EXCEPTIONAL STORY JUNE 2015: The Court of Cats

[quote=Cecil Palmer]
Reading back through this thread, it’s not entirely obvious what’s happening. I’m seeing conflicting information, that it’ll be available again for a fate cost, that it’ll be available for a 3 month window, and I thought I read somewhere that content unlocked would stay unlocked (that might have been on the irc? I can’t find where I thought I read that anyways), but I could be mistaken.[/quote]

My understanding from that thread is that:

  1. Exceptional stories cease being available at the end of their designated month.
  2. For 3 months they remain unavailable (that’'s the 3 month window that I think you are referring to).
  3. At the end of the 3 month window they will become available again subject to an increased Fate cost.
  4. The three points above are on the assumption that you do not start the exceptional story at all. If however, you go through the first two storylets (the free universal one and the next one in the House of Chimes that awards you the relevant quality) then that quality will unlock the story for you until you complete it and will allow you to disregard the one month original duration, the three month unavailability window and everything else. So provided you play the initial two storylets you can then let the rest of the story &quothang&quot as long as you want to with no fear of it disappearing.

[quote=genesis]My understanding from that thread is that:

  1. Exceptional stories cease being available at the end of their designated month.
  2. For 3 months they remain unavailable (that’'s the 3 month window that I think you are referring to).
  3. At the end of the 3 month window they will become available again subject to an increased Fate cost.
  4. The three points above are on the assumption that you do not start the exceptional story at all. If however, you go through the first two storylets (the free universal one and the next one in the House of Chimes that awards you the relevant quality) then that quality will unlock the story for you until you complete it and will allow you to disregard the one month original duration, the three month unavailability window and everything else. So provided you play the initial two storylets you can then let the rest of the story &quothang&quot as long as you want to with no fear of it disappearing.[/quote][color=#C2B280]This is exactly right – thanks for providing a summary.[/color]

I echoed my ending and reward here

I enjoyed the story, and loved looking around Parabola. I’m a mercenary at heart, though, and thought the rewards were a bit hit and miss.

For what it’s worth, I took the three different endings with my alts:

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/RandomWalker?fromEchoId=5838442 favouring the PB
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Third~Walker?fromEchoId=5838872 favouring the V
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Stroller?fromEchoId=5838681 favouring the O
edited by RandomWalker on 6/1/2015

[quote=RandomWalker]I enjoyed the story, and loved looking around Parabola. I’m a mercenary at heart, though, and thought the rewards were a bit hit and miss.

For what it’s worth, I took the three different endings with my alts:

http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/RandomWalker?fromEchoId=5838442 favouring the PB
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Third~Walker?fromEchoId=5838872 favouring the V
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Stroller?fromEchoId=5838681 favouring the O
edited by RandomWalker on 6/1/2015[/quote]

You are a hero. No more requests for ending PMs, look here, everyone!

I rather liked the way they parceled out the rewards. Roughly equal in value (aside from the more mercenary option), but running the gamut from the rare but not particularly useful, to the useful but not particularly rare.

I’m keeping a list of mirrors that have been peeked through. Someone poke me if I’m missing any.

Through a misplaced mirror
Through a high mirror
Through a scuffed mirror
Through a forgotten mirror

I’m getting the impression that each development in the case pays me based on how high I’ve raised the cases. Should I, therefore, try to grind those as high as possible first, then go through all the developments? Or will that just result in me skipping over developments entirely?

It looks like the developments give a number of rewards equal to the amount you have in each side’s quality, with the more exploratory/martial of the two claimants giving out .10E cartographical items and the more debauched diplomat of the pair giving out out .10E nostalgic ones. I haven’t seen any other rewards even at 40+ of the quality.

Given the most you can improve the case qualities in a single action is 3 (by calling random witnesses) that’s only .30E per action, not a particularly good rate unless you’re quite a low level.

What a delightful story! I oversaw a fair trial and let the evidence fall where it would, and I think justice was done in the end.

I saw to it that they settled (i.e., remained together) which was a greater justice than what the outcome of the proceedings would have been for me (favoring the Prince-Bishop).

Has anyone tracked Airs of London WRT the witnesses? I’m cycling through trying to get all of them, and either my notes are wrong or the witness you get is random within a range of Airs (that is, witnesses are not tied to a particular Air).

I didn’t even think about it - I was busy exploring the Miseremere trying to get lucky/unlucky results for all the mirrors. Of course I didn’t get them all before my nightmares were too high so I need to go back. I don’t think I’m still at a stage where I can call witnesses though.

Having now had two instances where I got different witnesses on the same Air I’d previously noted for another, I’m inclined to say that they are random, or at least show up based on probabilities not Air value.

[quote=Kaigen]I rather liked the way they parceled out the rewards. Roughly equal in value (aside from the more mercenary option), but running the gamut from the rare but not particularly useful, to the useful but not particularly rare.

I’m keeping a list of mirrors that have been peeked through. Someone poke me if I’m missing any.

Through a misplaced mirror
Through a high mirror
Through a scuffed mirror
Through a forgotten mirror[/quote]

I haven’t found any more, but the RNG hates me (spent two days trying to get a witness someone PM’ed me with, no luck).

I’m done now except for (edit: ) the second branch of the resulting opportunity card; despite strenuous efforts, I was unable to obtain the testimony of a scarred baroness, but I believe this should otherwise be complete.
edited by an_ocelot on 6/4/2015
edited by an_ocelot on 6/5/2015

I am slightly confused as I think I missed a chunk of content and I am not entirely sure if I misclicked or if I was lacking necessary qualities or something…

After the first Development, a break was called and I was expected to see two individuals. But I don’t think that happened to me. I was just returned to the main storylet where I was given the usual options to:

Undermine each party, stall for time or take an air-related choice.

Seeing there appeared to be nothing new I proceeded with the next Development, which has now opened up an option to travel to a special place. But I never got to interview the two individuals (and looking at other peoples’ journals) there definitely were things those individuals had to say.

Did I click too fast? Where were those choices?..
edited by genesis on 6/8/2015

I believe it’s possible to miss those two witnesses if you raise the qualities relating to either side of the case high enough before you move past the first development. (At least I think it was “high enough” – it might be “within a certain range.”)

OK, Feedback Time!

FB staff may note that I put a 3 out of 5 when asked by the Urchin what I thought of the story. Overall, I liked the writing and the rewards were decent, but my issue was with the structure.
As far as I can tell, the storylets were set up so that, based on how the luck/quirk checks worked out, the player would receive an overall impression from the testimonials that leaned one way or the other, both in the Quality numbers and in the impression given by the writing itself. Thing is, since I went out of my way to seek out all of what was there, it muddled my sympathies and left me with a rather confused impression of the real picture. Naturally, of course, the case was supposed to be difficult and the sides ambiguous, but… I don’t know, I just didn’t like it as much as the Haunting. Didn’t hook me, I suppose.

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Oh boo:( How unfortunate. Could a kind soul please PM me the action text for the storylets about quetsioning the two witnesses then, as I never even had a chance to see them. I mean the mini-snippets to the left of GO rather than the outcome text (which I can see in the journals but seem out of context without understanding what had been asked)

I’m in the middle of the story right now.

The header art in Misermere with &quotFallen London&quot written backwards is a nice subtle touch.

Vitamancy.