Patch Notes

[color=#0000ff]4th June[/color]
[color=#0000ff]
[/color]

  • [color=#0000ff]Whitsun has been cleared away. Any unused Scarlet eggs have been exchanged for Amber Ha’Pennies.[/color][/li][li][color=#0000ff]A difficult, lengthy process to obtain a new vanity quality is now available in Balmoral. This is not possible to complete as of yet.[/color][/li][li][color=#0000ff]Abandoning a Flash Lay no longer requires 25 Flash Lay’s Progress.[/color][/li][li][color=#0000ff]Daniel will now only appear in areas of the Parabolan War that he’s supposed to.[/color][/li][li][color=#0000ff]For balance reasons relating to future content, leaving a certain dismal place in the northern Unterzee now costs seven actions. You didn’t want to go there anyway.[/color][/li][li][color=#0000ff]M. Demeaux’ Advice for Captains, Commemorative Edition and Second Edition now grant +1 Zeefaring instead of An Experienced Zailor.[/color]

edited by StuartFBG on 6/4/2021

[quote=Wojciech]
Can you please also reorder branches in the War in Parabola so that the Morale-using option is consistently the first one? Currently, it’s the first in most locations, but not in the last one.[/quote]

Sure!

Has anything replaced M. Demeaux Advice for more recent players? I recall it was originally a perk associated with one of the SS’s.

[quote=StuartFBG][color=#0000ff]4th June[/color]

  • [color=#0000ff]M. Demeaux’ Advice for Captains, Commemorative Edition and Second Edition now grant +1 Zeefaring instead of An Experienced Zailor.[/color]

edited by StuartFBG on 6/4/2021[/quote]

[quote=StuartFBG][color=#0000ff]A difficult, lengthy process to obtain a new vanity quality is now available in Balmoral. This is not possible to complete as of yet.[/color][/quote]Alright, I need to up my level for the new content! :)

[color=#0099ff]11th June[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Several ‘Airs of _____’ qualities that used to be in the Story category are now in the Randomiser category.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Certain progress bars that weren’t displaying properly now do so.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]A pop-up on mobile devices now correctly displays “no draw limit” in infinite-draw situations, instead of claiming that you have 2.1 billion cards in your deck.[/color]
[/li][/ul]

When did Paint by Moonlight change to require Memories of a Much Lesser Self and Memories of Light? (arghh…)

Yesterday. Part of https://www.failbettergames.com/upcoming-upper-river-and-parabola-balance-changes/

[color=#0099ff]18th June - buckle up…[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]That Which Was Taken now takes substantially more CP of Watchful when choosing that branch, though there is substantial variance in how much watchful it removes.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Improved how World Qualities display in branch requirements.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Many instances in which players would see ‘[quality] remains unchanged, at [value]’ on the results of a branch with variable outcomes will now no longer display those messages.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Balmoral:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Time Remaining in the Woods is now 7 from Collated Research, 7 from Vital Intelligence (was 5 and 4)[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]‘Darken the Woods’ now grants 6 On the Scent for 3 Thirsty Bombazine Scrap (was 10 and 5). It also now correctly lowers Time Remaining in the Woods.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Deer sightings now cost 20 On the Scent[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Grouse sightings now cost 12 On the Scent[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Lowered rewards for deer sightings[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Increased rewards for grouse and fox sightings[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Painting with Moonlight now costs 2 Memories of a Much Lesser Self and 10 Memories of Light[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]Clay Highwayman’s Camp: Adjusted the mid-tier payouts of most larcenies to give them an EV around 24.5-25e[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Hurlers: Adjusted the Final Breath gain at the hot springs spa to max out at 22 Final Breaths (was ~29)[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Laboratory:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Impossible Theorems now cost 13000 lab research and 300 Parabolan Research (was 12000 and 550)[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Adjusted the curves for advanced skill research options to have a lower upper bound – now 35 instead of 40; players with very high skill levels should see a slight reduction.[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]Brawling: ‘Present yourself as something out of their nightmares’, ‘Surprise them with a boot in the fundament’, and ‘Surprise them with a venomous headbutt’ no longer grant substantially more progress than other options.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Bone market:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Duplicating a skull of John the Baptist now grants 1250 Approximate Value of your Skeleton in Pennies and 1 Support for a Counter-Church Theology (was 1500 and 2)[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Knotted Humeri now grant 300 Approximate Value of your Skeleton in Pennies (was 150)[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]Upper River Exchange: Fossilized Forelimbs now cost 55 Hinterland Scrip (was 50)[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Parabolan War:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Morale-spending branches now cost 5 Campaign Morale, add 5 Advance! (was 3 and 6)[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]The Reflection campaign now has an upper bound on initial morale of 6 (was 9). Other campaigns unchanged.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Morale is now capped at 16.[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]Helicon House:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Grabbing Solacefruit now grants 20 Solacefruit and Peppercaps equal to Fitting In (Was Fitting In/2 and 25)[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Slightly reduced Casing… gain from the Platonic Partner in Crime, Rubbery Cat, and ‘Watch Everyone Present’[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]Several Upper River cards had some or all branches uptuned: Canal Workers of the Upper River; Cells outside the City; Halfway to Hell; The Urchins’ Games; Constellations; Meeting in a Dark Alley; Intervene in an Attack; Engage in Some Minor Smuggling[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Cabinet Noir:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]‘Realise your Cover Identity reveals the person you were’ now grants one extra Memory of a Much Lesser Self if Elaboration is sufficiently high.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Increasing elaboration on a Cover Identity with Ties now has slightly more informed meta text.[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][/ul]

&quotUptuned&quot? What does that mean?

Made more powerful / beneficial.

&quotUptuned&quot? What does that mean?[/quote]

[quote=StuartFBG]Made more powerful / beneficial.

&quotUptuned&quot? What does that mean?[/quote][/quote]

Ahhh, thanks.
By the way, have you considered changing your name to &quotStuartBFD&quot?

As much as I enjoy Bidirectional Forwarding Detection, no ;)

[quote=Snort][quote=StuartFBG]Made more powerful / beneficial.

&quotUptuned&quot? What does that mean?[/quote][/quote]

Ahhh, thanks.
By the way, have you considered changing your name to &quotStuartBFD&quot?[/quote]

[color=#0099ff]25th June[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]The Admiral’s Widow heist now costs 3 Docks Favours to begin. (Was 5)[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Several branches that used to require An Experienced Zailor now require Zeefaring instead.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Added item use slets to Puzzling Maps and Salt Steppe Atlases[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]The storylet to obtain the Unexploded Mine has been moved to a new place in the new Unterzee.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Fixed an issue in which some players were unable to progress Zailing.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Hotfix: It is once again possible to get rid of your ship through ‘Put to Zee!’ in London.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]War in Parabola:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Adjusted most Airs-locked or resource-spending branches to be less punishing on a failed check.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Airs-locked branches now grant one extra Advance! instead of additional rewards; this is a buff aimed at shortening the overall action cost of campaigns.[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]Helicon House:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]‘Gorge Yourself on Mushroom Vol-au-Vents’ now gives 1 Hand-Picked Peppercap[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]The Pendant of Helicon Amber now allows entry either late in the evening or with a normal amount of Time Remaining.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Edited the meta text on ‘Accept a Pendant of Helicon Amber’ to reflect the current uses of the item.[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]Balmoral: Painting with moonlight now grants a very small amount of Inspired…; painting without moonlight now generates some amount of Romantic Notions.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Bone Market:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Fish, Insect, and Spiders now grant a 15% bonus to skeleton value during their respective Zoological Mania, to compensate for the lower profitability of assembling those skeletons. (Was 10%)[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]The Investiment-Minded Ambassador, Teller of Terrors, and Tentacled Entrepreneur now grant a less aggressive bonus for Fluctuations of the Bone Market.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]The Zailor With Particular Interests, Author of Gothic Tales, and Rubbery Collector now have a new formula for calculating their payout which takes Fluctuations into account differently. This new formula skews towards giving a bigger bonus if the skeleton’s qualities skew towards the weekly quality; it also has a lower ceiling for how big of a bonus it grants.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Lowering Exhaustion in ‘A Public Lecture’ now costs 25 Hinterland Scrip, 1000 Fistfuls of Surface Currency, 1000 Moon-Pearls, and 1 Favour in High Places (was 25, 1000, 1250, and 0)[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]Moulin:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Fixed an issue where the Transfixing Squirrel option in ‘A Quandary’ did not require Moulin Expedition Supplies.[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]Marigold:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Returning the Marigold to the Condottiere now is a 0 action, to match the Stationmaster.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Recovering the Marigold Emblem is 0 action at all three locations (rather than being inconsistent). [/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]The Condottiere will now track how many commissions you’ve done for him. (This is just cosmetic and won’t track those done before this change.) [/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][/ul]

[color=#0099ff]2nd July[/color]
[color=#0099ff]
[/color]
[color=#0099ff]- Added item use slets to the Salve of Righteousness, Distillation of Retribution, and Emetic Revelation.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]- Added ‘Director’ as an Addressed As: title for players who have completed the Railway, and ‘Regent’ for players with a certain Ambition ending.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]- Using Bone Market tools to reduce Menace/Antiquity/Amalgamy now raises implausibility more slowly, and will also lower a skeleton’s base value if it’s highly implausible. Implausibility gain from this option is now capped by the skeleton’s total number of parts.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]- Parabolan Chessboard:[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Finishing with even advantages/disadvantages now gives a Threefold Repetition + Well-Placed Pawns for the first two times, then exchanges those two Threefold Repetitions for a Stalemate + a Vital Intelligence[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Stalemates were without a use for a very long time, so it was missed that the action cost to get one from the chessboard wasn’t balanced against the value they had been assigned. This change makes them reasonable to obtain given their 62.5e value.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Queen Mates, Epaulette Mates, and Stalemates can now be sold in the upper river.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]- Balmoral:[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Two new statues can be built in Balmoral. Like the existing one, they have no effect in themselves, but they allow obtaining the Amber Vision of the Sea of Spines without using any statues of yourself, for anti-narcissists.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- It is now possible to tear down the statue you placed at Balmoral. As the statue itself has a lesser effect than others, this does not cost Fate.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]- Khanate:[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Renamed the ‘Fabricate compromising documents’ branch to reflect that it gives you Blackmail Material and not Compromising Documents.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Made the description of Taimen’s Attention more explicit.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Taimen’s Attention is now capped at 10, not 8. This makes some aspects of the Intrigue wheel slightly more challenging but is mostly about preventing confusion, as the quality is not a traditional menace.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Slightly decreased the amount of Infiltrating… needed to complete medium-difficulty schemes, down to 130 (was 140).[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Modified some redundant branches in the Khanate to have a different cost, difficulty, and result.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- The scheme to obtain a Corresponding Sounder now correctly costs 750 Infiltrating.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Scheme Complexity is now a visible quality.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Added a new storylet that allows spending certain items to make faster progress on long infiltrations, available only at the very start of a day.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Added an item use slet for Corresponding Sounders.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Fixed an issue where the Trifling Diplomat could give 0 exhaustion while granting large amounts of extra rewards.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]- Zailing:[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Added meta text to the description of Troubled Waters to explain how it is cleared.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Existing the unterzee through ‘Becalmed’ now correctly clears Troubled Waters.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Changed the tooltip text on Oneiric Pearls to no longer reference nightmares, as that was causing confusion.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Grunting Fen now requires the appropriate level of Embarking on a Voyage of Scientific Discovery.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Changed the reveal condition for Corpsecage and Bullbone islands to prevent players from being unable to progress through Embarking on a Voyage of Scientific Discovery.[/color]
[color=#0099ff]-- Adjusted the tooltip for zailing to Port Carnelian.[/color]
edited by StuartFBG on 7/2/2021

Can we have somewhat more reliable ways to adjust darkness at most stations? Waiting for weeks for a single card with 30% success rate isn’t very enjoyable.

This is one we can have a writer look at (no promises) if you put in an email to feedback@failbettergames.com (because it has balance implications - if it was just e.g. a typo or QoL fix I’d sort it for you myself.)

[color=#0099ff]9th July[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Fixed a condition where some players weren’t able to visit Corpsecage Island during the appropriate step in Heart’s Desire.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Helicon House: Added alternate exit option that favours Hand-Picked Peppercaps rather than Solacefruit.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Fixed and issue allowing players to reclaim The Inescapable Ubiquity of your Countenance without rebuilding all your statues.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Khanate:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Buying lightbulbs in the Graphite Quarter is now 250 bulbs for 45 Khaganian Coinage (was 50 and 5).[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Sped up the Taimen’s Attention decay rate.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Removed an erroneous Shadowy check from the Trifling Diplomat’s skeleton sale branches.[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]The Diplomat never had a failure condition for those checks, he just always buys the skeleton. But the checks were left in by mistake.[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]Laboratory:[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]Starting a new research project or experimental stage should now always correctly set Total Lab Research Required and Total Parabolan Research Required.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]Gaining Lab Research or Parabolan Research will now display a progress bar towards the target value.[/color]

[ul][li][color=#0099ff]The target is set based on the minimum required to complete the current experiment, so in some cases you may want to go over ‘100%’.[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0099ff]If you started your current experiment before this feature was fully implemented you may not see a progress bar until you start a new experiment.[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][li][color=#0099ff]The Numismatrix now has something to say about Khaganian Coinage and Fourth-City Echoes.[/color]
[/li][/ul][/li][/ul]

Quick question: what time of day do these go through? I had some trouble with the game requiring me to log in, then refusing to recognise my username/password. I tried the reset password link and errors came up. An hour later, I was able to log in as normal without changing my password.

Do you perhaps need to post some special message while updates are happening? This was quite confusing. And while I didn’t record the time it would have been sometime in the wee hours of UK time.

Was it around 8:30am GMT? I don’t know what they do at that time, but it happens every day. And I’m still somehow always surprised by it

Hi, this doesn’t sound like it is due to making these updates, but a daily maintenance process. Most updates happen seamlessly, and for more significant updates we take the site down with an explanatory message. I apologise that the game wasn’t allowing you to log in. Most players experience it as brief slowdown. We are always looking to reduce down-time, but we do have to run this maintenance routine.

Quick question: what time of day do these go through? I had some trouble with the game requiring me to log in, then refusing to recognise my username/password. I tried the reset password link and errors came up. An hour later, I was able to log in as normal without changing my password.

Do you perhaps need to post some special message while updates are happening? This was quite confusing. And while I didn’t record the time it would have been sometime in the wee hours of UK time.[/quote]