So! I have the Tower of Eyes, and almost all the Connections needed for the Salon, and plenty of money to get an Orphanage. So… which should I get? Can any clever soul lay out the pros and cons of either choice?[li]
I haven’t explored every option, but the major difference I’ve encountered so far is that you spend Connections and high-level Items to advance a Salon, at a rapid if unpredictable rate, while you spend Echoes and low-to-mid-level Items to advance an Orphanage, at a slow, predictable rate. I haven’t quantified their ultimate rewards, but they appear to be comparable so far.
Meanwhile, having been at Notability 4 for several days I still have not seen that profession card…
After reading all the above, I’m still having trouble deciding between a salon or orphanage. I understand the former saps connections and the latter saps money. But I don’t have a sense of how much.
I am not good at grinding connections, but I also rarely spend them, so these are my current values:
Bohemian 87
The Great Game 36
Hell 41
The Tomb-Colonies 27
The Widow 25
The Masters of the Bazaar 5
The Duchess 20
Benthic 26
Summerset 26
Criminals 39
Urchins 21
The Church 33
The Docks 41
Revolutionaries 38
Constables 41
Society 83
Money-wise, I have about:
Glim 20000
Jade Fragment 10000
Moon-Pearl 40000
Nevercold Brass Sliver 40000
Rostygold 10000
My Persuasive is at 200 so I’m pretty good at grinding in Mahogany Hall. (Watchful 158, Shadowy 165, Dangerous 128)
Which path would you recommend for me?
Most of the "Failbetter Theorycraft" blogs I’ve seen recommend a Salon… like overwhelmingly. The only reason to get an orphanage I’ve seen stated in theorycraft is that you can grind it all the way up to get the best (Fate-locked) pet in the game, then ditch it for the salon you ACTUALLY want long term.
That said, I think I’m going to work towards the Orphanage, even as my newly-minted POSI-self. It’s just more in-character… I’ve been tight with the Urchins from day one, picking their connection pet instantly and barely hesitating to pick them as my closest to.
So… unless you want to grind for the orphanage then get the salon, conventional wisdom seems to say salon. I’m not sure of the entire justification for it, but I’ve literally never seen anyone list any advantage for the orphanage other than the pet.
edited by CulturalGeek on 1/16/2015
Actually, the advantages of the Orphanage are that it’s a lot easy to get access to what you need rather than grinding. For connections, it only requires Urchins 20 so you can use the carnival/rookery password. Best ways to grind Society/Bohemians are in the Shuttered Palace and are nowhere as effective. Also, Jass has it for in-character reasons. Zeel went with the salon also for in-character reasons, so I have tried both.
I have a salon, and I think only used it once when I was Making Waves to get to Notability 9. (Invited the Sardonic Music-Hall Singer and got 168 CP of Making Waves.) I thought for sure that it would be more useful, or that higher Notability would be more useful, but nowadays my salon is mostly good for the +2 Persuasive and +1 Bizarre. Then again, someone who plays a lot less than I do every week might have a lot more use for the highly focused bursts of Making Waves that a salon can pump out. I just got most of what I needed from heists, so that I could make Echoes while Making Waves.
Not that I’d have much more use for a +10 pet, so I’m now inclined against ever getting the Handsome Townhouse in the first place. At least from a cost-benefit perspective. Too late for me though. I just keep spamming my own deck with cards of little use.
The wiki notes the Rookery password as giving 25 cp of Connected:Urchins per action (75 cp for 3 actions), which means that after the initial grind the "Attend and be erudite" option in the Palace becomes more effective (33 cp Connected: Society per action, so 99 for 3, no costs attached, and you’ll get the Persuasive cp - as little as it matters here). Grinding Bohemian is slightly less effective, with 22 cp per action, but again, it costs nothing and it gives you a bit of Connected: the Duchess in the process (which I guess is good for entering the Court?).
Don’t forget that you’ll get an extra point of BDR out of the Orphanage, assuming that sort of thing is important to you. I went with the Orphanage because I wanted the Prodigy. There are better Watchful and Persuasive pets (in fact the Prodigy doesn’t increase P at all) but it’s still the best available for Shadowy and Dangerous.
Plus the text is cool and I like the idea of having a primary school age ninja child running around with me.
On the other hand, Orphanage has exactly the same BDR bonus as the God’s Editors (+4 respectable), while the Salon is the only Bizzare-boosting affiliation.
On the other hand, Orphanage has exactly the same BDR bonus as the God’s Editors (+4 respectable), while the Salon is the only Bizzare-boosting affiliation.[/quote]
Well, yes. But if we’re thinking like that, Orphanage increases Watchful and Salon doesn’t - which could be important if a player is bent on increasing SotC as high as possible.
A Newspaper also increases W of course (it’s the only other Affiliation which does), but there may be narrative or cost reasons why one would not want to start one.
The Salon is perhaps the best option in the department of Making Waves if only because the resources needed to raise it (favors in high places, Connected: Society) are generally cheaper and easier to come across than what is needed for the Orphanage. However, funding your own Orphanage is very good karma in my opinion.
edited by Owen Wulf on 1/16/2015
I think you mean Waves.
On the other hand, Orphanage has exactly the same BDR bonus as the God’s Editors (+4 respectable), while the Salon is the only Bizzare-boosting affiliation.[/quote]
I was thinking Notability could be useful. I just cached some in to get a 5 card suite at the Royal Bethlehem using the holiday opportunities related to lacre. (It forced me to increase connections to Urchins which is usually near 0 for me.) I find raising Notability to be really hard because of the weekly reset.
But I already have God Editors. So I guess an Orphanage wouldn’t really help me there?
And I don’t have any FATE. (Assume you only get it by paying real money?)
[quote=Gillsing]
Not that I’d have much more use for a +10 pet, so I’m now inclined against ever getting the Handsome Townhouse in the first place. At least from a cost-benefit perspective. Too late for me though. I just keep spamming my own deck with cards of little use.[/quote]
I haven’t considered that. I still haven’t bought the Handsome Townhouse. Is it that annoying and useless in the end?
[quote=squiggle]
I haven’t considered that. I still haven’t bought the Handsome Townhouse. Is it that annoying and useless in the end?[/quote]
The card has an option that gives 2 scraps, there are definitely worse cards to have in your deck.
[quote=squiggle]I haven’t considered that. I still haven’t bought the Handsome Townhouse. Is it that annoying and useless in the end?[/quote]Well, it’s 2 x Certifiable Scrap, but through diligent collecting I’ve already acquired all of the top items from the relickers, so now I can’t really tell myself that 1 scrap is worth 1 Echo of purchasing power, as it’s now more like 50 pence/scrap if I sell one of those items. Which makes the Handsome Townhouse give me about 1 Echo/Action, and that’s not good at all (though I still play it because… scraps). Other than that and the salon/orphanage options its only other offering is an invitation to a scandalous party, which I have no use for.
At this point it looks like I should’ve stuck to my original plan of Making Waves through item conversions and rather decadent evenings with the Bohemians, but I didn’t come up with that plan until I’d already had the Handsome Townhouse for some time.
I think you mean Waves.[/quote]
I have no idea how that happened, sorry :)
Nothing compared to the Salon for making waves for me, but I’m sure I could come up with a way if I didn’t have it. What I like is that you can prep for a few weeks building up scheme, then hold the card until a rollover and invite an author. My SO and I both are authors so we’ll decide that some week or another we’ll both go for a point of Notability, both prepare, and then invite each other so we each get both the ~150 for inviting but the ~15 for being invited. Draw two more of the Tower of Eyes over that week and you’re done, and if not, get the rest of it from slower sources like decadent evening, item conversions or, if one is desperate enough, grinding directly at Court.
So is a Salon worth it? I have accidentally managed to get the requirements for one, so am now considering it.