[quote=darkbloom]I’m not sure if this is quite the right topic for this, but I have to say it.
I’m sorry to be so blunt, but I honestly feel that Notability has completely ruined the game for me. I only started on this trajectory because I’d been an Author for about three weeks and was excited about the new professions.
I spent dozens and dozens of actions building up my Making Waves before I got the chance to get a Salon; I raised my Notability to 2 the day before it got halved again. My Salon didn’t help much as I rarely get The Tower of Eyes when I need it (in contrast with the mysterious plant and struggling artist cards which I draw 20% of the time). Of late, I haven’t even been able to get the gentleman from Slowcake’s, meaning that my Notability went from 2 to 0 with no chance to use up my Making Waves.
I don’t know. I’ve played the game a long time and since this has been introduced I’ve found myself enjoying it so much less. I don’t log in as much as I used to either.
Just my €0.02.[/quote]
In that case, maybe you should simply cease striving to be Notable, since it is doing nothing for you.
It’s certainly not the best-implemented system, as it stands. There’s only one use for Notability, which can drag out for weeks if you’re unlucky, and once you’ve done that, there’s no point building up any more Notability because you’ll just lose it before it’s useful again. The Orphanage and the Salon are pretty cool in and of themselves, even though using them is a bit of a money/quality sink.
Still, much as it stings to have wasted your time, at least you can go back to being an Author or some other profession and play the rest of the game unbothered by Notability! You don’t really have to worry about it until it’s been tweaked a bit - the new professions’ rewards aren’t much more valuable or interesting than the previous ones.
It is one the most aggravating things in the game now. I’ve decided not to bother with raising Notability at the moment, but I have upgraded my profession so it isn’t quite as annoying as for someone who hasn’t got to that stage yet.[li]
But I am still maintaining my Salon. It does mean that I have to keep grinding my society and getting Stolen Kisses to convert to Favours in High Places but I wonder how high I can get my Scheme before there are any uses for Notability.
I am entirely ignoring that part of the game too. I think I got the slowcake’s card once in the last three weeks, and the letter card zero times. I really do think these need to be made into storylets; as it stands, it’s almost impossible to play this part of the game.
I have given up being notable, or spending time on the salon, because it all seems rather pointless right now. Hopefully new options will be introduced later, but as it stands it just doesn’t work.
I agree, I am quite happy with the Agent profession, but I had the luck to get the needed cards quite on time, and I still have access to the Court so I could farm Making Waves through the Life of Mind storylet. Since then, related cards seem to have become rarer, so currently I just ignore Notability altogether, I still raise my Scheme: A Salon in case it becomes useful in the future (tier 3 Professions), but the idea to grind Notability up to 5 seems appalling.
To anybody going for the professions right now, I’d suggest to not even bother with Notability unless there’s a Profession they really really like for some reason - the Author Profession pays just as good as the others* (actually I think the total goods are the same, but the Author gives an extra in the form of Connected:Bohemian), and it can be obtained without any Notability at all, just an Exceptional Short Story (a bit costly, but by no means difficult to obtain) and a previous career in journalism.
*Except Tutor and Undermanager, that give more Echoes, but in strict monetary (thus, non-convertable) form. edited by streetfelineblue on 10/4/2013
It is rather hard to know for sure if the difficulty is intended or not.
It stands to reason that the higher level professions should be harder to get.
The thing is “harder” doesn’t mean the same thing in FL as it does in other games. Because our actions are very discrete, execution matters less from person to person, so the economy that wants to enforce the value of higher tiered professions has to be of an economy of time and/or resources, and not one of skill/execution.
There are some skill (mostly math) advantages that one player may have over another, but they are in choice selection, not execution.
Therefore it’s possible that the economy of time says these are enforced by grind and/or luck.
Whether or not that is fun is certainly subjective, but at least it’s (somewhat, could be better) transparent, allowing people to know what they’re in for if they choose to pursue it.
Personally, I’d much rather rely on grind than luck, even if takes a while. I quite like ideas like the short story path to Authorship - even though there is some luck element there, at least you can start again straight away if you fail. Spending a few days trading items, running carousels or exploring the zee feels more productive than waiting for the right card to turn up, you know? That’s why I preferred traditional detection to the esoteric path in the Jack case, as well.
The problem with Notability and similar mechanics requiring a long preparation and resources investment followed by a basically luck-based outcome determination is that somewhat they manage to present the worst aspects of grinding and luck together. I can stand grinding if it is a slow but certain way to get somewhere, just like I can stand luck if it is a quick, brutal yes-or-no outcome. What I don’t really like is to have to spend time and resources grinding for an outcome that could simply not come and send you back to square one - like amassing Making Waves only for the related cards never appearing until the weekly reboot, or a single defeat bringing your Parade of Victories back to zero in Knife-and-Candle T.T
I quite agree, Sir Fred. The only reason I am still bothering at all is because I got lucky enough to boost my Notability to 4, and once you’ve gotten it that high it’s easier to keep it there, which I intend to do to see what will become available when Notability reaches 5 (it’s not possible to get it there right now).
Ah, but I DO have an orphanage. I’ve been able to use it for boosting notability once, and lost the resulting point within a couple days.
I guess I just need to visit fallen london more often to be able to pull this off. I used to be on all the time but lately I’ve been too busy with other stuff.
[li]There is another use for Notability once you’ve got a top-tier profession. The Unsigned Letter card, if you have one of those professions, has a set of options that lets you trade a level of Notability for a level of stats. (Plus, you get to lick the Bazaar. :)
[li]So what I’ve been doing is getting the easy points of Making Waves off of the connection cards, go up to Notability 1 when Amanuensis shows up, and then cash in if I get Unsigned Letter. But that still depends on getting Unsigned Letter between raising my Notability and the reset.
[quote=WordsLikeWeeds]Ah, but I DO have an orphanage. I’ve been able to use it for boosting notability once, and lost the resulting point within a couple days.
I guess I just need to visit fallen london more often to be able to pull this off. I used to be on all the time but lately I’ve been too busy with other stuff.[/quote]
That’s the oddest part, I think - I can’t think of any other content that so bars accessibility for players that only play occasionally. Particularly odd, as the trend recently has been to encourage such players through recurring rewards and time-delayed content.
I do play all the time, is the thing. Like when I was griding for my Zubmarine I’d play on my phone just to be able to earn the max amount of stuff during the day. I can’t imagine anyone who spends more time on the game than that.
Oh my - I know I said I wasn’t going to work at keeping my Notability up but I had a reasonable amount of Making Waves earlier today so went up to three. Just got the card again (making waves 2, didn’t bother adjusting my BDR) had a 4% chance and I managed to get that extra star.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know about it, and it does not diminish my regret at the existence of this mechanic.
It reduces the time commitment required by less than you might think, because you still have to draw the Townhouse card once for each point of Notability. (Or spend 20 hours on nothing but private dinners.) edited by Flyte on 10/6/2013
I know about that option to get Mr Slowcake’s friend- it is raising making waves that is so dependent on cards. Also it isn’t a matter of just getting the Townhouse card once. You have to get it often enough to raise the scheme and the resources to do so before you can even get that large boost to making waves.
Everything else just gives 1 or 2 cp’s of making waves, even the other card dependent ways. I don’t think that inviting people to certain social actions is the most efficient but, unless you still have access to court they are the only non-card method of raising making waves.[li]
You know what’s awesome? An Earnest of Payment caps at one. What the crap, Failbetter? There was little incentive to go overseas in the first place, and now you’re actively penalizing us for going on extensive voyages.