[quote=falbert]
Regarding my personal opinion, Jolanda Swan’s post a bit earlier in this thread summarizes pretty well my feeling.
I love the new improvements with outfits. I have no problem with Failbetter requesting Fate for new outfits.
I would probably have paid Fate for this, if the outfit change restriction didn’t make everything so cumbersome.
I hope that Failbetter can solve this in a way that doesn’t alienate the community - that wouldn’t be a good thing for anyone.
And given how Failbetter has reacted in the past, I am sure that a good solution will be found.[/quote]
I agree with your points (also with the kind words about the Forum community; I also think it’s a rare refuge of calm and politeness in the cesspool that is internet).
I can tolerate the increased clickiness of the new approach in most places (I also love the Bone Market, so I probably qualify as a weirdo).
The real problem is that it applies (and worryingly, may continue to apply) to non-repeatable content, including paid content. If there was a way to go "oh, I need Bizarre 5 for this option I need to do? Then let’s just leave and restart from the beginning," this would merely be extremely annoying. Way it is, it can be potentially heartbreaking. E.g., I don’t know if there are any requirements for the option to become a Honorary Cat. But the idea of one being randomly locked out of this is Bad.
Another thing is the current slew of new abilities that mostly don’t overlap on equipment with the old ones, but actually do overlap on challenges in the locked stories. Considering many, many of these pieces of equipment which can be bought with actual money (Whitsun items, Mr Chimes’ Lost & Found, Election) are suddenly much less useful and/or convenient is unfortunate.
Personally, I have been the most stung by the Election Items. I shelled out an unreasonable amount of Fate for all of them, as I do what I can afford to support the game and the FBG team in these hard times. Only a day after the Election ends, I found out that my new Glasswork gloves, which I only bought to use in Parabolan hunts, have become basically useless, as they don’t increase Dangerous. Had this change been announced in advance, I would have used the Fate for something else. Needless to say, this makes me feel the tiniest bit cheated - which I don’t think has ever happened for me with FL.
IRL, I mostly live by the adage "why do something the easy way when you can do it the staggeringly complicated way". Even I can see that this is probably not a good model to implement in a game that mostly focuses on the story.
I still have the hopes that you’re considering the situation and working on a good compromise, especially concerning the nonrepeatable and paid content. Please, please don’t just disregard your community, which in my experience is nothing but devoted and helpful. Do not forget that we love your game enough to devote a lot of time and effort to actually try and provide meaningful and thoughtful feedback. We’re really not whining children, and do not deserve to be treated as such (by neither the developers, nor other users).
edited by Aardvark on 8/3/2020