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[baruk]

I have uncovered my first eyeless skull. The cave of the nadir beckons.

[baruk]

Ouch, my stats! Let us not go to the cave of the nadir anymore, it is a silly place.

[nenjin]

So uh....is there some trigger that makes opportunity cards on the high zeas not discardable anymore? Been doing a ton of Scientific Research and up until recently, I could discard all the Opportunity Cards I drew. Now, no longer. Is that based on your Zailing Experience or did they just change something?

[E. Albright]

If there's anyone here who's not yet Important and wants a Watchful mentor, I just hit 200 and am able to act in that capacity. Go. Me.

[Edit: H'm. Actually mucking about with this makes it look more like the only thing you need to be mentored is to have your (modified) ability-in-question under 100. So yeah, I've got plenty of potential Influence to throw around if anyone meets that rather-lower bar and wants a Watchful shot-in-the-arm...]

[Extra edit: nooooooooooooo! Mentoring uses up Free Evenings! Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!]

[E. Albright]

So uh....is there some trigger that makes opportunity cards on the high zeas not discardable anymore? Been doing a ton of Scientific Research and up until recently, I could discard all the Opportunity Cards I drew. Now, no longer. Is that based on your Zailing Experience or did they just change something?

Opportunity cards can no longer be discarded when at zee.  This is intended to make voyages more tactical and interesting, and the fury of the Unterzee more perilous.  Plated Seals, in particular, have become more hazardous to catch.

[nenjin]

So uh....is there some trigger that makes opportunity cards on the high zeas not discardable anymore? Been doing a ton of Scientific Research and up until recently, I could discard all the Opportunity Cards I drew. Now, no longer. Is that based on your Zailing Experience or did they just change something?

Opportunity cards can no longer be discarded when at zee.  This is intended to make voyages more tactical and interesting, and the fury of the Unterzee more perilous.  Plated Seals, in particular, have become more hazardous to catch.

I wish they'd link these changes in game. As I've said before, I hate having to chase down information and opportunities. Then again, since they don't own StoryNexus, I guess they want to establish a presence outside of it as well.

[E. Albright]

I have uncovered my first eyeless skull. The cave of the nadir beckons.

How many supplies would you recommend before engaging in this sort of foolishness? As loath as I am to part with one of my beloved eyeless skulls (they're simply the most riveting conversationalists you could imagine), I suppose I should probably finally use them for something beyond protecting me from free spaces in my hand. And besides, the ones left over will do just as good as my current array in this regard. Or at least that's what the two who'd remain keep whispering to me behind the third's back...

(My modified Watchful is at 243, if that would be a deciding factor in choosing the extent of my supply buffer.)

[E. Albright]

Ouch, my stats! Let us not go to the cave of the nadir anymore, it is a silly place.

Ugh. Having had a chance to consider the matter, I concur.

[E. Albright]

Well, this has been a strange and troubling week. After the fraught expedition to the Cave of the Nadir cost me the most trusted and faithful of my Eyeless Skulls, and upon finding its entrance and hunting down three more Skulls (which I naturally did in a span of two or three hours), I was forced to part with all five of my silentish companions in order to pass into the Cave. Therein, I was ravaged by the Cave's vile light, but also my miserable, solitary existence. This torment continued for a full day after I left that wretched violet-hue limbo, but fear not! Tonight my solitude was brought to an end, when I found myself a new companion - or perhaps an old friend, for I do fancy the curve of the orbital plate does seem a mite familiar...

[E. Albright]

Ugh. The grinding is getting to me. Yeah, okay, this past week I've pretty much done nothing but grind for cash,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

with my current venue-of-choice being hunting Skulls in the Forgotten Quarter, and that's deadly dull (but I think it's reasonably profitable, though I'd need to really count actions to be sure; seven days of it got me 5 skulls, which I swapped for 31250 + 200p (unlucky = 31250p, rare luck = 37500p), plus around 23000 secrets, 8000 clues, I-don't-even-know-how-many (maybe 1500?) artifacts of the 4th city, and 100-200 tales of terror). But that was almost nothing but Seeking Curios and Secrets for a week, with one trip into the Cave, 3-5 trips to the Mirror Marches to deal with the inevitable Nightmares, and a swift breather to creep back from Notability 1 to Notability 3, plus paying one or two cards every now and again.

Sooooooooo tedious. I need to take a break and find something "interesting" to do, but nothing is jumping out at me. *sigh* How are Scientific Expeditions?

[nenjin]

Mmmm. Diverting for a while I suppose. But ultimately it's going to be more of the same for you I believe.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You explore a few islands through stages, either getting one of the three types of research notes or some other common to uncommon type item. You return and trade them in for a reasonable variety of high level items. Can also get your Uni rep back. I sort of expected a bit more out of it to be honest. (But at least it got me out to Zee finally.)

I'm sort of finding myself in the same boat. I'm struggling to find things to do short of start the nobility grind or start spending money to do some fate-locked storylets. I know there's a few stories around I still haven't pursued (Cave of the Nadir, for one) but it's getting to the point where I don't feel like Extraordinary Friend is doing me any favors anymore, because I'm starting to let actions go to waste.

Maybe it's time for that trip to Polythreme I've been thinking about....

[nenjin]

I'm now an Invisible Emminence. So if you would like a mentor in Shadowy, message me.

[nenjin]

Fucking Polythreme, and fucking Failbetter Games. This is the worst piece of content I've ever seen.

Yes, let's make progress on the storylets completely random, where if you miss just 1 of the opportunity cards, which are random chance not stat-based chance, you can't get anywhere. I've been doing this stupid fucking thing for three days and only managed to get enough Fascinating or Investigating quality to do something interesting ONCE.

God fucking damnit, sometimes Alexis' ideas about gameplay make me want to stuff him into a cannon and blast pieces of him all over creation.

[E. Albright]

Yeah, Polythreme was one of the things that convinced me walking away from FL was a good idea. The place was a major PITA, and it really felt poorly designed. The reward-to-time ratio was very skewed, and while the storylets you got eventually weren't bad, the process of acquiring them was grotesquely painful.

[nenjin]

It's just galling how, mathematically, of the 5 or so possible cards for Investigating or Fascinating.....only ONE of them makes any sense. Why would I risk a 50% chance to succeed vs. a 75% chance? Why would I use a card that gets you NOTHING on a failure vs. a card that at least gets you some of the quality even if you fail? Not that it matters. It's tuned so if you get just slightly less than maximum (i.e 10 successful opportunity cards) you can only get the lower tier options. Miss more than slightly less than maximum, and you're getting Maniac's Prayers and restarting. Which is 90% of all attempts.

Blech. I'm disillusioned with FL after grinding to the top, but this just seriously pisses me off. Especially when there's a Fate option staring you in the face the whole time going "Oh, you hate this grindy, abusively balanced bullshit? Just pay your way past it......"