What rewards did people get? I got a ‘personal recommendation’, which felt like a huge slap on the face for all I’ve suffered and the massive action-sinks toward the end . . . I wouldn’t have minded as much not getting a great item/reward, but I felt like there was no real story and infuriating mechanics, and this was time I could have spent grinding my connections for the next conversion.
Did anyone else get any half-decent rewards?
Edit: Prepares to get downvoted for not liking the story :P Oh well :P edited by Robin Alexander on 1/26/2017[/quote]
Sommerset gives Primeaval Hint. Engineers give a Personal Recommendation. Devils give a Brass Skull. Empress gives Making Waves and reduces the relationships with all three factions.
The big question I have is "Now what?". I have all three items and the Study is promising me extra content for enduring this torture. Is it going to be released later? Am I missing something?
Overall I agree with Robin, the stories were extremely lackluster. Moloch Express was linear, short and dull. Persona Engine had no point - the AI is brought into the story and forgotten as soon as you get out of the building. Exhibition was an obtuse action mill with little lore beyond "Devils sure are fourty years ahead in the future you guys!"
Persona Engine was good, but it didn’t live up to its potential by the end. Moloch I liked despite the linearity, and enjoyed seeing more of Hell. This was…well, most of it felt like a pointless action sink tbh. I wonder if the different device options really had any point, and while it hints at lore it doesn’t really add anything of substance. It wasn’t so much bad as just…underwhelming. I did like the ending choices, to give it up to the chosen faction like promised or to the newly arrived people of importance last second.
EDIT: I think this is a story that would benefit from going back to later to play, after Sunless Skies maybe. edited by Cthonius on 1/26/2017
Persona Engine started as a good horror story about being locked in a sentient house, and then never went anywhere. The premise is there, but there is no build up and no resolution. It’s like reading the description on the back of Amnesia box and then putting it away and never playing the actual scary game.
I never got the impression that the "sentient house" was a major part of it. The story as a whole was about the people in which the mathmatician trod over and how the machine functioned. It was les horror-y than either of the other stories in this season.[li]
[quote=Longes][quote=Robin Alexander]bangs head on wall
I’ll refrain from further grumbling, but . . .
What rewards did people get? I got a ‘personal recommendation’, which felt like a huge slap on the face for all I’ve suffered and the massive action-sinks toward the end . . . I wouldn’t have minded as much not getting a great item/reward, but I felt like there was no real story and infuriating mechanics, and this was time I could have spent grinding my connections for the next conversion.
Did anyone else get any half-decent rewards?
Edit: Prepares to get downvoted for not liking the story :P Oh well :P edited by Robin Alexander on 1/26/2017[/quote]
Sommerset gives Primeaval Hint. Engineers give a Personal Recommendation. Devils give a Brass Skull. Empress gives Making Waves and reduces the relationships with all three factions.
The big question I have is "Now what?". I have all three items and the Study is promising me extra content for enduring this torture. Is it going to be released later? Am I missing something?
Overall I agree with Robin, the stories were extremely lackluster. Moloch Express was linear, short and dull. Persona Engine had no point - the AI is brought into the story and forgotten as soon as you get out of the building. Exhibition was an obtuse action mill with little lore beyond "Devils sure are fourty years ahead in the future you guys!"[/quote]
I’m now at the end of the story where I have to choose who receives the Wind of Ages, but…I’m not seeing the option for giving it to the Empress? All I have are Sommerset, Engineers, and Devils. Is this a bug on my end or did I make a mistake somewhere?
Well, my thoughts on the story haven’t quite sedimented yet but here are some first impressions.
It was easy-going and fun. I had no quibs about actions and pacing - on the trade fair, I just explored the exhibits at my leisure and the story progressed itself naturally.
Furthermore…
I wish I could have kept the Ancient Mandrake. Love it so much.
Once again, Alfred Lord Tennyson (indirectly) saves London from eldritch horrors. Normal Thursday night around here.
I always knew that one device was from Hell. It gives me headaches and stresses me out. Now, I have confirmation.
Also, I had no idea those recordings actually existed. Thank you folks for linking. I didn’t really need to sleep tonight.
Edit: added spoiler tag just to make sure edited by Lorn-Fluke on 1/26/2017
I’m wondering the same. I have checked all three items repeatedly, but those are the only options I have in the study. Two options per item, and the opportunity to go back to London. edited by Arika Ferenczy on 1/26/2017
Season hand-ins usually take a little while to be released - as I understand it there’ll be another slice of content available to everyone who’s done all 3 stories in the season, released at some point in the next month or two. Season hand-ins haven’t historically had as rigid a release schedule as Exceptional Stories.
I adored this story, really. Second part with main action was very good, but first one… just exceptional! All these technical (and botanical) marvels, so much to explore, khaganians (we never get enough of them, alas!), adorable and sad rubbery… And that particular hellish invention was simply hilarious.
While I liked almost all exceptional stories so far, this one was the most exciting of them all. I hope my character managed more dignity in exploring the fair, because I was far too giddy and agitated.
I liked the exploring the fair part, but too much of an action sink in the later half. I wish the century exhibition could be a permanent installation at the carnival. I would like to see some more of them at the feast of the rose, which is coming up. Also, I too would like a mandrake and gramophone.
Gave my wind the somerset. Now time to look at the clues.
To start with, I really enjoyed the idea of this and I was very giddy about having a new place to explore and maybe even one that stuck around somehow.
I was confused about how to advance the story because there was a counter that wasn’t obvious to me. I did like that I got warned about moving forward before I did so. The middle part was really interesting and I wanted more time to talk about the thing (avoiding spoilers).
The end did feel a little bit action steelery - not sure why it had to cost that many actions. I was also afraid to leave even though I needed to do something else.
At the end, I made one choice, then went along with another choice which it seems meant that I missed out on a reward. Which is fine, but makes me feel like I chose the wrong thing - Sometimes I have a really hard time making choices in game based on limited information. Since my character hated one group and had no real dealings with the other two, the last choice seemed obvious. Perhaps in future we might see more of the people asking? Maybe a conversation where we could ask them things? That is where I would not mind spending actions at all!
I think this was the weakest of the three from my perspective, but I loved the other 2 so it had a lot to live up to! I am a little lost in how this all ties together and hope fervently that it isn’t just a commercial for the upcoming kickstarter.
Yep, that settles it then. The Season of Skies is undoubtedly my favourite season yet. The previous two stories were in my top-five Fate Stories, and this one gets a solid 4/5 from me.
I actually had no problems with the mechanics. I don’t consider it an action sink when I learn something new for each use of an action. Even in the second part of the story the consecutive use of the same choice gave new text (at least twice each), so I never felt any of the actions was wasted.
The atmosphere was really nice, I thought it was quite evoking of what I had hoped for in such an exhibition and then later with the frantic and frightening feel of the Wind itself (I loved the whole premise with the Wind of Ages. I am a sucker for that kind of mysterious phenomena.) The small ‘Airs of London’ atmospheric texts were tremendous in invoking a suitable horrific feeling of just what was going on. Such as children playing in the Wind, and their terrified parents being too scared to try to approach, not knowing what would happen to them or their children.
The part with the regressed devil in the locomotive was particularly interesting and tense. Great work to the writers.
I also love how the people you befriended in the first part of the story came to your assistance in each part.
I presume that the Tablet of Celestial is our hand-in item, in which case I might just play the story again when it comes out for Fate to get a Tablet that I can keep for myself.
My sole, and small, disappointment is that studying the tablet in your study yields little revelation, unlike the recovered items of the two last stories which gave us discoveries of considerable significance. But then again, I presume this will change with the seasonal conclusion where the tablet probably serves a more interesting role.
Overall, I was quite satisfied with the story, It might not have been quite as phenomenal as the previous two, but I most definitely enjoyed myself playing through it. Now I just eagerly awaits the thrilling conclusion with this mysterious conspiratorial mastermind in the Season Tie-In, :)
. edited by Akernis on 1/26/2017
I didn’t mind this set of Exceptional Stories. Yes, they were a bit more plain but we can’t scale lifeburgs every month now can we? All-in-all they weren’t as bad as some people are making them out to be.
I do agree though that this set felt like “action-sponges”, with large portions of the story and being railroaded into particular choices. Still, I liked this Exceptional Story as it showcased some of the technology of London.
I’m more curious as to how the three items come together for the final story though.
I have finally finished this Story. It had less plot than some, but it had some marvelous jokes and turns of phrase:
[spoiler] Imagine! The Devils’ big secret invention a vacuum cleaner! And the dig at Tennyson (reading his own work) was priceless.
By the way, did anyone let the Empress take the Wind? Please PM me with the text. Both of my characters gave the Wind to other factions (my main, to Summerset, my alt to Hell), and lied about it to the Regiment.[/spoiler]
I didn’t find this story that confusing to follow, since storylets often contained text as to what you had to do to advance, and the icons representing the unlock qualities provided you with the number of the relevant Quality when you moused over them. Still, having to keep doing storylets until you reached a rather high number was tedious, so I would not rate this story as high as, say, "the 12:15 out of Moloch Station".
EDIT: My spoiler-tagged text asked people to send me a bit of text from the ES by PM. Thanks to all who’ve responded; I’ve seen it now. edited by cathyr19355 on 1/28/2017
I enjoyed this story a lot. It wasn’t one of my favorites, and the early portion when you’re just wandering around the exhibition was somewhat of a let-down (I had expected more of a carnival atmosphere), but once the action heats up it’s an entertaining romp. It was an action-oriented story, and I mostly prefer more mystery-oriented stories, but it’s also good to have some variety. And yes, on an echo-per-action basis the rewards were weak, but not everything is about wealth or unique items. Sometimes you just have an adventure and come away with a good story to tell. (Also, there’s every chance that the season conclusion will provide a rare or unique “Sunless Skies” item of some kind.)