NEW CONTENT: Heart's Desire Update

Fallen London
41

And has anyone failed to free it? My attempt was the most half-hearted affair - alas that I am simply too awful—!

[spoiler] I put on my best Sunday talkative rat but it seems austere 10 can’t win out over heartlessness and ruthless 10 :( Not that I regret chatting to the chap, but it’s precisely those traits that’d have me free it for the joy of it, and as insurance - if I’m offending Virginia I may as well have an ally, however uncertain (and buzzy).
…Dammit now I really do want to unleash a Prince of Hell of old on the Neath. Don’t suppose there’d be a chance afterwards to come back?

42

[color=#ff9900]You’re right. I should have made you run through the Polythreme wheel, too. Missed a trick, there.[/color][/quote]

You could’ve even added a loop through the Corpsecage carousel, too.

I think like 80% of the new actions with this update are zailing. Granted, the other 20% are top quality but… so much zailing.
edited by Sackville on 6/25/2015

43

Is it safe to discuss the different options of the new content here?

44

Ambitions aren’t fate-locked, so it’s fair game.

So what did you all end up doing in regards to the piece of the Hundred’s Heart? Given that my character is Closest to the Urchins, my choice was relatively obvious, in negotiating to borrow the shard and keeping my promise. Was neat to see the connection between the Sock and the Thunder; I had never pieced it together before.

And I don’t know what you all are talking about with Old Downey, didn’t give me any problems at all (which is also nicely in-character).

45

So… has anyone used the mega-expensive Scrap item instead of the cheaper option? I am curious as to whether the secret is used up or not, and whether there is anything particularly juicy attached to that option that isn’t there with the other one…

46

Ambitions aren’t fate-locked, so it’s fair game.[/quote]
[color=#ff9900]Do use spoiler tags, though, for people who haven’t got too far through.[/color]

47

[color=#ff9900]To save misery: there’s nothing clever happening there. It costs one THING to proceed and you have a chance to gain one THING via Heart’s Desire.[/color]

48

If you’re in the saving Misery business can you give a hint of what would happen if I said no? After everything I’ve gone through to get this far, he shows up at my door and invites me? Something smells fishy, and it’s not the lacre. Okay it IS the lacre, but this is still suspicious.

49

[color=#ff9900]To save misery: there’s nothing clever happening there. It costs one THING to proceed and you have a chance to gain one THING via Heart’s Desire.[/color][/quote]

Thanks. I assume the text is different then, even if both options get you to the same place…? The cost difference between the two options seems crazy to me.

50

Unfreeze SMEN immediately!

I’m not sure if my choice here will even matter, but not being able to press that button is killing me.

Also, did anyone echo the Corpsecage text from before you choose your action? I want to confirm and then obsess over the use of the word &quotchitin&quot (or possibly &quotchitinous&quot)

51

From within comes a nagging drone, the speech of locusts. A chain rattles, musically. Something wraps around the bars from below. Not fingers. Fingers lack chitin.

52

If you already have a THING, you’ll get a replacement one from the cheap option and then spend it. There doesn’t seem to be any reason to give up your THING at A:HD 140, when both options are available.

Unless I did that part wrong, and there was a way to keep the THING I got. If that was the case, then… whoops.

53

If you already have a THING, you’ll get a replacement one from the cheap option and then spend it. There doesn’t seem to be any reason to give up your THING at A:HD 140, when both options are available.

Unless I did that part wrong, and there was a way to keep the THING I got. If that was the case, then… whoops.[/quote]

Well, yes. I suppose my question is really &quotdoes option 2 eat the THING&quot? Because if so, then it sounds like there is no reason at all to take option 2 without first taking option 1.

54

Right. Having now done it I can confirm that option 1 gives you the THING, which option 2 does indeed then use up. No ability to repeat option 1, for obvious reasons.

With that in mind, I have to say I wonder what possible reason there could be for anyone to take option 2 without first taking option 1.

55

[color=#ff9900]So, currently, outside of Heart’s Desire there’s only one way to get a THING. But that won’t always be the case. We try to design content to be a future-proof as we can - in the future there may be players who got a THING in a less costly way, or as a result of getting lucky, etc, etc.[/color]
[color=#ff9900]
[/color]
[color=#ff9900]There’s also some more philosophical considerations surrounding choice and how it’s framed, but I don’t think here’s the place to dig into that. But the response players who have already earned a THING have when they see this choice (&quotNO &%$£ING WAY YOU WILL PRY THIS ONE FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS!&quot) is kind of part of the point. I’ll bet they click the other option REALLY HARD.[/color]

56

[color=#ff9900]So, currently, outside of Heart’s Desire there’s only one way to get a THING. But that won’t always be the case. We try to design content to be a future-proof as we can - in the future there may be players who got a THING in a less costly way, or as a result of getting lucky, etc, etc.[/color]
[color=#ff9900]
[/color]
[color=#ff9900]There’s also some more philosophical considerations surrounding choice and how it’s framed, but I don’t think here’s the place to dig into that. But the response players who have already earned a THING have when they see this choice (&quotNO &%$£ING WAY YOU WILL PRY THIS ONE FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS!&quot) is kind of part of the point. I’ll bet they click the other option REALLY HARD.[/color][/quote]

Thanks again Chris. It’s two ways incidentally (Nadir and Scraps).

I think you’re probably right re choice, but it’s interesting. I mean, I own all of the top tier Scrap items - funnily enough the one I am missing is the THING. If I thought there was something super-unique to be gained by giving one of them up (whether item, lore or quality) then I would seriously consider it.

My point is that someone who was expecting something like that would have been really, really disappointed if they had (bravely) clicked option 2 and found out they were actually worse off than people who didn’t have the THING already. Like I said, the cost of option 1 makes it a total, total, no-brainer, regardless of whether or not you already have a THING. And because it’s such a no-brainer one could argue that someone who didn’t know the outcomes in advance might therefore have had a reasonable expectation that clicking option 2 first would get them something extra.

Anyway, I want to say that I think the new Heart’s Desire content has been really cool so far. Am looking forward to seeing what awaits at the end of this next zee voyage.

57

Surely nothing bad will happen, right?

58

I’m a little confused about why all ambitious activities can now be completed regardless of location - last month I played through early ambition content on alts that had trouble getting to places like the Flit or the docks, and this would have been really useful there. But on my main, I think I would prefer the sense of place from having to move to the carnival, or Spite. As it happened, I went through all of new content in random places like staying in my lodgings while crawling through old Downy, which is reflected in my journal. This seemed kind of purposeful, and I can see that you’re trying to signpost things, but is this going to be standard for all the other ambitions, too?[li]
(And has anyone said no to them?)

59

I’m going to guess from the tone of this thread that I’m in the minority in my opinion of much of this update, but…am I really the only one who felt this update, or at least the second half, felt really rushed and a major let-down after the year(s?) of waiting?

Spoilers for Heart’s Desire abound under the cut; ye hath been warned!

Before I delve into the bad, let’s dispense with the good; the first part was quite solid. An expedition, a trip into Old Downy, (…I just got the joke. Wow. Love and hatred vying for control) all that jazz. I would have considered it a bit light for a full recruitment, but for the second half of one, it seemed pretty solid. No problems here.

So then we found out who the 6th player was; ooh, ok, Virginia, lot of potential there. But…well, let me give an action by action summary.

1 Action to chat with Virginia (Ok, she won’t just play, shocking, that. Guess I’ll need to convince her)
1 Action to dig into her past (Ah, ok, former Prince of Hell, bet I’ll need one of those items, wonder where this is headed?)
1 Action (theoretically optional, but I bet most people take it) to get the Location (Oh, well, at least I don’t have to grind a few hundred more scraps)
1 Action to cash in the Location (Oh. I was hoping for a unique area, since Heart’s Desire still doesn’t have one of those. Sigh. More sailing)
Sailing Out (Padding, padding, padding)
1 Action to convince the devil to help (Ok, got a letter from him…wonder how this is going to work. This seems easy so far, where’s the twist?)
Sailing Back (Wow, this update has a lot of padding. An expedition, sailing to Poly and back, and now this)
1 Action to…wait, she’s in already?

So the entirety of recruiting a player, a late player, too, (as opposed to Bishop or Monkey, for example) took all of 6 non-padding actions? 6 paragraphs (ish, maybe 8 or 9) of new text? That’s…it? I mean, there were some item costs, but not onerous ones by any stretch. That’s…really kind of boring. But we know who the 7th player is, and, well, that’s not actually a shock, per se. But it’s cool. Bet he’ll take a lot of work!

5 Actions to come up with a plan (Huh…it’s exactly the same idea as Virginia. But the options are pretty buff-sounding, at least)
1 Action to answer the door (I wonder who that could be…not really)
1 Action to…say yes??? (Wait…wait, what?!)

Well, guess I shouldn’t have complained about Virginia, huh? 7 actions, but only 3 new sections of text? For recruiting a Master? The last two players recruited in less then a candle’s worth of non-padding actions? Heck, if I was an Exceptional Friend, I might have been able to do the whole thing including padding in one full 40 actions. Where’s the depth? Where’s the new unique area to run through? (Think the Orphanage, or the Chambers of the Heart, or The Convent, areas with unique cards, or a unique carousel, or something)

Does anyone else remember Tristram Bagley? Tall, mumbles a lot, wears a natty bat? Remember the work you needed to do to recruit him? I do. I remember thinking at the end of that (including across an update barrier of several months/a year for the end of it) &quotWow, that was a lot of work. Fun, though. If that was #4, I wonder how hard the others are going to be?&quot Recruiting Tristram took a lot of effort, time, investigating, but was rewarding in the end. It was fun. Lots of fun. This update felt eerily like some of my college game dev projects; a solid start, and then a quick rush job when the deadline cropped up unexpectedly. All the fun was frontloaded.

Now, I understand that there were item gates on most of those actions, and that the ambition needs to be balanced for people playing through beginning to end, not people like us that have been spending the years of downtime between ambition updates grinding like there’s no tomorrow. But especially for Heart’s Desire, where the only real draw of the ambition is the lore, there needs to be more actual content. I echoed all the new content for this update, so I could read it again at my leisure. The entirety of recruiting the 6th AND 7th players of the Marvellous takes up the first page. And nothing else. And I’m sorry, but I don’t think that should have been the case.

…that may have gotten a little preachy. Sorry about that. I was just really looking forward to this update since it was announced 7 or 8 months ago, and I was really hoping it would have more to do to keep me interested in the game. The writing that was there was quite good, and I appreciate the work that was put into it. I just wish I didn’t have another likely multiple-year wait ahead of me for the rest of it.

60

Well, you do get the zero cost option to have the Ambition signpost transport you to the Forgotten Quarter relatively early on in this update. And I found out through the waste of a few actions that clicking the option on the Ambition page once you have to go to zee a second time does NOT take you out to zee, or even to Wolfstack. It’s just an expensive way of reminding Players that they should go walk to Wolfstack and get on their Zubmarine like people who aren’t so lazy to do it themselves.

Also, was there a way of avoiding the Corpsecage Island carousel? I had to run through the whole thing. Practically waving a big red flag telling Dr. Orthos I was there, yelling for him to hurry the Hell up… Ha. Hurry the Hell up… Mission accomplished.