Getting a favor from the bohemian card costs £0.50 and gives +1 cp of Scandal.
Getting a favor from the society card costs £0.50 and gives +1 cp of Suspicion.
Getting a favor from the revolutionaries card costs £0.50 and gives +1 cp of Suspicion.
All other faction cards which add menaces (criminals, great game)do not also cost money. And all other faction cards which cost money do not cost nearly so much (usually £0.10 worth of common items; only Urchins comes close, if you buy the weasel).
What gives? And why did "attend a church fete on the south bank of the river" become the new Church favor source, while "buy drinks for writers" and "an invitation to dinner" are now virtually useless?
Also (yes I know this is stretching into intoxicated-rant territory) why does our poor Regretful Soldier not give any favors, while his counterparts now give two each? I could see the fellow having friends among the docks, church, or revolutionaries.
Not that I necessarily agree with it, but Failbetter’s stated approach is "Assymetrical gameplay" meaning some avenues are harder than others. edited by Infinity Simulacrum on 8/11/2017
It is also possible (though this is mere speculation) that when Failbetter created the Favours/Renown system to begin with, they decided how each faction would be treated, then organized their batches by grouping similar factions on the conversion timeline.
Also, it is to be noted that Society favours (to use an example) can be painlessly acquired in numerous situations - up to three free favours every time you accept A Polite Invitation. The faction card in that case is neither the best nor the most reliable source of favours, and I can easily see anyone not actively pushing Society renown choosing to skip it in favor of cheaper options.
That said, I’m entirely with you on the Regretful Soldier. Poor old boy’s gotten the short stick, wot? edited by Siankan on 8/11/2017
Methinks they decided the older factions were too profitable, and since they dislike actively nerfing old content, they just scaled back future faction profitability.
I don’t think that lines up over the whole system, though. Society is overflowing with profitable favour options in a way that rivals the Docks; the faction card just doesn’t happen to be among them. Consider how many favours you can get just from A Polite Invitation, and that’s building MW and leading toward a profitable conclusion every few rounds. That in itself make Society one of the more profitable factions when it comes to favour-earning.
I’m pretty sure that Revolutionaries now give 720 proscribed material per favour, so I highly doubt they’re trying to make them less profitable overall.
Oh yeah, that’s still a thing. Time to make yet another post in the feedback thread. If Favours are supposed to be something to spend they need to actually provide a constant way to spend them.
According to the wiki he now gives a Docks favour, and some extra rats and whispered secrets. So thank you for ‘stretching into intoxicated-rant territory’!
Still not worth visiting him unfortunately, unless you really like Docks favors. A crappy favor that’s just turned in in a Calling in Favours storylet still earns you over 2 echoes, and his stuff is less valuable than cryptic clues.
Docks Favours are highly valuable - they are the most efficient way to get Expedition Supplies, and expeditions are very profitable if you get the resources in an efficient way (they are also a great source of hard-to-get items, and for MW boosts).
The Regretful Soldier still lags a little behind the Wry Functionary and Repentant Forger in terms of pure profitability, but I think he now has a solid niche use for people trying to run frequent expeditions or who need rats in quantity (i.e. Urchin Renown grinders and the affianced).
I like the asymmetry in the game; it makes it less clear what the best course of action to a particular end is and make the game more mechanically interesting. Working out the best course of action to a particular end becomes less straightforward, and something you learn over time, adding to your array of shortcuts and tricks as you spend time in FL.
Having to rely on cards for favours and capping them at 7 introduces some randomness that makes you have to think more often about how best to use the different mixes of resources you currently have to get to where you want to go, so a better understanding of the game is more rewarding. I think this could get even more interesting as time goes on depending on how FBG decides to develop the use of the system.
With all the mechanical reworks, the opening of paramount presence, plus all the forthcoming content announced for this year alone (at the same time the studio is busy on Sunless Skies no less!) I’m quite excited about what’s to come in FL.
[quote=Kaijyuu]Bohemians will let you get your Magnanimous all the way back up.
Unless you’re at 50 already like me :([/quote]
I guess I’m glad that the conversions are so nasty now! Because man, I did some work to get my quirks the way I wanted, and now I am felled by my own companion collection.
A bit late, but Society favours also seem easier to get on other POSI cards as well. Not counting Protest Against the Mayor (as that’s only gonna be around until next Election), you also have Peril and Pyjamas, Treating your Clay Sedan Chair Holders Well, and the like as well as Society’s own card. There’s also a couple Society favours at the Party. The same can’t really be said for Revolutionaries (only Bringing the Revolution), Bohemians (not much at all), or the Church (God’s Editors, and shroom-hopping if you’re out of Bohemian favours).