Max Plunder debacle (May 2020)

Discussion in 'Strategy' started by Kefo, May 10, 2020.

  1. I am a bit frustrated by the dismissive and impatient reaction of some members of the community to reports from people who have had to spend more than the traditional estimate for maximum(max) plunder.

    I've tried talking about it and explaining my opinion on this matter but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears but I think it's pretty obvious and clear so I am making this thread to flesh them out properly and so people will actually understand where I'm coming from before responding.

    What is "Max Plunder"?
    In this thread, and usually on PIMD, I define 'max plunder' as

    Logical constraints and facts that must be true about max plunder based on that definition:

    1. If you spend more money on tutors and your plunder increases, you are not at your maximum plunder.
    2. If your plunder increases/decreases through other means except increasing the amount of money you spend on tutors, that is not part of max plunder.
    ______________________________________
    What are the factors we know of that contribute to plunder? And what do we know about them?

    Investing money on tutors is not the only way to increase your plunder.

    Your plunder can increase additively by upgrading your crew, and having an rs.

    Your plunder can increase multiplicatively by using a care package or fite bar (2x), going on dates (Varies), and being a member of VIP lounge (1.5x), or when a promo is active.

    It is well known that The first additive factor; the size of your crew, increases how much money you have to spend on tutors to acheive max plunder.

    It is not publically known, tested, or proven whether any of the other factors increase the amount of money you have to invest in tutors to achieve max plunder.
    I suspect that the other additive factor of the bonus - from your rs- may contribute to it now.

    Through peoples' tests, it has long been held that to achieve max plunder, all you have to do is spend 15m on tutors for every 1kcs in the stats displayed on your profile. This usually results in about a ~240% increase to the plunder you make.

    Recently, perhaps after the introduction of the Fite Bar by a.t.a, this has been slightly broken.
    And some people have either inadvertently done something or been affected by something entirely out of their control which doubles the cost of max plunder for them, increasing it to 30m per kcs, in order to gain that same ~240% increase.
    __________________________________________
    How to respond to players who bring this up.

    I have heard rationalizations of this along the line of "Max plunder is still the same but you just have to spend more on tutors because of something weird".

    Sorry, no.

    Go back to the definition of max plunder as well as the logical constraint for it.

    You are talking to someone who wants to know simply how much money they have to spend on tutors such that they won't make more money if they spend more on tuts. And what you are telling them is that they have max plunder if they spend 15m/kcs. but they have said that it wasn't enough!

    How much more do they have to spend on tutors for their plunder to reach the max? Do not lie to them to their face and say that their plunder will not increase, because it may just keep going until they spend 30m/kcs and you would be depriving them of the benefits based on some stupid line of logic about how max plunder only means 15m/kcs, and if they have to spend more on tutors to make the maximum amount of money, that is no longer max plunder.

    Perhaps we can accommodate this semantic inflexibility because for many players, max plunder still seems to be 15m/kcs.
    And perhaps we can call the 30m/kcs thing "Max Plunder 2" or "Max plunder: Electric Boogaloo".

    Trusting a.t.a and a few people you know who tested it above their own account is diminishing to their dignity as a knower. And it is an epistemic injustice to deny their experience.

    I think this is a bug based on the fite bar and I hope a.t.a patch it out because this is leading to lots of confusion, but acknowledging it is less dangerous than not helping the people who ask you for help. Adjust your advice to be "keep hiring tutors and test your plunder until you see it stop increasing".

    Not "It is 15m/kcs for everyone and I don't want to hear if yours differs".
    _____________________________________
    Where to next?

    It would be interesting to test whether having an rs means you have to spend more on max plunder,
    And to test whether players can actively turn on/off this max plunder 2 setting, or whether it is something on a.t.a's side, a totally unintended glitch that they have to patch.
     
  2. The few times I brought up max plunder being different, someone immediately tells me @Day confirmed from the developers that max plunder hasn't changed.

    But it has! Maybe not for everyone but the fact remains that it has changed.

    Maybe it's a bug or some item the devs added to the game that affected it, I don't know. But it has changed, and that's a fact.
     
  3. I have no idea. I always hire wayyyyyyyyyyy more tutors than I need for plunder. Gotta make that sick tut trading cash ya know?

    But this is an intriguing mystery you've stumbled upon
     
    Salting10, vanished and V_Witchy_101 like this.
  4. Kefo jfc
    if you confuse any more players than you already have, imma die
     
    BEARCRUMBS, Cavalera, Dead and 6 others like this.
  5. How am I confusing people?
     
  6. also, i didnt "dismiss" you, i asked you for proof and you literally couldnt give it to me
     
    Salting10 and Vo like this.
  7. Because players have come asking questions worried that they havent done max plunder correctly
     
    Salting10 and Vo like this.
  8. I second for naming it "Max Plunder: Electric Boogaloo"
     
    --Tifa, Vo, Muschi and 4 others like this.
  9. Lyssa you actually tested it and found that it was still 15m/kcs for you which is good but I've heard 4+ people say they need 30m, exactly double.

    And I went through the proper testing method with someone ans they got that result. I don't see how that is misleading. That's just the truth of what's going on for some people.

    Having a hardline "everyone needs 15m" approach when there are direct accounts of that being insufficient, is not good enough.
     
    Jennielee likes this.
  10. Is the post confusing? Does it not say it's not the same for everyone?

    Are we all defining max plunder the same? As being the amount you have to spend on tutors for plunder to stop going up?
     
    Jennielee likes this.
  11. You showed me the process you went through and it was less than sufficient for me to agree that the person was doing it correctly and that their plunder formula was doubled. I then asked you to get more information and you told me that the original player having this issue was very cagey and didn't want to go through it again.
     
  12. They were but what they showed me was them going over max plunder, hiring another tut, and then plunder increasing again.

    That is all you need to see. That it keeps going up past 15k/cs
     
  13. I asked for party hits, there a ton of factors that go into pvp
     
    Salting10 likes this.
  14. The commonly accepted definition of max plunder is

    "how much you have to invest in tutors before your plunder plateaus and stops going up"

    If they are spending more than 15m/kcs for that, max plunder has changed. Logic is simple and provided in the post. Okay.

    Are we gonna split the advice for party and pvp?
    I don't have that data. Let's get on it, too.
     
  15. I just think people forget about all the other ways money can be increased.

    We have subs, care packs, and amps too. I think differences in money made is quite possibly people not realizing they have those activated
     
    Salting10, Muschi and Day like this.
  16. I have returned from going through this issue with @Nicholashq and his max plunder formula is still 15m x kcs

    Anyone else who seems to have this issue with max plunder, please feel free to contact me and I will go through the same process with you 🌚❤️
     
    Vo, Muschi, Kefo and 2 others like this.
  17. I'll take an L on this.

    Lyssa, you're probably right that the people I've seen posting about this are just Narcis's alts, and I should have looked for more proof before posting this.

    However I'd like to say to people who refute this by talking about all the other modifiers to plunder, that those are not supposed to or known to affect the cost of tutors needed for max plunder.

    There is a big difference between plunder and max plunder and they can't be talked about interchangeably.

    If ANYTHING other than your base stats affects the amount of cash you need to achieve max plunder, then those other factors have to be included in the max plunder formula.
    And we just change the formula to be "15m x kcs x (something to account for the other factor)"

    I shouldn't have posted this with as little evidence as I did. It was lazy and misleading.

    Also I didn't include amps because they modify the party's plunder for all players, not really your own. But yeah it is a multiplying factor along with the others I listed.
     
  18. As I’ve said in the other thread, I know I was right and I’m not sure what’s happening. Here’s how I came to the conclusion that 30B = 1mcs worked for me.

    If there’s something I did here that might have caused any mistake, let me know.

    P.S: I did this about 2 weeks ago

    • I read a thread on max plunder and the writer said another way of finding it is by hiring tutors till your plunder stops increasing
    • I calculated my (supposed) max plunder and hired my alt and asked someone to volley it up to my (supposed) max plunder. It was over by about 3B
    • I hit a party, noted the money I made. I decided to hire more tutors to see what happens. I started by hiring cheap. My plunder increased a little. I kept increasing the price of the tutors and hitting the same action on the party and my plunder kept increasing! It got to a point where it stopped and I left it at that
    • I decided to check the forums because hey, I’ve known about the formula since 2017 and I’m sure it has existed way before then. Surely if something like that changes, everyone would be talking about it.
    • I saw GODNarcis reply. I saw what he said works (30B = 1mcs). I decided to try it out and well, It was around the price of the sum of all my tutors. Not exact but pretty close! I think there was a 5B difference. I sent GodNarcis a message on the app and he said the same thing happened with him. I can’t remember what we said but he pretty much agreed.
    So yeah, that’s it. Is there a flaw somewhere? If you wanna ask if I hit the same party and the same action, yes I did. My club barely had any members then so no one else was really hitting.

    Personally, I think it’s rude to keep saying I made a mistake when I can remember everything I did. Let’s assume I made a mistake, what are the chances of someone else making the exact same mistake that eventually had the exact same solution?

    Once again, if I made a mistake anywhere, let me know.
     
    BEARCRUMBS likes this.
  19. Its very likely that multiple people make the same mistake actually, there are only so many things that can go wrong when doing this.

    I'm not sure where the mistake was but i don't think its fair to be posting that the formula has changed without any proof. Thats exactly why i asked to see the ss's while you did it.

    And thanks kefo 🙏❤️
     
    Kanudo786 and Vo like this.

  20. Okay and who can explain this?
     
    Hildagarde likes this.