An Update on Outfits

Thanks. Yes it does work. I have two issues with it though - (1) it doesn’t make sense from a story perspective since I’m literally at home in front the mirror trying to put on a glove and (2) this particular storylet doesn’t have a perhaps not option. It requires spending at least one (maybe two) action(s) to back all the way out and go back in. In short, annoying.

Try &quotPerhaps Not,&quot back out, and change, if you can. You’ll be changing clothing a lot in this story.
edited by Snort on 8/2/2020[/quote]

Paiseley specifically might be worth filing a bug report about - it seems ridiculous that the storylet that has you in front of a mirror changing outfits doesn’t let you change outfits. Maybe they’ll at least fix that one ahead of everything else.

I am another player of the usually silent majority who strongly dislikes the new outfit locks. As many other plaers, I enjoy FL for the amazing stories, and dont care about minmaxing at all. This means the locks just lower the chances to pass a skill checks for me, and if I think about the ‘special’ rng generator of FL (like I once failed a 82% check 5 times in a row) this certainly does not improve the playing experience. I can also only speculate that the excellent stories that have been implemented in the last months (ambitions!) are implemented by another part of the team then the technical ‘improvments’ that often seem to miss what the playerbase actually wants (new map, inventory locks).

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 &quotsoon&quot) 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)

[quote=Tigerfort]Actually, one more thing: I’ve always enjoyed going into new FL content blind, role-playing my character learning their way around this strange world they’ve found themselves in. As a result of the new system I’ve found myself going to the wiki and looking up things I’m about to do to check whether I’m wearing the outfit for the skillchecks I can’t predict.
I’ve always played FL for the story, and this change is making me spoil the story for myself, because the alternative is that the new mechanic might lock me out of one-time chances and permanently affect my progress in non-repeatable content like my in-the-final-stretch ambition.

It’s making the game so much less fun, in so many ways.[/quote]

Exactly my problem. What’s worse is that you can’t do this with Exceptional storylets. Thanks to this discussion, I know not to try playing Paisley until this gets resolved one way or the other. But I haven’t played a single ES from this march on, and now I am loathe to for fear of being locked out of a crucial option.That doesn’t seem to be the intended experience…

Aside to the main point of the thread, but I’d be very surprised if the Fallen London RNG was anything other than industry standard (which probably means supplied by an AWS machine that’s also feeding numbers to a thousand other applications including online banking).
The chances of failing an 82% check five times in a row are very low - about one in fifty thousand - but it will happen occasionally. Enough people have been playing FL long enough that one in fifty thousand chances will have happened to quite a few people. In fact, given that each player gets (in theory, assuming they never sleep) 624364= 52,416 actions per year, the statistical expectation is that everyone who’s been playing for more than a year or two will experience one.

Oh yeah, the outfit-lock restriction has been lifted in most locales.

I think the locales like Heists and Parabolan activities are still locked though.

[quote=Rostygold]Oh yeah, the outfit-lock restriction has been lifted in most locales.

I think the locales like Heists and Parabolan activities are still locked though.[/quote]
The restriction has been lifted in Storylets, which is by far the bigger deal.

[quote=Rostygold]Oh yeah, the outfit-lock restriction has been lifted in most locales.

I think the locales like Heists and Parabolan activities are still locked though.[/quote]
I guess this happened during the short period of time when Fingerkings owned our server.
Fingerkings owns these locks and drags them into their home in The Dome of Scales forever.
edited by chiche on 8/3/2020

[quote=Rostygold]Oh yeah, the outfit-lock restriction has been lifted in most locales.

I think the locales like Heists and Parabolan activities are still locked though.[/quote]

Haven’t tried heists yet, but parabola was already outfit-change-enabled (outside storylets), as long as you remembered to combat the &quotapparent lock&quot bug by reloading browser page.

[quote=xKiv][quote=Rostygold]Oh yeah, the outfit-lock restriction has been lifted in most locales.

I think the locales like Heists and Parabolan activities are still locked though.[/quote]

Haven’t tried heists yet, but parabola was already outfit-change-enabled (outside storylets), as long as you remembered to combat the &quotapparent lock&quot bug by reloading browser page.[/quote]

I’ve tried the Heist and it is indeed locked. For what it’s worth, I think that Heists are one area where the lock is both flavorful and basically harmless, particularly for those of us that have the Lyrebird and thus don’t need to balance Dreaded.

As for the Parabola, the important part is that you indeed can change outfit during Hunts, which is a huge quality of life improvement & appropriate given the dreamy nature of Parabola. In fact, I’ve celebrated this particular change by buying a new, Oneironautic outfit slot.

And if/when anyone from FBG reads this - appreciate the coffee. Thank you for once again proving that you listen and care!

With the storylet lock removed, the new sort/filter options and the ability to change from the main screen are so nice to use!

[quote=chiche][quote=Rostygold]Oh yeah, the outfit-lock restriction has been lifted in most locales.

I think the locales like Heists and Parabolan activities are still locked though.[/quote]
I guess this happened during the short period of time when Fingerkings owned our server.
Fingerkings owns these locks and drags them into their home in The Dome of Scales forever.
edited by chiche on 8/3/2020[/quote]

Are you blaming the Fingerkings for the downtime and locks, or crediting them for the removal? Both?

I’m inclined to believe that both were out of spite for London’s selection of mayor, and The Viscountess’ first move as she transitions in has been to push back their influence - just as she said she would!

I dunno. I’m stuck back at &quotyou lie down with cats, you get up with fleas.&quot

P.S. My spouse had nothing to do with this post. Nothing. Really.
edited by Snort on 8/3/2020
edited by Snort on 8/3/2020

Back after about 1 week away. Not sure if this was covered, but I’m sure there are players that payed money just for some items.

BiS which are/became Fate locked: Epicurean War-Helm , Feducci’s Lance, Semi-Automated Mary Lloyd which will probably cost Fate now, Corinthian Belfry Hat and other Shadowy hats, Thoroughly Cowed Pony and/or Ratwork Velocipede (transport which is attached to a poor story; people bought it for this) and the Private Debating Lessons with the Jovial Contrarian.

Now the Hallowmas rats and Laconic Prodigy are now required instead of the Ministers.