Hi, I am another player who usually does not post here. However, in order to not be counted in the ‘silent majority’, I have decided to post here.
I must say that I enjoyed some recent changes (exceptional stories no longer requiring manual ‘claiming’, new map) but parts of this one make me really unhappy.
I really like the option to switch outfits from the main screen, I like more slots for those (though the price seems a bit high) but I think outfit lock was a terrible idea.
I think it was already said in this thread but I would like to reiterate:
[ul][li]All content so far was designed with ‘Best in Slot’ items in mind. Furthermore, more valuable items (looking at the shop) seem to be more oriented around a single stat (and sometimes decrease another one). So far the idea seemed to be that more valuable -> better -> more desirable. Right now with this change developers seem to say ‘yeah, all this stuff that you worked for? Forget about it, there will be different stuff from now on’. And while the items from bazaar can be easily sold and bought the same cannot be said for Fate items paid for with actual money![/li][li]It was mentioned that previous storylets/cards will be reworked to fit the change. It seems to be more like fixing what was broken by change rather than adding new mechanics and improving Fallen London. From my perspective, if we are to stick with outfit lock, the change (lock) should be applied to a location/story only after it was checked, tested and vetted (or changed if necessary). The current approach of introducing a mechanic, applying it to everything and promising to revisit places where it does not fit (and doing it "soon") seemed to cause most of the negative feedback. If it was initially introduced only for the watchmaker’s daughter continuation as an example and then gradually applied to other parts (after considering how it changes that part and introducing necessary changes) would most likely be seen much better by the community.[/li][li]Furthermore, the example given in the watchmaker’s daughter story appears to be wrong as it is repeatable storylet. Now imagine that you cannot re-enter or repeat it and at the very last stage you learn that there is a quality check related to the currently worn outfit! Not only that, one of the options is hidden unless you already fulfil those criteria. That could be a huge problem in non-repeatable stories and many of those (at least for me) are behind a paywall. (At this point I should say that I had a bit of a hiatus from FL that I broke only to unlock stories for later and now I have multiple active exceptional stories).[/li][li]Some people seemed to suggest multi-quality checks as a way to make items with balanced stats more viable. However, I think it is not a good idea as it would require either more outfits (shadowy-dangerous or shadowy-dangerous-respectable in a multi quality challenge) or more changes to the outfit on the fly. Furthermore, it would need good adjustments to the check difficulty, due to the end success chance being a product of other checks.[/li][/ul]I see the benefits of the new mechanics if:
[ul][li]Content is specifically designed with it in mind (or adjusted for existing ones).[/li][li]The player is warned that they will not be able to change the outfit (in the same way they are warned that they will not be able to return to London for some time).[/li][li]The warning includes information on which qualities will be required (or it could be somewhat hinted in the story).[/li][/ul]However, applying the change to all existing content seems to me to be an awful choice.
(Sorry for a bit long paragraphs)