I agree with Elderfleur. If the card had been one-use-only, it would have been a nice boost, but as it was, it turbocharged the event way too much.
The card was a weird addition, given that Failbetter seemingly intended the fueling process to speed up as locations were uncovered. Seeing the new options, alongside the text that stated that as more dig sites were uncovered the options would become more powerful, gave the impression that they were there to promote community cohesion and focus when choosing dig sites.
The cards power and frequency basically made that a moot point.
Do we think that Mr Mirrors’ Marquee of Mystification will appear in future festivals? Or is this our last chance to grab past election goodies? (if this has been asked and answered already, my apologies, due to RL I freely admit to skimming the last 15 pages of this post)
[quote=theonie]Do we think that Mr Mirrors’ Marquee of Mystification will appear in future festivals? Or is this our last chance to grab past election goodies? (if this has been asked and answered already, my apologies, due to RL I freely admit to skimming the last 15 pages of this post)[/quote]It’s likely you’ll be able to buy election items, and the items from this event, during next years event.
Makes sense - thank you for that reassurance! :)
I think the horse cart card is ok, only that the frequency should be reduced to maybe infrequent or rare.
I think Failbetter sensed that we were getting bored of the event and wanted to hit fast-forward, but things actually got more interesting after the first site opened up. I feel like it could have gone at least a day or two between each site opening, but they sped it up so much that it basically opened all the sites in one day.
They told me they wanted Apostate’s Psalms and Verses of the Counter-Creed, but they didn’t give me enough time to grind those and use them. I don’t even know what the other things they wanted were; the event was over before that became relevant.
Well, they did say it was experimental. I agree that the last part didn’t work so well.
Maybe they wanted to get it over before the next exceptional story?
I’m inclined to agree that either the new fueling options unlocked by each dig site or The Card would have given enough of a speed boost to operations, and the combination was too much.
But these things are always hard to model, people being the unpredictable beasts we are. I suspect what happened was a combination of PJ and Mulligan’s points - the original plan had the unlockable fueling options (and no card), but when we were going slower than expected at the start, the card was introduced to help things along. Unfortunately, that plus the first of the extra options unlocking sped things up so much that there wasn’t time to introduce any corrective slow down before we’d crashed through the rest of the goals like a Heffalump in a room full of mirrors.
edited by Tigerfort on 7/28/2021
I actually think a change could have been to make it clear that unlocking one site would speed up the rest! Then we might have focused more. I know I deliberately avoided focusing on the leading site because I thought FBG’s intent was for us to feed/dig the ones we thought were coolest. But if there was some indication that the leading site was the one to focus on, then there would have been a bit more natural unlocking in sequence.
Perhaps if the rewards increased with dig progress, or something like that. There’s better stuff deeper down, or whatnot. Then there would have been more natural snowballing.
Anyway, definitely a fun experiment, hopefully the next one will be even better!
edited by amalgamate on 7/28/2021
Bruno did mention on Discord that the progress of each site had been much more even than he expected.
Well, I can’t discard that special card now… keep digging you guys, I need to be liberated.
I am a little sad to wake up to find that I will never be able to find out why those rats wanted Fourth City Echoes… Ah well, we dig on.
I believe it’s already removed from the game and our decks/hands.
A spelunking adventure, a hack-and-slash battle royale, an underground migration service. Lovely tales so far.
On site at the Singing Mandrake, 4.5k more to 1mil before digging is complete.
Blind Helmsman at around 29k more to completion.
I might explore what’s beneath the Singing Mandrake later, then dig another full round at the Blind Helmsman, and that should be the end of digging.
By the way, which item should I get with those 30 free Scrips? They are all so pretty!
Singing Mandrake is done! Beware Spiders!
Gosh. An arachnid parliament.
[quote=fishandchips]On site at the Singing Mandrake, 4.5k more to 1mil before digging is complete.
Blind Helmsman at around 29k more to completion.
I might explore what’s beneath the Singing Mandrake later, then dig another full round at the Blind Helmsman, and that should be the end of digging.
By the way, which item should I get with those 30 free Scrips? They are all so pretty![/quote]
Depends on your current equipment, but if I had to choose one, I’d take the Ring. If you have a +2 Mithridacy Warbler, it’ll get your Mithridacy to 10 and ensure 100% completion on a number of checks (including, ironically, affixing brass skulls).
Ah, the Singing Mandrake. Where any old Londoner can eat, drink, debate with thousands of ravenous spiders that are only held back by their inability to come to a satisfactory conclusion on the nature of language and its relation to sapience, and be merry.
EDIT: And now all the digging is done. Everything has been uncovered!
edited by Mulligan on 7/28/2021