a feature that gives a rough summary of your strat (in General)

What if there was a feature on the equip page, or somewhere similar, where it would give you a very basic runthrough of what your strategy was doing? As in, maybe it would give you percentages on how you're doing in different facets of strategy. Example: your strat is 60% effective against direct damage spells, and 40% vulnerable to guardian angel or something. It would be based on the quality of your gear and exp vs. other characters around your PR. Or something. This is all veery vague as you can see, and it's probably something that is too much work to ever be implemented. But theoretically, what do people think of something like this? Would it offend your hardcore sensibilities, does it just sound useless, or do you like it? Personally I think it would open the door to more newbies, while still not drastically anything for vets other than maybe improving methods they're already using. Thoughts?

strategies can change overnight, mostly from NCBs and then it would give false information if this was based on the recent fight statistics.

Unless it changed at Cache Flush Every Day....

And as I said, it would be simply a very rough gauge. I'm not sure on the technicalities of how you'd monitor it, it would just be neat to generally be able to see "oh okay, I'm vulnerable against melee, but I've got tons of magic resistance, maybe I'll adjust." Or something.

CB is too complex for anything like this.

Which is a very good thing. ;)

"CB is too complex for anything like this.

Which is a very good thing. ;)"

Not for trying to convince many new players. ;) Complexity is good, having some way for people who aren't quite on the Genius level of strategy to still enjoy the game would be good too. :)

There is already something of this nature implemented in CB. Just post your current or planned strategy in a new thread. People will be more than happy to talk about it and list out its strengths, weaknesses, and tweaks you could do to it.

This is way more powerful than any program could be.

Oh but we do.

When you fought someone, did you win? Yes, then your strat is strong versus them.

If you lost, you're weak.

(Double taps not counted for! :P)

This game is lost. The only players are the very strong ones, leaving the new players out in the dust. I've played this game years ago, and enjoyed it a lot. I returned since november, now its february and I already wanna quit again. There is no way to beat all of them + some of the players (1 in particular) buy all the cheap auctions and place them again for a too high price. Not complaining here, just letting you know that the game is killing itself. To be succesful it needs a lot of players... with merely 100 players this game is impossible. Just my 5 cents.

Yea it is sad to see a purely PvP game dwindle down ~100 active players. This is probably mostly due to the lack of changes since John quit.

It is sad to see the game coming to what appears to be an inevitable doom. With nothing new in the changelog since June of last year, it seems stale. IDK. I'm with Achertontus, I started in November, and the game is starting to lose it's appeal. Just log in and click.... I only do it to pass time at work.

DB trying to run the auctions/rentals doesn't help either.

I don't know how much new changes would help. As was said, it's really hard to get competitive in CB anymore, without putting in serious cash at least. I've been spending the last week and a half just grinding for cash so I can try to buy one of the multitude of items I need for my character, and it's definitely taking a toll on my interest. There's no easy way to run through tons of strategies/ideas quickly, because you either need to scrape up cash for items, reallocate BA to another character, or change things knowing you're permanently messing up that character through EXP waste or whatever. For all the customization and different things you can wear, the game feels very inflexible at times. I always thought forging was kind of fun, but I keep hearing it's pointless unless you're high enough PR or whatever to make a profit. And they're probably right, it's just a drag that that's the case. As someone said you have to buy pretty much everything at the auctions at marked up prices because people with tons of cash are bidding for every item and reselling. I dunno. I'm sure most of you disagree. I'm mostly just playing out of habit at this point, and because I've set myself a 2million CB goal that I'm determined to hit. But when it feels like my main options right now are to either scrap this char and start a new strategy, or continue grinding and grinding and slowly getting the stuff I need to wear, the fun wears off pretty fast.

Cash starts flying in around 1 million MPR. You can easily make 2-5 mill a week from then on up.

Exp loss, especially at low levels, is negligible. It is always way better to retrain your character than to make a new one.

As for items, you can find some in rentals for decent prices. Also, many people are willing to let you barrow an item for a week or so for a nominal fee.

For new players or players getting back into CB I suggest trying a mage team first. Low NW is needed to be competitive and if you dont like your build it can serve as a great way to raise some funds. Mage teams also can get pretty nice challenge bonuses , thus increasing rewards and growth rate.

For those looking for gear. I have a bunch of near base items laying around from drops. Shoot me an CM and we can work something out on the cheap :)

Let's keep this going!

Yeah apart from tatts which are a consumable item everyone uses the rest of the stuff he sells is all base. Your far better of not buying base but buying stuff that has been upped already as it usually works out cheaper that way.
If you really want a tatt you just have to wait for one to drop then outbid him, its easy enough to check out what he's payed previously before.

As to the initial idea, each Sunday I just scroll a few pages higher than my score on the list and fight everyone on it once to see if I can add anyone new. I don't even bother looking at the builds. Doing it that way you also add the random team that I did not think I could beat.
You have to do it more often smaller and it also makes everyone a bit bigger than you aware your around which isn't a good thing sometimes, but it is simple and effective

Sorry on phone so that's worse then my normal pig English

If you want the items he has just outbid him, he usually comes away with items being the only initial bidder...

As for finding new targets, my NCB is up in June and I only have 3 1/2 pages left of people to target with a higher score than me...that's not a lot.

Yeah its all about the grind as you get bigger unfortunately. I think I've added 1 new player in the last 3 or so weeks

I brought an Idea up to NS a while back that he said had merit but has since gone by the wayside. Since the argument/spat/whatever you want to call it happened it's not been addressed again. So I'll drop it here as a way to see if interest in it will pick up again.

3 Elements make this idea work.

1. Accounts like TourneyPrizes than can hold multiple characters.
2. Admin/Volunteer directed character builds with different MPRs.
3. Monitored Automated Clans with these Accounts/Chars in them.

This in all honesty is a band-aid on the bullet would but would help with targets for both lower and higher level chars so there is not so much of a strain on the regular players. Because of the dynamics of the rewards system the Alliance has basically been holding it up. Remember we don't attack each other? There is more than one reason for it and the rewards system is one of them. We build score between us and others hit us and grab that score typical right?

Well think about this without us everyone would be doing the crab bucket thing and scores/rewards would actually drop as a result. CB was made to get better the more players that are active consequently the less players that are active the worse it gets.(it's a numbers thing) This is bad for business overall due to such a small player base at present. However if we get these temporary automated clans stocked with chars properly outfitted at multiple MPR levels it will balance the system back out. This of course would be ideal at least until something could be done about attracting and retaining New Players/Vets. Also once made they could be reused as needed/necessary.

PS: It's been proven more than once so number crunchers stop before you start I'm not gonna sit here and argue with you.

I'll answer a few questions before they are even asked.

Yes they would be fighting clans and geared to help Clanners as this is the core of the Player Base right now, no offense forgers!

No they would not use Rituals like Varda's Insight.

No they would not destroy the Clan system they would actually bolster it....more clans equals less of a disparity of Clan Bonuses by position.

No they would not be solely dependent on the Admins.....they could be volunteer run if NS agrees to it. They would be run by Bots on the CB Server with a preexisting fight list that is monitored and adjusted as needed.

It may be the only way to resurrect challenge bonuses etc but I see this route as fraught with problems. Who decides on the strats which are run, who decides which chars they hit etc.

So if I am in 3rd place in the clan rankings and 2 bot clans overtake me I am better off? More clans may reduce the steps in bonus but if the bot clans are above you it increases the gap between you and a rival.

Alright fair enough I did miss a question.

The Bot Clans wouldn't be hitting the regular clans they would hit each other and non clan opponents. With the possibility of making many more CPs than a regular clan this would be a measure of control so they don't constantly overtake the top positions by accident.

I missed a note here as well, as far as the strategies picked well they can be based off of the active playerbase etc. I am sure players like Xenogard and EoD can make a fair line of strategies that would be even across the board no? Furthermore what does it actually matter what the strategies are as long as you can fight and win? As per usual if you want to win work for it this is already technically help handed to the masses on a platinum platter.

Idea Caveat: I am a noob, read with caution.

What about:
As you move up in MPR, the interval in which you can be attacked lessens. Maybe make tiers like the BA refresh rate. So if your character is at the highest MPR's someone could essentially initiate a fight with your character 4X as fast as someone in the lower tiers.


Also as you move up in MPR your Score Decay rate (losing as defender) is reduced by a similar tiered rate.

Well this gives too much to the upper tiers in the form of immunity. At least in my opinion that is others may disagree.



Well this seems to be a decent idea to me the only thoughts that come to mind is how hard would it be to implement and how much of a strain on the server would it have?



We kind of have this already to be honest. We at least have the 6/20 exemption of negative challenge bonuses which keeps it from being a total failure being in the higher echelons.

The prices for base gear is actually very low. Items that used to sell for millions now sell for a couple 100k. The few items that sell for much more than that are generally supporter items and a couple things that are important to a lot of strats. Even with that they are still 100s of times cheaper than they used to be. When I started the most expensive base item was around 20 mil. Most players used leather for the first six mo to a year. Then they only had a couple rare items.

There are still plenty of targets at all lvl ranges. Just because they are inactive does not mean they do not still make good targets. Because the NPB and NCB are scaled to the highest MPR char you gain even more rewards than you used to. Add that to the cheap gear and its much easier to lvl up a char now.

I remember those days Hivemind, still though this doesn't mean those abandoned chars make good clan Targets. Again roughly 80 - 90% of our present playerbase is in a clan. This is one of the reasons I came up with the Bot Clan Idea to begin with.

I am certain that there are a few tweaks that could be done to it to polish it and make it really shine in this regard.(Rubberduck helped with that too thanks!) Also remember that this is only ONE of the reasons, we are currently having an issue with the rewards system as well.(explained earlier.....go Alliance!)

Point is that we are having a easier and harder go at it than the people before us. Easier because we are getting higher bonuses (yay!), harder because of the learning curve, bonuses(steeper cliff 1 loss means so much more than before) and much much fewer clan targets which make smaller fight lists as a result.(boo!) We also have a NP/Vet retention issue to compound the problems as well.

Like I said above this would be a band aid on the bullet wound. It would be a sturdy one as long as we retain the players we have and keep them active. Having a 6 man fight list blows and is a deterrent from actually playing more or at all.(We have lost quite a few vets from this aspect alone.) Imagine if it was back to double, triple or quadruple that? I am fairly certain this would make things at least a bit better.

Just my opinion on the matter *shrugs*

There is a charcater summary already...

But it doesn't really show much of what I'm talking about. Right? Sometimes I feel like people just hear what they want to hear when I post stuff, haha.

No, but extending an existing feature is usually easier than making a new one.

Just because extending a current feature is easy doesn't mean it is the right or practical route to go. If it doesn't cover what is needed then making a new feature is the best thing to do.

I would say in this case we are starting to run into a learning curve wall. Our Bonuses are going up constantly yet our teaching applications are going in the exact opposite direction.

It's looking more and more like the EVE Online picture below:

Not to seem like I am preaching or demanding but I am definitely presenting this to make a point. I know you have RL things to do just as we all do. However if you want this game to prosper you are going to have to put more in it NS. Not to mention ppl are going to need to SEE this more not just you saying "Hey I am doing this behind the scenes guys!" this only works for so long then you HAVE to show it.....kinda like the old saying here "Screenshot or it Didn't happen!" Players need something to believe in and the ephemeral or nebulous "Just Believe" is no longer enough to provide us with the faith needed. Most here are just waiting for the doors to close any minute, honestly I am in that group although I don't want it to happen. I hope you get the point here NS.

I agree just adding to the character summary would make plenty of sense. I was just trying to express a general concept for an idea, not have all the details plotted out. When you said there was a character summary already, it seemed like you were saying the suggestion was invalid because of that. I realize there's already a summary, but I was just throwing out a hypothetical idea. The general concept that I suggested would still exist if it was an extension of the character summary, that's basically what I meant anyway. :P

Hivemind, it is more difficult to level up a char now, I've run multiple ncbs, believe me. Inactive characters score tends to approach PR or go below if they are unbalanced. Active characters are more likely to have score>PR making for better challenge bonuses.

Zenai, that's exactly how I feel as a newer CB player. I'm just glad I got tons of help getting started the last time I was here, and I was determined at that point to finally make progress in the game, otherwise I'd still be completely lost lol.

Any other thoughts on anything posted here or are you gonna let this die because an idea of mine is in it NS?