I put forth this question somewhat diffidently, as despite not having seen it addressed, I could be mistaken, and about to make an utter peagoose of myself in the asking. So I do beg the pardon of all gentlefolk, and most sincerely request aid in this endeavour.
I am aware of the importance of having garments and accoutrements befitting my rank, but my lack of funds is making this an impossible task. I hesitate to sell what few assets I have accumulated, for fear they will become important in the future, and I will bemoan their loss.
If you would please be so kind as to proffer some suggestions as to how a gentlewoman of reduced means could rectify this matter, I should be most grateful.
There are many ways that a young lady of leisure can raise funds, but at the heart of it all lies the simple questions:
What are your skills? What tasks can you be trusted to accomplish?
After all, if you are unskilled in the arts of ahem ‘putting the boot in’ the Velocipede Squad will have little interest in you.
In a counterpoint to this, you may be such a master of the spoken and written word that it is simply not worth your time to pen verses lauding the humble mushroom.
I suppose it is all a matter of where you are in the game. What items can you get the most of? I find I often have an excess of rostygold and since you can’t make anything of it I sell it. Certainly hold tight to your rarer items but a cash of moon pearls is just as useful in purchasing proper pair of gloves as it in game.
I’m afraid that my boots are not suited for putting in, though I am told my encomia to the mushroom crop is quite laudable. However, I am not sure what I should dare to trade in, in order to purchase other things. So I find myself still in a state of lamentable lack of funds, much less suitable garments. Are there certain things I can sell without penalty? Or some I should hold onto for future need?
It is a lamentable truth that at one time or another everything is useful. As such, I have found that the simplest way to deal with this is to ensure that I maintain a specific level of inventory and to sell any excess. As time passes, I gradually adjust the target quantity upwards, thus ensuring that I am unlikely to be caught by surprise.
I suppose you are not yet a Person of Some Importance (PoSI)?
I’d suggest selling Glim, Moon-pearls, Jade, Deep Amber, Nevercold Brass and Rostygold at the Bazaar. These things are the most frequent rewards for storylets, you’ll never be without them for long. Do hold on to your Whispered Secrets and Cryptic Clues, especially if you’re still in the early stages of the game. They will both be quite hard to come by at some point.
Also, do not sell those items that cannot be bought at the Bazaar. They will, for the most part, be useful for something later on.
If your qualities (Watchful, Persuasive, Dangerous, Shadowy) are around 40 or higher, investing a bit of Fate to go Shroom-hopping can be a good idea. You can stay at the Shroom-hopping course as long as you like, the rewards are plenty and can be cashed in later at the Bazaar.
I thank you all most sincerely for the guidance. Ladies are not a pitfall of mine, unless you mean gossip by other ladies. I am most assuredly not a Person of Some Importance, save to myself, and my qualities are barely half those listed, so… “Shroom -hopping” is a pleasure all the greater for being delayed, I suppose.
I find myself in need of gloves, footwear, and a hat, (preferably a cunning hat) to suit my station in life, and having never acquired any rostygold, ,nor amber, no brass, am not sure what is best to sell, though I do have more of an idea than I did before all of your instructive responses.
I will, therefore, continue my encomia to the Mycelia. I offer my thanks to you all.
So you’re indeed very early in the game. Don’t worry, all will be well. It’s not unusual that you do not have a lot of equipment yet. Or any equipment, really. Just keep playing, it all will come to you in time :)
If you can bring yourself to such distasteful pursuits, I’d suggest spending some time in Spite. Several of the opportunities there drop random equipment and other rewards. Rolling a drunk or serving as a lookout for a band of urchins may be unpleasant at first, but you’ll likely find a useful thing or two.
When it comes to making money, you may wish to convert your items into higher tier items, then sell those. The storylets to convert items can be quite lucrative, especially on a rare success.
Almost all storylets are going to give commensurate rewards depending on your rank. At this stage:
Disregard Echoes.
Acquire stats.
You should be grinding stat change cp and ignoring clothing, hats, etc. until much further down the line. A good rule of thumb in that regard is to only get either the best clothing(that which conveys the highest bonuses) unless you need certain items to unlock storylet, which you will. This being the case, save your Echoes until you need to buy something for the next leg of a story(like at The University) or until you have enough of an item that you feel confident enough to sell it in order to get the best item you can.
[quote=Nigel Overstreet]Almost all storylets are going to give commensurate rewards depending on your rank. At this stage:
Disregard Echoes.
Acquire stats.
You should be grinding stat change cp and ignoring clothing, hats, etc. until much further down the line. A good rule of thumb in that regard is to only get either the best clothing(that which conveys the highest bonuses) unless you need certain items to unlock storylet, which you will. This being the case, save your Echoes until you need to buy something for the next leg of a story(like at The University) or until you have enough of an item that you feel confident enough to sell it in order to get the best item you can.[/quote]
Actually, this isn’t quite true. If you sell some excess items and buy some low level items, this will help you in two ways:
1: It’ll allow you to do slightly higher level storylets, earning slightly better rewards, and thus eventually earning you back the money
2: It’ll allow you to juggle your stats to keep challenges at the optimal value for earning CP, either at a 50% chancy for 3 CP of stats per action, or at a 70% modest for 2 CP of stats per action (But much better chance of getting a successful action, avoiding menaces and earning loot).
The latter point means that it can be very beneficial to have more than just the best items. Being able to precisely adjust your stats can help you in a variety of areas, such as when playing chess with death, so don’t be afraid to get a wide variety of items.
Up until my recent search for the overgoat and skill capping, my motto was to sell always half of what I got. That way I had both echoes and materials ready for PoSI or Semiotic monocle.
Indeed, stat control is very important, which is why you should make use of items which give negatives as well.
Chancy doesn’t always give 3cp. Only at the higher half of chancy. The lower half only gives 2cp. The odds for all these levels are unknown and likely to remain so. The first is the one you want to take to stat cap as quickly as possible. You should try, when possible, to keep yourself at that level when doing storylets to get the most stat increase per action. Especially when you find upper echelon storylets which do not grant menaces. That is, if indeed, your goal is Echo accumulation.
The amount of Echoes you will gain on the way to becoming stat capped will pale in comparison to those you will garner once you’re there.
Indeed you’ll find at later levels you are the sort of person who doesn’t even get out of bed for less than 1 Echo per action. Once you’re there, you’re going to want to get the best items because…well, they’re just cool! It’s cool to have the neatest and fanciest gadgets to put up on your mantelpiece to proclaim “Look at me and all my cool things!” There is no in-game reason for this other than the sheer elation of feeling brilliant.
The lesser items are fine, I guess, but I’m told most folks sold them off a while back as a sacrifice to an Overgoat or something. This isn’t always the case. Other folks like to have every item in the game. Also a legitimate strategy. My overall point is that you should, at lower levels, be more concerned about increasing stats than gaining Echoes(And to a greater extent you should be FAR more concerned about experiencing the stories as you progress through the levels than either.) There will be plenty of time for mind numbing, Echo grinding later.
As a side note, you often don’t want to sell anything unless you need something. Those 6k Whispered Secrets may be burning a hole in your pocket now, but you might regret selling them when the Handsome Townhouse* card comes up. Especially if you used those Echoes to buy some hobnailed boots or something you are just going to turn around and sell in a month or so anyway with the surely & regretful notion that you’ve lost half the Echoes you’ve spent on them and the pennies you’re garnered in their use have hardly made up for their cost.
*It’s what it used to cost. I don’t know if that’s changed to something else now. Neither here nor there.
I’ll just add that now that I started a secondary character (so I could play through the Light Fingers storyline) I realized two things: one, the early game is much, much better balanced and gives players a lot more to do than it used to, and two, the early stages are GREAT places to build up connections. I would not recommend racing through that – those connections may turn out to be very useful later, and some of them become harder to build up/more tedious to grind at higher levels.
I generally found Spite, The Flit, University, then Mahogany Hall; to be the best areas to earn Echoes(in general).
Really depends where you are at in terms of stats and unlocked locations.
As for items I went for the relatively cheap Mid-Level(+2) items first and now I’m working on gaining all the upper tier(+4) items. Seems to have worked out pretty well overall.
might want to get a Prison Shiv for your new guy. Was my best friend early on.:) edited by Endy on 6/18/2012
For the record, this has been changed. Chancy always gives 3cp on a success and 2cp on a failure.
I decided to stick with always doing chancy actions up until PoSI, so I spent quite a long time observing this. I never saw it go up 2 cp on a success.