Announcement: Another Chance for Second Chances

Fallen London
1

[color=#009900]Many of you will be aware of a long-standing exploit / dull piece of design with Second Chances. Currently, you can[/color]

  1. [color=#009900]Enter a storylet[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]attempt an action with a second chance committed[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]fail![/color][/li][li][color=#009900]be offered a second chance[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]back out of the storylet rather than taking the second chance and risking a fail result[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]go back to 1[/color]

[color=#009900]So in the near future, this will start happening instead:[/color]

  1. [color=#009900]Enter a storylet[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]attempt an action with a second chance committed[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]fail![/color][/li][li][color=#009900]be offered a second chance[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]back out of the storylet rather than taking the second chance and risking a fail result[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]go back to 1[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]find that you now need 2 second chances, not 1[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]fail, be offered a second chance, go back rather than risk a fail result, go back to the start…[/color][/li][li][color=#009900]find that you now need 4 second chances, not 1![/color][/li][li][color=#009900]repeat until you take the plunge and actually succeed or fail[/color]

[color=#009900](This is tracked per storylet - so if you want to use second chances on other storylets, you’ll see those costs increase or reset separately.)[/color]

[color=#009900]Questions? Pop 'em below![/color]

2

I like it. And I say that as someone who has used that exploit on more then one occasion.

3

Will this only apply to pinned storylets, or will it apply to cards as well?

It doesn’t make any difference to me, as I don’t have the patience to abuse it, just curious.

4

YOU COULD DO THAT???

I always arrive late to a party…

5

I don’t think you can do that to cards already since you lose them if you take any actions and exit.

As for the change itself… eh, I guess Impossible Theorem is grindy enough anyway, why not add more grinding to the pile? Not particularly &quotinteresting&quot for that one story though.

Also, does this affect other Storynexus game with the same mechanic? I forgot if Below have second chances too or something.
edited by Estelle Knoht on 10/1/2015

6

Oooh, I didn’t think of the impact on grinding an impossible theorem. Grinding one of those out is gonna hurt a whole lot more now.

7

Huh, I actually didn’t know about that exploit. Oh well.

8

I like it: it preserves the “gamble or grind?” dichotomy at the heart of so many FL activities. Although I guess there’s no classical grind for second chances.

9

I don’t think you can do that to cards already since you lose them if you take any actions and exit.

As for the change itself… eh, I guess Impossible Theorem is grindy enough anyway, why not add more grinding to the pile? Not particularly &quotinteresting&quot for that one story though.

Also, does this affect other Storynexus game with the same mechanic? I forgot if Below have second chances too or something.
edited by Estelle Knoht on 10/1/2015[/quote]
yes, but the current card system offers an alternative exploit- deliberately failing a check on second chance in nadir to discard at no expense.

10

I think it’s a fair solution, but then I rarely use Second Chances these days, because for the storylets I favor even the results of failures are useful to me.

11

When you say &quotIn other words, if you keep re-attempting the same storylet, the cost of doing it will double every time - until you actually succeed, or give up and fail.&quot

Do you mean that the counter resets if you go play a different story after backing out but before attempting again? Or is the increase tracker a permanent increase making things like carousel storylines much much harder due to the fact they loop around and repeat (so you end up playing the same story repeatedly in a non-exploit manner).

Edit: never mind, I see the line in your post now that says &quot(This is tracked per storylet - so if you want to use second chances on other storylets, you’ll see those costs increase or reset separately.)&quot Which answers my question. I like that solution.
edited by NiteBrite on 10/2/2015

12

I was unaware you could even back out and repeat such actions.

13

I think I need some clarification on this [color=rgb(0, 153, 0)](This is tracked per storylet - so if you want to use second chances on other storylets, you’ll see those costs increase or reset separately.)[/color]
[color=rgb(0, 153, 0)]
[/color]
With the cap on second chances I would like to know if the game remembers that you backed out of using the second chance on a specific storylet; went away and did something else before returning sometime later to try again. Or does it only reset if you either succeed or fail on that storylet. Or if you use a second chance somewhere else?

As a long term player I think that, apart from the Cave of the Nadir, the only place I use Second Chances is at the University to Locate an Impossible Theorem as failure there is instant death and uses 3 second chances anyway and a success uses 9. With the cap on second chances if it doesn’t clear if you go and do something else it will soon become impossible as you won’t have enough second chances to even attempt it.

Edit - Of course if it doesn’t reset until you succeed or fail it just means going to meet the Boatman on a failure as it won’t be really worth the cost to keep trying and this isn’t something you can do frequently as it takes a long time to get all the Searing Enigmas anyway :)
edited by reveurciel on 10/2/2015

14

I’ve got a change for a mechanical idea that would let those who LIKE the ability to fail (and thus remove the card) and those who want to chase the reducing chances…

What if it goes away when you “perhaps not” and doubles each time you fail, but you have to try again from the (almost never used) try again at the bottom.

So it says “costs 2” on the try again, and loops back to itself if it fails?

15

Will every perhaps-notting-out (with committed second chance) still cost as many actions as a normal failure would?

16

I like the mechanic.

Would it be possible though to raise the cap on Second Chances? Once players use up their legacy stocks, the (in most circumstances) limit of 20 means that in practice we can actually only attempt the &quottrick&quot 5 times, doesn’t it - i.e. because it requires 1, then 2, then 4, then 8, then 16, then 32?

This may of course be the idea.

17

If we aren’t getting uncapped Second Chances it’d be nice if the required number of Second Chances was capped somewhere. I would say 20, but that makes the Impossible Theorem truly impossible for most.

edited by Sara Hysaro on 10/2/2015

18

I don’t think you can do that to cards already since you lose them if you take any actions and exit.

As for the change itself… eh, I guess Impossible Theorem is grindy enough anyway, why not add more grinding to the pile? Not particularly &quotinteresting&quot for that one story though.

Also, does this affect other Storynexus game with the same mechanic? I forgot if Below have second chances too or something.
edited by Estelle Knoht on 10/1/2015[/quote]

Well, at some point you’re going to draw the card again.

Below does make explicit use of this mechanic. Which reminds me, are players going to be advised of this change? I imagine it could confuse a lot of new players.

19

Out of curiosity, if I back out of a failed second chance on an opportunity card, will it get rid of the card? I am looking to change professions soon, and I am hoping not to be stuck in a second tier profession for any length of time beyond the actions it takes to upgrade.

20

It will get rid of the opportunity card.