Red vs Green?
Keybounce
Posts: 474 ✭✭✭
So I'm trying to understand the issue of red books vs green books. And I'm thinking that some of the information I had previously relied on was dated/inaccurate with recent changes.
As a professor, I am restricted by restricted section books, and those only come out at events. If I understand correctly, it will take a year of events to get all my lessons.
If I were an auror, I would be restricted more by spell books. Those come from wizard challenges. In theory, I can get as many of those as I want by spending time tossing runestones at fortresses. Right?
Yet apparently, there is a slowdown there -- at some point the cost of getting more jumps? Yet more people have completed these (Auror/magizoologist) which are limited by playtime rather than by calendar time (and am I correct on that so far?)
Basically: I need more info than I have, and I can't find enough up-to-date info to know what's going on. Help?
Comments
To complete their skill-Tree,
@Keybounce your summary is pretty good.
Professors need more green books, so they are more gated by the time of waiting for more events (they only need 8 months worth of events, so it's not quite as bad as you suggested).
Aurors and magizoologists need more red books, so they are gated by the ever increasing difficulty curve of leveling up their challenge rank. You get 2 red books for each challenge level gained, but every level requires more CXP than the last all the way up to level 150, so it can become kind of a slog as you approach the end of your lesson plan. On the other hand, a determined player can still spend lots of time and runestones at a fortress each day and make steady progress towards more red books without having to wait for another event.
I posted a response on another thread where you asked about this, but it’s been held for approval for over 24 hours now.
Now that the forum moderation has ruined the natural flow of communication, I think I’m done here. I get why it’s necessary and all, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
Anyway, yeah. Basically it comes down to which sounds better to you. It’s entirely subjective.
If you choose professor, which requires the most green books, you’re limited by the calendar. If you choose Auror or Magizoologist, which require lots more red books, your only limit is how much time you’re willing to spend doing fortress challenges because you’ll be finished with green books a few months sooner than a Professor.
Really though, no matter which profession you choose, you’re probably looking at eight or nine months to finish the first lesson plan with average game play.
I’m a professor. I finished my red books in late November. I’ll be finished with green books at the end of this month. I know some Aurors who were finished with both green and red books in November. However, I also know others are still chipping away at their red books and probably won’t finish their lesson plans until March or April. All of these examples are people who’ve been playing since the game went live in June 2019.
So lets say that I were expecting to spend 20-25 minutes at a fortress an average of 4 days a week. (Call it 100 minutes per week). I'm currently on rank 17 (340/360).
And, I tossed a fair number of books at Auror before switching to Professor, so I have 4 ranks in Auror, while now at 6 ranks in Professor.
What's the expected rate of red book income as a function of fortress time? Assume normal play, highest white-zone room, 90-95% success rate. I hope that's a reasonable way to predict progress, if not, what is a good prediction?
I guess another way: If it will take me 8 months to get the green books from events, how many months will it take at that rate for the red books?
Also, does the rate of red books per playtime stay roughly constant? As you go up, you need more challenge XP to get red books, but you get more challenge XP from fighting, right? Do they scale at the same rate?
And, what happens to the poor player who tried all three skillsets, before finding the forum/online help, that has lots of red books in all three but now has a higher challenge XP threshold and lower combat power than the game was balanced for?
@Keybounce - you will need more challenge xp to rank up each successive time, and the reward is the same , ie 2 red books , so the key is to get challenge xp as efficiently as you can
for the moment, assume you are playing solo:
but the tradeoff is that higher fortress chambers take more time to play, due to tougher foes with higher stamina points and more number of foes
if you are playing in a group if 2 or more, there is a multiplier that increases challenge xp rewards for every player in the group
so given a limited budget of time and spell energy and potions, the fortress grrrrrinder seeking to most efficiently accumulate challenge xp for red books per rank up will want to find a sweet spot within the fortress chamber levels that optimizes time spent for fewest resources used but best challenge xp amounts rewarded, and then fine-tune adjustments with best runestone levels available
i will post a chart in next reply, so this explanation does not get held up in approval-bot-heck
And here's the chart of XP required to level up. Combined with the challenge rewards chart @kiheikid shared, you can do the math and get a rough estimate of how long it'll take to earn a specific number of red books. It's difficult to be exact, because there are events, gifts, and other sources of red books. Plus, sponsored fortresses reward additional Challenge XP. I think it's 25% more base challenge XP.
US sponsors are AT&T, Cricket Wireless, Simon Malls, Simon Mills, and Simon Premium Outlets. I played mostly at my nearest AT&T store when I was working toward finishing my first lesson plan, because every little bit of extra challenge XP was welcomed. Since the implementation of gifts, I mostly play at fortresses that make nice postcards.
Oh wow, those higher-level runestones are the key.
...
And you want to save them for the higher-level, later challenges ...
Yea, I think calendar time without grin.ding is a better gate for me :-)
EIDT: Ok, why is "grin ding" without the space a bleeped word? It's kinda the normal thing for a game like this, right?
It is a perfectly normal word in game related conversation, @Keybounce, but yeah. They recently implemented word filters on the forum. It's waaaaay over the top, but the HPWU team says there's nothing they can do about it. The legal team says it has to be this way. So, words like sh-oot, k-ill, p-oop, or g-rind are all filtered. Even weird words like m-onkey and s-trip. At first, it was annoying. Lately though, I've decided it's fun to discover new filtered words, because they're usually ridiculous.
Late to the party, so to speak, but these tables have been really helpful. I've mostly been slogging along doing my dailies. Of course there'd be people who've sorted out exactly how much of everything is needed to complete a lesson plan.
Thanks to @Acumen , @kiheikid and @Lucoire for the insights.
Right on, @Acroamatis. 😊
Ahh yes. The right of free speech, unless your words offend certain privileged white males that can vote 5 to 4 to remove your freedoms.
@Keybounce To protect youths and children from words and ideas they're not yet ready for, it may be justified to restricted what can be expressed. Their right to have an undisturbed childhood is more important than free speech.
@Keybounce
...what happens to the poor player who tried all three skillsets, before finding the forum/online help, that has lots of red books in all three but now has a higher challenge XP threshold and lower combat power than the game was balanced for?Excellent point! This has been discussed before but I think it's worth mentioning again. Consider carefully whether training a second profession is worth it for you. I came to the conclusion that bringing both professions up together would be the best way to manage the "higher challenge XP threshold". You can imagine how much longer it would take to grow any profession when training two at a time. Once I have maxed my first skill set (which is imminent), I intend to max my second choice before moving on. From that point I will continue training them together. Slowly but surely, I will get there.
@kiheikid
...will want to find a sweet spot within the fortress chamber levels that optimizes time spent for fewest resources used but best challenge xp amounts rewarded, and then fine-tune adjustments with best runestone levels availableI agree. My fortress battles are directly proportional to my potion supply. I generally bounce back and forth between the hardest chamber I can handle with a good supply of potions and the hardest chamber I can manage without using any potions giving me time to restock without taking a break between battles to do so. With that being said, I seem to get the best bang for my buck by focusing on Ruins 5, Tower 5 and Forest 5 using no. 4 runestones. I save no. 5 runestones for Dark Chambers.
@ZookiTabooki what are your two professions if you don't mind me asking?
@Bormacska My main is Professor 130/134 and my alt is Magizoo 73/142. I scrolled the Magizoo as much as I could without using red books. Gonna start on those shortly.
Consider carefully whether training a second profession is worth it for you. I came to the conclusion that bringing both professions up together would be the best way to manage the "higher challenge XP threshold".
And at the moment, I am only putting books into professor. I think I took everyone down to the third or fourth line before I realized that at least early game didn't seem to vary much, and auror looked -- initially, from the description -- like a good solo class.
And after finding this forum, I moved to professor.
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To protect youths and children from words and ideas they're not yet ready for, it may be justified to restricted what can be expressed. Their right to have an undisturbed childhood is more important than free speech.
The problem is, once you accept "For the children", you can outlaw/restrict anything. It is too broad. As soon as you say "For the children", there are no limits. The only thing acceptable for adults becomes things acceptable for children.
Would you watch TV if the only shows were "My Little Pony" level shows?
If news could be considered "Upsetting to young children"?
There is nothing wrong with a simple statement on coming to these forums that says,
If you are a child, get your parent or guardian to read this.
Parents/Guardians: This is a community forum. People from around the world, and from different cultures, will be posting things here. It is guaranteed that your child will be exposed to something you find distasteful or unwanted. You are expected to monitor, and possibly pre-read everything your child reads here. Allowing a child unrestricted access here is no different than allowing unrestricted access to a public library or bookstore, and should not be done until the child knows how to step away from unwanted discussions. Do not create an account for your child unless you are OK with your child seeing and being exposed to things you are not willing to have them learn.
This is the problem. Instead of being direct, all these "end user agreements" are about sugar coating and trying to make things seem nice and pleasant.
And then people complain about "The computer is not supposed to be like real life".
Real life discussions are like real life.
Freedom of speech has to include being able to talk about things someone else does not like or finds distasteful.
There are other forums where people like to -- deliberately -- talk about a bird whose name matches something that is found on all people's chests. Just because.
@Keybounce Well, no.
Freedom of Expression (Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) comes with the duty to behave responsibly and to respect other people's rights.
You're abusing "Freedom of Expression" as justification to disrespect the rights of others.
Freedom of Expression is not absolute.
Freedom of Expression (Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) comes with the duty to behave responsibly and to respect other people's rights.
There is no right to not be offended by someone else's speech.
Some people are offended by "Holy ____", claiming it is abusing god's name.
Some people are offended by the use of certain color words to describe people.
Some people are offended by words that might potentially have biology usage as well as non-biology usage.
Some people are offended by words historically used by normal, common people at a time when the rich and powerful attempted to distinguish the proper and elite use of the Queen's true language by making sure that one only used the true and proper, elite version of the language, because commoners are so horrible and downtrodden and poor.
Anything that you say has the potential to annoy or offend someone else. You cannot speak without offending.
There is no inherent right to not be offended by the speech of others.
Some people are offended by people having dreams. Dreams that even common, ordinary poor people with common, ordinary language can speak and be taken seriously.
And some people are offended by oath breakers. But that gets into USA politics, so I'll stop there.
Words that I have to express the seriousness of how much certain actions offend me, and my sense of what should be, are offensive to others. But then, the words and actions of those are equally offensive to me.
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Back to the original topic, Red vs Green:
Am I the only one who wishes they had used Red and Blue as the book colors instead? "Bring me the Blue Pages!".
We now have what looks like a significant increase in challenge XP at higher challenge levels, so that means more red books coming in than before. This is probably a serious anti-professor rebalancing in the long run -- increasing the rate of red books without an increase in the rate of green books.
I have no control of another's choice to be offensive. I only have control over whether I choose to be offended. @Keybounce I also think Professors are in for a red book increase with the next batch of skills.
There is no right to not be offended by someone else's speech.
@Keybounce Your argument is arbitrarily "being offended".
My argument is mental health / psychological trauma.
But that's a debate that should not be had here - due to being even more off-topic than it already is. And since we were asked to keep things on-topic, I won't continue it.
Hi there everyone!
I have to agree ...getting it done takes time....but it's fun!!!
One thing I wanted to add, you get extra one red book when you open an Essential Runestone Gift from your friends...thus don't forget to check your presents daily, 🙂
Hi @Sheganer ! Good work with your professions. Btw, I also made the same mistake concerning Essential Runestone gifts recently; they only provide healing potions with your runestone. Extravagant runestone gifts can potentially provide a red book. I have yet to confirm if they always provide one or not. 😀
Hello there@ZookiTabooki !
I stand corrected...the Extravagant gifts do.
I have recieved several red books this way...
I have an idea... here is my code: 3215 0169 6404... become my friend, I will send you only Extravagant Runestone Gifts, say 10 in a row or more, if you wish to continue receive them, (the longer we continue the closer we will see the probability of how often it happens)...Post your discovery here later?
Ciao for now
@Sheganer it's fantastic that you are being able to collect this many extravagant runestone gifts! How awesome!
I've been really struggling to get extravagant runestones from battles lately. How do you get so many? I love to send them to my friends, but I don't seem to be able to get them anymore, only essentials. I can't get one even from Dark II with a level 4 runestone.
Since I can only play solo, I didn't even manage to win a battle at Dark III with a Level 3 runestone.
Any advice on this matter?
@EowynRio My advice would be:
@Sheganer i just want to thank you for sending me extravagant runestone gifts. Whenever I need that last red book there seems to be a gift from you so thank you kindly!
and yes, an Extravagant Runestone Gift always has a runestone and a red spell book and 500 Wizarding XP.
Good morning,
You are welcome
Hello @EowynRio !
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I do not recieve them every time I win... yet, I have notice that I have higher chance of getting such rewards when I use rune number 5 and play at the sponsored tower...
Usually I play solo myself... still I believe you can beat any lvl at the tower...its all in a planning... its depends who do you play as...and timing is very important... dont forget to use all 3 different types of potions when you go for the higher lvl in the tower...you can use all 3 types of potions at ones...
as a Professor, for example, I always start with the protection shield for myself
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Put your favorite music on... for myself, I prefer Spotify...you can run it as a background while you do anything else on your phone...music helps to relax, 🙂...
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Most importantly...have fun!!!
Ooopsy....I posted it twice...☺