So you'd save up for the better stuff.

The site may not work properly if you don't, If you do not update your browser, we suggest you visit, Press J to jump to the feed. Another example is the unique properties of certain whitsun companions, that's exactly the type of thing that would be interesting.One thing I definitely did not want from it is plain stat items that are objectively mechanically superior to other things obtainable in game. I can't justify paying to test this out, so I have no way of knowing if this is the case-if it is, please tell me and I'll fix whatever needs fixing. But with a reward of a single MoaT per story none of these prices make any sense. This was written at 2:30 am after marathoning the Dilettante's Debut-I'm surprised I even managed to keep it in English. In seven months you could have enough for a mid tier item, of which only two provide any unique benefits(the Firm Conviction of the Absence of the Supernatural, which I believe is the only hat that reduces Nightmares, and Vespasian who is tied BiS for Home Comfort BDS), while only two other provides anything that can't simply be bought or grinded(the Slug, For Casual Draping being the only non-Whitsun clothing that gives +1 Mithridacy, and Tabitha Murgatroyd being the only non-Whitsun compaion to give +1 Monstrous Anatomy ). Welcome to Fallen London! If you want to collect all of these items, which are easily displayed in the Bazaar tab to remind you that you don't have them in a manner far more direct and bordering on in-your-face than previous unique-to-ES items, you'd need almost 15 years' worth of Exceptional Stories at once a month, or you'd need to buy more. For items with two conversion options, the Create this by using other Academic items in your inventory. You can spin them into a tale to delight listeners. However in the end it seems they went with neither; the items are mostly mechanically useless, and they don't have any interesting side effects or writing either.

], A matter of luck: It could go either way (success chance: 60%). Instantly obsoleting items that took effort to obtain and have story implications with a plain store bought item would be disappointing. It's not integrated well, and twelve months of stories for a single companion is just way too much. In the time it would take to receive a 312.50 Echo item that had the added potential of being a serious boon to one's grinding efforts(my Noman may very well have lived to the Feast of the Exceptional Rose thanks to a timely Tears of the Bazaar reward just before Neathmas) you would have enough MoaTs for the lowest tier of Lost and Found items, none of which offer any serious benefit to mid or late game players and many of which can be matched or beaten by Bazaar gear that could easily be bought with the sale of the 62.50 Echo story reward. Fires. A lot more. I was interested in at the very least until I heard about their lab usefulness compared to current endgame setups. Given that we are also no longer getting the seasonal conclusion storylets, this new system is in my opinion a significant step down for EF members. You're not wrong that wanting to buy everything would force someone to subscribe for a while or shell out a hefty sum for old stories, but unless you're a collector or want a large assortment of items for personal reasons, this isn't really a problem specifically because there's no mechanical reason for you to do that. Not the way I want it, but the way I want it is not generally possible, so I’ll happily take this option. The work is important. While it's true that this might not compel them to drop hundreds on the game, it would certainly be an extra push towards buying an EX because you're juuuuuuuust one more MoaT away from that one you want. If there were endings to The Dilettante's Debut that gave more than one MoaT, or if it isn't possible to gain MoaTs from purchasable ES's then that invalidates most of what I've said. Idk from my POV the mechanics in the game are a way to tell a story, and a way to continually be engaged. Some fun writing, but it would feel like a major disappointement if I had actually saved up a YEAR of ES stories to get one of them.

I was then pretty disappointed that I couldn't see what my two new lab assistants I got actually did, and when I could finally see it, I realized neither of them seems anywhere near competitive even within their own subjects. Do we really need more of these.) EDIT: That's not to mention the extreme gating of the actually useful items to new subscribers. Getting a lab assistant from an ES, for example, would put the rewards of buying Exceptional Stories more in line with the rewards of other fate locked content that usually gives some type of 'permanent' benefits. Everyone plays the game differently, so I’m not going to bash your judgement of the situation. And for all the Season-ending stories I experienced, only one(the Barrister who had to negotiate for her re-entry into the bar) had any real impact on me, as the others seemed vestigial to the Exceptional Stories of their Seasons, so I didn't see any real loss beyond the echoes.However, after completing my first Exceptional Story in the new vein and giving things a second look, I'm seriously wondering as to how this could have been seen as a change for the better, and it all comes down to the Memories of a Tale. I agree. It cannot be bought or sold at the Bazaar. I accidentally spent all mine on the first things down the list because I didn't know how many Memories of a Tale I had. If we are talking narrative benefits, I would happily trade this entire system for one of the best season conclusions, like the game with the Exile from the elder continent or the ride with Mr. Vital, even. When I heard the plans to replace the season system with the store I started thinking about all the different, unique aspects they could add to the game. The Mr. Chimes items/companions don't have to be BiS, but given that they are so ridiculously expensive (the cheapest being equal in value to an entire "season" of Es's, the most expensive being a year's worth of ES's) they should have some value aside from the purely sentimental.

The system has effectively no narrative function. I'm not entirely sure how many each subscriber started off with, but my own total was 20, which seemed fair enough for the prices of the new items and companions. There were a few companions (sigh. While some have been skeptical of this change, I defended it as being a new way to grant substantial benefits to longtime subscribers, with them having potentially far more impactful bonuses than a mere 312.50 echoes given the host of new stats and comparative lack of buffs for them, not to mention the potential for assistance in the Lab(Lettice I love you, but some consistency would be appreciated). I didn't realise they were displayed in Currency, which I associate with otherwise useless items. I want the cats, eventually, because they’re a bunch of cats and I want to be a crazy cat guy. When the system was announced I was hoping the items would have benefits and unique effects you wouldn't otherwise get for specific goals or in related locations, with some writing attached. On the Memories of a Tale As all Exceptional Friends have noticed by now, Failbetter have instituted a new means of seasonal rewards for Exceptional Stories in the form of Memories of a Tale, a new pseduo-premium-currency provided as part of your reward for completing an Exceptional Story that can then be exchanged at Mr. Chimes' Lost and Found for unique items. It's not even manipulative so much as it's just plain unfair. But even if you are playing for story primarily (which I am too), the new system is still a downgrade fro Exceptional Friends, because we are no longer getting the Seasonal Conclusions, which often had kind of a cool little story attached to them. This item has no known sources. I completely forgot about that ride with Mr Fires. Maybe they could unlock an extra option on a faction card or something, like certain endings of ES's do? But are you in academic good graces? Most of the items have very limited mechanical value so unless you want an item for sentimental reasons you can skip over most of the less expensive ones. Optimization is great but I will take story over optimization any day. If the planned rate for all future Exceptional Stories is one MoaT per story, it will take over 9 years for a new subscriber to purchase all the unique items I've described, with the apparent only way to accelerate this being to buy more Exceptional Stories for a single additional MoaT each at a cost of $10 USD per story and, therefore, per each additional MoaT. That’s why I’m doing the paleontology content, not because it’s mechanically beneficial - I think the jury has settled on “not in its current state” - but because hell yeah, I get to make stupid combinations of skeletons and sell them to a bunch of eclectic people. So from that perspective MoaT are really fun ways to bring those stories into some kind of permanence, something I have been wanting from Exceptional Stories for some time.

The implementation shows it took minimal effort, and that's probably by design. Your memories of the lands across the Unterzee are something extraordinary. Disclaimer: This entire summation is based around the assumption that the only amount of Memories of a Tale you can get from an Exceptional Story is one, and that the only way to supplement this is to buy more Exceptional Stories for another MoAT. The ability for ES to get items comparable to FATE locked event content would be a decent change of pace and a big step in the right direction. The others are, as you point out, mediocre. While the change was framed as a positive to allow more freedom in story writing, it's pretty clear now it's just a cost saving move as many people were afraid of. But, in the seven months it would take a new Exceptional Friend to earn that many MoaTs it's highly likely that there some other way of obtaining the latter two buffs in those slots will have been implemented, rendering everything except Vespasian(who himself could easily be tied with a new item or getting a +2 Home Comfort from an old ES or the Incarnadine Robe) superfluous. For example, I bought the brick from the walls of Hell because I enjoyed the story it references and it fit in thematically with my character, but I have no desire to buy any of the other lower tier or even most of the mid tier items. Either they have it constantly pointed out to them via the Bazaar tab or they start shelling out scores of dollars or euros or pounds. But those bonuses are a strong lure, and can reel in people who many not understand why they're doing what they're doing. See Category:Memory of Distant Shores Sources for how to obtain this item, or click here to show them. I would honestly vastly prefer if this system was revamped so that, instead of having to trade these tokens, we just got more interesting rewards from the stories themselves going forward. Since I had 11 I'm kind of disappointed in myself, because if I'd waited until July I could have the Ebullient Undertaker. Maybe I got my hopes up, but just seems a bit odd to add even more clothing/companions when there are already so many of them. For a list of uses (cards/storylets it unlocks, and actions requiring it), see Category:Memory of a Tale. It would raise additional concerns, but they wouldn't be the ones I've expressed here and would go a ways to mollifying them. While I see what you're getting at, I don't think the goal was ever to have players collect every item in the shop. If the shop is so easily accessible then it's intended to stick in a player's mind, reminding them of what they don't have.