For those of you who have experienced both the old Hallowmas and the new Hallowmas, I am curious to know what you think of the changes? Does new Hallowmas meet or exceed your expectations? This is a space to discuss such topics and compare opinions on the new mechanics.
I am of two minds here:
Grinding for Notablity is at least more fun then the Feast of the Rose year 2 with no Fate (i.e., you’ve got almost all of the companions and no more are forthcoming.). But the lack of a
Donation is a huge pain. Like someone else here I mistimed my click for a new confession (before I got Notablity 6 but after I had already gotten the MW). Luckily for me it was for my 14th confession so I’ve had enough to finish (with some generous help.).
It would be nice to be able to donate confessions rather than trade them - though I can obviously see how that can be abused.
This also has got to be the most expensive festival thus far with having to purchase the upgradable companions - never mind having to decide whether replacing my alluring accomplice is worth it (probably not, right now, having all but hawked every penny I have to avoid selling my top tier items and the 49
Enigmas I’ve in storage.)
And I joked about best in slot boots during the election, but please. Gloves maybe? A festival of shoes?
But, Slowcake aside, I did enjoy the lack of opportunity cards requires for the festival. Though one granting confessions randomly to non-POSI characters would have been helpful, perhaps?
edited by Parelle on 11/4/2016
I like the companion upgrades, but I don’t like the how scarce and random the needed confessions are - I wish there was a way to trade with the bazaar itself rather then just playing the random confession game. Also, I would like a mechanic for your character and other characters making confessions again. It’s a great roleplay opportunity.
[quote=Robin Alexander]Well, I was probably more than a little vocal, but . . . nervous cough
I prefer last year’s festival; I was actually super psyched in previous months, just waiting for this year’s festival, because I loved last year’s so much and was waiting for a shot at improving my tactics. The action-count was massively heavy, but free/zero action requests (or a daily limit to requests) could have fixed that . . . but then lots of people made the upper limit easily, so maybe it was fine. Anyway, it seemed good to me. I was able to work for what I wanted, earn what I wanted, and felt that I deserved what I received.
There was also the chance to boost the Masters connection, as well as various options that were amazing for role-playing . . . do you betray real-life friends or not? Who do you betray them to? The probably only downside was not being able to confess/betray to the same people the following year, but that could have been easily fixed (that’s just what I hear, though, as I only did the one festival).
This year -? Ugh.
It feels like an Advent Calendar, but a really biased and unfair Calendar. First of all, no one fixed the issue with social actions, so no one can send a point of Notability to anyone . . . leaving aside things like that, non-PSOI and people who use up their Notability have no means to grind, so they’re forced to spend Fate, which not everyone can afford. So you cannot physically get all of the companions . . .
You’re also left with nothing to do, because you collect one NPC confession, then another confession, and - yup - you’re done for the day. You might spend 3 actions in a day, if you’re lucky, and that’s it . . . no actual game-play, no painful/complex role-playing choices, no involving any of your RL friends (aside from some trading in the second week, maybe) . . . it’s an absolute bore.
Last year’s festival maybe needed a couple of tweaks, but that was it . . . this year’s festival just feels kind of lazy (I’m real sorry to say that)! It points out huge flaws in unfinished features, lacks any kind of real choices or anything to do, and the only bonus are new companions . . .
Eh, I don’t mind collecting things, but I’m not sure the massive obsession with companions lately? Why not gain rare items, or weapons, or rare/large connections/renown, or - well - anything? Or even a choice, so we have a variety of ‘prizes’? None of those companions come close to my Fate-locked ones anyway, meaning they’re there just as collectors’ pieces . . .
I’m just . . . really disappointed. Might not bother next year.[/quote]
I concur. Though I never really aim to get all the companions the fact that I’m struggling to get two is alarming - last year it was because I was delicate with social actions, this year it’s because there’s just no way to do it. I collected all the offered confessions and got, what? Five or six, total, so far, for the upgrades. Still waiting on one of those apparently exceptionally rare "trade x confession for y confession" cards to pop up.
Last years was much more interactive and immersive.
[quote=pillbox][quote=Robin Alexander]Well, I was probably more than a little vocal, but . . . nervous cough
I prefer last year’s festival; I was actually super psyched in previous months, just waiting for this year’s festival, because I loved last year’s so much and was waiting for a shot at improving my tactics. The action-count was massively heavy, but free/zero action requests (or a daily limit to requests) could have fixed that . . . but then lots of people made the upper limit easily, so maybe it was fine. Anyway, it seemed good to me. I was able to work for what I wanted, earn what I wanted, and felt that I deserved what I received.
There was also the chance to boost the Masters connection, as well as various options that were amazing for role-playing . . . do you betray real-life friends or not? Who do you betray them to? The probably only downside was not being able to confess/betray to the same people the following year, but that could have been easily fixed (that’s just what I hear, though, as I only did the one festival).
This year -? Ugh.
It feels like an Advent Calendar, but a really biased and unfair Calendar. First of all, no one fixed the issue with social actions, so no one can send a point of Notability to anyone . . . leaving aside things like that, non-PSOI and people who use up their Notability have no means to grind, so they’re forced to spend Fate, which not everyone can afford. So you cannot physically get all of the companions . . .
You’re also left with nothing to do, because you collect one NPC confession, then another confession, and - yup - you’re done for the day. You might spend 3 actions in a day, if you’re lucky, and that’s it . . . no actual game-play, no painful/complex role-playing choices, no involving any of your RL friends (aside from some trading in the second week, maybe) . . . it’s an absolute bore.
Last year’s festival maybe needed a couple of tweaks, but that was it . . . this year’s festival just feels kind of lazy (I’m real sorry to say that)! It points out huge flaws in unfinished features, lacks any kind of real choices or anything to do, and the only bonus are new companions . . .
Eh, I don’t mind collecting things, but I’m not sure the massive obsession with companions lately? Why not gain rare items, or weapons, or rare/large connections/renown, or - well - anything? Or even a choice, so we have a variety of ‘prizes’? None of those companions come close to my Fate-locked ones anyway, meaning they’re there just as collectors’ pieces . . .
I’m just . . . really disappointed. Might not bother next year.[/quote]
I concur. Though I never really aim to get all the companions the fact that I’m struggling to get two is alarming - last year it was because I was delicate with social actions, this year it’s because there’s just no way to do it. I collected all the offered confessions and got, what? Five or six, total, so far, for the upgrades. Still waiting on one of those apparently exceptionally rare "trade x confession for y confession" cards to pop up.
Last years was much more interactive and immersive.[/quote]
A rare enough card that I didn’t even realize it existed, when I made my complaint about the lack of trading confessions without the use of other players.
To clarify, there are no Opp cards for trades but there are NPC options that cycle daily - today, for example, you can trade the Illuminated Gentleman’s confession for others in Spite. It was unclear from your posts whether you knew this or not - if so then sorry!
I loved this year’s festival to begin with - who doesn’t love new companions? - but I agree it got boring quickly, with not a lot to do. Huffam’s appearance will change that again, but possibly not for long - in the past he’s only been one conversation. Old Hallowmas was a crazy frenzy and I agree that something needed to be done to tone it down and make it more sensible, but while I really enjoyed new NPCs and NPC interactions, this feels a little like a 3 or 4 day thing spread over 2 weeks. (Also, echoing the usual moans about gifting notability and confessions and social actions generally - it’s a real shame that isn’t sorted out, especially for this festival in particular.)
This must have been a hell of a lot of work to put together, and I had a really good time with it all - I just feel like there is, somewhere, a more consistently engaging middle ground.
Edit: On a re-read this comes across as more negative than I feel. While all of the above still represents my opinion, I can’t overstate that I have had such a good time this Hallowmas, due both to the high quality of this new content and the always-delicious community.
edited by Barselaar on 11/4/2016
Nope, I’m somehow managed to miss that memo - granted, those options would probably more useful after everyone has gathered all the potential confessions. Like a second stage trade-in that they have with Feast of the Rose and all that.
[quote=Barselaar]To clarify, there are no Opp cards for trades but there are NPC options that cycle daily - today, for example, you can trade the Illuminated Gentleman’s confession for others in Spite. It was unclear from your posts whether you knew this or not - if so then sorry!
[/quote]
Ah, I didn’t notice it so far down the page! I was waiting for it to turn up in the deck. Shame on me.
I preferred this year’s festival. For context, I believe I use fewer than 40 actions per day. Last year it seemed very game-y with the coordination around player confession lists, very action intensive, and the chance for people to get upset at each other for betrayals.
This year I liked the lighter touch, the prose, and the wide possibility of options for using the confessions.
My biggest complaint this year would be the lack of signposting around the NPC trading options.
Would be nice if they had the same silver outline and position in the action screen as the other Hallowmass event actions.
As much as I love the potential for new collectable companions I preferred the older Hallowmas.
I greatly underestimated how much I would enjoy corresponding with the community and it was so nice to have an alternative dump for my actions. One does tire of the Fidgeting Writer grind especially after a few failed runs.
There just doesn’t feel like there’s much to do this year. I agree with the Advent calendar comparison but at least the Advent calendar came every day.
Kinda an answer to your points with my opinions on them:
Personally, I really like the much more lax nature of it all. A lot of people do. There are enough grinds as is, and being able to be less bogged down every season of the year is pretty pleasing in my opinion. The trading aspect when you had 3 alts to assist you was… greatly dimished, though. I am both happy and disappointed by this, as the trading aspect is one of the more exciting parts of the holiday, and it’s a shame to see that 3 accounts cut it to a stump for me.
I do agree that Notability needs to be replaced. Perhaps bring back one of the old systems FBG used for early content, like investigations or hunting beasties for the Department of Menace Eradication. Notability has tonnes of problems, like being wonky af, heavily favouring lategame players that didn’t seek, screwing over anyone with obscurity and those without PoSI status, the dependence upon the RNGods and Time the Hitler to avoid your house while you’re grinding MW up to 15 for Notability 6 and requiring one of the most clicking-heavy repetitive grinds - sideconverting. I am amazed by the huge host of problems this particular way of grinding brings.
The RP choices are still there, if somewhat diminished. The choice of companions can be a heavily RP-based one. Do you want to send your old companions in this direction? That one? Are you willing to haunt the goldfish? But, indeed, the options for player confessions shall be dearly missed. At least we have the forums for this sort of thing. The use of masks for SS Confessions also feels somewhat absurd when the pictures have been detached from their meaning, as you only see each type of mask once. (There seems to have been a huge change of aesthetic between the 2 versions of the holiday. We went from ‘strange and scary tradition that made everyone stalk you’ and into ‘a bunch of looters walking around the city on loot day and looking for loot that might just be slightly important to people’. I really miss the old themes a lot, and I hope they get expanded upon.)
The focus on companions compounds me as well. While I understand that writing about predefined people your char 100% knows because they own the item is easier, the extreme amount of them is getting annoying. It wouldn’t be too hard to do upgrades to items, either. (And would somewhat ease the veteran cries of ‘why is this shittier than what I have’) The devs did it in the Nadir! I am most befuddled by this. (You have to give it to them, though. All the text for the companions is A+)
I feel like old Hallowmas leaned too far into the grind side of things. It stopped being a holiday and became a different way to spend all your actions doing a thing for collector qualities. (C: Masters which, admit it, no one ever actually uses and Huffam, which unlocks a single option and slightly changes the results based on how good your entry was. If anything, the rewards here are much better than before.). I feel like FotER is closer to the desired effect. (But not to the desired amount of microtransactions present in one place. Seriously, the amount of fatelocked gifts in that! ABSURD!) It adds a slew of new options and new text in form of a branching opportunity card and options at the carnival, and doesn’t tie itself too close to a hardcore give-me-97%-of-your-actions-for-this-month grind.
New Hallowmas seems to be trying to be like Old Hallowmas and FotER both. It ties itself to a grind like Hallowmas did before, except the grind is much worse, and tries to get a slew of interesting text to create a sense of exploration like FotER did. Except, there isn’t much exploration. The list of companions isn’t, exactly, extensive, and the seven confessions didn’t carry any lore beats we didn’t already know or that we needed to know.
Yes, Feducci went with a group to someplace in the Elder Continent. No, that doesn’t help my understanding of him in the slightest.Yes, the Widow is an innocent sweetheart. Yes, we already knew this. Yes, the Captivating Princess is secretly savage af. I doubt this needed any sort of confirmation. etc etc.
And then I raged about the lack of sneks in this season.
Also, WHERE IS MY OFFICIAL SNEK COMPANION!? THIS IS HALLOWMAS, FOR GODS’ SAKES! GIVE US ALL A WAY TO SUPPORT THE FINGERKINGS AND SHOW IT!! Nope. We just get another ket. Of course we get another ket. Why wouldn’t we get another ket. Everyone loves kets, apparently. War of bleeping illusions. Curbstomp, really. Even what you did with the Genial Magician’s confession isn’t tracked now.
edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 11/4/2016
I don’t know about years past, but so far the best bit of this year’s Hallowmas has been the liveliness of the thread (Thank you, NiteBrite!). I could take or leave the in-game bit entirely. The collector-iness of the entire thing undermines the quality of the lore, IMO (by which I mean I’d cheerfully trade all the upgrade options for more story time. The story is its own reward!)
[quote=Robin Alexander]
Eh, I don’t mind collecting things, but I’m not sure the massive obsession with companions lately? Why not gain rare items, or weapons, or rare/large connections/renown, or - well - anything? Or even a choice, so we have a variety of ‘prizes’? None of those companions come close to my Fate-locked ones anyway, meaning they’re there just as collectors’ pieces . . . [/quote]
If you don’t want companions, it add up to 14 Favours in total, of which Docks and Rubbery are high in demand! :P
I am just happy that this year doesn’t involve sending several hundred (bogus) confessions to people I don’t know at all. Previous Hallowmas’s quantity over quality thing isn’t so nice. The new companions and confessions are all really nice, though, since characters we know getting developments are more interesting than recruiting more random characters.
As for player confessions… well, unfortunately I can’t see it returning in anyway that have incentives attached.
Ideally it should be a quality over quantity thing, where players RP it out and the other side sit on the confession and make a big decision.
Realistically speaking, the moment you attach risk and reward to it NiteBrite drowns in confessions… I mean people start doing it for maximum efficiency to get all the nice things and then run for it. And FL doesn’t have the best interface for conversations either.
I agree this year needed some sort of middle ground between zero-effort gift basket and PoSI notability frenzy, though. Perhaps a few extra confessions gained from Flush Lay or Pickpocket’s Promenade might help?
Buying confessions for fate, however, is not particularly tempting compared to the Election. I mean, I should be happier that there isn’t anything locked behind a paygate but this is like the classic Japanese Gacha problem - the more progress you have, the less likely you get the thing you want, and even if you get the Confession you want you might not get enough, and it is pricey to boot.
[quote=Vavakx Nonexus]Personally, I really like the much more lax nature of it all. A lot of people do. There are enough grinds as is, and being able to be less bogged down every season of the year is pretty pleasing in my opinion.[/quote]Totally agree with this. Might I remind some of the posters above that not every FL player spends each and every day using all their actions and whatnot - people complaining about not having enough to do are probably not very representative for the playerbase at large, and FB need to think about all of them.
I do think that the trading options should have been top of the page - having to search the four starting areas for them every day was kinda fun, but having to scroll down all the way is totally unnecessary - and contributed to some people missing them entirely, see above.
What I think would be great is if we could use the confessions for a few other things during the festival - not everyone’s interested in having dozens of cool but ultimately rather useless companions. Off the top of my head, you could…
a) write a special Hallowmas Exceptional Story that makes use of those confessions
b) give us the option to actually blackmail the NPCs themselves - or bury their secrets and win them as Acquaintances
c) maybe surprise us by making some actions give out confessions as rare successes during the festival
… and a heap of other things probably. I’d just like for the whole festival to feel more "tied in" with the game at large somehow.
[quote=phryne][quote=Vavakx Nonexus]Personally, I really like the much more lax nature of it all. A lot of people do. There are enough grinds as is, and being able to be less bogged down every season of the year is pretty pleasing in my opinion.[/quote]Totally agree with this. Might I remind some of the posters above that not every FL player spends each and every day using all their actions and whatnot - people complaining about not having enough to do are probably not very representative for the playerbase at large, and FB need to think about all of them.
I do think that the trading options should have been top of the page - having to search the four starting areas for them every day was kinda fun, but having to scroll down all the way is totally unnecessary - and contributed to some people missing them entirely, see above.
What I think would be great is if we could use the confessions for a few other things during the festival - not everyone’s interested in having dozens of cool but ultimately rather useless companions. Off the top of my head, you could…
a) write a special Hallowmas Exceptional Story that makes use of those confessions
b) give us the option to actually blackmail the NPCs themselves - or bury their secrets and win them as Acquaintances
c) maybe surprise us by making some actions give out confessions as rare successes during the festival
… and a heap of other things probably. I’d just like for the whole festival to feel more "tied in" with the game at large somehow.[/quote]
An entire special ES seems a bit over-the-top, but a smaller story, fate-locked or not, about Hallowmas as a holiday could work.
Addendum about loot variety: We could’ve gotten some cool masks this Holiday. This is the holiday of masks, and we got none. There are supposed to be at least 6 distinct hallowmas masks. I wish we got to choose one to keep as a memorial, maybe getting 1 BDR or +3-5 to a stat from it.
If you look at the Election and this Hallowmas, they are sort of similar.
Both are frontloaded with an equipment immediately useful to non-endgame players (Master’s Gift, free accomplice that can be upgraded quickly), so really busy players do get something nice even if they can’t join in too much.
I think the problem with Hallowmas, activity wise, is that you either go big (grind Notability like a madman) or go home (just take the free stuff).
New players don’t have this problem, because they were busy fiddling with nightmares and destiny, but for the layer between people who can easily grind Notability and people who can’t, it get a bit awkward because Notability can be a really tall goal or outright unattainable.
Marvellous, I spent half an hour typing a response which the forum appears to have eaten. Great.
Abridged, more grumpy version:
New Hallowmas removes all the fun of last year without fixing any of the problems. It’s even more exclusive, needing not only PoSI but money and BDR gear. It’s still very action intensive. Notability grinding is a chore, especially without donation, and it’s way less fun than grinding confessions was, or the excellent model used by the election which revitalised neglected content. I miss the mad antics (poisoned soup delivery service, cats in the post, bestockinged lecturers everywhere) and the strange, spooky, marvellous atmosphere, all of which felt like FL at its most vital and best. Now you have no options about how you participate; you can only be mercenary. The grind is long and the rewards meagre; I don’t much care about items, but anyond capable of getting multiple companions will already have better stuff, and story is thin and undeveloped - I expected to investigate the bomb or help a faction to bury/expose secrets, not just profiteer, and the confessions themselves revealed nothing new. It’s pretty weird for a Sovreign of Hallowmas to be hoovering up confessions to exploit.
The old event needed to be simplified, I have no argument with that. Breaking 1000 spirit and baking my cake is one of my two or three favourite FL events, but it was a big unwieldy beast. The impulse behind the new festival is good, but it seems to have stripped away all the wonder and merriment without actually solving the fundamental flaws.
The event has clarified something about FL I’ve been thinking about for a while. There is a massive disconnect between how we talk and think of the game - exquisite writing, narrative paradise, meaningful choices where story is king - and how I actually spend 90% of my time in FL, which is mindlessly tapping the same options without reading the text. Last year I read a review for some big release that talked about the idea of games respecting their player’s time - increasingly, I feel FL does not, a feeling that is particularly acute this event - I’ve been looking forward to all the marvels and mysteries and player interractions for weeks, and instead of enjoying a break from the norm I find myself doing the same dull grind as ever. Old Hallowmas was iconic and exemplified everything that made FL mad bad and dangerous to know, for good and for ill. I can’t imagine bothering with New Hallowmas next year.
I won’t pretend to have anything as astute or interesting to say as those who’ve posted before me. Simplistic though they may be, I’ll throw discretion to the winds and share my thoughts. Brace yourselves for a random ramble.
At this moment, I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed this Hallowmas as much as I did the previous year’s. I’ve been struggling to pinpoint exactly why I feel this way. It seems as though many are having a grand time, so maybe I’m just missing the point. Change your destiny? I’m happy with the one I have, thank you. Purchase new companions? Frankly, I’ve plenty I’d like to sell off, but can’t. Though my heart really isn’t in it, I play the game, all alone, and collect as many new roommates as I can. I give up my treasures from the Deep Blue Haven to make some waves to buy nobility to purchase confessions. And so on, and so on. All the time hoping that there will be some special surprise payoff when Mr. Huffam comes calling. There are, however, no guarantees, and every Echo I spend moves me farther away from capturing a Heptagoat.
Last year was new and exciting, and the first time I’d participated socially in such a grand way. I was quite looking forward to experiencing that again this year. Instead, I’ve been…well…bored. I spent a good part of the year cultivating new acquaintances just for this event, but have had no reason to interact with them. Don’t laugh, but I created a spreadsheet of confessions I’d keep buried, and those I’d planned to betray. My character is usually the steadfast sort, but is not averse to behaving badly when given the right opportunity. That opportunity vanished with a bang and a thud. I’m not sure I can get over that disappointment.
That last thought leaves me feeling that I’m just being selfish. Just because I don’t particularly enjoy this event, doesn’t mean it’s a bad event. It just means I’ll plan differently for next year.
I’m in agreement with Shadowcthuhlu; I’d have enjoyed the trading mechanic more if Confessions had been less scarce. I also agree with Robin Alexander that there was much more excitement in the Confession race of last year, even though neither of my characters managed to minimax their gains from it.
And I don’t get the point of the non-tradeable Confessions (the Bishop, Poissonier, etc.) It didn’t seem to me that the rewards for either betraying or keeping their trust mounted to much; it felt pointless to me.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed some of the augmented Companions. But then, I consider myself a modified Completist. :-)
And I still have a boatload (probably a smaller boat than NiteBrite and a lot of people, but still a boatload) of Player Confessions that appear to be of no use. That makes me a bit unhappy.
edited by cathyr19355 on 11/5/2016