I apparently have to churn out compelling short stories to make my vote count more. Has anyone ever bothered to figure out the mathematically optimal way to do this?
If not, I imagine it wouldn’t be too terribly hard, so I’ll do it myself if nobody gives me the info I desire.
Romantic Notions is always the best option.
I suspect most people don’t want to write short story for election since the fringe benefits of Case-Notes from investigation and the more granular nature of Flash Lay is more appealing than Short Stories’ all-or-nothing bet though.
Optimal ways:
Write the 10 pages required, 8 actions.
21 Romantic Notions, 21 actions and 2.1E.
9 Zee-Ztories, 9 actions and 4.5E.
Total: Including starting and finishing (2 acts), 40 actions and 6.6E of items. This will get you a 60% chance at Exceptional, which even on failure gives a Compelling, so 100% success rate in effect.
Or, just 15 Romantic + 8 Pages + 2 Start/Fin = 25 actions for a 60% chance at getting a Compelling, averaging out at 41.67 actions and 2.5E per book. Which is probably marginally better, given 1.67 actions for 4.1E is good, but its also a lot more swingy and frustrating.
Does anyone have a link to the math behind romantic notions vs. daring edits? I’m quite curious.
edited by yang573 on 6/28/2017
Aren’t Touching Love Stories better than any of the other options? You get 5 potential at the cost of 1 action and 2.5 echoes. No manuscript cost. Romantic Notions give you a mere 2 potential at 10 pence and 1 action. Assuming you use Affair of the Box your actions are worth 1.64 echoes each (and they’re worth more if you use something better), meaning that 3 potential extra saves you 2.46 echoes in actions and 25 pence in notions.
For more math using whole numbers, here’s the costs to get 10 potential:
Notions:
5 actions, 1.64 echoes each, 8.2 total
5 romantic notions, 10 pence each, 0.5 echoes total
Total: 8.7 echoes
Love Stories:
2 actions, 1.64 echoes each, 3.28 total
2 Love Stories, 2.5 echoes each, 5.0 total
Total 8.28 echoes
It swings even more in favor of Touching Love Stories the more you value your actions. Not everyone has a large hoard of them, I know, so it still might be better to use Romantic Notions (but not everyone has a large hoard of those either).
edited by Kaijyuu on 6/29/2017
I’m just throwing my pile of Favours in High Places at the problem.
This is a silly thing to do and only to be indulged in if you happen to have a shedload from being a Midnighter, but it has the merit of brevity.
As Kaijyuu mentioned, TLS are the best option as those can be grinded with a value of 1.7-1.8 EPA.
Assuming an average of 1.7 EPA money grind (any grind, profitable cards and expeditions) and taking into account how many AP are required to gain 60 Potential plus the Echo value of materials we have these costs:
Romantic: 54 E
0.5E items: 66 E
2.5E items: 50.4E
Favours: 71E
So the 2.5 E items are the cheapest way to get to 80 potential (you don’t need more).
[quote=Estelle Knoht]Romantic Notions is always the best option.
I suspect most people don’t want to write short story for election since the fringe benefits of Case-Notes from investigation and the more granular nature of Flash Lay is more appealing than Short Stories’ all-or-nothing bet though.[/quote]
Hum, need to investigate these options, but RL time is limited so I’ll stick to writing. But a Flash Lay must be done as I never started one. :D
Drink three laudanums.
Publish a compelling story.
Done.
What’s the best way to get Touching Love Stories? I’ve got very few of them and I never did notice any good source of them. I’m guessing it involves up-converting from the lower tier item though.
Baseborn & Fowlingpiece heists.
It’s a fairly common "rare" success when ambushing couriers under unfinished business in Spite.
I got a ton during the exceptional rose feast.