Yup, echoed here.
Writing was good, but the story mechanics weren’t, and it’s an overall experience I’d rather blot from my characters history than be stuck with. Mechanically this ranks down with Our Lady of Pyres, the (broken) Seven Day Reign, and the (also broken) Sinking Synod for stories that have most frustrated me with just getting unsatisfying grab-bag results out of what should have been very fun storylets given the interesting and engaging character writing and plot elements.
The “they will do the same/opposite of what you tell them” ending spoiler is also pretty crap, and it spoils any “roleplay” that could come out of the whole jumble by setting a very obvious way to game final results. In the end I played everything straight and now everyone can miserably scrape for a few more years hoping mushroom tycoon will remember their names again someday.
I should burn the whole damn place to the ground and sell Murgatroyd to the special constables to hang by his heels in New Newgate until lacre-day. Lord knows I have the resources… just no storylet options to anything but fumble in the dark like a blind pig.
[quote=Pnakotic]Writing was good, but the story mechanics weren’t, and it’s an overall experience I’d rather blot from my characters history than be stuck with. Mechanically this ranks down with Our Lady of Pyres, the (broken) Seven Day Reign, and the (also broken) Sinking Synod for stories that have most frustrated me with just getting unsatisfying grab-bag results out of what should have been very fun storylets given the interesting and engaging character writing and plot elements.
The "they will do the same/opposite of what you tell them" ending spoiler is also pretty crap, and it spoils any "roleplay" that could come out of the whole jumble by setting a very obvious way to game final results. In the end I played everything straight and now everyone can miserably scrape for a few more years hoping mushroom tycoon will remember their names again someday.
I should burn the whole damn place to the ground and sell Murgatroyd to the special constables to hang by his heels in New Newgate until lacre-day. Lord knows I have the resources… just no storylet options to anything but fumble in the dark like a blind pig.[/quote]
I suspect the "they will do the opposite of what you tell them"ending was implemented to avoid player complaints about not getting the result they expected from particular choices.
My usual reminder to unlock this story if you haven’t already.
~26 hours left!
Again, a bit late:
This was a lovely little story. No real high-stakes, but really well-defined and likable characters.
I liked the various options there (betray or keep each sister’s trust both with each other and with their father). It was a nice touch that at the end you can use reverse psychology with the sister who doesn’t trust you by advising her the "wrong" thing, knowing she’d do the opposite.
The one thing which I disliked was that when choosing what to do with the Moon-Milk the options were to "destroy" or "keep", but in fact choosing "keep" really means "bring it to Tabitha as she’s requested, which was not my intention.
I also could have used a bit more text when turning in the Moon-Milk dealer to the constables.
Personal ranking of all Exceptional Stories:
Excellent:
- Lost in Reflections[/li][li]Cut with Moonlight[/li][li]Hojotoho![/li][li]The Frequently Deceased[/li][li]The Waltz that Moved the World[/li][li]Steeped in Honey[/li][li]Flint[/li][li]All Things Must End[/li][li]The Century Exhibition[/li][li]The Twelve-Fifteen From Moloch Street[/li][li]The Persona Engine[/li][li]Where You and I Must Go[/li][li]The Sinking Synod[/li][li]The Attendants
Good:
- The Murgatroyd Formula[/li][li]Lamentation Lock[/li][li]The Web of the Motherlings[/li][li]The Pentecost Predicament[/li][li]The Calendar Code[/li][li]The Art of Murder[/li][li]The Chimney Pot Wars[/li][li]The Final Curtain[/li][li]The Heart, the Devil and the Zee[/li][li]Our Lady of Pyres[/li][li]The Clay Man’s Arm[/li][li]Five Minutes to Midday[/li][li]Discernment[/li][li]The Haunting at the Marsh House[/li][li]The Pursuit of Moths[/li][li]Factory of Favours
Meh:
- Trial and Error[/li][li]The Last Dog Society[/li][li]The Seven-Day Reign[/li][li]The Court of Cats
Terrible:[ul][li]The Stone Guest[/li][/ul]
Out of curiosity, what happens if you mix the formulae? I really want to do it but everyone (including the game) keeps saying it’s bad.
Nothing will happen, but you will later call Mr Murgytroyd bald.
Oh, awesome!
I realize my question comes a little late, but do any of you fine people know what options you have if you don’t betray the sisters to one another by taking the ruthless options? Will you still be able to motivate Tabitha into leaving and Harriet to approach her father with her revelation?
They seem like such nice ladies that I wouldn’t want to endanger their relationship and abuse their trust…
I’m pretty sure I kept all their secrets safe (and mixed the formulae, favouring neither) and still had the full complement of choices for both of them at the end. My memory isn’t 100% crisp on this, but I’d be surprised if it was otherwise.
Sorry to drag up such an old story, but I am slowly working my way through something like a two-year backlog of exceptional stories caused by a spell in hospital and rather long period of ill-health when using the computer was difficult and very taxing for me.
Anyway, I seem to have hit an impasse in this story. I’ve reached a point where to proceed it seems I need to make choices that are labelled as either Austere or Ruthless. Does this mean that if I make one of these choices that I will lose points in the opposite quirk? My Hedonist and Magnanimous are very high, at levels that it was quite difficult to reach, if memory serves. No disrespect to the writer, but I have not enjoyed this story very much. I’d say I have found it boring and unengaging, and honestly I don’t care about these people or what happens to them, certainly not enough to risk my hard-won quirks. Is there a way out of this story that won’t affect my quirks?
As there doesn’t seem to be a way to simply abandon a story so as to get rid of it I fear I am going to be stuck with it on my page, but better that than the alternative. Any advice?
I realise I am probably being a little foolish about this, but I guess this game can do that to you. All I am really asking is will these choices alter my quirks? I’d like to at least know that before deciding what to do. I will totally understand if no one can remember, this is a pretty old story.
My experience with exceptional stories is that they will murder your quirks brutally, sometimes without warning, and often it’s mandatory “choice” in a place where you cannot even leave without making the choice.
My notes say that one ruthless choice massacres austere, , another magnanimous, another steadfast. Austere brutalizes heartless aaand … I didn’t take the other austere choices.
Apologies to bring up an old thread, but could anyone help me identify a tracking quality or season turn-in item for this story? I’ve recently returned to London and found a few Exceptional Stories waiting for me – namely A Pursuit of Moths and The Rat-Catcher (which I adored, by the way). I’ve checked and I was still an EF for the month of April 2018, which leads me to believe that I should somehow have access to The Murgatroyd Formula as well, unless I had already finished it. I am also able to see the options to reset A Pursuit of Moths and The Rat-Catcher on the fate page, but no option to reset or purchase The Murgatroyd Formula. I assume that this means that I did indeed unlock the ES way back in April 2018.
This leads me to believe that I left the story partially completed, especially as I am unable to find the Season of Adorations trade-in storylet anywhere. I’ve checked Spite and it’s related locations but found no gold-bordered storylets other than the ones for this month’s ES and related season. I’ve also skimmed through my qualities under the Myself tab for anything that seemed relevant, but with no luck (though there’s quite a few, so it’s very possible that I missed something).
I suppose I’m hoping to check for the relevant qualities or items to be sure that I’m not missing something obvious before sending in a bug report. Once I have completed all three of these stories (Moths, Murgatroyd and Rat-Catcher), the Season of Adorations storylet should be a universal storylet, correct?
This is a tough one! I went to have a look at my character who played this story and couldn’t find a single Quality that seems in any way associated with it, which is rather unusual. I looked again, and still couldn’t find anything. I’m afraid you might have to ask support to clear this up for you!
The tracking quality for the Season of Adorations is called "Looking for Love". When you’ve completed all three stories, you should see a storylet called "Finishing Her Shift" if my records are to be believed.
:edit: This should be the turn-in item!
edited by phryne on 5/25/2020
I just remembered–the story tracker for this one was a hidden quality!
Thank you both for your help! I can’t seem to find the souvenir bottle in my inventory, so it appears that I didn’t finish the story. This story didn’t require traveling to somewhere out of the way, like a zee voyage or a certain coil of the Labyrinth of Tigers by any chance? I believe those are the only places I haven’t yet checked.
[quote=Kloxe]This story didn’t require traveling to somewhere out of the way, like a zee voyage or a certain coil of the Labyrinth of Tigers by any chance?[/quote]Don’t think so. I believe PSGarak is right - FB experimented for a while with hiding almost all story trackers for Exceptional Stories, which wasn’t well-received among the fan-base.
Still - if you unlocked it, you should see something somewhere! So either there’s a bug, or you missed out on this one somehow. I guess only contacting support will clarify things. Don’t worry - they’re used to enquiries of this kind ;)
:edit: Just for the record, have another good look around Spite - I just saw that someone on page 1 of this thread was stumped on how to continue, and was directed there.
edited by phryne on 5/25/2020
Still no luck in Spite, I’m afraid, as well as area-diving or The Crowds of Spite from the map. It’s still possible that I forgot to unlock that month, but I would think if that were the case that it would be available to purchase on the fate page?
Time for an email to support! Thank you for all of your help!
This was indeed a bug, and many thanks to James Chew for fixing it for me! (I never know whether it is ok to reply to support tickets with a thank you once they’ve been answered and closed, or if that just creates more work for Failbetter. Either way – thank you very much!)
I’m pretty sure they don’t mind thank yous. I’ve always had very nice comments back in response.