As someone who played the secret content (and all previous ESs), I was somewhat puzzled by that post. I found nothing in the text itself to suggest a link, although I may be missing something glaring.
edited by Barselaar on 8/30/2016
I see, thanks for answering. In this case I probably really am utterly dumb :D
I think I missed the Easter Egg because I was afraid of just how much the accumulating promises would cost me. Iām not bothered, but I would appreciate an echo ^_^
EDIT: Never mind, I didnāt know they had requested the strictest secrecy!
edited by Anne Auclair on 8/31/2016
[quote=Barselaar]As someone who played the secret content (and all previous ESs), I was somewhat puzzled by that post. I found nothing in the text itself to suggest a link, although I may be missing something glaring.
edited by Barselaar on 8/30/2016[/quote]
Nothing in the text. But there was an image. The previous ES wasā¦
ā¦The Waltz that Moved the World. Itās a loose link though and not an entirely important one. While it helps put the pieces together itās far from essential.
I was aware of the image, yeah - I edited my post say "nothing in the text itself" to reflect that. I am having second thoughts about my dismissal of the link now, due in part to discussions with other people who have played the secret content, but I did not feel in any way like I was disadvantaged by not thinking there was a link/taking it seriously, and thatās the important part for players wondering whether or not to go there, I think.
edited by Barselaar on 8/30/2016
I had merely assumed it was a re-use of an image, rather than an intentional link. If it is intentionalā¦ well, that would certainly answer a questionā¦
As Dirae Erinyes, I didnāt stay for 14 days, kept all my crew alive, did not let my gunnery pledge her services, faked the death of the scientist, was persuaded by my wife not to kill Harris but rather keep him alive for the old manās sake and that he is still needed for our work in the navy. All in all, a good days workā¦ [/quote]
[quote=Optimatum]I was expecting the easter egg to require a certain Knock, given where you visit towards the end. Could someone send me a PM as to what happens in the easter egg?
[quote=An Individual]Iām loving this one so far. Iāve often wished we would see a little more of the zee (outside of Sunless Sea). Iām particularly enjoying delving into a little more detail with these terrible ice bergs. Iām particularly interested thatā¦
ā¦the life bergs seem to be linked in some way to the thief of faces.Thereās a line from the survivor about how the lifeberg doesnāt die until you destroy/extract a shard of black glass which sounds like it might have something to do with the thief and Mount Nomad.
Itās entirely possible. One of the results after killing a Lifeberg in Sunless Sea mentions finding a shard of black glass while searching for loot, the shard seemingly being the same material as Mount Nomad. As to whether the Lifebergs were created by Mount Nomad or the Thief, whether Mount Nomad controls them or itās more like Clay Men, whether this was a planned thing or an accidentā¦ we just donāt know.[/quote]
Unless you play through Flint.
[li]
As a convenient source for Romantic Notions, Intriguing Snippets, Mysteries of the Elder Continent, and Memories of Distant Shores, access to Breakwater House seems like a pretty good deal. Sure, itās not the best Echoes/Action for a POSI, but itās convenient access without having to travel around much or convert goods. Iād think it would be very nice for a lower level character.
I have a strong inkling how to get the Easter Egg but am unsure if I really want itā¦would someone mind terribly sending me a PM with what happens in it?
Updated!
My character has to decide what she values more (spoilers for the ending under the cut):
[spoiler]Knowledge, or preventing horrible, brutal human sacrifice.
Classic Fallen London.
Update: I had fun thinking this one through. I broke it up into several considerations:
-Whether it was more important to know for certain that my character prevented a death in the immediate future, or to prevent near-certain deaths in the unforeseeable future.
-Whether it was more important to try to protect the sanctity of life (having decided that preventing an immediate and certain murder is more important than possibly preventing future murders), or to make an effort to prevent Londonās enemies from building things that might be used as weapons to wage war on London someday.
-Whether it was more important to respect the dying old manās feelings, or act on her own feelings about his son.
In the end, I decided my character would most likely think, "Thereās a murder I can definitely prevent right now. What she chooses to do with her life, after that, is her responsibility, not mine." The Bespectacled Man seemed to think the engineer would change her mind eventually, too. She chose to help him fake the Engineerās death. Presumably with a borrowed corpse, not a created one. As for the Khanate possibly using zubmarines someday as weapons against London, that was even more hypothetical and distant to L.L. than the human sacrifices, so it didnāt loom particularly large in her imagination.
The assassin will probably go on being an assassin, and the engineer will probably go on to sacrifice human lives, but thatās their choice. L.L. did the thing that she had immediate control over.
Then I was surprised by one of the options you get when you return the coffin to the Severe Bluejacket: The option to kill the Emaciated Survivor and pretend his body is his sonās. "What the hell? That seems so unnecessary," I thought. But then I figured that was probably an option for the Ruthless character whoās hoping the Bluejacket will reward them with riches if he thinks his last wishes were fulfilled.
Anyway, L.L. told him the truth, 'cause she also doesnāt believe in lying to people just so they wonāt feel bad. And also wouldnāt anyone be glad their son was alive, even if he was doing something horrible?
I echoed everything to my journal, now Iām going to check out what everyone else did.[/spoiler]
edited by Lamia Lawless on 9/1/2016
Is something supposed to happen after presenting the coffin to the Bluejacket? It seems to be the end of the content, but I feel like Iām just hanging - and I can see from the thread Iām not the only one.
I actually enjoyed sailing to the Lifeburg. Having read the complaints here, I feel like perhaps a unique card or 3 to let you get to know your new crewmates could have been a nice touch - it would also have increased the poignancy of our promises to them.
I didnāt wander onto the forums before doing the story (I usually donāt, for fear of spoilers) so I completed the story before finding out that there was an Easter egg. I would appreciate a PM with what happened in it.
I agree with this point. I paid for the story, I avoided spoilers (as FBG have said they prefer their players to do), and only after finishing it have I been told there was even more content that I have missed out on.
It feels a little like FBG are trying to wrangle more money out of us for replays. I donāt want to feel this way, especially after finishing a story I otherwise enjoyed so much.
If youāve given the Bluejacket the coffin, youāre done. It is very abrupt, though!
I think the trip to the Lifeberg and the storylets there were among the most gripping writing Iāve ever seen in FL. Kudos to Cash and everyone else involved in preparing the story.
I also missed the Easter Egg. I read the Forums before doing the story (and watched as my spouse did part of it), but I got confused as to the day count and stayed too long on the lifeberg.
In addition to the gripping writing in the NORTHern sequence, the moral choices faced by the character after returning to London are very real, and possibly the most significant choices faced by a character since the Contessa storyline, though these choices did not affect me emotionally as much as the Contessa story did.
I donāt think that the story ends abruptly, but I see why a lot of players feel that way and Iām not sure how to fix it. IMO, the story doesnāt feel finished after the coffin is presented because the āBreakwater Houseā stories persist and can still be played. That was done, however, because those stories also matter to the next two ESes, the first of which wonāt even be out until September 29. I dig the continuity aspect of this choice, but it does tend to make one confused about when the September ES is over.
I wonder if next monthās content will have us dealing with the Circumcellions? The location (near Mutton Island) and the mention of disciples that are bothersome fools seems to indicate so.
Because itās not possible to have two or more sets of spoiler tags in a single post, I am posting my response to Lamia Lawlessās comments separately. Her post, behind the spoiler tags out of concern for prematurely revealing plot details to players who have not yet completed the ES, was very thoughtful and deserves a thoughtful response.
[spoiler] I saw multiple moral choice issues in the story climax. Yes, you are absolutely right that the character had to decide whether to prevent a murder. But I donāt think the other side of the coin was just about knowledge (though thatās how the Engineer sees it). The real moral question here was whether it is more important to risk outraging the Lorn Flukes once more by continuing to explore beneath the deep waters, or proceeding with the Engineerās invention which would permit and encourage such exploration.
In addition, there is an additional level of moral decision. The characterās choices are:
- to kill Harris, and end his mission permanently (not just of killing the Engineer, but of preventing underwater exploration); [/li][li] to kill the Engineer (fulfilling Harrisās immediate objective for him, and ending her mission), or [/li][li] to dupe Harris into believing the Engineer is dead (which allows both missions to continue but does not preclude the possibility that Harris might kill the Engineer at a later date).
If I were in the situation presented to my ES character, I would have chosen to dupe Harris with a fake Engineer corpse, because I would have been unwilling to commit murder for policy reasons alone when the potential outcome of killing Harris or the Engineer was so uncertain. But that is not the decision my character made in the game. She would have focused on the policy objectives-prevent further outrage by the Lorn Flukes vs. the more long-term good of increasing knowledgeāand decided that it was more important to prevent a Lorn Fluke disaster. Yet she does not commit murder gratuitously either. She would have concluded that there was no reason to stop Harris in his mission, and thus she did not.
By the way, my character chose to tell the Bluejacket that Harris is alive. That is characteristic of her; in many circumstances, she considers lying more culpable of murder. In that she has become a true Child of the Neath. :-) [/spoiler]
Catherine Raymond (spoilered for discussing the ending):
[spoiler]Yeah, the Lorn Flukes also got glossed over for Lamia, because as she is (before sheās started her Sunless Sea adventures) she isnāt really aware of their existence at all right now. Also, as her player, I donāt know much about them either, other than that they apparently came to the Neath with the Bazaar and there was some sort of betrayal. And now they float around in the zee being full of hate and Correspondence.
I also skipped over the consideration of killing Harris, since her focus was so heavily on murder-prevention. It wouldnāt have made sense for her to kill him. And after a certain point "Knowledge!" stopped being a consideration, too- after L.L. saw Harrisās tools.
To her, the future is vague and full of more possibilities than she can foresee, and she didnāt feel like killing anyone or letting anyone die would have had a concrete result anyway. She couldnāt be sure that Engineer + dead = no human sacrifice (again, a consideration that was more clear to her than what the Lorn Flukes might do, or the possibility of the Khanate developing war weapons). Or that killing Harris, which she really wouldnāt have seriously considered anyway, would stop his mission. The fact that heās been doing this work for a long time indicated that there have been many, many ongoing attempts to penetrate the depths of the Unterzee, and there will probably continue to be more attempts. It seemed like an ongoing war in which the Engineer and Harris just happened to currently be key players, but ultimately replaceable ones. And if she was going to make a decision about what she wanted for the future, it would have required a more longterm commitment to this war than she was willing to get involved in.
"Lying is more culpable than murder," is a pretty interesting way to sum up your characterās POV. I like that. :P
Thanks for bringing the Lorn Flukes to my attention. That was a piece of the puzzle I did overlook.[/spoiler]
edited by Lamia Lawless on 9/1/2016
So my character started off this story by being fairly grumpy about it. The whole thing just screamed "tragedy waiting to happen," and my poor character has been put through emotional the wringer over and over, to the point where he just canāt bear anymore sadness. So he downright resented some random dude popping up out of nowhere to drag him into his personal drama.
Still, off he went. And his certainly that he was going to end this story crying only deepened as he met the other people in it. Four crewmates whose grip on their sanity become more and more tenuous the longer they stay out there. A poor, starving wretch just barely clinging to life. A supposedly dead man living a dangerous double life. The woman heās supposed to kill.
It was clear that someone, most likely several someones, were not making it out of this alive.
[spoiler] Then everyone made it out alive. My character was stunned. He could scarcely believe it. He actually had to touch his face to prove to himself that he wasnāt crying.
He was thrilled. I was thrilled. In fact, I didnāt even mind (once again) getting the crappiest reward for my choices. Because this wasnāt the usual "grudgingly do the right thing out of moral obligation and wait for the inevitable kick in the crotch." No, this was "do the right thing and save a bunch of well-written characters I had come to care about." For once, making the most moral choice actually felt like a reward in and of itself.
Bravo, writers! Bravo! [/spoiler]
As far as the mechanic go, I actually didnāt mind how grindy it was. We were clearly embarking on a Very Dangerous Mission Into Uncharted Territory here, and those are always putzy if you donāt want to make horrifically fatal mistakes. All the work I had to put into clearing a path, making camp, keeping everyone sane and resting, while still managing to eke out little bits of progress each day just emphasized how dire our situation was. I did wonder why we couldnāt just camp up in the wreck itself for the couple of days it took to explore it, rather than climbing down each night, but itās a very minor quibble.
Another minor quibble was the fact thatā¦no one told me what a lifeberg was. My character was given the mission, sailed there, climbed it, and talked to a guy who had spent a decade living on one, and the entire time he kept saying "WHAT THE HECK IS A LIFEBERG??" And everyone in the story just went on like he totally knew what a lifeberg was because everyone knows what a lifeberg is. It was almost surreal :P
Itās cool to bring in elements from Sunless Sea, but remember that not everyone here has played it. An option to ask about lifebergs when we accept the mission at the beginning would have been handy for those of us in the dark.
Finallyā¦what was up with the way we treated the poor Emaciated Survivor? We find this poor guy whoās starving, frostbitten, and has been living in isolation for a decade and weā¦use him as a tourguide? And then go back to camp each night and leave him up there like heās a part of the scenery? We donāt immediately take him back to the ship, wrap him in blankets, stuff him with food and bring him some clean underwear? When we found the dead body and his stomach rumbled, all I could think was "didnāt we at least bring him up some FOOD??" Heck, I wasnāt sure we were even going to bother to bring the guy with us when we left.
This poor guyās backstory was heartbreaking, my interactions with him were heartbreaking, his ARTWORK was heartbreakingā¦I want to give him a hug. I want to feed him. I want to know what happened to him after the story. I want to take him in so heāll never be all alone again. I want him as a companion so I can keep him forever. Heās Fallen Londonās uberwoobie :P
Give him to me, Failbetter Gamesā¦or a rubbery man gets hurt :P
edited by Kukapetal on 9/1/2016
I am disappointed enough that paying for the ES only gets me 2/3 of the content (due to the āeaster eggā) that I am considering buying a single monthās Friendship on my alt just so I can see the alternate path, which may not be motivating the correct behavior on FBGās part. :P
I didnāt really mind the zailing but thought it was very weird that we had to zail to the lifeberg but it was then a single click to the following two destinations.
I kind of felt like the story was a little scattered-
The lifeberg could have been an entire story on its own. But then we also visit the Avid Horizon, which should have been a much bigger deal than it was! We havenāt been able to go here before (aside from Seeking)! But here itās literally a single click to get there and then another to leave. And then the story is a conflict between the Admiralty and the Engineer. They all tie together around one person but it felt like I was reading Cloud Atlas more than a single tight narrative.
But thatās a matter of personal preference, really.
Could someone please PM me the echo of putting the Survivor in the coffin?