Clash of Clans: Update(s)

Version 3.25 Released

and a small confession...

Looks like our good friends at Supercell in Finland have released an update for Clash of Clans. I won't take up (not) valuable space to list all the changes, but you can find the particulars here.  New unit upgrades, traps, hero improvements, and leaderboards, to name a few. Again, if you are not playing this game, you are sorely missing out on one of the best Free-To-Play titles out there. Combat, base-building, compelling player vs. player - you name it, it has your flavor of gaming crack.

And now, my confession. I actually broke down and made an IAP (In App Purchase) in Clash of Clans. 500 Crystals, to be exact, which cost me $4.99 USD. But the game made me do it - seriously. I was hovering around Level 30, and needed to upgrade my Town Hall to Level 7. A Level 7 TH unlocks a slew of additional buildings, as well some much needed upgrades. Unfortunately, a Level 7 Town Hall requires 1,200,000 gold. Unfortunately times two, I would amass around 400,000 gold, and someone would attack me, and steal 100,000+, I'd get a 12 hour or 16 hour Shield, regain the 100K gold, be attacked again, and lose said gold. Lather, rinse, repeat, Sisyphus.  And so, I buckled, and got a 7-day Shield. To me, this is was a shocking discovery, as there seemed to be no legitimate way to gather the necessary resources without paying for the additional Shield time protection. And to date, Supercell have made IAP a 'want', not a 'need', in order to progress in the game. Not sure what the solution is - increased Shield time based on your level perhaps?

But in the end, I can't say I felt all that cheated - for a game that's given me more fun than many a  $60 retail console title, $4.99 for some crystals for CoC seems like a bargain.

Skylanders: Lost Islands

What Do Skylanders And The Island of Dominica Have In Common?

Part I

Perhaps you've heard of a little 'ole game franchise called "Skylanders"? You know, the one that made $500 million dollars in the US in 2012? To put that number in perspective, the island of Dominica, located in the Caribbean, has a GDP of $490MM USD. That's a lot of Skylanders for 1 little island. Eric Kain over at Forbes called Skylanders "Diablo for Kids..." That is an honorific that is not lightly bestowed.

Anyhow...onto the latest incarnation in freemium app crack: Skylanders: Lost Islands. On the surface, there's nothing about this game that is that much different than your average monster breeding and farming game, like say, Dragonvale. But the Skylanders personalities, perceived attributes, and the rich environments, while mostly just window dressing, serve to enhance and vary the game experience. Skylanders come in different elemental forms (Fire, Air, etc), sizes (Regular and Giant), Experience levels, which is sufficient to mix up the missions, quests and the tasks that can be performed under these constraints such that the game never feels repetitive. New Skylanders are gained every 5 levels, which is probably the most tedious part of the game, if you're not willing to part with real world cash to buy Skylanders, which is a real temptation. With 55 possible Skylanders that can be acquired, that's 275 levels at a minimum you'd need to acquire them all.

There are two primary resources in Skylanders: Gold Coins (from Missions), and Energy (from Farms). It costs Coins to grow Energy plants, and Energy plants to go on missions to acquire Gold Coins. Sort of a perpetual motion Ponzi scheme of in-game economics. So let's start off by looking at maximizing Farm output:

CROP		TIME		COST		ENERGY		COST PER NRG		NRG PER MIN
Floats		1		10		4		2.50		4.00
Ambrosia		3		30		11		2.73		3.67
Cloudlings		10		105		37		2.84		3.70
Luminaries		30		320		110		2.91		3.67
Eufirbia		60		650		215		3.02		3.58
Grave Diggers		120		1,300		425		3.06		3.54
Moss Stash		240		2,700		840		3.21		3.50
Domedelion		420		4,800		1,450		3.31		3.45

 Obviously, you get the highest per-minute return on Energy for 1-minute Floats, but that that would take forever to amass enough Energy to take on the big 5,000 Energy Sanctuary missions, so Cloudlings seem to be the best choice. They provide a livable time-frame and balance for maximizing production while minimizing cost. I still like to mix it up with Luminaries and Eufirbia as well sometimes, or perhaps Domedelion right before I go to bed, just for a big instant Energy inventory boost upon harvest.

So that's it for Part I. In Part II, we'll take a look at maximizing mission return on Gold Coins. Can you feel the excitement?!

Farmville 2, By George!

New "Great Britain" Content Added

With all the Fall and Thanksgiving content additions that have been added to Farmville 2 over the past 2-ish weeks, it was a bit surprising to see the pop-up screen to the left appear today. There's nothing particularly British about today's update, at least that I could find. It's not a Bank Holiday, as the Brits have the same good sense to schedule their official days off like we do in the US i.e. on Fridays and Mondays. In any event, there was actually a new limited-time, craft-able plant item introduced, as well as 3  limited time craft-able recipes. Truth be told, Zynga also introduced a limited-time, Farm Bucks-only Elderberry Tree, but I try to ignore Farm Bucks exclusive content in the same way I'd ignore poor manners, bad grammar, or Justin Bieber.

New Plant:

English Rose

•  Good until December 23rd
• 2 Hours to grow
• 42/59 coins to plant/recieve
• 3 XP
• 5 Feed
• Can be crafted to make Rose Jelly:
• Requires: 8 Roses + 3 Sugars
• Rewards: 1510 coins + 9 XP 

New Recipes:

• Elderberry Tea
• Good until Dec. 23rd
• Requires Farm Bucks, so why bother with details? 
• Petit Fours
• Good until Dec. 23rd
• Requires: 2 Blueberry Custards + 3 Batters
• Rewards: 2710 coins + 27 XP

So there you have it - a proper English menu, at least according to a game made in the US of A.

Freemium Price Compare!

a.k.a. ARSE

Abstract Resource Stock indEx

I recently read an old article on Mental Floss about the Toadstool Exchange - it compared the relative prices in-game, and in real-world dollars, the cost of a grenade. This, in turn, reminded me of an annual column The Economist used to run - The Big Mac Index. Both are genius, and well worth a read when it comes to comparing relative values of things that either are digital or seemingly dissimilar i.e. a burger in a Norway vs. a burger in Tuscaloosa.

Anyways....in that vein I was inspired to create the ARSE. Most (90%+) of freemium or free-to-play app games out there, allow you to speed up the game, and thus gain an advantage, by purchasing some sort of of in-game currency. The important part, as it pertains to ARSE, is that in general, 1 in-game resource, be it gems, or gold, or smurfberries, equals 1 hour of game speed-up time. And thus, a comparative real-currency value can be assigned to these seemingly intangible virtual items.

Game		Resource		Units		Cost		Cost Per Resource
CityVille		Cash		50		$4.99		$0.10
Clash of Clans		Gems		1200		$9.99		$0.01
Dragon Story		Gold		120		$4.99		$0.04
Dragonvale		Gems		130		$4.99		$0.04
Gizmonauts		Crystals		130		$4.99		$0.04
Hay Day		Diamonds		130		$4.99		$0.04
Jurassic Park Builder		Bucks		120		$9.99		$0.08
My Little Pony		Gems		120		$9.99		$0.08
Restaurant Story		Gems		105		$19.99		$0.19
Simpsons: Tapped Out		Donuts		132		$9.99		$0.08
Smurfs' Village		Berries		125		$9.99		$0.08
Tiny Monsters		Diamonds		130		$4.99		$0.04
Tiny Tower		Tower Bux		100		$1.99		$0.02
Tiny Tribe		Diamonds		100		$9.99		$0.10

 Several caveats:

1. I tried to go for similar Resource Units or USD ($) amounts. It's not precise, clearly.

2. Some games, like Clash of Clans or Simpsons, use a different metrics to apply against 1 hour of in-game progress. 'Clash' is pretty easy to decipher; 4 gems = 1 hour. Simpsons has no discernible pattern.

3. Unsurprisingly, the mercenary black souls at Team Lava have the highest comparative ARSE cost via Restaurant Story.

I'll be updating the ARSE as the mood strikes, new games make the list, or a cost moves dramatically.

Farmville 2: It's Like A Circus!

Bread & Circuses, Actually

 

After powering through the quest wasteland that was level 15 in Farmville 2, I finally got some new quests, which revolved around preparing for a circus (I think - I'm not one for back-story in FV2, when there's precious crops and animals at stake). Anyways...these quest were pretty straightforward, until I got to the the 3rd in the "Circus" series. It required 3 Cheddar Loafs. Sounds pretty simple, eh? Well, there's 2 problems with said Loaf:

1. You need Salt (which you can't make)
2. You need need Cheese (which you might be out of)

If you're playing FV2 via Zynga.com, it should be relatively easy to obtain Salt via requests. Cheese, however, is another matter. It's a rare drop from Cows/Goats, and since you had to last purchase said livestock, they might have evolved into "Prized" animals, which no longer drop any produce, aside from XP and coins. So, it's Baby Bottle and Feed time once again to raise them into productive members of the farming community. So, take it with a grain of Salt, but if you stock up on your cheese-dropping barnyard critters, and you can (Cheez) wiz through this quest quickly. See what I did there? Funny stuff.

Gizmonauts - Snax Attacks

Update: New Food Types & Amounts

Looks like my earliest list of Gizmonauts Snax farming stats is now a bit outdated. Backflip revised some Snax in-game numbers about 2 weeks ago across several categories, which I wasn't aware of, and there was third type of Snax farm I didn't even realize existed. D'oh/Facepalm/Apologies x 2. Below are the latest and greatest Snax:

Food		Farm		Cost		Time (in Mins)		Amt Made		Amt Made/Hour
Micro Chips		Shack		50		0.5		5		600
Spring Salad		Shack		250		5		20		240
Bolt Burger		Shack		1,000		30		75		150
Blueberry Boltmeal		Joint		5,000		120		300		150
Carbon Cola		Joint		15,000		360		800		133.3
Battery Bites		Joint		75,000		1,440		3,000		125.0
Coolant Cone		Shop		150,000		1		3,000		180,000
Pizza		Shop		250,000		10		5,000		30,000
Astro Oil		Shop		500,000		60		10,000		10,000

I'm not 100% sure why they made Battery Bites and Coolant Cones so similar, at least with regard to "Amt Made". By the time you get to the level that unlocks the Snax Shop, the difference between spending 75,000 and 150,000 coins to make them is not that big of a deal, as you're making a fairly large amount of coins. But hey, I'm not complaining. Bon appetit!

My Singing Monsters

Feed Me!

Overview of total food required to grow a Level 15 monster

I've been a bit curious to find what the maximum level was is My Singing Monsters. After literally 2 weeks of just baking food to feed one T-Rox constantly, it turns out it's level 15. I currently have all 4 Islands and 2 Green Crystal Mines, so I'm not lacking for monsters to generate cash, or bakeries to create food, or crystals to speed along the process, but even so, it took what seemed like an eternity to reach the max monster level. And it's costly process. Below is the required food ( and in-game money) required to reach that goal:

Level		Amt (Food)		SubTotal (Gold)
1		5		20
2		10		40
3		20		80
4		40		160
5		80		320
6		160		640
7		320		1,280
8		640		2,560
9		1,280		5,120
10		2,560		10,240
11		5,120		20,480
12		10,240		40,960
13		20,480		81,920
14		40,960		163,840
15		81,920		327,680
Total		163,835		655,340

"It's wafer thin!"

In other words, it would require a Turkey (1,000,000 gold), a Pie (500,000 gold), and 2 Pizzas (75,000 gold per Pie) to get enough food to reach Level 15, for a grand total of 1,650,000 gold to get just ONE Monster to Level 15. This is why I usually stop around Level 9 for monster upgrading. I'm stuffed.  

Home Sweet Home

Maximixe Your 'Bot Home Zone Cash in Gizmonauts

"Time for my money bath!"

Without a doubt, making money in Gizmonauts is one of the easiest jobs in the galaxy. Aside from the Large and Small Builder Zones, every other Zone is a cash cow. However, if you want to make a pile of cash quickly, the best way is to get the maximum number of high level 'bots in either Performance (Small & Large) or Nature (Large) Zones (see below). At the moment I have more money than I know what to do with - I am literally waiting for various breeding combos to produce new 'bots, while the money keeps rolling in. I'm about ready to start stuffing money under the mattress of a robo Sleep Number® bed at this point.

Zone		Size		Max # of Bots		Max Coins
Builder		Small		2		250
Mining		Small		1		10,000
Performance		Small		2		7,500
Nature		Small		1		15,000
Builder		Large		4		750
Performance		Large		3		50,000
Nature		Large		3		50,000
Astro		N/A		1		1,000,000

Proper Breeding in My Singing Monsters

No Need To Send Your Monsters To Etiquette School.

We are talking about breeding monsters found on the Cold Island in My Singing Monsters. Each island in MSM features some new monsters only found on specific islands, just to keep you on your toes.  The following chart just contains monsters not found on the original starting island, Plant. So without further ado, here ya go:

Monster		Island		Breeding/Combo		Level		Coins/Min		Max Coins
Tweedle		Cold		Air		9		14		288
Dandidoo		Cold		Tweedle+Potbelly		9		29		2,160
Quibble		Cold		Tweedle+ToeJam		9		22		1,620
Pango		Cold		Tweedle+Mammott		9		29		1,728
Spunge		Cold		Dandidoo+ToeJam		9		43		20,736
Thumpies		Cold		Tweedle+Furcorn		9		50		20,563
Congle		Cold		Pango+ToeJam		9		43		25,920
Deedge		Cold		Multiple		?		?		?

Once again, the correct breeding of the four element monster, in this case, Deedge, eludes me. In general, I stop feeding my monsters after Level 9 as the cost is so prohibitive, and for some monsters, like the Tweedle, the return in investment i.e. Max Coins, is minimal and just not worth it.

Gizmonauts

You'll Go Nuts For These Buckets of 'Bots Made of Bolts

You may have a heard of a little 'ole iPhone game called Dragonvale aka free-to-play app crack. Well, Backflip Studios, the team behind that game, are back with a new title - Gizmonauts. And much like Dragonvale, Gizmonauts contains every bit of the same addictive fun, except this time around, it's all about robots. You are tasked with raising (upgrading?), feeding (fueling?) and breeding (building? constructing? assembling?) various 'bots, but this time around, you can also upgrade individual robots with specialized tools to increase specific stats, as well as take them into combat.

I've already started to put together some numbers on optimal robot Snax to farm, so here's some initial stats for production amounts vs. time:

Food		Farm		Cost		Time (in Mins)		Amt Made		Amt Made/Hour
Micro Chips		Small		50		0.5		5		120
Spring Salad		Small		250		5		20		240
Bolt Burger		Small		1,000		30		75		150
Carbon Cola		Large		5,000		180		425		141.7
Battery Bites		Large		15,000		540		1,200		133.3
Coolant Cone		Large		75,000		1,440		3,000		125.0

As you can see, Spring Salad is your most efficient choice. So go nuts (no pun intended - this time).

Monster Tower

Mini Review

Monster Tower might be described as part Donkey Kong, part Tower Defense. Except you play as Kong, and you don't build any towers. Totally explains the gameplay, right? No? Well, that is part of the slightly wacky charm of Monster Tower. Your job in the game is to defend the last king monster egg on the highest floor of a tower from an onslaught of human attackers intent on destroying said egg. You have an array of monster types to choose from, as well as various traps to lay, as the soldiers try to advance their way to the top. With each level won, money is rewarded to you, which can used to upgrade your various monster troops. The variety of monsters in your command is varied in both look, ability, and cost, so it's not just a simple matter of flinging 100 green goo melee minions at the invaders of your tower. Strategy and tactics are required, not just brute force. Also, it's kinda fun to try to say "green goo melee minion" three times fast. 

Making Money With Monsters

A look under the hood into some of the money-making stats of monsters in My Singing Monsters.

Making cash in My Singing Monsters is no different than most other feed-breed-upgrade monster farming simulation. The more money you have, the cooler the stuff you can buy with it. Below is the breakdown of cash creation stats for the Plant Island Monsters in MSM:

Monster		Island		Level		Coins/Min		Max Coins
Potbelly		Plant		9		27		130
Noggin		Plant		9		43		130
Toe Jammer		Plant		9		17		216
Mammott		Plant		9		33		216
Shrub		Plant		8		47		768
Oaktopus		Plant		9		45		2,160
Furcorn		Plant		9		45		1,620
Fwog		Plant		9		54		1,620
Drumpler		Plant		6		36		864
Maw		Plant		9		43		2,160
Pummel		Plant		9		72		13,478
Clamble		Plant		?		?		?
Bowgart		Plant		9		50		13,608
T-Rox		Plant		9		72		15,552
Entbrat		Plant		?		?		?

The Mammott is the last monster you can create that does not require cross-breeding. After that, you need to start cross-breeding to create hybrids. Once you get to the Pummel, breeding gets even more complicated, as you need to successfully cross breed using a hybrid, which increases the number of potential combinations, and only one combo is the correct one. As you can see from the question marks, I still haven't gotten the right combo for the Clamble or Entbrat. The Entbrat in particular will be a challenge to breed, as it requires the right combo of two hybrids, which makes for breeding permutations that gives me a headache.

My advice would be to get to a Furcorn, Fwog, or Maw as soon as possible to start raking in the cash. Once you've bread a few of those, it's a pretty quick trip to get the 500,000 coins required to build the Green Crystal Mine, and unlock more islands. 

Note: The column titled "Coins/Min" refers to the number of coins per minute a monster will produce.

Win, Place, or Show?

Having a bit of a minor dilemma over what game to focus on next. Also, from My Singing Monsters to World of Warcraft in one paragraph.

Miscellaneous/Micro-Review

At the moment, I'm simultaneously playing My Singing Monsters, Jurassic Park Builder, and Restaurant Story, with moments of Farmville 2, as well. Deciding on a focus is proving difficult as each has some quality that keeps me coming back hour after after. Monsters is outright musical, silly, fun, Jurassic has a really robust set of missions and realistic (for a theoretically improbable zoo) sim feel, and Restaurant Story is mostly sheer stubbornness on my part - I want a diner that still runs smoothly when I'm asleep. Then there's Farmville 2 - a game I swore I'd never play again. But the more I play, the deeper I find the gameplay. As soon as I unlocked the 'crafting' house in Farmville 2, it was all over. As a reformed crafting junkie from World of Warcraft days, turning apples into scones via the right combination of ingredients was all I needed to hook me.

UPDATE: I'm going with My Singing Monsters for my next review. I just unlocked a whole new island with a different song, monsters, etc. Plus: a Time Machine. Really.