You are right. I instinctively flinch away from paying, occasionally to my detriment.
With that update, cashing out masterfuls comes to 125 which is not shabby,
but still not too special either.
Luckily the nuggets are very interesting. It’s fun that with items like Extraordinary implications,
our character can explicitly know more than us and their artistic output can bring hints of new knowledge.
A Question: If you fail to publish at a given quality, do you always end up at one quality level lower? Specifically, I have slaved to produce a story at potential 101. If I try to release it as Masterful and fail, will I still end up with an Exceptional story (and be able to become an Author)?
I think it’s either one or two levels below. I wouldn’t bank on it.
Most of my efforts were failures, and each one was uniformly two levels below the target. Twice, a failure at “masterful” produced “exceptional”.
It’s possible there’s luck involved in what you get from a failure, but I didn’t see any variation.
Thanks!
I’m sorry if this is answered previously in the thread, I have skimmed but not found out-- Is potential erased if you set out to sea? I’m waiting for my second trade secret to finish the story I’m currenty on and don’t want to risk losing progress.
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t.
By the way, you can increase Potential by 25 if you use a Trade Secret. As far as I can tell, that’s the only way to increase Potential to 200. humph. another 7 weeks worth of waiting…
Annoyingly, though, I was just trying to become an Author, and used up my one Trade Secret. Dangit.
Couple of confirmations - I agree it seems that a failure produces a work 2 levels lower than what you were aiming for, (so it probably makes sense to aim as high as you can) and I’ve just come back from sea and been able to pick up on my short Story with no apparent loss of Potential (several other progress qualities seem to be unaffected by going to sea despite the warning message)
Potential 210 failed in a challenge! Try again and you may have better luck…"
In all the years that I play the game I never came this close to smashing my keyboard in two and shoving it through the wreckage of the monitor.
Try again my arse. Here’s to another fourteen weeks of waiting. It is an action one can undertake once every four months: suggesting I try it again is nothing but vile mockery, I say. Vile mockery!
A most sincere apology to the regulars of this worthy establishment, but I had to get it off my chest.
FOURTEEN. BLOODY. WEEKS.
GrrRrrRrrrRRRR.[li]
[quote=Lawrence Growe]Potential 210 failed in a challenge! Try again and you may have better luck…"
In all the years that I play the game I never came this close to smashing my keyboard in two and shoving it through the wreckage of the monitor.
Try again my arse. Here’s to another fourteen weeks of waiting. It is an action one can undertake once every four months: suggesting I try it again is nothing but vile mockery, I say. Vile mockery!
A most sincere apology to the regulars of this worthy establishment, but I had to get it off my chest.
FOURTEEN. BLOODY. WEEKS.
GrrRrrRrrrRRRR.[li][/quote]
I was about to say…well…pretty much that. So yeah. That.
Why damme it’s too bad.
It’s beginning to seem more and more like The Writer’s Desk is something the Failbetter devs accidentally released to the general public instead of making it a Seeker only requirement.
I think the writer’s Desk underscores the ACTUAL difficulty of writing a classic tale.
If I wanted to invest my time into writing an ACTUAL classic tale I would not hesitate to do so, good sir. This here is a matter of entertainment, and I take my entertainment quite seriously, thank you very much.
I stronly dsapprove of the notion that I have to wait for four bloody months before I can be entertained again. More imporantly, I can do diddly squat to rectify this unfortunate situation - unless, of course, you count me writing this letter in the vain hope of it being noticed by a figure of authority, an exceptionally unlikely event. I feel that the odds are strongly against me here.
This will not do.[li]
I think you’d be surprised at how very much of our discourse is observed. I think that the ability of the community to be heard is one of my new favorite things about Echo Bazaar in the recent months since I returned.
As for myself, I am ALSO waiting another fourteen weeks to attempt creation of a Classic tale. Failing on such random chances is intensely frustrating, but unless a new second-chance mechanic is introduced to encompass challenges that don’t involve our primary statistics, I don’t see a way to alleviate that particular issue.
I can only offer condolences and sympathy until then.
Much obliged. It is most needed and greatly appreciated.
Sometimes a 2/3 chance of success should be read as “a 1 in 3 chance you won’t like the outcome.”
And now for an odd question: as someone who’s finding the Shuttered Palace somewhat less than enjoyable, is the Writer’s Desk a good alternate location for a pre-PoSI (Persuasive 87, other stats in 70s range) to grind Persuasive while still making somewhat modest returns? I’ve rather enjoyed the thefts in the Flit as a Shadowy grind and am wondering if The Writer’s Desk would be a similar solution for Persuasive that I can use while I wait to lose Suspicion.
I’m not sure that writing is good for money, but it is nice for Persuasive as long as you have the resources to put into it. Mahogany Hall is pretty good for money, and thanks to a certain Popular Song you won’t be menaced as much by failures.
No way of avoiding the shuttered palace, you’ll have to do it to continue with a lot of stories.