committed skills not having a viable evolve option

[momper]

So, after getting increasingly frustrated of many of my committed skills/wisdom combinations seemingly not having a viable evolve-option I've decided to run a full-blown analysis (using the game data).

The results kind of surprised me: almost one quarter of the combinations does not seem to have a viable evolve option (so no workstation which will accept both the skill and the soul). A few of them (i.e. Hill & Hollow) don’t have any viable options of both wisdoms...

Did I miss any interactions?

Interested to hear if you out there consider is part of the challenge? Because for me it mostly created frustration. I haven’t completed the game yet - so I’m not sure if it becomes a non-issue later- but it seems hard to recover if you bricked a lot of commitments that way early…

[citablekettle]

In your analysis, how many skills have 2/1/0 evolve-enabled possible attunements?

[Pandorian]

It's a non-issue. You can beat the game with just a basic soul card, anything higher is just speedups in tiny spots.

For most books just being able to hit 10 aspect is good enough to unlock most of what you want to do.

On assistants that extra 1-3 is just 30 seconds off the talk when you're not giving them an item. It's not going to break open rooms that weren't already in range.

Then there is the fact that every evolved soul is one less action you have available during the day. You'll find most of your time near the end is occupied by getting enough souls to upgrade your skill to 8/9 which means you need a lot of actions to fetch those memories.

Overall upgrading souls is a niche system to help those who struggle with the other aspects of the game but is completely not needed once you have a grasp of those other aspects.

[momper]

not fully sure what you mean by 2/1/0: Do you want to know how many skills can be successfully evolved on both wisdom-options, on one wisdom option or on none?

[Psyringe]

You did not miss anything, you're just (in my opinion) wasting time with worrying unnecessarily over things that do not matter. The analysis has been done and has been discussed before.

Evolving soul cards is completely optional. Every victory condition can be achieved comfortably without even evolving a single card. Evolving soul cards gives you +3 to the respective aspect in the best case compared to the basic card (and that comes at the cost of losing 7 basic soul cards and isn't worth it in my opinion, getting a ++ card and keeping 4 basic ones is much more useful). Almost everything else scales higher when it comes to unlocking rooms and mastering books: you can get +6 from memories, +8 from leveling up skills, +6 from crafting tools, +6 from crafting beverages, +4 from crafting food, +7 from inks ... you can easily reach aspect values of 20 and more without evolving a single card, and you don't need more than 16 for unlocking rooms, or more than 18 for reading books (except for one book, which also doesn't pose an insurmountable hurdle).

For some reason, some people don't seem to trust the message that tells them right at the start that "this is not a punishing game", and worry way too much about things that only matter when you suffer from FOMO or from compulsive min/maxing - both of which tend to be detrimental to enjoying this game and are best dropped.

The mistake that is usually made, is overestimating the importance of soul card evolutions, and underestimating the huge amount of options that crafting items and re-reading books gives you.

[Jewel]

You'll be fine. There may be brief stints where you regret not having an evolved card, but if you explore what you can craft and pay attention to what the Assistants accept (for example, Reverend Timothy can accept a Candle, I believe, while others do not), you can make up for the small deficit. I appreciated having a couple of the + level cards, but I never felt the need to go for ++ and in fact preferred having two cards and thus more actions in my day.

I think the Wisdoms and related mechanics currently present themselves as being more important to the game than they are. As long as you've gotten at least one of every soul element, you can relax about the Wisdoms. Also, remember that since Evolve is combining cards, you should have more skills attuned to any given soul element than instances where you actually need to evolve.

[Rakasha]

Originally posted by Psyringe:

wasting time with worrying unnecessarily over things that do not matter.

Generally speaking, not just in the game...

[Exxenmann]

I understand everything said here.

But how do you guys think I should choose which skill to commit where - from now on - knowing that - but not knowing all ultimately available workstations?
(I kind of suspected it will be like that...)

Random?
Yeah common why don t we play poker with random cards?
Or Puzzle with random tiles where some don t fit...
Why?

[citablekettle]

Originally posted by momper:

not fully sure what you mean by 2/1/0: Do you want to know how many skills can be successfully evolved on both wisdom-options, on one wisdom option or on none?

Yes. This would give some impression on how important it is to intentionally put skills in appropriate wisdoms. Even without effort, some necessarily end up there no matter the choice, and some end up there by chance, but for this impression it matters how many there are in each category.

[citablekettle]

Originally posted by Pandorian:

For most books just being able to hit 10 aspect is good enough to unlock most of what you want to do.

What the game wants you to do. There is a difference, occasionally a dramatic one.

[citablekettle]

Originally posted by Psyringe:

You did not miss anything, you're just (in my opinion) wasting time with worrying unnecessarily over things that do not matter.

That's the best part of many games!

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by Exxenmann:

I understand everything said here.

But how do you guys think I should choose which skill to commit where - from now on - knowing that - but not knowing all ultimately available workstations?

Do whatever feels best in the circumstances that you're in at the time.

Again, why worry about potential future limitations that do not matter?

You'll probably make some assignments that work really well, and some that don't, but even if you do the mathematically "worst" assignments possible throughout the entire game, you'll still be able to achieve a major victory. So why worry?

[Jewel]

I suppose if you're looking for some strategies without knowing what's ahead, I'd just be thinking about where that extra aspect boost might be needed most based on what resources you tend to have. For example, when reading books, you generally apply a Skill + Memory + Tool / Ink. Well, some aspects have tools readily available around the house. Others have Tools / Inks you could possibly craft on demand, depending on which skills you have. Some, like Sky, have very powerful memories that show up with the weather, while others have powerful memories you may be able to make for yourself. But if there's one that you have a dearth of resources for, that might be the Soul that you'll really want that + or ++ card for.

I would also perhaps prefer picking cases where the Skill and Soul card share an aspect. I think there's a better chance of finding a station that accepts both of them that way, although I think you're right about Hill & Hollow, which seems like it must be some kind of oversight on the dev's part. I may have missed a station, though.

Personally, I honestly just went with the flavor text. My character wanted Illumination, I personally liked the theme of Nyctodromy, so I generally chose those two when available, or otherwise went by the little variations in the lore blurbs (If you haven't noticed, the text is slightly different based on which Wisdom you commit it to).

[momper]

I actually enjoyed running that analysis so i don't consider it wasted time.

Regarding the skills:

out of the 73 skills (including language) you can acquire; 3 have no evolve options, 25 have one and for the 45 remaining ones both options work...

[citablekettle]

Originally posted by Psyringe:

you'll still be able to achieve a major victory. So why worry?

Why worry about being able to achieve a major victory? The choice of things to worry about is personal preference, well-fed norms that exert social pressure on it make remaining yourself less comfortable.

[citablekettle]

Originally posted by momper:

Regarding the skills:

out of the 73 skills (including language) you can acquire; 3 have no evolve options, 25 have one and for the 45 remaining ones both options work...

Thanks!