Cash DeCuir
Posts: 22
8/3/2015
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Hello, everyone!
We have a major update to our early content coming out soon: the Tracker System. While it will be a little while yet before it is implemented, we wanted to announce it in advance.
At present, stories unlock when your Watchful, Dangerous, Shadowy, or Persuasive stats are within certain ranges. This is a model we moved away from as Fallen London evolved, and it's one we're looking to finally break from altogether.
With the Tracker System, we'll be dividing all of our early stories into a set of tiers. Watchful, Dangerous, Shadowy, and Persuasive content will now be unlocked with the relevant Tracker quality, instead of stories opening and closing depending on your current stats. As you complete content within these tiers, your relevant Tracker quality will increase, thus opening more of the world of Fallen London.
For more information, please refer to the post, linked below:
http://www.failbettergames.com/upcoming-changes-to-early-content/
And to discuss the new update, post here!
edited by Cash DeCuir on 8/3/2015
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Failbetter Writer! @CashDeCuir on Twitter.
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
8/3/2015
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Interesting. But how will it look for the more late-game players when it goes live?
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lady ciel
Posts: 2548
8/3/2015
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That is very different. There is some early content that I have skipped with later characters - so I am wondering what will happen if you don't have the necessary qualities when this comes live.
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Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
8/3/2015
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Fascinating! I might revive my low-level alt for this.
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Cash DeCuir
Posts: 22
8/3/2015
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Alistair Cray wrote:
Interesting. But how will it look for the more late-game players when it goes live?
It all depends on how far into the game the player is.
[spoiler]Players already banished from Court cannot overturn their banishment to re-play through the Persuasive tracker. We are thinking of ways to reward them for their diligence, however. Likewise, if the player has already become the Darling of the Ambassador's Ball, they won't be able to return to a point before they did - but so long as they've not yet been banished, they can plug themselves in at any tier between then and Court. And players who haven't yet become the Darling of the Ball can plug themselves into the tracker at any point. Again, that's our current thinking, but it is tentative for now.[/spoiler]
edited by Cash DeCuir on 8/3/2015
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Failbetter Writer! @CashDeCuir on Twitter.
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metasynthie
Posts: 645
8/3/2015
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/This sounds like a great idea to streamline the experience and make progression feel more tangible -- especially for the influx of new players that can be expected for the mobile version! It'll probably help with answering questions for new players too -- I imagine inquiries like "where do I get Foxfire Candles?" could have a much simpler answer depending (in part, at least) on tier.
I'm going to guess that this will help do away with some of the weird stat-juggling that exists in the early and mid-100s, where you can lower your Watchful to draw cards like "Tea with the Inspector" and then boost it again to ensure 100% success at getting 15 CP of Investigating in one action. That stuff is fun for an economic-arbitrage vibe, but also just feels like a messy exploit.
Really curious to see how this will interact with the whole "how do you get Quirks above 10" question, especially for players who are searching around for those rare opportunities but who've passed the early tiers already. More "What happened in the Silken Chapel" storylets to fill in the blanks? Or something else?
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Cash DeCuir
Posts: 22
8/3/2015
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lady ciel wrote:
That is very different. There is some early content that I have skipped with later characters - so I am wondering what will happen if you don't have the necessary qualities when this comes live.
This is still subject to change, but this is how we expect it will work:
There will be some minor storylets that close off when your Tracker quality increases and new tiers open. Major stories tracked by their own quality, however, will remain open until completed and closed off naturally - the Melancholy Curate and his Sister, for instance, won't close until you've been through the whole of it.
And in the event that a character has raised their Persuasive score very high without completing a few major pieces of content - specifically, pieces which double as graduation points - those stories will remain open and unlocked as well, at every tier.
edited by Cash DeCuir on 8/3/2015
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Failbetter Writer! @CashDeCuir on Twitter.
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Estelle Knoht
Posts: 1751
8/3/2015
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What about University and the Expeditions? It can get tempting for players to procrastinate with Expeditions until they outlevel the University content to, well, finally get the Stones and open access to the University.
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Ian Hart
Posts: 437
8/3/2015
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Trackers sound like a wonderful idea. It's a shame late game players will be locked out of some of that new content. Will we at least get a summary of the actions that we "should" have done but can't because we've already progressed past them?
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genesis
Posts: 924
8/3/2015
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So this explains why the stat-boost Living Stories were retired. Are living stories generally being veered away from as part of this update?
Also I noticed that the Invite-only micro story "Enjoying the bohemian atmosphere of Veilgarden" has been retired. Is that also part of this overhaul and, if so, is the idea that early content shouldn't be invite-dependent?
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Keeping track of incomplete content and loose ends in Fallen London
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Cash DeCuir
Posts: 22
8/3/2015
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genesis wrote:
So this explains why the stat-boost Living Stories were retired. Are living stories generally being veered away from as part of this update?
Living stories as a whole? No, not as part of this update. The stat-boosting living stories, however, became redundant with this overhaul, and were thus retired.
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Failbetter Writer! @CashDeCuir on Twitter.
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Alexis Kennedy
Posts: 1374
8/3/2015
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metasynthie wrote:
I imagine inquiries like "where do I get Foxfire Candles?"
We have a major tech change coming that will affect that slightly for the better. </tease>
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genesis
Posts: 924
8/3/2015
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A couple more clarifying questions:
1. Presumably this applies both to the pinned storylets and the opportunity cards?
2. Regarding this quote:
Cash DeCuir wrote:
There will be some minor storylets that close off when your Tracker quality increases and new tiers open.
Will these storylets be identifiable? Currently many options/storylets have hidden lock criteria where you don't necessarily know they they are only temporary or that they get locked out if you have certain qualities. Will that remain the case or will we know which storylets are in danger of vanishing?
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Keeping track of incomplete content and loose ends in Fallen London
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dov
Posts: 2580
8/3/2015
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I wonder if this will lock certain players from advancing based on RP choices.
For example, my character wasn't banished from the Court by choice - I'm not doing this until there's a way to regain this access because this is what's right for my character. I'm sticking with this even though it means I can't experience the Foreign Office and now Port Carnelian.
But does this new system mean that my character can't advance in the Persuasion tiers without getting banished from Court? And if so, does it means that *all* future Persuasion story won't be accessible because it's in a higher tier?
I hope this is not the case, because this will make Fallen London a single track story common for all characters, despite appearances of being an Open World RPG based on player choices.
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dov
Posts: 2580
8/3/2015
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More thoughts on this:
While I like the idea of this change from a mechanics perspective , the more I think about this I feel this is bad from RP perspective.
Suppose that you play a character who tries to be very moral. Obviously, you'll have a harder time to advance your Shadowy quality (you won't participate in most illegal activities), but slowly you can do it, and under the old system this will unlock for you more stories and opportunities (some of which you will use, and some you won't).
In the new system (as far as I understand it), the game expects you to follow through with specific story lines chosen by the devs before new options become available.
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Alexis Kennedy
Posts: 1374
8/3/2015
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dov wrote:
s not the case, because this will make Fallen London a single track story common for all characters, despite appearances of being an Open World RPG based on player choices.
Design notes. This is and has always been intentional. If you don't like violence, it's very hard to advance Dangerous; if you don't like criminal activities, that rules out most Shadowy; if you don't like sex, drugs and poetry, Persuasive is a bust. People will always find ways to break the system for their own purposes, and that is not only fine but great, but we don't go out of our way to support it. Fallen London isn't an 'open world RPG' - it's a linked cycle of non-linear stories with strong elements of exploration and a lot of choice-based outcomes.
But even if it were - any 'open-world RPG' I can think of offers way less choice about character activities than Fallen London. The Witcher 3 and Skyrim are superb, but try playing a poet or a cat-burglar in either. Ultimately, any pre-written game will rule out the vast majority of roleplaying options. We can't be responsible for what characters players choose - we rule out a hundred billion options so we can focus on a hundred.
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Sara Hysaro
Moderator
Posts: 4514
8/3/2015
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This seems like a really cool idea. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it implemented, even if my characters are all a bit too far into the game to fully appreciate the changes.
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NiteBrite
Posts: 1019
8/4/2015
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It's nice to hear that stats are going away forever. Good riddance. They weren't that important anyways haha.
[spoiler]*NiteBrite leaps out of the thread window, slamming down a bottle of oblivion in mid-air*[/spoiler]
edited by NiteBrite on 8/4/2015
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Sara Hysaro
Moderator
Posts: 4514
8/4/2015
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Stats aren't going anywhere. They just aren't going to be used to unlock content in the future.
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Joshua Tubbs
Posts: 11
8/4/2015
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I really like this idea. Does this mean that the profession mechanic will be going away? Is becoming a Very Important Person still reliant on at least one stat at 100, or do the trackers manage that now?
As someone in the early game content still--Ladybones Road, this feature is welcome.
Regarding Dav's issue of whether this feature is worth it, I feel it's a double-edged sword. As a new player, I like the ability to unlock certain stories with a stat number. That grind is the most annoying, however. As a player who really doesn't know which direction to take my character, I feel that having a linier game to guide me on my path to being the observant person my character seems to have gone down will be nice. Purely for OOC reasons.
I assume that since my Watchful stat is my highest stat, the tracker will take that into account and help me raise it even more. Since we've got these tears now, what will stats be used for? Certain choices in stories still?
So, in summary, the trackers will unlock stories based on our qualities. Stats will unlock or lock out certain choices if said stories and/or qualities from being obtained.
That's how I'm understanding it so far. Stats and qualities are interconnected as far as unlocking/locking content out, so it's a bit confusing.
Okay, I wanted to make that post on my account. I guess while I was typing forum software logged me out. I can't delete/edit post above, though.
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