thank you!
What I’m not thrilled about is the idea that a rare success on a card action that has eluded me for ten years so far is still locking progress on my ambition.
edited by Tom Davidson on 1/15/2020
I luckily already have a Bat with Attitude, but I don’t envy anyone now under the mercy of RNG before they can progress their ambition. We expected to get roadblocked by a shopping list, but not one that would require a rare success on a luck check on an opportunity card. That’s three RNG shenanigans stacked together. Some people I know have expressed disappointment about this turn of events.
I think we all would appreciate seeing an ambition exclusive source for the elusive bat, even if we have to pay expensively for it. After all Heart’s Desire gave us an alternative method for obtaining a very rare item required in the ambition, such option for a Bat with Attitude wouldn’t be so out of place.
That quibble aside, I’m enjoying this little odd trip so far and I’m currently making preparation for going to a certain hard to reach place in order to regain what was lost.
edited by silurica on 1/15/2020
I had a Bat with Attitude in the past, but I upgraded it during Hallowmas 2018. I’m hoping Failbetter add another option to get one if only for those people on this specific Ambition step.
There is a certain not entirely inappropriate dark humour in the fact that it is not only the bat that is livid…
(Too soon?)
[quote=Tom Davidson]It’s also worth noting that I have never, not ever, received a Bat with Attitude.[/quote]Auch…! From the data I gathered, the rare success is 5% which means you’ll need, on average, 40 cards to get one.
I don’t know how much comfort is, but with Flash Lays you can "farm" for it.
checking more data
With EF status, flipping all cards and consuming around 110 AP/day on FLs while using 6-7 standard frequency cards, you may get one such bat in 4-5 days (statistically), but it’s an incredible effort! This is the average of a card that I got over 20 days with a decent deck: no plant, no artist, all 5C lodgings and 6 useless ones, no remote location (kept the high freq cards in the extra slots).
I can’t say this is the best decisions, but an ambition shouldn’t be something that you can easily accomplish. Some luck is required too!
Wish everyone good luck!
edited by Skinnyman on 1/15/2020
i love the Nemesis conclusion so far. I love it so much.
Odd – I have 10 of the little fellows. However, it has to be said I always play the “release a bat into the clouds” option and never the Great Game. I don’t see any other source for them – how do you obtain them from Flash Lays?
[quote=Jermaine Vendredi]Odd – I have 10 of the little fellows. However, it has to be said I always play the "release a bat into the clouds" option and never the Great Game. I don’t see any other source for them – how do you obtain them from Flash Lays?[/quote]Yes, hoard them!
Using Flash Lays you can reset you cards and hope to get it again and again and again.
I wish there was a way to send them to people, like with boxed cats. I have 16 of them on my main character, and even 2 on my newbie.
edited by Grouchybeast on 1/15/2020
For many years, I couldn’t seem to get a single Bat with Attitude. Now I have 11. Patience, Tom! You may yet get one–or even a whole flock.
I’ve had the card twice today with no luck, but will keep soldiering on. In the past, I never had the NEED for Battitude – my other Companions being more than sufficient for that niche – so it’ll be interesting to see how quickly I can get there with intentional farming.
(I put a certain amount of thought into naming my pets, and it’s an indication of how little I’ve expected to get a BWA that I don’t have a name for him/her already picked out. Maybe "Jason Todd?")
edited by Tom Davidson on 1/16/2020
[quote=Catherine Raymond]For many years, I couldn’t seem to get a single Bat with Attitude. Now I have 11. Patience, Tom! You may yet get one–or even a whole flock.[/quote]It’s not so much that we want to get a Bat with Attitude eventually so much as there are most likely only a couple weeks until Nemesis finishes updating as promised. It’s a human bias: we can be very patient waiting for writers to finish, but we can be very impatient about clear roadblocks. :)
It’s a little annoying, though, especially since a similar situation in Heart’s Desire (needing a Reported Location of a One-Time Prince of Hell, which can only be obtained through repeated card draws) gave us a one-time option to discover one, or with the Cave of the Nadir, where we could obtain a Ray-Drenched Cinder by finding Eyeless Skulls through rare successes, or we could purchase them with Echoes or connections.
It’s almost a commentary on wealth and power in Fallen London: no matter how many tens of thousands of Echoes of materials you can liquidate or how strong your connections are with any faction, this is a roadblock that cannot be surmounted with material wealth or power.
edited by Azothi on 1/16/2020
I expected some sort of roadblock during the update, but not like this. On my main character, I have reached the end of Seeking, acquired an Ubergoat, maxed out all Newspaper qualities, gotten both the Courier’s Footprint and Poet Laureate, become a Paramount Presence, and am in the process of getting a Noman’s Tattoo and setting up a Bazaar Wedding on other characters, so I am not a stranger to grinding, but for LUCK of all things to be an obstacle to a major AMBITION, it’s not something that I can agree with. I actually didn’t mind "Fine Dining" for pulling this stunt since it is a self-contained Exceptional story, but for an AMBITION to expect players to get a pet that’s slightly less impossible to obtain than a Blemmigan Secretary is where I draw the line.
Grinding Notability is a pain, but it has clear goals and deadlines; Seeking is self-inflicted pain, but one that can be planned for weeks in advance. In the case of hunting Bats with Attitudes, it could take weeks, possibly months, of trying to pass through luck checks before players can progress to the next step for whatever reason.
My suggestion is that they either change the rate of success on the "Parliament of Bats" card so that obtaining a Bat with Attitude is not as difficult, or that they add an additional, expensive option that allows you to get a Bat with Attitude for the sake of the Ambition. If they allow players to get a Location of a Prince of Hell for the price of 180 Echoes, or allow one to continue Nemesis without having reached Courier’s Footprint, they can certainly put an option to get a Bat with Attitude with more consistency.
Without hints of any kind, is this hard to reach place somewhere that has been visited before by players or is it an entirely new location?
J-
Without hints of any kind, is this hard to reach place somewhere that has been visited before by players or is it an entirely new location?
J-[/quote]
It had been visited, yes.
Just adding my agreement for suggestion of additional, expensive? way-around to get a Bat of Attitude. I have 7, and was lucky to get the first literally in the days of that Hallowmas when it was needed, but… not all players dedicate themselves to choose the option on the card, and not all players are collectors.
edited by Kharsirr Lynx on 1/16/2020
[quote=Azothi]It’s a little annoying, though, especially since a similar situation in Heart’s Desire (needing a Reported Location of a One-Time Prince of Hell, which can only be obtained through repeated card draws) gave us a one-time option to discover one, or with the Cave of the Nadir, where we could obtain a Ray-Drenched Cinder by finding Eyeless Skulls through rare successes, or we could purchase them with Echoes or connections.[/quote]You’re comparing something that requires, on average, 40 cards with something that requires 800+ or 128 Flit cards favouring the Urchins.
Extreme card flipping (very exhausting) can yield a bat in 4-5 days, but we all know how cruel can RNG be sometimes! :(
[quote=The Curious Watcher]Seeking is self-inflicted pain, but one that can be planned for weeks in advance[/quote]Only because it has been done and we know how to do it. Any new player pursuing this ambition can plan and start drawing the card for this Bat since day 1 or 2.
And besides, I’m guessing that it will take few more months before the 3rd part of the conclusion. During this time, I bet one third of London will be scandalous! :) For Flash Lays, of course.
[quote=Kharsirr Lynx]Just adding my agreement for suggestion of additional, expensive? way-around to get a Bat of Attitude. I have 7, and was lucky to get the first literally in the days of that Hallowmas when it was needed, but… not all players dedicate themselves to choose the option on the card, and not all players are collectors.[/quote]I couldn’t agree more!
Wouldn’t the value/proportion/impact of the story be diminished if everything will be easily accessible?
edited by Skinnyman on 1/16/2020
How many bats do you need? If only one its seems okay. Standard freq card, rare success looks like 5%. 2 weeks of fishing for it, one month if RNG is cruel.
Now to add that Portfolio of Souls (excluding the “manufacture” which cost 75 E) and Judgements’ Egg were not that accessible and were seen as trophies. After some updates, they were reduced to Echo junk.
My Bats are more valuable than 12.5 E! :D