But you can easily ensure 100% success rate in Polythreme with very little investment. Not so with Gaining a Mark, the outcome of which cannot be influenced by any means whatsoever. You end up wasting 20 or so actions to gain virtually nothing of value, and have to start again from scratch many times over.
edited by Lawrence Growe on 5/6/2012
Well. That was…interesting.
I’ll have to come back later when I have Fate. What is the second option on the final day, I wonder?
For now, to Polythreme. I have an Ambition to pursue.
Edit: By the way, Lawrence, I think we can all agree that the Fidgeting Writer is the most infuriating mechanic in the game. I do hope they change the Mark mechanics, though, or at least make the consolation prize actually worth something. Luck-based mechanics are not fun.
edited by Little The on 5/7/2012
That’s hardly so. You can invest in a luck check if you’re tired of waiting for cards, but if you fail those then you’ve put in 12 actions and a lot of investment with nothing to show for it. As I’ve done twice now.
I find the iron republic sort of curious and fun.
I thought I start hating it once I get through a few of the options and start actually hoping for certain results, rather than not caring about success or failure because everything’s new. Hasn’t happened, though. I might not return, but it was certainly fun, and not frustrating like the Fidgeting Writer.
edited by M_L_G on 5/7/2012
Definitely very fun. I like it, and I suspect it’s crazy enough that I won’t get annoyed at it.
BTW, for anyone wondering, and for anyone reading this later, after the stats increase further - it’s clearly aimed at people who are currently stat-capped, with stat challenges in the low 130s being ‘modest’ and requiring a number of Person of Some Importance items (I’ve come across a Respectable stat check and a Gang of Hoodlums check, among others).
edited by M_L_G on 5/7/2012
That’s hardly so. You can invest in a luck check if you’re tired of waiting for cards, but if you fail those then you’ve put in 12 actions and a lot of investment with nothing to show for it. As I’ve done twice now.[/quote]
Grind romantic notions and surface silk scraps, and then bribe your way with them. Once they start asking for more expensive stuff, simply use the cards that raise what you need, or trade via the built in storylets. Once you get the first part of the 3 part storylets (A Guided Tour of Polythreme and A Little Spy Work), you unlock two cards that are a sure way to progress (Fractious Furniture and The Zailors at Polythreme’s Harbour). In both cases, you can get 100% chance of going through. If you’re waiting for the sure-fire cards, spend your extra actions grinding romantic notions and surface silk scrap, as it’s very profitable.
By the way, was anyone else slightly surprised that the Iron Republic has no sub-area like the Sea of Voices? I was a bit unprepared to be thrust upon the Iron Republic streets as soon as I did. I believe the option on the Unterzee used to read “The Western Wall”?
That’s hardly so. You can invest in a luck check if you’re tired of waiting for cards, but if you fail those then you’ve put in 12 actions and a lot of investment with nothing to show for it. As I’ve done twice now.[/quote]
Grind romantic notions and surface silk scraps, and then bribe your way with them. Once they start asking for more expensive stuff, simply use the cards that raise what you need, or trade via the built in storylets. Once you get the first part of the 3 part storylets (A Guided Tour of Polythreme and A Little Spy Work), you unlock two cards that are a sure way to progress (Fractious Furniture and The Zailors at Polythreme’s Harbour). In both cases, you can get 100% chance of going through. If you’re waiting for the sure-fire cards, spend your extra actions grinding romantic notions and surface silk scrap, as it’s very profitable.[/quote]
This is only guaranteed if you have the Fractious Furniture and The Zailors at Polythreme’s Harbour cards. You need Fascinating or Investigating 12 first in order to get them. If you are unlucky, even when bribing, then you don’t get 12, you get 11 and change and have to start over. As I’ve done twice now. That’s hardly 100%.
I haven’t had all those yet, but can add two more to that tally ([color=#ffffff]55 and 78[/color]).
I haven’t had all those yet, but can add two more to that tally ([color=#ffffff]55 and 78[/color]).[/quote]
I’ve seen [color=#ffffff]71 and 88: 71 is the fail of 51, 88 is a choice off 71.[/color]
[quote=Little The]Well. That was…interesting.
I’ll have to come back later when I have Fate. What is the second option on the final day, I wonder?
[/quote]
It gives you [color=#ffffff]a large change in Changed by the Iron Republic, enough to buy TWO journals. (I can’t promise two journals, but I had enough.)[/color]
This struck me, and I can’t say it’s completely misguided. If you’re looking for THINGS, the Iron Republic isn’t all that rewarding. (There is one pretty valuable reward at the end of a cycle.) I find the narrative really interesting: while I strongly feel that this is a primary benefit, I can accept a different opinion.
As for the lack of CHOICES, though, I appreciate that, except to say that I’m about to run a third cycle through because there are ENOUGH choices (in my opinion) to warrant multiple cycles. In my second pass, I was able to access six elements I did not see on the first pass. Since my first pass was 10 elements long, this is pretty varied. It certainly beat rolling through umpty-ump umptillion cylces of the Fate-locked Velocipede Squad option. (Boy, that was tedious.)
I will say this: it certainly helped my experience that I am a fully-formed character and have all the “oddball” characteristics it’s testing (including a [color=#ffffff]lBrass Ring).[/color][color=#000000]
[/color]
edited by Pedantic Jones on 5/7/2012
I’m hoping they add a storyline for everyone that uses the same structure as the Nemesis content, and has some sort of unique rewards. In terms of stuff, Polythreme launched with less than the Republic offers now, and they added the Unfinished Hat/Clothes-Colony storylines later.
Here is how you do it without Furniture and Sailors: Use the Bribe option and supply clay men with Surface Silk until the price goes up to Romantic Notions. Use Bribe with Romantic Notions option two or three times: this will get you up to 8 in at least one quality and hopefully about the same in the other. Having done that, use the conversion option (buttonhole a Clay Overseer or pull a mask) to dispose of the quality you don’t need completely. This should raise the quality you are aiming for up to 11 or almost so with at least several actions to spare before you run out of Unnatural Exuberance.
I used this method to run about 11 cycles in a row and did not fail a single time. It doesn’t always go to 13, but virtually guarantees you will get 12.
edited by Lawrence Growe on 5/8/2012
[quote=Lawrence Growe]
Here is how you do it without Furniture and Sailors: Use the Bribe option and supply clay men with Surface Silk until the price goes up to Romantic Notions. Use Bribe with Romantic Notions option two or three times: this will get you up to 8 in at least one quality and hopefully about the same in the other. Having done that, use the conversion option (buttonhole a Clay Overseer or pull a mask) to dispose of the quality you don’t need completely. This should raise the quality you are aiming for up to 11 or almost so with at least several actions to spare before you run out of Unnatural Exuberance.
I used this method to run about 11 cycles in a row and did not fail a single time. It doesn’t always go to 13, but virtually guarantees you will get 12.
edited by Lawrence Growe on 5/8/2012[/quote]
I have done this. If you are unlucky enough when bribing and when converting you still end up with 11 and change at the end rather than the 12 you need.
I’m happy for you that you have not been unlucky enough to have this method fail, but it can and has failed. I recognize that it is less likely to fail than succeed, but the mechanic is still based on luck checks which means, eventually, someone is going to get a bad run on luck checks. It’s just the nature of the law of large numbers. That someone was me. Twice.
Whenever you have a mechanic that is based on luck, 100% is never guaranteed.
Okay, so I just got through with my first run of the Iron Republic and let me spoilery rant here:
[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]I LOVED IT. It’s awesome. My cup of tea exactly! I can’t wait to run through it a few dozen times.[/color]
[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]It gives plenty of choices, even one that can make the thing loop back on itself. It gives checks for actual stats rather than luck checks. Mind you some of these checks are for things that can only be a 1 so it’s an ostensible luck check mathematically, but that is still a far cry from the most recent material.[/color]
[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]The writing is some of my favorite since Doubt Street and I really dig the change in narration. I particularly enjoyed how the Quirks I have been building up for no discernible reason other than vanity of character have come into their own. I also liked how other quirks I’ve intentionally kept low, like Heartless, provide their own unique storylets on failures![/color]
[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]What I like most, however, is that there is something singular about the place. There is a piece of equipment you can only get there. That is a nice little souvenir to me in my character’s inventory to remind me “I went there. I did that.”[/color]
[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]It also gives a singular, grindable Accomplishment for those who wish to brag about how often they have been there and done that. One more thing that someone in Fallen London canbe the most at. I dig that a lot![/color]
[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]Thanks for this storylet, FB. And thanks for removing any luck checks![/color]
Well, there’s still luck checks (or, rather, stat checks against things that are always 1) but both results work for making progress, unless you’re just trying to collect all the options you won’t be stuck replaying the same sequence hoping for a different result on a luck check.
The biggest difference between those checks and the luck checks that we all hate so much are that with a luck check, failure means that we’ve got nothing, while at the Iron Republic we just take a different path - the reward is still there (a point of Changed) .
I just left the Republic for the second time.
I feel that it can be that place when one goes back when one gets tired of grinding, to discover new pathes, having one’s menace rise and fall without a care in the world.
In fewer words, it feels like a written kaleidoscope. Every time different, every time entertaining.
Yes, I was. But it makes sense, upon reflection, for the Iron Republic to be relatively close to London, since the Brass Embassy is there and the IR is supposed to be a colony of Hell.