Does Not Obey the Laws of Physics

So, was out of town visiting a friend for two weeks. Haven't been able to check in with DW due to only having a phone and trying to type on phone browser is...less than ideal. Over the course of the two weeks, ended up binging on the third season of 《唐诡》(aka Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty), a semi-fantastical mystery drama set in, you guessed it, the Tang Dynasty.

Firstly, I genuinely enjoyed Season 1. Is it something I'd recommend? Eh... only in the context of current period dramas are shit and this one is semi-passable and uses decent grammar that doesn't feel "too modern" all the time. The mysteries are somewhat entertaining and despite the semi-fantastical setting (there is a heavy reliance on "weirdness" that isn't always explainable), the show definitively states ghosts are not real, which is kind of important in a good mystery. But also animals don't work like that, but whatever, I've given up hope when it comes to accurate portrayal of animal behavior in fiction. 😓

Secondly, despite my enjoyment, the show is not without problems and there are very, very many cringe moments. Yet, because it's directed at a domestic audience and unapologetically Chinese, I just keep giving the show a pass for the cringe. Like, is it xenophobic against foreigners? Yes. On the other hand, given the last 150 years of Chinese history...it's also kind of understandable why the xenophobia exists.

Thirdly, the latter seasons get worse and worse. Second season was mildly enjoyable if featuring way too many cryptids. Third season, which I just finished binging these past weeks while out of town, was... well, it's kind of straight up bad. None of the set up were paid off in a satisfactory manner, the main characters got sidelined for one-shot characters, plus the mysteries leaned way too hard on the horror aesthetic and just didn't have any real mystery pacing. The final arc was so deeply disappointing I'm still trying to find the words to properly describe how much it fails at being a mystery.

And yet.

Despite everything, despite all the crap, I suspect I'm going to end up watching season 4 and 5 (which have already been announced). I mildly hate myself for it. This is clearly my new fandom, but I'm so resentful, because it started off strong enough that I had hopes it will improve. Instead, what I got was an increasingly terrible series that simply cannot sustain the expectation of success.

This is possibly why I've been diving into D&D. Because despite my general dislike for D&D settings and annoyance with a lot of the game mechanics, at least I can take as little or as much as I want from the source material and simply do my own thing with it. And honestly, I just never expected solo D&D to take so very long. But also, because I needed a change of pace because working on my own game has been feeling a bit like running in a hamster wheel.

Sometimes I question my decision making.

Recently have been sucked back into fighting AI logic on AIDungeon.

Honestly, I'm not even sure why I'm doing it, because most of the time it's me trying to figure out how I can get the AI to spit out text that makes narrative sense. AI seems to be favoring really stupid descriptions, like "You pick up the notebook with practiced ease." Yes, yes AI, picking up a notebook is fucking easy. Stop.

Anyway.

At least I figured out how to stop the AI from trying to sexually assault the player character. Don't let conversation continue for longer than two turns. Apparently, AI thinks talking about anything beyond "Good day, sir" is sexual interest.

Which isn't as far away from how real men act as one would like, sadly enough.

Also, never, ever, ever write a character cares about another character anywhere in the prompt, because apparently AI only understand care in the framework of sex.

(I know, I know, AI doesn't actually understand shit. It's because of the proximity of those words in the written data that AI gets trained on causing the word "care" and smut get linked together constantly in the algorithm.)

Also, anyone who argues that AI makes them a better writer is lying. I can feel my writing skills deteriorating as I battle the AI to use sentence structures beyond "verb with practiced ease" or "verb with practiced precision". All it tells me is the descriptor "practiced" is used way, way too often in genre fiction. Ugh.

Anyhoo.

Oh, yeah, and I also continue moonlighting as Dad's zero-draft editor. 😑

Ok, I know this like matters to exactly zero people, but I just have to say that after reading a lot of how people interpret words on forums, my conclusion is that while Druidcraft is still slightly weaker utility-wise compared to the other two RP cantrips (Prestidigitation and Thaumaturgy) , it is also being even more shafted by people who can't read.

One of Druidcraft's biggest advantages over Prestidigitation is that it is written with subtle spell casting. Unlike Prestidigitation, which is labeled with a default verbal component (which in D&D rules lawyering means audible chanting), the first sentence of Druidcraft's description is "Whispering to the spirits of nature". Combine that with 30ft range (instead of the 10ft range of Prestidigitation), that means Druidcraft's Sensory Effect can be cast from distance in secret without the target realizing the effect came from a spell.

In other words, while a Druid can make the woods whisper terrible things into your ear without you being able to figure it out, a Wizard has to be basically within reach to try those things. Therefore, in terms of pulling off tricks like "create a stinky smell to distract the guards" can be pulled off with Druidcraft, but will require a lot more set up using Prestidigitation.

Still doesn't make up for the fact that Bloom and Weather Sensor sub-effects have low RP and utility value compared to Clean or Soil and Minor Creation and Minor Sensation. Again, Prestidigitation getting six effects compared to Druidcraft's four makes Prestidigitation the better RP cantrip. But Druidcraft really could be significantly better if the D&D crowd remembered Druidcraft's built-in subtle spell casting.

I maintain that Druidcraft's Weather Sensor should be changed into generating a localized (aka one square or 5x5x5ft sized) harmless weather effect, like tiny rain cloud that waters the plant or a tiny sun to function as a hand warmer, etc. And Bloom needs to do more to plants than just make a bud open. If making shelter with a cantrip is considered too useful, then at the very least it needs to be able to boost plant vitality, like revive a (non-magical) dead tree temporarily (an hour seems reasonable) or make ivy crawl up a wall and cover a window (then withering away after an hour). Personally I think using Druidcraft to make plants grow in a 5x5x5ft plot to create difficult terrain really isn't overpowered given Mold Earth (a cantrip) can do the same just about everywhere (without needing plants available).

And for all the people worried about Plant Growth being outshine, given that Plant Growth has no time limit and is permanent, I'd say uh...no.

Mochia, a new modern mobile browser friendly version of Neopets.

I have a butterfly cat and I already love it.

I basically played it for one day and already I'm like "Yeeeeees." Great for when you just want to go brainless for a little while. Haven't really explored how much feeding is necessary in terms of the pet stuff yet, but the connect 5 game was decently fun.

Basically, if you remember Neopets from the 90s/00s, this is exactly that. But like more limited in terms of pets available. I had a hard time picking between faerie red panda and butterfly cat, but I went with butterfly cat in the end.

Anyway.

*slinks away*

Edit to add:

Since there really isn't a decent wiki for the game, here are my general thoughts so far after trying my hand at all the game types. Organized by region.

( This game is way more generous than Neopets when it comes to currency. )

Conclusion

Some stuff to keep in mind:

1. There is a cap on the amount of money (or MP as it's called) awarded on each game. Seems to be roughly somewhere between 4k and 5k.

2. Single payout caps out at 1500, so unless trying to unlock an associated avatar, no reason to keep pushing the high score beyond max payout per game.

3. While all games are playable on touch screen (aka phone or tablet), not all games play nice with mouse+keyboard; in fact, some games are out right terrible using m+kb, such as Loose Lambs & Beach Bounce, due to multi-tapping being a significantly better strategy than single clicking.

4. Total game-based payout (across all maps) is around 35k per day. Fastest for me is running Loose Lambs, Stellera, and Spikey Spirits, because I can get get max pay out on each of those games pretty quickly. Then I fill the remainder with Spelunker, Enspell, Brick Break, Shrumble, Snarf as I try to go for high score on those games.

5. Of the stationary puzzles, I've figured out how to complete them relatively fast on hard except Blocksmith. I've taken to doing Blocksmith on medium due to being terrible at block puzzles.

Earning 50k per day is definitely doable. Also definitely play the stock market game. Trade is limited to only 100 shares, so you're unlikely to loose that much. There's a graph tracking the rise and fall. The spike and crash is pretty regular and predictable (unlike real stock market).

(OK, technically a slight exaggeration, it's more like 1800 years.)

So, recently, the Buddhist temple Shaolin (少林寺) got into some trouble with society in general. The head abbot (主持) was arrested for corruption. A monk at the temple reported the head honcho back in 2016 and finally he's been arrested on corruption charges.

Aaanyhoo, point is, the new head started cleaning house and the temples of other Buddhist sects (Shaolin is only one of many sects of Buddhists in China) are starting to freak out that they might get dragged into the mess and have been holding emergency meetings.

Meanwhile, the Daoist temples continue as usual, because they've been paying taxes. Yes, 2000 years later and the Daoists still pay taxes while the Buddhists are tax exempt.

In other words, the trend of government crack down on Buddhist Temples continues while Daoists stay in the ruling classes' good graces by paying into the system, as they have been doing for 2000 years. Some things never changed. 🤣