NUB is not as overpowered as you might think (in General)

I know alot of the vets who play this game see the NUB and go "ugh that is so stupid they can get that to the higher levels so easy." Not so fast. Ancient Anubis is sitting at 1 billion + NW trust me the NUB can't and won't put me any at 10% of his NW. So therefore i am relegated to using low NW strategies and hoping for the best. totally OP that NUB is.. yup

im not seeking pitty more of an enlightenment on what the tgame is actually about. USD you win. no USD you fight with an arm behind your back

NUB bonus is an encouragement to new users. It may not launch you into 1st but it sure is fun to skyrocket up there. Half of the strategies do not need that much net worth. Really the only ones involve big weapons or a really big armored wall. Lots of people have gathered resources in their first run (or perhaps 2 or 3 runs) and then used one of the more expensive strats. Even then, at the high end, it is impossible to keep your weapons net worth up with your encumbrance. Just recently someone was selling a high end tattoo or weapon, which happens occasionally. So if you save up your CBD you will eventually be able to buy one at an opportune moment. Really, patience is the key to fielding a decent team. A few months just won't hack it, and it would be unfair to the folks that have sunk a few YEARs into it if it did.

it is all about perspective. contrasting it with a high nw team may make it seem less than amazing. contrasting it with a no bonus character will make it seem stellar.

probably the fairest comparison is with the ncb (which is all that many of us have ever had) which shows the power of the nub.

Compared to the NCB, the NUB is way way way overpowered... i wish i could have free ba again.

That's only one complaint. Another is that it's a one-shot deal; it demands that new players come into the game with a great strategy and strong dedication or else waste it. When they inevitably mess it up, there's an urge to multi. Another complaint is that it's a rocket that ends up hitting a wall; going from insane-bonus speed to 0% bonus feels a lot like the game is over. And yet another complaint is that the monetary bonus skews CBD-value for the entire game. This also gives rise to multi-accounts.

I'd disagree, you might could touch 10% of his NW...but no, nobody here expects any kind of bonus to naturally put them within range of USD spenders. It would be unfair if it did, and it would be taken advantage of.

Just like life!

A well run NUB could break 400M NW... just sayin'

correct, the nub will not grant you the same nw as chars which have had x thousands of $ spent on them. Originally the cash bonus was the same as the xp bonus but that got a bit silly once Cb entered its middle years so Jon fixed that.

It can get you a mpr somewhere up there and if you wish to compete with the usd spenders in nw then you will have to match them.

Do you think it would be a bit crazy to match a char with 5 years play and 5k usd spent on it in 6 months?

Are you including tattoo nw in that 400M estimate Titan, it seems rather high but I don't know how much they can expect to make a week.

RD: a regular cb player can do 1m a week fairly easily. Xp bonus is well over 500%, if I remember right, so its probably a fair guess to say a nub, fighting with free bought ba, to get 4m a week. I'd double that during the short period of time where 100% challenge bonus can be achieved...so I'm guessing 120m or so liquid can be produced by a nub, plus tattoo nw.

dunno how to do the blue thingy but demigod is also right on par with my thought. why not make a general bonus to all newly created char's thusly giving those lets say like mandos a chance to actually compete instead of being happy with just being relavant

also to comment to OB think about what your saying here it would make it unfair to those who buy there way to power? i say the fattest wallet can win IS the unfair part of the equation

Yes, as long as there is a way to get ahead using usd, it would be unfair to compensate for that with a bonus. It would be unfair to the regular non-usd player, who would be absolutely raped by such a bonus, and would be unfair to the usd spender, who would find themselves giving up their hard earned cash for nothing. The only solution to this "problem," for those who see it as such, is to make it impossible to sell cbd for usd - and good luck with that.

As for me, I see no unfairness in someone giving up real currency for an in-game advantage. It's just another tradeoff, and unfairness is only perceived in that it extends beyond the boundaries of the game. All imo, of course.

Essentially, I'm saying "the fattest wallet can win" is merely a fact of life, and not inherently unfair; saying that it would be better if the game world excluded this is a very nice thought, but super difficult to implement. If you can propose an effective solution, however, I am certain everyone here is both willing and eager to hear it out!

Either the biggest wallet has an advantage, or we eliminate the power of NW. We've already taken great strides to make NW pretty crappy out of 6BA, I don't want to make it worse than it already is.

Okay, here's the idea... we'll call it encumbrance.

That was meant balance the value of investing money in the game versus breaking it for everyone else (remember "I Win" from CB1?).

Technically, I guess it was also meant to keep people from slapping uber gear onto a NCB.

Sienna I totally agree, the NCB and NUB are both failing systems and it's only going to get worse as the bonus grows. But that doesn't mean I support the rolling bonus either. With the rolling bonus I think people won't play the game the way it was meant to be played. You'll see people going into "casual gameplay mode" and then a few months later turn into a "try hard" and be right back at the top >.> .

Maybe the best way to go about bonuses would be to combine the two somehow? For example, after the NCB or NUB is up, the rolling bonus would kick in. Make the rolling bonus 1-2 years long (depending on how well you did on your NCB or NUB), and if you burned your BA just like those at the top it will bring you within 5%.

Not with a rolling BA bonus.

RAGE MODE ACTIVE

Ungh...
No, nevermind, not worth it.

RAGE MODE IDLE

It would very strongly depend on the actual implementation of the rolling bonus.
The RB could be just as well top-capped at say, 50%, and apply to XP only (also increase BA cost accordingly), in which case, whoever leaves for X months would need in reality far more than just 2*X months to catch up, because he would get no extra earnings but his BA cost would go up, so his NW increase would be also much lower.

So, no, you are so totally wrong I can barely contain the rage I feel towards everybody who holds an opinion even remotely similar to yours.

Kefeck, you misunderstand the concept of a rolling bonus.

Guess so, hehh..

I say we run a six month tourney getting NuB bonus or NCB bonus and see where the 'pros' land at the end starting from nothing....

I dont doubt that NW is possible just not for everyone.

Oh yeah, definitely not the average, just a few outliers would reach that. But, 400M NW is an insane amount, I would complain with that much XD.

"i say the fattest wallet can win IS the unfair part of the equation"

SOCIALIST!
/sarcasm

in all seriousness, free markets inevitably lead to this discovery. but without the free market, you couldn't exchange some progress on CB for some financial assistance IRL. or horde loads of items while prices are low, then sell them all when prices go back up. freedom is fun!

also... CB isn't about winning. it's about killing people. :)

ok NoK name me another game thats played as seriously that USD is allowed in? it is basically RMT at it's finest.

Every game you play that has transferable items in it, money is exchanging hands, whether it is within the rules or not.

...farmville?

games are only as serious as you want them to be. :)

I study music intensely; my teachers constantly remind me to _play_ my instrument, not _work_ my instrument.

vidja games aren't too different :D

Perfect World International

Most notably the Lost City Server which i reside upon ^_^ People have spent more money on the game than they have on their cars ^_^

Not to mention Second Life.

Every single game with micro-transactions? Which is basically almost every game now.

Experience boosts, money boosts, special items others can't get, and the list only goes on from there.

If anything, at least USD spenders here aren't getting the money from no where.. someone had to actually work to get up cash to sell. Its a trade of goods and services, or at least that's how I see it.

And if any of that didn't make sense.. well I blame the flu, cause its messing with my brain.

here is 1 more thought before i stop beating my head against the wall. do you think maybe we'd draw more people if the game for new players wasn't essentially a 1 time shoot to succeed or fail?

I don't know if we'd draw any more - we don't actually advertise as "CB! The game where you have one shot at the top!" or anything - but I do think we would retain a lot more players, both new and old.

the vast majority of those coming to the game fight no fights at all, not even one. the few that do fight don't come back after they run out of ba that first time.

Yeah, the NUB currently has very little to do with retention. 99.9% of players don't stay long enough for it to matter.