Sometimes, really obvious things don’t occur to you until it’s too late. Particularly if you’re pushing towards a goal with singleminded determination. In this case, my goal was to reach the 500-point reward for Hallowmas, despite this being my first time at it, and thus having no old secrets to devour for bonus-points. So I threw myself into it with aplomb! Sending invitations to those on the list whenever I had actions to spare from answering those I’d gotten already! I knew I had to build up a huge stock of invitations before the week ran out. And I did!
So the good news is that I’ve already got more than enough Confessions to reach 500. The bad news is that a simple problem evaded me: Each invitation sent cost 3 actions, and was reciprocated. I spent an entire week doing nothing but sending requests. Now I’ve got an entire week to answer those I received… and each takes between 4 and 6 actions. Since I have the same number of actions available this week as I had last week, well… those numbers don’t add up very nicely. =_=
In my defense, I didn’t know that the Message-list hides messages past a certain number 'till just recently, so my list always looked manageable. But despite having gone all-out since just before the end of confession-time, that list is still just as long as when I started. And I still need to turn all the Confessions I’ve already received into Spirit before the end arrives. It seems increasingly certain that it will be impossible for me to finish my list… though of course, I’ll do my damndest to reach as many as I possibly can. When, exactly, does the event expire, anyway?
sigh Anyway, if you sent me a request for confessions, and have yet to see it answered… you might wind up disappointed. Come to think of it, I should probably cancel all my own outstanding requests, since I’m already at the goal - and there’s no use for extra Spirit or Confessions once you’ve hit 500, right? I’m just afraid it’ll seem… rude. >_>
Thing that didn’t occur to me either until it was too late: It can easily take over double the amount of actions to accept a confession as to send it. And that’s if you’re careful.
This didn’t come up last season for me because there simply weren’t enough people available.
Why’s that a good idea? Because math-wise, with being duped or poisoned, you can get down to only four actions total to accept any confession. That won’t solve your problem, but it will help if you want to accept as many as possible. It will help a /lot/.
(on that note, thank you to all the amazing people in there, some of whom are currently saving my confessions already~)
Your other option may be: send a feedback request to FBG to ask them to extend the event. (Hey, you never know!)
Nota bene: No one knows if there’s a use for Spirit over 500. There may or may not be something at 1000, for example. Unless FBG has confirmed/denied this elsewhere and I missed it (entirely possible).
I did much of the same in that first week (though I tried to answer them as I went, rather than sending more actions than I could reciprocate. I’m not guaranteed 500 yet, but I’m hopeful it will pay off.)
A bunch of this is on the Raising Menaces thread, but in case you hadn’t seen that one yet: [spoiler]
If you have Scholar of the Correspondence and a Starveling Cat, you can answer Whimsy/Pride in 6/7 actions respectively - which works out to almost 1 answered confession per hour if you don’t spend any Fate or have an Aunt who works <Fate-locked spoilers :3 >
SotC we can’t help with directly, but if you don’t have a Starveling Cat perhaps ask here if someone has a spare they could send your way? That should make those Pride confessions easier to manage.
If you have a Connected pet (bandaged raven, etc) that isn’t a Grubby Kitten, you could release that and use your Connected:Urchins to get the G.K. On its opportunity card you can introduce it to your Starveling Cat, which provides enough Wounds+Nightmares in a single action to reach 3+ each, meaning that if you get fortunate with cards you can do Pride requests in 2 actions rather than 7.[/spoiler]
I think I remember reading that there are other methods to do it in 4-5ish actions, but I’m not familiar with them as they weren’t available to me at the time. edited by Kittenpox on 11/5/2015
No reward above 500 is known because noone in the past had achieved this much Spirit. That does not mean that a reward at 750 or 1000, say, doesn’t exist. Certainly several people are aiming for 1000 Spirit with that in mind.
Also by accepting confessions in excess of 500 now you are making your life much easier next year. Confessions over 500 have less utility than confessions below 500 but they still do have utility because you can devour them next year.
Canceling all your outstanding requests seems pretty unfair to me.
There ist time till the 8. to accept them. Two more day "waisting" actions wouldn’t hurt too much, right?
At least that’s what I will do, although I also have no use for extra Spirit. edited by Ysrthgrathe on 11/5/2015
500 was definitely the top reward level last year - some of us got well over that and it didn’t unlock anything extra. (I got something around 750 iirc). We’re all just hoping for more levels this year :)
Well, I went ahead and canceled all my remaining requests after all… >_> I’m sorry if it seems unfair, but the way I see it, those are chiefly for MY benefit, and removing them from somebody else’s to-do list makes life easier for them. If it turns out there are rewards for going above 500… well, that’s something to aim for next year.
Incidentally, in order to ‘devour’ a confession the following year, does it need to have been consigned to the Bazaar/gossiped to the Masters? Or can they just be left untreated?
As for all the advice for more efficient confessing… I’ve already got a Starveling Cat, and am using the ‘Public lecture’ to grind Scandal. I’ve also got a friend supplying me with poison on demand… but not Scandal, I’ll admit. That WOULD help a lot. Hmm. Poison’s already cutting Pride-confessions down to 4 actions total (drink poison, hat on, hat off, stroke cat twice, hat on, answer confession-request) so if I could get Whimsy down to 3… I’ll head over to the suggested link and see what can be seen. Thanks for the advice! ^_^
EDIT: Nevermind. I thought you were talking about Confessions sent to you, not the other way around.
I apologize for the confusion. edited by Nigel Overstreet on 11/5/2015
If I understand him correctly, BlakeTheDrake isn’t cancelling the requests he’s got, he’s cancelling the ones he’s sent. So he’s still trying to accept what requests he can, he’s just stopping others from accepting his requests, easing the load on them since they’re probably in over their head too.
Edit: Seems it was clear what was meant after all, and this post was pointless. edited by Curious Foreigner on 11/5/2015
Sorry, I also thought you were talking about Confessions sent <b>to you</b>. Canceling Confessions requests sent by you is perfectly fine for me. In fact it is actually quite generous and helpful.
I beg to remain, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant,
Ysrthgrathe edited by Ysrthgrathe on 11/5/2015
[quote=Curious Foreigner]Edit: Seems it was clear what was meant after all, and this post was pointless.[/quote]No, it’s an important distinction to make.
I wrote a long, scalding screed because I misunderstood it before I realized I misunderstood it. My reading comprehension may have been compromised.
I think if you’ve realized you’re in over your head, it probably is best to cancel request you’ve sent so you can concentrate on accepting the requests you have. Overall, it’s a much more polite and selfless act than to simply not reciprocate all requests when you can.
I applaud Blake for recognizing this limitation sooner rather than later.
I’m sure you will do what you can and that most people will understand. I’ll take a look and see if I or any of my alts have asked you for a confession that you haven’t got to yet … if so they will withdraw it. Good luck with the rest. edited by reveurciel on 11/5/2015
Thanks to those who’ve sent dupings and poisonings. I read the thread with offers, and while I didn’t put in a request there, the basic idea was quite a revelation. Endless dupings with nothing but a couple of cheap articles of clothes? Brilliant! So I shanghaied a non-PoSI friend of mine into sending some of both my way. I’ve got a healthy stock now, and my pile of outstanding requests look a lot more manageable. 4 actions, total, to answer either kind of confession? Definitely a step in the right direction…
I’m also somewhat glad that I didn’t manage to catch Nigel’s no-doubt eloquent rant before he corrected it. :D And yeah, I’m still going to do my best to answer every request I can, even if I no longer need THEIR confessions. Some of them were probably more conservative in their sendings, and others may be deliberately aiming for 750 or 1000 in the hopes of finding newly-added rewards there. And best of luck to them!
Oh, and thanks for the timeline, Rupho - I wanted to be sure I knew the exact(ish) end-time, so that I can switch to full-time confession-to-spirit conversion in time, should I fail to finish my confession-list early. edited by BlakeTheDrake on 11/5/2015
Not to worry, I have already cancelled my request to you ;)
I do wish however that like the sending mechanism, the cancelling button came with its own "text-to-send" box so that the recipient can be informed of why this was done instead of being taken rudely by surprise.
[quote=Juno]
I do wish however that like the sending mechanism, the cancelling button came with its own "text-to-send" box so that the recipient can be informed of why this was done instead of being taken rudely by surprise.[/quote]
If not that, I would at least like decline and cancel to both have at least 1 "are you sure?" dialouge.
[quote=BlakeTheDrake]
Poison’s already cutting Pride-confessions down to 4 actions total (drink poison, hat on, hat off, stroke cat twice, hat on, answer confession-request) so if I could get Whimsy down to 3… I’ll head over to the suggested link and see what can be seen. Thanks for the advice! ^_^[/quote]
Firstly, you can leave your hat on while stroking the cat, it gives a bonus on top of your menace level, so even if you’re at Nightmares 1+1 you’ll only need two points to hit Nightmares 2+1.
Secondly, if you’re Unaccountably Peckish, you can Speak of Terrible Things at the Duchess’ Salon at the palace to go straight from 1 Nightmares to 2, which would cut your Pride confessions by another action.
This is an easy trap to fall into. The UI doesn’t help with tracking so I’ve gotten into the habit of taking detailed notes of my own during these social action events and, thankfully, having those numbers helped me realized I needed to pull back and start filling requests a few days before the event ended. At this point just do the best you can.
I believe confessions are only devourable in future years if you consign them to the bazaar or bury them. Gossiping with the masters and flaunting them definitely lock that off. I’m not 100% certain of what happens with confessions you don’t do anything with. I think they’ll be available but I could be wrong.
I withdrew my request to help lighten your load. As I have already reached 500 spirit and I’m not aiming for a huge spirit, this was no problem for me. Thanks for letting us know!