Here’s this week’s thread for quick Fallen London questions!
It has been quite a long time since I left Fallen London in October 2017. I wonder which exceptional stories are the most lore-wise interesting since then. Is there a list of recommendations?
In terms of lore, I think you shouldn’t miss Steeped in Honey (Red Honey), The Rat-Catcher (Bats and other Monsters), For All the Saints… (Hell), and Cricket, Anyone? (Masters and Correspondence). Also, Written in the Glim if you’re not on Ambition: Light Fingers (visiting the Roof).
Rat-Catcher and Cricket were especially outstanding stories, both in my own humble and in general opinion.
For All the Saints… offered the opportunity to ravish a Deacon on the train to Hell, which apparently appealed to a lot of people. So much in fact that FB made that Deacon available as a companion at the recent Feast of the Rose, just to stop the clamouring. ;)
Also very good imo were The Bones of London, Required Repairs and A Little Pandemonium. Oh, and if you like our Rubbery friends, The Ceremony (festive tale for Christmas 2018) should appeal to you.
If you want a recommendation for stories to avoid, I’d say Lamentation Lock and Factory of Favours. By general FL standards, those were rather lame.
edited by phryne on 3/5/2019
Concerning For All the Saints… It wasn’t the Deacon, (though my character did fall in love with him all right). It was the writing. I 've loved a lot of stories, but the words in this one were bliss.
Oh, and the Celebration was great in terms of Lore and writing.
For All the Saints… left me curiously unaffected. I remember almost nothing about it, so was somewhat bemused by the ecstatic reactions. The first venture into Hell, in The 12:15 from Moloch Street, made a far greater impression on me in comparison. But that’s fine, it’s great that (almost) all ES have their fans in the community! Myself, I’m a huge fan of The Stone Guest, for example, about which opinions were fairly divided.
edited by phryne on 3/5/2019
[quote=Fadewalker][color=rgb(119, 119, 170)]It has been quite a long time since I left Fallen London in October 2017. I wonder which exceptional stories are the most lore-wise interesting since then. Is there a list of recommendations?[/color][/quote]For lore since October 2017, I find "Cricket, Anyone?" to be the best choice by far. The lore revelations are relevant from the early game to the late game, and this knowledge is very character-driven. I know I see a certain important and recurring character in a new light since "Cricket, Anyone?" It also brings in elements from other esoteric aspects of the lore, such as the Great Game, the Correspondence, and Hell.
That’s exactly what I need. Thank you all.
So reading on wiki about cards and carousels, they are often valued by EPA income. I’m currently about 110-130 stats Posi and from what i see echoes are mostly needed to buy bazaar equipment.
So what do you spend echoes on after you buy all clothes you need? Does it all go on grindable items to save time? Other echoes use i’m starting to see is to raise renown beyond 15.
Thanks!
[quote=fafer.forums]So reading on wiki about cards and carousels, they are often valued by EPA income. I’m currently about 110-130 stats Posi and from what i see echoes are mostly needed to buy bazaar equipment.
So what do you spend echoes on after you buy all clothes you need? Does it all go on grindable items to save time? Other echoes use i’m starting to see is to raise renown beyond 15.
Thanks![/quote]
After you have the clothes you need, the main purpose of echoes is saving up for the big ticket grinds, such as the Firkin of Hesperidian Cider. Buying grindable items from the Bazaar is generally not recommended.
EPA income is also sometimes used as a shorthand for comparing different grinds that offer the same items to find the most efficient way to get, say, wine.
[quote=fafer.forums]So what do you spend echoes on after you buy all clothes you need? Does it all go on grindable items to save time? Other echoes use i’m starting to see is to raise renown beyond 15.[/quote]Echoes are really the least useful form of currency in Fallen London. It reaches the point where one keeps at least 100 Echoes on hand for the profitable option on the Premise at the Bazaar card, and it just builds up over time.
One niche use is preparing for the IroNoman, since you can grind Night-Whispers through expeditions to the Sanctuary of Roses in the Forgotten Quarter, which involves purchasing Strong-Backed Labour from the Bazaar Side-Streets, which directly costs Echoes. It’s less efficient than the Court of the Wakeful Eye, but it still allows for card draws, which helps fund expedition and upconvert Wild Words.
Just to be on the safe side, do I permanently miss something if I get banished?
Which banishment? If you get banished from court, no. You actually open new options. If you get banished from the University, you don’t exactly lose something, but the process of getting to the point of (potential) banishment locks you out of some things (like the Term Passing carousel).
Getting banished to the Tomb-Colonies for Scandalous behavior doesn’t lock anything, of course, and gives you the opportunity to savor a delightful sojourn among the bandaged.
Oh, so sorry, but I fast wrote that question; banished from the Court to meet the Tigers.
Now, to unlock the 5th coil do I need to have My Name story to 7?
Another newbie question if i may:
I’ve start a grind to get a yacht.
I know that it’s not allowed to share fate-locked content publicly, but are players inclined to share it via private messages?
I’m particulary interested what does fate-locked option “You feel lucky tonight” in “Tiles and a Yacht” storylet do. If it at least remove luck roll to get yacht, that would be huge help.
Thank you.
All the ships, I think, have Fate options to skip their grinds. For the Yacht, that does include skipping the luck check.
If I may offer my opinion, however: most of those options whose main purpose is to skip some gameplay or grind tend to have relatively uninteresting lore (especially since they only give you one result screen’s worth of text and nothing more) and rather mundane rewards. (There are one or two exceptions where such a "skip grinding with Fate" option also gives a very good reward on top, but they’re all considerably more expensive and also very rare: this isn’t one of them.) In view of this, I’d really reconsider spending Fate on something like this, unless you’re extremely averse to any sort of grinding: there are troves of Fate-locked stories which give interesting lore, unique rewards, or both - in short, which are much more substantial than one storylet of "ok, you win instantly" accompanied by nothing else of note.
There’s also an argument to be made that skipping stuff with Fate ruins flavour. The Yacht is intentially hard to get, very expensive, and luck based: it’s a luxury ship you should be proud of having; an accomplishment to have obtained. Or in a similar vein, if one were to consistently use Fate to escape from menace areas, it would make things like grevious wounds or going mad from nightmares feel completely inconsequential. Of course, this does depend on your personal taste for grinding. But I would also mention that late-game FL very often relies on long grinds for content: while not everyone wants to go for an Overgoat (let alone Hesperidean Cider), the actual storylines tend to take a while after a point, and the yacht really isn’t particularly bad in that respect.
edited by Dudebro Pyro on 3/8/2019
[quote=Dudebro Pyro]All the ships, I think, have Fate options to skip their grinds. For the Yacht, that does include skipping the luck check.
[/quote]
I really don’t mind grinding for yacht, but i do mind 30% luck check which failure removes portion of items. So does fate option here removes only luck check or complete item grind?
[quote=Dudebro Pyro]There are one or two exceptions where such a "skip grinding with Fate" option also gives a very good reward on top, but they’re all considerably more expensive and also very rare: this isn’t one of them.[/quote]Which are those? :D
My personal opinion is that it’s just part of the grind (and the flavour behind this particular ship), but I can definitely understand an aversion to luck-based checks.
Anyway, to answer your question, while I don’t actually know what it does for sure, I’m almost certain it will just give you the ship. Given that, according to the wiki, you only need the 1000 amber to play that option, that means it definitely skips the entire grind for Wine, Favours, and Bribes; I have no idea if you lose the 1000 amber or get to keep it. It’s also a guaranteed success: I don’t think there’s anything at all in the game where you pay Fate for a gamble. (Unless the Fate-locked expeditions can give you low-tier rewards - but I’m fairly certain even those are locked to above-normal rewards, at least unless you reroll the reward despite the explicit warning; someone correct me if I’m wrong. Also the Last Constable comes to mind, but then you’re only gambling on which reward you get - they’re both of equal value mechanically.)
[spoiler]The 40 Fate option on the Merry Gentleman’s card not only wipes your nightmares, but gives you a 312.5 diamond whose name I forget, and the 50 Fate option to skip obtaining the Cinder when trying to first get into the Nadir also gives you the sacks’s Fur Robe that you can trade in for a home comfort.
There may be others, but I can’t think of any. (As you might have guessed I tend to ignore these kinds of options normally, so what I know is mostly from hearsay; that said, it’s quite easy to see the difference between a 5-10 Fate quick skip and a 40+ Fate option.)[/spoiler]
Pretty sure the fate expeditions can be, let’s say, extremely disappointing.
edited by Jermaine Vendredi on 3/8/2019