Results of our fate-locked stories survey (January 2021 edition)
Here are the results for our survey on fate-locked stories for January 2021. Thank you to everyone who participated! And many, many thanks to Failbetter for linking the survey both on Discord and on Twitter. We've got over 300 votes this time, quite a lot more than last year.
As in our previous surveys, story quality has been calculated based on the average voted value. Possible values ranged from 1 ("Exceptional") to -1 ("Didn't like"), so stories with an average above zero were liked by the majority of players, while stories with an average below zero were not.
##Most Popular Stories
- Cricket, Anyone? (average vote: 0.91)
- My Kingdom for a Pig (average vote: 0.81)
- HOJOTOHO! (average vote: 0.71)
- Por Una Cabeza *(average vote: 0.71)
- The Gift (average vote: 0.64)
So ... Chandler Groover, huh?
I don't even know what to say. "Cricket" got an even better vote than last time and out of all the stories he's written only one just barely missed the top 20. Can somebody please just him an award or something?
"Lost in Reflections", the story that used to win this survey almost every time before Mr Groover came along, took a huge dive this time and isn't even in the top 10 anymore. The stories that improved their rating the most are "The Pentacost Predicament" (+0.19) and "Discernment" (+0.18), both of which had - in my personal opinion - unreasonably bad ratings in the last survey.
The most controversial story was - once again - "Fine Dining" with a variance of 0.5. It was already the most controversial story before but apparently it divides players even more a year after release. "The Marriage of Feducci" (var=0.4) and "Secrets Framed in Gold" (var=0.36) also keep being controversal, but "Daylight" (var=0.4) also needs to be mentioned now. For comparison, least controversial were stories written by some guy named Chandler Groover. (Can we just make him a saint? This is getting ridiculous!). Interestingly, "Last Dog Society" is also pretty far up that list. Make of that what you will.
##Least Popular Stories
- The Rubbery Murders (average vote: -0.58)
- Factory of Favours (average vote: -0.37)
- The Spinning of the Wheels (average vote: -0.24)
- A Long-Lost Daughter (average vote: -0.24)
- The Price of Loss (average vote: -0.19)
While "Rubbery Murders" and "Factory of Favours" remain the two least liked stories among players, most of the other stories at the bottom of the list are also no surprises at this point.
The stories that lost the most in average ratings this time around are "Flint" and "Secrets Framed in Gold" (both with a decrease of -0.21 in their average rating) and "The Committee" (with -0.19).
Below you will find the ranking for all stories as well as a list of stories that voters thought are worth buying based on rewards alone. For more details I've also put everything in a Google spreadsheet again. (Note that the spreadsheet has five tabs, they are easy to overlook.) So if you like you can fiddle around with the numbers on your own.
##Ranking of Fate-Locked Stories
Below you will find the ranking of the stories from most popular to least popular, incl. the total number of votes and the average vote. For a detailed breakdown on how exactly players voted for each story, please take a look here.
# | Title | Total votes |Avg vote |Diff. to prev. survey :--:|:---|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--: 1 | Cricket Anyone? | 176 | 0.91 | 0.01 2 | My Kingdom for a Pig | 131 | 0.81 | 0.09 3 | HOJOTOHO! | 152 | 0.71 | -0.04 4 | Por Una Cabeza | 127 | 0.71 | 0.04 5 | The Gift | 177 | 0.64 | -0.1 6 | For All The Saints | 112 | 0.62 | -0.02 7 | The Shallows | 129 | 0.62 | 0.02 8 | The Icarian Cup | 236 | 0.61 | - 9 | The 12:15 from Moloch Street | 126 | 0.6 | 0.08 10 | Caveat Emptor | 203 | 0.6 | - 11 | The Ceremony | 102 | 0.58 | -0.07 12 | Lost in Reflections | 129 | 0.57 | -0.12 13 | The Brass Grail | 103 | 0.57 | 0.04 14 | Paisley | 211 | 0.54 | - 15 | Go Tell the King of Cats | 173 | 0.53 | - 16 | The Empress' Shadow | 161 | 0.5 | 0 17 | Flint | 125 | 0.46 | -0.21 18 | The Persona Engine | 92 | 0.46 | 0.13 19 | The Calendar Code | 89 | 0.43 | -0.06 20 | Where You and I Must Go | 82 | 0.42 | -0.07 21 | All Things Must End | 88 | 0.38 | -0.04 22 | The Rat-Catcher | 82 | 0.37 | -0.08 23 | Tauroktonos | 90 | 0.37 | 0.06 24 | The Ballad of Johnny Croak | 174 | 0.37 | - 25 | The Jack-of-Smiles Case | 163 | 0.36 | -0.05 26 | A Little Pandemonium | 84 | 0.35 | 0.03 27 | Theological Husbandry | 211 | 0.34 | -0.07 28 | Homecoming | 194 | 0.33 | - 29 | The Blemmigan Affair | 90 | 0.31 | 0.01 30 | The Waltz That Moved the World | 87 | 0.27 | -0.14 31 | The Attendants | 83 | 0.24 | 0.05 32 | Noises from Upstairs | 99 | 0.23 | 0.1 33 | Cut with Moonlight | 83 | 0.22 | 0.02 34 | Steeped In Honey | 67 | 0.22 | -0.04 35 | Flute Street | 232 | 0.22 | -0.13 36 | Five Minutes to Midday | 72 | 0.21 | 0.03 37 | The Chimney Pot Wars | 68 | 0.21 | -0.07 38 | The Pursuit of Moths | 68 | 0.21 | -0.03 39 | A Functionary's Confidant | 77 | 0.21 | -0.05 40 | The Sinking Synod | 101 | 0.18 | 0.03 41 | The Heretic of Hollow Street | 96 | 0.18 | -0.01 42 | The Century Exhibition | 88 | 0.16 | 0.04 43 | The Final Curtain | 62 | 0.15 | 0.03 44 | Older Not Wiser | 206 | 0.14 | - 45 | Say it With Flowers | 98 | 0.13 | -0.08 46 | The Murgatroyd Formula | 71 | 0.12 | 0.07 47 | Unto Dust | 187 | 0.12 | - 48 | Upwards! | 111 | 0.12 | - 49 | Written in the Glim | 73 | 0.11 | -0.05 50 | Mysteries of the Foreign Office | 114 | 0.11 | 0 51 | The Bones of London | 74 | 0.1 | 0 52 | The Magician's Dream | 78 | 0.1 | -0.03 53 | The Frequently Deceased | 58 | 0.09 | -0.03 54 | Secrets Framed in Gold | 166 | 0.08 | -0.21 55 | The Pentecost Predicament | 48 | 0.06 | 0.19 56 | A Trade in Faces | 94 | 0.06 | -0.01 57 | The Stag & the Shark | 88 | 0.05 | 0.12 58 | Inconvenienced by Your Aunt | 211 | 0.05 | 0.01 59 | The Seven-Day Reign | 52 | 0.03 | 0.06 60 | Shades of Yesterday | 121 | 0.03 | - 61 | The Web of the Motherlings | 73 | 0.02 | -0.1 62 | A Trade in Souls | 216 | 0.02 | -0.05 63 | Discernment | 43 | 0.01 | 0.18 64 | The Marriage of Feducci | 76 | 0.01 | -0.04 65 | The Stone Guest | 61 | 0 | 0.02 66 | The Garden Embassy | 102 | -0.01 | -0.04 67 | A Court of Cats | 68 | -0.02 | 0.11 68 | Lamentation Lock | 74 | -0.02 | -0.07 69 | Our Lady of Pyres | 71 | -0.04 | -0.02 70 | The Heart the Devil and the Zee | 67 | -0.04 | 0.08 71 | The Haunting at the Marsh-House | 58 | -0.07 | 0.09 72 | Fading to a Coda | 199 | -0.08 | - 73 | Required Repairs | 80 | -0.09 | -0.07 74 | Fine Dining | 129 | -0.09 | -0.05 75 | Daylight | 85 | -0.12 | 0.05 76 | The Art of Murder | 64 | -0.13 | -0.08 77 | Borrowed Glory | 117 | -0.13 | - 78 | The Last Dog Society | 44 | -0.14 | 0.09 79 | Trial and Error | 58 | -0.14 | 0.03 80 | The Dilettante's Debut | 181 | -0.14 | - 81 | The Committee | 89 | -0.16 | -0.19 82 | The Clay Man's Arm | 74 | -0.18 | 0.06 83 | The Price of Loss | 77 | -0.19 | 0.06 84 | A Long Lost Daughter | 96 | -0.24 | -0.16 85 | The Spinning of the Wheels | 118 | -0.24 | -0.04 86 | Factory of Favours | 74 | -0.37 | -0.04 87 | The Rubbery Murders | 46 | -0.58 | -0.18
##Seasonal Conclusions
The seasonal bonus stories are unlocked when you have played all three stories of a season. Some of them are revealing some previously unknown lore and that shows fairly well in the ratings below (i.e. the ones that do tend to have a higher rating). "The Season of Revolutions" is the odd one out this time. I have no idea why.
| # | Story name | Total votes | Average vote | Diff. to prev. survey |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Season of Family Ties | 38 | 0.64 | 0.12 |
| 2 | Season of Stones | 57 | 0.61 | 0.1 |
| 3 | Season of Sceptres | 56 | 0.59 | 0.03 |
| 4 | Season of Skies | 64 | 0.59 | 0.05 |
| 5 | Season of Ruins | 70 | 0.57 | 0.03 |
| 6 | Season of Embers | 58 | 0.53 | 0.03 |
| 7 | Season of Animals | 91 | 0.47 | - |
| 8 | Season of Wrecks | 55 | 0.42 | -0.01 |
| 9 | Season of Revolutions | 52 | 0.38 | -0.17 |
| 10 | Season of Adorations | 56 | 0.37 | -0.04 |
| 11 | Season of Hobbies | 70 | 0.32 | -0.06 |
| 12 | Season of Endeavour | 102 | 0.3 | - |
| 13 | Season of Bargains | 71 | 0.2 | 0 |
| 14 | Season of Explorations | 57 | 0.19 | 0.04 |
| 15 | Season of Celebrations | 67 | 0.12 | -0.1 |
| 16 | Season of Propinquity | 68 | 0.06 | - |
| 17 | Season of Silver | 48 | 0.06 | 0.04 |
| 18 | Season of Heart's Blood | 48 | -0.07 | 0 |
Spreadsheet for more details.
##Fate-locked Christmas Stories
Again, most of these stories got pretty good results, with only minimal changes to last year. Note that the total number of votes varies considerably, so that every additional vote might result in large changes to the average.
#|Story name|Total votes|Average vote|Diff. to prev. survey :--:|:---|:--:|:--:|:--:|:--: 1 | A foolish Rubbery Man | 95 | 0.66 | 0 2 | Urchins of the Knotted Sock | 31 | 0.56 | 0.12 3 | A trio of devil poets | 95 | 0.53 | - 4 | February of the Calendar Council | 30 | 0.42 | 0.07 5 | The Gracious Widow | 33 | 0.33 | 0.08 6 | A gang of rats | 69 | 0.33 | 0.01 7 | The scholars at Benthic | 28 | 0.29 | -0.05 8 | The Duchess | 80 | 0.28 | 0.04 9 | Some inebriated Zailors | 28 | 0.13 | -0.09
Spreadsheet for more details.
##Buying stories based on rewards
You could also vote if you thought it was worth buying certain stories just for the rewards. This is especially interesting for stories that are not all that popular, namely "The Spinning of the Wheels" or "Inconvenienced by your Aunt". While I did mention it in the survey itself, I keep wondering if players actually considered how the value of some of these stories has changed with the recent Winter Balance Patch *squints at Empress' Shadow*
| Story | Total votes | Worth buying | Not worth it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theological Husbandry | 225 | 83.11% | 16.89% |
| Flute Street | 237 | 80.17% | 19.83% |
| Inconvenienced by Your Aunt | 212 | 77.83% | 22.17% |
| A Trade in Souls | 224 | 76.79% | 23.21% |
| Upwards! | 115 | 76.52% | 23.48% |
| The Empress' Shadow | 162 | 66.67% | 33.33% |
| HOJOTOHO! | 144 | 62.50% | 37.50% |
| Caveat Emptor | 189 | 55.56% | 44.44% |
| The Shallows | 125 | 51.20% | 48.80% |
| The Blemmigan Affair | 95 | 50.53% | 49.47% |
| The Sinking Synod | 98 | 48.98% | 51.02% |
| The Spinning of the Wheels | 130 | 46.92% | 53.08% |
| Cricket Anyone? | 165 | 46.06% | 53.94% |
| Flint | 124 | 44.35% | 55.65% |
| Cut with Moonlight | 84 | 44.05% | 55.95% |
| The Ceremony | 102 | 43.14% | 56.86% |
| The Gift | 165 | 42.42% | 57.58% |
| Brass Grail | 103 | 34.95% | 65.05% |
| All Things Must End | 100 | 28.00% | 72.00% |
| Long-Lost Daughter | 97 | 27.84% | 72.16% |
| A Trade in Faces | 91 | 26.37% | 73.63% |
| Mysteries of the Foreign Office | 115 | 26.09% | 73.91% |
| Haunting of the Marsh-House | 62 | 20.97% | 79.03% |
| Fading to a Coda | 151 | 19.21% | 80.79% |
| The Frequently Deceased | 64 | 18.75% | 81.25% |
| The Marriage of Feducci | 78 | 15.38% | 84.62% |
We also asked about small Fate purchases this time, but none of them got recommended except for the fate-locked expeditions. Conversely, all the Fate-purchases we asked about that were not part of a specific story got recommended. The Whitsun Device even got almost as many positive votes as "Cricket, Anyone?".
| Fate purchase | Total votes | Worth buying | Not worth it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Experimentation Device at Whitsun | 120 | 93.33% | 6.67% |
| Final equipment level at University Lab | 198 | 90.40% | 9.60% |
| The Pendant of Helicon Amber | 90 | 70.00% | 30.00% |
| Fourth assistant at University Lab | 155 | 61.29% | 38.71% |
| Hiring the Silk-Clad Expert at University Lab | 108 | 59.26% | 40.74% |
| Story | Total votes | Worth buying | Not worth it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expedition to the Gallery of Serpents | 117 | 86.32% | 13.68% |
| Expedition to the Temple of Uttermost Wind | 111 | 78.38% | 21.62% |
| Attending Mr Wines' revels as a guest | 137 | 48.91% | 51.09% |
| Shroom-Hopping | 133 | 47.37% | 52.63% |
| The Miniature Menace Contract | 78 | 39.74% | 60.26% |
Spreadsheet for more details.
This time around, we also asked to name which fate-purchases that are not stories would be worth it apart from their stats. That last part was obviously overlooked by many participant because we got quite a few votes on items with no uses.
Out of more than 300 participants in the survey, only 54 made suggestions. Removing answers that just mention stories voted on before (I get it, you really like your Aunt! ;)) and answers that were too general ("old election items") and items with no actual use, left the following answers. Although, keep in mind that you could name multiple things here.
The most often suggested purchases were:
| Item | #Votes |
|---|---|
| Cloud-Filled Sphere | 8 |
| Your Perpetually Festive Rubbery Friend | 7 |
| none at all (fair enough!) | 5 |
| The Neathy Tarot | 4 |
| Augmented Electrostatic Machine | 3 |
| Portable Fingerking Moot | 3 |
| A Crimson Captain | 2 |
| Skip the ship grind | 2 |
| Incarnadine Fur Robe | 2 |
| A Bedraggled, Forlorn Fox | 1 |
| An Assuming Judge | 1 |
| Boneless Consort | 1 |
| Intrepid Deacon | 1 |
| July | 1 |
| Morally and Physically Flexible Rubbery Cat | 1 |
| Mutersalt | 1 |
| Nadir Spouse | 1 |
| Rubbery Yes-man | 1 |
| The Iron Correspondents | 1 |
| Very Lenient Judge | 1 |
| Subscription | 1 |
Both, the Fur Robe and the FL Subscription, are technically not valid answers because one is too general and the other doesn't cost Fate. But they're close enough to add to the table. I highly suspect that some companions like the Fingerking Moot or the Deacon or not on this list purely for their uses in the game, but what do I know...
For reference, here are the links to our previous surveys in
- January 2020
- January 2019
- April 2018
- September 2017 and
- February 2017
- as well as phryne's original poll in September 2016.
Posted Feb 1, 2021, 11:02 PM UTC · edited