Monique Deja
Posts: 37
10/17/2016
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I'm braaaaand new here, and find myself most drawn to the storylets that let me pursue writing commissions and romance passionate bohemians. Given the chance to do something violent or treacherous, I'd rather not. Accordingly, I've built up my persuasive to a reasonable number in just a few days, while my dangerous and shadowy are languishing badly.
How far can I advance in the game focusing on just the stories and skills I like pursuing? Will I eventually need to become more wicked? I like the character I'm creating, how much do I need to compromise their values to advance?
For example, I'd like to someday enter the University, but not by snitching on people to the cops. Is there an alternate route to becoming more watchful? And I'd like to help the Blind Pianist smuggle someone out of Hell, but I apparently need to become far more shadowy. Can I do that without becoming heartless and ruthless? Whether or not it's strategic, I'm enjoying becoming magnanimous.
Thanks for tips on this early-game strategy for someone who's brand new to it all.
By the way, what does Seeking mean and why do folks shun it?
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My profile: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Monique Deja
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Diptych
Administrator
Posts: 3493
10/17/2016
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Harlocke wrote:
To advance shadowy you'll eventually need to commit a lot of burglaries. Burglaries are also the practical source of many items you'll need later on. And dangerous will require you to participate in fighting rings and a dueling society. So you'll have to be both a criminal and a fighter, but you don't have to do anything particularly evil or treacherous.
Worth noting: depending on your character's morals and politics, it is possible to progress by stealing only from the villainous. For instance, stealing seized books back from the secret police, or stealing souls from Hell to return to their owners. In short, you have to be a rogue, but you don't have to be a damnable rogue. Similarly, while making your name means proving your mettle in the fighting-ring, you don't have to be a brute and a murderer - it's possible to stay on the path of the honourable martial artist.
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Sir Frederick, the Libertarian Esotericist. Lord Hubris, the Bloody Baron.
Juniper Brown, the Ill-Fated Orphan. Esther Ellis-Hall, the Fashionable Fabian.
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Felicity Anne Stratford
Posts: 63
10/17/2016
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Monique Deja wrote:
How far can I advance in the game focusing on just the stories and skills I like pursuing? Will I eventually need to become more wicked? I like the character I'm creating, how much do I need to compromise their values to advance?
As a fellow new player I had many of the same issues - I wanted to focus on being curious and social but soon found myself with choices that I did not like. I agree with the other comments that you can definitely pick and choose your stories and still do fine. However I have come to believe that these choices are designed to make you slowly compromise and become darker. I might be imagining it, but I have felt that almost from the start. My solution/reaction is to have my character slowly become more accustomed to what the city seems to be about - which in game terms means I sometimes will pick choices because it seems more normal to her now. It feels very much like a change in character brought on by the environment she is in, yet still partly holding on to her own values. Hopefully that makes sense!
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Looking for a roleplay partner with potential for Simone and maybe for Felicity. All genders considered.
Felicity Anne Stratford is a Correspondent and delighted to visit Orphanages or Salons or be interviewed! Scientific correspondence greatly appreciated. Please no Seeking or Photographer.
Simone Beaufort is a Midnighter and pleased to visit Orphanages or Salons or be interviewed! No Seeking or Photographer.
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Mr Sables
Posts: 597
10/17/2016
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Harlocke wrote:
To advance shadowy you'll eventually need to commit a lot of burglaries.
*nervous cough*
I did find a way to 'cheat' and skip acts one may consider immoral . . .
If you can get your levels high enough, eventually you'll get a message asking where you are in that particular area, so - using a talkative-rat to keep your level low until quite late on, and then a lot of gear when you eventually get high enough to trigger the event - you can lie and say you're actually at the very end of 'Making Your Name' and skip burglaries, duelling, etc. entirely. If you combine that with the use of a patron, you can get quite far ahead relatively quickly. If you reach x level of Making Your Name, usually new areas open automatically, which means you don't have to use unsavoury methods to get them.
Bearing in mind, this kind of poops on how the game is meant to be played, but it's an option.
Certain places on my main, I just tend to find 'loopholes' . . . like, say you have to seduce x, it doesn't mean your character had to go all the way, or say you have to steal y, maybe it was yours to begin with and stolen from you . . . if you get creative enough with your reasoning, you should be able to do immoral things while maintaining your morality, if you're happy with shades of grey.
Edit: I'm not sure I'd have played the game this long, if I'd started playing since these new changes (to be honest) . . . it can be extremely grindy in places, often forces/railroads you in certain directions (if you don't 'cheat' or use insane troll logic to justify it), and slows down the pace so exploration can be more of a pain . . . I think I would have given up and left the game. I only started paying fate and things as a POSI, but I never would have gotten that far on this new method, but . . . maybe that's just me. Eh.
edited by Robin Alexander on 10/17/2016
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Felicity Anne Stratford
Posts: 63
10/17/2016
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malthaussen wrote:
And your first profile link is definitely broken.
edited by malthaussen on 10/17/2016
Thanks @malthaussen - I am leaving it there just in case they go back to the old way. Maybe I am being optimistic?
--Becca
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Looking for a roleplay partner with potential for Simone and maybe for Felicity. All genders considered.
Felicity Anne Stratford is a Correspondent and delighted to visit Orphanages or Salons or be interviewed! Scientific correspondence greatly appreciated. Please no Seeking or Photographer.
Simone Beaufort is a Midnighter and pleased to visit Orphanages or Salons or be interviewed! No Seeking or Photographer.
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Saklad
Posts: 528
10/20/2016
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aegisaglow wrote:
You do have to break into a police station at one point, but you can do it in order to find all the unsolved crime files and solve them yourself.
Also, as a person of some importance you can open up your own orphanage.
I think breaking into Concord Square to close unsolved cases is one of the coolest things in the game, as far as moral options go. I mean, that's just badass as hell.
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Saklad5, a man of many talents
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Saklad
Posts: 528
10/20/2016
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aegisaglow wrote:
You do have to break into a police station at one point, but you can do it in order to find all the unsolved crime files and solve them yourself.
Also, as a person of some importance you can open up your own orphanage.
I think breaking into Concord Square to close unsolved cases is one of the coolest things in the game, as far as moral options go. I mean, that's just badass as hell.
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Saklad5, a man of many talents
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Kaijyuu
Posts: 1047
10/20/2016
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FL is a weee bit bleaker than real life :P
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Be of good cheer. Our contacts have assured us that your sins are forgiven.
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Grenem
Posts: 2067
10/21/2016
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Kaijyuu wrote:
FL is a weee bit bleaker than real life :P
Not actually true, IMO. what is true is FL is a lot more lawless than real life, with all the practical benefits and evident curses contained therein. Down here even mortality can at least be subverted on a human scale. Also, it seems like no one goes hungry- they just eat rats.
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Married!:http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/takuza
I will accept all social actions that do not consume free evenings- and i will provide patronage to anyone who requests it, though it will be split between all requesters.
On psudeo-hiatus. Will be inactive and active and fluctuate without warning.
Grinding Favors without cards: http://community.failbettergames.com/topic22266-storylet-favors-grinding.aspx
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Grenem
Posts: 2067
10/17/2016
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malthaussen wrote:
@Felicity Anne Stratford: there might be something to that, I agree. I think FL consciously wants to be a bit darker than the typical goody-two-shoes RPG, and wants to encourage the player to make compromises that blacken the soul, ever so slightly. That said, one can get by quite nicely by being mostly nice. Or one can be irredeemably evil, but hey, the Brass Embassy is full of the irredeemable evil, and Lucifer remains a gentleman.
And your first profile link is definitely broken.
-- Mal
edited by malthaussen on 10/17/2016
Or, if you ask the right people, heaven is full of the irredeemably evil, and all the ones who can be redeemed are in hell. Maltheistic Christianity has almost certainly bloomed with the vast numbers of crooked-crosses down here, as has a more... accurate view in-universe. In general, london's religion is mostly christianity, but there's a tangled mess of true-and-false faiths down here as well from locals or simply imaginative londoners, and apatheists.
More on-topic. Watchful lets you choose whether to aid hell, or hinder it- it's your choice which you do, but there's no middle ground- either you're aiding or hurting criminals. if you're talking about the devil, though, you get to choose your course of action at the story's end.
Dangerous forces you to kill a rat (that's not a euphemism, by the way), as well as a number of sentient rats who have invaded your house and waged war upon you. The latter, though, can be done with no murder whatsoever- just talking them down and maybe not buying food for yourself and for them to steal, and all other storylines can be completed without any murder involved- with the exception of a single, really nasty thing that anyone with sense would only regret that they didn't kill the entire population.
Shadowy requires stealing, but some of those factions really deserve a good robbery. Hell, the ministry of censorship, and so on. it's more efficient to steal from the factions that don't as well, of course, but you can do it only playing a robin hood. That said, yes, shadowy is about stealing things, so... you might need to avoid that. Early game, you rob someone who probably doesn't deserve it, and even if they did, you didn't know that. On the other hand, they were wealthy enough that I doubt you seriously harmed them.
edited by Grenem on 10/17/2016
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Married!:http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/takuza
I will accept all social actions that do not consume free evenings- and i will provide patronage to anyone who requests it, though it will be split between all requesters.
On psudeo-hiatus. Will be inactive and active and fluctuate without warning.
Grinding Favors without cards: http://community.failbettergames.com/topic22266-storylet-favors-grinding.aspx
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ewokonfire
Posts: 7
10/17/2016
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As far as individual early-game stories go, all of the ones marked 'Making your Name' must be done at some point to advance the main plot (there are four different branches of MyN, one for each of the main stats). Anything not marked 'Making your Name' is optional and won't unlock anything huge. There isn't much of a penalty for neglecting some stats early on, but a lot of mid/late game content is gated behind a check that requires you to have all your stats up to 100 (with equipment), so don't make the same mistake I did and have to spend ages grinding one individual stat that you ignored.
Seeking is a story somewhere in Fallen London that you really shouldn't do. You'll know if you come across it.
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Kukapetal
Posts: 1449
10/18/2016
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*is still mad at herself for killing Vendrick*
For some reason I thought that since I didn't kill the Drownie, the poor guy wouldn't die. I still don't know why there isn't an option to tell him she isn't dead.
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