This may be a familiar story to many, which leads me to wonder why it is not mentioned on the wiki. (I can register an account here, but not at wikia, for some reason…)
Not yet being a POSI, as my Shadowy lags due to reluctance to pursue the theft-based questlines, I have been ping-ponging around London, working on various projects. Nightmares and Wounds are old friends, and I have never worried about Suspicion, but I noticed my Scandal kept rising. I found prayer, possibly, a slow way of reducing it, and, as I was looking for a Tomb Lion anyway, I decided to take my lumps and head for exile.
I checked the wiki aforehand to see what I might lose…it did not mention that I would lose any drawn cards I had saved. I had saved two, two Moods, which showed up back-to-back.
Sigh.
Congrats to the game for making a consequence feel consequential.
Update on return: Words can scarce express my pleasure, mixed with chagrin, at seeing those cards back in my drawn slots on my return from exile! edited by Muir on 2/18/2018
Yes. As far I know, the only way you can lose the cards in your hand would be to discard them yourself. Once you return to London, the cards will still be there, regardless of if you went overzees,were exiled, driven mad,etc.
Though I am curoius. When you died and/or went mad, why didn’t you notice the cards left behind didn’t disappear from your hand upon your return to London?
[quote=Harry P.]
Though I am curious. When you died and/or went mad, why didn’t you notice the cards left behind didn’t disappear from your hand upon your return to London?[/quote]
Ah. When I said Nightmares and Wounds were old friends, I should have said: Managing them is a familiar task. The former, mostly via Hyena, which drives up the latter, ha ha.
My main has yet to meet the ferryman, and hopes never to do so. (I have plans to start an alt soon, to explore all the content my cautious, curious , semi-moral main misses out on.)
I’d recommend the social action to manage scandal, it is much better than the terrible prayer option, and it’s good to make some friends for a variety of reasons. You could also use an alt, of course, but I find most players are happy to help out, especially once you have approached them with some other beneficial social actions (Gifts, coffee, the neath’s mysteries and the like).
There’s a more efficient way of reducing Scandal solo, at least: Life on Ladybones Road -> Associate yourself with a different philosphy -> Edit a book of meditations on the Anchoress.
You can’t fail at Watchful 84, you turn a small profit on some moderately useful items, and you lose 1 Scandal per action. Even if you have to buy the 50 candles for each time you use it you’ll come out well ahead.
I’m fairly sure the wiki is wrong, too, and it’s 1 per action. Which means on average it’s almost the same as church services, but without randomness and with profit.
[Edit: I just checked and confirmed; it’s 3 Scandal per action. I think it was increased when Church changed from Connected to Favours/Renown and so the Connected: Church gain had to be taken out.] edited by Tyrconnell on 2/19/2018
Just confirmed as well. That makes it the least expensive way to reduce scandal for pretty much anyone. Guess I’ll be shaking hands with rubberies again! (edit: no I won’t; still not as good as I thought. Even with this the rubbery shaking hands costs 0.78 E of scandal, making it not worth it still)
Social actions (particularly duping others) is still the fastest way purely in terms of actions, though. Can’t beat -6 for one action. edited by Kaijyuu on 2/19/2018
[quote=Tyrconnell]There’s a more efficient way of reducing Scandal solo, at least: Life on Ladybones Road -> Associate yourself with a different philosphy -> Edit a book of meditations on the Anchoress.
You can’t fail at Watchful 84, you turn a small profit on some moderately useful items, and you lose 1 Scandal per action. Even if you have to buy the 50 candles for each time you use it you’ll come out well ahead.[/quote]
My Watchful is somewhere in the 140s. I had thought that the Unfinished Business cards were for those who had already made POSI, and so ignored them.
And the analysis of Echoes per Action…is that based on the prices of items in the Bazaar? It is new to me.
Life on Ladybones Road is not the same as Unfinished Business on Ladybones Road! The latter is only for Persons of Some Importance. The former is available from quite early in your Watchful career but easy to overlook.
EPA is calculated by the price you get by selling items at the Bazaar, yes. Although there’s some argument, it’s the most standard measure of profitability of actions. It’s based entirely on what you’d get if you directly turned all the stuff from your action (or series of actions) into echoes.
In this particular case, the 1.5 EPA isn’t totally accurate. You actually get a total of 5 echoes of items, but you have to spend 50 foxfire candles and 3 actions. Thus, (5-0.5)/3 = 4.5 EPA. That assumes you just have candles lying around; you’re quite likely to, but if you have to buy them from the Bazaar to fuel this it goes down to (5-1)/3=1.33 EPA.
You mean if you cash in a Church favour from time to time to get a 2.1 EPA? Got my alt to renown 15 and never had issues with candles. We can count this as a very minor inconvenience.