Railway is here!

Has anyone figured out how board member investments work yet? I brought on the Entrepreneur and the Dean to lower my debt, then I kicked them out - I did this in the same meeting that I got permission to clear the second obstacle, for reference. After that, adding the Entrepreneur back came with debt reduction, but nobody else offers it anymore, not even the Bishop, who’s never been on my board before.
edited by Mesyaria on 7/16/2020

[quote=Mesyaria]Has anyone figured out how board member investments work yet? I brought on the Entrepreneur and the Dean to lower my debt, then I kicked them out - I did this in the same meeting that I got permission to clear the second obstacle, for reference. After that, adding the Entrepreneur back came with debt reduction, but nobody else offers it anymore, not even the Bishop, who’s never been on my board before.
edited by Mesyaria on 7/16/2020[/quote]

Funny, this seems to have changed. Wiki entries for both Feducci and St. Fiacre mention that they will reduce Corporate Debt, but I don’t see this text in the game anymore. It’s still there for the Gracious Widow. I’ve never had any of the three on board and neither have I laid anyone off, so perhaps this depends on other elements of progress in railway content?

[quote=Aro Saren]
Since the resulting quality is measured in cp, it is reasonable to assume there’s more to find further on, and a possibility for grind too.
Also, you are smacked with a Hillmover before you understand anything from that stone anyway.

Outside information: Discordance is also known as Horizon Glyphs, an inversion of Correspondence, freezing your brains to absolute zero, usually used by Liberation-sided suns, like Halved, but, apparently, not only them. It’s also used in Red Science, since it deals with twisting the Law.
Ancient warfare traces including it have certain implications, but I think it’s too early to speak anything, since the authors cannot agree on setting (or just learn it fully upon entering the team) and casually rewrite it from time to time.[/quote]

Thank you for the info; this is what I’m hoping for as well. I’ve read the echo, so I know you don’t learn that much more anyway. It’s just that speaking in-character, this is exactly the sort of esoteric revelation my character wouldn’t hesitate to sell his aunt for. And, hence, a prime opportunity to roleplaying obsessively pursuing study of yet another suicidal Neathy discipline on top of Correspondence, Red Science and whatnot.

Seriously, I swear he would have gone full-on seeking if only there were not so many other secrets he can stick his nose into before litterally cannibalizing himself just to know.

Where is it confirmed that’s Horizon Glyphs (that have been in the game since the introduction of Making Your Name, at least) are the same thing as Discordance?..

I was hoping having gotten a level of it would allow a use for the memory of Discordance you get from hunting the Carnivorous Auroch in Parabola, but I haven’t found anything I’m locked yet.

Update about the bonus meeting: My Time the Healer hit this morning. I just finished my meeting, and right now I could immediately call another one if I had any actions.

My Time the Healer message mentioned “Your ‘Bureaucratic Advantage’ Quality has gone!” which I assume is the hidden quality that gates these extra meetings.

[spoiler]Time the Healer also mentioned this:

You’ve lost 1 x Ravages of Parabolan Warfare (new total 2).[/spoiler]

[quote=PSGarak]Update about the bonus meeting: My Time the Healer hit this morning. I just finished my meeting, and right now I could immediately call another one if I had any actions.[/quote] Same thing happened to me. If we’ve already got approval plans for Jericho Locks and the option to build is locked until the 27th, there’s no real current use for the bonus meeting, right? I’m guessing the main use would be on Monday, once we can back a candidate, we can call a meeting and use one of the new (still locked) options to have the Board support our choice.

My train is now outfitted with huge guns and explosive ammo. It’s basically a war train now. The Bishop and Sinning Jenny are thrilled.

I’ll be using the bonus meetings to upgrade my luxury & defense levels, shuffle the board a bit, and possibly even pay out a few dividends next week. And yeah, endorsement.

I wonder if April’s vote is affected by the amount of Liberation you have or liberationist tracklayers affiliation. For now I only know she is harder to persuade when the board is against labour and revolutionaries. Anybody has any info on her?

She may have increase of 40 points per point against Labour - with 296 persuasive I have 35% to win her vote on Luxury 2 and 59% on defences 3. Probably 40 per point against revolutionaries too, but I’m not sure yet.

Speaking of board against X. It would be interesting if some votes were easier to get when you vote is against their enemies. For example Bishop of Southwark and Board Against Infernal Interests.
edited by Lucius Vera on 7/17/2020

This is the conclusion I came to as well, yeah. Now I’m just constantly discplining myself not to push that button and waste the opportunity until the promised day has come AND I’ve had time to undo Corporate Debt. Ye gods, I wasted too many board meetings fiddling around with who I wanted on the board before realising you could use them to improve the trains.

April is also an awful action sink to have as a board member in terms of securing a vote, but despite being an anarchist I’ll never get rid of her because I love the bant she brings to the meetings.

I figure the main purpose of the bonus meeting is to reduce the effect of the time-gating and give people who are “behind schedule” a chance to catch up, while limiting the progress of those who are the furthest along.

Hmm, one would expect some additional options for reducing debt with higher luxuries and defences, since it makes the railroad more profitable, judging by dividends, or just a way to pay it off directly, at least - among directors are Master’s heirs and London leaseholders, money wouldn’t be a problem, but, well…
edited by Aro Saren on 7/19/2020

&quotIt cannot be a worse idea than some other mayors we have had,&quot says Feducci. Everyone stares in his direction.

Oh, Feducci. Never change.

EDIT:

[b]April writes: Can’t be sure how her war with Parabola would come out. Strong chance the Fingerkings would have the upper…

She breaks off here, obviously realising how strange it is to speak of snakes having the upper hand. She strikes through the word ‘upper’ with a bold line of pencil and instead writes …advantage.[/b]

I just wanted to say that voting for the Viscountess was worth it solely for the reactions from my fellow Railway board members.

EDIT 2:

This is getting to be a rather large post but I’m getting curveballs from people generally not reacting the way I expected them to. The short of it is: The Efficient Commissioner did NOT react with screaming or flustered protests when at long last I managed to gleefully vote her off the board. Her answer’s echoed on my mantelpiece; suffice to say she seems entirely convinced I will regret my decision. I’m both aware of her description of the Bazaar’s creditor from her nightmares and utterly committed to this course of action because SHE ATE UP MY ACTIONS FOR VOTING ON THE BOARD AND THAT IS UNFORGIVEABLE but boy, am I hoping Virginia is exaggerating about even very costly guns for the trains being as useless as wrapping paper.

edited by Hattington on 7/20/2020
edited by Hattington on 7/20/2020
edited by Hattington on 7/20/2020

[quote=Hattington]This is getting to be a rather large post but I’m getting curveballs from people generally not reacting the way I expected them to. The short of it is: The Efficient Commissioner did NOT react with screaming or flustered protests when at long last I managed to gleefully vote her off the board. Her answer’s echoed on my mantelpiece; suffice to say she seems entirely convinced I will regret my decision.[/quote]Well, the Efficient Commissioner possesses a rather important position and has a vast knowledge of the Tragedy Procedures. She probably knows and has seen quite a lot regarding some of the weirder, and potentially more terrifying, aspects of the Bazaar. I feel it would be out of character for such a person to throw a tantrum when someone overrules them. I know most of the player-base hates her because she works for the Bazaar and is a bureaucrat (as well as being a pain to to convince), but it’s not as if she’s a cartoon villain that is specifically out to hurt you. She’s there because the Bazaar has appointed her, she might not even care about the board in the first place.

I plan to keep her around despite how difficult she makes things. Mostly to see if there’s anything interesting that might pop up in her observations of the various board questions, but also because I don’t really mind her. Besides, it’s not as if the Bazaar isn’t spying on you in other ways. They warn you to keep your enemies close when you bring Furnace onto the board, but I feel that’s more accurate when it concerns the Commissioner.
edited by Mulligan on 7/20/2020

I agree, the character of the Commissioner is deliberate and methodical. She may be an obstructionist, but a tantrum is not her style. She’s the sort of person who has a Plan B, and she’s probably just moving forward with that.

I actually brought her back into my board, because she’s affected by Obfuscation. She tends to be middle-of-the-pack in terms of opposing what I want to do.

I just endorsed the rubber man mayor, and this is what feducci said when I convinced him yes:

“It cannot be a worse idea than some other mayors we have had,” says Feducci. Everyone stares in his direction.

Is there a sweet spot for number of board members overall? I’ve got 6 right now but… that feels like a lot. I feel like the Jovial Contrarian might be a bit surplus-- is there a downside to kicking him off? (him specifically, or a board member generally) Could he be brought on again later on?

I’ve just been going with the minimum, 4. The fewer board members, the less convincing to do. So far there haven’t been significant benefits of having more board members, just a bit of different text.

Thinking of swapping out Virginia for Furnace. I don’t much like Virginia. Then I’ll have Jovial Contrarian, Dean of Xenotheology (who I disliked at first, but who definitely grew on me!), His Amused Lordship, and Furnace…

I endorsed the Entrepeneur. It was very funny to convince everyone else: Jenny and his Lordship were feeling very awkward, and Virginia was offended so much, she did not even complain.

I had the board endorse the Viscountess; I don’t remember the actual text, but the Entrepreneur-- who’s on my board-- was not pleased. I did have an in-game reason though. (Not that I could articulate it in-game, but at least I could rationalize it to myself.)
edited by Tintinnabulum on 7/21/2020