Six months as a (Midnight) whale
Hello there delicious friends, I thought it might be interesting, particularly for you free to play people, what life looks like for a mega whale. I will avoid spoilers, other than names to identify content as much as possible.
I signed up for Fallen London the Christmas before last when my good friend introduced it to me. I then had a major ADHD burnout and forgot it till our annual Dragonmeet expedition the following year. Since I had not yet left New Newgate, I am counting that as the start of my life as a LornâFluke in Fallen London. My mate did send me 50 fate as well, so I had some startup for my Aunt, my lab equipment and my lab workbenches, he told me what the last 15 was for as well but it has been lost to the sands of time.(Speaking as a mega whale, he was 100% right on the things you want to get if you only have 50 fate)
I played for a month and I was loving it, loving chatting strategy with my mate, loving learning about the world and the nuances of gameplay that gave the best results. I remember terror and confusion at trying to work out what that rat market was all about but rolling all over the grand clearing out carousels once I understood.
After a month I was getting a little fed up of the 20 candlepower. It was mostly the sleep issues it caused, I am a degenerate obsessive, so I signed up for Enhanced Exceptionally Delicious Friendship and oh my is it delicious.
The first thing I loved was the 40 energy, almost enough for a full nights sleep and it meant I could do a quick dump at work at lunch and be ready to game again on the buss home with no wastage.
House of Chimes had some cool stuff but a lot of it was not that relevant to me that early on. It is very cool midgame and then falls off again endgame but I will address the issues with it in the issues section.
Exceptional Stories! Well this was up and down, I came in with my first stories being the Shallows and The Showâs the thing. I think the Shallows has spoiled me for all ES content since, as it has real, significant mechanical rewards as well as a killer story. The story from the shows the thing felt weaker to me at the time and was a little strange as I had never been to, or heard of, Parabola in game. The rewards were also just from actions so you didnât really feel it.
I feel like every story has been an improvement on the last this year though. I played up to Eels, then realised that doing the ES was impairing my progress, so I decided to save up the fun until I had finished my railroad, ambition and Evolution. I have now extended that to until my Hellworm is Saddled and Bridled.
As I say I was pretty obsessive, so I was doing the full fate refill about once a week, until I quit smoking, which I must say, this was great for, for that month I wanted to keep playing and I needed energy so lets just say there were more than one refill per week.
So, where did I get to in 6 months, pretty far I have completed Heartâs Desire, The Railroad, Evolution, All Making your names, All Waswood content(Except one I need to revisit, but I have the Oneiromantic Revelation and the Parabolan Parable waiting. I have done Firmament up to near the end of Risen Burgandy(I stopped it because I realised it wouldnât help anywhere else), I am all the way done in the Khanate, I have 2/4 Carnelian Ministers(The other two are not great, and can wait), I am almost done with Paramount Presence, I just need to send 9 more letters to a licentiate and then convert some wealth into echos for the Shadowy one. So aside from a little cleaning up, I am done with âfreeâ content.
Edit: Disgracefully I gave no credit to the fact my friend mentored me 5 times a week till my stats were capped. Just a little bit of an impact on progressions there. Barely worth mentioning. 
What on earth did I buy?
Well, I thought I would do a list and give it a ranking for mechanics SABC0 and for story SABC? With the 0 meaning it has no real mechanical rewards and the ? meaning I canât remember the story or it is one of the stories that I forgot to switch my brain from farm mode, which is click through as fast as possible, to story mode, which is where I read everything.
So the format might be Wacky Story S? Which would mean that I thought the rewards from the Wacky Story were S tier, as in, get it if you can afford it, but I donât remember the story for one reason or another.
Paid Content Ratings
Inconvenienced by your Aunt SS
A Trade in Souls(Spirifer Route) S?
Fluke Street CA
Essence of Empyreal Resolance S?(I give it an S for mechanics because the mechanics are great fun too, they are probably more an A)
Ratwork Velocipede SB(Hard to rank mechanically, it is huge for BDR but an unbelievable action dump for a story that isnât much of a story 
)
Philosifruits AA (I liked the story even though itâs short and sharp, the mechanics are really great but I have not used them a lot, so again hard to rate well, also, the randomness of it makes it very tough to get a solid EPA)
The Regretful Soldiers Tale 0S(It brought feelings into my cold dead heart)
The Silk Clad Expert A? (S if you love Moulin but I do not love Moulin, very solid and better for progression than endgame in the lab)
Pendant of Helicon Amber C0 (No story really and the mechanics it gives are a bit wonky, maybe for 10 fate, I have a more detailed analysis on the wiki Helicon page comments)
Lab Upgrades S0
The little Stacks dude ?? (I havenât done a deep dive on the stacks and the lil dude you can get for 10 fate but when you are spending like I do, itâs 10 fate, who cares)
Buying Energy
I generally buy energy when I am doing an exceptional story to get it done, when I get stuck in an awkward spot, when I am progressing in content I am enjoying or when I have had a hard day at work and I want to keep playing. One thing I did find useful, I was finding keeping energy down was interfering with sleep, after trying to get to sleep for 30 mins I felt I had to go back and use the 3 energy. I made a deal with myself. 1 refill a day, no game past 8pm. Which I sometimes remember to stick to and it helps.
In retrospect I would have bought the Boat Skip options as well, to get my boat faster, as it just skips grinds that are awkward and annoying at that level, not any story.
Oh, I Should probably do stats and choices and stuff:
Main stats all 300 or so because I am carrying a certain burden that gives -20 that late game people will know about
Secondary stats 13-17
Neathproofed, Inerrant, Insubstantial et all about 2-8
BDR 40
Factions: All at 40 except for Rubbery, Urchins and Tomb Colonies, which are all in the 30s.
Scholar of the Correspondence: 14
Steward of the Discordance: 4
Heartâs Desire. I won! And chose power because everyone loves me already
Evolution. I chose to avoid destiny and become something unpredictable, and the eel story came out right afterâŚ.
Balmoral. Well, as a Scot I wanted a proper revolutionary in charge but only a revolutionary against England, not the Bazaar
Boat: Luxurious Liner but I will be changing to a Nyx Class Sub when FotZ hits
Profession: Monster Hunter (None of them fit with my High society, high art, high hedonism character but I thought a little big game hunting was a fun addition. I have enjoyed it but I have outgrown most of the benefits now) Edit: I decided my Ivory Harpoon was in fact an Ivory Monster Fork, where does it go in the place setting? Wherever I say it goes!
Destiny: Curator â >The Hanged Man
Airship: Obliterator Gunship
Club: The Parthanaeum (I chose it for roleplay reasons, The young bucks is by far the best mechanically, Sophiaâs I am considering for a bit to get my TC rep done, I currently have an outstanding problem where I need the respectability for the Khanate though)
Railway Board: His Amused Lordship, Feducci, The Marquess, The Bishop of St Fiacre
City of the tracklayers, I went with the Heartâs Desire exclusive choice, being vague for spoilers
The thing that even naming would be a spoiler from the end of the railroad story, I still have it, others may call it a burden but I call it my baby! I really should complete it though, the choice is obvious for my character and hanging on to it is mechanically crippling
General Attitude to the world
The Bazaar knows best, law, order and society are all good things, Iâll do anything for a cute Urchin though.
Tomb colonies are misunderstood elders.
Rubbery Men and misunderstood rubbery friends.
I have no criminal record.
I have never conspired against the masters. Although, I am not as hardcore as my friend who got the absolute minimum revolutionary renown to progress. I wish there were an option to progress with them purely as an agent of the masters though.
Things they could do to improve the game
I love Fallen London, I love the story, I love my 50 tab spreadsheet calculating the optimal way to do things and I love that it means I chat with my bestie all the time. It is also quite possible that there is a good reason for these things to be the way they are that I do not understand however there are a few minor irritations that I would like if they could smooth out to make the experience better.
Action drain from Exceptional Friendship
You get 21 actions a month with your exceptional friendship but between the monthly story, the list story, the house of chimes and other content from it, itâs actually a decent drain on your actions each month. It feels like there is a hidden cost of 50 fate with it for the 100 actions you need to do stuff outside of your normal stuff. That might be mitigated a bit if they put an action estimate on stories, so you know what you are getting into, or better mechanical rewards from said stories, even if itâs just a decent action EPA of usable materials. This is probably one of the ones that has behind the scenes issues on fixing as well as financial implications for FBG so I may be being too ambitions.
Edit: Someone pointed out on Reddit that I had a weird action and EPA focus, which was not my intention, it was more the first time I started an exceptional story I was shocked when it used my actions. I thought it was bought and paid for. Also, like I said before, the shallows spoiled me with a nice mechanical reward at the end to top off the great story. The roadblocks in the main stories are often long grinds as well, so itâs not like the Hellworm and the Firkin are the first things to push you toward an EPA mentality. Also, calculating efficiency is something that I love about the game, I have been wrestling with the bone market working out how it works and when to farm and when to spend and it has been awesome!
Wrong Stories
Well, this was on my list and I donât know what it means, the joy of ADHD and todo lists.
Edit: I remembered what âWrong Choicesâ meant!
There are several things you can do, particularly in the early game, that have permenant negative impacts on your account, such as having a relationship with the struggling artist and getting involved in the broken toys storyline or accepting certain renown 25 rewards. There are better lists of these than I could make elsewhere but it feels like something that should be addressed. Whether it is having conclusions to those storylines that remove the card or having a card even if you have not engaged in them I feel like there should never be a problem where the only solution is ditch your account, start fresh and be more careful.
Wiki Shoutout in intro
I feel like wiki access is of paramount importance to this game, unless you are playing very casually. I think a little wiki shoutout in the intro, along with the boilerplate legal nonsense of FBG is not responsible for third party yada, might be a nice thing. My mate told me all about it and sent me his spreadsheet though so I was fine.
More info on fate stuff - Actions â rewards
I feel like a lot of the Fate options I am walking into the purchase a little blind. The wiki has a bit of an explanation on what notable rewards there are but a vague hint in game would be nice as well. Also, as I mentioned in a previous section and estimated action count would really help too.
Buff Bad Stuff
Well, again, I donât know what that means. 
Edit: Well, I read that from my list as bad bad stuff, hence the confusion, I feel itâs always important to proof read things after posting them as opposed to before. ;P Older stories like Fluke Street, which is a great story, and the only source of rubbery skulls, is really terrible action efficiency, It doesnât have to be boosted up to 5.2 EPA to compete with tracklayers but getting it to 4 would make me have a lot less of a love/hate relationship with it. Maybe trimming some of the fat on visits after the first as well. There are a few different options that have just fallen off over the years that could use a little mechanical sprucing up. I feel the same with cards that have no option to be removed, even if they had something niche they were great at, just so you didnât feel bad every time you draw the poor Panoramic Newshound or Northbound Parlimentarian.
Timers to 6 days 12 hours/ 23 hours - No more creeping - Alternatively, TTH/Midnight
The weekly timers seem to be just a little over 7 days, or possibly 7 days and I donât record the time I do them perfectly or refresh perfectly. If you could change this to 6.5 days, it would mean we could have a specific weekly time that we do those tasks. As it is, they gradually creep back and back each week till they are past bedtime, then fall over to the next day, then interfere with your nice planned rota. I know that 6.5 days means that someone hyper dedicated who never sleeps could get some extra value but if Somone is that dedicated just give it to them, or send them an intervention! An alternative would be to have all these things, Agent, Balmoral gift, Moulin etc, reset with Time the Healer, or reset at midnight on day 6.
The 23 hours in Whitsun was great, I still missed eggs because of the aforementioned ADHD but at least you can creep back the timer if you are a little late because of real life happening.
Let us move TTH - Will have to be at a cost, 62.5 or 5 fate seems fair.
That speaks for itself. If we could pay to change our time the healer even if you lose a few days of it it means that your reset time is not pure luck based on when you created your account, you can put it where you want it. Maybe a use for the, almost useless, primeval hints.
Energy/Card Deck - Let us sleep!
I am not sure what a fix for this would be. When I played Raid shadow Legends you had about 6.5 hours before you hit full energy and people set up automation at night to make sure nothing was wasted. 60/100mins for cards and 200/400mins for actions makes the game inaccessible for those who have a job they canât play at, need a full nights sleep and are, like me, anally retentive about efficiency. Since the game seems to be set up, really well, for 20 actions feeling like not quite enough and 40 actions feeling great, during the waking hours, It would take a bigger brain than mine.
Email, Spam or Nothing
I have not double checked but the notification emails seemed to be an all or nothing thing and when I had them on it was a never-ending spam. If you could pick specific options that you would like to be notified of, like slights, or specific timers, that would be a nice thing to have.
Social Actions, Same target as last one(Or a number to select how many)
The choice if which friend to pick always being alphabetical can get a little tiresome, if you want to send someone 10 nightmare cures or 10 invitations to Coffee it would be nice if it just remembered who you were sending them to last time. Even better would be a send how many box but I have a feeling you are not super keen on bulking actions. It would be extra nice for those days where work is a nightmare and you just want to pop on for 2 secs and spend all your actions though.
Open All, on mail
I made 3 free to play alts to see the other ambitions, one of them is a licentiate and I would love an open all option on individual mails. This might be technically difficult for skillups and the like but if you donât ask, you donât get.
One Click letters (Send Later option)
Likewise for letters, if the default could go straight to the choose a person to send it to and have an option for send your letter later it would save excess time. 99% of letters you want to send right away so it seems like itâs the wrong way round at the moment.
Club Balance
The Young Stags is mechanically far superior to all the other options, because you can get 3 favours from it, which is a shame as I imagine most people consider their club for character reasons. If it could be balanced out a bit that would be nice.
Dusty Bookshop to 0 actions
I thought the Dusty Bookshop was marvellous when I first saw it. Then my friend pointed out that it cost an action. I have never played it since. Make it marvellous again!
Make Card Draw items activate able and deactivatable - Tristram, Zee
There are certain items that only add cards to your deck if they are equipped, like a certain mask at zee and a few affiliations. If the effect could be toggled somehow, maybe in a little menu in your lodgings, like the one for the paid content in tracklayers, that would save forgetting to equip the gear, or having saved gearsets slightly substandard because you need to have that piece of gear easily equippable for card draws.
Agents anoying 11 clicks
I thought agents were an awesome idea when they came out and I enjoyed building them up and learning the system. Over the past few months however they have become more and more irritating, I am always in the middle of something when they pop and I have to break my train of thought and go do 11 clicks to get them back on mission before getting back to the main screen where I have forgotten what I am doing. I wonder if they could just be set to repeat the same mission, over and over, and you get a cheeky notification each time they complete and set off again. Then have an option on the agents tab to stop after next completion, if you want to change their assignment or just use the abandon button when you want to change.
House of Chimes with Moulin â Awkward
Moulin gives you a Mithridacy bonus each week that blocks one of the house of chimes options you need to use and you need to spread out over three weeks. If they could either stack or you could have a confirmation option to overwrite, that would make it less annoying.
House of Chimes no clear timer
I have no idea when my house of chimes votes reset. I know you get a notification when they do but it would be nice to have a clear timer of how long you had left to spend your votes.
House of Chimes Options you just click to get to the next vote. Vote Dump Option?
I wonder if, for the multiple weeks options for Chimes, the Boons for menace and secondary stats if we could just pay and action to dump them and get onto the next batch of voting. When they are useful they are very useful but most of the time they are a chore to use. Iâve not done much of an assessment on it but itâs possible at endgame House of chimes voting is not worth it at all. The boons are situational, the making waves is a pretty tiny boost, and not great endgame, the souls and snacks are nice, I think, the hand refill is huge. 3 good options out of 12 is probably still worth the actions but doing actions for actions sake doesnât feel great.
Ok, thatâs my cheeky report, I have almost certainly forgotten lots of stuff but I will try to pop on and answer any questions if people are curious.