What about the final Improve your Equipment option for 10 Fate, is this worth it? i.e. another significant improvement on how much research you get?
Same for the 10 Fate workshop expansion: would you ever want or need this many workers at the same time? Isn’t it better rather to be frugal here and choose the ideal assistants for each experiment?
I’m not a completionist, so I don’t need these things only because they exist. But if they significantly improve what you can have without Fate, I’d be happy to buy them!
Equipment difference is 2 points (7->9), so you are getting +4 research on most actions. It affects EpA for grinds and progression speed.
Team size is not useful at all right now. But later on we will have more projects for different specialists, so without fate upgrade you should fire and hire them more frequently, which costs resources and actions. edited by Waterpls on 6/1/2020
[quote=Waterpls]But later on we will have more projects for different specialists, so without fate upgrade you should fire and hire them more frequently, which costs resources and actions. edited by Waterpls on 6/1/2020[/quote]
Speaking of which, is there any list of what type of projects the individual specialists are good for, and if they are better than maxed out Profound/Visionary Students?
I am particularly interested in the new ones from Mr Chimes’ Lost and Found - what are their specialties and are any of them good EPA-wise?
The Silk-Clad Expert is slightly better for biology projects, and the Numismatrix for the occasional Coin, obviously. The Nemesis-specific Esurient Smith is good with metal and weapons. The other ambition-specific ones can be found on wiki (April is good with weapons and explosives, Hephaesta with Cartography and Cora Bagley with mathematics, as has been mentioned). edited by Aardvark on 6/1/2020
As far as i know L&F specialists are weaker versions of ambition specialists. But one of them (Classicist, iirc) is good for student training (2 levels for 40 research) edited by Waterpls on 6/1/2020
So, I did some research and it turns out that having the Esurient Smith collaborate with Lettice the Mercy on making counterfeit Infernal rifles is actually a rather profitable scheme. With maxed-out lab, you get 30/26 research on success/failure, respectively, and obviate any need to graduate students. Edit: With max Watchful, that translates in approx. 3.23 EPA.
The only caveat is that you keep accumulating Records of Successful Forgeries, which currently does nothing, but might one day have unforeseen consequences.
Like there’s anything more wrong with forging fake antiques for sale than, say, delivering children to tigers by boatful. Not to mention murder and theft you can commit on a regular basis. edited by Aardvark on 6/1/2020
Like there’s anything more wrong with forging fake antiques for sale than, say, delivering children to tigers by boatful. Not to mention murder and theft you can commit on a regular basis. edited by Aardvark on 6/1/2020[/quote]
To say nothing of the fact that you can sell those "fake antiques" to people who don’t care about what they are or the quality of their provenance anyway.
I certainly haven’t been treating “Record of a Forgery” as a menace quality - more like a record of how experienced you are! A positive quality which might unlock more and more daring forgeries.
I do wonder about the market for infernal weapons. The conflict with Hell was not a bright spot in London’s history. Collectors with an interest in that specific even might rightly be looked-down-upon, and perhaps it’s not entirely immoral to be committing forgery at their expense.
Personally, I’m going to try and get my Successful Forgeries into the triple digits. I understand why some might want to avoid it, but I’m going for the high score.
[quote=Aardvark]Speaking of which, is there any list of what type of projects the individual specialists are good for, and if they are better than maxed out Profound/Visionary Students?
I am particularly interested in the new ones from Mr Chimes’ Lost and Found - what are their specialties and are any of them good EPA-wise?[/quote]
I have a level 7 lab. Working on a replica rifle, the Protester seemed to consistently give 15 points of research. Lettice gave between 12 and 20, and a Visionary Student gave ~17-19 at rank 4, and 24 and some disgruntlement at rank 5. So, the Protester isn’t necessarily better than the other assistants, but he is more consistent, doesn’t require a Watchful check, doesn’t need to be graduated, and doesn’t cost anything to hire.
I treat it as a stain and wish there was a way to issue retractions. I don’t care if it destroys my lab reputation.[/quote]
Personally, I distinguish among the various ways you can obtain the Record. As has been said, selling forged Infernal rifles amounts to patriotic duty and trading blatantly false bones with the Tongue-in-Cheek Palaeontologist also hardly counts as a deception. On the other hand, wilfully passing false statistical research for publication by a well-meaning colleague is ethically and academically inexcusable.
As for the Chimes’ research assistants, I found out that the Protester can help out with nightmares a bit (thouch not as efficiently as resting in an upgraded Parabolan Base Camp).
I did not see any other option than research on the Cricketer’s card, and more interestingly, it seems that so far she has no personal specialty. Her "help with ordinary research" branch covers the entirety of current available Experimental Objects… Has anyone encountered any interaction between the Cricketer and other assistants, or any special option on her card?
[quote=Aardvark]
I did not see any other option than research on the Cricketer’s card, and more interestingly, it seems that so far she has no personal specialty. Her "help with ordinary research" branch covers the entirety of current available Experimental Objects… Has anyone encountered any interaction between the Cricketer and other assistants, or any special option on her card?[/quote]
She has an interaction with the Shifty Student that allows you to advance him for a cheaper cost than normal. So far I haven’t found anything besides that, though. I suspect that the research projects she specializes in are planned for a future update.
At this moment, it seems that every Ambition has one particularly profitable project which uses a combination of Ambition-specific researcher and a regular coworker to obtain high amounts of research (30/26 for the Fate-improved lab success/failure and 26/22 for a Fate-free version).
This best grind currently is Impossible Theorems using Cora Bagley + Visionary Student for Heart’s Desire (slightly over 3.4 EPA); Cartographer’s Hoard using Hephaesta + Visionary Student for Light Fingers (EPA around 3.3); and Infernal Sharpshooter’s Rifles using April + Lettice/Esurient Smith + Lettice for Bag a Legend/Nemesis, respectively - this gives EPA of 3.23 but is independent of Disgruntlement.
Even for Fate-less versions, this gives good EPA (for the last one, I arrived at 2.8, still much better than even Silken Thread Expeditions.)
Using Fate-locked laboratory is even better and much more convenient than Arbor grinding.
We shall see if this will be further improved upon in the upcoming content.
[quote=Aardvark]
We shall see if this will be further improved upon in the upcoming content.[/quote]
One certain improvement that can be expected is getting the Studies of (Artisan of) Red Science for those players of the Marvellous who got the Dream of Truth-Strangling and chose Power as their Desire. That alone would raise their Research gain to average 34,2, and if they’re Correspondents they have guaranteed 40 without any menaces, though the Direct Your Own Research option for the skill. I think the expected EPA in that case for the Theorem is around 4,5. Cora may not be as good as other Parabolan Researchers (sans April) but she is still the Visionary Student without Nightmare gain.
As of this update, we have more Lab experiments should you have a base Watchful of 200 at least.
On average, the Lab experiments are 500 Lab research with 0-50 Parabolan Research in between.
[spoiler]The Dean finally gives you the Railway Steel needed to create the formula for Railroad Tracks, and reveals that he’s been scammed by Mr Fires into stealing your research in exchange for fake Justificandes.
It will provide options that will allow one to raise their Watchful base above 200, and will open up new toxic Lab experiments involving Mr Spices’ new drug that acts as a depressant, esp. for bat-related creatures. In the "Direct your own Research" card, you can even test it out on yourself if you are Mr Cards. At this point, you can decide to tell the Dean truthfully what the drug does to animals, or to lie about it.
[/spoiler]
So Mr. Spices’ new drug has a great effect on bat-like creatures, especially if they expect an offspring? Is Mr. Spices going to be Multiplicitious Mr. Spices soon?