Did anyone else have trouble echoing the text when leaving the Brass Embassy after scouting it out? (“That’s Everything!”) I keep getting the dying star error message when attempting to record to my journal.
I do hope it’s not a return of the same issue as so hampered recording the Seven-Day Reign.
I Did, but that was the only place thankfully.
Yeah, some issue with that one result it seems.
Embassy in Repair is a temporary quality; the story explains how to remove it. I haven’t seen anything related to having the lodgings.
Thank you both.
well, I have to say one thing I didn’t like:
An Account of the Souls Aboard Hell’s Triremes
is a quality and not an item. unless it will be used again (it has a number following it), I hope it gets changed to an item soon.
I’ve now finished. Liked it a lot. I didn’t love it. But I liked it a lot.
To be honest, I don’t really understand the critique that many players raised… The outcome they seem to have wanted was available. It was available under what to me seems like the most obvious option. That they looked for it under a different option… well it’s not really a weakness or flaw of the story design however frustrating the outcome may have been, in my opinion.
I also disagree that the story was standalone and didn’t contribute to lore. With the exception of Flint, ES generally do not contribute to lore in flashy and obvious ways. But they do contribute in small tantalising ways and this story was no exception. We learned:
The mechanics weren’t the most innovative but not every story has to have complicated mechanics. It certainly wasn’t linear as some people suggested - the five different outcomes clearly play off various combinations of early choices. Plus the Hell/Docks card mechanics are new and interesting.
I haven’t drawn the faction card for the denouement, but the bomb just went off, so I’m practically finished with the tale.
I enjoyed the story. I especially enjoyed the lack of a Flash lay. In fact, there seemed a small nod to not having one in the hover text descriptor of the Case for the keys. thank you, FBG for this.
So in the end I chose to let the bomb go off and I’m rather surprised to have taken a Magnanimous Drop. I guess it makes sense since there were casualties but I chose to help the guy get revenge on the Devils. I could have stopped the plot easily, but I chose to help the guy out instead of reporting him to authority. I don’t know, it seems weird. Like maybe another quirk change but not a Mag drop, since no matter which way you look at it you are helping someone.
[quote=Kylestien]I know who supplied the device in question by the way if anyone is curious.
Take three guesses. Go on. Guess.
edited by Kylestien on 5/26/2016[/quote]
Silas the Showman?
Though in all seriousness, it doesn’t take a genius to guess.
Villain arrested, explosion prevented, anarchy quelled, order upheld.
All is well and all is well and all the manner of things are well.
edited by Passionario on 5/27/2016
[quote=M. Cinder][quote=Kylestien]I know who supplied the device in question by the way if anyone is curious.
Take three guesses. Go on. Guess.
edited by Kylestien on 5/26/2016[/quote]
Silas the Showman?
Though in all seriousness, it doesn’t take a genius to guess.[/quote]
I had a stupidly complicated motive planned out for it actually being Hell before I looked it up on Kylestien’s journal.
I ratted him out at every opportunity while still picking the options labeled as generating more trust from him as I went. At the end, I was allowed to hand him over to the devils with one minute to spare on the timer. Sorry that you didn’t get the ending that you’d hoped for.
Well, my topic "Fallen London Stories & the Responsible Miscreants" might prove helpful for you; it lists the Exceptional Stories (and Sunless Sea Islands) and their authors.
[quote=Robin Mask][quote=Mordaine Barimen]
I ratted him out at every opportunity while still picking the options labeled as generating more trust from him as I went. At the end, I was allowed to hand him over to the devils with one minute to spare on the timer. Sorry that you didn’t get the ending that you’d hoped for.
Well, my topic "Fallen London Stories & the Responsible Miscreants" might prove helpful for you; it lists the Exceptional Stories (and Sunless Sea Islands) and their authors.[/quote]
Thanks, I’ve bookmarked that thread right now :)
Haha, ironically, this author wrote another story I disliked . . . in the other, I maintain a choice should have been made to tip the guy off (instead of just reconciling them or letting him die, making a complex case of abandonment a childish black-and-white mentality). I think I’ll avoid him 100% in future, wherever possible. I do hope for more from Emily and Richard, though, and I’m so sad Alexis has gone :'(
edited by RobinMask on 5/27/2016[/quote]
Wait, how is it that you both did the exact same things and yet you got two different endings? Or did I just misunderstand something?
Interesting. My ending said nothing of the Docks faction card, only Hell’s. Did you perhaps take the first option on one or both toasts? I didn’t. Otherwise, I’m not sure what the difference is.
I would assume the difference is whether you’re sincere when drinking with him, yes. I got a Searing Enigma from bombing so I’d assume you got something similarly valuable. Practically every story has had a 62.5 echo item as the final reward.
I got a Brass Skull for siding with Hell.
Robin, a lot of the issues you raise are explicitly or implicitly addressed in the story itself.
[spoiler] Trust is used to determine how much the protester will tell you. This is clear during the first round of drinking when all the things you may want to ask require higher levels of trust and the game explicitly tells you that you’ll be back later to ask more. At no point is there any indication whatsoever that Trust is used for anything else. I think part of the reason why it may not be clear is that the game is relying on your familiarity with the engine to know how qualities work and to extract meta information from quality unlocks. This trick has been used by many authors including Alexis and (if I am not misremembering) Emily.
The reason you are not able to tip the devils off is because you told the game you are sincere in your support for the protester. The game gives you two opportunities to flag that you have ulterior motives. If you don’t indicate this at the second opportunity then you are telling the game that you do not intend to betray him. The game explicitly flags the option that you should pick if you want to prevent the bombing later.It literally says: “Perhaps you also intend to stop him.”
The lore reason why the devils do not go through on your tip off by themselves is also made explicit and explained.
When you make your final choice (from those that are available to you) you get your actual reward worth 62.5 echoes. Again the game is explicit that this is the end. You should not be expecting anything substantively material after this point.
You do get an epilogue of sorts (in your case, the Docks card) to explain what the consequences of your actions are. Almost all ES have such epilogues and as far as I can recall none have substantive material rewards. This is made all the more clear in the game instructions when you are given your final reward and in the quality descriptions of this final new quality.
[/spoiler]
See my comment above. You have literally told the game that you do not want to go through with any backstabbing. The game wasn’t asking you whether you want to pretend to be sincere. The game was asking you whether you actually were sincere.
The Docks is just a convenient and thematic place to place a branch. This approach has been used in many stories.
The ramifications of your actions are that even though the protester failed in his primary goal, his broader objective is advancing. It stands to reason that the people this is targeted at are the people associated with the docks. Not necessarily sailors and not the revolutionaries who have a very different object of their ire, but ordinary working people you can find round the docks. The card is being used as a proxy for "working class" here, I think.
edited by genesis on 5/27/2016
[quote=ochrasy]well, I have to say one thing I didn’t like:
An Account of the Souls Aboard Hell’s Triremes
is a quality and not an item. unless it will be used again (it has a number following it), I hope it gets changed to an item soon.[/quote]
[color=#e53e00]coughs apologetically Look again.[/color]
From what I understand, it’s
[spoiler]insurance fraud writ large. If the Embassy gets bombed on Masters’ watch, they can extract a lot of concessions in return.
That’s why the Constables’ branch warns you not to let the plan succeed: the devils "can’t be allowed that kind of leverage". [/spoiler]