Congrats NightStrike!!!! (in General)

100k MPR in first day of NCB! One Day!!

What an idea, Buy BA and THEN make an NCB!

Congrats, that should be a record kept somewhere to remember!

Created January 13, 2007 (NCB until May 13)

I thought BA in excess of 160 was removed when starting a NCB. Not sure where I heard this, so i can't verify. But nice accheivment, none-the-less

Wait, yea i remember seeing that warning when i started too, hmm, Give us your secret Night!

I had thought so too when I just started my first NCB. I saw the warning and thought I had to burn my 500+ ba that was saved up. But it was taking too long so I just decided to go on with the loss. Apparently, I didn't lose the ba that was in excess of 160. Which kind of is regretful that I burned the other ba earlier.

seems like a bug then... getting to #1 in (at this rate) 3 weeks doesn't exactly seem fair...

Yeah, how does one fight in 10,000 battles in less than 24 hours?

IIRC, the amount of BA you can buy at the 10/10 level is around 800. representing 12 hours of BA.

That means 800 plus 1600 (the actual 24 hours) would be 2400.

Even playing the switch to get an extra set of initial BA would be 2400 plus 800, or ~3200.

Somehow, NS got three times that in 24 hours, and I assume he burned it all (or most of it) in high experience time).

Um, what?

Actually, it's probably not a bug. It's more like the warning should be reworded such that it states that your max ba will have a cap of 160.

The amount of BA you have over 160 does NOT get reset after you create a NCB.

Why does it give a warning saying you cant start an NCB with over 160 BA if its not implemented?

He may have been hoarding BA for couple of days prior. Unless Jonathan has changed something to disallow this.

Xiaz, it gives a warning before creating an NCB saying that any BA exceeding 160 will be destroyed

So... what you're saying is: everyone with 12m or more should STOP, right now! Retire all of their characters except one with 1 PR/MPR. Log in once a day, buy all the BA you can for a pitiful ammount each. Do this for 90 days. With the 160 BA u started with, you'll be just under 65k BA. Start a NCB, spend 10k BA per day (while still buying all you can each day for your first 7 days), and accomplish as much in a week, as most people can in a month...

*cough* Bug *cough*

i think he should be given his money back and NCB to start over, its exploiting a bug isnt it? I obeyed the "warning", why shouldnt everybody have to?

I'm sure NightStrike is sensible enough to report the bug.

But after it happens, actually make the warning true, destroy all BA exceeding 160 after the creation of the NCB

Xiaz, you're not reading everything, it gives a warning at the creation of NCBs saying 160 BA is the most you can have when starting an NCB

I haven't been active for awhile now but I'm almost certain he should not be able to buy the BA and then make the character. I tested the possibility awhile back and it didn't work. Instead I decided I'd make the character and save BA for a couple of months to then eventually ONLY fight during bonus EXP with 15% clan bonus. Problem was, I couldn't wait and when I finally used the BA I hated hitting enter for 6 hours straight. At least I still made money since BA cost like $36 each at 1 MPR.

I know your Secret NightStrike and its hella smart... Buy huge amounts of BA then get someone to transfer a NCB to you... Can't wait for the Bug Fixed part of it all.

Hmmm, people didn't seem to be complaining about this "bug" nearly enough when it was being used to raise massive amounts clan points or to buy massive amounts of BA during extra exp time...

but when did someone get to 100k MPR in one day cuz of that?

Oh, so you're just pissed that someone benefited more than someone else. Ok.

No, it says in the rules at the creation of NCB, all BA exceeding 160 will be destroyed, how is that fair to me who started with 160 BA?

Dude, you assumed that he started his NCB with over 160 BA, but as the warning states you cannot. So unless NightStrike did do so, and his BA wasn't reset to 160, then there is a bug and I'm sure he, or any of us, would have reported it.

On the other hand, if he hoarded BA and got a NCB character transfered to him. Then he found a clever way to get around it, so unless Jonathan deems it unfit, then the loophole will be changed. Otherwise, I don't see where the problem is.

I created an NCB char for NS and xfr'd it to him in order to allow him to join our clan. Creating and transferring NCB's was raised in a thread a while ago by Popsicle Man to no negative feedback as far as I know. I did this as a player btw, and it had nothing to do with any "admin stuff".

Looks like he's bought and stored ~5k BA in advance of starting to play with his NCB. Nothing wrong with buying and storing BA in advance of a whacky period as many people have done this in the past. That said, I don't think anyone has done it before using an NCB.

When creating an NCB the message is clear.
"Warning: enabling the NCB will result in the elimination of stored BA in excess of the normal cap of 160."

The interpretation of the above sentence is what's important. I didn't know NS had stored BA in advance of starting with his NCB. I'm involved in so much as he's in my clan and he received his NCB character from me as a legit transfer. Given my involvement I'm not going to comment any further and will leave the interpretation of whether he's exploited the above to Jon or Bart.

"Oh, so you're just pissed that someone benefited more than someone else. Ok."

Having the number 1 MPR character in the game in a matter of a few weeks... Ehhh... just a small benefit...

"Hmmm, people didn't seem to be complaining about this "bug" nearly enough when it was being used to raise massive amounts clan points or to buy massive amounts of BA during extra exp time..."



I just got your point Tezmac


But the only difference was, that was someone saving up BA on a normal char who doesnt get a bonus when fighting. He bought all that BA for cheap for a character who was getting normal exp, only to get a char xfered to him that DOES get NCB bonuses. I'm all for him saving up the exp, but after he gets the NCB, not before. If he did it after he got the NCB then it would be at the NCB price, and he would be wasting NCB time doing it.

There's a simple solution here. Jon resets the character and BA to where they were and fixes the transfer exploit. NightStrike shouldn't be rewarded for stumbling upon an exploit. He should have at least made sure what was going on was right. I find it hard to believe that when fighting his 10k battles he didn't once think something was wrong. Then again, I'm assuming it was a stumble and he didn't plan this exploit in advance.

saving up the BA*

"Then again, I'm assuming it was a stumble and he didn't plan this exploit in advance."


oops... i bought a character... my bad, i didn't mean to...

Okay Gentleman play nice, back in your corners, wait till I get Bast in here to reside over this...

Hatchet. I wasn't accusing him of anything. I'm just saying its possible he knew in advance it wouldn't reset his BA from a past experience.

You both missed my point. You don't just accidentally buy a NCB from someone...

Tezmac, saving up BA to spend on an existing character is not a bug, its perfectly legitimate even though it can skew clan points for a while. Saving them up for a new bonus character is not and shouldn't work.

I think it's a matter for Jon to decide, but I'm of the mind that transfers of NCB chars shouldn't be allowed anyway, regardless of any question about storing BA before such a thing.

Should NCB characters be transferable? The fact that they are allows a player to start an NCB on Wednesday, retire it and then get another one on Thursday.

Without transfers you cannot have another NCB char for four months, something that stopped me playing an NCB when they were first introduced, thanks to some hasty creation of a bonus char on day 1 of the NCBs.

i wonder if i could buy all the ba i could in 3 months, then let someone make an NCB for me, then during EXP time i could go in 1 day from 1 mpr to 1 mil mpr. It's only 24 hours clicking.

I think that's simply not what the NCB was designed for.

" i wonder if i could buy all the ba i could in 3 months, then let someone make an NCB for me ...."

You could. If you'd thought of it 3 months + 1 day ago. Now? Probably no.

Another reason to wish for the ability to travel back in time. ;)

" i wonder if i could buy all the ba i could in 3 months, then let someone make an NCB for me ...."

If you did the title of this post would be "Congrats Henk!!!!!"

And of course, the same arguments would be proposed, nothing changed.
Same admin actions will be taken... etc...

Wow cheap.

The BA costs of the NCB are designed in a way to reflect how much the top players have invested into their MPR. What NS essentially did is buy BA at a regular price, and then use it to receive the NCB bonus, therefor negating that extra cost yet receiving all of the benefits of the bonus.

Sounds like an exploit to me.

Let's all try it before Jon fixes it! ;)

What's the most possible BA someone could burn in wacky XP time? How long would we have to save BA to reach that? Who want's to trade me a 1 MPR NCB charcater? :P

Aw shucks. G reset NS. Looks like this isn't an option any more. ;)

Let's not.

guys i got a great idea for a community character!!

get 20 people to do what ns was doing... save up ba for 3 weeks, buyin all you can... then someone makes an ncb, uses all the BA, and x-fers to person number 2... he thusly uses all his ba and sends to person number 3

So on and so forth to person number 20, who when he gets done, sends the char to jon! and we have a really massive person to right?

That'd be a fun thing to do if you don't count the amount of money that will be used for buying BA with no purpose in the long run, or the millions it'll take to transfer the character to the next person after awhile.

Hey, as long as you give the character to me in the end, I'm all for it! :P

OTOH having it auto-reset someone's BA when you transfer a NCB char could be abused, too, if you don't like someone who's been saving BA...

I'm inclined to leave this sort of abuse for admins to correct as GB did, but I'm open to alternatives.

Well, a simple solution would be just allow the recipient of the character to confirm the transfer.

Jon, how hard would it be to reset BA and make the user accept any transfers?

Wow, 2 similar ideas at the exact same time! *smile*

I think it is a good idea, but can hear a tangible *sigh* from Jonathan... Transfer confirmation would appear to be a brand new thing in CB-land, meaning a fair amount of code for a fairly small pay-back.

With such a noticeable result, perhaps admin enforcement is the most realistic way to handle this?

That's what I thought but Jon asked. ;)

I think the transfer confirmation is best. I can think of a few was this can still be abused without being totally noticeable.

I'd be happy to have all user to user character transfers controlled by the admins in a similar way that un-retiring is controlled at the moment. There's been a dozen char transfers in the last month - it's not going to overtax us.

That's not the problem though. The ability to use stored BA on recently transferred NCB character is a loophole that needs to be closed.

Also,
Q: What's the implications of xfr'ing NCB chars to NUB users?

I believe they get the NUB bonus on the remaining NCB period...

Glory posted a thread about it somewhere, I have no idea what it was titled, but that was in there.

actually, novice posted:
NCB into NUB?.

my bad, I think Glory did a NCB post on something, I know that. :)

Glory sold Fanta the char.

Hatch...wrong again...care to try a third time?

The BA cost for a 1 MPR NCB character isn't too steep. Would it be exploiting to start a NCB, leave it at 1 MPR and buy all your Daily BA for nearly 4 months, then wack it all out in a wacky XP time?

You'd waste you NCB time, but you wouldn't be paying through the nose for BA...

I believe the rewards you got wouldn't be what you expect, likely the max reward would still be at a 10/10 refresh rate, even if you hit 7/10 from buying BA...

I hope that wouldn't work...

even if it would, you'd get less XP during that massive spend time than you would buy fighting all day and spending the bought BA along with it...

And upon further review, it was novice all the way...

Hatch, figure it this way, for some folks who can't fight but three times a day, this would give them 50 more BA a day, without having to spend time fighting...You might even be able to eek some MPR out of this scheme...

Some people just don't read posts properly...;)

I know everyone got a bit off topic but since they're talking about hoarding DURING the NCB I did some investigating.

Its 720 BA for $38. Say you buy for 115 days (this allows yourself 2 days of whacky EXP while spending it) you'd get 79200 BA for $3009600. Based on this character (~80k battles challenged with bonus) you'd get to about 600k MPR. Now if you managed to fight non-stop for the 2 whacky exp times I'm sure you could get 800k or maybe even 1mil MPR. There's always the ROE option as well. This strategy benefits someone who can't play very often and can't afford to buy BA. The downside to this is that you can't play for 4 months while you wait and when it comes time to spend the BA you have to do a TON of clicking in a short time. Assuming you spend 1 BA per second you'd need to spend 22 hours fighting in the remaining 5 days.

Nice! ;)

Also, the amount of BA you can buy goes down as you change the MPR BA refresh brackets. Buy bulk buying at 1MPR, you can stock up on more BA than you oculd normally purhcase. If you can fight up with in wacky XP time, with a RoE, and reach those MPR break popints quickly, it should be possible ot get thier increase rewards on your cheap bought BA...

I'm at nearly 400K MPR 3/4 of the way thorugh my NCB. It might be worth me saving 3/4 Mil in the last month of my NCB, then starting again, and stockpiling BA bought at 1 MPR.

Use a RoE and blaze through a Saturday - Tuesday Wacky XP two day...

But.
As you get more xp and MPR as a NCB, you will need to very frequently update your fightlist to get/find those characters who will give you max rewards.

This can be quite a tedious process and can also be very time consuming. I doubt anyone has the patience do spend thousands of BA while updating their fight list every few hundred fights.

PM are you kidding, patience?

4 months of slogging through fighting seems like a heck of a lot more work to me!

Exactly. ;)

Personally I think it is far easier to play a bit each day for 4 months then to try to cram in 4 months to 5 days.

I have bought BA while on vacation for a week. Getting through 3k BA was quite a chore. I cannot imagine trying to get through over 50k BA all the time trying to pick and choose my opponents to maximize my rewards.

But then again, that is just me.

heres a good idea you retire all your strong chars then you buy BA with a 1 MPR minion then you send 50k to CEntral bBAnk and unretire then you have cheap BA lol

that way you save money

hmm, with all these creative ways of possibly abusing the systems intentions, perhaps we just need a cap on stored ba. make it big enough for a weeks vacation and that is about it?

Agreed.

Besides, this was a bug with one heck of a penalty - you lose *all* of your refreshable BA for the entirety of the time you are storing, as well as being unable to fight and make back any of the money you are spending.

*shrugs* Some people put all their USD into their weapons, and someone found a way to put their USD into their MPR. I understand that it is a bug and everything, I just thought I'd point out the similarity. ~_^

OB buying BA at 1 or 2 mpr is dirt cheap...no USD needed...

I like snipers thinking though! ;)

Yeah, except all that time you're buying cheap BA you're missing out on free BA because your character's retired and you're over 160...

I wouldn't mind if Jon did something with the cache flush to reset all BA over 160 back to that very number on a daily basis.

BA will have a hard cap at 1600 now. This is effective immediately on new purchases, and effective at cache flush for piles of BA already over that amount.

WooT! :D

Nice change. ;)

Well, I guess I won't finally test my 4 month hoarding theory. And it was going to end just in time for me to be done with high school and have more chances to fight. Maybe my return to CB won't happen, or at least until June.