Progress without paying?

Fallen London
21

The thing that people who HAVE paid never tell you is…

… we’ve got so many cards that cure out menaces in so many ways that we don’t even think of meanaces as being trouble anymore.

But yes, it takes somebody either very wealthy or very desperate to refresh actions or cards on a regular basis, so it’s very rarely done. The side storylines are fun lore with lasting bennifits, but it’s nothing you need.

You’ll be fine.

… until notability, that’s the other unfair advantage we have. So many storylines pay off with regular gains in + making waves…

22

Especially if you take into account the way EF works: depending on which day of the month you sign up, you’re almost always able to get two ES for the price of one.
Really, from a purely economical standpoint I’d say EF is almost too cheap! ;) (not that I’m complaining)[/quote]

Well, the EF membership makes me more susceptible to things like buying an incarnadine robe for 30 fate, or spending piles of fate to buy all the old exceptional stories I missed. So in that sense it can get costly ;)

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[quote=Robin Alexander]I would point out - much to my recent frustration - that there does seem a disproportionate amount of free content that comes without any ending or resolution . . . if you pay for EF stories, these will always be complete, along with fate-locked branches on cards, but the same cannot be said for free content.

You’ve probably already noticed stories that the &quotPianist and the Spirifer&quot have no ending . . . this doesn’t really get much better. Everything from your ambition, to sections of the labyrinth, to many other storylines . . . all incomplete.

I’m not sure if the game’s gearing more towards paid-players only, but it can feel that way. The free content feels more like a ‘taster’ or ‘demo’ to me, as most comes with ‘impossible’ branches or ‘to be continued later’ (even some years after the story/ambition/branch was first introduced).[/quote]
The pianist and the spirifer felt complete to me. Not that either side succeeded, but it was early game content, and you don’t need to change the world to finish a story. The dispute is settled, at least. The labyrinth’s main plotline is getting deeper and deeper, and once you reach a certain depth, creating a hound of heaven- which you can do. Your ambition isn’t, but they intend too, they just haven’t because… well, i don’t know why it’s taking them so long, but i’m sure it’s a good reason. That said, you get less stories as a free player- but most exploration areas are availible, which makes up for it.

[quote=Ben ]The thing that people who HAVE paid never tell you is…

… we’ve got so many cards that cure out menaces in so many ways that we don’t even think of meanaces as being trouble anymore.
[snip]

… until notability, that’s the other unfair advantage we have. So many storylines pay off with regular gains in + making waves…[/quote]
Menaces aren’t that big of a deal for me either, unless i’m grinding an action that pays one suspicion per action, and the tomb colonies have been improved so much i’m planning on visiting there until I’m their best freind.

BDR can acquire them 5 more points of it than our best efforts can (7, if you don’t hold onto one fate for an ubergoat- which i foolishly didn’t.) This is actually a pretty big deal- if you have something you plan to repeatedly use notability for. otherwise, not so much, as you might not even have the items by the time they need it, and notability 5 (Unless you want to overcap a stat, 5 is the highest you’ll need for anything that isn’t collectionism) is a pretty easy grind with Best-in-slot for free players. For me, it might be marginally faster for getting Airang than expeditions, but i’m not altogether certain about that, as it’s competing with 137.14 actions per airang- while they need to gather 62.5 echoes in wine cellars, (~50 actions on average, plus 3.5 for upcrafting.), and then grind notability 7, (minimum of 14 actions, plus however they aquire the MW needed- lv. 6 MW, lv. 10 MW, lv. 14 MW), before cashing in (3 actions). Even at it’s best, it’s comparing 70.5 to 137.14, and that’s assuming you can con someone into repeatedly supplying you with the needed first point notability and that you get MW naturally. assuming you’re actually grinding for the MW, my method is only barely inferior.
edited by Grenem on 6/9/2016

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[quote=Parelle]Grenen and I started almost at the same time (October 2014) and I only purchased Fate this week. Judging from the forums, I think we are some of the furtherest along players who aren’t Extraordinary Friends.

I paid because I enjoy this game and wanted to support Failbetter (although I have no plans on getting EF, just using Fate for stories). I had played long enough that I knew what storylines I wanted to continue (I think suicide and I are speaking of the same two cards on this instance! Perhaps if they were just storylets in my lodgings I wouldn’t have felt as much urge to pay for them).

Here’s what I managed in a year and a half of playing every day without Fate

  • all Stats at 200
  • free Content boundary
  • end point of my ambition
  • best in a slot BDR (23, if you’re wondering. I have to agree that BDR is the one place where straight up paying Fate would make it easier as gaining both +2 in slot weapon and companion shapes your playstyle a bit needing a ship on the early end and the home comfort slot requires a certain profession.)
  • a nomen this past winter (though I’m not crazy enough to try the tatoo, I could see Grenen trying it next year)
  • an Overgoat
  • enough cash on hand that I could buy my second Overgoat if I sold almost everything except for the other Overgoat (but I won’t)
  • highest level player wedding (which is worth about 3000-5000 echoes, depending how costs were split)
  • currently Notablity 8, but I’ve hit 13 before.
  • 2 of the 3 five card lodgings (I don’t have the 3rd upgradable option)
  • Hallowmas is the one place I felt a bit antsy about not having EF as it’s time-delimited but even without it I managed the 2nd highest level.
    I have to strongly disagree with the idea that the only finished content is paid. The EF Stories are meant to be one-off complete in of themselves, so yes, they’re supposed to end. There are plenty of completed storylines with meaningful endings
    [spoiler]University, Cheesemonger, Last Constable, Rats, Affair of the Box, and Jack of Smiles, just off the top of my head, and the ambitions require no Fate at all to pursue. [/spoiler]
    The drift does seem to be from completed storylines to carousels, as content continues, which I’m kinda ehhhhh on but that’s fine - I’d definitely like more to be completed, but I didn’t feel that I was lacking content: you can chose to pursue options which are more varied (and this, after all isn’t something that paying Fate for really helps, I don’t believe). I won’t speak for Grenen, but I know they pursue expeditions diligently and I usually do a somewhat ridiculous number of heists a week (I did 18 in about 10 days without doing them full time).

Put it this way: being a non-EF (as I still am) actually means a higher level of engagement with the game: since everyone gains cards and actions alike at the same rate, you have to check in more often so not to &quotwaste&quot actions or cards. [/quote]
My accomplishments list, for comparison- it’s about the same, but i thought i might as well compare: Not really intended to be bragging, as paraelle’s are arguably better

-watchful at 200, other stats at high numbers.
-free content boundary

  • current end point of my ambition [just the finale patch to go!]
  • had best possible BDR, sort of ubergoat [23. once i get the goat, i’ll have 25. unfortunately, i’d need one fate for that, and i spent all my free fate. hopefully i’ll get one at some point in the future.]
  • one 5 card lodging
  • Overgoat, with enough money for a second [Probably without needing to sell airag or tears, though since it’d cut into my supplies…]
  • had notability 10, but i dropped it for airag
  • 1 of the five card lodgings
  • highest level in hallowmas
  • 30 vials of tears of the bazaar (each worth 312.5 echoes in sell price, and reasonably rare.)
  • the following factions with connected over 300: Hell, constables, revolutionaries, bohemians.
  • A cardinal of conspiriacy 9, which means at least 45 newspapers printed, each with the highest quality conspiriacy theories.

I don’t feel i was lacking content. That said, while i used to pursue expeditions diligently, i toned it down a bit while i went and got the factions over 300 for the renown conversion: if they convert using the same scales as the last ones did, all of them, when they hit 321, will be equivalent to renown: 50. Which will be nice for bragging rights for a while.
edited by Grenem on 6/9/2016

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Fallen London is almost entirely a free game. It never starts you on a story you can’t finish without Fate, and it never handicaps you with the intent of coercing you to spend any. Spending money just gets you even more stories.

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Do make sure you hang into a few points of free fate, though, as a few things cost one fate only as a way of keeping us from dissecting them in the forum (we are not allowed to spoil fate stories, though we can talk about them). In one case you even payed one fate and then got it back…

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Unfortunately, I think squandering my estate on E. Friendship has rocketed me past these free-play chumps. I have:

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Both the Pianist and the Spirifer and the Last Constable and Cheery Man stories ended with game notes saying more content would be available soon. They didn’t stop in the middle of something, but there was clearly space left open to continue. Those are the only stories I’d really consider to be just left unfinished.

There is also a Fifth Coil of the Labyrinth locked to Making Progress in the Labyrinth of Tigers 20, so there will presumably be more content there someday. I agree that’s not really a matter of unfinished story though since the Fourth Coil activities are pretty self-contained.

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I sympathize with the payment issue: I paid for my Fate using free gift cards accumulated over a year using Bing Rewards rather than a credit card (hence why I’m not doing EF instead). Honestly, you can’t actually pay me enough to use Bing, it’s just that bad - but I did it for the ‘free to me Fate.’ But the Burger King gift cards which could be used are no longer available from Bing, sadly enough. It’s mostly as an offline metagame: I’ve all but promised not to spend &quotreal&quot money on this.

For action refreshes, consider seeing if any of these work for you:

Also, if you’re curious: if you never use your free Fate, over the course of the game you’ll gain…

exactly 13 Fate if you complete all available storylines (none of which are repeatable - this will mean locking yourself out of certain areas). In terms of options I considered using my Fate on, that’s enough for the Ubergoat (1), the Captivating Princess Fate Locked Salon Option (2), and one of the following: one of the two Fate Locked Expeditions (7) or the Whirling Contraption option on the Steamer card (9). It is of course just short of the Aunt Continuation (15). I think the Free Fate/Spend Fate story was changed to not giving Fate any more though.

Grenem, I have immense respect for your accomplishments, never mind the large lake of Tears under your control, as neither Connections nor Newspapers are not the easiest to do without a lot of card drawing and simply getting bored. But it’s interesting too that both of us who’ve essentially the same starting point have gone in different directions in how to keep this game fresh.