I think I have the best gear available in the bazaar (including an overgoat) and yet I realize that all 4 main stats are not equal. Disregarding my Overgoat, I have +18 Dangerous, +21 Watchful (+29 with the Overgoat), +20 Persuasive, and +21 Shadowy. I don’t have access to fate-locked gear, and my Ambition is Nemesis, meaning that I need both Watchful and Dangerous.
Looking at the Dangerous gear, by the way, one notices that the Dangerous gear setup uses two items that give only +2 (Semiotic Monocle/Iron Hat and Twelve-carat Diamond Ring/Spider Chitin Gloves) and one that only gives a +1 (Bloodstained Suit). Maybe we need some extra Dangerous clothing? I was disappointed when the Moderately Co-operative Clothes Colony didn’t give Dangerous. Maybe some better hats and gloves?
On the other hand, Vakeskin boots grant +4, better than both Watchful and Persuasive best boots, and the Bengal Tigress/Rattus Faber Chief also give +4, higher than any other Quality’s pet except for the Overgoat (Shadowy has the Ocular Toadbeast giving +3 and Watchful the Haunted-looking Dog also giving +3 - none of which are purchasable in the Bazaar). Persuasive for example has the advantage of high level Clothing items giving up to a whopping +5, but doesn’t have boots nor pets nor weapons as good as Dangerous or Shadowy (the best Persuasive weapon still being the humble Irresistible Drum at +3, better than the Bejewelled Cane and I think even the new Violin).
I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing some better Dangerous clothing - perhaps something in the line of sturdy tweed country gear, solid as armour and with nice big pockets for extra ammunition?
No, it’s been the case for the length of the game. While I’d like to have comparable enhancements for all stats, there’s a part of me that likes that Dangerous, the stat that most settings would focus most on (combat, after all) is the most neglected.
Even so, it’s unfortunate that it lags so much behind. We really do need some Dangerous clothing. I thought that Polythreme might give us that, but alas, no.
(On a related note, it has been a very long time since we had the stat cap raised. With all this new content, perhaps that might change.)
Given what death is in London, the fact that the closest thing London seems to have to a militia or army is the Palace Guards (There are monster hunters, but they’re hardly an organized group. They’re rarely even organized individuals), and that there is a widespread revolutionary faction who is not at all opposed to using Dangerous tactics, it’s possible that the Bazaar has more or less decided that selling any more Dangerous gear is not worth the potential profit.
None of this requires Fate. If you don’t count the Overgoat, my next Watchful pet is the Hound of Heaven, that gives +2. Sincerely, there should be something better than the Bloodstained Suit (I know that there is another Clothing that gives +1 to Dangerous, but still, it was much more expensive for the same benefit… Also, you will realize that the Semiotic Monocle, the Twelve-carat Diamond Ring, and the Bengal Tigress are the best items for TWO stats each, and one of them is always Dangerous. Finally, other than the bloodstained Suit, there is only one more +1 item in my best X outfits, and it’s my Mirror Polished Shoes… None of the other Mysterious Benefactor items lasts this long, and when you pick your mysterious benefactor, you don’t even know much about the stats…
None of this requires Fate. If you don’t count the Overgoat, my next Watchful pet is the Hound of Heaven, that gives +2. Sincerely, there should be something better than the Bloodstained Suit (I know that there is another Clothing that gives +1 to Dangerous, but still, it was much more expensive for the same benefit… Also, you will realize that the Semiotic Monocle, the Twelve-carat Diamond Ring, and the Bengal Tigress are the best items for TWO stats each, and one of them is always Dangerous. Finally, other than the bloodstained Suit, there is only one more +1 item in my best X outfits, and it’s my Mirror Polished Shoes… None of the other Mysterious Benefactor items lasts this long, and when you pick your mysterious benefactor, you don’t even know much about the stats…[/quote]
By the way: as you pointed out, what I really find the equipment lacking is commonly available Watchful boots. As you listed, the only footgear giving a bonus to Watchful are the Mirror-polished Shoes, obtained for free but only if you choose one in four Benefactors. While each of them provides gear enhancing a different Quality of one point, the other Benefactor items (Brass Knuckles, Mint Humbugs and Bowler Hat) are all replaceable by Bazaar-availabe objects giving the same effect, usable in the same body slot (Duellist’s Gloves for +1 Dangerous, Tasselled Cane for +1 Persuasive; there’s no exact equivalent for the Bowler Hat, but the Sneak-Thief’s Mask provides +2 Shadowy at the cost of -1 Persuasive), while Watchful doesn’t have any: if you happened to lose your chance at the Mirror-polished Shoes, there’s no other footgear at all to increase Watchful.
In addition to the lack of gear, it’s also generally more expensive. I like to do the card options that give random rewards and received much of my starting gear that way; I purchased most of the dangerous once in the level 90 skill as that’s when I had the echoes to do it.
Gear distribution in general is a bit of a mess at present. For instance, take the Weapons slot. Say we have the best weapons for each stat - the Ratwork Derringer, Ratwork Watch, Irresistible Drum, and the Kifers or the Umbrella. That’s four items - fine and sensible. Perhaps we might also seek out the items for the three new stats - well, the Consonant Violin and Iron Republic Journal will cover those. That’s six items. If we get one of the Soul Trade rewards, that’s seven - enough to fill the inventory line while we’ve got one equipped. But then we’ve got a host of ambition and story rewards which we can’t get rid of - personally, I’m looking at two Ambition weapons, a Bejewelled Cane, and a Dilmun Club Lapel Badge, plus a pile of Warm Amber. And all that’s without even keeping Bottled Oblivion on hand for emergencies.
Pets is another category where things accumulate. A Tigress, A Toadbeast, an Overgoat, and either a Salt Weasel or one of the Respectable connection pets would cover all the old and new stats. Include a Talkative Rattus Faber and that’s a nice five to cover all our foreseeable needs. Again, though, there’s a menagerie of creatures who fill no niche that we can’t get rid of - the Disgraced Rat, the Albino Rat, the Owl, the Hat, and potentially more from ambitions. Clothing is starting to suffer similarly, where the Clothes Colony now does everything the Academic Gown can do and more, while the new Photographer/Contrarian outfits contribute nothing at all. All this while Gloves and Boots never need more than three or four items, potentially including the only Benefactor gift which doesn’t become obsolete.
Ultimately, my collector instinct is in favour of all these weird and interesting items, even if I’ll never actually have to equip them - but if we’re going to continue down this path, the inventory interface badly wants an overhaul. We’ve got the new categories for our general goods, which is wonderful - next, perhaps, we could get something better for big collections of gear than the little six-item rows?
[quote=Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook]
Ultimately, my collector instinct is in favour of all these weird and interesting items, even if I’ll never actually have to equip them - but if we’re going to continue down this path, the inventory interface badly wants an overhaul. We’ve got the new categories for our general goods, which is wonderful - next, perhaps, we could get something better for big collections of gear than the little six-item rows?[/quote]
I know what you mean - while I currently have only 3 gloves, I call 13 weapons and a startling collection of 27 pets my own. It’s starting to look a bit messy… they should probably move the Cameo/Lodgings pic to the top of the Myself page* and assemble the inventory below. That would give each item category much more space.
or get rid of it completely, it’s not really needed there as you can see it on the Profile page
[quote= Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook ] Ultimately, my collector instinct is in favour of all these weird and interesting items, even if I’ll never actually have to equip them - but if we’re going to continue down this path, the inventory interface badly wants an overhaul. We’ve got the new categories for our general goods, which is wonderful - next, perhaps, we could get something better for big collections of gear than the little six-item rows?
[/quote]
I found I didn’t mind the equipment interface nearly as much - once I wrote my own inventory management interface ;) Though, I would like to see the “curiosities” section cleaned up. Lodgings, non-disposable quest items, usable quest items (i.e. fidgeting writer), gems and coins, restoratives, items useful to a Person of some Importance such as whirring contraptions and bribes - I’ve even got two dozen counterfeit heads in there for heaven’s sake. And it’s all jumbled up in no particular order. I haven’t seen that much eclecticism since I cleaned out the storage unit belonging to my wife and I (both serious pack rats.)
For the most part I like the quirks of the current equipment; though as someone perusing his Nemesis I do wish Dangerous weren’t a few points behind the other stats due to gearing. Though, with a large collection of high end gear increasingly at my disposal a few points seldom matters so it’s hardly an issue. I do, however, fear that the other stats will eventually get their own “overgoat” to throw money at…
as far as I can work out. Ignoring the Overgoat they’re not that different. edited by spiralx on 5/8/2012[/quote]
Maximums (with fate items / with non-fate only items)
Dangerous: +19 / +18
Watchful: +22 / + 21 (+8 more for the overgoat, -1 if you don’t have mirror-polished shoes from your benefactor)
Shadowy: +24 / + 22
Persuasive: +23 / + 21
As certain talking mops in a run-down part of a large city that are mysteriously televised to children are fond of saying: “One of these things is not like the others”
Although honestly the overgoat throws a far bigger wrench in the works than the missing +2/+3 of dangerous.
The missing point or two of Dangerous is what stops us breaking the +20 barrier, which at present means that we can’t hit Dangerous 150. That’s not really blocking us from much, admittedly, but we’re just a point away from being able to get one of the Relickers to trade something.
The Unfinished Hat doesn’t give anything beyond what obtainable in the bazaar. It was a disappointment, really. It gives less Dangerous than the best Dangerous giving pets in the bazaar, and it’s only redeeming point, is that it gives the hard to get Dreaded and Bizarre qualities (but you can get them with connection pets, though not both at once, or with an overgoat…)
The Unfinished Hat doesn’t give anything beyond what obtainable in the bazaar. It was a disappointment, really. It gives less Dangerous than the best Dangerous giving pets in the bazaar, and it’s only redeeming point, is that it gives the hard to get Dreaded and Bizarre qualities (but you can get them with connection pets, though not both at once, or with an overgoat…)[/quote]
…It does give less Dangerous than the best pets, but still a point more than the best HATS (both Iron Hat or Semiotic Monocle give +2, the maximum until the Unfinished Hat was introduced), so equipping it together with the best equipment (pets included) would raise your total bonus by +1… Just enough to get to the +20 (with Fate items, according to spiralx calculation), for a grand total of 150 at max base Dangerous. Amirite?