Welcome to season 12, Agents.
Obviously, the Spies knew new subsystems were coming, and of course we know what everything does. We have absolutely no idea what any of this does.
Most notably, it appears that previous betting and idol strategies are no longer optimal. The Agency’s supercomputers are still churning away at the numbers as to how to optimize the new systems. Keep an eye on the Discord chats for updates and new developments.
Weather
Every single known weather type appears to be back: solar eclipse, peanuts, birds, feedback, blooddrain, reverb, sun 2, black hole, and the various coffees that first appeared in the Coffee Cup. As best as we can tell, they still do the same things they did before. Though there are some rather mystifying messages that now appear in Peanut weather –
The faint crunch of a shell underfoot.
A solitary peanut rolls onto the field. Nobody cares.
A desolate peanutty wind blows.
Concessions
Everything in the Store has been renamed to be snack-themed, and a number of new ones have been added. You are now only allowed to hold eight Concessions at a time.
WARNING: Selling an item will sell all of that item. You cannot hold some and sell the rest.
Existing items that have been renamed:
- Passive Income Potion -> Popcorn
- Fairweather Flute -> Flute (of champagne)
- High Roller Snake Oil -> Snake Oil
- Strikeout Pendants -> Chips
- Shutout Pendants -> Burgers
- Hit Pendants -> Sunflower Seeds
- Homerun Pendants -> Hot Dogs
In addition, the price-to-yield ratio on these Concessions has been significantly changed. Notably, pitcher idol swapping is no longer nearly as effective; the payouts from strikeouts and shutouts have been slashed to a quarter of their previous values.
Stale Popcorn allows you to win coins even when we appear to lose. You know, in case you need to maintain your cover.
Acquiring the Cheese Board allows players to access Wills. For now, hold your votes: which ones are best to vote for may change drastically over the course of the season.
Pizza claims to unlock Ballpark-related shenanigans (though see below).
The Apple makes the list of individual stlats that are combined to make the star ratings and Shadows rosters visible to those who wish to see Forbidden Knowledge. It takes up an inventory slot, though, so I personally would suggest giving it a pass.
Ballparks
Appear to be delayed due to contractor issues. The ILB needs to hire more reliable contractors.
Tarot Spread
The Tarot Spread is a literal jar of sandwich spread that seems to contain an unreasonably high incidence of Hanged Men. We have absolutely no idea what this does either.
Also, a tip for saving space in your trenchcoat pockets: after you have rolled whichever three cards you want, you can discard your Tarot Spread and still keep the cards on your profile.
Story Developments
The Coin introduced this season with some more syrupy sweet corporatespeak. I do not trust the coin. Then again, I do not think anyone else does either.
The concession stand appears to be run by someone the Commissioner calls our “new food and beverage director”: a certain squid that speaks in blue text. It really is fascinating the amount of effort has been put into positioning the squid as our friend: it gave us the peanut tribute and vote buying sliders, and now it gives us new snacks. However, I do not trust the Squid not to buckle if the Coin exerts the leverage on it that she no doubt has. I see a velvet glove over an iron fist.
And finally: the microphone “[does not] like our chances”, describing them as “a coin flip”. Ominous. Very ominous.
The heat is turning up, Agents. Be careful out there.