I don’t understand this one.
Firstly, can anyone say what the storylet for free confessions is called? I don’t have Aftermath of an Audacious Theft anywhere on the new Myself page (searching for “aftermath” gives no results), but I can’t find the confessions anywhere.
And secondly… Did Failbetter really learn nothing from last year? Or, worse, decide to intentionally ignore all the feedback? The near-universal consensus was that it was too hard to do everything, despite the festival being seemingly design to encourage getting everything (unlike, say, FotR, which just has a bunch of Fate-locked gifts but you’re by no means expected to collect all of them). Did they really decide to just crank it up to 11, make it patently impossible to get everything without sinking literal hundreds of Fate, and add a ton of uncertainty to prevent less IRL wealthy players (i.e. almost all of them) from making informed choices?
Failbetter has made some decisions I don’t agree with lately, but I refuse to jump to conclusions and accusations of this magnitude immediately. I’m going to assume they’re bringing a way to get confessions that will likely come next week. And if I’m proved wrong - it’s hard to overstate how disappointed I will be, not just in the festival, but in FBG and their direction. Let’s wait and see, optimistically for now, though it pains me to say I wouldn’t put it past them.
The ongoing discussion has probably already covered this ground, but I’d like to distill my thoughts and say the following:
The aspect of this year’s Hallowmas that is most baffling to me is that the writers created an ENORMOUS amount of interesting new lore, and then overlaid a mechanical system that actively discourages players from reading most of it.
Players who are at all interested in the stats side of the game are punished most for this, because you feel an enormous pressure to pick up the Contrarian’s item and are left with next to no confessions for anything else. Those longterm, endgame players who probably feel that pressure most keenly, are the same players who probably have the most investment in the lore and mysteries that they’re not allowed to see unless they shell out real-world $$$.
This is the first time a seasonal event has felt like this, to me.
I feel that the seasonal events should have a lot of content that it may be very difficult to see all of, but that you can pour a little to a moderate amount of extra Fate into if you have that happy feeling of investment and want to support the devs.
Instead, this Hallowmas feels designed to milk the completionist whales for all they’re worth.
I’ve been one of those people in the past. I’ve given FBG substantial amounts of money (more than a dozen $, less than a hundred) to get all the unique rewards at a seasonal event. I won’t be doing that this time, because the amount of money I would have to spend to get anything is an order of magnitude higher, and there’s no way to mitigate that by actually, you know, diligently playing the game. It’s left a bad taste in my mouth, and it’s the latest in a series of disappointing incidents over the past couple years that are starting to seriously shake my faith in FBG’s running the game responsibly and enlightenedly.
Curious. After you get at least 2 “clues” is there any point to increasing the princess/widow/duchess’ ‘progress on investigation’? I’m being rather frugal with my confessions so I rather not use them up willy nilly when I could give them to the mayor.
[quote=Dudebro Pyro]
Firstly, can anyone say what the storylet for free confessions is called? I don’t have Aftermath of an Audacious Theft anywhere on the new Myself page (searching for "aftermath" gives no results), but I can’t find the confessions anywhere.[/quote]
You need to play through Hallowmas 1896: An Envoy from the Elder Continent - the opening storylet that introduces you to the Envoy and Contrarian. At the end of this storylet run, you’ll gain a free Confession and the quality Hallowmas: Aftermath of an Audacious Theft (incremented to 2), which unlocks the storylet called Collect Another Mysterious Confession. This seems to be the recurring storylet where you can collect the daily free Confession.
The quality Hallowmas: Aftermath of an Audacious Theft does NOT appear in the Myself tab. I’ve checked.
I’ve seen several posts in this topic that express frustration and disappointment over the inability to experience all of the Hallowmas content without paying fate. I shared this dissatisfaction at first; however, I took a step back and looked at this issue from Failbetter’s perspective and now, not only do I not hold it against them, but am actually satisfied with the way they are handling this event.
Think about this game as if it were an actual brick-and-mortar shop that just got in a new assortment of seasonal luxury goods. They put the new items in their display window to entice all of their customers into buying them. Nobody would be upset at the store for not giving these items away for free, they are for sale and are presented to customers for purchase. This is what Failbetter has done; they created new products in the form of content for their game (companions, lore, and a powerful item) and now they are trying to sell them to us. They are not taking anything away from us, they are just offering more, for a price; in fact, they are going one step further than a shop would by telling all of us that we can take one item out of the display case, for free, as a gift for being loyal customers.
I can’t fault failbetter for trying to sell their customers products, it’s a business after all. The only thing I could fault them for is that they are wrapping a sales pitch in the guise of a holiday celebration. But then don’t all stores do exactly that? and at the end of the day they are giving us a holiday gift, just not all of the gifts they possibly could. edited by Turlion on 10/25/2018
First, I want to say thank you for what was probably a much-needed check on the corporate venting. It’s easy to let frustration get too strong, especially when you’re around a bunch of people who are feeling the same way. We were, I think, starting to get too critical, and I thank you for pointing that out.
Now, that said, it’s important to note that Failbetter is not a brick-and-mortar store. Yes, their product is stories and occasional trinkets, but their business model for selling that product has little to do with the way that the local bookstore sells its stories. First of all, one of the core concepts of the game is that the core content of the game is accessible for free, including the main portion of the major events. This is true for the entire class of free-to-play games, but Failbetter has traditionally put a lot of emphasis on it. This is a core part of their brand, if we want to put it in those terms, and a core reason people love them and want to give them money. It is also why there’s so much distress when people feel that something which is (or is perceived to be) part of that core content is not truly available on this side of the paywall. (Can I use the word core any more?) It would mean that they’re becoming like them, like the hundreds of other game companies who are just out to make a game and a buck. If people wanted that, they wouldn’t be playing Fallen London.
Secondly, such a situation is a direct strike at the free-to-play business model. The core idea (did it again) of that model is that we’re going to make a game that you can play for free, and you’re going to like it so much that you’re going to want to put money in to get various extras. Traditionally, this means bonus content or skipping ahead. Fallen London’s stock in trade is the bonus content, though it dips its toes into both. The key to this, however, is that the free version of the game is satisfying in itself. If a "free" game requires a cash inlay to be playable, well, ever played one of those timer-based games that move so glacially slowly that you have to put in cash to get anything done? How long do you play those? How long do those games last? Not long, in either case. People who are willing to drop $100 on a game in the store will refuse to spend $5 on a game like that. Why? They feel tricked–and they have a right to. Thus, again, when people feel that thing labeled "free" really aren’t, they quite naturally are going to become upset.
Now, we have to ask, is Failbetter really steering Fallen London in that direction? No, I don’t think so. They’ve consistently shown a desire to make the yearly events fun and accessible to all players, new and advanced, drowning in euros or (me) raising three kids on an adjunct’s salary. What has happened, I think, is that they’re trying to find the sweet spot for Hallowmas and have yet to hit the mark. Remember, even though there’s an event every couple of months, they only get one crack at any given event per year. It’s hard to iterate rapidly on that kind of schedule.
One of the points that I’ve tried to work in is that even false perception can be as dangerous to a game as an actual problem. Ye olde developers are quite aware of this, and I have little doubt that our reactions are a topic of conversation at the Failbetter water cooler. It’s our job, if we really love this game, to aim our comments toward constructive criticism rather than griping, and give them the benefit of the doubt that they are, in fact, trying to make a game they and we both can be proud of.
That said: One of the core challenges with Hallowmas, and especially this Hallowmas, is that the holiday has two conflicting needs. In many ways, as I intimated in an earlier post, Hallowmas is an accountant’s holiday. Unless you have very limited interest in the new companions, those of us on the free confessions plan have to allocate those confessions very carefully. We need to know ahead of time what the paths are so that we can navigate through them successfully. However, Fallen London’s stock-in-trade is mystery, and mystery is precisely the element that Failbetter has added to this Hallowmas. If they told us ahead of time how the Rosers investigation was going to come out, it would spoil the fun. Yet without that, you set up for potential disappointment and ill feeling.
How is Hallowmas going to walk that line? I’ll tell you in two weeks. In the mean time, it’s probably best to remember that this year’s Hallowmas is an experiment, and to treat it as such.
I’m probably going to play through the different options on alts, and hold off on using any confessions on my main until I know what my options really are.
[quote=Turlion]I’ve seen several posts in this topic that express frustration and disappointment over the inability to experience all of the Hallowmas content without paying fate. I shared this dissatisfaction at first; however, I took a step back and looked at this issue from Failbetter’s perspective and now, not only do I not hold it against them, but am actually satisfied with the way they are handling this event.
Think about this game as if it were an actual brick-and-mortar shop that just got in a new assortment of seasonal luxury goods. They put the new items in their display window to entice all of their customers into buying them. Nobody would be upset at the store for not giving these items away for free, they are for sale and are presented to customers for purchase. This is what Failbetter has done; they created new products in the form of content for their game (companions, lore, and a powerful item) and now they are trying to sell them to us. They are not taking anything away from us, they are just offering more, for a price; in fact, they are going one step further than a shop would by telling all of us that we can take one item out of the display case, for free, as a gift for being loyal customers.
I can’t fault failbetter for trying to sell their customers products, it’s a business after all. The only thing I could fault them for is that they are wrapping a sales pitch in the guise of a holiday celebration. But then don’t all stores do exactly that? and at the end of the day they are giving us a holiday gift, just not all of the gifts they possibly could. edited by Turlion on 10/25/2018[/quote]
To add to what Siankan said, the big problem, I think, with this version of Hallowmass is that there is nothing to do. If you play for free you can spend one action a day collecting confessions and then less than 20 at the end to cash them in however you want. Aside from that, there is nothing to do for the entire holiday except stare at the 5 (!) useless pinned cards cluttering your regular play. Now, most F2P have stores like you describe during events. Places where people can spend money/premium currency for exclusive items, and often there are free samples, but this event is just the store.
That’s the problem here. There are no mechanics* this Hallowmass. They are just drip-feeding us currency for the event store throughout a week. Even if you use fate there are no mechanics here… The investigation into the Rosers looks super interesting, but I can’t interact with it in any way since I’m going for the debate lessons. Last year’s grind for notability was grueling but at least it was something to do to interact with the event, and it motivated me to increase my DBR to the non-SMEN cap, which I’ll grant is coming in handy for the Paramount Presence grind, but come on.
*Okay there’s trading, but that’s pretty darn minimal
[quote=NotaWalrus]Even if you use fate there are no mechanics here… The investigation into the Rosers looks super interesting, but I can’t interact with it in any way since I’m going for the debate lessons. Last year’s grind for notability was grueling but at least it was something to do to interact with the event, and it motivated me to increase my DBR to the non-SMEN cap, which I’ll grant is coming in handy for the Paramount Presence grind, but come on.[/quote]Honestly, if they’d just dropped the Notability cost of getting confessions by a few points (to 5 Notability, maybe? Even 6 might be bearable), right now I’d be happily – and appropriately, for the season – telling Tales of Terror by the fire at Summerset College and gathering confessions to explore the mystery of the Rosers and meet new companions. Instead, there’s not much to do at the moment. New case investigations, flash lays, and heists would be a fun way of getting confessions, too, as has been mentioned.
I think I can see what the intent is for this Hallowmas. The twelve free confessions we’ll get by the end of the Feast of Masks should be just enough to complete the Rosers investigation with the Princess, Widow, Duchess, and Envoy. The companions and the mayor’s lesson require you to devote most or all of your confessions towards either of them (and I don’t think you can get all the companions with only 12 confessions), and thus miss out on participating in the Rosers investigation. Note, however, that there’s a clearly-marked storylet with the Envoy to "Witness the solving of the mystery". Presumably this will allow you to not miss out entirely on the Rosers storyline if you instead go for the companions or the lesson. But you will miss out on all of the interactions and story with the characters if, instead, you want those new companions or a personal debate lesson…and story is what this game is all about. It’s a difficult choice, just as last year’s choice between companions and the fancy lance was. The new mechanics of this Hallowmas just make the choice a much harder one.
On the upside, though, I did get a Wretched Mog! Does anyone have naming suggestions for this unpleasant feline?
I’m planning to have several wretched mogs, who will serve as a retinue for my Princeling of the Wakeful Eye. Don’t have a proper name yet, but I’m hoping for some inspiration from the event text.
With regards to the other issue at hand, I think something that hasn’t been mentioned is how Hallowmas is technically bigger this year. Unless I’m suffering from a serious lapse in my memory, previous years haven’t featured anything like the Rosers investigation, which is taking up confessions which would otherwise go to companions.
Now, should Failbetter have increased the number of confessions on offer to compensate? Maybe. I know that I was already expecting—planning, really—to spend FATE this Hallowmas, but the math I’m doing is coming out to a higher sum than I was expecting. I think a way of investing resources to get a few extra actions, like trading in Notability at a slightly more forgiving rate than last year, or getting a handful from Flash Lays/Expeditions/Pickpocket’s Promenade—but only a limited number.
Which may be the idea, eventually. I don’t claim to know the minds of the dev team, but I would expect it would be easier, as a business proposition, for them to make it easier to get confessions if they also increase the number of things to spend confessions on.
That having been said, I don’t think they hit the right balance this time around. If I’m running the numbers right, the confessions we get for free are a third of what we need to do everything. Which, relative to the the total number of confessions, feels a bit low. The cost of confessions is unchanging, so any increased distance between “free confessions” and “maximum usable confessions” is keenly felt
And who knows, maybe they’ll be pulling an expansion of events out for the second week—that is the sort of thing they know we’re receptive to, thanks to the elections. Or maybe not. We’ll see.
[quote=Vega]You need to play through Hallowmas 1896: An Envoy from the Elder Continent - the opening storylet that introduces you to the Envoy and Contrarian. At the end of this storylet run, you’ll gain a free Confession and the quality Hallowmas: Aftermath of an Audacious Theft (incremented to 2), which unlocks the storylet called Collect Another Mysterious Confession. This seems to be the recurring storylet where you can collect the daily free Confession.
The quality Hallowmas: Aftermath of an Audacious Theft does NOT appear in the Myself tab. I’ve checked.[/quote]
Thanks, Vega. I remember playing through that initial storylet but I received an Inkling of Identity and haven’t seen it since, nor have I seen any confession storylets. I’ll have to submit a bug report, I think.
Would a +20 Persuasive weapon be the best Persuasive weapon in the game? If not, I’ll probably not pursue it.
More relevant to my interests, will the free confessions be enough to unlock all the lore material for the Rosers? Is there any way to figure that out at this point?
ok, so, I gotta vent a little about the new upgraded companions
I know that Paul is busy with Sunless Skies and all, but having the upgrades use the exact same portrait is Bad. not even a different colored tint to indicate they’re upgraded? it’s disappointing
Last year I spent both weeks of Hallowmas grinding Notability for Confessions. I didn’t manage to get everything, so on the last day, I spend Fate to get the last few things I was missing.
This year I’ll apparently be ignoring Hallowmas aside from collecting daily confessions. I’m not going to invest real money if I can’t first invest time and effort, no matter how interesting the new items and lore may be.
For those of us who have received a searing enigma from an unlikely garden, don’t we already know where the Rosers went? Mystery solved! Hand me my fee. What do you mean that is not a ‘credible source’? Bah.
This is my first Hallowmas, and I’m quite enjoying it so far. On the plus side: Fallen London has not only completely redone Hallowmas from last year, they’ve added a substantial amount of lore and overhauled the mechanics. That must have taken a lot of effort both writing and coding-wise (compare it to this year’s Fruits of the Zee festival, which had no changes whatsoever.) This is also coming just after they overhauled the website, and right before the release of another Exceptional Story (yeah, they do it every month, but it still has to be written, edited, UI tested, etc.). I think it’s important to acknowledge FL put a large amount of effort into changing and expanding Hallowmas, one that probably took many person-hours, and the lore (typos notwithstanding) looks super-cool.
I think, in hindsight, Fallen London probably should’ve kept the ability to spend Notability on a confession and just lowered the Notability cost, and I agree both that free Confessions are too limited, and that Confessions for FATE are far too expensive (15 Fate for a single confession? And the confession is random? I cannot afford that.) As Sian Kan noted, it’s very difficult for FL to iterate, bc they only get one shot a year, so here’s hoping they also introduce a new story next year but make it significantly easier to pick up Confessions without spending Fate.
Just to chime in (having navigated my own disappointment with Hallowmas this year), I think much of the root of the frustration here stems from a misattribution of sorts. Certain festivals have seemed to have had an intentional "challenge" component to them, which many of us suppose FB includes deliberately to engage end-gamers like myself. The Noman challenge is the prototype here, and I think many of us conceived of Hallowmas as being similar in that sense.
My first Hallowmas, the perceived "challenge" was to max out companions to get the best interview from Huffman. I spent a frenetic two weeks getting and trading confessions, and it was doable without fate. Challenge readily met, good fun! (And cool upgraded character art which set an unfortunate expectation, it would seem!)
Last year, I thought FB had upped the challenge by adding a second objective to the Huffman one, the mayoral best-in-slot, again intentionally (as with the ever-slowly-increasing difficulty of Noman). The source of much of our frustration last year was that this supposed increased challenge seemed just slightly mis-calibrated: I fell perhaps 3 or 4 confessions short of getting all companions and the mayoral item without fate. I’m not completely BDR maxed but I’m close and I did dive in whole-heartedly; it was an intense two weeks. "If only" the notability grind had capped at one level lower, I would have made it. So there was a lot of venting that it wasn’t "doable" and that the cap should be lowered by 1.
This year, in addition to the Huffman challenge, and the mayoral best-in-slot objective, there is now a third "lore objective". And no means at all to grind or otherwise acquire more confessions. So clearly, an "end-gamers challenge" isn’t part of the design of the festival. That probably should have been clear last year when FB stated that the grinding was basically a little bonus for end-gamers so they had something to do, rather than a means to accomplish something that was supposed to be attainable by design, and that they hadn’t anticipated what a drag it would cause players. I suspect they didn’t realize that at least some of us had this mental model of the celebration having a "doable" challenge component. I misconstrued their comment as "we’ll take another look at the challenge and rebalance, but for the moment, have some more confessions on us."
Obviously now I’ve given up the idea that Hallowmas has this challenge attribute – it was a misattribution to begin with – and accept the celebration for what it is: currently a three option menu from which I have to choose one branch, where "successful" resolution of the celebration is one (and only one) of: maxing Huffman’s interview via all upgrades [update: this isn’t the case this year, as Failbetter clarifies in a post below!], acquiring the mayoral item, or having personal involvement in solving the mystery. Admittedly, in light of the fact that lore is so important to most of us end-gamers, it is a forced choice of sorts and we feel the sting of not being able to do the rest, because usually we can access all branch content if we are diligent, and without fate expenditure.
That said, I do appreciate the new lore focus! From a story perspective it is a much more solid offering than the random "a door of confessions blew open" thing. But I kind of wish the companion upgrades and the mayoral item would go away in the future so that I could just enjoy this kind of new content unencumbered.
The thing I really miss this year though is the frenzy of the festival, the intense engagement, something that was perfectly suited to Hallowmas. I’m fine with the choice aspect – other festivals make us choose things at the expense of others – but I do feel like I might as well pop off to the Court for a week and just hit London the last day to gather and resolve accumulated confessions, since I think you don’t even have to be in town to get them the day of. What used to be an insane (fittingly!) burst of activity is now…nothing really, other than a hard choice to make. Barely a blip anymore on the festival schedule, which makes me just a bit sad.
But I think I’ll hang around town…just in case. :-) edited by Shaerys on 10/25/2018