Noman Husbandry

Oops. Didn’t see your post till I posted, sorry. Yes, you’re right; you need to have completed the 12th day.

Does anyone know the difference between using Tears and Lacre pails to repair your Noman? Or is it with Taste? Because I have a lot of material to buy some from the Urchins, if need be.

From Spacemarine’s excellent tumblr, I believe that it’s 3 Noman’s Friend for each point of taste, 9 Noman’s friend for each pail, and a random number between 1 and 25 for each tear.
During February you can expect the Noman to lose well over half its NF each week. So my 27 tears may not be enough by themselves to see a hypothetical noman through to the end of the festival.

It’s actually 5 points per pail (but you can get 9 using a monocle to extract Taste instead); I think I forgot to correct that, though

[quote=RandomWalker]From Spacemarine’s excellent tumblr, I believe that it’s 3 Noman’s Friend for each point of taste, 9 Noman’s friend for each pail, and a random number between 1 and 25 for each tear.
During February you can expect the Noman to lose well over half its NF each week. So my 27 tears may not be enough by themselves to see a hypothetical noman through to the end of the festival.[/quote]

I lost damn near half just with this week’s Time The Destroyer. If this is typical, I really see no point in even bothering to grind the gear for an attempt next year.

[quote=RandomWalker]From Spacemarine’s excellent tumblr, I believe that it’s 3 Noman’s Friend for each point of taste, 9 Noman’s friend for each pail, and a random number between 1 and 25 for each tear.
During February you can expect the Noman to lose well over half its NF each week. So my 27 tears may not be enough by themselves to see a hypothetical noman through to the end of the festival.[/quote]

Does it have to be to the end of the festival, or just to the festival itself, which begins about the second week of February?

[quote=Shadowhand]
Does it have to be to the end of the festival, or just to the festival itself, which begins about the second week of February?[/quote]

End of the Festival, I’m afraid. I got my Noman to the start of the festival in good health, but couldn’t do the festival and grind tears at the same time (or at least chose not to try).

Yes, that is fairly typical. It gets worse when the wicket closes. Yeah, I did bother grinding them, but I’m really not in the mood at the moment to throw away that much money on a gamble that I’ll get all the way this year. Falling short would be really annoying, and probably inevitable.

Well, I have my first Noman. Poor thing. I wish I’d read up on them first, since I have nothing at all to keep it alive with, save a few quirks (sadly depleted ever since the Mutton Island business, after which I kind of lost interest for a while and never built them back up) so the pitiable creature will simply decay at its own pace. I do hope it at least survives long enough to give me some lore, otherwise I’ll regret not taking the znail-zhell lodging for my collection of keys.
frets and hovers around Noman I’m sorry! I should have left you in better hands! Here, have a parasol to protect you from the…er…lack of sun?

Edit: on a practical note, I gather the only way to interact with it is to flip cards? eyetwitch That’s… a tiny bit frustrating.
edited by Inky Petrel on 1/8/2015

Quirks are more than enough: if you flip cards consistently you should be able to get the best ending (Noman Knows 15) before it decays.

Also its card is Abundant, so it’s not too frustrating.

Ah, good to know, thank you for the info :)

*Note: Anyone trying this might want to pay attention to the fact if you click on Pails of Snow in your inventory, they say they’ll melt mid-January. It may also be worth considering that you can huff Tears of the Bazaar for taste, averaging 4.3 taste, or 13 Noman’s friend per Tears that way (I think…?).

Buckets melting is disappointing because otherwise I had enough pails of snow, that even worse case scenario, I would be able to get my Noman through to the feast.

[quote=Cecil Palmer]*Note: Anyone trying this might want to pay attention to the fact if you click on Pails of Snow in your inventory, they say they’ll melt mid-January. It may also be worth considering that you can huff Tears of the Bazaar for taste, averaging 4.3 taste, or 13 Noman’s friend per Tears that way (I think…?).

Buckets melting is disappointing because otherwise I had enough pails of snow, that even worse case scenario, I would be able to get my Noman through to the feast.[/quote]

I think it’s supposed to average 6 taste/tears, with a 1/5 chance to evaporate and 2 taste if it evaporates.

[quote=Inky Petrel]… save a few quirks (sadly depleted ever since the Mutton Island business, after which I kind of lost interest for a while and never built them back up) so the pitiable creature will simply decay at its own pace.[/quote]Hunting dangerous prey allows you to rebuild Subtle (or Forceful) without relying on cards, so if you’d be willing to grind that (and kill the goat demon in the Flit to cash in), you could feed your Noman. Though you’d still have to draw the Noman card 40 or 60 times if you want to kill your noman and harvest the reward.

Or you could get Hedonist to 4 and then rely solely on that, for as long as your wine, honey and silk lasts, since apparently that option increases said quirk instead of decreasing it.

I got one! Just reading its card actually made me cry, and I just got through the ending of Randiant Historia without shedding a single tear. How are you doing this to me, Failbetter? ;_;

I’m really hoping I can make it survive until the Feast, because I feel like “love is sacrifice” is the truest answer for me. But I “only” have 12 tears and 2 pails, and judging from the comments here that won’t be enough. Ah well.

(I’m a bit disappointed that all anyone seems to talk about is the gameplay effects and not the story itself.)

I think it’s more that the story is uniquely personal, and a lot of it it conveyed through the gameplay effects.

For example, to give my Noman some of my best qualities - things like Magnanimous, Steadfast, Melancholy - I have to sacrifice something that can never be regained, because those quirks are past the new cap.

That’s amazing, and I love it.

[quote=Little The]I got one! Just reading its card actually made me cry, and I just got through the ending of Randiant Historia without shedding a single tear. How are you doing this to me, Failbetter? ;_;

I’m really hoping I can make it survive until the Feast, because I feel like &quotlove is sacrifice&quot is the truest answer for me. But I &quotonly&quot have 12 tears and 2 pails, and judging from the comments here that won’t be enough. Ah well.

(I’m a bit disappointed that all anyone seems to talk about is the gameplay effects and not the story itself.)[/quote]

I will soon find out for myself, as I just created a Noman tonight. We will see how long Bifrost lives and how he dies for me.

The Noman storyline is the most moving in the entire game to me. I did it last year after having a serious debate with myself over whether it was ethical to even create such a short-lived being. I then only gave Alan my best personality traits and helped him immortalize himself repeatedly on the skin of the Bazaar. I was sad to not be able to get a tattoo of him.

It is a truly heartbreaking story and I’m glad that Fail Better created it. I’m surprised to find that some of the text this year still gives me feels.

I’m too Heartless to care about lost causes, and without a massive investment there is no hope for my noman. No hope at all. Though I’m curious how high anyone has gotten Noman Knows. Might there be some sort of bonus effects for levels that are much higher than 15, or have people already checked for that? Has anyone given their Noman everything? All the Taste of Lacre, every last pail and Tears of the Bazaar and every quirk of high enough level? I wonder if such a sign of complete dedication might have an effect? Or perhaps the Bazaar will just ask: &quotWhat have you done for me lately?&quot ;)

I got mine fairly high last year, but I don’t recall the exact number. There were no new options when I did so.

As far as I understand the mechanics of StoryNexus, you cannot have a hidden variable, so the types of quirks you feed your Noman, and the types of lacre, make no difference to its growth.

[quote=RandomWalker]As far as I understand the mechanics of StoryNexus, you cannot have a hidden variable, so the types of quirks you feed your Noman, and the types of lacre, make no difference to its growth.[/quote]Meta qualities are fairly hidden, aren’t they? But hidden qualities would not be needed for a check that requires all the lacre-qualities to be at zero, and all the quirks to be at 3 or less. The important thing would not be what types and amounts one had to give, but that one didn’t keep something for oneself that could have been given to one’s noman.

I figured that might be worth checking for someone who is willing to sacrifice more than I. Though I suppose there might be plenty of people who have done it already as the most natural thing in the world.