Just like riding a bike....a very expensive bike. (in General)

Hi, I'm back. Really, I got myself into a nice clan and everything. They haven't told me their Hidden Agenda yet, but I've managed to figure out that it involves poodles, low-fat jelly, and world domination. Anyways, if memory serves, the slogan on the ad that first brought me here was, "Sit down. Start clicking." And indeed, it is fun to again sit down, select targets, calculate rewards, select better targets, and then make with the clicking. I was going to make an ET team, but instead I shall have an EEMM team, equipped the way nature intended. Partly because I want to stick to my core values(of manliness), but mostly because this NCB thingy is really expensive.

Which brings me to my next point. This NCB thingy is really expensive. My BA costs me $401, while I only make an average of $76/battle. I assume it is a 166% increase in my gross BA cost, which would mean a 535% increase in my net BA cost. The day I made BlenderIncarnate I had 200k. Its all gone, spent entirely on BA(not even a full 2 days worth). I'm not complaining or anything, just letting everyone know that I'll be penniless for a while. So don't loan me money or anything. I'll just spend it on BA and you'll never see it again.

And what's the deal with these [84x1389] (+50) weapons? The Morgul-Hammer was [84x120] and that was big enough for The Last. When did x100 become a laughably small number?

June 30th was the huge change of the month in regards to weapons changing. You should also know that change months are now done quarterly.

Good to have you back, I too recently rejoined :). The weapon change is basically because jon made weapon damage a linear upgrade and modified the damage formula to make tanks a little bit stronger than mages.

Avoid,

Check the changemonth logs.

The weapon change was a huge thing. Jon spells it all out there. I think it was June.

It was also that change that caused this game to get renamed from Mage Blender into Tank Blender...

The NCB is far too expensive...it's designed as such.
It's supposed to replicated the cost of BA over the whole life of CB2, which means it's stupid huge...

Avoid, if you fight with around 18-20 hours worth of BA a day and miss the occasional weekend, etc, buying full BA for the duration of the NCB will run you around 25 -30 million, just FYI. My BA cost around 937 bucks per toward the end of mine, and a good cash win was $250. Yeah, ouch.

That's how it's meant to be.

Getting 20-22 hrs worth a day will obviously give you more money, use the NCB better, and cut you down to the 20 million range (if you buy all every day).

You don't have to ask me, though, your clan mate Bast did very well with her NCB, and as far as I could tell, she didn't buy all her BA. Nor did she use an RoE. I did both, and ended with barely more MPR at the time of her NCB ending. She must know something, probably starting with a good clan and some very clever rewards calculations...wonder who thought of that? *grin*

Ideally (and in most cases) the NCB is used by someone who has planned for it and prepared a cash stash. Starting with an NCB from a zero base level and an objective of getting to the top of the CB ladder is very difficult given the cash situation. If it weren't so then experienced players would be able to take advantage of their knowledge and we'd have a new top 10 every other day - is that a bad thing, maybe not...?

The NUB on the other hand does not have the same penalties because new players are expected to make mistakes and they genuinely do need a little hand up the ladder.

I think we have a good balance at the moment. Top 3 score players in the game right now currently come from the NCB, NUB and Vet category if I'm not mistaken so that looks pretty balanced to me. Further down the top 10 listing there's a healthy mix of all three categories too...

It's gonna be tough for you Avoid. Of course, you may adopt a long term strat and use your EEMM team over the first 4 months to refine strat ideas and save cash then re-start a new NCB team with your "cash stash" as soon as it's over. Painful - yes, but an option never-the-less.

"The NUB on the other hand does not have the same penalties because new players are expected to make mistakes and they genuinely do need a little hand up the ladder."

The NUB does have the same penalty.

But it also gains an increase to cash rewards. These can be used to off set the increased BA cost.

Or just make your weapon really, really big. ;)

I wish I could start my nub over with what I know now lol

The increased rewards allow me to buy all of my BA and still make money, but I didn't realize that until about 2 weeks ago :( Right now I can buy all 576 BA for about 840 each and still make about 250k/day

20 mil to buy all my BA eh, thats quite a bit, though that is very useful information none the less :D

/me sings cry me a river

The game is balanced now. A SMFB does about the same damage as a single tank. I am really happy with the balance though of course it could be fine tuned.