Alright, so I’ve unlocked "Seeking Mr. Eaten’s name" with a card. I have no idea who Mr. Eaten is, but the game is VERY strongly suggesting me not to pursue this quest further unless I’m sure what I’m doing. I’m terribly curious about it, and it sounds like something that would fit my character very well, BUT… last time the game warned me this much against continuing something, I died (it was at the Carnival, with one of the mirrors).
I would appreciate the spoiler-free advise of any helpful souls out there.
Seeking the name… is destroying your character. You need to leave london at some point apparently, damage yourself A LOT, lose everything… that kind. Breaks the game.
Thank you all for your input. I feel like Failbetter Games is playing with my very human qualities. In this case curiosity. I’ve been playing actively (about 60 turns a day) for around month and a half. My character is not even a POSI yet and I’m wondering if it’d be worth throwing it all away to go in pursue of the name, instead of doing it in the future when my stats are 190+. That would be so much worse. Also, I read somewhere it’s possibly the most elusive of quest lines. Who knows if I’ll ever get this chance again!
[quote=Cernunnas]Thank you all for your input. I feel like Failbetter Games is playing with my very human qualities. In this case curiosity. I’ve been playing actively (about 60 turns a day) for around month and a half. My character is not even a POSI yet and I’m wondering if it’d be worth throwing it all away to go in pursue of the name, instead of doing it in the future when my stats are 190+. That would be so much worse. Also, I read somewhere it’s possibly the most elusive of quest lines. Who knows if I’ll ever get this chance again!
I’m so indecisive, my friends.[/quote]
You should note that you will need some pretty late game stuff to finish it in a first place, for example, to go to one place that you need to go through to finish smen requires 200 watchful, so you will need high stats eventually anyways, there are some other things too that you most likely won’t be able to accomplish very early, such as a choice to sacrifice either an overgoat, a classic short story or 7 fluke cores(bet you don’t even know what the last one is), and you most likely won’t have very good sources to finish stuff like that). edited by The Master on 12/7/2016
[quote=The Master]
You should note that you will need some pretty late game stuff to finish it in a first place, for example, to go to one place that you need to go through to finish smen requires 200 watchful, so you will need high stats eventually anyways, there are some other things too that you most likely won’t be able to accomplish very early, such as a choice to sacrifice either an overgoat, a classic short story or 7 fluke cores(bet you don’t even know what the last one is), and you most likely won’t have very good sources to finish stuff like that).[/quote]
Well, that settles it then. Thank you all so much!
Edit: Oh, wait, should I discard the card all together? Or choose the option within the card to not attempt the search? I’m afraid if I do the latter, the game will flag me as "given up" in the past, and I won’t be able to ever pursue Mr. Eaten then. Is that even a thing? edited by Cernunnas on 12/7/2016
My alt recently headbutted a bunch of candles to progress, and almost simultaneously died and went to jail as a result. He has renown 25 docks, so the pubs were probably filled with people going “the Mule, that madman, that absolute legend, b____y slammed his face into a bunch of lit candles!”
Seeking’s a good way to get a few beers, is what I’m saying.
[quote=Cernunnas][quote=The Master]
You should note that you will need some pretty late game stuff to finish it in a first place, for example, to go to one place that you need to go through to finish smen requires 200 watchful, so you will need high stats eventually anyways, there are some other things too that you most likely won’t be able to accomplish very early, such as a choice to sacrifice either an overgoat, a classic short story or 7 fluke cores(bet you don’t even know what the last one is), and you most likely won’t have very good sources to finish stuff like that).[/quote]
Well, that settles it then. Thank you all so much!
Edit: Oh, wait, should I discard the card all together? Or choose the option within the card to not attempt the search? I’m afraid if I do the latter, the game will flag me as "given up" in the past, and I won’t be able to ever pursue Mr. Eaten then. Is that even a thing? edited by Cernunnas on 12/7/2016[/quote]
Unlike before, being free of the name doesn’t lock you out of seeking(you can even see people who are farming for points in free of the name).
note: by "Unlike before" I meant before seeking returned, and yes, seeking was once completely frozen for around…two or three years and it returned a while ago, it was quite different back then too. edited by The Master on 12/7/2016
You can start Seeking again in the future without a problem. There are several paths leading to it (unlike the old days, when it was a tricky thing to start, carefully hidden in the game).
But here’s my suggestion:
Simply being a Seeker has no penalty to it. This is something that you can progress anytime you want, at your own pace. So, if Seeking is something that sounds interesting to you, just stay a Seeker. The game won’t punish you (the whole point of Seeking is that you are making active deliberate choices to cause damage to yourself). You can decide to wait until you’re leveled up your character and done all other stories before taking even a single step on the Seeking Road.
(a small caveat - the only undesirable thing you might experience at first is a flood of undiscardable black cards. However, this is not something that comes from Seeking, but from a related yet separate quality called Unaccountably Peckish (i.e. you’ll get these cards if you have UP, whether or not you are Seeking). Drop your UP to 0 and these cards won’t bother you again).
[quote=dov]You can start Seeking again in the future without a problem. There are several paths leading to it (unlike the old days, when it was a tricky thing to start, carefully hidden in the game).
But here’s my suggestion:
Simply being a Seeker has no penalty to it. This is something that you can progress anytime you want, at your own pace. So, if Seeking is something that sounds interesting to you, just stay a Seeker. The game won’t punish you (the whole point of Seeking is that you are making active deliberate choices to cause damage to yourself). You can decide to wait until you’re leveled up your character and done all other stories before taking even a single step on the Seeking Road.
(a small caveat - the only undesirable thing you might experience at first is a flood of undiscardable black cards. However, this is not something that comes from Seeking, but from a related yet separate quality called Unaccountably Peckish (i.e. you’ll get these cards if you have UP, whether or not you are Seeking). Drop your UP to 0 and these cards won’t bother you again).[/quote]
Interesting suggestion indeed! I think I will go with it, even though some spoilers tell me I will lose some stats for even accepting. The thing with the hunger is alright, like I said, it fits my character pretty well, so I’d be delighted to have a bite of this and that every now and then wink.
You might have heard of the treacherous path and unexpected punishments of the original SMEN, but as others have said, the new SMEN only punishes direct actions. To quote the ratlord on this rattiest of Ratmases:
"…I’ll borrow a fairly strained metaphor from myself; old Seeking played dirty, and tried to cut you with an old, rusty dagger, even when you weren’t paying attention to it. New Seeking is much more refined; it holds out a sharp silver rapier and invites you to impale yourself on it." edited by Optimatum on 12/7/2016