Ronza Christmas and the Great Winter hunt 2009!! Part II

Alrighty this is part 2 of my ramblings/article about the traps Ronza will be bringing!


(oh yeah and a Merry Christmas to you too =D)

In the last Article we talked about the CCT (Christmas Cracker Trap) and the Partybot, Rhinobot and the Chrome Drillbot.


Today, we shall discuss the 2010 Blastoff Trap (2010), the Giant Speaker (GS), and the HVMT (Horrific Venus Mouse Trap)!


However first lets get the bases out of the way.

The two bases on offer are the

Candy Cane Base and the Firecracker base.

Quite simple really both are upgrades.

CCB is Aqua + 70 power and FRESHNESS

and FCB is Explosive +4 luck

Which should you get?

Frankly overall... you should get the CCB (if you had to choose)

If you have the Magma... you have no need for the Firecracker. Magma blows it to bits.

If you missed out on Magma however. The FCB is a nice upgrade and will likely serve you well.

(understand that I never did use Explosive alot in the first place =P)


Why CCB though?

at the moment the only way to get high luck without staleness is with Aqua. CCB adds more power (always good)
and FRESHNESS (which is good when you want the luck but the Magma just burns your precious cheese too quickly
e.g. Harvarti)

Now that we have that out of the way (Oh I will definitely miss the Aqua, it is special to me in many ways =))


The Tactical Traps.



So lets list em:


2010 Blastoff Trap
Cost: 512,800 gold
Points Required: 99,000
Power: 2,600
Power Type: Tactical
Power Bonus: 15%
Attraction Bonus: 0%
Luck: 25
Cheese Effect: Very Stale


Giant Speaker
Cost: 612,800 gold
Points Required: 91,000
Power: 2,850
Power Type: Tactical
Power Bonus: 5%
Attraction Bonus: 5%
Luck: 22
Cheese Effect: No Effect



Horrific Venus Mouse Trap
Cost: 849,650+ gold
Points Required: 8,000,000
Power: 3,400
Power Type: Tactical
Power Bonus: 12%
Attraction Bonus: 1%
Luck: 16
Cheese Effect: No Effect





I think to cut it short, this is a power versus luck argument AGAIN!


2010 and GS do not compare to HVMT well in terms of power.

But in Derr we already know that the power difference MUST be substantial before the
power based trap visibly outperforms the luck based trap.

From the results I know (anecdoctal), together with a MAGMA base.

The GS outperforms the HVMT (I'm being vague here, i suspect against the big three HVMT might win out. Might.)

But looking at the luck I would think the 2010 will outperform the GS.
It might suffer against the big three (versus the GS) but in terms of farming. 2010 will likely outperform the GS.

Now again if you follow my ramblings/articles... you WILL know.. (by now) that I am a proponent of Attraction!


I suspect attraction is not really pushed by the MH devs because it undermines the usage of SB =P (I am somewhat serious)

The real kick in the groin to the GS by 2010 here is the VOILA! 15% attraction!


Remember I said that "the GS is the tactical power type's partybot! But not really." At that time I made that statement because of the lack of 15% Attraction that Partybot has.... which allows the Partybot to have an "Almost Super Brie" effect.

This was first achievable in Nerg with Snob/Aqua/Gouda because of the Snob's 20% attraction!

The devs have chosen to give us a tactical trap that can enable Gouda like SB =)

Kudos to them! It is really a nice reward.

(NOTE! it really is'nt quite like SB just really close.. you still get FTAs just really really REALLY rarer).

I really think the power reduction will put the 2010 out of contention for the big three in Nerg.. but we'll see.

MAGMA. makes all the difference. Afterall Magma was what pushed Partybot into contention in catching the big three in Derr.

The reason why I think the 2010 will not do too well? Its a gut feel. Being able to compete strongly against the big three in Nerg will
just totally outclass the GS.

Almost immediately after it is out. Why do that?


So its just a gut feel.


To really show if 2010 will or will not out class the GS against the big three. It is a integer programming problem (discrete optimisation)... which will yield answers only for the current state =P once a new trap or base comes out OR the environment is tweaked. the numbers could be skewed again =P hence I'll just go with gut feel...

In short, I will strongly advise to purchase the 2010 if only for farming wth gouda =)

I like to ranble.. and I forgot I was actually trying to compare against the HVMT...

welll everythihng that is true for GS versus HVMT is true as well. With the disparity between 2010 and HVMT being even greater.


And that is my take for now. Until the traps are released and more anecdoctal info comes in...



BTW just to STATE very CLEARLY that power is NOT entirely outclassed in this game.

I am currently hunting with Rhinobot/Tribal/SB and enjoying a good streak.... this is just after my new Christmas Cracker Trap got into a bad streak =)

So power still has a place people =D




I might do a 3rd article/ramble to discuss whether you should buy what ever trap based on your rank. So far my discussion have always assumed top flight and you can get any trap you want. (which is obviously not true)... so I thought this might be an interesting article =)


...

we'll see =)