The noted beastologist Inch
Sent me to capture a finch.
It goes against the norm
To be sent for a passeriforme.
Hello! Here’s this week’s thread for quick questions and/or clerihews.
Does any fellow Londoner know if it is worth pursuing the Presumptuous Little Opportunity options, from an echo-grinding point of view, until you get to the bunch of Broken Giant? It seems to me the answer is yes, but I wanted to make sure.
The Greyfields 1882 to Morelways 1872 to Strangling Willow Absinthe are worth 4 EPA for each step. Greyfields 1879 to Broken Giants is 3.33 EPA, and I would recommend holding off on that one until you have enough Greyfields 1879 that you wouldn’t regret the trade if it turns out that you need large amounts of that vintage for, say, bribing dock workers during an election. Because if you run out, you may have to trade for more, making the trade for Broken Giants a rather unprofitable one.
An unexpected side effect of my goal of writing 77 Gothic Novels has been that I’ve built up a rather alarmingly large quantity of Fascinating. I’m not quite sure what to do with it, and Prof. Logan is getting rather tired of holing herself up in the Royal Bethlehem to avoid love-crazed fans. Any suggestions?
So I’m at the opportunity card for Bound in Diocesan Intrigue 5 and I have no clue what to do.
Without spoilers, is this one of those "wrong choice wrecks you" decisions, or am I safe to just RP it up?
Edit: I have all four options if that helps.
edited by Arcengal on 9/28/2018
Feel free to RP it up. It’ll increase one of your meta-qualities, and I think gives you some italic text like "this may be the key to your future," but currently there are no long-term effects from this storyline. It’s just flavor about what lies down the road for your character.
Edit: I should mention, though, that you do need to side with the Bishop if you’re interested in getting "The Instrument" as your destiny.
edited by earthbourn on 9/28/2018
Question:
I’ve picked up that the most Echo-effective way to accumulate Tribute with the Court of the Wakeful Eye is to buy Winsome Dispossessed Orphans from the Bazaar and then give them as Tribute. So should I be selling things the Court accepts (eg. Correspondence Plaques, Magnificent Diamonds) or items that can be converted to those things (eg. wines to make Cellars of Wine, scraps to make Puzzle-Damask) to get Echoes, and then use the Echoes to buy Orphans? Or should I just use up all that inventory for Tribute first, before selling other inventory to buy Orphans?
Is there a discussion thread for this?
There’s a storylet in the Empress’ Court called "Disporting with the servantry" that appears when you have Fascinating. You can spend it on the cook and the butler to reduce Wounds and Scandal respectively.
“A day at the races” - Standard Frequency?
According to the wikia (http://fallenlondon.wikia.com/wiki/A_day_at_the_races), this card occurs with Standard Frequency, but I’ve spent a week flipping over cards without seeing this. What’s the actual frequency of this card?
Most Bazaar trade goods are converted to Tribute at the raw rate of 2.5e per point of Tribute. The Orphans are the most profitable because the serving size is the largest, you’re converting more Echoes to tribute per action and the opportunity cost is less. At 2e per action, the amortized costs are (less is better):
(12.5e + 2e) / 5T = 2.9 e/T <– diamond, wine, puzzle-damask
(12e + 2e) / 5T = 2.8 e/T <– weasels at buy price
(25e + 2e) / 10T = 2.7 e/T <– corr plaques, memories of light
(62.5e + 2e) / 25T = 2.58 e/T <– a single serving of Orphan
(6e + 2e) / 5T = 1.6 e/T <– weasels AT SELL PRICE ONLY
So what you should do is sell stuff to the Bazaar (except the Strong-Backed Labour - if you have a lot, sell it at the Clay Quarters instead, if not, don’t sell at all), buy Orphans with the proceeds and feed them to tigers.
The only exception is Weasels. If you want to get rid of some Weasels and are sure to never need more (e.g. you have played Hojotoho! and don’t need weasels for Urchin favours), it’s more Echo-efficient to feed them to tigers instead of selling, even considering you only get 5 Tribute per serving. DON’T do this if you anticipate a need for weasels in the future.
[quote=Great Pigmeat]“A day at the races” - Standard Frequency?
According to the wikia (http://fallenlondon.wikia.com/wiki/A_day_at_the_races), this card occurs with Standard Frequency, but I’ve spent a week flipping over cards without seeing this. What’s the actual frequency of this card?[/quote]
Seems to be standard frequency in my deck. The RNG likes to play tricks on individual players, and withhold certain cards from them for no particular reason. It shouldn’t last forever though. Just long enough to get you to question the card’s actual frequency.
Are there telegraphs in the Neath? Are they used by the other denizens of the Neath?
They’re mentioned occasionally, and telegram messages appear in Sunless Sea once or twice, but we haven’t seen anything terribly detailed about them.
If you’re doing the orphan and tribute grind, you’re only worried about selling stuff to produce echoes to buy orphans in the beginning. Eventually you’ll have a stockpile of money from whatever reward you get and can roll that back into the grind. In general I’d say the usual rule applies: don’t sell things you might want later, because liquidating and re-acquiring is inefficient.
As another note, that grind has probably been superseded by the newest expeditions as long as you have the Watchful to pull it off: analysis by simulation here.