Either that, or they’re actively incentivizing players to check in to the game about once a week. Besides, why should you earn income when you’re not in London to do your job?
[quote]You know what’s awesome? An Earnest of Payment caps at one. What the crap, Failbetter?[/quote]The reason’s obvious, surely? Failbetter are giving players an incentive to check in occasionally. If Earnests of Payment stacked, it wouldn’t work. This seems to me among the less offensive means a company might use to retain their user base.
[quote]now you’re actively penalizing us[/quote]I also find that professions adversely affect my enjoyment of the Unterzee, but ‘actively penalizing’ is a bit much. They are giving you something extra for returning to London. If you stay abroad, you are no worse off than you would have been before professions were introduced.
[quote]There was little incentive to go overseas in the first place[/quote]I almost don’t know what to say to this. I mean, you’re aware of the many thousands of words that can only be read if you do. I take it that in your estimation, this wanton verbiage is ancillary to Fallen London’s subtle and compelling economic model, boastfully described by its own creator as making ‘[color=#009900]less than no sense[/color]’ and ‘[color=#009900]marginally easier[/color]’ to poke holes in than ‘[color=#009900]over-ripe Brie[/color]’?
[quote=Guy Scrum]Besides, why should you earn income when you’re not in London to do your job?[/quote]That would be why you can only get paid when you’re in London. I consider that the Brie holds up admirably under this point.
edited by Flyte on 10/17/2013
Well Earnest of Payment turns up approximately every week. Cash it in then go to Zee for 10-12 days come back to London just to collect the next two then go back to Zee.
[quote=Flyte]That would be why you can only get paid when you’re in London. I consider that the Brie holds up admirably under this point.[/quote]I’m still earning income, though. The storylet still happens and I still get a PPerk (assuming I don’t already have four).
[li]
The accumulation of perks is a breakdown in the simulation, but you’re not earning income. You are renumerated for performing certain weekly duties, which take a few actions to perform; the Earnest of Payment message should be understood as indicating that these duties are available again, not that you’ve performed them. Bear in mind that in the 19th century, most upper middle class professionals worked what we’d now consider remarkably leisurely hours. And most of FL’s professions are likely still more irregular; how much of one’s week is actually spent Murdering, or engaging in the duties of a Mystic? The correlation between prestige and poor work-life balance is a very modern problem.[li]
That said, I don’t think it’s worth getting caught up on this; the FL economy is a narrative aid, not a model, and realism is and should be an exceedingly minor consideration in tweaking it.
That wasn’t my point though. It was elaborated upon in a reply, but that was lost along with all of my tabs in a glorious browser crash. For background, I went on an extensive Zee voyage to explore the Iron Republic and reexamine Polythreme as a source of income. From a mechanical perspective, both were a waste of my time.
If someone is looking for a place to grind for funds, overseas is not the place to look, and Earnests of Payment capping at one just adds insult to injury. This is a shame, as Polythreme and the IR are perhaps the most interesting places in concept, yet there is no mechanical incentive to drag PoSI’s over there to grind.
[quote=OPG]That wasn’t my point though. It was elaborated upon in a reply, but that was lost along with all of my tabs in a glorious browser crash. For background, I went on an extensive Zee voyage to explore the Iron Republic and reexamine Polythreme as a source of income. From a mechanical perspective, both were a waste of my time.
If someone is looking for a place to grind for funds, overseas is not the place to look, and Earnests of Payment capping at one just adds insult to injury. This is a shame, as Polythreme and the IR are perhaps the most interesting places in concept, yet there is no mechanical incentive to drag PoSI’s over there to grind.[/quote]
RE:
It’s very unclear to me what you’re identifying as being at stake here. How could it be that exploring the Unterzee and its contents, arguably up there as one of the most perilous untertakings in the Neath, should turn out to be a competitive way to grind general funds? Notwithstanding the fact in the first place, that several places overzeas give storylets which actually /do/, in fact, allow excellent return on certain uncommon resources (Polythreme with the whisper-satin/romantic notions comes to mind), it just doesn’t make sense to me conceptually. I’m not sure what could have possibly given you that notion.
So I’m not quite sure what injury you’re perceiving on the one hand; but furthermore the idea that you should be unable to collect back-pay on a job that you demonstrably do not perform while out cruising on your Majestic Pleasure Yacht seems highly intuitive, as several Londoners have keenly pointed out. Hardly an insult, surely?
–
To my mind, it seems as though you’re complaining that not only is your preposterously parlous vacation time, which your employer already allows you to take indefinitely without the slightest advance notice, and indeed requires no proof of insurance nor guarantee of your return whatsoever, not the most lucrative thing you could be doing with your time; but that your employer’s refusal to pay you your weekly rate regardless is insulting? My word, the very idea.
In fact, if this is the kind of treatment that you are accustomed to receiving in the workforce, then verily, good sir, I must insist that you release the nature and location of your current employment forthwith!
[li]
edited by Dawson on 10/18/2013
If you don’t want to go to zee to grind, then just don’t go, though. No one’s making you. I hesitate to impose my own view of how the game ‘should’ be enjoyed on anyone, but I don’t think it’s been designed for maximum grind - it’s been designed so that we can enjoy the content and so that the rewards make sense.
Also, why are we arguing for verisimilitude in a game where I can take twenty animals (including a tiger), four mercenaries, five friends, a plant, and a hat on an overseas voyage, but not a cup of coffee, a page from a book, or a typewriter?
Re: EoP
I find the logic of the EoP signifying potential jobs, not actual work, convincing. If you don’t, then that’s a matter of preference; but you seem to be making a case for being owed some narrative consistency so I find your indifference to imaginative speculation frustrating. It seems to me that if you are an author, then your employers are: your publisher, in that you would (if you were successful) likely have a contract to produce a certain amount of work over a given period of time; and your public, whom you must retain as a fan-base lest you fall into obscurity and find yourself penniless—both of whom I would reasonably expect to abandon you monetarily should you decide to leave abruptly and indefinitely, headed toward the uncertain, sundry perils of life at zee. However this kind of narrative explanation can only go so far before it becomes inconsistent, you’re right. Hence:
Re: Verisimilitude
Why indeed? You’re raising an issue about mechanics—it was suggested that the solution had a narrative basis. Good suggestions have been made in an attempt to postulate a motive for the narrative choices. But you’re right if you want to say that the game has conceptual idiosyncrasies and is thus absurd. But then what’s the point? All you’ve got left is your confusing argument about the game’s mechanics such that… the Unterzee should be competitively grind-able because it has some of the most interesting content? I’m not sure this kind of logic represents fair criticism of a game like EB, where the mechanics of the game are of demonstrably far less significance than the ambience of the narrative.
I can only appeal to the good-faith and humor of those, myself included, who are trying to supply what are, necessarily, baseless, whimsical suggestions for why the game is the way it is. If you’re just upset that your favorite content isn’t very lucrative, then I must confess that I’m unable to offer much more than my sympathies—indeed, the Unterzee represents some of my favorite content as well, and I wish I had the leisure to pursue more frequent maritime activities.
Alas, my own employer requires my verifiable presence in London on a weekly basis and I find myself more and more unwilling to forego my stipend in the pursuit of curiosity these days. Even if most of my private wealth is taken from me each night by that most feline of abominations. Oh, that it should one day quit my pantry and return to the wretched box from whence it came! It might at least shift it’s gluttonous gaze from my hindquarters whilst I work, but my recent diplomatic efforts have already cost me far too dearly to imagine making such suggestions a second time.
[li]
edited by Dawson on 10/19/2013
It seems to me there’s some new professions out there: Just saw a very intriguing one on the "An unsigned message" card that requires Notability 5 … I’m not the only one, I guess?
edited by lilbudgies on 11/16/2013
That’s right! Quoth the Echo Bazaar Facebook/Twitter: “In related news, prestigious new professions are now available for Notable persons! Will you be a Correspondent? A Licentiate? A Midnighter?”
Just to share my personal experience, like others here I am pretty frustrated by the Notability mechanics. I play every day of the week throughout the whole day, at the office and from home, yet I don’t get the Slowcake card (or the Townhouse cards) often enough to keep my Notability above 1. A couple of times it happened that I didn’t get the Slowcake card for a whole week, so even though my Making Waves was high I couldn’t convert it before my Notability decreased again.
Crikey. Is this the forgotten quarter of the forums? Dont we actuly just have a thread about notability profession?
Yes there is - http://community.failbettergames.com/topic5720-new-professions.aspx
[li]
Yes there is - http://community.failbettergames.com/topic5720-new-professions.aspx
[li][/quote]
Somehow i forgot that i actuly made that thread.[/li][li]
Just wondering is ther,or is ther not a chat room,I only ask because I am bored and way to awake.
For what it’s worth, you can summon the Amanuensis card at your lodgings (Under "Attend to matters of society and scandal) if you hit MW 15, which almost any option on the Scheme should give you. It will cost you a couple change points of MW, but nothing huge. Besides that, you just need to get lucky with the Townhouse card… there are other avenues of getting MW but they almost all boil down to a change point each. If you still have access to the Empress’s Court, there are a few actions there which can reliably boost your Waves.
oops I forgot some e’s in my last post.