Sapphirl tower photo question.

[Prince Silvermane]

Just where is exactly the best spot to take the picture? I took one straight on and got a +500 Mira bonus. Is there another spot that's better?

[ladynadiad]

Actually best thing to do is wait until Dorothy joins up for your party. Go straight on until Estelle says she's not too close and not too far. If you have Dorothy though, you'll have an option to let her take the picture and you'll gete the bonus BP for it.

[Prince Silvermane]

Originally posted by ladynadiad:

Actually best thing to do is wait until Dorothy joins up for your party. Go straight on until Estelle says she's not too close and not too far. If you have Dorothy though, you'll have an option to let her take the picture and you'll gete the bonus BP for it.

Ooh I didn't know about that. Wish I did before I climbed the entire tower.

[ladynadiad]

Originally posted by Law Abiding Engineer:

Im kind of stuck there. Im trying to get to the tower but im in Ruan still and I can not get to the tower. how do I do it?

If you aren't being allowed to leave Ruan, you have to finish up speaking with the witness who was part of the Raven gang. So first head to the warehouse where the ravens are, then head to the house to the right of Dalmore's mansion and then you can leave Ruan.

But like I advised above, if you want max BP, wait until Dorothy joins the party, which happens when you have interviewed all the witnesses and reported back to the guild.

[Prince Silvermane]

Originally posted by ladynadiad:

But like I advised above, if you want max BP, wait until Dorothy joins the party, which happens when you have interviewed all the witnesses and reported back to the guild.

That's increadibly useful to know, thanks. Normally my playstyle in these games is to do all the sidequests first because I'm afraid I won't know when the game will cut off the next area.

[M. Mizie]

Originally posted by ladynadiad:

Actually best thing to do is wait until Dorothy joins up for your party. Go straight on until Estelle says she's not too close and not too far. If you have Dorothy though, you'll have an option to let her take the picture and you'll gete the bonus BP for it.

Thanks man.. I asked Dorothy to take a picture and the result is instead of getting 500 mira from requester he give me Moonglasses necklace which prevent blind and poison debuff.

Kinda neat.

[mu@]

Originally posted by ladynadiad:

Actually best thing to do is wait until Dorothy joins up for your party. Go straight on until Estelle says she's not too close and not too far. If you have Dorothy though, you'll have an option to let her take the picture and you'll gete the bonus BP for it.

How much is the bonus reward for BP if Dorothy is in your party?

[Febox]

Originally posted by mu@:

How much is the bonus reward for BP if Dorothy is in your party?

I asked Dorothy to take the photo, I got 1 (+2) BP and the moonglasses.

[darthokkata]

A bit late, but I stumbled across this thread via Google trying to find out. So for anyone else who happens to do so, you can get the Moon Glasses without Dorthy.

Just follow the instructions you were given when you got the job. Stand back a bit between the first and second pillars in front of the platform, and take a dead straight shot of it. You'll need to get the entire thing in frame and center it as much as possible.

The scientist will say the shot is 'okay' and that it is adequate for research and give you the Moon Glasses. No bonus BP though. It's not the best possible reward, but better than the 500 in cash.

[1stReaper]

i got dorathy with me, far as i can tell,
im not getting the option to have her take the picture for me :S...

gives me the take picture here or find another spot

<update>
nevermind...
estelle stops after you click take picture, and she lets you ask dora (rolls eyes)

opss

[Dragon]

Originally posted by Prince Silvermane:

Ooh I didn't know about that. Wish I did before I climbed the entire tower.

Ditto that for what just happened to me.

I climbed the whole tower, which took forever since it has multiple staircases on the 4th and 5th floors, and figuring out how to find the right ones that go to the top is a painstaking maze.

Then when I finally reached the device - after going in circles and running into dead ends for a very long time - Estelle kept saying this spot seems okay which sounded very fishy.

So I searched the web and found this thread.

After reading the posts in this thread, I realized that this quest is extremely bad design.

From FC I learned that the game punishes you by permanently closing side quests if you advance the primary quest too much before doing those side quests.

Therefore, to prevent that, when I get any side quests, I do them all first before advancing the primary quest.

Yet doing that process, with this photo quest, actually sabotages the player in the same way that they were trying to avoid, via doing the side quests first! You lose out by not advancing the primary quest first.

In other words, the devs are waffling & flip-flopping on their own rules of whether or not the player should do the side quests first, and as a result, players are being unfairly punished by being denied the best rewards and/or possibly Achievements too (i.e. if they are relevant to maximizing BP in SC).

And in my case in order to remedy that for this quest, which is only even possible in the first place since I happened to find this thread before I took the picture, I'll have to run all the way back down the tower, then go back to town, then go all the way back to the Tower with Dorothy, then all the way up the Tower maze again...which obviously is a whole new series of painstaking chores I will have to do for no good reason, but rather only because this aspect of the game is terribly designed.

[Hagen2900]

I agree with you to an extent. You are leaving out though that this is only an issue if you care about getting maximum bracer points.

Btw, there is no way you can get all available BP without a guide.

[TneX]

I agree, it was annoying since there was no way you could have known Dorothy will tag along your party later unless you looked a guide up.

Not a terribly big deal, because obviously getting max BP was designed to be a goal for a second playthrough. Still annoying nevertheless.

[Stabbey]

Originally posted by TneX:

I agree, it was annoying since there was no way you could have known Dorothy will tag along your party later unless you looked a guide up.

Not a terribly big deal, because obviously getting max BP was designed to be a goal for a second playthrough. Still annoying nevertheless.

Agreed. It definitely did annoy me because FC had trained me to do all sidequests as soon as they were available.

I think there's one other sidequest later on in Bose where a business hires you to get a bunch of monster ingredients. If you have them on you and hand them over immediately, you can miss out on some BP. What you're supposed to do is go talk to the Orvid (?) guy you did a related quest for earlier.

[Hagen2900]

Yeah, this quest also come to mind when I read Dragon's complaint. It is similarly unfair. If you just have the ingredients on hand you never even get the information you could have done better.

[Gambio]

Originally posted by Dragon:

Originally posted by Prince Silvermane:

Ooh I didn't know about that. Wish I did before I climbed the entire tower.

Ditto that for what just happened to me.

I climbed the whole tower, which took forever since it has multiple staircases on the 4th and 5th floors, and figuring out how to find the right ones that go to the top is a painstaking maze.

Then when I finally reached the device - after going in circles and running into dead ends for a very long time - Estelle kept saying this spot seems okay which sounded very fishy.

So I searched the web and found this thread.

After reading the posts in this thread, I realized that this quest is extremely bad design.

From FC I learned that the game punishes you by permanently closing side quests if you advance the primary quest too much before doing those side quests.

Therefore, to prevent that, when I get any side quests, I do them all first before advancing the primary quest.

Yet doing that process, with this photo quest, actually sabotages the player in the same way that they were trying to avoid, via doing the side quests first! You lose out by not advancing the primary quest first.

In other words, the devs are waffling & flip-flopping on their own rules of whether or not the player should do the side quests first, and as a result, players are being unfairly punished by being denied the best rewards and/or possibly Achievements too (i.e. if they are relevant to maximizing BP in SC).

And in my case in order to remedy that for this quest, which is only even possible in the first place since I happened to find this thread before I took the picture, I'll have to run all the way back down the tower, then go back to town, then go all the way back to the Tower with Dorothy, then all the way up the Tower maze again...which obviously is a whole new series of painstaking chores I will have to do for no good reason, but rather only because this aspect of the game is terribly designed.

And this is whats wrong with todays gaming landscape.

Dorothy beeing able to take the photo was something most players won't see. It was something included for the small portion of players who go "what if" or getting it by pure coincidence

Not getting that reward is a non issue, but since players are so obsessed with completionism and achievements it somehow becomes an issue, to the point where less Variation in game desgn is preferred, just so they can say "I 100% the game!"

Trails reflects that current trend in their newer Games. Cold Steel beats you over the head to makes absolutely sure you always know when you didn't complete a quest with the best possible outcome. And as a result you will never ask yourself "What if" in Cold Steel.

More convenient? Certainly, but also less exciting.