Path of martial arts: leaked sneak peaks, and discussing thread

[Raidou]

Nicky PLEASE, I need more goonerclash in my grimdank game.

I am never ashamed of my desires.

 

[bandaids]

Some of what you said, seem to me, to be stuff that would be added at full release,the more side quest, mine is similar now that i thibk about it

The way niki releases is diffrent from how anon does, he releases each chapter full of content and is unlikely to add more events to past chapter (with exceptions obviously, the boar boss fight)

but niki is more the type to release content at its more bare bone state and them start filling it up with meat.
Part of me likes niki and the other anon.
But at the same time they are fundamentally different game experiences.
Poma is a more sandboxy compared to AC and that seeps into the game design, so having more bare bones structure is not as bad than if it were in AC

Though I do wish niki did full character updates rather than partial ones, I kbow the tigress update is coming but based on how he usually does it. It wont be the final one (both rework and content update) and i prefer having characters not needing reworks and content adding

But once again poma is sandboxy, so that is more expected

 

[Shashwaty19]

There's a couple things I'd love to see to be honest but my top ones are:

1.) Allow us to actually train during free roam for exp and Dao exp.

This would remove the whole "Wu Heir is a lazy bum" narrative while also justifying crit checks and more possible wins. Also enhances roleplay if you want to play a character who is obsessed with training and getting stronger like Ruo. Might even throw in a few sparring matches with Ruo where he kinda acknowledges/respects you for not just relying on your talent and actually grinding.

2.) Add crit/very high stat checks and wins throughout the whole game.

So not just in arena fights and flavor—actually make it change how things proceed. Don't get me wrong, I think that the crit check update was one of if not the best things that Niki did for the game, but it still feels like it's just flavor more than anything else. Except for arena and tournament fights, all they do is allow you to end fights early and aurafarm for that sweet prestige. They don't actually change how people view you and no one remembers or even mentions that fact that you literally one shot top arena fighters and are basically the only person in the world who is EX level at PH (to them).

I have to agree, Critic Checks were the greatest decision Nicky ever made but they should change what people think of you. People disrespect you far too much in world where respect correlates to strength. Like what do mean that after I absolutely BUTCHERED 5 Strong Peak-Houtians with insane teamwork and karmic hardcounters, Chu Muchen thinks the Spear Twins could beat me? Well what I did to Muchen might have been a bit overkill, so that is excused (Like I don't think I have ever aurafarmed on someone this much in the entire game)

3.) Either make all RO's gender selectable or none of them.

Right now it's kind of a mess because you can clearly see which characters Niki cares about (Mei and Ruo) and which he doesn't (everyone else), because he literally just writes them out of the story when he doesn't feel like working on them. IMO writing itself is not Niki's strong suit, and when he does do it well it is when he is writing a character who he cares about or when he is writing lore (which also changes all the time). So I think choosing one option would give him more focus and make the characters feel more evenly thought out.

I think the problem with ROs is that if you don't romance them, they don't exist. If you don't romance Mei Mei for example, She literally doesn't even exist. Maybe Mei schemes against us and we investigate to find who is scheming against us resulting in us playing a death note style mind game or maybe Ai and her righteous squad jumps us along with the DES, increasing the difficulty even more.

4.) Add more side quests to the free roam part of the game.

That little Mo Long quest we get in the beginning is literally the only legit side quest you can choose to do and even that is not during free roam but as an event. I remember in the earliest versions there was a side quest hub where you could earn sect points but it was very bare-bones, and you could only pick flowers and would get more sect points based on your stats. If he could bring this back and actually make it good side quests that would be awesome.

Best Side quests that I can think of are

1) Trying to find the inheritance that TW left for us which we didn't receive due to Grandpa.

2) Trying to scheme against He Gang or Mei Mei after he/she schemes against us. Making them suffer.

3) Trying to create a new Transcendent Martial Art for the Wu Clan.

I love MCs that are Proactive, ones who wait for things to happen to them but rather actively searching for ways to strengthen themselves. The worst quality Wu Shen has is not being proactive enough.

5.) Make perks and items affect the gameplay and story way more.

I personally hate the fact when perks, especially in story-focused RPG's, go the Path of Exile route and are just percentage increases to your stats or bullshit like "One time per day, when you dodge roll forwards then backwards then to the left and then hit a special emote, you get 1.234% to your damage resistance. Mechanical perks are absolutely fine and needed but bruh Niki really needs to give more perks the Iron Will treatment.

Cause right now Niki is genuinely telling us "Oh yeah bro you possess the legendary power of Ressurrection, Regeneration, Otherworldly Beauty and a myriad of other things and all they do is bump your numbers up. Cool right?" To be fair Regeneration is actually mentioned in the game and can be used to do some cool stuff and survive otherwise unsurvivable scenarios, but for the other perks the point still stands 100%.

I really REALLY love the the Jade Dragon Foundation in Aura Clash for sole reason that it is not simply a difficulty setting but holds immense narrative importance and that their is an entire RO built around it. How cool would it be that instead of your difficulty setting being some body talent, it was instead the measure of some intrinsic difference between you and TW like how much talent you have independent of COP. TW commenting on it would be even better:

Trash Talent: "You have worst affinity for the Great Dao than I have ever seen, COP is wasted on you"

Mortal Talent: "You have an even worse affinity for the Dao than I do, Though being a godchild can compensate for that."

Earth Talent: "Hmph exactly as talented as I was, you really are a perfect replication"

Heavenly Difficulty: "Incredible you have the greatest affinity for the Great Dao that I have ever seen, Combined with my blood, you will reach farther than me"

Story Mode: "It is as though I am staring into Origin of Dao..."

6.) Rewrite how the Wu Heir reacts to things without the player's input, and make the player responsible for shaping their character.

We are all painfully familiar with the infamous "You are literally a God reborn who is so above his peers they can't even provide any challenge to you, but this... it makes you shake in fear while pissing yourself" lines, right after which you can choose to completely disregard them and just do whatever you want anyway.

Bai Hu was making us feel absolute terror but I literally gave him the Yujiro Hanma Special.

It's just annoying and breaks immersion when you're playing a 100% Demon 100% Dishonorable Wu Heir and you still get **** like this. It feels like Niki is writing for a very specific type of Wu Heir and then just throws in the other options without thinking about how they completely go against the apparently set-in-stone internal thoughts and feelings of the MC he created.

I would actually love it if your internal mindset became fixed after a point depending on your choices.

Imagine if you believed yourself to be a God to such an extreme degree that your godchild body just started to genuinely accept it and you started to feel no fear from things like dragons or Shangtians, Not a actual strength change but mindset affecting your physical body and Dao. It would also show us that a powerful and unshakable mindset can even warp the physical body.

He just needs to quit doing that and let the player's actions determine their reactions and whether they feel something or not. Or he can go the simpler way and just try to write neutrally and then write scenes based on the MC's personality after they choose to do something.

One of the changes I actually like is Yang Haoran acting like a misogynist to Ruo and telling you to control your ***** (Ruo is my submissive AND breedable b*tch, so he's right), It shows that people actually have gender stereotypes which negatively affects some women in Poma land and It is supposely even worse in the CR.

This point also includes how the MC looks, altough to a much lesser extent. In a world that is immensely obsessed with appearance and aurafarming, it feels odd when everyone reacts in the same way toward completely different looking Wu Heirs. I'm speaking as a player who hasn't played a Fem Wu Heir so I can't say anything about gender variety.

Yeah, Like If you have captivating beauty, why are people not literally mesmerized by your otherworldly beauty? Your beauty should be the thing that people comment on the most, maybe even have Yue Yan or Yue Fang drop some sweet lore on us about how TW was literally so ridiculously beautiful that some people in the Empire think that the Sovereign let TW die because his wives, harem members, and even daughters salivated over him constantly.

Me when LuciDio says literally anything:

 

[Shashwaty19]

Some of what you said, seem to me, to be stuff that would be added at full release,the more side quest, mine is similar now that i thibk about it

The way niki releases is diffrent from how anon does, he releases each chapter full of content and is unlikely to add more events to past chapter (with exceptions obviously, the boar boss fight)

but niki is more the type to release content at its more bare bone state and them start filling it up with meat.
Part of me likes niki and the other anon.
But at the same time they are fundamentally different game experiences.
Poma is a more sandboxy compared to AC and that seeps into the game design, so having more bare bones structure is not as bad than if it were in AC

Though I do wish niki did full character updates rather than partial ones, I kbow the tigress update is coming but based on how he usually does it. It wont be the final one (both rework and content update) and i prefer having characters not needing reworks and content adding

But once again poma is sandboxy, so that is more expected

The story has been at the same point for a year, I just want you to think about that for a moment.

 

[any name u wish]

maybe even have Yue Yan drop some sweet lore on us about how TW was literally so ridiculously beautiful

Tang Wei must've been the ugliest mf to ever grace poma world because even if my Wu heir is built like a brick house, everyone calls him out for being hideous.

I feel like this is a result of Nicky wanting to pretend the beauty talent matters, but honestly how bad do I look by default

 

[Shashwaty19]

Tang Wei must've been the ugliest mf to ever grace poma world because even if my Wu heir is built like a brick house, everyone calls him out for being hideous.

I feel like this is a result of Nicky wanting to pretend the beauty talent matters, but honestly how bad do I look by default

Skill Issue

 

[any name u wish]

Skill Issue

Said the most bitchless demonic mf to ever exist

 

[Shashwaty19]

Said the most bitchless demonic mf to ever exist

Being ugly is a skill Issue lol, Just because I am demonic doesn't mean that I got my face chopped off by Bum Ugly Demon Queen or that I took Bohai's B*tch made balding pills, I would rather die than become ugly (Yeah I am narcissistic and Vain and I am NOT ashamed of it).

As for the matter of b*tches... It's a work in progress just like POMA