I’ve finally almost gotten to rank 10 Scholar of the Correspondence, which (i think) is as far as i can go at the empress’ court.
I find however, that i’m quite dependant on the palace for a couple of other things. Specifically:
[ul][li]Farming Stolen Correspondence. I always seem to need tons of this stuff for making personal recommendations. The only other reliable source i know of it is in spite, and it involves stealing. I’m very firmly on the side of the law, and i prefer not to do that. Oddly enough, it’s not actually stolen when you get it at the palace.[/li][li]Farming Making Waves. i know 1cp at a time from Life of the mind isn’t the quickest way to do it, but it’s the only (non-criminal) method i know, of reliably trading actions for MW, that doesn’t require help from other people.
[/li][li]Also very importantly, Life of the Mind also offers material rewards in addition to the Making Waves, making it a very profitable way to farm honey, correspondence, Jade, and Proscribed Material
[/li][li]Farming Connected: Society. Incredibly fast here.[/li][/ul]I’m not sure i can do without these things, so i’m very reluctant to progress the storyline that results in being evicted from here.
I know there’s interesting things beyond, i’ve heard mentions of a foreign office, and port carnelian, i’m certainly interested in exploring those. But right now i feel like i still need these things.
Of course, i don’t know much about what comes after, and what material rewards it can offer. So i’d like to ask about that. Please spoil the mechanics of what comes after, and tell me about interesting/profitable storylets that can fill these gaps, perhaps? (please tell me as little about the lore or story as possible though)
And failing that, are there other, alternative sources of these things that i’m not aware of, elsewhere in london?
I don’t know of any source that you are not already aware of, unfortunately.
All I want to say is that I really hope FBG will make it so that we can regain access to the Court, the same way we can regain access to the University. I actually was under the impression that the veteran privy would allow us to come back to the Court eventually, so maybe it’s a storyline they will implement when they have more time ? (so in a very long time given everything they already have to do)
It’s worth bearing in mind that while it’s never efficient, there is always the Bazaar itself to buy low level items like correspondence, honey, jade etc. I wouldn’t actually recommend it but then I have zero RP investment in FL (for me it’s exclusive a game and a piece of interactive fiction). If RP needs trump then it may be a viable method.
Wilmot’s End opens even if you haven’t been banished. There is an opportunity card. You just can’t get into the Foreign Office if you don’t get banished.
I also hope that we regain access to court someday. Though it was never my favourite area of London I did quite like the writing aspect.
There are lots of things to do that generate MW - if you are happy with 1cp you can trade wine for honey in Veilgarden for example.
Do remember that you still have access to the Palace after you are banished from the Court.
[quote=Robin Mask]
In terms of Port Carnelian and the Foreign Office? Played them once . . . no rush to repeat . . .
Can’t think of anything you get from them worth the fuss, to be honest. [/quote]
Well what DO you get from them? Are there any repeatable carousels or profitable grinds? any unique items or rarities? Does the whole thing have a purpose?
I still haven’t proceeded beyond the Empress’ Court for pretty much the same reasons. The Life Of The Mind has been a godsend, and something I’m loathe to relinquish.
I suppose if you have a Salon, you could grind Connected:Bohemians / Connected:Society at the Shuttered Palace, then use the opportunity card for the Handsome Townhouse to convert those connections to Engaged in a Scheme: A Salon, and then convert THAT into Making Waves.
But given that I’ve never heard anyone suggest it as a steady way to grind Making Waves, I don’t expect it’s the most Action-efficient way of doing that if you’re after a steady stream of MW. It is good for banking MW to avoid your efforts being halved by Time: the Healer, but probably not so much for your standard ongoing Notability grind.
As for Stolen Correspondence, I can’t help you with that one specifically, but to get the higher level ‘Influence’ category items you could obtain Intriguing Snippets via the ‘Acquaintance: Sardonic Music Hall Singer’ opportunity cards, and/or one of the options on the Wry Functionary’s cards. The Compromising Document(s) can be obtained by converting Tales of Terror, and Stolen Kisses can be obtained by spending 500 Glim when the Soft-Hearted Widow has her opportunity card show up.
Personal Recommendations can also be (slowly) obtained by raising Talk Of The Town to 12, via the A Polite Invitation opportunity card.
Honestly, I never saw the big incentive to stick around Court. There are better places to grind Making Waves, and you only need so many Personal Recommendations. At first I wasn’t going to get banished on my alt, but eventually I did because I realized that I was never going back.
Not that the content that comes after it is phenomenal, as I’ve had little reason to run through the Foreign Office (aside from some libraryette grinding that I could have done through the Velocipede Squad if I wasn’t locked out). I did enjoy Port Carnelian, though. I remember seeing estimates that it provides solid EPA, though that is obviously hampered by being overzee.
To be honest, not to be mean, I just spent longer than it was probably worth to google around, but - considering I’m just googling around - it’s probably something you could do yourself? [/quote]
No, it’s not. Attempting to research the subject will inevitably turn up hundreds of spoilers. Likewise if i go browsing through the wiki
that’s why i figure it’s best to ask someone who’s done it :P
To be honest, not to be mean, I just spent longer than it was probably worth to google around, but - considering I’m just googling around - it’s probably something you could do yourself? [/quote]
No, it’s not. Attempting to research the subject will inevitably turn up hundreds of spoilers. Likewise if i go browsing through the wiki
that’s why i figure it’s best to ask someone who’s done it :P
That’s a one way street i’m not ready to go down[/quote]
There’s a quality, if you’re the type to grind those or try to get them all to their highest teir, and there’s a tolerable grind- not the best, but not exactly poor EpA either, and the payouts are in items availible elsewhere. however, like most islands, the main reason to explore it is for the lore, which i like.
I found it to be a more interesting location than the court, but also, due to the difficulty of getting there, a less profitable one, and certainly a less verstile one. edited by Grenem on 2/4/2016
I too hope we can get back to the court someday. Personally I liked it mostly for its roleplaying aspect though , as I loved writing books and songs to my name.
I liked the Foreign Office and Port Carnelian for the lore. (I am inordinately fond of my fate-locked spouse).
Granted, I’m at content boundary, so taking extra time to obtain resources from other means.
I grind society through the actions outside the palace and making waves through my salon.
The salon takes some build up but really does get going once you’ve built it up.
Since you don’t want to deal with the court, you could take the rather slow grind of the opportunity party route to get personal recommendations.
I spent a long time hanging around court for life of the mind. I finally gave it up when Port Carnelian came out and while I occasionally wish I could still access it I haven’t really missed it. I’ve found random opportunity cards are usually enough to maintain notability, up converting Tales of Terror are a much better source for MW sprints, and the other resources have other sources and aren’t something I need on a regular basis. Of course, these replacements require you to be somewhat… morally flexible.
If you’re OK with the 1CP MW per action of The Life of the Mind, you should try side-converting tier 3 items.
It’s a loop, so there’s no actual requirements other than having 50 of any of the tier 3 items (e.g. Tale of Terror!!). And so there’s no need to re-grind base materials.
It’s a 13 action carousel and 4 of the steps provide MW. The overall average is ~1.5 CP of MW per action, which beats The Life of the Mind. (Each action is also 0.5 epa)
[quote=dov]If you’re OK with the 1CP MW per action of The Life of the Mind, you should try side-converting tier 3 items.
It’s a loop, so there’s no actual requirements other than having 50 of any of the tier 3 items (e.g. Tale of Terror!!). And so there’s no need to re-grind base materials.
It’s a 13 action carousel and 4 of the steps provide MW. The overall average is ~1.5 CP of MW per action, which beats The Life of the Mind. (Each action is also 0.5 epa)[/quote]
[quote=Kittenpox]I suppose if you have a Salon, you could grind Connected:Bohemians / Connected:Society at the Shuttered Palace, then use the opportunity card for the Handsome Townhouse to convert those connections to Engaged in a Scheme: A Salon, and then convert THAT into Making Waves.
But given that I’ve never heard anyone suggest it as a steady way to grind Making Waves, I don’t expect it’s the most Action-efficient way of doing that if you’re after a steady stream of MW. It is good for banking MW to avoid your efforts being halved by Time: the Healer, but probably not so much for your standard ongoing Notability grind.[/quote]
Actually, this is almost exactly opposite. Salons and Orphanages are the highest MW/action grind that isn’t card based (although they are great for banking). The problem is that the numbers are sooooo big. One of the smallest (and most efficient) conversions is inviting the Mercies to your salon. Even that pays out at 135 (or Fate-locked) MWs. Inviting a crooked-cross is more efficient if you don’t have Lettice, but gives 200 cps of MWs at once. This is great for building notability, but crap for maintaining it. This means that a notability 5+ character, you’re probably best using the Salon/Orphanage, but below that, the t3 side-conversion grind, mentioned up-thread, will probably be the best bet. edited by MrBurnside on 2/4/2016 edited by MrBurnside on 2/5/2016
I’m not going progress through the Court unless there’s an “unbanished” mechanic. The court’s furniture won’t moisturize themselves. It’ll be a shame if no one’s around to do that ;)
I’ve already finished doing the University and I’m kind of sad that uh… let’s say it wasn’t as lively as before I was unkicked.
No, it’s not. Attempting to research the subject will inevitably turn up hundreds of spoilers. Likewise if i go browsing through the wiki
that’s why i figure it’s best to ask someone who’s done it :P[/quote]
I’m usually okay with helping (and have attempted to do several times) but by the same token, we’re not meant to be your own personal pre-filtered search engine for all things Neathly.
When I’m looking up stuff on the wiki to make sure I’ve got the details right and haven’t mis-spelt anything, and especially looking up the best way to obtain <item> that fits within your self-imposed criteria for which actions are going to be considered acceptable and which aren’t, I’m still at risk of encountering spoilers of content I might not have seen in-game.
Helping someone who doesn’t know how to find the answer? I’m generally fine with that.
Helping someone who’s tried but cannot find the answer? Yeah, I can do this. No biggie.
Helping someone who refuses to even try? That leaves a bit of a bad taste, admittedly - even moreso if I think about time spent looking stuff up for other people.
Heck, even the mistake of checking your profile to see if you were the player with the Bifurcated Owl (so that I didn’t incorrectly say you were/weren’t ahead of me in content while writing this comment) led me to a spoiler for the very end of a certain fate-locked story that I have yet to finish.
I’m not expecting you to hide spoilers on your profile, that’s just daft, but it doesn’t make me super-inspired to keep trying to help with replies to your various threads here either, when half of those only exist because you don’t want to use the wiki because you might see spoilers. :(
Alright, I just left the court this week (there was another post on this earlier this week actually).
I’ve all of a sudden run into a Stolen Correspondance Hole (I also started to sell things for an Overgoat, and I think I sold too much of this particular item). So, out of curiosity, I decided to try searching the wiki using Google rather than the built in engine.
Perhaps some variant on this search term would be helpful to you (and perhaps do -x for whatever else you don’t want to see):
“You’ve gained 50…1000 x Stolen Correspondence” -casing site:fallenlondon.wikia.com
For more Maths on the tier-3 side conversions:
13 actions per loop, 4 of which provide between 1 and 10 CP of making waves, this averages to 22 CP per loop
each action provides 0.5 echoes
so overall it is 1.69 making waves per action with a bonus 0.5 echoes per action