Uh, man… Calm down, it doesn’t seem so great an issue. An Ambition is full of having to grind endlessly (or so it feels) just to discover you made little to no progress XD
What I feel important is the fact that the Ambition seems to be distributing free extra First City Coins; I’m not counting the 30 from the exchange with the Portly Sommelier because the Fourth City Airag could have been obtained via the Rare success exchanging Touching Love Stories; but the storyline itself provides some spares in addition to the required stake. Since a while now I’ve wondered if these spares are to see use, and how.
Sure as hell! Not a single one story-related, though I think I’ll give away the 30 from the Portly Sommelier (by the way: I discarded the “A Presuptuous Little Opportunity” card more times that I can remember. Now that I need it, it vanished. Typical -.-). In any case, re-obtaining 30 of them became much easier since there’s a dedicated thread to commission burglaries at the Museum of Mistakes^^
I thought the story telling was the reward. That is a lot of information given to us about the First City and how it was stolen. It’s not like any other large investment of money has ever been paid for with anything else up to this point.
Goods, equipment and above all, lore - those are the three rewards that we need to receive. The goods are used to buy the other two anyway, and the equipment allows access to otherwise inaccessible lore fragments, so any are welcome. But lore above all. If there’s a lot of information about the First City, then that’s good enough for me.
I’m on Nemesis anyway, so these are things that I’m not even capable of seeing. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what Nemesis is about any more. We did get the red honey though, and that was very good. Now it’s a breadcrumb trail as we find first one person, then another and another. The trail points back to London now, and we’re in desperate need for a reason - any reason - that the killer murdered our loved one in the first place. It needs to be linked into something of grave importance, such as the sale of London itself, for example. As it stands, it looks like a senseless murder, and we’re going to find everyone involved at every step of the way and kill them with extreme prejudice.
At least hunting the Vake is straightforward. There’s a Vake. You’re going to kill it and mount its head on a plaque so that you can tell hunting stories over drinks at your club. The stories may involve militant nuns and face-stealing monsters, but those are just garnish to the tale of how you hunted the Vake.
Heart’s Desire looks interesting, although more from a lore perspective than a personal interest perspective. You get to meet various people of significance, learn their stories and histories and thus learn about the setting. It’s great.
Light Fingers… I don’t even know where to start. Obviously our first assumptions were completely mistaken, but that’s no surprise. This story started off looking like a basic detective story, but it’s gone through quite a few interesting (and creepy) stages. Of the four, it’s my current favourite, and if I wasn’t so invested in Nemesis, I’d grab this happily. I may not be pursuing it, but I have a friend who is. And I hear things.
So, the Ambitions are there for stories, not tangible rewards. You may find that a story may not match your tastes, which can be a problem, but they’re all long, slow and expensive. The story itself is the reward.
[quote=travellersside]
At least hunting the Vake is straightforward. There’s a Vake. You’re going to kill it and mount its head on a plaque so that you can tell hunting stories over drinks at your club. The stories may involve militant nuns and face-stealing monsters, but those are just garnish to the tale of how you hunted the Vake.[/quote]
There may be more to that. I haven’t played this latest installment, but before that, we got hints of how a Master is somehow involved.
I have to agree about the primacy of lore as reward. While I was annoyed that, between every action taken to further Heart’s Desire, I had to repeat the grind that is Polythreme, it was more than made up for by the story. Yes, much of it had already been guessed and teased out by more observant players than I, but to have it set in stone in this fashion (an in such a touching way) was more than enough recompense. So far so good - I’m excited to see where we go for the last few players. And to see just what they reveal about London.
No reward is fine for me though, mostly because I never expected any reward until you reach the very end of the ambition anyway, although it might be nice if we could get a single token Extraordinary Implication / Appalling Secret for each step as the revelations themselves are quite Extraordinary. I am very happy with the lore though.
The grind still feel kinda weird to me.
King: Thanks for the gift- Me: Hang on, I need to run out of your place to fascinate some other clay men in Polythreme and then run back to you to resume the conversation. King: Walk with me- Me: Hang on, I need to run out of your place to fascinate some other clay men in Polythreme and then run back to you to resume the conversation. King: So you now under- Me: Hang on, I need to run out of your place to fascinate some other clay men in Polythreme and then run back to you to resume the conversation. King: Have this coin- Me: Hang on, I need to - actually, I don’t. Thanks!
Next time in Heart’s Desire! Manager: So how goes the trip? Me: So I went to Polythreme and run off to grind Manager: And…? Me: And the king said run off to grind Manager: What did he say?
[i]Me: He says that you are run off to grind
[/i]As for coins… I think I got like, at least 150 of them. whistle suspiciously edited by Byron Man on 5/8/2012
Just got to zee, Polythreme inbound, with a bottle of Fourth City Airag safely tucked in my luggage and a buffer of Second Chances. Godspeed! And thanks to anybody for the advice - especially MaskedGentleman, our vanguard in the land of talkey-thingies. Can’t wait to read the new lore with my own eyes - come think of it, I actually felt a lack of it in the Topsy King chapter; I thought there would have been some revelations about the Correspondence, but in the end it didn’t tell much more of what was already known from the Forgotten Quarter and the University.
You know, I used to sell off the 1st city coins over 77 and am realising what a fool I am.
I have this hideous, hideous feeling that the game is going to be (perfectly) true to the nature of gambling and it’ll be a luck challenge, so the coins are there to buffer a failure.
Or, it works a bit like the dynamic of Day at the Races, but with poker, where you can use the coins to up your stake/match it.
[quote=pinstripeowl]You know, I used to sell off the 1st city coins over 77 and am realising what a fool I am.
I have this hideous, hideous feeling that the game is going to be (perfectly) true to the nature of gambling and it’ll be a luck challenge, so the coins are there to buffer a failure.
Or, it works a bit like the dynamic of Day at the Races, but with poker, where you can use the coins to up your stake/match it.[/quote]
Well, I hope it isn’t so; after all, saying “the taditional stake is 77 coins”, it sould mean no more, no less than that (aslo considering that the coins aren’t actually what youre really bettting, considering the devastating effect the game had on some losers). Also, if you always kept your word in stealing coins for other players, and if you were lucky enough to get a bottle of Airag without cotacting the Portly Sommelier, you could very well only have your quota (plus the single coins freely given here and there in the Abmition). It would be a case when being exceptinally lucky would HINDER you in a game of chance (well, not only chance, as card games go) O_o
I just got to the reminishing part and I have to agree with Bron Man: if grinding a full cycle between steps might feel natural at the beginning, when you’re still[color=rgb(255, 255, 255)] trying to find who’s your contact and then arrange the meeting[/color], having to do it [color=rgb(255, 255, 255)]in between conversations[/color] does feel a bit silly; all the much because the topics are finally interesting - VERY interesting - so it is quite painful to have to read them in little morsels intertwined with blind grinding, though M_L_G’s guid to Polythreme grinding greatly helped in reducing grindtime. Side thought: apart from the game mechanics, I’m starting to realize I love practically everything @goatdance writes. All of Echo Bazaar is remarkably well written and deep in long-term plotting compared to most the internet has to offer, but @goatdance’s snippets have an extra gear IMO.
[quote=Pedantic Jones]Have you been to Flute Street?
Go to Flute Street.[/quote]
Rubbery Murders? I’ll keep that in mind! I wasn’t planning on doing any Fate-locked storylet until I had free content, and I was thinking of the continuation of Theological Husbandry (for the pets) and the Soul Trade (because it seems very widely liked) first.
[quote=streetfelineblue][quote=Pedantic Jones]Have you been to Flute Street?
Go to Flute Street.[/quote]
Rubbery Murders? I’ll keep that in mind! I wasn’t planning on doing any Fate-locked storylet until I had free content, and I was thinking of the continuation of Theological Husbandry (for the pets) and the Soul Trade (because it seems very widely liked) first.[/quote]
Actually, no: Flute Street involves going through the University, going against the authority figure, getting kicked out, then getting invitied to solve a mystery. Only after all that do you get the opportunity to spend Fate to go to Flute Street.
But if you like @goatdance’s writing, some of his best is there.
(The Rubbery Murders have been described as a more mundane story arc: I didn’t experience it firsthand and can’t comment in an informed manner.)
[quote=Pedantic Jones]Actually, no: Flute Street involves going through the University, going against the authority figure, getting kicked out, then getting invitied to solve a mystery. Only after all that do you get the opportunity to spend Fate to go to Flute Street.
But if you like @goatdance’s writing, some of his best is there.
(The Rubbery Murders have been described as a more mundane story arc: I didn’t experience it firsthand and can’t comment in an informed manner.)[/quote]
Thank you very much for the advice! I’ll keep that in mind after I’ve been gone through the free content (for now I treasure the University as my favourite place to grind Proscribed Materials and other thingies).
Out of curiosity how many First City Coins have people been hoarding? I’ve got 136, but I know I’ve passed up opportunities for more and gave 30 to someone I failed a museum heist for because I felt bad. Who’s got the most?
Personally I’ve got 82 - the 80 I had collected as a stake (77 would have been enough, but I got 30 from a friend’s theft and a whole 50 from ther Masters), plus the 2 spares given during the Ambition itself. I even gave out the extra 30 from the exchange with the Portly Sommelier. If I’ll ever need more, if there won’t be an easier way, I’ll just grind the Sommelier’s wage again.