Likewise, I have seen “Hate” and “Grieve”, but would be eternally grateful if someone would share “Salt”.
Sending some PMs.
So uh. We already had this account for Mr Eaten. But now there’s… this one.
It’s probably just a dev joke. But why now?
Well, the account’s been deleted since I posted, so here’s the screenshot I took. Equipped are a Primitive Hat, Shroud of Little Midnights, Iron Manacles, Memorycatch Box, and Noise-Eaters. I’ve added into on the unknown items to the wiki.
edited by Optimatum on 3/26/2017
It showed up in the “Who else is here?” list in my Lodgings, presumably because whoever made the account had to record that line to the journal regularly.
If one has returned from the North with the seven-fold knock, but doesn’t give up Seeking, are there any remaining options? Is there a way to get back North at some point?
I don’t think so.
The Seeking Road stotylet itself is locked by having "Embarked on an Expedition to the North". So once you’ve taken this trip you lose access to the Seeking Road and all its options. And actually zailing NORTH is locked if you have the Seven-Fold Knock.
Without some way to get rid of the Knock you can’t zail NORTH again.
Personally, I’d love an option to get rid of the Seven-Fold Knock for Seekers who want to resume Seeking at some point in the future (even if it means starting Seeking from scratch).
I feel like that’s a little against the premise of seeking. If you take it to the very end, you can’t come back. If you take it to the very end and turn back there, that’s a decision you have to live with.
That’s valid.
However, when turning back at the end, the game explicitly asks you if you want to remain a Seeker. It would have been nice to have some option to actually Seek in this situation. Resetting all Seeking progress could be an interesting way to balance this, at it would make it incredible expensive to resume the Seeking path.
Regardless, this is all academic. Alexis has finished SMEN and FBG have no intention of touching this content. All is, and will reamin, as Alexis has left it
From a story perspective, it would be hard to do it over again too. Millicent doesn’t seem to happy if you turn back, and I can’t imagine she’d be willing to help you a second time.
Well, she’s not really there, you know? :-)
Of course, the game asks if you want to keep seeking because of a mechanical quirk. The only way programmed in to clear Seeking and related qualities/items was the Bad End storylet, but the FL engine doesn’t support linking to a specific result, just to storylets. I suspect that if the game actually supported just sending the player directly to the success result for Turn Back, Alexis would have programmed it that way. All the options explicitly for ending the search (A way out, Help from an unlikely source, the ones at the Carnival and Deep Archives, etc) just redirect to the Bad End choice because of that limitation, so I doubt the Knock was intended to be any different.
I really doubt this is the reason. It would have been very easy for Alexis to redirect the player to a newly created storylet, in which the only option leads to quitting Seeking. Many actions in the game redirect to special storylets which are otherwise inaccessible.
Like FBG, we have to assume that the the current implementation works the way it works because it’s the way Alexis wanted it to.
This does not answer the question of why.
I really doubt this is the reason. It would have been very easy for Alexis to redirect the player to a newly created storylet, in which the only option leads to quitting Seeking. Many actions in the game redirect to special storylets which are otherwise inaccessible.
Like FBG, we have to assume that the the current implementation works the way it works because it’s the way Alexis wanted it to.[/quote]
I’m actually pretty confident this is the reason. It’s basically to prevent code duplication. Setup one button with all the steps required to quite seeking and direct everything to that button so that if you need to change it the change doesn’t need to be duplicated. Also, Alexis was apparently putting in a lot of over time when finishing Seeking so short cuts like this would make sense. He probably didn’t have time to get fancy with it. Could he have locked the option to continue based on whether or not you have the Knock? Yup. Would have made plenty of sense to do that. Except I think you can just "Perhapse Not" out of "A bad end" (don’t have the ability to check right now so could be wrong there) so it wouldn’t have actually helped anything. I think, in the end, the important bits were working and there wasn’t time to really polish functionality like this as long as it functioned so we’ve got what we’ve got. While Alexis is certainly a person who generally does things with intention, in this case the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one.
Yep, you can perhaps not out of A Bad End, so if it just redirected you there you would be able to escape.
You can’t perhaps not out of A Bad End, actually. I just checked.
Oh? I am very mistaken then, my apologies.
Yup. Finally got back to a place I could check and you can’t perhaps not out. I do still think that this is a case where time was short, concentrating logic was convenient, and the over all functionality was good enough. But it does suggest you could lock that option to continue down with pretty minimal effort if someone cared to do so.
Speaking of turning back at the Gate, is the text for that option echoed anywhere? (Unless it’s considered secret along with the proper endings, of course.)
(No. What are you doing?)
Walk to the end of the dock. (What are you doing?)
Mercy?
One a pillar of the dock, an authoritative hand has carved this message: IF YOU WISH TO RETURN TO LONDON - IF YOU SEEK THE FORGIVENESS OF THE EMPRESS - IF YOU WILL SACRIFICE ALL TO MAKE AMENDS - RECORD YOUR NAME AND CRIME.
Below are the names of murderers, traitors, hopeless villains who’ve fled into exile. They’ve made the icy pilgrimage here, to the end of the world, to prove their desperation to return home.
Record your name, and wait
(You are a coward. A coward! So be it, then. I was never here.)
Hearth and home
The fire is low when you open your eyes. Neath-wind buffets the shutters, rattles the glass, bumps mischievously against the roof-tiles. The room is chilly, but not icy: not the deep cold of the deepest North. You stretch. Your joints hurt. You cough. Your belly aches. You are hungry.
An occurrence! Your 'The Seven-Fold Knock Quality is now 1!
And no, I highly doubt we are not allowed to post this as this is not beyond the gate.