[color=#ff9900]You could call it a confidence trick, but then people would know what it was, wouldn’t they?[/color]
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[color=#ff9900]Delicious friends! We’ve just released some new, free content: a flexible card-based mini-game called "A Flash Lay". Flash Lays are confidence tricks: choose a mark, muster your schemes, and avoid suspicion.[/color]
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[color=#ff9900]We’re trialling this content at the moment, and plan to adjust it in response to feedback. Have a play and let us know what you think! [/color]
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[color=#ff9900]There are two Flash Lays available now: one for characters with Shadowy and Persuasive of about 50, and another for characters with stats of 125 or more.[/color]
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[color=#ff9900]Characters who have advanced a little way along the Persuasive and Shadowy tracks will find the starting storylet in Veilgarden.
Thank you; this was a fun way to up the two stats that I am currently still working on (i.e. Shadowy and Watchful)… Some of the challenges on the second Flash Lay are off the charts, though! (Even with 200+30 persuasive, one only had a 66% chance of success. ._.) edited by Sestina Valdis on 12/16/2015
Some very interesting mechanics here, never saw cards that automaticly activate when you get them either, after almost 20 actions I still see new things which is not very common for mini games like this, I am having alot of fun with this acutally!
I enjoyed it. Good challenges, good rewards for the 125 one (I think, I’d need some people to confirm) a lot of fun. I don’t know what the 50 one is like with rewards though I am curious. I will say though: I started with 40 actions and (partly due to my picking the lowest options to raise my stats) ended with none. edited by Kylestien on 12/16/2015
Fun and I’d like to see more, however:
I’d like the needed requirement to be a LITTLE bit lower for the rewards. I think 90 would be sufficent. ALTERNATIVLY ad I think this better, do what Cat and Mouse do and have three rewards: One weaker reward for 50, one for 100, and one better one then current for 150.
Also, a Watchful and Dangerious one later on, for those players.
Somehow add this to Mr Eaten content in a card game of spiral and misery.
I like it! I’m more and more in favor of these alternate-deck areas. Flash Lays do seem to be extraordinarily action-heavy, and although I suspect it’s a matter of getting the right cards in the right order, and that larger lodgings are beneficial, there’s probably not much one can do to affect the randomness other than keeping menaces low. The good “shortcuts” seem to involve turning obstacles into progress by having enough Up Your Sleeve – I haven’t had a Flash Lay last long enough yet to actually figure out what the transformed obstacles (Corrupt Constable, Ring of Duplicate Keys, Informant) are good for. They’d have to be quite good considering how many actions it takes to earn one!
I seem to recall one of the staff mentioning a while back that "alternate deck" locations would be shifting more and more towards a fixed hand-size too. It’s a bit of a shame since it’s one of the biggest perks of having expensive lodgings, and the more tightly-played alternate-deck subgames like heists and Polythreme benefit from it enormously. I guess if the second Flash Lay opens up at 125 stats, one could expect it to be similar to in EPA to Affair of the Box, but it’ll likely take quite a bit of math to figure that out, and having a hand size limited to three will definitely affect that.
Added to that, I’m not sure whether this is a bug or intentional, but I can only draw three cards, too, despite having a four-card lodgings :-S[/quote]
Given that Zee now forces a three-card pool regardless of lodgings, and previous comments indicating a similar change is under consideration for Heists, I would guess this is intentional.[li] edited by Jeremy Avalon on 12/16/2015
I would like to know how much Progress I need to complete a mission, before drawing the card that tells me (it’s 100 for the harder one). Also 100 progress feels pretty long.
I’m super-grateful for the outfit switchers, now!
(Hmm, this may have been fixed already, since one of them has vanished, but I’ll leave it in just in case: Is “Make your Move: the Time Draws Near” supposed to (a) be drawable when you have “Make your Move: A Confessional Evening” in your hand, and (b) then just redirect to “Make your Move: A Confessional Evening”? Because that seems confusing and also deck-cluttering.)
Now that I’m done: I think it’s cool – glad to see mechanics from Flint making it out into the wider world – but I have to be in the right mood to be away from the Fifth City for a big chunk of time, so I probably won’t be replaying this a ton.
An alt had a pretty smooth run at the spirifier, for practice. 35 echoes for 29 actions, and that was with no failures or bad card pulls. Then tried the harder one. First hand I drew contained two obstacle drawers, second hand drew one. Obviously had no chance of clearing the obstacles and so had to take a hit.
Rewards: Uncanny Incunabulum (12.50), Blackmail Material (12.50), 10 x Compromising Document (5.00), 2 x Partial Map (5.00), 10 x Journal of Infamy (5.00), 250 x Proscribed Material (10.00) = 50 Echoes. I didn’t keep track of actions, unfortunately, but eyeballing my notes I’m guessing it was 25-30, so that’s pretty good–note that most high-Progress actions were 72% at 250 in the main stat, usually Persuasive.