Yeah, but when has drinking with your elderly Aunt ever really been a good idea, anyway?
Of course, I'm one to talk. While grinding Connected: Criminals, Moriarty keeps hooking up with the Singer even though I know 9/10 she'll resent him after. /quote]
There is a rare success for that action? *checks the Wiki* Oh wow, there is one. I love this forum. I love this game.

Urthdigger wrote:

I thought a little on the nature of "Efficient stuff versus inefficient stuff", and what personally grinds my gears. Despite making a thread devoted to the subject (Which I probably should update, except that another thread kinda proved the fidgeting writer blows all those out of the water)

Well, the Fidgeting thread itself could be updated with some easy and concise instructions on how to do the grind itself. Like the list of ingiridients/best places to grind them/rough ammount you need for each step with, say, 500 Tales of Terror starting. Would 500 Tales be enough for the profit to average on those numbers per action?
Of course, since the Fidgeting storylet requires such a big investment of actions to really pay for itself, I don't think it eliminates all the other sources of income.
Also it would be really totally cool if somebody updated this
http://echobazaar.wikidot.com/end-game-grinding

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My Character

Corentin Os wrote:

Thank you! I've been taking that option, plus any others where the non-robbery choice hints at being helpful - but dang! I totally forgot that most of the people in this thread will have four Opportunity cards to use! Though I'm currently making a - quite possibly very, very misguided - attempt to buy premises at the Tower of the Sun and Moon with Antique Mysteries despite only having stats between 65 and 84. We'll, uh... see how that goes :]

With Shadowy 89 (including items) to grant you Straightforward difficulty, you should be able to grind 50 Antique Mysteries (or 50 Bazaar Permits) through Casing thefts in a little under 600 actions. Unless I am wrong on the value of those Shadowy skillchecks, which I have no way to test with max stats.

I've said it before but it bears repeating: I bloody love you folks (and that 'you' includes BlastFantastic and Tesuji, who I replied to a little mischievously above, as well as everyone else in this thread). The most negative and aggressive comments I've ever seen on this site are tea and cucumber sandwiches compared to the kind of things routinely expressed on any major MMO board. By and large the community is helpful, courteous and enthusiastic. This, of course, is the huge advantage of making your game one giant reading comprehension test.

With Shadowy 89 (including items) to grant you Straightforward difficulty, you should be able to grind 50 Antique Mysteries (or 50 Bazaar Permits) through Casing thefts in a little under 600 actions. Unless I am wrong on the value of those Shadowy skillchecks, which I have no way to test with max stats.

Corentin Os wrote:

Yep, that's the method I'm using; it's an almost impossible challenge at 84 with gear, but gains you an Antique Mystery even on a failure. And no, you only lose 7 levels of casing on a failure (not sure how many cp that is).

Unless things have changed, you lose 32 CPs on a success, ~50 CPs on a failure.

To be honest, this is the sort of thing you're better off waiting on. The Casing options are slightly better at higher level, and having to gain 50% more Casing to make up for the failure on each theft really hurts.

Going for 50 Antique Mysteries will cost you 884 actions now, 566 actions if you wait until you're Shadowy 125 with a gang, and the fact that you're only getting +1 CP of Shadowy for every 3 actions is going to make getting to POSI even slower.

You're better off playing other Shadowy storylets to push foward to POSI (Shadowy 89 would put you in the right range for the Shadowing Couriers/Tricks of the Courier's Trade stories, which feeds into the Wars of Illusion).

Tesuji wrote:

Alexis Kennedy wrote:

But I do get why: (a) we can't attach an economic system to the game and lock content based on resource without expecting people to want to optimise for that, (b) of course capped players don't care whether content was designed to be playable by characters with stats of 30 or 70, they only care that their experience was suboptimal for them, right then. Which is understandable.

There's also the issue of 'traps for the unwary': storylines which are substantially less rewarding than their target audience would expect. Mutton Island, for example, is a Difficulty 110-115 storyline which yields ~0.80E/action, even before taking into account the trip it takes to get there (and the Rare Successes that give less than normal successes). A similar issue would be opportunity cards whose primary (or sole) purpose is to increase quirks, but don't actually do anything because of of caps which aren't ascertainable without playing.

I'd argue a great deal of the areas in the Zee aren't meant to be profitable, per se. This is off topic, but do you remember Mass Effect? For those unfamiliar, the game featured countless planets in addition to quest hub worlds, some with side quests, most with at least a token collectible. The point of those wasn't to reward exploration, but to make the world feel, well, BIG. Galaxies are big, and so is the Neath. Not all of it can be rewarding in a tangible economic way. And labeling it based on level and economy would ward people off expanding their vision of the overall scope of the setting. Besides, you wouldn't want Final Fantasy syndrome, where clearly the outlying islands in the middle of nowhere become endless grind zones. Besides, level 100-115 content is well after POSI. If you've stuck around past that, you're not casual anymore; you've earned your stripes. Plus, Mutton Island has some lore rewards for the Carnival.
edited by friendshipranger on 1/28/2013
edited by friendshipranger on 1/28/2013

And lore rewards on it's own for the Seekers of the Name and those who listen to Thunder

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https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Dirae%20Erinyes. Closed to calling cards, but open for all other social action. I also love to roleplay.