Wait, has the third option been unlocked? It was unplayable when I reached that point.
The third option was open if you already had the necessary qualities, in this case, Seeking Mr Eaten’s Name 7. I had 8.
[quote=Lady Taimi Felix]
Yes. I picked the third option, because a reckoning will not- Oh, well you know all that by now, yes? This was the result:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Lady~Taimi~Felix?fromEchoId=6012179[/quote]
Thank you for that. I hope that the storyline will return soon so I may also take this route.
Well, that was a vaguely entertaining diversion for about a day or so. Not a satisfying diversion mind you, not by any remote stretch of the imagination, but entertaining enough I suppose. Perhaps eight paragraphs of text, if that.
Perhaps by 2020 we’ll actually get to play the game, but I now doubt it.
Oh well. Back to casually and pointlessly grinding for resources.
Am I the only one who thinks the lengths you go to to get the last two players to join is hilarious? I mean you can release something utterly horrible to get the sixth player and what you can plan to do to get the last player to join can also completely screw over absolutely everyone. I think it’s hilarious that you are doing these horrible things to make people play a card game you’re not even guaranteed to win!
It’s even more hilarious when you take into account what someone could possibly desire so badly in order to go through all these means. How would they even represent the numerous victory options when everyone comes together to play the game?
I mean, my character only chose this Ambition not because she desires something, but because she was mildly interested. I don’t even know what her heart desires. Maybe a Heptagoat?
Actually, if I get a Heptagoat at the end of all this I’ll be quite content.
For my character, Lanzo Hoffman, I will be making his desire simple: he wants to be a Master.
That will make Mr. Page’s eyes pop-out at the table, don’t you think?
edited by Owen Wulf on 6/30/2015
I wonder how annoyed the other players would be if my heart’s desire is simply to win my heart’s desire. All that effort just because I wanted to win a high stakes card game, not for any prizes but solely for the game itself.
Ok, I finished this part of the Ambition and… I feel the same, more or less. It was… ok. Just ok. I don’t know if my memories of the early stages of the Ambition are somewhat changed by the years, but it felt way more funny, mysterious and interesting. Here, I have a feeling of… something rushed, unfinished, lacking texts and atmosphere. Great ideas, but not done with all the talent of Failbetter Games.
Maybe I’m just imagining things, or I’ve become more greedy and difficult to satisfy ?
I would have like something longer, deeper, especially the part with the sixth player. I mainly felt like I sailed a lot (and I hate to sail x_x).
I don’t like being this guy who is unsatisfied and says it, so I’m sorry, but it’s how I feel. :/ Could have been way better, but the ideas are very good.
Well, it certainly would be a convenient narrative sleight-of-hand if it turns out that pursuing the playing of Heart’s Desire so ardently has, in fact, converted the true Heart’s Desire all of your characters with that ambition into "I just want to play Heart’s Desire." It is in the nature of games to encompass and alter motivations, after all, and our hearts are shaped by our actions as much as the reverse. And of course, it’s quite possible that you, or your character, aren’t truly aware of their truest desires.
I just realized that in most outcomes bad stuff will happen
Just think about it
[spoiler] if the prince of hell is released, no-one but Virginia will care about dealing with him. There is also the fact you can plot to bring down Paris, blow up the bazaar or bring a super angry zombie space bat to London. Mr pages will probably be the only one whose heart desire is to deal with that. What if the manager or the monkey win? Everyone is screwed [spoiler]
[quote=Emain Ablach]
I don’t like being this guy who is unsatisfied and says it, so I’m sorry, but it’s how I feel. :/ Could have been way better, but the ideas are very good.[/quote]
I think a large part of it is that in the beginning, we needed to unlock portions of the city in order to progress with our Ambitions. But by this point, we’ve unlocked everything and it’s unlikely that there’s anywhere else to expand upon in the city. The alternative is then to sail. Sunless Sea has given us an untold number of various ports and islands and it’s more convenient to add more docks than open up a new area in London. But we don’t have a connection to a lot of these ports because London is our home, so finding a new port doesn’t feel the same as finding new locations in the city.
Also, keep in mind that many of us has been waiting a long time for this expansion. I think I speak for many of us when I say that we like to hoard our items. We never know when something will become useful so we stockpile things, especially the expensive ones. Or at least, the Echos to purchase these items. Had I done this in one continuous swoop I doubt I could have afforded all the necessary components. It certainly does kill a lot of the anticipation when you no longer need to save up to get what you need.
With regards to the 6th player I’m not sure what else could have been done for them. Instead of paying numerous high tier items for the persuasive element maybe force us to do the research ourselves? Somewhat like the first Exceptional Friend story back in May? I do know what you mean though. It took me months to get through the first parts of the Amibition. And I finished this in less than a week. I’m trying to drag this out a bit further by choosing the last option for the 7th player.
I still like this Ambition a lot, but I agree that these last two steps felt kind of rushed; especially if I compare them to how interesting and troublesome it was to deal with the monkey, the Manager, or the Topsy King. There have been a couple of seemingly big choices to make, but I did not feel like they would have really affected the world of Fallen London at all. I may well be mistaken.
edited by salirsalisco on 6/30/2015
I understand, and I’m pretty sure what you said is a part of why I feel unsatisfied, but to answer to your question about the sixth player… yes, your example of what could have been done is exactly what I had in mind.
Paying high tiers items is just a matter of grinding. It hurts my wallet, force me to grind a lot if I don’t have the items, but that’s all there is to it. That’s not interesting. The more I think about it, the more I feel like this expansion of Heart’s Desire lacks text and atmosphere. Clicking a lot and using a lot of actions doesn’t feel the same if you’re doing it with bits of an interesting and unknown story than if you do it with storylets you already played 1000-2000 times. I played it with the feeling that I was clicking 50 times for getting somewhere, to only find one little paragraph of new text. x_x
In the end, it’s not a matter of time spent, new locations (even if I must admit I was hoping for a special location like the Orphanage ^.^’ but that’s my own problem for wanting that and I totally respect the choice of the writers not to do so) or items. Just texts, choices to make, research to do. I’m repeating myself now, guess it means I should stop here. :'p
edited by Emain Ablach on 6/30/2015
It might be time to see about getting some Lethean tea leaves. I’ve had a feeling for a while that my character was moving towards the wrong goals, but I’d have to be a damned fool not to recognize the downward slope I’m sliding on at this point.
So close to the end, yet so far. Any idea on when we’ll finally be able to play the damn game?
After the next Light Fingers we’ll have the final Nemesis and final Bag a Legend updates. After that we’ll have the final Heart’s Desire update. Then.
This seems an impossible tightrope to walk.
I’m of the opinion that I’d rather have the work be done well rather than soon, but we also have to remember that there were about a dozen threads over the couple of months screaming for a Heart’s Desire update.
Keeping in mind that Heart’s Desire is, by far, the most popular Ambition, it is also the one going to be subjected to the most scrutiny.
I thought the update was fine. It may have seemed rushed for some of us because we already had all the pretty ridiculously expensive items, but for people who will be playing all of this content at once, this step will not be the cake walk it was for those of us accumulating items for years.
In all fairness, there was a reason for that. Ambition updates were announced back in October, and the first two came out reasonably quickly (with Hallowmas in the middle as a very understandable reason for the delay between the two). I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only person who expected Heart’s Desire to come out fairly quickly afterwards, and was disappointed when it took several months. If you’re going to make an announcement, why not wait until all/most of the content is finished? (I say most because hey, there’s something to be said for getting people’s attention and raising their anticipation for a bit; good business and all)
Really? Is that actually true? (I’m not calling you out or anything, I just don’t remember seeing data on this anywhere. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some FB post somewhere, I just don’t remember where)
[quote=Nigel Overstreet]
I thought the update was fine. It may have seemed rushed for some of us because we already had all the pretty ridiculously expensive items, but for people who will be playing all of this content at once, this step will not be the cake walk it was for those of us accumulating items for years.[/quote]
It’s not just the ease of the content, though. Although that is a factor, I fully agree that item gates are just going to be less of a problem for long-timers like us. My problem was more that the second half of the content felt rushed in other terms. I’ve already posted an action-by-action summary of the last two recruitment elsewhere in this thread, but the short version is that all the new content in the last two recruitments, echoed, took up a single page of the journal. There just wasn’t a lot there. If the whole update had lived up to Old Downy, I would have had no problems with it. (In fact, I think Old Downy took as long, action wise, as either full recruitment after it. It certainly took me longer then both put together, since I was very good at failing second-chanced 85% success rates)
The second half of this update, to me, felt like…like FBG got tired of the "recruit seven players" concept and rushed a quick ending to recruitment, replacing it with getting the cards and the location for the game instead. Which could be interesting, but it isn’t the ambition I’ve been playing? As I said earlier, recruiting the Topsy King was my favorite part of this Ambition; winding, long, with a lot going on. Since then, the ambition hasn’t lived up to that promise. And this update did nothing but reinforce that impression.
edited by LordPaido on 6/30/2015
I don’t know if it’s half, but it’s pretty darn close. That’s not true of more dedicated players, but most casual players choose Heart’s Desire.
It was mentioned on the forums some time ago. 2012, maybe? Or earlier.
It mostly boils down to having a more appealing hook(anything you want vs. big jewel) and it’s two main qualities(Watchful & Persuasive) being more appealing to players.