There are four relickers that trade in scraps, and each offers a large array of options. Several of the very most expensive items can only by obtained this way — but as far as I know these all have no purpose in the game apart from bragging rights and a high sell price. Most people who collect scraps are probably going for this, as there are easier ways to get the cheap items.
As far acquiring scraps, they come from various opportunity cards, including every Lodgings card (giving 1 to 3 scraps per card depending on how expensive the Lodgings was). This is very slow, and if you want the most expensive items you can expect it to take months if not years.
The Relickers also allow you to gamble scraps by "recertifying;" this has a positive expected value, but I wouldn’t try it until you have many scraps and are in it for the long haul, since in the short run you could easily lose dozens of scraps.
Is there a way of changing "Closest to"? Jermion was careless about this and finds himself associated with people he’d rather not know. Or not that well, anyway.
You can change closest to - the option to break your ties is on their card. You then need the card for the faction you want to be closest to. It does cost various items but you can see what you need on the relevant cards.
There is another way to get closest to - by selling the Location of the Nadir to someone. But only four factions are willing to buy and that might not include the one one you want. Also you can only do it once.
spoiler tag is [ spoiler ] text [ / spoiler ] (without the spaces
The Location of a One-Time Prince of Hell does have a purpose in game: you need this if you want to upgrade your lodgings at the brass embassy to the 5-card sanctum the "regular" way. (There’s also the cheaper way during Christmas, but that requires selling your soul, which is not an option for everybody)
Also, just before SMEN was suspended, it introduced a mechanic in which the 4 top relicker items (3200-scrap items) could be sacrificed to make progress in Seeking. Us Seekers are still waiting for its return.
[quote=lady ciel ]You can change closest to - the option to break your ties is on their card. You then need the card for the faction you want to be closest to. It does cost various items but you can see what you need on the relevant cards.
There is another way to get closest to - by selling the Location of the Nadir to someone. But only four factions are willing to buy and that might not include the one one you want. Also you can only do it once.
spoiler tag is [ spoiler ] text [ / spoiler ] (without the spaces[/quote]
Jermion, definitely be aware that abandoning a faction will cost ALL of the connected with the group. So cash in beforehand.
Speaking of The Location of a One-Time Prince of Hell, I’ve been trying to draw the Connected: The Great Game card since before the Feast, so I can progress with Ambition: Heart’s Desire. I could take another option, and buy the thing with brass skulls and books, but it’s frightfully expensive, and I’d been getting said card quite often before I started actually looking for it. Does this card only show up in certain parts of the city? Or am I just having a streak of bad luck?
It can be drawn anywhere in London proper, and you’re having a streak of bad luck. As usual with bad luck in card draws, you can always improve your odds by drawing in a neighborhood without special card draws (Mahogany Hall, the Forgotten Quarter, the Labyrinth of Tigers), by thinning your deck of cards with requirements (sell off companions and pets that cause cards to appear, lower connections below 5, etc) and keeping higher-frequency cards in your hand.
Considering how valuable the Location is, I suggest doing the Heart’s Desire trade for it. That trade is only available during your current step in the Ambition, and you can still do the Great Game trade later, if you want another for selling, collecting, or upgrading the Brass Embassy housing.
th8827 is right. The location gained via Ambition is about 80% cheaper than the value of the location itself. Value of the location is 1560 echos (!) and the cost at the ambition is around 250 echos. So many choose to take that discount opportunity and buy the location from the Ambition - a one time offer that won’t return - and keep the location earned via cave of nadir. So anytime you see a very cheep opportunity for this very high value item - take advantage of it. Even if it require you postpone progress for another 3 weeks or so to gain materials. edited by Gonen on 2/27/2016 edited by Gonen on 2/27/2016
Thank you all so much! For some reason, when I did my math with the Wiki, I thought the Heart’s Desire purchase was significantly higher than that–wonder where I went wrong? At any rate, that does sound preferable to selling my only Cave tip.
Hilariously, Mahogany Hall is where I’d been grinding most of that time, without success. Yet what happened as soon as I’d read your comments and made up my mind not to sell? That’s right, I drew Whispers From the Surface in The University. Oh, RNG.
Can I throw in a question? Two years ago, my character got married, and received as a memento a ‘Set of wedding lithographs’, renamed ‘Images of a wedding’. Now, I can’t find those anywhere in my inventory, although the marriage is still happily intact. Was there ever an option to spend/lose those items, which I may have accidentally triggered? I can’t explain how they went missing.
I had a right devil of a time finding our wedding album as well, my darling, so don’t feel badly. I think perhaps one of the maids relocated it during the clean-up after that pesky venge-rat assassin squad staged their armed incursion in our parlour. Ha, oh, that was a fun day, wasn’t it? Anyway, check over by all the doodads and geegaws by the mantle… Goodness, we do collect many trophies during our tromping about, don’t we? "A life of adventure," as promised!
[[I can’t find the lithographs in my inventory either. I think they might have disappeared when FB did some rearranging of the inventory categories. The lithographs are still thankfully listed on my Mantle options though, so I suppose that’s really of the most use.]]
Edit: Oh glory be. The lithographs are actually on the Scrapbook items, not the Mantle. I knew I shouldn’t have opened that last bottle of '68 last night. It’s made me useless today. :P edited by Lady Taimi Felix on 2/28/2016
Thanks for the help. Another question: is there any way of clearing out of undesirable lodgings? Now that I have a an advantageous address it’s tedious collecting mail from the lesser flats.
Twice now, Jermion has wanted to accept and invitation from another player and received the message "One of you is, regrettably, in the wrong place to do that".
What kinds of locations would that refer to?
[quote=Jermaine Vendredi]Twice now, Jermion has wanted to accept and invitation from another player and received the message "One of you is, regrettably, in the wrong place to do that".
What kinds of locations would that refer to?
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Jermion[/quote]
Menace states usually. Areas with their own card decks too, such as heists, zee voyages, the cave of nadir, and flash lays. If its not on the map of locations you can see using the travel button, odds are its out of bounds for social actions, but not always. Basically anywhere where receiving social actions might break the game. edited by NiteBrite on 2/28/2016
Though there are a few strange exceptions to social actions and areas: I discovered the hard way that it’s possible to go to zee during a Moon League duel, lose K&C form and all stats, and be later stabbed out in the middle of the ocean.
Does anyone else find that if the heading of the storylet text begins with quotation marks (or ends with ellipsis plus quotation marks, or both) it fails to transfer to the dialogue box and a heading has to be added manually?
Not that Jermion doesn’t appreciate the opportunity to exercise his creative, um, muscles…
This is unfortunately a long standing bug with a low priority on the fix list.
[quote=Jermaine Vendredi]re: Journal entries
Does anyone else find that if the heading of the storylet text begins with quotation marks (or ends with ellipsis plus quotation marks, or both) it fails to transfer to the dialogue box and a heading has to be added manually?
Not that Jermion doesn’t appreciate the opportunity to exercise his creative, um, muscles…[/quote]