I’ve been poking around, doing a spot of reading here and there, and I’m realizing based on comments and signatures…that some individuals truly do not want or need some Opportunity Cards.[/color]
So I wanted to take a consensus, and get some advice.
Are there any Opportunity cards you constantly discard? [/li][li]Any cards you think aren’t worth it? [/li][li]Your favorite cards that you can draw from the deck? [/li][li]With only so many turns, do you use all of your cards, or rid yourself of them in favor of Location based stories and actions?
I only discard the Affluent Photographer opp. cards since I already got their rewards.
I don’t find any cards that have no use for me at the moment (Save for the Affluent Photographer).
I like Menace reducing cards, second chances generating cards like the Church/The Game conflict card, Counting the Days cards and those that generate high-tier Items like Memories of Distant Shores.
Depends. If I’m out grinding (such as now in Wilmot’s End) then I ignore the opp. cards (except Menace reducing ones). If my goals become a bit flexible then I spare some actions to play the opp. cards instead.[li] edited by Pyrodinium on 2/12/2014
We discard any cards that we don’t find valuable, or that we don’t have a reason to play. It’s not a matter of us finding cards annoying; it’s a matter of us finding them useful.
I play all cards the first time I flip them to read their stories.
After that, I discard any card that offers less benefits than I get for my action in some other way (e.g. I discard all the Watchful/Dangerous cards that award less than ~0.9E of items, Persuasive < 0.7E, Shadowy cards < 1.3E if they don’t have other effects, as I can reliably grind that much right now; the Mysterious Benefactor and Aunt cards, as social actions have better rewards per action; and on my alt all the City Vices cards – still sad I couldn’t get Penstock housing!), all the ones that are rather inconvenient to do (e.g., I love my houseplant, but I’m not finding 200 candles for it when I have all the cryptic clues and pearls on hand already and its cards come up frequently), and cards that don’t award anything I could use (e.g. half the connection cards, many of the sale offers). … also I discard anything with a spider on it out of personal terror; I Adblocked all the spider images in the game already, but the text makes me shudder too! My overall discard rate is probably around 70 or 75%.[li]
My favorite non-storyline card is probably Neath’s Mysteries (social actions for all four of the deeper Neathy mystery qualities), A Visit (the acquaintance card), or Time for a little relaxation (in which you euphemistically visit a brothel-- hey, it reduces both nightmares and wounds!). I also love all the autofire dream cards for mechanical reasons ;)
[ul][li]Are there any Opportunity cards you constantly discard?[/li]
Whoa boy are there a lot:
Any of the Connection Clash, as I like to it them cards like the ‘Kaleidoscope Church.’ Besides the ones where I can side with the Urchines these days since I’m trying to grind for their connection ASAP.
Anything that has City Vices. They’re generally useless to me in terms of states, items and boosts.
The ‘A serious offer’ card. Helen is starting to regret making friends with Hell with how pushy the Devil and Deviless are after +2 years of silence on her end.
[li]Any cards you think aren’t worth it?[/li]
At the moment anything connected with Death by Water. It doesn’t lead to anywhere at the moment since SMEN is withdrawn for now and, from my understanding, has nothing else to it.
[li]Your favorite cards that you can draw from the deck?[/li]
Lodgings and Visiting one of your friends like the Soldier, Forger, etc. Personally I wished the four friends weren’t a card since I have trouble getting then. I liked them being a pinned storylet I can go to.
Personally like the Tomb-Colonist’s dogs card for when it comes to my alt where I’m focusing Dangerous on.
Anything that can reduce my menaces but especially Nightmares since I’m trying to grind for Dreams.
Speaking of Dreams – Looking for What the Thunder Said and Is Someone There in terms of my main character’s background. The Dead for the Dangerous alt and Is Someone There for an alt that focuses on Shadowy.
[li]With only so many turns, do you use all of your cards, or rid yourself of them in favor of Location based stories and actions?[/li][/ul]
For my main account, Helen, I rid myself of cards that don’t benefit me right away in terms of stats/items/MW/etc since I’m in grinding mode for her so I can make her Legendary Charisma.
The rest of my alts are more generous when it comes to their actions. I’m more willing to play around in the Opportunities Deck with them.
[color=#C2B280]
So, basically: [ul][li]We already know which cards are unpopular;[/li][li]We’re (slowly) working to improve them;[/li][li]Big lists of the cards you discard or dislike are unlikely just now to help us improve the game.[/li][/ul]Here are a couple of categories of card-related feedback which I at least would find more useful:[ul][li]Do you have reasons for disliking certain cards which might not be obvious to us? If you dislike a card because it’s too common/not profitable/worse than some alternatives, trust me, I already know.[/li][li]Are there cards which are not especially profitable but which you nonetheless particularly like or are highly likely to play? If so, please do tell us: it will help us make other cards you like in future.[/li][/ul]In summary: we’re never going to balance the opportunity deck around the Affair of the Box, but we are (of course!) interested in making it as interesting, fun, and frustration-free as possible. Lists of unpopular cards or feedback which focuses on profitability is unlikely to help us do that at the moment: more analytical feedback, and feedback on cards you like to play for reasons other than sheer profit would probably be helpful.
And finally, please be patient: as you can probably imagine, the writers are working on the Feast of the Exceptional Rose and Sunless Sea and (at a conservative estimate) half a hundred other important and useful things.[/color] edited by Flyte on 2/12/2014
Even if it is not so useful with respect to the affair of the box storylet, i usually play the affair of the box omption in the conflicting connection cards - the text is pretty amusing.
I also like to play “a visit”, no only for the awesome echo-gain if you visit the Forger, but because the idea of having good friends appeals to me.
I play all the possible dreams because of the writing, even if high dream qualities are pretty much not really useful.
I originally commented in the spirit of satisfying the OP’s curiosity, and theirs alone. If the thread had instead asked for dev-oriented feedback, I would have said I’m quite happy with the opportunity card deck in general, and I don’t think increasing the proportion of cards I or anyone else plays is a goal that must be pursued.
Things that do or would consistently convince me to play "unprofitable" cards, however, are
an associated quality raised by playing it, even if said quality has no apparent benefit and does not lead toward closure: if there’s a progress bar and a hint of an ongoing narrative advanced by my character’s involvement, playing the card provides an intangible sense of efficacy as powerful as seeing the echo or main quality count grow
card content that strongly ties into deeper Fallen London lore, especially when my character makes purposeful decisions to find something out, even if they fail (versus stumbling upon information by coincidence), probably for the sense of agency
To be clear, I don’t mind at all when my character has only the most peripheral role in something, and do not want to be the universe’s hero or villain or even string-puller; what makes me happy is feeling that there’s something huge out there, and I chose to touch it.
meeting or learning more about people/concepts who are repeatedly referenced in different contexts (e.g., I’m delighted by all the stuff I can do with the four main acquaintances and when Jasper and Frank show up): these both enlarge the world as a whole and allow me to feel like the slice of it I directly interact with is both manageable and significant – accessing the good parts of having many choices without hitting that pesky paradox
rare successes, damn it! for me ideally in the 5-20% range
But
many of these go directly against the idea of a one-time opportunity (i.e. a brief excursion) and providing a sense of daily life/tedium/time passing against which far-reaching mysteries and accomplishments can be contrasted
Cards I want to play repeatedly are not necessarily cards I most love the first time I see them, and I’m not sure which is a priority
I suspect overdosing on slice of life sf/fantasy as a child might have reduced my interest in daily hijinks :'P[li][/li] edited by Cordial on 2/12/2014
I play the faction conflict cards because I feel that building connections is something my character would do. Sources are important when investigating. And when a connection is needed, there might not be enough time to draw the cards needed to build it up.
I used to play "Worth a flutter?" on "A Sporting Sort" for fun and curiosity. (Is there a rare success or isn’t there?) But when that card changed, low random rolls compared to the doubled risk aggravated me enough that it was no longer fun. So I stopped playing it.
[quote=Flyte][color=#C2B280]Here are a couple of categories of card-related feedback which I at least would find more useful
Do you have reasons for disliking certain cards which might not be obvious to us? If you dislike a card because it’s too common/not profitable/worse than some alternatives, trust me, I already know.[/color][/quote] I severely dislike the fact that the Wounds menace card, "A Restorative", shows up even when at 0 Wounds.
[quote=Saharan][quote=Flyte][color=#C2B280]Here are a couple of categories of card-related feedback which I at least would find more useful
Do you have reasons for disliking certain cards which might not be obvious to us? If you dislike a card because it’s too common/not profitable/worse than some alternatives, trust me, I already know.[/color][/quote] I severely dislike the fact that the Wounds menace card, "A Restorative", shows up even when at 0 Wounds.[/quote]
[li]
Especially since it reduces a certain hunger-related menace.
[quote=Helen Demeter][ul][li]Any cards you think aren’t worth it?[/li]
At the moment anything connected with Death by Water. It doesn’t lead to anywhere at the moment since SMEN is withdrawn for now and, from my understanding, has nothing else to it.[/ul][ul][/quote][/ul]
Isn’t there a Dr. Shlomo card that requires Death by Water 10, or so?
I’m not sure what effect it has, but I suspect it’s Making Waves.
[quote=Humblest]Isn’t there a Dr. Shlomo card that requires Death by Water 10, or so?
I’m not sure what effect it has, but I suspect it’s Making Waves.[/quote]The Interpreter of Dreams will let you pay him an Extraordinary Implication, and then he’ll offer to help you with those dreams. One option, which I have been fortunate with both times I tried it, was to ask for courage, which gave me "pretty good odds" of getting a Hard-Earned Lesson and a Favours in High Places. That reduced my dream quality by one level (so perhaps ~10 CP). Considering that I’ve been clicking a lot of cards to get the dream quality that high, it wasn’t really worth it. So the only reason to click on the dreams would be if you want to see where they lead. If you want to ‘cash in’ on them you’d be better off using those actions to make money.
I really really, dislike drawing opportunity cards which feature no options that do not involve bothering a friend and/or spending fate. They seem particularly common in Menace Zones, for example.
… I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a card. Maybe I’m too high or not going to the right menace zones. Do you have an example (card name)?[/quote]
[li]
Every single Menace zone has at least one card where the only option is to ask someone to come do something. In the Royal Bethlehem, for example, you scream up at the cavern roof and someone on the surface hears you. In the Tomb Colonies, you send a letter to have someone ‘disreputable’ manage your store of absinthe.
I’ll try to dredge up card names later, but for the moment, my Watchfulness has been rather drained by a pesky “Two Hour Dispute with the Telegraph Service” card.
The ask someone from the surface card in the menance area is really useful. I use an email that I reserve for random signup mail and newsletters. The menace reducing effect is applied at the time you send the invitation, so it’s fine if nobody ever takes up on that offer.
… I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a card. Maybe I’m too high or not going to the right menace zones. Do you have an example (card name)?[/quote]
[li]
Every single Menace zone has at least one card where the only option is to ask someone to come do something. In the Royal Bethlehem, for example, you scream up at the cavern roof and someone on the surface hears you. In the Tomb Colonies, you send a letter to have someone ‘disreputable’ manage your store of absinthe.[/quote]
[/li][li]Oh. I’m always sent to the Mirror Marshes (Kinda miss RB), and never seem to get much scandal any more. I’ve either forgotten, or it’s new. Hmm. I’ll pay more attention in the MM, see if there’s an equivalent. I suspect because I have a set ‘get out of menace fast’ routine, that I’d stopped noticing.[/li][li]