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[/color] [color=#0066ff]Exceptional Story for May: The Ballad of Johnny Croak[/color]
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[color=#0066ff]A string of horrible murders strikes London, made all the more horrid by their permanence. Who is Johnny Croak, the legendary urchin with the lethal crossbow? What’s his connection to Mr Fires’ factories? And what’s with all the frogs?[/color]
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[color=#0066ff]Written by Harry Tuffs[/color]
[color=#0066ff]Art by Tobias Cook[/color]
[color=#0066ff]Editing & QA: James Chew[/color]
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[color=#0066ff]In addition to a new, substantial, stand-alone story every month, Exceptional Friends enjoy:[/color]
[color=#0066ff]Access to the House of Chimes: an exclusive private members’ club on the Stolen River, packed with content[/color][/li][li][color=#0066ff]An expanded opportunity deck: of ten cards instead of six![/color][/li][li][color=#0066ff]A second candle: Twice the actions! 40 at once![/color]
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[color=#0066ff]An Exceptional Update: Mr Chimes’ Lost & Found[/color]
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[color=#0066ff]We’re making some changes to Exceptional Friendship from next month!.[/color]
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[/color]
[color=#0066ff]From the end of May, there will be a new shop in the Bazaar: Mr Chimes’ Lost & Found. There you will be able to buy permanent items using currency earned by playing Exceptional Stories. These items will give stat boosts. Some will give a little extra.[/color]
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[color=#0066ff]The Exceptional Story currency will be back-dated, so you will receive it for Exceptional Stories you’ve already played (but not for other, premium stories)[/color][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]. [/color]
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[color=#0066ff]Shopping at Mr Chimes’ will replace the seasonal trade-in stories from now on, and Exceptional Stories will no longer be arranged into seasons. This will enable us to broaden the subject matter for these stories, and free us up to write more free stories to expand Fallen London. This was an important change to make as we move on to new game projects: we want to ensure Fallen London still gets sufficient doting attention![/color]
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[color=#0066ff]Automatic Story Unlocking[/color]
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[color=#0066ff]From May’s story, you will also no longer have to worry about logging in and beginning a story in order to keep it for playing later. If you’re an Exceptional Friend when a story is released, you’ll automatically receive it and can play it whenever you like.[/color]
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[color=#0066ff]Remaining Season Conclusions[/color]
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[color=#0066ff]The Season of Animals conclusion will arrive later today. There is then one remaining season in the old system, the Season of Endeavour, which will conclude shortly after these changes, in June.[/color]
Harry Tuffs has written some great stories, so looking forward to this. :)
As to the changes: everything sounds great! I love that I’ll get rewarded for all the ES I’ve played in the past! :D
One thing that’s not immediately clear to me: will Mr Chimes’ Shop be accessible to everyone, or only those currently subscribed?
[quote=Hannah Flynn][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Automatic Story Unlocking[/color]
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[/color][color=#0066ff]From May’s story, you will also no longer have to worry about logging in and beginning a story in order to keep it for playing later. If you’re an Exceptional Friend when a story is released, you’ll automatically receive it and can play it whenever you like.[/color][/quote]
This is good news. I never understood why it was done differently in the first place. This system makes much more sense.
I don’t think I’ll miss the Seasons, I feel like that concept has run its course, so it can be let go. And "more free stories" are always welcome, of course! :D
Overall, it seems like EF will become less complicated, which should increase subscription flexibility.
[quote=Hannah Flynn]
[color=#0066ff]From the end of May, there will be a new shop in the Bazaar: Mr Chimes’ Lost & Found. There you will be able to buy permanent items using currency earned by playing Exceptional Stories. These items will give stat boosts. Some will give a little extra.[/color]
[color=#0066ff]
[/color]
[color=#0066ff]The Exceptional Story currency will be back-dated, so you will receive it for Exceptional Stories you’ve already played (but not for other, premium stories)[/color][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]. [/color]
[color=#0066ff]
[/color]
[color=#0066ff]Shopping at Mr Chimes’ will replace the seasonal trade-in stories from now on, and Exceptional Stories will no longer be arranged into seasons. This will enable us to broaden the subject matter for these stories, and free us up to write more free stories to expand Fallen London. This was an important change to make as we move on to new game projects: we want to ensure Fallen London still gets sufficient doting attention![/color]
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Does this include Exceptional Stories that were released some time ago, but are now available under the "Fate" button? Or does it only apply to stories we complete during their original release?
[color=#0066ff]This is worth spelling out:[/color]
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[color=#0066ff]You will get currency for every Exceptional Story you’ve played.[/color][/li][li][color=#0066ff]Until the changes are implemented, the game can’t tell if you’ve played a story once, or multiple times. So you’ll get one unit of currency per story you’ve played, no matter how many times you’ve reset it in the past.[/color][/li][li][color=#0066ff]From when the changes are made, you will get another coin for replaying old stories, because currency will be awarded per playthrough in future.[/color][/li][li][color=#0066ff]If you start a reset on a story between now and the changes being implemented, you will have to finish the story to get any of the currency for that story, because the reset will wipe the quality the game looks for when awarding currency.[/color]
[color=#0066ff]In short, I wouldn’t bother playing any resets between now and the end of May. :)[/color]
So, um, does the story suddenly STOP when Johnny realizes that he needs to destroy the factory? Am I waiting for a card? I don’t have any storylet to continue.
[color=#0066ff]This is worth spelling out:[/color]
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[/color]
[color=#0066ff]You will get currency for every Exceptional Story you’ve played.[/color][/li][li][color=#0066ff]Until the changes are implemented, the game can’t tell if you’ve played a story once, or multiple times. So you’ll get one unit of currency per story you’ve played, no matter how many times you’ve reset it in the past.[/color][/li][li][color=#0066ff]From when the changes are made, you will get another coin for replaying old stories, because currency will be awarded per playthrough in future.[/color][/li][li][color=#0066ff]If you start a reset on a story between now and the changes being implemented, you will have to finish the story to get any of the currency for that story, because the reset will wipe the quality the game looks for when awarding currency.[/color]
[color=#0066ff]In short, I wouldn’t bother playing any resets between now and the end of May. :)[/color][/quote]
I think I’m suffering from a caffeine deficiency, so please bear with me. Does this mean that playing old stories for the first time counts for this purpose? So that if I play (for example) the Flint story, which I have not played, but was released before I joined the ranks of the Fallen, I would get a unit of currency? (And possibly become the butt of jokes for not getting that unit of currency for much lass Fate by playing a different story. :) edited by Snort on 4/30/2020 edited by Snort on 4/30/2020
This one line sums up the entire Exceptional Story:
"Somewhere in the Bazaar, Mr Hearts is preparing a meaty stew when a frog lands squarely in the cooking pot. Weeping nacreous tears, it declares the recipe finally complete."
I’ve made the likely unpopular and controversial choice of staying completely true to the foreman and Mr. Fires and giving Johnny a fake bomb but still talking him into not blowing up the factory anyway. I was on the fence about Johnny-opinion went up when I found out he really didn’t care about anything but the frogs, opinion went down when I found out he was in cahoots with revolutionaries. Still, in the end a reward was offered and I got my Airag.
Besides, now with the Vake dead according to the rewards of Ambition: Bag a Legend my new hobby is dive-bombing Mr. Fires’ factories. So yes, I am in fact protecting the factory just to retain the exclusive privilege of wrecking it while riding Veils like his pony.
Yes, it would.
You get a unit of currency for each unique Exceptional Story that you have played, or do play and finish before the end of May. And after May you get one currency for each Exceptional Story that you finish, regardless of whether it is a re-set or one that you have played before.
So in shot:
Play a story that you have not played before - get a unit of currency
Re-play a story that you have played before (before end of May) - no units of currency
Re-play a story that you have played before (after May) - get a unit of currency.
That’s where I am as well. I was wondering if I accidentally clicked past something that would tell me where to go next to continue the story, but I’ve visited most of the major areas of London and I didn’t see any new options.
That’s where I am as well. I was wondering if I accidentally clicked past something that would tell me where to go next to continue the story, but I’ve visited most of the major areas of London and I didn’t see any new options.[/quote]
Veilgarden. You’re looking for veilgarden.
I must admit I will miss the end of season stories. Even though they were short, they usually had some of the most interesting lore attached. Replacing them with stat boosting items is a downgrade for me personally, and although I’ve played every exceptional story available I hope they won’t give too much of a pay to win effect and obsolete items that normally take a lot of work/time to obtain. I must say though all the free updates we’ve been getting recently have already more than made up for these going away, and we haven’t even seen everything yet. If it frees up more time to write free content that’s a win to me, and probably better for the future of the game.
As for the current season ending (I didn’t see a dedicated thread for it, sorry if I overlooked it) I’m curious to see the results for Brass Embassy and Bazaar if anyone picked those, I tried the other four and echoed them.
[quote=Monara]
As for the current season ending (I didn’t see a dedicated thread for it, sorry if I overlooked it) I’m curious to see the results for Brass Embassy and Bazaar if anyone picked those, I tried the other four and echoed them.[/quote]
I was the owner of my first batling for about 5 minutes before it was sniped by Presbyterate agents due to my unquenchable curiosity. I still count it as one of my greatest failures.
The seasonal conclusion marks the second time I was able to ride a giant bat.
If I finish Heart’s Desire and am able to start a new Ambition, should I try for Bag a Legend and secure another giant bat to ride on? If so, I hope it lasts longer.
Most of this is excellent news! While I am a bit sad at the seasonal endings going away, ultimately I can definitely appreciate streamlining this kind of content. Especially since, being part of the subscription content, creating these endings wasn’t optional, and so was certainly taking priority over other, non-periodic content updates - including free content!
I do have to echo this, though. While I own a large part of the existing stories, it wouldn’t feel right if I could just buy my way into something that would normally take a long grind to get. Hopefully the items are unique and interesting enough to be exclusive and worthwhile without being too pay-to-win.
