first of all i apologies for the abbreviations but i couldn’t fit the full names of the story bars im speaking of (which if you haven’t figured it out by name is in order .touched by finger work. .walking the fallen cities. and .seeing through the eyes of Icarus.
now thats out of the way on to the point.
as the title implies i am inquiring as to what the point of these are in the game since im a person of some importance and they dont realy seem to do anything at all particularly tbfw which i dont remember EVER do anything at all were as i can sort of vaguely finding the other usefull during my long journey to were i am now.
They don’t do much of anything. They were introduced about the same time as ‘Approaching the Gates of the Garden’ which at least tracks your progress with the Dilmun Club, but is of course unfinished as well. ‘Seeing through the Eyes of Icarus’ tracks the story of the Watchmaker’s Daughter in the same way, but the other two never even had any respective storylines implemented.
It is all very very unfinished.
edited by phryne on 5/20/2017
I interpret them as just measuring your character’s familiarity with various aspects of the lore. Touched by Fingerwork is Parabola (and Clay Men for some reason), Walking the Falling Cities is knowledge of the previous four cities, Approaching the Gates of the Garden is Stone and the Elder Continent, and Seeing through the Eyes of Icarus is just… stuff related to the Bazaar I guess.
So yeah, mechanically the most they do right now is open up occasional options, for example with WtFC on the Northbound Parliamentarian’s card.
edited by Optimatum on 5/20/2017
They serve a somewhat important meta-purpose: preventing players from associating all quality increases with mechanics, thereby preserving some uncertainty about the effects of one’s actions.
Or at least, that’s my take. "Adrift in a Sea of Misery", for instance, actually says a lot by not doing anything. It represents the apparent uselessness of trying to help the city as a whole, and perhaps your determination to try thanklessly solving the many problems anyway. It’s more meaningful than it would be if it was redeemable like "Something Awaits You", I think.
It also opens up new options for future content that can be extremely surprising even to veteran players. The Iron Republic is full of such things.
edited by Saklad5 on 5/20/2017
They do not do anything, true, but they hint at the Fallen London lore. Finger work is about Parabola and Fallen cities about the cities that fell before. I hope to see them used more too, of course.
i see so it is case of unfinished ness then for the most part.
hopefully they suprise in the future by taking advantage of the supremely high bars some people must have on these things but for now im content to keep on raising them as high as i can.
ps i was quite aware of the lore value behind quality s the inquiry was mechanical in nature.
They are a good measure of your dedication!
I mean, why not increase all 4 of them to 777? And Adrift in a Sea of Misery to 7777? :D
I remember reading a great take about “Seeing through the Eyes of Icarus”. Basically, it’s knowledge about things straining against the Great Chain of Being, trying to become more (or less) than they are. This is stuff like the Rubbery Men trying to become more human, the romance between the Bazaar and the Sun, and even stuff like Mandrakes being plants but almost-animals.