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Hallowmas Change Opinions

NiteBrite Posts: 1019 11/4/2016	For those of you who have experienced both the old Hallowmas and the new Hallowmas, I am curious to know what you think of the changes? Does new Hallowmas meet or exceed your expectations? This is a space to discuss such topics and compare opinions on the new mechanics. -- I AM currently accepting calling cards. Stats loss counter: reset, irrigo equivalent: none [00:34] <@ortab> NiteBrite's laugh is that of a condemned soul gazing into the abyss. Merciless Modiste avatar by Paul Arendt (based on an original image by Joe England) http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/TheBriteModiste
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Chris Gardiner Administrator Posts: 539 11/10/2016	Next time, we'll definitely make a point of stating the date the festival ends on in the content, and give guidance on where to find the base companions.
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Mr Sables Posts: 597 11/4/2016	Well, I was probably more than a little vocal, but . . . nervous cough I prefer last year's festival; I was actually super psyched in previous months, just waiting for this year's festival, because I loved last year's so much and was waiting for a shot at improving my tactics. The action-count was massively heavy, but free/zero action requests (or a daily limit to requests) could have fixed that . . . but then lots of people made the upper limit easily, so maybe it was fine. Anyway, it seemed good to me. I was able to work for what I wanted, earn what I wanted, and felt that I deserved what I received. There was also the chance to boost the Masters connection, as well as various options that were amazing for role-playing . . . do you betray real-life friends or not? Who do you betray them to? The probably only downside was not being able to confess/betray to the same people the following year, but that could have been easily fixed (that's just what I hear, though, as I only did the one festival). This year -? Ugh. It feels like an Advent Calendar, but a really biased and unfair Calendar. First of all, no one fixed the issue with social actions, so no one can send a point of Notability to anyone . . . leaving aside things like that, non-PSOI and people who use up their Notability have no means to grind, so they're forced to spend Fate, which not everyone can afford. So you cannot physically get all of the companions . . . You're also left with nothing to do, because you collect one NPC confession, then another confession, and - yup - you're done for the day. You might spend 3 actions in a day, if you're lucky, and that's it . . . no actual game-play, no painful/complex role-playing choices, no involving any of your RL friends (aside from some trading in the second week, maybe) . . . it's an absolute bore. Last year's festival maybe needed a couple of tweaks, but that was it . . . this year's festival just feels kind of lazy (I'm real sorry to say that)! It points out huge flaws in unfinished features, lacks any kind of real choices or anything to do, and the only bonus are new companions . . . Eh, I don't mind collecting things, but I'm not sure the massive obsession with companions lately? Why not gain rare items, or weapons, or rare/large connections/renown, or - well - anything? Or even a choice, so we have a variety of 'prizes'? None of those companions come close to my Fate-locked ones anyway, meaning they're there just as collectors' pieces . . . I'm just . . . really disappointed. Might not bother next year.
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Hammond Posts: 41 11/12/2016	I am deeply sorry for the length of this damn thing. Everyone is totally justified if "TLDR" is their response to this monstrosity . So please feel free to skip down to the ~ Skip to Here ~. I have been trying to put my thoughts to words concerning this Hallowmas for awhile. My emotions are... mixed. Personally, I am very satisfied with this Hallowmas. I like the companion enhancement, and I hope there is more of it in the future. I like the more relaxed nature of this Hallowmas, despite the the trove of confessions I collected last year going unused (a fair price I suppose), and I loved what my effort this year culminated into. I can't help but smile every time I read Mr Huffam's reaction to my Haunted Goldfish. I would almost say that this whole event was tailor made for me... and I will get to why that is a problem in a moment. The sad, simple truth is that Hallowmas last year WAS NOT FUN, it simply wasn't. "Challenging", but not fun. In the end, and I will only speak for myself, I ended up with a contact list comprised of hundreds of people that I do not have any other meaningful contact with. Because of last year’s Hallowmas, my contact list went from about 15 people (occasional conversations to friendships) to hundreds. A petty gripe, but let me put it this way: I made sure I had enough confessions squirreled away so THAT I WOULDN'T HAVE TO DO IT THIS YEAR. I would of gotten my "Spirt of Hallowmas" as high as it needed to be without having to do the "Hallowmas Hokey Pokey", burning through hundreds and hundreds of actions accomplishing nothing but Hallowmas related maintenance. All I can say about Hallowmas of years passed is this: Thank you NiteBrite for making what would otherwise be an insufferable grind manageable, even entertaining. Through your powers of "Event Coordination" many were able to achieve the heights of Hallowmas, but hopefully your outstanding abilities won't be needed, or as needed, in the future. Now for some truth: I am an aspiring Fallen London nerd. I started playing when it was still called "Echo Bazaar". I can almost pinpoint the EXACT HOUR I started playing: January 12, 2011, at around 9-10:30 PM, Pacific Standard Time. I made an acount WHILE watching the "Non-Combat Gaming" episode of "Extra Credits". I have been playing ever since. Every day. Checking hourly... and on occasion watching the timer tick down to the next action. I'm no Spacemarine9 or Nitebrite, not even close. I am a lore obsessed POSI who has gone to great lengths to posses as much of London as possible; weapons, clothing, houses, companions, random junk, Uber Treasures... I have been an Exceptional Friend since the days when "Exceptional Stories" were just weekly bite-sized chunks of lore available to everyone (and honestly... I wouldn't be too saddened to see that be a thing again). I battled with the old version of Notability to become a Midnighter. I paid Fate to get early access to "Knife and Candle" just so I could give a coin to my friend so they could start dueling. I have done every Fate locked story. I have spent hundreds of dollars during the "Feast of the Rose"... as I write this I realize a terrifying fact about myself: If FL was like any other "Free-to-Play" game I would be a "Whale". My long winded point being: I am a sucker for London. I have an unhealthy obsession with seeing the words and pictures that Failbetter offers. This Hallowmas I was more than prepared without knowing it. I burned Notability for confessions. Bought extra companions so that I would have the new ones AND the old ones. I spent a total of 345.60 Echos (I have not bought a replacement Tigress yet). Forgive me if my math is wrong: It would take a total of 968.80 Echos to buy every, possible, companion from scratch, not including the one given to you for free. A possibly unfortunate incident if anyone chooses the Henchman or Urchin (28.80 Echos) over the Accomplice (115.20 Echos), I made this mistake, as I chose the Urchin, missing the chance to save 115.20 Echos. In addition to the price in Echos, there are two companions cost something far more substantial: The Watchful Doll (3-5 Fate) and The Rubbery Bellringer (Time and/or Fate). I did not fully contemplate the implications of this until I saw the look of disappointment and frustration on my Fiancee’s face. There has been a lot of disappointment with the final reward; the interview with Huffam. It was exactly as I predicted it would be and I was ecstatic! Justification for collecting every companion. A great reward for my efforts, as I said, I still get a kick out of reading Huffam's reaction to my menagerie. But then I saw what my poor fiancée received... some Making Waves and... a... single... sworn statement. I looked back over my screenshot of the possible interviews and noticed for the first time that there is only ONE option that doesn't result in such a terrible reward: Mine. Where you had to have ALL the possible companions. No possible combinations of the two Accomplices or Urchins or Henchmen or the three Non-Human options. You either got one good FATE LOCKED reward or one of several, and let’s be perfectly blunt, crappy rewards. Unless I am wrong about the Weeping Doll. One could argue that the Companions are the reward themselves, I would not. ~ Skip to Here ~ In the previous years it was possible for anyone to reach the highest possible rewards of Hallowmas with enough grit and determination. It’s okay to have rewards that can’t be achieved by everybody, rewards that acknowledge those who have put more into the game or took different paths when playing. Again, I will only speak for myself, but I was happy to have a reward that could only be achieved because I have invested as much as I did in London. HOWEVER, the problem here is that all but the final option almost seem contemptuous, or at the very least indifferent. I tried justifying the logic for the lock-out on the final reward: 1) The Bengal Tigress is more of a lock-out than either the Rubbery Bellringer or the Watchful Doll, due to its cost. 2) If a player can't get enough Notability then they likely couldn't get enough confessions to get the final reward anyway. I’m not sure of how many one could just normally collect, however I wouldn't have had NEARLY enough if I had relied on the intermittent "free confessions". 3) Three Fate is nothing at all, you can get at least fifteen just by playing the game and reaching certain milestones. 4) The sheer amount of Echos required to buy the base companions needed is something that only a POSI could possibly achieve. 5) Nobody was trying to be malicious, both the Watchful Doll and Rubbery Bellringer are fairly interesting and should get a bit of attention (this could be said for almost all the companions). I immediately disregarded all of these after a minute. It's not fair that the biggest and best option of finale for Hallowmas was Fate Locked. It's not fair that ALL the other options are, let's face it, pointless and seem to be a total afterthought. Even the option for the Extravagantly-Titled Tigress is a joke. A single Sworn Statement and a pointless amount of Making Waves. The rewards of yesteryear might have been less substantial but at least they all reflected the amount of effort that one put into the event. I am deeply enthused about enhancing/upgrading/evolving my companions and items and would love to see it happen more in the future. However, what I am deeply unenthused about is exclusivity. Everyone should have an equal chance or at least a reward that reflects their effort. There is no reason that there couldn't be tiered rewards like every previous Hallowmas. There is no reason that there could have been rewards for getting most of the companions or at least certain groupings. Why not have a reward for having just the two new henchmen? Or any of the other pairs? Why not make it so that the Tigress interview give a point of Notability and maybe a couple of Antique Mysteries? Honestly I am baffled by how frivolous the single companion interviews are. Lots of things have been vastly improved this year. I can say that I will barely miss the old Hallowmas mechanics... but sadly, a sour ending can easily spoil a good thing. I WAS happy with my Hallowmas: a lot of new and good stuff, less stress, and everything is great up to... the interview with Huffam. All in all this has been a vast improvement over last year, but there are still some things that need to be reworked. Hallowmas has always been an odd duck of an event, but it's getting better with every alliteration. Hopefully next year the whole buffet of goodness will end on a sweeter note. -- Hammond All invitations are welcome. {Warning: Messages sent within the forum might not be answered in a timely manner. Please forgive me, it is a bad habit I am trying to break.}
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Nigel Overstreet Posts: 1220 11/14/2016	I would also like to add to the suggestion of getting rid of the multi-tiered confessions. The last week was not confession trading, but rather confession begging from people with low BDR to people with high BDR. Trading on a one to one basis is only trading if the two commodities are of equal value. If everyone has a Sinning Jenny and Soft Hearted Widow, but almost no one has Lettice or Feduci, then it's never going to be an even trade. Then it's just charity. If we're dead set on keeping the weeks multi tiered and having some confessions be more common than others, then there should be an option to trade multiple, smaller confessions. I think this is an insane idea, and would much rather every confession be available both week and have the same probability of draw. Otherwise we're going to have another 80 page thread with almost every single post being some derivation of "I HAVE A MILLION SOFT HEARTED WIDOWS AND NEED A FEDUCI! PLEASE!" -- The Romantic Egotist: Most Hedonistic Man in All of Fallen London Are you or someone you know Overgoated? Please, let me know! Cider Club
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Vavakx Nonexus Posts: 892 11/4/2016	Robin Alexander wrote: Wall of text that I'll cut due to size reasons. Kinda an answer to your points with my opinions on them: Personally, I really like the much more lax nature of it all. A lot of people do. There are enough grinds as is, and being able to be less bogged down every season of the year is pretty pleasing in my opinion. The trading aspect when you had 3 alts to assist you was... greatly dimished, though. I am both happy and disappointed by this, as the trading aspect is one of the more exciting parts of the holiday, and it's a shame to see that 3 accounts cut it to a stump for me. I do agree that Notability needs to be replaced. Perhaps bring back one of the old systems FBG used for early content, like investigations or hunting beasties for the Department of Menace Eradication. Notability has tonnes of problems, like being wonky af, heavily favouring lategame players that didn't seek, screwing over anyone with obscurity and those without PoSI status, the dependence upon the RNGods and Time the Hitler to avoid your house while you're grinding MW up to 15 for Notability 6 and requiring one of the most clicking-heavy repetitive grinds - sideconverting. I am amazed by the huge host of problems this particular way of grinding brings. The RP choices are still there, if somewhat diminished. The choice of companions can be a heavily RP-based one. Do you want to send your old companions in this direction? That one? Are you willing to haunt the goldfish? But, indeed, the options for player confessions shall be dearly missed. At least we have the forums for this sort of thing. The use of masks for SS Confessions also feels somewhat absurd when the pictures have been detached from their meaning, as you only see each type of mask once. (There seems to have been a huge change of aesthetic between the 2 versions of the holiday. We went from 'strange and scary tradition that made everyone stalk you' and into 'a bunch of looters walking around the city on loot day and looking for loot that might just be slightly important to people'. I really miss the old themes a lot, and I hope they get expanded upon.) The focus on companions compounds me as well. While I understand that writing about predefined people your char 100% knows because they own the item is easier, the extreme amount of them is getting annoying. It wouldn't be too hard to do upgrades to items, either. (And would somewhat ease the veteran cries of 'why is this shittier than what I have') The devs did it in the Nadir! I am most befuddled by this. (You have to give it to them, though. All the text for the companions is A+) I feel like old Hallowmas leaned too far into the grind side of things. It stopped being a holiday and became a different way to spend all your actions doing a thing for collector qualities. (C: Masters which, admit it, no one ever actually uses and Huffam, which unlocks a single option and slightly changes the results based on how good your entry was. If anything, the rewards here are much better than before.). I feel like FotER is closer to the desired effect. (But not to the desired amount of microtransactions present in one place. Seriously, the amount of fatelocked gifts in that! ABSURD!) It adds a slew of new options and new text in form of a branching opportunity card and options at the carnival, and doesn't tie itself too close to a hardcore give-me-97%-of-your-actions-for-this-month grind. New Hallowmas seems to be trying to be like Old Hallowmas and FotER both. It ties itself to a grind like Hallowmas did before, except the grind is much worse, and tries to get a slew of interesting text to create a sense of exploration like FotER did. Except, there isn't much exploration. The list of companions isn't, exactly, extensive, and the seven confessions didn't carry any lore beats we didn't already know or that we needed to know. Yes, Feducci went with a group to someplace in the Elder Continent. No, that doesn't help my understanding of him in the slightest.Yes, the Widow is an innocent sweetheart. Yes, we already knew this. Yes, the Captivating Princess is secretly savage af. I doubt this needed any sort of confirmation. etc etc. And then I raged about the lack of sneks in this season. [spoiler]Also, WHERE IS MY OFFICIAL SNEK COMPANION!? THIS IS HALLOWMAS, FOR GODS' SAKES! GIVE US ALL A WAY TO SUPPORT THE FINGERKINGS AND SHOW IT!! Nope. We just get another ket. Of course we get another ket. Why wouldn't we get another ket. Everyone loves kets, apparently. War of bleeping illusions. Curbstomp, really. Even what you did with the Genial Magician's confession isn't tracked now.[/spoiler] edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 11/4/2016 -- Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own. Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness. Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?
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NiteBrite Posts: 1019 11/8/2016	My opinions Pros * Technologically a very sound update to the holiday with some interesting new mechanics. * Much more accommodating mechanics for the casual player. * Trading is a very solid way to expand contact lists, though not necessarily a good way to improve social interaction on the long term. Cons * The Spirit of Hallowmas wasn't removed just as a mechanic or quality, it was removed in spirit as well. Hallowmas was unique among all other FL stories in that it was the one time, the only time, when keeping a trust and upholding your integrity actually paid off for once. Moral choice as reward is a big theme in FL, often skewed so you have to pay dearly to act in a conscientious manner. So it was actually really boosting to see that sometimes, even if on rare occasion, virtue has its rewards and merit. There was no option to keep or protect the trusts and confessions received. You physically were not permitted at any point to act in a way that would have advanced The Spirit of Hallowmas, and that's a huge strike in flavor and lore imo. * Heavy gachaphon emphasis to the exclusion of everything else. The lore added was weak or repetitive of facts we already knew. The main attraction of this Hallowmas was the gachas, which is fair gacha is a clear money maker and you deserve the dollars. It's just a bit shallow in terms of content. It would have better served as a side activity rather than the main event. The sunless sea npc confessions make for a better main focus, but there was nothing new there and as others said the use of the old masks without context felt bizarre. It was disconnected, a left over that didn't fit but lingered anyways. * No other activities were available outside of the gacha. Even the feast of the rose, which is an even bigger catch em all had party locations, special event cards, and just more actual celebration going on throughout the city. It felt like people, nice outside of the player base were also taking part in FoTER where as in this holiday, it felt so isolated, so disconnected from the rest of London. You have this confession you must betray, but also you and only you are doing this and you have to look really really hard to find someone who will participate as an npc. That just feels empty, like, is this really a regularly scheduled holiday or a random occurance of opportunism and loot? It was odd to say the least. * Is someone going to blow up the Bazaar every year? How will this even work as a repeat story. Is Hallowmas now 'official blow up a bit of the bazaar' day? I can't really see it working in a repeat sense as a coherent narrative. * Notability feels too heavily sowed to use as the main grind. Even among the echo rich, end game, active, and real cash dollar paying customer base, notability is crazy tough to grind and it's a system riddled with its own issues TBH. This made the event feel unduly exclusitory. I'm not saying make fate alternatives cheap or easy, or even to extend their reach (ex foyer masquing limits only go so far), just that perhaps something less problematic and with a less biased past could be used instead. * I never saw the stuttering urchinshow up even once. This was his biggest time of activity in the past! He had a strong interest in confessions even paying a small fortune for them in the past, but now he's totally uninterested???? What has happened to my precious son has he met an I'll fate D: Overall I think the mechanics were sound as was the game play. I just didn't feel the lore or the Spirit shine through here and that is a bit disappointing. Also key figures like the masters and the stuttering urchin were erased entirely as was mask lore. Removal of mask events and general atmosphere really harmed how the event connects to the broader world of fallen London. But I guess at least I got my collect em alls so it wasn't completely wasted :v -- I AM currently accepting calling cards. Stats loss counter: reset, irrigo equivalent: none [00:34] <@ortab> NiteBrite's laugh is that of a condemned soul gazing into the abyss. Merciless Modiste avatar by Paul Arendt (based on an original image by Joe England) http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/TheBriteModiste
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Estelle Knoht Posts: 1751 11/13/2016	I think the intent behind the same rewards for individual companions is to ensure people can pick something they like without missing out on rewards. This year's One's Public have the same effectiveness regardless of levels, too. It just doesn't come across very well because: You are not told about that in the interview storylet You are not told during the festival, so people could have went out of their way to collect more companions than just the ones they like This lead to some disappointment if you collected multiples, but not all companions Some companions are difficult to gain in a hurry, so it locked people out It is difficult to plan for, since no one know how many free confessions they can get The lack of information meant that people aren't curbing their expectations like previous Hallowmas People who had no upgraded companions get to have an interview with equal rewards to those who participated The rewards between top tier and others (130 Echoes + 2 Notability vs 36 Points of Making Waves and 2.5 Echoes) are too great The 15-Fate random confessions are awkward - expensive but low and risky payoff for most players and unneeded by old players Otherwise the new Hallowmas is certainly much nicer than Self Humiliation Simulator 2015. I know a lot of people said "but what about the social interaction!?" but trust me, when it comes to that grind you don't do "social". The only social part is the anxiety to do right by your fellow players by answering their confessions as fast as you can while hoping they will not let you down by not answering yours. Betrayal, you say? Good, more scandal for me to confess more! -- Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady. I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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phryne Posts: 1351 11/4/2016	Vavakx Nonexus wrote: Personally, I really like the much more lax nature of it all. A lot of people do. There are enough grinds as is, and being able to be less bogged down every season of the year is pretty pleasing in my opinion. Totally agree with this. Might I remind some of the posters above that not every FL player spends each and every day using all their actions and whatnot - people complaining about not having enough to do are probably not very representative for the playerbase at large, and FB need to think about all of them. I do think that the trading options should have been top of the page - having to search the four starting areas for them every day was kinda fun, but having to scroll down all the way is totally unnecessary - and contributed to some people missing them entirely, see above. What I think would be great is if we could use the confessions for a few other things during the festival - not everyone's interested in having dozens of cool but ultimately rather useless companions. Off the top of my head, you could... a) write a special Hallowmas Exceptional Story that makes use of those confessions b) give us the option to actually blackmail the NPCs themselves - or bury their secrets and win them as Acquaintances c) maybe surprise us by making some actions give out confessions as rare successes during the festival ... and a heap of other things probably. I'd just like for the whole festival to feel more "tied in" with the game at large somehow. -- Accounts: Bag a Legend • Light Fingers • Heart's Desire • Nemesis • no ambition Exceptional Stories, sorted by Season and by writer ― Favours & Renown Guide
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Estelle Knoht Posts: 1751 11/4/2016	If you look at the Election and this Hallowmas, they are sort of similar. Both are frontloaded with an equipment immediately useful to non-endgame players (Master's Gift, free accomplice that can be upgraded quickly), so really busy players do get something nice even if they can't join in too much. I think the problem with Hallowmas, activity wise, is that you either go big (grind Notability like a madman) or go home (just take the free stuff). New players don't have this problem, because they were busy fiddling with nightmares and destiny, but for the layer between people who can easily grind Notability and people who can't, it get a bit awkward because Notability can be a really tall goal or outright unattainable. -- Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady. I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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Màiread Posts: 385 11/5/2016	Marvellous, I spent half an hour typing a response which the forum appears to have eaten. Great. Abridged, more grumpy version: New Hallowmas removes all the fun of last year without fixing any of the problems. It's even more exclusive, needing not only PoSI but money and BDR gear. It's still very action intensive. Notability grinding is a chore, especially without donation, and it's way less fun than grinding confessions was, or the excellent model used by the election which revitalised neglected content. I miss the mad antics (poisoned soup delivery service, cats in the post, bestockinged lecturers everywhere) and the strange, spooky, marvellous atmosphere, all of which felt like FL at its most vital and best. Now you have no options about how you participate; you can only be mercenary. The grind is long and the rewards meagre; I don't much care about items, but anyond capable of getting multiple companions will already have better stuff, and story is thin and undeveloped - I expected to investigate the bomb or help a faction to bury/expose secrets, not just profiteer, and the confessions themselves revealed nothing new. It's pretty weird for a Sovreign of Hallowmas to be hoovering up confessions to exploit. The old event needed to be simplified, I have no argument with that. Breaking 1000 spirit and baking my cake is one of my two or three favourite FL events, but it was a big unwieldy beast. The impulse behind the new festival is good, but it seems to have stripped away all the wonder and merriment without actually solving the fundamental flaws. The event has clarified something about FL I've been thinking about for a while. There is a massive disconnect between how we talk and think of the game - exquisite writing, narrative paradise, meaningful choices where story is king - and how I actually spend 90% of my time in FL, which is mindlessly tapping the same options without reading the text. Last year I read a review for some big release that talked about the idea of games respecting their player's time - increasingly, I feel FL does not, a feeling that is particularly acute this event - I've been looking forward to all the marvels and mysteries and player interractions for weeks, and instead of enjoying a break from the norm I find myself doing the same dull grind as ever. Old Hallowmas was iconic and exemplified everything that made FL mad bad and dangerous to know, for good and for ill. I can't imagine bothering with New Hallowmas next year. -- Màiread - Correspondent, composer, lover of cats. Can probably bake you a d__n fine cake. Useful Links: Traveller's Friend (Progress Tracker & Notability Calculator) \| phryne's Guide to Favours & Renown \| Peggy the Nowoman lived to see the Feast. Thank you for the memories, Snow Lady. I'm happy to accept most social actions except for lethal sparring and loitering suspiciously. Please challenge my plant! Currently not accepting calling cards.
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Estelle Knoht Posts: 1751 11/4/2016	Robin Alexander wrote: Eh, I don't mind collecting things, but I'm not sure the massive obsession with companions lately? Why not gain rare items, or weapons, or rare/large connections/renown, or - well - anything? Or even a choice, so we have a variety of 'prizes'? None of those companions come close to my Fate-locked ones anyway, meaning they're there just as collectors' pieces . . . If you don't want companions, it add up to 14 Favours in total, of which Docks and Rubbery are high in demand! :P I am just happy that this year doesn't involve sending several hundred (bogus) confessions to people I don't know at all. Previous Hallowmas's quantity over quality thing isn't so nice. The new companions and confessions are all really nice, though, since characters we know getting developments are more interesting than recruiting more random characters. As for player confessions.... well, unfortunately I can't see it returning in anyway that have incentives attached. Ideally it should be a quality over quantity thing, where players RP it out and the other side sit on the confession and make a big decision. Realistically speaking, the moment you attach risk and reward to it NiteBrite drowns in confessions..... I mean people start doing it for maximum efficiency to get all the nice things and then run for it. And FL doesn't have the best interface for conversations either. I agree this year needed some sort of middle ground between zero-effort gift basket and PoSI notability frenzy, though. Perhaps a few extra confessions gained from Flush Lay or Pickpocket's Promenade might help? Buying confessions for fate, however, is not particularly tempting compared to the Election. I mean, I should be happier that there isn't anything locked behind a paygate but this is like the classic Japanese Gacha problem - the more progress you have, the less likely you get the thing you want, and even if you get the Confession you want you might not get enough, and it is pricey to boot. -- Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady. I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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Theus Posts: 311 11/4/2016	I preferred this year's festival. For context, I believe I use fewer than 40 actions per day. Last year it seemed very game-y with the coordination around player confession lists, very action intensive, and the chance for people to get upset at each other for betrayals. This year I liked the lighter touch, the prose, and the wide possibility of options for using the confessions. My biggest complaint this year would be the lack of signposting around the NPC trading options. -- http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Hefty~Harrison
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Mr. Secrets Posts: 101 11/8/2016	I would like to mention that my opinion of this season has soured somewhat by only being allowed to have ONE of my companions interviewed unless I got all of them. It rather upsets me because I went to quite some lengths to gather companions only for the majority of them to be ignored. -- Mr. Secrets - We Are In Our Ascendance. There Will Be Ten And Then All Shall Be Well And All Shall Be Well And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well. The Straveling Solider - The Straveling Soldier, The Straveling Soldier hates and hates the beings Solar.
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Myrto Posts: 209 11/11/2016	This was my third Hallowmas. My first was a month after opening my account with FBG, so it was a little bewildering. My second was a year later, so I was able to really enjoy it as a POSI. My opinion is that while I understand the attraction of a less-intense holiday (as others have said above), I really did miss the total Wild West feeling of previous years. As some have also said, the old Hallowmas really felt like a wild party that spread throughout London. Last year, I had a lot of fun trading confessions, betraying some, being betrayed, and amassing Spirit of Hallowmas. I'm not a hardcore enough player to have attained the max Spirit, but it was fun to try. I also really loved the spirit of community last year. After I was pretty much done with my own grind, it was so cool to be able to help out other players who needed help with their grinds. It was a frantic, wild, hilarious time, and I do kind of miss it. This year, I got most of the companions, but even though I'm a maxed-stat player who is mostly in end-game mode, I just couldn't bring myself to grind notability so intensely to get all the companions. I ran the notability grind a few times to get a few extra confessions, but it didn't really feel like a festival (though the Tigress is pretty awesome). To be clear, I didn't hate this year's festival at all. I just kind of miss the craziness of last year. edited by Myrto on 11/11/2016 -- Myrto, a mysterious veteran spy who is only on their own side. Married to navchaa! Edith Alpha Doyle, social climber with grand ambitions; Correspondent who would be happy to assist you in whatever way she can. , teenage orphan who came to the Neath to pursue a career in crime; monster-hunter. Currently on the Seeking road.
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Shadowcthuhlu Posts: 1557 11/4/2016	Would be nice if they had the same silver outline and position in the action screen as the other Hallowmass event actions. -- https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Dirae%20Erinyes. Closed to calling cards, but open for all other social action. I also love to roleplay.
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Prospero Rune Posts: 68 11/5/2016	I won't pretend to have anything as astute or interesting to say as those who've posted before me. Simplistic though they may be, I'll throw discretion to the winds and share my thoughts. Brace yourselves for a random ramble. At this moment, I can't say that I've enjoyed this Hallowmas as much as I did the previous year's. I've been struggling to pinpoint exactly why I feel this way. It seems as though many are having a grand time, so maybe I'm just missing the point. Change your destiny? I'm happy with the one I have, thank you. Purchase new companions? Frankly, I've plenty I'd like to sell off, but can't. Though my heart really isn't in it, I play the game, all alone, and collect as many new roommates as I can. I give up my treasures from the Deep Blue Haven to make some waves to buy nobility to purchase confessions. And so on, and so on. All the time hoping that there will be some special surprise payoff when Mr. Huffam comes calling. There are, however, no guarantees, and every Echo I spend moves me farther away from capturing a Heptagoat. Last year was new and exciting, and the first time I'd participated socially in such a grand way. I was quite looking forward to experiencing that again this year. Instead, I've been...well...bored. I spent a good part of the year cultivating new acquaintances just for this event, but have had no reason to interact with them. Don't laugh, but I created a spreadsheet of confessions I'd keep buried, and those I'd planned to betray. My character is usually the steadfast sort, but is not averse to behaving badly when given the right opportunity. That opportunity vanished with a bang and a thud. I'm not sure I can get over that disappointment. That last thought leaves me feeling that I'm just being selfish. Just because I don't particularly enjoy this event, doesn't mean it's a bad event. It just means I'll plan differently for next year. -- Prospero Rune. Alice Tintin-An Extraordinary Mind. Claude Frollo-A Shattering Force. Drake Maijstral-An Invisible Eminence. Aardent Lore (Gone North). Surface business will draw us away from FL for an undetermined period of time. Forgive us if we cannot respond to social requests in a timely manner.
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Catherine Raymond Posts: 2518 11/5/2016	Shadowcthuhlu wrote: I like the companion upgrades, but I don't like the how scarce and random the needed confessions are - I wish there was a way to trade with the bazaar itself rather then just playing the random confession game. Also, I would like a mechanic for your character and other characters making confessions again. It's a great roleplay opportunity. I'm in agreement with Shadowcthuhlu; I'd have enjoyed the trading mechanic more if Confessions had been less scarce. I also agree with Robin Alexander that there was much more excitement in the Confession race of last year, even though neither of my characters managed to minimax their gains from it. And I don't get the point of the non-tradeable Confessions (the Bishop, Poissonier, etc.) It didn't seem to me that the rewards for either betraying or keeping their trust mounted to much; it felt pointless to me. On the other hand, I really enjoyed some of the augmented Companions. But then, I consider myself a modified Completist. :-) And I still have a boatload (probably a smaller boat than NiteBrite and a lot of people, but still a boatload) of Player Confessions that appear to be of no use. That makes me a bit unhappy. edited by cathyr19355 on 11/5/2016 -- Cathy Raymond http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/cathyr19355 Catherine Raymond aka Mrs. Rykar Malkus http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/Catherine%20Raymond (Gone NORTH)
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Estelle Knoht Posts: 1751 11/8/2016	Robin Alexander wrote: Edit: The NPC confessions felt wasted, too, as Huffman didn't seem to even care about them . . . plus, I think they were the same as last year? They didn't seem to serve much purpose (in the sense of our choice to betray/confide having any impact on role-playing or mechanics or anything, aside from a few material rewards). These are mostly the ties-in for Sunless Sea from before - they are probably left in because there are new players from Sunless Sea with Zubmariner released. I do agree with Lisbella that I am curious about the explosion - perhaps having a central mystery to solve could plug the gap between "grind Notability" and "get confessions". -- Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady. I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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Lady Sapho Byron Posts: 770 11/6/2016	I am torn! The crazed menace grinding and social actioning of Hallowmases past was at once wonderful and frustrating ... I miss it and I do not miss it. Much like Nitebrite's party, this Hallowmas was chill ... perhaps a touch too chill (Hallowmas was, not the party) ... I would have liked the need/opportunity for a bit more social actions. Perhaps a larger number of confessions to collect and a larger number of confession required to upgrade companions? That is, reasons to make confession trading more common and necessary. I did, however, very much appreciate the free companion ... this was a special boon for my just-started alt who picked up a very expensive Alluring Accomplice! That brought me much happiness. And upgrading companions was delightful as well, some of them provide an impressive stat boost. Finally, I very much support Parelle's idea of being able to donate confessions to other players. I should like to see that, should this version of Hallowmas return next year. edited by Lady Sapho Byron on 11/6/2016 -- http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/Lady%20Sapho%20L%20Byron Fighting the Menace of Corsetry Since 1892.
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Lisbella Peridot Posts: 138 11/7/2016	I just want to know who blew up the door this Hallowmas.... -- Anatasia Swansong - fencing prodigy, extraordinary beauty, and very stubborn Welcoming friends of all sorts! All independent now. Kelly Siniature - grinning, deranged, elegant child of indistinct gender Kelly is taking a long break on isolation. I also play Town of Salem and a few other games - still Lisbella Peridot! I finally regained stable internet access, so I should be around more often...
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PJ Posts: 210 11/8/2016	The ending did feel anticlimactic. A resolution to the mystery of the explosion would have been welcome. -- https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Peter%20James
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Kade Carrion (an_ocelot) Posts: 1372 11/7/2016	My new character (stats in the 80s, no Notability yet) upgraded her Accomplice, Goldfish, Tigress, and Watchful Doll without spending Fate, through a mix of NPC and player trades. All my new Companions delight me, and I was glad of the lower-key nature of it--I found last Hallowmas not very much fun. -- Social Actions: send them to Kade Carrion (she/her; no Tournament of Lilies, please). an_ocelot has gone NORTH and cannot benefit from social actions! Possibly-Useful Things: Spreadsheets and hints and link collections, oh my.
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pillbox Posts: 94 11/4/2016	I don't know about years past, but so far the best bit of this year's Hallowmas has been the liveliness of the thread (Thank you, NiteBrite!). I could take or leave the in-game bit entirely. The collector-iness of the entire thing undermines the quality of the lore, IMO (by which I mean I'd cheerfully trade all the upgrade options for more story time. The story is its own reward!) -- Greeting from the lady http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Pillbox !
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Barse Posts: 706 11/4/2016	To clarify, there are no Opp cards for trades but there are NPC options that cycle daily - today, for example, you can trade the Illuminated Gentleman's confession for others in Spite. It was unclear from your posts whether you knew this or not - if so then sorry! I loved this year's festival to begin with - who doesn't love new companions? - but I agree it got boring quickly, with not a lot to do. Huffam's appearance will change that again, but possibly not for long - in the past he's only been one conversation. Old Hallowmas was a crazy frenzy and I agree that something needed to be done to tone it down and make it more sensible, but while I really enjoyed new NPCs and NPC interactions, this feels a little like a 3 or 4 day thing spread over 2 weeks. (Also, echoing the usual moans about gifting notability and confessions and social actions generally - it's a real shame that isn't sorted out, especially for this festival in particular.) This must have been a hell of a lot of work to put together, and I had a really good time with it all - I just feel like there is, somewhere, a more consistently engaging middle ground. Edit: On a re-read this comes across as more negative than I feel. While all of the above still represents my opinion, I can't overstate that I have had such a good time this Hallowmas, due both to the high quality of this new content and the always-delicious community. edited by Barselaar on 11/4/2016 -- The Scorched Sailor, up for most social actions and RP. Not as scary as he looks.
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Shadowcthuhlu Posts: 1557 11/4/2016	I like the companion upgrades, but I don't like the how scarce and random the needed confessions are - I wish there was a way to trade with the bazaar itself rather then just playing the random confession game. Also, I would like a mechanic for your character and other characters making confessions again. It's a great roleplay opportunity. -- https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Dirae%20Erinyes. Closed to calling cards, but open for all other social action. I also love to roleplay.
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pillbox Posts: 94 11/4/2016	Robin Alexander wrote: Well, I was probably more than a little vocal, but . . . nervous cough I prefer last year's festival; I was actually super psyched in previous months, just waiting for this year's festival, because I loved last year's so much and was waiting for a shot at improving my tactics. The action-count was massively heavy, but free/zero action requests (or a daily limit to requests) could have fixed that . . . but then lots of people made the upper limit easily, so maybe it was fine. Anyway, it seemed good to me. I was able to work for what I wanted, earn what I wanted, and felt that I deserved what I received. There was also the chance to boost the Masters connection, as well as various options that were amazing for role-playing . . . do you betray real-life friends or not? Who do you betray them to? The probably only downside was not being able to confess/betray to the same people the following year, but that could have been easily fixed (that's just what I hear, though, as I only did the one festival). This year -? Ugh. It feels like an Advent Calendar, but a really biased and unfair Calendar. First of all, no one fixed the issue with social actions, so no one can send a point of Notability to anyone . . . leaving aside things like that, non-PSOI and people who use up their Notability have no means to grind, so they're forced to spend Fate, which not everyone can afford. So you cannot physically get all of the companions . . . You're also left with nothing to do, because you collect one NPC confession, then another confession, and - yup - you're done for the day. You might spend 3 actions in a day, if you're lucky, and that's it . . . no actual game-play, no painful/complex role-playing choices, no involving any of your RL friends (aside from some trading in the second week, maybe) . . . it's an absolute bore. Last year's festival maybe needed a couple of tweaks, but that was it . . . this year's festival just feels kind of lazy (I'm real sorry to say that)! It points out huge flaws in unfinished features, lacks any kind of real choices or anything to do, and the only bonus are new companions . . . Eh, I don't mind collecting things, but I'm not sure the massive obsession with companions lately? Why not gain rare items, or weapons, or rare/large connections/renown, or - well - anything? Or even a choice, so we have a variety of 'prizes'? None of those companions come close to my Fate-locked ones anyway, meaning they're there just as collectors' pieces . . . I'm just . . . really disappointed. Might not bother next year. I concur. Though I never really aim to get all the companions the fact that I'm struggling to get two is alarming - last year it was because I was delicate with social actions, this year it's because there's just no way to do it. I collected all the offered confessions and got, what? Five or six, total, so far, for the upgrades. Still waiting on one of those apparently exceptionally rare "trade x confession for y confession" cards to pop up. Last years was much more interactive and immersive. -- Greeting from the lady http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Pillbox !
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Estelle Knoht Posts: 1751 11/10/2016	While I absolutely adore using the wiki, I have met a considerable amount of players who is more wary of browsing it. Not to mention, people prefer asking questions first and looking it up second. If someone told them "nope, it is only a gift from others" they are very likely to stop looking for more information. Generally speaking it is not that bad to have obscure stuff, but at the same time it is not that unreasonable that some people are slightly miffed at the requirement of Campanologist and Doll. -- Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady. I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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Kukapetal Posts: 1449 11/10/2016	I enjoyed the new changes a lot. I'm not a huge lover of risky social actions, since I've been burned by them a lot in the past. But I LOVE Companions! So I really liked that that was the focus and all the new Companion upgrades offered were really cute and funny. I do wish that there had been the option to interview each companion individually rather than having it be all of them or one of them...although I was able to get them all, I know not everyone else was, but plenty of people still got as many as they could. Having each companion gained have their own interview and reward would have been better than treating someone who was able to get 9 companions the same as someone who was able to get only one. "The more you collect, the better the reward" seems more fair than "all or nothing." The only other issue I had was a minor but still frustrating one. I don't think the Rubbery Bellringer should have been among the companions who could be upgraded. He's both expensive and hasn't been around very long, meaning many of us weren't even close to getting him by the time Hallowmas came around (I would grind for him every time the Rubbery card popped up but was still only at Renown 15). This resulted in me spending most of the festival in Flute Street doing a really action intensive grind for favors...time that I much would have rather spent doing other Hallowmas related stuff. I also used up a lot of my Fate to increase favors too, fate I would have rather spent on getting more confessions or replaying the exceptional stories that were discounted. Basically, having one of the upgrades be for a companion who is expensive and who I hadn't had a lot of time to "save up" for took a lot of the fun out of Hallowmas for me, eating up time and fate I would have rather spent on the festival for a long and expensive grind. I'm not saying all the upgradable companions should be ones you can buy at the Bazaar for fifty cents, but the Rubbery Bellringer was just the wrong combination of "hard to get" combined with "recently introduced" that turned much of the holiday from "fun" to "a chore." (That said, it was nice of the game to give us one of the upgradable human companions for free at the beginning of the festival) All in all, I did love the major changes to the festival and I really appreciate the people behind the game being willing to try new stuff for these festivals. Whether next year's festival is like this year's, reverts to being like previous years', is completely new, or is some combination of all three, I'll be really glad we had this year's content.
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Ginneon Thursday Posts: 265 11/10/2016	I do wish there were more incentive for social actions, other than ultimately trying to find people with rarer confessions, who had little incentive to trade them away. I think there probably is a more interesting social mechanic here somewhere. That said, it is a bit of a relief to not have to grind menaces and trade confessions hundreds of times. And I liked the upgradable companions, as well as seeking confessions of notable characters. edited by Ginneon Thursday on 11/11/2016 -- Ginneon Thursday: Revelrous Professor of Benthic Departments of Mycoenology, Lepidoptery
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MrBurnside Posts: 188 11/10/2016	Màiread wrote: Snip ... Last year I read a review for some big release that talked about the idea of games respecting their player's time - increasingly, I feel FL does not, a feeling that is particularly acute this event - I've been looking forward to all the marvels and mysteries and player interractions for weeks, and instead of enjoying a break from the norm I find myself doing the same dull grind as ever. Old Hallowmas was iconic and exemplified everything that made FL mad bad and dangerous to know, for good and for ill. I can't imagine bothering with New Hallowmas next year. I think I feel similarly. Some of the last festivals felt very... slight when it came to design choices made. This is something exacerbated by a lack of signposting and polish (in game) and almost no communication with the fanbase (outside of the game). All festivals in FL change regularly of course. What happened last year is a poor indicator of what is coming this year and FBGs makes that exceedingly clear. But with such changes come a need for clarity. Why were there two varieties of confession? Which confessions were used for Huffam? Was keeping them useful? Did they have to be spent before the 8th or simply gathered by then? Why make one of the upgradable companions only available during the FotER? (I know, now, that it could be gotten through Watchmaker's Hill, but, being fate-locked, this info was not available on the wiki.) Why was there no notes pointing out where all the different critters could be obtained? The lack of signposting was here during the Election. It was a problem last year with the Nomen stuff. When combined with a lack of out-of-game communication, it's hard to feel that our time is being respected. I seem to remember (FOUND! I don't want to take anything out of context so the whole post is here), after the Election, one of the staff mentioning that MVP (minimum-viable-product) was the goal for their new festivals. MVP may be a little too low a bar for my tastes, especially when fixing all the questions I listed above would have taken less then 200 words total. Adding a little overlap between the stages would have taken even less writing.
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Mr Sables Posts: 597 11/9/2016	I saw how the lack of alerts in the game itself caused some members to lose out on collecting companions . . . not everyone frequents social media, nor should be expected to do so, and so it might be good to have warnings in the banner concerning festival ends? Or leave people messages in their game inbox?
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Parelle Posts: 1084 11/4/2016	I am of two minds here: Grinding for Notablity is at least more fun then the Feast of the Rose year 2 with no Fate (i.e., you've got almost all of the companions and no more are forthcoming.). But the lack of a Donation is a huge pain. Like someone else here I mistimed my click for a new confession (before I got Notablity 6 but after I had already gotten the MW). Luckily for me it was for my 14th confession so I've had enough to finish (with some generous help.). It would be nice to be able to donate confessions rather than trade them - though I can obviously see how that can be abused. This also has got to be the most expensive festival thus far with having to purchase the upgradable companions - never mind having to decide whether replacing my alluring accomplice is worth it (probably not, right now, having all but hawked every penny I have to avoid selling my top tier items and the 49 Enigmas I've in storage.) And I joked about best in slot boots during the election, but please. Gloves maybe? A festival of shoes? But, Slowcake aside, I did enjoy the lack of opportunity cards requires for the festival. Though one granting confessions randomly to non-POSI characters would have been helpful, perhaps? edited by Parelle on 11/4/2016 -- Parelle, Lady Joseph Marlen. The Singular Librarian. A Midnighter, a Player of the Marvelous. pages from a dusty bookshop: a badly updated FL changelog \| Useful Guidance and Explanations
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Blaine Davidson Posts: 388 11/4/2016	As much as I love the potential for new collectable companions I preferred the older Hallowmas. I greatly underestimated how much I would enjoy corresponding with the community and it was so nice to have an alternative dump for my actions. One does tire of the Fidgeting Writer grind especially after a few failed runs. There just doesn't feel like there's much to do this year. I agree with the Advent calendar comparison but at least the Advent calendar came every day. -- Blaine Davidson, a reserved and sensible woman with a fondness of collecting rarities.
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Jermaine Vendredi Posts: 588 11/5/2016	Aardent Lore wrote: Purchase new companions? Frankly, I've plenty I'd like to sell off, but can't. So true. Accommodation, too. -- No plant battles, please. https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Jermion
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Mr Sables Posts: 597 11/4/2016	phryne wrote: Might I remind some of the posters above that not every FL player spends each and every day using all their actions and whatnot - people complaining about not having enough to do are probably not very representative for the playerbase at large, and FB need to think about all of them.. That's a totally fair point. I just think there needs to be something more, though; it's a little like the Zee Festival . . . you had the option to grind and use all your actions to get certain items, or just general bonuses, but they weren't so intensive that casual players would lose out. You also had other things you could do, so if you didn't want to fish all day then you didn't have to . . . it was probably a good 'medium' between every single action dedicated solely to the festival and barely any actions spent at all . . . Even as a casual player, I think this lax nature is a bit extreme. I can get that people have work and college and the like, and not everyone can spend all day at a computer, but . . . if you log on after a long day, a lot of people play for escapism or something to do, and having just three clicks (zero or one on some days) is incredibly dull. That being said . . . If the festival was condensed, as another user talked about, it might not have felt so bad. If it was over say five or seven days, with each day having one 'collect another confession' and/or an NPC confession, it might have felt like "more" was going on . . . over two weeks, though, it feels like there's an insanely less amount of content, because some days are totally empty, while there's a sense of it dragging on . . . I don't think it needs to be exactly like last year, but it should draw a little from last year. Too much to do is a bad thing, but too little to do is equally as bad.
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Vavakx Nonexus Posts: 892 11/4/2016	phryne wrote: Vavakx Nonexus wrote: Personally, I really like the much more lax nature of it all. A lot of people do. There are enough grinds as is, and being able to be less bogged down every season of the year is pretty pleasing in my opinion. Totally agree with this. Might I remind some of the posters above that not every FL player spends each and every day using all their actions and whatnot - people complaining about not having enough to do are probably not very representative for the playerbase at large, and FB need to think about all of them. I do think that the trading options should have been top of the page - having to search the four starting areas for them every day was kinda fun, but having to scroll down all the way is totally unnecessary - and contributed to some people missing them entirely, see above. What I think would be great is if we could use the confessions for a few other things during the festival - not everyone's interested in having dozens of cool but ultimately rather useless companions. Off the top of my head, you could... a) write a special Hallowmas Exceptional Story that makes use of those confessions b) give us the option to actually blackmail the NPCs themselves - or bury their secrets and win them as Acquaintances c) maybe surprise us by making some actions give out confessions as rare successes during the festival ... and a heap of other things probably. I'd just like for the whole festival to feel more "tied in" with the game at large somehow. An entire special ES seems a bit over-the-top, but a smaller story, fate-locked or not, about Hallowmas as a holiday could work. Addendum about loot variety: We could've gotten some cool masks this Holiday. This is the holiday of masks, and we got none. There are supposed to be at least 6 distinct hallowmas masks. I wish we got to choose one to keep as a memorial, maybe getting 1 BDR or +3-5 to a stat from it. -- Amets Estibariz, the Moulting Eidolon: Cradled by a sun all their own. Blabbing, the Hobo Everyone Knows: The One Who Pulls The Strings. A Clarity In The Darkness. Charlotte and the Caretaker: A family?
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Shadowcthuhlu Posts: 1557 11/8/2016	I for one wish to echo Note bite and for a chance to investigate that door. However, I'm going to continue looking forward for next year - maybe it will be more developed when it's not so close to the zubmariner release -- https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Dirae%20Erinyes. Closed to calling cards, but open for all other social action. I also love to roleplay.
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PSGarak Posts: 834 11/7/2016	With the caveat that I did not participate in the festival last year, I enjoyed this year's version. However, I think my experience was not representative. My character's progression was right at the very narrow band where I spent 80-90% of my actions during the past two weeks on the Festival (mostly grinding Notability), and just barely managed to acquire all of the bonus companions (only possible due to the bonus confession this morning). So for me, this was a pretty consuming and high-stakes festival. Most players are outside of that band and would either not grind so much, or be able to complete everything ahead of time. This was also the thing that finally made me start using Social Actions, which of course makes it memorable and worthwhile in its own right. I also tapped myself out of a lot of stored-up resources in order to complete the Notability grind: all of my stored Nights on the Town, Connected: Society, Bohemian, and University, my banked Salon progress. I had already made some significant Echoes purchases recently, so purchasing the companions to be upgraded cut to the bone. And I... kind of liked that, actually. For maybe the month or so preceding (basically, since I finished my Zub grind), the grinding-for-grinding's-sake felt a bit pointless. But now, it seems like there's a purpose. My previous resource build-up prepared me to succeed for this festival, and my future endeavors will be preparing me for the next time I need a new goldfish. Although it still stings when I remember that I donated ~450E worth of treasure for the sake of making waves (5 expeditions turned up 3x2 Night Whispers and a Bottle of 4th City Airag). I would have liked it to be less grindy, though. Or at least new grinds. The 50-pence item conversion carousel is repetitive. If I have to grind something for the festival, it feels better if the grind itself is festival-related, instead of an existing grind for holiday purposes. I guess this echoes what other people have said before: The amount of strictly-festival-related actions is very small over the course of the festival. It just for me generated enough tangentially-festival-related actions that I was engaged. -- http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/PSGarak
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Julius Stokes Posts: 113 11/7/2016	I find it vexing that I can't get all the companions or even half of the companions. Especially because of my new character goal to get one of every possible companion. -- http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Julias~Stokes - A revolutionary of his own sort, who has devoted his life to overthrowing the Bazaar, ascending to godhood, and saving London. Doesn't have to be in that order. I'll accept any social actions - except maybe suspicious loitering.
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phryne Posts: 1351 11/7/2016	Catherine Raymond wrote: I also love your option b); there are some NPCs it would be great to have as companions (you did mean "Companions", right?) Actually, I did mean "Acquaintances" There's far too many companions in the game as is.... I'd like to have more Acquaintances like the Wry Functionary, Regretful Soldier etc... I think one for each map location would be great, even the more obscure ones like Wilmot's End. -- Accounts: Bag a Legend • Light Fingers • Heart's Desire • Nemesis • no ambition Exceptional Stories, sorted by Season and by writer ― Favours & Renown Guide
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Prospero Rune Posts: 68 11/6/2016	Lady Sapho Byron wrote: Finally, I very much support Parelle's idea of being able to donate confessions to other players. I should like to see that, should this version of Hallowmas return next year. edited by Lady Sapho Byron on 11/6/2016 I actually liked the idea that confessions had to be traded, and not just given away. Maybe next year, though, confessions could be traded for other items - whispered hints, rostygold, etc. Maybe the trade might cause increases in menaces, or effect quirks in some way. The trades shouldn't come cheap; they should hurt a bit. -- Prospero Rune. Alice Tintin-An Extraordinary Mind. Claude Frollo-A Shattering Force. Drake Maijstral-An Invisible Eminence. Aardent Lore (Gone North). Surface business will draw us away from FL for an undetermined period of time. Forgive us if we cannot respond to social requests in a timely manner.
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pillbox Posts: 94 11/4/2016	Barselaar wrote: To clarify, there are no Opp cards for trades but there are NPC options that cycle daily - today, for example, you can trade the Illuminated Gentleman's confession for others in Spite. It was unclear from your posts whether you knew this or not - if so then sorry! Ah, I didn't notice it so far down the page! I was waiting for it to turn up in the deck. Shame on me. -- Greeting from the lady http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Pillbox !
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Shadowcthuhlu Posts: 1557 11/4/2016	pillbox wrote: Robin Alexander wrote: Well, I was probably more than a little vocal, but . . . nervous cough I prefer last year's festival; I was actually super psyched in previous months, just waiting for this year's festival, because I loved last year's so much and was waiting for a shot at improving my tactics. The action-count was massively heavy, but free/zero action requests (or a daily limit to requests) could have fixed that . . . but then lots of people made the upper limit easily, so maybe it was fine. Anyway, it seemed good to me. I was able to work for what I wanted, earn what I wanted, and felt that I deserved what I received. There was also the chance to boost the Masters connection, as well as various options that were amazing for role-playing . . . do you betray real-life friends or not? Who do you betray them to? The probably only downside was not being able to confess/betray to the same people the following year, but that could have been easily fixed (that's just what I hear, though, as I only did the one festival). This year -? Ugh. It feels like an Advent Calendar, but a really biased and unfair Calendar. First of all, no one fixed the issue with social actions, so no one can send a point of Notability to anyone . . . leaving aside things like that, non-PSOI and people who use up their Notability have no means to grind, so they're forced to spend Fate, which not everyone can afford. So you cannot physically get all of the companions . . . You're also left with nothing to do, because you collect one NPC confession, then another confession, and - yup - you're done for the day. You might spend 3 actions in a day, if you're lucky, and that's it . . . no actual game-play, no painful/complex role-playing choices, no involving any of your RL friends (aside from some trading in the second week, maybe) . . . it's an absolute bore. Last year's festival maybe needed a couple of tweaks, but that was it . . . this year's festival just feels kind of lazy (I'm real sorry to say that)! It points out huge flaws in unfinished features, lacks any kind of real choices or anything to do, and the only bonus are new companions . . . Eh, I don't mind collecting things, but I'm not sure the massive obsession with companions lately? Why not gain rare items, or weapons, or rare/large connections/renown, or - well - anything? Or even a choice, so we have a variety of 'prizes'? None of those companions come close to my Fate-locked ones anyway, meaning they're there just as collectors' pieces . . . I'm just . . . really disappointed. Might not bother next year. I concur. Though I never really aim to get all the companions the fact that I'm struggling to get two is alarming - last year it was because I was delicate with social actions, this year it's because there's just no way to do it. I collected all the offered confessions and got, what? Five or six, total, so far, for the upgrades. Still waiting on one of those apparently exceptionally rare "trade x confession for y confession" cards to pop up. Last years was much more interactive and immersive. A rare enough card that I didn't even realize it existed, when I made my complaint about the lack of trading confessions without the use of other players. -- https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Dirae%20Erinyes. Closed to calling cards, but open for all other social action. I also love to roleplay.
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Mr. Secrets Posts: 101 11/7/2016	So I am going to be a bit of a base breaker here and say that I really enjoyed Hallowmas this season. Now I'd like you folks to hear me out before you bring out the pitchforks and torches. Last year, Hallowmas came about 1 month after I started playing Fallen London. Perhaps 2 months. I played the game without bothering with social actions, mostly for the story and the joy of playing the game. I was not an active forum poster, and situations that required other players annoyed me because it was effectively locked content. During that Hallowmas I had lots of stuff to do, I had other content to manage I believe I was busy dueling Feducci, stealing items from the Flit, and avoiding the forgotten quarter due to its extravagant prices. Back then I was not an exceptional friend, so I only had 20 actions at a time. I believe that I checked Fallen London 2 times a day, once when I woke up and once before I went to bed. So I only had about 40 actions a day. In the end I chose a Destiny, gathered the NPC confessions, and got a very small Making Waves boost from One's Public that I did not make use of for nearly three months. This year, I was prepared for a massive social action extravaganza that would interrupt my daily flow but was instead pleasantly surprised. Despite the fact that my character is nearly at the content barrier, I still had things to do that Hallowmas would have interrupted. I have another 6800 echoes to grind for my first goat, I have a vial of Master's Blood to grind out, I have scraps to gather, and etc. I was expecting all of my day to day activities being halted, instead I had a few pleasant actions devoted daily to the festival. I'd gather a new confession, either one from the Bazaar or showing up in a mask to gather it in person. Then I would look around for where to trade my confession in game if I needed something else; or go online to the forums if that failed. After a few days of that, I would be rewarded with some new development for one of my companions and repeat the process. The rest of my actions were spent on my own projects. I personally like that the festival is not all-consuming, because the vast majority of the player base are probably in a similar boat. They have their own grinds and plans to take care of, and Hallowmas is just a fun activity. For newer players, they were given at least one free companion, the opportunity to upgrade them, a destiny, and the opportunity to advance their connections. For older players, we had the chance to gather companions like candy and have a nice Making Waves boost in store for us when Mr. Huffman arrives. Was this years Hallowmas done perfectly? No, but that is ok because it was still a much nicer experience than last year's Hallowmas for less "serious" players. Confession grinding with Notability was difficult for people without a large amount of BDR, for instance my character can grind from Notability 1 to Notability 3 without gathering any Making Waves. For other people however, I can imagine that this will be terribly difficult. Still, this was balanced around the idea that players with lower BDR (or even people who are not yet PoSI) also have less money to spend on companions and more things to do outside of the festival. This is not a perfect system, but I feel like there was a careful thought process behind its creation. Forcing trades for confessions was important because otherwise people with alternate accounts would have an even greater advantage than they already possess, and trust me even with 1 alternate account (who is not a PoSI, has no fate, and thus was limited in the number of confessions he could gather) it became much easier to get the companions I desired on my main. Heck, I even managed to get my alternate account some very solid companions out of the trades. I think the lack of social aspects was more dearly felt than usual because London has been recently denied it's favorite past time of murder-tag. If we had some kind of social game to play during the festival, the lack of festival specific game would not have been missed. edited by ShroudedInLight on 11/7/2016 -- Mr. Secrets - We Are In Our Ascendance. There Will Be Ten And Then All Shall Be Well And All Shall Be Well And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well. The Straveling Solider - The Straveling Soldier, The Straveling Soldier hates and hates the beings Solar.
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supremecuisine Posts: 4 11/9/2016	I like this hallowmas more. The idea of upgrading companions is fun, and the mechanics were not super action intensive unless you really were going for broke. In addition the whole thing was much more straightforward. You really needed a guide to work through the old hallowmas. The extra text this year was also nice. I am a firm believer that games should be playable within the framework given, and previous hallowmas required far too much external use of gdocs and forums and such. A little of that is fine, but I shouldn't be spending more time on Gdocs than actually playing. Also getting hundreds of confessions makes each one seem effectively meaningless. That said I do miss the drama associated with the confessions and betrayals and the fun of trying to efficiently farm menaces. I would suggest that you use the profession system in some way. Say that people can collect one confession from other players per day, and then have the type of confession received be specific to the confessors profession. This makes every confession special while still allowing drama and intrigue As a last comment, the flavor was not quite right on this hallowmas. The confessions just didn't feel confession-y. They could have been pretty much any item really. It would be nice to have something that makes them feel like confessions such as an extortion or some revenge for a betrayal. Also the logical connections between the confessions and the upgrades were sometimes a bit weak (the tigress being a notable exception). A little bit more spookiness would be nice too, but there is usually a good amount of that in fallen london, so that is low priority. -- http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Supremecuisine
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Felicity Anne Stratford Posts: 63 11/12/2016	Hammond wrote: I am deeply sorry for the length of this damn thing. Everyone is totally justified if "TLDR" is their response to this monstrosity Thank you for writing this! As a new player, this thread does not seem to be asking for my opinion, but it does capture a little of how I felt about the end - I know there are lots of more experienced players and I have no issue with that. But the ending felt like it rubbed my face in that fact. I shrugged and went on with my life, but it was a disappointment after I spent around 45 Fate during the event. EDIT: I do love the new companions though! So obviously I am not completely annoyed or upset. Just let down at the end. edited by Felicity Anne Stratford on 11/12/2016 -- 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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Prospero Rune Posts: 68 11/13/2016	It is good to see that many enjoyed the event. For me, I will be scaling back my participation in seasonal events. I'm not a collector, so grinding away to collect new companions or equipment that don't add to the gameplay just isn't appealing. It might help if we were given a way to unload useless companions. Hallowmas has also made me think more critically about social actions, and how best to engage with others. For the most part, I've been able to find useful contacts here on the forum, and I will probably just stick with that approach. I still love FL, and will continue to play (and spend Fate) for as long as it's around. I've just learned to curtail my excitement when the holidays roll around. -- Prospero Rune. Alice Tintin-An Extraordinary Mind. Claude Frollo-A Shattering Force. Drake Maijstral-An Invisible Eminence. Aardent Lore (Gone North). Surface business will draw us away from FL for an undetermined period of time. Forgive us if we cannot respond to social requests in a timely manner.
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Estelle Knoht Posts: 1751 11/14/2016	Not all the events should glue people to the screen, though, and the event did succeed in getting people to start interacting with other players. After all, Christmas didn't glue people to the screen unless you commit to hoarding a truckful of space-crab substance by brown nosing orphans. -- Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady. I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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dov Posts: 2580 11/10/2016	Estelle Knoht wrote: While I absolutely adore using the wiki, I have met a considerable amount of players who is more wary of browsing it. Not to mention, people prefer asking questions first and looking it up second. If someone told them "nope, it is only a gift from others" they are very likely to stop looking for more information. Generally speaking it is not that bad to have obscure stuff, but at the same time it is not that unreasonable that some people are slightly miffed at the requirement of Campanologist and Doll. I absolutely agree. People shouldn't have to rely on the wiki to play, and a note in the game pointing (or hinting) that the Doll can be acquired in Watchmaker's Hill would have been welcome. I just wanted to point out that the wiki does have this info in it, since several people have commented that because it's a Fate item they had no way to find this on the wiki. -- Want a sip of Hesperidean Cider? Send me a request in-game. Here's an_ocelot's guide how. (Most social actions are welcome. Please no requests to Loiter Suspiciously and no investigations of the Affluent Photographer)
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MrBurnside Posts: 188 11/10/2016	dov wrote: Estelle Knoht wrote: While I absolutely adore using the wiki, I have met a considerable amount of players who is more wary of browsing it. Not to mention, people prefer asking questions first and looking it up second. If someone told them "nope, it is only a gift from others" they are very likely to stop looking for more information. Generally speaking it is not that bad to have obscure stuff, but at the same time it is not that unreasonable that some people are slightly miffed at the requirement of Campanologist and Doll. I absolutely agree. People shouldn't have to rely on the wiki to play, and a note in the game pointing (or hinting) that the Doll can be acquired in Watchmaker's Hill would have been welcome. I just wanted to point out that the wiki does have this info in it, since several people have commented that because it's a Fate item they had no way to find this on the wiki. I appreciate your doing so. I'm exactly as described. I was familiar with the doll from the FotER, and so made the mistake of assuming that, like so many other companions from that festival, it was festival specific.
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th8827 Posts: 823 11/9/2016	As a player who started last year as Hallowmas was beginning, I found this year's Hallowmas much more approachable than last year. I did not have any friends yet, so I was relegated to the special confessions, preventing me from making the most of my Holiday that year. I can see this year's format being much more approachable to solo players, giving them a chance to get the top prize without requiring networking. -- http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/th8827 Gone NORTH. It's nice here.
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Chronos Posts: 135 11/9/2016	I think this is my third Hallowmas. I totally skipped the first one because I don't like social actions specially when they are the main mechanic. That's why, last year, I liked the confessions of notable characters since at least I could get some Spirit of Hallowmas. Too bad this year not betraying them doesn't give any advantage and they didn't influence at all the Huffman part. The whole thing seemed just out of context this year. I love companions (and weapons, but this is another story) so i loved the upgrades too. Too bad confessions were rare and the notability grind was too much for me. At the end of the festival I got all upgrades I wanted the most (tigress, rubbery, fabulous and esoteric accomplices, and the fish with my alt) but only due to the extra confession. I expected The Unexpurgated Gazette quality to be under Accomplishment, but it is under Story instead. And no Hallowmas qualities under Seasonal? edited by Chronos on 11/9/2016 -- Please don't send me harmful social actions main: https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Chronos78 alt: https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Chronos2
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Shadowcthuhlu Posts: 1557 11/4/2016	Nope, I'm somehow managed to miss that memo - granted, those options would probably more useful after everyone has gathered all the potential confessions. Like a second stage trade-in that they have with Feast of the Rose and all that. -- https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Dirae%20Erinyes. Closed to calling cards, but open for all other social action. I also love to roleplay.
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Catherine Raymond Posts: 2518 11/6/2016	Jermaine Vendredi wrote: Aardent Lore wrote: Purchase new companions? Frankly, I've plenty I'd like to sell off, but can't. So true. Accommodation, too. There's a reason the game encourages one to acquire lots of London real estate.... -- Cathy Raymond http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/cathyr19355 Catherine Raymond aka Mrs. Rykar Malkus http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/Catherine%20Raymond (Gone NORTH)
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Catherine Raymond Posts: 2518 11/6/2016	phryne wrote: Vavakx Nonexus wrote: Personally, I really like the much more lax nature of it all. A lot of people do. There are enough grinds as is, and being able to be less bogged down every season of the year is pretty pleasing in my opinion. Totally agree with this. Might I remind some of the posters above that not every FL player spends each and every day using all their actions and whatnot - people complaining about not having enough to do are probably not very representative for the playerbase at large, and FB need to think about all of them. I do think that the trading options should have been top of the page - having to search the four starting areas for them every day was kinda fun, but having to scroll down all the way is totally unnecessary - and contributed to some people missing them entirely, see above. What I think would be great is if we could use the confessions for a few other things during the festival - not everyone's interested in having dozens of cool but ultimately rather useless companions. Off the top of my head, you could... a) write a special Hallowmas Exceptional Story that makes use of those confessions b) give us the option to actually blackmail the NPCs themselves - or bury their secrets and win them as Acquaintances c) maybe surprise us by making some actions give out confessions as rare successes during the festival ... and a heap of other things probably. I'd just like for the whole festival to feel more "tied in" with the game at large somehow. Phryne: Your idea about FBG maybe writing and Exceptional Story that uses Confessions gave me another idea; being able to use Confessions to write short stories with special attributes. I also love your option b); there are some NPCs it would be great to have as companions (you did mean "Companions", right?) -- Cathy Raymond http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/cathyr19355 Catherine Raymond aka Mrs. Rykar Malkus http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/Catherine%20Raymond (Gone NORTH)
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Estelle Knoht Posts: 1751 11/7/2016	Catherine Raymond wrote: Jermaine Vendredi wrote: Aardent Lore wrote: Purchase new companions? Frankly, I've plenty I'd like to sell off, but can't. So true. Accommodation, too. There's a reason the game encourages one to acquire lots of London real estate.... One day we will all become Soft-Hearted Widow. Emphasis on Soft-Hearted. -- Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady. I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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PJ Posts: 210 11/8/2016	The ending did feel anticlimactic. A resolution to the mystery of the explosion would have been welcome. -- https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Peter%20James
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Mr Sables Posts: 597 11/8/2016	I don't think I'll be playing next year . . . I expected something more with Huffman's arrival today; not necessarily a better reward than a sworn statement, despite spending a LOT of echoes on replacing companions that were upgraded, but something more in terms of story or lore or playthrough . . . just something - anything - to make two weeks of nothing to do and flawed mechanics worth the trouble and boredom. I came out with an okay number of companions, but I'd trade them all for a story and something to actually do . . . It looks like other players disagree, which is fair enough, but lately I feel like "Fallen London" is less and less for me . . . this festival kind of cemented that feeling by a lot. I'm just severely let-down, made worse by the extreme excitement for what I thought this would be (i.e. like last year). Ah well . . . each to their own. Edit: The NPC confessions felt wasted, too, as Huffman didn't seem to even care about them . . . plus, I think they were the same as last year? They didn't seem to serve much purpose (in the sense of our choice to betray/confide having any impact on role-playing or mechanics or anything, aside from a few material rewards). edited by Robin Alexander on 11/8/2016
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