Whitsun has ended – we hope you all had an eggcellent time hatching perfectly adorable friend-shaped creatures.
We are closing in on the end of the Railway storyline, and with it, a story that has taken over a year to play out, from conception to completion. This is an opportune time to talk about its culmination and the stories that will follow, including a few surprises. Read more here.
edited by StuartFBG on 5/25/2021
I for one find it entirely appropriate that London’s very last elected mayor is a cat.
I am in favor of everything here.
A lot of content came out with the railroad arc. I agree with both points that a balance wave and smaller future updates are good ideas. Don’t want to overwhelm the players and risk creative burnout.
I’m glad y’all are overhauling the zailing experience of Fallen London. Maybe we’ll get to visit some of the underwater cities too!
Having World Qualities can be exciting. It won’t be frustrating if everyone has the same RNG! I can see it now- dozens of players chanting "the stars have aligned" in a thread when all the World Qualities align into the perfect cycle.
Putting an end to elections came as a surprise to me. Never really got all that involved in the discussions for them but I guess people made some comparisons y’all had no intention of making.
Did we just get Ozymandias’d?
edited by PSGarak on 5/25/2021
Well, here’s to an end of an era! It’s been an awesome ride! A real pity about he election, though, feeling that you can shape the direction the game takes, however indirectly, will be sorely missed. I hope once RL political turmoil settles down a bit, Masters will at least consider reconsidering this decision.
One thing I’m left wondering about, is whether new content will allow us to build, rather then just explore. I think a large part of success of the Railroad comes from the fact that it allowed us to shape (small parts of) the Neath to our liking. I understand that we’re unlikely to colonise the Elder Continent or something, but it would be really nice to be able to build/develop a trade outpost or two or establish a zee trading company.
Also, what will become of the Board for Railway after it is finished? Will there be some more recurring stories, perhaps? Or will it just meet to give us our dividends?
edited by Sagrim-Ur on 5/25/2021
For the railroad too, will we still be able to build the place for the Union that Furnace wants?
I’m glad FBG will slow the pace a bit. I’ve always been 3 stations behind whenever a new one was introduced. I could have made it further if I rushed the track building, but what’s the point of building stations if you don’t take your time to explore them?
I’m very excited to go zail the Zee in my Zub again, improved mechanics, new ports and all. Even the promo art is gorgeous!
I’m sad the Elections will end. I enjoyed the discussions and the voting. It was a way you could influence Fallen London like no other event, subtly steering the content yet to come. It was inclusive; all in-game players get their vote and thereby their voice heard, not just active Discord, Reddit, and/or Forum members. I get the reasons why it will end, and I fully trust FBG to replace it with a new event that will be fun for everyone, but I’ll still miss the Elections.
edited by Μαρσ on 5/25/2021
So we’re finally reaching Marigold… given what’s been involved in getting here, I can scarcely imagine what this final stretch will bring with it.
I’m very much looking forward to both the new zailing and the new destinations. I’ve always wanted to like the zee-voyages more than I have thus far, so this all sounds great.
I’m very curious as to what the relation of this new Zeefaring skill will be to the current Experienced Zailor quality, which has hitherto represented one’s experience and ability as a captain. A complement? A replacement? Do even the saltiest of zee-dogs have to start from scratch, here?
I’ll miss elections, but I can see the rationale here. Interesting to see what we’ll be getting in their place, and how we get there from here in-story.
The bone market stuff… well, it’ll be interesting to see how it all works out.
And I just have to reiterate my eternal request: can we PLEASE get a Lab research rework? Ideally eliminating the card deck entirely.
edited by Tsar Koschei on 5/25/2021
This all sounds awesome! I was worried we’d have a big dry spell once the railway completed, so it’s great news for me that new updates will keep coming regularly. And as much as I’ve loved the insane amount of content we’ve been getting lately (and thank you, Failbetter, for the massive amount of work you all must have been putting in), I have to admit it’s a little stressful too and I’ll be very happy to have a slower pace.
Too bad about the election, but it’s never been my favourite of the events, and it sounds like it was more trouble than it was worth for Failbetter, so I think it’s fair to move on. And it’ll be exciting to see another new festival. I’m generally quite satisfied with the smaller changes we get in the established festivals from year to year, but a totally new one is a bigger thrill.
edited by enail on 5/25/2021
edited by enail on 5/25/2021
[quote=Bruno Dias]We are slowing down the volume of new content […] Partly because we know some of you are still catching up or have felt overwhelmed by the pace of new releases.[/quote]As I count myself among the overwhelmed and have a lot to catch up to, I’m glad to read this! :)
[quote=Bruno Dias]By our own accounting, as much as 30% of Fallen London was written in 2020.[/quote]
[quote=Bruno Dias]Zeefarer[/quote]OMG yes. :inlove: And I hope the whole "aimed at midgame players, too" also means it won’t be as resource-intensive as the Railway. Because, you know, ever since I finished the ambitions all my characters bar one* have been in dire straits economically…
* (the one who killed the Vake and now owns half the Bazaar)
[quote=Bruno Dias]A New Festival (and an end to elections)[/quote]Whatever it will be, it’ll be better than the Elections!
[quote=Bruno Dias]Around this time of year, you’ll all be anticipating the Election for 2021. But the Masters have decided they’re not so fond of this whole ‘electoral system’ thing.[/quote]I’m with the Masters here.
[quote=Bruno Dias]World Qualities[/quote]This sounds really interesting. It probably still won’t make me use the Bone Market more than I absolutely have to, but I can see it being used in many other exciting ways.
edited by phryne on 5/25/2021
I’m coming back of my period of inactivity on the forum to say that I think this update is a cool new direction for the game, and I agree with everything. Rehauling the zeefaring to cost less action is a good idea, and I really like the Khanate, its people and the Fourth City in general, so I’m excited but the prospect of visiting the last bastion of the Khanate. Seeing the wall of hell will be cool, and the World Qualities sounds like a good idea that might make the fanbase more cooperative. I am sad that the election will leave, it was fun to argue with other players about the merits of cat vs squid, but some people, in some recent conversation I had, told me that the political undertone of each candidate created friction within the community, and they were right. I am a proud voter of the Viscountess, and I will never regret it, but having to campaign for an imperialist, possibly genocidal, war-monger is not the best of experience, both for me and for the people who object to such things. Anyway, I am excited for the game and I genuinely believe that Failbetter make the right call the vast majority of time, and introduce some wonderful things to an already great game. You can call me naïve if you like, to be honest you’re probably right.
I won’t miss the election. As part of the game it was dull, to the extent that after the first one I ignored it (didn’t help that FB abandoned their own forum for social media sites to tell us about it - I am very glad they reversed that policy later). Also, I didn’t appreciate the acrimony on the forum it caused. Looking forward to whatever replaces it.
I always said they were a hundred years too early for London to be having elected mayors. We just aren’t ready yet.
I liked Elections, but I can see that FBG was beginning to have a hard time keeping them feeling fresh and interesting. And I agree that comparisons with Current Events occasionally led to on-Forum quarrels, which I don’t think any of us need.
Ah, my skeleton’s value just went up by 10% when I declared it a Fish. Happy shark week!
From a writer’s and designer’s point of view, the elections must have been a shedload of work. Having to sketch out three different futures for the Neath with all that involved – and then ditch two thirds of it?! I’m surprised they kept it up as long as they did. I took part in the first of the elections, but found the second quite unpleasant and subsequently opted to go to zee for the period. There were aspects of the forum discussions as well as the election roles that just didn’t appeal.
The railway chapter has been a great success in my book – a brilliant way to open up and allow players to shape new content while staying within the London world. It worked much better for me than the exceptional friend stories, which always seem to take time out from "real life" down here. I’m four stations along now and am slowing down my track building while gathering resources, so I can spend more time exploring the stations.
I’ve always enjoyed the zeefaring, so I’m really looking forward to new horizons there. Sunless Sea was so atmospheric – I hope some of that can be recaptured.
Overall: respect, FB! Way to go.
Baseless speculation: The Election-replacement festival will use World Qualities as a core mechanic. This will be the basis for how it will “mobilize the community” for a collaborative goal.
All of this sounds amazing. I can’t say I’ll miss the election and completely understand it must have been an unreasonable amount of work for the Failbetter team. I didn’t feel any animosity about it, but it was always clear that the community had a favorite candidate unrelated to their policy platforms and that would be the individual who won. “Character popularity contest” wasn’t really moving to me.
Perhaps now Silas the Showman can be declared Mayor for Life as was always meant to be.
I’m sad to see the election go, but only because last election was when elections were finally good (Who would have thought giving us three good candidates to choose between would feel better than making us pick the one we dislike least). I was looking forward to seeing more fan-favorites in the running, like His Amused Lordship or something.
That said. I’m quite looking forward to what’s next.
[quote=NotaWalrus]Who would have thought giving us three good candidates to choose between would feel better than making us pick the one we dislike least[/quote]To be fair, the latter approach was much more true to life.
[quote=NotaWalrus]I’m sad to see the election go, but only because last election was when elections were finally good (Who would have thought giving us three good candidates to choose between would feel better than making us pick the one we dislike least). I was looking forward to seeing more fan-favorites in the running, like His Amused Lordship or something.
That said. I’m quite looking forward to what’s next.[/quote]
I agree with you, the last election was the most enjoyable for me too for that reason, and there seemed to be more excitement and less animosity in the community as well, I thought. Have to say I regret that now we won’t have the opportunity to pick up last year’s Election items for a bit of Fate, for those of us insane collectors. Or will we??!
Re slowing down the new content, personally I am very glad of it as I’m three railway stations behind, having been very slow to explore them and the bone market… for me, the pace of new content was just a little too fast but realize that’s a minority opinion as everyone in the forums seemed to enjoy it! :)