"Contemplate This on the Tree of Woe" EditionArchives & Other Resources: https://rentry.co/cyoagAllsync: https://cyoa.allsync.com/s/owWor64yLTngDk3Previous thread: >>97219855>Thread Question: What would you ask as a thread question if you took the burden upon yourself?
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Summoning Surinical
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>>97226898>Thread Question: What would you ask as a thread question if you took the burden upon yourself?I might ask:Who are your top 3 (or 10 or however many) authors?It's surprising how rarely this gets asked.
>>97226953I try to judge by cyoa, not by author. Some of them are more consistent than others in being good or bad but I try to not let it influence me.
>>97226962Sure, what are your top 3 (or 10 or however many) cyoas is a great question too.
>>97226962For me, a judgment on an authors is the judgment on their best works.
>>97226898>>Thread Question: What would you ask as a thread question if you took the burden upon yourself?What makes for good emergent gameplay in CYOAs? What are examples of CYOAs with great emergent gameplay? (So stuff like options influencing and combining with each other in ways beyond what the author could have possibly predicted - more than just "I picked every possible choice that gives +strength and now I can punch the planet in half", but many choices readily morphing with each other into something completely new.)I'm definitely not looking for inspiration for ways to inject emergent gameplay into my own CYOA.
>>97227024Good balance and a lot of options.
How many authors would you kill? That should be the thread question.
>>97227023Exactly. Made shit cyoas? Never remembered. Made 1 great cyoa? Top forever.
>>97227037I don't think a lot of options would lead to emergent gameplay on its own. You can a section with 50 powers and still have no way for most of them to meaningfully combo with or influence other choices at all. I feel like it's very easy to have it become just a shopping list of powers the player wants, rather than a cohesive build blending and fusing powers.
>>97227039Rake and I substitute every other author's death by offering Rake again.
https://imgchest.com/p/ljyqk52wey2>PDFs:Main cyoa: https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/92873437/#92874386Patrons: https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/92873437/#92873602
>>97227024If I get you, I tried that with this RYOA. The player is prompted to invent meanings for random combinations of words.
>>97227090Not quite...I mean CYOAs that have set options, but those options have unexpected interactions that lead to new possibilities.CYOA 1 (non-emergent)You can pick 2 between fire mastery, ice mastery, electric mastery, wind mastery, or sword mastery.Sure, you can imagine what some combinations would look like - a windy acrobat swordsperson using their magic for extra mobility seems fun, but the options don't really "talk" to each other much. They're almost entirely just isolated islands of coolness. Most possible builds are just "pick the stuff that you like", and there's almost no deeper considerations. You can double, triple, or quadruple the number of options, but the feel of the CYOA remains the same.CYOA 2 (emergent?)I'm in a writer's block trying to figure out how to achieve this within the bounds of my own CYOA, so giving concrete examples is hard. But imagine various options with detailed descriptions and limitations. Option A has a glaring, terrible drawback, but a careful reading of option B suggests that it could enhance option C in a way that allows them both together to nullify the drawback of option A, making it viable. And the interaction between B and C is so obscure and specific that there's no way the author could have possibly predicted it.CYOAs like that.
>>97227143Okay, I agree CYOA 2 is broadly a good ideal to have. Although it takes a lot of skill and effort for the author to phrase options so that there's little ambiguity even with combinations that the author didn't think of. Ambiguity in wording is definitely a bigger problem there than usual.
>>97227165I feel like where there's ambiguity, players should be free to interpret as they see fit. Death of the Author and all that. And I say this as an author.
>>97226898>Thread Question: What would you ask as a thread question if you took the burden upon yourself?When new OC gets posted, do you avoid looking at other people's builds at first while making your own (like me) or are you okay with getting "inspired" by them?
>>97227227Why should I ever look at others? I know what I want.
>>97227206I can't remember specific examples, but as a player I may end up thinking: "Why am I spending this much time contemplating small optimizations in section A of the CYOA, when in section B of the CYOA I'm pretty much randomly making a call on whether some combo gives me enough power to make all the choices I made in section A irrelevant?" That really diminishes my motivation as a player.
>>97227227Before making my build, I skim through the images of other builds.I also check how long their builds are. If they are too long, I may postpone making a build or never make one at all (I like CYOAs where you have to pick only a small number of options, even if there are many possible options available like the Fulcrum companions).More rarely, if I became curious about a specific choice in the CYOA, I may check other builds mid-buildmaking for how common which option was (for example, which Dark Isekai Overlord PC classes were the most popular).I don't often read the full builds of other posters, and never before making my own build.
>>97227227No. It's my adventure and I'm not poisoning my imagination with fragments of yours.
>>97227227I only read builds with cool images that grab my attention.
>>97227082https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/41074357/#41089556>twist gravity to punch wormholes in spacetimeSo Overcity Shift is superfluous for me. Great!>Reason:Smug>Age:25>Body:Underdeveloped (Look Younger)>Stats:Strength: 4Agility: 4Vitality: 5Magic: 21 (Bronze x3, Silver x2)Luck: 4>Specialization:Gravity>Weapon:Orb (Mystic)>Outfit:Elaborate>Power:Third Eye>Perks:Enhanced Weapon (Casts Faster), Gifted, Enhanced Sustenance, AwarenessAbsolute Direction: Unparalleled for treasure hunting and finding hidden enemies.>Patron:Type: Lesser Force (Wizard)Benefits: Focused, Payment, Mystic Might, Mana FontDrawbacks: Limited, Rival Force, Vendetta (Rival Force)I am my patron's disciple. Limited lessens what he can provide me, but there are many benefits to it. First, the Rival Force, as his counterpart, is also weaker, which means that I will have a greater impact on their conflict; I will be safer and make relatively more significant contributions. Second, I will be valued more. Last, I will have greater freedom.
>>97227227>>97227518 (me)for example, this one >>97227519 I'll read, because black hole-chan grabbed my attention
>>97226966Top 3 No Order:Eternal BlueG-IncarnationSupercape Shit IsekaiRunner-Ups:The Lady's Very OwnThe unnamed pick 1 out of 8 waifus from different worlds seriesPhantom Nine
>>97227519As a gravity specialist, he ought to be an experience space traveler, right? I'm excited at the prospect of exploring other planets and civilizations.
What are the upcoming CYOAs to be released? Or said to be released? What's there to look forward to?
>>97227076I remember someone asking when Neolithic Messiah on how long it would take before people started hating on Rake
>>97227608Hus is making some fantasy one. Tankista is releasing a LOTM one as well. Probably more.
>>97227586Keep in mind the magical girls in the cyoa are only street level, even maxxed stats only do that much, so space travel in the sense of very strong mobility powers wouldn't fit.But magical girls do travel between parallel worlds, so they could travel between planets on the same world in a similar fashion.
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>>97227039Why would I kill an anonymous poster? I have better things to do than murder.
cyoas with raped goods except Pokemon?
>>97227661Any and all multiplayers.
>>97227661https://imgchest.com/p/9rydj5l6ykz
>>97227670This was hard to read the first time.
>>97227612Italics announced last thread he's working on a psychic-based CYOA that he plans on releasing.
>>97227661OC OC OC OCYou are a medieval peasant. Dirt poor.Your father could not bring himself to follow the word of the Lord, he lived by his predilections. Now that he passed away, you get his treasured animal for yourself. It's been heavily used. The neighbors don't want to buy it.PICK 1 ANIMAL* Goat. Gives milk.* Sheep. Gives wool.* Pig. Big, fat and tasty.
>>97227608>>97227673There's also Italics' elf-fucking WIP, the paladin cyoa "Radiant", Ultimate God, Conquest, Rake's Umamusume cyoa, and like a dozen others.
>>97227617Ah, that's a pity. I suppose I must settle for the Milky Way (or maybe just the surrounding solar systems).
>>97227519thumbnail looks like phallus
>>97227608Ultimate God.I've been waiting ever since Aromagus updated Demigod, before she even announced it was in the works.
>>97227676Goat which I sacrifice for demonic powers after drinking its blood in an unholy ritual. With the blessing of Shibobah'dad'ilith I conquer the kingdom and get revenge on the nobles fattened by the lifeblood of my family. My father lacked the courage to go through with it, but where he failed, I will succeed. Using my dark magic I'll conquer the kingdom one step at a time and raise an alter to the mighty Tri-Horned Goat. The blood of kings shall flow and only then shall my wrath be abated.
>>97227690Some calculations because I got curious.Voyager 1 took 35 years to cross the heliopause, which is ~0.0019 light-years from the sun. An archmage that can skip space should be faster than that—let's say 10 times, so 0.35 years. The nearest star to the sun is Proxima Centauri, ~4.25 light-years away. 4.25 / 0.0019 x 0.35 = ~781 years. Exploring the nearest solar systems is unrealistic at that speed.However, what if the archmage has connections with a higher entity or some such? If we suppose that the entity is 100 times faster than them, it can travel to Proxima Centauri in 7.81 years. Add some permanent portals and exploring the nearby solar systems seems plausible. Then, add a few million years of age behind the entity and many other similar entities and exploring the Milky Way seems plausible.
>>97227776>—let's say 10 times*100
