She’s a cat, they don’t really care. Oh, well, they do care, curiosity, you know, but they don’t hold what they saw against you, unlike humans.
Feedback for "can’t change your outfit mid-storylet" part seems overwhelmingly negative. And rightly so. It’s actually the first "make game deliberately worse/less convenient for players" update I can remember for all my years playing FL. Please roll this part back. If you aim for strategical use of Outfits, you can make it so people can’t change items in outfit midstory, but can still change outfits themselves.
Narrative part is also doubtful, as narrative benefits of not being able to dress mid-talks are easily offset by narrative drawback of not being able to draw on my tiger connections or recalling my dream of thruth-strangling, or getting into persuasive mood during same.
It’s awesome that you introduced long-asked for expansion to outfits, but… But this first part makes most of the improvement moot.
edited by Sagrim-Ur on 7/29/2020
First time I am very disappointed.
Such an important feature for usability, more precisely expansion of an existing mechanic, not at all story/content related turned into a fate-sink.
As a plus, more stress, backtracking and frustration at checks due to new limitation.
Thanks a lot, you were able to make a fantastic news snippet into a great delusion.
I bought quite a bit of fate in the last months and renewed my ES subcription just as a way o thanking you for the crazy amount of content you were pumping in during a very difficult time.
Now I feel the opposite.
edited by Frenzgyn on 7/29/2020
To me the most important thing here is the promise of the long-awaited continuation of the Playing with Broken Toys story! After all these years, I’m very excited!
I think it’s too early to pass judgment on the inability to change outfits at will, but I’m intrigued and certainly willing to give it a try. It does undoubtedly make the game harder, but I think it will hopefully lead to more interesting gameplay decisions and more items being relevant beyond the best-in-slot. I like the idea of making hybrid multi-stat outfits. I do worry that it will make existing content more frustrating though - I’ve already several times clicked on a card only to have to back out and change outfits. But I suppose I’ll get used to switching on the Story tab before clicking a card with time. (Switching on the Story tab is also very nice.)
(Also, now I understand why Paisley has an area dedicated solely to changing your clothes. That seemed very odd to me at the time, but with this change in mind it makes perfect sense.)
I’m also very happy about the ability to switch items around without changing the underlying outfit, as if I’m going to have to swap my outfits around to maximize various stats, not having to swap them back reduces the clicks by half. I’m significantly less happy about additional outfits being Fate-locked - it feels like I’m being asked to spend Fate to improve ease-of-use, which doesn’t quite sit right with me. But all in all I’m cautiously optimistic about these changes.
[TL;DR: This will be an incredibly annoying change to an already less than ideal system. Please, I’m begging you Failbetter, don’t.]
The mechanics of Fallen London have been unique and tolerably “quirky” for as long as I have been playing. But this change will push something already tedious to entirely annoying.
Changing out gear has always been a chore. This change will not inspire “strategic” thinking, it will likely only inspire anxiety and frustration. It will also lead to increased dependence on the wiki for fear of using the wrong gear. Which would also mean that it would take away the focus on the story and more on to the meta of it all.
Forgot to change to Shadowy gear before a heist? Watchful gear before an Expedition? Persuasive before going into the boardroom? Forget to take off your Shadowy gear before zailing? Tough, you get to fail or you get to burn actions to go back out, requip, then go back in.
Then there is all the potential BDR extra-stats (Monstrous Anatomy, Shapeling Arts, etc) lock-outs because its easy to forget what gear one might have on at any given time. I would like to assume that the equipment lock sections are few and far in between, in small doses they might even be fun challenges. But in London’s current state of seemingly bottomless actions sinks and “you will be away for awhile” storylets, this change sounds awful.
I can’t see this as any kind of a positive change. I honestly can’t see this as anything other than a low key, and fairly desperate, cash grab: “No need to worry about the right gear when you need it! Pay for more slots and never worry about wearing the wrong outfit!”
Outfits that I, someone who has played for eight years, have to consistently have equipped includes:
- Watchful
- Shadowy
- Dangerous
- Persuasive
- Bizarre
- Dreaded
- Respectable
- Anti-Bizarre
- Anti-Dreaded
- Anti-Respectable
(These three are also very annoying considering the amount of time and effort it takes to get high BDR, tattoos and all.) - Mithridacy
- Artisan of Red Science
- Shapeling Arts
- Glasswork
- A Player of Chess
- Monstrous Anatomy
The list goes on, as I’m not going to include anti or boosting menace gear. The price of 20 Fate per slot is already steep to begin with. At that price, it became even steeper for those of us who need more slots to accommodate all of these stat requirements.
A lot of these stats only have a SINGLE item to effect them. Being in the middle of a storylet and forgetting to equip an item or two often means the difference between barely succeeding or seeing nothing but “Impossible” purple all around.
Where do Exceptional Stories fall into this? I have had a fair number of disappointing stories leaving me feeling burned. And now I have a harder time imagining people feeling satisfied when they weren’t “strategic” enough to guess what gear they would need to not be locked out of content they paid for. There isn’t a guide for Exceptional Stories and some of us still hold to the honour of “no spoilers”. Despite the fact that it often leads to us, the players, getting burned, or missing unique items, or getting locked into unsatisfactory story paths.
[quote=Hannah Flynn][color=#0066ff]We’re removing the ability to change Outfits while in storylets and in certain settings (in particular where your character wouldn’t reasonably be able to access their wardrobe, or a convenient steamer trunk).[/color][/quote] Imagine the back and forth because of this! Was so thrilled to see the ingame pop-up, but that all soon faded!
20 Fate for another suit? Wonder if this is the reason FBG refuses extension that can do this.
Hmmm… Not sure how to properly view this whole update and I don’t want to jump to conclusions too fast.
EDIT: Just realized what a nightmare it will be to change outfits on mobile! Imagine playing the drunk rat story in Spite, having to perhaps not because of the Shadowy gear, scrolling alllll the way down to the story and finally play it.
Now imagine having about 40 ES backlog! :( ***
edited by Skinnyman on 7/29/2020
Is it me, or paying money starts to offer more and more and actually more benefits to players?
Fallen London is a story-based game, which is why some players hold on to the honour of “no spoilers”. I agree that this change will take away the focus on the story aspect of the game, and more onto its meta side. Fear of using the wrong gear and not being able to change it shouldn’t be a concern at all.
I’m happy that Failbetter have finally added the long-requested feature of having more clothing slots. However, I do think that the price of 20 Fate per slot is too steep. Now that we can’t change clothing while in a storylet, I need 2 more slots, one for BDR and one for good-in-general for checks. It would cost me 40 Fate to get 2 slots, and that’s almost the price of some Exceptional Stories (some priced at 45 Fate).
As a player, I want to be able to focus on the story instead of being anxious of whether or not I’m equipping the correct gear. I don’t want to have to depend on the wiki, thereby inevitably spoiling some parts, so that I don’t fail a check or miss out due to my gear. Especially for Exceptional Stories, I was subscribed for a while before I got burned out, and I still have a backlog of several I haven’t played yet. Now, I’m scared to do so.
The wiki does not have any information about the (sometimes high) checks, and even if they do, I’d hate to have to spoil the story just because I’m worried of using the wrong gear. I don’t want to miss out on the content I’ve paid for to access, just because I’m not equipping the right gear.
I’m definitely not a fan of this update.
edited by ElizabethLynn on 7/29/2020
And they said that the bonemarket was a nightmare and not usable without wiki-knowledge before.
What can you call it after this change?
New content is now available on the card, unlocked with "Playing with Broken Toys" 10. The bold-text game instructions are as follows:
When you’re inside the Daughter’s house, you will not be able to change your outfit. You will encounter challenges in Persuasive, Watchful, Shadowy, and Dangerous; you may wish to prepare with gear that helps you in all stats.
I’ll try it in a little bit, but I’m busy now… and also my wounds are 8 and I’ll visit the boatman as soon as I take off this helmet. Which, come to think of it, is probably a mechanic that has just been sent up the river.
Wow, two steps forward, two steps back with this update.
No, really, I can name them:
Forward: More outfits!
Backward: A basic convenience is fate-locked!
Forward: Change outfit from story tab!
Backward: But not in storylets!
We were so close to having painless outfit switching. With the ability to change from the story tab, we were this close to not having to go into a separate tab with a loading screen in order to change outfits. We almost had 2 clicks and no loading screen to change outfit, but now it’s more realistically again 5 clicks and 2 loading screens since we’ll be Perhaps Not’ing a lot now.
[quote=PSGarak]
I’ll try it in a little bit, but I’m busy now… and also my wounds are 8 and I’ll visit the boatman as soon as I take off this helmet. Which, come to think of it, is probably a mechanic that has just been sent up the river.[/quote]
Oh god damn it, you’re right! I dare say the game just got a lot nastier! That means next time an action sets my suspicion to 8 my spotless record will be a thing of the past.
edited by NNNnobody on 7/29/2020
I in my humble opinion think the new outfit system restricts the player and doesn’t really add to the enjoyment of the game
Okay, someone at the dev team HAD to assemble and sell and skeleton under this system during playtesting, so I’m now wondering who did so and concluded that this is acceptable. Assembling a skeleton was already kind of tedious before I had to scroll alllll the way to the bottom to Perhaps Not, change outfit, go back in, find the branch I wanted to play and then play it.
At the very least make the Perhaps Not button one of those buttons that stay fixed on screen so I don’t have to scroll for it, since my usage of that thing has increased tenfold in the past hour.
Just so you know, I am not touching it. This is awful.
I’ve been thrilled with other recent additions to this game, and I don’t like to whine after we’ve just had such a fun election, but I’m not happy about this update at all. I doubt I’ll be able to say anything new here, but I just want to add my voice.
To get this out of the way — I don’t like the Fate-locked extra outfits. Having the option to add more outfits acknowledges that the current number of slots is frustrating. I’m happy to pay for exclusive stories, special items and the like, but paying to make gameplay less frustrating? There’s something very off-putting about that. Feels less like buying something fun that’ll make me happy and more like paying to make something annoying go away. Still, I’ve coped with four slots until now and can continue to do so, so the change doesn’t bother me. It’s not like it’s made the game worse.
The outfit change lock, however… that’s an unpleasant surprise and it feels like a real step back. It will take some adjusting to, and not in a good way. Admittedly I don’t know the details of the new content you have planned, but I just can’t see this improving anyone’s experience overall. I’m already getting irritated with the extra clicking and having to remember which stats I need where. Like others have said, this won’t encourage strategic thinking so much as it will encourage wiki-scouring. There have to be better, less exasperating ways of encouraging players to use their wits.
Is this some out-of-season April Fool’s Day joke?
Whatever interesting content is allowed by this change is probably not worth its effect on the 10 years of already-existing content that assumed you could change outfits wherever.
There’s not much new that I can add here, so I will add my voices to those intensely disappointed. It was a delight to wake up and see the headline of the long-promised Outfits announcement. That feeling changed to disappointment and frustration in record time.
I’ll repost what I wrote on reddit:
FBG, you’ve effectively removed the utility of Outfits and forced me to go back to the way we played in 2013: manually adjusting each piece of equipment one at a time.
I’m a pretty big Fate spender, but there is no way in the frosty depths of hell that I am shelling out real-life ducats for extra outfits if you’ve removed the ability to change them while within a storylet. This is gratuitously regressive.
I don’t see a problem with not being able to change my stats if it is:
- in content written with this limitation in mind (like the new option on Watchmaker’s Daughter card)
- well communicated before I head into storylets that I can’t or don’t want to “Perhaps not” out of
- and not severely limiting my story/roleplay choices.
The existing content however just isn’t written with this is mind. If the old challenges aren’t rebalanced… Then they all have just gotten harder.