Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Long Live the Notes

There's a wiki, but this is more fun

Angry: weapons, military
Afraid: Agility (!!!!!), Faith
Cheerful: Conversation, Athletics
Depressed: Animal, Expression
Willful: Intrigue, Lumen, military
Yielding: Demeanor, History
Pressured: Faith, Athletics
Lonely: Conversation, Medicine

By skill group:

Charisma skills
Demeanor: Yielding. Cheerful and Pressured are neutral.
Conversation: Cheerful or Lonely
Expression: Depressed. Angry has penalty. All others neutral.

Physical skills
Agility: Afraid. All others neutral.
Weapons: Angry.
Athletics: Cheerful or Pressured.
Animals: Depressed.

Int skills
History: Yielding.
Intrigue: Willful.
Medicine: Lonely.
Econ: Nothing! Willful and Pressured have penalties.
Military: Angry or Willful.

Will skills
Faith: Afraid, Yielding, or Pressured.
Lumen: Willful.

Getting Reflexes (or possibly just any Agility class) to 30 lets you train Sports

Week 1:
+1 cheerful after normal actions.
- Talking to Charlotte - +1 cheerful, -1 lonely. You have several chances to talk to her.
- Talking to Dad - +1 lonely.
I think it's worth it to rush production + trade, so we need to get into a mood for that

Week 2:
The choice here has some pretty big impacts on the rest of the game.
Sending her away +1 angry, +1 yielding
She stays +1 willful
- Talking to Charlotte - nothing if you dismiss Julianna
 or Dad - unsure

Week 3:
Your first skill test. It's a Reflexes test. Passed at 30
Raises Afraid if failed. Raises Angry if passed.
- Talked to Dad; he explains why he thinks your mother died

Week 4:
Talked to Dad, Cheerful/Yielding +1 (also adorable)

Week 5:
Duke of Sedna gift. Ugh why didn't I study foreign affairs
Foreign Affairs test, failed
Court Manners test, passed at 40, if passed...
- yes +1 willful
- no ??

Week 6:
This is new. Lore test to identify what I assume a Lumen is
- Talked to Dad to get my crystal, he said no, I got Willful for it

Week 7
Elegance test, failed
Because I failed that, I passed a reflexes test to dodge my clumsy maid
I think this may actually be bad to pass, I dunno; possibly if I pass elegance? I dunno
Talked to magic teacher, failed Divination check

Week 8
Production + trade test

Week 9
Military test; I know from spoilers that it's any military at all
Foreign Affairs test; passed at 30
Court Manners test, failed
the presence test to get the Lumen jewel is > 30

Week 10
Novan history test, passed 30
Foreign history test, passed 30
Foreign affairs test, failed
Foreign intelligence test failed
On commanding the sister to marry someone, internal affairs test failed
On offering to pay moneys, failed finance checks (I'll investigate this in another game)
I think the best option this run is to surrender the province, even if banion will be mad

Week 11
Lore test failed
Novan history test failed ?! must be 40+
Still can't get past the guards with Presence 50

Week 12
Uh I forgot what the tests were
I got engaged to Talarist
Passed armory presence test at 70

Week 13
forgot tests this week too, fuck
I pardoned the woman; I think this makes peasants like me more, no idea
I became a Lumen by talking to Selene

Week 14
Divination, Falcons failed
Failed herbs + medicine check
I should have saved, I can get in any mood I want

Week 15
No skill tests, might be event-dependent

Week 16
I chose to head the parade, but no speech; Elegance test passed at 80
Got into Willful let's rock baby

Week 17
Oh gawd grand ball I have no royal manners
Presence passed (80)
Court manners failed
Refused to dance, I have no dance skill
Court manners + flattery failed
Composure passed, I can't do anything about it, I have no fighting skills to duel him
Sense magic failed 10

Week 18
Composure passed (90)
oh gawd I am in over my head
Intrigue failed with ~30 points, passed with 70. this is the agents one; super important to pass probably
Also apparently you start with 10k gold

Week 19
Accounting failed
faaillll

Week 20
Demon-possessed guy. Sense magic failed (30), but I know from previous game that he goes on a rampage if you punish him, so... pardoned

Week 21
Climbing check failed, so I reloaded to not take the check. It's probably bad for me

Week 22
Novan history fail
Internal affairs fail @80 Wtf
Passed at 100 possibly 90 >.< nothing actually important, but gave info; I chose the same either way

Week 23
Musician spy; Intrigue passed (over 190), foreign intelligence failed
Instrument + Voice passed ~60
Intrigue passed

Week 24
My agents told me Arisse plotted against me, due to my decision regarding her stepson. I sent assassins after her.

Week 25
Logistics + trade failed (below 20)
Divination failed
The assassination succeeded.

Week 26
No events

Week 27
Divination failed

Week 28
Went to the birthday party
Archery + Reflexes 100 passed! (failed at 80) YEAH I DIDN'T DIE. Also it was 100 reflexes >.>
Flattery failed FFF
Novan history failed (40), Lore failed

Week 29
Uh I got a pillow from Arisse's son. Huh.

Week 30
Divination failed, jesus

Week 31
Div failed, Deco failed
Production + Trade failed
Court manners failed, Dogs failed
Poison failed (fatal)

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

d20 aerial combat

A lot of you tards don't understand how shit flies.
All flying creatures move down twice as fast as they move up, eg. they can move down 10 feet for every 5ft of flight movement spent (without losing control).

Perfect maneuverability
A creature with perfect maneuverability can move however it likes with no restrictions. It can hover, do 180 degree turns and ascend/descend at will, in any manner it wishes, without costing any extra movement.

Good maneuverability
A creature of good maneuverability is restricted in the following ways:
- It must move at least 5ft in a forward direction in order to make a turn. It can turn up to 90 degrees to move laterally on its next 5ft of movement, or turn 45 to move diagonally.
- It can spend 5ft of movement to turn in any direction it chooses.
- It ascends at half speed (10ft of movement spent for 5ft vertical)

Average maneuverability
- It cannot hover. If it moves less distance than half its maximum fly speed, it must land. Otherwise, it falls 150ft. If it's still airborne on its next turn, it may make a DC20 Reflex save to right itself. If it's not, it takes falling damage.
- It must move at least 5ft in a forward direction in order to make a turn. It can only turn 45 degrees to move laterally or vertically per 5ft of forward movement. In other words, it has a 15 foot turning radius.
- It may spend 5ft of movement in order to make a 90 degree turn. This 5ft doesn't count towards its minimum travel distance.
- It must fly for at least 5 feet level after descending before it can ascend.
- It ascends at half speed (10ft of movement spent for 5ft vertical)
- It must move forward at least 5ft for every 10ft ascended.

Poor maneuverability

- It cannot hover. If it moves less distance than half its maximum fly speed, it must land. Otherwise, it falls 150ft. If it's still airborne on its next turn, it may make a DC20 Reflex save to right itself. If it's not, it takes falling damage.
- It must move at least 5ft in a forward direction in order to make a turn. It can only turn 45 degrees to move laterally or vertically per 5ft of forward movement. In other words, it has a 15 foot turning radius.
- It must fly for at least 10 feet level after descending before it can ascend.
- It ascends at half speed (10ft of movement spent for 5ft vertical)
- It cannot descend at greater than a 45 degree angle without losing control.
- It must move forward at least 5ft for every 5ft ascended.

Clumsy maneuverability

- It cannot hover. If it moves less distance than half its maximum fly speed, it must land. Otherwise, it falls 150ft. If it's still airborne on its next turn, it may make a DC20 Reflex save to right itself. If it's not, it takes falling damage.
- It must move at least 10ft in a forward direction in order to make a turn. It can only turn 45 degrees to move laterally or vertically per 10ft of forward movement. In other words, it has a 30 foot turning radius.
- It must fly for at least 20 feet level after descending before it can ascend.
- It ascends at half speed (10ft of movement spent for 5ft vertical)
- It cannot descend at greater than a 45 degree angle without losing control.
- It must move forward at least 5ft for every 5ft ascended.

Summary
As I've said before, the difference between perfect and good is not that huge. Perfect allows for faster vertical movement, but it's rare that you will need to make a >90 degree turn in the air, so the advantages of perfect movement are mostly limited to extremely rapid ascension. It is possible that on your next turn, you may need to make a greater than 90 degree turn relative to your travel last round, so perfect is still nice.

The difference between good and average is huge. An average creature can't start a fight on the ground or it won't really be able to take off without fleeing first. Even if it does fight in the air, it can't hover so it is extremely limited. It can't take full attacks or non-movement full-round actions while flying, so the only creatures that should employ this is creatures with useful standards. They can also use the Flyby Attack feat to get a single non-provoking attack in, but against multiple characters that only stops AOOs from one. This is worse too because they have a turning radius (ew) and can't ascend without moving forward (also ew). Against a divebombing aerial attacker, even with flyby attack, characters can stand in a line and let the AOO chain fly.

Average and poor maneuverability don't have much difference. Divebombs were already bad for average, so the fact that they're worse for poor doesn't mean much. Compared to an average flier, aerial engagements come down more to who has the faster flight speed and the better ranged standard options more than who has the better maneuverability. Like with average, these creatures pretty much shouldn't fight in the air against anything that has good or better, or they will literally be giving away AOOs all day.

Clumsy creatures have a horrible turn radius and are pretty much useless in aerial battles except as ranged combatants (or carrying them). Even then, the 30ft turn radius is so bad that it might not be able to put itself in range, forcing range increments and limiting medium range spells and abilities. These creatures are better for travel than combat, but should only really be employed in combat against non-fliers and should utilize ranged attacks.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Some thoughts on skill checks and xp

Of course, I'll bring this up but this is how stuff should generally work out.

Non-combat type xp should be determined by DC and by how significant it is. A DC15 check is about CR1/2, DC10 should be CR 1/4 and DC20 should be about CR1, 25 CR2 etc.

This isn't determined by the player's roll, so if JC wants to know info about kobolds and rolls 25, the party doesn't get the xp related to a CR2 check. Instead, relevance should be looked at, too. Since the info gained overall is pretty helpful, it might be a CR1 check equivalent, or maybe CR 1/2 since there is not much risk. Note that CR1 has very little risk overall and is pretty easy, but CR 1/2 seems more appropriate in this case.

Interactions that play very little meaningful role should be CR 1/4 at most, though things that accomplish immediate character goals and aren't guaranteed to succeed should still give xp. As an example, talking to Kaeli about her family is a pretty much guaranteed interaction, but Alain might still get a little xp (or the party might) just because learning more about Kaeli is a goal of Alain's.

Inter-party conflict, such as Fang running off and Kaeli tailing him, should be worth something as long as it's not exploited. Consider character development or discovery when talking about rewards. In this case, Fang's impulsiveness and putting himself at risk stupidly should be worth XP for Kaeli to hunt him. For Fang, this action is debatably OOC and should not be worth experience points. Likewise, JC and Alain making checks to find Fang should be worth small XP as well. Again, CR 1/4, 1/3 type xp at most; this isn't an XP farm.

At higher levels where the party doesn't get xp from CR 1/4 type encounters, these types of RP encounters should still be worth small xp. Note that CR 1/4 is worth 75xp for a single member at level 6, so that's a good thought.

Fang running off deliberately into some kind of forest with the intent of helping Kaeli learn to trail him should not generate xp unless it encourages character development.

Even attempting a failed check should give some small amount, if it leads to character development. To be honest, I feel like it should give the same (since failure is important for learning more than success is).

RPXP should probably be mostly divided amongst the party, especially at low levels. In the first game, JC would have scored much, much higher due to his many checks and accomplished goals, at 75-150xp per check. At higher levels, it can be more individual.

XP should be granted per action, not per check. If both JC, Alain, and Fang roll Survival to feed the party and successfully do so, they passed a DC16-20 Survival check together and get party XP as a whole, even though there were three different rolls. Again, CR 1/2 (about 150xp total divided between members) is appropriate, since failure costs the party money. Since the party only needs DC16 to feed itself (DC20 because we currently have 2 extra people) it shouldn't be much more since the consequences of failure are not very high.

Again, back to JC and Alain asking around for Fang; it's one check needed, so two rolls don't give more xp. Likewise for JC's double knowledge rolls; it's one task.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Recettear log

Pin bonuses:

  • Louie
    • Buy
    • Sell
  • Charme
    • Buy - Just 109%
    • Sell
  • Cailou
    • Buy - Near 109%
    • Sell - Near 67%
  • Prime
    • Buy - Near 103%
  • Old Man 
    • Buy - Near top of 108%
    • Sell - Near 67+%
  • Man
    • Buy - Near 109+%
    • Sell - Near 68%
  • Girl
    • Buy - Near 108%
    • Sell
  • Guildmaster
    • Buy
    • Sell - Near 67%
  • Woman
    • Buy - Near 109%
    • Sell

I started logging on day 12, so brief summary:

Day 1-6: Normal buying and selling. Ended up being forced to buy 3 thankful statues, still somehow ended up around 12k pix by the end of day 6.

Day 7: Did a full Jade Way run with Louie. Got roughly 45-50k pix worth of drops. Insanely good run. Also sold a bunch of shit in the shop on the 3rd and 4th periods, ended around 20k pix.

Day 8: Bought some stuff, Charme gave me her card by the end of the day. Finished week 1 at about 17k pix due to purchases; ~7k pix going into week 2.

Day 9: Made about 20k pix in sales.

Day 10: First shop upgrade. Daggers went on price drop. Fucked up an order with Charme to sell her a tier 4 dagger. Total fail. About 40k pix at the end of the day.

Day 11: Swords went on price drop too. Sweets boon, though I thought it was food and fucked up. Bought and sold, ended up negative but got a lot of blue stuff to resell when it goes off price drop.

Day 12:
-2nd Jade Way run, this time with Charme. Got all of Cailou's recruitment items. Got a magnet necklace, shrimp doria, and two nut mixes. The nut mixes are getting saved for fusion, but total profit around 15-20k from the run, ie. probably a waste. Charme's level 17 though and gonna get Cailou soon.
-Opened up the shop for evening period, Cailou came in and took his stuff. Made a little money, not much.
-ended 22k pix

Day 13:
-Shields price hiked. Swords normalized. Spent almost all of my money on sweets in first period.
-Triggered sweets boon. Filled order for armor, didn't have much (oops), filled order for treasures, made 22k pix in one transaction, more than all the sweets sales put together. LOL. 109% nearpins, can't find just pin mark for women.
-Charme bought the hat she wore in her jade way run. LOL.
-Ended 41k pix, ML 16.

Day 14:
- Just sold all day.
- Sold Louie a tier 4 sword. Sold a very old vase to an old man.
- Cailou gave me his card at the end of the day. He also bought a robe upgrade right afterwards, tier 2.
- Ended 96k pix, ML 17.

Day 15:
- Daggers up, heavy armor up. I mostly sold out yesterday (have a bunch of treasures) so this is what you call totally fucked. Payment due but I have over 3 times what I need. Bought down to 40k in the morning, getting tons of cheap stuff just to be able to cover random orders.
- News changed like crazy, precious metal boon for women, jesus. Might hit it tomorrow.
- Amber Garden run with Charme. Found Nagi for 2nd time. Cat statue, sand charm dropped on 3f. Lucky #3! I'm noticing that for dungeons to be profitable right now, I need to be making 20-30k in loot drops per run. Even then, that's not actual profit until the loot actually sells. I estimate it'll only be worse as time goes on.
- First boss kind of annoying, due to crappy kage bunshin placement. I should have brought Cailou, lol.
- Second boss easy as hell, crit him for 30% of his life. Tier 4 dagger ftw.
- Goldfish bowl and +2 purity ring dropped on 13f. That's like 23k profits right there.
- Third boss easy, spammed flame charge, bombs blew up their allies. Barely took damage.
- 19f: throwing 5k+ pix items on the ground to make space for better treasure. Currently 8 of my inventory is treasure; worth an average of 9k or so each. That's... like next week's rent. All of it. This does not include honeys or shrimp doria, which at this point fill restoration item slots in my inventory, not treasure. I intend to use every damn healing item on Tielle -- yes, that means throwing 2300pix honeys and 4300pix shrimp down the hatch.
- Fourth boss... Charme cheats versus this boss. Kage bunshins are way too strong. GLAD I BROUGHT YOU ALONG, LADY
- Fifth boss: took way too much damage by playing aggressively. Should have just hunted the little slimes. Boss damage is starting to ramp up though, kind of scary. I'm really feeling dungeon fatigue at this point; it's taken almost a full day of playing recettear and I'm still not done with amber garden.
- Tielle: Really not as bad as I thought. I used healing items quite a bit, but out of my 25 item inventory, I had about 15 so I could do it. Two heal items (orange and shrimp doria) dropped during the fight; I used the orange. I ended up with a lot of surplus; 24 items total at the end after I hammered consumables.
- Ended 39k pix after paying rent. ML 18. Charme is level 34.

Day 16:
- Sweets still dumped. Precious metals boom still going. I don't have enough stuff to take advantage of it though so gotta go to the market for first period.
- After buying what little I could with 39k pix, I headed back for a nice long day of selling tons of shit.
- Ended 203k pix. ML 19. Basically waiting on Tielle to join my team at this point.

Day 17:
- Accessories and heavy armor shot up, sweets normalized finally. Since my goal is to get Tielle I'm going all out, putting sweets up everywhere. Worked out okay, sold first three periods.
- Hit ML 20 so I decided not to sell last period to expand my store and buy some inventory. I bought a bunch of reserve stock, for just in case type stuff.
- Ended 85k pix, ML 20.

Day 18:
- More sweets everywhere. Still have a bunch from my dungeon run. Swords dropped in price.
- Tielle gave me her card! Yay.
- Precious metals dumped. Not so good. Longswords are still price dumped. If ever there was a time to do shopping in period 2, this would be it. Also considering doing a dungeon run with Tielle; I need 3 to unlock her true card, which is the entire goal of this run besides just winning -- however I think I could get the 700k pix to pay off week 4 and 5 all in one week at my current progress. I'm really far ahead of the debt curve; I have probably 300k in inventory right now.
-Sold a lot, went right back in to the guild hall in period 4 and splurged on anything that was price bombed. Got first Griff cutscene.
- Ended 90k pix, ML 21.

Day 19:
- Swords went back to normal, but food price bombed. Precious metals are still bombed, as are accessories. Hell. Bought in the market just to have some non-trash inventory... ho crap Supervends are for sale. I need to get one @.@
-Sold a little bit, then went to Jade Way with Tielle. Made terrible profits. Today I got a lot of inventory, but I really need to offload.
- Ended 69k pix, ML 22.

Day 20:
- Food and accessories are still down, but precious metals are back up. Egg toast boom, lol.
- First period made good sales, unusual for a morning period, then precious metals jump! Also accessories normalized. Money making time! SELL ALL DAY
-Food normalized. Finally~ Also longsword price jump; already sold crystal sword at price hike tho so no real longswords in inventory. Cailou bought a platinum halberd at hiked prices, didn't know he had 80k pix to blow
-Metal items jumped! omg. It's bad for me since I want Supervends though, and they're metal. I'll persevere somehow, I think. Events going on at night, pretty sure one of them is the second Griff appearance but I need to buy in the morning if I end up buying at all. Hmm. I need Supervends.
- Ended 445k pix, ML 23.

Day 21:
- Heavy armor down, precious metals normal. Market event... pretty sure it's Euria.
- Market event wasn't Euria, thankfully, Made some Fusions with Jade Way loot, bought some stuff.
-Sold middle two periods, bought in period 4, triggered Griff event.
- Ended 92k pix, ML 24. Yes, I bought a loooooot of stuff.

Day 22:
- Precious metals jumped AGAIN.
- Something holy boom on period 2. OH SNAP ALL THE MONEYS
- Bought a bunch of stuff in period 2, because I have money so I can
- Ended 95k pix after rent, ML 25.

Day 23:
- Longsword price jump, precious metals back to normal. Sweets down. Still holy item boom, can't do anything about it tho cause I ran out of stock and it was price hiked yesterday.
- Sold a bunch of stuff in p1, p2. Wanna do an Amber Garden run with Tielle (starting on f16) but I have no bow in inventory to use, so gonna sell more T.T
- Weapon prices dropped in p4. SHOPPING. Bought expansion.
- Ended 229k pix, ML 26.

Day 24:
- Sweets down. Longswords normal, heavy armor up. YAY I mean uh, hmm.
- Accidentally hit the sell button in p1 with no items posted. Sold in p2 as well.
- ADVENTURE TIME WITH TIELLE
- Fin Fans are worth 3800pix in profit, herb seed 4780 pix, water crystals 8200pix, charred lizard 12500 pix, special inkwell 13000 pix. Focusing on treasure this time, so profits are what's important. TBH though, the under 10k stuff is starting to be not really worth it. Might be running kind of high risk with no dedicated healing item slots.
- Accidentally started on 11f, rather than 16f. Oops. Tielle is OP, got an Ace's Bow and a Rainbow Chestplate for her, so she cuts through enemies easily. Also 30 items instead of 25 thanks to ML, yayifications!
- Left on floor 25, slime liver didn't drop.
- Ended 330k pix, ML 26. Tielle is level 31.

Day 25:
- Precious metals up.
- First things first, getting supervends from the market. I want two! Market event though... fortunately it's Tielle and not Euria. Fused a bunch of stuff, got my Supervends and a bunch of inventory. Selling's gonna be exciting today.
- Heavy armor went normal, but a "warm" item boon hit (I think).
- Just sold p2-p4. Supervends are nice for selling those downpriced sweets.
- Ended 540k pix, ML 27.

Day 26:
- Shields up, sweets normal.
- Tons of normal or up-priced inventory now so it's sell all day.
- Pretty much beaten the game at this point. Over 1 mil between inventory and on-hand cash.
- Ended 888k pix, ML 28. Literally could pay off the entire debt right now.

Day 27:
- Food down.
- The plan is p1 buy, p2 warm item boom, p3-4 run Amber Garden with Tielle, 16-25 again. Sweets went up in p3, gotta change my supervends tomorrow.
- Could run Obsidian Tower, like maybe 1-10? Unfortunately I really need slime liver to get Cailou first on newgame +.
- Despite being Tielle AND being lower level, she has more HP than Charme due to Ferromin abuse.
- Got Tough Shell (+4!) from volcanicrab and a slime liver. Yay!
- Ended 331k pix, ML 28. Tielle is level 36.

Day 28:
- Chestnut boom (worthless). Shields normal.
- Putting sweets in the front to get Tielle in the shop. Want her to buy gear, but not sure how likely that is.
- Food normalized. Elan became a regular customer so I need to put really low grade stuff up that he will buy. Cailou upgraded his robe again.
- Charme asked for a weapon, hooked her up with the best thing money can buy.
- Elan gave me his card.
- Ended 629k pix, ML 29.

Day 29:
- Rent's due today! OH I DUNNO IF IM READY. Heavy armor down, cherry down (wut?), sweets normal. Could buy some heavy armor items.
- Tielle bought mermaid shoes. Sold Elan a silver gauntlet for 1k, literally throwing money down the drain. Could have given him a better weapon, but I'm a jerk.
- Shields down. Chestnut boom ended. Tielle bought a strongarm band, yay. Cailou upgraded his robe AGAIN, though to the best possible one.
- Precious metal boom, weapons normal. Hitting that shit.
- Ended 789k pix, ML 30. 589k after rent.

Day 30:
- Armor normal, sweets up. Precious metal boom still going. Probably gonna only open the shop for one period and try to do Obsidian Tower as far as I can. Ended up spending too much in p1, but precious metal boom should hit it pretty hard.
- Metal up. Shields normal. I bought a pearl and jade shield, too, so this will be some good profit.
- Obsidian tower go! I geared out Tielle with some nice stuff. First thing I notice is my damage is pretty crummy. I'm wielding a high tier bow (t5 I think), so this is about where the game expects me to be. However, I'm also wearing best armor and not taking damage, so iuno. Focusing almost exclusively on restoratives rather than valuables; I'll keep something rare if it's rare, tho.
- First boss was no match for CUTERAGE!! Dropped flytrap bulb, not super useful tho.
- Speaking of rare, Flameguard dropped on 6f. 4th Nagi appearance so she should appear in my shop soon.
- Dumping stuff already that would have made probably 80k runs. OT is profitable, for sure. Electrojelly dropped a masterful sushi. He died in two CUTERAGE!!s without hitting me.
- I used CUTERAGE!! for invincibility in dual eyebat king fight. It was not really a fight tbh, Tielle shredded through them. Ended on 15f due to dungeon fatigue.
- Ended 660k pix, ML 30.

Day 31:
- Precious metal boom ended. Armor down.
- Cailou asked for a staff, didn't have a top tier one. Oh well. Gave him an okay one, so he'll be decent in newgame +. Nagi also arrived in my shop.
- OT run again, starting on 16f. Using weaker gear this time as well; I sold her old chestplate so I'm stuck using a battle sweater. I might stop on 25f, but I'm gonna try and get to 35-40. We'll see.
- OK so going in under 100 def is a pretty big mistake. Stuff is hurting me, lol.
- Got a burning charm and a steel breastplate, so I'm still lower def but mdef is better. Still pretty weak.
- Overall tons of good drops. Beat level 25 gauntlet, got beat up a lot, but CUTERAGE!! is too strong. Should have used Starshot Arrow after the hornets were dead. Anyway, decided to go to 30f. Really need to bring a rainbow bp next time -- or some other craftable thing. Trying to cobble together the wind crystals to make a Tellbow. I need at least +15 tho between wind crystals and apples.
- The best chest armor I can make for Tielle is a +15 barrier plate, but I would need a belenite bp drop (which would also be better than a rainbow bp).
- Sandwich plate dropped right before Griff fight.
- Griff was pretty dangerous, did a lot of damage. The key really is just to play safe and sling arrows at long range, and hope he doesn't use invulnerable frames through your stuff. He has a lot of invulnerable moves. Also use Starshot or CUTERAGE!! to deal with his bomb explosions. Anyway, used two watermelons; only needed one (really could have got by with any healing item at all, but used watermelon at critical hp)
- Ended 931k pix, ML 31. Tielle is level 49.

Day 32:
- Tear told me about how we have to pay off the last of the debt. She said I might be startled by it. Yeah, I'm startled, it's like a quarter of my net worth! But who cares, I can pay it off right now.
- Sweets back to normal, precious metal boom with women. Hmm. Bought stuff in the morning and sold, made a few pix overall, nothing really huge.
- Accessories dropped, metal normal. Considering just selling; forgot to buy a rainbow bp. I'll hit it in the evening, sell first two tomorrow and adventure tomorrow afternoon.
- Sold quite a bit, then ended up going on a bit of a shopping spree. Bought more than I probably should have.
- Ended 637k pix, ML 31.

Day 33:
- Sell sell sell this morning! Food is down, heavy armor is up, precious things boom ended. With accessories down, gonna be a bit weird but we'll stock some good stuff today -- not that I really need pix much anymore.
- Tielle bought a fairy bracelet. All my love, Tielle.
- ADVENTURE TIME. 31 TO THE END (maybe?). Bought some more Ferromin for Tielle. Now 132 def, 119 mdef! Enemy damage should be negligible now. Also harp bow is over twice as good as ace bow, nearly 100 attack (would be, but fairy and rainbow bp reduce attack power).
- Even with 132 def/119 mdef I'm still taking damage, though much less. I think there's some DR or something, maybe it's 100%/100+def. Either way, my harp bow also is not really making a huge difference, iuno. More accurately, it's not going from 2 shot kills to 1 shot, so the difference isn't that big. Post 35 floors enemies are starting to take 3 hits to kill, too. Geez.
- Really cool music after 46f. 45f "gauntlet" boss was hard; CUTERAGE!! mandatory to invincible through his wave slash. Not too bad once I used CUTERAGE!! for invincibility frames. Used an orange +1 and a cherry +1 in total, didn't actually get hit after I used the items (but he brought me down to 27hp, one hit left). I'm continuing my run at least partially because I have a full load of heal items; my alternative would be just to bring a bunch of curries, melons, ham sandwiches or beef bowls in with me.
- Invincibility frames on Starshot Arrow are pretty minimal, couldn't seem to use them to get through the "gnoll walls" that the game is throwing at me.
- CUTERAGE!!'s invincibility never fails though. You do lose your charge when you activate it, kind of annoying.
- Trying to delay my level-up until 49f. Seriously the enemies are tough enough that I probably need the help.
- Dinged on 49f very early, got hit once for minimal damage. Full SP too (didn't use CUTERAGE!! after leveling) Got a +3 fire crystal, pretty nice.
- Gee, Griff. I got hit 3 times. You were pretty sad. Cute story event though. Obsidian Tower CLEAR!
- Ended 865k pix, ML 31. Tielle is level 58.

Day 34:
- Well, all my goals are done. Obsidian Tower is clear, Tielle is getting her true card and I fucking destroyed the game. I guess my last goal is 1.5m pix by payday; shouldn't be too hard.
- Heavy armor up, daggers down, slime fluid boom. Shopping first period, mostly for Ferromin and shop decor.
- Tielle bought a superarm band, lol. She's replaced her armband so many damn times. BUY A CHARM GIRL OK. Cailou asked for armor so I sold him a superarm band as well.
- Sweets down, armor normal. Griff came in. Nobody bought from my venders, kind of sucked.
- Ended 866k pix, ML 32. Don't think I'm going to make another 700k in two days, but we'll see.

Day 35:
- Metal up, daggers normal.
- Nagi gave me her card.
- I got an order for 3 metal things from an old man. Made 322k pix in one transaction. Arma bought Tielle's rainbow bp off the shelf for over 100k. Okay, 700k seems reachable now.
- Boom ended, armor up. YEAH. I have inventory for miles, lol.
- Cailou asked for an accessory, got a shell charm for him. Charme asked for the Fullblade on display, but she already has better. I told her to fuck off (raised the price to over 1m). Yeah, I turned down a 70k sale. I am that rich, I don't give a fuck.
- Ended 1.67m pix, ML 33.

Day 36:
- Final day. Tear gives me a go-getter speech.
- Herb seed boom. Sweets normal. Just sellin, baby. Just sellin.
- Ended ML 34. 2.306m pix. 1.806m after final rent payment.

So what really triggered the complete and utter domination of Recettear?

First is the concept of net worth. Customer bankroll aside -- you need to get maximum net worth gain from periods. If you sell an item, your net worth increases by roughly 40% of the base value of an item. So if you buy one period and sell 90% of the stuff you bought, your net worth increases by 36% of the money you spent. If you have a bankroll of 10k, that means you're looking at 3.6k net worth increase just buying and selling that day. If you buy more expensive stuff, you generally get better returns as your stuff moves faster, as long as your customers can afford it and it's something they will buy.

Food moves by far the best. If I can give any advice at all, it's go deep on food early while stocking half-assed in other things, at least early game. Selling candies and apples (and candy apples) ramps up customer bank and ML rapidly. Doing it in the early game is kinda nice since your net worth is so low, a store full of low tier food will still cost you a lot of your net worth to post, so profits remain good.

The biggest net worth spikes can be found in dungeons. If you wait for the first item upgrade at ML4, buy a decentish armor (iron armor worked great for me) and do a full Jade Way run, you can get 20k increase in net worth from drops plus the very odd vase at the end. Do this on day 5. I got a 45k run and it brought me from being worth 10k or so to being worth 55k. That gave me a week 2 budget on day 7, so I ended up literally a week ahead of the curve.

As your turnover rate from marketing goes up though, 20-30k for a jade way run starts to suck. The best time to do a second run is actually right after your first; sell two periods, dungeon once. Really you can get pretty good results just doing Jade Way and selling twice, though you might have to do some buy-sell on bad days.

Once the potential for buying starts to eclipse Jade Way runs, do Amber Garden. Louie is probably overleveled for it from doing Jade Way (2-3 times) and/or you have a leveled Cailou or Charme. You might have some decent gear, too. Invest a bit in gear for your chosen adventurer and run Amber Garden. A full Amber Garden run is mind-numbing, but with a level 20 or so character to start and some moderate gear, it will give you crazy good returns. I made a ~100k pix Amber Garden run on my first go, storing way too much space in healing items. Once you beat Tielle for the first time you can run with fewer heals and walk out with huge profits. Again, I increased my net worth by probably 50%, doing Amber Garden late. Also it's better to do with Cailou or Louie and not Charme tbh, though Charme is better for speedrunning the last 15 floors (where all the money is) for big profits. Again, dungeoning is good if you do it early.

Obsidian Tower ended up not being so good, but that's sort of conditional. The 45f boss is kind of tough for Louie, and the Flame Charge team (anyone except Tielle, Louie, and Cailou) deals mediocre damage to him charging through his wave slash. Also, OT is kind of hard just because you need to be ML 24, which I hit on day 21. So Amber Garden runs or buy/sell until then. ML 24 is actually where buy/sell becomes very powerful just because a single item generates like, 8k profits from reselling. It's hard to beat that even with 10-15k drops.

When you buy a "low price" item, you gain roughly 14% of that item's value in net worth just from buying it (if an unsold item's value is 70% of its list price), so you can make some money that way. Low price generally isn't that big a deal; don't let it interrupt your adventuring schedule or anything.

Low price only gives 14% though; where high price gains you much more. Buying at high price loses you 16% of an item's base price in net worth, which is actually pretty good considering you can get 134% profit if you sell at 220%. Even if you sell at base price or 105% you only cut into profits some (but still make profit). Price up prices are insanely good; a price up event should be capitalized on even if you have to buy red price items from the guild or market. Try not to though and just hit the red price any time it happens. Obviously this means that you should buy whatever you need to and sell sell sell. Ultimately my biggest income spikes were during price up events but they happen every game all the time. Hit those and you make money.

Booms are nice because you get lots of sales, but they can't really be predicted or relied on. I did make a lot of money on booms, but ultimately you are just moving more stock, so you get that 40%ish profit on each sale. Yes, occasionally you get a holy items boon when precious metals are price upped. If that happens you basically win the game right there.

Ultimately you snowball to the endgame profit levels where you're making like 300-400k per day buy/selling.  OT runs (31-50) can still compete with that, since 150k in drops is better than 80-100k profit (you bought the stuff, remember) in sales. Just keep 15 item slots reserved for treasure, lol.

So yeah, adventuring is good profit. I guesstimate that the best Survival scores run like 4-5 dungeons a week. I'm not sure how to meet rent though if it goes over 1m as basically nothing makes that much.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

GSB stuff

Fighter notes
Generally fighters are all about speed tank. Some breakpoints:
3.7: cruiser defense lasers
2.9: fighter pulse lasers, most anti-fighter guns
2.6: cruiser pulse laser
2.0: ion cannons and fighter rockets, frig fast missiles, tribe frig cannons (many technically 1.9)
1.5: most frig missiles, frig beam laser
1.0: many anti-cruiser weapons, including cruiser laser, fast missiles, cruiser light plasma, frig plasma, 
0.6: most cruiser missiles, plasma guns, cruiser EMP
Slower than 0.6 gives some dodge rate, but won't make you immune to the above stuff. 0.1 and below (most fleets) gives almost no evasion whatsoever against the better tracking stuff. You can still get a bit of dodge rate against the anti-cruiser guns, and smaller ships have an independent dodge rate based on their size. It's multiplied on the base tracking hit chance rather than a separate calculation, and it caps at 50%. Not great for fighters but 30-40% dodge chance on a frig is nice.
  • Fighter Pulse Laser: Insane dps, on par with cruiser beam lasers, but requires so much power that it's hard to field. Will beat other laser fighters in a dps war, even though they fly slower. Most anti-fighter guns on larger ships can shoot down a pulse fighter (fastest is rebel icarus at about 2.3) without a tractor beam. Pulse fighters for most races cap below 2, which means they'll lose to rocket fighters and ion frigates.
  • Fighter Laser: Better at armor penetration than pulse; needs fewer crits to break a 12 armor tank. Much lighter too, rebs and swarm can field 2.6+ speed fighters that can outfly cruiser guns.
  • Fighter Rocket: The reason we fit 12 armor hulls. Can break any frig shield tank. Horrible dps; can't hit other fighters without painting. Even that is dodgey. Rocket fighters can hit speeds of over 3.7; they can't be hit by normal weapons without tractors.
  • Fighter Painter: Dramatically improves hit chance on those 0.6, 0.5 cruiser missiles, and helps fighter rockets actually hit other fighters. Can hit 3.x speeds depending on hull.
Frigate notes
The only valid frig tank is ewar tank with emp2 and rescuer orders. Frigs can't tank and their job is to do as much damage as possible.
Support frigs sit behind the main line and shoot shit while the main line ships take the hits. They're typically loaded with beams, smallbeams, or missiles, though you can also run plasma frigs for taking down cruiser shields.
Attack frigs zerg the enemy with ion cannons and break shields. These are a bit hard to field because you have to put them slightly behind your main line so they don't get hit with alpha, but they also need to be fast to close in and shoot before they get popped. If it's possible to get .51 or faster frigs they can actually avoid a lot of cruiser fire. Attack frigs generally fit ion cannons.

  • Frigate Beam: 49 armor pen on a frig gun. Pretty good in the situations it's needed; it can break an interim armor tank without too much need for a big 70 pen cruiser piercer. Kinda mediocre dps.
  • Frigate SmallBeam: 39 pen is a lot less than 49, but it deals more damage for the cost than a frigate beam. If you're only looking to easily shred through light tanks, it's ok. Overall very specialized weapon; might be worth fitting on frigbeam ships to meet power requirements since it is less gen taxing.
  • Ion Cannon: One of the highest dps guns in the entire game, fit on a frig. Moderate to bad range, breaks all shields and 12 armor tanks. Fast frigs with ions are one of the strongest things in GSB. 2.0 tracking too.
  • Anti-Fighter Missile: 12.5 tracking, wtf. The only thing that makes these things miss is size modifiers, and even then you end up with like, 30% hit chance against the fastest fighters in the game. Very high dps against unshielded ships too, if it can get to knife fight distance.
  • EMP 2: Use these instead of EMP 1. Probably the best EMP in the game, can lock a ship down with 61% uptime if it doesn't have emp shields. Since you can fit this on large volumes of individual frigs (minimizing volley fire) with rescuer orders, it dramatically improves your fleet's tanking potential, especially shield tanks.
  • Fast Missile: Higher effective dps than frig missile. Note that it can't break cruiser shield tanks; set these guys to vulture so they focus down damaged ships.
  • Frig Plasma: A fast, long-ranged sniper cannon. Not very accurate; should only target cruisers and should prioritize shielded cruisers.
  • Frig Tractor: Goes without saying for anti-fighter setups.
  • Tribe RFC: This is a bit of a meta gun that relies on cheaper shield 2 tanking (instead of reflective shield). If the enemy uses cruiser shield 2 tanking, it is a much cheaper, though less effective, way of frigate rushing. Ions are better probably, even for tribe.
Cruiser notes
Cruisers are basically the backbone of GSB. The entire game engine is basically built around fielding cruisers, and they have the most options. It still boils down to rush versus range, though there are some variations.
Missiles deal good dps on paper, but end up being weaker in practice due to the oddities of missile reloading. It is better for many fleets to run some missiles and some cruiser beams and have the missiles focus on shielded ships. For fleets with cruiser laser rush or ion rush, you can probably skip on ranged missiles and focus entirely on lasers. It's better to err a bit on the cautious side though and field a few missile ships, if only because MWM ships are always in range.
  • Cruiser Beam: The CBL shreds all but "invincible" armor tanks pretty reliably and does more raw dps than its competitors. If you're fed or rebel you should run the fusion beams as they are better.
  • Proton Beam: Can break armor tank and is much cheaper than the CBL. It can also break shield 2 tanks, but not reflective shield tanks. Worth fitting if you want to break ultra-armor tanks or suspect a lot of shield 2 tanking instead of reflective.
  • Fusion (Fed): The best beam in the game probably with better tracking than the CBL. Less pen, but it can break shield 2 tanks and has a longer optimum range. Better against frigs due to 1.5 tracking, but still good against cruisers. If you're not expecting a lot of frigates or shield 2 but are afraid of heavy armor, CBL is better as its dps is a bit higher.
  • Fusion (Reb): Not enough pen to break a shield 2 tank (barely), but is in most ways better than the CBL due to its longer range, lower price, and easier reqs. Worse tracking though!
  • Imperial Laser: Similar to the rebel fusion, but with enormous range -- nearly missile range. Great tracking and decent dps, though not as good as the CBL. Still probably worth using over the CBL for the range advantage, especially against faster ships.
  • Cruiser Defense: Insanely high tracking and short range. Can hit everything except the fastest rocket fighters and shoots very rapidly. Will utterly shred most fighters even if they are not tractored.
  • Cruiser Pulse: An interim gun that can shoot down laser fighters and some painters, but has better range and is more suitable against other ships. Great for hunting frigs, can break down armor tanks due to high ROF/crits and decent pen, and is light on resources.
  • Cruiser Laser: The knife-fighting gun of cruisers. This gun is all about close-range, in your face blasting. Deals the highest dps of any weapon and can break any shield tank.
  • Tribe Howitzer: A faster-shooting rapid cannon that is easier on ship reqs and has a bit better tracking. It's cheaper than the Cruiser Laser and should be fielded anytime a design calls for Cruiser Lasers. It breaks armor tanks amazingly well due to its rapid fire rate, causing immense volumes of crits.
  • Decoy Missile: I dunno, short range. I'm not sure how effective cluttering up enemy scram reload time is. Seems dubious unless you've got a lot of EMP2s.
  • Fast Missile: They have one of the highest effective dps of any missile, especially because .9 tracking makes their hitrate substantially better. Painters help. Kind of shortish range, though 900 is still pretty far.
  • Cruiser Missile: Longest-range missile in the game. Slower than MWM, thus not so good.
  • Multi-Warhead: The infamous MWM is one of the strongest, highest-damage missiles in the game. Its effective dps is roughly that of cruiser fast missiles (paper dps is much higher, but impossible to reach) against painted targets, and a bit lower due to poor tracking against unpainted targets. They are extremely long range, and break shield tanks. Super good.
  • Cruiser Rocket: I've heard these are really sick. They have a lot of random misses, but they still perform really well with high dps. Short range though, but since your alternatives are plasma or lower dps missiles for shield breaking, it works out okay. Fast missiles are probably a safer pick overall though.
  • Firefly Rocket: Better cruiser rockets. Worth using due to high projectile speed. Fast missiles are probably still better.
  • Cruiser Plasma: The only plasma worth fitting. Incredible range, mediocre dps. Really unreliable accuracy; in challenges where you fight enemy shield tanks, battles you win may be lost in replays due to the RNG of these guns.
  • EMP: Huge duration but also a long reload. Awful tracking makes it a weak choice compared to frig EMP.