Let me pick your Brain! - Part 2

Very good points! The System does indeed effect certain flora and fauna, but to a lesser degree than sapient beings and only in integrated parts of the galaxy (aka. not Human space)

LunaWolve

I really like to discover new worlds and there mechanics, so these learning chapters don't feel boring to me. That said, you need practice to really integrate the knowledge and feel the extent of your new capabilities. It would prevent these chapters from being boring to people who don't share my taste. Learning by doing is a method militaries around the world are quite fond of. I'm really curious if the System affect other things than people in the galaxy. Would it transform some fauna and flora ? Maybe more interesting weather and terrain ? It seems the mention of tier 3 materials would hint at other changes than sapients ! That would offer more challenge for the creation of the ultimate warrior. It would skirt the line between sci-fi and fantasy, but you can explain it with science (fiction) !

SecondBlahm

Very cool concept!

LunaWolve

Maybe something Valhalla-like? Every factions' dead heroes end up on Terra fighting or joining The Emperor's Guard. There are many directions to take the base concept.

Aguy768

:FingerPointingAtHeadMeme: Now that, my dear Critical, is a good question.

LunaWolve

Critical makes a good point. I suppose its possible for there to be something that exists outside of observable, natural laws (especially in a reality where you know a "soul" of some sort exists). However my instincts (again, very biased by my field of study) are that everything in existence follows natural laws that can be understood and eventually replicated. Throughout the past there were plenty of things that seemed like they worked outside of observable reality and natural laws (such as electricity and magnetism) that we eventually found a way to observe, understand, and manipulate. The fact that the system (and some UHF technology such as rez pods) interact with the soul makes me think it is just another part of observable reality and thus can be studied, understood, and manipulated eventually. Very interested to see where Lunawolve decides to take the story and if Thea will ever interact with these very philosophical ideas.

Trasen56

All very good points! Thanks a ton to both of you for super fun and interesting questions! This is the kind of stuff that makes writing an absolute joy, so seriously, thank you! --- Thea will definitely be doing SOMETHING with technology going forward. ;)

LunaWolve

If Terra is a neutral faction who are they going to war with in order to get their people's levels up to not become irrelevant?

Critical Hit

The Allbright System itself would make living in a simulation seem possible I'd think. Though its apparent monopoly on interacting with the Soul could also be part of how it does some of the things they haven't been able to replicate yet. Though the ability to notice Focus use at all certainly suggests that time and funding will eventually lead to manipulating Focus mechanically. Potentially allowing for system abilities that use it to be done with a machine instead. Of course, the Allbright System might classify that tech as like tier 4+ thus making it near impossible to use for the vast majority of people.

Critical Hit

The Emperor does indeed exist and he has indeed not really taken part in anything for a LONG time. We'll get to the galactic politics (in their respective lecture) soon, but the general gist is this: Terra is not a faction in the war, like the others. They're a neutral faction at the center of the galaxy, with the other factions being flayed out around the Terran Star Sector, like a giant pizza with Terra at the center and the factions being a slice. Terra holds conferences and major get-togethers every X years, to get a bead on the overall situation of the war, inviting all factions to partake. So any new tech advances, etc. Terra generally has access to, as a neutral party. They also give out stipends, for very promising tech or research advancements, so it's in each faction's best interest to fully reveal their research/tech and to not risk working behind Terra's back on things they aren't supposed to.

LunaWolve

Just saying, if its not possible at all then that has ridiculous implications for the laws that govern the universe and I think it would be safe for a philosopher of said universe to say that he lives in a simulation or some other constructed reality (which he does, but I don't think we want him to be thinking that) But then I study physics so maybe I'm biased on the importance of being able to use technology to replicate natural phenomena.

Trasen56

Definitely seems like the kind of thing Thea will want to look into. Well, alongside every other bit of Tech ever. Kinda looking forward to her getting her hands on the manuals for her weapons and attempting to make adjustments. She definitely seems like she's got the mindset for one of those Tech builds mentioned above.

Critical Hit

So the Emperor actually exists? Is he like the 40k Emperor where he's not been an active participant of the Empire in like forever? Because I've definitely been getting 40k vibes from this Emperor. Also... how would Terra ever find out? Unless you can fake which Faction you are part of?

Critical Hit

To answer Thomas' question: I will only speak of the UHF's knowledge, so 'not possible with current tech', would be correct. Whether it's possible at all, I'll leave open for now ;)

LunaWolve

They have not been able to find a way to sense Psychic stuff or found an easy solution for Focus yet. Research on the topic of Psychic powers is fairly difficult for a variety of reasons, however, so it's unlikely that a major breakthrough will be found soon. Focus on the other hand has a couple of 'somewhat' solutions in terms of detecting its usage. Those are generall massive machines that can only realistically be used in large battlefield however, rather than hand-scanner sized things.

LunaWolve

The technology is insanely advanced in certain areas, while other areas are woefully underdeveloped. There's a certain reason for that, that will play a major part in the story going forward, so I can't reveal too much. That said, there's also a major disincentive towards researching and developing technology towards certain areas. That disincentive being the Emperor himself. He forbade certain branches from being researched, developed or advanced, such as sentient AI, certain genetic modifications etc. So unless a faction wants to incur the wrath of Terra itself, they're better off staying away from those parts.

LunaWolve

I'm also curiouse about this qoute. Is it not possible with current technology or not possible at all?

Trasen56

"While it's not possible to replicate some of the more supernatural Abilities that the System provides, certain others can definitely be approximated." Have they been able to find a way to sense psychic stuff as of yet? Seems like finding a way to detect the use of such would be a pretty big deal. Or to be able to sense the movement of Focus? Without actually involving a person directly?

Critical Hit

So, the computer tech of this time period seems, absolutely absurdly advanced compared to current tech. Is there a reason the UHF hasn't just like... completely read the human genome and developed a retro-virus to change the genetics of their recruits to be better?

Critical Hit

Individual vs ability to lead: It's unclear. Since nobody has reached the "end" of the System, so to speak, there's been no real ceiling to compare the two against each other. Some leaders manage to have extremely rapid growth inside the System, while others are extremely slow. Some individual fighters can have stupidly fast growth, while others don't. It is clear that the System DOES value individual fighting strength more highly than 'traditional' armies would, however. As you mentioned, being a skilled tactician/strategist was generally more preferred than being a great fighter, but this is not the case for the System. It is generally asssumed that the System values both aspects equally, but on their own scales. It would be impossible to take someone like Lt. Frost and compare her directly to someone like Captain Sable, as there would be no universal scale to measure them against. --- I have indeed thought quite a lot about tech! Tech is a massive part of the Allbright System, if you choose to focus on it. There's entire class and build archetypes exclusively focused on technology! The System encourages tech vs natural performance in a very pragmatic way. If a certain tech ends up being an objective upgrade, the System will value that one higher than natural performance. Being an 'objective' upgrade is quite hard, however. As tech, at the very minimum, usually has the downside of lacking natural regeneration, are suspicable to potential hacking attacks or EMCs, etc. So there's a large gradient there as to what the System would consider "worthwhile", so to speak. It mostly comes down to personal preference, although some classes benefit VASTLY more from one or the other. You can indeed emulate certain Abilities via tech! This is actually what an entire branch of the UHF's research department is focused on. Whenever a new Ability is found that seems it could be replicated in some fashion, the research department will try their best to do so. While it's not possible to replicate some of the more supernatural Abilities that the System provides, certain others can definitely be approximated. For example, there exists a certain cybernetic muscle replacement, that can temporarily boost the users muscles (both speed an strength), similar to how one of the iron rarity Active-Abilities of the System work. You can also combine those, but you'd likely end up with some severe repercussions considering the multiplicative nature of the increases. It would not be surprising to see the cybernetic replacements simply evaporate from the stress.

LunaWolve

Also interested in this. As it uses Warrior, instead of general suggesting the leadership should at least not be the majority of the PV but maybe it is?

Critical Hit

Also have you thought about how sci fi tech might change what makes a good soldier? How much does the system encourage using tech vs natural performance? What about cybernetics? Can you replace your limbs with them to gain strength? Can you use tech to emulate skills? For instance the "wall hacks" mentioned would be fairly simple to replicate to a large degree with proper eye replacements or even just eyewear.

Trasen56

How does the system rate individual performance vs ability to lead/fight with a group. Historically being a skilled tactician has had a much larger impact tban being a skilled fighter.

Trasen56

The System prefers a solid mix of the two. You'll find that your overall speed of growth slows down drastically, when you only focus on one side or the other.

LunaWolve

On this note: What makes a good soldier has changed with times as certain constraints changed: Spartans primarily trained to be well conditioned and flexible but also had a large focus on being able to maintain the same performance regardless of things like starvation, so they likely didn't actually do much strength training. This was because ancient wars had more unpredictable (and targetable) supply trains, so an army that could still fight with very limited supplies was important. I think (no actual experience irl, we need Kyfe to weigh in) modern armies focus on conditioning and strength as they can pretty much garuntee their soldiers will be well fed. While its obvious that conditioning is important for any soldier, does the UHF know how the system prioritizes strength (energy innefecient but better in direct battle) vs hardiness (energy effecient but worse in direct battle)

Trasen56

More fantastic questions! Attributes converge towards the same end-point at the low and top-end of the spectrum. You're physically incapable of advancing past a certain stage, without 'fixing' the rest, so to speak. In your example, you'd reach a ceiling, say around 350kg squat (just an example), at which point you physically are incapable of advancing further (outside of technique improvements). You'd then have to focus on your squat (again, just an example, it's not that simple) to 'unlock' the next Tier of Attributes, so to speak. The float would be measured in a percentage based way, by comparing the "total" of what you should be able to achieve by the point you are a 4, with what you are currently capable of. As such it is very hard to exactly measure something like fast vs slow, as the difference between the two would be small enough to be hard to track, yet significant enough to be required for the full total. The UHF has a general idea of what excercises can get you from point A to point B the fastest, but doesn't know how or why EXACTLY those work the best. There's assumptions based on slow/fast twitch strength, reps, etc. but since muscles are extremely complicated and inter-connected and it's nearly impossible to train only a particular single type at a time, jury is still out on the specifics.

LunaWolve

How does the system measure the float? Example: I have a 300 kg squat but only 120 kg press. My friend has a 250 kg squat but a 150 kg press. We should overall be around the same progress from 2 str to 3 str (using previous examples baselines) but we aren't capable of the same feats. Does the system rank certain aspects of strength higher (e.g. squat is more important than press => I'm a 2.91 and my friend is a 2.93)? If so has the UHF figured out what the system prioritizes? This would essentially tell them which aspects of strength the system thinkg are most important to becoming a good warrior (fast twitch strength vs slow twitch strength, more reps vs more weight, etc)

Trasen56

Please refrain from spoiling my entire storyline, Thomas! >:(

LunaWolve

Great thoughts! This is already in the System, although not explained/revealed yet. Once Thea invests some of her points, it'll become more apparent. Attribute stats aren't integers, but doubles - to use a couple programming terms. While they all appear as integers on the screen at the moment, due to the fact that the Participants early on have no reason to believe otherwise and the System follows their interpretations as much as possible, this will change once percentage increases come into play. Having a 10% increase on a 3, would be non-existant, so once a Participants invests in a stat, they'll quickly realise that "hey, wait a minute. This should still give me bonuses, no?", which will prompt the System to change it's integer-based display into a double one. As such, there can be a fairly massive difference between a 3.00 and a 3.99, as well as more gradual gains from training, just as you described! That said, a 3.99 will still be exactly at the same point as another 3.99 in terms of capabilities, so that aspect remains the same.

LunaWolve

Obv its making the ultimate warrior to do what 1 trillion lions could not; fight the sun!

Trasen56

That is pretty much correct! The stats after integration are roughly proportional to the stats you had before, with a massive increase. Some additional things go into this, such as your System aptitude, the general evaluation of the System for your potential future paths, etc. but the main factor is "stats before". The Allbright System is trying to create the ultimate warrior for some purpose. So it buffs up it's respective Participants, in order to lay the groundwork for future enhancements, to get them to that final stage.

LunaWolve

I'm curious about your thoughts in making the choice to have stats be fully discrete vs baselines. To me it would seem more "realistic" if stats represented the minimum every person with that number of points could do, but not the maximum. Simple example: Someone with 2 strength can always squat 200 kgs, but if you continue to train you might be able to squat 390 kgs while still being a 2 in strength. Only if you manage to train all your baselines above the next threshold you gain a stat point. So if the str baseline for 3 is like 6x300 kg squat, 6x150 kg chest press... then only when you meet all those baselines would you have 3 str. To me this seems like it would give a more tangible reason to train as well as allow for more variation in the skills of each soldier. Curious to hear your thoughts.

Trasen56

So how do stats before getting the System effect Stats after? Like Humanity's best strongman, would he have that 2.5 before the System and like... 6 after? Just, its weird for the System to give everyone stats better than any normal human just for joining which is what the average marine being at 3 seems to suggest.

Critical Hit

Oh god, that sounds terrifying indeed! All good, you're safe here! xD

LunaWolve

Well, I'm always panicked my dyslexia might might my comments come off assholely. Damage control after realising you dropped a phrase or subject is horrific. It has happened before in my professional e-mails. Really doesn't help the anxiety issues. :p

Aguy768

Both are indeed very painful. Vitality involves a LOT of physical stress on the body (injuries, primarily), while maintaining peak performance (great diet, fantastic physical excercise etc.) Recovery is somewhat a sub-set of that, as your natural healing ability is determined by it. You'd also want to absolutely empty out your Focus and Stamina tanks (as it also has an impact on their recovery speed). Neither are generally trained on purpose, as the amount of effort, pain and time involved is simply too high. In the case of Recovery, there's also a very real possibility you mess up and straight up kill yourself (Trying to keep Focus/Stamina at next to 0 at all times).

LunaWolve

How do you train Vitality or Recovery then? Some guesses Vitality - Eat more, do more, high vitality folks generally just have more body to take more damage, improved cardio Recovery - Similar to above to a degree, maybe actually having to recover from wounds?

Critical Hit

Theoretically, yes. Practically, no. Stats such as Psychic, Focus, Stamina or Resolve are exceptionally difficult to 'train', in the traditional sense, so it's not really a thing.

LunaWolve

Can you train all the stats?

Critical Hit

Very astute feedback! You'll be happy to hear that Chapter 13 (releasing later today here on Patreon) will be the end of the current lecture, which is directly followed by a practical class, which will include quite some action! Never worry about being harsh with your criticism! Better get it out there any way you can than bottle it up cause you can't find a way to be nice about it. I've been a content creator for years before I started writing, so my skin is pretty thick for these things! ;) As long as you're not being an asshole about it, I won't feel annoyed, I promise!

LunaWolve

I find the passage clear and natural, but I've been worried about the overall length of this whole section filled with presentations and lectures. There's a bunch of 'revelation' followed by 'Thea reacts to revelation' paragraphs. None are bad but grouped together they can bog down the pace and balloon the word count. This is a difficult thing for serials as novels spend a lot of time editing to tighten these type of sections. I think you've done a good job breaking things up so far; just be aware getting to an action arc should be a priority soon. With 2-3 chapters a week, RR readers will already be weeks before getting to this point. I hope this came across as a gentle worry and not harsh criticism. It's been excellent, Keep up the good work.

Aguy768

Great questions! The benefit of physical training is manifold: - Initially, it can increase your 'base' Attribute, depending on the initial level. If you start with a 2 or 3, you might be able to get 1-2 points by rigurous training. If you're already at a 4 or 5, it's unlikely that there will be major gains. These gains would be applied to the 'base', not the 'distributed' stat points. So those gains are extremely huge, if you can manage to set enough time and effort aside to get them. - Furthermore, continued excercise is required to keep your System enhancements active. You will notice that Old Man James, despite it being hinted that he might have been a General-ranked Marines in the UHF, was not overly physically impressive. This is because his System enhancements degraded over time, due to the lack of continued maintenance. - System enhancements can be regained through training as well, so it's not like being knocked out of comission for a while will irreperably damage your foundations forever. Some good ol' physical therapy will do wonders in re-energizing those enhancements.

LunaWolve

What benefit can physical training give you? Iirc the professor said that stat values are absolute, what one perspn woth 5 strength can do, any other can do as well. In that case does physical training increase your stength stat value? If so does it increase your base value or the value of "distributed" stats points? If not why is there so much space and time dedicated to physical training on the ship? Do you need to keep training in order to maintain your physical stats?

Trasen56

This is correct. Rarities are exclusive from one another

LunaWolve

I'm pretty sure the rankings go Copper, Iron, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Palladium, Crysium, Exium, and Galactium, If something is copper it can't also be Palladium. So your question above about Thea's silver ability having a second rating should be a no.

Critical Hit

That is correct! The highest rarity starting Ability the UHF has ever seen on a newly integrated Marine was of Gold rarity, rather than Silver.

LunaWolve

Does this imply that it was/is possible for a brand new marine to receive not a Silver ability but a Gold one during initialization? I like your using Gold as the example but if you used Silver it would allow for further speculation/insight into the actual rarity of their squad based on the size of the class (although showing that number later on would work as well)

Jon

Aah interesting. Sounds fascinating then.

The Lost Pages

This assumption is actually correct. You're not really missing anything there. Base Rarity is like a gacha, pure random chance. True Rarity is a limited availability with a maximum number of copies available.

LunaWolve

The next chapter is the last one before some action!

LunaWolve

Working on the discord soon!

LunaWolve

please make a discord also you got me to read digital marine I was put off of it from the picture it has but God it's so good I'm on chappie 18 of it already I'm gonna cry when I get to what it's at atm since they haven't uploaded in 16 months also good passage reads nice to me

Isley

This passage feels solid. One small comment: I don't know exactly what you have planned, but you should try to get Thea into an exercise soon because if we keep going from class to class without it broken up by some action or drills its going to feel like a serious info dump slog. I love the true rarity system though. Even if it feels a little at odds with the Systems stated mission of creating the Ultimate Warrior I think its a good mechanic.

Another thing that is now further confusing me is Thea's own abilities. They were evaluated at Silver rank. Wouldn't they have another ranking such as Palladium? Why would the military not use that in the first place? 0verall I feel like I am missing something. Stripping away the context I would have just assumed that the base raroty abilities were powers more easily earned / obtained. Whereas the true rarities are more powerful but less frequently available / earnable. And any rarity ability with a number attached to it further restricts that ability to a maximum number. But that is missing something I am sure.

The Lost Pages

I wonder if this is needlessly complicated. From what I inderstand there are two distinct rarities. One is like the rarity of getting said item in a Gatcha type roulette. The other is how powerful the ability is. Did I get that right?

The Lost Pages

Definitely will be doing that with a lot of the stuff in the future! There'll only be 3 main lectures done in this style (although this one is by far the longest. The others will be 2 chapters at most), while pretty much everything else will be done verbatim or in flashbacks/memories.

LunaWolve

Alright, thank you for indulging my curiosity! I've gotta say I'm enjoying your novel immensely so far and am looking forward to where it goes. Something in regards to pace: I'd be willing to go along with this pace for a long while and experience lots of world building but still I find myself yearning for some more individual progress. I know that building a world is great and I'm really enjoying it but try to give our MC some time to define herself and kind of alternate or integrate it with the introduction to the world. Remember, we're not actually taking the lectures and living in that universe. Giving us information by just telling the whole lecture isn't really in great style. You might want to do some of it in flashbacks during different scenes or even just have people talk about the lecture instead of writing it down verbatim.

Leon Heinicke

Absolutely no problem! Questions are exactly what I want from this, otherwise I wouldn't ask for feedback, ha! :D Theoretically, yes. They should get a rough idea, but the problem has more layers than simply looking at a counter: - The UHF has not existed since the initial start of the galactic integration, so record-keeping "from the start" is impossible for them. - The Allbright System continously creates new Abilities, and doesn't simply "fill up" old ones, just for the sake of filling them up. So unless Participants are purposefully going for a certain true rarity Ability, their numbers might increase extremely rarely, even across billions or trillions of Participants. - The counter does not have a live update, but rather updates once a year (galactic integration day), so it takes a very long time to draw proper conclusions. The UHF has tried deducing these things before and has concluded that they're likely to be System-wide limits. This isn't a guarantee however, as they're working with very incomplete information.

LunaWolve

Alright, that most certainly explains it. But they should have still gotten an impression in that regard at the very beginning, shouldn't they? Did the counter for those truly rare abilities start at a very low value for UHF marines? If so, either the integration happened at the same time across all/most of those affected by the system or it's a counter limited to humanity. If it didn't start low, it can't be limited to humanity. I don't mean to be pedantic, so I apologize if it comes across that way, I just really like drawing logical conclusions :3

Leon Heinicke

Other factions in Humanity, yes.

LunaWolve

By factions, are you talking of other factions within humanity (in that case I was a less attentive reader than I hoped to be) or factions the UHF is cut off from by the system?

Leon Heinicke

It's unclear, as the UHF has no way to actually confirm whether or not it's Humanity-only. There's no real communication between the Factions, that the UHF has access to, so it's not like they can simply figure it out. So the general assumption of the UHF is that it's System-wide, which is why it's written the way that it is. Hope that clears some stuff up!

LunaWolve

One question that immediately came to mind was regarding the true rarities. Is the limit a limit for humanity or the system as a whole? It reads as being a rarity for the system in total. That would be kind of antithetical to the purpose of the whole isolation though, as humanity could infer a lot of information from the number of humans with this ability: How widely spread is the ability as a whole? What percentage of it all does humanity have in said ability? How fast is the growth in people with this ability compared to the general closing of slots? How focused on certain areas is humanity compared to the general average. ... So I suppose the limit is actually a limit to the distribution of said ability among humanity. If I was able to deduce that much, in a few minutes, humanities scholars should have figured out at least as much and I'd expect the explanation to the explicitly include, whether or not the rarity of the ability is purely in regards to humanity.

Leon Heinicke