So, what exactly does a noman do..?

I mean, I recently discovered what a noman is, but I didn’t make/get one, so I’m curious to exactly what the benefit is to such a temporary thing.

Some really like the story.

From a materialistic perspective: Raising the Noman’s quality to 15 (takes 40 to 120 actions, depending on whether you’re willing to sacrifice quirks) gives you an Elemental Secret (worth 312.5 echoes).

Ah, wasn’t aware that it would have its own story. And that’s certainly a substantial reward! Hmm, maybe I’ll make one next christmas… Or maybe I’ll just upgrade one of the lodgings (I’m assuming in a year I can afford at least one of them!)

Just a quick question: What’s the world record for longest Noman survival time?

There is also a hard to obtain tattoo you can get for bragging rights, if you can manage to keep your noman alive for several weeks until lilac’s tattoo parlour opens.

It makes you cry

Maybe it’s a thing that feeds on tears, considering it survives using tears of the bazaar.

That depends on your definition of &quotsurvival&quot and how legitimate it is. I remember vaguely that someone had an alt kept on an island with their Noman so that, while Noman’s Friend had long ago reached 0, they weren’t in London and therefore couldn’t access the Noman’s End storylet (I think it was NiteBrite who had it and eventually used its passing in their fanon about resurrecting after SMEN, but don’t quote me on that, I have terrible memory). As for legitimate means, the longest I’ve seen someone keep a Noman alive was NiteBrite for a total of 57 days / Jan 21st to March 18th. A shame we can’t pull some Neath-magic like in Sunless Sea to prolong their lives, but at the very least, perhaps we may immortalize their image in ink when Lilac arrives in February? If you can help them survive long enough, that is.

[quote=Tystefy]Just a quick question: What’s the world record for longest Noman survival time?[/quote]Last year, myself and two others (Barse and Mordaine Barimen) all had ours last until the second day of Spring (March 21).

Which if you think about it, kind of makes the Noman description slightly untrue:

So did the noman really have much story? I played through it, raising Noman Knows to 15 and making an elemental secret, but didn’t really think there was that much exciting lore in it, certainly less than what I had expected. Just the creation and final trade-in storylet, pretty much. Did I miss something?

The creation and death of the Noman are big events related to it, and the emotional investment related to grinding up its Noman’s Friend and Noman Knows qualities usually attach it to players, not to mention the flavor text during the grind paints a colorful if not saddening image for your companion. Even more notable is the Noman’s Tattoo, which not only requires planning and sacrifice on your part that may take up to months and thousands of echoes’ worth to reach, but also is a lasting memorial to your snowy friend. There’s also a bit where you can mention your friend to Lilac when she comes around in February, and while it doesn’t do much mechanics-wise, your mention on the dedication of love and what it takes to meet such an impossible yet important goal are certainly touching. Overall, there’s a few storylets related to the Noman, though not as many as you’d think. It’s mostly the investment of time and money, a few significant moments, and the well fleshed out characterization of a short-lived but eager clone of yourself that draws at people’s heartstrings.

There’s also this touching encounter at Millicent’s tattoo parlour, with someone else’s Noman.

…and there is this awesome moment with your first Noman, when you are 1 CP from &quotNoman Knows&quot lvl 15, last &quotTime, the Healer&quot left you at &quotNoman’s Friend&quot 15, so you decide to &quotListen&quot to him for the lore, at the cost of 1CP &quotNoman’s Known&quot and 1-10 CP of &quotNoman’s Friend&quot - more than enough time to get last increase during whole week, thus &quotNoman Knows&quot 15 and the finale…

…and for some strange reason, you get message about &quotlosing 1CP of Noman Friend, new total: 0&quot, triggering the sad goodbye.

Definitely, memorable.

/Edit:
Bug smashed by kind support Masters, so. my Noman just barely un-melted to get elemental’ed, after all.
edited by CatLady on 1/17/2018

Theoretically, you could keep your noman alive indefinitely by giving it bazaar tears. I wonder how many you’d need to let it survive until next year’s christmas.

A Whole Damn Lacre Reservoir.

(Way, way too many. I used 30-odd last year to drag my poor melty Noman just about into Spring, and that was a close one.)

What does he do? He does something noman in the Neath has done before-- He becomes a true friend.

[quote=Harlocke]Theoretically, you could keep your noman alive indefinitely by giving it bazaar tears. I wonder how many you’d need to let it survive until next year’s christmas.[/quote]I was intrigued, so I actually did some calculations.

Based on last year, the last remaining Nomen lost ~130 NF on average during their final week (March 21). Let’s just be crazy and assume that FailBetter never increased the melt rate. This is almost certainly not what the case would be, but it will give us a best case scenario.

Using this year, going from March 20 to December 25 is 40 weeks, using Tuesday as Time the Healer, since that’s when mine is. That’s 5200 Noman’s Friend lost, on top of everything prior to March 20 (I used 29 Tears to have my Noman last until March 21).

Based on the average, you gain 6 ToL from each Tear, which in turn gives you 18 Noman’s Friend. So, you’d need ~289, plus 29 already used, for a total of 318 Tears. But then there’s the problem of Pails, since you can only Warm Your Tears if you have ToL 1 or more. So, you need a Pail each time you turn in your ToL for NF on the Noman’s card. But how many?

Using a Pail with a Monocle gets you 3 ToL. Then you can use Tears 8 more times to get to 11 ToL. This cycle uses 3 Pails for every 4 Tears, on average. So, you’d need ~217 Pails from March 20 to December 20, plus the Pails used from the Noman’s creation to March 20 (I used 37). So that’s 254 Pails.

You could reliably do with with fewer Tears and more Pails, but then time becomes even more of an issue. You can grind Tears up years in advance, but Pails can only be gotten and used in December and January. Which brings us to the problem of actually raising your Noman’s Friend level up to ~6000 in that period of time. Is that even doable? No, probably not.

Even though the Noman’s card has Abundant frequency, you’d need to draw and use it almost nonstop. Figuring you can get ~33 NF per card use, you’d need to use the card ~182 times. Since the Noman can only be created after the Wicket opens (Jan 5), that gives you a limited period of time before Pails melt. Let’s say they melt on Feb 1. That gives you 28 days between creating the Noman and Pails melting (which prevents you from Warming Tears). You have to draw and use the Noman card 6.5 times per day.

Again, this is simply based on what I used, and the laughable assumption that FailBetter keeps the melt rate at the same level for the rest of the year. Plus somehow drawing the Urchins card enough to get 250+ Pails… But it’s fun to think about.


tl;dr: AT LEAST 318 Tears and 254 Pails, plus drawing and using the Noman card 6.5 times daily from Jan 5 to Feb 1.


[b]~~~~~[/b]
edited by idyl on 1/17/2018

Getting the card 6-7 times a day is easy as EF, if you refresh deck via picpocket’s promenade/heists (and possible even without).

At least, it is laughably easy compared to other requirements. Maybe we just need a fridge home comfort? From other time, and other place, devils could bring some, instead of those fedoras ;)

//Edit:
Or one can sit for a year on Avid Horizon (or, basically, any unterzee voyage location, but Avid Horizon seems most fitting), estabilishing a base camp there. Cozy, and relatively close to drop in for a tea and snack in the Frostfounds, courtesy of keepers there… ;)
edited by CatLady on 1/17/2018

Huh, somehow I thought that cashing in for Noman’s Friend would be the bottleneck, but 6.5 daily draws is pretty easy.

The real blocker would be the 254 pails, since that’s card-based too. Even maxed out BDR can’t get notability 8 more than twice per day (if even that), so you can’t rely on favourable circumstances, meaning one would need to get insanely lucky and draw the urchins card 254 times while pails are available.

It’s entirely possible that Time, the Healer just sets Noman’s Friend to 0 eventually, too.

Shame we can’t stop by Station Ⅲ with a few Long-boxes and solve the problem once and for all.