I was confused when I began the story and remained so until the end. It felt like I was supposed to know more somehow and I was left wondering if I would understand it better if I played Sunless Seas/Skies or whether have I really so little insight into the game world even as an endgame player.
I was also quite bothered with the lack of getting to explore more; the party was a regretfully boring affair and I especially mourn the unused potential of getting more hints into the relationship between the Prince and his family, the Senechal and the Fingerkings.
I am wondering, what did Courtier mean by: "And now the Waking Courts will suffer for it"?
That said: the concept of the story is wonderful (even if the execution did not live up to it) and the writing splendid. edited by Desirée on 2/17/2020
I watched my husband play Borrowed Glory this month, and watching the Prince abuse his Seneschal depressed me terribly. I refuse to play this story; we’ll see what the March ES brings.
I hate to add to the chorus of people who weren’t satified with this month’s story, but there it is. I haven’t had a subscription for quite a while and decided to treat myself this month to one and was disappointed. It seemed extremely short compared to other month stories I’ve read. I basically got straight through it in one evening, where as others have taken me days. (Or sometimes longer.) There seemed to be a lot of very short descriptions that didn’t lead anywhere, and only served to eat up action points rather than having larger sections of text for atmosphere in one place, or having choices that you make, causing a difference in the story.
And that’s where one of my largest complaints comes down to. It seems like the only difference in an otherwise linear story was what cut of meat was chosen and then a RNG choice that (IMO) was set with too low a chance for success. I did actually succeed in tricking the Prince, but it seems like a lot of people didn’t, and although that’d be fine if the game recognised the failure state with alternative text to reflect that, it sounds like it doesn’t and would have annoyed me if the RNG hadn’t cooperated.
I also felt a bit lost in places. What writing was there was good at times, but there could have been so much more to flesh out the world and give the player more information about what was going on so they could be more invested. Maybe this is just lore I haven’t come across yet, but it was hard to care about the different courts (like the waking court?) when I didn’t really know what they were supposed to represent. It was also disappointing that you weren’t given any chance (even if unsuccessful) to talk the senchal out of his decision. The Senchal was the only character I really felt like had enough substance for me to care about.
Even the ending was a bit confusing.
Why would the Senchal leave me a gift after I tricked the Prince, when he seemed completely devoted to him?
Just to let you know that I’ve heard the complaints re the luck test and impossibility (and what happens if you have bad luck), and agree. The impossible test was a bug in my design. I have fixed that, and also added a branch that means you can stop the Prince, albeit at cost to yourself, if you’re very unlucky.
If anyone who got the ending where they were forced to fail wants to reset this, send me a support ticket with your user and character name: support@failbettergames.com - I will reset it as soon as I can. (Be aware that I’m on annual leave next week, so while I’ll try to do it before I go, I might not be able to.) I’m officially out of hours now, so I’ll start tomorrow morning!
Sorry about this - I feel my design let down Cass’s writing, and that sucks.[/color] edited by babelfishwars on 2/26/2020
Just to let you know that I’ve heard the complaints re the luck test and impossibility (and what happens if you have bad luck), and agree. The impossible test was a bug in my design. I have fixed that, and also added a branch that means you can stop the Prince, albeit at cost to yourself, if you’re very unlucky.
If anyone who got the ending where they were forced to fail wants to reset this, send me a support ticket with your user and character name: support@failbettergames.com - I will reset it as soon as I can. (Be aware that I’m on annual leave next week, so while I’ll try to do it before I go, I might not be able to.) I’m officially out of hours now, so I’ll start tomorrow morning!
Sorry about this - I feel my design let down Cass’s writing, and that sucks.[/color]
edited by babelfishwars on 2/26/2020[/quote]A dev admitting their mistakes, fixing them and offering compensation to the community is such a rare event.
This is why I love FBG! :D Your efforts are the light that guide us in the Neath!
[quote=Skinnyman]]A dev admitting their mistakes, fixing them and offering compensation to the community is such a rare event.
This is why I love FBG! :D Your efforts are the light that guide us in the Neath![/quote]
you can’t help but love fbg because when they make mistakes they acknowledge them and try to fix it, to fbg going that extra kilometre.
I think I reached this story’s climax right after this announcement was made. After accepting the Courtier’s task and getting the cheaper cut, the success rate for sabotaging the Rapacious Prince’s ritual was 100%, which confused me for a bit since I heard that the success rate was 60% for everyone else. I guess the success rate was increased based on the feedback from players.
[quote=Jolanda Swan]So if you take the other route, and buy the non-murdery meat, what is your success rate?[/quote] 75%. I’ve failed my first attempt, waiting for another action to try again. If I have to take the "costly" option, I’ll report back.
Edit: Succeeded on the second try, someone else will have to report on the costly option. edited by Kaigen on 2/27/2020
I have to say, the central choice of this story didn’t really feel like much of a choice at all, given how thoroughly unsympathetic the prince was, and how obviously dangerous his ambitions. The only reason you’d ever want to help him is macabre curiosity.
So I finished the story after the reset, and got the desired result (thwarting the prince).
Though FB was very kind in resetting the story, thus allowing much of the bitter taste to go away, I admit the same complaints remain for me: a very significant choice not being signposted enough, and most importantly the lack of alternatives in case you failed the luck test, is not something I wish to go through again in an ES. Making it more likely to succeed was a positive change, but statistically someone will fail and have the story ruined for them.
In other questions, did we get the seneschal’s reaction to the failure? I didn’t see anything but I might have missed it.
[quote=Jolanda Swan]and most importantly the lack of alternatives in case you failed the luck test, is not something I wish to go through again in an ES. Making it more likely to succeed was a positive change, but statistically someone will fail and have the story ruined for them.
[/quote]
But there is red-post above?
> and also added a branch that means you can stop the Prince, albeit at cost to yourself, if you’re very unlucky.
Oh, i didn’t know there was a chance to stop him even if you failed, since I did succeed. Yes, this was my main complain so now all’s good for me. edited by Jolanda Swan on 3/5/2020