Alright ... this may take some "digesting" so be patient ...
You've been developing your drone under the premise that weapons upgrades are "differential" in nature as opposed to "incremental"; you have also flip flopped on this several times during the development of your drone. I remember you once stated that members in your clan were going back to 72K weapons (presumably they had just used a 92K or 410K part) because they were more effective weapons. This always stuck in the back of my mind like an itch I couldn't scratch ... until now.
"Differential" upgrades means that the part you're about to upgrade will be wholly replaced with another part (going from 64K to 92K, for example), whereas "incremental" upgrades means that the part has been upgraded in increments. This concept is rooted in the fact that drone weapons parts are primarily for upgrading a weapon and NOT meant to be a replacement; on the contrary, they are just a starting point. The evidence of this is that my 122K weapons, which are rooted in 92K starting point via fully upgraded 64K parts are just as effective as say a 410K or 510K part which has never been upgraded.
This incremental approach to upgrades has a long history with traditional weapons; a 15.5 weapon (never upgraded) is actually less effective that a 14.5 weapon that is fully upgraded; in fact parity isn't achieved between the weapons until the higher rated weapon is at least 60% upgraded. This has always been GLU's approach so why should they change it for drones.
I have been behind from the beginning with regards to drone development; that's my fault and apologize for not being there with you along the way in those critical early days.
FAST FORWARD ... you're now at a crossroads where weapons upgrades are extremely painful (if not impossible) because you've never used the parts and have accumulated so many of them that it has crippled (NOT killed) the game. I fully understand your decision to "wipe" your parts and start anew. The bell went off in my head as I remembered the developer's advice NOT to accumulate so many parts going forward and your reflex response was to ask "How can I possibly do that?" What he should have said was "Use the parts periodically to prevent a buildup (GLUT) resulting in a bottleneck that will have an adverse effect on game performance".
In short, use the parts if you can ... but if you can't you're going to need to play like hell to reach a TRUE 2.95M DRONE; what's a 2.95M drone without 2.95M weapons right? I've also answered my own question as to why some 2.95M drone weapons are deadly whilst most others cause minimal damage at best ... it's because the weapons haven't been upgraded. I've had the benefit of seeing both types of weapons in battle because of the "lunatic asylum" platform I play on. Good thing that most of them haven't got a real clue; all they know is score AP.
Now the real news *** SMILES *** I am consuming drone weapons parts at a rate of 10-15 pages per day (300-450 parts). At that rate I will reach the group of 410-510K parts in a week or two, if my calculations hold true. That means simply that ALL drone development for me will come to a halt given I cannot use the 410K parts because the support drone power rating is currently at 215K. Even using an optimistic approach to acquiring drone fuses via campaign mission replays and qualifying for GOLD LEAGUE play, which I plan to implement during the next event series, I cannot realistically see getting past 369K in the near future without some sort of fuse windfall.
The Very Best of Luck to You !!!
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
Scorpion, your post contains a lot of interesting stuff and I want to explore several of the points you make when we have the time.
First a question: You can't fuse parts rated higher than your drone, even if you are fusing to a weapon below your drone's value?
I hadn't realized that, but that is a drag, because the fuse cost of lower value Drone parts is so high.
8x 8K parts are worth 10.64 XP and they cost 43.1K Diamond to fuse, for a cost of 4.05 Diamonds per XP
8 51K parts are worth 34.4 XP and they cost 50K Diamonds to fuse, for a cost of 1.45 Diamonds per XP
8 64K parts are worth 85.6 XP and they cost 64.8 K Diamonds, for a cost of 0.76 Diamonds per XP
8 510K are worth 680 XP and they cost 237.2 K Diamond for a cost of 0.35 Diamonds per XP, less than 10% of the cost of fusing the 8K parts.
While you say I have "flip flopped" on the Drone weapons issue and perhaps that is true, but that is only because I have never been clear on the cost of weapons upgrade. I did contemplate dropping back to more powerful 72 K weapons, but never did because I realized that I was just digging myself a deeper hole.
In short, I am more convinced than ever that upgrading the Drone, not Drone weapons, is the cost effective strategy. As far as slowing up the game, my 730 pages don't slow play, but they do make Drone upgrades painful. My load time for the Drone upgrade page is 35-40 seconds and the load time for Drone weapons roughly the same. It does take well over a minute to scroll through the 360 pages to my 510 K drone parts, but it well worth it because upgrading the 8 510 K parts is 90% cheaper and nets me 680K xp per cycle. This means that I only need to repeat the process 5 times to jump one level. (All of the figures above are for upgrading 740K weapons, you mileage will almost certainly vary from that.
I know that you are in a jam because you have run out of XP modules to upgrade with. Hit Le Fusil once in a while, the 21XP modules that I have won there are now the largest single part of my module inventory, 34% of my total Drone weapons XP.
I calculate that I wll run out of XP modules at Level 149, but I am not worried, because the new Region will be out long before I get there, and it will have a new supply.
I still have 600 4XP modules left and life will get better after I have chewed through them.
Yes we need to have a new brain storming session. Although I haven't tried to fuse a 410K part as yet, I believe the resulting power jump will exceed the drone's power level of 215K and be disallowed. I'll confirm that when I get to that group of parts; I am working my through from PAGE 1 on and rarely scroll past 10 pages to find a weapon. This requires me at times to switch between weapons and upgrade the HEALING RAY and SHIELD GENERATOR faster than I would prefer.
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
Yes we need to have a new brain storming session. Although I haven't tried to fuse a 410K part as yet, I believe the resulting power jump will exceed the drone's power level of 215K and be disallowed. I'll confirm that when I get to that group of parts; I am working my through from PAGE 1 on and rarely scroll past 10 pages to find a weapon. This requires me at times to switch between weapons and upgrade the HEALING RAY and SHIELD GENERATOR faster than I would prefer.
Don't you find the fuse costs of lower value weapons to be prohibitively expensive? I started by paging through to the 64 K stuff, but found it to be more cost effective to scroll through 360 pages to the 510s
One of the things that is frustrating about the weapons upgrade process is that you have no idea in advance of what the value of the completed Level will be, so you spend a lot of time fusing an upgrade, only to be told at the end of that tedious process that you can't do it because the weapon would exceed the power of the Drone itself.
My solution to that one is to keep the Drone upgrade a couple of levels ahead of the weapons, so that I don't waste time when it won't let me do that final bump.
Just did a check on Drone weapons pages: 45 Seconds to load, 744 pages
Just for fun I fused 125 parts, cost 60K Diamonds, more than 8K or 51K parts. Makes no sense at all.
Don't you find the fuse costs of lower value weapons to be prohibitively expensive? I started by paging through to the 64 K stuff, but found it to be more cost effective to scroll through 360 pages to the 510s
One of the things that is frustrating about the weapons upgrade process is that you have no idea in advance of what the value of the completed Level will be, so you spend a lot of time fusing an upgrade, only to be told at the end of that tedious process that you can't do it because the weapon would exceed the power of the Drone itself.
My solution to that one is to keep the Drone upgrade a couple of levels ahead of the weapons, so that I don't waste time when it won't let me do that final bump.
Just did a check on Drone weapons pages: 45 Seconds to load, 744 pages
Just for fun I fused 125 parts, cost 60K Diamonds, more than 8K or 51K parts. Makes no sense at all.
The cost is a little more maybe but not prohibitive by any means, what else am I going to spend diamonds on. I use free energy, collect millions of diamonds and have nothing but drone parts to spend them on. That being said, the use of these parts as far as I can tell result in a more powerful drone and that's what we need to discuss. For example, my rocket launcher is at level 8 and change, and although I can't substantiate it yet, I believe its just as effective as a 410K part at level 1.
Also remember that all of these parts are recyclable so if and when I can use the larger parts, I'll be able to reuse these weapons as parts with a single fuse and retain all of the XP I used when I first upgraded the weapon; that's the hidden aspect to upgrading weapons parts.
One of few things that GLU has done that actually makes sense. Look at it another way, instead of using 30-40 even 50 pages of parts (500 parts) to upgrade a weapon, it's all neatly wrapped up in a single part. It also eliminates 100s of pages of parts, which is another reason I do it.
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
I have no idea what this means, "you fused 125 parts for 60K diamonds" How does this relate to "more than 8k or 51k parts" I don't follow ...
I was fusing the 125 parts, the lowest value, the first upgrades offered. To fuse 8 of the 125s for a total of 1K upgrade, the cost was 60K Diamonds. The cost to fuse 8 8K parts is 43.1 K and the cost to fuse 8 51K parts is 50 K. 60 is more that 50 or 43.
Those 125 parts are valued at 21XP, that means upgrade costs 25.65 Diamonds per XP upgrade, compare to fusing 510K parts, valued at 85K XP, which cost 0.35 Diamonds per XP upgrade.
The clear moral of all of this, for me, is page through to find the largest allowable part value. It is much cheaper and has the additional benefit of requiring less trips through the pages to level up.
I was fusing the 125 parts, the lowest value, the first upgrades offered. To fuse 8 of the 125s for a total of 1K, the cost was 60K Diamonds. The cost to fuse 8 8K parts is 43.1 K and the cost to fuse 8 51K parts is 50 K. 60 is more that 50 or 43.
Yeah right, so what's your point? I have very few 125s ... I fuse mostly 51-64K parts. Sometimes I'll fuse the lesser value parts to get rid of them, but my experience is the higher the part rating the greater the cost. For example if I fuse 8 51K parts the cost is about 70K, if I fuse 8 of the 125, 1,000, 8,000 the cost is about 48K.
But either way it makes no difference for two reasons ... like I said the parts are recyclable and can be used over and over again with each new higher rated weapon part. If I jump to 410K, I reuse the previous part once, if I then jump to 510K, I reuse the previous part again, and so on. You never need to pay for the same XP twice.
I use all types of parts to update an individual weapon, so if I'm upgrading the RL, I'll use the first parts that show up in the list as opposed to scrolling and looking for RL parts.
As I mentioned previously, the weapons themselves are more effective. I have not developed a metric for measuring this but its in the works. The other benefit, and its my personal preference and belief that ALL parts will need to be used to reach 2.95M weapon strength and to streamline the parts fusing process itself. The development process was never intended to go from 0 to 510K or greater on the support drone without upgrading the weapons along the way.
All of these parts are evaporating at an alarming rate, at NO COST what so ever to me. I'm not sweating the small stuff, I'm just trying to get as much mileage as I can before it all comes to a screeching halt is all *** SMILES ***
I'll attach some screen shots in a few ... one picture is worth a thousand words, so they tell me.
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
I guess my question is: Is there are rational pattern behind upgrade fusing costs? Or do we just not care? The other question I have, you may just have answered: Does the price vary with Drone weapon level? Fusing 8 51K parts costs me 50 K to fuse, so maybe it actually gets cheaper at higher levels.
I guess my question is: Is there are rational pattern behind upgrade fusing costs? Or do we just not care? The other question I have, you may just have answered: Does the price vary with Drone weapon level? Fusing 8 51K parts costs me 50 K to fuse, so maybe it actually gets cheaper at higher levels.
The logical cost is simple ... the higher the rated weapon, the more it costs. I've attached a couple of screen shots for your reference contrasting 51K parts vs lesser rated parts. Clearly 51K parts cost more to fuse, so I'm not sure what it is you're seeing or why.
51K HR Parts cost about 10% more to fuse that 125, 1,000, 8,000 parts of all varieties. Had I used 64K the cost would have been over 70K diamonds. Seems like you're seeing the opposite? Maybe GLU corrupted something? I cannot explain the discrepancy.
Also noteworthy is that my rocket launcher has a root part of 64K since I never was able to obtain a 92K part. All the others have 92K as the root part.
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
The true cost is the cost per XP Delta. A 8 K weapon increase Drone power by only 1.33 K, 51 K weapons increase Drone by 4.3 K, 64 K weapons increase by 10.7 K so while fuse costs are higher, cost per Drone delta is much lower. For example on your second screen shot, 510 K weapons would cost 237 K to fuse, but would do 3/4 of the level you show in one 8 pack.
The true cost is the cost per XP Delta. A 8 K weapon increase Drone power by only 1.33 K, 51 K weapons increase Drone by 4.3 K, 64 K weapons increase by 10.7 K so while fuse costs are higher, cost per Drone delta is much lower. For example on your second screen shot, 510 K weapons would cost 237 K to fuse, but would do 3/4 of the level you show in one 8 pack.
This is true, but I have no way of fusing 410K-510K parts; it's impossible for me. If I could I would but as it stands I have no other choice but to fuse what I can and it aint much, I'm sorry to say.
Cost per XP means nothing to me ... I need to fuse everything I can LOL I mean it's not like fusing one over the other has some intrinsic dollar value. Besides its the game's design that costs drop as you acquire higher rated parts; again, and I wish this weren't the case, I cannot use the higher rated parts.
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
Sorry, Scorpion didn't mean to taunt you, only to say that it is worth the trouble to search out higher value parts. The 64s are significantly better than the 51s, but I know that they get hard to find, I spent a couple of days doing that.
You have got me excited about upgrading weapons. I am trying to finish Level 142 and then I will turn my attention back to weapons upgrade.
Sorry, Scorpion didn't mean to taunt you, only to say that it is worth the trouble to search out higher value parts. The 64s are significantly better than the 51s, but I know that they get hard to find, I spent a couple of days doing that.
You have got me excited about upgrading weapons. I am trying to finish Level 142 and then I will turn my attention back to weapons upgrade.
No need to apologize, I completely understand and I'll get to the 64K parts as well. It's just by my calculations, I'll be using all of them so why waste time searching for parts to avoid the inevitable. I just get it over with so that I can use the better parts later on. Either way they will all be gone by the time the dust settles.
I had the same problem with the fuses and we know how that turned out LMAO
I've got 2 weeks of drone life left in me then its time for drastic measures.
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
No need to apologize, I completely understand and I'll get to the 64K parts as well. It's just by my calculations, I'll be using all of them so why waste time searching for parts to avoid the inevitable. I just get it over with so that I can use the better parts later on. Either way they will all be gone by the time the dust settles.
I had the same problem with the fuses and we know how that turned out LMAO
I still have 460 of the 4XP fuses, but I have promised myself, if I finish this level, I am done with the 4s for a while. By time I get through with the Tier upgrade and the new campaign, I should have enough higher value fuses to get me through.
I still have 460 of the 4XP fuses, but I have promised myself, if I finish this level, I am done with the 4s for a while. By time I get through with the Tier upgrade and the new campaign, I should have enough higher value fuses to get me through.
Here's a question, how many fuses can I expect to win in the GOLD LEAGUE?
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
Here's a question, how many fuses can I expect to win in the GOLD LEAGUE?
Gold League gives 32 XP modules, 2 at 25 BP, 3 at 50 VP and 5 at 100 VP each day, for a total of 10 each day. That is a total of 960 XP for the Gold League, that is a full level Drone upgrade or close to it. Worth doing!
One week after Glu agreed to wipe the pages of unequipped Drone weapons parts and 5 days after Glu told me that it had been done, nothing has been done. I have 759 pages of Drone weapons parts and am paging through to page 370 to find the weapons that I want to fuse. I sent of another request to Glu today.
One week after Glu agreed to wipe the pages of unequipped Drone weapons parts and 5 days after Glu told me that it had been done, nothing has been done. I have 759 pages of Drone weapons parts and am paging through to page 370 to find the weapons that I want to fuse. I sent of another request to Glu today.
That doesn't inspire any confidence OR that warm and fuzzy feeling. Consider this, if you had started fusing ALL parts, front to back, top to bottom ... first come, first serve a week ago you would have eliminated almost half of those 370 pages by now, maybe more.
It's the scrolling to page 370 that's killing you; I really don't know how you do it after every fuse.
The choice is really simple ... use the small parts and get some XP out of them OR wipe them all (maybe) while wasting time waiting on GLU and get nothing from them.
It's never too late my friend. Remember every part is interchangeable and can be recycled.
*** SMILES ***
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
At the level at which I play (200 VP per day) I generate more pages than I can dispose of. When I started to fuse the parts on page one and worked my way through, I did make a little headway, but Global play brought it right back up. I recognize that choosing lower value parts might accelerate that process, but it would be very tedious. If I pursued it full time and cut back on play a little I might chew through a few pages over time, but it would take a while.
If they would wipe the pages, I could generate 20 pages a day consisting entirely of 410 and 510 parts, which is way more than i can consume in a day.
The perfect solution for me would be for them just to wipe the first 400 low value pages, but that is just dreaming.
It is funny, you and I are playing the same game, in similar ways and with the same underlying principles, but we are encountering opposite problems. You are worried about depleting assets and I am fighting a glut. (Even my stash of Medkits is increasing right now). I have been hitting the Modern Slaver region and now have enough XP to get me to level 150, though I am not going to get there for a while.
I have a bit of a worry that they can strip the drone you have. As long as they perform the task your expecting, great.
One guy in my clan has requested the same action. Another, has received a response from CS that the problem is being worked on and there will be an update.
One other thought, what will you do when you guys max out your drone. What conqueror sat down and cried when there was no foes left (Caesar, Alexander)?
I have a bit of a worry that they can strip the drone you have. As long as they perform the task your expecting, great.
One guy in my clan has requested the same action. Another, has received a response from CS that the problem is being worked on and there will be an update.
One other thought, what will you do when you guys max out your drone. What conqueror sat down and cried when there was no foes left (Caesar, Alexander)?
You have isolated my real fear: They will wipe equipped and unequipped Drone weapons. I take regular screenshots to prove what I have if they erase everything, but it would be a drag!
Sometimes you need to stop and catch your breath, take stock of what the situation is, make adjustments and proceed ... slowly at first then gradually push the throttle forward.
You've been playing at an insane pace ... I say it's time for a break so you can regroup. Don't worry the game aint going nowhere.
Tell GLU to call off the dogs, let's see if we can either work this though OR they can come up with a fix.
Did you bet someone in your CLAN you would reach a 2.95M drone first or something? What's the rush ...
You do realize that these are the same guys who have screwed up everything they have ever touched ... why are you trusting them with your gaming experience? I wouldn't.
Screenshots or not, if its gone ... its gone forever. They may give you some GOLD for your troubles ... come on man, you know better.
Had it gone as expected the first time, I would have said GREAT now get back to work; but it didn't ... now you might be flirting with disaster.
SPEED KILLS ... there are times when the best strategy is to do nothing at all.
The answer to "What will you do next?" ... not a d,a,m.n thing until they give us something else to spend diamonds on LOL
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
And I bet whatever that is will completely correct any frame freezing problems!
You're probably correct ... makes as much sense as anything else GLU does. The eternal optimist in me believes that the delayed "early" release of TIER 15, in which there are only just over 48 hours before the "scheduled" release can be officially labeled "late", could mean one of three things:
(1) There won't be a TIER 15
(2) They abandoned early releases because nobody was buying into early access
(3) They abandoned early release because they've fixed many issues with the game and want to be sure they got it right.
Since the new region has always coincided with the start of a new cycle (Thursday), there is definitely something afoot.
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
I just asked GLU to delete all my drone components, but only if they can without deleting my 4 mounted components. My mounted components are only 113K, but they're upgraded 92K modules from clan event awards and I can't get new 92K components to replace them. I don't have as many components as you -- 431 pages, but I have to traverse about 330 before I get to 410/510K modules to upgrade with. That takes about 5 minutes per upgrade, which gets old quickly.
Initially, I asked if they could just delete all of my 64K and less components, but the customer care rep said they could only delete all of the components. I'm not sure why they can't filter them, since I think they'd have to be in a database file, but that's what they said. Additionally, they said:
"Our developers are already aware of this issue and they are working diligently to come up with a fix regarding the accumulation of drone pages. We hope it will be included in the next update."
Python be sure and keep us up to date on any Glu acton on the wipe, they may have just forgotten about me, because I know they have a ton of wipe requests.
I just asked GLU to delete all my drone components, but only if they can without deleting my 4 mounted components. My mounted components are only 113K, but they're upgraded 92K modules from clan event awards and I can't get new 92K components to replace them. I don't have as many components as you -- 431 pages, but I have to traverse about 330 before I get to 410/510K modules to upgrade with. That takes about 5 minutes per upgrade, which gets old quickly.
Initially, I asked if they could just delete all of my 64K and less components, but the customer care rep said they could only delete all of the components. I'm not sure why they can't filter them, since I think they'd have to be in a database file, but that's what they said. Additionally, they said:
"Our developers are already aware of this issue and they are working diligently to come up with a fix regarding the accumulation of drone pages. We hope it will be included in the next update."
P.S. I'm that other guy in try_again's clan.
It sounds llike we're in the same exact place in drone development ... using 92K parts as a root, I have 400 pages and my weapons are at 131K and support drone is at 215k. I'm not having any problem with loading times or game performance however. I also have a different approach for all of my pages, I'm using all of the parts because they won't last very long anyway.
Since you're at the same place as me, you might want to consider using ALL of the parts instead of deleting them, unless of course the load times are unbearable.
Complex Minds Require Challenging Games ... SCORPION
Comments
No, I am up to 729 Pages and getting slower and slower. I will get back to them next week and see if I can't push it forward. I will post updates.
You've been developing your drone under the premise that weapons upgrades are "differential" in nature as opposed to "incremental"; you have also flip flopped on this several times during the development of your drone. I remember you once stated that members in your clan were going back to 72K weapons (presumably they had just used a 92K or 410K part) because they were more effective weapons. This always stuck in the back of my mind like an itch I couldn't scratch ... until now.
"Differential" upgrades means that the part you're about to upgrade will be wholly replaced with another part (going from 64K to 92K, for example), whereas "incremental" upgrades means that the part has been upgraded in increments. This concept is rooted in the fact that drone weapons parts are primarily for upgrading a weapon and NOT meant to be a replacement; on the contrary, they are just a starting point. The evidence of this is that my 122K weapons, which are rooted in 92K starting point via fully upgraded 64K parts are just as effective as say a 410K or 510K part which has never been upgraded.
This incremental approach to upgrades has a long history with traditional weapons; a 15.5 weapon (never upgraded) is actually less effective that a 14.5 weapon that is fully upgraded; in fact parity isn't achieved between the weapons until the higher rated weapon is at least 60% upgraded. This has always been GLU's approach so why should they change it for drones.
I have been behind from the beginning with regards to drone development; that's my fault and apologize for not being there with you along the way in those critical early days.
FAST FORWARD ... you're now at a crossroads where weapons upgrades are extremely painful (if not impossible) because you've never used the parts and have accumulated so many of them that it has crippled (NOT killed) the game. I fully understand your decision to "wipe" your parts and start anew. The bell went off in my head as I remembered the developer's advice NOT to accumulate so many parts going forward and your reflex response was to ask "How can I possibly do that?" What he should have said was "Use the parts periodically to prevent a buildup (GLUT) resulting in a bottleneck that will have an adverse effect on game performance".
In short, use the parts if you can ... but if you can't you're going to need to play like hell to reach a TRUE 2.95M DRONE; what's a 2.95M drone without 2.95M weapons right? I've also answered my own question as to why some 2.95M drone weapons are deadly whilst most others cause minimal damage at best ... it's because the weapons haven't been upgraded. I've had the benefit of seeing both types of weapons in battle because of the "lunatic asylum" platform I play on. Good thing that most of them haven't got a real clue; all they know is score AP.
Now the real news *** SMILES *** I am consuming drone weapons parts at a rate of 10-15 pages per day (300-450 parts). At that rate I will reach the group of 410-510K parts in a week or two, if my calculations hold true. That means simply that ALL drone development for me will come to a halt given I cannot use the 410K parts because the support drone power rating is currently at 215K. Even using an optimistic approach to acquiring drone fuses via campaign mission replays and qualifying for GOLD LEAGUE play, which I plan to implement during the next event series, I cannot realistically see getting past 369K in the near future without some sort of fuse windfall.
The Very Best of Luck to You !!!
First a question: You can't fuse parts rated higher than your drone, even if you are fusing to a weapon below your drone's value?
I hadn't realized that, but that is a drag, because the fuse cost of lower value Drone parts is so high.
8x 8K parts are worth 10.64 XP and they cost 43.1K Diamond to fuse, for a cost of 4.05 Diamonds per XP
8 51K parts are worth 34.4 XP and they cost 50K Diamonds to fuse, for a cost of 1.45 Diamonds per XP
8 64K parts are worth 85.6 XP and they cost 64.8 K Diamonds, for a cost of 0.76 Diamonds per XP
8 510K are worth 680 XP and they cost 237.2 K Diamond for a cost of 0.35 Diamonds per XP, less than 10% of the cost of fusing the 8K parts.
While you say I have "flip flopped" on the Drone weapons issue and perhaps that is true, but that is only because I have never been clear on the cost of weapons upgrade. I did contemplate dropping back to more powerful 72 K weapons, but never did because I realized that I was just digging myself a deeper hole.
In short, I am more convinced than ever that upgrading the Drone, not Drone weapons, is the cost effective strategy. As far as slowing up the game, my 730 pages don't slow play, but they do make Drone upgrades painful. My load time for the Drone upgrade page is 35-40 seconds and the load time for Drone weapons roughly the same. It does take well over a minute to scroll through the 360 pages to my 510 K drone parts, but it well worth it because upgrading the 8 510 K parts is 90% cheaper and nets me 680K xp per cycle. This means that I only need to repeat the process 5 times to jump one level. (All of the figures above are for upgrading 740K weapons, you mileage will almost certainly vary from that.
I know that you are in a jam because you have run out of XP modules to upgrade with. Hit Le Fusil once in a while, the 21XP modules that I have won there are now the largest single part of my module inventory, 34% of my total Drone weapons XP.
I calculate that I wll run out of XP modules at Level 149, but I am not worried, because the new Region will be out long before I get there, and it will have a new supply.
I still have 600 4XP modules left and life will get better after I have chewed through them.
More later.
Don't you find the fuse costs of lower value weapons to be prohibitively expensive? I started by paging through to the 64 K stuff, but found it to be more cost effective to scroll through 360 pages to the 510s
One of the things that is frustrating about the weapons upgrade process is that you have no idea in advance of what the value of the completed Level will be, so you spend a lot of time fusing an upgrade, only to be told at the end of that tedious process that you can't do it because the weapon would exceed the power of the Drone itself.
My solution to that one is to keep the Drone upgrade a couple of levels ahead of the weapons, so that I don't waste time when it won't let me do that final bump.
Just did a check on Drone weapons pages: 45 Seconds to load, 744 pages
Just for fun I fused 125 parts, cost 60K Diamonds, more than 8K or 51K parts. Makes no sense at all.
The cost is a little more maybe but not prohibitive by any means, what else am I going to spend diamonds on. I use free energy, collect millions of diamonds and have nothing but drone parts to spend them on. That being said, the use of these parts as far as I can tell result in a more powerful drone and that's what we need to discuss. For example, my rocket launcher is at level 8 and change, and although I can't substantiate it yet, I believe its just as effective as a 410K part at level 1.
Also remember that all of these parts are recyclable so if and when I can use the larger parts, I'll be able to reuse these weapons as parts with a single fuse and retain all of the XP I used when I first upgraded the weapon; that's the hidden aspect to upgrading weapons parts.
One of few things that GLU has done that actually makes sense. Look at it another way, instead of using 30-40 even 50 pages of parts (500 parts) to upgrade a weapon, it's all neatly wrapped up in a single part. It also eliminates 100s of pages of parts, which is another reason I do it.
I have no idea what this means, "you fused 125 parts for 60K diamonds" How does this relate to "more than 8k or 51k parts" I don't follow ...
I was fusing the 125 parts, the lowest value, the first upgrades offered. To fuse 8 of the 125s for a total of 1K upgrade, the cost was 60K Diamonds. The cost to fuse 8 8K parts is 43.1 K and the cost to fuse 8 51K parts is 50 K. 60 is more that 50 or 43.
Those 125 parts are valued at 21XP, that means upgrade costs 25.65 Diamonds per XP upgrade, compare to fusing 510K parts, valued at 85K XP, which cost 0.35 Diamonds per XP upgrade.
The clear moral of all of this, for me, is page through to find the largest allowable part value. It is much cheaper and has the additional benefit of requiring less trips through the pages to level up.
Yeah right, so what's your point? I have very few 125s ... I fuse mostly 51-64K parts. Sometimes I'll fuse the lesser value parts to get rid of them, but my experience is the higher the part rating the greater the cost. For example if I fuse 8 51K parts the cost is about 70K, if I fuse 8 of the 125, 1,000, 8,000 the cost is about 48K.
But either way it makes no difference for two reasons ... like I said the parts are recyclable and can be used over and over again with each new higher rated weapon part. If I jump to 410K, I reuse the previous part once, if I then jump to 510K, I reuse the previous part again, and so on. You never need to pay for the same XP twice.
I use all types of parts to update an individual weapon, so if I'm upgrading the RL, I'll use the first parts that show up in the list as opposed to scrolling and looking for RL parts.
As I mentioned previously, the weapons themselves are more effective. I have not developed a metric for measuring this but its in the works. The other benefit, and its my personal preference and belief that ALL parts will need to be used to reach 2.95M weapon strength and to streamline the parts fusing process itself. The development process was never intended to go from 0 to 510K or greater on the support drone without upgrading the weapons along the way.
All of these parts are evaporating at an alarming rate, at NO COST what so ever to me. I'm not sweating the small stuff, I'm just trying to get as much mileage as I can before it all comes to a screeching halt is all *** SMILES ***
I'll attach some screen shots in a few ... one picture is worth a thousand words, so they tell me.
The logical cost is simple ... the higher the rated weapon, the more it costs. I've attached a couple of screen shots for your reference contrasting 51K parts vs lesser rated parts. Clearly 51K parts cost more to fuse, so I'm not sure what it is you're seeing or why.
51K HR Parts cost about 10% more to fuse that 125, 1,000, 8,000 parts of all varieties. Had I used 64K the cost would have been over 70K diamonds. Seems like you're seeing the opposite? Maybe GLU corrupted something? I cannot explain the discrepancy.
Also noteworthy is that my rocket launcher has a root part of 64K since I never was able to obtain a 92K part. All the others have 92K as the root part.
This is true, but I have no way of fusing 410K-510K parts; it's impossible for me. If I could I would but as it stands I have no other choice but to fuse what I can and it aint much, I'm sorry to say.
Cost per XP means nothing to me ... I need to fuse everything I can LOL I mean it's not like fusing one over the other has some intrinsic dollar value. Besides its the game's design that costs drop as you acquire higher rated parts; again, and I wish this weren't the case, I cannot use the higher rated parts.
You have got me excited about upgrading weapons. I am trying to finish Level 142 and then I will turn my attention back to weapons upgrade.
No need to apologize, I completely understand and I'll get to the 64K parts as well. It's just by my calculations, I'll be using all of them so why waste time searching for parts to avoid the inevitable. I just get it over with so that I can use the better parts later on. Either way they will all be gone by the time the dust settles.
I had the same problem with the fuses and we know how that turned out LMAO
I've got 2 weeks of drone life left in me then its time for drastic measures.
I still have 460 of the 4XP fuses, but I have promised myself, if I finish this level, I am done with the 4s for a while. By time I get through with the Tier upgrade and the new campaign, I should have enough higher value fuses to get me through.
Here's a question, how many fuses can I expect to win in the GOLD LEAGUE?
Gold League gives 32 XP modules, 2 at 25 BP, 3 at 50 VP and 5 at 100 VP each day, for a total of 10 each day. That is a total of 960 XP for the Gold League, that is a full level Drone upgrade or close to it. Worth doing!
That doesn't inspire any confidence OR that warm and fuzzy feeling. Consider this, if you had started fusing ALL parts, front to back, top to bottom ... first come, first serve a week ago you would have eliminated almost half of those 370 pages by now, maybe more.
It's the scrolling to page 370 that's killing you; I really don't know how you do it after every fuse.
The choice is really simple ... use the small parts and get some XP out of them OR wipe them all (maybe) while wasting time waiting on GLU and get nothing from them.
It's never too late my friend. Remember every part is interchangeable and can be recycled.
*** SMILES ***
If they would wipe the pages, I could generate 20 pages a day consisting entirely of 410 and 510 parts, which is way more than i can consume in a day.
The perfect solution for me would be for them just to wipe the first 400 low value pages, but that is just dreaming.
It is funny, you and I are playing the same game, in similar ways and with the same underlying principles, but we are encountering opposite problems. You are worried about depleting assets and I am fighting a glut. (Even my stash of Medkits is increasing right now). I have been hitting the Modern Slaver region and now have enough XP to get me to level 150, though I am not going to get there for a while.
One guy in my clan has requested the same action. Another, has received a response from CS that the problem is being worked on and there will be an update.
One other thought, what will you do when you guys max out your drone. What conqueror sat down and cried when there was no foes left (Caesar, Alexander)?
You have isolated my real fear: They will wipe equipped and unequipped Drone weapons. I take regular screenshots to prove what I have if they erase everything, but it would be a drag!
You've been playing at an insane pace ... I say it's time for a break so you can regroup. Don't worry the game aint going nowhere.
Tell GLU to call off the dogs, let's see if we can either work this though OR they can come up with a fix.
Did you bet someone in your CLAN you would reach a 2.95M drone first or something? What's the rush ...
You do realize that these are the same guys who have screwed up everything they have ever touched ... why are you trusting them with your gaming experience? I wouldn't.
Screenshots or not, if its gone ... its gone forever. They may give you some GOLD for your troubles ... come on man, you know better.
Had it gone as expected the first time, I would have said GREAT now get back to work; but it didn't ... now you might be flirting with disaster.
SPEED KILLS ... there are times when the best strategy is to do nothing at all.
The answer to "What will you do next?" ... not a d,a,m.n thing until they give us something else to spend diamonds on LOL
And I bet whatever that is will completely correct any frame freezing problems!
You're probably correct ... makes as much sense as anything else GLU does. The eternal optimist in me believes that the delayed "early" release of TIER 15, in which there are only just over 48 hours before the "scheduled" release can be officially labeled "late", could mean one of three things:
(1) There won't be a TIER 15
(2) They abandoned early releases because nobody was buying into early access
(3) They abandoned early release because they've fixed many issues with the game and want to be sure they got it right.
Since the new region has always coincided with the start of a new cycle (Thursday), there is definitely something afoot.
Initially, I asked if they could just delete all of my 64K and less components, but the customer care rep said they could only delete all of the components. I'm not sure why they can't filter them, since I think they'd have to be in a database file, but that's what they said. Additionally, they said:
"Our developers are already aware of this issue and they are working diligently to come up with a fix regarding the accumulation of drone pages. We hope it will be included in the next update."
P.S. I'm that other guy in try_again's clan.
It sounds llike we're in the same exact place in drone development ... using 92K parts as a root, I have 400 pages and my weapons are at 131K and support drone is at 215k. I'm not having any problem with loading times or game performance however. I also have a different approach for all of my pages, I'm using all of the parts because they won't last very long anyway.
Since you're at the same place as me, you might want to consider using ALL of the parts instead of deleting them, unless of course the load times are unbearable.