Manual Pavilion, Agency Inspiration, and Balance

[Teellox]

Hey fellow sect leaders,

I'm still relatively new to ACS with only [checks notes] 130 hours of playtime, and there are two aspects of gameplay that have always felt unbalanced to me. I'm sharing this partially to get it off my chest, but also to see if anyone else has elements of gameplay that seem mismatched.

My suggested gameplay changes below aren't suggestions to the developers, but to you as an individual if you want to follow my cultivation style as a self-enforced rule. Note that these changes make the game much more difficult, but at least for me they also make it more enjoyable.

Manual Pavilion

Being able to transcribe whole laws into the Manual Pavilion feels tremendously unbalancing. Each law has its own skill-tree, which would give it a unique feel and progression, except with the pavilion one can just pick-and-choose first-tier skills from any law, reducing the uniqueness of each law in the process.

Without being able to transcribe whole laws, each style of Xiandao cultivation now really does feel different, and more-or-less matches what the in-game description says. Learning new skills from the skill tree feels like a much bigger achievement, because those can be transcribed or taught to others. Manuals become more valuable, as they permit cross-training earlier than might be available otherwise. Developing your sect is now more about careful consideration, and having cultivators of each law is now much more valuable for the knowledge they can share.

Suggested gameplay change: Only 'transcribe own knowledge' is permitted at the manual pavilion.

Agency Inspiration

Agencies collect followers who produce belief. This is the core of Shendao cultivation, and it makes thematic sense that with enough belief one can form a divine realm and ascend.

It doesn't make sense for Xiandao cultivators. Having supportive friends is great, but replacing years of dedicated practice and meditation with some villagers proclaiming "I believe in you!" doesn't fit with the Xiandao theme for me.

What's more, if Xiandao cultivators could not collect belief, then a huge number of other in-game systems suddenly make sense. Eureka pills truly justify their difficulty in crafting. There's a reason to have the 'practice' mode set on cultivators. Taking the Secret Methods of the Specter pills (anguish pills, soulrend pills, etc) becomes an option. Soul-snatching as a quick way to gain inspiration can make sense.

Suggested gameplay change: Xiandao cultivators are not allowed to collect belief as inspiration.

History

Having only recently stumbled on ACS, I'm not familiar if these mechanics were different in the past, but I'd love to know if they were.

Happy cultivating!

~ T

[Darth Nocturnis]

Re: Manual Pavilion
I think reverting it back to your suggestion is a bit too far. Perhaps don't allow the Manual Pavilion to teach without prerequisites, as it currently does, but not to restrict it to that extent. Part of that is because of how challenging the game can become when you're on Immortal in the higher difficulties. It makes some of them cross the line from "nearly impossible" to "not even fun impossible."
That being said, there are still aspects of certain traits which can only be learned within a law. So even in its current state, I don't think the pavilion takes away the uniqueness of each law.

Re: Agency Inspiration
Numbers can probably be changed so that Xiandao cultivators do not benefit as much, but I don't think entire removal is necessary. Even what I just presented I think is a generous compromise. If you think about it culturally and socially, "belief" is a broad understanding and Xiandao cultivators progress through "inspiration." With careful thought, they can be interchangeable and it's reasonable for them to be.
I would also do some consideration into the resources necessary to build up the agencies to the point where the beliefs are regularly practical. Once you have a handful of PS cultivators, the inspiration is paltry.

As a final product, I think the game and the mechanics are fine as they are.

[Hasazin]

I can only say that you being new is why you think it is unbalanced as there are many things that become impossible with out the base games functionality of the Manual Pavilion and Agencies.
Understand that the Manual Pavilion has limits when it comes to what can be transcribe and what can be learned (you are limited to the first tier of a skill from other cultivation paths and a limited amount of unorthodox manuals). There are increased cost to learn from paths that conflict with your own and that in turn further increases future cost for everything else.

Agencies and the inspiration that can be gained from them function to help advanced cultivator learn with out IRL days of meditation. This is limited by the fact that only one cultivator can draw from an agency before you need to wait for more inspiration to build up again.
Understand that a properly established sect has a dozen or more cultivator who all need millions (or 10's of millions) of inspiration in order to become useful (end game this goes well above the 100's of millions).

The end game after you solve the story is really only min-maxing/conquest.
Self imposed rule are fine but the root of your post seems to be in you miss understanding the systems and why they function that way.

Please know that I am not attacking you. I am just trying to clarify what you seem to not have enough experience in to fully understand. There is also a fair bit more about these two systems that could also be talked about but I left out for brevity. Hope you continue to enjoy the game.

[⎛⎝Tiùwilo⎠⎞]

Are you saying it is too easy? Have you killed all the bosses and sects with those "unbalanced" boons in place already and feel like there's not enough of a challenge?

Qi-bursting your hell-gate-fuelled, pre GC sun pill golden core breakthroughs to 500k+ is overkill, but taking some real life time off the inspiration grind seems like a mercy to the average player.