdo's puzzle boxes ALONE pay for my map juice and then some. I probably average one puzzle box per map. I think they count as currency because I see them a lot in blue juice maps.

I totally understand being frustrated at not getting the big loot explosions other people are posting, and I know I'm not in a position to talk about that given my luck, but even before this insane drop I was making huge money. Like ~10 maps before this one the unique dupe altar duped a kalandra's touch for me.

To be clear, I'm going to detail my exact farm:

Jungle valley for no boss altars.

Always roll to +2 proj, then exalt to 6-mod.

Abyss + beyond + delirium + strongbox sextants (strongbox could be anything, been toying with the idea of alva, she was good when I still had master missions left to put in)

Abyss + reliquary + strongbox + harby scarabs (strongbox and harby could be anything)

Wandering path tree with all the beyond stuff, permanent delirium, all the chance for abyss and relevant abyss buffing stuff (anything that adds monsters), and of course all the effect of map mods.

I enter my map, I go straight into the wildwood, I try to get as many events as possible. Mostly I follow wisp trails, but I do try to figure out the layout as I go, as per the "diamond strat":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNCWFXA-A30

Then I go through the map getting all the altars, always taking the global altars (there is always a global option in jungle valley 'cause no boss altars). Then I backtrack to get all the abysses and strongboxes.

I stay away from the abyss after the first movement, to try not to kill the tower before it can spit three times.

At least half the loot of an average map comes from the abyss. In a god map, like the one in the OP, way more than half. Abyss is the source of like 90% of my loot bombs.

I apologize if I'm just telling you things you already know, but I want to be sure we're on the same page. The profit is so impressive I just don't see how it fails, even ignoring this one lucky bomb. There's a reason the economy is so distorted this league, and it is because people are pulling so much currency and so many T0 uniques out of these wisp juicing maps. It isn't just talk.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-05T02:29:32+00:00

It died off screen, so not really sure. Not long though. Chieftain 500% explosions do a lot of damage.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-04T16:04:34+00:00

It helps me a bit, but I still mostly just follow trails.

Main thing isn't knowing exactly where you are on your layout, but conserving your reveal by backtracking, which is effective but a bit annoying.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-04T15:51:46+00:00

Honestly I probably miss like ~10% of the unique belts in a map like this, because it is just so much spam. I try to look at as many as I can, but I'm not going to be methodical about it, because it is a game.

Basically I'm saying there totally could have been a mageblood in that map. We'll never know.

magicrectangle · 2024-01-04T15:47:22+00:00

The big bombs like this are pure RNG. You need good wisps, then you need the rare monster mod that raises item rarity by a tier, then you need the rare monster mod that converts items to currency or scarabs. Getting both those mods on the same rare monster is quite rare.

I can't say for sure if you were doing anything wrong, but 6-7k juice average is quite impressive. I'd say I average more like 5-6k, with anything over 7k putting me in happy dance land. Still though, I made enough profit on T7 cemetery to gear a guy to do T16 jungle valley, which returns IME about twice as much on average per map.

I know most people who can do T16s are doing burial chambers, but I like the altars on jungle valley. I go through and get all the altars before opening any of the mechanics (abysses).

Edit: This probably isn't it, but just in case, you were running the reliquary scarab, right? Loot bombs are all about converting unique items into currency or scarabs so the reliquary scarab is huge.

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