…is it me or now they give random numbered rewards?
I was about to say I’ve been getting pretty consistent results from Doing the Decent Thing in Veilgarden, but jut now I got 17 x Honey off of a rare success, and my last one was definitely 20.
Last time I spent 2 actions on the Jade in Watchmaker’s Hill I got only 32 Jades :(
That’s discouraging. Honey in Veilgarden from Doing the Decent Thing still seems to consistently award 50 drops on a regular success, at least.
They do. I got only 9 souls from tricking spirifers in Spite at one point.
Just checked a couple of the options for Unfinished Business, Ladybones Road. I got one that was the same as before and another that was different, but I was lucky and got a higher reward.
A Lovely Thought gave me 148 Lamplighter Beeswax (used to be 100)
and A tradition developed after the Fall gave me 50 Greyfields 1882 (same reward as before)
Hmm… A Tradition Developed After the Fall has a rare success and A Lovely Thought doesn’t. Same with Doing the Decent Thing compared to souls and jade.
So it looks like rare successes are giving a random amount, as are regular successes on options with no rare success. Regular successes on options with a rare success seem to be unchanged, though.
EDIT: Which if true raises the question, what’s the rare success on A Tradition Developed After the Fall now? A random amount of the 82 along with the scream, or a random number of screams, or still just a single one with no variation?
edited by Sackville on 11/17/2013
According to the wiki everything with a random amount has no rare success, but who knows what else has changed?[li]
EDIT: 19 x Honey from another rare success. At 20, 17, and 19 that I can recall numbers do seem to be lower.
edited by Sackville on 11/17/2013
The infernal contracts in Watchmakers’ Hill seems to still be a flat 5, but souls is Spite is also variable.
It appears that the chance to acquire even more stuff from an action is available if you have a high score - for instance, I got 136 Beeswax off of the "A lovely Though Action" in Ladybones Road with a Watchful of 198. So this may be a way for Failbetter to shake up the original formula, making gameplay less formulaic and more organic.
This has yet to be implemented for all Unfinished Actions, for instance I still get a consistent 50 Primordial Shrieks from the Debate option in Ladybones Road.
edited by Owen Wulf on 11/17/2013
I’ve gone back to collecting souls and I’ve gotten as many as 194 at once, and as few as 3. A range like that is a little ridiculous.
EDIT: Make that as low as 2 souls. Ouch.
edited by Malgorath on 11/18/2013
…Interesting. I’m still getting exactly the same rewards as I always have, at least on the thing’s I’ve tried. (All the one-action Veilgarden ones, for reference.) I wonder what makes some people get different things?
Huh. If candles in Veilgarden and contracts in Watchmaker’s Hill are giving consistent rewards than I guess my theory isn’t quite correct.
Still, even if something is giving consistent rewards on a regular success it’s probably worth checking the rare success as well, since that’s random on at least one option now.
After some other uses of the unfinished business options, I came to the conclusion that it’s not the randomness that bothers me, but its huge variance (tendent to low values, it must be said).
I would also like to state my dissent regarding this change; I had occasion to get some wine from Veilgarden, and at 5 actions a pop, a few low returns is rather painful.
I’d prefer if it returned to the old way, but at the very least the floor should be raised significantly.[li]
edited by Cocytus on 11/20/2013
I wish the random ranges were narrower - that way, you could still have the realism that comes with randomizing, without the frustration of getting exceptionally low returns.
Ok, I just tried the new system today (replenishing the stash of Souls after using most of them to bribe the Amanuensis). It seems to be WILDLY random, but usually mostly equivalent or better than the old fixed system - the occasional 100, not even so infrequent, usually keeps the average result per action over 50 or just slightly lower.
A question - is this even remotely tied to the Shadowy value? It seems completely random to me, but just in case I equipped the full Shadowy regalia :)