Now that I’ve learned a bit more about Fallen London, I’d wished I’d picked the Watchful choice and gone with the Mirror-polished Shoes instead of the Shadowy choice and the Unobtrusive Bowler Hat, seeing as they’re the only Watchful shoes in the game. Thinking about deleting and restarting as I’m not that far along. Rather silly, I know, but considering it.
Just wait until Christmas time. An advent calender code will give you +3 Watchful shoes.
But Christmas is soooo far off! :) Thanks!
Early in my play I, not knowing that I could wait until Christmas, made as my first (of many!) Fate purchases in Fallen London a purchase to switch which stat path I had taken. I do feel like it’s a flaw in the early game of FL that one of the four options is unambiguously better than the other three until christmas evens the score.
But yeah, it’s not that expensive if you’d rather not delete to do it with Fate. I think you can do it with the Fate you accrue from early play, in fact, without even spending money.
On the flipside, the hat gives you a source of shadowy second chances that doesn’t lower Making Waves or Connected: Society (unlike suspicious loitering) so in the long run it might be better than the shoes (which stop being useful after Christmas)
true, but You already can get all 4 second chances both on the great game-church conflict card, and the hedonist option on give a gift, so one second chance per action seems mediocre. if you want a third way to get hastily scrawled warning notes, though, it may be a good choice.
edited by Grenem on 3/7/2015
It is also a good choice if for some reason you’d want to get more than 21 notes (since both options you’ve mentioned cap at that).
[quote=Grenem]true, but You already can get all 4 second chances both on the great game-church conflict card, and the hedonist option on give a gift, so one second chance per action seems mediocre. if you want a third way to get hastily scrawled warning notes, though, it may be a good choice.
edited by Grenem on 3/7/2015[/quote]
Well if you’re spending them to raise your stats, the bottleneck will inevitably how fast you can draw the cards that give them, unless you’re willing to burn all your making waves and society connections with the social action, so the bowler hat will probably double your shadowy growth rate.
Also regarding the +2 watchful boots, unless you’re stat capped you can get two points of watchful just by playing over the course of a few days, faster if you’re spending Sudden Insights, so it’s HELPFUL but you don’t even really NEED that, itll just make watchfl things happen slightly faster unless you’re aiming for something that requires a very high (over 200) watchful stat. (Which mostly is "maxing your scholar of the correspondance stat, which ALSO requires goats, so you probably won’t be doing it until after christmas anyway)
Eh - you need very high watchful for the 3-supply / action expeditions to go smoothly. Having an extra couple of points on your feet could be the difference between having to change your profession, or your destiny, or not.
As for raising shadowy, you can grind the points before you’re notable using the social action well enough. After you have access to the flit, you can grind casing and trade it for increased shadowy. It’s not card dependent, and once you have your own gang and decent enough shadowy it is a fast way of raising it. I’m pretty sure it’s faster than waiting for five relevant opportunity cards, at least.
Thank you all, you delicious people, for such helpful comments. I think I will stick with the Bowler Hat for now.
That’s rather amazing. Dug into it and I’d need to advance the story with my Shadowy benefactor from its current 5 to 7 to get the option for 8 fate. Even at that price, much better than deleting and restarting.
And all these wonderful insights:
[spoiler]
[quote=WormApotheote]
Well if you’re spending them to raise your stats, the bottleneck will inevitably how fast you can draw the cards that give them, unless you’re willing to burn all your making waves and society connections with the social action, so the bowler hat will probably double your shadowy growth rate.
Also regarding the +2 watchful boots, unless you’re stat capped you can get two points of watchful just by playing over the course of a few days, faster if you’re spending Sudden Insights, so it’s HELPFUL but you don’t even really NEED that, itll just make watchfl things happen slightly faster unless you’re aiming for something that requires a very high (over 200) watchful stat. (Which mostly is "maxing your scholar of the correspondance stat, which ALSO requires goats, so you probably won’t be doing it until after christmas anyway)[/quote][/spoiler]
All this is quite making my head spin. (Or that might be the latest book from Lee Smolin.) I’ve started accumulating the second chances with the able assistance of various friends. I’d know that they cap at 22? if you lose but I thought it was no more than 11 if you succeed in the social actions?
And the Bowler Hat itself is a source of Shadowy growth and Sudden Insights? Or rather Hastily Scrawled Warning Notes?
edited by Jacke on 3/7/2015
Yes when you have completed the Benefactor storyline a card turns up. You can either choose to pay fate to play one of the other benefactors or get one of the relevant second chances. As people have said most other sources of the various second chances have a cap so if you want to accumulate more of them using the benefactor is useful. I like the hastily scrawled warning notes for my weekly trip to the nadir as I can spend three for an item I can use on a specific card.
The social action for hastily scrawled warning notes lowers society connections and making waves, which later in the game tend to be something you want a lot of.
And once you’ve run out of content to play the best way to raise stats is the option to spend 5 second chances in your lodgings.
Making waves doesn’t really matter until end game though, so.
In the grand scheme of things, two extra points of Watchful is nothing. Especially not in the early to mid game where it’s the easiest stat to increase.
Restarting your character would, in my opinion, be a mistake. The nature of Fallen London is that you are at times going to make choices that you later regret. Nearly all are fixable (some with Fate), but others aren’t - and this is part of the enjoyment of the game for a lot of players. Actions have consequences.
If you put yourself in a position where you are constantly searching for the "best" option, and getting worked up when you don’t find it (I’m not saying that you are getting worked up, just couldn’t think of a better way of putting it right now) then I think you won’t have as much fun.
I’m glad i’m not the only recent resident to be confused by some of these choices. I splashed out on a pair of Eager Gloves to make up my Watchful, still would like some smart, shiny shoes as well though.
Well, although I’ve seen the benefits of the Shadowy Bowler Hat and waiting for next Christmas for a set of Watchful shoes, I was irritated no end by missing out on passing on the Whisper-locked Sea Chest to my Zee-Captain in Sunless Sea. So much so I deleted my StoryNexus account to reset my character; I figure losing a weeks worth of progress was worth fixing that. I’ve also started a thread on Once-only Choices here in the Bazaar. There’s also the 2 Wikis, especially the very much updated one at wikia.com. You can use these sources of information to the extent it will improve your enjoyment of play, balancing it against spoiling surprises.