Hi Nicky! I just want to start of by saying I am absolutely enthralled by your work (read out everything in 3 days). I downloaded the premium version from Itch (are POVs a separate file? I kept getting errors that they weren't available) and have a lot of questions.
Will we get more early stage content (making pills and talismans, arrays formation, fleshed out mission system to build attributes and get EXP, weapon forging, etc.)? I've come from A Will Eternal, Duolou Dalu, Library of Heavens Path, I Shall Seal The Heavens, Reverend Insanity, Lady Cultivator, Warlock of The Magus World, etc. (all amazing in their own right) so much of my knowledge about xianxia novels comes from these.
The sect content also feels very barebones (no training grounds to go to and build attributes or sharpen instincts, lectures to attend to deepen understanding of the dao and choosing your path, medicine garden to harvest alchemical herbs, doing missions for elders, no cultivation manuals (at least before discovering qi, but from all the novels I've read, aren't sects supposed to have an entry-level training manual that everyone can use until they have the foundation to begin specialising? Otherwise, how do most disciples with no cultivation background learn to manipulate inner energy?), no weapons/bladesmith for inner energy users (I find it hard to believe I'm getting my ass handed to me by regular mortal weapons and not reinforced or spiritual weapons) and what about beast trainers/tamers?
The library too feels like a one-shot since after reading out the original set of books, we never have need to return and much of the lore doesn't come back to help us. It would've been great if our MC could've learnt new skills or arts from the books (ofc with some requiring a certain amount of dao exp to decipher the meaning or cultivation level) or ways to acquire certain physiques or natural boons (a certain plant, pill, secret realms, beast cores, etc.) Is this going to be developed in the future?
In the sect, there doesn't seem to be much incentive to actually cultivate or contribute to the prosperity of the sect (mandatory mission quotas, age limit to approach cultivation level by, earning a certain number of contribution points weekly, attending a certain number of lectures weekly, daily arena battle quotas (win/lose), training schedules, expeditions to ancient ruins and realms, etc.) and few opportunities to be rewarded by the sect (disciple recruitment drives, weekly competitions, advanced training facilities or cultivation chambers, access to the sect's niche resources such as spiritual springs, hunting (cultivators and spiritual beasts), one-off mentorship, expeditions, etc.) My MC has been developing too smoothly and powering through every obstacle with ease despite having fewer talents and a rough start. Is fighting experience equivalent to dao experience in POMA? Otherwise why doesn't everyone fight endlessly? Meditation seems to be used in the post aspect (refining acquired IE or qi from impurities) but not pre (acquiring IE or qi, understanding the great dao, trying different daos and focusing on one and integrating their aspects). So how is inner energy actually acquired and why do they bother meditating?
The captivating beauty talent seems to do nothing even in flavor text. I thought characters would be dumbstruck, love letters and proposals galore, I'd get my own little puppy(ies) that follows me around the way Tang Xue followed Tang Wei but it's barely acknowledged and my character may as well look average. I can't even hypnotise or seduce my opponents with my parallel looks and despite having "otherworldly beauty" these ruffian male disciples treat my MC like a wallflower rather than precious jade. Even the ROs give nothing. No compliments, no courting with plants imbued with special properties or resources or artifacts and magical clothes/items, no dates where my MC could dress hawt as hell and leave everyone drooling.
Speaking of that, where are the brothels for my MC to relieve some stress? The beauties trained in dance and music (outside of that segment with Wu Dong) that will try to assassinate me? The languid beauty who is bound to whoredom unless I pay her way out or kill her captor? Where is the imperial army for me to have a dalliance with a strong general? The royals that spend their days scheming arranged marriages and mixed tea/garden parties to hitch their daughters to strong cultivators from noble clans?
I know the romances will be developed eventually (I really can't tell that Tang Ruo likes my MC when he treats her like his male pal) but the only one giving so far is Lei Xiwen's which was pleasantly surprising! Yue Fang's could potentially be cute, Mo Long as an RO please and Long Chen if he ever returns! I'd like my MC to be able to have affairs that go nowhere (or as subterfuge to kill some powerful cultivator cough almost like I did to Su De) or a long-term FWB arrangement that I can booty call in my mansion with Yue Fang (until Caihong returns).
Will we be able to visit the ROs and other characters in the future? Like looking for our Master to decipher/comprehend manuals or spiritual teachings, developing friendships or making new ones by visiting new places, etc. I wish we had the option to switch sects or betray ours as a double agent. Would be nice to see why the elders started sects. Is it a plot to fatten us up before eating too? :D
I also wish we had the freedom to truly choose our own way. So many choices that do lead to heavy relationship point losses but when the ROs do fucked up shit there aren't consequences from our end (except with Yue Fang so it feels quite balanced) so we have to bear it or risk no relationship. It would be nice to see the characters mature and change too (Duolou Dalu had this very well done compared to the others imo). Saw a sneak peek of it with Ai and Tigress, hope we can get more! Not necessarily positive either, maybe they change for the worst and go rogue, maybe they become like Wu Chao or develop eccentricities like Monkey God.
My biggest peeve so far has been getting blocked with access to the Alchemy Pavillion. This can't be the only one in the world and yet exposing that snake Mei Mei leads to one of the most debilitating handicaps in the game with no warning that this is a possibility. At that point I should be able to start refining my own drugs and selling the excess on the blackmarket for unique resources. I haven't had much use for gold in the game since there are so few things to purchase with it. Will the artifacts in the shops be expanded (maybe with a secret section for big spenders or loyal customers or if you have a good relationship with the proprietor/proprietress)? I want to fly like the noble I am! Tang Ruo can't be the only one looking like a true immortal (also now that I think about it, why don't we all have flying swords? Seems most disciples would logically choose this over walking and since a lot are noble, I find it hard to believe that they would choose this suffering willingly).
I want to be able to dye my hair or get questionable hairstyles and have people react to it dammit! Why are all the elders in the sect so old and fugly? Doesn't advancement in your cultivation refine your features and make you beautiful by default or not in POMA? Would love to enact a little master and me angst if they were cute.
I really hate that my MC doesn't learn to record that heifer Mei Mei after getting tricked by her like twice. Let me pummel her to death please! I even tried to salvage our relationship and she tried to bomb me alive and experiment on me! She doesn't want to be saved from her serpentine ways :(
I am SO sorry for the length of this! I'm bummed I finished the game so quickly. I always wondered, in a world where might rules and morality shapeshifts, why are there no options or events involving robberies of places where highly desirable goods are centralised? I'd also expect to see proper slavery (a market for slaves and buyers, a slave auction perhaps, depraved nobles that eat off of their slaves and treat them like true property, etc.) I want to struggle to actually like/loathe my own club! Likewise for the peasants. No criminal syndicates, trafficking rings or slave farms in a world where we are being convinced is made miserable by the noble/commoner system? I want to see human greed on both sides and legitimately struggle to support either.
Anyways thank you for this awesome piece of work! Your writing is incredible and I hope that you're pacing yourself to not develop writer's block and still enjoy the world you birthed. <3 Looking forward to playing again in 6 months time!
There will be a lot of new stuff added after the tourney ('main story') is complete. While I wont promise pill/talisman makings and Wu Heir participating in crafting in general, there will absolutely be more sect content and more paths with the characters so that low relationship points with them dont just writr them out of the story. I just cant write them all at once - if I did, the story would never finish lmao
