Newbie bonus - facts?, Please Contribute! (in General)

I'm a mentor, and I'm mostly hovering in New players to help newcomers.
Often I get questions about newbie bonus, what it is, and how long it will last.

However, I haven't been able to successfully consult the FAQ in this matter. I
recon the correct move is to ask a question on the discussion board, as recommended
by the FAQ.
To not litter the forum without at least trying to get some background info, I
have watched what the 75% Newbie bonus is doing. Both in the fields of fighting
and forging.
I have tried to write this thread as objective as possible, but responds to
this thread are welcome in all sorts.

FORGING for 24h:
April 17th

My (HypnoToads) MPR: 309k
Created: 3d January 2005
Battles won: 110,778

Total BA used in forge:
Object of forging: Mainly Mage shield [120,22], Secondary Chain Mail Leggings [105,21]
-----------------
160 -> Entering with
7*6*24 = 1008 -> Spawned BA (-30, since I messed up on the CML)
336 -> Bought BA, at $334 a piece.
-------------------
Sum: 1474 BA

Mags (Brock Samsons) MPR: 154k
Created: 9th March 2005
Battles won: 38,351
Total BA used in forge ?
Object of forging ?

The Result of the "competition" (I think Mags was quite unaware about it :)
HypnoToad: ($494,182)
Brock Samson: ($783,845)


FIGHTING:
The fight window states that the newbie bonus is 75%.
This area is harder, but the closest thing that come to my mind is to compare
the PR Graphs of The Steveh, to a char named Czech Forger.
That char used to be a property of Wahooka, before it was sold to BooDiggins.
When OSU Beaver (Wahooka), was new, he fought under the influence of the Newbie bonus.
Result:
The Steveh went from 0 PR to 200k PR in about half the pace that Czech Forger did.
When Czech Forger reached 200k PR, The Steveh was 260k PR big.


How long does the newbie bonus stay?

I have heard various bids on this one, but the most common ones are:

* 1 month
* Until you move to Rivendell (20 days)
* MPRbased depending on the highest MPR char
* Timebased depending on the highest MPR char



Questions I would like to have answered:

-For how long does the Newbie bonus stay?

-Will a newcomer, who buys an already sized character, still receive the
newbie bonus?

- Does the Wacky rewards act cumulative with Newbie bonus, thus making them
very worthwile?

-Does the increased forging ability mean that buying BA is a
good deal, for new forgers?

My own conclusions:
I hate to forge :)

time based depending on highest mpr char

KCC started on March 30th, but his newbie bonus ends on June 19th for example

wacky rewards will stack with newbie bonus...again check KCC's graph...you'll see that every so often his graph will climb vertically for a while

for new forgers, buying BA will get you a profit if the newbie charges 75%...but imo the newbie bonus is better spent on raising your MPR as high as possible. This is because usually (unless you are doing something really wrong) buying BA will get you a profit because you will earn more per fight than buying BA will cost

"- Does the Wacky rewards act cumulative with Newbie bonus, thus making them
very worthwile?"

This one, at least, I know. No, silly, Jonathan made Newbies exempt from wacky times recently.

oh then jon must have changed it then. back when I had newbie bonus, wacky bonus stacked on top of newbie bonus

Easiest way to find out how long the bonus lasts is to mouse over the "75% newbie bonus" and it tells you.

- only *very* new players are exempt from whacky times (and that dates back to CB1, not recent by any means)

- if your newbie bonus lasts N days, and you buy a character that is M days old, you will get at most N - M days of bonus using that character

Ok. Now I have some facts, and I'm ready to start to make more advanced conclusions.

1. If you plan to forge, and do have Newbie Bonus: Buy all BA, It will still be profitable

2. If you plan to forge, and do not have Newbie Bonus: Be at least 1M MPR, otherwise you will have no chance at outforging the people with Newbie Bonus.

3. Newbie Bonus is most likely a variable, since Jon expressed it in terms of N. Probably also adjusted to the MPR of the highest char.

4. Wacky times are very good for people with Newbie Bonus.
(I don't know the exact values, but I give estimations for happy XP):

Wacky XP People with Newbie Bonus:
Money: 0,5*1,75 = 0,875 times normal
XP: 2*1,75 = 3,5!!! times normal

5. If you have Newbie Bonus, and do fight most BA per day, and buy all BA, it should not be too hard to pass the highest PR-chars in PR.

6. If you have Newbie Bonus: Do not buy a bigger char!
Fighting one up yourself will give you longer bonus, and will give better PR in the long run.

7. I still hate to forge

In CB1 the "wacky times" bonus was 50%, not 100%, and the malus -75%: Whacky fight rewards. Meaning that it is not convenient to fight during wacky times, since 0.25+1.5=1.75, which less than 2 (the normal rewards).
Did things change in CB2?

Thanks for the numbers (as I said, I did just guess).

Well.. That gives for the Newbie Bonus:
XP: 1*1.75.*1.5 =2.625
Money: 1*1.75*0.25 = 0.4375

Without Newbie Bonus:
XP: 1*1.5 = 1.5
Money: 1*0.25 = 0.25

My new user bonus went up from 75% - 80%. And I am in Rivendell. And be active for more than a month. I wonder why did it change to 80%? It did change after I joined a new clan? lol.

<DreadnoughtGirl> Well I have a 50kish mpr character that Reyna bought me that I use to forge.
<DreadnoughtGirl> so I have that plus my 80% newb bonus.
<Shade> - if your newbie bonus lasts N days, and you buy a character that is M days old, you will get at most N - M days of bonus using that character
<DreadnoughtGirl> Wrong Shade
<DreadnoughtGirl> It's still the same date.
<Shade> DnG, then you say wrong to Jonathan: the creator of that post and this game...
<vendo> That was a Jon quote, DG.
<DreadnoughtGirl> Well then why does it still tell me the same date?
<Shade> because you already have the character?
<Shade> where did the char come from anyway?
<Shade> perhaps the character is 'new' also
<DreadnoughtGirl> no the character I have is old and Reyna gave it to me.
<Shade> did you check the time before you got the char and it stayed the same?
<Shade> either there is something bugged or its not showing you the lessened time...
<DreadnoughtGirl> Yes I checked the time before I got the char and it stayed the same Shade.
<DreadnoughtGirl> It was july9 5:04pm EDT before and after.


Now i don't want to nerf any newbies here but either there is something bugged or Jonathan forgot to put up a mention in the system :)

Your bonus lasts N days, period

You just won't get the bonus that whole time if you use an older char. Switch back to a char you created yourself and you get the bonus again.

whats N mean and M mean?

N = days of newbie bonus
M = character's age in days

Manta, did you overlook Jon's "fixed" reply in that thread?

Bartjan, I understood that "fixed" referred to the fact that Jonathan exchanged the XP and money bonus/malus during wacky times.
Namely, people received more money and less XP, instead of more XP and less money, during extra XP wacky times.

> BTW Jon, the note is wrong. It says I will get more more, less exp, but it's the other way around for this time

Checking out CBMAN11's forging record, it doesn't look like the newbie bonus is nullified for forging done with purchased characters on new accounts.

newbie bonus lasts 2 months and 1 week from day of account creation, the end. I have seen the newbie expiration date when i made first char then retired it, it was a higher mpr char and then new char made I checked again on newbie bonus and it was still expiring on same day.

I've heard that's wrong, Iron Wolf. I heard it's longer for people who start later.

yea...its longer for people who start later

I'm wondering if I make a new char and retire all the others, will my user bonus expiration change? Or is this user bonus based on acc creation date - character creation date or something in the mix. now I tried to fight with a new char and I'm not receiving 80%, im receiving 0% as in no user bonus at all.

I can't help but notice that there is some bad info on whacky rewards in this thread. During whacky times, one reward gets a 1.6 multiplier, and the other 0.4. http://cb2.carnageblender.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001Evu